Repentance post...

As many of you all have been reminding me so far, it's been a couple days since my last blog post. I was thinking about that and realized that I'm coming up on 1.5 months of having a stale blog. Kinda sad, but true nevertheless. Anyways, this is my post of repentance.
So a couple days ago Elder Hobson and I were knocking on doors in a neighborhood. We came up to this guy named Jerry who was working in his garage. Right as we were about to start talking to him his dog walks out from behind a table. Now when a missionary encounters a dog there are generally only a few different outcomes:
1) The dog is friendly and we get to learn a lot about it from it's owner.
2) The dog gets ticked off and starts growling, at which point we just back away slowly and try not to make any sudden movements.
3) The dog gets really ticked off and starts chasing us. Not much you can do at that point besides run and hope that either a chain you didn't notice holds the dog back, or the owner tells the dog to heel.
Well as soon as I saw the dog I prepared myself to respond according to those procedures. However something unprecedented occurred--the dog did absolutely nothing. A split second later I realized why. See if you can figure it out yourself from the picture.


Where are his eyes? Well I'm sure Bruno (the dog) could smell us, but he was definitely not looking at us at first. He did 2 complete circuits of the garage before he noticed us and left patrol duty to check us out. At that point he was looking right at us, but then Bruno's owner, who was right next to him, went to pet him and he jumped from surprise. I thought, "Wow it would be hard to only see what's right in front of you!"

Well you'll all be surprised to know that this thought made me remember of a couple scriptures! First off a scripture from the Book of Mormon:
Mosiah 11:29
This part of the Book of Mormon is about a prophet named Abinadi and a wicked group of people under the rule of a king named Noah (no relation to the Old Testament prophet).
Abinadi is directed by the Lord to command the people of king Noah to repent for the evils that were taking place among them. Well generally speaking people don't like to be told they need to repent. The people were so angry with Abinadi and his words that they bound him and took him to king Noah. This scripture describes their attitude.
29 "Now the eyes of the people were blinded; therefore they hardened their hearts against the words of Abinadi, and they sought from that time forward to take him. And king Noah hardened his heart against the word of the Lord, and he did not repent of his evil doings."
Were they literally blind? No I suppose at least most of them had fully functioning eyes. But they did have hearts that were 'hardened,' or in other words they were not humble enough to listen to the word of God. All the people could see was the shallow things and the pleasures right in front of them. In a spiritual sense they were all blind, especially king Noah who, "did commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness...and he laid a tax of one fifth part of all they possessed...to support himself, and his wives and his concubines." The blind leading the blind!!
Now we contrast this to a scripture from the Bible:
Luke 4:18
This verse is Christ reading a prophecy about himself from a book written by the prophet Esaias.
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised"
Jesus Christ brought sight back to the eyes of many people during his ministry. That was one of His trademark miracles. However I feel like there is meaning to the phrase 'recovering the sight of the blind' beyond that of the physical miracle. The scripture says that Christ was anointed to preach the gospel, and so He did. In doing so he opened the eyes of His followers. He showed them things as they really are and told them about things as the really would be in the future. His teachings helped them to find greater peace in this life and to prepare for eternal happiness in the life to come. By opening their eyes to the miracles of God and the blessings of obedience, Christ was able to put lost souls back on the path that leads to our Heavenly Father.
I am grateful for the perspective I've gained from knowing and living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for the love He showed to us in the way He lived His life and in the reason He gave it up. I promise all who read this that by following Christ and letting Him open your eyes, you will find the greatest form of peace and security that exists.

Being Open to Answers

Today I had an interesting idea while I was reading from the Book of Mormon. One of those "aha!" moments that feel so good.
Chapter 7 in the book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon is an interesting story. It's kinda confusing, but I'm gonna try to break it down! It starts a man named Zeniff who led a large group of people to try and settle in a different part of the land. Zeniff and his people left behind the rest of their civilization and their king, king Mosiah. After 80 years passed with no word as to their situation, king Mosiah decided to send a man named Ammon along with 15 other men to search for the people of Zeniff.
Eventually Ammon's team found the people of Zeniff who now had a new leader named Limhi. When Ammon came to the city, he was captured and thrown in jail. After 2 days of being in jail, he was bound and brought before king Limhi.

OK so after that long setup, here's the point.

King Limhi starts off talking to Ammon in verse 11 by saying:
"I desire to know the cause whereby ye were so bold as to come near the walls of the city....And now, for this cause have I suffered that ye should be preserved, that I might inquire of you, or else I should have caused that my guards should have put you to death. Ye are permitted to speak."
Pretty gruff. At this point Limhi doesn't realize that Ammon is an ally. Ammon's group and the people of Limhi are really from the same place originally. Remember that making contact with Limhi's people was the whole purpose of Ammon's journey.
So now Ammon gets up to bat. In verse 12:
"And now, when Ammon saw that he was permitted to speak, he went forth and bowed himself before the king; and rising again he said: O king, I am very thankful before God this day that I am yet alive, and am permitted to speak; and I will endeavor to speak with boldness;"
And then he says the line that stuck out to me. In verse 13:
"For I am assured that if ye had known me ye would not have suffered that I should have worn these bands..."
Ammon goes on to explain that he's really a friend and that they want to help. After hearing that, Limhi gets extremely excited, commands the guards to release Ammon and his friends, and throws a big party for them! Limhi explains that his people are being heavily taxed by another larger nation, and he is grateful to have made contact with their old civilization who might be able to help. Eventually king Limhi's people do escape and with Ammon's help return to their old lands.
Alright now here's the point of me explaining that whole story!
1) I just kinda like the story haha!
2) How often are we like king Limhi here? At Limhi's first encounter with Ammon's group he totally rejected anything they had to say (not to mention he threw them in jail...). Limhi was suspicious and didn't take the time to listen. It was lucky for Ammon that king Limhi had a bit of curiosity, but if he hadn't.... Well Ammon would have been dead, along with all hope of Limhi's escape from their oppressors. However, Limhi did give Ammon the chance to speak, and he heard the fantastic news of possible deliverance.

It is my humble opinion that all of us are at times very like king Limhi. Our Heavenly Father knows us all at an intensely personal level. He is totally aware of what we are experiencing and is constantly reaching out to try and aid us on our journey. Only problem is....often if we aren't open and observant we ignore or deny His loving guidance. King Limhi could have easily had Ammon killed, and by the way he spoke to Ammon it sounds like he had executed people for approaching him in the past. I feel like many times the Lord sends us messages through a friend, an experience, or even just a thought or feeling. These are all for our benefit and learning. However, when we ignore or reject God's counsel we are, in a sense, slaying Ammon.
Now I know that there have been times when I haven't exactly followed God's direction. I've had my fair share of being king Limhi. However, often on the mission I feel like Ammon. Missionaries all over the world go out and talk to people every day in the hopes that people will take the opportunity to listen to our message of love. Often we meet people much less curious than king Limhi, but all those who have taken the opportunity to listen and act on God's word have felt the powerful increase of love that comes through following His commandments.
It is my prayer that all of us will take care to pay special attention to our Father's direction. I promise that all those who listen to and act upon His guidance will, like the people of Limhi, be led to greater freedom from the bonds of sin and guilt, and that the Lord will bless them with the kind of peace that only comes through Him.

Miracles and God's Power in Healing

Our Heavenly Father is truly a God of miracles. That is one fact that has become blatantly clear to me in the past couple weeks.
One of the references that we use in the LDS church is called the Bible dictionary. It explains/clarifies many of the terms and ideas that are used in the Bible, along with some terms the way they are used in the church. I really like the way that the Bible dictionary describes miracles. The first little bit:
"Miracles:
An important element in the work of Jesus Christ, being not only divine acts, but forming also a part of the divine teaching. Christianity is founded on the greatest of all miracles, the resurrection of our Lord. If that be admitted, other miracles cease to be improbable."
True statement. The Savior's sacrifice to save us from our sins coupled with His resurrection is an event that we call the Atonement. The Atonement is the most crucial part of God plan for us because it makes it possible for us to return to Him. What a miracle!! The idea that one individual could provide us with forgiveness and salvation mind boggling; it's something that I think we may never fully understand.
However when we come to believe that amazing miracle, then indeed "other miracles cease to be improbable." Recently I have seen miracles, such as one amazing instance of healing.
I have a very close friend who suffered from a condition called OCD. Anyone ever watch the show Monk? Yeah they joke around about him having OCD, but when it's in real life it's not so funny. To this friend of mine, things would become inexplicably dirty. It was like a contamination that spread everywhere from object to object. Someones pen might be dirty, then they'd set it on the desk, which would become dirty, then in their backpack, which became dirty and so on. He could clean things when he had the chance, but it got out of control to the point that most places near his home were, in his mind, filthy. He couldn't get away!
Well he and I and others who knew had been praying for him for a while. We had faith that the Lord could cure him. Have you read the Bible? Have you read the Book of Mormon? How many people did Jesus heal? My friend and I both have faith in miracles.
One morning he was looking at a picture of the Savior. Quietly the question came to his mind, "do I really believe in the Atonement?" Right away he responded, "yes."
Boom. It was done. That was it. This condition that had been plaguing him for so long was gone in one instance of the Saviors healing.
Miracles are real and happen more now than ever before.

"If a man die, shall he live again?"

I am so grateful today for the inspired words of our modern prophets. I was reading one talk in particular during church that meant a lot to me. The talk was given by Thomas S. Monson, who is the current prophet today. Below is the video of that talk. The part I'm writing about starts at 2:37 and goes through 4:45, but you can watch the whole thing if you want! :)



"If a man die shall he live again?" (Job 14:14)

It's a good question. For some even a scary question. Many of the people I meet on the street or at doors say something like, "I dunno buddy; I don't like to think about it!"

Well I am here today to say that there is more! There is so much that awaits beyond this mortal life! Today we are here in what we call mortality. We have physical bodies that are subject to pain, suffering, temptation, disease, and other hardships. At some point we may struggle through employment difficulties. We might be betrayed or abandoned by someone close. Many experience depression or anxiety. All those make life challenging, and sometimes seemingly impossible. In those moments where everything seems so insurmountable or even pointless, it is easy to lose perspective.

HOWEVER, if we remember that this life is not the end, then life is much more positive. In the Mormon church, we call that keeping an eternal perspective. Even if we fully believe that there's more to our existance than mortality, it won't help us unless we remember that always. By keeping our eternal perspective on, we can take our blinders off a bit and see that there's more to life than the trials that we're currently experiencing.

If a man die shall he live again? YES!!! The scriptures, the prophets, and the light of Christ in all of us bear witness that this is true! My invitation to all of you is to hold on to that. Keep moving forward. Continue trying. Follow our Heavenly Father's commandments because He has promised if we hold out faithful we "are recieved into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow." (Alma 40:12)

As a real life example, check out: http://www.mormon.org/me/1JWZ-eng

I know how to make God laugh. Tell Him you have plans.

The other day I was visiting a friend who said something pretty interesting. She quoted her friend saying:
"I know how to make God laugh. Tell Him you have plans."
First of all I had to laugh. That is so ridiculously true. How many times have we made any kind of plans in our lives that turn out exactly the way we expected? Maybe it's only me, but things usually just don't pan out the way I expect them to.
There are lots of perfectly innocent reasons for not fulfilling our plans. Maybe a new opportunity comes up that looks a bit better. Perhaps we change our mind or just lose interest in our goal. Sometimes we hear an experience or get some advice that points us in another direction. These and other similar events happen frequently and are generally easy to handle because we are still 'in control'.
However, sometimes our plans get derailed by forces beyond our control. Could be bad health, unemployment, divorce, a death, war, a natural disaster, getting cheated or stolen from, etc. Chances are you or someone very near to you has experienced one of these life changing events. One might say, "Why? I planned to do so much with my life! I had so much potential! Was I doing something wrong? What did I do to deserve this? If God loves me why would He let this happen??"
When life gets hard, it's easy to get caught in this pattern on thinking. This mindset comes when we get so focused on the disruptions in our personal plans that we lose sight of the greatest of all plans: God's plan. President Spencer W. Kimball, one of God's modern day prophets, gave a great talk that has really stuck with me. In it he says:
"If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective."
That is the idea!!!!
President Kimball goes on to say, "Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified?"
My friends, bad things can, do, and will happen. This life is not easy. We can't see the future. We can and should try and plan for it, but we must always remember that our Heavenly Father is in control.
So does God laugh when we make plans? Who am I to say. BUT I know that if we trust that our Father has a plan for our eternal happiness, then we can always face our future, whatever it may be, with "a perfect brightness of hope." (2 Nephi 31:20)

The Courage to Act

Do you ever have those moments when a memory kinda sticks in your mind for a couple days? Today I was thinking a lot about the experience of an individual I had met earlier in my mission. I met her after she had been taught by missionaries for a long time. She understood what they taught her long before I ever met her, but her interest hadn't led her to any action until a couple of weeks before I'd met her, which was just a couple days before her baptism.
She'd been through a lot--I was surprised by her story. Much like many of us, she had made decisions that, in retrospect, she was not proud of. Funny how sometimes in the moment we can't see how silly our choice really is. Or what's more, we know how bad our choice is but we still do it anyways!! Our human nature tends to get the better of us and we do stupid things.
Well we've all been there in some way or another. We make mistakes and eventually come to the point where we have to own up. That's how life works. Eventually we have to own up to ourselves, to others, and to God, which can be a terrible place to be. In the Book of Mormon, a prophet named Alma ended up in such a situation and described his feelings in this way:
"Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments." (Alma 36:13)
This friend of mine had since felt the awful pains of guilt. However, she, like Alma, turned to the ultimate source of forgiveness and peace. She turned to our Savior who is always reaching out to save us and protect us from our sinful choices. In the Book of Mormon Jesus explains, "And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost." (3 Nephi 9:20)  I don't think I've ever seen such a perfect example of a broken heart and contrite spirit as I saw in my friend in the days preceeding her baptism. She had experienced the healing power of the atonement so completely that she was full to the brim with joy and love.
We all end up broken, but Christ wants to fix us. It is my prayer that we all follow my friend's example and choose to follow our Savior by having faith, repenting, being baptized, and recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I promise that those who take those steps and stay faithful to our Father's commandments will find the only true and lasting joy there is.