The Final Count Down...

  My blog today will consist of some of my thoughts now that I am at the last week of my mission. There is so much that I wish I could talk about but I will try to keep this brief.. A mission is a lot like a roller coaster, there are a lot of high points a few lows, but they are a ton of fun and they go FAST!!! It may seem hard to believe that 2 years goes by fast but when you are forgetting about yourself and your needs the time flys by. There has been no greater joy in my life, so far, than the great and many miracles that I have been able to see and experience on my mission while serving the Lord. To grow in love faith and trust in the Lord.

  One of the things that I have gained such a greater understand and love for is the term enduring to the end. There are a few places in the scriptures that talk about this enduring to the end and how important it is. I like sports so I like to think of things like sports and enduring to the end is no different. Say you are running a race and you start off strong, you take and early lead there is no one close to you, or even if you are right in the middle of the pack. You are going along and all of a sudden you get tried so you throw on the brakes and walk off the track. Doesn't make much sense to me. Sure its easy and and you were tired but where does that get up in life? No where! I have often heard the quote, " I never said it would be easy, all I said is that it would be worth it. Life isn't easy! There are many curve balls many obstacles that pop up in our way that slow us down or discourage us, but we must go on. There is a prize out there for all of us if we finish the race. We may come out of it with a few bumps and bruises, scratches and scrapes, but in the end we will all be made whole, because of the love of our Great Savior and Redeemer. So don't give up work hard, especially if the time is short!

The Book of Mormon...

  The topic from the Book of Mormon I wish to address to day is about weaknesses. Weaknesses are talked about quite a bit in the Book of Mormon. Whether it be the person who was writing, or one of the things that they write about talk about why we all have weaknesses. Since all of us are humans, this means that we have weaknesses, but lucky for us God doesn't dislike us for our weaknesses, He gave them to us for a reason. And here are two fine examples of why we have weaknesses.

  The first I wish to cover comes from the Book of Jacob chapter 4:7 "Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things." And also in the Book of Ether 12:27 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

  There are two great reasons for weaknesses, so we maybe able to recognize our constant need for God's infinite love and tender mercies towards us. I know during my whole surgery I was show just how weak I really am, but now looking back I am very grateful because I was able to develop such a greater love for my Heavenly Father, and realize how much He loves me and how much He was able to help me. I used to get so frustrated growing up, because I had a lot of difficulty reading, so when I first started on my mission I was worried that it would slow me down a lot. At first it did, because I would get so down on myself for not being able to read like other people. But as in most things in life there are two ways to approach weaknesses, give up and use it as a crutch or work as hard as you can to try and over come it. After I read that scripture from Ether I wanted to put God to the test and see, if He could help me become better at reading. And I am here to say that He did help me with my reading, and many of the other struggles that I have. And He will do the same for you. God is no respecter of persons, He loves us all the same. So He can and will help you with whatever your weakness maybe. I have a strong testimony of this and I leave it in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.