This whole blogging thing is different for me but i'm gonna try it out. So I guess what I'll be doing on here is sharing what i learned in my personal studies or sharing spiritual experiences that I have on my mission. Today I will just start out with my testimony and why I'm on a mission.
I feel blessed beyond my needs. I feel like I am favored in Heavenly Father's eyes and that used to bother me. I felt like he needed to pay attention to other people that really needed help, not just me. But as I have been out here in the Montana Billings Mission (which I will refer to as the MBM), I have been able to see how God blesses each individual. It doesn't matter what their background is or where they are at currently in their life. Our Heavenly Father, the one true God, loves ALL of His children. He is waiting to pour out blessings upon each one of us. All we need to do is show our faith in Him and his Son, Jesus Christ, by putting forth a little effort on our part. Probably one of the biggest ways to exercise an individuals faith is by prayer. No one just talks to someone that they don't know is there. You have to have a faith, a hope, a knowledge that God is there and He is listening. He knows what we want and need, but He wants us to communicate with Him before those things are brought to pass. It's another testimony to me of my relationship to my Heavenly Father. He possesses so many parental characteristics such as He wants us to communicate with Him. He wants us to express gratitude to Him, not just ask for things all the time. In the King James version of the Bible in the Bible Dictionary under the word "prayer" it reads: "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them."
I testify that God loves us and knows us individually. His purpose is 'to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man' (Moses 1:39). He cares about where we are at and where we are going. I love this Gospel and the true joy and peace of mind it brings into my life.
I like what you said about prayer, sometimes I just speak and don't try to use "thou" and "thy" so much but speak from the heart, like I'm talking to a friend. I get what I really want to say out then. Thank you for your thoughts and strong testimony, it helps build mine!
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