Wisdom From God's Servants Elder Anderson and Elder Callister

Today I was able to skip school and go to a meeting with about 500 or so missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints the only true church of Christ on the earth today. The speakers at this meeting were Elder Anderson and his wife along with Elder Callister and his wife. My dad also spoke along withe the President of the Fort Worth mission. Elders Anderson and Callister both gave excellent talks and the spirit of God was with them both and was felt strong by me in the meeting.
Before it started I was able to shake the hands of God's apostles on the earth today. Literal spokesmen for Christ. Usually I am very able to talk to adults and look them in the eye, but when I entered that room the fact that I knew who they were and who they represented made me very nervous.
As they spoke they each said many good things. Elder Callister spoke of the significance of the Great Apostasy and how as the apostles of Christ taught the people in that part of the world their words became as a large game of telephone, where the apostles gave guidance and as it went from teacher to teacher and person to person, truths were lost and mixed up and that is why there were many epistles written to the people of the church to correct false doctrine. And as the church at that time was built on the foundation of the apostles priesthood, the church broke down as the apostles were persecuted and died. When that happened the power to give the priesthood was taken off the earth, church leadership was ruined and the church lost many of the plain and precious truths due to the lack of priesthood and authority.
In my church we believe that the church was later restored in its fullness with authority from God by Joseph Smith. Some may wonder that if that is true why did God wait so long to restore the church. Elder Callister gave the example of a pilot with a plane on fire like the church getting lost from the earth. He said that although the quickest way to restore the plane would be to nose dive, the lives on the airplane would not be saved. God had to wait until there was a country free from a state church and let the plane down slowly but as soon as he could do so, so that the church would never be taken from the earth again.
Elder Anderson spoke of the Atonement and Christ's wonderful gift that he has given to any of his children who want to repent and be baptized. God loves his children and wants them all to return to him, that is why he restored his church and I was given the opportunity to renew my testimony of Jesus Christ and his servant Joseph Smith who restored the church through the authority given to him by Christ.
After the meeting I and my parents the mission presidents from Dallas, TX and those from Fort Worth along with their two kids sat down to dinner with these two men and their wives and talked about our lives. They shared stories and Elder Anderson told me that when I sent in my missionary application to inform him so he could take it to the prophet to make sure I was sent to the place the Lord wanted me. That is incredible to me.
I love my Church and I know that it is true and the Jesus Christ is the head of it. What a wonderful thing it is to be a member. I love my Savior and I know that he lives and loves each one of us.

God's Hands

The past month or so has been a very interesting process and I saw the hand of the God on multiple occasions. It started with a decision about basketball, from there it went to a decision about school, and from there it went to a decision about a mission.
About mid-July I decided I no longer wanted to pursue basketball. Mom and Dad were very supportive and started to help me with things to make my life a lot better. When I decided I was done with basketball, cross-country into my sights. I have loved it so far. In my first meet I ran the 5k in 19:39 my personal best. I have enjoyed practice and the team is really great.
Once we realized that basketball was a no go my mom began thinking and her thoughts led her to the idea of trying to graduate early. The plan was to try to graduate in December so we looked at all our options and my counselor at my school scheduled a meeting with my principal to talk it over. We went in and we worked out a great plan where I could take the 2nd semester of english and science while I was taking the 1st. It has worked out great so far. I am almost done with my english already.
The reason the principal even considered doing this was because I want to go on a mission. We told her about the age change for missionaries. After I started school and made sure this is what I wanted to do I talked with Bishop James Monroe the Bishop in my ward and we got the papers started. I am now done with those papers and now need my interview with Bishop and the Stake President before the papers can be sent to Salt Lake. God's hands have been very present in my life. That is the life God has given to A Boy In The Mission Field.

The Book of Mormon

The reason this sign is true is because
the Book of Mormon is true.

Yesterday I finished the Book of Mormon once again. That is an absolutely true book. If you read it and seek to understand whether or not it is true you will find that it most certainly is.My favorite quote regarding the Book of Mormon is one by an early member of the church. He said "That book was either written by God or the devil, and I am going to find out who wrote it.” He read it through twice in the next 10 days and then declared, “The devil could not have written it—it must be from God." As I have read it multiple times I have found that it is of God. I could never deny it. Joseph Smith translated that book through the power given to him by God and Jesus Christ truly leads and guides his church on the earth today in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that to be true.

High Adventure

Hey long time no talk. Since I last posted a lot of wonderful things have happened to me. I had a good jr. year and made a lot of new friends. Can't wait for Sr. year it will be super legit. I just got home from Utah and had a wonderful time seeing friends and family who live there. Last week was high adventure  and the troop went down to Port Aransas and then up near Austin, TX. The week started with a seven hour drive that was really hard on my legs because I was in the back of a suburban with two other guys. Once we got down there we rented some kayaks and went into the gulf of mexico and had a blast there.

We then went to our campsite for the night. As we pulled out our tent one of the two poles from the tent was broken with duct tape. We made it work, although the tent was pretty lopsided. We then realized that that the door would not zip up properly, and to top it off we knew it was going to rain that night. Once we set up camp some of the guys went to the beach, it was way pretty. We were there maybe 15 minutes before the heavens opened up and started to rain. The next day our tent was mostly dry and we were supposed to go deep sea fishing. At that point I felt an impression to put my things (sleeping bag, sleeping pad, clothes and all) into the back of the car because i felt like it was going to rain again.

  Once we were on the boat we all cast our poles out and in less than 20 seconds Andrew threw up. After that six or seven of the guys followed his example. The whole day no one on the boat caught a single fish (that we could keep, because one man caught a catfish but he could not keep it). When we got back it was raining pretty hard and when we looked at the tents water had gotten into all of them, one tent even had the entire rain fly fly off. Every single person in our group and soaking wet belongings except for me because I had put my things back into the car. After we realized there was little we could do about it we went to the beach and body surfed.... good times. Then we headed to a hotel for the night, that's right a hotel on high adventure. So I got to take a shower and sleep in a bed, very sweet.

Next day was river kayaking down San Marcos. That was way sweet because of the scenery.

After that we went to see the bat bridge in Austin but I would not recommend it.

Next day was caving and that was definitely the best part. We crawled through really tight spaces and at the end of the cave that was a thing called the rat hole. The point was to crawl in there, turn around and crawl back out. Sounds easy enough until you realize the incredibly tight space you have to move. I am pretty skinny so the hardest part for me was getting my feet to move because they are pretty big.

Finally I made it home and had a way good Sunday to finish off a great week. Now it is Tuesday, tonight I am going with the missionaries to teach a friend which I am really excited about. And my boy Derek T leaves tomorrow for Santa Rosa California for a two year mission for the church. Atta boy Derek. And that is all for today from A Boy In The Mission Field.

Church Basketball

Today I went to Pastor Dons church to play basketball. It was super cool. We played 5 on 5 with Pastor Don coaching us and before we started we prayed and after it was done he spoke to us and we prayed. It was really cool. I was the only white boy hooping it up. It was a really good time. Another day in the life of A Boy In The Mission Field

Today's Stake Conference

Today I woke up really early to be in a meeting with my parents at eight. Today we lost an hour of sleep however due to daylight savings so that made it even earlier. But today the presiding Bishop of the Church (Bishop Burton) came to Texas to speak to me and the members of our stake conference. He gave a wonderful talk about heading to the words of the prophets and how important they are, and how important they are along with scripture reading to live our lives in the way we should be living them. Bishop Burton is Emily Hafen's grandpa and I told him that I knew his granddaughter. That man has a wonderful spirit and he makes a great effort to help people feel his love for us and for this gospel. Hearing him speak was very powerful and hopefully that sticks with me for a long time because he was truly an amazing man. It has been another great day for A Boy In The Mission Field

Me Talking about Texas