Many people concerned with this debt crisis America is facing. And to be frankly honest the whole situation in the news is about unity. Whether or not the republicans or the democrats are right or wrong doesn't matter. What matters to most people is the division that is causing chaos.

Likewise there has been a religious division for quite sometime. Ephesians 4:11-14 teach us that we will need prophets till we all come in the unity of the faith. Christ came to the earth and established his church to have One Lord, one faith, one baptism,(Ephesians 4:5.) Christ is perfect, there is one way for all of us. In 1820 Joseph Smith was looking for this one way and he found it. Through divine intervention he was called as a Prophet of God. As we look around us we can realize religions still fight and there isn't much unity. A prophet is thus still needed today.

Thomas S. Monson is a prophet today that I know can teach us the things that we must know in todays troubled world to help us in our hardest times. I may not know the answer to our debt ceiling, and I may not be the president of America, but I know by following the teachings of our Prophets, modern and old, we can grow closer to Christ and be the safest possible in hard times

Today we learned in District Meeting the importance of self evaluation. Today's blog I encourage ya'll to dig deep into yourself and find something you can approve on and look to God for help as you strive to change. Like a midyear-new years resolution, but instead actually do it!!! Look forward to pictures soon in which I talk more about this self evaluation theme!!!

1 Nephi Chapter 11 teaches us the story of the tree of life. A little summary of that follows: Lehi has a dream in which he sees a rod leading to the tree of life. In the midst of fog is a large building. Lehi stands at the tree pertaking of the fruit, in hopes he can find his family on the rod coming to the tree to pertake as well. In chapter 11 Nephi sees the same tree and has an receives in interpretation. The tree of life is the love of God, the rod is the word of God, and the midst around as well as the spacious building is the evils and contentions and struggles of the world.

Today we experience our own struggles everyday, are we willing to stick on the iron rod and go the distance? Recently my companion and I have had the great oppurtunity of visiting a chriropractor during our lunch break! As we started going there we at first got an X-ray of our backs which were a little messed up, not bad but not perfect.


The doctor let us know if untreated it could go bad. Likewise if we don't continue straight down the iron rod. If we think "hey we can sway back and forth"(kind of like my back) then we might be just fine at first, but the final outcome is surgical. Luckily we too have a doctor that can straighten out our mistakes just as the chiropractor straightens out my back. Our doctor is flawless, his name is Jesus Christ and as long as we constantly look towards him in all things then we can finally reach the tree of life and pertake of his Love to the fullest measure! Who wouldn't want that?

I am the youngest of 3 children I have an older Sister, Allison(25), who is currently serving a mission in the Atlanta Georgia mission! My sister graduated from BYU-I a couple years back with a major in Art and minor Psychology in hopes to become an Art Phychologist, instead she found a job as an art teacher on a remote island in Saipan. A year into her twoyear there she knew she had to go on a mission as diligent prayer had led her know that is where God wanted her. She also knew she had another year left before she could quit her job, but God had other plans for her. That summer ther principle layed off all the teachers planning to rehire and rebuild. Although she knew she could easily be rehired, since her and the principle were close, she knew this was an answer to her prayer! So off to a mission she went. From my sister I have learned the importance of prayer and the importance of following the spirit. I know no one closer to the spirit then her and maybe my mom!

I also have an older Brother, Jonny(27), who served his mission in the Denver Colorado North Mission. Sadly about 9 months in he wasn't feeling too well and had to be rushed to the doctor. To make a long story short they discovered he had Crohns disease and after surgery had to be sent home on an honorable medical release. He is now engaged to my soon to be sister-inlaw, which is weird to think, but she was already like a sister to me when I was home so it'll all be normal when I get home. Their date is for August 6th, so I'll be doing the Lords work out here, but I'm still just as excited for them. It's been GREAT to see his progression since his mission! I hope I'm half the man he is now when I get home!!! Which hopefully never comes... I mean extensions are always an option!!! From him I've learned that no matter what sickness or illness gets in the way don't let this destroy your dreams.

You probably didn't only want to know about my brothers and sisters so I will share with you a little about my parents. First off my mom, Camie, who is originally from Poccatello Idaho. She has been the backbone in my religious life and am so greatful for it. It was her that pushed all the kids to go to church and go on missions... well didn't really push my sister, but always stood behind her choices. Sadly on the negative side of things all my relatives got a bad singer voice from our mom, but we make do and have a little fun with it! It brings smiles to all of our faces!!! I guess that wasn't as negative as I thought it would be. One thing i dislike is negativity but hey it exists so might as well make it into a positive!! My mom has been married to my dad for a little over 20 years! There's been some downs but mostly ups, just like in any marriage! I'm positive that it is because of my mom that I am who I am today!

Now a little about my dad. My entire life I grew up with my dad never coming to church. Yes my parents were sealed in the LA temple, but I he had gone less active long before I was born. He would find excuses not to come and it's just the way I grew up. I used to think it was normal to only have one parent at church. One thing my dad never lost though was his testimony. He didn't come to church but he knew it was true. Right after I turned in my mission papers I went on a two week mini mission in my own local mission. On my mini mission I learned of wht they called the "the 15 family plan." The plan that we still use to get less active reactivated and find referalls from doing so. To say the least alot of wards don't fully understand the plan and my home ward was one of them. I quickly got on the phone and requested that my family be put on the list of 15 families. Soon missionaries were teaching us the lessons. They quickly commited my dad to get back to the being temple worthy. This goal was something he had already committed himself to do since he so badly wanted to be my escort for when I went through the temple. Soon the missionaries were making smaller commitments with him to get him to that point. It wasn't too long till he was making it to church at least once a month, which was a huge improvement. I then got my mission call and he knew he had about 2 months to be ready to go to the temple with me. Putting this time limit on things really blessed him so much. He went in and had an interview with the bishop and was told unless he starts coming every sunday he wouldn't be able to get a temple reccommend in time. He tried his hardest to do so, but because of his surgery on his back quite often he was stuck in bed in EXTREME pain. A new bishop was called about this time, which was a huge blessing to my father. This bishop pushed my father to get to at least sacrament every week. The month before I was to go into the temple my dad made it to two sundays in a row for the first time in as long as I could remember. It was time for him to talk to the bishop again. The bishop understoon his circumstance and could tell my dad was trying his hardest and commited him that he would let him go through the temple as long as my dad promised the bishop he would continue to come to at least sacrament! My dad made the commitment and for the first time in about 20 years my dad went through the temple with me my first time. To this day my dad now goes to church and tries to visit the temple at least once a month with my mother! A great testimony of the importance of commitment has come from my dad who I know has experienced alot more than any one else that I have met to this day!

I've always lived my life "eat till your full then keep eating cus it's yummy." To be honest with you this rule has always worked for me or so I thought. There I sat at breakfast, yesterday morning, and ready to gulf up what I thought would be a good size meal. Not too big, not too small. I mean the description was just 2 sentences "eggs, bacon, sausage, some kind of meat I don't remember, and bisquits and gravy." I figured it was like a sample platter with a little bit of everything. My initial thought was reassured by those who was taking me out to breakfast when they insisted my companion and I also try the pankakes. They swore that "they were to die for," and would not take NO for an answer, so 2 pancakes were on the way as well! Elder Corbridge and I were still in this state of "This will be a good hearty meal." To give you a visual of what we expected take a look at this LumberJack ready to demolish his good decent sized meal



He's even got my glasses

It didn't take us long to realize that this picture was pretty close to accurate but in a totally different sense then I had initially imagined. You see the Lumberjack is actually a GIANT and the meal if propertional. Since that didn't make the most sense, I'll put this into more simple terms, The meal came out on four plates... all of them full! Soon after the meal Proverbs 23:2 took on a whole new meaning "And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite." I knew after that meal I'd never have to worry about appetite again. Nothing sounded good to Elder Corbridge or myself, but life had to go on and sure enough that night the same family insisted on taking us out to dinner!<--- Not sure if that should be an exclamation mark, but you see I'm super greatful for the dinner and I love this family, but my belly just didn't feel like anything at the moment. 5 hours passed, stomach is just getting better from our nice "hearty" meal when it's dinner time. We head out to dinner and are happy to have some entertaining company!! We order something small, but like I said before there is no such thing as small, so the grandma orders us more food. Out comes a huge BBQ sandwich, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, onion rings and a soda for me, and another sandwich, more coleslaw, and more onion rings for Elder Corbridge. Within seconds we had more food than our bellies could handle, but somehow an hour latter the food was gone and we were back to that point where we had to waddle to walk. They always say pictures speak 1000 words so here I'll just put a picture of me here so you can see how much I waddled.


You see I can barely stand up straight. Plus I look like a penguin in the picture, but you get the point. I was so fat I waddled around just like a penguin so it only makes sense I'd look like a penguin right... well back to my point. Soon our dinner was finished and we were once again over filled with food. Yet I wish I could tell you that that macaroni and cheese was the last thing I ate that night, but the grandma insisted on taking us to "Dairy Bell" as she called Dairy Queen, so since NO was not an option off to "Dairy Bell we went. Trying to order a mini chocoholic blizzard just didn't work either as I heard "make it a large" come from the grandma in the background. With a full stomach a large blizzard was now on it's way. I don't know how but I finished the entire thing, which still confuzzles my mind, but more importantly confuzed my belly. Luckily for us it was insisted that we get some icecream to take home with us as well. So to say the least we now have a box of ice-cream sitting in our fridge. I can promise you I'll be eating it, but I sure hope it's latter than sooner. I'm done for food for quite sometime.

So now what does this story and this penguin have to do with the gospel? You see the scriptures teach us “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”(1 Cor. 6:19–20) The wrong way to treat God's temple is to fill it up with junk and over work it. The nice way to treat this temple God has blessed us with is truly live as God wants you to. He's given us clues to treat our body the best possible, so forget my initial rule and live by "when your full, your full, don't abuse and overuse the temple God gave you"

The more and more I think about our loving Heavenly Father the more and more I would like to relate this next song to his love. A love with out end, Amen by George Straight so fully shows a fathers love.

I got sent home from school one day with a shiner on my eye. Fightin' was against the rules and it didn't matter why. When dad got home I told that story just like I'd rehearsed. And then stood there on those tremblin' knees and waited for the worst.

How many times have we sinned and felt like there is no way we can be forgiven of this. There is no way I'm telling anything and then we realize we have to and we too sit there on our tremblin knees and just wait for the worst.

And he said, "Let me tell you a secret about a father's love, A secret that my daddy said was just between us." He said, "Daddies don't just love their children every now and then. It's a love without end, amen, it's a love without end, amen."

Remember God's love for us is a love without end. He sent His only beggoten son to die for us. Let us not forget that great and everlasting sacrafice!

The other day I was driving around in this beautiful Mazda 3 when it hit me. Cars don't just relate to the restoration but they relate to the Gospel of Christ. The next day, I had just walked out to the driveway and gotten in the car. I now had to use a little FAITH to turn on the car. Something I hoped would happen but I couldn't see it yet.

With the turn of the key my FAITH became knowledge, the car started. Next I started backing up forgetting that on the mission my companion is suppose to be behind the car to make sure I don't hit something. I had to REPENT, and the breaks did a perfect job at helping me do so. Soon after I started driving along having to REPENT(use the breaks) quite often it started to rain or maybe I went to the car wash.


My car was immerged in water (baptism). Soon later the sun came out and made my day all bright and sunny. It's influence brought me happiness, just like the Holy Ghost. It wasn't long till I still had a long trip to go but because I knew my car was so full of the Gospel of Christ that I too could keep driving and endure till the end!