Week 18; ❄️☃️Merry Christmas🎅🎄

Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QuW5JQQJL6emqhb68 We spent the day with the Uni ZLs at Penn State campus on Tuesday. Being in Johnstown for the last 3 and 1/2 months, I've already been to Penn State a few times and I love it more each time. I was with elder ridgewell and he is an incredible missionary. He speaks fluent Spanish and so we talked with a lot of people who speak Spanish and I just did not understand anything. We had zero lessons that day and so after lunch we just walked around campus for 10 hours straight and it was really fun but really demanding. My legs were pretty sore the next day. One thing that was pretty weird was that we talked with pretty much the same type of people all day. They all had the same type of religious background and so we pretty much taught the same things all day, I think it was a lesson from God that that's something that we needed to work on and so he put those people in our path. They were all people who really did not grow up with God or didn't have much of a belief in God or they were just Muslim or Hindu. Usually when I'm at Penn State we talked to a lot of Catholics and people who are just pretty Stern in their beliefs, but we talked with a lot of really interesting people and had an amazing day full of incredible conversations and lots of finds. Penn State missionary work is a whole different beast, It really focuses on the skill of talking to people and grabbing their attention in as little time as possible because people are trying to get to their classes or wherever they're going. This week we had the opportunity to talk to a few people who had a lot of very deep questions in terms of religion and our church as a whole. We stopped by this guy named Dez who we'd had a lengthy in depth conversion with in the past about racism inside churches. We actually talked with him for an hour once again. We just had a very long conversation about the The Plan of Salvation very very very in-depth, to the point where we started bringing up stuff from Jesus the Christ and very deep Doctrine stuff. We pretty much talked a lot about the Bible being the word of God and the premortal existence the fact that we've always existed as intelligences and God did not create Jesus Christ, he's just always existed. We brought up the Book of Mormon and the fact that we have prophets in every dispensation and how the fact of the Book of Mormon and how Lehi was from the tribe of Manasseh and everything about that in depth. Talked a bit about exaltation and the fact that Jesus Christ became like God and before he was resurrected he was not and that we can all become like gods. Usually you don't talk about exaltation or stuff like that until after they become a member of the church, but this guy was super knowledgeable and literally asked about it and so I guess that's an exception. It was a very crazy conversation but we gave him a book of Mormon and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he said that he'll try us out. He said we convinced him. This week we found a really cool young couple in their twenties named Logan and his fiance Katie. They have a two-year-old son named Asher who is so funny. We found him knocking random doors and he was super interested. We had a in person lesson with a phone call team up and talked about the full restoration and used the first Vision video with them which we don't do often but I felt impressed to do so and it was so good. They had a question about the Trinity and I brought up John 17 about the intercessory prayer and about how it says clearly that their separate beings but one in purpose. They seemed really convinced and really wanted to learn more and come to church. They did not come to church this Sunday but everyone's kind of out of town for the holidays and so I'll give them a pass. Really awesome people, not often you find a young successful couple in Johnstown. Being on a mission has giving me many "Spiritual Practices" and instruments to use to help me feel His enabling power and love through Christ. Every single day we have the opportunity to read my scriptures, something that I definitely took for granted before my mission, and now I have a strong testimony of it. Someone once asked me, "What does your church, your book, and your teachings provide that I don't already experience in my church?" The Bible, their church, and their prayers are already enough to receive the joy in growing our relationship with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, enough to be satisfied and happy. The Book of mormon isn't necessary, the new testament isn't necessary, only prophets are to provide that well needed instruction, prophetic revaltion, and organization. The matter of the fact is that it that you are simply missing out on blessings and a fulness of joy that come from this gospel specifically. Every church may have bits and pieces of the truth, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof," but they don't have the full picture. Yes, we don't have the answer to every single question, but we simply just have more. With the book mormon alongside prophetic revaltion, we have more witnesses of Jesus Christ, he who descended below all things. The more stories we learn about him and what he did for us, the more truths we learn about God's plan for us, will bring us closer to him than ever possible outside of this gospel and church. “I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils of the day” (President Russell M. Nelson). Another instrument I use daily is the supernal gift of prayer. I wonder if we can ever really fathom the immense power of prayer until we encounter an overpowering, urgent problem and realize that we are powerless to resolve it. Then we will turn to our Father in humble recognition of our total dependence on Him. It helps to find a secluded place where our feelings can be vocally expressed as long and as intensely as necessary. As I've said before, prayer isn't necessary, but he commands it. Our parents want us to go to them in every struggle, problem, challenge, hardship, etc. They want to give us their love, guidance, direction, comfort, and wisdom to help us in all we do. This is God, our loving and Heavenly FATHER. He literally is the father and creator of our spirits. We should talk to him in prayer like we would talking to our earthly parents. He already knows what we need before we ask, but going to him in prayer shows humility and a desire to grow and develop. He will always answer our prayers as long as we have an intent on acting on the answer we recieve. After all we do, we are saved by the grace of our loving god. Moroni 7:16, "For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God." We will not be in our area for 3 days this week. We have Zone Pday in Altoona and I'll be staying the night with the Uni ZLs in state college. We have Zone conference the next day in state college, after we will be going to the Altoona elders apartment to stay the night there because we will be blitzing them for Christmas eve in Altoona. So long stories short, we won't be back in Johnstown until Christmas day. Gonna be such a crazy and fun week. I hope you all have a Merry CHRISTmas and focus on what's important, Christ and family. Jesus Christ is the "Light and the Life of the world" and he shines it through us to be shined on others as we spread charity and love this CHRISTmas season. We are the instruments in his hands. With Love, Elder Batman