The Sacrament

Many people get excited about someone getting baptized, for it is the opportunity to be cleansed of all our sins. Some people hand out invitations, it is announced in just about every meeting during the Sunday block. People are assigned to speak about what is taking place, while some are asked to sing. It is a very importance ordinance, baptism, but it is rather sad that it only happens once in your life. Or does it?

No, baptism, doesn’t just happen once in our life, but it happens every Sunday. Is it as big as your first baptism? No, but it still plays a very important role in your salvation. The baptism that happens every Sunday is also known as the sacrament.

The sacrament, what a wonderful thing it is. I have spent much time thinking about the sacrament, and what it means to me. It is a wonderful thing, if we understand what it is all about.

“O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of they Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of they Son, and witness unto Thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.” (D&C 20:77)

The sacrament is a renewal of the covenants we made at baptism and also, a way for us to become clean again, much like we were directly after our baptism. So, what is this covenant?

Well, a covenant, for the purpose of this article, is a two way promise between you and the Lord. You will do your part, and the Lord will do his part. The three things we say we will do are as follows:

1. Take upon the name of Jesus Christ
2. Always remember Him
3. Keep His commandments.

In return the Lord has stated that He will allow us to always have the Spirit to be with us.

How much more could we ask for? The promise that we can always have the Spirit with us if we just live righteously, take Christ name upon us, and always remember the Lord in all that we do. Having the Spirit with us at all times can do so much for us. It can help us to understand the scriptures better, help us to shine with the light of Christ, and, most importantly, help keep Satan away.

While these are all wonderful things, we must make sure that we are not seeing the sacrament as just an easy way to repent of our sins. We must be doing everything we can to be a worthy member. For those of us who have made terrible mistakes in our lives, we must make sure that we are not drinking damnation onto our souls.

“ For whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul…” 3 Nephi 18:29

If we make these mistakes, we should take time to repent and go through the proper steps of repentance and have honest sincere repentance. Then, we should make sure that we are striving in every way possible to live worthily and use the sacrament to cleanse us from our little mistakes.

As I said before, the sacrament is a great and wonderful thing and I am so very grateful for the chance it gives me to renew my baptismal covenants with my Heavenly Father. I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

God speed.

The Prophet

Every since I was little my parents always made me listen to the Prophet speak during conference. I could sleep through all of conference, except for when the Prophet spoke. I never really understood why, I mean, didn’t everyone who spoke have something good to share?

Only until this past summer did I learn why I had to always listen to the prophet. I was assigned to give an Elder’s quorum lesson about what the prophet talked about at conference, but not only that, explain the why behind it. The why is ever so important. If people can understand as to why they need to do something, they are more likely to do it. So, why do we listen to the prophet?

It is rather simple, he is God’s spokesmen. Nothing to hard to understand or over the head of anyone, right? Just being God’s spokesmen, doesn’t make the prophet so important. The Bishop is our ward is God’s spokesmen. So is the stake president, and what about the patriarch? How about when someone gives a priesthood blessing, aren’t they God’s spokesmen? Well, you see, that’s the thing, the prophet, he holds all the keys to do all of those things. Not only does he hold them, he can use them as the Lord directs. No one else in the church holds all the keys and can use them. That makes it real simple as to why we listen to the prophet, he really is God’s right hand man here on earth.

This past conference the prophet gave a rather wonderful talk during priesthood. He talked about “Rising up, O men of God.” And he quoted a hymn which he heard the BYU Men’s Chorus sing.

Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of Kings.

Rise up, O men of God,
In one united throng.
Bring in the day of brotherhood
And end the night of wrong.

Rise up, O men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up, and make her great!

Rise up, O men of God!
Tread where his feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of Man,
Rise up, O men of God!
(Hymns, no. 324; third verse in The Oxford American Hymnal, ed. Carl F. Pfatteicher [1930], no. 256)

It is rather amazing how songs can make you feel and want to live better then you currently are living. Just within the first line the song sings, “Have done with lesser things.” Much like President Hinckley did while talking to the brethren of the priesthood . He called all of us to rise up and live a cleaner, better, righteous life.

“There is not a man or boy in this vast congregation tonight who cannot improve his life. And that needs to happen. After all, we hold the priesthood of God. If we are boys who have received the Aaronic Priesthood, we are entitled to the ministering of angels to guide and direct, to bless and protect us. What a remarkable and wonderful thing that is. If we have had conferred upon us the Melchizedek Priesthood, we have been given the keys of the kingdom that carry with them eternal powers.” (President Gordon B. Hinckley, Rise up, O men of God, Nov. 2006 Ensign)

President Hinckley helped me in realizing the power in which I am entitled to as well as have because I hold the priesthood. This is just not the priesthood, it is the priesthood of God, and by it being the priesthood of God, we must rise up and hold that priesthood with honor and in righteousness.

“With this priesthood comes a great obligation to be worthy of it. We cannot indulge in unclean thoughts. We must not partake of pornography. We must never be guilty of abuse of any kind. We must rise up above such things. "Rise up, O men of God!" and put these things behind you, and the Lord will be your guide and stay.” (President Gordon B. Hinckley, Rise up, O men of God, Nov. 2006 Ensign)

I found it remarkable as to how President Hinckley called us to fulfill our duty. Its amazing how he added unclean thoughts. Often times we feel that we are okay because we didn’t do the action, but here President Hinckley is making us see that our thoughts do count. I love how he finished with how we must put these things behind us, rise up, and walk in the ways of the Lord.
I love listening to the prophet speak. How amazing of a man he is. He truly is a man of God who loves and will serve the Lord in anyway he can. May we all listen and follow the words of the prophet. May we all rise up and live a better life. Follow the prophet, follow the prophet he knows the way. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

God speed.

Conference

As I look back over conference, I have a hard time thinking of what my favorite part was. I have grown to love General Conference and always enjoy sitting down to listen and be guided by leadership of the Church. I have always been amazed that almost every speaker has something to offer me, something to help me with the problems I am facing right now. However, there are some talks in which I stand back and ask myself, am I doing the things to become the person that they are talking about?

“Years ago, when my brothers and I were boys, our mother had radical cancer surgery. She came very close to death. Much of the tissue in her neck and shoulder had to be removed, and for a long time it was very painful for her to use her right arm.

One morning about a year after the surgery, my father took Mother to an appliance store and asked the manager to show her how to use a machine he had for ironing clothes. The machine was called an Ironrite. It was operated from a chair by pressing pedals with one's knees to lower a padded roller against a heated metal surface and turn the roller, feeding in shirts, pants, dresses, and other articles. You can see that this would make ironing (of which there was a great deal in our family of five boys) much easier, especially for a woman with limited use of her arm. Mother was shocked when Dad told the manager they would buy the machine and then paid cash for it. Despite my father's good income as a veterinarian, Mother's surgery and medications had left them in a difficult financial situation.

On the way home, my mother was upset: "How can we afford it? Where did the money come from? How will we get along now?" Finally Dad told her that he had gone without lunches for nearly a year to save enough money. "Now when you iron," he said, "you won't have to stop and go into the bedroom and cry until the pain in your arm stops." She didn't know he knew about that. I was not aware of my father's sacrifice and act of love for my mother at the time, but now that I know, I say to myself, "There is a man.’” (Let Us Be Men, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Ensign, November 2006)

For some reason, this talk by Elder Christofferson stuck out to me the most. In a world where the definition of a man seems to be changing. No longer is a man the one who stands up and defends his family, his friends, or his beliefs. No longer is a man the one who goes out of his way to help another, lift others up, or be the one that goes out of his way to make some one smile. No longer is a man who admits he is wrong and does all he can to fix it.

The world sees a man as someone who has done the most, who has the most money, no matter what it takes. Has had the most sexy, drank the most beers, jumped off the highest cliff. A man to the world is a man who can put others down, and make others feel stupid, while they themselves look so great, even if they are wrong. Is that really a man? NO!

I enjoyed hearing this story by Elder Christofferson. It made me sit back and think, could I do that? Could I sacrifice something so my wife or family could have more? I enjoy food, and I actually get rather grumpy or don’t work as hard. I would hope and pray that I could make a sacrifice such as that so my family could have a little more.

This story also brought comfort to my soul in the sense that it made me realize that real men go out and lift others up. Real men still do exist in the world today, am I one of them? This talk seem to call me to higher ground and as Elder Christofferson said at the end of his talk, let us be men.

The above talk was not the only one I enjoyed, but just the one that I merely picked out and decided to discuss. All the talks at conference were wonderful, so I would highly advise everyone to take the time and reread or listen to the talks at conference. God speed.

Repentance

“In Nazareth, the narrow road,
That tires the feet and steals the breath,
Passes the place where once abode
The Carpenter of Nazareth.

And up and down the dusty way
The village folk would often wend;
And on the bench, beside Him, lay
Their broken things for Him to mend.

The maiden with the doll she broke,
The woman with the broken chair,
The man with broken plough, or yoke,Said,
"Can you mend it, Carpenter?"

And each received the thing he sought,
In yoke, or plough, or chair, or doll;
The broken thing which each had brought
Returned again a perfect whole.

So, up the hill the long years through,
With heavy step and wistful eye,
The burdened souls their way pursue,
Uttering each the plaintive cry:

"O Carpenter of Nazareth,
This heart, that's broken past repair,
This life, that's shattered nigh to death,
Oh, can You mend them, Carpenter?"

And by His kind and ready hand,
His own sweet life is woven through
Our broken lives, until they stand
A New Creation—"all things new."

"The shattered [substance] of [the] heart,
Desire, ambition, hope, and faith,
Mould Thou into the perfect part,
O, Carpenter of Nazareth!"

As I often think of repentance, I think of what lead to such a state where we need to repent. Why do we sin? All of us are sinners, and we will sin no matter what because we are not perfect, that is just the way it is. But, we often let our little sins lead to other, bigger sins. At first, we take a day off from saying our prayers, then we skip our scripture study. We then start to feel as if the Lord would never accept us back, that we have failed him, so we discontinue the things that we were doing right, and start to do things that we know are wrong. At first they are small sins, but over time, they become big uncontrollable monsters. I am not only speaking of the monsters such as drug addiction or pornography, but I am also speaking of the problems of not going to church, never reading our scriptures, or even saying our prayers. That is why, it is so important for us to understand, that Christ has already called us to Him, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." (Matt. 11:28-29)

Nothing has ever meant so much to me as that one statement, “Come unto me.” The Lord calling me, calling all of us, to come unto Him. For many of us, we think or feel that we can not return to the Lord, that He doesn’t want to even see such a sinner as us at His feet, begging and pleading for forgiveness for what we have done. We must remember though, He has called us to His feet, He wants us to come unto Him, to plead and ask for that forgiveness, and to properly repent of the things which we have done so we may return unto Him.

As we begin our journey through repentance, we must keep in mind a few things.

First we must have faith, as Elder Jeffery R. Holland stated in his talk, Broken Things to Mend.

“I think also of that night when Christ rushed to the aid of His frightened disciples, walking as He did on the water to get to them, calling out, ‘It is I; be not afraid.’ Peter exclaimed, ‘Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.’ Christ's answer to him was as it always is every time: ‘Come,’ He said. Instantly, as was his nature, Peter sprang over the vessel's side and into the troubled waters. While his eyes were fixed upon the Lord, the wind could toss his hair and the spray could drench his robes, but all was well—he was coming to Christ. It was only when his faith wavered and fear took control, only when he removed his glance from the Master to look at the furious waves and the ominous black gulf beneath, only then did he begin to sink into the sea. In newer terror he cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’

Undoubtedly with some sadness, the Master over every problem and fear, He who is the solution to every discouragement and disappointment, stretched out His hand and grasped the drowning disciple with the gentle rebuke, ‘O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’” (Broken Things to Mend , Jeffery R. Holland, Ensign, May 2005)

We must have the faith that the Lord can and will fix us. As we begin to go through repentance and throughout the rest of our life, because repentance is a change for life, we must keep our gaze set upon the Lord and never turn from Him. We must remember, that He is the only one who can fix us. Yes, we must do the work, but He is the only one who can take our sins upon Him.

Secondly, we must remember the Lord will never leave us.

“There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life. Nevertheless, the soul that comes unto Christ, who knows His voice and strives to do as He did, finds a strength, as the hymn says, ‘beyond [his] own.’ The Savior reminds us that He has ‘graven [us] upon the palms of [His] hands.’ Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now.” (Broken Things to Mend , Jeffery R. Holland, Ensign, May 2005)

I can not think of anything more reassuring then that. That the Lord will never turn His back to us. That gives us even more reason to answere his call to come unto Him. He will never leave us alone, He will never give up on us.

Lastly, we must do the work.

“Third, in as many ways as possible we try to take upon us His identity, and we begin by taking upon us His name. That name is formally bestowed by covenant in the saving ordinances of the gospel. These start with baptism and conclude with temple covenants, with many others, such as partaking of the sacrament, laced throughout our lives as additional blessings and reminders. Teaching the people of his day the message we give this morning, Nephi said: ‘Follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, . . . with real intent, . . . take upon you the name of Christ. . . . Do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer [will] do.’ ”(Broken Things to Mend , Jeffery R. Holland, Ensign, May 2005)

It is not enough for us to merely ask for forgiveness, we must truly turn away from all that we have done wrong. We must also, come closer to the Lord. That is why repentance is so important for us, it is not merely to be forgiven for our sins, but also for us to grow closer to the Lord.

Remember, as we repent we must follow the Lord. We must but our lives in the hands of “the carpenter,” for He is the only one that can mend our lives back together. He does not call us to Him so we can watch Him do the work, but so we can do the work with Him.

“He is saying to us, ‘Trust me, learn of me, do what I do. Then, when you walk where I am going,’ He says, ‘we can talk about where you are going, and the problems you face and the troubles you have. If you will follow me, I will lead you out of darkness,’ He promises. ‘I will give you answers to your prayers. I will give you rest to your souls.’” (Broken Things to Mend , Jeffery R. Holland, Ensign, May 2005)

Come unto the Lord, and He will give us rest. When we take His yoke upon us, we are double yoking ourselves with a God, meaning with Him, we can climb any mountain.

“When He says to the poor in spirit, 'Come unto me,' He means He knows the way out and He knows the way up. He knows it because He has walked it. He knows the way because He is the way.” (Broken Things to Mend , Jeffery R. Holland, Ensign, May 2005)

Always remember, “If you are lonely, please know you can find comfort. If you are discouraged, please know you can find hope. If you are poor in spirit, please know you can be strengthened. If you feel you are broken, please know you can be mended.” (Broken Things to Mend , Jeffery R. Holland, Ensign, May 2005)

Never give up, never let go of hope, never think that you have gone too far. The Lord has clearly stated, that we can be mended. Come unto Him because He knows the way, He is the way, He has been there, no matter what spiritual or physical state you are in. He suffered all in the garden, don’t let His suffering go in vain. I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

God speed.

YAFL and Beauty Pageants, are they the same?

Sunday, I had a privilege, rather an honor, to go and watch a YAFL (Young Americans Football League) football game. For those of you who are unaware of what that is, its real simple, football, at its youngest level. A great place for fundamentals to be taught and kids to learn things as discipline, hard work, and the basics of a great game.

Now, don’t think that I woke up on Sunday morning and say “I think I am going to go to a YAFL football game.” A family friends son was playing in the game. He just turned twelve and plays safety and running back. This also wasn’t some regular game, it was the “Super Bowl“, and for these kids, the biggest game in their life.

Most people would think, that you would go to a game like this and everyone would be friends. Much like little league. You know, where everyone is cheering on all the kids, there isn’t a division of teams from the parent section. The crowd, as a whole, is like a crowd watching a magician, cheering when he does good and what not. Well, this sadly wasn’t the case.

We arrived at Milne Stadium, one of the bigger high school stadiums in the Albuquerque area. While everyone was entering through the same side, the weren’t sitting on the same side. We had a home side and a visitors side. It wasn’t just a matter of where you sat either. This wasn’t a football game for 11 and twelve year olds, this was a football game for high schoolers that haven’t quite hit their growth spurt yet, and without the band.

There are cheerleaders on both sides, and these girls must have missed that growth spurt as well. None of them were taller then four feet but yet all of them knew the cheers. Then we have the signs and big posters. Now, you think, signs like “Go John!”, “Play Hard”, or “Give it your all!” Instead, I saw signs that read “Thrash those Bears!” or “Pluck the Eagles!” And on top of that, we had the PA telling us how we could tune into to some AM station to pick up the game live. Not even half the high schools in this state, yet alone this nation have their game over the radio.

On top of that, we have the parents. Now these parents are decked out, mainly the moms. They have face paint, jerseys that match their sons, and the above mentioned signs. To top it off, the only time they were ever quite was during half time. The rest of the time they were standing up and shouting these chants they had over and over and over again. A couple of the moms had mega phones, and the ones that didn’t, didn’t need one. “We are proud of you, yeah we are proud of you!” will be one the chants that will forever burned into my memory.

The best part of all this was at the end of the game. About the last five minutes the Home team scored, putting them up 22-6, and the rest of the game out of reach for the visiting team. To remind the team and the parents of what was happening, we had one of these lovely moms running around with a teddy bear that was hung to a pole.

This got me really thinking of all the reasons why YAFL football could be so bad. Everyone knows these little beauty pageants that go on for five or six year old girls. Well, here it is for a guy, the YAFL “Super Bowl!” Parents who force their kids into doing something they slightly like. Then, they make sure that they are good at it, no matter what it takes. If that means no dinner, so be it! School, who needs school when your son is going to be the next Barry Sanders?

What’s the difference? Okay, the girls dress up in nice skirts with make up, walk up and down a stage, and say how they want world peace, when they don’t even know the street they live on. The guys, they run around hitting each other, the form of true manliness to some, and play in a fake “Super Bowl” when they could just watch the real thing come January.

These parents have really taken this whole thing to another level. All I could think about was the kid across the field who put his whole heart into that game, to only lose, and then have to watch some mom run around with a hung bear. What does that do the kid? Personally, that would make me want to never play the game again. Now, add the angry dad who thinks his son did the worse job in the world and should have won the whole thing for his team. This could lead to very serious problems later on in the kids life.

We see these things going on and then we wonder as to why kids show up to high school with guns and why we have so much violence in the world. I really do see that little boy who lost talking to some therapist about it twenty years from now, as he is dressed in orange with handcuffs for killing all the workers at the local Build-a-Bear.

The only answer I could come up with to fix this whole thing is maturity. Parents should act mature about things. Take a step back and realize that these kids have feelings about things and sure, while we may be excited for them, or even disappointed, they are feeling about twenty times more excited about it then we are, they won the game for crying out loud.

Anyways, its about time I end this thing. Remind me later to write about the importance of coaching kids in their young years. God speed.

Girls and prom!

Okay, so it has taken me a few days to get on here, I am sorry, I have been a little 'busy'. I will tell you all about that later, but for now, lets blog, because if I don't I won't.

So, lets get back to the focus of this blog, one to talk about sports, two to have some fun, and three, to make up some other junk. This is the other junk part. I received the inspiration, if you will, while talking to a dear friend of mine about girls and how much time they waste on things. For example, she had spent the entire day working on a Halloween outfit. Now, I might be wrong but it seems that if you are going to spend so much time on something, that you should have it fit some purpose longer then three hours. You spend all day working on something to wear it for what, a whole three hours. 12 hours of work for three hours, if that.

The best example that I have of this is prom. Now, for all you guys out there who read this you know what I am talking about (that includes me seeing that I am writing about this). Prom for us, is the most fake smile lets have fun thing we could do. The only reason why we go through with it is to make you girls happy. For us guys, we wouldn’t mind wearing a nice shirt and some jeans, but instead, we go out, we get a suit, a hair cut, buy some flowers, get reservations at some nice restaurant where we know we aren’t going to like the food, and spend all this money and time for something we would almost rather do with out. I mean, come on, how many guys do you know walk into the tux shop the day before prom and ask if they could get fitted? I know a bunch, and not to mention, the guys who do go early had one of the following pushing them about it, their parents, their dates friends, or their date (most likely a girlfriend or want to be girlfriend.)

On the other hand, we have the girls. For crying out loud, my sister has already spent some time looking at prom dresses and hair styles over the internet, and its not even Christmas! Most girls, they force the prom issue. I mean its early March and prom is in late April, and they are already trying to get guys to ask them. Why? “Because they must have time,” as one of my prom dates mom explained. Girls must have time, its real simple. They need more then two months to pick out the right dress, make a hair appointment, find the right make-up, get the perfect purse, and who could forget the jewelry? How dare we forget that!

Not only do they spend two months working on this, but they then go on to spend the entire day to get ready. They start at about nine or so and work from their. They have to get up and shower and wash their hair and all that junk so the stylist can work with. That is easily three hours, if not more. Then they have to make sure that the make-up gets on just right, and if not, they must start all over again. They can’t eat anything for lunch or they just might not fit into the dress they got. Then they have to put the dress on, which takes at least two if not more girls to do. I mean, you can’t let it touch the hair or the make up. You have all that done and they must put the jewelry on and organize the purse. If it doesn’t work out like planned, if there is any problem, it is the worst day of that girls life.

In the end, you go to pick up the girl and you aren’t sure if you can even shake her hand, yet alone give her a hug. Don’t joke about messing with their hair, that’s an automatic death wish. Of course you have to be ever so careful for pictures. You can’t touch the hair and you dare not step on the dress either, but yet you need to get in all nice and close for pictures. On top of all that, if we don’t look good enough, we don’t care enough and we are mean, hateful, jerks. Pictures are all nice and done, and so is the death threat. I mean, who cares what happens now, you already have the pictures, which took all of ten minutes to take.

So, please, explain to me why we went through all that pain. I mean, I left out at least a million details if not more, and we still have pretty lengthy blog. Not to mention, how many wasted hours for a picture, a picture. That’s it, one picture of two smiling faces that, while they maybe a little more pretty, convey the same person. So, they have a nice dress and suit on, big deal!
I mean, things like this, really make me wonder why I even like girls. All this work for a few pictures… is it worth it? Well, sadly, it some how is. After all, at the end of the day, I still like girls. I would just ask they do me the slightest favor, don’t complain when things don’t work out perfectly. You already look amazing, who cares if that one hair on your head won’t stay. Other then that, wear a mood ring as well, so we know how your feeling. God speed.