Sports and Family

Families are like sport teams!  If you run the right plays you will win every game. They both take practice, patience, work, love, unity, drive, forgiveness. Every family and team is a little different in abilities and skills, Some like more aggressive play calls while others like more passive calls. What family/team are you?
In sports there are an allotted number players on the court at one time. Their Goal is to score the most points and hold the other team to as few points as possible, who ever has the most points when time runs out wins the game. I had the privilege of playing sports in a small town in Nevada even though it was small, my school had produced many college athletes. Thanks to great coaches that taught us the game and related it to life experiences, many of us found a love for sports and for our families. Many of our coaches told us there were only 3 things that come before our team and sports 1) god, 2) family 3) school. They taught us to band together. They taught us that we were to stick up for each other off the court/field as if we were on the court/field. We learned to always watch our teammates and hold them up to the high standard our coach's had set for us, as a result we learned to be better people so that we wouldn't let our teammates or our coaches down. We conditioned often and ran our plays made sure that when game time came we would know how to make our plays outsmart the other team. Rarely did we get beat. on our basketball team we has a great point guard, he knew the game! he loved the game! he was smart with his dribbling and very skilled. he would execute the plays with exactness and expected the rest of us to as well if we slacked he would put us in line. we went on to play and win many tournaments. he was the leader and because he was so good he could often carry the team, he always out scored us and had the most steals and assists. this made many team members jealous and mad at him because we felt he didn't use our talents enough. He knew,even when we couldn't see it that, without the rest of the team he was nothing. He had to work with us to have him be at the top of his game. if we would have supported him more we would have been a lot better. it is the same with our families. in every family there is a "point guard", usually the father or mother. they call the plays and they need everyone else. sometimes the other doesn't see that they are needed and feel that the "point guard" is doing all the work, when truly they need the other to help them be the best they can be. We can "score" way higher if we set "plays" or goals and plans and then use them." just like basketball no one can do it alone it takes a whole team.
My favorite sport is American football. I love it! In American football there are a few more players. In traditional American football there are 11 players per team on the field. The game is a little more physical than basketball. We had great coaches as I mentioned earlier. Football take the efforts of every single team member. if the center doesn't snap the ball right it makes the rest of the team work harder to pick up the slack, same with any other position on the field. So it is with our families. When one child slacks it takes extra effort by the rest of the family to pick up the slack to get back up to speed. In every game there are plays that go wrong there has never been a perfect game on both sides by every single player. However there are teams that win the State Championship, World Series, Super Bowl, ect. every year. It is the same with our families we will never be a perfect family where everything runs great no one ever slacks and every decision is made correctly. We can however all win our own Super Bowl, world series, or what ever our favorite match is. our families all have the key players that will make our "team" run as smooth as it possibly can! 
Being a missionary there are a lot of hard things that we see, one of the hardest for me is to see how families are being attacked from ways that we cant always see. Many families think that they have already lost to many games to have a come back win. This is common thought but it simply is not true! Our Savior Jesus Christ has suffered so that us personally can " make a come back" but he has also suffered for our families. Families are central to gods plan. He loves families and wants them to stay together. I hope that you all will read The Family: A Proclamation to the World which will be on the page of links I like on the side bar.

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!