knowing & believing

Hello one & all!!!

okay, so this week was amazing as per use!!! We had 1 investigator at church this sunday which was a miracle. for 2 weeks in a row we hadno one no matter how hard we tried. It was pretty frustrating, but this week we had an older lady, N, come to church. 

I wanted more than anything for our 18 yr old investigator, R, to be there. Hes the friend of a ward member, Li, a convert & another 18 year old. R lost both his parents AND his brother. He lives with his uncle who isnt the most loving guy on the planet & the impression I get from looking at him is that hes very lonely. That hes a solitary boy. But so good. Such a good heart & so willing to try. 

Buuuuuuuuuuut his work called him in so he couldnt come this sunday & he prolly wont come next sunday unfortunately. Gahh! I seriously LOVE this kid! Hes seriously amazing. And when me & Sis S taught him the 2nd lesson about the plan of salvation, the spirit was SO strong. 

By the time we taught him the next lesson he told us that he never had any desire to align himself with any religion or learn more about any of the doctrines hes come in contact with but he told us "I feel like somethings changing... I want to learn more"

GAHHHHH!!! YES!!! haha *fist pump*

Were excited. Also, I wanted to share with yall a scripture that Ive been studying all week this week. probably the most profound scripture in all of John, maybe even all of the New Testament in the Bible.

John 17:3

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 

Wow.... Ive read this scripture a THOUSAND BILLION times but I never really paused to take a look at what its really saying what it means.

So heres my challenge for you, my wonderful family & friends, this week. 

What does it mean to know God and Jesus Christ? Here it says that "this is life eternal that they might know thee"... well, how do we know Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven? What do yall think?

Theres soooooooo much more to the promise of joy in this world & eternal life in the world to come than just learning about the life of our Savior. Of course thats important and necessary, but theres something more to it than that. 

In Portuguese there are 2 verbs for knowing:

Saber- which is to know facts & 

Conhecer- which is to know a person 

We need to know our Savior & our Heavenly Father personally in order for us to gain joy in this life & eternal life in the world to come. 

If you havent read Jesus the Christ by James E Talmage I HIGHLY recommend it as a first step in conhecendo nosso Salvador Jesus Cristo, more than just sabendo quem Ele é. 

And that is my invite. my challenge for yall! KNOW our Savior, not just know ABOUT him. 

xoxo

Sister VerHoef

btw, this is a bookmark E.C. made for me & sis s! isnt it epic???