faith

in 1 nephi 7:12,"Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him"

god knows what we need, and he can give us anything.
the only thing that he asks for is just our faith.

faith is a cycle that if we have faith, we 'll have testimonies,
and the testimonies help us to increase our faith.

the BOM

today i've studied about the teachings on the book of mormon,
and i know more about it,
and i understand the restoration is greatly related to it.

in 1nephi, "And the angel spake unto me, saying: These last records, which thou hast seen among the Gentiles, shall establish the truth of the first, which are of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and shall make known the plain and precious things which have been taken away from them; and shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world; and that all men must come unto him, or they cannot be saved",
it claerly tells that this is also a record from the heaven,
which is to complete the whole thing of the gospel.

in D&C 42:12, "And again, the elders, priests and teachers of this church shall teach the principles of my gospel, which are in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, in the which is the fulness of the gospel",
just when we are putting them together,
then we get the full knowledge.
so we should study both the bible and the bom hard.

first vision

when i'm reviewing chapter 9 of the manual,
the thing that i thought of the most was the first vision.

in JS-H 1:17,
"It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, stabding 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!"

after the vision, joseph smith restored the gospel and the church,
he obey what the Lord said, Hear Him (Jesus Christ),
so it testifies that jesus christ is the center of our church.

If there's no faith, the vision came,
if there's not the vision, joseph smith would not be able to restore the church,
and now in the last dispensation, we won't have the gospel and the truths in our life.
therefore, i strongly believe that the vision is the start of everything we are now having.

apostasy

during the great apostasy, many different churches were emerged,
false doctrines were taught, it's a darkness of the spiritual.

in matt 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christ, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect",
it shows how the chaos is.

in JS-H 1:19, "I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof",
It was absolutely a pity that they had the authority, but never made good uses of them.
I personally think i'm blessed, which i was born in church,
i didn't need to struggle in the wrong concepts or low standards in the common society.
However, it's so harmful to men's hearts,
that they are surrounded by the faults.

good that we've the restored church and gospel,
and we have the correct teachings and the living prophets.

prophet

in D&C 1:38, "... whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same",
this shows the importance of the prophet.
prophets are the representatives of the Lord,
they reveal the anew teachings during different times,
and these all are like exactly form the heaven,
as the prophets have the authority.

in Matt 16:19, "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
this states that the prophets have the keys from the Lord,
that they may bring us authority, they can give us blessings,
they can foresee and they can teach.

it's a blessing to have our alive prophets to guide us,
that we could be continuously taught.

immortality

in D&C 63:49, it defined immortality as "rise from the dead and shall not die after".
immortality is different from the eternal life,
everyone has the opportunity to be immortal, even the wicked.

D&C 88:97 ,116, respectively stated that,
"they who have slept in their graves shall come forth",
also "they shall not any more see death".
this's a gift from our heavenly father,
He wants us to be here the earth to learn,
and after all the consequences come along with our choices,
we spend our whole life, what we are talking about here,
the immortality, enforce you to embark in what you have done.

opposition

in 2 Nephi 2:11, "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility"

if we do not have oppositions, it's just a chaos.
when there's no right or wrong,
there's no good and evil,
and hence we lose our purpose of life.

oppositions are just something for us to learn,
we improve, we gain, we grow with them.

agency and salvation

in mosiah 3:18, "salvation was, and is, and is to come . . . through the atoning blood of Christ",
it stated that jesus christ is the central of the plan of salvation.

last night i learned about the agency.
1/ power to choose
2/ opposition
3/ law
4/ knowledge of good and evil

these things came form the fall of adam.
since we have the agency, it brings along freedom and captivity.
if we choose the right, we are free of guilt,
but captivity brings us the lost of the Spirit.

salvation is something personal, requires our efforts.
D&C 45:58, "children shall grow up without sin unto salvation",
we can bring our own salvations, it really depends on how we use our agency.

missionary work

today i bore my testimony during the sacrament meeting.
my sister is heading to the provo mtc today,
and it made me think more about the missionary work.

in D&C 42:6, "go forth ... preaching my gospel".
if there were no missionaries before, my mom wouldn't go to the church,
then my family wouldn't go to the church,
if we didn't go to the church, my siblings and me won't have the chances to serve the mission.
if we are not going to serve, many people may lose their opportunities,
and a vicious circle may appear.

so, always prepare oursleves to preah the restored gospel,
tell everyone about the truth.
this is not jsut our obligation but also privilege.

purpose of life

our father has got a plan for us, the plan of salvation.
thats why we are now in the world. why?

through the journey of life, we know where we came from,
why we are here, and where will we be after.
God loves us, He offers us the chance to learn -
with our flesh and bones.

in D&C 14:7, said that it is "the greatest of all the gifts of God",
this plan makes us possible to return to His presence after this mortal life.
it depends on how we chosse,
we here learn how to define good or evil,
we make progress, and eventually will be judged.

purpose to be on earth

our heavenly father has a plan for us to learn and eventually go back to Him,
This's the plan of salvation.
As a part of the plan, we came to the earth and learn.

in alma 12:24, it said that mortal state is "a time to prepare to meet God",
through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
we all sinners are able to go back to the heaven.
but to achieve this, we still have to learn,
and thi's the purpose that we are here.

salvation

in alma 34:15, "bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name",
it means that if we believe in God, we shall be saved.
salvation is actually our own business,
you cannot force people to make it,
the same people cannot help you to achieve it.
we have to bring our own salvation unto ourselves.

in D&C 4:4, "bringeth salvation to his soul",
if we went go our mission, we are helping people to convert to the church,
help them to know about the gospel, hence go back to our heavenly father.
meanwhile, we are just helping ourselves to reach our own salvation.

in D&C 6:13, "no gift greater than the gift of salvation",
we can tell how valuable the salvation is,
and we are guided to how to reach it,
this is our blessing.

righteousness

In Isa. 45:8, "let the skies pour down righteousness",
we can know that rightousness is come from the Lord.
Heavely father wants us to live rightously,
and he promised us if we did so we will be blessed.

Also in 1Nep 22:26, "becasue of rightousness ... satan has no power".
now we know that the best way to keep ourselves from temptation,
is always live rightousness out.
Satan always wants to pull us down,
as a pre-missionary i personally think that we are even more at risk,
cause satan wants to ruin us.
so the weapon we fight back is rightousness.

faith and endure

today i've read the book of Job in the bible,
it's about Satan wanna show that Job was actually being good just because he's blessed,
and satan was trying to temptate him.
Job receives four messages, each bearing separate news that his, livestock, servants,
and ten children have all died due to marauding,nvaders or natural catastrophes.
But after all of these he's still faithful to God.

If i were him, i don't think i could bare all these things,
but Job shows that with faith,
people are able to endure,
and if we do so, we will be blessed,
like at the end Job had more than what he had had before.

Atonement of Jesus Christ

today i heard someone said to his friend "you are a sinner".

i was then recalled of the atonement of our savier jesus christ,
without his atonement, among all the men who's not a sinner?

in 2nephi 2:7, "he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin",
He is that perfect, sinless, but sacrifice for us.
it's definitely not easy to do so.
His blood washed away our sins, so everytime i think of this,
it acts as a reminder to keep myself to avoid to committ any sins.

in D&C 18:11, it's more clear, "he suffered the pain of all men",
he suffered all things not because of himself, but us.
you could never find anyone else could do such a great thing beside Him.
how great this love is?

importance of learning

in alma 37:35, "learn wisdom in thy youth",
now we are at our teenage, it's the golden time to learn.
our living prophets not once but many times,
have asked us to learn, not only spiritually but also academically.

learning spiritually, treasuring up our gosple knowledge,
it'll definitely help our missions.
it helps us to explain the gospel clearly,
and be capable to tell the investigators what they want to know.

learning academically, help us to be in the world,
we may face some technical problems during our missions,
it needs us to be learned.

service

I've read 2Nephi 2:3 today,
it said "thy days shall be spent in the service of thy God",
everyday we may be busy with our schoolwork,
what's the priority of the Lord in our hearts?
do we understand how important to serve Him?

service is one of the great blessings in the Church.
all of the work is voluntary in Church,
but actually we get paid, we have countless blessings.

besides the missionary work, we still could have a lot to do,
like priesthood holders need to do the home teachings,
or simply we may help the missionaries for their work,
even just help doing the chores all service too.
all of these can radiate the love of our heavenly father.

Hope

after the devotional today,
I've thought about the issue - hope.

after I'd got back, i read the verses on moroni 10:20,
it said that faith brings hope, and charity comes along with hope.
Hence, we can tell how important hope is in our lives.

in mormon 6:4, " we had hope to gain advantage",
not like in the verse that they got advantages over the lamanites,
but if we applied it, we may be able to face the difficulties,
being sensitive to know god's love.

Hope gives us courage, and faith,
that we may know our redeemer lives,
we know the gospel has been restored,
what a blessing the hope is!