Holy War

Dear mom and everyone else,

first no I haven't met the dowings yet. but Ill keep an eye out.

So a lot of you are probably thinking that in the subject line I am referring to the BYU-UTAH game coming up in a few weeks. While I have a deep rooted passion for sports and the byu utah rivalry, I am using the Holy War to refer to a different rivalry.

I have always loved rivalries. The feel. the passion. the tension. The exhilaration of your team winning and the crushing blow of your team losing. One thing that I always try to do is not let a loss in a rivalry effect me to much. Because let's face it if BYU loses it's not really the end of the world.

The rivalry I'm talking about has been around since before the world. The rivalry between our enemy, Satan and our biggest ally, Jesus Christ. I have never seen the thin line of choice as clear as I did the other night with one of our investigators. He knows that the gospel is true and the the book of mormon is true. He knows it and he has told us. He just is very scared to go to church because he is afraid that he will see a girl that he dated a few years ago. He is sixteen and this huge black kid. he is taller than me. I have only met with him a few times but I feel like I love him like my brother.

I've seen the forces of Christ mounting behind him from the missionaries. But at the same time he has the forces of Satan mounting against him to bring him down. I felt like there were two huge armies facing one another ready to fight with everything and he was right In the middle of it. I could see that seen clear as day. I knew that he had a choice to make. I felt that if he went to church this week he would be alright and love the church and make the right choice of eternal life. but if he didn't go to church he would stray and be destroyed by the opposing side. I could see it.

Needless to say that by halfway through sacrament meeting and not having seen him come in I was very disappointed and resigned to take a loss. I felt like one of my best friends just chose the the wrong side. Then all of the sudden Luis walked through the door. I could feel the spirit so strong and I knew that he could feel it too. It was amazing. The closing hymn was the Spirit of God and I got to play the piano for it. The feeling there was amazing. I can't describe it but I know that in this case, in this game, in this battle, Jesus Christ just won.

The only thing I can ask in this email, and I ask it to the person who is reading it, is never be the reason someone is scared to go to church. If you think you have hurt someone, apologize. If you have been wronged by someone, forgive them and move on. I am sorry to anyone that I have wronged and I ask for your forgiveness. If you are reading this, know that I love you and never want to hurt you.

Sincerely,

Elder Neiswender