Scripture of the day...

  I have really grown to love this scripture in Romans 1:8-12 here is why. "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me."

  I like Paul give thanks each day for all of you that read my blogs. I give thanks that He has allowed me a new way to reach out, and share a small part of my great testimony of Our Master, Jesus Christ. That each day I am able to think of things to say that will hopefully help someone out there increase their faith in our Lord. We have all been given so many gifts, that we should share with others. I am in thanks each day to Jesus Christ for the great faith I have in Him. May we all look around us and give thanks for all that we have been given in life, and share the good news the Gospel brings to each of us.

Jesus is the Way

  Recently, I was thumbing through my scriptures and read these verses and I thought I would talk about how grateful I am for the knowledge that Jesus Christ made it possible for ALL of us to return to God's presence. The verses that I read were these from Acts Chapter 4 verses 10 and 12. "10Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. 12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

  I love how powerful of  a testimony was given by two of Christ's apostles, Peter and John given here. Telling us, this is of how, and where our salvation comes from. That Christ came and the people rejected and crucified Him, but God still brought Him back from the dead, so Christ could fulfil the rest of His divine mission, and save man kind and be resurrected.

 I have often wondered, what is the meaning of the word apostle? So, I read the definition of the word apostle in the LDS bible dictionary, and it says, apostle means sent forth to share their witness as a special witness of the resurrected Lord. That's is exactly what Peter and John were doing. Sharing their own special witness that they had seen the Lord again! That Christ was indeed resurrected, that not only did He live, but He still lives now. And that they knew that there is NO other way or name where by man can be saved. It is only through the name of our dear Master Shepard and eldest brother Jesus Christ we can be saved. Because of His endless love for each of us we can be saved. I wish to add my testimony of this as well, that I know that Christ will save us all as we believe His name and follow Him. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

The Spirit of God

  The hymn on my mind today is from the LDS hymnal page 2, and it is The Spirit of God. I love this song because the Spirit of God is all around us. And as this song sates it can be that burning we all have inside us. After all the Spirit or the Holy Ghost is that baptism by fire that we are taught about in the scriptures and in Corinthians we are taught that our bodies are a dwelling place for the Holy Ghost. So, it just makes sense that we can have this fire burning within us. The Lord is indeed extending the saints understanding, thanks to the modern day Prophets and apostles on the earth today. Here are the words to the hymn:
 
 

1. The Spirit of God like a fire is burning!
The latter-day glory begins to come forth;
The visions and blessings of old are returning,
And angels are coming to visit the earth.

[Chorus]
We’ll sing and we’ll shout with the armies of heaven,
Hosanna, hosanna to God and the Lamb!
Let glory to them in the highest be given,
Henceforth and forever, Amen and amen!

2. The Lord is extending the Saints’ understanding,
Restoring their judges and all as at first.
The knowledge and power of God are expanding;
The veil o’er the earth is beginning to burst.

3. We’ll call in our solemn assemblies in spirit,
To spread forth the kingdom of heaven abroad,
That we through our faith may begin to inherit
The visions and blessings and glories of God.

4. How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion
Shall lie down together without any ire,
And Ephraim be crowned with his blessing in Zion,
As Jesus descends with his chariot of fire!

  Verse one speaks of visions and blessings returning to the earth, which can cause some people to think or wonder wait a minute this all stopped with the apostles and there won't be anymore of this. Which causes me to look to the scriptures when it says things like this. In the book of Acts chapter 2:17-19 it quotes words from the Prophet Joel that says: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:". There we are told that before the day the Lord comes again these things are going to happen.

  Verse two speaks of how our knowledge and power will be expanded. This is not because men are more powerful, this is because of the spirit the Lord is poured out upon us. Such as the story of David and Goliath, Goliath was clearly favored in that match up, but David had an unseen power on His side and that was the power of the Lord. Thanks to the power of the Lord, David is able to defeat the foe. The Lord has so much power that He is willing to give to the children of men. We have to prepare and be worthy of it, so we can do similar things.

  Verse three talks of how we will gather together as a body of saints. We do that each Sunday and twice a year at our General Conference, which is like Ephesians 4: 11- 13 "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:". We are becoming more unified in our faith. True it is not the whole world yet, but that is the next part of the verse, spreading the Kingdom abroad. That is what I am doing now, and all of my other missionary friends. Trying to spread this glad message with the world. That these things have not ceased. God still speaks! We are still receiving direction and guidance from a loving merciful Father above!

  Verse four, How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion can lie down together without and ire. How wonderful to think that things that would normally would not get along. I guess the lion gets along fine with the lamb, its just in a bit worse shape afterwards... But to think of all animals living together in peace. If it will be that way with animals, it will be the same with us as humans because we will be in the presence of our Father. Wow, what a great feeling it will be, when we see Jesus descending in His Chariot of fire and we will all jump and shout for joy!! Singing Hosanna Hosanna to God and the Lamb and glory to them forever! Amen and amen!!

How Great Thou Art

  Today, I would like to write about one of my favorite hymns, How great Thou Art. I love this hymn because I makes me realize how truly great our Master is. If you begin to think of the worlds that were created at His command and creating us from the dust of the earth and how nothing that man can make can even begin to compare to the things that God has and does create it gives us a small glimpse at how Great and Powerful our God is. So, I tried to put the words on here but there is a copyright restriction so just bare with me as I go through it.

  The first verse starts by talking about some of the things that were created in the universe, and the awesome wonder the author is in when he looks at the things the Lord has created. Such as the worlds the stars, and the thunder. All things that most of of notice but rarely take the time to think of the great effort it may have taken to have these things be. When I look up at the stars, in Montana and Wyoming it is especially nice because the sky is so big and there are little lights to effect what you can see, and think about how many stars there are out there and the time and effort it may have take I get a sense of that awesome wonder the author is speaking of.

  Verse two talks more about the things that the Master created on this beautiful earth. The woods and the forest glades. The birds sweetly singing in those trees that were made. Looking down from the lofty mountains and getting a glimpse at the view that God can see each and everyday as He looks out over what He has made. It often makes me wish that we could all have a little more time to get to sit and admire these things. To get a few more chances in life to sit and listen to the water running through the brook and feeling the cool summer breezes. How great a love God has for us to create these great places and wonder for or pleasure.

  Verse three is my favorite. And when I think, of God His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, MY burden gladly baring, He bled and died to take away my sins. What love! God the Great creator of all of the Heavens and the earth sent His only begotten Son to bleed and die for us, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US! That Christ, the only perfect person to ever walk the face of this earth, was willing to show His perfect obedience to His Father and do all that He asked Him. To suffer for all of us that fall short everyday, and not only to suffer, but to give up His own life in such a cruel way. That He, The Christ, allowed Himself to be hung on a cross and suffer and die. That verse makes me cry nearly every time I sing or read it. When I reflect on the silly things I do each and everyday that He gladly took upon Himself so that I would not have to suffer for those things. And He did it not only for me, but also EVERY person to EVER walk the face of this earth.

  The last verse: When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation, (which means a loud shout or other demonstration of welcome, goodwill, or approval.) And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow, in humble adoration, (which means the act of paying honor, as to a divine being; worship. And or fervent and devoted love.) And there proclaim, My God How Great Thou Art! What a joyous day that will be when we can shout praise of joy and gratitude for our Savior Jesus Christ. When we can begin to give back some of that GREAT love which He showed to us! Brothers and sister, I am soo grateful for hymns like this that enable us to sing praises to our Lord! As missionaries, our mission president encourages us to sing at appointments because it invites the spirit. They tell us even if you don't have a good voice the Lord will help us there as well, and its so true. The Lord doesn't expect us to be perfect, but He sure what us to do our best. And that can be one of our gift to God, is to try our best! Be a little more positive if that's something we struggle with or give of our time to someone in need our who is lonely. He would gladly do that for us, so lets do it for others. May the Lord bless each and everyone of you this fine holiday season. All my Love, Elder Kevin House  

Joy to the World!

  I have always enjoyed this Hymn, its up beat a little faster and The message it brings. I have always thought of it as more of a Christmas hymn, but I think we should sing it more than just the one time of year because The Lord has come so we should always be looking for ways to share this joy! I don't know why this song will let me get the words and those others wouldn't but oh well, here they are:

1. Joy to the world, the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King!
Let ev’ry heart prepare him room,
And Saints and angels sing,
And Saints and angels sing,
And Saints, and Saints and angels sing.

2. Rejoice! Rejoice when Jesus reigns,
And Saints their songs employ,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

3. No more will sin and sorrow grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He’ll come and make the blessings flow
Far as the curse was found,
Far as the curse was found,
Far as, far as the curse was found.

4. Rejoice! Rejoice in the Most High,
While Israel spreads abroad
Like stars that glitter in the sky,
And ever worship God,
And ever worship God,
And ever, and ever worship God.

  I love the whole song, but I will go through verse by verse telling what I like about them. The first verse tells us all to make room in our hearts for the King that the earth is about to receive. I like to think of it as "The Lord is coming the Lord is coming!!!" with similar excitement as the chicken that thought the sky was falling!! That OH MAN!!! Something big is about to happen!! And the saints and angels sings praises to this King welcoming Him into this great world, because we know because of the scriptures the great mission He came to fulfil! The next verse telling us to rejoice because He has come and all things of the world testify of that! Verse three talking of when the day Christ returns again all of the bad things that infest the earth will be gone to trouble us no more. The last verse telling us to ever worship God. That is the important thing, is to ever be worshipping God. The Christmas time is a great time to do it, but we should always be trying to have that great joy with us. The Lord does live and He loves us all so much! Let us all enjoy this great holiday season!!

Because I Have Been Much

  The hymn I wish to talk about today is hymn 219 I Have Been Given Much. This is such a wonderful hymn because it causes me to think about all of the many wonderful gifts that I have been given. Each and everyday we are all blessed with soo many gifts that we notice and so many others that go by unnoticed. The songs talks about my glowing fire my loaf of my bread my roofs safe shelter over head and the need to share them with others. I know that those are all things that I am very grateful but too oft I don't give the thanks necessary for those gifts or share those gifts with others.

  What an important thing it is to share the gifts we have been given with others. At times this can be hard, because we think we don't have enough for ourselves how can we spare to share with others. When I begin to think like that my mind is drawn to the scriptures, the story of the widows mite, the story of the woman who gave food to the prophet and her food never ran out and she was able to provide for her family. The Lord is the one who gave us these blessings and He will always bless us with more especially if we are willing to help others with what we have been given. Each day that we live is a gift from God. The way that this amazing planet is set up where food grows, air is produced, we don't go floating away, we don't have huge predators trying to eat us we have homes to live and here in Wyoming I have become even more grateful for wood stoves and furnaces. We have it really easy compared to how things have been in the history of the world.

   I love the last verse to this song, how it talks of how we have been blessed by the love of Our Great Lord. Talks of how we must share that knowledge that we have of God's love. That we must share it by word and deed. It reminds me of something my mom would say to us growing up, "you say you love me now show me". She would say this because my brother and I often would have wrestling matches that she wasn't much of a fan of or we would be too rowdy and not listen to her. This was her way of getting us to claim down a little and start to listen again. We live in a world with so much information out there and yet there are still people that don't know that our Father in Heaven loves them. They may not know of the ultimate gift given for all of man kind, Our Savior Jesus Christ. None of us could make it back into the presence of our great maker without that gift. We are so lucky to be in this great time of year to share this message with others that even though we may not have enough money to help someone by buying gifts or toys, but we can help them by sharing the message of Jesus Christ with. I know we all have many gifts and talents that God has given us just to help others so lets share them.

Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy

  The hymn on my mind today is hymn number 335 from the LDS Hymnal called "Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy". This hymn is talking about a light house from above that guides those that are lost at sea to safety. The way that it has been explained to me is there are two sets of lights on a beach. There is an upper and a lower set and if you can line up the two lights it you can be guides safely into the harbor. The need to have these lights together is because there can be many obstacles as one tries to make there way to the shore that can be seen during the day but cannot be seen at night such as coral or rocks or other things that aren't friendly to boats. So both sets of lights are of great importance. I think of the higher light as God and the lower lights as those that God has sent to guide His children. So I was trying to get the words and I can't seem to figure it out how to get the words on here so go look it up, its really good!! The words can be found at new.lds.org and type in hymn 335 and it will get you there.

  God is this higher light, He wants to help and lead us.There are some things that He has to let us do by ourselves or we would never learn. One of the greatest things about God is He won't leave us alone, He will always be there to guide us along so we can make it back safely to the harbor, or Heaven. We can look back on history and see that God has a pattern, and that is calling prophets to the earth to help us. We all face times where we are in the dark and we can't seem to find our way by ourselves, can't find our way past or through the rocks. We can however look for the lights that He places into our lives to help us. God is a God of justice, but His bowls are also full of mercy. Man, I really wish I could get that song on here. Well when you listen to it, put yourself in that situation, that you are lost out at sea and you are relying on these lights to bring you safely home. As we get those things of darkness out of our hearts and minds it will loosen satans grasp on us and we can make it back safe.These things in life are too hard to do alone. The risks are to great and the journey is too hard. I have heard a pretty cool way to look at over coming darkness.You and bring a light into a room full of darkness and it will case away a great deal of darkness, but you can't bring a thing of darkness into a room and make it dark you must remove the source of light first. After all Christ says I am the light and life of the world. So let us all look to that great light and be saved.

 

Hymns

  Last month I talked a lot about things I was thankful or grateful for each day leading up to Thanksgiving. This month, I would like to do something similar, and that will be to discuss my one of my favorite hymn's each day. Since this is the time of year when we focus on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, I thought I would share one some my favorite hymns about Him and His life, ministry, birth and which ever other ones mean the most to me. Though, I have next to no musical talent I still enjoy to try my best and to listen to others share their wonderful talents. There is a great scripture talking about the song of the heart in The Book of Doctrine Covenants section 35:12 the Lord is speaking to Emma Smith through Joseph Smith and says: For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads. Sounds to me like a good reason to have hymns or songs in church. Here is the hymn I wish to start with, Hymn 134, I Believe In Christ. Here are the words.

 

1. I believe in Christ; he is my King!
With all my heart to him I’ll sing;
I’ll raise my voice in praise and joy,
In grand amens my tongue employ.
I believe in Christ; he is God’s Son.
On earth to dwell his soul did come.
He healed the sick; the dead he raised.
Good works were his; his name be praised.

2. I believe in Christ; oh blessed name!
As Mary’s Son he came to reign
’Mid mortal men, his earthly kin,
To save them from the woes of sin.
I believe in Christ, who marked the path,
Who did gain all his Father hath,
Who said to men: “Come, follow me,
That ye, my friends, with God may be.”

3. I believe in Christ—my Lord, my God!
My feet he plants on gospel sod.
I’ll worship him with all my might;
He is the source of truth and light.
I believe in Christ; he ransoms me.
From Satan’s grasp he sets me free,
And I shall live with joy and love
In his eternal courts above.

4. I believe in Christ; he stands supreme!
From him I’ll gain my fondest dream;
And while I strive through grief and pain,
His voice is heard: “Ye shall obtain.”
I believe in Christ; so come what may,
With him I’ll stand in that great day
When on this earth he comes again
To rule among the sons of men.

  Such a powerful hymn. This has been one of my favorites for a long time because it describes exactly what we, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints believe. That He is Gods Son, He came down as a mortal man to save all of us from the woes of sin. That He can and will set of free from Satan's grasp. The last verse is my favorite, that while we are here going through all of the grief and pain that we all go through that we can look forward to that Great day when He will come again. The glorious day when we will get to stand in His Presence and see the marks of the nails in His feet and know that He went through it for us. I know That Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He is, in deed coming again to the earth to rule and reign, we do not know the hour or the day but we do know that it is going to happen and what a great day that it will be.

Every Knee Shall Bow

Today, I would like to share some thoughts that I had yesterday. About once a month we have a zone conference, it is a meeting in which a large group of missionaries under the direction of the mission president gather together for training. As missionaries, we all have room for improvement and we want to get better so I love these meetings. Since it is getting closer to the holiday season there was a bit of a Christmas theme yesterday, and all of us were asked to prepare a 2 to 3 minute talk on our Savior Jesus Christ. It was so wonderful to hear the different talks from the various missionaries and to hear how our Savior has helped them and what He means to each of them. There was one that really stood out to me and that is what I will be writing on today. That is Every Knee Shall Bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is The Christ. This comes from Philippians chapter 1 verses 7-13. And also in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 27:31.

  Here is what those scriptures say: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

 9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 12Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

 13For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Mosiah 27: 31Yea, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess before him. Yea, even at the last day, when all men shall stand to be judged of him, then shall they confess that he is God; then shall they confess, who live without God in the world, that the judgment of an everlasting punishment is just upon them; and they shall quake, and tremble, and shrink beneath the glance of his all-searching eye.

  I have always looked at these scriptures as gloom and doom scriptures. It always sounded to me like it didn't matter if you did or didn't accept Jesus Christ, in the end you won't be able to deny it. In a sense it means that, but the way the person described it yesterday gave it a whole new meaning to me. The way it was described yesterday was something like this, God can either compel you to be humble or you can do it yourself and which would you rather it be? Would you like it in the great Day of Judgment to be standing there trembling the whole time with fear knowing thinking, "Oh no!! Did I do all was I supposed to? Do I know how He is? Does He know me?" I am sure there will be a certain amount of that no matter how good of a life you live, but how much better of a feeling it will be when at that day we are confident. We are standing there gladly waiting for our turn, when we can go and bow before The Son of God and weep at His feet and give Him thanks for the many countless blessing That He had given to you. That as weak and foolish as we all are at times, He, Jesus Christ the only perfect man to ever walk the face of this earth, will and does forgive us of the many wrongs we do. That the love He has is so infinite that He begs us to repent that He may heal us. I know after the way it was described to me yesterday and hopefully after I have explained this today it will bring these scriptures into a whole new light. That we look forward to the day when we bow before our Lord and confess Him to be The Christ rather than being compelled to do it because we did not know Him. Let us all work harder to Truly Know who Jesus Christ is, and what better time to do it than the time where so much of the world focuses on His magnificent birth.

Serving Our Fellow Man

Today I don't have much time to write but I must say what I am grateful for today. Today was a pretty good day. We were able to go offer some service. I have always enjoyed some good manual labor, and thats exactly what we got to do today. We got to go help someone hang sheet rock, I wasn't much help , because of the operation but I was glad to be able to help a little. It was nice because we were able to feel busy all day today and thats something that we haven't done in weeks. It was so nice to have a chance to go out and work to feel busy again. I am am amazed at how fast it the days go by when we are able to stay busy. The scriptures talk of being engaged in good things, helping others in whatever ways we can. The two great commandments are to love the Lord with all of our might and hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves. I know it always makes me happy to help others and even happier when I am the one receiving the help. Now we all should try our best to keep the commandments, especially these because they are the two great commandments and they can have such a impact in not only our lives but all of those that we help.

Early Morning Meeting

  This morning as we were getting ready to go to our meetings, I thought thats what I will write about today. Each Sunday morning we have a missionary meeting with some of the ward members to discuss the weeks missionary work, the people we saw those that need help etc. Our first meeting begins at 7 am, so we wake up at 5:45 am to begin getting ready. As I wrote that down just now I was thinking, an hour and fifteen minutes to get ready?! Are we really that slow, we are guys not girls for crying out loud! But in a way it is nice because it gives us some time to just sit and ponder in the mornings. Thats what I did this morning is I just looked at the living room window for a few minutes and thought about the wonderful life Heavenly Father has given to me.

  I was thinking what a special time of year it is, getting closer to the holidays its nice to be able to reflect on things that have gone by. I was thinking this morning how grateful I am to be on a mission. To have the energy that I do, that I feel as good as I do and that I am healing up. Then I was looking at the snow on the ground, the sun wasn't out yet, but I was still able to see out a little ways and see a little fog. The fog reminds me of home, our winters back in California we have fog and in Wyoming its snow.  A scripture that often pops into my mind when I have a chance to sit and be still is from Psalms 46:10. It reads: "Be still, and know that I am God..." Simple but powerful. There are times in our lives where we need to stop and be still and remember the big man up stairs. To remember that His will is what is going to happen. We may fight it we may try and change it, but eventually His way will win. So we need to reflect on our own lives see where we are, see where we can improve and if needed change things so we can have a few more chances throughout each day to recognize God and the miracles that He is working all around us. So if needed take a little more time in the mornings before meetings before school before work and talk to God, look at the great and many blessings He has brought into your lives. You won't be disappointed. 

O the Cunning Plan of the evil One

  There was a talk given by M. Russel Ballard this last years October general conference and he gave an amazing talk on, "O the Cunning Plan of the Evil One". The whole talk was great, but there are a few points that I would like to focus on. He began by talking of a fly fisherman. Elder Ballard talks of how experienced fly fishermen study the fish, find out what they like, what they what they hunger after. They, the fishermen, make artificial lures to help deceive the fish, make them think it is food but in reality it is a way to hook or trap us. Lucifer is the same way. Here is how is relates the two:

"The use of artificial lures to fool and catch a fish is an example of the way Lucifer often tempts, deceives, and tries to ensnare us.

Like the fly fisherman who knows that trout are driven by hunger, Lucifer knows our “hunger,” or weaknesses, and tempts us with counterfeit lures which, if taken, can cause us to be yanked from the stream of life into his unmerciful influence. And unlike a fly fisherman who catches and releases the fish unharmed back into the water, Lucifer will not voluntarily let go. His goal is to make his victims as miserable as he is."

Elder Ballard goes on to say many more things on this topic so I challenge you to look it up and read or watch it after you are done reading at new.lds.org. Satan is real, he tries his best to tempt us all each and everyday. I know it is hard to resist these temptations at times, but God will give us the strength we need to over come and resist these temptations. We need to always remember to have a prayer in our hearts try to keep good clean thoughts.  He has given men power to claim raging seas, move mountains, walk on water, power to make it through impossible situations, so He can and will give us strengthen.

On my mind today...

  Well, after last weeks trip back to the hospital I have decided to go back to missionary work a little bit slower, so it has given me a lot of time to read the scriptures. Yesterday, I decided to got through and read all of the chapter headings in the Book of Mormon. I have thought about doing it a few times but have never had the free time to do it. It was pretty fun. It was definitely not the same as reading the whole book but it was interesting to see the different passages I have marked, as I went from chapter to chapter. When I read, or do most things, I distracted really easily, like when I see lots of colors on a page I usually have to stop and read a few of them. Which I am very glad I did because I was able to find quite a few scriptures that I haven't taken the time to think about, such as this one in Mosiah chapter 7 verse 33. It reads: But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.

  I really liked that because of the way it talks about how the Lord deliver us out of bondage. I like how it uses the word pleasure to describe Him forgiving us. He looks forward to it. He wants to help us. I was also reading in the book of Acts today and once again, Paul amazes me. Going through so much persecution and he delights in it because he knows he is suffering for a greater cause. Paul knows that when people see him going through these hardships it will cause them to wonder why and look into why he is suffering for these things. Which lead him to many chances to share his testimony of the gospel. By sharing his testimony with King Agrippa, the kings says you almost caused me to become a Christan. There are times when our actions will speak louder than our words and there will be times when our words will help to back our actions. As we rely on our Savior and turn to Him with full purpose of heart He will deliver us from bondage.

Family, Friends, Loved Ones

  I have been thinking a lot about how grateful I am for my wonderful family friends and loved ones. While we are out on our missions we have very little contact with family and friends. We email home once a week, we call home twice a year, mothers day and Christmas. We can write letters which are always fun to get, but if you are like me its tough to write people back. So not a whole lot of contact with them. I know for my parents it is very tough at times like these for them, not to be able to come and see me or even call me and find out how I am doing.

  It has been pretty hard to not get to talk with my family but I think I have learned to be more grateful for them during this process. When I read their letters and emails I can truly feel their love even though I cannot see or hear them. The same can happen to each of us as we pray. We know that God hears us, but it can be tough to know this because, we can't see Him face to face and talk with Him. But, we must know that He loves and cares about us and look for the ways or the people that He brings or has brought into our lives to help us. I have been amazed at how many of these people The Lord has brought into my life. In each area I have covered on my mission, each person I have served with, and friends from home that have had a huge impact on my life and has helped me in one way or another.

  The Lord loves us all and has a great purpose for each of us. We must always strive to understand what He wants us to do. So search the scriptures pray do all you can to understand how you can help yourselves and others. Also always remember the Lord doesn't expect us to do things by ourselves. In the Book of Mormon in the book of Nephi chapter 3 verse 7 Nephi shares a very good piece of knowledge. He says how the Lord will provide a way for us to accomplish every task that we have before us. God will help you!!

Christ, The Living Water

Today my reading has been in The New Testament, in The Gospel According to John. It was talking about how Christ is the Living Water so I decided to share my thoughts on this topic. I am sure there are many different meanings of this statement, but that is the wonderful thing about the scriptures is they mean different things on different days to us. This morning what kept sticking out to me is how Christ will always be there to fill us when we are feeling drained. The world today is full of so many things that offer to fill us or to satisfy our needs, but do these things last?

  In high school I was privileged enough to play sports with a group of well talented athletes that worked well together. We worked hard we had fun and we won. We were the first team to go through our high school to win a league title and a section championship. We were all so happy to have accomplished what we did, we did something that many classes before us had come very close to doing but never quite got there. So we felt really good about ourselves for a while. Then time passed and it wasn't quite as exciting, it was special, but life moves on. We can only look back on the memories we can't go back and do it again. But the gospel is a joy that we can we relive over and over. The good feelings that we feel we don't only have to look back and remember the good feelings and not do it again. We can do it again, everyday if we want it.

  Christ in this story is speaking to a Samaritan woman and asks her for a drink of water after a long journey. She asks Him, do you not realize I am different? Our people don't help each other and you want me to help you? And Jesus replies if I had a special gift would you like me to keep it from you? God is greater than all of us and He freely gives gifts to all of His children, and His gifts don't stop coming, they are there anytime we ask for them. They will follow like water from a well. God is there waiting for us to ask Him for help. His well will never run dry if we allow ourselves to seek His help. Unlike the things of the world that will bring happiness for a time, the joy we feel as God helps us in our live never has to stop. God doesn't care how long our journey has taken us away from Him, when we go looking He will be there with out stretched arms and with a buckets full of water to quench our thirst. Never let our spiritual well run dry my friends.

Patience through Tribulation

The title of my blog today is something that I have been really getting a crash course in learning. I have never had much patience, and I must say I have had a really good life so it was silly to be as impatient as I was. But as the Lord does He has a few tests for us through our journey we call life. With all of my health problems I have been dealing with lately it has caused me to begin to wonder, Why? What have I done wrong? What is deferent now that I get these "blessings"... I feel bad for wondering these things but I am still human. During this time I still have been able to see miracles, I have talked about a few in past weeks, but the ones that I wish to talk about today are some of what I have learned during these.


  Yesterday, we were spending time with some of the other missionaries serving around us and we were talking about what is going on with me. We had our scriptures around and so one of them opened and read me a scripture. This is what he read me, it comes from the Book of Mormon, the book of Alma chapter 34 verses 38-41;  38That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.

 39Yea, and I also exhort you, my brethren, that ye be watchful unto prayer continually, that ye may not be led away by the temptations of the devil, that he may not overpower you, that ye may not become his subjects at the last day; for behold, he rewardeth you no good thing.

 40And now my beloved brethren, I would exhort you to have patience, and that ye bear with all manner of afflictions; that ye do not revile against those who do cast you out because of your exceeding poverty, lest ye become sinners like unto them;

 41But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions.

  That was a perfect scripture for me because it was telling me to humble myself and not to be mad at god but to learn something from the lesson He was teaching. Then this missionary went on to share this scripture too. This comes from the New Testament, this is when Paul is out preaching and he is going through some hard times and has to encourage the men he was with. Paul says in Romans chapter 5 verses 2-8; 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

 3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

 4And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

  With those two spots telling me the same thing I began to realize hey its not that bad. As the Romans scriptures points out it is helping me develop that much needed patience and people to help us along the way. I have heard when life gets to hard to stand, kneel. That’s where the real strength comes. When we humble ourselves before God and seek His help. God loves us. Lets not forget that.

Pride

I found out this morning that we, Elder Goff and I will be speaking in church tomorrow. My topic is pride... I always get a kick out of how the topics we are assigned apply so well to things we are struggling with. Pride can be a very bad thing, and its something that very few people do not have so its one of those things that all of us could work a little harder to be a little better at.
 
  There was a wonderful talk given in our Church's last Octobers General Conference. General Conference is a semiannual meeting that is broadcast all over the world for members of our church everywhere to watch. It is where many of the leaders of our church get up and address some of the topics they feel impressed to speak on to help the people of the world, because as wonderful as the scriptures are there is something about modern day revelation that applies so well to us today, and I think the fact that is modern is what makes it easier. Anyways at this most recent conference there was an amazing talk given by a man named President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, he is the second counselor of our church presidency, on Pride and the Priesthood. He spoke on how pride can take so many different forms. It is a gateway sin, it leads to many other sins that can begin to lead to our down fall. This is because, it can lead us to build ourselves us up so much that we begin to tear others down and cause them to compare themselves to others instead of them looking at their own special talents that our loving Father in Heaven has given to them. It causes people to act strangely, such as during a sporting event when things become too competitive and feelings get hurt.

   As we read through the scriptures our Savior, Jesus Christ the one who set the perfect example, warned so often about pride. Such as, the young man who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. The boy is told to keep the commandments and to sell all that he had. The boy runs off because he had many possessions and didn't want to leave them. Then the comparison is made that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven. This doesn't mean if you are rich are doomed, it is saying that we must be willing to give of ourselves, to be humble and recognize that all the gifts we have are from above. To listen to others ask others for help and not only to rely on our own strength. The last one is one that I personally struggle with the most, is asking others for help. I know it is because I am often too prideful to ask for help from others, I don't want them to see my weaknesses, but the truth of the matter is we ALL have weaknesses. We have things we cannot do by ourselves and things that we must give up so the Lord can help us. This was very clear to me when I was served a very large portion of humble pie is what I have heard it called, when you think you are doing good so the Lord blesses us with something to "help us out". Now that I am still in the recovery process, I am beginning to see where I should have forgotten myself sooner and asked for help. The Lord doesn't want to punish or hurt us He just wants us to learn the proper lessons in this life, so lets watch and listen for those clues so we don't have to eat as much humble pie, because the Lord can and will humble us. This is my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Blogs

Today I wanted to write about what I think of this whole blogging thing... When we were first heard about the facebook idea, I didn't know what to think. I knew are TONS of people on facebook and lots of people use these blogs, so I knew they must be good so I thought I should give it a try. I must say that even though I haven't had very many chances to teach people on line, I have enjoyed writing about my experiences and sharing them with all that read this. Growing up I was never much of a writer, or even a talker for that matter.. I liked to keep to myself, there were times that I would be real talkative but not often. My mission has changed that! My mission has become one of the most important things that I have personaly done, it means the world to me! The amount I have learned and grown in these 19 months I have been out here I didn't know it was possible to learn and grow this much! But I am living proof the Lord can help us with all of our weaknesses. I have learned to develop such a greater trust in Him and a love for all of Gods children. I hope these blogs are helping someone out there and if not they have helped me a lot to be able to express and share my thoughts. If there are any topics out there that anyone would like me to share my personal testimony or how a point of the Gospel has helped me in my life and I would love to write about it to help someone out there. Thank you all for your love support and prayers they really do help and they mean a lot to me. God Bless!

Miracles

The topic of Miracles has been on my mind a lot lately. Is God still a God of miracles?! I must say YES!!! Look around and just look at the hand of God everywhere. I recently finished the Book of Mormon and there was a scripture that reminded me of this very topic. That is found in the Book of Mormon, in the book of Mormon chapter 9 verses 15-19. It reads:

  15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

  16 Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?

  17 Who shall say that it was not a miracle that by his word the heaven and the earth should be; and by the power of his word man was created of the dust of the earth; and by the power of his word have miracles been wrought? 

 18 And who shall say that Jesus Christ did not do many mighty miracles? And there were many mighty miracles wrought by the hands of the apostles.

  19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

  Here it tells us that He isn't going to change. God will always be God and Jesus Christ will always be Jesus Christ. That means that They are waiting for us to wake up and believe. Waiting for us to trust in Them and develop some faith, to go out and help or makes things happen. They will guide direct and protect the cause if its for whats right. I know that God wants to help us. He has helped me recently and throughout my whole life and I know He has helped each of you. Miracles aren't always what we expect them to be. They come in large and small packages but they do come so we must watch and be ready for them give thanks and don't stop believing because God will always believe in us.
                                  Hope everyone has a good happy safe Thanksgiving!!

Strength from Above

What I am grateful for today is how much help the Lord has given me through these last couple of weeks. I am feeling so much better now in such a short amount of time. This week I went to church and was able to sit through the whole meeting with no trouble. Afterwards, we were able to go out and even see a few people. During my down time, I started to re read the New Testament. I have really loved going back and reading it in greater portions than I have before. This time, I have been trying to read it as if I were there in person, listening to the words Jesus had for the people He was speaking to. I  have been trying to hear the joy in His voice as He would help and teach others.Also, to try and understand the pain He must of felt as He saw the people in their disbelief.  The great faith that Christ had in these people, the great hope He had in all of them was truly beyond what we can comprehend. As I read, I caught a glimpse of how many people He healed without them even being in His presence. He fed thousands of people and all He asked in return was to follow Him and  to keep His commandments. What an amazing man, He served His whole life, helped thousands of people, and eventually gave His life for all so that all mankind could be saved. I hope that as I keep reading, that I maybe be able to understand that Jesus Christ has that same faith in me, and for everyone else in the world. Let us all try a little harder to gain faith and to thank the heavens for the strength to do all the things the Lord would have us do. 

Today I am Grateful to be out of the Hospital

Today I must say I am grateful to be out of the hospital! The hospital is a great place to be taken care of, but I am very grateful to get out and get some fresh air!! I didn't know when I was going to get out of the hospital so yesterday when the nurse told me I could leave I got really excited! So now I get to sit at home (where I have learned to call home for now, I'm not actually in California) where I can at least get to look out of different windows and get to get away from the people who are going through much worse things than what I am going through. This was my first experience staying over night in the hospital and I'm not sure if there is any other place other than a small town like Worland that I would like to spend in a hospital because there were so many nice people that came to visit me! Now that I am out of the hospital I am so excited to get back out and share the gospel. I know that I need to rest for a while but just getting out of the hospital brings me that hope that I am in fact getting better and I will be good as new very soon!! As I reflect on the person I used to be, I wasn't lazy but I did enjoy a day off every now and then. Now that I am on a mission I am able to realize that my boss now has a very tight deadline so I need to get back up and running to help His children find that piece of the truth they didn't know they were searching for. I know that the Lord loves each and everyone of us and that He will help us fulfill our righteous actions.

Today I am grateful for modern health care

Well, I am grateful for modern health care, because this last week I have had my appendix taken out. This all started on Monday morning around 4 am. I woke up with a very uncomfortable pain in what I guessed to be my appendix. That day I did my best to act like it didn't really hurt, so I could keep doing my regular thing, missionary work. This worked out for the rest of Monday, but Tuesday morning around 3 am I knew that it didn't go away yet... because I was awake and the pain was very strong. I often wish that I was so hard headed but it runs in pretty deep, so its hard to just give in and go to the doctor. Lucky for me is my body took over and about 1 pm I decided to go to the doctor and get checked out. I got here and everyone was so friendly. Its amazing how you tell someone you are experiencing pain and they start talking very gently and ask what they can do to help you. So they did their doctor thing, running tests and trying to find out what was wrong. They figured out that it really was my appendix that was giving me trouble. They told me that it was going to need to come out, yippee I thought!! NOT!! But in I went and here I am still alive and very glad that I did come to the doctor. I am soo glad that doctors know what they are doing and that they care for the people they look after and do all they can to help me. Now I am on the road to recovery thanks to people that know what they are doing and wonderful advances in technology. I love to be feeling again! Thank all of you for all of your prayers that go out not only for me but also all of my fellow missionaries. The Lord loves all of His children soo much an and I love all of you! Have a wonderful day, and if you aren't feeling well, you should probably go to the doctor, they know what they are doing and they will help you.

What I am grateful for Today...

  Well, what is on my mind today is how grateful I am to be on a mission. Hopefully this is not a topic that I have already covered. I would go check my other blogs to see if I have but I don't know how and this is what I am grateful for so it will have to work. As Elders, or men, we go out on our missions for 24 for months, 2 years. The Sisters, women, serve for 18 months. I have been out on my mission for over 18 months now and so the sisters that came out with us are home now. That is so weird, it feels to me like we left to come on our mission a few short weeks ago, not 18 months ago. Well, no matter how weird it is to think that we really have been out for that long doesn't make it any less of a reality. Thanks to this chance to do on line proselyting we can talk with the sisters that we came out with and see how they are doing. They say it is so weird to actually be home, to be with family and get to go back to regular life. The thought of that weirds me out just thinking about it.
  Another reason is because I know that the Lord takes good care of the missionaries. He may not protect us from all harm or bad things but He will give us the strength we need to make it through the hard times we face. The other day I mentioned how grateful I was that I was feeling good. Well sometimes good things don't last as long as we would like to but the Lord knows what He is doing. Thats why I am grateful to be here. I know that no matter how hard things get, He will always be there to pick me up. True I did know this before my mission, but my faith and understanding is so much greater now than it was before I left on my mission. As nice as it would be to always have the good times roll. I can see how the Lord is blessing me in so many other aspects of life. Such as people to teach, my wonderful family, my amazing loved ones who offer so much support, all of you that read this show that you are willing to support me in any way that you can. At this time I wish to give my thanks to all of you, and encourage you like it says in the book of Timothy chapter 6: 12 to "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." As you begin to do this in your lives the Lord will watch over and protect you.

Well Today I have a few things I am thankful for...

  The main thing I am thankful today is I feel good!! This is the first time in months that I can honestly say I feel good!! I know that this is not by my own doing, but by the wonderful loving hand of God. Every week as I read my emails or letters from my parents they say they are praying for me and I know that there are many others out there doing the same thing. I am so grateful for all of them and I am also grateful for the great faith in which they show. Answers to prayer come because of a few factors, one of course being the Lords will. Another by the faith of the children of men.
  This morning I was reading from one of my favorite books in the Book of Mormon, and that is the book of Ether. The book of Ether is an interesting book... It talks about some of the greatest examples of faith, and also the entire destruction of a civilization. The part of the book that I will focus today is the part about the faith. I know I have already wrote about faith once, but its one of those topics that the scriptures talk about a lot, and I have always heard liken the scripture to you so I will copy its pattern here. Ether 12:6 says; And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.
  We must hope for those thing which are not seen. These will help our faith to grow. If you are a downer all the time and someone is hoping for something better and you shoot them down or shoot yourself down, how are you going to grow or increase faith? In my situation, I know prayers are answered, I have seen them answered a number of times, but this time I was being tried harder than I thought I was going to. Now that I feel good today it brings me soo much joy and I am very grateful that I did have to wait, because now my joy is greater than it would have been if I would have only suffered for a few days. Now it also helps my faith to grow because once again I was able to see the hand of God work in my life!! We all must continue to hope for better things to happen. If everyone gave up hope, what a sad world this would become. Don't loose faith brothers and sisters keep hoping for the best and trust in the Lord, you won't be disappointed.

Today I am Grateful for...

 Today what has been on my mind most is the wonderful members that take the time and the effort to feed us. On our missions we live on a pretty tight budget. Here in this mission we live on 135 dollars a month. This is to cover all of food, laundry, new clothes (ties), stamps for letters or whatever else it is that we need to pay for. Near the end of the month, things tend to get pretty tight. Lucky enough for us though is that there are wonderful members of the church, and even people that aren't members of our church that sign up to feed us dinners. This is such a wonderful blessing to us. It is a blessing in more ways then just us not having to buy our meal, but because then we can begin to build friendships. There are quite a few very fun memories I have from being able to spend time with members, they begin to become our home away from home and those friends that we can go talk to when things are going as good as we would like them to. I have memories from when the missionaries would come over to my house when I was young and it was always a fun time. We know that it can be burdensome to have two extra mouths to feed, but I know we as missionaries are always so grateful to be invited into peoples home. So that is my entry for today, is how truly grateful I am for all of the wonderful support of all those that take the time to feed us and even talk to us.  I know the Lord will and does bless all those that take the time to help out the missionaries.

Today I am Grateful For...

 Well, today was the first time since I have been in Worland that snow has stuck on the ground. Which is what I am thankful for. The snow to some may think is a silly thankful but, I enjoy the snow. Last fall I was in Missoula and that was the longest amount of time I had ever spent in the snow. There were times when I became very tired if the snow, I fell 8 times last year, but it was a wonderful change from just the boring gray deadness that we have back home. The snow becomes a cover for the ugly dead ground, which in the spring the snow will help bring the ground the needed moisture it needs to sustain life. This reminds me a lot of what our Savior Jesus Christ does for each of us. We all get to the point in our lifes where we are beginning to die spiritually and we would love to have someone come cover up the mistakes we have made. Thats exactly what the atonement does, it covers the things we have done wrong. There is a scripture in Isaiah 1:18 that says: "... Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow...". He knows that we have all done wrong things in our life but He is willing to make all of those go away if we come to Him. True there are times when the snow gets dirty and ugly, but then when a new layer of snow comes and covers it, it become pure again. This is what can happen to us if we keep turning to the Savior and asking for forgiveness. Then when its spring time again, when you have made it through the long winter, the repentance process, and the new life begins to grow then people can begin to see how the Lord has blessed you in you life.

What I am Thankful for today is...

 Well, recently I was given a quote from a member of one of the local wards here. I have really enjoyed it, so I thought I would share that with all of you. So, I was talking about some of the not so fun things I have experienced on my mission. I know that way more people that I could even imagine have gone through FAR worse things than I have and this quote was just a nice piece of humble pie you can say.  Elder Orson F. Whitney wrote: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God” (quoted in Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972], 98).
  What a great quote! As we all take time to look back on hard times that we have gone through we can see lessons that we learned from those hard things. That is part of our Heavenly Fathers plan. He loves us, He loves everyone on this whole planet and He wants us to help each other. The trails that we face that cause us to wonder, "What could I possible learn from this?!" Sometimes these are answers to other peoples prayers. Not that we suffer, but that there is someone else out there that knows what they are going through. Once you have gained these experiences you could help someone going through similar troubles, you will be able to make true friendships with people who need it most. It will bring the people you help a great deal of joy and it will also bring you joy because you helped someone. So now, I challenge all of you to reflect on some of your own trials that you have experienced and think of someone you know that could use your help, be the friendly voice that you were searching for when you were struggling and help them.

Transfers

So, as missionaries at times it is like we live out of suit cases because of these transfers. They come every 6 weeks with the possibility of having to move to a new area. We can be in an area anywhere from 6 weeks up to 6 or more months. They come on Friday morning of week 6 of the 6 week cycles. So on these days we continue on with our normal morning routine, which on Fridays after we study we plan for the next week. We will look over our week talk about the people we visited , talk about how the appointment went, talk about what they may be struggling with and how we can help them. Then we come up with a list of people to see the next week. This usually takes a good hour. So then we eat lunch and wait for the calls and be out of the house by 1pm. As missionaries we like to try and guess where we will go or if we will go and its a lot of fun to see if we are right or not. The way the decision is made if we leave or not is between the mission president and the Lord. The mission president puts in a lot of prayerful pondering on if we should go and where. This Friday is when we, Elder Goff and I, got the call. We found out we are both staying in Worland and we have the great chance to keep teaching the wonderful people of Worland, Wyoming. We will have the chance to keep working with the people we have tried so hard to find and spent so much time praying over and trying to help. We are both very excited for this chance we have to keep work here.

Today Iam grateful for...

 Well, what is on my mind today is the Lord's timing! So times it can be a bit frustrating waiting for answers to our prayers but other times it can be such a great blessing, because He knows A LOT more than we do! The reason this is my topic today is because of an experience form yesterday. We were on team ups and we tried someone at the very time the Lord wanted us to. So each night we plan out what we want to do the next day. So we have planners that we write all of this down in. The planner breaks down to every half hour of the day. So we try to fill the day with enough people to see where we have as little idle time as possible. This would be awesome if it as worked out that everyone we planned to see was always home when we have planned to see them but this is not the case. You come to learn really fast as a missionary that people have lives, that they don't all sit around and wait for us to stop by. So like most days as a missionary we burned through a list of 9 people, ideally 5 hours worth of people, in about 45 minutes. So then we were left to that wonderful time where we look at each other and say well, I'm out of ideas what do you want to do and the other replys I don't know what do you want to do?! Lucky yesterday the Lord gave us a wonderful idea to go to a nursing home. As soon as we walked through the doors a woman stopped us and said, we were just talking about you! Music to our ears!! So we began to talk with them and the woman working there told us how they were just talking about us and how they wished we would stop by to visit with this woman, and sure enough we showed up. Wow!! Those are such awesome moments when they happen. So we go and visit and she was telling us how she had been trying to get ahold of someone to come see her but had had no luck. Then we just come walking through the doors as an answer to her prayers. I am here to tell all of you that this woman had been praying for someone to come and visit and had been doing it for a while and those prayers were answered. Not by our good thinking but because of the help of the Lord. He wants to help all of us, so in order for him to do that we must ask Him!!! Then wait for Him to answer, because sometimes the way He answers is a knock at the door or someone walking past you. The people we were going to see at the nursing home weren't even there that day, but we were still able to help because we listened to the promptings of the spirit. The Lord may even use us as answers to others prayers. My prayer for all of you is that you will be able to have the Lord answer your prayers and that you can be answers to others prayers.

Today I am Grateful for...

 Well, today I am thankful for the chance I have to work with great missionaries who love the Lord. In the mission there are leaders that go on team ups or exchanges with some of the other missionaries. These are usually done once per transfer. So what we do is, we, the leaders, will either go  to the area that the elders cover or we will have them come to our area. When we do this we treat it like any other day but we just work with a different missionary in a different area. This is a lot of fun and a good experience because you are able to help each other. There have been times that I have seen that different missionaries can connect differently with different people. So at times this can be a great help if you don't know how to help the person you are teaching, and while on these team ups you can say something in a different way which cause people to think differently. We know this is true because no two people are the same, so people, or in this case missionaries are able to help each other because we are different. We also know that a good leader is one who can motovate others. As we look at the life of the greatest teacher and example ever, Jesus Christ, we see how he was able to lead so many people, that people flocked to Him so that He could help them. Thats what we try to do as leaders is to help other missionaries. To help members and none members alike. To help them know that they have great purpose to their lives and that Our Father in Heaven Loves them! We should all try to help those that we are to look after, or to lead by example. There are many great ways to help those around us!

The Lords Love

Well, I apologise in advance for this blog, its not very long but i promise to write another one on the same topic soon. I just want to send out a challenge to all that read this to look for the Lord's love in each of your lives. No matter how big or small the act of love is He is continually pouring out blessings all around us. Such as for us recently, on our preparation days we can go out and do activities, this week we went golfing. So as we were out at the driving range someone pointed out to us, its the first of November in Wyoming and its a 60+ degree day. There have been very few days that I can remember with weather that nice. A very small thing, but yet we could still count it as a blessing because there are very many other things that could have changed the way we felt about the day but the weather was not one of those things. I love the Lord and I Know He Loves all of us. So let us all work a little harder to focus on the good and not the bad in life.

Temple Marriage

Temple marriages is something unique to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I will talk more about other things that we can do in the Temples on a later date. The blessings that come from the temple are soo special. The blessing that I am focusing on today is marriages. One of the reasons temple marriages are so important is because of the Priesthood on the earth today we can seal things on earth as well as in heaven. So death can no longer separate our families. This is so important because when we find that special someone that we want to spend the rest of our lives with we will want nothing to separate us. So it is very important we make the right choice when choosing a mate. We need to look for someone with the same basic beliefs, someone you can talk to, to be your friend, and that you can laugh with. I have always thought of it as you will find someone that is your best friend, someone that when times get tough you would rather have them at your side than anyone else that you have met. Once you have found this person we should always go to the Lord for approval. Then you can be sealed. These are very sacred things that we are not supposed to discuss because they are so special. But just because you will be together forever doesn't mean things will be easy. Like all good things in life its something you have to work at. Its a team effort, we have to be in it to win it. There are so many things in the world today that are attacking the family. And many people often wonder where a safe haven could be. And this should be our homes. We should strive to do all we can to make sure there is love at home. That the members of your home feel safe and they know it is a place to discus things that are troubling. There is no one perfect way to do this but one good way to start is by having family prayer. There is a saying I heard growing up that says the family that prays together stays together. We must also read the scriptures and attend church together so that we may involve the Lord in all that we do. He is the ultimate source of wisdom and protection. I know these are true and will work because this is the way that i was raised and it helped me in more ways that I even realize. It also makes it a little less hard when we loose a loved one because we won't have to wonder if we will see them again. We can have the knowledge that we WILL see and BE with them again. This is my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The Lord will give us rest

So the thought today is from Matthew 11:28-30. These verses are such wonderful examples of how much the Lord Loves us. He tell us if we are going through hard times, if our burdens are becoming to heavy to bear by ourselves to come to Him and he will give us rest. What this means today is repentance. The world world can be a hectic place that is moving so fast that at times we are caught up in the race, and at times this means that we have fallen into temptation. Which causes us great feeling of sorrow and remorse. But we can be forgiven!! What a joy that is! This scripture talks of how to learn of Him, so we can learn of His infinite love, care, and mercy. He will give us rest from these burdens if we allow Him to. So we must ask for forgiveness and feel sorry and turn away from those things that are causing us to do wrong. One of my favorite ways to describe repentance is change. The Lord has so many blessing for us. He just want us to do as this scriptures says and turn to Him and rest our burdens upon Him and become better and share this good news with others so they can experience the same joy we do. I love the Lord and I know He can and will forgive us.

Faith

Faith has been on my mind a lot lately... faith is such a wonderful thing that can take so many different forms. You can, and hopefully do, have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But before we get to that, what is faith? One of my personal favorite definitions for faith comes from the Book of Mormon in the book of Alma Chapter 32: 21... "faith is not having a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." what a great description. You don't need to have a perfect knowledge just a little bit that you can use as a foundation to build upon. So my own personal faith in Christ comes not because I have seen Him but because I have felt His presence through the power of the Holy Ghost. So this is through the feelings I have had. I have had amazing warm comforting feelings when I have thought or prayed about Jesus to know if He is truly is there. One can have faith in so many other aspects in life. For me as a missionary I must have the faith to know that our message is true but also to know that there are people out there ready to hear this message. So I often wonder how to increase my faith. And this comes through experience and also through trust. We must actually go out and try to find people and we must also call upon the Lord and ask Him for the help and guidance. So by going out and searching for these people and when you find someone then it helps you see, okay, it is possible there are people here. Then of course you must recognize that we can do nothing on our own, so we must give thanks to the Lord for His tender mercies. As I read through the scriptures, and I read of the great and wonderful miracles these wonderful men, heroes, have been able to do with the Lords help and do to the great faith and trust they had in the Lord and it makes me think man, why can't we do that now... but wait! Has God ever said that he would stop doing these things... NO!!! He says in the book of Hebrews Chapter 13 verse 8 it says; " Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." So that means that we could still do these things today if we had the faith and if it were the Lords will. So that is one of my own personal goals and I challenge others to try increase your faith in all the things you do. I promise you that if you do you will be able to not only become a better person, but you can help so many more people. Faith is one of those things you can't have to much of. That is my testimony in the name of our Lord and Savor Jesus Christ, Amen,.

Language of the Spirit

So we recently had a mission wide meeting. At this meeting there were large groups of missionaries there to be trained, a lot like district meeting but from leaders with far more wisdom. So we discussed many wonderful topics that really invited the spirit and taught us how to become better missionaries. The topic that i would like to focus on is the language of the spirit. So the one who spoke on this his name is Elder Alan Packer of the Quorm of the 70. He is a very inspired man who has listened to the spirit and really has begun to understand it in his life and he was trying to help us understand it so we could become more effective. the reason it is so important to understand what the spirit is saying to you is because the spirit is the one that teaches us truth and brings things to our remembrance as it says in the gospel of John chapter 14:26 and in Galatians 5:22. These are excellent examples of what the spirit is and what it does. And so if we, as missionaries and even everyone could benefit from being guides by the spirit, then we could become such a greater help to all of those that we come in contact with. So this applies to us as missionaries because when we teach we know that the people aren't converted because of us, but because the Holy Ghost or spirit testifies to them that things are true. So if we can learn to have the spirit with us then we can have it help us to know what questions to ask and what to say in the very moment we need it. Which will help people come to know that we love and care about them and more importantly that God loves them and thats why we are teaching them is because we have been called by a prophet of God to share this message with everyone, and the spirit is the one that teaches, so if we continue to listen and follow the spirit the world will become better and the work will go so much better because we will have the Lords help with us at all times. And that is my testimony is the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The fruits of our labors

So today's title is because the Lord loves us. So, as missionaries we have been called to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. How Great is our call! So that's our purpose and we do our best to fulfill it. But it can be tough at times because some people feel they don't need to be baptized again or they won't follow the steps that will get them answers if the church is true or not. So it can be frustrating at times but we all have to make these key choices for ourselves and you don't want to push someone into it because these are life changing things we ask them to do. But we have been meeting with a boy named Jason and he has made the choice to be baptized!! Elder Goff and I were soo excited. It was cool because we were talking about the good feelings that he feels as he goes to church and reads from The Book of Mormon and meets with us and we were able to explain that that's how God gives answers is by the good feelings we have. And so I had a voice inside telling me to extend the baptismal invitation. And just before I said it, Elder Goff did and he accepted!! What a joyful moment that was. That makes all of the hard times and slow times all seem worth it when there is someone that is willing to follow the example of our Savior and be baptized by the proper Priesthood authority. So those are the joys that come from the fruits of our labors and the tender mercies from the Lord! 

Sunshine in our soul

Well, the title today is because I was think just how lucky we are to have another day. The weather here in Wyoming is changing already. The sun is coming up later and later and it is cooler in the mornings then its been. Each morning we wake up at 6.30am. And now the sun isn't up when we get up so its fun to wait until it comes up so we can wait for this new day. And we know the one who controls these new days is God. And i have been thinking what joy that must be for God when He raises the sun. I know He has been doing it longer than we can even imagine but the joy that must bring as He brings light and warmth into the world He created for us. And we know He can bring that same warmth and light into our lives with His Gospel. We, missionaries, study the scriptures for 2 hours each morning and it is able to warm up our spirits and to lighten up our day to help us through lifes tests each day. The same way the sun lights those darkened areas and brings that warmth and light that all of man kind needs. So we should all do our best to study from Gods Holy Word and brighten our days and warm our spirits. So we may not be able to control when the sun comes out, but we can always bring that sunshine into our souls by studying His word.

District Meeting

Today we had District Meeting. What this means is we had a missionary meeting. The missions are broke up into different ways. It starts as we are all in the Billings Montana Mission. And the mission as a whole is broken up into different Zones, so that means just an area of land. So right now i am serving in the Wyoming south zone. So we cover the southern most part of our mission. Then the zone is broken up even smaller into districts. The purpose of these zones and districts is for these meetings. At these district meetings the missionaries are trained on how to improve our teaching ability. We know that Christ was always helping his disciples and the other prophets have helped the people improve and since us as missionaries are the unlearned and foolish things of the world, because when one looks at how young we are and how few life experiences we have and how small our knowledge of the scriptures are we can come off as unlearned and foolish, so we need all the help that we can get. But the good news for us is that Heavenly Father knows that so He, when we are  worthy of it, will bless us with His spirit which is the true teacher. So at these meetings they try to help us to recognize how to follow the guidance of the spirit. The topics that we have been focusing on most recently is teaching people, not just lessons. I know it has helped me a lot because there have been times on my mission that i knew what to teach but i don't know if it was when those people were ready to here what we taught. And now that we are focusing so much on people needs not just the material it helps us to meet peoples needs. So we are doing our best to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ. The way He would teach was asking questions and adapting to those people. He told many parables because they were stories or examples that they could picture, stuff they knew about so it made more sense to them. And thats what we try to do in these meetings, is to become better so we can benefit others so we can help them feel our Saviors love and be able to enjoy the wonderful blessings that come from membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and to know the Priesthood is on the earth once more.

I am so grateful we get to go to church each week and take the sacrament. It is so wonderful to be able to renew those sacred covenants or promises that we have made with God when we agreed to take upon our selves the name of Christ, at baptism. And today was Fast and testimony meeting, so that means all in attendance have a chance to get up and briefly talk about how we gained our testimony of the Savior and some of the things we are grateful for. And we fast for our own personal reasons and as we are willing to give up a little for the Lord He shows His love by giving even more blessings.

My Mission so far...

Well, i got this idea from my current companion Elder Goff, and that is to tell a little about each companion and area so far. I started my mission in Miles City, Montana. That's where I was "Trained." What this means is because I was fresh from home they put me with a missionary that had more experience in the mission field. His name was Elder Fischer, he is from North Carolina. So we both spent close to 3 months in Miles City and during that time we had a lot of fun. We got to meet a lot of wonderful people and make a lot of memories. Then after that i was moved to Hamilton, MT. I was then companions with Elder Conway from Southern Utah. We were together for about 6 weeks, and we also had a lot of fun. But we had to ride bikes and that was my first time riding bikes in quite a while and we lived at the top of a hill so it took me a few weeks to get in shape because i was hurting pretty good. Then i was teamed up with a missionary from Honduras named Elder Vallejo. We had lots of fun together as well but when we were together that's when winter hit and it was pretty darn cold. I am from central CA and we get a little chilly in the winter time but no snow, so that was quite the change for me. Then off to Clinton. I spent about 6 months there and had a blast. I served with Elder Cassaro from CA and Elder Mortenson from south east AZ. We had lots of fun there. Since i spent a lot of time there and its a pretty small area i knew a lot of people in that area. Then from the smaller town to the bigger cities. I left Clinton for Bozeman to serve with Elder Stewart from AZ. I got there in April so i figured the winter was over, but to my surprise we got snow about every week i was there which made it interesting because we rode bikes there too. So after my short stay in Bozeman i went to the capital city of Helena to serve with Elder Butler from CA. We learn what a joy it is to live and ride bikes in a town that no matter which way you turned the wind was always in our faces, but it was not all bad because it was summer time and we were both on the sweaty side of things for most of our stay. Then it was off to Laurel, MT for me to serve with Elder Willey from Georgia. That was another fun stop. We tried real hard and saw some successes, but made a great friendship. Then Elder Brunson from lonely northern Nevada. The reason i say lonely is because if it weren't for I 80 running through there, there would be even less to do. We had a lot of fun in Laurel too. Then for my current post of Worland, WY to serve with Elder Goff from toasty southern Nevada. We came out on our missions at the same time so we had met before so it was like catching up with an old friend. So that's my journey thus far and i love it!!