Living in the Spirit of Christmas

I felt like sharing something that seems like it should be shared during the season. However if we live in the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of [Christ]mas will be within our hearts all year long

We all love that time of year, snow (depending if you get snow), Christmas trees, presents, decoration, lights, and many more things. However, just like all Holidays, Christmas has fallen subject to becoming more commercial. We see it all over the place; candy, wrapping paper, Christmas TV specials and many more. If we think about the very origin to all of this we will be able to see where all of the Christmas season has come from 

It started long before the meridian of time and long before Christ was born. There were prophets of in the Old Testament time period that prophesied the coming of Jesus Christ. One of those prophets, Isaiah did just that. Isaiah was a prophet and we can see all that he has prophesied about Jesus Christ. He wrote scriptures that talked about Jesus Christ's birth, life, Atonement , death, and resurrection.

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14)

"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are young." (Isaiah 40:11)

"Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the string because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:12)

"He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." (Isaiah 53:7)

"Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." (Isaiah 26:19)

Isaiah was just one of many prophets that testified of Jesus Christ. We recorded in the Book of Mormon that also prophesy about Jesus Christ. Of these were Nephi, Jacob, Enos, King Benjamin, Abinadi, Alma the elder and his son Alma the younger, Amulek, Samuel the Lamenite, and many more. There were many prophets that prophesied of Jesus Christ and told everyone of his life and what he was going to do for the people of the world. Now you might think: "Well what does this have to do with Christmas?" Well interestingly enough, you find the word, Christ in the word Christmas. People oft times think about gifts and things to buy for people and yes that is true, but do we need to have the commercialism get int he way of the true meaning of Christmas? Just like the wise-men of old who understood the importance of giving gifts to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, do we have the same focus? Think about what was testified of by the prophets. Jesus Christ would suffer and would make the Infinite Atonement or the infinite sacrifice to give all of us the gift to have everlasting life

Here are a few videos that can explain this well;

What Shall We Give?

Wise Men still Seek Him

The Christmas Spirit 

If we think more on Jesus Christ at Christmas we will begin to realize what President Monson has said;

"To catch the real meaning of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the spirit of Christ."

What does Christmas mean to you? I hope that everyone can have the spirit of Christmas in their hearts all year round by applying what the true meaning of Christmas is really about. Think about what it really means the next time you see a tree, or Christmas lights, presents, snow. If we direct our thoughts towards the Savior when that time of year comes around we will have the true focus of what that season should be all about.

#ShareTheGift
#ShareGoodness

Living In Thanksgiving Daily

We all look forward to that time of year when we get to get to be together as families and eat a lot of food. I am talking of course about Thanksgiving. You might find it interesting that I am writing this post quite a bit of time past Thanksgiving. I do have a reason for that though. We all know that people get excited for this wonderful holiday where we sit, eat, and enjoy people's company. I have noticed that in the past I have focused more on the food, relaxation, TV, family, and the break that I got from school (not that I didn't like school, don't get me wrong I love school), Thanksgiving break. We did occasionally say what we were thankful for, but then totally forget about it and go on enjoying the food and entertainment for the rest of the night. However since I have come out on a mission I have pondered about the reason for Thanksgiving.  

I have pondered as I was thinking about what to say for this post and I first thought about the word "Thanksgiving" itself. I noticed that the word thanksgiving is made up of two words which go deeper than the commercialized holiday. The two words that make up thanksgiving are; "thanks" and "giving". We have many things especially for those that live in the United States who have joys and pleasures or rather material things that many other people do not have. For example we have vehicles, phones, electricity, running water, bathrooms, and countless more things. It all comes down to the fact that our Heavenly Father has blessed us immensely, whether or not we think we have much or whether we think we have very little. I have noticed that the more we live in thanksgiving daily the more we realize how many blessings we have been given. The Mormon Message "Thanksgiving Daily" says it perfectly.               

"Our minds have a marvelous capacity to notice the unusual. However the opposite is true as well. The more often we see the things around us, even the beautiful and wonderful things the more they become invisible to us. That's often why we take for granted the beauty of this world; the flowers, the trees, the birds, the clouds, even those we love. Because we see things so often, we see them less and less. Those who live in thanksgiving daily however, have a way of opening their eyes, and seeing the wonders and beauties of this world, as they are seeing them for the first time. Look around you, notice the people you care about. Notice the fragrance of the flowers, and the song of the birds. Noticing, give thanks for the blue of the sky, the red of the leaves,  and the white of the clouds. Every sight, every smell, every taste, every sound. When we open our eyes, and give thanks for the bountiful beauty of this life, we live in thanksgiving daily."

"A grateful hear then, comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father and to those around us, for all that they bring into our life. This requires conscious effort, at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude." (President Thomas S. Monson)

I find that if we look hard enough we can find that we have way more to be thankful for than what we have been before. I also find that if we create a list of all the things we can be thankful for, the list would stretch into the eternities and beyond. We have so much to be thankful for that we need to live in thanksgiving daily. I will share 100 things that I am thankful for, but I am sure that many people can share ten times that and past that.

What I am thankful for;

1) A Heavenly Father who loves me

2) A Savior who also loves me and who died for me

3) The Atonement

4) Joseph Smith 

5) A living prophet- President Thomas S. Monson

6) Temples

7) The Book of Mormon

8) The Old Testament 

9) The New Testament 

10) The Doctrine and Covenants 

11) The Pearl of Great Price

12) The Priesthood

13) My father, J. Todd Kestner 

14) My mother, Andrea D. Kestner

15) My younger siblings- Hunter M. Kestner

16) My younger siblings- Mason T. Kestner

17) My younger siblings- Aiden C. Kestner

18) My younger siblings- Gavin W. Kestner 

19) My younger siblings- Alaina E. Kestner

20) My younger siblings- Gideon E. Kestner

21) Memories that I have with my whole family

22) The Plan of Salvation, I can be with all of them for eternity 

23) Commandments that keep me safe from dangers
24) My life

25) My body

26) My red hair

27) Miracles

28) Oxygen 

29) Clouds

30) The sun

31) Snow

32) Warmth

33) Food

34) Water 

35) Clothes 

36) Hearing

37) Smelling 

38) Touching

39) Seeing

40) Tasting

41) Mountains 

42) Computers

43) Electricity 

44) iPad mini

45) Cameras 
46) USB Flash Drive

47) Face Time/ Skype

48) The Internet 

49) Cars

50) Planes

51) Trains

52) Church Music (Hymns)

53) The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

54) 80's rock

55) Christmas music

56) New Years Eve

57) Valentines Day

58) St. Patricks Day

59) Mother's Day

60) Father's Day

61) Halloween 

62) Thanksgiving 

63) Christmas

64) Spring

65) Summer

66) Fall 

67) Winter

68) My birthday

69) Homes

70) Heating in the house

71) AC

72) Blankets

73) Pillows

74) Bed

75) Paper

76) Pencils 

77) Pens

78) Ability to draw

79) Typing

80) Writing 

81) Stories 

82) History

83) Math

84) Reading

85) Ability to swim

86) Ability to dance

87) Ability to sing

88) Ability to act

89) Ability to memorize

90) Genealogy 

91) Family History 

92) The chance that I have to blog

93) The opportunity that I have to be on a mission

94) Floss

95) Toothpaste

96) Toothbrush 

97) Shampoo

98) lds.org

99) Planet Earth

100) Word of Wisdom

So it leaves the question about what are YOU thankful for?

"Let us give thanks for what we are and for the circumstances God has given us for our personal journey through mortality. When we understand that God offers us opportunities for blessings and blesses through our own adversities and the adversities of others, we can understand why he has commanded us again and again to thank the Lord thy God in all things." (Elder Dallin H. Oaks)

Becoming Self Reliant and Adjusting to Missionary Life

Before I even came on my mission I always talked with my mom about being on your own. She explained to me that it was like a baby bird being kicked out of the the nest and learning how to fly. I understood what that meant, but like many things you have to have on the job training to know what it is like. Once I came out on my mission I truly felt felt what it was like to be kicked out of the nest and trying to fly to the best of my ability. It doesn't help that I am a bit of a perfectionist and so I felt like people expected me to sour when I was only able to struggle flapping my wings. I had many things that I had to learn about an deal with. Those things that I had to deal with was budgeting, home sickness, dealing with other people, exercise, work, teaching, studying, and many others that I learned and are continuing to learn. Before my mission I didn't know what anxiety, depression, or major stress felt like. I think that the Lord gave me those weaknesses on my mission so I could learn how to deal with them and grow much more than if I didn't develop them.

In the past eighteen years I have grown really close to my two wonderful parents and my six younger siblings. I loved to be with them and enjoyed doing family activities with them through the years. When I went on my mission the home sickness didn't really sink in until three and a half months into my mission. I was really depressed and I wanted to go home. It didn't help that I was also struggling with my companion at the time. However I also wanted to stay on my mission and serve. I felt like I would need to go into counseling so I called my Mission President and he gave me some great advice. He said that I should pray to Heavenly Father and that He through the Savior would help me with my home sickness. It took a little bit of time, but I soon had peace and comfort about staying on my mission. My Mission President gave me some wonderful advice to me about becoming self reliant. He said this;

"You don't become a man (or woman) until you learn to let go of your family and strive to be on your own and start a family of your own. I don't think you want to live with your parents for the rest of your life in their basement do you? I would advise you to go to your Heavenly Father and ask for peace and comfort to let go of your family."

-President Swain

The advice from him helped me greatly. The reason why the Savior helped me through this was because he suffered not only for our pains and suffering, but also depression we feel, sadness, loneliness, and anxiety that we are going through as well. I will be forever grateful for Jesus Christ and for the peace and comfort he has given me.

The past eighteen years was preparing me to be off on my own and to learn from experience and on the job training. Now I have been out for over eighteen months and I have grown quite a lot. I have learned how to be off on my own and deal with anxiety that I get from time to time. I have let go of my family and don't get homesick any more. I am still learning and growing, but there is one thing that I have learned through a lot of what I have gone through. It is relying on the Savior and and putting our faith and trust in Him and know that he will make things right or make it for our benefit meaning that we will still go through trials, but we will be able to deal with them and handle them much better than if we went through it alone, not wanting the Savior's help that he so readily is will to give to us.

My purpose

A little over a year ago I started doing a blog and really enjoyed it. However, as it happens on a mission, I got transferred and didn't have the opportunity to do a blog for sometime. The reason why I say that is because I didn't have the blogger app on my iPad at the time and I didn't have a computer to do online like I did at that time. I was able to do emailing on my iPad and so I really didn't have access to blogger, but now I do and I am really excited to get it up and running again. I deleted old posts, only to update and improve upon what I did about a year ago with newfound insight. I am a little OCD and decided to take pictures of each of the posts and re-imput all of the information instead of just going and doing a little editing. 

The purpose and my goal of this blog is to help others come unto christ. I pray that everyone who reads these posts will be uplifted, willing to share with others what I have posted. I hope that these posts will be a blessing in all of your lives.