Now I am going to start with a story... One time at Youth Conference(how all great story's start) I learned an important lesson about consecration and sacrifice.

In this particular Youth Conference(youth retreat) everyone was sorted in to a "Family", each family had different parents(adult leaders) and had a set amount of finances, to buy food, pay loans, and survive. As a group we all decided on finances. The money we had was just paper cash. Really kind of silly, but never the less we all decided on where all of the money went.The prize at the end of the conference was a feast of food, that was rather expensive, we started to save our money so all of us could "partake" in the feast.

On the second day the Steak President(Main Leader) of the conference asked the entire Youth Conference to donate to a Temple that was being built, along with a request to pay tithing. Each of the groups had at this time limited cash and this would be a great sacrifice, but the way to eat and pay tithing was provided, now my family wouldn't have enough to eat, pay tithing and support the temple, something had to go. So after thought and family council my family decided to sacrifice eating at the feast so that we would able to follow the commandments of the Lord. We thought that because it was the final meeting and final day we would just eat when we got home. We payed our tithing, and donated all the rest of the funds to the temple. What was important had been paided.


Nauvoo Temple(http://lds.org/church/temples/nauvoo-illinois?lang=eng#)
(http://old.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/videos?channelId=ad1fcf6cdfeac110VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&sourceId=387b747631f92210VgnVCM100000176f620a)
(Saints similarly donated all they had to build the Navuoo Temple)

10 minutes before this "grad feast" was about to begin, our family was called into the Steak Presidents office, the Steak President and a few other Conference Leaders where there, they began to ask us why we had no money for food, we where a little embarrassed when we told them that we wouldn't have had enough money to pay tithing, temple, and food, so we just cut the food out. After we told them this, they looked at us, and with loving words began to thank us for the example that we were setting, sacrificing all that we had to further the Lords Kingdom. They told us that because of our faith in the Lord a miracle would be given, we would be allowed to eat with out paying for the food, and we would be able to receive food first.

The Lords promise was fulfilled, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it"(Malachi 3:10). I learned an important lesson from this small and first viewed insignificant trial. The Lord provided us a miracle after the trial of our faith, it is interesting the timing of the miracle, 10 minutes before the feast, and after the trial of our faith... Our sacrifice may not have built the entire temple, or even filled the store house, but the contribution was enough for the Lord. How much was it? All of what we had, that is what the Lord of Hosts asks for, our heart, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise"(Psalms 51:17). I know that the sacrifice of ALL we have IS ENOUGH for the Lord. May we be so inspired to sacrifice what he has given...

After the trial, that is giving our heart, the Lord Promises life eternal, the greatest of all gifts. But it will come after the trials. "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes"(D&C 121:7-8). I know these things are true in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Pain Essential?

This morning I was reading the General Conference edition of the Ensign(lds.org/general-conference) and I read a talk By Elder Kent F. Richards. His talk focused on how pain is an essential part of our mortality, and how pain is either a building or breaking part of our lives. Pain is a very vital part of healing, and growth. Physical or spiritual pain, each teaches us to grow and become better.

So how does pain help to heal us? Isn't it damaging? So if pain hurts what does that have to do with growth? Well lets see, "Pain is a gauge of the healing process"(Elder Richards), it is a measurement of damage, it is a reality lense that lets us see how much we need help with pain. Its a helpmate to humility, the lord inevitably sends us pain, or allows pain to occur, so that we, his people will remember that he is the lord. Jonah states "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple". As we remember the Lord we rely on him and we recognize the position we stand with him. The fist reason for pain is Humility... Now what does humility accomplish? Humility sets a teaching environment so that the spirit can give us the needed knowledge to live with our Heavenly Father again.

We are taught by the trials we go through, the chastisement we receive should not be viewed as a opportunity to fail, or "woe is me" ammunition, but to be viewed as a growing opportunity. Orson F. Whitney taught: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire"(Orson F. Whitney, in Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle (1972), 98). The trials we go through are one of the many ways we see Heavenly Fathers love for us, "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth"(Hebrews 12:6). This applys for us the lord loves us so he teaches and chastises us...

The main reason that we have trials and tribulations in life is so that we may be succored by the lord of hosts, that we may be "drawn unto him", his Gospel is that he may be lifted up on the cross that he may draw all men unto him... "And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities"(Alma 7:12). The Lord did not have to suffer and die for our sins, "“It will comfort us when we must wait in distress for the Savior’s promised relief that He knows, from experience, how to heal and help us. … And faith in that power will give us patience as we pray and work and wait for help. He could have known how to succor us simply by revelation, but He chose to learn by His own personal experience."(Henry B. Eyring, “Adversity,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2009, 24).

I testify that pain is essential in our spiritual growth to the lord, on as we are drawn unto Christ can we truly "feel of the wounds in his hands".

http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/the-atonement-covers-all-pain?lang=eng#14-PD50028768_000_1050

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/therevsteve/805052577/)

A Missionarys Motivation

This morning during personal study I had some powerful insight and revelation as to motivation in missionary work... Motivation is a driving force that is behind anything, and it is directly motivated to anything we choose to do.

Now to tell you about the revelation I received this morning, I was conducting a study on Heavenly Father and his influence in our lives. During the process I traveled to 1 Samuel 17:47 "And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands", for context I read verses 32-47, there in I found the motivation of a missionary:
"32 And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

 33 And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.

 34 And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:

 35 And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.

 36 Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

 37 David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee."

In these verses David goes from his flock and saves the sheep form the bear and the lion, how does he save them? By the power of God on High. As missionaries we go forth and preach saving Gods sheep by his power. I imagined in my study, the pain and anguish that a soul that has been ripped from the fold of god into the world, the pain and suffering that he or she may experience. This thought is what motivates us as missionaries to go and rescue the souls that are suffering and in pain. Because we know how they can be healed... By Christ and the power of God, that's what delivers us...

This message of Christ has the power to deliver us from the painful wounds we acquire in life. This can mend the painful wounds that are inflicted to us by the Lion and the Bear, it can bring us back to the fold of Christ. But it can only do this if we let the power of the spirit work with in us, and LISTEN to his counsel. We as missionaries go about, not because its required of us, or because we gain growth because of the service we render, or even because of the blessings we receive, its because we understand and know the pain that comes for mortality, from Spiritual and Physical death... We also know the relief and peace that comes from access to the suffering of Christ. We desire ALL to partake of this joy, we desire to save those souls who hunger and want for rescue. This is our desire and our motivation.

We cannot deliver ourselves, but thought the Power of God and the Shepard of man(Christ) we can be saved from the Lion and Bear of this world. Let us all lean upon he who has given his love, and let us listen to the counsel of him on high...

Good things to come...

So this post will be a bit shorter then the last few, but its still important. I was browsing through lds.org, watching some of the Mormon Messages(http://www.youtube.com/mormonmessages) looking for some spiritual inspirations, when I came across "Good Things to Come", a talk by Jeffery R. Holland, and Apostle. The message was one of faith. Watch it and the comments will make sense...

http://lds.org/pages/mormon-messages-gallery?lang=eng#good-things-to-come

In the message Elder Holland talks about a man, his wife, and two children who are on there journey seeking a new life. They are befallen by obstacles and a overwhelming road ahead of them. I as a person feel like this at times, I feel as if nothing will work out and everything is going wrong, I look to the future and see, like the young Jeffery, and daunting road ahead of me, road blocks and nothing but discouragement, wondering how everything will work out, its in these times in life, we get down, depressed and shut off. I have felt the bottom, and lets face it, it stinks, its painful, and we feel like giving up. This is when it is the most important to keep moving, Because like Elder Holland states, there are good things to come. I have many story's personal and from others who have been in the bottom, wandering in the darkness praying that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Thankfully enough there always is, ALWAYS, no matter how low we are, no matter where we are, when our life lays shattered all around us in painful shards and it seems as if there is no hope, I so witness that those Good Things WILL COME. Weather in this life or in the life to come, it will come. So if you reading this and your in the tunnel of dispare, look forward with hope, "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."(2 Nephi 13:20). I so testify that the light is there, and I do so in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.