Star Wars 7 Is Literally of the Devil‏

I had my suspicions before, but now I'm sure of it.

As missionaries, we have to avoid every type of worldly entertainment. Obviously, this is to help us stay concentrated here, in the mission, and in the work of the Lord. In a book by Hugh Nibley a read a while back (and never finished) he explains an interesting pattern of how the righteous many times are commanded to flee into the desert and establish the church. For example, Lehi and his family, or Alma (the first), and many others. I think it's similar for missionaries. We have to flee from worldly influences. For instance, our mission President recently imposed a new rule that we can listen to music ONLY from lds.org or mormontabernaclechoir.org. Goodbye, my collection of every single Mahler symphony.

It's difficult, sometimes. And the most horrible temptation yet was when, waiting for some people to arrive, in the corner of my eye I saw something on the TV. A temptation from the Fallen Son himself.

A teaser for Star Wars 7.

I'm sorry everyone. I failed. I looked. And maybe squeed a bit. I'm working through the repentance process now, listening to "Called to Serve" on repeat every morning and night. Sometimes the missionary life is HARD.

Do You Know Who You Are?

I don't know if I've talked about this on the blog before, but if I have, I'd like to talk about it again. Something I've learned in the mission that I'm really trying to apply. Something incredible, at least for me.

It begins with God, our Heavenly Father. There's a lot to be learned when we remember that. And what, exactly, our relation to him is. In Acts 17 we read:

 27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

 28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone,graven by art and man’s device.

We're the offspring of God! As such we need to realize that “As man now is, God once was; as God is now man may be.”

Think about that: We are literally Sons and Daughters of God. We have DIVINE potential. Our ultimate purpose here on this Earth is to be able to become like Him. We have, in each of us, something incredible.

We all have agency, the ability to choose what we do. As Lehi says in 2 Nephi 2:

 27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

It's important to realize that we ALWAYS have a choice. We can never blame others, our circumstances, nothing for what WE do. It's rather liberating to understand that, I think. You ALWAYS have a choice! Whatever thing you want to overcome, whatever obstacle there might be it CAN be overcome. Because we've all been given the power to do so. This is important for the plan of God; without this ability to choose, we couldn't progress. And our ultimate goal is to become like Him. In the end, when we're standing before the final judgement, we're going to be judged essentially on who we became in this life. And it can be incredible who we do become!

Of course we're going to make mistakes. That's why Jesus Christ died for us. To give us the opportunity to try again, and again, as many times as we need to.

Don't give up! Seek, through prayer and the scriptures, the person that you can become. God knows exactly who you are and who you can be, so He can help you along the way. Really, it can't be done without His help. I want to say again: you can do it! Everything is within your power!

I hope you guys enjoy the blog. Thanks so much for all the e-mails and I'd love to hear from every one of you! Love you all!

I think it's supposed to have something to do with earthquakes but this is way better.

 Me and my comp!