It's Been Too Long!!

I have been terrible at writing on this blog!! In fact it has been nearly two years and a lot has transpired in my life since then! Got home from my mission worked on a ranch, worked at home, caught up with family and friends, skied, bought a truck and dirt bike, started working on power lines, dated some good and pretty girls, and finally convinced one to be my girlfriend!! haha you may be laughing about this, but let's be honest... It's true! 

Anyhow, I am going to be better at writing different posts similar to ones I have done in the past. for those of you who read these blogs I hope that they will influence you as that is the purpose of me writing them. Like them and share them as much as you want. I would like to help as many people as possible through my personal experiences. 

Thanks a milllion! :)

An Unexpected Answer

This morning when I woke up the wind was roaring! The RV Trailer was rocking from side to side like a mothers frantic rocking chair. Instantly I thought to myself that I just as well as remain in bed for another 10 minutes instead of getting up to make a lunch. this thought came to me because I know that when the wind is to strong it shuts our cranes down at work and then everyone is sent home for the day. So I went in to work with no lunch expecting to hear that at our kickoff safety meeting for the week. I had a nice warm hot chocolate grasped between my hands not only warming them, but also the insides  of me which were chilled from the truck into the main office. 

After the meeting everyone was standing around and talking a little waiting to hear the official statement from their foremen that their crew would not be working. I had't really thought about it much, but I was only a week ago given some of the mechanic responsibilities. So, it turned out that I was supposed to work for a while and do a few things. After a few hours in the bone chilling wind We were ready to call it for the day (the other mechanic and I).  When we went back to the office we were given some other projects and we ultimately ended up working the whole day. Yeah, as you can guess... I was frustrated a bit and on the verge of being what the kids these days call hangry (a state of hunger so intense that it begins to effect your personality and has a tendency to make people angry). I went back to the trailer to end the day and got there right before the heater was to turn on. so the trailer was slightly chilly but not too bad. I jumped quickly into a nice warm shower to warm myself up. when I got out of the shower I felt like it was brisk, which a a normal after shower feeling. I felt that feeling longer than normal only to find out that we had run out of propane and so instead of having nice hot air blowing into the trailer it was cold air coming in and making the trailer more cold. 

Long story short I had to go to town (a 25 minute drive) to go get propane to finally warm up for the night. which didn't happen still until an hour or so after the propane was hooked back up and the furnace going again. 

This is a somewhat negative story some may say... well... I agree! It is/was. Today I had a different sense on when I looked at the experience of yesterday. I had woke up expecting to have the day off and to get my truck served and pick up a package from the mail and run some other odds and ends errands. As much as I had hoped, that's not how the day ended up going. I even went to bed and thanked Heavenly father for the good day that I had "even though it did kind of suck...". 

When pondering more on my view of yesterday today I had a few things come across my mind.

1st - Perspective

When I was looking at the day I was judging it 100% on the first thing that I had thought about when I woke up. So often in our lives when we are placed in a scenario we have an instinctive thought or impressional feeling. Your gut instinct some people say is always right, and your should stick with it. well I'm here to speak against that narrow minded view. Because today I was thankful that I had worked in the miserable day yesterday because I knew that it had meant I would add $500 to my pay check next week. I was then thankful for working on such a miserable day. 

2nd - Wrong or different? Yes, or yes???

I wanted to be able to benefit from my day yesterday and felt like I would benefit greatly having the day off and sleeping for a few hours and getting other things done. Well... ultimately I still had a beneficial day in which I learned that someone times God answers your prayers in a way that doesn't necessarily meet your early staged expectations, nut later turns up to fulfill expectations that were had for the long term goals. God always answers a prayer with what is best for us whether we realize it then or later.

Through this experience and others I have learned to to accept what happens in my life and to then make the absolute best of my present situation. God does live and He does care enough to answer everyone. He won't always answer with the "yes" that you want, but he will always answer with a yes about what is best for you. I invite each of you to look at the recent trial or hard and frustrating times you have been though and then try to adjust the lenses you are looking at it through and try to realize how God is sending you to more good through the answer you were given. Thanks for reading! Please share with those people you love if this is a lesson that has effected you in a way that you think can help those around you. Share your brief experience and then connect this article. 

I'll be writing...

Why take the long way around!?

     Today I look back on a day when I was hauling hay for a family that I worked for for a couple of years while growing up. 

 

     Their older boy who had not yet left on his mission was there along with his younger brother, and the three of us were hauling hay from out in the meadow up to the stack yard. The oldest boy was out in the field lining up bales and loading us up when we went out to him, and the younger brother and I were driving back and forth and when we would get to the stack yard I would unload us. 

     Both the younger brother and myself were driving two old 2-ton trucks with flat racks on the backs of them. We could haul eleven big round one ton bales at a time. If you are very familiar with round bales you know that it isn't very easy to get them well balanced on a trailer or truck when you stack them. The oldest boy had many experiences with this throughout his growing up life and so he was the designated stacker and loader.

     Now when you are working down in a meadow you have to work around a lot of canals and ditches and there isn't really any rhyme or reason to the paths you must take to navigate your way around and back out to the stack yard. Sometimes you feel like you are in a maze that you are struggling to find your way out of. Part way through the year there begins to be a worn out path along the trail that will lead you out. You progressively add on to the end of that path the further you get from the stack yard. 

     I am an individual who isn't very patient most days and I try to get things done very effectively and quickly. On occasion this is a quality that doesn't treat me very well. 

     One day while hauling hay down in the meadow we were in this particular part of the field. This piece was always sort of a pain in my eyes just because in order to get to it you had to take an extra long route and go through a narrow gate. All the while once you get out there and are getting loaded up you are right across a decent size canal/slew from the beaten path that takes you back to the stack yard. Now if you are to go the long way, by the time you get to that same spot on the road you have used 15-20 minutes of your time. If you were to just cross that canal/slew you would save yourself all that time. But as well, to cross right there you had a higher risk of getting stuck and as well a higher risk of rocking some bales off of your load. 

     This was a certainly dry summer and everything had dried up pretty quick once we shut all the water off. By the time we found ourselves working on this part of the field that canal had dried up quite well. I had hauled almost every load out of there and back to the stack yard when I decided that I was just going to go ahead and cross the now dried up canal. I drove by and checked to make sure that it was pretty dry, and it really was. Once I did that I got back in the truck and went out in the field just a short distance to get a run at it because I knew I would still sink a bit because of the weight of the truck and the load I had on. 

     When my front tires got to the close side of the canal I was still moving good and I wasn't really in too much trouble, but I quickly began to slow down as the front tires started to sink into the black soot like soil. As I got my front end close to the other side I was in high hopes of making it through without losing any bales. I soon realized that it was only a desire. The back end of the truck had entered the canal just before my front end came out and I was stuck. I was on an angle and both bumpers were on either side of the canal holding me up. On top of that I had lost a couple of bales off of my load. I called the older brother and had to explain myself and why I had made that bad decision. I did so and when he got the chance he drove over in his tractor and helped push me out to the other side and make sure I was all loaded up good again. Once he was done with that he said, "Don't do that again, just take the long way around. It saves a lot of trouble." 

     It had actually been slightly faster even going through those problems, but we still had a negative experience to get to that point instead of a positive one. 

     In our lives God has principles and ordinances by which we need to abide. When we try and short cut ourselves in the experiences of life because we think we can get away with it we are always wrong. 

     We have the option to either learn things from good experiences with obedience or with bad experiences and disobedience. Often times when an individual learns from a negative experience they have scares remaining from the trials along the way, whether they be emotional or physical. When someone is patient and listens to the spirit guiding them they learn because of Faith and persistent obedience. This is a much better way to learn and gain a knowledge or testimony of something. The people who learn this way are more apt to know more pure joy much like Christ. Jesus Christ did All Things with exactness and in obedience. 

     As we follow his example and we don't take the short cut, across what seems to be a dried up canal, we will be able to experience more enriched blessing in our lives and a constant guidance from the Holy Ghost.

     These blessings can be accessed at their fullest in the restored church of Jesus Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, where his authority is alive and revelation from Him guides us as members each and every day. You can gain your own personal revelation that Christ's church is on the earth today through The Book of Mormon. (Always feel free to comment and discuss)

 

Take part in likening the gospel to others!

Thank you all so much for supporting my blog!

I have been writing all of these stories and connecting them to the gospel so that everyone who reads these posts can learn how to recognize God working in their lives a little bit more.

Through a short survey I would like some feedback on my blog. 

You can help by commenting and answering these few short questions:

• Ranking from 1 to 10 how effective have these posts been with helping you see how God works in your life?
• What are some Gospel principles that you would like to see linked to a real life event?
• What are some life events that you would like linked to the Gospel?

Your feedback is important to be able to make this blog effective in helping people come closer to Christ!

Please comment on this post so that you can have some input on the next story that I will relate to the Gospel, or on the next Gospel principle that will be covered. Your feedback is highly welcomed!

What is this thing we call Intelligence?

 Intelligence

     This word is used on a regular basis in today's society, and I feel that the majority of people don't really comprehend what it actually means.

     Let's think about this a little bit here today....


     First I want you to think about someone that you think or feel is intelligent. Seriously, take a couple minutes and think about someone that you would really tag with the word intelligent.


     I bet you have been able to think of someone. I believe that we each know someone that is actually intelligent. Now let me give you a couple of things to think about.

• At what point in your life did this person become "Intelligent" in your eyes?
• Why do you feel that the person you have in mind is intelligent?
• What are a couple of attributes that this individual has that make them intelligent?
• Is this person intelligent in the eyes of others?
• When did their intelligence effect you most in your life?

     Now that you have all of these thoughts put together in your head I want to invite you to share these thoughts and your answers with all of us.
  
All viewers are looking forward to hearing your thoughts on these questions about intelligence!!

Below is a little food for thought about God's intelligence. 

     When you take a look at the world around you and you take in all that your eyes can see you can barely begin to think you can comprehend what is going on out there. God can, he created it. And through his intelligence we can begin to comprehend the world and the Gospel of Jesus Christ in such simple terms.

 Here is God's intelligence appearing in our everyday lives  referenced from Genesis chapter 9:

 12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

 13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

 15 And I will remember my ^acovenant, ^bwhich is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a ^cflood to destroy all flesh.

 16 ^aAnd the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the ^beverlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

 17 And God said unto Noah, This is the ^atoken of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

 

Look Ahead and Believe, nothing fearing!

Leave it in God's Hands

     If there is one thing that I have come to learn in my life it is that we can not control every single little detail of our lives. There are so many other variables that are entailed in the outcome of any given situation. Here I wish to share an example that I saw while growing up where things went south even though the guy in the story always did what he could do to help these situations turn out in the positive.

     Growing up I used to watch the older kids in town and in my church and try and be like them. I remember spending lots of time doing this. One of these particular people I would watch had many experiences that to me seemed like pretty hard and awfully hard to face at times. I watched this kid pretty closely while he would play football and in wrestling. For four years I watched him work as hard and even harder than anyone on the football team. He was such a great player and still each year as a team they struggled and would lose a heartbreaking game in the state championship game. The wrestling season seemed to mirror almost the same exact situation. In wrestling as a team they did have some success though, and he was always a big part of that success. He would put in the extra practice time and do everything that he could to become the wrestler that he knew he could become. His sophomore year I watched him get in to the championship match and battle his heart out. In the end with a couple not so correct calls he lost that match. It was hard to see him having worked so hard to have to go through an experience like that. The next two years I saw him go through the same terrible experience in his finals matches at the state tournament.

 

     Wow! Those are some experiences that are never very easy, especially if you are someone that loves your sports, and you are surrounded by people who has those same desires and passions. If you have ever been through something similar to this I am sure that you can add your witness that you also know it isn't easy to handle.

     This guy from the story who is now a man is much the better man because of these experiences. He wasn't ever a person to get down on himself about these situations and worry and fuss over them. The teams in football for years before he got into high school were so dominant, and his was as well. But for some reason the teams he was on never were blessed with a championship win. I don't take anything away from them for this, but I give credit for who they have become because of it. Year after year they came back fighting and being well coached and well taught in the basics of the game. With time and years the football team began to be blessed once again with championship wins. One of the great things that I saw as a blessing from watching this kid was that I also watched him go through similar and comparative struggles on the wrestling mat as well. Now, I am someone that hates to lose! Second in my eyes has always been just as bad as fifth or sixth. From this kid I learned that taking sixth can be just as beneficial as taking first. Life isn't about the place you take, but how hard you try. When it all comes down to it, it is how hard we tried. He had a really hard time it seemed the first year when he lost in the finals at the state tournament. I think it took him a while to get over it. The next year it wasn't near as bad, and didn't seem to effect him for near as long of a time as it did the year before. By the time it got to be the last year that he took second there didn't seem to be near the struggle with it that there was the second time. Only hours after a devastating loss he was having a fun time and laughing and joking around and having a good time with the other guys on the team. To this day he is a happy and positive person that I look up to for an individual that knows how to cope with trials in his life.

     I know that not all trials are the same and some are more attached to our emotions than others. But I also know that there is a common help for all of these trials. I believe that it is all in something higher that we make it through these hard times in our lives. For this kid both of these trials were probably greatly overcome because of great coaches who always kept him and the team positive and motivated to do their best. He also probably received a lot of encouragement from his family at home to press forward. I would imagine that he spent a lot of time looking back on these times and pondering on them and about how he could learn from them.

 

So how did he learn from them?... and how can we do the same!?

     We relate this all back simply to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His coaches would help him to be encouraged and more motivated to do better which in gospel terms can be called having faith that he can do better in the future. Next his coaches would help him to be better at the basics and correct anything that he was doing wrong, and also teach him new techniques to make him better. This is what we call repentance, the process of changing to make bad things good and good things better. Third he would have to make the simple decision to be on the team so that he could even be placed in the situation to win. We often refer to this as two steps called Baptism and Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We make a simple decision and commit to be a part of the team, and then we have the opportunity to succeed as long as we stay on the team, and we all work as hard as we can. Joining the team is like being baptized, and having the opportunity to win is like having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, or Spirit, in our lives. This now all seems like a system that is complete. But this isn't a complete process or system. At the end of the sports season everything from that season is over, and you have to go through the exact same steps next year to succeed. This is called Enduring to the End. We continue to go through this cycle as long and the season starts.

     In our lives we often will hit a couple cycles in a week or day, and sometimes even in an hour or minute. The important part is to always remember the last cycle we went through and make the point to start it again. We have to join the team and go through these things to win the title.

    We are all hoping and desiring to return to live with our Heavenly Father one day, and be at the top of the podium with him. This is how we can do it.


     As we wind down the year of 2013 I hope that we can all look at the many cycles, processes, or systems that we went through this last year and learn from them. What I would like to invite you to do when you do this is to learn from them, and then Look Ahead and Believe, nothing fearing that the next cycle will be better! I know that it can be, and I learned that when I was younger by watching this great kid who was always a standout example to me about looking ahead for what's good to come.

     Life is full of Cycles, and the best way to get through these different cycles that go on around us each and every day is to get on the cycle and into the process that God has created for us - The Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We can't always control those little details around us, but we can control the little things that we do, and as we do so we will begin to end up on the top.

I will Live as Narrow as His Truth

People in Your Path

     This last Sunday I was sitting in the lounge of my apartment complex  when a lady that works there walks in with two guys that she had been giving a tour of the place to. The one that looks younger hung back in the room that I was in and he asked what I was watching. I honestly hadn't even looked at the TV that was turned on up on the wall, and I turned to see what was on. As I was doing that he said, "You aren't watching it are you." more in statement form rather than in question form. I agreed with him, and we had a small conversation. As we were talking he asked what I was doing as a missionary, and I told him that I go around and spread the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it blesses families and individuals each and every day. He was overjoyed to find that I was a Christian and sharing God's Word.



     We continued to talk for a couple of brief minutes there in the lounge and then we split ways. Before we did so, we had the opportunity to say a prayer with one another and feel the spirit as we parted ways. This 19 year old boy was enthusiastic and contagiously optimistic about the Gospel and Jesus Christ.



     I think that we can each learn a little from this interaction that I had with him. We can learn to simply talk with the people around us and have a nice conversation and that the Gospel will be brought up in one way or another. We can also learn that Jesus Christ is central to God's Plan of Salvation, and He wants ALL people on earth to enjoy the blessings He so willingly wants to bless us with!

     The best thing that I learned from our short interaction actually came from a phrase that he said.

"I will Live as Narrow as His Truth, but as Wide as His Grace."

     I want to invite us all to think about this phrase as we prepare to enter a new year and as we make changes in our lives from day to day. We must know that to return and live with our Heavenly Father we need to follow His Gospel with the knowledge of His Grace.