Missionaries and my violin pledge

I don't know if anyone reading this remembers my violin pledge, but if you do, you might be wondering what happened with it. A couple of things happened, actually.

The first thing that happened is what I'd call life. It just gets in the way sometimes. I'm sure if I was more diligent that wouldn't be such a problem. But when you're pregnant and sick a lot, you just don't feel so driven.

But the other thing that happened was a probably a better excuse. My brother (number four in our family of seven) was called on a mission and left September 12th. Several years ago he helped my parents buy that violin, paying a substantial portion of it--at least half. They did it mostly so I could have a good violin to play, although it has remained a family possession. And now that my brother is on his mission for our church, he needs funds so that he can continue his mission.

Because serving a mission is so important to us, we have all agreed to sell the violin. Any sacrifice is worth it. Why, you might ask? It goes way back ...

After Christ's apostles died, the original church apostatized. The priesthood was lost. Groups of educated men met together to put together creeds, and ordinances and doctrines were changed. Later, other churches recognized that pieces of the truth were missing and formed new churches. However, they still lacked divine authority and continuing revelation.

In 1830 the Lord restored his ancient church to the earth through Joseph Smith. Along with the restored gospel was revealed the saving ordinances and covenants, organization of Christ's church, the plan of salvation, and other wonderful things that had been lost.

Knowing what we know of Christ's gospel plan, we know why we are here on earth and what God hopes for all his children. We know that Christ lives today and wants all men to come to Him. We know that his children can't receive the blessings that God wants for us unless we come to Christ and live as he would have us live. Through his restored gospel, we know what God would have us do to come to Christ.

Knowing all this, is it any wonder that we want to bring this message to the whole world?