The spirit of Joseph of Arimathæa

Hello!

Sorry I didn't write last week. I ran out of time emailing. But now I am here to tell you what happened. 

We had an experience with this guy who wasn't very interested in learning about our church, he just wanted to argue with us. He said that he had some questions and the first thing that he said was the difference between his beliefs and ours was that Mormons don't give any divinity to Jesus Christ. Right off the bat, I wanted to smack him and I knew that this wasn't going to go over well. We spent the whole time talking about the trinity vs the godhead. It really didn't get anyone anywhere. It was pretty much bible bashing. We tried our best to defend our faith and to tell him what we believe, but he was very much set in his ways. We tried to say that we go off of what the spirit has testified to us is true, but he then said that the spirit isn't a credible source because it could be a whole number of things that make us "feel" that way. I couldn't believe that he was discounting the spirit! He just denounced a third part of what he was defending by saying it isn't credible. He was also denouncing another third part, Jesus Christ, by saying that because Jesus Christ is the one who tells us that we should go by the spirit (John 14:27)! What was so funny to me was that at the very end he said to us, "I tell you this because I love you, but I believe that you need to accept Jesus Christ and repent of your sins." I was very confused by this and told him that I had done so, but he said because I haven't accepted who Jesus Christ is because I don't understand who he truly is. I just told him that we are going to agree to disagree and we left. I am very lucky that the spirit is able to sit with me in situations like that and be able to tell me, "you know the truth!" 

We had a really good zone meeting this week. We talked about the spirit of Joseph of Arimathæa. Joseph of Arimathæa took the body of Christ and put him in a tomb. It says in Mark 15:43 that he "craved the body of Jesus." I love how that is says that he craved Jesus. It got me thinking, do we crave Jesus Christ? Do we crave the atonement and its healing abilities? Do we then want that for others? I really enjoyed that zone meeting and the discussion from that came for the talk about the spirit of Joseph of Arimathæa. I really want to have that in my life and in this work. 

Thank you, I love you!

Elder Hayden Cannon