Holy Holiday

As this Easter season has been coming to a close, I have been pondering upon the things that God try's to teach us and how often he teaches us those things. As I was thinking one day i thought what is the purpose of Easter? Then I thought to think of Christ.... then I thought what is the purpose of Christmas then? My answer that came in my head was "to think of Christ." I thought wow how often does god help us think of his son Jesus Christ? As I thought about this I realized every national holiday can be tied to Jesus Christ and his Atonement. The first big holiday of the year is New years day a time to "start over new" in one word that means "repent" next would be valentines day. As Christ was asked in matt. 22:36 "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" He replied in 37-40 "37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

 38 This is the first and great commandment.

 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." So we are to truly remember what love is, and to love our neighbor as our selves. 

The next holiday is St. Patrick's day which is about "the luck of the Irish" or in the gospel terms "the blessings we get." Next is Easter about the resurrection and being "reborn again", it is interesting to me how in the space of only tree or four months we need another reminder of repentance. Mothers day will be the next one I can think of and it is to help us appreciate what our mothers do. All through the scriptures you see that women and especially mothers are important to god and he loves and takes care of them. The next is fathers day, this helps us remember our fathers hope fully pointing us to god, who is our father in heaven. There is memorial day  to remember our kindred dead, and a reminder to do our family history work. July 4, is to find Joy in our country and the constitution and remember the hand that god had in the founding of our nation.
I will just list a few other main holiday's and tell their purpose, there is Veterans day a day to remember to fight for the things we love. The Book of Mormon says "In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole." (Alma 46:12) Which rallied his troops to fight for righteousness and they were so great an army that not one died among them. Thanks giving to help us give thanks to god for the blessings we have received, Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ, and look to the many gifts he gave to us! Then on to new years again! God has given us all these holidays to remind us that he is there and that he wants us to live his doctrine which is: Faith, Repentance, Following the Holy Ghost, being Baptized, and Enduring to the End. With these holidays all through the year it allows us to choose to serve God or to serve mammon (Matt. 6:24; 3 Nephi 13:24) if we remember what the holiday is really here for then we can have it help us serve God, if we forget why we celebrate these holidays it takes us one step farther to serving mammon. "O how great the goodness of our God!" (2 Nephi 9:10) He remembers to remind us to remember him by giving us these great holidays throughout the year! How have you recognized the hand of God in your holidays this year?

Storms, Anchors, And Saftey!

I read an article last night that I loved, so I would like to share a bit from it. The article was about setting a sure anchor. The author of the article talked about how he went on a cruise and the boat went into a beautiful secluded bay and dropped the anchor to secure the boat from drifting off. He saw that they were drifting at an ever so slightly rate, but to find that they drifted in the same circular pattern, and so they knew the anchor worked and that they were held in a safe place. The skipper didn't wait to drop the anchor when they had drifted into dangerous waters, instead they dropped it first thing and made it a focus to prevent them from drifting at all.
 This same principles applies to us in life. The author went on to tell us the importance of the anchor. He told us that we need to drop our anchor in a secure place, not on the sandy sea bottom of doubt, or the unsteady things of life, but to anchor on the sure foundation. A foundation that cannot fall. That foundation is Jesus Christ. He is the Savior, and the Rock of Our Salvation. When we anchor on him it is then that we will be able to get through the storms of life that do so easily set us up to drift. There is no end to his stability.

He can and will hold us in what ever we face! I know this is true. Jesus Christ is real! He did atone for our sins, he took the "price" upon him so that we can be happy and protected from the storms. We will be protected if we anchor on him before the storm and he will reach out his mighty saving hand to pull us to harbor if we grab on. He loves us. Sure the wave generated from the storm will rock the boat and make the journey a bit rough at times, However if we are anchored on him when the storm passes we will be more grateful for the peace and rest we do get. I promise we will be thankful we anchored on him, or that we let him pull us to safety. I love you all! Have a blessed day!

 

How I Came to Know!

IT WORKED! I was answered! I am grateful I listened! I now know what I have to do!
Today I want to share how I gained my testimony of Jesus Christ's and his Atonement and how I came to know The Book of Mormon is true.
When I was younger I started to try to understand what was right and what was wrong. I went to church every week and attended all the meetings that I was supposed to. I was enrolled in seminary and was learning the doctrines THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS professes to know. I prayed many times to know if it was true. I prayed mostly because everyone told me I should. When I would pray I would feel something, but it was hard to feel what it was. So I would not pay attention to it, just like in  1 Ne 19:7. This would happen from time to time. When I was at seminary I felt strong that the church was true, that Jesus Christ really died for my sins, and that I could do what God our Heavenly Father wanted me to. But when I would leave, the feeling would sometimes go away. I could no longer recognize what I was to do. I would feel that same feeling as I went to church and attended my meetings but often when I left the feeling would as well. I felt it often when my mother and father would read out of the scriptures, and also when I would read out of them.

 I was in the middle of my sophomore and junior year and I was starting to not be as happy to do what my parents wanted of me. I turned 16 that May and was going to a missionary training camp. I knew I wanted to serve a mission but was beginning to second guess my childhood dream. My father strongly encouraged me to heed the call of my stake president and go to this camp. I wanted to refuse his urgings but I remembered the alternate choice he gave one of my older brothers. That week while he was home from camp, would be used to move the whole hay stack off of the pallets that they were stacked on and then re-stack the whole pile. This would be quite a task for one person to do all by themselves, so I went to this camp. I rode up to the camp with my brother who was called to be a service person at camp that year. That year they were putting on a metal roof on one of the shower/bathroom's. We had to pull the trailer with the metal roofing on it and because of it we were later than all the rest of the people.
 I remember as we drove up I was happy that I was missing the first part of the camp. I didn't want to be there at this point. I remember telling my brother how excited I was to be late and miss out on a few things, I also remember the words he told me, with disappointment in his voice he said " Colb, you will change you mind at the end of this week." pridefully I said: "No I wont!" I soon learned that comment was the wrong one to make. I went to the meetings and would sit in boredom. My leader there was that brother's best friend and I had a great respect for him. He will never know the impact he had one my life when he came and got me to work on the Big H medallion. the Big H medallion was a metal that you received for memorizing certain things. I did not work on it at all the first day there. I wasn't a person to memorize things. He told me that I couldn't let my other brothers who had passed off the requirements out do me. so I decided that I would memorize the material just so I could out do my other brothers. I started on them and one of the things that I studied that first night was The Book of Mormon.

 The next thing I read was the Joseph Smith story: "After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God.  I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

 When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other: 'This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!'"

  As I read this I was off in the woods by myself studying trying to memorize it and I remember thinking if it worked for his it should work for me, so I knelt and asked God if it was true. This time my plea was different from the other times, I truly wanted to know. I wanted to know right then if this was the plan God had for me. the question in my heart was is this true and if it is should I go on a mission. I remember getting up from my knee's not feeling anything. Being a little discouraged, I went back to the friend of my brother and tried to recite the story back to him. He was excited that I was really trying to pass off the requirements. He helped me and he sent me on to the leaders who I had to pass it off to. As I started to teach I started to feel a stirring that I didn't realize at the time, but as I continued I got to the story of Joseph Smith and his prayer and answer. I started reciting it and as I got farther and farther through the story I felt the spirit more and more.

 When I said the words, "calling me by name and said, pointing to the other: 'This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!'", I started to cry and I felt that I had known it was true all a long and that I needed to start acting on what I know. At that moment I knew that I should serve a mission and testify of the truth I have found. I read a lot of the Book of Mormon and I asked if it was true and the same feeling of peace and happiness came to me and I knew it was. IT WORKED! He answered my prayer! I am grateful I listened! I now know what I have to do!
I have been so blessed serving my mission, to testify as a representative of Jesus Christ himself that The Book of Mormon is a true book of scripture and it testifies of Christ.  It tells us how to be happy, how to find answers to questions and much more. Reading both the Bible and the Book of Mormon together have blessed my life more than any other book. I have grown so much closer to God in the last 2 years than I have ever been. There have been many people who have helped me along my journey of life, but the most influential person has been Jesus Christ. He has gone forth and suffered the pain and the emptiness I felt and that all others have felt (Read Alma 7:11-13). He is the Light and life of this world! He is our Savior and Redeemer!