September 22, 2015 - Toledo City, Cebu

I want to share my personal study from today.

Yesterday, we visited our 12 year old recent convert, Jorene. He showed us that he had recorded himself reading a verse he liked from the Book of Mormon on his cell phone, so that he could carry it around with him. It was 1 Nephi 7:11-12. I sat there and was trying to think for the longest time who I had shared that verse with, because I felt like I had read it just recently. Then I realised, I had read it in personal study the day before. From this I realised, I should probably go back to study that principle, since it hadn't quite stuck yet.

It's in Preach my Gospel Ch3, about Faith in Jesus Christ, being the first principle of the Gospel. 1 Nephi 7:12 reads that the Lord will bring about his will for us, if we exercise faith in Him. So I was thinking, 

How do we exercise faith in the Lord?

 I read the next verse listed in PMG, which is 2 Nephi 9:23, which says "Repent and be baptised, having perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel." Well that's a nice answer, but I got interested by this "Perfect faith." What does that mean, how can my faith be perfect? So I looked at the next verse from PMG.

2 Nephi 25:23, which famously says "by grace we are saved, after all we can do." But I'm looking, how can my faith be perfect? This verse also says that Nephi wrote his record to "persuade [others] to believe in Christ and be reconciled to God." Alma 34:30 says that many witnesses will tell us to come unto repentance, so I learned, one, The Testimony of Prophets helps us gain perfect faith. Two, being reconciled with God, repenting, builds our faith. and I continued reading in 2 Nephi 25, learned one more. Obedience to the Law of the Gospel gives us life. In the time of Nephi, obedience meant killing animals. Paul says in 2 Cor 3 that the Law of Moses was glorious for its time. In our time it's been fulfilled, now we have the higher law of the Gospel. But if we fulfill the law God has given us, 2 Ne 25:29 says, if we believe in Christ, bow down before him and worship him, or fulfill his Law, "we shall in no wise be cast out." We will gain a more perfect faith by fulfilling the gospel of Repentance, Baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

That was something I just wanted to share, it makes sense to me. I probably ought to preach this to someone.

So this week was fun. It was Elder Consigna's last week. :( wow! It was really fun to be with him. I have learned so much from him. But he's in Davao by now, so it's okay. On Sunday afternoon, he left to the mission home in Cebu. Since then, I have worked with members in our area. 

Tomorrow is Transfer day, and my new companion will be Elder Omugtong! I'm really excited, I was housemates with him in his first area in Escalante.

I've been teaching some members to get ready for General Conference. Of course we're now expecting a lot of news concerning the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, but I want the members here in Toledo to be prepared in a closer way. We will learn at this General conference principles that we'll need a lot. There are a lot of changes happening right now, even just here in Cebu Mission. We need to follow as closely as possible the counsel given us by our leaders. So I'm excited for General Conference!

Love you. Bye.

Elder Dunford