Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God

Dear Family,

Thank you for your letters. I'm glad that so many of you enjoyed
conference and watched all of the sessions. We are the only church
that believes God speaks to us again by way of prophets. It's
significant because we can understand exactly what we are supposed to
do in the next 6 months on a personal level. The church continues to
be strong. We are growing remarkably. The field is white already to
harvest. All of this because a 14 year old saw God.

One of the greatest Canadian Saints was Hugh B. Brown. He gives a
fiery talk called Profile of a Prophet. Look it up, it's a great talk.
It is essentially Hugh B. Brown proving the Joseph Smith was indeed a
prophet and that the church of God has been restored. My favourite
line from the whole thing is when he is practically yelling "I SUBMIT
TO YOU THAT JOSEPH SMITH WAS A PROPHET OF GOD!" We could look at many
aspects of Joseph's life and conclude "welp he said this, must not be
a prophet." That's not really how it works. It comes down to the Book
of Mormon. Perhaps I have told this story before, but this experience
is how I gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It is still a good
idea to read the book and pray about it. As Elder Anderson said "When
was the last time you read the Book of Mormon?"

In the middle of February on a cold Canadian night in downtown Halifax
(Eastern Cole Harbour) Elder Henderson and I were knocking doors.
After not much success (there's never really much success in tracting)
we came to one door that smelt of marijuana and cigarettes. I knocked
on the door and a man came out trying to brush us off. Being
persistent I tried to explain to him what our purpose was, really why
we were knocking on his door. I explained the Book of Mormon and
Joseph Smith and asked him if he had ever heard of or read the Book of
Mormon. He replied that the book was garbage, that we should throw it
in the trash, stop wasting our time, and look for some actual facts in
life. Normally I don't pursue these people who have read unfavorable
material regarding the church, but this time was different. I took a
deep breath of cold air, squared my shoulders, looked him in the eye
and bore the most ferocious testimony I could muster: "This book is
not garbage, it is its own evidence, it is the word of God, and you
will never even begin to understand that until you have read it and
asked God if it is his word!" He brushed us off and closed the door.
Later when we were getting into the car I felt an overwhelming sense
of being alive, warm, and peaceful. It was that moment that I knew the
Book of Mormon was true. I still know that it's true. It is the word
of God.

I felt impressed to share that story with you again. This previous
week was an excellent week. We had a few appointments fall through and
different things happening in the members' lives so they couldn't come
to lessons, but nevertheless we had a good week. We found four new
investigators. Missionary work is a lot like an escalator. You always
have to be finding when you're not teaching. The first was Rob. Rob we
met knocking (knocking works on a occasion) around a referral we got
from former investigator we met. He is pentacostal but has a hard time
believing in God. He thought the First Vision was powerful. To quote
him "So some guy actually saw God?" What more evidence of God could
anyone want? He's reading the Book of Mormon and we will follow-up in
a few days.

The next investigator is Colleen. Colleen was actually a referral from
Helen. She is her daughter who lives on the other side of town.
Colleen is also pentecostal. There are so many pentecostal people
around here good gravy. Much of our first lessons are just an
explanation of the restoration and then testifying of it. She
explained that we had 10 minutes to share with her what she believed
before she had to pick up her kids from hockey and so we had to move
through that lesson. The Spirit was strong and she's going to read the
Book of Mormon.

Then the highlight of the week was finding Brittany. Elder Beacham and
I actually street contacted her about two weeks ago. We had a bit more
time to explain the restoration but she kept on bringing up in the
first 20 minutes "So what do you guys actually believe?" Gloves came
off and we got to the Book of Mormon and the first vision. Then we
spent the rest of the 40 minute lesson answering her questions using
the Book of Mormon. Everything from the Fall to the trials we face and
why bad things happen to innocent people. Powerful first lesson. We
invited her to be baptized on November 21. She is married, has a
house, a job, and a husband that works in the oil rigs off the coast.
#kingdombuilder

Our other investigators are coming along. Helen unfortunately dropped
us. We had an allstar lesson with her on Wednesday and she was giving
up smoking and it was just phenomenal. Then Thursday morning we were
supposed to teach her but she texted us with all of these concerns
about the church and how she doesn't want to quit smoking and on and
on and on. GAH. So she dropped us, told us that we shouldn't come by
anymore and that she wants nothing to do with our religion. Such a
bummer because she was two weeks away from being baptized.

Darren is making an effort to quit smoking. He came to 3 of the
sessions and also to the priesthood session. He really enjoyed it.
Some of the talks were definitely for him. He thought the whole event
was just incredible. It's good for the members and investigators here
to see that we really are a worldwide church. Donna also came and
loved it. She said that she knows Thomas S. Monson is a prophet.
Conference was the best.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire

Bruce R. McConkie wrote the previous intro to the Book of Mormon, but
in terms of the new one I'm not sure.

Question of the week (More of like a search): Find in the Book of
Mormon where it mentions that the complete Book of Mormon has a
creation of the world account. The race is on!