Pre-Mission

  I'm about to go on a mission to Chile vina del mar! Awesome!
 
About a month ago Sister Ingersol, a primary leader, asked me to bear my testimony. My first reaction was: I need at least a couple days to prepare for this. But, of course I kept to the code, and told her I’d help her out with sharing time. Twenty minutes later, after her loving introduction, I walked to the front of about forty kids of ages 7-11. All you need to know, is that the words Radical and Dude were involved.  I sat down, red faced and embarrassed. Then I looked over and realized sister Ingersol was tearing up. That built a testimony for me that day in the atonement of Jesus Christ.  Despite my weaknesses, God somehow used me as an instrument of the spirit to touch someone’s heart. I just had to be willing to get out of my comfort zone.  

 World Religions are amazing, and as diverse as the people who live them.
Do I go out into the world to tell these people how to live? That seems a little self-righteous.
My job isn't to teach my doctrine. In the mail I received a piece of paper with a personalized photocopy of Thomas S. Monson's signature. It was a calling to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ: repentance, baptism, and faith in Jesus Christ.

 "It may seem to some to be a very bold doctrine that we talk of...the powers of the Holy Priesthood. For him to whom these keys are given there is no difficulty in obtaining a knowledge of facts in relation to the salvation of the children of men, both as well for the dead as for the living." (D&C 128:9-11)

Dear World, I'm not here to take away the good you have. I want to build and be a part of a community of people who are looking for righteousness, which is happiness. When there are questions, let us look for the answers.
Gordon B. Hinckley — There are few things more pathetic than those who have lost their curiosity and sense of adventure, and who no longer care to learn.

  I'm preparing to give a farewell talk to a bunch of good people. I'm nervous, oh yeah. But afraid? With real faith there's no room for fear. (I'm giving myself motivation here.) This is no new message: Come unto Christ.
“In the great Composer’s symphony, you have your own particular part to play—your own notes to sing. Fail to perform them, and with certainty the symphony will go on. But if you rise up and join the chorus and allow the power of God to work through you, you will see “the windows of heaven” open, and He will “pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” -Dieter F Uchtdorf.

           To the hearts I've broken, I'm sorry. To those who I let down, I'm sorry. To anyone who needs it, I forgive you. I want to be a better man. That's all I've got.

Now its between me and God. Next Sunday, and for the next two years, Christ is working through me. Do you feel the Holy Ghost yet? or do I need to knock on your door?

Can we be Happy all the Time?

Surely God feels sorrow: (check scripture) http://www.smpt.org/docs/england_element1-1.html

So just as God feels sorrow, he also feels happiness. God is perfect, so his happiness comes through our progression and happiness, and vice versa.
As we become more like him, we expand our happiness through our families as well. As we are sealed to Him in the temple with our families, we eternally become linked together in an awesome family tree. Every evil man has his end. Every righteous man has his eternal growth. So by our expanding happiness, and his righteous family growing, he and we have an eternal happiness that is always growing.
But what about Godly pain?

The following passage is from the awesome short read "The Screwtape Letters". Its a letter from a teacher Demon/Devil to another student devil who has been trying to tempt someone. That person died, and went to heaven. Look at this interesting idea:

"Pains he may still have to encounter, but they embrace those pains.  They would not barter them for any earthly pleasure.  All the delights of sense or heart or intellect with which you could once have tempted, even the delights of virtue itself, now seem to him in comparison but as the half-nauseous attractions of a raddled harlot would seem to a man who hears that his true beloved whom he has loved all his life and whom he had believed to be dead is alive and even now at his door.  He is caught up in to that world where pain and pleasure take on transfinite values and where all our arithmetic is dismayed." (Clyde S. Kilby, The Screwtape Letters, 93)

So God can feel sorrow, but those pains are full of charity, even the purest of love and righteousness. So even those pains we would easily trade for the greatest of pleasures we can get on this Earth. Thats an amazing thought.

How To Argue?

You can not have a discussion that builds intelligence without first establish a grounds of common truth.  Ammon uses this when speaking unto lamoni about the "great spirit". (Alma 18:24-26)

Insecurity

"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
"And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeh them nto, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." (Matthew 7:24-27)

How many times in the Book of Mormon do we hear the worlds, "and according to your faith it will done unto you?"

Faith: Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
Believe:  Accept (something) as true; feel sure of the truth of: Accept the statement of (someone) as true.

It's simple:  completely trust the teachings in the Book of Mormon and act accordingly.   "... and doeth them..."  will surely gain a testimony.  Just believe the things it teaches, and suddenly a whole new world is opened up, one that gives me hope!

Go With the Flow, Don't Force It

"The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of rightousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever." D&C 121: 46

 Compulsory definition:  Required by law or a rule; obligatory....Involving or exercising compulsion; coercive.
Compulsion defintion: The action or state of forcing or being forced to do something.

Don't feel like its an obligation.  Serving the Lord and living life to the fullest is a natural and divine attribute. It is a part of a nature as embryonic gods to desire to grow.  I'm only starting to learn how to separate myself from so many of the extrinsic values of the world, because I'm realizing how temporary, unstable, and unfulfilling (and quite boring) these values are.  The world and its definition of success depresses me.  As I further my education in the gospel and the truths of the testimonies of its valiant members, I'm finding myself happier and motivated. 

I'm stoked to find out how all the good things in this world are so interconnected.  Things like love, peace, nobleness, discipline, happiness, faith, virtue, knowledge, patience, hope... All these amazing things pump ambition and hope into my heart.  I'm so thankful for the atonement of Christ for saving me from destroying devices that is sin.  Otherwise none of these values would mean anything to me, and I would spend the rest of my existence in a shallow attempt to get the next "high" or comfortableness. 

John 2:1-11

Read these verses.  They have me wondering...

In verse 4, Jesus says his hour has not yet come.  He, in other words, is saying that he has his powers for the purpose of his "hour", or his divine mission on this Earth from Heavenly Father.  This is the reason Jesus had his power, so that he could truly sacrifice himself according to the Fathers will, rather than just his own.

Now the idea came to me; Maybe his entire ministry, up to the point of the passover and Gethsemane, was simply his will.  He truly loved us with his entire heart, and the thirty years prior to his ministry and miracles he lived however his heart desired.  He was a carpenter.  He was a loyal and happy son to his Mother Mary.  We even see in the beginning of John that it wasn't uncommon for him to be close to his mom.

So here's the theory:  Jesus lived life as he chose to, righteous and happy, until his hour was come.  He lived his life, his purpose on this Earth, was for his moment of truth.  But he is the perfect example.  He chose his profession.  He lived a life prior to his ministry.  He had agency.  He began his ministry as he was called of God to establish a righteous church and to spread a message of good tiding unto the children of men.  I know that I have a life ahead, full of adventure, marriage, family, and whatever profession I choose.  However, my hour is yet at hand:  To serve a mission.  Perhaps that is my fore-ordination in this world, and any calling after that in the body of the church is my ministry.  Its just a speculation, an idea.  But hey, it gives me hope. It says to me that there is a reason eternal life is our most prized blessing; It's because there are joys and happiness that god wants us to enjoy, and eternal and immortal life is the only way for us to experience the things that God wants us to experience.

 "Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; "for the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves." (Doctrine and Covenants 58:27-28)

"That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." Matt 6:4

My Dear Bro

Marcus, you are a kid with the potential for greatness in whatever your passion is.  If that passion is basketball, then you will be successful.  This I know without a doubt.  The heart that's inside you is pure and defiant.   If only you would watch and control your emotion, which can destroy even the best man in a quick moment.   If we lose our temper, we are controlled by the emotion of anger.  "What a tyrant to be ruled by!
"Even the Savior, before he cast the money changers out of the temple, braided his whip; he was in full control of himself in the exercise of his righteous indignation."*
 If you just wouldn't be so quick to anger you might open up your heart to what Dad has to say.  If you wouldn't be so concerned with the fads of the world you would improve.

I don't have the ability nor the responsibility to lecture you.  I only hope you realize this thing on your own, so that you can make a step towards progression.  As for now, I'll just wait I guess.

 *Stephen R. Covey