The Pioneer Challenge

We interrupt the area reports for this message.  Not to worry!  The area reports will continue after a few weeks.
In my last area, we knocked on a man's door who did NOT want to hear from us.
He talked of how Joseph Smith was a fraud, he talked of how he deceived millions of people, including ourselves.  He talked of the pioneers who crossed the plains walking to their death in a hope of reaching a land where they could pray in peace.  These pioneers, he claimed, were blinded and led to their death by a fraudulent book and its' author.
I heard the opinion of this man with sorrow, and disappointment.  However, I found it interesting how with his words, he proved true exactly what he felt was false.
The fact that the pioneers went through what they did is positive proof for me that they knew what they were sacrificing for was right and true.
For those who have a hard time discovering the truthfulness of this church, or at least have a hard time finding respect for those who gave their lives for it, below is a challenge I offer to you.
Put yourself in this situation:
You live a comfortable life.  You have a beautiful home in an area surrounded by friends and family that love you.  You have been blessed with a happy, comfortable life for which you are very grateful for and would be heartbroken if you left it behind.  The ties to your life here in this area are stronger than anything you have ever experienced before.
Until...
One day, a nice young man comes to you and your beautiful family with a book and a message.  This message fills your soul with more joy and more happiness than you had before, even when you thought your happiness could not increase.
However, your family, friends, community, government, nation, see this joy in a different way.
They see your joy as demonic possession.  You try to share it with your loved ones, only to have those whom you love and respect dearly, spit in your face, stab you in the back and make threats on your life.
This becomes much more than just hurtful words with no action.  They start to turn into what only could be thought of in nightmares.  People you had respect and love for now threaten the lives of you and your children.
Your family and all those who have discovered and accepted this new happiness and ideas are forced by the government to move away from your home.  The government, which was originally written for religious acceptance, treats you as hostile, doing the very thing they were designed not to do.
You have little or no frontier experience, which means you will be learning by trial and error.
You must travel across the country in a harsh and unfriendly environment.
You and your family must experience the most extreme conditions of
thirst, hunger, fatigue.  Your food per day will average 10 ounces of flour mixed with water, and will go below this average as you continue, becoming more and more weak.
Not to mention diseases that escalate your conditions, snakes and wolves, uncharted terrain, violent Indians and mobs, several experiences that strike fear into the hearts of you, or your little ones.
Did I mention that you will be doing this on foot?  The only things you can bring are those that you can carry.
All of this will be done in weather that chaps the hide of coyote and rattlesnakes.
Extreme heat, dust, wind.  Freezing cold, blizzards, hail.  The temperature will be well below freezing.  The snow will be more than 18 inches deep multiple times.  The only shelter you will find from this will be in natural mountain coves or under the contraption you built by hand to carry your supplies, or the bodies of those who have passed on.  You will find several rivers, streams, rocks, mountains, blocking your way.  In the middle of the harsh weather and living conditions you are suffering, you must cross these frozen rivers, climb these mountains, etc.  Doing so will most likely cause physical injury, disease and death.  Not only must you get your family and luggage across this river, but you must also help strangers you are traveling with to cross this river.
Not only must you take your family on this journey, but you will help others along the way out of kindness, not strength. Your clothing will have no technology to block out the weather.  It must be cotton or wool.  Your shoes will in no ways be ergonomic.  They will be built by hand.
All of these conditions will take the lives of your loved ones; spouse, children, parents, dearest and closest friends, etc.  The image of your loved ones lying dead by the side of the trail will haunt you for the rest of your life.
You will travel thousands of miles to a land you have heard nothing of, with people you have never met, arriving jobless and homeless at your destination, tearing your family and yourself apart all because of the book you read and the ideas you accepted.
You must do all of this willingly, relying on God to get you there.
Would you do this for something you knew were not true?
There is only one answer to the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ; it happened!
If it did not, those who believe it to be false must explain what caused so many people to pursue this journey, and it is not enough to simply declare so many good Christian people as possessed by demonic evils.
Have some respect for those who did this because they knew it was right.  They were guided by the hand of God on their journey, and they saw the miracles to prove its truth.

AREA 3- Belgrade!

Good ol' Belgrade!  I just came from you, and you will always hold a special place in my heart!
Well, this was my second area on my mission.  When i got the call, I was NOT excited to have to leave Kalispell, at all.  I was afraid of it being a place filled with scary people, unfriendly scenery, and I don't know what else I was afraid of while moving there.
However, when I got there, I was pleasantly surprised!  I had an awesome time at Belgrade!  I loved the mountains around us.  It seems that every morning there was another sunrise that was even more epic than the one I saw the other day!  The Gallatin Valley, where Belgrade and Bozeman reside, is one of the prettiest valleys I have seen in Montana.
I quickly made a lot of friends in Belgrade.  Just like Kalispell, the ward members were amazing.  I look up to the little wards in Belgrade and all of the people there.  I made good friends with our host family, the Bakers!  Joel Baker and I quickly became friends when he showed me his guitar and we had a short jampsession the first night I was there!  I had so much fun living with the good Baker family and will always be grateful to them, just as I was with the Moss family, my host family in Kalispell.
In Belgrade, I learned of perseverance.  When I first cam there, I was having a hard time with my mission.  I was wondering if I would make it.  I set the goal to go to my 6 month mark, take a look and inventory of myself and make a decision from there of either staying or packing up and leaving my nametag behind.  Well, in the 3 months of being in Belgrade, with the help of good friends in the wards, other missionaries including my mission president, and all of the fun I had with my companion, Elder Hokanson, I was surprised to find that 3 months in Belgrade went really fast because of the good times we had.
There were still hard days in Belgrade.  Those will happen no matter where you are!  One of the things that pulled me through those were visits with an elderly member of the Belgrade war, Helen Jensen.  This good lady has been a good friend to missionaries for a long time, and I feel very blessed to have met that good lady!  She made me laugh many times, sometimes when I most needed it.

I LOVE Belgrade!  I will be returning for sure; partly because of the 3 ski resorts that surround the Belgrade/Bozeman area.  But until then, Belgrade and the good people that live there, will always have another special place in my heart!  The one right next to Kalispell.

AREA 2- Kalispell

So, technically, this should be AREA 1, but then I would have to change the MTC to AREA .5 and I don't want to do that. 

This is where my mission began!  My first area, and I can't imagine a better place to start out!\

Kalispell is special to me for many reasons.  I guess this sentimentality caame from the trials I had of adjusting from the life I was living and the life I would be living. 

Some of the hardest of trials and gloomiest of times happened here in Kali.  However, those dark times cannot hide the light!  Just as you can't darken a room with a "flash-dark" instead of a flashlight.  Darkness is simply the absence of light.  And there most certainly is light in beautiful Kalispell.

And this is the place where it all began.  This is the starting line, the beginning of the runway, the first stage of the flight. 

Were there rough times?  Of course.  There are rough times everywhere.  Apparently, they weren't rough enough to make this airplane crash though!

One of the things that really pulled me through, and that I miss about Kalispell, is the friendships I formed there.  The members and nonmembers of the church that I was able to talk with and laugh with will always hold a special place in my heart.  That is one thing that kept me there!

\I have learned from Kalispell that no matter how different we all are from each other, we can still be friends.  I learned to be patient as a missionary.  I learned that miracles happen every day!

I spent Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas up in Kalispell.  Each holiday was spent with a member family to whom I will always be grateful for their hospitality and letting us be a part of their lives for the time we were there.

I had a hard time leaving Kalispell.  That is something about missions that I am not fond of; how we have to say goodbye to so much, so often!  The time I spent in Kalispell, I will not have it again, but I will always remember it and smile!

Kalispell was great!
And they opened a Panda Express while I was there too!  Can't complain about that!

Mission Briefing - AREA 1

This morning, I was thinking about how much I love the area I am serving in.  I thought of transfers (tomorrow) and how much I hope that my companion and I get to stay here.  I thought of how much I have loved every area I have served in, how much I have learned in each area, and the friends I have made.  So I have discovered a grand idea!  I shall do a report of each area that I have served in!
And it begins now!
And here is a picture of a jet.

AREA 1: Missionary Training Center, Provo, UT
This place was only 7 miles away from my house (also known as home-base!).  I could have run to my grandparent's house for lunch and made it back in time.
I have a love-hate relationship with this place. 
I had a hard time staying inside for so long, reading so much, trying to learn as much as I could while there.  It was a hard adjustment for me.  I think of it as the pre-mission briefing on an aircraft carrier.  I was nervous, uncertain and unaware of what would happen.
That is why I have this picture of an F-14 tomcat on an aircraft carrier.  That's something I wanted to do if I grew up.
What I loved about the MTC (aside from free BYU ice cream on Wednesdays) is the spirit that was there.  I learned and grew so much from that not-so-fun experience.  I learned how to fully trust in the Lord; it would have been hard not to!
That was the takeoff point of this mission.
What can be learned is that we as people can do ANYTHING if we trust in God.  We may not think that we can do it ourselves, but if we just move forward with our trust in the Lord, one day we will look back and see how far we have flown!

Fruits of Living the Gospel: Cafe Rio!

Okay, so I wrote a post about the temptations of the devil and Chinese food.  It is now time to write about the opposite end of the spectrum; how the gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed the lives of those who live by it and Cafe Rio! 
Do you have a friend from church or school?  Do you look up to them?  Can you see how happy they are because they are living the gospel of Jesus Christ?  What makes them that happy?  What is church doing for them? 
And is it doing the same for you? 
Christ tells us to "come unto" Him.  In exchange, He will give us relief from the things that drive us crazy down here on earth.  He will "ease our burdens" and help us find happiness and purpose in this life. (see Matthew 11: 28-30)
In the Book of Mormon, the prophet father Lehi tells of a dream he had in which he partook of fruit from the tree of life.  He said that the fruit would make one happy.
"10 And it came to pass that I beheld a ^atree, whose ^bfruit was desirable to make one ^chappy.

 11 And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the ^afruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted....

 12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great ^ajoy;.."

(1 Nephi 8)

He compares this fruit to living by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, are you partaking of the fruit?  Or are you just standing by the tree?  If you aren't tasting this awesome fruit, what is holding you back?

You can see how this gospel has blessed the lives of those around you.  I know I can.

Jump in line here at the Cafe Rio of the gospel!  Don't fall for the easy or bad way of the Chinese buffet!  Here lies true happiness!  This food will not give you stomach cramps!  You won't regret coming here.

Open your eyes and taste the fruit!  Decide to follow Jesus Christ!  Have faith in Him.  Turn away from the things you are doing that would make Him sad!   Be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost!  This is so much better than living without!

Despite how our faces look, we are VERY HAPPY

Forget about the things that hold you down.  They may be appealing now, but they won't last.  They will leave you faster than Chinese food and leave you in pain!  Cafe Rio will stay with you and enrich your life forever.

It may seem silly of me to compare the gospel of Jesus Christ to food, but it makes sense to me.

I invite everybody to come and partake of the fruit of the gospel.  This is His true church!  I know it!  I can see it as I see how others live, as well as in myself.

Come find out!

The Temptations of the Devil: Chinese Food

Strawberry milk is another temptation, also.

I have always liked Chinese food.  That doesn't mean it always likes me.  I find it interesting how I love to eat it, but then it causes my digestive system so much grief.  You would think I would stop eating it after a while.  I have been pretty good about avoiding it, but every once-in-a-while I give into temptation.  When this happens, I often have instant regret.  I sacrifice my stomach's well-being just to please my own cravings.  Why do I do this to myself?  Why do we all do things like this to ourselves?
In the same way that I am tempted by delicious, salt-filled chicken and rice, Satan tempts all of us, all of the time, in different ways.  He will always make it look appealing and desirable.  He tells us that it won't hurt us or anybody else.  News flash; Satan is a LIAR.  He will ALWAYS leave us empty and in pain.  The best way to not feel this way is to have the self-control to say NO.  It will be difficult.  If it weren't difficult, there would be no point in making decisions.  We must have the strength to say no and turn away from the darkness and into the light.  Through our Savior, Jesus Christ, we can have the strength and motivation to make decisions that won't give us spiritual stomach cramps.
I am not saying that Chinese food is of the devil, I am just likening a temptation of mine to temptations we will all have.  When facing a decision, look in the long term.  Getting a tattoo now may not look like it will hurt anybody, but what will that look like when you have to tell your children why they should not get a tattoo?  That is just one example.
Jacob 6: 12 "Oh be wise, what can I say more?"

It's OK to be Goofy

Two or three years ago, I was skiing with my cousins.  Skiing is always a grand-ol' time for us, and a little friendly competition never hurt anybody.  What does hurt is when my ego gets in the way of having fun.  Sometimes, and i have been guilty of this, we are so concentrated on being the FIRST, the BEST, the FARTHEST, that we forget why we are here (-enter your favorite activity here-)-ing.  If you ski, it's OK to not be the best.  Are you having fun?  If you play basketball, it's OK to not be the best player there.  If you ride motocross, it's OK to not win all the time. 

I see a common issue coming here.  A little thing I call pride gets in the way of fun every now and then.  As human beings that aren't perfect, we sometimes let pride take over and we become so focused on satisfying ourselves and our own ego that we will forget why we are even doing our favorite activity other than to beat our neighbor at it.  All through the Book of Mormon, we see how the Nephites go through a cycle of pride over and over again.  So, what is OUR pride cycle?

So, what is a good way to diffuse our pride?  Well, from my approach (that of a skier / motorcycle-rider / whatever) a good way to forget about who's winning is to be goofy.  Laugh!  If you aren't having fun, why are you doing what you're doing?  It is our choice to have fun or not.  Are you smiling?  Are you laughing?  Are you laughing at yourself?  Are you laughing at your own mistakes?  Why not?

NOW THEN, this does NOT mean that you should be ANNOYING!  Help others have a good time too!  Don't make them hate riding up on the chairlift with you! 

-(I apologize to anybody I have annoyed on Sundance Arrowhead chairlift.  If you don't forgive me, get over it)

Another thing, I am not discouraging pushing ourselves and developing our talents.  That is one of the reasons we are down here on earth.  What I will encourage is to have fun and enjoy that process of learning and growing.  Don't get discouraged or angry when a horse bucks you off, get right back on and try again having learned from the previous fall and a sore back.  Click into ski bindings, kick-start that bike, put on a helmet and be ready to laugh and have fun!  It's OK if you make a fool of yourself once in a while.  It helps you learn.

As I write this, my cousins come to mind.  They are a good example of "it's OK to be goofy."  I will not lie, they are VERY silly.  I am also.  We have a lot of fun together.  One of the many things that they have all taught me is what I have written to you today.  I will always be grateful for their good example to me and how they help me learn that pride should never get in the way of your fun.  While being with them, I have learned all of these things and for all the laughs we've had. 

May you have fun in your jaunts through the forest, down the mountain, in the desert or wherever you be.

Don't forget to laugh.