Hello dearest friends. This week I found something in my reading that really impacted me in the reading of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ especially the part where He is taken in before Pilate. Here He is, in front of the most powerful person in Jerusalem. He is the one that has all the power from Rome and gives the okay on all things regarding the Jews. This is the man to fear if there ever was one. Now picture Jesus Christ, He has already suffered beyond anything a man can suffer in Gethsemane for hours, and all night was being beaten and abused and tortured basically and I doubt He slept at all. So here He is in the lowest point physically someone can be in, and here is the ruler of the land and Christ doesn't even respond to his first question. Pilate almost mad asks why He isn't answering if he has the power to kill him. Christ responds, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." (John 19:11).
Can't you hear the power there? What I take from this is the power that comes from being in good standing with your Heavenly Father, this is the power of personal righteousness and purity which is virtue. He had power when He talked and others could feel it. So much so, that when Pilate was talking to the crowd later he called Christ their King more than once. Later he wrote in on the plaque above His head and refused to change it when the Jews requested that they change it. Pilate truly believed and felt that this man was different, he felt the power when this man talked and knew that He was special. Any man could feel the absolute dignity and regality with which Christ composed himself, for it was power that is not learned, it is earned through His merits.
Not only did I learn of the dignity of Christ but also how interesting it is that Pilate knew that this man was the Son of God. Yes it is sad that he would be guilty of such an offense, but it is also worth noting that even a normal man could feel how special the Savior was and was willing to admit that he believed of the divinity of Christ. Would we recognize Him? Would we be willing to ignore the voices of the world to act upon those impressions? I feel that the two questions we ask and are answered here are 1. What can learn from Christ's dignity in responding? and 2. How are we like Pilate sometimes?
May we choose to live right and may we listen to the testimony of Christ the Holy Ghost imparts. 

Hello dearest friends,
This week I wanted to write a tiny bit about the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and a scripture we often quote but takes on so much more significance the more I learned about it. We know that the Christ child was born in a stable "because there was no room for them in the inns." I love this because as you look at the Greek root word for inns, Luke wasn't talking about the inns like taverns. The root word refers to the living quarters or room in the space where people stay, most likely family. Especially taking into consideration that they were in their home town and visiting, they had relatives there that would let them stay on a normal occasion. However, even for a pregnant woman, there was no room in their relatives' houses? Why? Because Mary was pregnant out of wedlock before being wed and therefore would have been a social outcast among her own family, and THAT is the reason there was room for them in the inns.

Our teacher brought up a good point that Mary had done nothing wrong, and quite to the contrary was actually highly favored in the sight of God so why the backlash? Mary was trying her best to live the way she should and still was cast out by those she loved. How many times are we like this, where when we are trying to live our best we are still not accepted by the rest. The others in our lives, even those we love dearly and are family can cast us out or cause us to feel pain. However, Mary still did what was right, and that is the point I am trying to share: being in favor with God doesn't always mean being in favor with your fellow men. God loves us so much and wants us to do the things we have asked us, since they will be always for our benefit and growth. And when we live right, although we will have the assurance that we are living according to our Heavenly Father's pleas, we won't always be popular. We won't always be the most accepted or welcomed person, because our Savior wasn't either. And can the servant be greater than the Master? We follow Him with trust and meekness, submitting our will to His and choosing first always the things of God without regard to what others may be thinking or saying. We choose to live right regardless of what others may say. Then we will hear those words from the Person who matters most, if not the only the matters, "Well done my good and faithful servant."

As I did my readings this week and worked on my project to fully study one chapter in depth, I chose to read John 4 multiple times to better understand that chapter that helped shape my mission and come to understand better the way the Savior teaches and loves. One verse that really stuck out to me this time was the verse 24, specifically the Joseph Smith Translation of it. To give it context, The Savior uses a perfect visual metaphor of living water at noonday to the woman to peak her interest and see how sincere she was about learning, especially given that He was a Jew. She has true desires so they talk and Jesus with much love explains to her about how we can truly worship the Father and then in verse 24 says, "God is a Spirit." However, that makes no sense and really the translation changes it to "unto such has God promised His Spirit." This makes way more sense, especially looking at how Jesus described the living water as something that would stay inside and burst forth and grow into eternal life. That is the Spirit, with the divine role to be with us always and help bring us back home. That is why Paul later describes it as the "earnest" of the Spirit, since it is a guarantee that Heavenly Father is serious about His promise of a large reward even the infinite gift of eternal life. So that is what Jesus was trying to teach at this time, He was trying to show this wonderful faith-filled woman the ultimate gift of the Holy Ghost and how through sincere worship she can have that and "will never thirst."

I love this promise and sublimely simple yet powerful lesson He chose to teach someone who was living well and had faith. He did not rebuke her, but instead taught her of this incredible gift that He had come to bring and invited her to live in such a way that she could have it. That is what I want, I want to always be worthy of the gift of the Holy Ghost, not just the influence. I don't want to just feel Him there, I want that living water bursting up inside of me, growing and changing me, and leading me to my Heavenly Father again. If we can live with a spirit of worship, that is what the Father has promised us. He gives us that gift as we make covenants and strive to live them with exactness. He loves us and wants each of us to have that living water. I desire that and want to live in a way that will make my Father proud. I love Him. 

Recently this week I have been reading from the New Testament and trying to understand better the Saviors life. As I read, a certain passage really impacted me in a way that I hadnt understood before, which is in John 10:38. In the past I thought to myself that the Pharisees must have been so blind and so hard-hearted to see such miracles and testimonies and all the while be plotting how to kill Him. While I don't know how I would have reacted in their situation, what really hit me is how this applies to what I am living in my own life. Christ says that "though ye believe not me, believe the works." It made me think of the many times I have disobeyed willfully the commandments that He gave us, or those times I didnt act on an impression and hesitated instead. It brought back times where I have wandered or doubted or simply felt weak and far away from my Savior. Though we sometimes struggle to walk by faith, Christ doesnt just say believe because I say so, but rather that we should believe the works.
What are those works in our lives? How has Heavenly Father shown us evidences of His love towards us? Maybe it is those tender mercies and little miracles that abound. Maybe it is our testimony we felt during a song or talk or while bearing it to others. Those sweet manifestations of the Spirit that come so often as we recognize them. However He speaks to you, the honest and humble seeker of truth will point to times in His life that they can say He has worked in their lives. Those are the moments we must hold on to. Why? Jesus goes on to say "THAT ye may know, and believe."
Those witnesses are to give us knowledge and to lead us to trust our Savior. If we feel far, we can start by remembering those sweet time He has testified to our hearts the truthfulness of His grace and power and goodness, and that will lead us to know and believe again, enough to summon the trust to take that next step and see his goodness abound in our lives. Though I may not live in His time, I can still believe Him, see His works and follow my Shepherd. 

This week as we continued our study into our Heavenly Father and Christ's roles in the creation of man and what that means for us, we were able to study a passage in Genesis 1, verses 26 and 27. The first thing that hit me is the power in knowing from other sources as we cross compare to Abraham and Moses, that this is the point of the creation where Heavenly Father took direct part. Many parts were delegated but here Heavenly Father went with Christ to create man. As actions speak much louder than words, He showed how much we mean to Him and all He is willing to do for us. We are His work and glory and He has all His hopes in our progress and we grow towards Him. What I mean is that He is very invested into us, not just His creations but rather His offspring. When we are down, let that one sink in for a second and remember that He is very aware of us and cares a lot about what is going on. It will help us to feel His love and thereby exercise faith in His plan and the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
What really hit me as well was when we looked in class at the Hebrew roots of the words in Gen 1:26-27. Seeing that the roots actually signify the plurality of Gods involved in the creation and how it is the translation that sometimes is mixed up. As I said before it is a testament that it wasn't only Jesus involved in the creation but our Father was a very active role and the power by which it was all done. Beyond the literal denotation of the words, the fact that the original texts have been mixed up in a lot of places shows the importance of searching for truth. I learned while reading this that it is so important that we be in tune with the Holy Ghost so we can see the truth in all things and dissect truth wherever we can find it. On top of finding truth, it is important to realize the obvious that if it is not all truth then the other parts must contain error. Therefore, instead of getting caught up in the trivial of the scriptures, with other resources from God and the Holy Ghost, we can find answers to our questions and not be led astray. Knowing that truth is found in all things and has varying degrees of purity when found leads me closer to the ultimate source of pure truth and helps me not to stumble with every wind of doctrine. I love that although we do not have everything, He has given us enough to find our way. 

How many times are we sitting in a church meeting and hear the lines "I know the church is true" or "I know the Gospel is true"? Growing up it almost becomes something of habit and things we use interchangeably. Luckily as we grow older and pay more attention we learn that although both are still just as accurate as the first time we said them, the phrases mean very different things. Personally as I served a mission in Chile, I had the unforgettable experience of spending two years in the service of my Savior. They were two years where His name didn't leave my lips and anyone I met would hear my testimony of both His restored Gospel and His Church in these latter days. I loved sharing how we can all feel joy and true peace not just occasionally, but rather every day of lives as we follow Him.
Of course as we taught the missionary discussions, we would get the one called "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" and in order to help our investigators remember it with simplicity we would teach the lesson as the five things we need to do. As I served, I came to recognize that the five things, faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end, were pretty useless without context and so upon further study of Preach My Gospel, we started teaching not just the five things, but we would preface each lesson with WHY we need the Gospel in our lives. We would talk of spiritual death and sin and how without reconciliation all hope is lost because of the law of justice.
However, what I feel now looking back, is that I should have focused much more on the most important part of all, the only reason those five things have any power at all, the answer to the demands of justice, the reason for hope, our Savior Jesus Christ. After all, it is not just faith that brings miracles and salvation to us, it is faith IN Jesus Christ. It is not just the Gospel or Atonement we need to implement and learn about, it is the Gospel OF Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Too often do I focus too much on the acts and gifts He has given us and not enough on who gave those gifts to us and His power to save us. After all the act of repenting isn't what saves us, and not even close. We do not merit our salvation.

No, rather we rely on the mercies of He who is powerful to save, He whose merits can rescue a sinner such as myself. His is the power. He is the good news of the Gospel.

That is what hit me as I was reading in 3 Nephi 27:13-14. Being an engineering major who switched to Biophysics, I analyze a lot and look for the cut and dry formulas that can be applied across many problems I encounter in my studies. So when I read Christ saying that He is about to explain what the Gospel is, I get excited to look for the five things He has asked us to do to be cleansed of sin. However, in verses 13-14 he doesn't start with that, but rather says that the Gospel is this:

13 Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.

14 And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—

He is the Gospel, which is really the Good News. The doctrine that our Savior was trying to teach in the simplest way possible is that He has come to the world. After millennia of waiting for this promised Savior to bridge the gap and lead us home as the Good Shepherd, after so much time of preaching the joy that comes through following Him, He has come! And why did He come? He came to draw all people unto himself, to lift us upon His shoulders and carry us home. For really we do not earn our salvation, but we work at living the Gospel of Jesus Christ to allow Him to cleanse us from sin and lead us back to our Heavenly home.

What a gift to know that, and I never want to forget that He is the gift and He is the answer. In all the learning and striving we do, we cannot lose our center who is Christ. As we work to improve constantly we cannot forget the news: that He has come. Let him make so much more of you. I love that He is my Savior and Redeemer and I want to obey because He has that power to save and redeem. So next time life is confusing or contradictory, at least we have a back up that is constant and all powerful, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

I LOVE NYC. that place rocks. Although I was scared of the subways, i still had a good time. I just got back from the DC trip for 8th graders and I had an awesome time. cool. You guys should go there, I even hugged the Washington monument.