My Title of Liberty . . .: The final letter home...

This is the last email for me!

This week has been incredible. We had so many miracles. On Thursday we had dinner with a family and they invited Claudia, our investigator over to eat with us. We taught about the Book of Mormon and what it meant to us and then we marked our favorite scriptures in it. Claudia asked what the one about prayer was. Moroni 10:3-5. I read it and talked about the promise and what we have to do to obtain that promise. I had a flash back to a previous lesson we had almost 2 years ago where I promised a 14 year old girl she would get an answer to her prayer that night if she prayed. The 14 year old girl got an answer so why couldn't Claudia? I looked at her dead in the eye and said ‘I promise you if you read the Book of Mormon tonight and you ask God if it’s true, you will get an answer tonight.’ The spirit was strong and it was incredible. That night she prayed and she got an answer. She knows it’s true.

Another cool experience was when we went to another investigator’s house named Gil and he is about 85 years old. We stopped by Saturday just to say goodbye and we sang ‘I Believe in Christ’ while I played it on the guitar. He started to cry uncontrollably, and honestly I messed up so much but he was feeling the spirit strong. He asked if he could come to church the next day so he came and stayed for all 3 hours. He said he felt a vibration of change in his heart.

Heather Stark bore her testimony at the Temple Music Devotional last night and man was that amazing! She has such a strong testimony and she’s only been a member for a couple months. Their family is amazing, and they are going to do amazing things.

These past 2 years have been the best. It goes by so quick. If I think about my first day in California until now it blows my mind. I went back and I read what my brother Matthew wrote in his last email on his mission and I feel the same way. The quote he shared I want to share too. It’s from a talk by Elder Holland called The First Great Commandment.

“What I need, Peter, are disciples – and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who truly loves me, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do.

Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of the Almighty God, and it is to change the world. So, Peter, for the second and presumably last time, I am asking you to leave all this and go to teach and testify, labor and serve loyally until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.”

I stand with my brother and his testimony that Christ needs Disciples, and he needs them forever. I don’t know everything but I know enough that I can be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. If I can remember what I’ve learned and keep striving to become better. That is being a disciple of Christ. He wants us to love Him and love others as He would. He wants us to forgive one another. He wants us to become the best person we can be. That is my testimony.

Elder Crump