December 30th - 2013- A Year of Faith, Enduring to the End and Miracles

My beloved family and friends,

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you all are contemplating on this 2013 that is coming to an end to see the miracles the Lord worked in your lives this year and the lessons that were learned from both choosing the right and choosing the wrong.

I can easily say that 2013 has been the most faith proving and testimony building year of the past 20 years of my life.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned on my mission these past 20 months is that the Lord has a grand plan of salvation for the few that choose to follow and that the enemy of all righteousness has a great plan of destruction. I read this passaage in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 9: 28-29.

 

28 O that cunning ^aplan of the evil one! O the ^bvainness, and the frailties, and the ^cfoolishness of men! When they are ^dlearned they think they are ^ewise, and they ^fhearken not unto the ^gcounsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their ^hwisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.

 29 But to be ^alearned is good if they ^bhearken unto the ^ccounsels of God.

 

As a representative of Jesus Christ I challenge all who read this to choose the plan of salvation, give counsel to the Spirit and words of God. I learned this past week that the natural man only understands and believes the things he sees, but the follower of Christ relies more on the Lord and the Holy Ghost because they are all knowing and are all powerful. I also had my testimony strengthened that the phrase from Ulysses S. Soares from the October general conference ``Only the humble can recognize answers to prayers´´ is 100% true.

Missionary work is the Lord´s work and the work of salvation, Elder Ramos and I are doing great and are learning more than one can imagine of the Savior´s love and miraculous power. Pray for missionary opportunites every day amd receive!

 

I love you, thank you for your prayers, faith, emails, cards, packages and support this year of 2013.

 

Have a safe and happy New Year!!!

Sorria sempre :)

 

Com amor,

 

Elder Jonathan Jared Hokanson

 

PS- Attached is a photo of Elder Ramos and I after our prized zone´s temple sesssion with President and Sister Monteiro because we won the ``gincana´´ of the Brasil Curitiba mission.