Better Than We Are

"Different as we are in circumstances and experiences, we share a desire to become better than we are."

-Henry B. Eyring-

My Mom and My Dad are two of the most Christ like people I know. I'm of course biased in this statement but I'm sure most of you would agree, They are the best!!! My parents have taught me so much, and none of it was learned by any other way but through example.

My Mom

Shes the mother of 8 crazy kids. Her skills and patience and are most definitely God given. He has blessed her her whole life and it is amazing she didn't strangle any of us with growing up, the way we acted! She has that perfect touch, she knows how to make us feel loved. She gardens, she cooks, she cleans like crazy! You may know her as that flower lady! She pays attention to every little detail and in everything she does she does it with all the love and tender care she can muster. My mother taught me love. She taught me patience.

My Dad

My Dad is my hero! This man raised 6 boys. Enough said! He climbs mountains, he teaches the youth of today, he writes books, cuts hair, continues to climb more mountains, and much much more. My Dad has always been a calm, patient man. My Dad never stops trying to improving himself. He knows he is not perfect, but hes pretty darn close! He's an Idaho farm boy, and he is strong both physically and spiritually! He has been a leader his whole life. My Dad taught me diligence. My Dad taught me obedience.

Love, Obedience, Humility, Diligence, Knowledge, Virtue, Hope, Charity

These are the attributes of Christ. Christ's life was an example for all of us to follow. He lived a perfect life. He set the standard and He ask each of us to follow Him. My parents were followers of Christ, you can tell from how they live. They are trying to be like Jesus. And they loved me enough to teach me the same things the exact same way that Jesus did. Through example, and through love.

I love my parents so much, and I am so grateful for all that they have done for me. They have taught me the important principles, and attributes that I want in my own life, so that I can be an example and light to others. So that I can be like Christ.

As we become more like Christ we are able to fulfill that desire with in all of us. We are able to become better than we are.



I’m trying to be like Jesus;
I’m following in his ways.
I’m trying to love as he did, in all that I do and say.
At times I am tempted to make a wrong choice,
But I try to listen as the still small voice whispers,

“Love one another as Jesus loves you.
Try to show kindness in all that you do.
Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought,
For these are the things Jesus taught.”

-Children's hymn-

Prayer and Faith

The power of prayer is a real thing! It is a force in this world that we can not understand. We have a loving Heavenly Father who listens to every plea from our hearts. He hears every cry for help. He hears every heart felt prayer! Its amazing! And I testify that He does answer those prayers. I have numerous accounts in my life where my prayers have been answered. I won't share all of them with you, that would be a lot of writing for me and a lot of reading for you, and since I don't want your eyes to burn from staring at this screen too long, I'll just share a few. 

The first is very very simple. I wish I could say this happened to me as a child, but no it actually happened just a few nights ago. I awoke in the middle of the night to the furnace kicking on in the corner of our basement bed room. I heard a hissing sound followed by a constant clicking. In my drowsy mid-sleep state the only things my mind could make of the noises were "Is it propane? and is the clicking the lighter trying to light it? Why hasn't it lit yet? Oh no! The room is filling with gas and its gunna blow up!" 

"Dear Heavenly Father, Please let us be safe."

The words no sooner entered my mind when the hissing and clicking  lit and turned into that warm heating hum of the furnace. My prayer, although probably not necessary and like I said before rather childish, was answered instantly. Immediately my soul was comforted that my life was no longer in danger. Fear left my body and I offered up another quick prayer of thanks and gratitude before slipping back sleep.   

Simple, yet true. Prayers are heard and answered.

Another time, earlier on my mission I had a prayer answered more powerfully. I had just been transferred to a new area. I was in a new place with a new companion. I remember on our first day before we left our apartment, we knelt in prayer and called upon the powers of Heaven. We prayed that the Lord would, according to our faith, place some one in our path. Some one who needed the gospel and someone the Lord had prepared. We ended our prayer and we left the apartment that day filled with faith and hope. I knew that the Lord had heard that prayer, and now it was up to us to go find that person that the Lord had in mind. We went about our days work. We had planned to visit an investigator at his apartment building. Upon arriving my companion who was fairly new to the mission couldn't remember exactly which room was our investigators. He finally made up his mind that it was this one door and so we knocked. About 5 seconds later my companion realized that it was the wrong door, he was about to turn and leave when the door opened. 

There stood a young man, about 20 years old, long hair, big earrings and other facial piercings, and a confused look on his face. My companion was thinking how to explain that we were at he wrong door when it hit us both very strongly, we were at the RIGHT door. He shook hands with the man and started talking to him. He had just moved there the day before from Salt Lake city, and he had heard of Mormons before but never knew anything about them. We asked if we could come back and share a message with him, he agreed and closed the door. We walked over to the next door down, the door we had meant to go to, knocked, and waited. There was no answer, and after some discussion we decided that the Lord had a different plan for us. We went back to the first door and knocked again. We went in and taught him about eh restoration, and we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. He seemed enlightened by our visit and was very eager to read the book.

God had prepared some one for the gospel that day. Through our prayer and our faith we were able to be instruments in the Lord's hands. If we hadn't prayed, and if we hadn't had the faith and hope that we would find someone, I don't think my companion would have been confused as to which door to knock on, and even if we had, if we weren't looking for someone to teach we would have explained that we had knocked on the wrong door, gone to the next and found no one home and would have went on our way, leaving one of God's prepared children alone and perhaps maybe even his prayers would have been unanswered. 

Like I said before, god hears our prayers. Our prayers and our faith can bring the power of Heaven into our lives and into the lives of others. That power works only upon our asking, and our faith. But if we are humble enough to ask the Father, I promise you that he will answer. In his own way, and in his own time, but he answers. 

"For he did cry from the morning, even until the going down of the sun, exhorting the people to believe in God... ...saying unto them that by faith all things are fulfilled."

Ether 12:3

"For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them..." 

Ether 12:12

You have ability to call down the power of Heaven into your life. I testify that all we have to do is be humble and willing, faithful and believing, and we will see miracles in our lives! 

Listen and Obey: A Word of Caution

I'm going to share a story from my life and compare it to the gospel.

Here it goes....

One particularly cold winter night, in the frozen plains of Southern Alberta the place that I call home, some friends and I set out on a journey. Our quest was simple. Find the biggest hill in town with snow on it and slide down it. So off we went. We drove down by the river bottom and gazed over the landscape before us. There were hills all around, but our eyes settled on a specific group. "The Dump". These hills were obviously used for land waste, but also used for dirt biking in the summer time. there were plenty of steep hills around and I knew them well. My friends and I would ride up and down the hills on our mountain bikes when we were younger. The hills looked a little different now covered in a thick layer of white snow, in fact they looked even bigger. These were the ones! 

We parked the car and started our long walk towards the hills. You couldn't access them from the roads, and so we trudged through the snow and brush. We passed a few small hills here and there, still searching for the one we would descend. As we continued our walk through the night we came to a frozen pond.

There was the first red flag.

"Stop!" the thought flashed in my mind but quickly followed by my own rebuttal "Don't be a wuss. Its frozen solid!" I looked at my friends, smiled, and stated our friendship motto out loud. 

"Punk ain't dead. You only live once!"

and without hesitation I was on my stomach, crossing the cold pond surface. I had learned that Polar bears would crawl on their belly across frozen lakes and not fall through, if a polar bear can do it so can I! I was about half way across before the others began to follow. As we all got to the other side and stood up to continue on I thought to myself  "See! I knew the ice wouldn't break!"

We climbed a few more gentle hills and eventually found ourselves staring down what must have been the biggest hill in the dump. The bottom looked a long, long ways away. A chill of excitement went through me, and then another feeling came shortly after that.

"Don't go down the hill"

  "But it looks like so much fun! I have too!"

"No, don't do it."

I pushed the thought from my mind and with that I sat down on my sled, which was nothing more than a thin piece of plastic that resembled the lid of a garbage can. I inched my way closer to the edge, and with a glance back at my friends worried faces I pushed off and yelled...

"PUNK AIN'T DEAD!"

It was fun! It was fast! too fast. and cold and hard. The snow on the hill wasn't snow at all, it was ice! I slid faster and faster, more and more out of control, I was no longer facing forwards towards the bottom of the hill. I hit something, a bump and it bucked me off the sled (The thing had broken to pieces anyways) and I tumbled over and over until I hit the bottom. 

I stood up after a little while. I could hear the cheers from my friends above. I smiled, but that quickly faded as I felt a throbbing in my head, and I looked down and saw drops of bright red blood on the white floor beneath me. I reached up to where the pain was coming from and felt the heat and the stinky fluid of the blood. I shouted to my friends.

"Stop! Don't come down!"

They didn't listen of course. They came down going much slower than I did, making sure to stay in control and to drag their feet the whole way down. They helped pick up my shattered sled and we made our way back to the car.

At the Hospital.

I was fine in the end, just a few minor scrapes and a huge head ache but I learned my lesson. Actually the lesson I learned on the icy hill and the adventure of "Danger Sledding" was actually taught to me and learned long before that night. I have learned in church and through my own scripture study this important message.

Elder Boyd K. Packer President of the Quorum of the twelve Apostles said in his talk titled 'Personal Revelation: The Gift, The Test, The Promise'

"[The] voice of the Spirit speaks gently, prompting you what to do or what to say, or it may caution or warn you. Ignore or disobey these promptings, and the Spirit will leave you. It is your choice..."

I chose to disregard the warnings and cautions that the Spirit gave to me, and because I acted against those feelings, I in the end was hurt, whereas it could have been avoided. This taught me that God is mindful of us. He knows what we are doing and He knows the course our actions will take. He loves us enough to let us make our own choices, but he also loves us enough to warn us of danger. Those spiritual promptings that I felt that night would have saved me a trip to the hospital and a major head ache. I chose to ignore my Heavenly Fathers protection because I thought I knew better. I didn't trust God, and I should have! I ignored the revelation that God was giving me, that there was danger ahead.

 I chose to ignore the Lords warning. I lacked the faith that i needed to see that there really was danger in what I thought was fun. If I would have seen what He could see I would have listened. So how can we see how He sees?

Elder packer goes on to say " The flow of revelation depends on your faith. You exercise faith by causing, or by making, your mind accept or believe as truth that which you cannot, by reason alone, prove for certainty...

...As you test gospel principles by believing without knowing, the Spirit will begin to teach you. Gradually your faith will be replaced with knowledge.

You will be able to discern, or to see, with spiritual eyes.

Be believing and your faith will be constantly replenished, your knowledge of the truth increased, and your testimony of the Redeemer, of the Resurrection, of the Restoration will be as “a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life.” You may then receive guidance on practical decisions in everyday life."

I invite all of you to follow Elder Packer's advice and "Be believing." Have the faith to follow the Lord even if you can't see. Trust the Lord. He loves us, and cares about us. As we exercise our faith in Him and follow his promptings He will bless us more with his spirit, to guide and direct us for good.

I know that this is true, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Free From Bondage

So this one night I was just minding my own business playing my guitar if i remember correctly. Then i hear a knock at the door, I get up, answer the door to find three of my friends standing out side. They suspiciously ask to come in, and i let them. i no sooner find my self being circled by them. One of them shouts "NOW!" and they all start running around me. I'm extremely confused and in the commotion i notice that while they are running they are holding something in their hands, and some how it was attached to me. suddenly I realize what is happening. Its duct tape! and they are wrapping me up! I try to run, but my legs are already wrapped tightly together. They make their way up my body. My arms are now strapped to my side and my hands cuffed together. I'm pushed onto the floor, there is no escaping now! They wrap more and more around me. One of them even decided to torment me by giving my face a duct tape wax job. and all awhile i'm wondering to myself  "WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!?!!!" It was terrible. I was MAD! Furious! And if you know me at all, that is NOT me! But this was too much! I couldn't move, no matter what I said the teasing and tying never stopped, and the whole time I am thinking "Why? Do I really deserve this?" 

Needless to say it was not one of my finest moments. I was hurt. I was mad. I was embarrassed that I could be over powered by three girls! Ashamed. Defeated. Diminished. 

     In life when some one gives into temptation, or decides to disobey our Father in Heaven he gives his will over to the devil. The devil himself is not a kind man, but oh boy is he clever. He is so good at what he does. When you disobey you usually don't even realize that you are doing just that. Satan makes up all these excuses for you and sometimes we do not see the error of our ways. Satan makes us feel like what we want to do is okay. He gives us fake confidence. He lies to us daily, and sadly most of us get fooled. We stumble and fall into his ways, into paths of darkness. And all we want is to get out! Never do we really want to be in those paths, but we find ourselves stuck there. Ever wonder why? Why we can just free ourselves and return to the Lord? Why is it so hard to turn back? 

In the scriptures we read accounts of how the Adversary works. Through His prophets the Lord warns us of Satan's evil ways;  

And behold I say unto you all that this was a snare of the adversary, which he has laid to catch this people, that he might bring you into subjection unto him, that he might encircle you about with his chains, that he might chain you down to everlasting destruction, according to the power of his captivity. (Alma12:6)

also in 3 Nephi 1:13

 13 O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe.

Satan has no desire to please us or grant us eternal bliss. His idea is to trap us in our sins, so that he can make us as miserable as he is! What a punk. What an evil man, full of lies and false pretenses. He leads us to believe that sin is like freedom. That God's commandments hold us back from having fun, and being free. But where does Satan's plan end? With happiness? Freedom? No, it ends in eternal misery and endless woe.

When I was bound by the duct tape in my own living room, I was mad. "they had no right!" I thought. "This is my house, this is so unfair." But I let them in, and somewhere along the line I must have offended them or provoked them to want to do that to me. I have since forgiven them obviously and its a funny story that we talk about, but it relates to the gospel. When we are bound we are NOT happy. We have no freedom, we have no release. We are in bondage to those that have bound us. I can promise you that Satan has no greater desire than to have us be subjected to him. Do not listen to his enticing words and messages that he send to us on a daily basis in this world. Temptation is real. There is evil in this world. Everyday we must choose to seek for that which is good, and resist the temptations to do wrong. If we give in to those unrighteous desires we will soon find ourselves wrapped in the chains of hell. and most often it is too late. We are too far gone, and we can no longer free ourselves. 

That is when the Savior comes in. God knew that we would not all be perfect and that we would often fall into the traps of Satan, and that we would need some one to free us from his bonds. So he sent Christ into this world for that purpose.  Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane for the sins of the world. Everyone that sins (which is all of us!) has been recognized by the Savior and he has suffered our pains. That part has already been done. So now it is up to us to let that sacrifice release us from the chains that hold us back. This process is simple. It is living the gospel of Christ which requires us to have faith in Christ, repent of our sins, be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. 

45 O, my beloved brethren, turn away from your sins; shake off the chains of him that would bind you fast; come unto that God who is the rock of your salvation. (2 Nephi 9:45)

Turning to the Lord is our ONLY source of escape. Simply having faith in him will alone help you a thousand times more than doing it on your own! A million times more! we can not do this alone!

in the Book of Mormon, we read of two men that have taken upon themselves the duty of teaching this gospel of Christ to a very wicked people. The wicked men take these two missionaries and they bond them with strong cords and cast them into prison. In prison the wicked men come day after day to beat upon these two righteous men. They are weak, they are hungry, they are naked, and they are helpless. They remain in prison and in bonds for days, until they call upon God for deliverance. 

"...How long shall we suffer these great afflictions, O Lord? O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto deliverance. And they broke the cords with which they were bound..."(Alma14:26)

If we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we will have the power necessary to brake the bands of sin. We will have the power to overcome the temptations of the world, and we will be truly free from grief and misery, and the path way to peace and joy will be opened unto us. It all starts with faith. and if we act upon that faith and continue to obey God's commands, we will receive the blessings of Heaven!  

No one likes to be in chains. No one likes to be wrapped in duct tape. choose to follow God and you will have no need to fear! 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

LDS.ORG

Prayer

What is a prayer?

Prayers are the connecting power between us and our Father in Heaven. In the Bible dictionary it says;

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 (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. 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 object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.

We pray because God is our Father. Because this is so, He hears our pleas and He blesses us according to His will, but he does require us to act before he can do so. This to me is one of the greatest gifts God has given me. He gives me his time. I can speak with him and I KNOW that he is listening to me. I know that he cares about me enough to answer those heart-felt prayers. He lends me his ear when no one else will hear me. What loving father would hear his child's cry for help, and simply ignore it. God can not do that. He WILL give us help if we ask.

3 Nephi 27:29

Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh, receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/27.29?lang=eng#28

An important part of prayer is this "The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant..."We must be living worth of the blessings God has in store for us. Kind of how in order for Santa Claus to bring us presents, we have to be on the 'nice list'. But how do we get on the Lord's 'Nice list'? the Bible dictionary goes on to say; "We pray in Christ’s name when our mind is the mind of Christ, and our wishes the wishes of Christ—when His words abide in us (John 15:7). We then ask for things it is possible for God to grant. Many prayers remain unanswered because they are not in Christ’s name at all; they in no way represent His mind but spring out of the selfishness of man’s heart." 

If we follow the advice found in 1 John 3:22 we can have the promise of the Lord that he will answer our prayers.

1 John 3:22
22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

I know that if we do these things, if we try our best to 'keep his commandments' we will be worthy if those blessings. If we humble ourselves and make our will the same as the Lords, if we give ourselves up to him, He will be able to mold us and bless us.
Prayer is a true power. We are not far from the Lord when we are on bended knee. He Is willing to answer every question that we ask, him but are you willing to do what ever he asks of you? If so I would invite all of you to knee in prayer and ask God if He loves you. I know that he WILL answer.
In this I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

A message I wish to say

I wasn't always this way. I wasn't that guy who would talk to anyone about beliefs and religion. Everyone probably knew I was a 'Mormon', but i did my best not to go around spreading that knowledge. I'm not ashamed of it, and that is not what I'm trying to say. No I just want to point out that I wasn't always this open. 

But I wish I was.

I'm a missionary now. This is what I do everyday all day. I actually go out of my way now to share me beliefs. its quite the change. I'm more open to telling people what I believe and I'm more aggressive on sharing this information with others. See what I have learned and experienced through life has changed me. My beliefs have made me a better person. I want to share what i know with others so they can improve their lives as well. Why I didn't do a better job of that before I don't know.

But I wish I had. 

The knowledge and message that has changed my life is this; God is my Father in Heaven. Jesus Christ is my savior and redeemer. He has saved me from all the mistakes that I have made, and from all the mistakes I'll continue to make for the rest of my life! Knowing this simple fact brings me all the motivation I need to do better. If God really is my Father, then just think of the possibilities that leaves for me. Think of what I can achieve. Think of what I can become! Think of what I can do knowing that Jesus Christ has suffered and died for me. I can start over. My sins can be forgiven. I can feel peace and joy in the place of guilt and shame, if I rely on his merits to save me from those feelings! That was his purpose in providing that sacrifice! If I choose to accept him and that sacrifice, I can be forgiven, if I follow his instructions. I sometimes don't always follow.

But I wish I would.

The Lord promises us so much if we do our best to follow his commands. The Savior himself said "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." 

(http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/john/15.10?lang=eng#9)

He promises us that we will abide in His love. Can you imagine that? What it would feel like? Look at this picture of the Savior. Can you feel his love for you? How does it make you feel? That feeling to me is more precious than any other thing in this world! I'd give anything to feel that feeling. That is why I am here. Because I HAVE felt that feeling. And I feel it everyday. That is why I am out sharing this gospel, this love with others. So they can feel this way. That is why I wish with all my heart that I would have sooner! I apologize to all of those who I know that I haven't shared this knowledge with. I did you wrong by keeping this all to myself. I can't express to you how sorry I truly am.

But I wish I could.

Please know that I believe this with all my heart. That God wants each and everyone of us to feel this love. It is the reason he sent His son here to this earth. It is the reason why His Spirit prompts us each day to be good. He wants us to be happy and this is the only way to have eternal happiness. Through His Son's sacrifice, and through following his instructions. I invite you to ask God himself if this is not true. Kneel down and pray to your father in Heaven and I know he will hear your prayer. He loves you. He cares about you. He knows you.

I didn't take the time before my mission much to share this with others. I didn't get to help some one else by helping them get to know God better.

But I wish you will.

I know these things are true, and I say them in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen