Follow the prophet or not?

To start out with I'm going to apologize in advance to anyone who may be offended. I'm not directing my comments at any one person, in fact its a whole big group of people so if you think this applys to you then REPENT and dont be offended because its not my intent to offend anyone.

I recently have been thinking alot about following the prophet. Alot of people say sure I'll follow the prophet but then when they're asked to do something they dont want to do they don't. It completely confuses me. Theres a specific issue which has brought this to mind. For me its something thats really simple to do, maybe its a more difficult commandment for other people to follow but attending the singles branch where you live is something that i'm really picky about. According to the official policy in order to attend a branch where you're not living you have to write a letter to the first presidency and get their approval. If you don't, then you're going directly against the prophet. It's that simple. It's black and white.  Follow the prophet or don't it's up to each individual to decide.

Now at this point I  just sound like some grumpy person who wants to make people feel guilty but i have some doctrine to add. First, Trust in the lord, He's led you to where you are and you're not living where you are by accident. There likely is someone's life that only you can touch and maybe someone needs to have the opprotunity to serve you and touch your life. Second sometimes the lord asks hard things of us. we wouldnt grow at all if life was all peachy and just how we wanted it. If you find it hard to be where you should be keep hanging on, get help, pray hard and do whats right and the lord will get you through it and your testimony will be strengthened. Blessings come after the trial of our faith. Third, the gospel isnt about which singles branch is more fun, sure sometimes other branches have activities that are more fun or better planned or a bigger turnout but that isnt what the gospel is about. The gospel(which is the whole reason for going to church) is about faith, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end.

So i've gone through apologetic, grumpy, preachy, and now, to finish things up, back to apologetic. If you felt this message was directed at you it wasnt. I'm not directing this at any one person. Those are just my thoughts on the matter, I wanted to make it abundantly clear where i stand. Feel free to comment if you would like to bring up any points i may have missed.

service

My thoughts lately have turned to service. When I serve i get so much more out of it than the person I serve does. I love the rush of knowing that you've made a difference in someones life. I like to linger with people for a few minutes to listen to them and get to know them because those are the things i think people will remember. Those are the things i remember about people who have served me. I dont remember wether or not people are of a high skill level at what they do and I dont remember what kind of clothes they wore or how popular they were. The things i remember most about the people I admire are things like taking a moment to stop and smile or to listen when I had something to say or people who tried to spend a little extra time with me to make me know that they had my back. And so i've made it a goal to live my life in such a way that people can look back and say he really cared about me and so that I can pass on all the service i've recieved. As i try i see the lord blessing and serving me even more. which leaves me further indebted to him and gives me a greater desire to serve others. I'm convinced that service is the only way to go in life.

Measuring Stick Day

When we grow we don't realize because it happens so slowly(most of the time). Physically we grow up(and sometimes out) and its a slow gradual process. We don't realize how much we're growing until we stop and take out a Measuring stick. Spiritually we grow the same way line upon line precept upon precept grace by grace until we get to where we are. Today i had the privilege of attending my home ward for church and listening to an old friend of mine speak. He just returned home from being a mission president in the Philippines. I guess you could say that listening to him speak was a measuring stick moment for me. He's the type of person that you genuinely want to be good around. I've always felt happy in doing whats right when i know hes around because i know he's proud of me. He spoke about what a mission does to the life of a young man. I paused and reflected what difference my mission made in my life. In short it made all the difference. He talked about overcoming difficulties and how that was part of the process. I thought about a couple companions i had who made my life less than fun. Those 2 transfers or 12 weeks total wouldn't be what i would consider to be part of the best 12 weeks of my life. in fact i might consider them to be the worst 12 weeks I've ever experienced. But let me add a stipulation to that, the worst ever while i was going through them. Now that I'm done with them and I've gained a little bit of hindsight and life experience i can say without a doubt that those difficult times in the mission when i felt like throwing my hands up and saying forget the whole blasted thing were the MOST important times in all of my life. They weren't the best 12 weeks of my life but they were the best 12 weeks for my life.
To get back to my point about measuring sticks i know that i grew a ton on my mission.  Now that I'm home I'm continuing to grow in different areas. Listening to him speak about what a mission does to a person really made me reflect and ask questions like "where have i grown?" where have i faltered?" It made me remember that i need to get back to some basics of missionary work that i had almost set aside. Caring for people, working toward their general welfare, working hard, setting and achieving goals, planning. All of these things became a part of my daily life and have slowly drifted away to some degree. That's certainly a humbling measuring stick for me.

Home run?

Today has been a pretty good day. I woke up a little bit sick but by the end of the day i felt alot better. I went to my math class and spent my time ignoring the teacher. That math class is a sad situation. The teacher is a PHD and everything we're doing is really simple to him so he has no idea whats easy and whats hard for us and so the questions we get are either really easy or really hard but to him they're all really easy. The entire class is upset with him and hes frustrated because he knows everyone is unhappy with him but he has no idea how to change. Sometimes i think all of us are like that about different things(usually not things that are so obvious) and we all have to learn to see ourselves from a new perspective in order to change and progress. After class i came home and i felt pretty sick so i struggled through my sociology final paper and then took like a 2 hour nap before class.  after class i felt fine again so i went and played softball. I was pretty proud of myself because i hit a home run(because of errors but hey a home run is a home run) As i contemplate my day in full i think to myself. I know what i should have done throughout my day now when i look back on it but i didnt do it because at the time i didnt see the importance and so i end the day feeling a little frustrated with myself for not doing as well as i could have but with hope for the future. No home runs in life but hey a home run in a game is just as good right?

Fourth of July

       As I watched the Fireworks this evening, I had a lot of thoughts going through my head and one of them was that i should make them public so i decided a blog would be a good way of doing so. This is the first time in a couple years that I've been at home to see the fireworks and it was a wonderful experience for me. I took time to contemplate patriotism and what it means to me. I thought about what our founding fathers would have to say if they saw our country now. These men were brilliant and most certainly inspired in the way they did things. Like all people who are doing what is right they faced some serious and substantial opposition. I think they would be pleased to see so many people who were excited to celebrate liberty. Liberty to me is something very interesting. The fact that so many people take it for granted is kind of what makes it what it is. Every single person has the freedom and liberty to be a complete moron and fight against  the liberty and freedom that gives them the ability to do so. I've seen a lot of people who unfortunately feel the need to do that. I think that such outbursts against the government would bring both joy and sorrow in the hearts of our founding fathers. They would be joyful because they could look at it and say "wow everything we worked hard to provide this nation is available to the people." Everyone is now allowed to express their own viewpoints. they're saying things that would have been treason before the founding fathers assured us those rights, and they don't even have any idea that at one time they would have had to fear for their lives if they said things like that.
        I also thought about what fireworks represent, what sort of symbolism they contain. Why are fireworks the traditional method of celebration for Independence day? A major answer to this question is found in our very own national anthem. We always hear the line "the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air" and just think of it as part of the song. For Francis Scott Key(the lyricist for the Star Spangled Banner) this was something very real. He saw the British bombs over his head exploding he was there during the battle. Can you imagine knowing that your enemies were there waiting for you all night? not only that but picture yourself as being surrounded and outgunned and on top of this they're dropping bombs on your head. We symbolize those bombs through fireworks. Something that was such a serious matter has been turned to represent freedom and to remind us of its cost. As I was watching I was wondering how many people in attendance for the fireworks were considering this fact. They played patriotic music on the radio in coordination with the fireworks display but i noticed that it was less serious and thought provoking than it has been in years that i remember. I thought to myself that maybe they should play the national anthem so we could focus on and remember the poetic words which mean so much. I then wondered "If they do play the national anthem, How many people would stand up and respect their country in the way they ought to?"
         Anyway this is getting long but those were some of the thoughts that I had upon seeing the fireworks and a little bit of what Independence Day means to me. I am thankful to the members of our armed service both past and present who do their jobs so that we can enjoy the liberties that we have. Today has been a wonderful day to celebrate these freedoms.