Mountains to Climb

President Eyring addressed us in April 2012 about trials and overcoming the mountains in our lives. He quoted D&C 122:7 "all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."

We all go through trials and struggle in our lives. Some struggles come without notice and catch us off guard. These trials are real and they can be very difficult and make us feel as if we were falling and wavering. We may lose a loved one, have a hard decision of where to go, or wonder if things will work out so we can live a joyful life.

So what happens to us when things are going well, or where do we turn in those deepest moments of heart ache where our lives feel like they are falling apart. We wonder and are tempted by so much, asking ourselves is there hope or even an end to these trials. At the most breaking times it seems near impossible to have relief and we are tempted to give up. Where do we turn.

President Eyring says that we will face great mountains that we are called to climb but he helps us to know "God will not forsake thee." He illustrates steps to help us mold and cure an unshakeable foundation that will help us in our lives and trials for years to come.

Heleman 5:12 "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the ^arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your ^bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty ^cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

Who is your foundation on which you stand? We are promised that as we are founded upon Christ we will not fall. Be aware that just because you believe in Christ and are established on him does not make you exempt from having trials. We all will have trials, this is part of life and growing. If we did not have struggles we would not grow and develop into a better person and turn to God for help and comfort. If we but establish ourselves on Christ, our Savior we will see blessings come into our lives that will help guide us and uplift us when we are feeling down.

We are to develop and be founded upon Faith in Christ. This faith will help us through all times. Faith is a principle of action as it is of believing in the hopes of better times. So some actions that produce faith and help us act out our faith in Christ are the basics of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: prayer, scripture study and service. As we pray to God we turn to him tapping into his miraculous power that enables us to overcome all things. Reading the scriptures adds an extra strength to your faith and enables us even more to do things that we thought we initially could not do, we come in tune with God and are worthy of his Spirit more as we read. Service:

"Often, the answer to our prayer does not come while we’re on our knees but while we’re on our feet serving the Lord and serving those around us. Selfless acts of service and consecration refine our spirits, remove the scales from our spiritual eyes, and open the windows of heaven. By becoming the answer to someone’s prayer, we often find the answer to our own." President Uchtdorf

All these things can and will build us to prepare us for the storms that will rage against us and tempt us to fall off the path that we are walking down.  There is hope and light at the end of these most hard times in our life. But we can look to God for comfort and know that he is by our side and we can get through this to see as he sees. I have found that in the midst of great struggles I turn to God in prayer more than ever and strive to see through his eyes, his eternal perspective. One thing that I have developed to do is to see those tender blessings of the Lord in my day where I have felt his love. As I am optimistic about my day and my trials I feel support and happiness from Gods great Spirit and feel his angles around about me to bear me up. God will not leave us, he loves us too much to forsake us and give up on us. He sees our divine potential and continuously beacons us to come to him.

Here are some articles regarding struggles:

President Uchtdorf-Waiting on the Road to Damascus
President Eyring- Mountains to Climb
C. Scott Grow- The Miracle of the Atonement

Scripture of the Day

"If ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his (God’s) grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ” (Moroni 10:32).

It is not by grace alone that we are saved. Many people believe that all we have to do is JUST accept Christ then we are saved but there is more to it than just accepting him it is striving to become like him. We are to do all we can to become like him, though its impossible this is the principle of Grace. We strive to do all we can knowing that it wont be enough but understanding that through the Grace of God we will ultimately come to that perfection in which they ask us to strive to achieve.  Loving God means doing all we can for him, keeping his commandments and following in his path he has provided for us so we may come back into his presence.

Sharing the Gospel Online

For us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ we have a sacred and divine responsibility to share the gospel to those around us this includes even those of our faith. We have been exhorted time and time again and with each passing conference and with one right around the corner we heard and I bet we will hear again these topics and messages of Missionary work.

Missionary work?!? Sometimes a daunting and weaved around word. As non-members try to squirm pass full time missionaries and members so they don't have to hear another conversation about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. May I be so bold to say that we as members do the same thing when we hear the word missionary work come up in a talk, lesson, or conversation.

So for us that are intimidated with going out and enthusiastically sharing the gospel and without having to go door to door like full time missionaries how do we share the Gospel with others. As time moves forward and new innovations come about we see new and unique ways to share the Gospel to literally thousands of people around the world or with those people in our community. The limit and ability we have has no bounds any more we can reach out to all people no matter what background they hold or where they live. We can chat to people in Africa and share your testimony with those in China.

Ways to share are unimaginable. Where to start is a great question. The Church has developed great and wonderful sites like Helping In The Vineyard, and have made Twitter and Facebook accounts to help members stay in touch with the gospel but also share the Gospel. We do not need to be a full time missionary in order to share the gospel, we can in the comfort of our own home get online and share what we believe. Tweeting our favorite scripture or a scripture that stood out to us as we read that morning is a simple yet profound way of sharing to the world your faith and beliefs. How will you affect others? Start texting, blogging, and tweeting-you will see the joy that comes and the fruits of your labors blossom.

Here are some articles to read further about sharing the Gospel Online:
Pres. Uchtdorf-Sharing the Gospel Online
Service Opportunity
Hasten the Work
Read the Bible Online

Scripture of the Day

I read this morning in Matthew 6. This scripture stood out to me and yesterday it kept running through my head. It is one of my favorite scriptures within the gospel of Matthew. It is a promise to us all that if we seek God first he will blesses with all things that we stand in need of and that we desire with all our hearts, as long as they are righteous and worthy desires-not like wishing ill on someone or becoming rich, but being humble seekers of Gods Kingdom.

"But first seek ye the Kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt 6:33


Read the Bible online

Love of God

"Greater love hath no man than this. That a man lay down his life for his friends" John 15:13. The Love of God is great beyond measure. The most important and powerful commandments that God gives to us pertains to love. He even exhorts us to love one another and he promises that as we keep his commandments we will abide in his love. John 15 Love

What is the love of God? As we think of Gods love and we try to explain it and form it into a word that makes sense to your human minds the word that suffices the eternal make up of it all is Charity. In the Bible we read that Charity is the pure love of Christ. Paul's address within 1 Corinthians 13 we learn all that Charity entails the eternal make up of our perfect exemplar in Heaven. Charity is love, it suffereth long, is not puffed up, is kind, patient, forgiving, and all pure and holy acts of good.Charity is Christ, Christ is love.

John 3:16 We read the greatest act of love that Christ came into the world to save us, even so doing to lay down his life so that we can be free from the bonds of death and Satan which has bound us to him because of the transgression of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Atonement is the greatest act of love in the history of the world and of mankind. We can never fully understand this sacrificial act of the Atonement nor the great love Christ has for all of us to give up his life and suffer an excruciating amount of pain so that we can be saved and return to the presence of God.

As we look around our life and we see through the eyes of God we will come to understand and see more fully his love abounding before us in all things. We can and do witness miracles before us each and every day but we overlook them and do not recognize the hand in the Lord of such miracles. The blessing of having children shows forth the love of God in our lives and the ability and the gift of a family. Prayer is a great privilege for us all to come to God, to know of him and to feel of his love for us. It is through prayer that we feel Gods love and understand, coming in tune with His Spirit that we see Gods love in our daily life.

Another wonderful gift we have been given that we can partake of Gods love and be a witness of his love is through the Holy Scriptures which he has given to us. The Book of Mormon along with the Bible both stand together as witnesses of God and Jesus Christ. As we read through these sacred pages we tap into Gods power but most of all we come to feel of his love for us. These preserved writings aid us in our life and help us to know the will of God and the direction he wants us to take.

Gods love is never ending. He loves all his children and is no respecters of men. He is perfect therefore he loves us all perfectly without guile and without reservations. His love moves us and empowers us to do things we would never think possible. We can come to feel of his love in various ways such as prayer, reading the scriptures, serving and helping others, and countless ways. As you go outside consider your surroundings as you do so you will come to feel of Gods love within your heart. His love is pure and perfect, and he is all powerful. He wants us to become as he is and he has given us the tools and enables us to grow to our full potential. His love empowers us.

The Power of Prayer

Prayer is an empowering act of communication to God. Its simple yet effective means to talk to our Father in Heaven enables us to do so much more. For those that do not understand the principle of prayer do not pray. Many in this world do not know God or understand him because they miss this basic yet important principle that comes in learning of God and ourselves. The Power of Prayer-President Thomas S. Monson

Through prayer one can come to a Perfect Being in Heaven and talk to him about our hearts desires. We are imperfect and powerless, we fail at our own yearnings to be something and to do anything, and we even struggle countlessly through this life to make a means to all this that we have been given just to understand what we are doing. Even though we are imperfect beings who have flaws and struggle with addictions and other things we are still loved and accepted by a Perfect God. Man may fail us when we need someone the most, but no matter how much others fail us and we ourselves, God will never fail us, he is always by our side and ready to aid us in our needs. It is a great privilege and a wonderful opportunity to be able to talk to such a being as God, someone who knows us better than we know ourselves and is merciful and forgiving of the things we have done. God sees the good in us and our great potential to become something that the world says we cannot become, like Him.

We can come to God and talk to him about anything but there is so much more to prayer than just talking to God. As we earnestly and honestly go to God consistently and persistently we develop a relationship with the most powerful Being we have ever known. We find a strength that is beyond our own to do things we never thought we had the capacity to do. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" Matt 21:41. Strength comes to us as we come to God and tap into the enabling power of the Atonement. We come to align our lives with them and they stand beside us to help us along this mortal existence. We are moved to action as we kneel in humble and sincere prayer to God, finding inspiration, comfort and guidance from this simple act.


The Lord Jesus Christ is our great example of how we should pray. With agony in the Garden of Gethsemane we see the Son of God humbly submit to the will of the Father in all things, even suffering death to bring to pass the purposes of God on the earth. In the account of Matthew of the Four Gospels we learn the Pattern of Prayer, not necessarily the prayer itself but how we are to structure our prayers after such a manner. (1) Addressing our Father in Heaven, (2) thanking him for all things we have been given, (3) asking for the things we stand in need of, and (4) ending "in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen"


Prayer has changed my life. I have come to learn of God and develop a personal and deep relationship with my Heavenly Father. As I go to him in prayer both day and night, and throughout the course of my day I find enlightenment to questions and problems I am facing. I can talk to him about anything that is on my mind and in my heart and I know he will never judge me or turn away from me because of the great love he has for me and all his children. Prayer has empowered my soul to reach higher and obtain things that people have told me were impossible and to big of a dream to achieve.  As I have been faced with various circumstances in my life I have turned to God in those times, especially in times of need. Having concerns about which path to follow, strength to get through a hard trial, or just comfort about the events that will happen-these prayers have been answered. God does answer prayers, he hears us and knows us. We will never get a busy tone or disconnected with God. Prayers that we offer up may not be answered right away, for its all in the Lords due time, but in the end they are all answered. These moments of not being answered is a time for us to be patience and trust in the Lord that he will provide a way. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths" Proverbs 3:5-6. God is all knowing and his purposes are great beyond our own expectations, they come to pass and they are most glorious and wonderful. Prayer changes us and connects us to Heaven.