Put Your Head Down, Close Your Eyes, Then Look Up

Sweat beaded on my forehead and my legs were aching. I was two and a half miles into my cross country 5k. It was only the second meet of the year and things were not looking good for me. For the first two miles I had kept a good pace and had kept up with the group of people that I needed to run with. But once I hit that two mile mark I found that a gap had formed. I now lagged fifty or so feet behind the people I needed to run with.

I was trying my hardest to close the gap, but it didn't seem like the distance was shrinking at all. My legs were tired, I was hot and sweaty, and in my head I was starting to give up hope. I pushed the negative thoughts away, but they rushed back in. I knew defeat was about to settle in and that I would soon be dropping farther back. For some reason I dropped my head and closed my eyes for just a second. I looked back up and saw that I was much closer to the people in front of me that I had been a second earlier.

My end of race killer instinct set in and I took off. Only five seconds later I found myself blazing past the people ahead of me and onto the next pack of runners. As I finally crossed the finish line I found that I had picked up about ten spots during the last quarter mile of the race. I felt satisfied with my results and was glad I had looked down for just one second.

That cross country race took place almost three years ago. Yet it has had an important place in my life ever since then. Not because I ran a super fast time, won the race, or anything like that. In fact I had many races that were better than that one. The race is important because of the lesson I learned. When the going had gotten tough I had taken a second to pull myself away from the race and forget what I was doing. When I returned I was better able to see the results of my work and I now had a new drive.

Oftentimes in life we feel as if our hope is about to flee. We feel that our legs are churning as fast as they can and that we are covered in sweat. Yet we notice that despite our best efforts that we are growing tired and that we do't seem to be getting anywhere with our efforts. At those times it's easy to give up hope and to settle into mediocrity. I myself have done that many times and when I was finished with my task I always felt bad that I hadn't tried harder.

So instead of giving up on what we are doing we need to remember to put our heads down, close our eyes for a second then look back up. We can always put our heads down, close our eyes and pray to our Heavenly Father for strength to overcome our obstacles. Then we can read our scriptures and ponder over where we are at. As we do this we can come to find that our small efforts are slowly leading to our goal. It usually isn't until we take a step back that we can actually see how good we are doing.

In fact on a very long day of my mission I wrote in my journal "Keep calm, keep working, and when you look up you will be surprised how far you've come." I wrote that over a hundred days ago and that promise is true. I've been surprised how far I've come on my mission. Especially when it seemed like days were just dragging on.

If we all just put our heads down and work at a consistent pace then I know that time will pass and we will reach our goals. It just takes time and effort and relying on our Savior Jesus Christ, who will magnify our efforts and help us through hard times and help us to be more than we are.

And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

Mosiah 4:27

Five Friends

When I was attending my first year at Southern Utah University I had five friends. That is no lie I really only had five friends. I can remember joking with my family that I went off to college and only met five people.

I have just never been a social person so the group of friends that I had at school seemed pretty large to me. It was a miracle that I even met my friends at all. I met three of my friends on my first day of chemistry class. I can remember sitting down in a random spot and having three people come and sit down next to me and like always I didn't even think about talking to them. But luckily the girl who sat next just started talking and from that point I was friends with her and the two other kids that were sitting next to me.

I can remember how the friends that I met in chemistry class helped get me through the school year. Since I wasn't very good at chemistry they helped pull me through and tried to help me understand what was being taught. I still have no idea how to do any of the stuff from that chemistry class, but I did pass because of my friends.

As the school year went along I made two other friends that joined my group of friends and brought the number up to five.Those friends were always there for me no matter whether I was dealing with academic problems, girl problems, or if I just needed someone to hangout with. Those five friends were always there to hangout with me and to talk to me. They helped me to stay on the right path. I can remember one of my friends who every Sunday would text me and make sure that I made it to Church. Though sometimes I went grudgingly  I was thankful for her invitation. My friends just always helped me to remember the small things that I could do to grow closer to my Heavenly Father.

When I left on my mission I figured that there probably wouldn't be that much contact with those friends from school. But I was wrong about that. As I struggled through the first part of my mission my friends made sure to write me and to let me know that they would support me in anyway that was possible. Which I found on numerous occasions that they did even if they didn't realize it.

I would oftentimes find myself praying for something it would seem like there was no answer from God. So I would begin to doubt and to think that there was no God or that if there was He didn't care about me. It was at these times that letters from my friends would show up and those letters would always contain what I was looking for. I would never ask my friends for answers, but they always were inspired on what to write me or when they would write me.

Those five friends are some of the greatest gifts that my Heavenly Father has given me. I'm so thankful for them and the influence that they have been to me. The way that they lived their lives by attending church each week, by reading their scriptures, and by the fact that they never gave up on me no matter how many stupid things that I did.

I hope that we can all be good friends to those around us and help them out in anyway possible. Let us seek to remain worthy of divine guidance that helps us to help others. May we continue to read and study our scriptures and to go about doing good so that we can be one of those five friends to somebody.

Cat in a Trap

Shortly before my baptism my family got a new cat named Kissa. She was a calico cat who was super independent. She was pretty different from the cat we had before. The prior cat named Sammie loved the family, always came home at night and was just super friendly. Kissa was nothing like that cat.

But despite the differences between the two cats I still tried to love Kissa. I can remember trying to hold here like I had done with Sammie and how Kissa would struggle to escape from my grasp. At night I would try to get that cat to sleep in my bed and she wouldn't have any of that as she thought it was much better to go and explore the house. Kissa also had a problem with coming back to the house at nighttime. Sammie had always know to come back in when the sun went down. If we weren't at home to let Kissa in then she would disappear.

The night that I was baptized I cam home from my baptism excited that I had just received the gift of the Holy Ghost and was excited to take on anything that the world would throw at me. I remember coming home and not seeing Kissa anywhere. My Dad and I went and searched for her out in our dark backyard, but she was nowhere to be found.

But I didn't lose hope. Having just been baptized I knew of my Heavenly Father's love for me. I got down on my knew that night and prayed that we would find Kissa. It was a little bit strange for me to do this considering that I had never really asked for anything in my prayers before. But I knew that Kissa would be found soon.

The very next day Kissa still hadn't shown up at our house. When school ended that day the cat was still missing. But still I knew that she would come back. That night as we were getting ready for bed we got a call from our neighbor down the street. He said that he had caught our cat in his cat trap. I was so excited.

My Dad and I ran over to the neighbor's and found Kissa wandering back and forth in this little trap. Boy was she happy to see us! We took her back home and from that time on she made sure never to run away again.

That time I took extra time to thank my Heavenly Father that my prayer had been answered and that Kissa had come back.

This experience as simple as it may be became an anchor in my life. As I grew older I've had time where I really doubted if God existed and if He really cared about me. But I can always look back on a time where God answered the prayer of an eight year old boy and brought his cat back.

God loves all of us and will never forsake us. If we are looking for something whether it be a cat or an answer our Heavenly Father will hear our prayers and will help us out. Put this challenge to the test and don't doubt and God will answer. I can promise this from my own experiences in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Faith With Works

On my mission I've learned to see the importance of work. Before I came to Oregon I had been kind of lazy. I always did my chores at home, but it usually took a lot of prodding from my parents. I just didn't see the point in making my bed, pulling weeds, or mowing the lawn. The weeds and the grass would soon grow again and when I went to bed at night I would quickly mess up my bed sheets. I didn't like to work on things that didn't show results.

When I came out on my mission I was soon involved with a task that I thought was pointless and produced no results. This task was called tracting and involved knocking door after door on a street. I quickly came to not like tracting. Doors were often closed in our faces and people always had excuses to not talk to us.

After several weeks of knocking doors I had not seen anything come from our efforts. No one we had met was willing to let us us come in and teach them about the Restored Gospel. I was little depressed because of this.

Like making my bed or weeding I thought that tracting was a waste of time. I voiced my reservations to my companion, who said we need to have faith and that we needed to just keep going. I took his advice hoping that something would eventually come.

Even after my companion had told me to keep going we still didn't see anything come from our efforts. It wasn't until several weeks later that we were walking down the street that we had a lady pull up alongside us in her car. I immediately recognized that we had knocked on her door a couple of days earlier and that she had told us that she was not interested in listening to us. The woman started talking to us and told us that she now wanted to listen and to learn more.

From that time on my companion and I were able to teach this lady. Our hours and hours of tracting had finally paid off. As I reflected on this experience later I was reminded of a scripture:

Even so faith if it hath no works, is dead, being alone.

James 2:17

As my companion and I had gone out each day and tracted we had faith that we would find someone to teach. It had taken a long time, but because of our persistence we had been blessed. If I had told my companion that I didn't want to tract and that we should just walked around then we wouldn't met the lady in the car and she wouldn't have stopped us on the street.

Even though the tracting had produced little success it eventually brought forth a brief, but great reward. Just like the grass of a lawn would soon grow back there would be many more hours of tracting with little success. But I grew to realize the joy of the work. The work led us to small brief successes that don't last, but are so worth the effort to get to. That's why we mow lawns, weed, make our beds or do anything. It's for the end result.

I came to realize that our Heavenly Father wants us to work. Like my parents He knows that work is important. When we work it lets us appreciate the things that He has given us. Because of He gave us everything then we would take His gifts for granted.

God makes us work so our faith means something. If we believe then it should inspire us to do something. So if we have a problems we need helps with let us put our faith in God. Let us get down and pray and then go do something to solve the problem. As we act God will help us and miracles will occur.

May we look for these miracles as we continue to work and seek for answers.

The First Week in the Mission.

The first week of my mission was tough for me. I remember feeling overwhelmed everyday as I went and tried to talk to people on the street and in their homes about the Restored Gospel. I knew that the message of the Restoration blesses everyone, but I was scared of messing up. I spent a lot of time praying for courage and to know what to say to people. But when I talked to people I found that I was still afraid and had a tendency to speak too fast, call myself the wrong name, and switch my words around. I felt unworthy and kept wishing for help. That help though came in a different form than I had prayed for. I realized as I tried to talk to people that even though I fumbled with my words people were listening and had a desire to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not because of me though, but because the Holy Ghost was testifying to people of the truth of the Restoration. Because I was about the Lord's work I was helped by His Spirit. He had answered my prayer not by giving me courage or the ability to speak well, but to know that everything would be okay as long as I tried my best. I came to realize that all the Lord asks of us is to do our best and to come unto Him through faith in Him, repentance, baptism, and enduring to the end. When we strive to do this we can find comfort and healing. May we all come unto Christ is my sincere prayer. Amen.