Faith + Prayer = Miracles

This past week some wonderful things happened with myself and my companion. Heavenly Father blessed us. Although we always get blessings from Him, most of them go unrecognized by people. Most people think its just something that happened. I know that everything that we have is from our Loving Heavenly Father.
In missionary work, missionaries tend to do things themselves and not rely on the Spirit of God or on Jesus Christ. I know that I have fell into that trap. But that's not what we are supposed to do at all. We always need to rely on our Savior, to help us with everything. When we rely on Him, the work goes so much better!
One day just over a week ago, my companion and I sat down to plan out for the week. We planned how many lessons we wanted to teach. We had a pretty good goal to teach like 18 lessons when we remembered that our mission president told us to work harder and to teach more lessons. We talked about it and moved our goals to 21 lessons which is teaching 3 lessons a day. We made plans on how to do it. When we finished with our planning we got on our knees to tell Heavenly Father what we wanted to do and how we planned to do it and asked for His support. After the prayer we went out to work. We went and did what we said we would do. We prayed everyday and asked for His help. We were able to teach nearly 3 lessons that day and some days we taught 4 lessons. At the end of the week we ended up teaching 17 lessons. I don't say this to brag about how Elder Sherrow and I did. I say this because we relied upon the Lord Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. We prayed with faith. We worked with faith. We knew that miracles could happen with Heavenly Father and Christ on our side. I testify that as you have faith in the Lord, anything can happen!
We should all strive to do things the Lords way and not our way. As we do, good things will come into our life. Who wouldn't want good things to happen? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the first thing that we need to make good things happen.

I love to see the Temple!

Last year I was able to have the best Christmas present one could ever ask for. A trip inside the house of the Lord! I was able to go to the Bountiful Utah Temple last year for the first time. It was amazing. I could not ask for a better Christmas gift. You might be asking yourself, "Why is the temple such an amazing gift?" Even if you are not asking yourself that, let me tell you why I thought it was the best gift ever.

I am from Utah. I drive on I-15 (the main interstate in Utah) pretty often. As I drive on the freeway I see many temples but the one that stands out to me the most is the Bountiful Temple. I am drawn to it every time. So when the mission came around, I decided that I wanted to go to that temple first. That day was December 23 2010.

I was really excited to enter the house of the Lord that day. When I went inside, I had a wonderful feeling come over me. A feeling that is really hard to explain. But it was a feeling I wanted to have forever. That feeling is the Spirit of God. The Spirit confirmed to me at that moment that what I was doing was the right thing for me to do.

The gift that I received on that day was a gift from God. I, just like many members of the church, was endowed with, or given, power and knowledge from on high. The power helps us in our everyday lives and enables us to build Gods kingdom. (Preach My Gospel pg 86) I don't think there is a better gift than that, power from on high. 

After one is baptized by the priesthood authority, they can attend the temple. In the temple, Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints perform the saving ordinances in behalf of their deceased ancestors and others (Preach my Gospel pg 86)

I know that the temple truly is the House of the Lord. I am so grateful for the temples around the world. I am so grateful that I was able to attend that beautiful building in Bountiful Utah. I know that if you want to feel the Spirit of the Lord, the temple is one of the best places. That I know to be true.

For more information on the LDS temples, Visit http://www.lds.org/ and search temples.

Baptism by Water

As missionaries we are called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our purpose is 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 Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. We are called to invite. Our mission president told us that our purpose is to baptize. I have been working really hard to complete my purpose.

One day I met a guy named Jake. He is a wonderful guy from Australia. Well we were working with Jake for a long time. My companion and I invited him to be baptized many times but he had things he had to work on so it took him much longer than expected to be baptized. But Jake progressed, he came to church, he read out of the Book of Mormon and he prayed to God to know if it was true. Well his answer came. He stopped what he was doing that was keeping him back from being baptized and had a desire to be baptized. In our next lesson we set a baptismal date and he made the steps to be baptized. Mid December, Jake was baptized. Right after his baptism, he told us that his next goal was to be sealed with his family forever in the temple. I have never been happier. I know that he is a happy man too. I know that he will be able to be with his family forever because of his decision to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized. I am grateful for the priesthood on the earth and I am happy that God answers prayers.

Charity is the pure love of Christ

I don't have a lot to say today. I will let President Hinkley do the talking. Check out this really cool mormon message. I know that as you watch, you will desire to have more charity for our brothers and sisters.

http://mormonchannel.org/joseph?bcpid=833687919001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAwY-wg3E~,CCjDZJW7GXDWo0FJDBeqJ6XZdKwpY_p7&bctid=911029440001

I really loved the video. It really shows how powerful charity is. In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Moroni teaches us about the importance of charity.  
"45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."

I hope and pray that we can all obtain more charity in our lives. Its a gift from God. Pray for it if you want more of it.

God answers our prayers.

Have you ever wondered if God hears and answers all of our prayers? I know that I have. There have been many times that I have asked myself that. I mean God is so great and so powerful, why would He want to listen to a little man like me? Although I have asked myself those type of questions, I have never stopped praying. I have been taught since I was a little boy to pray. It seems as though God does not answer all of our prayers when we want them to be answered. God answers prayers is His own time and in His own way. But he does answer ALL of our prayers. 

God is the father of our Spirits. He wants to talk to us. He wants us to talk to Him. The only way we can talk to Him is through prayer. Just like our earthy fathers, God wants to know how we are doing. He wants to know our concerns that we might have. He wants to help us. God does know us already. He knows whats on our mind, heart and our feelings, but it is much better when we just tell Him. Have you ever known what someone wanted but you didn't give it to them until they asked? I have done that a few times. That's how God is as well. He has a room full of blessings for us, all we have to do is knock on the door and He will let us in. I know that to be true. I have had a lot of blessings come through prayer. Even a simple prayer to start the day goes a long way. He will guide us and protect us and He will show us the things that we should do.

Prayers don't need to be memorized either. In fact, they should be from the heart. One of my companions told me,  "Prayer should not be memorized. When you talk to your earthly dad, you don't give him a memorized talk or say the same thing to him. You tell him how you are. You talk with him. You tell your dad things that your doing and sometimes ask for help. That's how God is too, He wants us to speak from the heart" When we pray, we should address who we are talking to, (Dear Heavenly Father,) Thank Him for your blessings (family, friends, anything else you are grateful for,) and tell Him what's on our heart or our mind and ask Him for help. When your done talking to God, Close in the name of Jesus Christ. Now I don't know about you, but that does not sound that bad at all.

Not only should we pray by ourselves, but we should pray in our families. In 3rd Nephi chapter 18, our Savior, Jesus Christ, told us that we should pray in our families, "Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed." In my home we started doing nightly family prayer. It really brought us closer as a family. We were and still are being blessed for having family prayer. Family prayer is what our prophets want us to do, its what Jesus Christ wants us to do. Its what Heavenly Father wants us to do. So how about we listen to God and His Son and His servants and have family prayer?

I promise that God does answer everyone of our prayers. I know that because He has answered all of mine. I know that God lives and loves every single one of His children. He wants the best for us. He wants to hear our voices. Let us all turn to Him in prayer and strengthen our relationship with our Father who is in Heaven. He will answer us in His own time and in His own way.  

Scripture Reading and Gatorade!

We all know what the scriptures are and most of us have them in our homes. All of us have access to them. But how many people actually open them up? What's the importance of reading the scriptures? We can to go church if we want to get God's word right? Wrong. Although going to church is good, it's not good enough. Reading the scriptures is what we have to do as well.

As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have a lot of different books of scripture. We are blessed to have the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, The Doctrine and Covenants and of course, The Holy Bible. All of those books are the word of God. All of them should be read daily! There are many reasons why we should read daily but the main reason is so we can obtain a stronger faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel. Having faith in Jesus Christ is the key to life. Without faith in Him, we will not be able to open the doors to the Celestial Kingdom.

We have been commanded by our Loving Heavenly Father to read our scriptures. It's really not that hard to do. We can all talk to Him through prayer and He wants to talk to us.  He will speak to us through the scriptures.

I once heard of scripture reading compared to water. A person must have water to live. We must all read the scriptures to live with Heavenly Father. Some people like to drink Gatorade.  Gatorade gives us more energy and hydrates us throughout the day. Gatorade is compared to the words of the living prophets. Their words help us in our daily lives, give us more spiritual truth and are just all around great for us. I love thinking of it that way because scripture study really does help us just as

 much as water or Gatorade!

Even in the scriptures it warns us what will happen if we don't read: Alma 13 says,

20 "Now I need not rehearse the matter; what I have said may suffice. Behold, the scriptures are before you; if ye will wrest them it shall be to your own destruction."

Now I don't know about you, but I do not want to be destroyed. So unless you want to be destroyed, I would invite you to read the scriptures. Use them. Apply them to your life. I can promise that as you read the scriptures, your faith in Jesus Christ will grow. You will want to follow Him more and you will find that the Spirit of the Lord is with you more. Will you read your scriptures daily?

Fishing and the Atonement

A few weeks ago I went fishing. It was really fun. As I was standing on the shore reeling in my line, I saw the fish grab the hook and take off. It was really cool and it was intense as I was reeling the fish to the shore. It was fighting really bad, like most fish do, and it brought an adrenaline rush to my body. When I finally landed the fish, I realized that I didn't want to eat it. So I took it off the hook and put it back in the water. Catch and release. I continued to fish the rest of the day and really enjoyed catching fish and making memories with some other missionaries. Later that day I was thinking of the fishing trip and the things that happened. I know this is going to sound cheesy but when we fish, we become sort of like Satan. Let me explain why I think that way.

When we have our lines in the water, we are waiting for a fish to grab our bait so we can pull them in and catch them. We do whatever it takes to catch the big one, the monster of the lake. We try different types of baits, lures, all the goods. Of course we will accept any fish that grabs our bait but our main goal is to catch the big one! When we do catch some, the hungry fishers will keep the fish and eat them later on. For those that can spend hours upon hours on the lake will play catch and release. I like catch and release because that way I can catch lots of fish and be on the lake for a longer period of time.
Now how is that related to Satan? Well, Satan does whatever he can to get the "big fish" or in other words, The true disciple of Jesus Christ. A follower of Christ is the hardest to catch but Satan will do anything he can to get us. His "line" is in the water. He is trying his best to make us catch the bait so he can put us in his power. Sometimes a little nibble at the wrong time can hook you. Satan in not one for catch and release. He wants to keep us. He wants to show us off to his followers. Of course Satan, like us, won't just go for the big one, he will take whatever he can. Satan will try all the different kinds of bait that he has. It may be as small as telling a white lie, or it could be as big as not living the law of Chasity. Sometimes, we accidentally grab onto the bait, even the best of the best can make a mistake here or there.

How do we get off the hook of Satan and back into the lake? Jesus Christ made it possible for us to "spit out" the hook and continue onward towards salvation. When Christ was on the earth he performed what came the most important event in the history of the world: He died for us and took upon himself all the sins of the world. This is all called the Atonement. His intense pain made it possible for us to be free of Satan's trap or "hook". In the Book of Mormon, Alma says: "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people." This means that we can even be freed from the temptations Satan will throw at us. I know that the atonement is the only way to get off the hook of Satan. We all need to use the atonement. Satan does not like to play catch and release, but we can get released if we use the Atonement. No sin is too serious that the Atonement can't fix. I know that to be true.