The Savior and His Spirit

Hello Friends and Family! 

What an absolutely incredible week. I can testify in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that this Gospel is true, that it brings joy, and that we will someday be able to return to our Father in Heaven. Again, as in last week, writing this email is the hardest part of my week! It seems almost impossible to condense all the wonderful and spiritual things that have happened to me in just one week's time. However, I'll do my best to tell you the highlights of my week, and to have you see how glorious this Gospel truly is. 

One week ago, we had a nightly devotional by Elder Don Clark. As he spoke, his topic being Joseph Smith, he encouraged all missionaries to again pray of the truthfulness of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I was able to feel the Spirit testify so strongly to me that I must pray, as I have done before, as to the truthfulness of this man we call the Prophet of the Restoration. That night I prayed to our loving Heavenly Father regarding the truthfulness of Joseph Smith, and asked Him to manifest the truth of this Gospel to me, as well. As my week progressed, as you will be able to see, Heavenly Father not only answers our prayers, as he did mine, but answers them in such a loving and caring way.

As the next day began, Elder Hafen (my companion) and I were able to teach a few new investigators. One of them, named Jenny, was curious about the Church after some LDS friends from BYU convinced her to talk to the missionaries. Walking into the lesson, we were able to teach and testify of the power of prayer, as well as the pure and sacred love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has for all of us as His children, including her and I. Immediately, after just testifying of these two truths, the Spirit swept into our lesson and the power of this Gospel became even more manifest to both our investigator and I. While in that lesson, the Spirit so mercifully prompted me to testify that all of her sins and weaknesses could be aided by the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Her face just lit up and the Spirit was there to be able to touch her heart, as well as mine, that in fact everything we have ever done that is contrary to the will of our Heavenly Father can be forgiven. Truly, the Spirit does not just teach our lessons, but instead is the true and actual missionary to the investigator. 

In one of our next lessons, in class with Sister Perez and Brother Crandall, the lesson topic was literally "How to Know the Truth of Joseph Smith through Prayer". HOLY COW. This exact same thing happened to me last week: where, after when I prayed to know a truth, the lesson was based upon my very question. I almost broke into tears the Spirit touched me so deeply. I realized that Heavenly Father did not just answer my prayer by a simple feeling (which would have been incredible in and of itself), but He instead answered my prayer by allowing me to have a whole lesson to better understand Joseph Smith and the glorious work, he again initiated, on this Earth. It touched me deeply to think of how our Heavenly Father would ensure a simple prayer from an 18 year old missionary would be answered. I testify to all of you that if you pray, and are aware of the Spirit in your daily life, you will begin to see your prayer answered. There is nothing our Heavenly Father cannot do.

It was through another one of our investigators, Paulina, that the truth of this Gospel, as well as its Prophets, was manifest so plainly to me. As we taught her of this Restored Gospel, as well as of the current Prophet on the Earth today, Thomas S. Monson, the Spirit inspired me deeply to tell her of my story when I was able to meet the Prophet when I was just ten years old. As I explained to her of my experience, I told her what the Prophet had said to me, "Do you love your Father? Do you love your Mother? Always love your mother just a little more than your father." As I said this, the Spirit touched me so deeply, and I was able to testify to her of how this simple revelation from our current Prophet had changed my life forever. That this simple revelation from him, allowed me to behave in a way that drew me closer to both my mother and our Savior Jesus Christ. Paulina mentioned how deeply that story touched her, and how she felt like Thomas S. Monson, and all the other Prophets (including Joseph Smith) were in fact true Prophets of God. It was one of the most powerful lessons we were able to teach this week, and it was all because the Spirit taught the investigator, and not me (or my companion). Truly, there is such unlimited value in letting the Spirit teach. I testify that as we feel of this Spirit in our lives, Heavenly Father will put people in our path that we can lift up and aid towards the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ. 

Another day in class (so many spiritual experiences have happened to me during class time here at the MTC, it's honestly incredible) we were able to do what was called a Gratitude Circle. In this circle, everyone in our District went around and said what we were all grateful for until we could all feel the Spirit strongly in the room. It was so amazing. Within minutes, as we all began sharing what we are grateful for, the Spirit entered the room strongly and everyone could feel it. It was so strong that almost all of us were just crying and we all bore testimonies of the truthfulness of this Gospel, of the Spirit, and you guessed it: Joseph Smith. Not only was my testimony of the Prophet of the Restoration again strengthened in just a few days, but I began to understand more and more of how missionary work is divinely led. 

This past week, on Saturday, Elder Hafen and I were given one of the coolest experiences any missionary could be given here at the MTC. We were both invited and asked to participate in the MTC open house tours! We were asked to be at the very beginning of the tour and welcome each new group that came into the doors (a group came about every 2-5 minutes, and had about 20-50 people in each group!) and we did this for about 3 hours. We were asked to explain what the MTC is, our purpose as missionaries, and give our testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of joy and excitement filled both Elder Hafen and I as we had the chance to explain our testimonies to over about 1,500 people in 3 hours. This was such an amazing experience, and we were both able to take questions about the MTC and this work from many individuals as well. Being asked to be apart of this tour, and especially being given the part as testifiers, was certainly a tender mercy of the Lord and this one experience has continued to bless me everyday as I reflect on the many experiences I had in just those short 3 hours. 

I had another amazing experience this week. One of my favorite Elders in my District, Elder Butterfield, asked me to aid him in giving his cousin a Priesthood Blessing of Comfort. His cousin, Sister Jensen, was heading out for her mission in Arizona, and had been struggling a lot here at the MTC. As Elder Butterfield and I administered this blessing to her, my eyes were given a glimpse to how Jesus Christ feels to those that come to Him in Faith. That in fact, although I had never talked to this Sister before, I felt a sweet and simple love and care for her that could have only been felt with our Savior Jesus Christ and through His Priesthood. It is impossible to describe this simple experience here in writing, but it was such a deep spiritual experience that I will never forget. 

On Sunday, I was also able to have one of the most amazing spiritual experiences in my life. As about eight Elders, including myself, were heading to do personal study in one of the new buildings, I just had the thought that we should do personal study on the sixth floor, instead of the fifth floor like we had all been planning on. I told them I was thinking and feeling this way, and they all agreed, and we went to the sixth floor. We were all scarcely there less then five minutes when a family came by on a special MTC tour (usually when a family has a connection with someone that works for the Church, they are able to do a special individual tour of the MTC, instead of a group one). We all briefly bore our testimonies to this family, and I bore my quick testimony of how the artwork in all the new buildings at the MTC had touched me deeply and strengthened my own testimony of this work. The dad in this family, who was in a wheelchair, smiled and asked us to all follow him.  Confused, we all stood up and followed him.  In the new MTC buildings, by each set of elevators, are massive paintings of scenes from the scriptures, and occasional images from the Bible Videos the Church has released. As we followed this man and his family, he wheeled his chair in front of the one of these images entitled Paul.  As he pulled in front of this image, we all recognized immediately that we were looking at the actor who played Paul, however he was now in a wheelchair, and it was him that was depicted in the image in front of us. He introduced himself as Christopher Clark, who played Paul in the Bible Videos. He explained that he had been diagnosed with ALS in the middle of filming, and before he went home he had been asked to participate in one more photo shoot for the new MTC buildings (for the image in front of us). In the image, it shows Paul kneeling, and looking up into the heavens. Christopher agreed to do this, and he continued by explaining to us what happened next. He said that as they were setting up for the photo shoot, he prayed that he would be able to kneel for the time of the photo shoot (having ALS hampers all muscle movement and thus Christopher had never been able to kneel since his diagnosis). As Christopher fell to the dirt, in his own words he said what he experienced, "I felt the hands and bodies of angels, and those I could not see, physically raise me up to a kneeling position, and hold me there until the photo shoot was over." Christopher explained how everyone at the photo shoot were all crying, because they all could see that it was some outside force holding him up. As Christopher explained this experience, and having him sitting there right in front of us, and in front of the image of him in the middle of this spiritual experience, all the Elders, including me, were deeply touched by the Spirit. We were all able to feel of the truthfulness of this story, and realized quickly that the Spirit had in fact guided us to the sixth floor to allow us all to have this spiritual experience and hear Christopher's story. 

I testify, from what I felt from this experience, that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the hand to lift us up. That through our Savior's Atonement we are able to return to our home with Heavenly Father someday. I know even more now, that Joseph Smith is the true Prophet of the Restoration, and that he was murdered by the hands of a mob for what he knew to be true. I do know that Thomas S. Monson is the true Prophet on the Earth today, because I have felt his inspired words guide me through my life each and everyday. 

I love you all.  Thank you for all your wonderful support, prayers, letters, and emails.  They mean more to me then you can ever possibly imagine. 

See you next week from GEORGIA!       

Elder Robb