I Know

How're y'all doin'?? 

 

This week was pretty good!  Elder Pack was sick, so we had to stay inside a little bit.  He's a real neat guy and went out as much as he could, but he just finally gave up on Thursday and slept the whole day!!  Brother Kelly was in OREM UTAH all week too, so I didn't have anyone to talk to!  I just did a lot of thinking.  When Brother Kelly came home on Friday he told us all about Orem and Provo.   That little rat was telling me about how pretty Provo Canyon is. GAH.  Tom and I talked on the phone about how much we loved that Canyon for an hour that night haha. 

 

Anyway, I want to explain to you some of my thought process I had during the down hours!  President Heap is a real influential guy, at least he is to me!  When we met him last week he said something that has provoked a lot of thought in a lot of missionaries.  He told us that he BELIEVES a lot of things, but he only KNOWS a few things.  He told us to never ever tell someone that we KNOW something to be true if it is still only a BELIEF.  That's just a real neat thought to me.  So, naturally, I wanted to figure out what I KNOW to be true. 

 

Always before my mission I figured missionaries were perfect:  no sins, perfect knowledge, perfect testimony, no trials, always happy and all that.  It didn't take me very long before I realized that that is a false idea.  Missionaries are still human, too bad, huh?  Something we teach in our church is that the Holy Ghost will touch our hearts and testify to the truthfulness of what we hear and learn.  That feeling or experience is what we base our testimonies off and once we experience that we change from BELIEVE to KNOW.  One of my problems I have always had with my own personal testimony of the Gospel is the feelings of the Spirit.  When I feel the Spirit, in the moment, I have no doubts at all.  I know that it's all true. But after the fact Satan puts these little doubts into my mind.  I try to justify those sacred feelings of the spirit as my own thoughts, things I want to be true so badly that my mind makes me feel it.  A big ol' placebo effect, you could say.  This thought and Idea has always been in the back of my mind. 

 

When I was thinking about the thinks I should know I went down a list.  Does God exist and is he my Spirit Father?  I wanted to believe that, I could never deny the existence of something higher up, but is it God?   Next question:  Is Jesus Christ my Savior?  Once again, I believed it to be true...but those feelings of doubt kept me from knowing.  Was Joseph Smith a prophet?  Belief.  When I  got to this point I was real scared that I didn't have a testimony at all, but the next question changed it.  Is the Book of Mormon true?  For some reason I have never had a single doubt about that.  I have prayed and felt the spirit countless times as I read the B o M.  I KNOW it to be the word of God with everything that I am.  You know what that means?  I KNOW that God is my loving Father in Heaven.  He loves me so much, that's why He sends the Holy Ghost to testify of truths.  It means I KNOW that Jesus Christ is my Savior and my Redeemer.  I KNOW that he suffered and died for me.  I KNOW that He loves me.  It means that I KNOW Joseph Smith was called as a Prophet to restore Jesus Christ's one and only true church.  I KNOW that the Chruch I represent is that church.  I KNOW that Jesus is at the head, leading and guiding everything and that Thomas Monson is a real life prophet.

 

I am grateful for that testimony that I have.  I am real grateful for the Book of Mormon for being that anchor for me.  I really do know these things and I am so blessed to be here to share them with others. 

 

What do you KNOW?

 

I love you so much. 

Elder Porter