A Spiritual Adventure

Well today has been an eventful day in the ways of missionaries for my ward and friends.  Ward member and friend, Skylar Halford, and friend, Andrew Bowns, had their farewells today and ward member and friend, Ryan Christiansen, announced his call at the pulpit.  Anyway along with the events of today I was also talking to Ryan recently who mentioned that he was nervous.  So here is a quote for all of those missionaries.

"President Spencer W. Kimball said, "There is a spiritual adventure in doing missionary work" (Ensighn, Oct. 1977, 7).  To embark on a mission, as so many know, involves many of the same emotions as embarking on some high adventure: excitement, some anxiety, perhaps a touch of fear.  In missionary work, we take a step into the unknown.  Perhaps we go to a faraway land with a strange culture.  We are required to live continually with a companion we have never met before.  And the essence of missionary work is meeting and talking to new people, bearing testimony of marvelous and wondrous things that they may find odd.  In publicly taking such a stance, we place ourselves at risk of being mocked or scorned.  Such is the nature of an adventure, and like many others adventures, we will talk fondly of it the rest of our lives."

-David B. Haight, "A Spiritual Adventure," New Era, June 2000

Righteous Priesthood Holders

Well today in Sunday School we had a lesson on the priesthood so here's a quote about the priesthood.

"How blessed we are to be among the very few men on earth trusted to be authorized to act in the name of the Savior to bless others through the righteous use of His priesthood.

I wonder, brethren, how many of us seriously ponder the inestimable value of holding the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods.  When we consider how few men who have lived on earth have received the priesthood and how Jesus Christ has empowered those individuals to act in His name, we should feel deeply humble and profoundly grateful for the priesthood we hold.

The priesthood is the authority  to act in the name of God.  That authority  is essential to the fulfillment of His work on earth.  The priesthood we hold is a delegated portion of the eternal authority of God.  As we are true and faithful, our ordination to the priesthood will be eternal.

God will hold us accountable for how we treat His precious daughters.  Therefore, let us treat them as He would wish to have them treated.  I pray that the Lord will guide us to be more inspired, sensitive, and productive with the priesthood we hold, especially with His daughters.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

-Richard G. Scott, "Honor the Priesthood and Use It Well," Ensign, Nov 2008

This Life is the Time

A time to repent

"A man may receive the priesthood and all its privileges and blessings, but until he learns to overcome the flesh, his temper, his tongue, his disposition to indulge in the things God has forbidden, he cannot come into the celestial kingdom of God - he must overcome either in this life or the life to come.  But this life is the time in which men are to repent. Do not let any of us imagine that we can go down to the grave not having overcome the corruptions of the flesh and then lose in the grave all our sins and evil tendencies. They will be with us. They will be with the spirit when separated from the body.

"It is my judgment that any man or woman can do more to conform to the laws of God in one year in this life than they could in then years when they are dead.  The spirit only can repent and change and then the battle has to go forward with the flesh afterwards.  It is much easier to overcome and serve the Lord when both flesh and spirit are combined as one.  This is the time when men are more pliable and susceptible.  We will find when we are dead every desire, every feeling will be greatly intensified.  When clay is pliable, it is much easier to change than when it gets hard and sets.

"This life is the time to repent.  That is why I presume it will take a thousand years after the first resurrection until the last group will be prepared to come forth.  It will take a thousand years to do what it would have taken them but three score years and ten to accomplish in this life."

-Elder Melvin J. Ballard, The Three Degrees of Glory, pp. 11-13. (Emphasis added)