The People Around Us

I love people. People are the sprinkles to my donut, the frosting to my cake, the Michael to my Tito, and the Batman to my Robin. As I have been in the mission field I've had to seperate myself from people that I have known for a while. My family and ward back home, friends from highschool, my friends from college. People just in my everyday life. But you know what? When I find myelf in a new place, a new area with a new missionary to work with it's just one huge opportunity. Who of these people I now see can be my new friend? We are spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father. Surely we can aspire to love and befriend others as he loves and befriends us? One of the best scriptures that tells us of this is found in Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 44-45. Its here that he tells us to love our enemies and bless them that curse us and in verse 45 He says that we should do these things that we may be the children of him, our Father who is in Heaven. I always think, "if he asks us to bless them that curse us how much more can we do for someone we just met!?" So, in closing, people are awesome, Jesus Christ is a inspired teacher and I have faith in Him and in His teachings. I know that by following his counsel and being a blessing to lives of the people around us we can make the people around us our friends. The people that I have served and served with are my friends. I love them and I care for them. They are good people who are, like me, striving to better their relationship with our Father in Heaven and our elder brother, Jesus Christ. It is my hope that we can all better ourselves and be that good friend and blessing to those around us!

Among the Things I've Noticed

Some things that I have noticed as I have been serving as a missionary are that people are weird. Like, really weird. There are so many differences between each and every one of us. All of us have a trait or something we do that someone else thinks is just the weirdest thing they've ever seen. But another thing I've noticed is God's love for all of us. It runs so deep that it permeates all people, all differences, all life. What gladness this gives my heart! What a connecting link we all share! We are of course imperfect, but God loves us perfectly anyway. The love that we show to others around us is just an extention of the love that we have for God. So, at the very least we can love God, and when we love God, that love boils over to everyone. What a simple concept.

My Trusty Ensign...

So today during my personal study I was able to read and soak up the wonderful stories and experiences in the new February 2011 Ensign magazine. As I was reading through all the stories there was one story that caught my eye and a truth that it really helped me to see (it can be found on pages 36 and 37 in the Questions and Answers section). It tells of the story in Matthew chapter 22 where Jesus is talking to the layer and the lawyer asks: “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” To which Jesus replies, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The article goes on to say that verse 40 can help it all click together. It says, “On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets.” Loving the Lord and Loving our neighbor is the basic foundation of all the commandments we are given. If we can try to do these two things we can increasingly become closer to God and feel his presence in greater abundance. The articles ends with, “If we can live by these two rules, our light will shine so brightly that our goodness will far outshine our greatness.” I love the way that it ends. Let our good be an example of our love for Heavenly Father and for our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ.

First Post = getting started...

So, I'm getting started with the blog. its sounds like its going to be fun but I thinking that I probably may not post on here too much but being able to post blogs may be something I may get into. But I'm thinking not. But thats beside the point. The point is that you read my blog and then feel closer to Jesus Christ. So remember, that as I write about experiences and blog about stuff that the purpose is to help us all come closer to God and Jesus Christ. So, as you may or may not know, I'm am currently serving in Poplar, MT as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church. I have been in the mission field for about 7 and a half months. Before I came here to Poplar I served in Browning, Cut Bank, and Shelby for 6 months. The Montana Billings Mission, the mission in which I serve, has recently received permission to use Facebook and blogs for missionary work. Our purpose online is to invite others to come unto Christ and to be more availible to answer questions and concerns. Because, hey, thats just what we do... So feel free to contact me through Face Book or to visit Mormon.org to learn more!