I know that Christ Died for me, But what Exactly did he Suffer for Me

      Yes, Christ died for me but just what exactly did he suffer for ME? We have been told to "liken" the scriptures to ourselves, and this is why...

      In the Book of Mormon there is a man who talks about what Christ's Atonement is. Alma 7:11-13 says this:

 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and ^aafflictions and ^btemptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will ^ctake upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him ^adeath, that he may ^bloose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to ^csuccor his people according to their infirmities.

 13 Now the Spirit ^aknoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the ^bflesh that he might ^ctake upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

      Now we can change this a bit to make it personal to us.
11. And he shall go forth, suffering MY pains which are .... and MY afflictions which are... and My temptations which are...; and this that the word might be fulfulled which saith he will take upon him MY pains and MY sicknesses.

12. And he will take upon him death/fear, that he may loose the bands of death/ fear which hold me down; and he will take upon him my imperfections, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to how it is that I feel, that he may know by my way of thinking how to succor (bring) me unto him according to my imperfections.

13. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to exactly what I am going through. this, so that he will know how to take upon him my sins, that he might blot our my transgressins according to his deliverance. and now this is the testimony (the things I know to be true) which is in me.

      Go back through this and fill in the blanks with what we are going through. Then we will understand what it is that He exactly went through for each on of us.

Look at the Postitive, The Negative is NOT the Answer

       Unfortunately, there are many who have thought about suicide. They are faced with trials and challenges that lead to feelings of guilt and shame. When we let those feelings torment us we are allowing Satan to take control of us. We are no longer letting Christ's Atonement take hold of the things we have done, or the things that we are stressing over such as: finances, jobs, friends, sins of any kind, and whatever else we have to deal with.
       All throughout the Book of Mormon this phrase pops up; "And it came to pass..." this doesn't say "And thus it continued..." It says and it came to PASS. "Pass" is past tense. Every trial we are faced with will eventually pass by just as they did in the Book of Mormon and in the Bible. If we continue to ponder on the bad in our life then we will pass by the good. Our purpose in this life is to gain knowledge so we can be like our Father in Heaven. He loves each one of us and knows what it is that we are going through. These things will come to pass. Here are a list of different quotes and sayings that have helped me to understand more of what I can do and what our Heavenly Father will do for us.
       "We may endure pain through the night. But joy will come in the morning, we need to just wait. Wait means to trust in the Lord through faith." (Unknown)
       "He always hears our prayers and will inevitably answer them. However, His answers will seldom come when you are on your knees praying, even when you plead for an immediate response. Rather, He will prompt  you in quiet  moments when the spirit can most effectively touch your mind and heart. Hence, you should find periods of quiet time to recognize when your are being instructed. His pattern causes you to grow. Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. Your character will grow; your faith will increase. There is a relationship between these two: the greater your faith, the stronger your character; and increased in character enhances your ability to excersize even greater faith." (Richard G. Scott)
        "Sometimes the Lord brings us low, before he lifts us higher" (Joseph Smith)
       "The longer we delay corrective actions the longer the needed changes become, and the longer it takes to get back on the correct coarse- even to the point where a disaster might be looming" (Elder Randall K. Bennett)
       "No parent will just sit back and let someone harm their child. Yet we just allow Satan to tear us apart. He slowly binds us with little strings. One or two at a time. We can brake through one or two but when we allow anger, yelling, or any other negative feeling enter into our relationship with our loved one, we are allowing more and more strings to bind us down. This can all be prevented with the simple phrase 'I love you and I'm sorry' Don't let yourself get bound up by hurtful feelings or language in your home." (Elder TJ Owens)

Learn to Lead with Love and not Push with Force

       An old farmer drives his John Deere tractor down the road carrying a bail of hay, his cattle fallowing behind him. A young cowboy saddles up his horse and puts on his hat to head out for a long day at work.
       The young cowboy spends all day trying to round up his cattle and get them to move to the south 40. Its hot outside and he is getting real frustrated. The cattle aren't doing what he wants them to do. No matter how much he yells or as much as he cracks his whip, they still will not move.
       The old farmer continues to lead his cattle down the road. His cattle, all in a line down the shoulder of the street, follow their leader. The farmer gets to the gate and opens it. He pulls his tractor just inside to allow every cow to enter behind him. He gives each one an apple and slowly heads back home.
       The young cowboy finishes up for the day and heads home to prepare for supper with his parents. He rounds up his children, kicking and screaming along the way. He yells at them to sit down and be quiet until they get to grandma and grandpa's. When they arrive at his parents his kids pile out to give grandpa a big hug and see what grandma is cookin, then go outside to play. When supper is ready the young cowboy hollers for his kids to come and wash up. He gets them and put in their seats as grandma and grandpa wait patiently.
       After supper the kids get down and head out to play. The young cowboy, right after them, tries to make them settle down. After a lot of frustration from the young cowboy, grandpa get up and takes the kids by the hand and walks them to his chair. He sits down and puts the children on his lap as he reads a book with them. Then that old farmer looks up at the young cowboy and says "Son, you must learn to lead with love rather than push with force."

My Personal Bodyguard

I love Jackie Chan. He is someone that I wouldn't mind being around if something bad was going to happen. When I watch a Jackie Chan movie, I get all excited to go out and see if I can fight like him. As with a lot of people. When we are in a movie and the setting is an action movie then we get all ready and excited to get out and see what we are made of. But its when we are excited and then we leave the movie and we realize that Jackie Chan is not with us anymore and we realize that we are not as great of a fighter as he is. We get into that situaltion that calls for us to do something, but we get intimidated or just give into peer preasure and we don't do what we are suppose to. We dont have that comfort of Jackie Chan right there beside us.
       The same happens to us when we have a great spiritual experience in church, at a fireside, in a prayer, listening to a church speaker, or meeting with the missionaries. We have such a spiritual high and are excited to get out and follow along with the things that the spirit has talked to us about. But once we get around our friends or out into the worldly things, we realize that we arent around the same people and we lose that feeling of power. We forget about the things that we just learned and the goals that we just made because we are not in the same atmosphere as we were while we had that great feeling.
        What if we had Jackie Chan right beside us when the time for us to stand up to someone arose? Would you be scared to still go over and confront that person or that problem? If I had Jackie Chan next to me I would go out looking for somone to start something so I could watch him work. I would want to show my friends that I have Jackie Chan as my personal bodyguard. I would have that great feeling with me all the time knowing that he is right there to have my back.
       The same goes for us when we have that great spiritual experience. We can still have the spirit with us. And when we do it, is just like our Savior, Jesus Christ, walking along side us. Now what do we have to worry about? What possible problem could arise that He couldn't take care of? Wouldn't you want to share that great feeling with your friends? To show them that they too can have Christ walking along side them. By setting the exsample for them, they will notice the difference in us and they will want the same feelings that we have. But we first have to remember the things that we must do in order to have the spirit with us. Such as reading our scriptures, going to church and our other meetings, and saying our payers. These things will allow the spirit to be in our lives. We won't have anything to be afraid of anymore.

Missionary Work

       Missionary work is extremely important in these latter days. It is our job as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to go out and bring others unto Christ. Just as when you hear a great story, it does you no good if you do not go out and share it with someone. You won't be able to get the fullness of joy that it has if you can not share it with someone. How great does it feel to call up your friend and tell them a great story that you just heard, so now you both can enjoy it together?
       Just as missionary work is important to share with others, it is also very enjoyable to share with your friends. Being able to see happiness be broght into your friends' life because of what you shared with them is one of the best feelings you can get. Watching them change their life around from not so good to even better is an amazing thing and we can all be apart of someones life changing experience. All we have to do is open our mouths and let the words flow.
       In Doctrine and Covenants chapter 4 verses 2 and 4 it says: "2. Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strenght, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day." Then verse 4 says "For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul."
       We are to "thrusteth in his sickle with (our) might" with all our "heart, might, mind, and strength" so we can lay up in store salvation to our soul. It says in verse 4  that the field is white ALREADY to harvest. We don't need to plant seeds when it is time to harvest the crop. As full time missionaries and as member missionaries it is our duty to go out and harvest Heavenly Father's crops (children). He has prepared them and now it is our turn to bring them unto him.
       Just as Ammon, in the Book of Mormon, when he served his mission, had the state of mind to baptise everyone that he could. We too must have that same mentallity. Ammon did't worry about his girlfriend and he didnt count down the time he had left, he just went out and put his heart, might, mind, and strength into missionary work. Look at how successfull he was by doing that. How successfull can we be if we fallow D&C 4?