God is our Loving Heavenly Father

God is our loving Heavenly Father.  We are spiritual sons and daughters of God.  He loves us so very much.  He wants to hear from us through sincere prayer.  He has a perfected glorified body.  We are created after the image of God.

"The Gospel is Simply Beautiful and Beautifully Simple."

I love the teachings of the gospel.  I know what I need to do to be happy.  As my mission president puts it, "the gospel is simply beautiful and beautifully simple."  We either follow Christ and are happy, or we don't and are not happy.  It is simple.  When we do make mistakes, we humbly turn to Chrisrt and use His sacrifice and repent.  It is our choice, we don't have to yeild to sin and evil.  God is our loving Heavenly Father; He will never turn His back on us.

"The Race"

attributed to Dr. D.H. "Dee" Groberg

Whenever I start to hang my head in front of failure’s face,
my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell.
They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son,
and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one.
 
The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of fire,
to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy’s desire.
One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,
was running in the lead and thought “My dad will be so proud.”
But as he speeded down the field and crossed a shallow dip,
the little boy who thought he’d win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace,
and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.
As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn’t win it now.
Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow.

But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!”
He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all,
and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again.
He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.
“I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.”
 
But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face
with a steady look that said again, “Get up and win that race!”
So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.
“If I’m to gain those yards,” he thought, “I’ve got to run real fast!”
Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten...
but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.
Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.
“There’s no sense running anymore! Three strikes I’m out! Why try?
I’ve lost, so what’s the use?” he thought. “I’ll live with my disgrace.”
But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face.
 
“Get up,” an echo sounded low, “you haven’t lost at all,
for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
Get up!” the echo urged him on, “Get up and take your place!
You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!”
So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit,
and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been,
still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win.
Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.
 
They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place,
head high and proud and happy -- no falling, no disgrace.
But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place,
the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,
you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd.
And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.”
“To me, you won,” his father said. “You rose each time you fell.”
 
And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face,
the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.
For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,
another voice within me says, “Get up and win that race!”

Repentance and Change

Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to repent.  Repentance is more than cleansing us from sin.  We all can repent.  If we exercise faith in Christ and repent, we can be free form feelings of guilt and shame caused by sin.  I really like what Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles said:

Worth of a Soul

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;"(Doctrine and Covenants 18: 10).  How great we may ask?  It is so great that He gave His life for all of us.  "For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.  And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance.  And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!"(Doctrine and Covenants 18: 11-13).

"Come unto me"

Christ has given the call, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."(Matthew 11: 28.)   How do we come unto Christ?  We heed the call.  We do what is right, even when it is hard.  We love and serve others.  We repent and become something better.  We do the best we can.

How to Prepare for the Big Test

What happens when we die?  Are we ready to meet God?  How will we feel?  What is our purpose in life?  How can we be safe?  Change is hard sometimes, especially if we aren't familiar with what will happen.  A fear many people have is death.  How can we be prepared?  What can we do?

Our Savior's Call

I am so thankful for the call of the Savior.  Christ has given us the call to, "come forth unto me."(3 Nephi  11: 14).  He also calls, "Follow thou me."(2 Nephi 31:10).  The invitation of the Savior is to come and follow Him. He wants to bless and change us!  The question is, how do we come and follow Him?

What's In Your Garden?

How do we get what we want?  Is there a sure way to get good in return?  What must we do to be happy?  These are some big questions, especially in a world that may feel like nothing is certain.  Today I would like to write a little about a few things we can do that will certainly wield rewards we can count on.  I have been reading the New Testament.  The other morning in my studies, I came across a few verses of scripture in Galatians chapter six.  It is simple, but has such a powerful message.  Verses 7-9 read,

"7Be not decieved; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

 8For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

 9And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

You Are What You Eat

There are a lot of things in the world that compete for our attention.  Whether it is the media, school, friends, religion.  A lot of things are beckoning for our attention.  Our personality, even our character, is determined by our choice of activities and things we do.  It makes sense, what is taken in is what comes out.  If you plant a apple seed, you can expect a apple tree.  There would be no reason to expect a orange tree.

Justice and Mercy

Rules are great and terrible, depends on which side you are on.  They are important to keep us safe, and they allow us to grow.  What happens if rules are established that we can't possibly live up to?  We are all found in this predicament.  The rules are the rules of Heaven.  We all agreed to live them before we even came to earth, so that we could have a chance to progress.  The problem is that in order to succeed we have to be perfect.  If we can't do it, how can it be paid in full?  I was reading through some old Ensigns the other night, one talk really caught my attention.  I have included a quote from it.  The talk is from James E. Faust.  It's title is, The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope.  This part really stuck out to me:

Sick and Tired

For the past few days I have been sick.  It is no fun being sick.  I have a cold; the sore throat is not any fun.  I have been takeing medicine, but I still don't know what is wrong.  The weather has been really cold.  This isn't helping my cause.  I think I need to figure out something different to get rid of this.  Maybe I need to recoup.  On this same subject, I would like to address those of us who may be sick and tired, spiritually, who haven't been able to find help.  To get better takes medicine, it takes change, and it takes time.  Just like what I am going through with the cold, concoring spiritual sickness takes this too.

The Greatest Act Ever Done

I wish to write about the Atonement.  This is the single most important act in all human history.  There is so much I could say about this, but I will only write just a little.  With reverence I wish to address this topic.  First I would like to address why it is so important.  Jacob, a Prophet from the Book of Mormon, wrote,

"Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more. O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. " (2 Nephi 9:7-8)

One Wild Day

This is an interesting picture.  It is of course a stop sign, but it has a different way of saying it.  I really like this stop sign because it is different.  The day this picture was taken has an interesting story behind it.  As you can see looking at me, my tie is tucked away inside my suit pocket; this is because of the events that happened before this photo was taken.
Elder Thomas and I were teamed up doing missionary work this day.  We were on the way to some people we wanted to try.  Earlier this week, as you can see, it snowed.  It snowed quite a bit but that wasn't the worst part.  The wind here in Billings can get blowing good, so one thing we have to watch out for is drifts of snow that appear in the road, especially back roads.  Well, as we were headed to try some people we hit one of these drifts going pretty fast.   We hoped we would brake through it, but to our great disappointment, it was a very big drift and we got stuck.  Because of our momentum, we made it far into the drift and we were high centered and stuck. 
We tried to dig and push our way out, but we weren't going anywhere.

"When the Weather Outside is Frightful"

It is very snowy and cold.  The past few days it has been some negative temperatures Fahrenheit.  Sunday it was even down to -14 degrees Fahrenheit.  When it is this cold and snowy I really don't like being outside especially when it is windy. 
The people I live with have a cat, its name is Leo.  He is a house cat that is determined to get outside, where he isn't allowed.  He claws at the doors and is always looking for a way to escape.  If he only knew what was outside. 

Accident

Yesterday Elder Wells and I were leaving Walmart.  As we were stopped at a stop sign, an unfortunate event happened.  The Lady in the car behind us lost her footing on the brake and bumped the back of our car.  We found a place to park and went out to inspect the damage and visit with the lady.  She was very sorry and shook up.  The car had no damage, it was just a bump, so we talked with her about God and we went our separate ways. 

Roads of Life

I have traveled up and down a lot of roads, but this one caught my eye.  This road is in St. Marie, Montana.  This is a old Air Force base that has been shut down for quite a few years.  As you can tell, this road hasn't had a lot of travel on it and hasn't been kept up, and slowly it is being overrun by the grasses and weeds.