#7 #BecauseofHim

#Because of Him

While watching Flood the Earth by Elder Bednar, I was reminded of the remarkable impact that church media has had on my life. I wanted to recount some of the video that have had the most profound impact on me and share them and their special meaning. I will cover videos such as, "Have you done any good in the world today", "Because of Him", "Meet the Mormons."

The Mormon message of President Thoman S. Monson, "Have you done any good in the world today" was the first contact I had with the church. I was a waiter at a restaurant in Virginia when I met two young Mormon men. On my first day of work, I walked over to a conversation of co-workers and one young man said, "Hi, I'm
Zack and I'm a mormon". I smiled and was quiet
as I was embarrassed to not know what a Mormon was. Those two young men were different, always doing service for others. When I asked one of the men why he helped others so much he didn't miss a beat. He pulled up this video and testified of the gospel.

The second video I wanted to share was the "Because of Him" Easter video. It was released a couple months into my mission in Portugal, Lisbon. I was serving in Portimão, a small beach side town that was very strong when the church entered Portugal 10 years ago but was struggling. We opened the church up for tours and showed this video at the end with an invitation to attend church. The spirit was so strong, it brought people to tears. We were teaching a Russian couple at the time, we showed them this video and then invited them to be baptized after, they were baptized on Christmas day that year.

The movie, "Meet the Mormons" was released at the end of my mission and we were able to watch it for a "Popcorn Night" with members. It came at the best time. The last story about the convert whose son went on a mission touched my heart the most. It made me look forward to coming home and being sealed to my family. It also reminded me of why I was on a mission, to see lives changed forever from the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and their savior. The gospel changed my life and I was there to be God's tool to spread the gospel.

If you haven't watched these videos in a while, watch them and remember the impact they had.