Nate's Letter Home - Oct 26, 2017

Another Week:

Weeks seem to fly by when you look back on them. It's hard to believe that in 2 days it I'll have been here for a month. It sure doesn't seem like it and I hope I will be ready in less than two weeks now when I leave.

So this Saturday we are going proselyting again. I'm both excited and nervous. We are going with our normal companions this time, so I'll probably have to do most of the talking because my comp is still struggling with his Spanish. I know it'll be great though. I've felt a lot different about talking to people since I've been here. I've probably talked more in my District in these 4 weeks than I did my entire high school experience. I also haven't had too hard of a time talking to complete strangers, like at the temple or during proselyting, which before would have made me very uncomfortable and would have scared me to death. What a difference having the Spirit makes with your confidence. 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." and D&C 121: 45 "...then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God."
I have felt the confidence of the Spirit and I know we are helped when we go forward with confidence to declare his word. It's the only way I would be able to do it.

Something funny: My district (Moroni) and the other older district (Mormon) decided to play a prank on the younger kids when they got here. We told a few people about how last time we went proselyting Elder Porter (who is completely made up) got stabbed and had to go home to recover from his wounds. We waited a couple days and let the rumor spread, but most of the people didn't really believe it. So then we got one of the teachers, Hermano Anuarve, in on it. He isn't our teacher but he really likes our district and he comes and talks to us a lot. He loves pranks and also quotes the Office like everytime we see him. But anyway, we got him in on the joke. So later that day the new kids had an initiation meeting, which was in spanish but the english people had on headsets and would listen to Hermano Anuarve translate for them. So the guy that was giving the lesson was explaining why we don't have ipads and stuff like that in our missions, and when Anuarve translated it, he added: "yeah, we can't have ipads and stuff like that in our missions, you don't want to end up like Elder Porter." He said the look on their faces was priceless. He said he saw a bunch of them look at their companions and say stuff like "I told you it was true". Anyway when he told us this story we all thought it was hilarious and laughed forever.

Another funny story happened during one of our IP lessons (Progressive Investigator). We have two teachers, one in the morning and one in the evening. We switch off teaching lessons to them everyday like they are progressing investigators. Our morning teacher is "Beatrice" and our afternoon teacher is "Natalia". So yesterday we had to teach Beatrice. I knew this lesson probably wasn't going to go very well when my companion started it off by saying "Como se dice" instead of "Como esta". Well we got passed that mishap and asked if she had read the chapter we asked her to and all that jazz, then my companion gives the opening prayer. In this prayer, he asks to please bless Natalia, who is our other IP. I had to try really hard not to laugh during the rest of the prayer. And then later on during the lesson we were talking about the Atonement and my companion was trying to say we can overcome our sins, but instead said something like "podemos superar nuestros pescados" which translated is "we can overcome our fish." At that, both me and our teacher couldn't help but to laugh. Considering all this it wasn't too bad of a lesson though.

My comp and I have started doing serious pushups. We've been trying to do at least 50 every day, but somedays we do a lot more. Like yesterday, we did 70. We hope we can crank it up to 100 soon. Maybe I'm just imagining it but just two weeks of doing push ups has made me feel a lot stronger, and my upper body feels bigger. We do a lot of ab workouts too, but I doubt with the way we eat that we'll be getting a six pack anytime soon. I've also remembered how much I love basketball and baseball. Elder Lassen from my district brought to mits and a ball. The mit is for right handers but I put it on my right hand anyway and I'm still able to catch with it. Playing catch is really relaxing and brings back a lot of memories. Most days though we play basketball. We do 3 on 3, first one to 3 points, and the winner stays on. Whenever me and Elder Lassen are on a team, we dominate. We get tired from being on the court for so long.

I don't know if I already told you this but I got a haircut here about two weeks ago now. It's looking pretty fresh. The guy is crazy fast, each haircut lasts about 2 minutes.

We get to go to the temple again today in about 2 hours... in spanish of course. I'm looking forward to it, it's always nice and relaxing. Also I forgot to mention that our district has already done two musical numbers in sacrament meeting. Two sundays ago we were combined with another district and we sang the Sister of Zion and Bring the world his truth melody... in spanish of course. And this last sunday we only had like a one day notice so we just decided to sing a hymn. We sang For the Beauty of the earth in spanish. They both went pretty good.

Still haven't figured out my SD card but I attached two pics that got sent to me by our afternoon teacher. She is studying to be a photographer so she took some pictures of our district for fun and took the group photo of all of us that will be leaving next transfer.

The one in front of the flag is our district, District Moroni. The Elders in my district are awesome and some of the coolest people I've ever met, and also some of the best friends I've ever had. If you don't know, my comp is the second from the left, with the glasses and you can only see his head.

Anyway, hope everything goes well and you have a great week. I'm sure it'll fly by again.

-Elder Shelton

Nate's Letter Home - Oct 19, 2017

Arrival of the Noobs:

So as you probably know all the noobs arrived today and we got 6 new roomates. We haven't really had much chance to get to know them yet. But I can tell from all their faces that they feel exactly how we felt 3 weeks ago. It's hard to believe we're already the old guys in the CCM, feels like just yesterday we got here.

So my birthday was a weird day. Everyone except 20 of us packed up and were gone by about 9 in the morning, so the CCM felt like an abandoned building all day. It was so weird to have only 20 of us at meals and all the classrooms were empty and my comp and I were the only ones in our room, which was weird after being used to 8 people. The bathroom situation was really nice though. We didn't have to wait in line to shower anymore or to use a toilet. Now with the new guys here we're back to 8 in our room so it'll be crowded again. 

I forgot to mention the past two emails that one of our roomates was Elder Ryan Jarrett, who was my age and lived in Mendon. He lived on Cobblestone I'm pretty sure, he was in 2nd Ward. So that was pretty cool, he's an awesome kid. Elder Tanner and I have been missing our roomates quite a bit.

I have to apologize for no pictures again this week. The computers we use for email have a slot where you can insert an SD card straight in, but when I put it in nothing comes up on the computer. Maybe I'm just being dumb but I can't figure it out. Other people don't seem to have any problems. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Also on my birthday, the temple reopened so there were a ton of people on the grounds. So for about an hour and a half our teachers had us go out and just talk to all the members that were around to practice our spanish and how to have real conversations. We felt pretty dumb at times because they'd ask us questions we didn't understand, but we were able to have a few good conversations. We talked to this youth group for quite a while. They were all around 14 to 16 and lived pretty close to the temple. On Tuesday, the Distribution Center reopened and so that's when I used my debit card. I bought a pair of nice Spanish scriptures with the tabs and everything. I've started reading the book of mormon in spanish, I usually will read two chapters in english before bed and then read a chapter in spanish. I'm only at 1 Nephi 5 in spanish but I've actually been able to understand what I read. I really enjoy reading it in Spanish. 

It's starting to heat up here. We play some intense basketball everyday during free time and this week has been crazy humid so I'm always dripping sweat when we're done. Yesterday at about 8:30 during our last class of the day, a huge thunderstorm started and it was insane. The rain was coming down in sheets. We paused class for a few minutes so we could look out the window and the parking lot and street were gone and had been replaced by an actual river. There was also a ton of thunder and lightning going off. The rain was blowing away from our window so nothing came in, but the other district is on the opposite side of the building so when they opened their window they imediately got drenched by a sheet of rain. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen, they probably only had the window upon for 3 seconds but they were all drenched from head to toe.

Don't think I have much more to say, it's been a pretty normal few days. Just more learning spanish and how to teach effectively. All of our grammar lessons are completely in spanish, and it's very satisfying to finally be able to understand everything that our teacher says during them.

I know these next 3 weeks are going to fly by so I'm trying to absorb as much spanish as I can. Hopefully one day I'll actually be able to understand when the natives are talking to me haha. I'm still having a great time here and am anxious to learn so much more. I hope you have a great week and stay safe.

Nate's Letter Home - Oct 14, 2017

First off, the scripture I want on my plaque is Ether 12:27

So it has been a pretty crazy week and a half so I hope I can remember everything I want to say.

Last Saturday we went proselyting and it went so much better than I was expecting. Us noobs got paired up with a companion that has been here 3 weeks longer than us, to help us out a little bit. My companion for the day was Elder Johnson.  We all got on buses and drove for a little over an hour, then me and Elder Johnson got dropped off in the middle of this ghetto neighborhood at about 10 o'clock and were told that we would be picked up at 5 pm. It was a pretty scary feeling to suddenly be by ourselves in a foreign country and we'd have to try and talk to these people in Spanish. Luckily Elder Johnson had already done this once so he had a little experience.

So almost right off the bat, we came across this old man as he was walking out his "door". We stopped and talked with him in front of his house for at least 45 minutes. He was a really nice man, but in those 45 minutes, I probably understood about 5% of what he said. Elder Johnson did most of the talking, and basically all we understood from what he was saying was that he was 80 something years old, his wife had died about 30 years ago, and he insisted that God hadn't answered his prayers or given him any help. I couldn't understand much but I think mainly he was asking where God was now, and why wasn't He here. We felt really bad that we couldn't understand everything he said and couldn't answer his questions very well. We got his contact information so hopefully missionaries that actually speak Spanish can help him. We wanted to give him a book of mormon but he had cataracts and couldn't see very well, so we just gave him a plan of salvation packet that had pictures and stuff. 

We talked to this one girl that I think was about our age while we were walking down the street. We explained a little about the BoM, read a few verses, and then gave her a BoM. As we said goodbye, she did the goodbye kiss on the cheek thing that I guess is pretty common here. We didn't really now what to do so we just awkwardly accepted it. 

We stopped and talked to this security guard that was on the street. He only had about 3 teeth in total so it was pretty hard to understand, but I think some of the stuff he said was that he was Catholic, but had never been to church. And he had never read the bible because I think he couldn't afford one. We talked to him about the book of mormon and invited him to read 3 Nefi 11. When he realized that we were actually giving him the book he seemed genuinely happy. It was probably the first scriptures he had ever had for himself. 

We talked to a lot more people but I don't think I'll have time to talk about them all. A lot of people would start reaching for money when we were talking or when we gave them a BoM or pamphlet, because I guess they thought we were expecting to get paid. We had to explain several times that we didn't want money and that everything was free, we are here to serve you.

At about 4:45, before the bus came to get us, Elder Johnson and I found this tiny little candy store and decided to buy some. These things called Alfajores are all the rage here, at least for the people in the CCM. I don't really know how to describe them but they're kinda like cake with cookies in them and they're shaped like Ding Dongs. Anyway this guy was selling them really cheep so Elder Johnson decided to buy like 30 of them. I brought 12 of them for 40 pesos (1 US dollar is about 19 pesos right now) so they were really cheep. We pretty much returned as legends because we had brought back more alfajores than anyone else.

The tie trade here (or the Cambiar Game as we call it) is intense. Every night before bed a ton of people get out there ties for display and people go from room to room saying ¿Cambiar? trying to trade for the best ties. This one tie pretty much has become a legend, called Big Pinkie. Its this huge tie that looks like it was made out of an entire prom dress or something. It was highly coveted and my companion was able to trade one of his best ties for it, so he is now the proud owner of Big Pinkie. 

The word on the street is that Utah State beat BYU. I was happy to hear that, although I feel pretty bad for BYU, they're having a rough year. Speaking of BYU, there's an Elder here who is going to be playing for the BYU volleyball team when he gets home. Needless to say, he dominates every time we play volleyball.

Two or three nights ago, we woke up in the middle of the night to crazy horns being blown and tons of people screaming and going crazy somewhere aways away. We were pretty confused until our teacher explained the next day that Argentina one a soccer game that qualified them for the World Cup. They won 3-0, Messi got the Hat Trick.

There was a scale last night at dinner, and we all weighed ourselves for fun. It said I was 90 kg, which I think is about 197 pounds or something like that. So either I've gained like 15 pounds or the scale reads high. I don't feel like I've gained that much, but maybe I have, I do eat a lot.

A lot of people can't wait to get out of here, but I don't mind it. We spend nearly every waking moment in our tiny little District room, with the ten people in our district, either studying or having class. It doesn't sound fun, and a lot of people think it sucks, but I like it and think it's fun. My district is awesome. It's amazing how close you can get to others in only about 3 weeks when you're spending your entire day with them. We all joke with each other and sometimes distract each other a little bit too much. We sing a lot, whatever comes to mind. Me and Elder Scoresby asked our teacher if she could play some Les Mis for us, but she wasn't sure if it was allowed. We tried to argue that many of the apostles liked it so it must be allowed haha. Speaking of Les Mis, one morning when we were all showering we all started singing Red and Black from our showers. Not sure how it started, but it was pretty hilarious. Everyday me and my comp teach at least one lesson a day in spanish, many days two. Some of them are kinda rough. Either we don't know what the investigator says when we ask questions or we don't know how to say the things we want... sometimes both. We're getting better though.

Wednesday we got to go into the city again. We went to some government building and did some paperwork for Visas. I'm not really sure exactly what we did, but we showed our passports and they took our fingerprints, and had to sign some stuff.

Today we got to go to the temple, except this time both sessions were in Castejano(no idea how to spell that) which is just Spanish but with the Argentine accent. Argentines insist it is a different language though haha. It was pretty tough to know everything that was going on during the session, but we made it through.

All the English speakers that came 3 weeks before us, and all the Latinos that came with us, are leaving this Monday. Which means I only have 3 more weeks here, which is scary. So from Monday to Thursday, there's only going to be 20 of us here until the new people show up.

A lot has happened since the last time I wrote and I'm sure there's a ton I'm forgetting, but hopefully I got most of it. I hope everything is going good back home, I'm loving it here.

Nate's Letter Home - Oct 5, 2017

Feliz Cumpleaños a Amanda

So we only have an hour of email time so I hope I get to say most of what I want to. And before I forget, I won't be able to email you until Saturday, because we are going to the temple again Thursday.

The flight was really long, I'm glad I wont have to do that very much. I flew with 10 other Elders to Atlanta, where we met 11 other Elders and then flew to Argentina. We all got picked up at the Buenos Aires airport in a bus and were shipped off to the CCM (MTC). The first day was really hard because I was running on about zero sleep and there was a lot to take in. Our first night, we're pretty sure we heard a bunch of gunshots haha.

Our second day, Friday, we got to go to the temple. Luckily they had an English session just for us. The temple is literally right next to the CCM and takes about 30 seconds to walk there. Its really cool and looks amazing.

Saturday and Sunday the North Americans got to watch Conference in English. Conference was really good but the chairs here are no buena and it was both an uplifting and painful 10 hours. We had a two hour testimony meeting after so it was very hard to understand. I was able to understand most of what the gringos said, but about 5 percent of what the Latinos said.

Almost all of the food here is amazing. I'm probably going to gain some serious pounds while I'm here. We had this one meal where it was just a big old slab of beef with some mashed potatoes and it was probably the best thing I've eaten in my life.

The teachers here are all Natives I think. Our districts morning teacher is from Argentina and our afternoon teacher is from Columbia. The teachers speak pretty good English, at least enough to explain when we don't understand what they're saying in Spanish. We study a lot. When we are not in class or eating then we are studying or preparing a lesson. Although sometimes our district has had trouble completely focusing during study time. The people in my district are awesome though, we all get along really well. 

My companion and I have already given 3 lessons in Spanish to our "Progressive Investigator". It's been pretty rough put we have gotten through them. We ask her questions during our lesson and we only understand about half of her answers, and it can be pretty frustrating because we can't express all the things that we want to. But we are able to say quite a bit considering we've been here only for a week. His name is Elder Tanner by the way, he was the one we met at the SLC airport. He's a really funny kid. He is struggling a little bit with Spanish, and it kills me on the inside every time he tries to pronounce a Spanish word, but I know he'll get it eventually, porque tenemos el don de lenguas.

This Saturday, we are all going proselyting. Like actually proselyting. They are going to drive us somewhere like an hour away and drop me off with just my companion and we have to talk to people on the street. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to understand what anybody says to me, but I guess it will be good practice. I'm pretty nervous for that, to say the least.

My roommates are amazing. They are 8 of us all in a room that's probably about the size of my room at home. 4 of them are Latino, and we have a ton of fun before we go to bed trying to talk with them. We'll try to speak Spanish with them and they try to speak English with us. It usually just ends up being really funny and we laugh all the time. The Latinos call us "shankees", which is Yankees but with the Argentine sha sound, which I find really funny. The bathroom on the second floor is under construction, so all of the Elders have to use the bathroom on the third floor, which is where our room is. The bathroom gets pretty hectic at times haha. We did our laundry for the first time yesterday. We weren't entirely sure what we were doing but our clothes came out clean so I guess we did ok.

We get an hour of physical activity a day where we get to go outside. So far, the weather has been mostly cloudy and cool and it has felt amazing.

It's weird being surrounded by Spanish all the time. The cooks, the maids, our teachers and even the missionaries are speaking Spanish all the time. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on haha. But I really like it here, I've had a lot of fun and already learned a lot and hope someday I'll really be able to communicate well with the natives. 

I have a lot more I could say but I've ran out of time. Talk to you next week.

Yo sé que la Iglesia es verdadera. Sé que el Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios. Sé que José Smith fue un profeta de Dios, y Dios restauró Su Evangelio a través de él. Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y Redentor, en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen. 

Nate's Missionary Farewell Talk - Sept 24, 2017

For those who don’t know, I’m Nathan Shelton, and I’ve been assigned to the Argentina Buenos Aires West Mission. I leave on the 27th, which is in 3 days. Brother Hunsaker has asked me to speak on why there was a need for a Restoration, and why this information is important to our testimonies. To start off, I’d like to share some of the things I read and thought about this last week while studying apostasy and restoration.

Jesus Christ set up his church while he was on the earth. In Ephesians 4 we read that “he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. This organization seems very similar to what we have today in our church. So what happened in between that made it necessary for a Restoration? Put simply, it was the loss of Priesthood authority.

After Christ’s death, it was up to Peter and the rest of the apostles to carry on His church. However, the apostles were largely rejected, and most of them were martyred for their beliefs. With the death of the last apostle, the Priesthood and authority to lead Christ’s church were lost from the earth. Why was that Priesthood authority so important? Well I think that is answered in the same chapter of Ephesians, where Christ explains why he called apostles and prophets, it says: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.  These apostles and prophets had been called by Christ himself, and had authority to receive revelation for the church. Without this authority, people could be deceived, blown back and forth with every wind of doctrine.

Without the Priesthood authority, there was no way of receiving revelation for the church. New religious leaders relied on the wisdom of men, and their own understanding. This led to many truths being lost. In 1 Nephi 13 it talks about this, and also the creation of a new church, one that was not made by God. Verse 26: And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.

With the loss of the priesthood came this loss of the many simple and precious truths of the gospel. A good example would be in 325 AD when the First Council of Nicaea, a meeting between many religious leaders of that time, adopted a new idea of the Godhead, describing the Son as being of one substance with the Father, and that God was incomprehensible, without shape or form. Such a very simple, yet very important truth was lost that day, the very nature of God.

Bit by bit, the full truth of the gospel was lost, until the prophecy from the book of Amos was fulfilled, saying: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

However, during this time of Great Apostasy, the Lord was still preparing the way for the Restoration. Things like the Renaissance, Martin Luther posting his 95 Theses, William Tyndale translating the Bible to English, the invention of the printing press, the formation of the United States, and countless other events all came together in a complex web of events that led up to Joseph Smith kneeling in a grove of trees.

So to get back to the question from earlier, why was the Restoration needed? I think we can answer that now. The Priesthood keys necessary to run God’s church and perform ordinances were not on the earth. Parts of the gospel which were plain and precious were lost, and the truth was no longer on the earth. The Restoration restored these truths and brought back the fulness of the gospel. The Priesthood keys were once again on the earth, making it possible to perform the necessary ordinances for salvation, even for the dead. The Restoration was necessary because this is his work and his glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. And as we learn from D&C 3, “The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught.”

So now on the second part of that question, why is this knowledge of the Restoration so important to our testimonies? To help answer, I’d like to read a quote by Elder Hales from a talk titled Preparations for the Restoration and the Second Coming. In it he says:  “I testify that the work of the Prophet Joseph Smith is the Savior’s work. In the Lord’s service the path is not always easy. It often requires sacrifices, and we will likely experience adversity. But in serving Him, we discover that His hand is truly over us. So it was for Wycliffe, Tyndale, and thousands of others who prepared the way for the Restoration. So it was for the Prophet Joseph Smith and all who helped usher in the restored gospel. So it is and will be for us.  The Lord expects us to be as faithful, as devoted, as courageous as those who went before us. They were called to give their lives for the gospel. We are called to live our lives for the same purpose.”

Having a testimony of the Restoration of the gospel is important because of what it can lead us to do. If we truly believe that Christ leads this church, then we will do what he asks of us. If we’re asked to be a primary president, an elders quorum president, a nursery leader, or any other calling, we will do it. If we’re asked to go to the temple, do family history work, or collect fast offerings, we will do it. If we’re asked to serve full-time for two years, we will do it. We do these things because we know it is the Lord who asks it of us, that this is his work and our salvation. When we have a testimony of the Restoration, it will help us to, as Elder Hales put it, “live our lives for the gospel.”

To conclude, I hope that we realize what a great privilege it is to live when we do, in the dispensation of the fulness of times. What a blessing it is to have the fulness of the gospel on the earth, and to have it so easily accessible. How lucky we are to be led by prophets and apostles, so that we don’t have to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, but instead can know to what source we can look for truth. And we have been given a wonderful promise, that this Church, and the truth it holds, shall not be taken from the earth again, but will be here waiting until the Second Coming of our Savior, of which it is our great privilege to help prepare for.

To go along with my testimony, I’d like to share one last scripture. Whenever the tiniest shadow of a doubt enters my mind concerning my testimony, this scripture always seems to pop into memory. D&C 6, verses 22 and 23:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things.  Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?

I testify, that the Lord has spoken peace to my mind concerning these things.

Testimony

Nate's Missionary Photo - 2017

Nate's HS Graduation Sacrament Talk May 28, 2017

I was asked to talk about how my commitment to follow Jesus Christ affected me in high school, and will affect me in the future. One of the biggest ways this has influenced me is who I've chosen to hang out and associate myself with. During high school and the years to follow there are a lot of important choices that are made, but I believe that choosing who your friends are is one of the most important, because they will influence all of your other choices. Several scriptures state the importance of good friends: like Proverbs 27:17- "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Also 1 Corinthians 15:33 - "Be not deceived: evil communications (or if you look in the footnote, associations) corrupt good manners." Choosing friends is incredibly important, especially when you're a teenager and start to spend less time with your parents and more time with your peers. I am grateful for my friends and the good people around me that have made me better and kept me on the straight and narrow path. Also, this school year I had the great opportunity of serving on the Seminary Council. Meeting together nearly every Friday morning with positive, uplifting people with strong testimonies had an amazing impact on me for good, and helped give me strength to do what the Lord needed me to do.

However, no matter how good of friends we have, none of us are completely immune to the temptations that come from peer pressure. One of the first stories from the scriptures that pops into my head when I think of peer pressure is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. King Nebuchadnezzar had created a golden image, and commanded that all should worship it or be thrown in a furnace and killed. These 3 men refused. They would not betray their standards, they knew of the one true God and would not bow to any false idol. When brought before the king, surely facing death, they boldly stated:  "O  Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, 0 king. But if not, be it known unto thee, 0 king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." (What a great example of faith and strength. It would have been so easy to just fall to the ground and pretend to worship the idol, but they knew what was right and would not betray their God.)

In President Monson's talk "Dare to Stand Alone", he said: "As we go about living from day to day, it is almost inevitable that our faith will be challenged. We may at times find ourselves surrounded by others and yet standing in the minority or even standing alone concerning what is acceptable and what is not . Do we have the moral courage to stand firm for our beliefs, even if by so doing we must stand alone?" Quoting again from President Monson, this time from a talk he gave during the April 2005 conference, he said simply: "You will meet temptation; withstand it." He goes on to say: "The Prophet Joseph Smith faced temptation . Can you imagine the ridicule, the scorn, the mocking that must have been heaped upon him as he declared that he had seen a vision? I suppose it became almost unbearable for the boy. He no doubt knew that it would be easier to retract his statements concerning the vision and just get on with a normal life. He did not, however, give in. These are his words: "I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true. ... I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it." Joseph Smith taught courage by example. He faced temptation and withstood it."(Close quote). I am grateful for Joseph Smith's strength and willingness to stand alone. His example has helped me in my life to stand for what I know to be true.

Let us have the strength to be like Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego, and the modern-day example of Joseph Smith. Let us not be like the people in Lehi's dream, who partook of the fruit of the Tree of Life, but  became ashamed, wandered off and were lost because of the people in the great and spacious building mocking them. Instead, let us partake of the fruit boldly, unashamed, and never be afraid to stand up for what is right, regardless of how many stand with us. And be like Paul, who in Romans 1:16 declared: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ : for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." I'd like to share one last quote from President Monson, he says: "May we ever be courageous and prepared to stand for what we believe, and if we must stand alone in the process, may we do so courageously, strengthened by the knowledge that in reality we are never alone when we stand with our Father in Heaven." (Close quote).

In closing, my commitment to follow Jesus Christ has made my life immeasurably better and has brought great blessings. It has helped me through school, and I know it will continue to help me in the future as I go serve a mission and one day find a career and start a family. I know that if I always stand for truth that the Lord will stand with me and bless me.

Testimony