New Experiences/Uncomfortable Situations

  Many people in this world have a hard time stepping out of their comfortable lives in to new experiences and uncomfortable situations.  I believe there is no one that can step into a new situation or experience without being a little nervous, anxious or apprehensive.  So I think it's important to understand we have all been there.  I can think of many situations where I felt scared to step out of my comfort zone to do something, but as I have done it I have felt myself grow.
  My first experience with this was my very first day of kindergarten.  I'm sure many of you can remember your first day like I do.  I remember my Mom dropping me off and standing outside of the car.  Then I remember starting my journey across the what seemed to be a mile wide grass field to get to my class.  I remember being nervous and really not knowing what to expect.  All I knew was my Mom was behind me and was not coming in with me.  So I walked to where I needed to be with my snazzy Snoopy backpack strapped to my back.  I still remember the apprehension I felt, and yet it soon became a fun thing.  I liked going to kindergarten.  I liked the things I learned and I especially liked recess when I could run and play with the kids from my class who before that time had been strangers.  Now many of those same kids I went to kindergarten with are some of my best friends.  Had I not gone to kindergarten and stayed at home playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on regular nintendo and drinking Kool Aid all day I wouldn't have made any of those friends or learned the things I had.  So in other words it was through that first uncomfortable and new experience that I was able to gain so many great friends and learn so much.
    The next experience comes from a recent conversation I had with a friend on Facebook.  She hasn't been to church in quite sometime, but she feels the desire to go back.  She has even gone to an activity with the singles ward, but is still a little apprehensive about going back to church.  I think it's because it's an uncomfortable situation and she will be surround by people she doesn't know.  I gave her an example of a cliff diver.  I have dove off of a few cliffs into water, and the first time is always so scary.  I always have the hardest time jumping the first time.  Nervousness is more the cause than anything else for me.  However, at long last when I leap with all that I have away from the cliff, and I fall through the air and go into the water, then back out.  I feel satisfaction and I go back up for another and another.  It's ll about getting enough courage to do it the first time, and after that it's a piece of cake.  After a while you will be like a friend of mine and do backflips and gainers and flippididoos off of the cliff. 
   If we gain courage and step into a new experience and uncomfortable situations I can promise that it will only do us good.  If we are follow the commandments God has given us, and ask for that courage and strength he will give it to us.  I share in closing my favorite scripture from the Book of Mormon that has helped me more than most.  Ammon is speaking about where his strength comes from and says, "I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things." (Alma 26:11-12)
   "For with God, Nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37)  We can do it, and God will help us.  We have nothing to lose, but much to gain.  Take the leap of faith and God will bless you.
 

 

Charity is the "PURE LOVE of CHRIST"

I recently was given a district meeting assignment to give a discussion on a Christlike attribute.  I was told I could pick any one of them.  I went to one of my favorite resources for teaching missionaries, missionary things; Preach my Gospel manual.  It is a great training tool for anyone about how to be a missionary, and also how to become more like Jesus Christ.  I started by reading through the Attributes section, Faith, Hope, Charity and Love, Patience, Virtue, Knowledge, Humility, Diligence and Obedience.  As I read through them my mind kept going back to Charity and Love.  So that's what I chose to do a discussion on.  I'll share a little about what I read from Preach my Gospel and about the discussion I gave as well.  In Preach my Gospel it says, "Charity is “the pure love of Christ” (Moroni 7:47). It includes God’s eternal love for all His children. We are to seek to develop that kind of love. When you are filled with charity, you obey God’s commandments and do all you can to serve others and help them receive the restored gospel."  Charity includes God's eternal love for all of his children.  That is a lot of love considering he will love us no matter what, and will love us forever.  If I were to ask you to think of the most important things to you in your life many of you would name two things, God and Family.  So my next question is,  Why do you think it is that most people would name those two things first, above any earthly possetions?  As I asked that question in district meeting there were many answers.  God and Family are eternal,  possetions are not.  God blesses us, and so do families. 

   My thoughts as I studied this topic went to those questions and the answer I came up with was we answer with God and Family because of Love.  Love is something eternal.  We love God and We love our family.  Imagine if all people felt the kind of love they feel for God and Family for everyone!  What a difference that would make.  Chariy and Love is the way to do that.  In 1 Corinthians 13 is says, " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

BUT THE GREATEST IS CHARITY!!!  If we love we will see amazing things happen.  We will see people change and we will see them love as we have loved them.  As God and our family have loved us, even so let us love one another.  Love you all. -Elder Austin Gene Goff

http://lds.org/study/topics/charity?lang=eng  feel free to click on this link to read more about Charity.

A Firm Foundation and The Mighty Oak

There is a story in the Book of Mormon that I love,  Nephi and Lehi who are the son's of Helaman remember cousel their father had given them when he said, "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."  It says when these things happen,  It doesn't say they might happen, or they maybe could happen.  It says that WHEN THE DEVIL SHALL SEND FORTH THESE THINGS.  It gives us a great promise as well though,  It that if we build our foundation on Jesus Christ we wont fall.  It's impossible.  He will not let us fall if we put our trust in him.  He can't lie, he is a perfect God.  A life built on The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the sure foundation we need to have in these times.  With the devil's tools all around beating upon us.  Sickness, sin, temptation, television, movies, politics, and families being torn.  There is a Prophecy in 2 Timothy 3:1-7 that talks about what the people will be like in the last days that you could look up and read as well.  http://lds.org/scriptures/nt/2-tim/3.2?lang=eng#  

   Now I'd like to move on to a great poem that I have had memorized for some time, and it always gives me hope.  It too is about having a firm foundation.  It's called "The Mighty Oak"  by, Jonny Ray Ryder.

A mighty wind blew night and day
It stole the oak tree's leaves away
Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark
Until the oak was tired and stark

But still the oak tree held its ground
While other trees fell all around
The weary wind gave up and spoke.
How can you still be standing Oak?

The oak tree said, I know that you
Can break each branch of mine in two
Carry every leaf away
Shake my limbs, and make me sway

But I have roots stretched in the earth
Growing stronger since my birth
You'll never touch them, for you see
They are the deepest part of me

Until today, I wasn't sure
Of just how much I could endure
But now I've found, with thanks to you
I'm stronger than I ever knew

This poem always puts a very clear picture of a big old oak tree that has been beaten and battered.  Leaves are gone, branches broken, bark torn away, and yet the tree is still standing. The Gospel can and will do the same thing for us if we accept and live it the best we can.  No one is except from trials and the devils awful winds, but with the foundation of Christ we will always remain standing.  I hope all of you who read this will memorize this poem as well.  It is something that can help you through dark times.  I know that if we live what we proclaim to believe that God will  bless our lives.  Love you all.  -Elder Austin Gene Goff

2011 Entrusted by Heaven

Our new theme for 2011 is: 2011 Entrusted by Heaven.  Of course it is vital we remember to trust in God, but many missionaries mentioned the trust we have been given to teach the Gospel. Online and in houses and on the streets.  As I have thought about the trust God has in each of us I went to the scriptures to study about the Trust God has in us.  In 1 Thessalonians 2 :4 it states, : As we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts."  So it is through God we have been given this sacred and glorious Gospel.  Why?  Because he trusts us with it.  Will we prove ourselves trustworthy?  It goes on to say, " So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethern, our labour and travail; for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.  That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory."  We want to use Facebook and Blogs as a way to help people.  We are laboring in all ways we can.  We hope to help God bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:37)  We understand the trust God has put in us.  We hope to continue to understand it, and to understand it even more.
   I hope that we can keep the trust of God that he has in us.  That we will walk uprightly before him.  That we will share the gospel and share it through the ways we have been given and use it righteously. I hope and pray that we will Trust God, and remember that He Trusts Us.