Like Dynamite!

President Boyd K Packer reiterated our some of our beliefs regarding the blessings that come from traditional marriage, and the need to resist and influence that would draw us away from those blessings at the October 2010 LDS General Conference almost two weeks ago.  His talk received a lot of attention, and many took his words to be something every different than he really said.  I'd encourage anyone who wants to understand our view, and not just take for granted what the media says about it, to watch his sermon personally.

My dad taught me that that sexual relations are like dynamite just as his father taught him.  Dynamite, like the activities my dad compared it to, has great power to chance lives.   Both are a very useful tool for accomplishing great things.
You can do incredibly constructive things with dynamite.  With dynamite, easy paths of travel between the eastern and western United States was possible.  Dynamite can also maim and destroy lives.  It can impact many more than just those who are trusted with using it.

Spider-man's uncle taught him a similar principle with the credo "With great power comes great responsibility."  We should recognize that our actions have a greater impact than we could ever see.

Vital Steps,

Elder Meza, who I serve alongside a missionary, and I were explaining repentance to someone we met earlier last week.  She had recognized some changes she needed to make in her life, to reflect the faith she now had in Jesus Christ and his example.  We taught her about repentance, and then wanted something for her to watch later to review what we shared.  I couldn't find anything engaging that listed the basic steps of repentance.  (If you find something, I'd still love to put it on my blog.)  So that we have something to share now, I made a Prezi all about repentance.

Repentance on Prezi

All of us find ourselves in that situation, when we start having more faith in Christ and grow to love him.  In that situation, we find we need to cast off the natural man, or change the part of us that would make us feel uncomfortable in God's presence.  When we talk about repentance, we mean that process by which we change ourselves to become the kind of people who have nothing to worry about in God's presence, who know they've done the best we can.
Elder Meza, who has been to far too many doctors for a 20 year-old, talked about just how vital repentance is on his blog. Let's chat: Too many doctors!!!  He talked about how we all need to repent just as much as some on sick needs a doctor.   Jesus Christ is our physician, and if we will accept his help through the steps he's given us, we can be healed.

Our Canoe

http://www.mormon.org/videos/
I watched this video this morning and thought of my family's canoe.  When I was little, my mom surprised my dad with a new canoe that was big enough to hold the six of our family.  We stored it in the top of our barn.  Getting it down from up high in the rafters was a project that took most of my family, and was still a tough job that fell heavily on my dad.  Every time we would go camping, we would bring our canoe on top of our minivan.  As little kids, we did our best to help with carrying the paddles, picnic baskets, life vests, and other things we need to help our parents.  We had some awesome times in the canoe together.

Missionary Media.

Gideon Burton, an English professor at BYU, who has been acting as a mentor to missionaries who work online, inspired me to create a new blog for posting media created by full-time missionaries and member missionaries working to share the message.  

On Tuesday, August 10, 2010 Brother Burton posted O, That I Were an Angel!: Publishing Media as a Missionary.  He challenged missionaries to use and create personal media for their teaching. Since then missionaries serving online has responded by creating a variety of videos and presentations for explaining our beliefs in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Missionary Media is now a great place to find homemade and official media about the Church and a starting place for sharing it with friends.

Keeping a Friend

Many people who don’t understand our beliefs, feel that our emphasis on doing all we can to keep the commandments, means we believe we are saved by our works.  Elder Bednar corrected this by stating one of the real reasons for keeping commandments.  We keep the commandments to invite the Holy Ghost into our lives.  All of the outward ordinances and other efforts to follow the commandments invite the spirit if we do it for the right reasons.  “Thus everything the Savior’s gospel teaches us to do and become is intended to bless us with the companionship of the Holy Ghost”.