AMERICA! Happy 4th!

Happy Fourth of July friends and family, I hope you had a great one!

Yesterday we went to a flag reasing ceremony in the morning and then we hiked Zapata falls and went to the Great Sand Dunes! On the 30th we also went to the Sand Dunes with a care home and pushed them around the visitors center and had lunch with them. Good times!

I am so grateful for this wonderful country we live in, the area I am living in helps me appreciate it even more. I love the San Luis Valley, when they pray they ALWAYS give thanks for the water EVEN when it limits their farm work (bailing hay usually). The people here are so incredibly nice and humble and most of them are members of the church. The attitude the people here have is awesome, hardly anyone in La Jara has much money, but they know how to live with what they have AND know how to appreciate the little things. This country we live in is incredible. We are so blessed to live in a country where we can speak freely and have more of a choice in our own lives. I will forever be grateful for those who have served for this country who stood up for what was right. This country in which we have to live is beautiful, from sea to shining sea.

This week, I had something incredible explained to me regarding the temptations of Christ. We all go through different times in our lives that may leave us weak which is when we seem to be the most vulnerable to the temptations of Christ. Our Savior Jesus Christ was tempted beyond anything we can comprehend. Satan tempted him 3 times. Christ overcame the temptations of Satan even though he was capable of sin. Christ could have turned the stone into bread, but he stayed true. Christ "learned obedience by the things which he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8) and he "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15) Jesus Christ CHOSE to live a sinless life, he had righteous desires. "He sufferes temptations but gave no heed unto them." (D&C 20:22)

Are we living so that we can be "unspotted from the world?"

David O. Mckay a president of the church said this regarding the temptations of Christ:

"Classify them, and you will find that under one of those three nearly every given temptation that makes you and me spotted, ever so little maybe, comes to us as (1) a temptation of the appetite; (2) a yeilding to the pride and fashion and vanity of those alienated from the things of God; or (3) a gratifying of the passion, or a desire for the riches of the world, or power among men."

Temptations come all the time through the consciousness of each of us - it is at each of these times that we need to defend ourselves with truth. lHoward W. Hunter said this, "With faith prayer and humility, and sources of strength from an eternal world, WE ARE ABLE to live unspotted in the midst of a world of temptation."

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." (Psalm 23:4-6)

We are capable of living unspotted from the world through:

Faith

Prayer

Humility

Strength from an eternal world and allowing others to help us

WE ARE CAPABLE OF LIVING UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD!

I love you all and hope you appreciate your country and try your best to live unspotted from the world.

Happy 4th!