Why Do Anything?

 

WHY?!?



There have been few times in my life where I have questioned what this life is all about. Why am I here and why should I do anything? Sometimes it may feel like anytime we do something it won't really matter in the end. Well, the Restored gospel offers us hope in that in everything that we do there is a purpose.



     There are some pretty good questions floating around out there like the ones mentioned above. But, we are also all individuals with our own unique set of questions that we want answered and also goals that we want accomplished. Some of mine were: Why am I out here in Montana? Why did I make the choice to sacrifice two years of my life to serve a mission? And finally, why would I give up my regular life to live life in the Jolly Swagman Inn?

 

Our actions help us to keep our...

Those are some pretty good questions that have some pretty intertwined and intricate answers. But one thing that I think helps clear up the decisions I have made, and that we all can make, is to look at what we, as individuals, desire to become. We all have desires, things that we want or things that we want to become. But what role do these desires have in our lives? Dallin H. Oaks, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, "Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming."

I believe that serving a mission is the right thing to do for me. I know that there are blessings associated with such service and that through my missionary experience I will have been made stronger. Now, how the heck could expect such things even though I haven't even finished my mission? Well thats where a little bit faith comes in...

Through the restored Gospel we find that faith is incredibly important. We find that the Savior Jesus Christ needed faith in order to perform the Atonement successfully. Faith is something that is necessary for many of the things that we do every day. But what does faith lead to? Well, faith inevitably leads to action. You have faith that your car will start, you turn the key, and it starts. You have faith that when you put batter into a heated oven it will become a cake, you do it and it cooks. I have faith that a mission would benefit myself and others, I started serving one, and it has. 

If you're lucky you can combine cake AND cars...

Whenever we use a desire or a want for something and exercise our faith in it enough to put it into action we are able to see the fruits of our labors.This is not just a physical phenomenon that only works when baking cakes or starting cars or even just in physical laws. It is an eternal pattern that is based on eternal principles and eternal laws that extend past the physical and extend on into the spiritual. But how can we know when we do something whether it’s true or not? Jesus Christ said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." -John 7:17. It is here that Jesus counsels us to try out gospel doctrine and see if it is true. And when we try out his doctrine we will be able to have his Spirit to be with us and then we will be able to know that it is true. When I was first learning about Christ's gospel I wondered what the Spirit felt like. Luckily, the Apostle Paul helps us out and tells us a little bit about it. Here’s what he says: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." -Galatians 5:22-23. I know that I have been able to feel those things as I have done my best to follow the commandments. What a blessing it is to know that when we exercise faith in a principle of the gospel we are entitled to receive a confirmation of that goodness.

So the reason why we do anything is to work towards being something that we want to become. I know that our Father in Heavenly is mindful of us individually and will give us that portion of strength that we need to overcome the trials in our lives and to help bring ourselves closer to Him and his Son, Jesus Christ.

Mountain biking and the Gospel.

When thinking about the Gospel I often find patterns occur and we can often make parables to help us understand. Jesus Christ himself often taught in parables and if its good enough for Jesus, by golly, its good enough for me. And I continued to think and ponder and wonder what I should make a parable to, and you know what? I came to the conclusion that I really love mountain biking. Like, a lot. So I figured I might as well go with something that I know a little bit about. And for the most part everybodys ridden a bike before. And if theres one thing that makes mountain biking fun is pushing the limits while still staying safe. Mountain biking is supposed to be fun, not get you killed. Likewise I think of our life here on Earth. We have this big beautiful world that we are privileged to spend a little time on and God sent us here to be able to learn and to progress. When we are able to make some mistakes and learn from them we are able to bring ourselves a little bit closer to God. The old addage "live and learn" literally comes true. Likewise, mountain biking really wouldn't be too fun if we hit a jump and then crashed. But you know what? It gets less and less fun when we don't try to improve and we eat dirt every time we hit a jump thats about the same size and shape.

Mountain Biking getting less fun

But when we learn and our experience grows we can jump all sorts of obstacles; berms, rocks, logs, tree roots, everything that the trail can throw at us. It even prepares us to hit bigger obstacles, which at the time may be scary but afterwards will be a good tale to tell the kids. Likewise, I know that "this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God" (Alma 34:32) and when we exercise our faith in Him as we go through our trials we can become closer to being what we need to be, and, also what we want to be.  


   

Darn blogs...

So lately during the past couple three weeks I have been wondering what I could write a blog on. I have been putting it off for some time now and I needed to come unto repentance so as of right now I am going to redouble my efforts in my blog writing. I think of my past experience with blogs and I'm like, "Man I hate blogs..." But now I get to blog about the most important thing there ever was, the Gospel, not my feelings and insight on how I think Shakespeare shaped my childhood by writing "Hamlet". But one thing that I know to be true is that the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith is able to help anyone in any phase of life. How? Because God loves us and knows what we need and he has provided us with the principles and ordinances that will bring us closer to Him. I testify that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true and that the way that we can know of a surety is by reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. In John chapter 7 Jesus' kinsmen doubt that he is the son of God so Jesus says
"My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." So if we want to know if anything that people say is true we put it to the test. So thats what we do, we invite people to put the Book of Mormon to the test and read and pray and ponder its message. I know that as you sincerely do so you will be able to know that it is true.

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!