Funny But So True

This is my cousin seeing stuff like this makes me have hope in the future young men in the Church because the Church is true.

I love Sundays/Last post as a Missionary.

I Love Sundays They always refresh me it is a day to remember the Lord and his goodness. They also help me recharge for the rest of the week. I would also like to thank all those who have been so supportive with this blog. I will try to keep it up after I get home but I don't know how things will bee when I get home. So thank you all and the next post with be by Chris Colby not Elder Colby.

What are missionaries doing online?

For the longest time missionaries have been told not to get on the Internet. It has been something that has been taboo. But now there are quite a few missionaries online. (I don't know exactly how many.) So what are we doing? We are taking back the Internet from all the filth that is on it by promoting Christ centered blogs and conversations; and inviting people to come to Christ and learn about His restored Gospel. This is in an effort to stay the tide of negative, and frankly disgusting, content on the Internet. While we can get rid of it, we can defiantly make it easier to find uplifting and spiritually filling content for the starving souls of this world. I have been surprised at how much of a positive response we have found and how much the online community wants the truths of the Gospel. As online missionaries we are available to chat and answer questions, to help people learn about the Gospel, and to try our best to strengthen people’s faith in Christ. We are on blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, and we are eager to help you on your personal journey to find the Savior. If you have any questions you can find me on Facebook at http://facebook.com/christpher.m.colby.

Musings on Gratitude

So, on Sunday(November 28) in Priesthood we had a lesson on talks given by Jeffery R. Holland and President Monson from the October General Conference, and I was listening to President Monson's talk he gave on gratitude. I got to thinking, which is dangerous I know but I can't help myself, and so as I was thinking thoughts keeped coming to my mind and as the thought often has crossed my mind that I could have done a lot better on my mission with many of the things. like things I did not do, or finish, or even over come. But as the Holy Ghost and the words of the prophet have a way doing, the words sank into my soul and some interesting thoughts came to mind on gratitude. For instance the unintentional limits we place on what we can be grateful for, like home, love, and  family. While all of these things are great things to be thankful for, we can and should try to expand our minds, like my mind was expanded on Sunday. For instance the thoughts that came to mind were that I should be grateful for all of the times when I did succeed at overcoming a challenge and rising above myself,  while those may or may not be few they are a testimony of what can be done with God's help, and what I should always be striving for. They are God's way of showing me what I can be and what he wants me to be, so I am grateful for the times when I did push through and overcome, rise above myself and do some good. It was said on Sunday, and I can't remember it exactly, or who the quote was by, but it was: "To be ungrateful is to turn your back on God". When I think about that it is true, when we are not grateful we have blinded ourselves to what God has given us and we be come blind to him. God has said: "And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments." (Doctrine and Covenants 59:21) Joseph Smith also said: "If you get on your knees every night and thank the Lord for all of the blessings of that day you will eventually find your self Exalted in the Celestial Kingdom of God" To me gratitude is one of the noblest virtues and one I am constantly working on. It is also and action word not something that is passive we need to show our gratitude by our actions, words, and the way we live our lives. A life lived in the act of being grateful, is a life lived in perpetual happiness, of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Short but sweet

Today's post is short and sweet. I just feel like proclaiming to the world that Jesus is the Christ! He is our Savior and my King and Leader and friend!  It is amazing how he works and the mysterious ways He helps each and every one of us. Which is something I am grateful for. His love and care are great and he has a plan for each one of us. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Happy Life

To live life is the lot of all humans, we go about things with seeming purposeless regularity. We wake up, and eat, and work, and sleep, and do things over and over again. Why? Why do we do anything? Why are some people driven while other struggle to get themselves out of bed in the morning? Why are some content with the mundane while other strive for greatness? Some are dreamers, and some are those who's dreams are their reality. It is puzzling, what are we here to do and to learn? What is our purpose to live and to love and to die and be no more? Or are we strangers here, having wandered from some other place? We all seem to want good, could it be that the place we came from was a place of magnificent light, where we felt perfect love? Is that why we are always searching for love and acceptance, why we need interaction with others?
Sometimes I feel as if I am supposed to do something great. I was, and am, and can be some one who does something, but I can never seem to rise above my weakness to find my wings and soar, and to unlock my limits that are self imposed and or seem to be pressed on me by another. I want to do so much good but can't seem to do any good, and my good intentions are paving my way to hell.  I don't know what the future holds but I want to make my mark, and to love others. I try to live the life of a servant the Savior but I am slave to my appetites. It is however comforting to know that Christ has promised me that I will, with his help, be able to overcome my weakness and become strong once again like we were before we lived here on earth. The fact that we sometimes feel like strangers in our world is because we came from a more exalted place. That place was in the presence of the Father of our spirits. We are not humans who occasionally have encounters with spiritual things, we are spiritual beings having a human experience to learn and grow. Our life is one of choices and what the Father is trying to teach us here is that the way to happiness is through his Plan, through the Atonement of the Savior and overcoming our faults, and loving others. That is our job, to try and learn to love and to chose God over anything else. The choice to be happy is ours, we can grow and learn under the tutelage of a loving Father in Heaven and learn true happiness and true joy, or we can try to fill our lives with things that increasingly fail to satisfy. I know that our Father loves us and he sent his Son, Jesus Christ to pave the way to true happiness and and show us that by following Their plan we can be happy now, and forever. Life is meant to be happy if we choose it to be, we are beings of light, we love to have light in our lives; and our families can be light, our friends can be light, and most of all Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ can be light. Anyway I know Jesus Christ lives and loves us.
If this seems random it's just what came out today. I love Jesus Christ and am grateful for all that he does for us, and I love my family who are a huge light in my life. Though things may seem dark and bleak look to the light of Christ, and to what ever light you can grab onto and learn to love and learn to communicate with our Father in Heaven through prayer. Life is good though it is never easy to overcome hardships, we become strong in Christ. Be grateful for the knowledge of Christ it is how we can overcome. To end, a happy life is to know and love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thanksgiving Daily

The Beauty of it all.

    When I think of beautiful things some things come to mind right away like these pictures of Glacier National Park they are pictures of Hidden lake up at Logan's Pass. I had the opportunity to go there this last summer and and take in the beauty and majesty of it all. The wonder of Gods creations never ceases to amaze me. It just makes me want to sing hymns like All Creatures of Our God and King (hymn #62 in the LDS hymn book) and How Great Thou Art (hymn #86 in the LDS hymn book) and shout praises to my Heavenly King. The whole thing is made even more amazing when you think that he knows all of his creations and knows them by name. He knows you, He knows me and knows every person on this earth by name. If he were to come to you or me, send and angel to come or speak by the power of his Holy Spirit He could and would call us by name he knows us personally.
    Just like how He knew and called a young Farm boy, Joseph Smith by name. Young Joseph was a boy who was just 14 years old when he became very concerned with his place in the universe of our Great Creator, his standing before Him and what he, Joseph, need to do to be saved in the Kingdom of God. Joseph searched and searched but he could not find answers in the religions of his day. The preachers and doctors of religion could not give him and answer so satisfy his young and starving soul. So he continued on and did as his parents had taught him and read his Bible and continued to search the scripture on his own occasionally he would ask a pastor or two what something meant but would get two different answers from two different pastors. But finally and mercifully he came across a scripture which pierced his heart. The scripture was James 1:5 which says that "If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and ubraideth not and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith...". This one little scripture gave Joseph the direction to go and pray to our Father in Heaven and with the unwavering faith of a young boy he did just that and what followed was miraculous and comforting for the whole human family. Joseph Smith describes his experience like this:
   "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.  ...When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"
  How glorious, how marvelous, how transcendentally amazing, The Father and The Son came and answer a young boy's prayer. They called him by name did you catch that they used his name, The Father called him Joseph. That young boy went on and became Their prophet on the earth and under their direction reestablished Their church on the earth The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
  I know this to be true. I have received my witness from God through the wonderful Gift of the Holy Ghost. I know that God know each and every one of us and wants us all to return to Him. He has opened the Heavens again and you too can know that this is true by praying and asking him and then listening to what the Holy Ghost speaks to you heart and you will feel a warm and loving assurance that it is true and that God loves you. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Is it not Beautiful?

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

Charity The love of Christ

Charity is a word that can have many meanings sometimes it means service or other things like it. However the meaning that has the most influence in my life is the pure love of Christ. I just love that pure love not sort of love or tainted love or love with motives but pure love. Love that has no other motives than our welfare and salvation. Love that does not seek its own interest but the interest of those it cares for. It is a love that can only come from God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.  We to can have this love if we desire because it is a great gift from God. In order to obtain charity we must  pray with all of our heart, but be careful you will start to have feelings of intense caring for the people around you and people at large. Anyway I think the scriptures say it best:  If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.

 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—  But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

                                                                                             The Book of Mormon Moroni 7:44-48

So that sums it up right there really enough said charity is one of the greatest gifts that we can have from the Father of us all.

Charity: An Example of the Believers

Strength in Christ

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 The Book of Mormon
  This scripture invites men to come to Christ to find their weaknesses, and the strength that comes from His atonement. This scripture has provided me with comfort my whole life and is my favorite. I know that true strength comes only through our humility to Christ. Humility is not showing weakness it is strength.