My Prayer Experiment

My sister gave me some wonderful advice the day that I wrote the last post. It was almost like a challenge that I turned into an experiment. She said to get started on it right away and I would get instant results. So, I figured it couldn't hurt - I took her advice and within a minute's time I got results!

I've decided to log my experience and report back as soon as my experiment has ended. I can't wait to share with you - because it will only make your life so much better.

That same day I felt that I should revisit my goals and dreams - working on the current ones and setting new ones. After all, the more we are willing to do the more the Lord can use us. The more we use our talents and gifts, the more he blesses us. I've realized that going after righteous goals and dreams with the mindset that I have another 100 years left of a great life to look forward to on this Earth has been making all the difference!

I started up some new goals today and I can see that the small efforts I have made have already been making a difference throughout the world - just over night. It's exciting what this amazing internet can do for you when you decide to use it to reach out and touch other people. Life feels good!

Now if I could just help my kids do the same! ;)

My Fears, Worries and Testimony

My goal with this blog is to be an example of how to stand tall in a chaotic world. I do my best to be a great example and to do all I can to help build your testimony and strengthen your faith - but today I have to admit (with your permission) I'd like to turn the tables (just for today) and instead of providing strength, I'm asking for it.  

Life is sure getting crazy and sometimes unpredictable. I have to say that over the last six months it's been more difficult to find the joy. Being positive and smiling comes natural to me - it's what I've always been good at doing. Finding the rainbow in every storm and turning lemons into lemonade is the only thing I know how to do well. However, I've noticed a change over the last six months. It seems that the darkening world around us sure knows how to interfere with my happy vibes.

You see, even a few years ago it felt like there was always "more time" so I was able to plan fun goals, exciting projects and see some of my dreams come true. Now, it feels like there are just a few sands left in the hour glass and I need to spend that time as wisely as possible. Like most of you, I feel the major events of the last days lurking nearby. In fact I feel surrounded by them which has put a stop to me chasing my dreams. Just trying to deal with reality can be pretty exhausting.

Dreaming and goal setting have always been the wheels to my positive drive. But I've come to a point where it seems pointless to plan a future trip to Disney Land or work on my three novel series that I would like to see turned into a movie, when it's seeming very likely that world chaos will put a stop to all of that. Every moment that I spend time writing my book I wonder, "Is this a waste of my time? Should I be doing genealogy or scripture study instead?" I wonder, "Will it even get published if society breaks down by the end of the year?" But then I feel good about writing it, because it has a powerful and good message, so I continue on.

I know we are supposed to go on with life and live each day to the fullest and not hide away from the world in fear, but deep down it constantly crosses my mind that all of these things I want to do won't be accomplished - there just isn't enough time.

That's where faith comes in and that's what keeps me going. For example, I really want to have another child (as if three isn't enough). My husband does not and I've been trying to convince him for a long time to change his mind. I've prayed about it, fasted, gone to the temple etc. but so far he hasn't budged. The answer I get from the Lord is "Whatever you decide is fine with me"

Part of me worries that this is the wrong time to be having another child with earthquakes, plagues and war on the horizon. I mean, there might not even be a functioning hospital by the time the baby would arrive. I'm RH negative and I would need a gamma globulin shot in the third trimester or the baby and I could die. My food storage isn't equipped with formula and diapers because of the ages of my kids. So trying to have a fourth baby really stirs anxiety right now. But then at the same time I realize it's a righteous desire and it would be a great opportunity for me to exercise faith in the Lord and cast my fears away.

That's just one example on the list of the many things I worry about. It's very difficult to make plans for the future when you feel like there is not much future left. All I know is that's why it's so important to live by the Spirit. The Spirit will tell us when things are right for us and will be our guide in this scary world we live in, but we need not fear when we have faith in the Lord and a relationship with him. That's what I continue to tell myself each day as I struggle with finding the old joys and excitements that used to be much more abundant.

I know that I am where I'm supposed to be because the Lord led me and my husband here a year ago through miraculous means. I have worried about where I live because many have had visions and dreams about a nuclear bomb going off about 15 miles away from my house in the near future, but at the same time the Lord tells me that I am supposed to be here. I can't argue with that and I really shouldn't have fear if I trust in him.

 We are planning a trip to Germany to see my in-laws and it's during a time that many have speculated will be when the economy collapses and the earthquakes and plagues will come etc. but as much as I tried to plan it earlier in the year it just wouldn't happen - so again I remind myself that everything happens for a reason and I just need to trust the Lord.

For me I think the reason I struggle is because I'm used to having control over most things in my life, but for some reason everything going on in my life right now, I have little to no control over it. That scares me and for the first time ever I've been having anxiety and panic attacks. It's been an eye opening lesson to learn that maybe all of this is happening to help me hand all control over to the Lord and realize that the only thing I really have control over is my attitude and my testimony/faith.

In conclusion, I guess the moral of my story is - if we let fear consume us then it's a lose/lose situation. If we are willing to trust in the Lord then he can remove that fear and bring us the peace we desire. I know the answer to all of this, I mean I wrote a book and a song about it (my music video up above) but I guess because I'm human, every now and then I need some reminding.

I love the Savior and I sure can't wait to see him again. I know that God has a plan for each of us and if we are willing to trust him we will see some beautiful and amazing things come to pass in our own lives. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

 

An Atheist's Witness of Jesus Christ

You know me, I love to read about dreams, visions and out of body experiences. I came across this one last night on The Wood Zone blog. It's so beautiful and I love that the man who experienced it was an atheist.

It's another confirmation to me of how amazing our Father in Heaven and his Son really are!

Enjoy!

http://woodyoubelieveit.blogspot.com/2013/05/another-witness-that-2013-holds-some.html

Mummies, Ancient Papyrus and a Mysterious Record

I think this is an amazing story! God works in mysterious ways - in that these ancient records buried in Egypt made their way to Ohio into the hands of the prophet Joseph Smith who knew nothing about them until he received them - and discovered they were the writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus. It's a record of the life of the patriarch Abraham and a description of the creation of the world similar to that in Genesis and the Book of Moses.This book is a part of the Pearl of Great Price.

So here's the story behind this amazing discovery:

In the late 1820s an Italian explorer named Antonio Lebolo obtained eleven mummies from an ancient tomb in Egypt. When Lebolo died the mummies were shipped to the United States. A man named Michael Chandler came into possession of the mummies (through inheritance) in 1833. He opened the coffins and was disappointed not to find jewels or valuable treasures. Instead he found attached to some of the bodies of the mummies, linen cloths containing rolls of papyrus. These papyrus rolls had Egyptian writing on them. Mr. Chandler took the rolls to Pennsylvania, in search of someone who could translate the writings, but even the most educated of these men were only able to understand a little of the writings.

Mr. Chandler decided to travel around the country showing people the mummies, and in the summer of 1835 he came to Kirtland, Ohio. He was told that Joseph Smith, had the ability to interpret the writings. Joseph Smith had already translated the Egyptian writings of the Book of Mormon. Later some friends of the Prophet bought four mummies and the rolls of papyrus from Mr. Chandler. Joseph Smith studied the letters and grammar of the Egyptian language, and then, with the help of the Holy Ghost, he translated the writings on the papyrus rolls. The writings Joseph Smith translated tell about the ancient prophet Abraham and are now published as the book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. This was quite exciting!

Michael Chandler sold the mummies, until four remained and he sold them to the Church in Kirtland.
Two of the four mummies and some papyri were later sold to the St. Louis museum in 1856. In 1863 these two mummies and some records were sold to the Wood's Museum in Chicago. The most common version of the story is that the two mummies and the records were burned in the Chicago fire in 1871. The other two mummies that Combs purchased, and possibly some records, haven't been located yet.

I know that Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price are all works of God brought fourth in our modern day to help us learn the fullness of the gospel so that we can return to live with our Father in Heaven and his son. They are powerful books that have changed and blessed many lives. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ amen. 
















http://emp.byui.edu/openshawr/Class%20Articles/The%20Mormon%20Mummies%20and%20Papyri%20in%20OhioH.htm

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=d20ba41f6cc20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=198bf4b13819d110VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD

http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=105&chapid=1173

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith_Papyri

When You See That Cloud of Gloom.....

Yesterday was a very rough day for me. It seemed like everyone in the universe was letting me down. I don't know if it was the way the stars were aligned or what, but I've never had a day where I received so much bad news.

Phone call after phone call including emails and texts; I seemed to get a message every hour from someone (all in relation to completely different subjects) about something that they had dropped the ball on big time.

By 6:00 pm I felt an anxiety attack coming on and I couldn't take it anymore. My whole world seemed to be caving in, out of whack, in complete chaos - I had no control. Finally, my husband suggested I call a certain person to address some of these issues with. I didn't want to burden that person plus it was dinner time. But then I felt a loud voice in my head urging me to call this person now. It needed to be loud to compete with all the negative thoughts that were pulsating through my mind.

It turned out that this person had been receiving promptings from the spirit to talk to me about these very issues and she was so glad that I called her. She said if I'd have waited to call her it may have been too late for some things, so she was glad I called her when I did.

It was such a weight off my shoulder to release some of these issues and hand them over to her. But then...there were still all the other unrelated items of the day that I was struggling with. Suddenly, something unexpected happened. I began to get calls, emails and texts (all unrelated) from other people telling me WONDERFUL news - all the way until 10:00 pm. I went from hopelssness to euphoria in just one hour. Talk about exhausting!

I finally realized the Lord in his goodness was sending me tender mercies to help me avoid my breaking point. I have never seen anything like it.

The thought that came to mind was sometimes the Lord just needs us to endure as long as we can and if we endure as best we can, he will rescue us and reward us.

I felt bad for allowing the cloud of doom to follow me around yesterday - if I'd have known how the day was going to end, I would have dismissed it all. But that's the beauty of it! Not knowing what's around the corner and just trusting that the Lord is aware of us and what we are going through - when the timing is right he will rescue us.

Whatever struggles you are going through right now- hang in there! Trust me, you'll see :)

The Lord loves you and he needs you to exercise trust and faith in him before he can show you the awesome part! I say this in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Connections of Mormon/LDS Church to Christ's Original Church

Last week in Sunday school, our instructor shared bits and pieces from this article in this month's issue of the Ensign. It is phenomenal! It explains how many of the teachings, practices and doctrines on our (LDS/Mormon) church were also practiced and taught by early Christian churches as well as Christ's original church which we believe to have been restored in our time. It's a great article. Here's the link, where you can see more and read in other languages. http://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/04/the-restoration-and-early-christian-teachings?lang=eng

The Restoration and Early Christian Teachings

By Michael R. Ash

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Historical research shows that truths revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith were taught by early Christians.

From the day the Prophet Joseph Smith received the gold plates in 1827 until his martyrdom in 1844, the floodgates of revelation were opened as he restored scripture, doctrines, and priesthood authority. The Restoration not only reestablished the original Church of Jesus Christ but also reestablished teachings that had been lost.

Many teachings and practices that distinguish Latter-day Saints from other modern Christians are now known to have been believed and practiced by the early Christians as well. Here are a few of them.

 

Our Premortal Life

Though the doctrine of premortal life is hinted at in the Bible (see Jeremiah 1:5), many Christian theologians before Joseph Smith had taught that humans and their spirits are created from nothing. The book of Abraham reveals that we had a premortal life with our heavenly family and that we chose the plan of salvation presented by our Heavenly Father (see Abraham 3:22–23).

We now know that this doctrine of premortal life was also accepted by many Jews and Christians around the time of Christ. According to one Jewish scholar, Jews in the first few centuries after Christ believed that the soul existed in a heavenly “spiritual reservoir”¹ before being placed into a body, as evidenced by the Apocrypha’s reference to spirits waiting in “chambers of souls”² before birth. The pseudepigraphical book of Enoch, which some Jews and early Christians considered scripture, taught that “all the souls of the children of man have been before they came down to the world.”³

 

Salvation for the Dead

Though some Christian denominations disagree with each other regarding the necessity of ordinances and works, they all agree that in order to be saved, we must accept Christ and make His sacrifice fully effective in our lives, acknowledging His divinity and the wonderful gift He gave us. However, since the days of Adam, only a small fraction of God’s children have ever had the opportunity to hear the gospel, much less accept it.

Thanks to modern revelation, we know that ordinances necessary for individual salvation can be performed by proxy for those who didn’t have the chance to receive them while in mortality. A loving and just God allows all His children the opportunity to accept or reject the gospel and its necessary ordinances.

Baptism for the dead is mentioned in the New Testament (see 1 Corinthians 15:29), as is the fact that the Savior delivered the gospel to those in spirit prison (see 1 Peter 3:18–19; 4:6), but before Joseph Smith’s day most Christian theologians taught that these passages were simply anomalies or ambiguities that didn’t really describe early Christian practices and beliefs. More recently, however, non-LDS scholars have written about ancient Christian traditions describing Christ’s preaching to the dead in the spirit world and having taught that baptism was the key to their release.

Some of these early traditions suggest that just as John the Baptist’s birth preceded the birth of the Savior so that he could herald Jesus’s ministry, so likewise John was killed before the Crucifixion to herald Jesus’s coming in the spirit world.⁴

Clement of Alexandria, an early Christian writer of the late second to early third century, said that “Christ went down to Hades [the spirit world] for no other purpose than to preach the gospel.”⁵ Clement claimed that Christ not only “visited” and “preached” to the dead but “baptized the just men of old, both gentiles and Jews, not only those who lived before the coming of the Lord, but also those who were before the coming of the Law.”⁶

Some non-LDS scholars now recognize that baptism for the dead was an authentic ancient Christian practice. One historian reports that in the early Christian Church “the necessity of Baptism is such that the Apostles and teachers … who preached the Gospel had to go down to limbo, there to teach and baptize the just already dead.”⁷

 

Degrees of Glory

While Christian teaching had traditionally maintained that the dead go either to heaven or hell, Joseph Smith learned that there are many degrees of glory in the hereafter. Jesus once taught in a parable that we will reap what we sow and that some will bring forth fruit “an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold” (Matthew 13:8). Irenaeus, an early Christian writer of the late second century, explained this passage to mean that there will be varying degrees of reward in the hereafter:

“Then those who are deemed worthy of abode in heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy the delights of paradise, and others shall possess the splendour of the city. … There is this distinction between the habitation of those who produce an hundred-fold, and that of those who produce sixty-fold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold: … it was on this account the Lord declared, ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions’ [John 14:2; see also D&C 98:18]. For all things belong to God, who supplies all with a suitable dwelling-place.”⁸

 

Heirs to the Father

Latter-day Saints believe that our Heavenly Father wants us to inherit all that He has so that we can become like Him and His Son. The Epistle to the Hebrews taught that Jesus is “appointed heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2). Paul taught that the righteous will become “joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17), and Peter taught that they would be “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

Many early Christians believed that the righteous could become like the Father. Irenaeus wrote that Jesus Christ became “what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.”⁹

Clement of Alexandria wrote that Jesus became man so that we may “learn from man how man may become God” and explained that because the righteous will become so “near to the Lord, there awaits them restoration to everlasting contemplation; and they are called by the appellation of gods, being destined to sit on thrones with the other gods that have been first put in their places by the Saviour.”¹⁰

Even as late as the third century, Hippolytus, bishop of Portus, explained that the righteous will become “a companion of the Deity, and a co-heir with Christ, no longer enslaved with lusts or passions, and never again wasted by disease. For thou hast become God.”¹¹

The early Christian writings on deification are so extensive that non-LDS scholar G. L. Prestige stated that the early Christian Church “taught that the destiny of man was to become like God, and even to become deified.”¹²

 

Conclusion

These and other authentic ancient Christian teachings were restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith because he sought the Lord in study and prayer. From Joseph Smith’s First Vision—which came after he read James 1:5—we find that many of the Prophet’s revelations were precipitated by his hunger for scripture study and asking Heavenly Father for divine insight. Teachings which had been lost after the demise of the early Apostles were once again given to the Saints of Christ’s restored Church.

Thanks to the restoration of these lost teachings, we rejoice with the early Christian Saints in the knowledge that we once lived a premortal life with our Heavenly Father. We know that God is merciful and loves all humankind and has established a plan so that every one of His children will have the opportunity to hear the gospel and receive the ordinances of salvation—even if they never had the chance while in mortality. We also learn that Heavenly Father expects us to participate in the work of bringing salvation to those who died without hearing the good news.

With our early Christian brothers and sisters, we can rejoice in the knowledge that Heavenly Father is just as well as merciful and offers different degrees of glory according to our faithfulness and willingness to follow His Son. Lastly, and most importantly, we learn that we really are God’s sons and daughters and that He wants us not only to become like Him but also to share in his glory and become partakers of His divine nature.

In the more than a century and a half since the days of Joseph Smith, scholarly studies have buttressed the claim that the Prophet restored doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught in the meridian of time. The eternal truth of these teachings, however, can be confirmed only by the Spirit. Only by aligning ourselves with God can these teachings bless our lives, help draw us closer to the Father, and eventually lead us back to our heavenly home.

Michael R. Ash lives in Utah, USA.

 

Answering Questions

Why was a restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ needed?

A general falling away from the truth occurred after the death of Christ’s Apostles. This is called the Apostasy (see Amos 8:11–12; Acts 20:29–30; 2 Timothy 4:3).

After the Apostles and many righteous Church members were killed and other members departed from the truth, the Lord took the priesthood authority and His Church from the earth. Without God’s priesthood authority, the Church no longer functioned as Christ had established it. The ordinances were changed, and many plain and simple truths were lost. While many good people and some truth remained, the original Church was lost.

The Apostle Peter prophesied of the “restitution of all things” before Christ’s Second Coming (see Acts 3:19–21). Having been lost because of the Apostasy, Christ’s Church and His authority were to be restored to the earth.

Joseph Smith’s First Vision marked the beginning of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. In subsequent years, Christ restored His priesthood and reorganized His Church. He has continued to reveal truths to His prophets and to restore the blessings that were taken from the earth for a time. (See Restoration in FAQ on Mormon.org.)

My Video

I recorded this song about seven months ago and all this time I have been wanting to make a video to portray the images in my mind that I saw when I wrote this song.

I'm no film maker but I did my best with directing and editing it. There were some little flaws like the video playing at perfect speed and in sync with the music on my computer but then when I published it as a final movie, it's off in certain spots. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so it bothers me, but after hours of trying to work out the kinks I have finally decided it's good enough. I've felt all week that I'm supposed to have it completed by today - so I'm finally at peace with it :)

It's a message about our testimonies of faith and how what we know to be true is beautifully passed on down to our children and their children and so on through life's experiences. I wrote it as a tribute to my own personal story in my book , Successful Failures

I hope you enjoy!