True Happiness...

The other day I ran across a book in the library that professed to know the things that would make me happy. The subtitle said something along the lines of "everything that you read in this book will shatter your deepest convictions about what will truly make you happy." I found that to be quite interesting... I think I found it most interesting to me at this point in my life because, as a missionary, that is actually my entire purpose. I go about teaching others about something that I know will make them truly happy. In fact, I profess that what I have to teach is the one thing that every person in this world needs in order to have that kind of happiness. It's not something, however, that will shatter anyone's convictions about what will make them happy. It will hopefully add to what they truly know within themselves will make them happy. As I teach people day to day, I see that light within them come to surface. Sometimes they say, "that makes sense," or "I know that's true." These are things that really seem "preprogrammed," or instinctly known within all of us that we only need to bring to remembrance.

I don't really know what things the author had to write about in that book. Maybe everything that he had to say was exactly everything that I have to say when I do missionary work. But I do know one thing… I know that it is only through the teachings of Jesus Christ, our savior, that we can truly be happy. Through His teachings, we come to find out who we are, what’s in store for us during and after this life, and ultimately, who we have the potential to be like… THAT is true happiness.

"All My Distress is going, going ... gone."


     I named this blog after a song written by one of my favorite bands, Relient K. (some of you might be familiar with that band :)) The song is about pressing on, or looking forward as we live our lives day to day, trying not to dwell on things that might stop us from progressing in life. I tend to have the habit of dwelling on things in the past, but I love the line in the song that says "And I won't sit back, and take this anymore cuz I'm done with that, I've got one foot out the door and to go back to where I was would just be wrong, I'm pressing on." We can look back on our mistakes and realize that maybe we did something wrong, but once we've changed that, there's no point in going back, just press on and make something new of yourself. I love that.
Just so you know, I'm not much of a blogger. Or I have never blogged until... NOW. I'm writing this blog as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
     Yes, I'm a Mormon. And I love sharing the message of Jesus Christ. So all of my posts have some relation to or association with Jesus Christ. But, please know that everything I write comes from the heart. I write these things because they truly come from ME, no one else.
     I am a convert to the LDS church. I love its teachings. I love the teachings of Jesus Christ. Because all of them are absolutely necessary and essential to being truly happy. There's a scripture in the Book of Mormon that talks about how when we build our foundation upon the teachings of Jesus Christ, we cannot fall. It's absolutely true. It's on page 378 of the Book of Mormon. Don't take my word for it though, if you haven't tried it out yet I would recommend giving it a try ;). 
     Well, I would like to bring my first post to a close by bearing my testimony that we humans are all here for a reason. The teachings of Jesus Christ help us to realize that reason, and when we strive to obey those teachings we really come to KNOW why they were given to us, who we are, where we're going in life, and who we really can become. With that, I would like to say... "All my distress is going going gone..." (Relient K)