Let It Rain!

I was soaked to the bone in about 30 seconds!  The rain-water
rinse worked very well.  If you don't get a layer of dirt off with
soap it just get's worse and worse, that's why we wash our car
in the rain.  It's much easier than dragging out a hose.

Somehow, even Tonga knows it's conference weekend.  It started raining late Friday night and it's been raining hard since.  The weather forecast says that it's supposed to rain through Monday with 2+" each day.  I would say let's go heavy on the + side for now.

I also took advantage of the heavy rain this morning (Saturday) to soap up the car and get that soft rain-water rinse.  It's difficult to tell how hard it is raining from a still photo but you may have noted that the photographer is under the back porch awning where it is still dry (in her defense, she was doing the laundry).  This is one of the few times I do any physical labor and she is always there helping too.

My mind has been on conference all week.  In Tonga, we have our normal Sunday meeting  schedule this weekend and they just record the sessions this weekend.  Then we have our general conference next weekend when the recordings are played for all to see and hear.  We're antsy to hear them so we'll be getting up to start listening to the Saturday sessions at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.  Then we'll try to do the same on Monday for the Sunday sessions.  Any that get interrupted or missed we'll download and listen as soon as we can.  Then next Saturday and Sunday we get a repeat.


For the rest of this week's blog I offer you my humble testimony in hopes that it may touch someone and inspire them to keep trying.  This is not easy for me to do but it is offered to any who may read it in a spirit of sincerity and love.


I'm a pretty simple and average guy with no special position of authority in the Church but I love how my testimony can be just as strong as the Prophets based on my ability to live by it's principles of faith and repentance.  I feel so blessed to have received such a sure witness in my life and although it is not through any heavenly manifestation, I do know as surely as I know anything in this mortal life, that Jesus Christ is my Savior.  He rescued me from the fall of Adam Eve and that through His willing and selfless sacrifice I am redeemed and will be resurrected.  Exaltation and Eternal life in God's presence however, comes as a result of our own actions.  I know that I have a loving Father-in-Heaven and that I am created in His image.  I know that I choose to go through the trials of this life so that I could learn how to use the agency I have been given to make good choices and surrender my rebellious will and nature as a man to the will of my loving Father.

I feel so blessed to have been born to such good parents who have taught me right from wrong throughout their lives and have always been good examples in the way they lived their lives.  I have always felt of their love for the Savior and for me.  I wish that I could have been a better example throughout my life but I do hope that my children and grandchildren (step and blood) feel of my testimony now and that they know how much I love the Savior and them.  I have some wonderful siblings and extended family and although several of us have had our own challenges in life, they are wonderful people who have also always supported me and shown me love.

Many of my extended family and close friends are not all members of the Church but I hope that any who read this feel of my conviction that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth.  Becky and I are serving a mission not because we thought this would be some exotic vacation but rather because it is the thing that Christ expects of us.  He teaches us and expects us to love serve our fellowmen.  It is very hard to serve so far away and for so long apart from those we love so dearly but we want to show our testimony through our actions as well and we know they too will be blessed.  I have been blessed so much in my life as a result of my parents service as missionaries.

I pray that those of you who may feel like they are on the outside looking in do not feel judged by me but rather encouraged to find out for yourself.  I am where I am in my life in part because of a challenge issued to me but my grandma Kapp as she neared the end of her life.  She begged me to commit to giving the Gospel one more honest chance.  To really put it to the test in my life through faith, study, and prayer.  I am so thankful for her loving challenge!

I do not ask you to take my word for it but I do offer that the same testimony and conviction that I have received is possible through your own faith, study, and prayer.  The Spirit will testify to each of us in ways much deeper than our five senses if we are sincere.  Of that I am a living example even though I know I still have a long way to go.

No one inside the church is perfect or free from sin so it hard for me to understand why some people think that because members of the Church aren't perfect we are somehow then hypocrites.  I encourage you to put your trust in God, not man and realize that we can all be better tomorrow than we were today.  We all fall short in one way or another.

God loves us and will bless us beyond what we deserve if we take Him at his word.  Of this I sincerely testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.