Ants Go Marching

      I was walking around like usual and I saw a trail of ants in our apartment. They would follow one after another to some target destination and then back to the colony. Not having enough time to actually see what the ants were going to find or where the colony was, I left. I would take care of the matter later because I remember an experience that happened at home a while back on how to take care of ants.

     I was down in the basement looking at pictures, just burning some time waiting for someone to come get me. While I was burning time I noticed out of the corner of my eye a line that was moving. I walked over to get a better look. Come to find out ants we on the move. I watched them for a second. With a little soap I would interrupt the line, trying to stop the work form going on. The ants would be confused for a second but eventually they would go around and not worry about the distraction. It bothered me because I wanted them to leave.

     Then I decided that to stop the invasion of ants I had to find the source and destroy it. I followed the ant line for a few moments to find a group of ants piled around a french-fry which had been dropped a few days ago. I grabbed the fry shook off the ants and disposed of it in the wood burning stove. I HAD STOPED  THE INVASION!!!

     Sometimes people act like Ants. We follow the crowd. Most of the time that crowd is going to some type of sin and normally the bigger the group means the more prone we are to follow the group. The normal cry of someone who is caught-in-the-act will cry out, "Everyone else was doing." Well when you follow a group everyone in that group is going to do the same thing. If you are every caught in that situation, "just run - run as far away as you can get from whatever or whoever it is that beguiles you. And please, when fleeing the scene of temptation do not leave a forwarding address." Jeffrey R Holland Just like what I did with that french fry, pick that sin up and get rid of it. Get it out of sight and out of mind. I promise a greater sense of self-worth will come as you choose to get ride of any sin that besets you.

A Never Failing Compass

You don't want your life like this picture where you have no idea where you are going.

Direction must be applied with A Goal in Sight

      There is technology that can help us along the way. .It is a magical invention called a compass. It is always pointing north. North will always be north. There is something also called the Holy Spirit (or also known as Holy Ghost) which acts about the same as a compass. For example:

A compass can lead you to your destination when you know how to use it.

The Holy Spirit is a guide. He will lead and guide us as we listen to him.

A compass can not work when you have an outside force (magnet) messing with it.

The Holy Spirit can only help when there is no outside force (sin).

You have to be calm and hold still for compasses to work.

To hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit you much listen and hold still.

      Now the compass has been around since 247 B.C. as what Wikipedia says but the Holy Spirit has been around a lot longer than that. I would imagine you can rely on something that has been around for more than 2000 years.

Crimnson Trail

     I was listening to conference Paul V Johnson talked about a trail I loved to hike when I was home. This is that clip from that talk.
     "The Crimson Trail in Logan Canyon is one of my favorite hikes. The main part of the trail creeps along the top of tall limestone cliffs and offers beautiful vistas of the canyon and valley below. Getting to the top of the cliffs isn’t easy, however. The trail there is a constant climb; and just before reaching the top, the climber encounters the steepest part of the trail; and views of the canyon are hidden by the cliffs themselves. The final exertion is more than worth the effort because once the climber is on top, the views are breathtaking. The only way to see the views is to make the climb." More Than Conquerors through Him That Loved Us by Paul V. Johnson.
     This trail is no doubt the one of the greatest trails to hike on. It is my favorite hike in Logan Canyon.The views are so amazing that it is now a life long memory in my head. The first time I hiked up there I was with my brother and some of his roommates from his apartment.
      We started up that hike it started out easy but then got progressively harder. We were about mid-way through the hardest part of the hike when Morgan one of the roommates had to stop because he was getting sick. We left him thinking that he would be alright, wrong move on our part.
     We got about half a mile farther and decided that leaving him there wasn't such a good idea. As we started to turn around we started to see Morgan coming up. When he caught back up to us he told us that everything was alright and that he just shouldn't have had eaten the three ham sandwiches before we started the hike. He then went on to describe the sandwiches which had a lot of mayonnaise on them. As we continue our hike he goes on to tell us how the next person coming up will find a surprise next to a tree when they come up.
     As we came to the top the view was amazing. Everyone was glad to have not turned around. Yes, even Morgan being the one who emptied has stomach along the trip was glad that he didn't just head back. Even if it was rough to begin with, the end result was amazing.
    Just like hardships in our lives, sometimes the best results will come after the hardest climbs. Reminds me a little of a guy named Joseph Smith who prayed with all of his heart praying to God. Wanting to know truth because of all the churches that were around in 1820 not expecting to see God but then guess what happened to him...

My Conference Experiences

There is an event that happens 2 times a year in the LDS religion where our church leaders speak to us. It is a broadcast that is sent out to the entire world so the entire world can know what the prophet is saying.
     For me, memories of conference are really close to me now not only because I'm on a mission but it is because conference weekend would be a time that all of my family would get together. I love family-get-together-ness. It becomes more important as we grow up. I can remember sitting on the couch six months ago thinking to myself, "This is amazing." Knowing that this would be the last time for two years that I would be able to be with my family.
     My favorite conference memory was few years back when my family was not able to be together for the Saturday session of conference. We all had things to do. My dad and I had to go work on some equipment and we had to go to my dad's work to fix it. My brothers had to work or work on a school project. It was only my sister and mom at home but we were all listening to conference. How do I know that? Let me tell you.
     Me and my dad were listening to the conference talk given by Elder David A. Bednar titled More Diligent and Concerned at Home. It talks about how to strengthen the home. The first step he talks about is to tell the people who are your family or your close friends that you love them. Within a 15 minute time frame we had a text from everyone in the family flying around sharing the love we have for each other. That is how I knew how even though we were miles apart we were all listening to conference.
    I am telling you right now that conference is the coolest things in the world. Families grow closer together as you all come closer to Christ.. I love conference and I'm excited for the April 2nd and 3rd. I hope and pray all of you are able to watch conference.