I love P-Day!‏

email dated 9/18/09
I love Preparation day. I really do. I love it a lot because I get to start the day off by going to the Provo Temple at 6:30 AM, but I also get to not sit in my classroom where I spend 10 hours a day, every day. I'll be honest, I'm kind of bored of looking at the walls in my classroom, but I'm certainly not bored of the MTC. I love missionary work SO MUCH! Ok, story time.

I was in the TRC-which is the place in the MTC where the Church receives incoming phone calls and chats from mormon.org, and I was waiting for a chat. Everyone else in my district was chatting with people online and answering questions and teaching, and I just sat there because there didn't seem to be any left. So I said a prayer real fast in which I pretty much said ,"Heavenly Father, I love this work, and I love the gospel. I've studied hard, and I'm ready and willing to help and teach. Please, send me someone who is downhearted-someone who needs the answers the gospel has. Trust me with one of your prepared ones...". The second I said 'Amen' to that prayer, my phone rang. His name was Terrance from Alabama, and if anyone had been prepared to hear the gospel, it was Terrance. He was practically in tears when we began talking, and he told me of how he and his wife of 3 years had recently gotten in an argument, and she moved out. Last week he got divorce papers in the mail, and he's been doing everything he can to mend his relationship. We talked about everything, and I got to know him really well. I would ask sincere questions, and I would console him, and then I would listen. I kept listening, and I kept talking, and I kept listening, until I felt moved to say something. I bore witness that Jesus Christ is our savior, and that God would answer the many prayers that he has offered in the long hours of the night. He had never even mentioned prayer in the conversation, but he began to cry as I bore testimony and spoke about prayer. It had been given me in the very moment what I needed to say-what Terrance needed to hear. We spoke for about 40 minutes, in which we spoke about "why is this life so difficult? Why do bad things happen to good people?", and in which I spoke a lot and testified about the Savior Jesus Christ. God answers prayers. I know He does.

This life is hard because it was MEANT to be hard. It was NEVER meant to be easy. It's hard because salvation is not a cheap experience. Especially as disciples of Jesus Christ, we should expect to suffer a great deal. Phil. 1:29 "It is given you in the behalf of Jesus Christ not only to believe on His name, but to suffer for His sake." Our own personal paths to salvation take us straight through Gethsemane, and we should expect to carry our own cross up the hill to our own personal Calvary. Jesus Christ suffered these things for ALL, so that if we would have faith on Him and His atonement, than we wouldn't have to. That doesn't mean that we aren't required to suffer- how incredibly selfish of us to whine and curse God for our hardships in this life when in all reality we couldn't even begin to shoulder our own burden- we can't pay our own price. Christ alone could, and Christ alone did. He shed precious drops of blood for each and every one of us. I am personally and eternally grateful for my Father in Heaven, and my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

I love you all so much, and I want every happiness for you. I pray for constantly, as I hope I'm in your prayers.

Your Elder,
Luke Shepherd