Apology

So, this is a formal apology to all those who follow my blog on a regular basis. Sorry that I have slacked off on my blogging since I have been home from my mission. I am going to try to be better at making an effort to blog at least once a week. Things have been pretty crazy since returning home from Montana. Here's just a little update about me:

• Now attending Brigham Young University-Idaho, studying Mechanical Engineering
• Working for Weed Man Lawn Care
• Before I made it up to school I was working 2 jobs, one at a law office and the other at a clothing store
• Now that Christmas and all of the holidays are past, I should be a little less busy and be able to keep everyone posted. :)

Thank you all for your support. It is greatly appreciated. I love you all.

The Articles of Faith part 10 of 13

Article of Faith #10, "We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory."

This is such an amazing concept that goes way deeper than we could possibly cover in a short blog post. This has all to do what what we do as missionaries, and the Second Coming of Christ. So let's break this one down a  little bit as well.

First, "We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes." As we read in the Bible, the tribes of Israel were once all together, but were then split into the North and South, the North included the Ten Tribes, and the South included two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. History shows us that the prophecies in the Bible were fulfilled, and Ephraim, or the Ten Tribes, and Judah, the Two Tribes, were scattered and destroyed. Later, we also understand from history that Judah was allowed back into Jerusalem and they are the major tribe that is in Jerusalem today, but that still leaves the Ten Tribes. They got scattered all across the world, and it is our job to go and find those people, and to bring them back, or in other words restore the Ten Tribes.

Second, "We believe that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent." This one comes due to modern revelation. Zion, or the New Jerusalem, will be built here in America. The Lord has said that Zion will be in Independence, Missouri.

Third, "We believe that Christ will reign personally upon the earth." Christ is going to be the guy in charge! That will be a great day. The Lord himself will reign. His presence will be felt and all the world will praise him.

Fourth, "We believe that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory." The earth is going to be awesome! Everything will be perfect. It's like the earth getting resurrected, and so just like us it will be perfect. That will be the day.

All of this will be taking place before, during, and after the millennium. It is going to be a great and dreadful day. Hopefully great for many rather than a few.

A Christ Centered Christmas

This past little while has definitely been interesting. At the beginning of this transfer President Gardner asked me to train a brand new missionary. I've never done that before so it was kinda difficult to do. He had also asked me to be the District Leader and so I now had two new resposibilities and I had no idea how to do either of them. President asked us to do an activity during our personal studies. The activity was to study from the Topical Guide about Jesus Christ. There are 18 pages and 5o something different topics. It was very interesting to be able to study about the Savior this transfer. I just wanted to share some of my insites from this experience.

The Savior was of course half God, but we also know him to be half Human. Because of who his parents are we can learn so much from his life. Because his mother was Mary, a living, breathing, dying human Christ could do the same. He could still make mistakes in this life. He though being the only one in history to make it through life without making a single mistake. He was the only one who was good enough to suffer for our sins and to make that Atonement possible. He always had the choice to accept the responsiblity he chose before this life. I have also learned that the Savior needed to learn everything the same way we do, line upon line, precept upon precept. It is so amazing to see that. I love Jesus Christ. He is my older brother and best friend. Hopefully we can all focus on our Savior at this time and celebrate his birth into mortality. I love you all as does our Lord.

The Spirit of Christmas

The Christmas season is a great time to think about and remember our Savior Jesus Christ. That is the reason for the season. It tells us in Luke chapter 2 the story of Christ's birth. It is one of my favorite stories that we can read. I love the part of the story where the angel comes to the shepherds and after the angel leaves it says,
"and it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds."
I really love this because it shows us exactly what we need to be doing at this time of year and all year round for that matter. After we have heard for ourselves of Jesus Christ, we must go with haste to find him, and once we have found him we must make known abroad those things. That is why I love to be a missionary, because I get to do that every day.
The Birth of our Savior marks and important day in our history. They even changed the calender to make the year of his birth. So someone at some point thought that it was important, and we know today that is is the most important thing that could have happened, because it is the event that started everything for our salvation. Without his birth he could not have done any of the things that he did in his life and we all love him for those things. So at this time of year especially we need to look into our own lives and to find something that we can do to give a gift to Christ. The Spirit of Christmas will come upon us and we will be able to have a whole new outlook on life for the new year. It was once said by a President of the Church, and I am summarizing, that if we take off the last syllable of Christmas we get Christ and that's what it is all about. I love you all. Keep up the great work.