Take life a day at a time

Immediate needs.

It was a regular Sunday. It was one of those days where everything you are thinking about comes to you all at once hitting you at full speed. That small voice bringing everything you need to hear in order to feel peaceful. I love when this happens, and often it does.

I spent quite a bit of time reflecting on the reason why I chose to serve a 2-year voluntary mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and let me tell ya, there were a lot of reasons why I felt I could choose to go home. There were things that I could be doing, things I gave up, but to ultimately come to the conclusion of feeling good about leaving it all behind and wanting nothing else but continuing my mission. Serving others in countless ways possible and sharing with them what has meant the most to me in my life and how the people I serve can come to enjoy the same things only in their ways and lives.
I had an experience a while back when a companion and I were dinning with a family that really confirmed what I had been thinking about during a sacrament meeting on that very same Sunday. From what I can remember him saying, (I had nothing to write this on at the time) said that he had an experience with someone else about how he was tired of the "Mormon" missionaries coming by to his house. To make it brief and to the point, he told him that he happened to be a "Mormon" himself and that the missionaries wouldn't be coming by if they didn't care about you and knew that what we had to share was true.
When he said that there, he really left me thinking. I can still remember like it was yesterday even though it has now been around 6 years now, feeling that very same way when missionaries were coming by my family to visit with us and to share the message I am now sharing. I have to admit, it's a true blessing to pay that back. I knew my family was important to them at the time because I knew they cared for us and only wanted us to accept their invitation. So a quick little thing that I've learned is that people won't care about how much you know, until they know how much you care.
That's my drive, to give the same back to other families the same thing they offered and gave mine. I embrace every opportunity to let them know who they really are and that they are important & choice children on our Heavenly Father.
So there I was, having all of this coming at me all at once. Before this meeting, I had set a goal to better apply my purpose as a missionary and regular member of this church with the same motive. And did I get my answer. Ha. Moroni, the son of Mormon, in the Book of Mormon explains that, "their meetings were conducted...after the manner of the workings of the Spirit, and by the power of the Holy Ghost" Moroni 6:9. So me bringing a question to that sacrament meeting allowed me to receive the answers I was looking for, through the workings of the spirit.(Galatians 5:23-23) Same applies to you, your answers come through the way you know how to feel the spirit.
Today, I am serving a two year voluntary mission, 1 of 85,000 serving all around the world, helping fulfill Jesus Christ's purpose in taking his Gospel of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End to all the world. (Mathew 24:14) It truly is a message of joy and happiness! Often times you may feel that it is bothering to have a missionary in person, online, or whatever the case trying to teach you about this message we share. Know that we share it not just to share it with you, but that because he or she sharing it with you cares about you. Wouldn't a message that is good and brings you joy & happiness motivate you to share that with people who are important to you as well? There's a reason and purpose why I chose to give 2 years of my life to the work and purpose of the Savior, "For behold this is my work and my glory-to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."
We are about this work of salvation and taking his Gospel to all people and I know it to be true just as well as I know that I live.

Becoming successful takes time and patience.

Hello everyone!

     So lately, I have been thinking a lot about what it takes and how we become successful, successful in generally everything. I have wrestled with the idea pretty regularly lately and have come to realize that success comes in the drive & effort in what you put forth constantly in, into making whatever you are trying to achieve, successful. Whether it be in raising a family or having a successful career, they all require drive in a positive direction and the effort in acting upon the goals you made to get you there.
     Although we sometimes may be scared of failure, Failure is what helps give us that new vision we need to keep moving forward. I like to think of it as a bunch of small failures that ultimately lead us to our success. Far too many of us, I feel, are quick to see the success of others and feeling like we can't achieve the same kind of success. Yes it is hard, but we have to take into account the long enduring road that they took to achieve their success.
We all need to take it one step at a time.
     So I'll give a quick example to better clarify: it is hard for me to imagine our everyday life without electric light. We all know that now a dark room can now be instantly filled with light by the quick flip of a switch. Can you imagine what it was like not so long ago when light wasn't as accessible as it is today? When, before our time, people needed to wait for the sun to come up in order to see? It is those simple everyday tasks that needed to wait until dawn or had to be done by the dull flicker of a candlelight can now be done so easily with the help of an invention that was anything but easy to perfect. Can you see where I am going with this?

"Thomas Edison worked several years and tried more than 1,000 different materials before he found a suitable filament (the thin wire at the heart of a light bulb) that could provide long lasting, affordable light. Ever the optimist, Edison viewed each material that didn't work as a mere stepping-stone toward finding one that would. Once he did, the world was never the same." -David Dickson 

Like Thomas Edison, I'm sure you all have heard of other inspiring success stories where they all had to learn from their mistakes and keep trying. Try, try, try, then succeed. Even with the countless number of inspiring stories showing us that if we continue to push for our success we will achieve it, many of us still believe we are an exception to achieving what we deserve. Many times we feel we can't measure up to that kind of success, even after continuous attempts of trying and giving it our all. Some may even quit trying. 
     After all, why keep trying to achieve what we want and deserve if we already know we are only going to fail again? At least that's what the Adversary would have you think. Not only is that line of thought spiritually, mentally, and emotionally draining, it is also entirely false.
You can believe in yourself, no matter how hard life is.
     Nephi, the son of Lehi, in the Book of Mormon teaches us that "having a perfect brightness of hope" will lead us to success. "Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, an endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."-2 Nephi 31:20. Yes we have hard times, but even in those days of discouragement, we continue to push forward in the direction that will lead us unto success.

     The Apostle Paul taught, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." You can believe in yourself, no matter how hard life is, you can become successful. Elder Jeffrey R Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gives us clear instruction against giving up on ourselves. "However many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don't have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ's Atonement Shines." Elder Holland continues on to teach us that we should always keep an eye toward the goodness of God with helping us achieve our successes: "The formula of faith is to hold on, work on, see it through, and let the distress of earlier hours -real or imagined- fall away in the abundance of the final reward." Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Laborers in the Vineyard," Ensign, May 2012,
     We can all lean unto the Savior with a perfect brightness of hope in becoming whoever we want to become. Never give up.

All Journeys have their beginnings

Hello to the Start of something new!

As I go about here becoming a new blogger, I'd ask for a little patience. At one point or another, I'm sure we all have had to go through new experiences that have either tried our patience to the point where we tend to want to throw in the towel. My advice? Just don't do it, you can endure anything and everything. The greatest thing about it is that you learn from it. My purpose with this blog is to have a place for me to share spiritual experiences with you all and hopefully help inspire you to realize that there is a purpose, a very specific purpose for each and every one of us.