I am a missionary from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from Nevada! I love being a missionary and I love being able to meet people in New York. I am serving in the western New York area for two years.
In Old Testament times God gave his special Priesthood authority to prophets like Moses and Abraham. This authority is the power of God and is given to man to act in his name. This is the power through which Moses split the Red Sea. This sacred power of God is conferred, or given, to another, who is worthy to officiate in the ordinances of Salvation such as Baptism and the Sacrament. Anciently Jesus Christ gave this authority to his Apostles. Unfortunately, as in times past people rejected his Apostles and many were killed. The Priesthood authority of God was taken from the earth. This period of time where the Priesthood was not present on earth is known as the great Apostasy.
However after centuries of being in darkness God restored the Priesthood authority to the earth through a living Prophet as he had done in times past. Truths that had been lost over time were brought back to earth through divine communication between God and his Prophets. The Priesthood was restored by the laying on of hands to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in May of 1829 by heavenly messengers. Joseph Smith History: 66-75. Peter, James, and John who had been given the Priesthood authority by Jesus Christ himself appeared and restored the Melchizedek Priesthood to the earth. It has been conferred on righteous men and still exists on earth today within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that these things are true, and so can everyone through prayerfully reading the Book of Mormon, God answer your prayers and you can know that his true Church has been restored again on earth with all of the authority as was had in the past. The video below may help explain more.
In the Holy Bible as Jesus Christ was preparing to leave his mortal existance he told his disciples that he would send a messenger named the holy ghost, or the spirit (John 14:26). Later his apostles were able to give this Gift of the Holy Ghost to other's by the laying on of hands (Acts 19 :5-6). When one receives this ordinance in this manner by one who holds the priesthood authority given to him from God they will be able to recieve the Gift of the Holy Ghost. This gift can act as an aid and great help throughout one's life. It can comfort you and teach you truth.
If you have a question about something and ask God with real intent and a sincere heart, he will manifest the truth to you through the Holy Ghost. We can recieve the knowledge directly from God, which eliminates having to make your decisions based on the opinions of men. Members of the church throughout the world enjoy this Gift of the Holy Ghost and it is available to all. Everyone can feel the ifluence of the Holy Ghost and receive answers. However; when one recieves the Gift of The Holy Ghost they can have the spirit as a constant companion. The video beneath illustrates how the Holy Ghost can speak to us and help us in our everyday lives.
Members of the church of Jesus Christ and those who are learning about the church hear repeatedly, that reading the scriptures is important. I heard this all throughout my life growing up and I often wondered why reading the scriptures is so important since I continually found myself either falling asleep or just day dreaming and reading words. I never got a whole lot out of my scripture study in my younger days and to be honest it didn't usually last too long before I would get bored and lose all the motivation I had twenty minutes prior. Now as a missionary, years later I am constantly reading the scriptures. I spend two hours every morning studying them and use them throughout the day as I teach others. So, you may assume that I have finally discovered something that has been able to make my scripture study beneficial to me.
There is a scripture in the book of First Nephi in the Book of Mormon that says something along the lines of how we need to "liken" or apply the scriptures to our own lives (1 Nephi 19:23). We are to use the examples of people in the past who faced trials and questions and try to follow that example. The scriptures can give us hope. They show us that somebody has faced trials similar to ours, except generally much harder than ours, and they have been able to prevail over their problems. They can help us develop our Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement. The scriptures can help understand who we are and what our purpose here in this life is. We can be enlightened by their words and also be taught by the holy ghost as we ponder on thosee things we read. We are taught in the scriptures how to find out if God is really there. In the Bible Jesus teaches "¶aAsk, and it shall be bgiven you; cseek, and ye shall find; dknock, and it shall be opened unto you:For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that aseeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask abread, will he give him a stone?Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?If ye then, abeing evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" It is so simple but also so true. God does answer prayers and will help us know what to do. The scriptures can bless your life as much as they have blessed mine as you apply them and search them daily.
Every year comes to an end, and it is usually filled with all sorts of different things. All of us surely do good things throughout the year for others and for ourselves. Contrary to the many things we all do good throughout the year, we also probably made a mistake or two or over a thousand in my case. We tend to get caught up in these things and maybe worry a little bit too much about the past and the mistakes we have made. The new year comes every single year without fail and it gives us an opportunity to put those things behind us and reach for new goals and a higher quality of life. We all can make goals and resolutions on how we can improve and not let our past become our future but how we can make changes for the better.
The great thing too, is that we don't have to wait for the New Year to change, but we can continually work to improve and keep going when we fall short throughout the year. We can leave our past behind us and begin new and better. Nothing in the past matters if you have truly repented of your sins and are living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is also appropriate that New Year's falls on Sunday this year, and we can all take the Sacrament at church and renew our Baptismal Covenants. Let this Sunday coming up be a time where you can ponder the past year and set meaningful goals to improve and never look behind you. The story of Lot's wife helps us understand why we should not look back to the way we used to be. Genesis 19:20-26. Let us all go forward this year not clinging to our past mistakes and weaknesses but changing for the better and being better servants of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Book of Moromon during King Benjamin's address to his people he says ,And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17) . Christmas season is a time of giving and being grateful for the greatest gift that any of us could ever receive. That is Heavenly Father sending his only begotten son Jesus Christ into the world to perform the Atonement. We could never give such a perfect gift to anyone in our lives yet there is still much that we can do. We need to give of ourselves by surrendering our will to Gods. We need to help those struggling around us in whatever way we can, whether it be spiritual, physical, emotional, or in any other way. When we realize that everyone is our family and we are all children of God it makes this so much easier. We really do have so much to offer to others, and if we are looking to make ourselves happy, I can promise that real happiness comes through giving selflessly.
All those who are members of the church have most likely received a calling in the church to help in some way. If they have not, then they still have a responsibility to live a good life because of the Covenants they made at Baptism, to take Christ's name upon themselves. Some of these callings and duties can seem overwhelming at times and maybe we just don't quite meet the potential that we could really reach to. President Gordon B. Hinckely said in a conference talk in 1989, "Every missionary has the responsibility to magnify his calling in teaching the plan of God. Every teacher has the responsibility to magnify his calling in teaching the word of God. Every officer has the responsibility to magnify his calling in teaching the order of God."
Said the Lord in this dispensation to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, “Magnify thine office.” (D&C 24:3.)
Further, “Attend to thy calling and thou shalt have wherewith to magnify thine office.” (D&C 24:9.).
Magnifying our calling means going that extra mile when we think we have done enough. It means honoring our Covenants and standing firm in our faith in Jesus Christ. We make sure that our duties are number one on our list of priorities, and see to it that we help others as we go along. This is magnifying our callings. Tom Cruise in the video beneath explains how he does it. :) Let us all go forward and magnify our callings!
Each of us have things in our life that we should be thankful for. I can easily list many things right off the top of my head. I have so many things to be grateful for that I could probably easily fill up this whole page. All of these things have been given to me from my Heavenly Father. My shoes, sweaters, successes, failures, family, friends, and my life. These things are all great and amazing gifts and I am glad I could come here to earth to enjoy them. I don't think it is a coincidence that after TThanksgiving is Christmas, a separate holiday celebrating what we should be most grateful for, the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming into this world to save us all. Take some time this Thanksgiving and Christmas season to thank God for all of the blessings that he has given you in this life.
