Describe in at least one word your feeling when you last entered the temple.

Whatever you're going through right now, please remember this. There's One who knows you perfectly. He can take the hurt away...

"This should be our purpose—to persevere and endure, yes, but also to become more spiritually refined as we make our way through sunshine and sorrow. Were it not for challenges to overcome and problems to solve, we would remain much as we are, with little or no progress toward our goal of eternal life." —Thomas S. Monson

I was a long-time Evangelical Protestant but ever since I entered adolescence, I had this desire to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Unfortunately, at that time I didn't know how and because my circle of friends are all Evangelicals, they discouraged me to join the church.

I thought I would lose everyone if I followed my heart. A little more than 10 years later, I had this prompting from the Holy Ghost to order the Book of Mormon from mormon.org.

I didn't know but that feeling just came out of the blue. I was like, "Screw this, I'm going to order the Book of Mormon because I want to know what it is and I want to read it!"

A few days later, two young missionaries from Utah and Brazil came to my house. I was still a devout Protestant at that time and my church back then—the United Church of Christ in Japan—forbade us visiting other churches other than ones within Protestantism.

As soon as the missionaries handed me the copy of the Book of Mormon, I had mixed feelings about it. I was happy, excited, and nervous at the same time! I was nervous because I felt like I was being a traitor to my faith.

After the missionaries gave me the copy of the Book of Mormon, they tried to schedule meeting up again with me—which I was reluctant to say yes at first. I tried my best to avoid them as much as possible but they were persistent and I believe God just wanted me to learn His truth, so I invited them to my house and they started teaching me about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

After a series of lessons, I was still reluctant and I told my minister about what's going on. He said "why don't convert them instead?". I thought "ya that's great! I could save them!" .

Guess what? I failed with our scheme and I eventually joined the Church—the only true and living church!

A few weeks after my baptism and confirmation, I was called to teach Sunday school and I enjoyed every moment of it!

I became best friends with the missionaries who taught me and I could no longer imagine life without them and my church family.

I went to Los Angeles a few months ago to visit my family there and while there, I went to the Temple to do temple work. It was an amazing experience and the thought of having been able to do the Lord's work is just priceless. I left the US to go to China and there I met with one of the Salt Lake Temple Square missionaries who taught me thru videocall.

The missionaries always invite me to "Open Your Mouth" (OYM) with them and I enjoy it a lot. Service to others has been ingrained in me ever since God called me into His church. I'm truly blessed to be a blessing to other people.

- Kaz Motegi
Fujieda Branch, Shizuoka Stake
Filipino-Japanese who previously lived in Laguna

This. 😍❤️ Then, repeat 10 times!