Spiritual Gifts . . .

Dear Brethren,

I have to keep it short today, but I am so grateful for all of you, and especially for our loving Heavenly Father and for our Lord Jesus Christ. Their continual love and support is all that can keeps me going sometimes, and I know that they are playing the same roles in your lives. I hope all of you have opened your eyes to their continual blessings in your individual lives--even just a little bit. I cannot say I even nearly comprehend all of the blessings that they have given me, but I am grateful for all of those blessings that I do see. This is such a wonderful plan that we are living, and it truly was designed by our loving Father who is in Heaven. I hope all of you are keeping an eye out for the brothers and sisters that you promised you would find, and share the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ with. Look for them.
I also hope you have all been able to obtain your copies of the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History set. Watch the John Tanner Movie, and also the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie. Watch them as a family--all immediate, extended, and friend families. They will life your testimony if you hearken unto the Spirit of God as He testifies of the truthfulness of those events. It is powerful. Open up your hearts, and listen.
My mind has been brought to the reflection of a topic today, and I received some interesting insight in my studies today. All of us have been given gifts by our Heavenly Father, and many of those are referred to as "Gifts of the Spirit". For most of us (including myself), it is often hard to recognize those gifts that we already possess. As well, it is hard for us to know how to go about receiving more of those spiritual gifts. We are taught by church leaders that we are to seek after these spiritual gifts. We are also taught that we are to use those gifts for the welfare of God's children. We are to use them in service, and to help others receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May I suggest that you strive to recognize your gifts. Pray for recognition, review or obtain your patriarchal blessings, and read from the scriptures. Become familiar with them. Moroni 10 is one place where some of them can be found listed. I know Gospel Principles has a chapter on Spiritual Gifts. As well, there are other places of scripture to look to. I intend to look into these things myself.
As I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants today, near the beginning, I came across passages of revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, to Oliver Cowdery. Now, I pray that the Spirit will help me that I will not err in any of the things I do say today. My understanding of it was that Oliver Cowdery desired to translate parts of the Book of Mormon from the gold plates as well. It must not have been an unrighteous desire, because the Lord said he could do it. However, when he went to translate, he found himself not very successful. The Lord said it was because he lacked patience, and also because he wasn't being as sensative to the spirit as he needed to be. Oliver had been given the gift of translation, but because he was struggling so badly, the Lord told him that Joseph needed to translate the rest of the record and that in the future he could translate other records. Now, I do not know what happened, but I learned some interesting things there. We may have gifts that we are not using because we are not being patient, and listing to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. Now, like I said, I hope I was not wrong in my comprehension of what I read--I was very tired this morning--but even so, I believe the principle stands true that we need to tune ourselves with the Spirit of the Lord, and exercise patience to truly be able to use our gifts.
We should seek after these gifts, and identify them. Truly these gifts exist, and we should not doubt--but go forward with faith. I used to think of the gift of prophecy, or of dicernment, and think, "wow, it would be so cool to have those", but I doubted I could ever obtain such gifts. I was wrong. I have truly seen the Spirit use me to prophecy, and those prophecies came true. I have prophesied concerning my investigators who are under our stewardship (being mine and Elder Pauni's--or other companions at other times). We have been led to discern many things. We can have these gifts if it is the Lord's will, and use them within our stewardship. Now, I can obviously not just go and start prophesying for the world at this moment. That is President Monson's stewardship, but we should not fear learning how to use our gifts for our own stewardship. Obviously we need to use them in harmony with the Spirit so that we are doing the Lord's will, but the Lord will allow us to use them.
Anyway, I am just rambling, hoping I am just getting the points across I was aiming for. I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Christopher Petersen