Good News

I have good news for you! It's the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is once again restored onto the earth. Recently in my studies I found out that the word "gospel" when translated means good news. As a missionary I get to preach the good news of our savior Jesus Christ to everyone that will listen. The Gospel of Christ covers such a plethora of topics, I probably won't get to touch on all of them so please forgive me. The first thing I want to mention about this good news is that Jesus Christ knows how you feel. He has suffered through everything, all of our pains, sorrows, afflictions, and any other crappy thing we have to deal with, and he was able to overcome every single one. Since he has been able to overcome all of them he is able to help us get through the hard times, no matter how hard the times may get. Christ will comfort us and lift us up when we need it, and even sometimes when we don't. Isn't that some of the best news ever? You know how sometimes you're having a bad day and sometimes you feel alone. Or maybe you just lost your spouse or a loved one and you feel alone and like there is no one around to be with you. Let me tell you there is someone there with you. The Holy Ghost is, and he will comfort you and hang out with you so you won't be alone. There is even more good news! You are going to see them again. No matter who they are or how they lived you will see your family and friends again after we pass from this life. Isn't that great news. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is awesome and I am so glad that I have it my life. Whenever I am down it is there to lift me up. Whenever I am alone it is there to be with me. Whenever I am sad or feeling depressed it is there to cheer me up and make me happy. I love it and I don't know what I would do without it. This is why I am on a mission, I want to share this good news with everyone so they can have all the happiness that it has given me. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has helped me so much and I know it will do the same for you.

Hope

What is hope? I have thought about this a lot and hope is a pretty broad subject I think. But after watching the last general conference Elder Steven E. Snow gave a talk on hope and basically said what I had thought in an understandable matter. "Hope is an emotion which brings richness to our everyday lives. It is defined as “the feeling that … events will turn out for the best.” When we exercise hope, we “look forward … with desire and reasonable confidence”(1). As such, hope brings a certain calming influence to our lives as we confidently look forward to future events." - Elder Steven E. Snow. He said that sometimes we hope for things which we have no control over such as the weather, or for our favorite sports team to win, or where a deceased loved one will go after this mortal life. Some of these hopes make our lives interesting, and sometimes lead us to unusual and sometimes funny behavior. Others give us comfort for what will happen to our loved ones. He also said that sometimes we hope for things that we do have control over, such as doing well in school or playing on a winning team. These hopes can also lead us to unusual and sometimes funny behavior as well. Such as a student doing homework, studying and not procrastinating their work. "In the gospel of Jesus Christ, hope is the desire of His followers to gain eternal salvation through the Atonement of the Savior." Steven E. Snow then said "This is truly the hope we must all have." and I couldn't agree more. As we have hope in The Atonement we have faith in Jesus Christ. In the gospel hope is practically always related to charity and faith. Dieter F. Uchtdorf has taught: “Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at the time”(2). I couldn't have explained it better. I know that when we have faith in God and Jesus Christ and give charity God will work everything out for us.

1. (dictionary.reference.com/browse/hope)
2. (“The Infinite Power of Hope,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2008, 21)

Repentace

Repentance. The first time I herd this word I thought it was for the bad sinners, the guys who are in jail. It is, but it is also for us, for everyone. All repentance is, is a change of heart, throwing out a bad habit and starting a new better one. It is trying everyday to become more Christ like. For example one day you may be frustrated and just having a bad day it happens sometimes, then someone says something and you blow up in there face. You realize later you shouldn't have yelled at them and the only reason you did was because you were having a bad day and they accidentally pushed you over the edge. So the next day you feel bad for what you did, you call them up and apologize to them and say your sorry, and that you will try not to do it again. Boom! You just repented, you apologized and said you would try not to do it again. You are trying to make your actions more Christ like, aka repentance. Sometimes repenting or being Christ like is difficult but I promise you it's so worth it. Sometimes the hardest part about feeling like you have repented is forgiving yourself. I know this because it happened to me. I made a stupid mistake I knew better but I still fell into temptation, I repented but I felt like I repented wrong or something because I still felt bad for what I had done. But it was because I couldn't forgive myself. God had forgiven me but I hadn't forgiven myself. No matter how small or large your mess up may be God will always forgive you. It took me a while but I eventually realized that many other people had made the same mistake and had been able to forgive themselves and learn and grow from it and to never do it again. I then did the same, I saw it as an opportunity to gain experience from and to remember the guilt I felt so I wouldn't do it again. After that my actions were more Christ like and I had repented, I felt so much better. After we repent we must remember how we felt during our repentance process and remember the guilt we had and to strive with all our might to not make that same mistake again.

Choices

Choices are everywhere and we make them all the time, and we make them about everything. Like which tie am I going to wear today? or for girls how am I going to do my hair? and even what am I going to eat for lunch? There are so many different options available for every choice we make, we could choose a good option, but is it always the best. For some choices it doesn't matter what we choose like which tie am I going to wear today? But some choices it does matter what option we choose and it should be the best option available. Like What am I going to eat for lunch? It is so easy in today's world to just drive through some fast food place, and that may be a good option it is quick and will save you some time. But is it there a better choice? It is so much better if we go home and make something or just take 5 or 10 extra minutes in the morning to pack a healthy lunch. This will be healthier for us and save us some money. Another option is how we spend our free time. It is good to surf the web, play an occasional video game, read books and magazines and watch movies to gain interesting information. But it's not good how much time is consumed by all of these in today's world. It would be much better if we would spend more of our free time with our family and strengthening those relationships, helping someone in need, or doing small acts of service such as raking an old ladies leaves. These options would be a better choice, and would give you a more accomplishing feeling than knowing that you had the best kill spread in a single online game of Halo or Call of Duty. Choices are made constantly throughout the day, we need to work at making better choices or maybe even the best choice.

*Idea for this post was given to me From Elder Dallin H. Oaks' talk given in the October Session of the 2007 General Conference

The Holy Ghost

The Holy Ghost is awesome and there is so much he does for us. One of the things he does for us is he warns us of spiritual and physical danger. When we are deciding between two options the Holy Ghost will prompt us to choose one over the other because he knows that there will be spiritual or physical danger at the other. Even when the other decision may sound like we would have a better time at it. For example I played rugby in high school and there was a game one Sunday, I really wanted to play in it. I thought it would be best if I didn't play even though my team really would have needed my help. At the game there were high tempers that led to players and coaches doing and saying things they shouldn't have been said or done. Some of the players got suspended for the rest of the season and even some of the coaches. If I would have gone I may have been apart of that and I could have been suspended for the rest of the season. I made the correct choice by not going to the game but, I only made that choice because I was prompted to do so by the Holy Ghost. He knew that there would have been a fight and he told me not to go. I was sad I wasn't going to play in the game but I was so glad that when I herd the story of what happened that I didn't go and risk getting suspended. The Holy Ghost didn't tell me there was going to be a fight and that's why I shouldn't go to the game he simply just told me not to go through a small prompting. I almost ignored this subtle feeling to not play because I love the game and didn't want to miss playing in a game. I listened to the prompting and was able to play the rest of the season. The Holy Ghost is an awesome guy and does so much more than just warn us of dangers. It is crucial that we do not ignore the warnings of the Holy Ghost, and that we are always listening and acting on the subtle promptings we receive.

We Need To Slow Down

Life goes by fast and if were aren't careful we're going to miss it. We need to slow down, pay attention, and make correct choices. For example the other day I was walking down the street. A squirrel in a tree got my attention. I watched the squirrel run down the tree and across the road as fast as his little legs could take him. The squirrel was going so fast he didn't check for cars and unfortunately he never made it across the street. If this poor little squirrel would have slowed down just for 1 second to look for signs of danger such as the car. He would still be chasing other squirrels around and finding nuts to eat. I know for me at least I often run across streets blindly like the squirrel did, luckily I haven't been run over by a car yet. Watching that incident was terrible but it was a good reminder that we need to slow down and look both ways before we cross any street. This applies in every aspect of our life and in every decision we make. At least for me recently I have been sprinting everywhere and not checking for danger. I need to slow down and look both ways before I do something. It is easy to get in the habit of doing something and forget to check for cars. This was a good reminder for me that I need to double check my choices even though I may have done that same thing a thousand times. Sometimes we may even need to ask our Heavenly Father to help us recognize hazards that are coming our way. God is happy to help us, we just have to slow down, ask him, and he will guide us around the hazards.