Funny story.. Our apartment is old... when our neighbor down stairs showers it makes this really terrible high pitched.. ear drum rupturing squeal... our heater makes clicking noises that sounds like the aliens in the movies "Signs" the floors are so thin we can hear our down stairs neighbor blowing his nose. I have been living there a few months longer than sister Anderson so i am becoming used to the noises, they no longer wake me up in the night.
Flash back two days ago... Sister Anderson said "I think we have a mouse living in the heater.. I could hear his little feet clicking around all night.. and it sounded like he was running around under your bed."
I LAUGHED. We live on the top floor.. there is nooo way a mouse is in our apartment... It's probably just the boogie man... or our heater. It became my joke to her through out the day. She had a mysterious scratch on her finger my instant response "THE MOUSE DID IT." Everything was suddenly the mouses fault.
Alright. So last night. I couldn't sleep. I was either super warm, or super cold.... couldn't get cozy.. just one of those nights... then all the sudden I hear it.... 'click, click, click.......' no sister Carlson.. it's just the heater.. you think it is the mouse because sister Anderson said that... it's not a mouse go to sleep..... as i am falling asleep i hear... little lite tapping sounds across the floor and the sound of crinkling paper.. i remembered there was a book that fell back there i was to lazy to get a while back... nooo the heater vent is just blowing out air.. mice can't read...... THEN.... about an hour later..... "SQUEAK, SQUEAK, SQUEAK...." we indeed have a mouse my friends....
So the alarm finally goes off after the longest night of laying in my bed praying that this mouse doesn't some how climb up and try to get cozy with me. praying that he wont chew threw my laundry basket or favorite shoes.. laying there miserable while my comp is out cold. snoring..... finally it's time to have her be scared with me. after a 10 minute pep talk you can get out of bed... you can go to the bathroom.. it's just a mouse.. you had pet mice.. you loved mice when you were little. get over it you baby.. I FINALLY LEAP OUT OF BED AND SPRINT TO THE BATHROOM TO GET AWAY FROM THIS LITTLE CRITTER.
Then I come back in thinking I am sooooo tough and lay down on the floor to see if I can see what kept me up all night... i think i was half expecting to see like a giant ravenous squirrel or opossum camping out... when I wasn't finding anything i began to think... your crazy. WHEN ALL OF THE SUDDEN... CRAAAAAAASH... I AM SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS WHILE SISTER ANDERSON IS SITTING ON HER BED SCREAMING AS WELL.. We realize it was just our phone that had slipped off the edge of my night stand....(sorry tony) Our little mouse friend was back in hiding.... You can run little mouse.. and you can hide.. but we will find you.... you may have won the battle... but we will win the war......
So what does this have to do with the gospel you might ask???
Have you ever felt prompted to do something that makes no sense? Or been asked to do something by your parents that you think is absolutely... just ridiculous???
Fun fact... I had a box of candy hiding under my bed that I could hear little squeaks rummaging through I HOPE YOU LIKED THE REESES SQUEAKS! My mom used to tell me when I was little if I didn't clean my room I would get mice under my bed..... I half way imagined this like Cinderella who had pet mice that helped her clean! GREAT BRING ON THE MICE... 16 years later.. mice under your bed.. not such a cute idea. I FINALLY TOOK YOUR ADVICE MOM.. I THREW THE CANDY AWAY AND CLEANED UNDER MY BED.
Back to the spirit. Some times I feel like heavenly father asks me to do things or tells me things that just... logically, they don't pan out. Pre mission life I knew Jesus Christ is my Savior. I never doubted that. When I went to church I felt the spirit there. So I knew belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints(Mormons) was good for me. However.. I never understood how or why God would show himself to a 14 year old boy.. Just like a mouse.. living in our heater vent when we live on the 5 floor.. it just didn't make sense.... How could God show himself to a 14 year old farm boy who could hardly read?? How could he then translate a book written on gold plates given to him from an angel called Moroni who lived thousands of years ago... THIS JUST DIDN'T MAKE SENSE.
"And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things."1 Nephi 17
I like Nephi don't know everything.. But what I do know is that God loveth his children. Not just his children that moses led to safety.. or that were saved with Noah.. HE WANTS US ALL LED TO SAFETY. So how does he help us with this crazy life here on earth?? He gives us prophets. Do you believe in the bible? Do you believe that Moses parted the red sea?? That Daniel survived the lions den? That Christ walked on water and gave vision to the blind???
Do you believe in Gods miracles in the Old and New testament?
If he was a God of miracles then.. than why isn't he a god of miracles today???
Good news is.. He is. He still loves us.. so he called a 14 year old boy to be a prophet. Joseph Smith.
I know this because I am currently serving my mission where God came back for us. Where he again in 1820 reached out for us in love and restored Christs church to the earth.
I realized when I was 20.. like it was hard for me to take sister Anderson's word about squeaks in the heater... and my mom telling me a mouse would live under my bed if i didn't clean.. I had to no longer just take my moms words that our church was the restored truth that had been lost. I had to find this on my own. I had to study it out in my mind, and ask God.
I did that I studied the book of Mormon. Because if that is true.. than Joseph Smith was telling the truth. I prayed. I read. I prayed. I even tried NOT going to church for a while to see how my life would go.
MY LIFE WAS MISERABLE. After reading and praying I came to know it was true. I decided to serve a mission. AND HERE I AM IN THE PLACE WHERE JOSEPH SMITH RECEIVED THE GOLD PLATES THAT ARE NOW THE BOOK OF MORMON. WHERE JOSEPH SMITH SAW HEAVENLY FATHER AND JESUS CHRIST. Today I am writing this blog to you in the very place where the book of Mormon was published and sold for the first time ever.
My testimony isn't perfect... But what I do know is that every day I receive a witness that Joseph Smith is a true and honest man. He indeed was a prophet. Who received help to bring us another book of scripture that with the bible can bring a closer to Jesus Christ than you ever though possible. I have come to know my savior in the pages of this beautiful book.
I can type away all day at the ways the book of Mormon and this church have changed my life.. but like I had to.. you will have to experience this for yourself. If you haven't read the book of Mormon... or prayed about it I would invite you to do so. If you have read it and are having doubts... read it again. and pray harder. The answer wont come all at once. It will come though. You will find that it is true if your heart is open. So many people laugh and say its not true... But just like the mouse that lives beneath my bed... The book of Mormon is the word of God and there are Prophets again today. :)
Jesus Christ and Heavenly father love you.
Read. Ponder. and Pray.
3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. Moroni 10
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