Last 6 weeks AND getting transferred to Corpus Christi!!

 

March 14th email

What is up everyone!  Been another great week in La Joya:)  Right now we are putting a lot of focus working with the members regarding the 'Love, Share and Invite' Initiative that the church has come up with to help facilitate God's work of Salvation and Exaltation.  The purpose is to help all members of Christ's church to share the gospel in simple and natural ways.  Member work and missionary work is to always be 'one work' to help others come unto Jesus Christ.  The members of the La Joya branch are amazing and through our efforts we have been able to gain strong relationships with them and have found friends to teach the gospel through them!  

Someone we are teaching right now is Fabiana!  Her husband is a member and she has loved meeting us and would love to go to the temple someday!  We are working with her and doing all we can to help her feel the spirit and pray she will continue to progress in the gospel:)

General Conference is right around the corner!  This is a time where we may receive answers to our needs and questions may come as we prepare to listen and hear the words of God's living prophets here on earth.  This is something that I hope everyone takes very seriously.  It is a time where we hear the voice of the lord.  So I encourage everyone to prepare now, through thinking and pondering of questions you may have, as well as inviting EVERYONE to watch.  I love being a missionary and deciple of Christ and I love you all!  I wish everyone a great week!  

March 28 email - 

Sup!  Super speedy week went by.  We did a whole lot of Service.  Someone in specific we helped is named Alfonzo.  He not only allowed us to help him but as well have a discussion with him.  He accepted a Book of Mormon and has loved reading it!  We're looking forward to continue teaching him and pray he may receive his own witness of the restored gospel! 

We are also teaching an awesome couple—Shelly and Mauricio.  Shelly has an amazing heart and has a true desire to search for the true church of Jesus Christ.  She is super excited to hear our Prophet speak this weekend and we pray she may receive answers to her questions!  

La Joya has been good to me.  The members treat us too good and I love and appreciate them so much.  I definitely could start eating a little healthier but I honestly have no room to complain with what we have  I hope everyone is preparing and ready for General Conference this weekend.  It is of great importance and imperative that we all hear the voice of the lord through his authorized prophets, seers and Revelators.  I know you will be blessed and filled with greater peace, joy and divine direction in your life:)  love yall.  

April 4 email - 

Hey everyone:) I hope everyone's week was light filled and Spiritually Rejuvenating.  Being able to watch General Conference is such a blessing to our lives and a great opportunity to receive 'revelatory experiences' to uplifting and edify us.  

To have a prophet on earth for me means that we have a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us and who cares so much for our progression and Joy we receive on earth.  I am grateful for Jesus Christ and his Prophet and Apostles on earth.  I know the words they give to us comes from the "mind and will of the lord."  

In the Conference, President Nelson suggested 5 things we must do to "ignite" and "maintain" Spiritual Momentum, in order to increase the peace in our lives and to the whole world through our own efforts and actions.  These 5 steps include:

1) Get on, and STAY on the Covenant Path.

2) Discover the Joy of Daily Repentance.

3) Learn more of God and how he works. (Come to know his true Nature)

4) Seek for, Believe in and Expect miracles in our lives

5)End ANY Personal conflict in our lives

We learn in the Book of Mormon that as we "Hold Fast" to the Iron rod and as Elder Bednar Reaffirmed:  "Heed Not what the Wicked may say, But the Lord alone we will obey" we WILL be lead to the tree of life Which is Jesus Christ and eternal Joy.  To 'Hold Fast' to the Iron Rod is to give heed and follow what our Prophet asks us to do!  So, I Invite all of us to apply these 5 steps in our lives to increase our spiritual momentum.  I do indeed know that President Nelson is God's prophet.  I hope that that Knowledge may bring you Joy:)  Have a great week!

INCREDIBLE TALK BY LOREN DALTON!!!! 

You are Receiving Revelation… Now act on it!

Loren Dalton

May 21, 2019

LDS Business College/Ensign College

I want you to know that you are led by a man of God, as President Kusch said. It was

about 25 years ago that I had the privilege of being an Elder's quorum president in that

stake in California. I learned quite a bit about his great leadership then. Years later

when he became a mission president, my nephew had the great privilege of serving

under him. He grew quite a bit. I can testify that you are led by a man of God.

Speaking of mission presidents, my mission president and his wife from my time as a

young missionary are here in the audience. They say you're called not only to serve in

a certain place, but you're called to serve under a certain mission president. I know in

my case that that's right. Much of what I've become in my life I owe to that great man.

I have two goals today: to help you realize that you are indeed receiving revelations on

a constant basis, and 2) to have you be committed to act on the revelation you do

receive immediately.

Joseph Smith said, “The Holy Ghost is a revelator. No man can receive the Holy Ghost

without receiving revelations.” Now, I know some of you are saying, “Well, what does

that say about me? I have never had a revelation!” I want to you you are wrong. You

are indeed.

President Kusch said that I had served as a mission president over Brazil São Paulo

Interlagos Mission. When I got there, I told the missionaries the importance of following

the promptings of the Spirit. I had a number of missionaries come set up appointments

to see me. They said with tears in their eyes, “President…I don’t think I have ever had

a prompting from the Spirit.” It hit me that it was my responsibility to help these

wonderful young, worthy elders and sisters understand how the Spirit works. I want to

share with you today some of the things that I shared with them.

Of course, God can talk to us any way that he wants. He can appear to us, he can send

an angel, he can make us hear a voice. But, we learn from Alma 37:6, that the Lord

works by small and simple means. So, God will usually work in the simplest way

possible when he's going to talk to us.

So, in order to understand how this works, we have to remember that the Holy Ghost is

a spirit. And, when he talks to us, it is one spirit (the Holy Ghost) talking to our spirit.

The problem is we've have been in these earthly tabernacles, these physical bodies for

so long that we get a little bit confused and we don’t really relate to things as we should.

So, we need to understand it in a PHYSICAL way - the spiritual event, the spiritual

communication. In a physical way it appears to us like a positive thought that will just

pop into our heads………..BING!! And that is revelation. That's the Holy Ghost talking

to us.

The problem is is that we take credit for it. We think it's our thought as a result we don't

usually act on it. Let me give you an example:

You're playing a computer game or you are in Pinterest or you're watching TV, whatever

it is, and all of a sudden you have a thought pop into your head (BING!!) to call so-and-

so. Now so-and-so is a friend of yours who you haven’t seen in five years, you haven't

even thought about in two years. But, all of the sudden while you're doing this one thing

(BING!), I need to call so-and-so. But you think it's your thought so, you say, “I will. I will

when I am done doing this.” Then, when you're done with it, you have already forgotten

about it and you never call. And you don’t feel badly about it because you figure it was

just your idea.

Does it make sense that you, that while out of the blue, you would be thinking about this

person that you haven’t thought about in years, while you were doing something else?

No, the Holy Ghost knew that that person need to hear from you right then. And that's

why you had that thought.

Now, when I would tell this and teach it to my missionaries, some of them would say,

"Now, President, that makes sense, but how can I tell the difference between the Holy

Ghost prompting me and when it's just my own thought?" I said, "Elders and Sisters. It

just doesn't matter. Do it. Just act on it. And they would say, "Now, what do you mean?"

Now let's think about it for a second. It it really was your idea, and it probably wasn't -

most often it will be the Holy Ghost - if it really was your idea to do this positive thing

and you do it, will God be mad? Of course not. However, if it was a prompting from the

Holy Ghost and you don't do it, you risk losing His confidence in you and the next time

he's going to have to prompt someone else.

I said that we're going to have a new rule in this mission. And then I stole this from a

great man - who when he shared it with me, he was the President of the Sparks Nevada

Stake. It goes like this: “Any positive thought to say or do something is a prompting

from God until proven otherwise. Just act on it!” And that was our rule. We needed to

act when those thoughts came.

And I thought them that it's kind of like every time we act on a promptings, it like we are

tuning in on our Celestial Radio. So, the next time we act on it, it'll be a little clearer and

easier to understand still. So, if they wanted to understand, the difference between the

Holy Ghost and their own thoughts, they just needed to keep acting on it and it would

tune in and get better each time.

Some of you are thinking, could this be true? Let's see what the scriptures and our living

prophet have to say about this very thing:

D&C 6:15 – “…and I did enlighten thy mind; and now I tell thee these things that thou

mayest know that thou hast been enlightened by the Spirit of Truth.”

D&C 6:23 – “Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater

witness can you have than from God?”

D&C 8:2-3 – “Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy

Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold,

this is the spirit of revelation…”

D&C 11:13 – “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall

enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy.”

Also, from President Russell M. Nelson in his first General Conference as President of

the Church, he taught us about revelation. He said, “The privilege of receiving

revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children (NOTE: He did NOT say

that it is one of the greatest gifts of God to his PROPHETS, but to His children….YOU

AND ME!! And THEN, he goes on to tell us EXACTLY how to get revelation!! Do you

want to know?? Here he goes…..) Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your

concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And then

listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow

through with actions that you are prompted to take (NOTE: He is saying to ACT ON

YOUR BINGS!!) And then he said, "As you repeat this process day after day, month

after month, year after year, you will “grow into the principle of revelation.” Who would

know better than what revelation is than our prophet?

If you think about what he's saying it's that if you act on a prompting, you're tuning into

your celestial radio and each time it will get clearer and clearer. Now, of course, with

him it's ultra clear. Some of you have heard that he keeps a pen and a notepad at the

side of his bed every night. Why? Because he gets those BINGS in the middle of the

night. We need to act on these things.

Elder Rasband, in an April 2017 General Conference, quoted Joseph Smith. "Now if the

Prophet Joseph Smith taught that if you listen to the first promptings, you will get it right

99% of the time." Almost always is the Holy Ghost speaking to you. We need to act on

those things.

Now, one thing that we need to remember is that the adversary is also a spirit. And as

such, he talks to us in the very same way. We will get BINGS that will pop into our head

from him.

Now one of the things that's different between the adversary and the Holy Ghost, is that

the Holy Ghost wants us to recognize that those promptings are from God. The

adversary, on the other hand, he wants us to think that both his promptings AND the

promptings from the Holy Ghost are our own thoughts! He wants us to believe that.

There are four important things to know about the promptings from the adversary. This

is really important to remember each of these four things:

First: IT DOESN’T MEAN YOU'RE A BAD PERSON IF YOU'RE GETTING

PROMPTINGS FROM THE ADVERSARY: You'd be a fool to think that if you got a

prompting from the adversary. What happened to Joseph Smith when he went into the

grove of trees to pray? He was overcome by the adversary - almost to the point where

he gave up. And our Savior, after forty days and forty nights of fasting, do you

remember what happened? The adversary appeared and tried to tempt him. So, no. If

the adversary tempts you it doesn't mean you're a bad person. In fact, it probably

means just the opposite. It means that you're great, and he's trying to knock you off

your mark.

What he's doing also, the next thing: HE IS USUALLY THE 2nd VOICE: Now of

course, the adversary can often be the first voice. He's always trying to talk us into

doing something bad. It's easy to recognize the adversary. But when he is the second

voice, that's dangerous. Because oftentimes we think it's our own thought. The first

voice is usually from the Holy Ghost, but, the second voice is right on His heels because

he needs to try and talk us into doing what he just told us to do.

Also: HE USES LOGIC: He is so good at that. He is really good at using logic. I could

write a book this thick on all the times I was fooled by that second voice until I finally

understood this principle. Because his logic makes so much sense. Now, God doesn't

need logic. God knows what's right, so he doesn't need logic. How much sense does it

make to build an ark on dry ground? How much sense did it make for David to think

that he could go fight Goliath? Or Moses that by raising his rod, that by doing so the

Israelites would cross the sea on dry ground? No, God doesn't need logic. What he

needs are sons and daughters who will have faith to act on His promptings.

Finally, possibly the most dangerous of all: THE ADVERSARY OFTENTIMES WILL

SPEAK TO US IN THE FIRST PERSON: He will say things like, “Nobody likes me,"

“I'm ugly,” “I'm stupid,” “I don't feel like praying,” “I don't get anything out of my scripture

reading” or “I don’t want to live anymore.” He will say it over and over and over, talking

in the first person, hoping that you will take ownership on that thought and begin acting

accordingly. You need to understand that this is not you. That when those negative

thoughts come into your head, that is a prompting, a BING, from the adversary that is

hoping you will believe it's your thought. We need to recognize these and kick these

thoughts out.

I'd like to give a couple of examples of acting on the adversary. This could happen to

anyone: a husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, brother and sister. I'll just use a

husband and wife in this case. They had just had a rather heated discussion, and the

wife, saying that she didn't want to add to that bad spirit, got up and left. The husband

(“BING!”), “I should apologize.” Right afterwards (“BING!”), “No, why should I? She

started it!” Which one does he listen to?

Or one that happens to us all of the time. This has happened to everyone here. You

have a friend over who (“BING!”), it's a non-member friend, ("BING!"), “I should invite

him to our ward activity this Friday night.” (“BING!”), “No. If I do, he's going to think I

have only been pretending to be his friend so I can convert him. I’d better not do that.

I'll ruin our friendship! Ok, I won't.” This happens all of the time. I've lived in California,

Wyoming, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nevada - a lot of places where the church isn't very

strong. I've never come across anyone in another church that's had fear to invite

someone else to their church. They invite and if someone says "no" they go, "ok." Why

is it that we have that fear? Because of the second voice. You need to recognize it.

So, in reviewing really quickly, the four things that are important to remember about the

adversary's promptings:

It doesn’t mean you are bad

He is usually the second voice

He uses logic

He oftentimes speaks in the first person

Brothers and sisters, it is VERY important that we work to become expert at recognizing

the promptings of the adversary so we can kick them out and never act on them.

Now I want to return to talking about the FIRST VOICE:

In Brazil, my missionaries would say, "President, I'm not sure about this. I thought I was

acting on a prompting, but it was just my own thought.” I would say, "Well, Elder what

do you mean?" “I was walking by and I thought that we should stop by and clap at this

house.” Now, in Brazil we don't ring doorbells and knock, we clap to have permission to

come onto the property. And so he said, "I felt impressed to clap at this house, so we

clapped and nobody answered, or they answered but they were really rude. I said,

"Elders, it doesn’t work out that way." It's not always going to work out the way that you

want. You can't say it didn't work out. You can say that it didn't work out the way you

thought. Abinadi was prompted, he was told to go and give that great speech to King

Noah, and he did. A lot of people could say, "Well, that didn't work out." Was that a

surprise to God? No, it worked out exactly like God knew it would. But, he still needed

that message to be sent. So, just because it doesn't happen - I told them, I said, "It's

not like Paul Harvey. You don't always get to know the rest of the story." And that was

when I found out that 18 and 19 year olds have no idea who Paul Harvey is, so it was a

wasted analogy - and may be on some of you as well. You don't get to know how it

ends, you just have to trust that it's what God wanted. They still have their agency, but

we still need to do what God wants. So, if it doesn't work out like we thought it would,

we shrug our shoulders and move on and smile.

I finally had an experience that I could prove to our missionaries about this. I was

interviewing a woman for baptism. I said, "How did you get to know these

missionaries?" She said, “I love these missionaries, but they're not the reason that I am

getting baptized.” I said, "Well, why are you getting baptized?" She said, “A few months

ago, I was saying a prayer - well, I can't really say I was saying a prayer - I was yelling

at God. And I said, "God I don't think you really exist, if you do, prove it to me. Send me

your angels." Then I heard a clap at the door. I went to the door and peeked out, and it

was two of your missionaries! I said, "No way! I am not answering the door." They

finally left after they clapped for a while. Then I had this thought that came into my mind

(she didn’t know it, but it was a “BING!”) that seemed to say, “Those were my angels!”

Then I said, "No. It couldn't be. There's no way He could have even answered my

prayer that fast. Because I just barely said it and all of the sudden they're there at my

door." Then there was a second BING that came to her. For months it haunted her.

She said that finally, about three months later… two weeks before my interview with

her... she said two missionaries were walking down the street – the two that are going to

baptize me now – they were walking on the other side of the street coming towards me.

I crossed the street and stopped them and before I could say anything I started crying

and I finally said, ‘What do I need to do to join your church?’

I told my missionaries. I said, "I don't know which one of you felt prompted to clap at

that door. When nobody answered and they said, "Well, I guess this it was just my own

thought.” We can't think that way. We need to trust that we did what God wanted, and

know that even if we didn't get to hear the rest of the story here, we did what he wanted

and blessings will happen.

Another message that I taught our missionaries is that even when it doesn't make

sense, we need to act on it. It's really important to act on it - even when it doesn't.

Sister Gunnerson, a wonderful sister missionary in our mission, was on her way to an

appointment one day, and she had a thought that popped into her head (BING!!), “We

need to go see Kelvin”. Kelvin was a young teenager that they were helping try to

reactivate. But then she gets another thought (BING!), "No, Kelvin's at school, and we

have this appointment that's already set on the other side of the area. We've got to go

there.” But, then she remembered what President Dalton had told her to act on the first

prompting and don't listen to the second prompting - even when it didn’t make sense.

So, she told her companion, “We've got to go see Kelvin.” Her companion said, “Kelvin's

at school right now, and we've got this appointment on the other side of the area.” She

said, "We're going to see Kelvin." They clapped and Kelvin’s mom answered the door.

They said, "Is Kelvin here?" "No, he's at school." Sister Gunnerson’s companion said

what any good companion would say…“Told ya so.” But, Sister Gunnerson KNEW why

she was there. She turned around and saw a 4 year old boy out there on the curb. She

went up to that 4 year old boy and she said, “Do you know a family we could take to our

church?” The boy pointed to a house just a few doors down from Kelvin's. She said,

“What’s their name? Do you know them?” She went to that house and clapped. It was

a little more than three weeks later that they baptized the woman that answered her

door, her husband and their two children.

Sister Gunnerson said, “President Dalton, thank you for teaching me to act on that first

prompting, even when it doesn’t make sense. Because you see, God KNEW that she

needed us in her home right then. But, He also knew that we had no idea where she

lived. So, He told us to go to Kelvin’s house and he would do the rest.” Brothers and

sisters, we need to act - even when it doesn't make sense.

Elder Rasband, in that same talk in general conference said, “We must be confident in

our first promptings. Sometimes, we rationalize; we wonder if we are feeling a spiritual

impression or if it is just our own thoughts. When we begin to second-guess, even third-

guess, our feelings – and we all have – we are dismissing the Spirit; we are questioning

divine counsel. First promptings are pure inspiration from heaven. When they confirm

or testify to us, we need to recognize them for what they are and never let them slip

past. So often, it is the Spirit inspiring us to reach out to someone in need, family and

friends in particular.”

Now, these stories are not in the sole custody of missionaries. These things can

happen to all of us, all of the time. I'd like to end with a story from a person from all of

the people who I've known personally in my life, who's closest to God. She's passed

away. It's my mom.

She shared this story with us one time in a Family Home Evening. Now, my mom would

always start her days in her morning prayers saying, "God, trust me with at least one

prompting that day." And I PROMISED Him that I would act on it IMMEDIATELY. Well,

one day in a Family Home Evening she shared with us a story. It happened years

earlier, and she didn't share with us the name of the person. It went like this. She said

that she was folding laundry (now, my mom was always folding laundry) - I'm No. 9 out

of 11 kids - so she was always doing the laundry. She was doing the laundry, and all of

the sudden she had this (BING!!). I need to call so-and-so. So, stopped what she was

doing and she went to make the call and the call went like this:

Other Woman: “Hello” (in a mean, irritated voice)

My Mom: “Hi! This is Sister Dalton. How are you doing?”

Other Woman: (in that same mean voice) “Fine.”

My Mom: “I just felt that I should...”

Other Woman: “Okay” (in that same rude voice)

My Mom: “Is there anything I can do for you?”

Other Woman: “No. Bye!” (in a mean voice – and hangs up on my mom).

My mom shrugged her shoulders and smiled. She knew she did what God wanted and

went back to the laundry. Three days later, a knock came to our door. My mom

answered the door. “Why did you call me?” “Well, I just felt that...” “No. I have to know.

Why did you call me three days ago when you did?” My mom said, “Come in and I'll tell

you.” She came in and sat down and said, “I was doing the laundry and of a sudden I

had the strongest impression that I needed to call you." The woman started to crying

uncontrollably. When she finally came to, she said, “Let me tell YOU why you called

me!! For months, I had been falling into a deeper and deeper state of depression. I

hadn't shared it with anybody. Three days ago, I decided that I was going to end my

life. I got on my knees and said a prayer to God and said that unless a miracle

happens, tonight my sweet husband's coming home to a dead wife. I was in the very

act of doing so, when the phone rang. Without thinking, I grabbed it. And then after I

grabbed it, I said, “Why did I answer the phone?” And that's why I was so rude to you

and I am sorry that I was. But, as soon as I hung up the phone with you, this thought

popped into my head, “That was your miracle.” 'No, it's just a coincidence.' But for

three days, I kept getting that thought. 'That was your miracle. Ask her. That was your

miracle. Go ask her.' So, I had to ask you, and now I know that you Sister Dalton were

my miracle. Thank you for acting on a prompting. You saved my life.

And then my mom said, and this has stuck with me forever, “What would have

happened had I said, ‘I will call her. AFTER I finish doing the laundry?” Brothers and

sisters, we have to act on these promptings, and we have to act on them immediately. I

don't want you thinking that we should test God by saying we're going to do something

stupid unless a miracle happens. That's not what I'm trying to teach you. Because

there will be people that won't act on their promptings - you can count on that. But I am

asking you to act on your promptings.

In conclusion, President Spencer W. Kimball said, “God does notice us, and He

watches over us. But, it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.”

The question is, "Do you want to be part of that army?" Some of you have been

thinking about some BINGS that you've missed in your life. Now you're recognizing

them for the first time. Don't worry about that. Worry about going forward. Commit now

that you're going to act on the BINGS. Some of you had some BINGS during this talk.

Act on those BINGS. That's revelation you're receiving.

I challenge you to in your morning prayers each day to ask God to trust you with a

prompting today, and I promise I'll act on it.

I testify that this is God's work. And that He needs more people to join His army that are

seeking for promptings and are willing to act on them the minute they come. And if you

do that you will change lives for eternity. And every so often, you'll even get to know the

rest of the story.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

https://www.ensign.edu/devotionals/loren-dalton