Summed up Sunday

Yes, General Conference was once again wonderful.  I simply loved it!  I tried to pay close attention to the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, because I didn't want to be like the guy in the story from last week who couldn't recall what the Lord had told us through the Prophet.

Anyways, President Monson's story about being in the Navy was awesome.  He gave it during Priesthood session.  The first sunday in the Navy, the chief officer commanded them:  Today everybody goes to church.  All of you Catholics, you meet at camp decader.  Don't come back until 3 o'clock. Forward march.  Those of you who are Jewish, you meet in camp Henry.  Don't come back until 3 o'clock.  The rest of you protestants, you meet in the theaters at camp fairgood.  Don't come back until 3 o'clock.

Instantly it flashed through Thomas' mind:  Monson you're not a catholic, you're not a Jew, you're not a protestant, you're Mormon!  So you just stand here.  He then stated that he is glad to be alive today.  President Monson felt completely alone.  Courageous and determined, but alone.

This got me thinking.. How easy would it have been for President Monson to have simply walked out along with the sailors of one of the other faiths?  But he didn't.  It takes courage to stand up to adversary, and oftentimes you will be by yourself.  It's easier to go with the flow and allow others to determine your actions.  But it is much more gratifying to decide for yourself, and to decide the right thing.  I wonder if sometimes loneliness is the price you must pay in order have courage and determination.  If this is so, it is well worth the cost.

The prophet went on to quote a poem:

Dare to be a Mormon
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known

I add my voice to that of President Monson.  Dare to stand alone.  "This is a time to do what is right regardless of the consequences that might follow."(Gordon B. Hinckley) While you may physically be standing alone when standing up for what's right, you will never stand alone spiritually.  You can do what is right.  You simply need to be willing to.

GC BABY!

You may or may not have heard this story from your home teacher:

A fine member of the Church was talking with a neighbor who was not of our faith. When the topic of discussion turned to general conference, the neighbor asked, “You say you have prophets and apostles? And twice a year in a worldwide conference they reveal the word of God?”
“Absolutely,” the member replied with confidence.
The neighbor thought about that for a moment. He seemed genuinely interested and then asked, “What did they say in the last general conference?”
At this point the good member of the Church went from feeling excited about sharing the gospel to feeling embarrassed. Try as he might, he couldn’t think of the details of a single talk.
His friend found this troubling and said, “You mean to tell me that God speaks to man in our day and you can’t remember what He said?”

In 3 Nephi 19, it was "noised abroad" that Jesus would be coming the next day, and "there were many, yea, an exceedingly great number, did labor exceedingly all that night, that they might be on the morrow in the place where Jesus should show himself".  To what extent would you go to see and hear the savior speak? Well He is going to speak to us.  This weekend.  Through his Prophet and apostles.  You might remember when I said that General Conference is coming up.  That is exactly what I'm referring to.  In this awesome display of affection towards us, God is literally telling us what we need to know in our day. Our Heavenly Father is talking to us, so we better listen to what He is teaching, and remember.




Everybody has different needs.  That is why it's so amazing that the needs of everybody.. The needs of every single person.. are going to be communicated during General Conference.  The speaker is not always going to be the one telling you what you're supposed to do, or giving you the comfort you need.  Often times it is the Holy Ghost that will be communicating to you what you need to hear.  Listen to it's promptings, as well as the words of the speakers.  I know how hard it is to pay attention, especially when you're in your Pajamas and on the couch, but there's an easy fix for that. Pray for help to listen to General Conference and for answers to your questions, and then do your best to stay awake and focus, and God will do the rest.  Your questions will be answered at General Conference.  This is the only living church; We receive personal revelation and we have a living prophet to guide us.  Listen to the teachings of General Conference and you will be blessed.  This much I know.

I Am a Child of God

<--Wonderful piano done by Paul Cardall

Listen to it!

I am a child of God, and He has sent me here.

Has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear.

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do to live with him someday.

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Romans 8:16–17

We are all children of God, and as such need to live worthy of our divine inheritance.  What does being a child of God say about our capacities and potential?  We can do anything we want to.  You are worthy to be an heir, along with our big brother Jesus Christ, to all that our Father has.

Never forget the importance of the lyrics to this simple primary song:  'I Am a Child of God'

Tragedy and the Existence of God

10 years ago some people did some bad things.  Very bad things.

Many atheists claim that tragedy and sorrow like this is what makes them believe that there is no God.  I say tragedy and sorrow like this is simply proof that there IS a God.  Some people claim "If there was a God he wouldn't let something this bad happen".  However, I believe if there was no God, then there would be no such thing as right and good, and therefore there would be no such thing as wrong and evil.  So if there was no God, then what happened 10 years ago today was simply a decision made by a person, and there was no evil or badness involved.  Their own argument is precisely why they're wrong.  There must be a God, because what those people did all those years ago WAS bad.

God has so much love for us that he's not going to baby us through life.  He loves us enough to give us trials..  And we're going to keep on having trials until we have become perfect like His son.  In other words, the hard times never stop.  The good news is that we can become more and more like His son through our trials.  The other good news is that God and Jesus are both there to help us through everything, and I love them for that.

           Tragedy isn't the proof of the non-existence of God.

                                   It's a reminder.

Conference: It's coming up!

Solve these riddles:

1 As I went across the bridge, I met a man with a load of wood which was neither straight nor crooked. What kind of wood was it?

2 What has a mouth but can't chew?

3 There was a green house. Inside the green house there was a white house. Inside the white house there was a red house. Inside the red house there were lots of babies. What is it?

4 What is put on a table, cut, but never eaten?

5 Two fathers and two sons go fishing. Each of them catches one fish. So, why do they bring home only 3 fish?

6 When asked how old she was, Suzie replied "In two years I will be twice as old as I was five years ago." How old is she?

7 Mr Archibald went for a walk in the forest. It began to rain suddenly and he couldn't didn't have anything to protect his head. But not even a few hairs got wet. How is this possible?

8 There are 3 stoves. A glass stove, a brick stove, and a wood stove. You only have 1 match. Which do you light up first?

9 It there were 9 cats on a bridge and one jumped over the edge, how many would be left?

10 Six glasses are in a row. The first three are full of juice; the second three are empty. By moving only one glass, can you arrange them so empty and full glasses alternate?

Those were hard, just like life. However, how easy would they have been if I had given you hints? for example, on number 3, think about fruit. On number 7, think about his age. These clues make these riddles significantly easier. If you can get these kind of hints about life, why wouldn't you listen intently and pay close attention? This is what General Conference is.

"But they always talk about the same thing!! I've heard it all before!" Let me tell you something, true Principles don't change. And we, as children, need repetition in order to learn. If we're not learning what we're taught, then obviously we need to hear it again until we are perfect at it; and there is only one person who can claim perfection at any trait.

"Don't discount a message merely because it sounds familiar." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Conference is messages from God, to us. So get ready to listen up.

(Answers coming next post)

New Thing

This is a new thing I'm starting, but I don't know what to call it.  You guys can need to help me with a title.  The top one's I've thought of right now are:

'Sunday Replay'    'Sunday Power Play'    'Power Play Sunday'    'Sunday Take Away'    'Solemn Sunday'

So any of those, or anything else you guys can think of to call it, just leave a comment of what you like the most!

What I'm starting is simply a post each Sunday of what I learned that day, because I'm always enlightened each and every Sunday, and I love it.

Heavenly Father, the ultimate coach.

Something that's common between most coaches is yelling.  Why do they yell at the players who are trying their best?  I'll answer with a scripture: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten" (Revelation 3:19). The coach simply wants the player to improve himself, so he let's him know what he's doing wrong.  The same thing happens with parents rebuking their children.  In his April 2011 General Conference talk, D. Todd Christofferson related this story:

President Hugh B. Brown, formerly a member of the Twelve and a counselor in the First Presidency, provided a personal experience. He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8 m) high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say:  

“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.” 

President Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’” 

Years later, President Brown was a field officer in the Canadian Army serving in England. When a superior officer became a battle casualty, President Brown was in line to be promoted to general, and he was summoned to London. But even though he was fully qualified for the promotion, it was denied him because he was a Mormon. The commanding general said in essence, “You deserve the appointment, but I cannot give it to you.” What President Brown had spent 10 years hoping, praying, and preparing for slipped through his fingers in that moment because of blatant discrimination. Continuing his story, President Brown remembered: 

“I got on the train and started back … with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. … When I got to my tent, … I threw my cap on the cot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, ‘How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?’ I was as bitter as gall. 

“And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, ‘I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do.’ The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness. … 

“… And now, almost 50 years later, I look up to [God] and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.’”

Remember, "Divine chastening has at least three purposes: (1) to persuade us to repent, (2) to refine and sanctify us, and (3) at times to redirect our course in life to what God knows is a better path."

 God does love us, and every trial that we go through will simply make us stronger.  You can never grow stronger if you don't get cut down a little along the way.

Coincidence or Miracle?

People break down into two groups. When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is a fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?
        ~From the movie Signs


I myself am a miracle man.  I think everything that happens is a piece to a much larger puzzle; A puzzle that we don't know what the picture looks like until much further down the road.  I think everything has a purpose, no matter how small it seems at the time.  Now I ask you, Is everything simply luck?  Or is God a part of everything that happens?  Or is it somewhere in the middle? Perhaps you believe that only bigger coincidences are miracles, while smaller ones are simply that - coincidences.  So which type are you?