Mario World and Eternal Life

Life as a missionary is like Mario World (or Diddy Kong Racing. I'ma gonna combine the two for this here post). First of all, in the Missionary Training Center in lovely Provo, Utah, a teacher taught us that life is like Mario Kart. We're on this track of life, in our little cars, and we're going along this...rainbow track, because life is colorful (is the rainbow track in Mario Kart or DKR? Ah well). And the road is bumpy sometimes, and we bump into things, like walls, and other people in their karts. And sometimes we even run off the track! But we're always put back on the track; we shake if off, and keep going. Then, we get to the loops. (My teacher compared the loops to life, and the rest of this little analogy is my own crazy imagination :) We see these loops looming in front of us, these trials, but there's no way to get around them, no way to skirt them. The only way to continue going on the track is to go on the loop. So we start going on the loop, and it takes us upward, and we think we're going in the wrong direction. This trial is too hard, it's turning our life around, taking us off our path! But we're on the loop, and it's pushing us forward. And then, without even realizing it, we're back on the track, and we're boosted forward. Then there are people who see the looming loop, and they let off the gas. They take their hand off the control, and they don't go on the loop. But then they're stuck. They can't go forward, because they lost their momentum to get through the loop. The only way to go forward is to back track a little, and then get up to speed again to go on the loop.

When we are confronted with a trial, we need to keep pressing forward, even when we feel we're being thrown for a loop, and that Christ isn't helping us get us through. But He is there. He's always helping us, and giving us aid all throughout this race of life. He gives us bananas (scriptures, prayer. Daily things we can do) to give us more strength, and balloons that give us power against Satan. We get rockets to launch at him when he's in our way. And there are boosters (Institute and seminary, General Conference. Extra things that give us that extra boost) on the ground that if we veer over to them, we are boosted forward. But now, the important thing to know, is that Satan is on this track too. He can get those balloons too, and those bananas. He can send turtle shells at us from behind, and knock us around, and spin us off the track. He can send rockets that are specifically targeted to us, so that we can never run from it. So we need to prepare against that. We need to make sure we have ammo to shoot at him. We need to make sure we get every banana, we're always reading our scriptures, and praying, and going to church, so that he can't overtake us. We need to get shields (Holy Ghost) to protect us when he does shoot something at us.

Alright, that was fun. But that's not the end of Mario World! (Probably a bad idea that I got started on this ;) So, there's this sign that we as missionaries do for the word 'baptism,' to make it short, so we don't have to write it out (sometimes we're lazy. Just kidding! We are the opposite of lazy. We just like to make up little signs for things.) -And here come some of my beautimous drawings :)

Tada! So it's a little wave of water, and then an arrow going up and around and down, symbolizing someone going down in the water as they are baptized. On the white board in mine and my companion's little cottage of joy, Sister Petersen wrote down goals of our mission, and wrote that sign. I was looking at it, and I saw not the baptism sign, but the letters u & p. up. And then my mind exploded! Complete mind blown. The baptism symbol became a 1up in my mind. For those of you who play video games, you know that a 1up in Mario games is when Mario gets a life. And what in the world does this have to do with baptisms? Well, I'll tell you. When someone is baptized, they are gaining salvation. They are being spiritually reborn. They are in essence, getting a life. They are Mario getting a mushroom, and getting a 1up! It's brilliant, I tell you! Every baptism we get, is a 1up. That's the whole reason for someone getting baptized. It's not to up the numbers in the church, it's to give people that chance to repent, and be spiritually reborn through Christ's Atonement.

Moroni 7:40-41
40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?
41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

And last, but not least, because this part is as important as getting baptized! My sign for the the gift of the Holy Ghost.
 

The ghost is, of course, the Holy Ghost; pacman is us. When we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism, the Holy Ghost is now with us, in our hearts, and minds, helping us to find and stay on the right path. So pretty much, we're pacman, chasing after the Holy Ghost, and consuming it. Just use your imagination, it'll help. (Alright, I didn't come up with the ghost, some other missionary did, but I added pacman for fun :)

I have a testimony of baptism; that it's the only way to return to live with Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ again. I know that when we make that covenant with God to follow Him, He will bless us. I have seen it in my life. I know that this gospel is true, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church, restored through Joseph Smith. I love this church and gospel so much. My hope is that more people will accept it, and see the influence of good it has in their lives.

Holes

A few days ago, Sister Petersen and I were doing some service for an investigator. It was a bright sunny day, and we were working in her backyard. She had some metal posts/bars in the ground that she wanted to get out. We did some little, skinny ones first, and they came out easy. Then there were other metal bars that Sister Petersen and I started trying to get out. We tried the same technique that we did with the little ones, by twisting them, and slowly trying to pull them up. But we soon realized that that wasn't going to work with these other ones. So the investigator got some shovels, and we proceeded to dig around them. We dug a little, then tried to pull them out. But it wasn't working. Then she thought to inform us that those bars were probably about 5 or 6 feet, and they were about 4 feet above the ground. So now we knew that they were in further than we had originally thought, so we dug more, and with more purpose.

So, I was digging, and a thought came to my mind that those bars stuck in the ground are like sins stuck in our souls. We see them, so we know they're there, but we don't try very hard to get them out. Because we've had other sins that were small, and were so easy to pull out. And so we assume that these other, bigger sins will be just as easy to get out. We twist them, and pull a little, and there's a little give, so we think that when we are ready to get rid of them, it will be so easy to just yank it out and be done with it. But, little do we know, that those sins are actually much more rooted in our hearts than we realize.

As I was digging, and I knew it was deeper than I had at first realized, I thought that maybe this last shovelful would be it, and I would finally be able to tug the bar free. But it wasn't. It just kept going, and going, and going. Seriously, it must have been like a mile deep! I finally just had to keep the faith, and trust that eventually I would get to the bottom of it. So I dug, and twisted the bar, and dug, and twisted the bar. One point I was just annoyed, and gave up the shovel, and just tried to yank it free, but the dirt had that bar tight in it's dirty grasp.

I finally decided to just be patient, and diligently keep shoveling dirt, and twisting the bar. After a few minutes, I was finally able to pull the bar free. It felt like quite an accomplishment! So I compared this to purging ourselves of sin. When we have a sin that we're trying to get rid of, we can't just rip it out. Some sins are little, and it's not hard to get rid of them. But there are other sins that are bigger, and have deep roots. These sins take a while to dig out, and you have to be careful. You have to dig around the sin so that you can get to the root. If you just yank it out, the roots will break, and it will still be there. It may look like it's gone, and your heart may heal over it, but in time, the sin, like a weed, will poke it's head out, and you'll realize that it's still there.

It's not always easy to get rid of a sin. Sometimes you will have to hurt your heart a little by digging to the roots, to be able to free yourself of the sin. But I think we all know that when we sin, there will always be pain involved. And to truly repent, and get rid of the sin, we need to feel godly sorrow, and feel some guilt to want to get rid of it, and to change.

Also, while I was digging out the bar, my shoulders and arms started to ache. We will ache as we are repenting. It's inevitable. It's necessary. It takes effort to get rid of something. Our muscles (our soul) will start to stretch, and there may be times when we just want to quit, and stop the pain. But if we persevere, we'll get through it, and we will be stronger in the end. "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." (Ether 12:27) It's like exercising. Sometimes it hurts, but that's how our muscles become stronger. We may feel weak, but Christ will strengthen us as we come to Him for help.

But! That's not the end. We can't just pull the sin out and leave a hole. After I had dug around the bar and pulled it out, there was this hole gaping open. So I filled the hole up with the dirt I'd dug up. So it is with sin. We got the sin out, and the roots, and we feel so good, and clean! But we leave this hole open, ready to plant the next sin. Part of repenting is replacing the bad with good. We need to fill the hole with good things. If not, all that hard work will be for nothing, because the sin could very well come back.

I know that repenting is a something that we all need to do, to come closer to Christ. We all make mistakes. We all have those bars of sin stuck in the soils of our hearts. What we need to do is get rid of the sin, root and all, and then plant a seed of faith in its place. (and that, my friends, is a whole other post for another day :)

And that was the lesson about sin I learned while digging holes. Digging holes really does build character! Who knew?  

Key to our Salvation

Alma 36:27 "And I have been supported under trials 

and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of 

afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, 

and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put 

my trust in him, and he will still deliver me."

I read that verse a while ago, and I love it. A little background of this verse; this is Alma the younger speaking, and he's talking to his son Helaman. Alma is telling Helaman about his conversion from a wicked man, to a repentant son of God. In this verse, Alma is telling Helaman that God delivered him from his bondage, from prison, and that He supported him through his trials. Being supported in trials could be a whole other post, but I wanted to talk about something different. When I read this verse, I thought about what bondage from Satan is, and how we are put in prison.

Bondage from Satan, or being under his control, is like us being in prison. But, we are the ones who put ourselves in prison. When we don't follow Christ, and we choose the opposite path, we allow Satan to take hold of us, and he leads us into a prison cell. But what he doesn't know, or thinks we don't know, is that we are holding the key that could deliver us. And he hopes we don't know that Jesus is on the other side of the locked door, waiting for us to call out to him, and give Him the key to let Him deliver us. We can't get ourselves out of prison. We can't unlock the door when we're on the inside. We need someone on the outside that can take the key through the bars, and then unlock the door and lead us out. But Christ is the only who can, and is willing, to do it.

The key is the token to our freedom, and they were given to us by the Savior. We hold in our hands the key to our salvation. And what is necessary for our salvation? Those familiar with the gospel know that if it weren't for Jesus Christ's Atonement, we could never be saved. The key represents the Atonement. The atonement is a gift that the Savior gave to all of us. And it is through the atonement that we can be free, and be forgiven of our sins. But, we can't access the atonement on our own. We need to come to Christ, and let Him work the atonement inside us. When we give Him the key, we are humbling ourselves, and saying that we need His help to get us out. But if we hold on selfishly to the key, there is no way He can get us out. Think of the scripture where Christ says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him." (Revelations 3:20)

When Christ performed the Atonement, He gave each one of us a key that would get us out of the prison cell. He knew that we would need the key, because He knew we would put ourselves in prison, or allow Satan to put us in prison, sometimes unintentionally. But even so, the only way to get out is by using the key; using His Atonement.

Now, something else about the key, that I thought was pretty cool. (Which I came up with by myself. I'm very proud of myself) So there are people who will refuse help, and they don't want the key. Impossible to believe, but it happens. Or maybe we lose the key sometimes. Some people will throw the key away, or maybe we're careless, and the key slips down a crack, or drain. But the key always comes back. The key is like Percy Jackson's sword, Riptide. If we lose the key, or throw it away, it will always show up in our pocket a minute later. No matter how hard we may try to refuse the Atonement, or treat it with disrespect, or without care, it is always there; Christ is always there, waiting for us to come to him. So, hold onto that key. You never know when you may need it.

I know the Atonement is real. Christ died for our sins, and He lives to help us. I know that when we put our trust in him, and give him the key, He will bail us out of jail, and we can be free from bondage, from sin, and we can rise to the glorious beings we are capable of being. I love my Savior, and I know that He loves all of us.

RISK

A little while ago I was reading in Alma, in the Book of Mormon. Starting in about chapter 45, and going to the end of Alma, the Lamanites and Nephites are warring with each other. War is never a good thing, but I had a little fun with it as I read. Came up with a fun little analogy, so, bear with me. :) There's a Lamanite who wants to be king. Amalikiah. He's very cunning, and he uses murder and deceit to dethrone the Lamanite king, and to make himself king. Once king, he stirs the Lamanites to anger, with the intent of battling the Nephites and bringing them into bondage. So he builds up his armies. But little does he know, that Moroni, the Nephite leader, was already preparing for when Amalikiah's armies came to battle against them, before the Lamanites were even preparing.

Now, there's these armies from the two groups of people, and they are in possession of different cities, or territories. And the Lamanite and Nephite armies, as they battle each other, take possession of cities from each other, depending on how strong and prepared they are. And sometimes the armies take cities back that they lost, and then there's surprise attacks, and building up of armies, and losing armies. All of this battling, and back and forth fighting reminded me of the game RISK. How many of you have played that game? By show of hands... Okay, thanks for your participation. So, RISK is a game I love. You have all these territories, and you try to get more by stratagem. And you try to build up your armies, and fortify your weak places. Then you attack your opponents weak places, or strongholds if you have a big army. And sometimes you have to attack in a round about way, from behind, to get the advantage.

As I read these chapters of war, I thought that those wars are like the war we individually have with the adversary. Satan's cunning, like Amalikiah. But he uses lies and wickedness to get what he wants and to try to defeat us. So we need to be cunning like Moroni. We need to put our trust in the Lord, and build up ourselves, so that we are strong in the Lord. There are times when Satan will have a hold of something inside us, part of our soul, or mind, or heart. And he's always trying to get more. He wants to have us completely, not just a part of us. So we need to build up what he doesn't have, so that he can't attack there. We need to fortify our hearts and souls in the strength of the Lord, so that if he does come against us, he is defeated.

There are several times in a couple of those chapters when it says that Moroni, or the Nephite armies, are fortifying their cities, and never ceasing their preparations. At the end of chapter 49, it says that they had peace, and prosperity in the church. But then in the beginning of chapter 50, it says "And now it came to pass that Moroni did not stop making preparations for war." Even when we think all is good, and we're on the right path, and we don't have any temptations, if we're not continually fortifying our minds and hearts, then our places of security and fortifications will start to deteriorate, and become weak, and Satan will find his way in. So, we need to make sure that we are strong, and never stop fortifying ourselves.

Small and Simple Things

Christmas is come and gone. Soon the lights will come down, the Christmas trees will be put away. And the Spirit of Christmas will fade away. But there are little instances of kindness that stay with us, even after the allure of the Christmas Spirit has faded for the rest of the world.

Last week my companion and I were in the post office, sending some things home. It was a little more than a week before Christmas, and there was a long line of people sending off Christmas gifts, and mailing cards. As we were standing in line, a man walked, looked around, and said "This is madness. I just need a Christmas stamp for my letter," he holds up an envelope. "I can't spend all day in line, when I just need one stamp." A different man (in shorts and a yellow sweatshirt, and a fluffy white scarf- Don't ask me, it's Portland ;) in the line for self-service offered to buy the other man a stamp. But stamp man wanted a Christmas stamp. "It was my last letter, and I just needed one more." The scarf man said, "Just put a normal stamp on, and write "Merry Christmas" on it, and you're good." But stamp man was sending off a Christmas card, and he wanted it to be special (I'm assuming). He decided to leave. Not a minute later he came back, and scarf man said "He's back!" Stamp man said, "I can at least mail these other ones." Scarf man then said that he would buy Christmas stamps when it was his turn, and he would give stamp man one. Stamp man said, "You don't want to buy a bunch of Christmas stamps. What are you going to do with them?" Scarf man said, "I can use them. They're just stamps." So he bought poinsettia stamps, and gave stamp man one. He was so appreciative. It made his day. He put it on his envelope, and put it in the slot.

The whole interchange was hilarious. I couldn't help but smiling, and chuckling. And the post office is always quiet, so theirs were the only voices. But it made me think how much a simple little thing, as simple as wanting a Christmas stamp on your Christmas card, can make such a big difference in your day, and even your life. They can seem so insignificant. And really, in the eternal scheme, having a Christmas stamp won't matter. But in that moment, it meant a great deal to him. And anything can change in a moment. It doesn't take much for something small to make or break your day.

We're told in the Book of Mormon that, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass," (Alma 37:6). The Lord at times works by small means. And if we're not observant, we might just miss it. It can be by small means that someone falls away from the church, by not doing little things like praying everyday, or reading the Book of Mormon everyday, or going to church every Sunday. And it's also by small ways (doing those things) that miracles will happen, that we will grow closer to Christ, and that we will be blessed.

I would encourage us all to pay more attention to the small things in our life, to improve our lives, and maybe be able to improve someone else's life, or day, by doing something small, like giving them a Christmas stamp. Something that isn't a big deal to you, but to that person, it means the world. I believe that it's by doing the small things that we can solidify our testimonies, and strengthen our relationship with Christ, and that we could change someone's day for the better. I know that Heavenly Father will bless us as we are diligent in keeping the commandments, even the little, seemingly insignificant commandments.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that we don't let that Christmas spirit, the Spirit of Christ,  fade away with the season.