In This Moment!

Moments are what make our lives worth living! Elder George and I were shown a sign the other day that said "Life isn't counted by how many breathes you take, but by how many moments take your breath away" and I didn't understand that until now. I thought it was just another one of those sayings that would just touch the hearts of mom's or something. But after watching this video it became clear to me the number of moments in my life I will never forget. Whether they are the small moments like losing state basketball then state baseball the same year or the better moments of watching Spongebob with my niece after driving home from college or playing in the Whiffle ball World Series in my front yard with my brother. They will always be with me and shape who I am and will become. By far my favorite moments in my life have been those spent with my family and close friends. Probably because of the love we all share with one another.
However, there are moments in our lives that we are not present for but will always affect us. Those moments to me are those in which the Savior of the world suffered and died for us. What more of a moment could we ask for? He died for us so we could be forgiven of our sins and return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father. In those moments He took upon Himself all of the pains of the world, both past and present. It was an eternal sacrifice that will never run out and is always available to us to use. That moment is called the Atonement and I invite you to use it!

Enduring All-Stars

What is the first word you think of when you look at these beauties? The first word that comes to my mind is "Classic". Now I don't know the background or the origin of the converse all-stars but I'm almost positive they have been around for a long time now. So these shoes have what we in Nevada call "staying power", which means they have the ability to stay up to date for a long time and never fade away. And that is exactly what these fly shoe's are doing. No matter how many years they have been here they have always stayed in style! In the movie I-Robot what shoe is it that Will Smith rocks? Yes, the all-stars! That movie is based on a time in the distant future and they are still cool even when we have robots taking over the world! So the question is, will these shoe's be able to endure to the end? Will they stay in style? Will you buy a pair because you read this? Will they still be awesome even with all these new shoes coming out? Will they be able to stand up against the ever popular Lebron James shoes? The answer to all of these questions is: of course they will!! They are to cool not to be able to stay forever. They will let their light shine on for as long as we live, whether robots are messing up the world as we know it or not, they will shine (similar to a light house but in a more metaphoric way).

         Now the real question is, do we have "staying power"? But in a different way, not the ability to stay in style, or the ability to stay cool for as long as possible but in a different way. The way that I am speaking of is spiritually. Do we have the ability to endure to the end spiritually? So what does it mean to endure to the end spiritually? Well, I'm glad you asked. Enduring to the end means remaining faithful to the commandments and promises we make with God in trying to live a Christ like life. Enduring to the end sounds easy enough right? However, Satan is out there trying to make us fall off the path that our Heavenly Father has set for us. We will face challenges in our lives (different from what the shoes will face) and if we hold to what we know is right in our lives and follow the teachings of the prophets, modern and ancient, we will be able to endure to the end. If we endure to the end and remain faithful to our Lord above we can have eternal happiness and live with our Heavenly Father once again! And if you are searching for a way to learn more about enduring or prophets or Christ, then I encourage you to ask me questions or visit mormon.org, it is a great website full of information. "Enduring to the end, or remaining faithful to the laws and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout our life, is a fundamental requirement for salvation in the kingdom of God...Therefore, enduring to the end is not just a matter of passively tolerating life's difficult circumstances or "hanging in there." Ours is an active religion, helping God's children along the strait and narrow path to develop their full potential during this life and return to Him one day...Enduring to the end is a process filling every minute of our life, every hour, every day, from sunrise to sunrise. It is accomplished through personal discipline following the commandments of God."--Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Have We Not Reason to Rejoice?", Ensign, Nov 2007,.Pages 18–21

I Love When Great Whites Fly!

Isn't the world just awesome indeed! We look around and we see God's finger prints everywhere. We are defiantly seeing it in Lewistown Montana right now because of all the rain we have received and now it is beautiful and green. What do you love about the world? Bear Grylls loves spiders, astronauts love the whole world (but they have a better view anyway). So what do you love? Do you love oceans, mountains, family, sports? Whatever it might be it came to us from Jesus Christ under Gods direction and that is what I love about the world. I love that God and Jesus Christ made this Earth for us to live on, they gave it to us to inhabit. What a great gift, so take a minute and look around at the awesomeness we have around us and tell me what you think. God is love.

WHO IS THE GREATEST!

Is Muhammad Ali humble? Well, for anyone that has every heard him or seen him box the answer is probably no. But what is being humble? Is it declining that your great at something when someone asks you "how good are you"? It could be but I think humility takes on many different forms. As we know athletes struggle with being humble all the time. I hear that LeBron James hasn't been very humble in the playoffs this year but i don't know I don't get to watch him.From what we have seen with Mr. Ali here, is some great boxing but less than humble speech. Some of his quotes are my favorite, like

"I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own." or as we all have seen "I am the greatest". Sometimes we may feel that way but we defiantly don't need to go around honking our own horn. I'm not trying to put down Mr. Ali I'm just saying he isn't the best example of humility.

  However, there is at least one athlete that showed get humility while preforming and in my opinion is the greatest running back of all-time! He was an animal on the grid iron and they called him "Sweetness". Whenever he scored a touchdown he didn't spike the ball or do the funky chicken, he just simple handed the ball to the ref or set the ball down and ran off the field. In other words he acted like he had been there before. Probably one of the best examples in sports this world has ever seen. I know there are many athletes and other famous people that are humble but I chose Walter Payton because he had a lot of reasons to be cocky or full of himself  about and he chose not to be.

    I can't find who said it in the April 2011 General Conference but someone said "Humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's thinking less about yourself". And who was it in history that set the perfect example of being humble? Oh that's right.... Jesus Christ. Think of all the things he could have been less then humble about, he was the literal Son of God, he healed the sick, he had the same power and authority of his Father in Heaven, he was resurrected from the dead after 3 days. But was he full of himself? No, he showed us how to live our lives, he taught us through example how to be humble servants of God. He was the only perfect man on the earth and he even had to humble himself to return to live with his Father. If he, being one greater than us was humble don't we too need to humble ourselves before God? The answer is yes no matter who you are it is yes. I know I'm not perfect, I have a long way to go before I'm as humble as God wants me to be but i am trying as we all should be. Follow Christ's example and humble yourself to God's will.

How Big Do You Dream?

     With the NBA playoffs in full swing and with all the super stars showing off their mad skills, I know that basketball players of all ages are trying to be the super stars. Everyone dreams of being them, we dream of shooting like them, we dream of jumping like them, we dream of running like them. I know this is always true for me, I always dream of jumping like Vince Carter in the 2001 dunk contest, I dream of shooting the lights out in a packed stadium like Ray Allen. However, often times my dreams fall short when I am playing on a carpeted basketball court about a third of the size of an actual court. I realize that I can't do a 360 between the legs dunk and get a standing ovation, I realize that hitting 7 out of 10 three pointers in front of a couple guys is far less exciting than that of Ray Allen doing it in front of a packed house. Although I fall short of my dreams more often that not at least I dream big and continue to dream. People all over the world have different kinds of dreams, some want to be a world champion team roper or a movie star or even a kick boxer. But no matter what your dreams are and however big and out of reach they may seem, our dreams always stretch us to be better in this life. Look at the professionals of the sports world, did they achieve what they have achieved by not dreaming that they would be there someday? No, they have always had that dream in their hearts to be there and make a difference in some way.
            Although those are great goals to have in our lives there is an even greater goal. And that is the goal of living with our Father in Heaven for all of eternity with all of our loved ones. If that goal doesn't seem like a big goal then I don't know what does. However, I know this goal is attainable because of the love and the guidance through the gospel that God has shown to us in this life. This dream can be realized by following the commandments and by living what we know to be true and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church. It is my dream to live with my Father in Heaven again and I will do all I can in this life to make that dream come true. But it is not only my dream that I myself live with Him again but also all my loved ones and dear friends. I need to share what I know is true so this dream can be realized for them and for me. This is an eternal dream that can easily become a reality with faith and prayer and love for your fellow man. This dream will stretch us and we need to always have it in our hearts and our minds to accomplish this dream.

Ripple Affect

     I wish I would have gotten a picture. What I saw was something that could only be expressed through a picture so we all could have seen it. There are pictures of what I saw but they are paintings and just aren't the same. Elder Mortenson and I were driving by some frog ponds in Lewistown Montana and I looked over to them and saw what I wanted a picture. It was a small family, 2 kids and a father. The two little kids were sitting on the park bench waiting for their dad to cast their line for them to fish. I watched as the Father cast and I saw the line hit the water, as we continued to drive I could see all the ripples in the water spread out over the entire pond. Some people might think that is pretty weird to want a picture of or think I'm just a big softy (which I'm not), but it was literally picture perfect. As I saw this unfold I thought of the classic ripple theory, how such a small thing can impact such a large area. For example LeBron James moving from Cleveland to go play with D-Wade and Bosh in Miami, look at that ripple affect. Sure it was a huge thing in the NBA but the national coverage and the things around that happend because of that reach far beyond the NBA. People were saying that Clevelands economy was going to drop like a rock because a basketball player left their town. That was the example that popped into my head and I'm sorry if you don't agree.

    The next thing I thought of was the Plan of Salvation. Here I was looking and a father and his two children and I said to myself "I wonder if he knows he will be with them forever?" Because through the Saviors love for us and his fathers love for us it is possible that we can live with the ones we love forever. As a missionary you think of those kind of things, in that perfect moment I wondered if he knew that it could be like that forever. I know that one day he will get the opportunity to hear of the great plan, it might not be in this life but if not then it will for sure be in the next. It is my testimony that we can live with our families forever through the Plan of Salvation. I know that those loved ones that have passed on are there waiting for us to come and it will be a glorious day when it comes to be reunited with those we love.

Life Devotions

 All my life I feel that I have been working on the exact same project. That project is a 1970 SS Chevelle. I know what your thinking and I agree, I love that car too. But I feel like it has taken up my entire life, all my money, all my time, and all my energy. However, it hasn't taken all my life it has only taken the last five years of my life. I bought this car because I knew that it would make me happy and I was right. Every time I see a picture of that car or have a flash back to working on that car I get a big smile. So the two main sources of my happiness for the last five years have been my family and my car, but now my car may soon be finished and then what? Yes, it will still make me happy to drive and see and I will always work on it but what will fill that happiness spot when my car is all done? I have asked myself that question for a long time now ever since we took my car to be painted, and last night while lying in bed I came up with the answer. Don't worry about it!! Profound I know, it is human nature to worry about it, whatever it may be. But when you think about it, it all just makes sense, just don't worry about it. Every time I think that I can feel the stress fall away. I'm pretty much just saying be happy with what you have right now. I look at what I have right now and that is serving the Lord for the next couple of months and that made me happy. That I get to be here serving the lord and spreading the gospel of truth and light, to help change peoples life for the better! So don't worry about what will make you happy next, just stop and look around and see what you have right now and see the many ways that it is making you happy and I promise you that you will be happy. I can promise you that you will have a new outlook on life because you wont be waiting for something, you will understand what you have better and appreciate it more. Do these things for yourself.