Christmas Skype Call

So I know I have been really, really, really bad at posting.  There were a lot of things I had to work on for the mission that have taken my attention away from my blog, but I am back!  I am going to make sure to post more.  So without further ado here are some of my thoughts :)

What matters most to you?  What do you cherish?  What do you hold dear?  Now if you answered "my family" to any or all of those questions then we have something in common  :)  Families are so incredibly important but yet I think we take them for granted.  Often times we seem to find it easier to be nice to complete strangers then to get along with those that should matter most to us.  That seems a bit backwards to me, but what do you think?  

Family Photo (Taken while I'm on mission, hence the floating head) 

Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?

As an online missionary I teach people all over the world about our basic beliefs.  Sometimes the discussions and questions lead to deep doctrine or speculative queries.  Other times the chats turn to topics or questions of a trivial or inconsequential nature.  I like to remind them that I am here to teach about and share our basic beliefs, not the things God hasn't revealed to us yet.  Ultimately I am here to help people to solidify their gospel foundation.  Sometimes though, people are impatient and want to start building from the top down which we know doesn't work.

Thinking about this reminds me of my time as a little kid at church.  The classes for the young children about 3-11 are broken up by each grade, but they are collectively referred to as primary.  If you are in that age group you attend a Sunday school class with your grade and then a joint primary meeting.  The reason I share this is because the lessons for those children have to be simple.  They are rooted in the simple but important doctrines.  Doctrines and teachings like God is your loving Father in Heaven, God speaks through prophets, God answers prayers, Christ is our Savior, teaching about the importance of attending church, reading the scriptures, saying your prayers, and keeping the commandments.  All these things are so simple; they are referred to in our church as the primary answers.  The thing is, the primary answers, although not exciting to some, not deep enough to really be studied and dissected; they are the foundation of what we know to be true. 

Sarah's Penguin Book

In this life we are encouraged to compare ourselves to others.  We are under constant pressure to live up to other people's expectations and to be smarter, richer, better-looking, more athletic, more popular et cetera than everyone else.  Famous lyrics echo this prevalent attitude the world has adopted.  

"Anything you can do,

I can do better.

I can do anything

Better than you."

We need not be proud or look down upon others but rather we need to stop worrying about living up to the world's expectations. We need to stop comparing ourselves to others.  We need to be ourselves.  Have some self-confidence.  You are a wonderful child of God with unique talents and abilities.  If you need a lesson in self-confidence I recommend my niece Sarah.  She certainly is very confident in herself and that is a good thing! Here is a humorous example from my sisters blog :)  

Here is what she told my sister, her mom.

Future missionary? You better believe it!

One of the greatest things about serving a mission is meeting people who are just ready for the gospel, people who want the truth so badly but don't know where to find it.  We refer to these people as elect, because everything just clicks with them.

Someone who epitomizes this, is an amazing guy I met named Michael.

Now I met Michael on chat back in December of 2009 and he was baptized not long after in January.  Although he came on chat to initially get help from me and learn the basic beliefs of our church from us, the missionaries, in the end I was the one that was doing the learning :) 

Here are a few things that stood out to me.....

Typing My Testimony...

Teaching people over the chat, trying to express my feelings, my faith and my love for the gospel can be difficult when typing is the only option, but believe it or not, it works.  You can feel the Spirit so strongly when conversing about this gospel, even if that is taking place on the computer :)

Whatever the medium is (I have taught in person, over the phone, chat, email etcetera) , the message is the same, the truth beautiful and clear.  I am so grateful for the gospel and for the chance I have to share it with so many people.