Troy Family Tales: Witness by the Spirit

Hey Y'all!

It was another great week in Texas, the weather was beautiful! But next week is Elder James's last before going home, and Texas is trying to give him a summer send off. It's going to hit 95 F and 60% humidity this week, and will be SUPER hot for a couple of days. Hopefully, we'll be in a fridge at the time.

We're volunteering twice a week at the Montgomery county food bank, and having a blast there. We mainly work in 'produce recovery' which is where you step into a refrigerated section of the warehouse and sort through produce that's been donated by grocery stores like H-E-B (a Texan store) and Walmart. We throw away thousands of pounds of rotten fruits and veggies every week and save hundreds more. It's interesting to step out of the 35-40 degree fridge into the 90 degree warehouse!

This week a young man named Jack visited us at church with some great questions. At 16, he had the best knowledge of his Bible that I had ever seen, from any member or non-member, bishop, pastor, or preacher. The boy knew his bible forwards and backwards. His first question was about how Joseph could have seen both God the Father and Jesus in a vision, which seemed unique, so I pointed him to the Martyrdom of Steven. After that question though, we were totally unprepared. He had SO MANY questions and concerns. He had read the Pearl of Great Price, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Bible through several times. He had come to the conclusion that the Bible was true but everything else was false. He denounced the idea that the spirit could bear witness of the truth through a feeling.

Finally at the end of our conversation, a great and revelatory truth hit us all. SO MANY people have read the scriptures - Book of Mormon and Bible - and come away without a testimony. The only way we receive a witness is by the spirit. So long as Jack was unwilling to receive an answer from the spirit, it would not come.

We challenged him to listen to the talk 'blueprint of Christ's church' by Tad R Callister, and hope to see him again someday! I think President Mortensen would like to meet this extraordinary boy.

Here are a few pics of us with a member's 'collection', and my exchange with Elder Byrd. I know that the haircut is terrible, but it was free from a member, so I'm grateful.

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Derek Troy