Three hours!

So we have some new people at my job as usual and one asked the question, 'how long is your church on Sunday?" and when i told them that it is three hours long they started asking what could we possibly be doing for three hours and saying they already knew everything they need to know. So then i continued to tell them about what we do on Sundays and how the entire day is Holy and how for that three hours we are at church but really our entire day should be dedicated to the work of the Lord. Then one of the guys who is usually quite spoke up and asked me how long have I been going to church? and i answered and said I've only really been going for about three years seriously and then he asked when did Jesus die? this question seem odd and I said well he was crucified when he was thirty three I think and he responded 'well then you only have to go for thirty more years'. I didn't understand the logic of this response but i kind of got what he was implying. So I asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ and he answered yes so I told him well then do you believe he was resurrected and he did and so i told him that Christ lives today because he conquered death. He smiled at this because he knew i was right and whatever he was implying wasnt true but then he asked the question ' then where is he'. At this I almost responded with the knowledge we have from the restored gospel but instead I felt like this would be a good chance to make my point about why three hours of church on Sunday was not a ridiculous thing so all I did was smile, even bigger than i usually do, and told him we go to church for three whole hours because theres a lot of knowledge that comes from the gospel and we need to learn it so we can know our Heavenly Father better. Well thats not an exact quote but it was something like that. So then I got to thinking about Sundays and how the sacrament is the most important part of church and we take of the sacrament in the beginning and for some this might be convenient for them so they can leave early because they could have the same mentality of three hours being too much. Now I see the benefit to having it in the beginning so that we can use the blessings of the sacrament (His spirit to be with us) to learn and grow while the spirit is so strong in us. So now hopefully i can go about my Sundays trying to magnify the blessings of the sacrament before they are diluted by all the dealings of a week day.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

 Do you ever feel like your just now starting to understand life. I can remember having a pretty good grasp on life at 13, like i was able to hold my own with adults and make valid points in a conversation, but now whenever i look back I realize there was so much that i didn't know and i feel that i should have. One example that comes to mind is school. I NEVER took school serious. Call it ADD or whatever you want, but i didn't understand the concept of school. Probably because most of the stuff they teach, you don't see it directly applied in careers and you always say when am i ever gonna use this. But now i see that just because we don't see it being used that we are using it! But i feel like i'm so late in seeing this and so much more..


Another reason could be because my mom and dad never pressed me about school or homework or grades. I mean they were probably mad when i came home with all my bad grades but they never checked to see if my homework was done or showed interest in what i was studying. I'm not blaming my parents because they were just doing what they knew and i think because they just worked regular jobs where college degrees weren't needed and everything you needed to know came from on the job training. I guess looking back i just wish education was made to be a higher priority in our house because its vital! Also a big factor could have been just seeing my 7 older siblings graduate high school and just get jobs and not pursue a higher education. College always did kind of seem unreal and I never even gave it thought, but now some of my sibling have gone to college and in a way they shed a little light on my path that if they can do it then i can do it


Let me mention also that I am happy for the foundation of my education, like being able to read and write, even if i'm not the best reader or the most grammatically correct writer. Sometimes when i go out with the missionaries to appointments and when we read the book of Mormon with the investigators and they read aloud and you can see them really struggle reading the words let alone understanding whats going on in the story and it makes me see how not having these skills can keep us from finding truths in life and being able to start putting things together in so many ways.


So i am very thankful for the education i was able to pick up and apply so i could get into the community college, even though i had to take the lower classes to get myself up to speed. But now i am taking classes and loving education and getting the best grades i have ever gotten. I am also learning so much more about life and about myself. Education truly is a blessing and i know it is something we should never stop striving for no matter how old we are or where we are with our lives there are always things to be learned.

Life wasnt meant to be easy.

My boss and I work together for 8 hours a day. Just me and him in the shop and most of our discussions are on the news, religion, or our families. Today we talked about religion and he being a man that doesn't believe in God thinks that one reason people want to believe in God is because its easy. He said People use religion as a cop-out, to do your wrongs and then just repent and go on with your lives having a clear conscience. Religion may be like this for some but not for those who truly have faith.

If anyone who believes that believing in God is easy then I don't know the God in which they believe. I believe in God, The Eternal Father. I believe in the Ten Commandments and all of the teachings of Jesus the Christ and all the directions that our prophets give us from the old testament to this day. When we try to apply all these things to our lives I find it's no easy task. I have even heard that being a member of this religion (mormon) is not for the weak. Our religion believes in "callings" these are assignments that you have been called from God to fulfill. This supports the notion that idle hands are the work of the devil. Its also said that if we are not moving forward then we are moving backwards, there is no standing still. These callings help us to be in service to our fellow man and to become closer to God, but as with anything you only get out of it that what you put into it. If we truly believe in God, who gave us life and loves us unconditionally, then by sitting around in idleness we will feel guilty for not doing all that we can to return to Him. So I wouldn't say believing in God is easy but that maybe ignorance is bliss for some, at least for now.

Some people may also think that repentance is a cop-out and an easy way to not have to take responsibility for what you have done. I would say on the contrary that if we truly repent that it is because we want to take responsibility for what we have done and so we can make sure if doesn't happen again. I have heard the word repentance described as change. If we truly repent it is because we have seen the wrong in what we do and we have a true desire to change and to do whatever it takes to do so. Although i do not understand the atonement fully this is why i believe that there is no death bed repentance. We have to repent while there is time to change our ways and be examples in Christ. Now there is time to accept the atonement in the after-life but who knows if we will still have that burning desire to do so. This is why we must repent once we recognize the wrong doings we are committing. Most of the time if not all of the time this is fighting of the natural man. The natural man is in all of us. It comes with the bodies we have attained. These are the desires that we have, for example, instant gratification. But the Gospel teaches us to follow God's ways, which are contrary to the natural man. This involves self-mastery and diligence day in and day out. These things are not easy. My boss drinks coffee every morning and i mentioned to him that he should just try to stop for a little while. He laughed and said yea maybe i will, but he never tried. Many members have had to give up things that they wanted to have so they the can change and complete the repentance process. This is NOT an easy task and nobody that has ever struggled with something and then truly repented would ever call it a cop-out.

I believe that my boss wasnt completely wrong with his comments and that their are people who take their religion lightly and go to church to just feel good about themselves, but i know that in my life, as i have went from trying to fake it til i make to a devoted man living the gospel teaching of Jesus Christ, that its no easy task. But that the blessings that you recieve from putting all of your heart, might and mind into doing the will of the Lord is well worth the challenge.