Testimony of the Converts

Dear Family and Friends,

First off I wanted to start off by saying that the members and people that I associate with all pray specifically for my family and friends. I can´t tell you how many times I have been in a lesson, or in someones house, or in the church, when someone has offered a prayer on your behalf. So if you ever feel down or discouraged or lonely, know that the humble people of Argentina are thinking and praying for you even if they don´t yet know you.

I am beginnning to understand a little bit more of the power and work of my mission. As we live our life in service we begin to develop Christlike love and attributes. I am beginning to love people a lot more and gaining a greater appreciation for the fact that we are indeed all sons and daughters of a loving Father in Heaven. We all have infinite worth and potential. As I have worked preaching the Gospel, I have come to know see how pure are the hearts of those that seek for the truth. I have seen it time and time again where people have been praying for answers and then we come into the picture somehow. Just recently we began teaching a man named Igor and his family as he had been praying for greater light and illumination on the truth. He is a man who has attended many many mnay churches and has just been searching for the truth. So we do what we always do, we present the message and invite him to read and pray and ask of God. That he did. He received his answer. You see sometimes its so easy it is too difficult for some people to accept. In the Bible we learn this lesson in 1 Kings 5:1-14 and in the Book of Mormon we have a similar lesson reemphasized in 1 Nephi 17:41. The key to receiving revelation from God is humility and the patience and diligence to search it out and be receptive enough to receive the answer. Those who do not wish to receive this revelation from God never will because they do not want to have to change their convictions, beliefs, and ideas based on what God says not what they want or believe to be right. It takes a deep and powerful humilty to ask an answer from God when we think we already know what is right.

As further faith is excercised a stronger witness and conviction of the truth comes. For example, with this man Igor, he had already received an answer from God, but continued to act on his answer and received a further testimony of the truth. While he was walking down an old dirt road he say a book off to the side on a pile of dirt. He could tell it was a religious book and he was astonished when on the cover of the book he say a picture of Moroni burying the Gold Plates aka the Book of Mormon. It was an old Priesthod manual from the Church that contained answers to his questions and gave him a further witness of the veracity of the work. He found great comfort in the book and prayed to know if it was true. He received his answer. It was true and it was placed there for a reason. It still astonishes me that a random book would be on pile of dirt in the middle of an Argentine ghetto, where no members live, and that he would be the first person to come across it and be looking in the right direction to find it. Call it what you will but I know that God answers our prayers in small and simple ways we just have to have the faith to recognize them. I am thoroughly convinced that if we look back behind in the course of our lives we will be able to realize the hand of the Lord working in small and simple ways. He is preparing us for the time the truth comes into our lives. He is protecting us from bad situations and prompting us to follow him and avoid dangerous decisions and forbidden paths. I know he is a God of miracles and that he answers prayers.

I issue this challenge to all who are willing to answer the call. Read the Book of Mormon and pray to God with all energy of heart to know if it is scripture and to know if it is true. I know that He will answer you as he has answered millions who have faithfully searched. Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers. (D&C 112:10)

The testimony of the people that I have taught and had the opportunity to see baptized is blazing evidence that God answers prayers, that Jesus is the Christ, and that They have restored Their Church through the way they always have, through a prophet of God(Amos 3:7) Today there is a Prophet of God, 12 apostles, and the Kingdom of God has been restored as a marvelous work and a wonder(Isiah 29:14). The converts that I have had the opportunity of teaching and helping on their journey our my ´´glory´´ and joy´´ just as they were for Paul the apostle (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20) I love this work and I testify that it is ture.

Sincerely,
Elder Passantino