Getting “A’s”

So I took this class in college, it was quite intriguing. I paid attention in class, I participated in class, and I did all my homework for the course. The professor told us the first exam was coming up in a couple of weeks. I was like alright it's about time we haven't had a test yet.

The day of the Exam finally arrives and I had not studied because I felt like I remembered everything that had been taught. I did all my homework and did well on it, so I felt confident for the test. You know how it is in college it takes at least a month before you ever find out what grade you got on the test. I finally find out what I got and I was shocked, I think I got like a C. That is bad you can't get C's in college that just doesn't cut it.

I continued to pay attention in class, participate, and do my homework so I would be prepared for when the next test comes. A month or so goes by and the next test arrives. I better prepared for this test. I reviewed all my homework, studied the textbook and the study guide my professor gave me. So I walk in to take the second test, I am feeling confident and I told myself I am going to get every question right.

I finally get my test score back and I did not get every question right but I did tremendously better than the first test. The extra studying was so worth the good grade.

The same principle applies to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The better reward your going to get for the more you put into it. The more you read your scriptures, pray, go to church, help others and all those good things the more you're going to get in return.

I'll end by saying that this Gospel is awesome it's for everyone. Since I have started to live and teach it I have become so happy. What I said earlier is true the more time you put into it, like in everything else, the more you get out of it and the more you start to love it.

Jesus Is Our Friend

With your friends you develop great relationships with them because you spend a lot of time with them. You have experiences with them and you make memories together. Because of the time you spent with them, and the experiences you had with them, you feel comfortable around them and you can tell them anything. 

You feel comfortable telling your friend anything because you have been friends with them for a long time and they know everything about you. With your best friend you tell them all your secrets, all the things your parents don't know about. You tell them these things because you trust them and you know what you tell them will stay with them.

One of my very best friends knows everything about me, all my secrets and stuff. We have been friends about 12 years; we have done so much together. We played little league football, we had sleep over’s, we went on trips with each other, we played madden together (I would always win). We have even been through some hard times together. But because we have done so much together we tell each other everything, and we help each other out.

One person who has always been my best friend but I am just now coming to know this is Jesus Christ. He knows us inside and out. He knows everything about us; he knows our likes, dislikes, hobbies, favorite kind of music, everything. 

The awesome thing is he knows exactly what we have been through. When you fall off the tramp and break your arm he knows exactly what that is like. When your car dies at an intersection right when the light turns green he knows exactly how stressful and embarrassing that feels. When you loose a close friend or family member he knows exactly how the terrible describable feeling is. 

Best of all like a best friend he helps us through them, and because he knows precisely what we went through he knows the best things that will help us get through them. It's like he is a doctor and prescribes us medication except he is perfect and gets which medicine and dosage is best for your wound.

Putting It To The Test

 In the science world when you have an idea you test it and you see what your results are. I remember doing this in a biology class in high school. Our teacher put us in groups and gave us petri dishes and told us to go around the school and swab stuff with q-tips then rub them on the petri dishes and told us bacteria would grow.

I remember going around my school rubbing the q-tips on all sorts of different things like the drinking fountain, door handles, and stuff in the bathroom. One group even found the basketball team practicing and the swabbed the star players armpit.

 We watched the bacteria grow in the petri dishes over the next couple of days. All I remember is looking at what each thing was that I swabbed and thinking that my school was gross and needed to be disinfected, and I was confused on how more people weren't getting sick everyday. Also that athletes armpits while practicing are disgusting.

But that is beside the point, what I am trying to say is that the same principles apply in the Gospel. You get an idea and you test it. The idea in the gospel is faith and if God really will help and bless you as you strengthen your faith in him.

Which reminds me of an analogy in the Book of Mormon. In The Book of Alma, Alma the prophet at the time, teaches that if you plant a seed of faith in your heart it will grow. As you nourish your seed, your tree or faith grows and over time into a big beautiful creation. Please read the stellar verses here, Alma 32:28-30

Like in the experiment above and in the analogy in The Book of Mormon, there is only one way to get to a conclusion and that is to do the test. So I invite you if you have not already done so to put this idea of faith to the test and see what happens. I know that your experiment will bring in some amazing data you just have to perform the test.

Garbage

A few weeks ago during church someone in elders quorum used this analogy to describe repentance

Imagine you have all the stuff you have ever thrown away in your life in your backyard. Imagine how smelly and gross it would be. What if someone came up to you and said that they want to get rid of all of it. Not only do they want to get rid of it for you but they want to pay you for it. How cool would that be. The property value of your home would increase by a ridiculous amount.

Now think of the Gospel, how we can be forgiven of all of our sins, or garbage and receive blessings for getting rid of them. That is basically the repentance process. Getting rid of your garbage and receiving blessings for doing it and making your self worth increase.

After thinking about it this way I have no idea why I ever procrastinated my repentance. The blessings I received were ridiculous for getting rid of them in God's eyes. Now of course I am still going to remember how much garbage was in my backyard but know that it has been taken to the dump for me God no longer remembers that I ever had it.

Hopefully after looking at it this way you will to have the same feelings I did. You stop procrastinating and you get paid to get rid of your garbage. It was worth it for me, and I promise it will be worth it for you.

Home Renovations

Home renovations. Usually they take a long time, a lot of money and tons of back breaking labor. Always when the work is finished you look at the completed room, or patio, or whatever you worked on and you think boy that was definitely worth the effort.

I personally have never had to do a home renovation on my own home but I have helped out with many of my friend’s homes. When the work is completed you get to enjoy that new feature on your home so much more.

Say you remodeled your bathroom, after the months of dealing with it under construction and all the sweat that you put into it think how awesome it finally is when you get to sit down in the brand new Jacuzzi tub and take the best bath of your life, and you realize how rewarding it was.

The process of doing a home renovation is quite similar to the repentance process, and the after affect is always the same, rewarding. So say you make a mistake, you messed up and you feel bad for what you did. You try to forget about it and move on but it keeps coming back up. You want to just forget about it, this is the first step like in a home renovation the blueprints.

The next step is the back breaking labor and hard work in the construction. Receiving forgiveness for what you did from God and who or whatever your may have hurt in your mistake. This is when we get down on our knees and ask for forgiveness and help on how we can fix what we damaged.

After the terrible back breaking process, after you have been forgiven, after you finish sweeping up the last of the sawdust. You’re able to sit back and relax, maybe on a new patio and say it was definitely worth it. It is worth it at this step in the repentance process because you are now a stronger person with more experience. You have come closer to God and you learned from your mistake.

Bear Cub

 So I was thinking about this story when my family and I were on a vacation at a national park. We were eating lunch on the riverside; we were enjoying ourselves and having a great time. It came time to go so we began to pack our stuff into the car. My grandpa being old was chillin in his folding chair reading a magazine as we were doing all the work.

Then a bear cub comes wandering out of the surrounding trees to check out our campsite. It wanders up to my grandpa who is all by himself, minding his own business. Grandpa noticed the bear then simply rolled up his newspaper and hit the cub on the head and said something to the effect of get out of here bear. The bear continued sniffing around and annoying my grandpa. He hit the bear on the head again and told him to leave and he threw an apple that he had in the cup holder into the river. Luckily that got the cubs attention and he swam after the apple, and eventually climbed out on the other side of the river.

I remember watching the whole thing and I thought it was funny how my grandpa wasn't worried at all that a bear was right next to him, probably hungry looking for food. How he nonchalantly hit him on the head and got rid of him.

Then a thought popped into my head and I imagined the bear cub as a form of temptation, and how my grandpa had no worries about the cub, or temptation, attacking or hurting him. It is because he had the Holy Ghost with him. It made me realize how there is no need to worry about falling into temptation when the Holy Ghost is with you protecting you, just like it did to my grandpa.

Temptations can come at anytime and in any form even as a cute little bear cub, but when we have the Holy Ghost with us we will be able to heedlessly rid of the temptations.

To Be

I have always wanted to be a good athlete. Especially when I was in high school on my football team. In the off-season I would work out and run as much as possible so I could become a better athlete. When the season started I continued to work hard and as the season progressed, we won and lost games I still continued to work at becoming a better athlete. I continued to do so until the season ended. All the hard work payed off, at the end of the season I was a better athlete then when it started.

One thing I noticed is that I could never cross being a good athlete off of my list. I had to work at it continually or else it have decreased. I still want to be a good athlete and I continue to work at it everyday so I can become better. I now want to be a good missionary. This also is something that I cannot cross off my list. Everyday I have to work to become a little better missionary than I was the day before. There is a big list that I get to do everyday to become a better missionary.

The same goes for you and whatever you want to be: a good parent, child, student, athlete, scientist, artist, musician, whatever you want to be the list goes on and on. You have to work at it everyday, you have to consistently put effort into becoming a little better.

Our Savior presents a question to us all and asks "What manner of men ought ye to be?" then He answers it for us and tells us "Verily I say unto you, even as I am"(3 Nephi 27:27). That is quite the expectation for us. But let me tell you something, I know I will not be able to live up to that expectation perfectly, but I sure enough can try and give it my best. When I fall short and make a mistake I know he will always be there to pick me and help me get back on my feet, and he will do the same for you. That is the beauty of the Atonement. As we try to be like Christ he will help us along the way. But we will never be able to cross being like Christ off of our lists, it is an eternal invitation. I promise you as you work towards being like Christ you will be blessed more than you can imagine.

Idea for the post from Elder Lynn G. Robbins General Conference address April 2011, What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?
http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/what-manner-of-men-and-women-ought-ye-to-be?lang=eng