Jeff, Let Your Savior Speak To You

     I don't have a ton to say about Thanksgiving week, but I had a fantastic experience that I want to tell you guys about. I did get permission from my mission president to get lunch with my family, so that was cool to see them for an hour. It also was weird, all 3 of my brothers look very noticeably different than they did 9 months ago and I don't like it, I now understand why my parents kept telling me to stop growing up. 

     If you guys recall I've been feeling really spiritually powerful recently and even felt so ambitious as to wanting to essentially curse somebody and that's because of what our mission president told us recently. He said to us that he feels like there's going to be a lot of people who when they die will realize the true power of the priesthood and that they'll realize that they didn't use it. He told us to use the priesthood and the keys that we've been given for our area. We've been called to act in the place of the Savior in our areas; so use the power that he's given to you. 

     One night this last week I felt prompted to go to the house of somebody who was recently baptized. When we got there we had a great lesson and then at the end the mom asked if we could give her son a priesthood blessing because he had just been diagnosed with a muscle condition. I don't remember the name of the disease, but she wasn't sure if he was going to be able to survive. So I put my hands on his head and words starting coming to my mind. During a priesthood blessing these are never my own words, they're the Savior's, speaking through me. As part of the blessing I got to tell him that he would be able to live a normal life and that through his faith the Savior could heal him, which uh, the disease doesn't have a treatment. So that'll be interesting to see what happens there, but I know that those are the words that the Savior had for him and I know that because of a blessing I gave earlier that day. 

      Earlier in the day we were talking to Jeff and he had to go so we were only talking for about 10 minutes, but during those 10 minutes I could feel a burning desire from the Savior to speak to one of his sons. So I asked Jeff if he would like a priesthood blessing and he said that he was good and that a closing prayer would be fine. You're not really supposed to do what I did next because you're not supposed to pressure someone into accepting a priesthood blessing, but I was filled with this burning desire from the Savior so I said to Jeff, "Jeff, your Savior wants to speak to you, let him." After I said this Jeff agreed to let me give him a blessing. I've now given 5 blessings and each time I've had words come to my mind and then I convey the message from the Savior to the person receiving the blessing. All of them except this one. When I put my hands on Jeff's head and then started to give the blessing, I very quickly was no longer giving the blessing. I could feel my mouth moving and I could hear the words, but I felt like I was in the position of my companion. With my hands on Jeff's head listening to somebody else give the blessing and that's because that's exactly what happened. I did not give that blessing. I did nothing other than provide a means for Jeff's Savior to speak to him and to speak to him individually. There's so many things that were said during the blessing that was just oh so awesome. I'm so grateful for being able to have that experience and it reminded me that what President Johnson said is true. As a missionary I've been given the keys over the Clinton West Stake to act and to minister to them in place of the Savior. 

       I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love that I'm able to get to know him personally through the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is true, Jesus Christ truly died for my sins, and I have the privilege of telling everybody about this everyday. 

          Being a missionary is so cool, Elder Blacker