How do you think you would feel if you had Jesus Christ physically in your midst, praying for you, teaching you, and blessing you? It would be indescribable!  I love in 3 Nephi 17:17 how the people hear Christ praying for them "unto the Father".  In chapter 18 Christ teaches us that we must be an example for those around us ALWAYS just as he was. "Therefore, hold up your ^alight that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the ^blight which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed" (3 Nephi 18:24). The Savior loves us sooo much and he showed us and has continued to show us over and over again. I love what he says in verse 31; "But if he repent not he shall not be numbered among my people, that he may not destroy my people, for behold I ^aknow ^bmy sheep, and they are numbered" (3 Nephi 18:31). I love the Book of Mormon!

Never go through the days saying, 'Oh tomorrow I'll change'. Never slacken your strength and zeal because you feel secure or think, 'Someone else will pick up the slack'. This is how your week, months, and years go by piling high with regret. Regret is not a happy thing; its so full of would have, should have, could have dones.
Change today. Put your mind forward instead of in the past. Luke 9:62. Repent of those times you've slackened your strength, faith, or desire. Repentance=Change. Change=Progress. Progress=Eternity. Move forward each day. Do all you can to reach your divine potential.
Live and learn. Learn from your mistakes and others around you. Act and do not wait to be acted upon.
Today I felt like sharing something a little different. These are just some thoughts that have been on my mind lately and something I needed to share today. Always remember God loves you. He knows your name, because, well, He named you. Your Savior is always by your side just waiting for you to trust in Him and allow Him to feel/take your burdens and pain. I know God loves us. I know He lives and I know His plan-the Plan of Salvation was made in favor of us. He wants so desperately to have us return to Him but he also loves us so much that He allows us to choose what path we follow. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I know the fullness of that Gospel is found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love this work and I leave these things with you in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
I love you all and I hope you have an amazing day where ever you may be!

3 Nephi 8&9 The coming of Christ to the ancient Americas! Chapter 8 is full of the destruction of the people. The people (as usual) failed to heed the warnings of the prophets to repent and thus many people were destroyed. "And in one place they were heard to cry, saying: O that we had repented ^abefore this great and terrible day, and then would our brethren have been spared...And in another place they were heard to cry and mourn, saying: O that we had repented before this great and terrible day, and had not killed and stoned the prophets, and cast them out;...And thus were the howlings of the people great and terrible" (3 Nephi 8:24-25). What is it that we are procrastinating and leaving for that 'great and terrible day'? What ever it is STOP. Change and repent NOW so when that day comes instead of bemoaning your fate you can rejoice and praise God. To go along with that in 3 Nephi 9:2 it says "Wo, wo, wo unto this people; wo unto the inhabitants of the whole earth except they shall ^arepent; for the devil ^blaugheth, and his angels rejoice, because of the slain of the fair sons and daughters of my people; and it is because of their iniquity and abominations that they are fallen!" Instead of allowing Satan the 'pleasure' if you will, to rejoice in our down fall let Satan and his followers be the ones crying and moaning while we rejoice in our God. But this can only be if we use the Atonement daily and come unto our Savior "with full purpose of heart" (Jacob 6:5).
I love the scriptures! and I absolutely love being able to share that with everyone around me! If you are having a bad, hard, or not so awesome day turn to the scriptures and allow the words of our Heavenly Father to give you comfort, peace, and strength.

Man! I'm falling behind again! Here are some of my thoughts from studying this last week...
3 Nephi 2:1-2 "And it came to pass that thus passed away the ninety and fifth year also, and the people began to forget those ^asigns and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from heaven, insomuch that they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen—

 ^aImagining up some vain thing in their hearts, that it was wrought by men and by the power of the devil, to lead away and ^bdeceive the hearts of the people; and thus did Satan get possession of the hearts of the people again, insomuch that he did blind their eyes and lead them away to believe that the doctrine of Christ was a ^cfoolish and a vain thing."

Why do we forget so easily the mighty power of the Lord especially when we too have seen "signs and wonders"? Why do we insist on pushing aside the miracles from the Lord when we've read/heard and even seen the consequences of doing so? Just as they did then, we too try not to recognize the miracles in our lives and pass them off as nothing more then mere coincidence or happenstance. We must recognize the Lord's hand in our lives. We cannot go through this life and succeed without proper and due credit to the Lord.
Recognize the miracles and wonders the Lord puts in our paths everyday. He will bless us with more and more as we let Him know that we have noticed, we do appreciate them, and that we know He is God.

In the next chapter Giddianhi the leader of the Gadianton Robbers attempts to bring the Nephites down to his level by making the Nephites strong/good values seem as a weakness and what will lead to their downfall;  "Therefore I have written this epistle, sealing it with mine own hand, feeling for your welfare, because of your firmness in that which ye believe to be right, and your noble spirit in the field of battle" (3 Nephi 3:5). Just as the world today would rather recognize man than God they also look down on the once (and really forever) qualities of integrity and goodness. The Nephites were mocked because of their "firmness in that which [they] believed to be right...". We must not let satan turn the things of God against us. We must remember the good and follow it despite what the world says. We "must fortify [oursleves] against [our] enemies" (3 Nephi 3:25).

Here are some very late comments on my studies of the end of Alma! Have I said that I love this book yet?!?! :D
In Alma 59:9 "And now as Moroni had supposed that there ^ashould be men sent to the city of Nephihah, to the assistance of the people to maintain that city, and knowing that it was easier to keep the city from falling into the hands of the Lamanites than to retake it from them, he supposed that they would easily maintain that city" (italics added).  When I read this I thought of how much easier it is to follow the commandments and be obedient than it is to fall and have to repent and work our way back to the top. I don't remember who said it but someone said 'its easier to be 100% obedient than 90% obedient' or something to that effect.
Another chapter I really like was Alma 62:40-41 (vs. 41) "But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their ^aafflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility." How do we take our 'afflictions' do we just kind of roll with the punches? Do we take them with bitterness and become even more bitter after each trial or do we live and learn with a humble heart and positive attitude. I'd like to say I'm always the humble type learning from all of my experiences and being grateful for them but...that is something I could definitely work on. Sometimes I think its hard to stay positive during the trying times and we forget that everything we go through is for our good and learning. I hope we can all strive to learn from our challenges and become better and stronger because of them. Let us be like those who "were softened because of their afflictions" and let us humble ourselves before God. Though I may not appreciate my trials at the time they happened I can now say that I am so grateful for the experiences I have had in my life and for the opportunities Heavenly Father has given me to become a stronger, better disciple, and daughter of God.

:( Alma is almost over!

Ok so its been a minute since I've written and I just want to touch on a few things that stood out to me as I have been reading the last few weeks. Soo much good stuff! Where to start...ok so kind of tying it back into my last post; Moroni prepared his people and it worked. But he didn't stop there. The next chapters (48-55ish) are filled with how Moroni continued to strengthen and fortify the people. I love this because he had found something that worked and that protected them from the Lamanites and yet he continued to prepare because he knew that his people could & must become stronger. He understood that preparation is not simply a one time thing but something that must be continued like enduring to the end, but not just enduring but enduring well. So just because we've prepared ourselves (against Satan, temptations, weaknesses, our enemies/anything that will/can keep us from God) and succeeded once doesn't mean we're good to go or should be content. But that we must continue to prepare/strengthen and fortify ourselves against the enemy. Always staying two or three steps ahead. Being content is a false sense of security and a dangerous state of being. -Random tangent: Satan tries to lull us into a sense of security and contentment because it keeps us from progressing. When we are 'content where we're at' we've stopped our progression and are missing out on things that the Lord is simply waiting to bless us with. So if we feel content with the knowlege and other things that we have (spiritual) something is wrong and we need to take another look and change something.

Ah too much I want to say and not enough time to say it all!!! Um...Moroni is AmAzInG! LoVe him! Alma 48:16-17!

Helaman and his army (the 2000 stripling worriars) so amazing! Their faith, dilligence and commitment to be obedient is phenomenal and as you read chapters 56-58 you will see just how blessed they are for that faith and obedience. They are described as not doubting, having exceeding faith, great faith, fixed determination and more. They are amazing.

I love the scriptures! I learn so much from them as I read them and study them with prayer. I am so grateful to the Lord and 'His great goodness'! I wish I could say more but as I said time is not on my side. Have a wonderful day!!

Satan is tricky but he's not all that. Today in my studies I was reading in Alma 43. This chapter is mainly talking about the war between the Lamanites and Nephites but it is sooo good! Someone once said if you're looking for an action book or a story such as 'Lord of the Rings', the Book of Mormon is the place to find it! So true! I love it! A verse that stuck out to me today is verse 24 "...the armies of the Lamanites were marching round about in the wilderness, that they might come over into the land of Manti, that they might commence an attack upon the weaker part of the people..." In an earlier verse it talks about how the Lamanites were too afraid of the Nephites to face them head on so instead they tried to take the pansy way and aim for they're weak spots. It didn't work. -Because the Nephites had the Lord on their side. They relied on Him and were given strength and the ability to know what to do. Satan does exactly as the Lamanites did to us each day. He knows our weaknesses and he knows how to use them against us but as we rely on the Lord as did the Nephites he will have no power over us and our weaknesses will be made strong (D&C, Book of Mormon, Bible).
This chapter is so good I love Captain Moroni and his ability to inspire and strengthen his armies through being an example and relying on the Lord and being prepared. Read this chapter (book) with this question in mind 'how can this relate to me in my life right now/today?' as you do I promise inspiration will come through your reading and praying.
Sometimes its hard/impossible to learn anything if we go in reading the scriptures with an attitude of 'these things (ex. wars, genealogy, etc.) have no application to me' or 'I'm just reading to read and to be obedient'. Thats not what we were given these precious record for. We were given them to learn and to strengthen our faith in Christ through reading the words and applying them to our lives. The Book of Mormon is so amazing and no matter how many times we have or will read it we can learn new things each time. -Because each time we read it we are at a different point in our life and the teaching bring on new meaning and application. I LOVE this book and I know it is meant for everyone despite race, nationality, and circumstances. It is centered on Jesus Christ and His Gospel and He and His Gospel do not discriminate nor leave anyone behind. He loves each of us and showed that love through His sacrifice and atonement for us.
In the name of Our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.