Called to Serve!

"Called to serve Him, heav'nly King of glory, Chosen e'er to witness for his name..."

As missionaries we are called to serve. Literally. Along side sharing the message of the restored Gospel, we serve our fellow men. We believe that as we are serving others we are in the service of our God. (Mosiah 2:17 from the Book of Mormon) Service is what the Savior would do. He was the perfect example of helping out other people. As representatives and disciples of Christ we try to follow him in all things, including service. Part of our regular routine as missionaries is to serve others and look for service opportunities. It's been amazing to be able to lift up those who stand in need.

 I think I speak for everyone when I say that service is just awesome! I feel like the Grinch off of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" when his heart swells three sizes. It just makes you feel good helping out others. One time where we were able to serve as missionaries was after Hurricane Sandy hit New York. Thousands of members and missionaries threw on the Mormon Helping Hands yellow vests (you'll know them when you see them... they are quite bright) and went to serve!

These were some of my favorite memories on the mission. There were thousands of people who were left with nothing and being able to even help them out a little was priceless. I know that service draws us closer to our Heavenly Father. If you would like to learn more about why missionaries and the church are so service oriented you can check out the "Meet Missionaries" tab or ask us on the "Discussion" tab!

Around the World

As part of "missionary life", we believe in teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all people. ALL PEOPLE! Many people as they are asked about what they know about missionaries usually touch on the fact that we go out into the jungles in foreign lands to help and teach people. This is very accurate! Some are called to serve in the jungles of Brazil and other countries. Others to the jungle of Manhattan like us! :) All over the world we are sent to share the message of Jesus Christ and the Restored Gospel. Along with that we are to teach the Gospel to these people in their native languages.

"For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language..." D&C 90:11

You don't necessarily need to be called to serve across the world to teach someone in their native language though. For example, I, Elder Potter, was called to teach in Portuguese here in New York City. A little bit strange, I know. But there are people here that need to receive the truth... in Portuguese! As missionaries, we study our languages everyday for about an hour. We also try to take every opportunity to speak in these languages. Some times it's pretty tough. I mean, we are learning completely new languages! The idea and reason of why we go to such lengths to learn these languages and to share the Gospel is because Heavenly Father loves ALL his children. For this reason we teach to all people and all languages. English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, ASL, Italian, Tongan, Korean, Russian, Japanese, German, French, etc. We invite all to come unto Christ and to enjoy the blessings of the Atonement (Christ's sacrifice for our sins). We have noticed that many of the viewers of our blog are not from the United States or places where English is the most common language. We hope the translator feature helps you out in reading our posts. You are all amazing for taking the time to learn more about Christ through this blog!

We invite all who are interested in learning more to check out the "Meet Missionaries!" tab above and amazing missionaries, in your own country and/or language, will come to your home and teach you more! 

Missionary Life (:

We hope that everyone has had a very Merry Christmas! And... it has been a while since we have put up a post, and to let you have a little insight into why, we wanted to put up a little information about what missionary life is like... because whether you are Mormon or not, most people we have talked to have wondered just what exactly it is that missionaries do. We hope that anything we post about this will help you see that it's not just a walk in the park, even though it is the best two years (:

Everything we do as missionaries brings us closer to Christ, as we try to help others accomplish the same thing. We hope you will see a little more light each day, just like we do!

The best way that we can find light is through the scriptures, and just so you know, ever missionary spends two hours every day (from 8am to 10am) studying about the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Proverbs 119:105- Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Try to find a way to let God's light into your life more today!