What's Building You?

This weekend I took a trip down to Provo for a basketball game with some of my friends from my mission. It was a great trip. During this trip I was hanging out will all my friends from my mission and we were talking and it was a great  time! Then in Sunday School we were at one of my friend’s brother’s ward and they had a youth program. One of the youth was talking a lot about their friends and who we surround ourselves with and how they shape our lives. This is such a true thing I was really thinking about it and throughout my life I can easily map out when I was happiest and when I was at my lowest points according to who I was friends with. Whatever is around us makes us who we are this principle is taught in Doctrine and Covenants 50:24 it says "That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day." When we recognize the light of God we are able to get more light so if we are hanging out with people who bring light into our lives then we will gain light and more light, but it doesn't only apply to who we hang out with but also what we let into our lives. Are we letting things that have the ability to let light into our lives and uplifts us? We have to think what do I watch what do I read. Everything that we interact with changes how we are built up whether we are being built up with light or not.
 Just like light leads to more light often darkness leads to more darkness once you starting letting your bad things into your life it becomes much easier to continue to let it in even more because that is just easier then changing back to letting light into your life. There was a time in my life when I realized that I needed to do something to make more light be in my life. It was my senior year of high school and I had been hanging out with the same friends since freshman year but I was getting ready to serve my mission and I had a strong feeling that I needed to stop hanging out with my friends as much and create some distance. It was a hard thing to do I mean it was my senior year,  but I knew it was what I needed to do. At this point in my life I am through a good bit of my senior year trying to keep my distance and from doing to many things with those friends and I saw a difference in my life and even though it was a hard thing do it helped build me into a better person. We all need to be constantly analyzIng our lives to try and see what we are letting build us. What are you letting in your life?  Is it building and filling your life with light or is it building your life in a wrong direction? If it is going in a direction you don't like don't be afraid to change it!
Just find a way make a plan and do it!

Are you stuck on a Beach?

I know the title might sound super random, but that was a phrase that was used in our Sunday School class today and I really liked it alot. So we were talking about the brother of Jared story and we were talking about how when they left all together and were traveling through the wilderness they came to the seashore and they called it Moriancumer and they stayed there for four years. What really brings the title into play is in her description she made of where they ended up she said she imagined it as a nice Mediterranean beach, clear water, beautiful weather. It seems perfect right and so some of the Jaredites probably thought, “well this feels like the promised land we are comfortable here.”It does seem like they got too comfortable. After 4 years the Lord comes to the brother of Jared again and chastens him for 3 hours because he did not remember to pray during that time. We aren't told why he forgot to pray maybe life was just so full and fast and there was just so much to do and so it sippled his mind. Maybe he was just so content there that he forgot all that the Lord had done for him to get him there. In most of our lives we tend to get content and lots of things become commonplace. This is because it is easier to be content and comfortable in life because we are doing the things we enjoy and we don't have to push ourselves to do new things. So as she  posed the question in class are we stuck on a beach that we think is the promised land? Are we living our life fully to what God wants us to be doing and are we where God wants us to be? I really thought about this trying to make sure there wasn't an area in my life where I am complacent in. This is something I have really strived to avoid in my life since my mission. Before my mission I was a very complacent person I took life pretty easy I didn't care to put myself out there very much or do much that pushed my limits. In high school I took all of the basic classes that didn't push me too hard in school. I thought that my life was pretty good being like that. But I realized on my mission that I could have been so much happier and done so much more. That is the trap with complacency Satan wants us to be complacent because if we are complacent we won't accomplish as much and we can. We tend to fall out of good habits like praying and reading everyday because we won't need as much help with our life. I learned that true happiness comes in life when we are continually striving to be better than the last day. When we are looking for things we can improve on. There was a talk given in General Conference that really helped me in this area. It is called “What Lack I Yet” by Elder Larry R Lawrence this talk has changed my life! in it he says the following
"I would like to suggest that each of you participate in a spiritual exercise sometime soon, perhaps even tonight while saying your prayers. Humbly ask the Lord the following question: “What is keeping me from progressing?” In other words: “What lack I yet?” Then wait quietly for a response. If you are sincere, the answer will soon become clear. It will be revelation intended just for you.
Perhaps the Spirit will tell you that you need to forgive someone. Or you may receive a message to be more selective about the movies you watch or the music you listen to. You may feel impressed to be more honest in your business dealings or more generous in your fast offerings. The possibilities are endless."
The challenge that he issued to us all here has great power I have done it and I try to ask the Lord at least once a week, “what lack i yet?” and the lord always helps me see what I need to do better what I need to improve on. Sometimes it is something big and other times just small things. I have had so much more joy in my life since I have started to look for ways that I can improve. I can testify that the Lord loves us all and because he loves us he will tell us what we can do better so that we can have greater happiness and so that he can bless us more. He want to bless us more so ask him what you can do to better to get more blessings! I encourage all who read this to take Elder Lawrence’s challenge I can promise that it will change your life for the better and you will have a happier life.Remember ask yourself am I stuck on a beach? look around there could be a lot more good that you could have and could be doing with your life! Just ask the Lord what you can do and ask him to help you and he will do both!

"A Goal Without a Plan Is Just a Wish"

Today in Elder’s Quorum we had a lesson on having a purpose in your life and trying to achieve that purpose in our lives. As i pondered this in class today it brought back something really big that my Mission President taught me about setting goals in this life which is what the title is he always said that a goal without a plan is just a wish. He would try and get this point across to us a lot and it took me awhile to realize just how true that is. It is super easy to set goals and think well if I set them it will motivate me to accomplish them, but let's be honest most of the time we set a goal and then we forget about it and think every once in awhile, “Oh ya that would be nice I want to get there someday but i am not there yet.” Well duh you are not there yet because you aren't trying hard enough.


It was in an area on my mission where the work was really struggling that I learned how important it is to have a plan behind your goal. Me and my companion sat down one week to plan and we set goals like we always do, but this time made very specific plans for each and every one of those goals and within the next two weeks the amount of people we were teaching doubled and we found 3 people in those weeks who are baptized members of the Church today. It had been a long time since Elders had baptized someone in that area, almost a year, but all it took was setting goals and then making  a plan and working hard to follow it!


The Lord blesses those who try their hardest to achieve things that bring about good in our lives. I think that far too often in this life people don't think that the Lord cares about the goals we have in this life if it isn't related to anything spiritual. That couldn't be farther from the truth. God cares about every aspect of our lives and he wants us to be successful! So if we have goals in our lives we want to obtain that are good God will help us he tells us this in the scriptures. In Alma 7:23 it says
"And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive."


If we are living a righteous life and doing our best to follow the Lord he tells us that we will be able to ask him for anything that we stand in need of spiritual or temporal. So if you have goals don't just wait for them to happen make a plan and then take this plan to the Lord and if it is his will he will help you achieve these goals! I have a strong testimony that the Lord cares about every aspect of our lives. During my mission I had gained a total of 40lbs and I really wanted to lose it before I completed my mission and went home. I had been trying for months, but I never made a real plan to reach that goal. In my last area of my mission I set the goal again and then I made a plan and I took that plan to the Lord and every time I prayed I asked the Lord to continue to help me to be healthier and to keep trying to archive my goals. Over the last four months of my mission I worked extra hard to eat healthy and work out and by the time I went home I weighed 210 lbs I started at 253 when I got to that area.


We can do anything we put our minds to with the Lord on our side. so if you want to be better at something do it! You can do it. Have faith in yourselves and in GOD   "for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you."- Habakkuk 1:5

Don't Let Others Define You

Today I was siting in in sacrament meeting pondering my current life situation who I am today and how I got here. Right now in my life i fell very happy and feel like i am doing good things just living a good life. I attribute just a lot of my current happiness and who i am to my mission because I wasn't always like the way I am today. There was a point in my life where I didn't have the happiness and confidence that i have today. When I was going into the  7th grade my family decided to buy some land in Benson Arizona and try to build a house i was pretty exited at first about what i thought we be  super awesome adventure. The house that my family planned to build was like a dream house for me and for all of us. We moved out to Benson before we had a house built we lived out on our land in trailers and an army tent with wood pallets as our floor across the dusty dessert ground and oh ya a port o potty to use for the bathroom.... Life in Benson was different i was a new kid in a small town in Arizona and entering a wired time in everyone's life middle school. At first I enjoyed my life it was fun ad different i joined a football team and liked playing football but after a month it started to get hard first in football i had never played full contact before so i wasn't that good and this is where the bullying started i was made fun of by a few players and i just tired to play it off and not worry about it and i was also in the band at school and people in there started to make fun of me and telling me i wasn't any good. I was a chunky kid and this was the biggest thing that was exploited. I was made fun of and bullied every day at school because of my size and other things i really didn't have anywhere to turn even n the weekends I was made fun one of the people who bullied me the most was in our ward so no matter where I went i was bullied. this really changed my life the way i acted what i did i i wore a jacket almost every day to try and hide my weight always wore baggy clothes so that you couldn't tell how big I was life was hard. This made my self confidence go way down i didn't really feel like i could do much very well people were always telling me i couldn't do things. I played basketball one year and ended up ditching practices and getting cut because of the bullying basketball is something i love a lot but it was better to avoid more ridicule then to do what i loved. Life was hard and it really wasn't getting better i was angry a lot i kept it all bottled up inside of me i never talked to any one about it. I went about it all in the wrong way The worst way to every handle bullying is to keep it in and hoping it will all just end someday when life moves on. If you are being bullied right now tell someone anyone find someone you can trust and tell them. Eventually we moved from benson and then moved to Alabama. It was in Alabama where i was finally able to move on a little bit it took a year or two but i met people who i trusted and people who built my self confidence back up. Young men leaders who set great examples for me and i met a friend who is my best friend to today who made it me a better person this friend was someone who i was able to confine in and had i not meet them i might not of gone on a mission.My mission was the true turning point in my life i was still not that self confident i was shy and dint like talking to people i didn't know or talking in front of big groups. But my first companion taught me something i told him that being shy and reserved  was just my nature and that it wouldn't change but he then told me that because of the atonement of Jesus Christ our natures can change and that through Christ i could change. It took me a little while to realize how true this was but once i accepted this fact and let give my will to the lord and let him change me into who he needed me to be then I finally become the happiest i had been since 7th grade. I never thought I could be the person I have become today as happy as i am and as well having a love of  talking to groups of people teaching lessons giving talks doing things with people. I went from a very low point with now confidence in my self and who i was and who i could become. Now i have purpose in life i know who am and where i am going. In Alma 26:12  it says
"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; " Never let one anyone else says define who you are. If you are being bullied dont turn inwards turn outwards serve others find a purpose in life. find surround your self with people who will make you better not bring you down. Most of all turn to and rely on our savior Jesus Christ because he has suffered for all the pain you feel in this life and he can and will help you overcome all of your problems in this life. the lord loves us all and wants us o be happy so let him in to your life so that you can be happy. 

Keep your head up and keep trying there is always light at the end of a dark tunnel.