Moving Blog.

For those of you who may be curious, I'm moving back to my old blog.

You can find it here:
http://brightgreencheerios.blogspot.com/

The end.

Thank you.

The Supreme Exemplar

Christ is our supreme example. To this you may say, Duh! But really He is! Often when I have thought of Christ as our example I have thought of his unending service and kindness. His bold way of teaching and his abiding love for children. This is what I've always wanted to emulate in my life. It seems easy to focus on those things when life is going swell.

Lately though I have been surrounded by loss. On one particular day as my companion and I were discussing why do things seem to happen in waves, ie everyone has babies at the same time, every one gets married at the same time or everyone may experience loss at the same time. It was impressed upon my mind that Christ is our example in how to deal with loss. Christ is the ultimate example of how to deal with pain. He knows how to handle trials. He knows what it means to suffer. As we look to his example we can see in what way we can go through our life and live to be like him.

 

As he invites us to "Come unto Him" we can do so by following his example. How has Christ been an example to you in your life?

Our burden is Light.

I have been obsessed with a talk by Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, called 'He Heals the Heavy Laden.' It is pretty fantastic and I think that everyone and their dog should read it! Yes. Your dogs will love it too. Guaranteed. OK. Lets continue about how much I love this talk. I loved it so much because I learned so much from it. It centers around a scripture in Matthew 11

28. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 

30. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Did you catch the words that stood out to me? I am a huge fan of words and looking at what they mean because it enhances my understanding and helps me to see things in a new way.

So lets start with 'heavy laden'. It is the load or burden that we carry. There are a variety of 'burdens' that have been dealt out to each of us. Elder Oaks gives these as examples: "Some have lost a loved one to death or care for one who is disabled. Some have been wounded by divorce. Others yearn for an eternal marriage. Some are caught in the grip of addictive substances or practices like alcohol, tobacco, drugs, or pornography. Others have crippling physical or mental impairments. Some are challenged by same-gender attraction. Some have terrible feelings of depression or inadequacy." I would like to add feeling helpless. There are so many different ways that we can be and are 'heavy laden', pretty much everyone can identify something in their lives or in the lives of those they love that qualify as being 'heavy laden'. 

The next one is 'rest'. I have a friend who is an expert at this. She loves her sleep and she makes sure that she gets some on a very regular basis. I know that I am now a huge advocate of naps and have no idea why I threw such a fit about it when I was younger. Crazy talk. As I read this scripture many times before that is what I always pictured, a nap for your soul...but I think I was a tad bit off the mark. It stuck out to me this time as I read it and decided to look up the definition. Webster said something like inactivity or to be still. That pretty much went with what I had thought and then I kept reading the list of definitions and I think this one is more fitting: to lean against, to be grounded on or to be fixed to. I know that as we find our 'rest' in Christ we will have a solid foundation on which to lean against. As one of my favorite verses says in the Book of Mormon "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (Helaman 5:12) In Christ we shall surly find 'rest' for our souls.

This last one is one that I really want to talk about. 'Light'. I love this word. So much, and for so many reasons. In this scripture the context of this word is obviously meant to mean not heavy or easily endurable. BUT! When this word is looked at with two other definitions we can discover greater depth. The other two definitions are knowledge and a source of illumination or the means for us to be able to see.  As I pondered this new way of looking at it I thought of how Christ is the 'Light' of the world. He makes it possible for us to see the pathway home, our eternal home. There is a quote, I'm not sure who it is by but I absolutely love it. It goes "They not only saw the light at the end of the tunnel but they became that light for others." As we give our burden to Christ, whatever it may be, we then in turn take upon us His 'yoke' which is to be a 'light' unto others and to bring them closer to our Father in Heaven. A way to bring 'light' to others is by bringing them knowledge. As a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I feel so blessed that all day we are able to teach people the truth of the restored gospel and bring them the knowledge that they can be with their families forever and how they can get on and stay on the path that leads back to God. When I viewed it in this new perspective I was more willing than ever to give my burdens to Christ and take His 'yoke' upon me. (*Disclaimer: Please don't misunderstand, I in no way shape or form believe that we take any burden from Christ or pay our own way because that is not possible. The burden has already been borne and paid in full. I believe another way to say burden would be to say responsibility. Christ takes our burden and in return gives us a responsibility that will help us to become whole. I really do suggest that you read the talk I mentioned earlier by Elder Oaks. It is amazing and puts this point across so clearly.)

I love my Savior and know that I can find'rest' in Him and that He is my source of 'light'. I know that I don't have to be 'heavy laden' by myself as I seek Him. This Valentines day I plan on letting him know that he means everything to me by striving to be a  'light' for others. I am so grateful for His gospel in my life.

Happy Valentines Day by the way. I used to not like it because it was a reminder that I was alone but this year I know without a doubt that I never have to be alone on Valentines day again because I will be 'yoked' with my Savior. He is constantly standing at my side. Its up to me to make sure that I, in return stand by His.

Why "Doubt Not, Fear Not."

So often in life we are presented with situations that can either bring fear or help us to become stronger. I have always been taught that fear is the absence of faith. So what is faith and why do we need it? Yes, faith is believing in something that we cannot see. It is also acting on that something. When I was in school I would study and study and study. My act of faith was all of this studying would help me to get a decent grade. I can believe all I want to that studying will help but until I actually do the studying my belief sits dormant. As it says so well in the Bible in the book of James 2:26 "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

I don't know about you but I hate feeling fear. It always seems to hold me back from doing something or becoming better. As it says in Proverbs 29:25 "The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe."

Pretty much I feel like this is common knowledge, for the most part. Fear bad. Faith good. There is the knowledge that following God brings blessings and happiness but at times there is a disconnect. Fear still occurs way more often then we would like it to. I know that fear comes to me often on the behalf of others. I fear for them. I have also felt fear for the future, not knowing what's going to happen. Sometimes I have fear of what others will say or think. I have also let fear hold me back from doing what I knew I should. So why do we let fear sometimes rule our actions?

I would submit that there are a plethora of reasons of why we let fear hold us back. In fact I don't think we have a shortage of reasons. Instead I'd like to focus on how to get faith in there more, how to help faith to consistently conquer fear in our lives. As President Thomas S. Monson said "faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other." ('Come unto Him in Prayer and Faith' Ensign Mar. 2009)

I am only going to mention one way that I've used to chase away fear, and I invite you to leave a comment of more ways that we can chase away fear. The way I have found to bring more faith into my life is through prayer. As I pray to my father in Heaven I have received strength from him to keep going, to keep acting and to keep my faith. I am so grateful that I am able to go to him in prayer whenever and wherever I may be. I love him so much and am so grateful for the strength he gives.

The following scripture is where the title of my blog comes from and serves as a constant reminder to me to always keep Christ in the forefront of my life and trust in him.

33. Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.
34. Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.
36. Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.
37. Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

Also I most definitely encourage you to read this talk.

What to Focus on.

So in the life of a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we wake up every morning at 6:30...actually most the missionaries I know wake up before then. So we wake up, then we exercise, get ready for the day and spend 2 precious hours studying. In those 2 hours we are filled with a concentrated amount of Gods Love as we pour over his words in the Scriptures. We can learn so much as we read what he has prepared for us to learn from. I spend a lot of time in the Book of Mormon. Lately I've been reading the bible more and I absolutely love it. Reading boths books together has been really enlightening. It has been fantastic to see how they interconnect. I really want that to be my focus as I blog, relating the bible and the book of mormon to each other and realating the scriptures in our lives. I love being a missionary. I love being able to talk about Christ through the words of the scriptures all day every day. I invite you to find out more about Chirst. Ask me a question or go to Mormon.org. I invite everyone to find out more about Christ, no matter what your stage or circumstance in life may be. You may have known Christ for 60 years but I know we can always learn from him and know him better. Lately I've been mesmerized by the phrase "Come unto Christ." To me that means move ourselves closer to him through our actions and by following what he has asked us to do. What does this phrase mean to you?

Come Unto Christ

When I gave my talk in Sacrament Meeting a few weeks ago, this is about how it went.

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. I am so excited that I get to speak to you after my companions. Earlier when we were preparing for our talks, Sis. Slater had said "Ok, this is how it's going to work, I will speak for 5 minutes, Taualii will speak for 7 and Adair you will speak for 25. Sound good?" I thought they were kidding. No, I really am happy to speak after them and their wonderful words about the savior and inviting Him more fully into our lives. I am also happy that we sang Count Your Blessings right before I got up to speak because it invites us to count our blessings on an individual basis. The Savior always looks out for 'the one.' He is always seeking after 'the one' and 'the one' means so much to him. In that way I'd like to start my talk as Elder Packer once did. He began by saying "I asked the chruch records department to tell me how many college age youth we have in the church. They responded "1,974,001" 'Good' I thought, 'I will speak to the one." That is my wish as well, to speak to the one. It's also much less intimidating that way. I pray that I will be led in my words and that they will find the one.

Today I wanted to speak on my favorite subject which is Jesus Christ. More specifically I wanted to speak about how we can come to know him. Coming to know the Savior is important because when we do that we can better understand the Atonement and when we understand the Atonement we can better use it in our lives. As Elder Packer once stated in a diferent address, "Our Salvation depends on believing in and accepting the atonement."

My favorite sport is rock climbing and I wanted to use it as a way to illustrate how we can come to better know the Savior. My brother and I would go rock climbing pretty much every weekend. We would wake up early and gather our equipment. We made sure that we had the rope, harnesses, caribeeners and belay devices that we would need. Then we would hike up the canyon, get to our desired climb for the day and set up. It was typical for us to climb for 4-5 hours. Inevitably the next day I would be so sore. I would be moving like a zombie and my little sister thought it was hilarious to poke my arm then run away because I was in so much pain and couldn't even chase her. This happened pretty much every week.

In Rock Climbing we need tools such as a rope, a harness, a belay device and carabeeners. In our lives we have also been given tools. We have prayer, scripture study, temple attendence, taking the sacrament, going to the temple and serving others. Yet all of these tools would be for nothing without the physical application and actually climbing. This is what I wish to focus on today, the physical application.

As we climb we will get sore. In life, as we climb we will feel pain, sorrow, grief, discomfort, lonliness and a plethera of other challenges and struggles. I have often heard the question asked of 'Why do we need to suffer?' and I have also asked this question in my life. I found an answer in a talk given by Elder Jeffery R. Holland in an address to missionaries. He said:

"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.

For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass," then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.

The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

I know that struggling is part of life and that as we continue to climb, feeling sore will come, but we need to climb. We have been given a way to return to live with our Father in heaven again and this is by climbing through our lives. As we climb we will come closer to our Savior and he will strengthen us. Our endurence will increase and we will be able to handle and do more. We will also continue to come to harder and and harder climbs. As we go through these struggles in our lives we can more clearly than before know our savior better.

Elder Kent F. Richards of the 70 also asked the question of why do we struggle. He was in the hospital and he had just read in Alma 7:11-12.

"11.And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. 12.And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." He says of his experiences as he lay and ponder this passage. "Late one night lying in a hospital bed, this time as a patient and not as a physician, I read those verses over and over again. I pondered: “How is it done? For whom? What is required to qualify? Is it like forgiveness of sin? Do we have to earn His love and help?” As I pondered, I came to understand that during His mortal life Christ chose to experience pains and afflictions in order to understand us. Perhaps we also need to experience the depths of mortality in order to understand Him and our eternal purposes."

As I reflected on these two quotes, my mind was drawn to a time in a my life where I felt darkness and a lack of hope. It seemed to stretch on before me forever as if it would never end. I used the tools that I'd been given and it didn't seem to be helping. I was explaining this to a friend and she pointed me in this direcetion, that sometimes we struggle so that we can have a greater apprciatation and love for the Savior. As we come to the Savior we can lift ourselves out of the mire. With his divine help we can make it out of the fog of our trials. As Elder E. Patrick Kearon of 70 says: " We can’t see clearly, we feel confused, and we sense that we have moved ourselves away from the light and warmth of our Heavenly Father’s love. We forget that the pure light of the Lord awaits us, beckons us, and is only a few steps of faith away. We must recognize that we have the power and capacity to take ourselves out of the filthy air of the valley and into the bright sunlight of the peace and hope that is found only by coming to the Savior." As we strengthen our relationship with him, we allow him into our lives more. As we make him our fountadion we can not be shaken. In the book of Mormon, in the book of Helamen, the Prophet Helamen is giving councel to his sons and teaching them to rely in and on Christ. He says in Hel 5:12 "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." I am so grateful for the Savior in my life and the ways that I've been able to come to know him better. He truly has been my foundation and my rock. I know that I can rely on Him and in His Atonement. It is this great message that we carry. As we rely in our Savior our lives are truly changed. We want those around us and those we love to feel and know the Savior. I know that he loves us and that He died for us that we may return to live with God again. I say this in his name, Amen.