Salvation

With out the Atonement, agency would have been a fatal gift.  Repentance is our escape clause. 

Christmas in Seattle

These pictures are from the Seattle Center. Inside one of the buildings, is a large food court and a space for music performances and dancing. It was here, that I danced the polka with friends before I was set apart to be a missionary in 1993. That friend I danced the polka with was my brother-in-law when I came home 18 months latter. At Christmas time they have this darling town up with a a train. I love all the little people doing different things and the buildings that look so authentic. I could of taken so many more pictures.

The picture below I did not take, but I wanted you all to see the tree on top of the Space Needle.

The Christmas Space Needle and the moon. A picture that I did take. It costs 18 dollars for adults to ride up the elevator to see the 360 degree view, unless you areagoing to the rotating restaurant, then the ride is free and you get to go to the observation deck. Jason and I had dinner up there last Saturday night. Our landlord always gives us 100$ each Christmas. This time it was in the form of two 50 dollar gift cards to the restaurant up there. We had see food everything- appetizers, soup and king crab legs. I'd never done this before and it was nice to do this with Jason. On one "side" of the needle they had fake snow outside. We didn't know it was fake at first until the waitress told us. It looked so cool, eating, looking out at the city lit up and seeing snow.

At the restaurant they have a photographer come around the take a complimentary digital photo that you can have emailed to you and/or bought down stairs. We'll I had it mailed to me, but don't think I ever got it.

The carousel at the Seattle Center

Definitely a room with a view!

The Greatest Man

Greatest man in history, named Jesus, had no servants, yet they called him Master. Had no degree, yet they called him Teacher. Had no medicines, yet they called him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet he conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was... buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.

For all of Christs Names please go to:http://www.sesserchristian.net/100names.htm

Mormonism

Brigham Young

“When the wicked have power to blow out the sun, that it shines no more; when they have power to bring to a conclusion the operations of the elements, suspend the whole system of nature, and make a footstool of the throne of the Almighty, they may then think to check “Mormonism” in its course, and thwart the unalterable purposes of heaven. Men may persecute the people who believe its doctrines, report and publish lies to bring tribulation upon their heads, earth and hell may unite in one grand league against it, and exert their malicious powers to the utmost, but it will stand as firm and immovable in the midst of it all as the pillars of eternity. Men may persecute the Prophet, and those who believe and uphold him, they may drive the Saints and kill them but this does not affect the truths of “Mormonism” one iota, for they will stand when the elements melt with fervent heat, and the heavens are wrapt up like a scroll and the solid earth is dissolved. “Mormonism” stands upon the eternal basis of omnipotence. Jehovah is the “Mormonism” of this people, their Priesthood and their power; and all who adhere to it will, in the appointed day, come up into the presence of the King Eternal, and receive a crown of life" (Brigham Young Journal of Discourses, vol 1, p.88).

Success

"We know we are successful if we live so that we qualify for, receive, and know how to follow the Spirit."

Julie B. Beck, "And upon the Handmaids in Those Days Will I Pour Out My Spirit," Ensign, May 2010, 12

faith is a choice

"Faith is a choice, and it must be sought after and developed. Thus, we are responsible for our own faith. We are also responsible for our lack of faith. The choice is yours."¹

Satan's counterattack is for us to believe that if we could only see proof of God's power we would then be able to believe and have faith, but as the scriptures have taught us:

"Faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."²

Elder Edgley also said:

"By moving forward into the unknown, armed only with hope and desire, we show evidence of our faith and our devotion to the Lord."

Choosing to have faith, or not, is an individual choice and is one that we cannot make for anyone else, nor can we depend upon someone else's faith. We must make the choice on our own. What will you choose? Will you follow the example of Joshua from the Old Testament when he said, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"³?

What can become!

"Even though the Prophet was haggard, pale, and penniless after his long confinement [in Liberty Jail], it did not take him long to make his leadership felt. He found a swamp where the Mississippi makes a horseshoe bend. It was practically deserted; there were only a half-dozen houses. It was a place in which nobody seemed to have a great interest. The owners of this mosquito-infested swamp were happy to sell the land to the penniless Saints for promissory notes, payable over a term of years. " 'Characteristic of the Prophet, he renamed the place to meet his desires. Not what it was, but what, with the faith and work of man, the region might become—"Nauvoo, the City Beautiful" ' (William E. Berrett, The Restored Church, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1965, p. 149). "The faith of the Prophet rallied the people, and a special zeal seldom witnessed in all of man's history swept over this people. 'That deep and abiding strength was to change a swamp into a great city; miserable shelters into splendid houses; penniless people to the most prosperous citizens of Illinois. That missionary zeal was to carry the gospel into many lands and double the membership of the Church. And all of this in the short time of five years! " 'What a program. And what an accomplishment! A people stripped of all earthly possessions, money, homes, factories, lands, rebuilt in five short years, a city-state which was the envy of long-settled communities' (Berrett, The Restored Church, p. 150). A miracle had occurred!"

L. Tom Perry, "Nauvoo—A Demonstration of Faith," Ensign, May 1980, 74

if we could

..if men could comprehend eternal things, as God comprehends them, there is no man on the earth, no matter how wicked he may be, but what would be willing to keep the commandments of God, and to pass through anything that God ordained, for therein he would see there was salvation and eternal life. - Wilford Woodruff

The Devil tells the truth.

"If the devil never told the truth he would not be able to deceive mankind by his falsehoods. The powers of darkness would never prevail without the use of some light. A little truth mixed with plausible error is one of the means by which they lead mankind astray."¹

Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, 4:108-9. Quoted in "Chapter 25: King David's Call to Lead Israel," Old Testament Student Manual Genesis- 2 Samuel, 1981, pg 283.

That is the Test

“The precise nature of the test of mortality, then, can be summarized in the following questions: Will my body rule over my spirit, or will my spirit rule over my body? Will I yield to the enticings of the natural man or to the eternal man? That, brothers and sisters, is the test.” (Elder David A. Bednar, “Ye are the Temple of God” Ricks College Devotional, January 11, 2000)

At the pearly gates

I don't want to be drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair perfectly coiffed, and with long perfectly manicured fingernails!

I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing sister Schneck's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my finger nails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my checks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.

Majorie Pay Hinckley

Build up righteousness or Fail in everything!

"Daughter, use all your gifts to build up righteousness in the earth. Never use them to acquire name or fame. Never rob your home, nor your children. If you were to become the greatest woman in this world, and your name should be known in every land and clime, and you would fail in your duty as wife and mother, you would wake up on the morning of the first resurrection and find you had failed in everything; but anything you can do after you have satisfied the claims of husband and family will redound to your own honor and to the glory of God."

Brigham Young

Let us as latter-day Saints reach out to others not of our faith. Let us never act in a spirit of arrogance or with a holier-than-thou attitude. Rather, may we show love and respect and helpfulness toward them. We are greatly misunderstood, and I fear that much of it is of our own making. We can mbe more tolerant, more neighborly, more friendly, more of an expample than we have been in the past. Let us teach our children to treat others with friendship, respect, love and admiration. That will yeild a far better result than will an at titude of egotism and arrogance.
April 2000 President Gordon B. Hinckley

Do Not Betray....

O ye Twelve! and all Saints! profit by this important Key—that in all your trials, troubles, temptations, afflictions, bonds, imprisonments and death, see to it, that you do not betray heaven; that you do not betray Jesus Christ; that you do not betray the brethren; that you do not betray the revelations of God, whether in the Bible, Book of Mormon, or Doctrine and Covenants, or any other that ever was or ever will be given and revealed unto man in this world or that which is to come.

History of the Church, 3:385.

Judah and Joseph

"Before Joseph Smith was killed, he dispatched a Jewish apostle by the name of Orson Hyde to dedicate the land of Palestine for the return of the Jews. This concern for a homeless people and the sending of this apostle was done at a time when the Mormons themselves were virtually homeless, having been dispossessed of their lands and possessions in Missouri. "Orson Hyde left on his assignment in the fall of 1840. He arrived in Palestine in October 1841. On October 24, 1841, he ascended the Mount of Olives all alone, built an altar to the Lord, and offered a dedicatory prayer."

Ezra Taft Benson, "A Message to Judah from Joseph," Ensign, Dec. 1976, 68

Tolstoy and Mormons

[Tolstoy] envisioned a world ruled not by policemen but by moral choice, a world where every man's chief ambition was to be Christlike."

So what value do you think Tolstoy would have placed on the church which contains the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ? I will close with a quote from Elder David B. Haight in the Ensign, May, 1980, where he reports a conversation between Tolstoy and Andrew White, the foreign ambassador of the United States to Russia: "[The Mormons'] principles teach the people not only of heaven and its attendant glories, but how to live so that their social and economic relations with each other are placed on a sound basis.

If the people follow the teaching of this church, nothing can stop their progress—it will be limitless."There have been many great movements started in the past but they have died or been modified before they reach maturity. If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generation, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known."

In The Home

Remember that having religious observance in the home is as important as providing food, clothing and shelter.

Elder Quentin L. Cook

To The Youth

“Some years ago another First Presidency made this statement, and your First Presidency today echoes the appeal. I quote, ‘To the youth . . . , we plead with you to live clean [lives], for the unclean life leads only to suffering, misery, and woe physically,—and spiritually it is the path to destruction. How glorious and near to the angels is youth that is clean; this youth has joy unspeakable here and eternal happiness hereafter. Sexual purity is youth’s most precious possession; it is the foundation of all righteousness.’ “May you have the courage to be chaste and virtuous.”

Thomas S. Monson, “May You Have Courage,” Ensign, May 2009, 126

A Witness to Sacred Things

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims to the world that this church is a restoration of Christ's church. A restoration was necessary because prophets and Apostles, who were the foundation of the Lord's original church, were put to death or otherwise taken. The Church today is built on a foundation of prophets and Apostles, with Jesus Christ as its chief cornerstone. It is therefore not a reformation, a revision, a reorganization, or a mere sect. It is the Church of Jesus Christ restored in these latter days. "A distinguishing feature of the Church is the claim to continuous revelation from the Lord—'the making known of divine truth by communications from its heavens.' (James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith, 12th ed., Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1924, p. 296.) Today, the Lord's church is guided by the same relationship with Deity that existed in previous dispensations. "This claim is not made lightly. I know there is revelation, as I am a witness to sacred things also experienced by others who administer His work."

David B. Haight, "A Prophet Chosen of the Lord," Ensign, May 1986, 7

An Invitation

“The invitation to repent is rarely a voice of chastisement but rather a loving appeal to turn around and to ‘re-turn’ toward God. It is the beckoning of a loving Father and His Only Begotten Son to be more than we are, to reach up to a higher way of life, to change, and to feel the happiness of keeping the commandments.”

Neil L. Andersen, “Repent . . . That I May Heal You,” Ensign, Nov. 2009, 40

Essential Foundation Stone

Essential Foundation Stone

"The year was 1820; the season, spring. The boy with questions walked into the grove of his father's farm. There, finding himself alone, he pleaded in prayer for that wisdom which James promised would be given liberally to those who ask of God in faith (see James 1:5). There, in circumstances which he has described in much detail, he beheld the Father and the Son, the great God of the universe and the risen Lord, both of whom spoke to him."This transcendent experience opened the marvelous work of restoration. It lifted the curtain on the long-promised dispensation of the fulness of times."For more than a century and a half, enemies, critics, and some would-be scholars have worn out their lives trying to disprove the validity of that vision. Of course they cannot understand it. The things of God are understood by the Spirit of God. There had been nothing of comparable magnitude since the Son of God walked the earth in mortality. Without it as a foundation stone for our faith and organization, we have nothing. With it, we have everything."Much has been written, much will be written, in an effort to explain it away. The finite mind cannot comprehend it. But the testimony of the Holy Spirit, experienced by countless numbers of people all through the years since it happened, bears witness that it is true, that it happened as Joseph Smith said it happened, that it was as real as the sunrise over Palmyra, that it is an essential foundation stone, a cornerstone, without which the Church could not be 'fitly framed together.' "

Gordon B. Hinckley, "Four Cornerstones of Faith," Ensign, Feb. 2004, 5

I add my witness that I know this to be truth too! - Becky Rose Mason

John Adams:

“As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation.”

(In God We Trust, p. 75.)

Forgiveness and Forgetting

"So many of us are prone to say we forgive when in fact we are unwilling to forget. If the Lord is willing to forget the sins of the repentant, when why are so many of us inclined to bring up the past again and again? Here is a great lesson we all need to learn.

There is no true forgiveness without forgetting".

- Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 230

Ronald Reagan Rules!

"Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don't need it and hell where they already have it."

'Here's my strategy on the Cold War:

We win, they lose.'

'The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

'The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.'

'Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.'

'I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.'

'The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.'

'Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.'


'The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.'

'It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

'Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it'

'Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.'

'No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.'
'If we ever forget that we're one nation under GOD, then we will be a nation gone under.'

how is your envirnoment?

Just as surely as Zion is to be established, Babylon is to be destroyed…Babylon is a state of mind, as Zion is, with the appropriate environment.

Approaching Zion, pg 7 Hugh Nibley

Our National Sins

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own...It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."

Abraham Lincoln

to see an interesting post about Abraham go here:
http://jhistorian.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/abraham-lincoln/

Personal Interview with Savior

In 1965 David O. McKay in a talk to church employees told the brethren that one day they would each have a personal priesthood interview with the Savior himself. He told the order of in which he will ask you to account for you earthly responsibilities.

1. He will want an accountability report about your relationship with your wife.
2. He will want an accountability report about each of your children.
3. He will want to know what you have done with the talents you were given.
4. He will want a summary of your activity in your Church assignments.
5. He will have no interest in how you earned your living, but he will ask whether you were honest in all your dealings.
6. He will ask for an accountability of what you have done to enhance your community, state, country, and the world.

Being Good.

“It is not enough to be good. You must be good for something. You must be a good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others. In this world so filled with problems, so constantly threatened by dark and evil challenges, you can and must rise above mediocrity, above indifference. You can become involved and speak with a strong voice for that which is right.”

-President Gordon B. Hinckley

Secquences of Democracy

In 1787 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the university of Edinburgh, noticed a continuing pattern in the advance and decline of the worlds democracies.

He stated then that a democracy would continue to exist until such time that the voters discover that they can literally vote themselves gifts from teh public treasury. From the moment that revelation is made, the majority proceeds to vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury. The final result is that every democracy finally collapses due to loose fiscal policy. That collapse is always followed by dictatorship.

Tyler charted the ages of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history... and average existence of about 200 years. every single time, these nations progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence; and finally from dependence back into bondage.

From the book "Island of Saints" by Andy Andrew. You can find the book here on Amazon. It's not about politics, but WWII and forgiveness - Historical Inspirational Fiction.
http://www.amazon.com/Island-Saints-Story-Principle-Spirit/dp/0785261400/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_6

Where do you think America is at in the sequence?

Those who don't

"I don't see why we can't just as well get along with a
polygamist who doesn't polyg
than with a monogamist who doesn't monog."

Senator Penrose
at the 1903-1907
Reed Smoot hearings

Expect Nothing, Give Everything!

Love is not selective, and charity knows no bounds. Thus if I expect anything in return for charity except the happiness of the recipient then it is not charity. There is no bookkeeping, no quid pro quo, no deals, interests, bargaining or ulterior motives; charity gives to those who do not deserve and expects nothing in return;

It is the love God has for us, and the love we have for little children, of whom we expect nothing but from whom we would give everything. -Hugh Nibley

Both Hands

Real disciples withstand the fiery darts of the adversary by holding aloft the quenching shield of faith with one hand, while holding to the iron rod with the other. There should be no mistaking; it will take both hands!

Neal A. Maxwell

In conference report Apr. 1987, 87 or Ensign May 1987, 70

See: Ephesians 6:16, 1 Nephi 15:24, D&C 27:17.

Control

Leonardo DaVinci once observed:

“You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself. The delight of a man’s success is gauged by his self mastery: The depth of his failure by his self abandonment. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.”

One Grand Miracle

No doctrine supersedes or even approaches the Atonement in importance. It is the grandest miracle to have ever occurred. C.S. Lewis observed that if one takes away the miracles attributed to Buddhism, there would be “no loss” to religion. If all miracles were eliminated from Islam, he adds, “nothing essential would be altered.” Then this striking observation: “But you cannot possibly do that with Christianity, because the Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion” that Christ came “into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing Nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left.”

From The Infinite Atonement, by Tad R. Callister, pg.8-9. Deseret Book 2000

On my right and on my left

Since things don't always go right it's nice to have someone like you on my left!

Really Good Friends

We all let people into our lives,
but you will find that
really good friends
let you into your own.

I forgot!

Oh my gosh, I forgot this blog even existed! I used to love it, even though no one reads it. I love to find pictures and post important quotes. I now have a new last name- Mason and am no longer single. But today Jason and I went to a very cute store and I found lots of cute quotes. I couldn't afford any of them, but I wrote them down.