Burdens

In this life, we are faced with many trials and burdens that come our way. Luckily we have someone on our side. His name is Jesus Christ. He tells us a few times in the scriptures that his "yoke is easy and [his] burden is light." The Lord can help us through anything and everything. It says in Alma 7:11-12, "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.
And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." This encompases all that we will ever go through. The Lord has bore our burdens before we ever will and so for that cause we can rely on him. The blessings that we can get from turning to the Lord are amazing. The Lord can do so many great and amazing things for us. There is a video that I will post the link for on here. It does a great job of helping us deal with burdens.

Scriptures

The scriptures are our main source of help in this life. They teach us exactly what we need to be doing in order to return back to live with our Father in Heaven. That is why we have been commanded to read and study our scriptures daily. It the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord says, "And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith." There are so many scriptures that tell us we need to study them. We all need to make it part of our daily lives and to continue to "search, ponder, and pray," as the childrens song book says.

Temples

I love the temple. It is one of the best places that we can go. There is a video that does a great job of describing why we build temples. I would put it on here but it isn't working at the moment. So if you go to mormon.org there is a video that says, "Why Mormons Build Temples." It does such a great job. There is so much work for us to do, both for the living and the dead. I am so grateful to be apart of this wonderful work of spreading the gospel and I can't wait to be able to help those people redeem the dead when I get home.

Prophets

We can learn so much about prophets from the scriptures and from our online resources. I found this about prophets on http://www.lds.org/, "As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are blessed to be led by living prophets--inspired men called to speak for the Lord, as did Moses, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, Nephi, Mormon, and other prophets of the scriptures. We sustain the President of the Church as prophet, seer, and revelator--the only person on the earth that receives revelation to guide the entire Church. We also sustain the counselors in the First Presidency and the members of the Quorum of the Tweleve Apostles as prophets, seers, and revelators." It also says, "Like prophets of old, prophets today testify of Jesus Christ and teach His gospel. They make known God's will and true character. They speak boldly and clearly, denouncing sin and warning of it's consequences. At times, they may be inspired to prophesy of future events for our benefit." I know that it is such a benefit for us to have a prophet on the earth today. He helps lead and guide us in our times of need. I am so excited to go out and teach people about this wonderful gift that our Father in Heaven has given us. I know that Thomas S. Monson, the President of the Church, is a Prophet of God and that he leads and guides this church by the power and guidance of the Spirit.

Prayer

One of my favorite quotes about prayer comes from the Bible Dictionary, "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part. Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship." So we may ask, "What is prayer? How do we pray? Is it necessary?" The Bible Dictionary again tells us, "Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. the boject of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure fro ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional upon our asking for them." Alma 37: 37 tells us, "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day." That leads us to how we should pray. We, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, know that we should pray with all of our hearts unto the Father in the name of Christ, and so we open by addressing our Heavenly Father, then express the feelings of our hearts (expressing gratitude for our blessings, asking for blessings, asking specific questions--such as is the Book of Mormon true?), we then close by saying, "in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen." It is very simple and can produce great results. The greatest example of prayer we have is Jesus Christ. All throughout the New Testament and Book of Mormon we see and read about times when Jesus Christ prayed unto the Father. He is our example in everything. Prayer works. I know it does. Without prayer we wouldn't be able to get anywhere in this life. It is our most powerful tool to help us conquer Satan. I love the opprotunity we have to be able to talk with our Heavenly Father. It is only by His love and through is Son Jesus Christ that we can come to live with him again. I love you all!

The Atonement of Christ.

One of my favorite quotes about the Atonement of Christ comes from an Apostle of the Lord in these the Latter-days,
"There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or i ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, 'No one understands. No one knows.' No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly know and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, and succor--literally run to us--and strengthen us to be more than we could be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power." Elder David A. Bednar.
I think that is sums up everything that the Atonement covers. It does not only cover our sins but it takes everything that we will ever go though. It says in the scriptures that Christ condescended below all things. Not just our sins but all things. It also says in Alma 7:11-13, "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. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance...."

The Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ extends beyond anything that we will ever experience. I love him for this and I hope and pray that we can all look to him during this time of remembering his birth, because without his birth none of the miracles could have taken place. So take some time to sit down and ponder on the things that our Savior has done for you. Love you all!

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.