Our Loving Heavenly Father
Hey y'all!
This week was full of power and many motivational experiences as well as lots of learning.
This week was crazy, we ran into an old guy who introduced himself to us as Peyton Manning. Haha! He asked us if we thought he should hang it up and we had a great conversation with him. He is very smart and loves learning new things. He is a retired doctor and is very healthy, strong and wise. He has taken the discussions before but was not progressing so the previous elders had to drop him.
On Saturday, we helped a family move and it was crazy, they had one semi full and the other they used 10 feet of! It was so much stuff. It was fun doing service though and we didn't have to wear a shirt and a tie to that haha. That night I was able to cook for our ward mission leader and his family. I love them so much and we had a great time at their house.
This week I made a decision to study each of the teaching points from Preach My Gospel in depth. The first one being God is our Loving Heavenly Father. Here our some things I have pulled from my studies thus far.
God is our loving Heavenly Father and all things denote there is a God. (Alma 30:44) He has a body of flesh and bone just as we do. The only difference is that his body is glorified and perfected. He wants to become like him and to return to him. God is perfect, "he can not walk in crooked paths... his course is one eternal round." (Alma 7:20)
Our Heavenly Father loves us endlessly and wants to hear from us. This is why we pray. Prayer is personal. We can turn to him in all things and ask him any questions we may have. He wants to hear from us just as much as my dad wants to hear from me. (Unfortunately this can only be done once a week) Prayer is like our phone with one number in the contact list. We have unlimited minutes and can call him anytime we want. We never lose reception. He is always listening on the other end. He is a God of judgement, strength, knowledge and power as well as a God ofperfect mercy, kindness and charity. We are all children of our Heavenly Father. We each have eternal potential and he will help us as we strive to access that potential. I wish that we could see ourselves as God sees us. He sees past our weaknesses, our past or even the mistakes we have made. He cares so much more about who we can become - our potential.
How can we come to know our Father better?
1. Believe He exists and that He loves us (Mosiah 4:9)
2. Study the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:14-17) and teachings of Latter-Day Prophets
3. Pray to Him (James 1:5)
4. Obey all the Commandments the best we can (John 14: 21-23)
5. Service
Our Father's plan was created so that we can achieve our full potential - He desires for us to acquire every godly quality.
Here is where it gets a little deep.
When we came to earth, we had a veil placed over eyes so that we can no longer remember our life before this living with our Father in Heaven. He did this so that we would learn to "walk by faith and not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7) He did this because faith can be stronger than knowledge and I believe it is a majority of the time. Think about that. Faith is stronger than knowledge. He gave us the Holy Ghost - the third member of the Godhead - and promised us that he would help us as we listened to its promptings. However, God knew that even with all the help and support he would provide for us that we would still all for short. For this purpose he gave his only begotten son to suffer the pains and afflictions and sins of all mankind. However, why did he suffer? What do we get from it? Christ suffered in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross for each and every one of us individually. Not only did he died, but he rose again. He conquered death that we may live again and be perfected in him. But there is still a deeper reason as to why he suffered. He did not suffer so that we may all return to return with our Father in heaven again. He did however, suffer so that we could choose. He suffered for our choice. He suffered for our agency. He suffered for our pains so that we can return to our heavenly home if we choose to do so.
I love my Savior. I love my Father. I know that he loves each and every one of you. I know that he wants to help you. I love each of you and care about each of you individually. If there is anything I can do for any of you, just e-mail me.
I love you. Your Father in Heaven loves you. He knows it. I know it.
With Love,
Elder Soller
Resources:
Our Search For Happiness - M. Russell Ballard