Hey everyone! Things in California are going great. We have been doing a lot of lessons both over zoom and in people's houses. I had a crazy experience on the plane ride to California! I sat down next to this guy who is my age or maybe a year older and we started to talk. He had noticed the name tag so we talked about Jesus and he told me some crazy experiences that he had had with prayer while he was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He told me about how he fell away from the church, instead choosing to follow God on his own. He did not have a strong enough testimony of the Book of Mormon or of Joseph Smith to stay in the church after the words of a few of the other members, so he fell away. This experience really helped me refocus what is important. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and it was translated by the first of the latter-day prophets: Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith said, "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." (Book of Mormon, Introduction Page) I know that to be true. If we have a testimony of the Book of Mormon then everything else follows. If the Book of Mormon is true then Joseph Smith is as a prophet called of God to restore the fullness of the gospel and restore God's church and priesthood here on the earth, and Jesus is the Christ, our savior and redeemer.

Love, Elder Lawrence