The Complexity of Life Correlated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ
 

   The gospel of Jesus Christ is a way of living life. It is through five basic principles that Jesus taught we could become like God, live with God, and obtain the most significant peace and satisfaction in this life. This basic gospel is made up of five principles. The five principles are faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. In my life I have tested the validity of this gospel when implemented in ones life, and I've come to know for myself that it is true. The only way to be happy is to become happiness itself. In order to "become happiness" we must learn about Christ, His gospel, and then apply it to our lives as best we can. Eventually everyone one will become what they consistently do. We can take into account all of human history and recognize with confidence that my last statement is true. My purpose in today's blog is to share the miracles I have seen in my progression in life that relates completely to these basic principles since I have endeavored to follow the Lord and have seen the blessings there from. I'll begin with my first example of faith.
   The first time I put forth FAITH and was able to recognize the fruits was when I was in high school. When I was a junior I had a peculiar night. The world seemed to be collapsing upon me. My worries and low self esteem because of my vain actions, kept me bound in a spiritual prison. As I walked down the stairs to my bedroom I saw my scriptures setting upon my bed. Something within me said there is your answer, why don't you check it out. I immediately opened my scriptures and turn the pages not knowing before hand what I should read. I was drawn to the back of my "quad " or scriptures which in the back there is an accounting of Joseph Smith's first experiences with the Lord. I read up to the point that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. I knew I had been taught this had happened my entire life but I had never had any reason to believe besides taking my parents word for it. The immediate response because of my dire situation was to do what I was always taught to do. I got onto my knees and prayed and asked God with all sincerity of heart if the Book of Mormon was true, if Joseph Smith really was a prophet, and if God himself were real. The questions swirled in my mind, is Jesus real, is this what I'm supposed to be looking for to find peace? As I prayed, a power and energy that words cannot described came over my entire body and enveloped me. I had to sit upon my bed for a time and I basked in the peace and love I felt. I knew at that time that the things I had been taught my entire life were true. Something that is very key, and also might be beneficial to others to know is that after the power succeeded in strength, I felt an immediate negative feeling. I knew I was not worthy of this feeling to stay with me. I feared and eventually forsook the confirmation because I simply did not feel worthy of such peace and knowledge. The Lord blessed me for acting in FAITH but he did not bless me for giving into the immediate lies of Satan. Thank goodness that because Jesus Christ paid the price to the law's and justice of God we can be forgiven.
   It took several years of struggle and wandering in the darkness of complete sin until one day I was brought to my knees once again. Satan had convinced me, if you hate, if you have fire, if you just relax with your buddies all day you will come off conqueror. You can do this all by yourself and you don't need anyone to help you or tell you what to do. As we all know, this was not true at all and the Lord humbled me enough to the point that I laid in my bed crying with the pain of a damned soul. I knew what I had done, I knew that the situation I was in was because I did not chose to do the right thing, which I thought was the harder thing. This was a serious was one of my serious misconceptions. The Lord placed specific people in my life to help me to repent and it took me a long time to be able to take the next step in a life by pursuing complete unity with the laws of happiness. I had one friend I felt comfortable enough to attend church with, even without an invitation. I had another friend that changed my view point completely on the opposite sex. She showed me a true love and compassion that I had never know and it confused me, but helped me to realize that truly we are all brothers and sisters. Many people came into my life that helped all along through this transition and change of heart. My last friend that helped me before my mission helped me to realize the power that comes from unifying ourselves with Christ, and also saints who chose to do that themselves. I'd like to personally thank everyone that was a part of that transition and this once again convinced me of our potential to be forgiven and freed. I repented in every way that I knew possible. I forsook sin, I hated sin, I tried to make restitution for those things I had done and I prayed sincerely that God would free me from my spiritual bonds. Eventually, one day after speaking with my bishop I walked out of his office a new man. I did not feel it till I hit the chapel. All of a sudden I realized, I am worthy to enter the house of the Lord, I am worthy to be someone that could be sealed there. The spirit lifted me off of my feet and I had a smile that could not be destroyed. All of those friends that I mentioned earlier, made that possible and they know who they are. I love them and I pray the spirit will testify to them of the deep love I have for them. Jesus Christ became very real that day. He really died for us and the spirit left me without doubt that day. I truly experienced the next principle of the gospel. REPENTANCE. I then was able to make covenants with the Lord, or in other words promises with Him.
   As I entered the temple to make promises with the Lord, just like we do at BAPTISM, I felt the spirit testify of the truth of what I was doing the entire time. It was not weird, it didn't even seem different, it felt like I had once seen or experienced it before and was simply being reminded. At baptism we promise to take the Lord's name upon us so that we might have his spirit. In the temple we magnify those commitments so that we might have the power to better ourselves and be bound to God and our families for ever because of our commitment to be trustworthy and ferociously committed to our God and our families. As I sat in the temple at the end of the session where I made promises to God, I prayed about things that had been troubling my heart. I had specific pursuits I desired and I also desired to know about the welfare of my deceased grandparents. As I prayed I knew that the desires of my heart were accepted of the Lord and that it would all work out. Those things which I desired would come to be if I simply did my best. For I knew that is by grace we are saved, after all we can do.  After making covenants which would correlate to BAPTISM I recognized the role of receiving the HOLY GHOST through this entire experience and it all came to make sense.
    Every time I had an experience the authority to act in Gods name played some major role. We all have authority to pray to our Lord and ask him to reveal the truth to us as we seek him and align ourselves with him. In order to have my repentance experience I had to work with someone that had authority. In order to received a witness of the truth I had to pray about those in authority. In order to attend a temple of the Lord and experience the blessings and the manifestation of the spirit there, there had to be men with authority to work there and build that temple unto the Lord. God works through men given authority to act in His name. We all have the abilities to be tools in the hands of the Lord but the authority to do his ordinances is received to those He calls through other men in authority. The HOLY GHOST was with me through all of these things and it wasn't until my mission that I've recognized that it truly can be a power that is with you all of the time. You must remain worthy and have the gift of the HOLY GHOST given to you by the laying on of hands, by someone in authority just like in the times of Christ upon the earth. The HOLY GHOST literally lead my companions and I to many people who were in dire physical, and spiritual danger. The key is as we do the first three steps and learn to recognize the HOLY GHOST we enable ourselves to draw closer to God and help His children. My entire time in Jacksonville Florida has been a battle to follow the promptings of this unseen being and wage war on sin.
    The last principle of the gospel is to ENDURE TO THE END! I am no where close to the end but I know for a fact that repeating this cycle through out our lives will bring the most ultimate joy we have ever experienced. It will help to preserve all of our most dear relationships. It will enable us to become like Jesus Christ and be joint heirs with Him in the kingdom of our Father. I know this to be true. I testify of these truth's in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elder Nathanael Neal Tuft
 

July 19, 2013
    The beauty and power of mind and memory is where my studies and thought's have taken me today! If anyone has any thought's I'd love to hear because I myself wish to do much better. The more specific topic I'd like to focus on is how our negative experiences can affect us and hold us back from progression. I myself have  had experiences that I feel hold me back and hinder me from enjoying peace at certain moments in my life. In this section I'd like to share examples of what holds us back and then share possible solutions. I've realized at this very moment that I'm also completely out of time so I'll get back on another day to post my thoughts! I did find a link that talked upon the subject.
 
To learn from an Apostle of God click this link!! - This addresses learning from the past
   http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/04/learning-the-lessons-of-the-past?lang=eng
This talk is about divine healing, how the scars of past experiences, especially those not caused by our own choice, can be healed and forgotten.
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1994/04/a-divine-prescription-for-spiritual-healing?lang=eng

 The Power of Thoughts 

   Recently I've pondered upon the power of our thoughts in influencing our surroundings. I started to study through the Bible and then moved to the Book of Mormon. I've once again realized the power behind studying using the topical guide. As we study out those questions we have deep within ourselves and formulate it into a specific direct question I know the Lord can manifest the truth through the spirit. The pre-requisite is to pray, read - study, and write down the impressions you feel and then pray for confirmation. This is what I learned.
   In Isaiah 55:6-7 it says, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, "and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD." These verses bring up thoughts twice! The Lord at this point was calling the people to repentance by commanding to forsake their unrighteous thoughts. This is interesting because it relates to everyday life. The Lord was seeing fit to stop the wickedness from happening by stopping the sinful actions through addressing the route of the problem. Our negative and sinful thoughts always proceed an outward negative action. Hence this scripture teaches us that if we do not forsake our sinful thoughts then our "thoughts are not" the Lord's "thoughts". This scripture brought me to the next question. So, if all of our mistakes come from a root negative thought, what can we do to change our thought patterns? I know in my life that this is the greatest battle to filter out the millions of thoughts that come to us through out the day. Lets go to the next scripture I read.
   In the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 4:29-30 it says "And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and mean, even so many that I cannot number them." This first verse, verse 29 is stating that there are numberless ways of sinning and there is no need to argue and justify. In Moroni 7:16 it says " For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God." This scripture teaches us we can discern any thought by asking ourselves does this persuade us to do good and to believe in Christ? Then, going back to Mosiah 4:30 it says, "But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not." This taught me that if I continually keep a mind to plan and do those things which has been asked of us by the Lord, we will be able to conquer the negative temptations and negative, sinful thoughts will have no place. One other scripture I read today reiterated this also. In Genesis 6:5 it says, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." God condemned these people because He knew they only thought evil continually. I realized at this point that we must do the exact opposite. We must cultivate, CONTINUALLY, positive virtuous thoughts. I've tried to simply push bad thoughts out by forsing myself to try and think of other things or sing a song. This attempt does not always work best. I've found throughout my life that the best way to control our thoughts and in turn bare good fruit through our produced actions, we must continually be planning and seeking ways to serve God and our fellow man. We must continually be seeking ways to further our personal progression and seek also to help further the progression of those we love. By have this focus in our lives we will not be tossed upon the waves of the sea. Satan will have no power to control us by prompting us to do evil. We will already be engaged and be too focused on the work at hand. Amen?

Elder Nathanael N. Tuft
   

I want answers and I want to find peace in those answers from a power beyond my own or any the world can provide. I know that man is nothing.

As missionaries we are able to have scripture study time every morning for an hour with our companion though we go out and teach the people with. From our discussion today I was able to look deep into the depths of my soul and analyze my biggest struggles. I've realized that no matter how hard we try to run away and hide from our weaknesses they will always come back to bite us. The only solution is to take it head on. We defeat our weaknesses by seeking guidence through someone who has all knowledge. His name is not google or ask but His name is God. Our Heavenly Father is ready for us to ask Him questions. He has provided a way that we still grow and are able to keep our freedom of agency. We must study the words of those that have communicated openly with our Father and Jesus Christ. As we study, analyze our lives, make decions and connections, and then pray for confirmation, I know that God will be able to freely speak with us. We will be able to grow as we first pray to God explaining our desires, then we put forth faith in studying the word of God, the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and then we write down our inspirations and pondered thoughts. We make a educated decision and then pray for God's confirmation afterwards so that we might trust in His wisdom and not our own. God is real and I can promise if you put this method into effect the Lord will become very, very real to you also.

Can I get an Amen?
Elder Nathanael N. Tuft