Happiness

In general, the most common thing people want is happiness that lasts.

Most of the time happiness is labeled as tangible things. 

But that isn't what happiness is. 

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas knew that Christmas (or true happiness) didn't come from a store. He found out it was something a bit more.

What is that more? 

What is that Pearl of Great Price, that treasure hidden in a field, that people sell all that they have, give all that they have, to receive it? 

God promises us this happiness, he wants us to have this lasting happiness that comes from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

For those of us who have paid that price, which in most cases is difficult, have experienced the greater love, joy, peace, security, and happiness that God blesses us with in return.

"There could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you ...on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy."

Some are satisfied with where they are at, slumbering and sleeping. 

Those who are satisfied "have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain...sought for happiness in doing iniquity"

"I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness." 

So what is it then?

"if there be no righteousness there be no happiness"

Righteousness indeed brings us happiness, because when we are righteous, when we are doing good, God blesses us in return. 

"I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say..."

When we do good, God is bound, our innermost desires are manifest and become real when we do what God wants us to do. 

But in order for us to receive, we need to give. Christ requires sacrifice, the pearl of great price didn't just appear, it was found, it was bought, and it was bought with a great price. It wasn't nothing, it wasn't a lot, it was everything.

What are we willing to give to obtain that pearl or that treasure?

"I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. "

That is all he asks.

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

Earth is our home

 "The Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it."

God loves us, and he wants us to treasure this earth that we have.

Its beautiful.

Its our home. We should take care of it.

Its a place for us to learn and grow.

This earth is for us to gain experience so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father again and become like Him.

"This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God"

"now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."

Who am I?

I declare that if we knew who we were, the world would be a lot different.

If we knew that we were meant for something better, we would do things a lot differently, we would not only feel better about ourselves, but we would respect each other and treat each other differently.

I testify that each and every one of us is a child of God. We are literally God's spirit children, destined to one day become like Him and enjoy the same blessings and joys that He does. 

We are divine and glorious beings, everyone on this earth are our brothers and sisters.

A very wise missionary once asked me what I would do if I saw my brother while I was walking down the street. We both knew I hadn't seen him for a long time.

"I would be very happy and excited to see him," I replied, "I'd probably hug him and tell him that I loved him."

"That is how we should respond when we see someone walking down the street," He responded, "We should be excited and happy to see them, because we haven't seen them for a long time, they are our brothers and sisters- we knew each other before we came here and we loved each other dearly."

This completely changed my perspective. Instead of making preconceived negative judgments, I knew that each and every one of those people were divine beings. Instead of seeing people as who they were, I saw them as who they could become.  

How would you act differently if you knew that you knew that you were God's child? How would you treat others around you?

Answers at Church

This week has been really amazing, especially being at church on Sunday.

Chapels are different than Temples, chapels are where we go to church, worship, and meet together. Unlike a temple, visitors are always welcome- our meeting houses are not usually open during the week unless there are meetings going on, but Sundays are the usually the best days to catch our doors open.

Sundays we usually partake of the Sacrament to renew promises we made to God at our baptism, learn from one another, and receive revelation or knowledge from God.

Every Sunday is a special day for me, because I feel refreshed and happy when I attend church, but not only that, I receive answers to my questions, and I hear exactly what I need to hear. 

Sometimes its not what we want to hear, but its filling. For instance, this sunday I was struggling a lot, I was in a lot of pain. And I had been thinking and pondering about what Heavenly Father wanted me to do about my situation for a very long time.

I was listening to the speakers, and they all had very good messages to share, and I learned from each and every one of them. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, members of the congregation are assigned to speak. One of the messages in particular really hit home to me. As a matter of fact, he went through a very similar situation to mine, with the exception that his was on a more extreme basis. He too struggled with knowing what Heavenly Father wanted him to do. 

The counsel that he received and the things he learned from his experience were almost exactly the things that I needed to hear from our Heavenly Father. Some of those things were the things that God wanted me to learn. Although some of it wasn't what I wanted to hear, it was what I needed. God knows us so individually and so he knows what we need versus what we think that we need. He wants the best for us. 

I thanked him for his message, and I knew what I needed to do this week to become better. When we partake of the sacrament on Sunday, we renew a promise we made to God to keep the commandments, and I knew what I could do to make my week better than it was last week- to learn from this young man's experiences and to apply the things he learned into my life. 

I think that is why I love going to church so much, because it strengthens us, uplifts us, gives us answers to our questions, and much needed guidance to strengthen us throughout the week. Every time I go there is a special spirit, one that cannot be found anywhere else with exception to the temple. 

 "And behold, ye shall meet together oft; and ye shall not forbid any man from coming unto you when ye shall meet together, but suffer them that they may come unto you and forbid them not;

 But ye shall pray for them, and shall not cast them out; and if it so be that they come unto you oft ye shall pray for them unto the Father, in my name."

For Time and all Eternity

I love this picture because it perfectly describes what I'm doing at the moment and my motivation behind it. 

God loves us, so he placed us in families so we can be happy, learn, grow, and prepare for eternal life. The home is the best place to teach, learn, and apply the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which helps us prepare to return to Gods presence and live with him in never ending peace and happiness.  

Serving here at the temple has put that purpose into perspective, because the temple is the place where being together forever is possible. As missionaries we tend to focus on baptism, but baptism is only the beginning of the promises or covenants we make with God that helps us return to live with him again.

Only worthy baptized members of the Church can go into the temple. Not even all of the members of our church can go in, but everyone who is keeping the commandments and the standards of the church are welcome. The temple is a sacred (not secret) place that is very special and Holy, its literally God's house, and like the scripture says "no unclean thing can dwell with God."

So in order to maintain the special spirit that is there, members who wish to go to the temple work with their bishops to become worthy to enter its doors. 

Baptism is the first covenant or promise that we enter into with our Heavenly Father, we promise at baptism to always remember our Saviour and keep His commandments, in return God promises us that we will always have His Spirit -the Holy Ghost- with us. Because God loves us, he wants all of us to experience his blessings, and temples make it possible for our ancestors who haven't had the opportunity to accept the Gospel while they were on this earth to accept it. 

Because of Heavenly Father's plan, when we die we go to a place called "The Spirit World" where we are taught the Gospel and either rest in a state of peace and happiness or a state of misery depending on what we have done in this life. Everyone will have a chance to hear the Gospel there. We perform saving ordinances like baptism on behalf of those who have passed on to the Spirit World.

Christ taught us that Baptism is essential, he said "Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." So we all need to be baptized. In the temple, we perform baptism on behalf of our ancestors who haven't had the opportunity to do it while they have been on the earth. Because God gave us our ability to choose, the people we perform that ordinance for will have the opportunity to accept or reject it. 

We not only do this within our temples, but we also make promises with God and in return we receive strength, protection, and learn more about Gods plan for us. 

In the temple we are also sealed to our families, which means that we can be together with them not only for this life, but forever. Which I think is the greatest blessing of the temple. In order to do this you make promises with God inside of the Temple, just like the promises that you make at baptism, and God recognizes that you and your family are together forever.

I love the Temple and I'm grateful for the blessings that come from it. Being in the Temple makes me so happy, for me, its the happiest place on earth. The reason why I am knocking on peoples doors, and stopping people on the street to tell them about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through the Propher Joseph Smith is because of the way I feel in the temple. I want to be able to give everyone the opportunity to feel the way I do every day and most of all, in the Temple. 

Faith is like a little seed

I was eating an apple one day and I found this seed, so I thought I would try an experiment and see if it grew. Just like this seed, I invite you to experiment with the Gospel- plant it in your heart and see if it grows.

"But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."

I placed it in a tea cup with water and it started to grow! So it must be a good seed.

Just like a seed, the gospel needs to be planted in our hearts in order to know if it is good. If it starts to grow, then it must be!

"Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."

Every day it grew, it was exciting to see. Just like when we have experiences that testify what we are doing is right, like answers to our prayers, reading a scripture that applies to us, people saying just the right thing at church, our testimonies grow and its exciting!

"Now behold, would not this increase your faith? I say unto you, Yea; nevertheless it hath not grown up to a perfect knowledge."

Its continuing to grow, but it doesn't really look like anything yet- I kept wondering if the sprout was supposed to look like that, it wasn't green... Just like this seed, at first our testimonies are tiny, and we ask hard questions, but nevertheless- be patient and your testimony will grow.

"But behold, as the seed swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, then you must needs say that the seed is good; for behold it swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow. And now, behold, will not this strengthen your faith? Yea, it will strengthen your faith: for ye will say I know that this is a good seed; for behold it sprouteth and beginneth to grow."

Its starting to look like a sprout! It looks good! Patience and continuing to exercise our faith does work!

"And now, behold, are ye sure that this is a good seed? I say unto you, Yea; for every seed bringeth forth unto its own likeness.

Therefore, if a seed groweth it is good, but if it groweth not, behold it is not good, therefore it is cast away."

We can tell the difference between a good and a bad seed, this one is good because it grew. But we are not done. We need to plant it, nourish it, let it grow up until it becomes fruitful. Our testimonies are the same, we know its good, but we need to nourish it, and let it grow until we see the blessings that come from it.

"Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither must ye lay aside your faith, for ye have only exercised your faith to plant the seed that ye might try the experiment to know if the seed was good.
And behold, as the tree beginneth to grow, ye will say: Let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us. And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit...
But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life."

"I'm not cut out for church, I'm not good enough."

So many people have said this to me, and even I have felt this way before. There was even one point where I felt that I wanted to give up because I felt like I wasn't good enough and that I could never amount to what God expected me to. Pressure was on my shoulders because I needed to be the example, that I needed to do what was right, and I knew that I made mistakes every day.

I don't think it was until just recently that I actually understood the concept of Grace. Christ's Grace is sufficient for all. Although I heard that phrase several times, I never actually knew how to apply it or what it actually meant. 

First lets start off, what is Grace? 

"Grace is the help or strength given through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the grace of God, everyone who has lived will be resurrected—our spirits will be reunited with our bodies, never again to be separated. Through His grace, the Lord also enables those who live His gospel to repent and be forgiven" 



Grace is an enabling power given to us through Christs Atonement (or look at this definition), it is through Grace that we can return to live in the presence of God, but not just that- worthily dwell in the presence of God. 

But in order to dwell in the presence of God, we must be clean. "No unclean thing can dwell with God." Not only that, God commands us to be perfect. How can we expect to become perfect if we make mistakes all the time?

"We believe that through living the gospel of Jesus Christ we can become like the Savior, who is perfect."  Becoming perfected isn't a case of being perfected right now, we practice, we work, we do what we can and we learn along the way.

"Learning takes time. When we understand grace, we understand that God is long-suffering, that change is a process, and that repentance is a pattern in our lives. When we understand grace, we understand that the blessings of Christ’s Atonement are continuous and His strength is perfect in our weakness (see 2 Corinthians 12:9). When we understand grace, we can, as it says in the Doctrine and Covenants, “continue in patience until [we] are perfected” (D&C 67:13)." 

When we apply the atonement and experience grace, we exercise faith in Jesus Christ, we repent or change our ways, we get baptized or renew the covenants we made at baptism by attending sacrament meeting, we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. This is essentially the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Dont sell yourself short, you can live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you can go to church. Church is not for perfect people, Christ came to heal the sick, he said "They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Church is for those of us who need to repent, to change, and to continue on the journey to become like Christ. "If you expect to find perfect people here, you will be disappointed. But if you seek the pure doctrine of Christ, the word of God “which healeth the wounded soul,” and the sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost, then here you will find them. In this age of waning faith—in this age when so many feel distanced from heaven’s embrace—here you will find a people who yearn to know and draw closer to their Savior by serving God and fellowmen, just like you. Come, join with us!"