Zanesville

Well hello family! 

So it has been another great week here in the Ohio. It is pretty awesome here! It has rained a lot which is AWESOME! I love the rain. Also we were chased by a few dogs but that is Ohio for ya! We are consistently increasing the missionary work here in Zanesville. It has been so much fun to start from the very bottom! I can still remember walking into our apartment with nothing. I went upstairs to pray for direction cause believe you me I needed it! I remember thinking where do we even begin? Well I picked up the phone and called the mission office to get the assistants numbers and it went from there. It just 2 short weeks the Lord has blessed us with investigators to teach and people to see. It is usually not till my weekly email to the family and the mission president that I realize the grandeur of the blessings the Lord has blessed me with each week. 

So here is the gospel insight of the day. So I was studying the good ole' topic of prayer and boy did I learn a lot! I swear as a missionary the Lord gives a little more information then when you are not a missionary! So I was doing all that study stuff and I was reading in True to the Faith where it talks about praying with sincerity. Well I decide to look up what sincerity means in the dictionary. (By the way I have a dictionary cause it is pretty much impossible to read Jesus the Christ without a dictionary) I have been told all my life that sincerity is being passionate or having a great desire. Well sincerity means to not act in hypocrisy. Which I thought was interesting. How can I pray in hypocrisy? Well I decided to look up the word hypocrisy which I know means saying something and doing the opposite. Well another definition is to pretend to believe in something when we truly don't. That was the answer to my question. When I pray am I truly believing that the Lord hears me? Do I truly believe I will receive an answer? And when my investigators pray do they truly believe in the Book of Mormon? You must believe! It all starts out with a belief! If you have no belief while you are praying why are you praying? It reminds me of Elder Hollland's last general conference talk. As Christ said, "All things are possible to those that believe."  The road to a testimony is belief. But that is not where the road ends. A testimony is just the beginning. We want to be converted. A testimony is different then a conversion. A testimony is believing; conversion is becoming. I can believe all I want and have a testimony of this gospel. BUT if I do not act upon this testimony and utilize the Atonement to become more like our Savior, the testimony is wasted. We need to act! The doctrine of Christ is not a passive portal to heaven. It is an active adventure to eternal life. Christ let us know this when he told us, that all that say Lord, Lord will not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. But those that do the will of the Father will enter into the kingdom of Heaven. If we are truly aligning our will with God's will we will become better. We will become strong.We will become disciples of Jesus Christ. 

I love hearing from each and everyone of you. Sorry that I don't get back to y'all in a timely manner! It is pretty crazy here in Ohio! I promise that I am going to do better! Your letters and emails no matter how big or small help me. But what truly uplifts me even more is your prayers. The power of prayer is grand and unique. So thank you for all the prayers on my behalf. They are felt.

Well family you are pretty awesome! Go do some missionary work! Go invite a friend to church, or invite a friend to go on mormon.org.

Love,

Elder Baird