Forgive

I will never forgive them

I will never forget
The things they have done
I hope they die in regret

They've hurt me too many times
I simply can't move on
They should be cast out
And join thy son of the dawn.

My son died for them and you
He bled from every poor
So what's it to you
If I forgive them once more?

Child, why keep holding on
And remember your pain?
It just drags you down
What is there for you to gain?

On your knees you cry and plead
For you sin all the time
But, I still love you
You're still a child of mine

So please, forgive and let go
It is time to forget
The things they have done
Or you will die in regret.

We all have those people in our lives that we think this way about. Or, maybe I'm just a terrible person who hates anyone who does me wrong? Stay on my good side or I might write a Poem about you. Wow...I sound like Taylor swift. Moving on. I used to play soccer when I was a younger lad. As y'all know, I'm not the biggest of the big but, I could handle my own on the field.

 I actually enjoyed the bigger kids cause they thought they were going to run me over and I loved proving them wrong. But, even though I could physically take them on it still didn't change the fact that there were players just as capable of doing damage to me as I was to them. And often times if I would get hit, taken out or schooled on the field. It wasn't anything personal, it was just soccer. After moments of humiliation I would make a personal vendetta towards them. Sometimes I could care less if I won or loss the match, all I cared was to see them on the ground. Crying was always a bonus. What did that do for me? Nothing. I would lose my head and focus more on hitting the player instead of the ball. Which meant I was more careless, I wasn't playing as smart and I had a different goal in mind instead of winning.  But, until I saw them burn, I didn't care what happened. If I didn't get them that game, I would remember their number and wait till the next time I played them. Instead of playing soccer, I was playing man hunt. All of this because someone hurt me and I couldn't forgive. Shoot, I almost broke a kids ankle I got so fired up over this. Another time, I laid a kid out and he didn't get up. The whistle blew then I ran back to the kid and helped him off the field just to rub it in. The parents for the opposing team were cheering for my sportsmanship. (They didn't know I was the one who hurt the kid) If people cheered me on for that, I would gladly help walk their entire team off the field. And all cause I couldn't forgive. "Well, that's soccer it's different." Tell me how. Someone hurt me, and I didn't forgive them. That applies to a break up. That applies to a bully giving some kid a wedgie. That applies to an abusive parent. It applies to the roman soldiers to nailed Christ to the cross. Whether or not we asked to be hurt or brought it upon our selves, it is our choice to be upset. It's also our choice to forgive. Most of the times when I was hit on the field, it wasn't cause they hated me and were wanting to spill my blood, they were just playing the same sport I was. But I was the one who got offended. There is this guy named Amalickiah who is on one team and there is this guy named Moroni and he is on the other team.

 Long story short, Moroni's team wins. And Amalickiah is just like me and he gets T.Oed. And swears vengeance and wants nothing else to see Moroni burn. This eventually leads to Amalickiah dying by the hands of another player named Teancum. Teancum eventually dies by another team cause he gets just as upset as Amalickiah did and wanted revenge just like me and Amalickiah. (This sounds like this could be a soap opera) Why are they fighting? Why are there so many people dying? Well, let's see. If we go to the very start it's cause two brothers won't forgive their little brother. The little brother didn't go out of his way to offend his older brothers. Just like the opposing players on the soccer field, they didn't go out of their way to hurt me. But the two older brothers, and me, got so upset that they wouldn't forgive, they wouldn't forget and they wouldn't move on. And because of this, a nation is eventually wiped out because people wouldn't learn to forgive. You will get hurt again and again. Whether you ask for it or not. It's life. Just like soccer, I knew what I was playing, I knew I could get hurt, but I wanted to play. We came to this life knowing we would get thrown down, cut and hurt all the time. But we chose to come. Does holding a grudge do anything but make your life and their life more miserable? A man who was much greater than you and I was killed for unjust causes. And want to know what some of his last words were? It was him asking God to forgive those who hurt him. In the long run, it's the merciful who obtain mercy. Do we want our words to be damning? Or do we want our words to be forgiving? It's your choice, so chose.

Scripture references: 2 Nephi 5:2-4 & Alma 49-51, 62 & Matt 5:7

I am Not

I am Not

We all try to live and be like him

What if he was you

Could you heal or free them from sin

What could your priesthood do?

"Please, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."

A leper man cries

But you were at the party scene

You walk and say goodbye

A man thought he could walk on the ocean

Peter starts to sink

He yells for your saving motion

Can you put down your drink?

She suffers much and she bleeds a lot

Its how she was born

Your words of peace come to a stop

As you dream of your porn

They look up to you as pure and white

Clean without a spot

Could you bear the thought and or sight

To tell them you are not

        We've all had moments where we have been called upon and we aren't exactly prepared or ready for that calling. I'm not talking about just spiritual stuff. Think about moments in school where you were called to turn in your homework and you either didn't do it or forgot it. My home was really close to my Jr. High so if I would forget something at home, I would just tell my teacher I'd be back right quick and then I'd run home. I eventually worked out a deal with some teachers that if I would grab them a coke or pepsi on my way back, they wouldn't
tell on me. I wasn't complaining.

        When I was in elementary when they were trying to get us kids to enjoy having a planner. We were supposed to have our parents sign it off for us to show that we did it. I didn't do it so much that I eventually started forging my parents signatures so I would stop getting docked grade points.

        Are you ready to be called upon? I have these biblical instances in this poem where Christ was called upon by others to preform. What if He couldn't do what the people had faith He could do? What if he was more like us as wasn't always ready to be called upon? One night when I was actually home. If I remember it right, it was either really late or I was really tired so I was in bed when I got a phone call from my mom. Half out of it I answered the phone and she sounded kind of strained. She had fallen and split her head on a dresser and was wanting me to take her to the hospital, what if I wasn't sober enough to drive? What if I was out partying with a lady and wasn't able to answer my phone? I was literally called upon to be able to act. What
if I couldn't?
       

When I was younger my parents signed me up for a snowboarding class. I'm not bragging but me and my brother were the better ones of the class. Once we road up to the top of the mountain with our class and we kind of left the group cause we didn't want to wait for the small ones eating the yellow snow. A small group of kids came with us (we got in trouble for that) and we just left the group. One of the younger kids didn't have a pair of goggles and he kept falling over or hitting things cause he was basically riding with his eyes closed. He asked if he could use my goggles for the rest of the run. What if I didn't have any goggles like him? I feel like this is a Boy Scout training...
        Lastly, I had graduated from high school and was visiting my home ward. Right before worship services started a priest aged boy came and asked me to help bless the sacrament because they didn't have enough people to do it all. What if I wasn't worthy for that calling? It wasn't like home work where I knew what was coming and I procrastinated. The call came from out of no where from a kid I didn't really talk to. Just like when my mom called, I didn't get a heads up that day by her telling me to be ready to take her to the hospital. What if the kid snowboarding with me didn't trust me enough to ask me for my goggles? Or what if I didn't have any goggles to give? What if Christ wasn't ready, trusted enough or worthy enough to do the things the people asked him to do? Are you ready to be called upon by you friends, family or God?

He Was Me

Socially awkward was his prey

As he looked round the school

He would humiliate others

To show his friends He's cool

He couldn't hurt their physical

He was to small for that

So instead of fists he used his words

And He let them know they're fat

She had asthma so he mocked her

He laughed at her wet tears

Grabbed his thought he coughed and choked

She moved away that year

A student ran down the hall way

He gently slid his shoe

Tripped their feet and they smacked their head

They cried, "what's wrong with you?"

One kid had his parents split

He made the bully mad

The kid walked by and the bully said,

"My mom still loves my dad."

One doesn't need muscles or size

To hurt others you see

This kid left his bruises inside

And that kid, he was me.

I am not joking, this kid was me. Each one of those stanzas were specific people that I hurt while I was in school. It's not something I am proud of. But, let me explain why I am saying all this. I'm not shooting for self pity or anything, life happens and those moments are what they are and they happened.

(The point of this is I'm the shorter one in the front...)

        So for those of you who actually know me, yes I have rippling muscles and in the words of Gaston from the horror film, beauty and the beast, "I have biceps to spare." With all these wonderful features that I have, height, is not one of them. Nor is bodily girth. Neither do I have muscles to spare...I'm just trying to make myself feel better okay! Moving on, my point is, I was never the bully you thought of in school. The big red head kid who would turn kids upside down for their lunch money, give wedgies and shake the ground with every step he took. (I probably could have hid in most peoples shadows.) So me being that bully was right out. But, I would consider myself quick witted so teasing them and making fun of them, that I can do. 

(I typed in bully and a red head came up.

 Y'all know I speak truth.)

        Letting the kid know he was fat, he was my locker neighbor in Jr. High. His name was Kyle and he probably could have crushed me like a bug. Long story short, he upset me and for the rest of Jr. High I would tease him about his body weight. Eventually he put me in a head lock to let me know he was bigger and when he was doing this I chocked out, "Please, don't eat me!" Me and my friends would sing this when he walked by, "I feel the earth move, under my feet. I feel the sky tumbling down." I think it's from a real song, but, thats all I got.

        The girl with asthma. This was about.....4th grade? Somewhere around there. Her name is Melissa. One day she had an asthma attack and literally turned blue. In all honesty, it was scary. I don't remember why I did this, but one day while we were out at recess I decided to be funny. She walked passed me and I started chocking and gasping for air. I grabbed my throat and fell to the ground spazzing out and pretending I was dying. Yeah, I made her cry and then she moved away sometime later and I never got to say I'm sorry.
        I'll just sum up the other two so I can get to the point of this here bloggage. The person running down the hall. I tripped them, they got rug burn on their arms and face. I got in trouble, but, me having the quick mind I did, I lied and got them in trouble too saying they were mean to me so thats why i was mean back. In school, a kid has his parents split and he did something to annoy me so I yelled something around the lines of, "At least I have a mom and dad to go home to." Yeah....low blow huh? It makes sense cause I'm short :D Not
appropriate?....moving on.

        Once upon a time, there was a man who was asked to go and do something. When he let people know who he was and what he was to do, they mocked him and made fun of him. "Who are you? Your father is a poor man! How is someone like you going to be able to do something so great if your father didn't amount up to much either? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." And commence the LOLing. (The laughed out loud at him.) After a while, this man had amounted up to something and had started doing great things. People still made fun of him and LOLed at him. "You think you can do what? Why don't you just go home, no one likes you, no one cares about you and no one can do the things you say you can. You're not what you claim you are, get out of here." They hunted him down relentlessly, scoffed  at him, scourged him, spit upon him and made fun of him. Are y'all starting to realize who this is? In the end, when they had brought him to the point of death, they still made fun of him. "If you are so great, why don't you get yourself out of this mess? If you can heal the sick and raise the
dead, if you are prophesied in the scriptures to come and save the world, why can't you even save yourself?" (Luke 4:21-22 8:52-53 & Matt:35-44)

        This bullying isn't something new, it has been around for a very long time. I feel safe in saying, I am not the only one who has cut others down. Think of times where you have torn down someone. Wether it was their physical, emotional, mental or spiritual. Weather it was in their face publicly, online anonymously or with your friends privately. God knows everything you have done, He sees everything you do, and He knows everything you can do. And He loves you. He loves me even though I have made his children cry. He loves me even though I sin daily. He loves me for all my imperfections, don't you think He loves your enemy's just as much as He loves you? For those of you who see the good in others and see all the bad in yourself, if He loves them, don't you think He loves you too? So for all of us who hurt one another, lets follow the prophetic statement of an Apostle of The Lord and, "Stop it." This life is hard enough with out us hurting one another. Lift up those that have fallen, strengthen those with feeble knees and catch those who are about to quit. In the words of a Mormon Hymnal, "United we stand. Divided we fall." Wait, that's by Pink Floyd...a mission does things to you.

        "There is enough heartache and sorrow in this life without our adding to it through our own stubbornness, bitterness, and resentment. We are not perfect. The people around us are not perfect. People do things that annoy, disappoint, and anger. In this mortal life it will always be that way. Nevertheless, we must let go of our grievances. Part of the purpose of mortality is to learn how to let go of such things. That is the Lord's way. Remember, heaven is filled with those who have this in common: They are forgiven. And they forgive. Lay your burden at the Savior's feet. Let go of judgment. Allow Christ's Atonement to change and heal your heart. Love one another. Forgive one another. The merciful will obtain mercy." (The Merciful Obtain Mercy)

        In closing I wish to quote on last song, "What the world needs now, is love, sweet love, it's the only thing that there's just to little of." So be the good you wish to see in the world. A smile is just as infectious as a frown, so spread it around and lets make this world and our lives a better place.

(Just to make endings happy, I didn't see Missy until college. From elementary to college I didn't see her. Until I was at college roaming through the halls trying to find out who lived on our floor. Knocked on one door with my roommates and the ladies let us in. I recognized one, "Missy?!" and she said my name in shock  I hit the ground on my knees, "I AM SO SORRY!" And now we are good friends! (:    )

Bullying - Stop it

(My friend Missy and her roommates in college)

Angels

An Angel wonders why she is unknown
The child cries

She rubs tired eyes

Why does she have to wake and sleep alone?

An Angel feels she is losing her wings
As she's thrown down

And pinned to the ground

He says, "No man wants your broken being."

An Angel sobs and cries and asks God why
As mother goes

At the coffins close
Cancer has made her say her last goodbye

An Angel watches her first sons demise

Nails in hands

Hated son of man
But like these Angels, they teach us to rise

     Alma 50:30 "He was angry with [her] and he fell upon her and beat her much." This is the scripture that started this whole train of thought for me. ""If God loves her, why did He allow this to happen?" If God loves these three "angels" why did He allow them to go through so much suffering? If God loves his son, why did He allow His son to be hated and crucified by men? What do you think?

     There can be many reasons to be honest. One reason that I am going to pitch y'alls way is that God knew these ladies could take it. I'll just draw my reasoning from the scripture and the poem. (I'm sorry, I usually try to make this post all kicks and giggles so y'all will have something fun to read to make your day better. And plus us missionaries just writing our testimonies and giving online sermons is kind of boring. So I apologize. If you have problems, take it up with my superiors.) 

     So Angel #1. She's a dear friend of mine and she is a single mother. She is about my age and is trying to go to school, go to church and be a mother. I have a hard time just waking up in the morning, I don't know how she does it. But she does. I have some other friends in her situation and one said this, "You know, dating boys is all nice and dandy. They think I'm cute and want to take it somewhere. Then I let them know I have a kid and I usually don't hear from them again." But still they all push on. It's hard enough feeling Gods love but then to not feel it from most people around you, that has to make feeling loved and wanted even harder. 

     Angel #2 is another close friend of mine. This one I don't want to dive into much detail, but hopefully you can get what I am hinting at in the poem. Just the heart breaker for me was hearing her say, "What if he's right? What if no one wants me now?"

     Angel #3 is someone I have grown up with sense elementary. And in high school her mother got diagnosed with cancer. And when things were going really down hill we as a group of friends decided to have a group prayer and fast for our friends mom. I even dressed up for the occasion. I wore my older brothers prom vest and bow-tie to school. (I looked so fly.) And for one friend we had over 160 kids show up for the prayer. All for one girls mom that not everyone knew. It is sad, yes, but that was one of thee most powerful prayers I was ever apart of. I'm sure a dozen of other blessings came from this trial, but because of this one mom getting cancer, 160 kids in high school were able to feel the spirit of God in their life. To know that there was a God and that He is watching over us all. Her mother did pass away but not before she brought us all closer to God.

     With the second Angel, I was able to see the healing power of the atonement in someones life. To see someone so hurt by another actions. To have something taken away from her that can never be replaced. To have a memory that will never be erased. (OOooh, rhymed, I should write poems) But that she is still moving forward with a head held high. And then to hear her say she was thankful for what happened because she was able to help another go through similar things. To see that God can work miracles even the in darkest of times.

     Then to have the first Angel still pushing forward. Even though she has plenty of reason to give up. I have seen so many people on my mission give up where she's at. I have met kids who don't even know their parents because raising them wasn't in life's agenda. To see one young mother almost leave her child with her mother just cause she didn't want that extra "baggage" in life. And still this single mother is pushing forward. She struggles just like you and me, but she is still moving forward. Being an example to everyone around her that meets her or knows her. An example to never quit. An example of trusting in good days ahead. An example of enduring to the end.
     Finally, the scripture. Long story short, this girl wasn't hanging around with the best crowd. But cause of what happens, she leaves that group and really saves the fall of a nation. (Okay, that is me reading between the lines a bit...really it says if things would have continued in their present course, some bad stuff would have gone down) (My interpretation is better.) (Not saying Gods word aint complete...oh, you get what I mean) Because of what happened to her, something better was able to come out of it. Same with Jesus Christ. He was born basically to be sent to the slaughter house. But, why? John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Because there was a bigger plan at hand. That is why Mary was able to go through what happened with her son. Cause she knew it was going to be worth it. That is why Christ went through what He did, he knew it was going to be worth it. And for these Angels, they're still moving forward hoping that it will be worth it. Isn't that what faith is? Believing in something unseen? (Ether 12:6) So you keep going. Keep dreaming. Keep hoping. "It all works out in the end. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us [He will not forsake you.] If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers." - Gordon B. Hinkley

Night Light

Night Light

I have a night light

For my older brother said,
"My price is just right
It's so very bright
And will save you in your bed

Cause monsters are there

And they wish to have a treat
In the night they stare
Your body they'd share
If they catch you on your feet

Please, please believe me
And buy it before it's too late
Your brother Stanley

He was...family
And he met a gruesome fate."

So I stay in bed
And don't even cry at night
Monsters wont be fed
I wont be dead
Cause monsters fear my night light.

     I am probably the next Robert Frost, or who ever that big famous poet guy was 'cause these post are about as good as they come. No really, don't expect much better than this. Yes, I am really good at rhyming stuff like, "Bee" and "Tree" and not every average missionary can do that. 

     What I am getting at in this poem is the faith that we have as little kids. Shoot, I remember when my brother was little my older brother did something like this. He had him believing he was going to lose his shadow the next day. My little brother was crying he was so sad to lose his shadow. It was pretty stinking funny, but he believed just by word of mouth. Another prank my older brother did to me was I stood on a electrical box outside our house. There had this warning on it and, if I remember right, I was told if I took more than 10 steps I was going to be shocked to death. I got half way across the street and I was at about 7 steps and I, like my little brother, just started crying. I think I would have taken losing my shadow vs. getting shocked to death by a flying evil looking black storm cloud depicted in the picture, but, I believed.
     Why is it when we get older and older we demand more proof? Maybe it's cause people keep pranking us and we actually want to see if we'll lose our shadow or not? It could be a list of things, but knowing isn't faith. "Faith is things which are hoped for and not seen." (Ether 12:6) We try to share the message of the Book of Mormon to a lot of people. "Well, kid. Where are the gold plates? If y'all had them in Salt Lake City maybe I'd believe." How much historical proof is there of the bible? And how many people still believe there is no God? Isn't there proof though that He's real? 

     "I have seen the dead raised. I have seen devils rebuked and removed from people. And I speak in the gift of tongues. Why don't I hear any of this from the Mormon church?" Quoted by a guy who was being very nice and very receptive to the Mormon Missionaries. We don't talk about it because that isn't where your faith should be. Matthew 24 verses 23 and 24 talk about false Christs. "[People] shall shew great signs and wonders, [that even the most faithful] they shall deceive." If I believed in signs and wonders first, shoot I would be following Jared the Subway guy. How did he lose that much weight? Magic.Or maybe he's a prophet called of God? I'm sold. He's a prophet. "Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." (Ether 12:6) If your faith is in a miracle, what happens if it gets proven wrong? That instead of Jared being a prophet, he just walked off all his fat. Then where is your faith then? Your faith shouldn't be in signs and wonders, even though that does strengthen ones faith, it should be based on the feelings of the Spirit of God. 

     Even Peter the Apostle recognized this. He walked and talked with Jesus Christ, but where did his faith come from? "Blessed art thou, [Peter]: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto the, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matt 16:17) It was by the Spirit of God that he knew Jesus truly was the Christ. So pray about it! Don't ask Jared or Google, ask God. "Become as little children." (Matt:18:3) "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Matt 7:7) "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." (James 1:5)

Star Trek and the Book of Mormon

Star Trek and the Book of Mormon

Captain Kirk says, "Space the final frontier"
Those are the very first words that you hear

Into Darkness replaced The Wrath of Khan
It's good, but plain and simple truths were gone

Big explosions and graphics didn't hurt
And Uhura looked good in that tight skirt

These are the focus of modern day man
If you're a Trekkie, then you're not a fan

The new ones are bad, there could have been more
Lame space movies is what Star Wars is for

No Genesis Project, no Spock in space
Their could have been more, it's such a disgrace

KJV to MWT NIV
They change it so it can be read simply

But truths were lost as with The Wrath of Khan
Until the Book of Mormon came along

Just like how Spock is Captain Kirk's wingman
Just as the Bible with the Book of Mormon

Go boldly where you haven't gone before

If you ask, Mormons will come to your door.

     Well....I got some help on this one. I don't know much about Star Trek. I watch real movies like, Finding Faith in Christ or Prophet of the Restoration. To me, and I know I will probably get shot for this, Star Wars and Star Trek seem the same to me. One has a light sabers and then the other...well....it's different? I had my companion Elder Lake help me craft up this post. For, "I live in sin" according to Elder Lake. But the point we are trying to get at, is the more you water things down, the more you are to lose.
     Think about when we were kids and we would play the telephone game. Where you're in a line and one person starts the message and then whispers it in the ear of their neighbor. Then the neighboring kid whispers it in their neighbor's ears. And this process is repeated until the line runs out of kids or it gets back to the person who started it. The starting message could have been something simple like, "Elder Goodrich is thee best missionary every." And then as it gets passed through the line, the message gets distorted from the original message. "Elder Goodrich is a missionary." Then it reaches a kid like me who purposefully goes out of his way to ruin it. "Elder Goodrich is single and ladies feel free to write him."  And when the final message is re-said, it's different from the start. It has some of the same stuff like, "Elder Goodrich" but then it messed up the "best missionary ever" and inserted "feel free to write him." Things have been added and taken away from what was said. 

     This is how it is with the Bible. It is ancient journals that testifies of Jesus Christ. The original scripts were translated, then those were translated, then those were translated and some plain and simple truths were lost in the translations. Look at all the different versions of the Bible we have now! It has the same message of Jesus Christ, but it is missing simple things that help testify of Jesus Christ! This is where the Book of Mormon comes into play. It has been translated by the power of God, once. No other ear has been whispered into like in the child's game of telephone. It's the original message of, "Elder Goodrich is thee best missionary ever." Told once, told completely and told simply.
     The Book of Mormon and the Bible go hand in hand like Spock and Kirk. They are playing for the same team. They have the same goals. They are on the same ship saving the universe. They are different people, with unique view points on the same thing. It's like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They tell the same story slightly differently cause they are different people and see with different eyes. Isiah testified of Jesus the way he did, and so did Nephi. The Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ just as much as the Bible. Same Jesus, same atonement, same God. Just told by different people."The mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." (2 Cor 13:1) This isn't a foreign practice, it's not a new thought. It is how it's always been. There is God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. There are the 12 apostles. There are all the prophets. Shoot, when God made Adam, "Now wait...something isn't quite right. :T Lets see. Lets put him back under and make another one." (Gen 2:18,22) Just like this poem, Elder Lake helped me make it. We are two different people working for the same goal, as is the Book of Mormon and the Bible. (:
     Do you not have a Book of Mormon or are confused at what this wanna be Trekkie nerd just said? Well, here's a place where you can learn more. (: mormon.org
Don't like reading? Here's a video A Book of Mormon Story

Tomorrow

Tomorrow

We sat and planned

Devised and schemed

And thought this sounded nice

We found the how

The time is now

To start this new device

The work must go forth

We must suffer on

And teach of Jesus Christ

Will someone do

Maybe it's you

It's a small sacrifice

No, not me

I cannot today

For I have big plans in store

Maybe then

I'm not so sure when

That's what tomorrows are for.

(The picture is of me waiting for a kitten to come out from under the fence. He was cute and worth the wait. Which kind of goes along with the subject of waiting to act...)

     So now this one we are all guilty of. I often times do it with food in the microwave. I hear the dinger go off and it's all the way up stairs. "Well, this episode is almost done (clearly on Netflix) I'll get it when this one is done." Then the next day I go to reheat some left overs and boom! There it is. Sometimes I just leave it, re-heat it and enjoy. One less step really. Oh don't be astonished. Y'all do things like this too. :P
     I am also very guilty of doing this with missionary work. "Well, I am kind of hungry and I do need to go to the bathroom...so...lets go tracting after." And then, boom, didn't do it. Please don't tell my mission president that. For all he knows, I'm one of the best missionaries there is. And let's keep it that way. This also happens at missionary meetings, where some missionary comes up with a new way to teach people, or a revolutionary way to knock on doors. And, "I'll do it next time."
     Turn to Genesis 1:1. Now, don't get lost doing this heavy task. If you need some help, call the missionaries, they can help you. (: (Preferably me, we need people to teach. The other sets of missionaries will be fine. They can knock doors.) "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Now, if I was in charge of making the heavens and the earth. "Well...I am busy watching the game on my love sack cloud, and I did just create light (vs 3). So....I can do it tomorrow. I have like 5 more days I can make all the earth! It's nbd." Now, we can see why I'm not God! haha. 

     So instead of tomorrow, what can you do today? Can you make light? No, you're not God. Stop thinking that. But what can you do? Missionaries are always begging and pleading with members to help them find someone to teach. Shoot, we don't even need that. Do the members have anyone they don't like and they want us to bug them? Is there any fences we can paint? Elder Sawyer did that one a lot. We are free, quality labor. Why not put us to work? What can you help them do today? What can you personally do? Clean up your room? (Now my mom would have loved me to do that before I left. But, I'm gone now so not my problem.) Shovel the side walks? (Thats for my people out in utah. For the people out here in florida, rake the yard.) What about sharing the word of God? "Well, I see them every day. I can invite them to church tomorrow." 

     No no no. You can not be thinking: "This missionary is a missionary. He doesn't know what it's like to be a member and have a life, job, family and the Superbowl to watch." Please. I actually got sent home early and I was there for about 9 months. And I know what the missionaries ask is kind of a lot. One of my friends challenged me to give 5 book of mormons out. Another demanded me to give someone for the missionaries to teach. And....I didn't do that, but let me tell you what I did do. Long story short, at my place of employment there were a lot of exceedingly fair and beautiful (See 1 Nephi 13:15) daughters of God that came in, and I might have talked with a lot of them. However, I don't know how many times religious matters came up. A lot of these ladies had stopped going to church for this reason and that. I would say things like, "You gotta get your act together! God is great!" Which now thinking about it, is probably why a lot of them didn't ever call me back...:T But, there was one girl I talked to about this a lot. I challenged her to do simple things like, reading her patriarchal blessing. One day she came in and said this, "After talking with you I decided to call my bishop...I might get excommunicated for what I have done, but I know I am on the right track and I want to get my life back in order." I didn't see her get baptized, I didn't invite her to take the missionary lessons, I just talked to her and invited her to act. I didn't say I would do it tomorrow. I did it today. (Well, not today. Today is like 9 months sense I did this but you get my point.) So what can you do today? Instead of tomorrow or sometime down the road, do it today. (: Please?

Don't like what I say? An Apostle of the Lord can say it better. (:

Choose This Day