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?

CTR Many Different Meanings

     Many LDS members wear a ring that has CTR engraven on it. Alot of non-members don't understand the meaning of CTR. Well CTR has several meanings such as: Choose The Right, Cross The River, Can't Touch the Righteous, and Called To Retrieve.  Many people give these rings as gifts to a loved one to share with them the incredible feeling that comes with keeping the commandments of our Father in Heaven. These different sayings apply to all kinds of people. Choose The Right applies to all of God's children. Like it says in Mosiah 2:21-22

       21.I say unto you that if ye should ^aserve him who has created you from the beginning, and is ^bpreserving you from day to day, by lending you ^cbreath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own ^dwill, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your ^ewhole souls yet ye would be ^funprofitable servants.

       22.And behold, all that he ^arequires of you is to ^bkeep his commandments; and he has ^cpromised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth ^dvary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do ^ekeep his ^fcommandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

     What these scriptures are talking about that goes with Choose The Right is that our Father in Heaven is blessing us everyday by lending us breath. All that he asks of us is to keep his commandments. Choose The Right. How simple is it to just read our scriptures, go to church, and pray to Him each day? He loves each of us and wants to help us. All we have to do is ask and he will immediately bless us.

     The next one is Cross The River. This one goes along with the early pioneers, when they had to cross the country to get to Utah. They pushed through all of their struggles and hard times, they crossed the rivers set before them. They pushed forward on their faith and their prayers. We too must Cross The River when we are faced with a trial. Through our own prayers and our own faith we will be able to gain the strength needed to cross the river. Our Heavenly Father helped them out, I know that He will help us cross the rivers that we will face in our life.

     Can't Touch the Righteous. If we choose the right and cross the rivers that are placed before us, then Heavenly Father has promised us that He will bless and protect us. Satan will have no power over us if we continue to fallow the commandments.When we mess mess up, through Christ's Atonement, we can repent and be cleansed from out sins and be pure again. if we are clean and pure in heart then Satan and his followers Can't Touch the Richous.

     Called to Retrieve goes with missionaries as well as members of the church. We are all called to retrieve God's children and bring them back to Him. Just like when you have something that you love, you want to share it with your friends and family. Jesus Christ's teachings, the Gospel, has blessed our our lives and therefore we are to bring others unto it. This way they too can eel the love, peace, joy, and happiness that comes from Choosing The Right, Crossing The River, keeping ourselves righteous, and retrieving our brothers and sisters to come unto Christ.

Recieving faith and a sign from God; Just like when the Iron is Hot

       There are many questions reguarding faith and wanting signs from God. What is faith? How can I believe something without seeing it first? How can I obtain faith? God gave signs to people in the past, so why not me? These are all questions that many people have asked, and many more. Well I would like to compare faith and recieving signs to a hot iron.
       I was told this analogy that really changed my attitude: if someone held up a hot iron, so you could see the glowing white and orange, and said this is hot. would you believe them? What if you were blind folded? Would you trust and have faith in them? Or would you insist on having a sign first and having that iron placed on your chest so that you could know that it was hot?
       In Doctrine and Covenants 63: 9-10 it says: "9 But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe. 10 Yea, signs come by faith, not by the will of men, nor as they please, but by the will of God."
       Then in the Book of Mormon in Ether 12:6 it 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 recieve no winess until after the trial of your faith."
       That blindfold that was talked about in the analogy will not come off, no matter how hard we fight against it, until we excersize  just a particle of faith. Just by trusting in our Father in Heaven we are excersizing faith. Just like it said in D&C 63:9 " But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs fallow those that believe." And as well, as it said in D&C 63:10, we will not recieve signs by our will but by only  the Lords will, will we recieve any answere.
       Going back to Ether 12:6 it says "... wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye recieve no witness until after the trial of your faith." AFTER we excersize some faith and believe in Heavenly Father and his prophet, in which he has called, then shall He take that blindfold from us and show us the glowing of the iron rod that is set before us.
       It is my testimony that those who are asking any of these questions, or ones like it, that they dont wait for that hot iron to be pressed on their chest. Pray to our Father in Heaven and open your heart unto him. He is here for us and he loves each of us. I have done this very thing and I have had the blindfold taken off. I know that God lives and that His son, Jesus Christ, is my savior. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His true and living church. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God and  that Thomas S. Monson is the acting Prophet today. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Using Scriptures to help your Marriage

       One of our greatest blessings is families. Our loving Heavenly Father has blessed us with families for us to raise our children in and to let ourselves grow as well. He has blessed us to create life. He knows and understands the responsibility that he has given us. But do we?

       He also knows and understands that we are not perfect and therefore we all argue. He knows each one of us and our attitude. He has provided us with scriptures for us to learn and study from. He has talked about marriage and husband and wife relationships in 1 Corinthians 7: 2-5. These verses describe how a husband and wife can love one another and learn to strengthen each other.

       In verse 3 it says "Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and like-wise also the wife unto the husband."

       At the bottom of the page where the footnotes are, if you look at footnote "c" for benevolence it says: love within family; continuing courtship in marriage. So according to the scriptures the husband has to show love within his own family and to continue courtship in the marriage with his wife. And the same goes for the wife as well.

       Then in verse 4 it says "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife."

       This verse does not mean you have control over your spouse's body. It simply means that both the husband and the wife are to work together and they are to work and do as one. They are married and therefore must work side by side in order to accomplish anything. When it says that your spouse is in charge of your body and your are in charge of theirs then we are to respect one another. Like this verse says, they have control of our body, so if we respect them then we are respecting what is ours.

        In verse 5 it says "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency."

       The footnote for defraud says " depart ye not one from the other..." What this verse is saying is to not leave your spouse without consent. And if you both do decide to split up for a time do it with much fasting and prayer. Then "...come together again, that Satan..." In the footnote for Satan it says "use self control." Control yourself when speaking with one another. The next word in the verse is "tempt" the footnote for that says "lust." So we are to use self control over our lusts and work together as one. This way we don't give into the temptation to lust after our anger and then say or do something that we will regret.

       God blesses families. Families start by the husband and wife promising to love one another and take care of one another in their marriage. We will all have different trials in our life and different situations that we will face. We are given scriptures for us to learn from. Use these verses to strengthen yourself and your marriage, if you need them, then share them with others who are in need of help.

Hakuna matata, It means no worries

"Hakuna matata, what a wonderful phrase. Hakuna matata, it aint no passin craze. It means no worries for the rest of your days. It's our problem free, philosophy. Hakuna matata."
     As a kid I loved to watch the movie The Lion King. Even now at 20 years old I still love that movie. One of my favorite characters is Mufasa. He is just so cool and I always wanted to have his voice. But anyways, Mufasa is the one that leads Simba, his son, throughout his life. He guides him and helps him along the way. He is there to give Simba advice when he needs it.
     My second favorite characters are Timon and Pumbaa. They are best friends that meet up with Simba when he ran away. They make him their friend and look after him. They teach him the term " Hakuna matata" which means no worries. Simba ran away from his problems and feelings of guilt and shame. He tries to forget his past and just worry about now. But his past catches up with him. Simba runs into this monkey named Rafiki. He tries to tell Simba that he can't always run away from his past. But Simba wont listen, so Rafiki has to show him instead of tell him. Rafiki hits him on the head with his stick. Simba says "What was that for?" Rafiki says back "What does it matter? Its in the past." Simba answeres " Ya, but it still hurts." Rafiki replies, "What happens in the past may still hurts if not takin care of."
     Rafiki helped Simba understand that you still have to take care of things that happened in the past in order to overcome them. Now Simba has the support of his friends Timon and Pumbaa, and the guidance of his father, Mufasa. Simba goes back to his home in Pride rock to face his past. Simba's uncle Scar has takin over his land and has ruined it all. Simba, with the help of Mufasa, overcomes his trials and regains his land and gets rid of the guilt and shame he felt.
     I have related this great movie to myself and others. How often do we try to run away from our past? Trying to forget our feelings of guilt and shame that are caused from our past transgressions and sins. Just like Simba did, we have a loving 'Heavenly' Father to guide us along our way. He is here to help us IF we ask and accept it from him. Because of our Savior's atonement we are able to face our past and overcome those feelings that we felt. Through Him we can once again be happy and have peace and joy in our life. Just like Rafiki said "What happens in the past still hurts..." but we can overcome it with our fathers help.

Branding; as a Cowboy and a Missionary

      I love branding time. I look forward to it all year. Out on my mission I have branded afew times. I love getting the call from a rancher to see if we are able to come out and help him brand on Saturday. I love to be out there as the ropers rope the calves and and us muggers wrestle the calves. I really enjoy the team work it takes to work with them.

      It takes a whole team of people working together to tackle this task. Not just one or two people can brand without having the help of others. Branding would be very hard, expecially when the one big one gets roped and its your turn to wrestle it. But it is those difficult ones that make the job alot of fun. This is when you have to rely on your team to come help you. Without the help of others you wouldnt be able to accomplish this task

      We as missionaries are kind of like the muggers. But we dont force out friends to do anything that they dont want to do. We are simply here to just lead and guide them to better their understanding of our Father and his Son. The ropers bring the calf to the mugger just like members bring their friends to us missionaries. It takes two muggers per calf, and it takes two missionaries per investigator. As we teach our new friend, the rest of our team, the ward members, come and help out our new friend. Just as when our branding team comes and doctors up the calf.

      Then comes the branding. When we brand the cattle we leave a mark on the outside to show everyone that it belongs to someone. When we brand our friends it is on the inside. This is called baptism. It is an inside brand that reflects on the outside. But just like with cattle, others can try to brand over your brand or the hair might grow over it, but that brand will always be there.

      Just as ranchers have to tend to their herds we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have to tend to our new friends that have just joined our herd. This means pulling them out of a ditch, getting them untangled when they step off the path and end up in a barbwire fence, and so on. Ranchers dont get a day off tending to their cattle and neither do we.

Facing the Trials

       We all have faced some sort of trial in our life. Some of us are even going through one right now. Some of these trials and challenges we face leave us to become depressed or feel that we have not done what we should have. Some of the trials may include financial issues, argueing with loved ones, loosing a loved one, having to face someone that we have offended or have offended us, and so many more. Sometimes we are lost on what we should do, we have done all that we can and yet we still feel that we havn't progressed. It may seem that our own friends and family have left us alone.
      We face trials in our life to test us on how we fallow God's commandments. Our Father in Heaven allows us to go through these trials to help us learn and grow from them. Even when we can't figure out what lesson we are to learn, there is something that can benifit us from it. It may even be that someone else might be going through something like what we are, we are going through it so that we can help them through our expierence. Or maybe its just for us to learn from.
      Alot of us have asked the question "Why is this happening to me?" The scriptures say 'first comes trial by faith, then comes your reward' We are tested first then we can recieve our reward. When the times get tough we are to look to our Heavenly Father for guidence. He is the best person we can turn to to help us through the trial that we are facing. Allways look to Him for help, for only he knows what we are to do.
      "Whoever puts their trust in God will have him with them." (Paul V. Johnson, LDS General Conferance April 2011)