Learning To Teach By The Spirit...

I had a life changing experience yesterday.

As missionaries, we work each and everyday to improve our ability to teach by the Spirit.  In all truth and actuality, we are not the ones that carry the truth of our message; it's the Spirit which does the teaching.  Though we're young and weak in the eyes of the world, the Lord has a way of working with the weak things of the world and making them strong.  A modern day prophet, Ezra Taft Benson, gave the following counsel:

"The Spirit is the most important single element in this work.  With the Spirit magnifying your call, you can work miracles for the Lord in the mission field.  Without the Spirit, you will never succeed, regardless of your talent and ability" (Ezra Taft Benson, seminar for new mission presidents, 25 June 1986).

This is what we were working on yesterday; our ability to teach by the Spirit.  In a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith (D&C 11:21), the Lord said:

21Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men.

All of our focus as official representatives of Jesus Christ needs to be on the Holy Ghost and our friends whom we are teaching.  As we practiced our ability to teach the Gospel, the Holy Ghost taught me what it is that I need to do to allow Him the opportunity to teach.  I need to use the scriptures when teaching.  I need to pray for the Spirit to be present.  I need to share my testimony of the truths we are teaching.  I need to share my own personal experiences.  However, the most important truth the Spirit taught me is to share my love for the Lord and for those whom I am blessed to share these truths with.

I love my Savior.  He is the reason I have joy.  It is only through Him that I can find fulfillment in this life and the life to come.  As King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon once said (Mosiah 2:21-22):

21I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
22And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

Though I am imperfect and unworthy to represent my Savior, He has given me life.  He has given me freedom.  He has given me hope and direction.  He is my all, my everything, and though I can never repay Him for the Sacrifice He's given to me, I will give Him my heart and will, for that is all he requires of me.