The Little Kite

This is a poem that my friend wrote and it inspired me to share it!

The Young Little Kite

As the young little kite began his first flight

the breeze blew softly until the string was tight

Gently he was lifted just a few feet more

"Surely, I'm higher than I've ever been before."

Soon a wind replaced the soft breeze

Until the young little kite was above all the trees.

His very first glide had turned to a soar.

"Surely, I'm higher than I've ever been before."

The winds sped up and the clouds turned grey

He was beaten and tossed in every which way.

And all he could feel was the string's tension pulling down

So he let go of his string and soon crashed to the ground.

The poor little kite was lying broken in the dirt

When the Master picked him up and wrapped him up in his shirt.

He cradled him tight as he took the kite in.

Then fixed every hole and glued every limb.

The kite was now fixed and felt good as new.

As the breeze came alive he began flight two.

Little did he know was that the string "pulling down,"

Was the only sole thing keeping him off of the ground.

Soon the wind replaced the soft breeze

Until the young little kite was above all the trees.

Once again, his glide turned to a soar.

"Surely, I'm higher than I've ever been before."

we have all experienced this we feel things like, Friends, family, parents, church responsibilities or even church all together, work, etc., weigh us down so we cut the rope and found later that it was a mistake and that we  started to fall but the Master our Savior is always there to pick us up and put us back together, reattach the rope and help us take off again. He hopes we learn not to cut the rope anymore. I know that he is always there to "put us in the air" again. 

The Voice Inside Our Head.

Our conscience where does it come from? What is it? Why do we have one? How do we get rid of that nagging feeling of our conscience? Through my mission and working with 100's of people from all different walks of life I have often been asked these questions and questions close to them. Almost always I was happy to be the one that got to answer them, because it has always meant a lot to me.
I  have always felt it. My mother taught her children a lot about it and she answered these questions as  my siblings and I asked them years ago. Our conscience where does it come from? Simply it comes from God to be used as a tool to help us in our hectic lives, to teach us  what to do to make it easier on us in this life. What is a conscience? In The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ we learn; "And men (women and children) are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil. And the law is given unto men." (2 Ne 2:5) And in the KJV Bible; 14 "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 
15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)"(Romans 2:14-15) Our conscience is from god. It is the little voice inside our head that tells us right from wrong and where to go and what to do when we get there. Our conscience also bears witness. Bears witness of what? It bears witness of truth and bears witness of all things pertaining to our Savior.
Why do we have a conscience?
 16 "For behold, the Spirit of Christ (our conscience) is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God." (Moroni 7:16) After reading this scripture we see that we have a conscience to show us what is of God and what is not. It is a gift free to everyone. It is not to make us feel bad but to show us how to have happiness. These scriptures show us that every person has a conscience, so that everyone has the opportunity to know what is from God and what is not.
How do we get rid of that nagging feeling? When we know we are doing wrong we feel guilty we need to follow our conscience to find our way back to peace and happiness. the way to do this is through the atonement of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. We do this by repenting and following god. Repentance, as I explained in a few blogs ago, is a turning away from sin. That sacrifice that he made for us, or the atonement, is sufficient to save all sinners. With repentance there is always a price to pay, Jonah had to ride in a whales mouth for his price. Almost every story in the scriptures show a price they had to pay, sometimes it was small sometime it was big the lady that was caught in adultery, her price was the guilt she carried and the embarrassment of all the towns men being there. David paid a price, he lost his kingdom on earth. So everyone pays a price they are all different and they are all forgivable.
I know this is true that sins are forgivable because I have seen people first hand go from rock bottom to knowing they have been forgiven and knowing they are right in the eyes of the Master. Our conscience is such a great gift that God has given to all of us, to know right from wrong and know how to change their lives to be better and more happy.

Gateway to Heaven

       This week has been so great! We have been able to see Gods hand in everything we do. We have been able to help people progress towards wanting to be baptized. The first, is the man that my very first blog was about. He is getting baptized this week. He has gotten more and more excited about it and as we planned his baptism he had it all set up and ready to go. He is growing in the knowledge that our Savior loves him and wants him to improve, and keep growing his relationship with him. He is excited to follow his Lord and Redeemer into the waters of baptism, so he can enjoy the full blessings that God will give him.
       We have also been able to help others grow in their knowledge and how they feel about God. One friend asked us how to focus on the things that matter most, and not get distracted by the little things that the world tells us matters but doesn't really matter. We talked for a while and told them a few things that have helped us, however as we continued to talk and read scriptures we came to the conclusion that it is through reading the scriptures daily, praying daily that we are able to decide what matters most.

       We then read scriptures to reaffirm what we talked about. We read one about prayer and that we should pray in "our fields" and "in our houses" and "in our closets and our secret places." We learned we should pray in our heart everywhere, and in everything we do. We read a scripture about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it said "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." As this verse in Isaiah says he was wounded for us a bruised for us. He knows our pains and our short comings and because of this we are healed. This person then, as we closed, had a great experience that backed everything we taught. This person gave the closing prayer, as they did the spirit filled us all and they prayed for the things that were important to them and close to their heart. After the close of the prayer we sat in silence and the spirit testified to all of us that the Lord truly knew this friends heart and trouble and as they continued to read the scriptures and say prayers everyday that the Lord would help our friend with the challenges of life and help them progress toward the promise people make at baptism.
       I know that the Lord knows "his sheep"(which is us). He wants us all to come and build a relationship with him by being baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority. The blessings of baptism are endless! I love our Savior, Jesus Christ and know he is guiding his people!

The Best Gift of Christmas.

Follow up on the Community Christmas Celebration, it was fantastic! I got to go for the whole day yesterday. It was beautiful, nativities from all around the world: Italy, Germany, Sweden, African countries, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, etc. they had one made out of complete Chocolate. The Entertainment was wonderful! the Orchestra was great and the Choirs sounded professional and they were just local schools. This is an event for everyone it is all completely free and they have a live nativity that I was able to be apart of. It was pure fun!
In order to keep the quality and schedule of a missionary I will only be posting a blog once a week and it will be Thursdays. Unless big things like this celebration comes up on Thursdays then it will be as close to Thursday as possible. Like today:)
Today I will share something that has been very close to me and very important in my life, it fits in with the whole  Christmas theme and I think of it every time I think of the Christmas season, the Easter season, and when  think of Jesus Christ. This thing is very important and  that is Repentance. In my, what has been relatively short, life I have had the wonderful chance to see myself and close friends change because of this one word. I have seen it in scripture and I have seen it take people from "I dont believe in God." to "I Know there is a God and that he loves me!" Repentance to me is"The act of turning away from", "Forsaking", "Putting trust in god", "Improving". I have felt the love of our Savior as I have asked him to help me change myself more than ask him to change my circumstances. For Example in the scriptures there is a man who showed this pattern. He was taken and bound and the people that did this were wanting to kill him, he says "O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound." Notice he asked the Lord to bless him with strength to burst the bands, not bless that his problem of these bands magically disappear. It often is the same with us we get ourselves bound in the cords of the devil and we need to do as Isaiah says and "Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem [or our own name]: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter [or son] of Zion." it is far more effective if we will pray for strength and work to break the bands which we have gotten our selves in, than to pray for him to do it all and just wait for him to do it all with out us trying to quit our addiction or clean up our mess that we have made. The Lord loves us and is merciful, he does not expect us to be perfect this instance but he expects us to use this instance to become perfect. This scripture says it better than anything else Isaiah 1:18-19 "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

 19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:" I am comforted when I learn more about forgiveness and repentance. it is not a scary word but a comforting word. I have seen the "good of the land" talked about in verse 19, it is those experience's that I shared earlier. The Lord can and will change you if you ask for his help and "reason with the Lord" or really intend to do what you tell god you will do or change. I know that God is real and he loves us, he wants what is best for us and he is the gardener here. He knows what he wants us to become. 

Tis' The Season to be Jolly!

It is already December! Wow! I am so excited to get to volunteer at this years Community Christmas Celebration in Raleigh North Carolina  this Thursday, Dec. 5th through Saturday, Dec. 7th. Feel free to visit: http://raleighnativity.org/ .
Here are a few things that as many as attend will get to enjoy, nativities as small as:

or as big as:

as beautiful as:

OR

I love this time of year, when the wind is cold but the spirit is warm. for the last couple of days i have been learning a lot about what the Christmas spirit is all about, we have had the opportunity to drop gifts off to peoples house's and what all who participated felt, was not the gratitude of the gift or the excitement of it but rather the warm thought they felt was that "someone has thought of me". We also shared a scripture with them that talked about our Savior Jesus Christ and his birth, the sacrifice he made for us, his death, and why he did it. as we talked one man said it is sad "many people don't remember what Christmas is really about." What have these wonderful pictures told you as you have looked at them? What Feelings did you feel, maybe: joy, happiness, comfort, love, and possibly others. As I look into these pictures I see respect. The people and animals around him are kneeling and showing respect. They knew the real meaning of that Christmas day when our Savior was born. I love this time of year mostly because people all around the world remember our Savior Jesus Christ, and they are more friendly and loving to a stranger. This Christmas season what will you do to make someone feel better about themselves and their families?