The Power of Testimony...Words of the Apostles

   General Conference is coming up in the next two weeks and it will be my first general conference I get to watch as a missionary. I'm pretty excited for it, especially when I remember how inspired and uplifted I feel after watching and listening to our modern apostles speak and testify of the gospel and the blessing it is to us in our lives. That desire to become better and to have the Spirit with me is always expected. Who would have thought that inspired men, apostles of God, sharing their testimony could have so much power to strengthen my own.
   That is and has been the purpose of the apostles and prophets since the beginning of the world. Prophets were called by God to share the gospel and testify of Christ. When Christ came to the earth and ordained the original twelve apostles they also had the same purpose to share the gospel and testify of Christ.



Christ Ordaining the Original Twelve Apostles

    In my personal study I have been doing a little research on the New Testament in the Bible. I was studying just to see why it was written and why it was compiled the way it was. So, in the beginning of the New Testament there are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
   Matthew and John were apostles chosen by Christ to help lead His Church and spread His Gospel. These men were a part of Christ's ministry, they were eyewitnesses to what Christ had done and shared what they had seen through conversing with others and recording their words. Most importantly they testified that what they had seen, Christ's ministry, had truly happened and that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

   Mark and Luke on the other hand were not apostles. For a long time I thought that kind of diminished the worth of their words, but I soon realized it magnified their worth instead of the former. They had such a strong belief in the gospel that they chose to follow the apostles and write their own testimonies, because even though they weren't chosen apostles from Christ they were still changed by His gospel.



The Current Twelve Apostles



   During general conference we get to hear from Christ's chosen apostles and let their words enter into our hearts and let the gospel change us just like it did for Mark and Luke. I love hearing Christ speak through his prophets and apostles, and I hope everyone takes the opportunity to listen and learn of Him.