Comfort Through Another's Words

My experience in The Church has been wonderful. There are a hundred things that bless me about it. Here's a good example.

I was discouraged and upset a few weeks ago, and wondering if my efforts in teaching the gospel would make a difference. I received much needed reassurance from God, as He spoke to me through the words of His mortal servant, Henry B. Eyring. I was watching a video on a Youtube Channel called Mormon Messages. It was called "Choose This Day", and it was about having courage to serve God.

There came a point where President Eyring says,

For those who are discouraged by their circumstances and are therefore tempted to feel they cannot serve the Lord this day, I make you two promises. Hard as things seem today, they will be better in the next day if you choose to serve the Lord this day with your whole heart..... The other promise I make to you is that by choosing to serve Him this day, you will feel His love and grow to love Him more.   (From the original talk, "This Day.")

As he made that powerful promise, I felt the stirrings of the Spirit and a warm reassurance that I would do all right. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for choosing mortal men to speak His words today, for this generation.

What is an Apostle?

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because I believe in apostles and prophets, and I specifically believe that God and Jesus selected Joseph Smith for the job of prophet, and that Joseph's successors from then until now have been real prophets and apostles.

So what does that mean?

To start with, "apostle" is a word that means "one sent forth". I did a search on the word, and one source said that "apo" means "from" and "stolos" means "I send". So, Jesus sent His twelve apostles to do work for Him, and sent them with His permission and authority.

Today, the twelve men who are in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are leaders of this Church. (Quorum means group of people.) I love to hear the speeches of these men. Their wives are also spiritual and intellectual giants, and excellent teachers.

Their testimonies of Jesus Christ are stirring and inspiring. From time to time I quote them on this blog, and I review their teachings so that my understanding of the gospel deepens. Their service has been a great blessing to me. Soon I'd like to share some stories about how their service has impacted me personally.