Joy

There are many ways we can find joy. Before I left for my mission I found happiness in skiing, sleeping in, and playing X-box especially madden. These are wholesome activities as long as they are not abused. They can bring you happiness, I know this because I got happiness from them. I have been thinking about these a lot lately because I miss them but I realized that they only brought me joy while I was doing them. There are many things out there that seem like they will bring us happiness. It may look like they will make us happy, and maybe they even will but it is only temporary happiness. Then we are back to where we were before if not worse. Some of these are temptations and others are just things we do because we have nothing else to do. We have to be careful of those temptations because some of them have strings attached such as addictions. But let me tell you something that I have been doing since I have been on my mission which is bringing me joy that does not have an end, it has no strings attached. It has been learning and sharing The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that as time goes on and as I live and learn more and more about it the joy will continue to get better and better. As you begin or continue to live the Gospel of Christ you will receive that same joy. Don't think it is to late to start living the gospel because you made a mistake in you past. That is the beauty of the gospel there is repentance where you learn from you mistakes and you cease to want to do them. I promise you as you live the Gospel of Christ you will begin to receive joy and that joy will stay will you for all eternity as long as you live the simple Gospel of Christ.

Relationship

How do you strengthen a relationship? You spend time with them, you have experiences with them, good and the bad. You get mad at them but then forgive them. The closer you get to someone a family member, a friend, or a spouse the more you care for them and want the best for them, and they will want the same for you. The closer you get to someone the more you want to spend time with them, and do nice things for them. The same goes for God, the closer your relationship gets with him the more he will bless you, and that will make you want to strengthen your relationship with him. But like almost all relationships you have to work at it. There are many ways you can strengthen your relationship with God, and I know at first it might be kind of scary, or you might be kind of nervous because you don't know how to strengthen your relationship with him. But let me tell you it's not scary and it's real simple it just takes some time. It can start with just a simple prayer asking for help or showing gratitude for what we have already been blessed with. It can also start with some scripture studying, even if it is just for 10 minutes before you go to bed. Also you can go to church to make it stronger. As you start to do these things you will be blessed and your relationship with God will increase, and you will begin to receive countless blessings from him. Now it probably won't happen over night I'm sorry but I promise you it will happen over time. You will find yourself wanting to pray more and wanting to read your scriptures and go to church every Sunday, because you will have seen the blessings from strengthening your relationship and you will want more. As your relationship with God grows you will receive blessings such as your relationships with others will strengthen, or you may just be happier about life and many other things. I invite you to begin to strengthen your relationship with God and I promise you won't regret it.

Trees

Trees. I like trees for a lot of reasons, they are fun to climb, they are good for the environment, they are good for burning, and they are very symbolic, also one day I want to build and epic tree house. You know how if a tree is planted in an area where it is easy for it to get water it's roots don't go very deep, they stay near ground level, and the tree won't have the best foundation. If a tree is planted in an area where it is more difficult for it to get water it's roots will work hard and go down deep in the ground so it can get the water it needs, and it will make itself a good solid foundation. Then when the big bad wolf comes by and huffs and buffs and tries to blow the tree down it won't be able to. But if it the winds blow on a tree where it doesn't have to go far for water and it's roots are close to the surface the tree may fall. This can be the same with your faith in Christ. If your roots are deep in the ground and you worked hard for your faith by reading scriptures, praying, and going to church when the big bad wolf huffs and buffs and tries to blow your tree over your roots will hold you up and you will be able to withstand his fierce winds. But if your roots are not that deep and your faith is there but you haven't worked extremely hard at it when the fierce winds come you may get blown over. What you can do now is dig your roots deeper into the earth and make your foundation stronger so when the temptations of Satan arise you will be able to withstand the temptations and prevail victorious for good. You can strengthen your roots by reading the scriptures, but not just reading them but applying the principles in them to your life and living them. You can deepen your roots by praying to our Father in Heaven, and showing him your thankful for what he has already given you, and asking for help, if you do I promise he will give his help. You can also strengthen your faith by going to church and taking the sacrament. I promise if you do these things your roots will deepen and when the 1,000 mph winds blow your tree will stand strong and proudly show off it's leaves to the world. I know this to be true because my roots used to be close to the surface and I almost got blown over a few times, but I have deepened my roots through the previous listed things and now I can withstand some of the most ferocious winds. I strengthened my roots and I know you can do the same, it's not to late to start now.

Blessings

Recently I have been noticing more blessings in my life. One of the many blessings I have noticed is patience. I don't get annoyed with people quite so easily anymore, which is awesome because now that I am on a mission I talk to a lot of people and some of them are quite frustrating. I am able to deal with their foolishness because now I have been blessed with more patience. I am a lot more patient when I drive also, my road rage has gone down considerably. I have also been blessed with a stronger relationship with my family. Although I am farther away from my parents and brothers and sisters geographically-wise, I am closer relationship-wise. These are only a few there many more blessings I have received. I was thinking about all these blessings and I was trying to figure out a good way to define blessings, so I looked up blessings in the dictionary and this is what I got, it's pretty legit. "A favor or gift bestowed by god, thereby bringing happiness." This definition is awesome. One reason I think I have been noticing so many more blessings in my life is because my relationship with God has gotten so much closer. I have been living a more Christ like life, and now I am better able to recognize the blessings he bestows upon me.  It has been great to receive these blessings from God and sometimes I wonder how I managed without them. I can promise you that if you strengthen your relationship with God he will throw numerous blessings at you. This is one way I look at it. It is like we are all little children learning, like not to hit people or how to use the toilet instead of our pants, and God is our loving parent teaching us. Whenever we listen to him and we don't hit a fellow toddler when they take our toy, or if we use the toilet instead of our pants he rewards us with a new toy or a candy bar or something. So when we listen to him and communicate with him through prayer and scripture study we are rewarded, he gives us blessings such as patience, happiness stronger relationships with loved ones and many many more. I have seen the blessings in my life and I know he rewarded me and he will reward you because we are all His children.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blessing

Technology

Technology is always changing and improving things are becoming faster, smaller, and more efficient. For example how cell phones used look like a brick with an antenna to being small, thin, and we are able to surf the web on them now, or how internet has gone from dial up, to wireless, to fast speed wireless, or how there are new updates for computer programs like ever two months, or how we went from listening to the radio at home to a small black and white television, to a little bit bigger color TV to a 72" HD plasma flat screen, even going from watching a movie at home on a VHS to a DVD and now we have Blue Ray and 3D in our homes. Even in video games going from Pong to the Xbox Kinect. Scientists are always working on making modern day technology faster, more efficient, and more quality. There will always be people working at making the internet faster or making text machines "cooler," or computer programs more efficient. People will always be perfecting the technology. But I know one thing that is perfect and has been perfect since the moment it was created, there are no updates for this or anyway to make it more efficient. What I am talking about my friends is The Gospel of Jesus Christ. His plan for us is perfect there is no way it could be better. As we follow his plan he rewards us with blessings. First we must have faith in Jesus Christ. Second we must repent, which is simply trying everyday to make our thoughts and actions how our Savior's would be. Third we need to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood or the authority to act in God's name. Fourth receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, which simply comes after baptism. Last but not least endure to the end, but as we endure we enjoy our trip because we are receiving so many blessings from following Christ. As we follow this plan blessing are poured upon us. Such as our families, our friends, our jobs, our even laughter finding something comical. These are just some of the blessings we receive when we follow the plan. The list is endless, it's great.