Brightly Beams

Since recently returning from my mission, I have seen the big difference of technology, and how it has grown. Many people focus on the evils that come from this. Pornography just a click away, cyber bullying, and many other things. But with this technology before us we have a great opportunity and duty to use it for good. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been encouraging us as members to do all we can to share the gospel, and the joy it brings into our lives. With this technology it makes it so easy to share our testimonies of the many tender mercies of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through many resources, like facebook, instagram, twitter, and much more, instead of danger a click away, we have the opportunity to share our knowledge and love of the Savior with just the click of a button. This is amazing, this is the day that Isaiah, Peter, Paul, John, Moses, Adam and many of the ancient prophets, they saw the amazing world we live in, and have asked us to "not be a...

As we approach Thanksgiving, I want to focus on having a thankful heart. A lot of the time we just remember to be thankful this time of the year. Why aren't we thankful for all other times of the year? Why aren't we thankful for the glistening snow on January? Why are we thankful for the love which fills our lives and heart in February? Why aren't we thankful for our lucky charms in March? Why aren't we thankful for the Resurrection of our Lord and Master in April? Why aren't we thankful for the beautiful flowers which bloom before our eyes in May? Why aren't we thankful for school getting out in June? Why aren't we thankful for our freedom in July? Why aren't we thankful for watermelon and BBQs in August? Why aren't we thankful to start school in September? Why aren't we thankful for cold weather perfect to cuddle with someone in October? And why aren't we thankful for the birth of Jesus Christ, our only reason to have hope, in December? ...

So on my mission, one thing we would challenge members to do is to pass out mormon.org cards. We would normally give them a hand full of them, and tell them good luck, we would then go back after a week we would go back and see if they were able to pass them out. Most of the time they hadn't even handed out one, and we didn't understand why that was. Until finally a lady asked us how she was suppose to hand them out, she didn't know how. So we decided to do some role plays, us missionaries would do so many role plays. It gave her the confidence to start handing them out. The next day she went to the mall with her daughters, and she started handing them out, and she was shocked at how easy it was to hand them out, and also who was really interested in receiving them. There were people who looked like they would be interested, but just took the card and shoved it in their pocket and threw it away at the nearest trash can. Then there was this guy who was covered in tattoos ...

So far this book is amazing, after just reading the first 2 chapters I am wishing I would have known this stuff before my mission. The first chapter is about not judging people. And when I say judging people, I mean not trying to predict who is ready to receive the gospel. We might think that Jane, that lady who has the best family values, and already follows the Word of Wisdom, is the most ready to receive the gospel. Just as we shouldn't think that Jim, the guy who is always yelling at his wife, and smokes up a storm, is no where ready to listen to missionaries. The truth is, we don't know, the only one who does is God. Clayton talks about how we need to share the gospel to everyone, we will never figure out who is ready without asking them. Some of us don't know how to even bring up the gospel in our conversations with others. Or your like me and am scared to death to even talk to people about religion. In chapter 2 this is exactly what Clayton talks about. He tells ...

The Book of Mormon, it is my favorite book to read. I get so much out of it, especially a hope in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Today I read the Title Page and the Introduction. Both Help us to understand the role of the Book of Mormon, in our lives. There were a couple of things that really stood out to me. First on the Title Page it says the following: "Also[The Book of Mormon] to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations-And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgement-seat of Christ." I love that statement, because Jesus is the Savior of everyone, not just me or you, but all. And there may be mistakes in the Book of Mormon, in the Bible, and even college textbooks, but we aren't to let the mistakes of men get in the way of truth. In the Introduction it talks about the brief story line ...

So my dad told me to read the book, "The Power of Everyday Missionaries." I finally sat down last night and started to read it. So far it is pretty good. I have just read the introduction, and so far I can tell it is going to be a great book. While on my mission the most frustration that I got was from members, because they either refused to do missionary work, and just didn't understand it. This book talks about how to do member missionary work, the fears of it, the promised blessings of the Lord when we do it, so far I recommend it to everyone! A line from it that I loved is this, "We share the gospel because we know it will help others become better, happier people." In the introduction, he lists off a lot of scriptures from the Doctrine & Covenants, they are all powerful, and all deal with blessings from missionary work, and how the Lord will help us through it!