Christmas time

It is a short one but I just wanted to say Merry Christmas. This Christmas season try to reflect on Jesus Christ and what He has done for you. Remember all the good times you have had this year. Christmas is a happy time. It is not about the gifts you get. It is about Christ. He did everything for us and He loves us. So this season return that love by remembering Him in all that you do this Chirstmas.

Ask the Missionaries

In the most recent General Confernce Elder Nelson gave a talk on missinoary work. In his talk he said just as the title says "ask the missinonries". He not only said that but he also said that they can help. Here is the link and video to his great talk.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/ask-the-missionaries-they-can-help-you?lang=eng&media=video

Hope you enjoy it.

A mustard seed

Jesus compares faith like a mustard seed.  The scripture is found in Matthew 17:20. If you have seen a mustard seed you know how small it is. It is amazing how something so small can be compared to faith. Faith is a wonderful thing. In that scripture Christ says that you can move a mountain. That is really cool. Just think about it. Can you imagine moving something like a mountain. They can be huge. Yet something so small can move one huge mountain. He also says that nothing will be impossible. I know that to be true. Faith is something so small yet so great. I know that if you do have the faith nothing will be impossible. Have that faith and you will do great.

It's possible

With Hurricane Sandy dying down it has me thinking on repentance. How you my ask. Well it's like this. I look at the world and it is full of bad things. Then it rains A LOT! The earth is washed clean again. I mean look at it, it looks a whole lot nicer right? Well our lives are full of sin. We are human it is natural to sin. Then we repent-the rain. We are forgiven and we look a whole lot nicer-we feel better. Now with Hurricane Sandy it rain a whole lot. I look at this and say us a people for example we have sinned a whole lot and finally decided to repent. Then comes the heavy rains for the last couple of days. We have repented and been forgiven. Repentance is possible we just have to ask and God will grant it to us and He will forgive. Don't be afraid to repent. It is possible.

I know it

In the most recent General Conference there was a great talk on being a member of the Church. Here it is. It is so great.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/i-know-it-i-live-it-i-love-it?lang=eng

The video

I know it! I live it! I love it! It is true!

It moves forward

In the most recent General Conference President Monson announced a really amazing change. Here is the link with the video and so you can read it.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/welcome-to-conference?lang=eng&media=video

I think this is one of the most amazing things ever. The Lord knows his people. It is time for the work to move forward. This is a spiritual call to arms. The call has been made. The Lord wants us out there to spread His word. All worthy 18 young men and 19 young women should consider this. The work is great. The experence is like no other. The memories are great. The time is now.

It happens and it's ok

With everything going on today, wars and violence there is a way to live in it. In the most recent Ensign there was a really good article on this subject. Please take the time to read it. It was very enlighting to me.

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/09/how-disciples-of-christ-live-in-times-of-war-and-violence?lang=eng

I know that even though it's not the best right now we can still live through all these things happening. God will help us and protect us. We must do as He ask though.

Importance of the Sacred Grove

What is so important about the Sacred Grove in Palymra, NY? Those who are members of the Church very well know the importace of it. It is not just a grove of trees, it is a Sacred Grove of trees. God the Father and Jesus Christ did appear to Joseph Smith. Here is an article found in the Feburary 2009 Ensign. It is about the Sacred Grove and hearing and heeding the message from it. It is entilted Hearing and Heeding the Message of the Grove.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2009/02/hearing-and-heeding-the-message-from-the-grove?lang=eng&query=hearing

I hope you enjoyed the article. I know that what happened there is impotant. It did happen and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church. Chirst is the head of the Church. He knows each and everyone of us. I know He lives.

One strong testimony

I was reading in a past issue of the Ensign. I found this article in the December 2007 issue. It is from Elder Neal A. Maxwell. He was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until he passed away. I hope you all enjoy the article

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/12/jesus-of-nazareth-savior-and-king?lang=eng

I want to add my testimony to Elder Maxwell's. I know that He lives. Every thing that Elder Maxwell said in this article I echo. I know that He did what He did for us because He loves us.

Where did they all go

In the Book of Mormon we have what we call the pride cycle. What is it you may ask. Well it is a cycle where the people are good, they are blessed and they go wicked. It then starts off again over and over throughout the whole Book of Mormon.

Here is an example. Dinosaurs. How? Well over time the Dinosaurs evolved and got big. One that comes to mind is a T-Rex. They are pretty big. We then have the small ones. Over time they just stayed small and adapted to life. As they evolved the big ones and to look more for food. Over time the food ran out. There was also a climate change. This all effected everything. Eventually the Dinosaurs died out. The little ones are still around today. You can see them in Alligators, Frogs, these are only a few. There are not the same of course but mammals came from mammals. They adapted to their surroundings and became what we have today.

So you can see the cycle right? They started out then they evolved and eventually they die out. Pride cycle good (start out), blessed (evolved), and wicked (die out). Lets not let this happen to us. Keep obeying the commandments. Do all that is asked of us by God. As we do we will be blessed but we will have to recognize it and do all that we can to stay away from becoming wicked. I know that it is possible.

Follow that Prompting

Who has ever had bed bugs. From what I hear the U.S or maybe the country is getting hit with them pretty bad right now. Those of you who have gotten bed bug bites know they can be pretty annoying. Well we can also relate them to the Gospel. When you get bed bug bites they can itch and itch and itch. Imagine this is like the Spirit or Holy Ghost. The Spirit is there to help us and to warn us in times of need and trial. It will warn us with a prompting and it will help us the same way. So you does this relate you ask. Well the itch is like the prompting. The itching is almost always there, but unlike the spirit you can ignore the itching because the bite will get bigger. However the Spirit you shouldn't ignore. Always strive to follow the Spirit. As you do you will be protected.

Speak

I was reading the Book of Mormon this morning and this scripture really spoke to me. It is found in 2 Nephi 25:26 and it reads...

26 And we ^atalk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we ^bprophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our ^cchildren may know to what source they may look for a ^dremission of their sins.

This scripture says it all. This is what we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints belive and do. Christ central to everything we do. His name is in our name of the Church. We belive that He did suffer for us. He came to save us from our sins. Jesus Christ is everything. I know that He lives. I know that He did all that He did because He loves us. There is no doubt in my mind about any of this.

Disasters

As we look around us we see all types of disasters. Some even are natural disasters. In the current issue of the Ensign the magazine printed by the Church there was an article about natural disasters and how we don't have to fear. It was a real good one. Please take the time to read it.

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/08/natural-disasters-we-dont-have-to-be-afraid?lang=eng

This was a real good one and helped me to relize even more that I don't have to be afriad when I hear about the disasters that are going around. I know that none of us have to be afraid and we can all be prepared.

Justice and Mercy

Justice and Mercy. Always with each other it seems. You have justice. You get what is right. Then when things don't go the way you planned or wanted you ask for mercy. President Boyd K. Packer president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles give a good analogy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VTMWVpzx4M

I love this video. It is a good portrayal of justice and mercy. It puts in to perspective how they both can be satisfied. At the end the mediator says "it won't be easy, but it will be possible". This is true why because the mediator is Jesus Christ. We came here so we could return to live with Him. This life is not easy. There are always hard things placed before us but He is always there to be that Mediator for us. I know that He will always be there for us. He loves us that much. He came and did what He did so He could become that Mediator for us all. There is always a way. There is the Word of God found in the holy scriptures. There is attending church. There is the Atonement. The Atonement was done for us like I said before so He can and could become the Mediator for us.

Conversion

So earlier today I was meeting with someone and they asked what is conversion. So we took them to the Bible Dictionary under conversion and the very first line says this.... Denotes changing one’s views, in a conscious acceptance of the will of God .

So you change your life. Good. The key here though is it is a conscious effort. In other words you have the free will to have that conversion. For example you want to buy something you have wanted for a while. Someone goes up to you and says here buy it now you have to, they then take you to the check outline and make you purchase it. So they have now taken away your free will. Now on the other hand. No one is there and you have come to the decision on your own to purchase this item you have been debating for a while now to buy. You have your free will to buy it. So it's not the greatest example but hopefully you get the idea.

You always have the choice to have that full conversion. No one will take it away from you. There are many ways to have this conversion. They are simple also. Read the scriptures, the Bible and the Book of Mormon, pray, attend church. There are many others. As you do this your conversion will come.

Small to great

I was reading and this scripture really spoke to me. It is in 1 Nephi chapter 16 verce 29 and it reads

 29 And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give us ^aunderstanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it. And thus we see that by ^bsmall means the Lord can bring about great things.

It was the last part that really stuck out. We all do small things right? As we do these "small means" the Lord is waiting and having us do these things. When He sees fit He says ok now it's time here are the "great things". Take the time to think about it.

I know that the Lord gives us things and after we have done all that we can the great things come. So when you think you can't go anymore just go a little bit more and the great things come.

Mormon.org

So there is this amazing website called Mormon.org. It is an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You can go there if you have any questions of about the Church. It has all our beliefs on it. There is even a part where you can go and watch profiles of members of the Church. They tell you about themselves and why the belong to the Church. It is an amazing website. I highly recomend it.

The link for Mormon.org

Please take the time to check it out.

Priesthood Service

President Uchdorf gave a really good talk on The Why of Priesthood Service. He gave this excellent talk and he put it way better than I ever could.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/the-why-of-priesthood-service?lang=eng

Enjoy!!!

Single Parents

In the recent Genearl Conference a member of the Seventy gave a talk to the single parents of the Church.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/faith-fortitude-fulfillment-a-message-to-single-parents?lang=eng

For those who love to watch here is the video.

Enjoy!!

Sacrifice

Why sacrifice or why is it so important or any questions on sacrifice. Well Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quoram of the Twelve Apostles gave a great talk on Sacrifice.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/sacrifice?lang=eng

The video

Enjoy everyone.