Autistic Basketball Player With One Opportunity Shines

There are times when you only get one opportunity to shine, do or die. Like when you take a test, or in a championship game, or for me to be a full time missionary, a representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I played football in high school and I loved when the game was on the line and all the pressure was on me and my team to win the game and we had one shot to win the game. I loved those situations because I was prepared, I practiced all week, I watched film, I worked in the gym, ran sprints so I wouldn't be tired in the fourth quarter and overtime. In those situations I had the confidence that we would do rather than die.

In this video Jason McElwain had one time to shine. Jason has autism but he will deny it, he is basketball player. Jason is a team manager and helps out the coach with with anything the team needs. His coach let him suit up for the last home game of the season, Senior Night. The coach told him he could not guarantee that he could get in the game. But in the fourth quarter with a substantial lead Jason got to go in the game with about 4 minutes left. It was Jason's only time to shine! Jason took advantage of this opportunity and scored 20 points in 4 minutes! He was on fire he couldn't miss a shot. He had waited his whole life for this opportunity and he took full advantage of it.

My question to you is what do you do with the opportunities that you have? Are you ready for them? Are you ready to excel and supersede all expectations and astonish everyone with 20 points in 4 minutes? You only get one chance what are you going to do with it?

The Atonement

Recently I have been recalling upon an experience I had at the Hill Cumorah. I was given a 50 lb bag of salt and when it was given to me it was labeled as a burden. I was then instructed to carry that bag all the way to the top of the Hill Cumorah, up a small muddy path, in the cold. It wasn't bad at first carrying the bag up the hill but as I went along the path it seemed like it wasn't going to end. It became difficult to carry the burden up as I could rarely get a good footing on the trail. The cold froze my fingers and made it hard to hold the bag, I found the best way was to put it on my shoulder and endure to the top.

When I finally made it to the monument at the top of the hill there was a picture of Christ and there I gave my burden to Christ. It was a great relief to drop the bag and it caused me to think about the pains that Christ went through for us physically and spiritually. Just thinking about the physical pains alone that Christ went through alone seems unbearable. We know from the scriptures that Christ fell on his face and bled from every poor from the agony and pain for fulfilling the atonement. Then to add on the spiritual sufferings all the emotions and heartache we feel caused from this evil world made it that much harder to bear. (Watch the bible video here)

It always strikes me when I think about the atonement and how loving our savior was to do this impossible task for me and you. He did it out of love so he would know exactly what we go through so he could comfort us and help us through our trials. I am eternally in debt to my Savior and am so grateful for what he has done for me and what he will do for me.

Jesus Take the Wheel!!!

Life can get crazy sometimes and it seems like we are spinning out of control. I have found that when you come unto our Savior we can get back in control of our life. All we have to do is let him guide us and tell us where to go and what to do. He is the creator of the Heavens and the Earth; He is the creator of us all and knows so He knows us better than we know ourselves. If we listen to him he will guide us to incomprehensible joy all we have to do is act upon what he says.

This song is great a young mother almost crashes in the snow and let's Jesus take the wheel. She realizes that her life is not where she would have liked it to be so she lets Jesus take the wheel of her life also. We need to let Jesus become the driver of our lives and if that happens I can promise you that you will come to happiness. I can't tell you you’re never going to crash again but I can tell you you’ll be blessed from on high.

Power of God

Men of the Priesthood do we really understand what power we hold? Do we really understand that the priesthood is the authority of The Almighty God? And do we realize that the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven(D&C 121:36)?The priesthood is needed for so many reasons to perform sacred ordinances such as baptism, giving blessings to the sick and afflicted, the sacrament, sealing families together for eternity. The Power of God I think is needed more then we realize. Men of the Priesthood we need to always stand ready and worthy to use it; we never know when god is going to call upon us to use us as an advocate to help someone. We must always be ready for when we are needed. 

This video clip is by Thomas S. Monson and he explains a little bit more why we must be ready and worthy when we have the priesthood.

TOTALED!!!!!

So the summer in between my junior and senior year of high school I was on my way home from football practice. I was tired a little sore listening to my favorite CD and eating an apple. I was behind someone at a stop sign and all of the sudden there is a loud bang my head jerks and my apple is gone and I am extremely confused as to what just happened. I look in my rear view mirror and see a man clenching his steering wheel with a terrified and confused look on his face like he has no idea what is going on. I get out of my car to view the scene and figure out what is going on. I finally put it all together that I was just involved in a 4 car pile up. A man driving way to fast rear ended the car behind me which caused him to rear end me which caused me to rear end the car in front of me at the stop sign. After a couple of hours of waiting for the police to come and filling our papers I finally got to go home. I was told that within the next couple of days someone from the man's insurance that caused this would come to check out my car to figure out how much it would be to fix. To make a long story a little bit shorter my car was deemed totaled; my car was still drivable so the man's insurance company just paid me for the worth of my car.

What I am getting at here with this long story is that car's can get totaled in accidents and are never able to drive again. I was lucky enough in this situation where my car was still drivable after the crash but in some situations the cars are not drivable after a collision.

Yes even this story can be related to the gospel. Imagine that your soul is a car, some may think that their soul is a new Cadillac or a Mercedes, some may think that theirs may be a 1982 Honda that has gone 400,000 miles and is so old the door is about to fall off. But no matter what kind of car you think your soul looks like there is a repair shop that can fix it. It can give you a new engine or transmission, it can give you a new paint job, and it can give you a new headlight and even change your tires. The repair shop I am talking about is called The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I can promise you if you begin to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ your car will get repaired, and the coolest thing about it is it's free and there is no line to wait in! You just have go and try, you just have to pray, read the Book of Mormon and go to church and follow the commandments that are there to guide us and bless us. This Auto Shop has saved my soul and I know it will do the same for you!