The Atonement

Wow. I don't even know how to express my thoughts from this week.

Since I became an STL this week I had the opportunity to go to missionary leadership counsel on Tuesday. This meeting changed the way I look at missionary work.

The entire meeting was focused on the Atonement. The Spirit was strong and at any given moment you could look around the room and see tears in somebody's eyes.

I've been reflecting on it a lot this week. And I learned something.

I learned that the church wasn't restored so that we could have a Prophet, the church wasn't restored so we could read the Book of Mormon, the church wasn't restored so we could go to the "true church."

The church was restored so that we, through the priesthood, could have access to the Atonement.

The Atonement means so much to so many different people through the world, but for me it means we can change. It means that each of us have the opportunity to become better and to become stronger. Word's can't express exactly how I feel about it, and I'm sure I'm doing a terrible job of explaining through text what the Atonement means to me, but I just want all of you reading this to know that I know the Atonement is real.

I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can find peace. Lasting peace. The kind of peace that can only come through knowing there is something bigger than ourselves that we are a part of. The kind of peace that comes from knowing there is a plan that was created by the best planner that ever planned.

The kind of peace that can only be found by accessing heaven.

So I know that the Atonement is real. I know that it works. I know that no matter how far we think we are, how many mistakes we think we've made, or how impossible it looks to come back, He is always there with His had outstretched to pull us to shore.

And that's why I'm here. That's why I've left my family for eighteen months to move across the country to a people I've never met. Because I know the Atonement is the best thing anyone can ever use in their lives, and I want others to feel that same joy too.

So come, find out more.