I ended up getting ready super early this morning so I had some extra time for personal study, LOVE it when this happens.:)

I read in my personal progress book on knowledge, number 1. It gives some scriptures to look up on knowledge, then asks you to explain why is knowledge so important?

2 Nephi 28:30 is one of this scriptures it asked me to look up. I love the blessing it has in this scripture, we will learn wisdom as we study.
Then, in Doctrine and Covenants 130:18 it says,"Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection."

OK! Well, after my mission, I guess this means I should probably do some school.:) Its so important for us to have knowledge and be well educated in school and also the gospel. Everything we learn here in this life, we take it all with us when we die.

I had myself an "Ah-Ha" moment this morning. After I read about knowledge, I was studying about the gospel of Jesus Christ and reading up on baptism. I read about the reasons we are baptized. One, said "we are baptized for a remission of our sins." After reading that a scripture came to my mind, 2 Nephi 25:26. "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children my know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."
Ding, a light bulb shined so bright as this scripture came to mind. It makes sense to me now.

It is through the scriptures (Bible and Book of Mormon) and the restoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith that we can know how to be forgiven and what we must do to return to live with our Father in Heaven and be clean of our sins.

You would think that I would already know this but, this is why we must continue to study the gospel. We forget things, and also some things start to make sense to us.
I know that I will continue to learn about the gospel for the rest of my life. I know that the Lord will continue to bless me with more "Ah-Ha" moments as long as I show Him that I am willing to learn and study His words, and do the things which He has asked of me.
I invite all of you to open your minds and to be willing to learn. Whether its about the gospel or regular school subjects. I know that it is important to the Lord for us to learn and to grow.
Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Remember, that ladder is always there.

This morning my companion showed me something that I really like, so I thought I would share it.

As you can see on the left, that is us. We are trying to make it back to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. But we have ditches along the way.

The first one is death. A bridge is built to walk over death, because of Christ we are able to walk over death.

Then the next ditch is sin. As we go through this life we aren't perfect we will fall into sin. But there is a ladder we can walk step by step to make our way back to Heavenly Father. To climb the ladder requires work each step is a principle of the gospel.

The first step is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The second step is Repentance. Faith in Jesus Christ leads us to repent to try and do better.

The third step is Baptism our first ordinance and covenant (promise) to our Heavenly Father. Our faith, and repentance leads us to baptism. We are able to have all of our sins washed away so we can be clean.

The fourth step after baptism is we receive the Holy Ghost. A wonderful gift our Heavenly Father gives us. The Holy Ghost helps guide us to make right choices and comforts us. He also testifies of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Of course it doesn't end after baptism, we have to continue to climb that ladder. At times we might slip and fall back into sin, but we can always get back on that ladder and start climbing back up to Heavenly Father.

That is the only way we can return to live with Him, its by climbing the ladder taking it one step at a time.

We role played teaching this principle this morning and this is what my companion showed me. Ah, it makes so much more sense than how I was trying to explain! :)

I'm grateful she showed this to me, it opened up my eyes in a way. I love this gospel. I know that at times we will fall into sin over and over again through out our life. We might even just sit down at the bottom for awhile, but that ladder is always there! The Lord will always be at the top of that ladder cheering us on to keep climbing then at that last step He will reach is hand out to us.