How to know the truth of all things.

I will be talking about the third member of the Godhead. The Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit and doesn't have a body of flesh and bones. One role that the Holy Ghost plays is to testify of the truth. He is the Comforter, who the Savior promised would teach His followers all things and bring to their remembrance all things that He had taught them (See John 14:26). Sometimes when the Sprit of the Holy Ghost teaches us something, it can be difficult for us to recognize. Often, the whispering of the Holy Ghost prompts us to do something using quiet subtle feelings or thoughts that come to us in our mind and in our heart.
I have felt these peaceful feelings that come from the Holy Spirit when I have been to Church or when I have attended my nephews baptism. I've also felt the convincing witness that the gospel is true through the gentle feelings of the Spirit. It gives me a testimony of Jesus Christ and of his work and the work of his servants upon the earth. All people can know the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon through the power of the Holy Ghost. In answer to our study and prayer, the Holy Ghost will teach us truth trough our feelings and thoughts. Feelings that come from the Holy Ghost are powerful, but they are also usually gentle and quiet. The Holy Ghost will help you know that Joseph Smith was called by God to be a special witness of Christ. The Book of Mormon contains a promise to all who read it. The Lord has given us this promise through Moroni, the last prophet in the Book of Mormon. (See Moroni 10:3-7) (pg. 529)
(3) Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
(4) And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
(5) And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
(6) And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.
(7) And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.

To learn more about the role and mission of the Holy Ghost in our lives CLICK HERE.

How can you tell if something is true or false?

If you wanted to know if something is true or if it is false, how would you find this out? Would you try talking to someone who knows a little bit about it first? If there is only one true answer, you should be careful that you don't get mislead along the way. For example, what if the thing is true but your trusted family member or friend has had a bad experience with it in the past? You could be lead to believe that the thing was false and make choices that weren't based upon the truth? On the other hand, what if you approached the situation without any prior knowledge of it at all. You could be lead to believe in the truthfulness something when in reality it wasn't.
So, how are you to tell the difference between a truth and a lie without being confused? I beleive that there is a way to tell the difference between these two choices? So now..., let me share something with you that I believe to be true and you can find out for yourself weather or not it is indeed true or false. In this case, speaking only for myself, I feel that there can be only one true answer. The following article was written in 2002. I will end my personal remarks here and you can read a few of the words of Gordon B. Hinckley who recently passed away in 2008. This man was someone that I believe to be a Prophet of God.
"We declare without equivocation that God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, appeared in person to the boy Joseph Smith.
When I was interviewed by Mike Wallace on the 60 Minutes program, he asked me if I actually believed that. I replied, 'Yes, sir. That’s the miracle of it.'
That is the way I feel about it. Our whole strength rests on the validity of that vision. It either occurred or it did not occur. If it did not, then this work is a fraud. If it did, then it is the most important and wonderful work under the heavens.
Reflect upon it, my brethren and sisters. For centuries the heavens remained sealed. Good men and women, not a few—really great and wonderful people—tried to correct, strengthen, and improve their systems of worship and their body of doctrine. To them I pay honor and respect. How much better the world is because of their bold action. While I believe their work was inspired, it was not favored with the opening of the heavens, with the appearance of Deity.
Then in 1820 came that glorious manifestation in answer to the prayer of a boy who had read in his family Bible the words of James: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).
Upon that unique and wonderful experience stands the validity of this Church.
In all of recorded religious history there is nothing to compare with it....The instrument in this work of God was a boy whose mind was not cluttered by the philosophies of men. That mind was fresh and without schooling in the traditions of the day.
It is easy to see why people do not accept this account. It is almost beyond comprehension. And yet it is so reasonable....
As if that vision were not enough to certify to the personality and the reality of the Redeemer of mankind, there followed the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Here is something that a man could hold in his hands, could “heft,” as it were. He could read it. He could pray about it, for it contained a promise that the Holy Ghost would declare its truth if that witness were sought in prayer.
This remarkable book stands as a testimonial to the living reality of the Son of God. The Bible declares that “in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established” (Matt. 18:16). The Bible, the testament of the Old World, is one witness. The Book of Mormon, the testament of the New World, is another witness.
I cannot understand why the Christian world does not accept this book. I would think they would be looking for anything and everything that would establish without question the reality and the divinity of the Savior of the world.
There followed the restoration of the priesthood—first, of the Aaronic under the hands of John the Baptist, who had baptized Jesus in Jordan.
Then came Peter, James, and John, Apostles of the Lord, who conferred in this age that which they had received under the hands of the Master with whom they walked, even “the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” with authority to bind in the heavens that which they bound on earth (see Matt. 16:19)....
This is the restored Church of Jesus Christ. We as a people are Latter-day Saints. We testify that the heavens have been opened, that the curtains have been parted, that God has spoken, and that Jesus Christ has manifested Himself, followed by a bestowal of divine authority."
To find out how you can know what the truth is for yourself CLICK HERE.

Ice cream in January!

After church on Sunday, my cousin Steven challenged me to read the Book of Mormon from start to finish before New Years Day 2009. If I do, he said he would buy me a Blizzard from Dairy Queen. I asked him "what if I don't do it ?" To that he said that I wouldn't get a free Blizzard. It sounded too good to pass up to me so I took him up on The Book of Mormon Blizzard challenge. I can't wait! Reading the Book of Mormon is a good thing anyway but now that I have something to work towards I'm so exited.
There are approximately 65 days between today and New Years Day and the Book of Mormon is something like 531 pages long. That means I'll have to read about 9 pages per day between now and January 1st. I can do it! No problemo!
There is only one rule for now and it is this.
Rule #1 You can't listen to the Book of Mormon via Ipod unless you are reading along or unless you are driving somewhere in your car and obviously can't drive and hold a book at the same time. The main reason for this rule is that we don't want to have anyone listening as they are falling asleep (like my dad does sometimes) and forget what they've read about or heard.
So that's it. If anyone else wants to get in on this then let me know and we can meet up on New Years day for a blizzard from Dairy Queen. Or, if you are lactose intolerant or just don't care for ice cream for some reason, we could probably find something else you'd rather like. The main point is to get it read by midnight on December 31st.
***Ok, I am writing in a little note to everyone just to clarify something. I AM NOT BUYING EVERYONE FREE BLIZZARDS! I don't have a trillion dollars to spend on Blizzards for everyone in the world who wants one. Rather, you should challenge someone that you know to do it and then offer to buy them a Blizzard. Then get them to do the same thing for someone else. See how it works? See you in January!!***
For a free copy of the Book of Mormon CLICK HERE.

Mmmmm... leftovers.

About one week ago, I attended my nephews baptismal service. Besides being a necessary step to return back into the presence of God, baptisms are also a time for friends of the person getting baptized to get together and visit. My nephew's family and friends got together for some lunch after the baptism was over. Our family is a large one and we wanted to make sure everyone got fed. Everyone brought a dish of Lasagna to share. I guess that we brought way too much food because afterwards there was something like 6 or 7 trays of lasagna leftovers. I did my part and volunteered to take a lasagna or two home since there was so much. You see, I'm single and so if there is ever a chance to posses some homemade cooking besides my own then I'm happy.
I still have a half tray of lasagna leftovers to go after one week. I guess that leftovers on such a large scale like this isn't something I'm accustomed to. This is in a totally different category than the day after types of leftovers I usually deal with. Have you ever heard the expression "it is like eating an elephant."? That's the way I've been handling the situation. I usually just heat up a little bit for my lunch every other day or two, that way I don't get too tired of it. I like lasagna and all but after a while it gets boring to eat the same things.
To learn more about the importance of baptism CLICK HERE.

Awkward, but not treated that way.

I don't usually like to stand out in a crowd. For the most part, I like to blend in and go with the flow of things. I recently had a small taste of how it might feel to be different than other people.
Last night I attended two different parties. The first one was a Halloween costume party that a church group held in someone's front yard. I decided that this year I was going to dress up as Dracula. My costume was fairly spooky. I was careful not to sneak up behind any little kids because I didn't want to scare anyone or make any parents upset with me.
The second one was a backyard birthday party. I hadn't seen the people who were suppose to show up in quite some time. I came straight from the costume party in order to make it to the birthday party on time. I also didn't have enough time to change or wash off all my Dracula makeup before the birthday party. Needless to say, I was the only one at the party who was all dressed up. Most of my friends thought it was cool but I guess that I was still a little bit uncomfortable being the only one in a Halloween costume. I don't like feeling out of place or awkward. It was nice that my friends were so understanding and treated me normaly even though I was different than everyone else.

Many hands make light work.

My church group had a service project this morning. The flyer that I got on Sunday said the following.
"Service Project. Come beautify our community by pulling weeds around our local Post Office. Bring your shovels, rakes, gloves and any other weed removal equipment. Bring the whole family and invite your friends and neighbors. If you have a 5 gallon water jug, please bring it full of ice water."

The project was scheduled from 7 till 9 a.m. this morning. The mayor of Gilbert showed up to help too. It was a good opportunity to meet people in the community. I was a little surprised when I saw the field we were suppose to clear. The flyer said we would be pulling weeds and so I had envisioned small weeds. I was wrong. This was a field of huge sticker bushes that were taller than my head. They didn't mention that in the flyer.
I wasn't the only person in my ward who was surprised to be tackling sticker bushes. Some people showed up wearing short sleeved T-shirts and shorts. Fortunately, I wore sturdy jeans and a long sleeved jacket. After about 30 minutes, we hadn't made much progress. All those sticker bushes were actually what turn into tumble weeds. I thought they might come out of the ground more easily if someone were to just push on them from the side kind of like how the wind blows a tumble weed out of the ground. So that's what I did. I took my shovel handle and started walking right trough the middle of the field. In no time the field of tumble weeds was all cleared and everybody got to go home 20 minutes early.

I voted!!!!

I am proud to be an American and I love my country. The way I showed my love for this great nation was by voting in the 2008 general election via early ballot. Voting early is so much easier to do than standing in a long line on election day. Plus you even get an "I voted" sticker in the mail along with your early balloting material so if you really just wanted the sticker you are set. I hope everyone takes the opportunity to vote this election year. God bless America!

Not your typical blog.

As of today, I've been blogging for a whole week. I've noticed some interesting things about bloggers. Each blog tends to focus on a variety of themes and topics. Many blogs are about what has happened in that persons daily life. Sometimes, I'll see a lot of pictures of families or trips that people take. Occasionally, bloggers write about random stuff that they have done or thought about. I have done some of this on my blog too.
One thing I've blogged about more than I thought I would, has been the gospel. I like the gospel focused theme this blog has sometimes taken. It has given me a place to write about various aspects of the church. I like writing down my thoughts like this. I keep a hand written journal where I usually write down all of my daily activities. Writing down my thoughts helps me to see the blessings I have received from my Father in Heaven.

The Church runs so smoothly.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints nobody earns money for performing in church responsibilities. Church responsibilities are delegated out to many people within the church and there are a wide variety of opportunities for members to serve and bless the lives of others.
Members of the church are organized into congregations that meet together frequently for spiritual and social enrichment. Large congregations are called wards and small congregations are called branches. A ward is presided over by a bishop, assisted by two counselors. A branch is presided over by a branch president, assisted by two counselors. Each person that serves in positions of church leadership works at a job during the week to support themselves financially and also pays tithing just like everyone else in the church. Local leaders serve without receiving payment of any kind.
One of my last church callings was to be a ward clerk. One of my responsibilities was to send all of the tithing that the members of my ward donated each week directly to Church Headquarters. Tithing funds are used to build up the Church throughout the world by doing the following; building and maintaining temples and meetinghouses, carrying the gospel to all the world, conducting temple and family history work, and many other worldwide activities. It is interesting to see how the Lords kingdom runs so smoothly. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the Lords kingdom that has been restored to the earth once again through living Prophets and Apostles who are called of God.

To learn more about how the church functions CLICK HERE.

Singing a song is fun to do.

I am not really the type of guy who feels comfortable singing a solo in church. However, within the past year or so, I have come to enjoy singing with my ward choir on Sundays. My old attitude was that my life was already so busy and I didn't need anything else going on to make things more complicated than they already were.

I consider choir practice to be one of the spiritual highlights of my week. I can tell that when I regularly attend choir practice, I am closer to the spirit. Rather than thinking that I am too busy to go to choir or that I can't fit it into my schedule, attending choir each week has become a big part of my Sunday schedule. I now make more of an effort to work other things around choir practice each week. I love good music. Being able to listen to and sing hymns with my ward choir has brought me a lot of joy and peace in my daily life.

Grandpa

Today, I went over to the home of my 90 year old grandpa for what might be my last visit during his lifetime. My family recently discovered that my grandpa is dying of Cancer and so he doesn't have very much longer to live. My grandma died 7 years ago and I think that grandpa is looking forward to seeing her again in the spirit world.
For his profession, grandpa was an orthodontist and he did my braces as a teenager for free. I followed in my grandpas footsteps a little bit by also entering into the profession of Dentistry as a Dental Laboratory Technician. In recent years, I was able to return the favor to my grandpa by making most of his crown and bridge work for free. My grandpa has been a big influence in my life as well as in the lives of his children and grandchildren both professionally as well as in their day to day spiritual life.
While it is sad to think about losing my grandpa, I am also glad to know that I can see my grandpa again someday. Like birth, death is just another step that we have to take along life's path. At the time of physical death, our spirit will leave our body and go to the spirit world, where we will continue to learn and progress. The spirit world is the place where our spirits go between death and the resurrection. For those who were righteous during their lives, the spirit world will be a place of peace and joy. Sometime after death, our spirit and our body will be reunited-never to be separated again. This reuniting is called resurrection, and it was made possible by the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. You will remain in the spirit world until you are resurrected.
I love my family and I know that families can be together forever. I know that one day I will see my grandma and my grandpa again.

Have you seen my sock?

It never fails to surprise me how easy it is to misplace something. I do my laundry about once, maybe twice per week. I buy new socks about every 6 months or so. Around the end of the sock rotation, somehow I always end up with one type of sock that doesn't belong with the others. How does this happen? I'm a single guy and so I don't have to worry about getting my laundry mixed up with anyone else's.
A couple years ago, I tried to wash my socks using safety pins to pin the pairs of socks together so that they wouldn't get separated. Pinning the socks together didn't really work for me because my socks would get all wound up and ruined in the spinning of the washer and dryer. Also, the socks came unpinned sometimes. I would occasionally end up finding loose safety pins floating around in my clothing. Ouch! I wish I could find a way to keep my socks together. If I were able to figure out a good way to keep my socks from separating all the time then I could probably be rich because I think lots of people have the same problem.

Today was a good day.

My brother Aaron got to baptize his boy Donavan today. Donavan is 8 years old. Baptism is something that is a necessary step for everyone to take in this life once they have reached the age of accountability. Little children under the age of 8 years old don't need to be baptized because little children are not capable of sinning. The Savior was a perfect man and was baptized because it is one of Gods commandments. In the New Testament of the Bible it says the following in John chapter 3 verse 5, "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God". In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we believe that baptisms must be performed by someone who holds priesthood authority to baptize. When Jesus Christ was baptized he went to his cousin John the baptist because John held the priesthood power to baptize. The power to baptize is called the Aaronic priesthood. My brother Aaron holds this same priesthood authority and he used it to baptize his boy today. My brother Aaron received this priesthood from our father who holds the priesthood and our father received the priesthood from our grandpa. I know that baptism is an important step to take in this life. It is the first step for us to take as we progress along the path that leads us back into the presence of our Heavenly Father.
To learn more about why it is important to be Baptised by one who holds the proper priesthood authority CLICK HERE.

Blog me!

So this is it... I'm starting my blog now and I hope it is good. Where to begin. Perhaps I should start by sharing a little bit about myself just in case some of you don't know me very well.

I am a 32 year old member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am self employed and have been in the same line of work for the past 10 years. My job is one that I love. I am a Dental Laboratory Technician. If you don't know what that is then I'll tell you. I make crowns and bridges for dentists. I started my own dental lab business back in January 2004 called DentEsthetics, LLC. I will be celebrating my 5th year of business in 2009.

A few more things about me are these; my family is very important to me, I am currently single, I am an Arizonan born and raised, I grew up in the small mining town of Globe, Arizona, I enjoy creating and admiring good artwork, I like to take copious notes, I am, what some have described as being, quiet but that doesn't mean that I don't have anything important to say, I love the Lord Jesus Christ and I try to live my life according to the principles of His Gospel.

I'm sure that there is more that I could say here but for now that is probably enough.

You gotta start somewhere.

It seems like everyone had a blog but me so I just thought I would see what it is like. I don't have much to share right now so it might seem like this is the worst blog ever and that is probably because it is. However, I'm not really writing this for anyone but me.