2 Men Dressed in White

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA BEAR!!!  You 21 year old champ you ;).  I think everyone who reads this letter should go and give my dad a gift for his birthday.  And if you´ve already done it, well...do it again!

I just wanted to tell a cool experience we had yesterday.  There are these 2 girls (Luz and Asir) we are teaching who are part of an entire family of inactive members.  Luz is 10 and Asir is 9.  They always come to the Wednesday branch activity night where we teach them English, but they have never come to church.  Luckily, their mom is going to allow them to be baptized.  The family is really great -they always receive us and they´re really nice - but they don´t attend church because they have problems with the members in the branch (not such a good excuse for me, but we´re working on it).  Sunday, the little girls didn´t come to church, so we had planned to go see what happened as our last visit for the day.  We had an impromptu meeting with the Elder´s quorum presidency that ran over about an hour and 15 minutes, which put us way behind.  We couldn´t cancel our appointments in order to have time to visit Asir and Luz because they were with one partly inactive family and one family where the husband isn´t a member but the rest are, and we promised we were going to come by on Sunday.  So we run out of the meeting and blaze over there.  Turns out that the inactive member

of the family wasn´t there, and the non-member husband either.  So we were bummed about that, but after we left those appointments, we were like "Oiga, ahora tenemos tiempo para visitar a Luz y Asir." So we went there.  Turns out that Luz was sick, and Asir didn´t want to come to church alone, so they didn´t go.  But it also turned out that the mom was sick as well.  We asked her husband if she would like a blessing, so he went to ask her and she accepted.  After the blessing, she told us the most amazing story.  Paraphrasing, she said "I have been sick for a while, but I was feeling extra pain today.  I have been praying all morning for some kind of help from God and that he would cure me of my sickness.  And then you two showed up.  I can´t express to you the emotions and love I felt from my Heavenly Father, because there aren´t words for it and you wouldn´t feel what I´m feeling.  Do you know that when you were annointing my head with oil and sealing the blessing, I closed my eyes.  But it wasn´t you two that I saw.  I saw 2 men dressed in white sent from God to heal me.  The Lord has answered my prayer through you coming here."  And then she continued to bear one of the most powerful testimonies I have heard anyone - member, inactive, or non-member - give in my whole life.  And then she closed with a prayer.  It was just a really spiritual experience for me, to know that through my service, God is answering people´s prayers.  Every once in a while in the confusing stress of goals, expectations, and work of the mission, it´s nice to be reminded that you´re having an effect on people.  It was no coincidence that our earlier appointments had fallen through.  The Lord knew what she needed, He knew what I needed, and He made it happen.  And it was all made possible through the simple service of a priesthood blessing.  Think the Lord doesn´t know you, or doesn´t care about you?  Think again.

So the theme that I wanted to start to talk about is the Plan of Salvation.  Specifically, I will focus on 5 main points: the pre-earth life, the Fall of Adam and Eve, this life on the earth, the Atonement, and all that happens after this life.  I will start next week, as time is now short.  I want to write it in a way that is directed more towards those who are not members of the Church and who don´t know what the plan of God is for all of us, but I´m confident that even the most active of members can learn something if they will reflect on it and study the themes in the scriptures.

A brief introduction on the plan of salvation.  It is the plan that Heavenly Father - the God of the universe - has created for all of us.  It´s objective is stated in it´s name: salvation.  What is salvation?  Being spared the consequences of a physical and spiritual death, which 2 obstacles lead to the eternal separation from the presence of God.  Jesus Christ is central to this plan, for without Him, salvation would not be possible.  I will explain why that is when I get to the part about the Atonement.  This plan makes the possibility of salvation possible for all of us.  Do not be confused - "plan" does not mean that God has already planned out every minute and every detail of your life, and that what you want or do really doesn´t matter.  Quite the contrary, it has everything to do with what you want and what you do in this life, for those things determine what will be your state in the next life.  The plan of salvation is the "what", the "why", and the "how" of the eternal happiness of God´s children, and it all started before this world even existed.  You participated in it then, are currently participating in it now, and will participate in it for all of eternity.  So I think you should know a little bit about it haha.  I´m excited!  :)

Time is up.  Love and miss everybody!

-Elder Moore