The Widow's Mites

I love the simplicity of the teachings of Jesus.  In my studies I've started reading through the Old Testament and I have never felt closer to my Saviour. He was the ultimate teacher, he saw the small things happening around him and used them as parables.  I love the message of this video.  

I have been thinking about about my life and about the sacrifices I am willing to make for the Lord.  I have gained a testimony of paying my tithing and giving the Lord 10 percent of my income.  I have seen that act of faith bless me many times.  Right now I am on a mission serving for 18 months in Tennessee and I am giving of my personal time in order to help others come unto Christ.  There's this song called "Bless My Son" on a CD called "The Work" by The Nashville Tribute Band that has a line in it that talks about how a mission adds up to 10 percent of our lives. I love that line and when times get hard I remember that even though people aren't home when they say they will be and people don't listen when I answer their questions I can know that I am in the service of the Lord.  As I watched this video I thought about how I'm serving the Lord.  Am I serving the Lord like this sweet widow tossing in ALL I can to the Lord?  Everything we have is from the Lord and all he asks us in return is to follow his commandments and to serve him.  The scriptures tell us that when we are in the service of our fellow beings we are in the service of our God. And I love being in the service of my God!! 

Christmas has to come to an end...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I know that I did!  I was away from my family and friends back home in Canada but the Lord had blessed me with a wonderful Christmas here with the lovely people of Tennessee!  My companion and I did some Christmas celebration hoping and spent time with 3 different families and were also blessed to have a baptism of one of our dear friends on Christmas Eve! It will for sure be a Christmas to be remembered!

Now that Christmas it over that special light of Christ that we saw everywhere seems to have died down. The Christmas spirit is infectious, we are constantly wishing people a Merry Christmas and singing beautiful carols about our beloved Savior Jesus Christ. And then once December 25th comes the excitement and anticipation is over.  We take down our decorations and our trees and we see the empty spots where our decorations used to be.  Now the trick is to keep that spirit of Christmas with us all year round.  As Christians we need to continue to honor our Lord and Savior even after the Christmas holidays and make sure our actions are in line with him.  As a missionary I've thought about this idea a lot more this year. I was baptised and made a promise to my Father in Heaven to follow him and obey his commandments. I promised to...

“humble [myself] before God, … and witness before the church that [I] have truly repented of all [my] sins, and are willing to take upon [myself] the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by [my] works that [I] have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of [my] sins” (D&C 20:37).

I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I will honor him by honoring that convenient that I made with him.  I know that as I have faith and repent of my sins my life comes more in line with what the Lord expects of me.  I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have and the opportunity that I have right now share it with others.  I know that Jesus Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane for my sins and for your sins and I know that he  suffered and died on the cross for us as well.  And I know that you will have an added measure of peace in your life as you make an effort to come closer to your Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ!

Christmas is a celebration about Jesus Christ!

Its easy to get caught up in the flashing lights and bling of Christmas but I encourage you all to spend some times thinking about our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the reason for the season and even though the world might have lost its focus at Christmas it doesn't mean we have to!

We are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in honor of him we are giving gifts to the ones we love.  The Gifts we give show our loved ones that we appreciate them. The Christmas season is about giving and not getting.  After Christmas we often hear people ask "what did you get for Christmas?".  Instead of asking that we should ask "what did you GIVE for Christmas?"

For many years I remember our family prayerfully choosing a family we wanted to serve at Christmas and we would leave them anonymous gifts at their doorstep for the 12 days leading up to Christmas. We would leave a piece of a nativity set and then a silly gift that would go along with the 12 Days of Christmas song.  We would try our best to do it early in the morning and not get caught.  I learned a valuable lesson as a child that giving was more important than getting.

Make this Christmas about Christ and think about what gifts you can give to him this year! I love this Video, it shows the true meaning of Christmas! Just focus on Christ!!


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Don't Spend Christmas Keep it all year round!

We had to opportunity this past weekend to hear from the first presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to get us into the Christmas spirit.  It was a great program that brought such a sweet spirit.  President Thomas S. Monson talked about how we shouldn't be spending Christmas each December but that we should be keeping Christmas in our hearts all year round. He said:

"Because when we keep the spirit of Christmas we keep the spirit of Christ, for the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit. It will block out all the distractions around us, which can diminish Christmas and swallow up its true meaning "

I love that thought so much!  We celebrate the birth of Christ because of the atonement that he made for us and becasue he died for us.  We need to take that spirit of Christmas, the thoughtfulness, the charity, the love, and take it into our every day lives.  We need to live the spirit of Christmas all year round.

So lets all remember the reason for the season.  Lets all keep the spirit of Christmas in our hearts all year long!

Rejoice in Christ!!

One of the best things about being a missionary is that I get to talk about Jesus all the time!! Its the best!  There is a scripture in The Book of Mormon that I love..

 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies" -2 Nephi 25:26

That Scripture truly does describe what we do as missionaries.  We spend our days TALKING to people about Christ.  We have the awesome job of teaching people about how a relationship with Jesus Christ WILL bless their lives.  Then we get to REJOICE  in Christ.  We get to see people grow and change through repenting of their sins and accepting the atonement of our beloved Savior Jesus Christ.  It has been an amazing experience to see the light of Christ in people, to see how people's lives improve because of their knowledge of Jesus Christ. We spend our time PREACHING and PROPHESYING of how the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed our lives and we get to share the promise in the scriptures of how it will bless the lives of all who will receive it!  And in our mission we get to write according to the prophecies in our blogs!  How great is that?

The most important thing that we teach people is that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.  It reminds me of that famous verse the New Testament, John 3:16

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Our Father in Heaven loves us so much that he created a means by which we could return to him.  He knew that we would sin when we came to this earth so he created a means by which we can be forgiven and become like him.  He allowed his beloved Son, Jesus Christ to suffer for our sins in the garden of Gethsemane and to suffer and die on the cross for us so that we could be cleansed from all our sins and have everlasting eternal life! The best gift we could ever get.

As missionaries we get to talk to people about this beautiful message.  We love the Bible and teach from it often and God has given us more scripture, The Book of Mormon that compliments and clarifies the teachings in the Bible.  Check out http://mormon.org/ and find out more or meet with a missionary just like me! http://mormon.org/missionaries/

Trust Jesus!

I came across this amazing quote today...

"Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten and Beloved Son of God. … He is our Savior from sin and death. This is the most important knowledge on earth." - Dallin H. Oaks

I love this quote!  Of all the things that we need to know and to learn, the most important is knowing that Jesus Christ is our Saviour!  The scriptures teach many beautiful principles and commandments that we are  to follow but we need to start with understanding the atonement of Jesus Christ. When we talk of the atonement we are giving reference to Jesus Christ's shedding of blood in the garden of Gethsemane, His death on the cross and then His bodily resurrection.  The only way in which we can return to live with our Father in Heaven is through this atonement.  We will all be resurrected, that is a free gift given to us from Jesus Christ but in order to be forgiven for our sins we must repent.  We will be forgiven for our sins to the degree in which we have faith, repent and obey God's commandments.

We make mistakes on a daily basis and we needed a way to be forgiven for those sins! We cannot be perfect ourselves but through the Atonement we can have all of our sins washed away and we can be clean.  I love that scripture in Isaiah where it talks about our sins being washed away..

Come now, and let us ^areason together, saith the Lord: though your ^bsins be as scarlet, they shall be as ^cwhite as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. - Isaiah 1:18

I know that as we repent we will feel our sins being washed away.  I know this because I have repented and continue to repent.  Sometimes our sins are big and we have a hard time letting go of them but we must trust in the redeeming power of the atonement and repent and forsake our sins and then we are promised that the Lord will remember our sins no more!

I love to talk about our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! He has done so much for every single one of us!  He was the only perfect person to live on this earth and his life was a perfect example of what we can pattern our lives after.  So continue on and trust in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repent!

"Be strong and of a good ^acourage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the ^bLord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not ^cfail thee, nor ^dforsake thee." Deut 31:6

How do we know?!

I was thinking today about how it is that we can say that we know something to be true.  How do I know that the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ are true?  How do I know that I have a Heavenly Father? How do I know that Jesus Christ atoned for my sins? How do I know that Joseph Smith was called of God to be a Prophet? How do I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God?

I came across this scripture in The Book of Mormon that I think helps answer these questions. Alma 5:46

"Behold, I say unto you they are made ^aknown unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have ^bfasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of ^crevelation which is in me."

That scripture truly does tell us how we can know, and it tells us that we need to put a little effort into it.  As we read the scriptures I think its important to remember that scriptures are the testimonies of Prophets (Men called of God to lead his children on earth).  This scripture is the testimony of Alma, a Prophet in The Book of Mormon.  He is sharing with people how he came to know the truth, he tells the people that he has put forth his own effort and fasted and prayed and he says that he knows the truth of these things because the Holy Spirit of God has made it known unto him.  I love it!! Who better to ask for advice than a prophet of God!

We need to fast and to pray!

When we fast we give up food for a period of time and show God that we are willing to sacrifice our temporal needs for a time to get that answer.  In fasting we show God that we are willing to put aside something we want and need (food) in order to receive our answer.

Along with fasting Alma says we need need to Pray!  Prayer is key in seeking answers, unless we ask an answer wont come.  But there is a catch to praying.  Listen to this scripture, the testimony of the prophet Moroni about how to get an answer...

 3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how ^amerciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ^bponder it in your ^chearts.

 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ^aask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not ^btrue; and if ye shall ask with a ^csincere heart, with ^dreal intent, having ^efaith in Christ, he will ^fmanifest the ^gtruth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may ^aknow the ^btruth of all things.

 I love that!! So lets recap, if we:

- "receive these things", hear the word of God
- "ponder it in your hearts", really think about in in our mind as well as our heart
- "Ask God", pray about it!
- "with a sincere heart", really sincerely seeking an answer
- "real intent", be will to act on the answer
- "faith in Christ", having faith we will get an answer

Then we will get an answer, its that simple!!

As a missionary we teach people everyday and everyday we ask people to pray.  I myself have prayed and I know the message we share is true but only as you pray will you be able to know the truth as well! 

I challenge you all to read and pray about The Book of Mormon!  If you do I know that God will answer your prayers and tell you that it is indeed his words!