Christmas

Hello Friends. Today I want to talk about Christmas.  Usually when I think of Christmas I think of Lights and decorations such as tree,lights,stockings,gifts,and many other things.

I wont lie to you when I hear Christmas I think about all of those things, But ever since I came out on my mission over a year ago there is two thing that has always stuck with me on my mind and that was my family and the birth of our Savior.          

The one question that I have recently been asking myself is what gift can I give the Savior? I cant give him Gold or anything worldly, so what can I give to my Savior for Christmas? And then it dawned on me. Serving my fellow man, and taking the time to reflect on the greatest gift the Savior could ever give to mankind.    Let me show some references as to why serving people is important. 

In Mosiah 2:17 "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

In John 13:34 "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." 

We have all heard of the Golden rule "Do unto others as you would have done unto you" Also we know just by reading the Holy Bible that the Savior's life and ministry was nothing but service. Healing the sick and the afflicted, raising people from the dead, Feeding the multitudes of people, Etc... The list can go on for a while.

Now you might be saying right now ok so serving our fellow man is important, But what is the greatest gift that the Savior gave to us.   May I be bold and say it is Eternal Life or what is known as Salvation? 

In the Doctrine and Covenants 6:13 we read "If thou wilt do good, yea, and hold out faithful to the end, thou shalt be saved in the kingdom of God, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God; for there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation. "

My friends because the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was born into the world we have hope. Because of the Savior and his Atonement we can be with our families in the kingdom of God. It is my hope and prayer that we all take the time to serve our fellow man, and I hope we take the time to show how grateful we are to our families, friends and to our Savior.   Merry Christmas!

God is Loving Heavenly Father

Today I am going to talk about how God is our loving Heavenly Father. In the scriptures we have many references that show us how much God loves us. In John 3:16-17 we read

16¶For ^aGod so ^bloved the ^cworld, that he ^dgave his ^eonly begotten ^fSon, that whosoever ^gbelieveth in him should not perish, but have ^heverlasting ⁱlife.

17For God ^asent not his Son into the world to ^bcondemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Can you imagine having to give up your only child to save some people you dont even know! How about a best friend? 

In the book of Moses chapter 7 the prophet Enoch sees in a vison Satan holding a great big chain and this chain that satan is holding covers the earth with darkness, and Satan is laughing with his angels.

Then the prophet Enoch sees angels coming down from heaven teaching and testifying of the God head. He then says, 

"And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the ^aresidue of the people, and he wept"(Moses 7:28).  After Enoch sees this Enoch asks this question, "How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?"

As we can clearly read from the scriptures, God loves us so much that when we turn away from Him he weeps for us. If God weeps for us when we turn away from him then think of how happy he is when we turn to him and obey his commandments.

It is my witness that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that he loves each and every one of us so much that His arms of mercy are opened waiting for us to grab hold of them.

I also bear witness that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ it is possible for all of Gods children to return to live with him once again.