Elder Garret West: God, The Holy Ghost etc etc

Hello again from Oro Valley, Arizona. Nothing new to add from last week. Sorry. We are just as disappointed as you are. But we continue to knock on doors, work with members and the Ward mission leader, but our teaching pool is not where we want it to be. We are doing what we can and planting lots of seeds!!

This week we had the wonderful opportunity to have William H. Stoddard from the Quorum of the Seventy come and speak to us at Stake Conference. He is a funny guy. He talked a lot, and shared a lot of good insight on making the Sabbath more sacred. He also talked a lot about Missionary work and the need of our members to aide the full time missionaries, which I loved of course. I hope the members got the "hint". Maybe I'll share more next week when I have more time to read through all of the notes I took.

"But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money."

-Acts 8:20

I think it's amazing to realize how the best gifts in life are those that cannot be bought with money. Hardly do I ever remember the presents I've received, or the trips we've gone on, or any other amount of gifts given to me. What I remember mostly is the love I felt and the care and attention of those who showed their love. Love is a fickle thing. Lust is not Love. Lust is Satan's counterfeit to love, and he tries to persuade us to believe in his counterfeits every day. Yes, there is "opposition in all things", but the Adversary rarely presents us with the black, in exchange for white, that's too obvious. He molds and creates something close, when in reality it is just a sad attempt. We need to be attentive and aware of what comes from God, and not our common enemy.

How do we know what is good? Let me refer you to a few scriptures.

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

-John 14:26

Heavenly Father will send his Holy Spirit to guide us, help us, and direct our paths.

How will we know if it's the Spirit? "Ye shall know them by their fruits."

-Matthew 7:15-20

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith," "Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

-Galatians 5:22-23

How will we know if it is not by the Spirit?

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,"

"Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies," "Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

-Galatians 5:19-21

Remember, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace..."

1 Corinthians 14:33

We can trust in a God that wants us to know we are on the right path and are doing the right things. If it is confusing and we don't know why we're doing it, that might be a good indication that you should stop and reevaluate yourself. If anyone has made it this far through my rant or have been paying attention to the scriptures I've used, you may notice they are all from the Bible... You're welcome in advance haha.

Peace off!

Love Elder West