"Before Kings and Magistrates!"

"And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, take no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: "For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say." (Luke 12:11-12)

Recently we were invited to go with some of our missionaries here locally in the Salvador area along with some leaders of our Church and some missionaries from the Salvador South Mission to a special city council meeting with the "magistrate"or city councilman from Salvador to tell about our Church. This meeting was put together to help celebrate 40 years of our Church being in the state of Bahia.

It was a marvelous experience! Our missionaries were very impressed to be hosted in such an historic building in the heart of Old Town Salvador (the Pelourhino) and with such important city leaders.

The magistrate started the meeting out with quite a stirring sermon.(He is also a preacher in his Church.) I had to smile at the questioning look some of our missionaries gave me as to whether they should also shout,"amen"along with others in the congregation during parts of his sermon:)
The people here don't seem to worry nearly as much about the separation of Church and State as we do in the USA.

Several local leaders from our Church spoke about some of our beliefs and programs. It was very interesting to observe that although the talks about some of the programs that our Church has were very commendable there was a special power and witness that came when the speaker testified of the Restoration of the Gospel and the Doctrine of Christ.The attention of the magistrate was fixed on the speaker who testified of these things.

This was a reminder to me that the Holy Ghost truly is commissioned to testify not only of "the truth of all things"(Moroni 10:5) but especially of the truth of some very specific things. I have seen time and time again that when we testify of these basic truths there is a palpable witness that attends this testimony as compared to other things we may share about our Church and its beliefs.
When we bear testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ and His Restored Church we in essence enlarge the window of opportunity for the Holy Ghost to enter in and do His job. I sometimes wonder how often He patiently waits for us to do our part so that He can do His!

"An important role of the Holy Ghost is to witness that God lives; that Jesus Christ His Son is our Savior and redeemer; that His gospel is the plan of salvation and the way to eternal life; and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His church, possessing authority to preach the gospel and administer the saving ordinances thereof, which give vitality, strength, and power to the Church." (Marion G. Romney, Conference Talk April 1974)

I was asked to direct our missionaries from both missions in singing, Called To Serve. We only had a few minutes before the meeting began to practice together, but the magistrate was clearly touched by the great Spirit they brought to the meeting. (See video below)

What a sweet blessing it was to be able to bear witness of the great truths that we have come to know by the unspeakable power of the Holy Ghost to the good people of Salvador and this Magistrate and some of his colleagues.

After the meeting he came up to our sister missionary who did the solo in our song and was so excited to meet her because his daughter had actually met her when she attended an English class at our chapel. She told her father that she was so surprised that a "missionary" would be so full of life and enthusiasm as she expected them to be very serious and somber. The sister missionary later told us that his daughter was very interested in our Church and they were going to be meeting with her.

Sister Chandler from Idaho on the left who sang our solo

What a wonderful thing it was to have had this great experience with some of our missionaries and to have the Holy Ghost bear witness of the most important eternal truths we can know in both time and eternity.

With President and Sister Bangerter from Highland,Utah who are serving in the Salvador South Mission next to us

Until next time - Onward, ever onward.

Link to view video of the song:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7yxg48ki8afs4td/IMG_6209.m4v?dl=0