Come Unto Christ

Here's a video of my companion, Sister Adair, and me singing the 2014 Youth theme song, "Come Unto Christ." I'm singing in English, she's singing in ASL. Our friend Mary is playing the piano (she hadn't had much practice, so please excuse the mistakes). Hope you enjoy.

Check out the original music video (which is way better than this one).

Looking for Truth in All the Wrong Places

Throughout my life and my experience as a missionary, I've noticed something that everyone has in common, that's simply fundamental to humanity: a quest for personal fulfillment. Everyone I've ever met is searching for something that will help them reach self-actualization; people want to be happy, and they want their happiness to last.

I've noticed something else in many, many people: a void. People have holes in their lives, in their hearts, that keep them from feeling totally happy or fulfilled. We search to fill those voids in a lot of different places.

I've seen people try to fill their voids will material things. You might buy a new car or a new outfit or a new purse or a new this or that to excite you for a moment. You look at it, you play with it, you try it out. You smile and you're excited about it. But after a few days or weeks or months, your excitement wears off. You take it for granted, it loses its luster, and you get bored again. That's when you go out and buy something else. Material things can bring momentary pleasure, but they don't bring joy. They just can't. Those material things can't become a part of who you are. You don't get to take them with you when you leave this mortal life. They won't leave a legacy.

I've seen people try to fill their voids from within themselves. They theorize and philosophize and try and try again to come to conclusions. But when you come up with your own conclusions, you can always find faults in your thought processes. Your own reasoning can't override your doubts. No human being can come up with logical, infallible explanations or conclusions on his own. Those searching for self-fulfillment and peace of mind within their own minds simply won't be able to do so adequately.

The only things that can bring us the assurance, the perspective, and the joy we seek are the things that are greater than ourselves. Granted, it's not possible for us to understand all things in this existence, and it's not reasonable to assume that we can know everything--or anything, for that matter--completely perfectly in this life. But the only times I've seen true joy and lasting peace of mind are in those people who have come to a knowledge--a very firm, deeply-rooted-in-the-soul belief--of God and His plan for us. Having this perspective on our purposes for eternity really helps to make sense of things.

The gospel of Jesus Christ isn't just a religion. It's not just a good way to live. It doesn't just contain good guidelines. It is the way to live. It is Truth. It is the way things simply are. The great thing about truth is that even if no one believes it, it's still true. Even when everyone in the world believed the planet was flat, it was still round; that fact was just waiting to be discovered. Eternal Truth is the same way--waiting to be discovered.

The only way to know of truth is to go to the Source of truth--to ask God. In order to do that, we need an understanding of how He works with us (so we can recognize our answers), a belief that He is there, and a desire to act on the answers He gives us. We have to go searching ourselves--truth doesn't just hit you over the head until you believe it. We need to put in the effort. Once we do, it is so rewarding.

If any of you want some company on your quest for truth, let me know. If you have any questions, ask them. I'm on a journey, too. We can help each other out. Journeys are better with company, and I'd love to take it together.

Embrace Your Inner Child

Sometimes I feel so young. And yes, that is a play on this song.

I frequently have moments when I'll just flash back to some part of my childhood or I'll recall feeling a certain way I did when I was little. Like, we can be sitting in a lesson and I'll suddenly feel all timid and small, reverting back to the shy ways I had as a little kid. Or I'll have moments of discouragement when all I can think of to comfort me is a big hug from my mom or snuggling with my daddy like I used to when I was small.

I frequently feel like a child whenever I notice the influences of the world--harsh language, pornography, offensive music and movies, unkind actions between people. I feel like I'd rather not see those things. Sometimes I don't even understand them and I feel very naive. I think about paying taxes, working full time, managing a household, searching for jobs, worrying about legal matters... it overwhelms me. It's things like that that make me not want to grow up. I imagine that that's the mindset of a child.

Sometimes I look at myself and think, "You're twenty years old. You should be so much more mature. You should be more confident and more independent. You should feel as old as you are." I feel bad for feeling childlike sometimes.

But I shouldn't. Know why?

Because I am a child. I'm a child of God.

He looks at me--at all of us--as His children. I like to think He sees us as toddlers, learning to walk on our own and avoid stumbling. Some of us stumble a lot, but He loves us enough to let us pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and carry on, skinned knees and all (you know, metaphorically speaking).

He wants us to be childlike. Christ teaches us, "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3-4). We need to become "as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, [and] full of love" (Mosiah 3:19).

It's a new take on "embracing your inner child." We should avoid being childish--immature, petty, irreverent--but we should strive to become childlike. Maybe feeling young isn't so bad.

Putting Off the Natural Man

Growing up in the Church, I've heard about the Atonement again and again. How Christ suffered for not only my sins, but also my pains and sicknesses (Alma 7:11-13). How He did so as an act of love. How it caused Him unbearable anguish of body and mind. How this somehow makes it possible for me to live with Heavenly Father again. I've heard it all before, but I've never really understood what all of this means. I grew up knowing that "the Atonement" was the answer to every question in Sunday school and believing that it was somehow a magic cure-all to all of my ails. My understanding has always been limited, and even after extensive studies, it still is limited. But If I've learned anything about the Atonement, it's that it has the power to make us better.

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father" (Mosiah 3:19).

At the beginning of my mission, I was very shy. I had a hard time speaking to people, and I had a hard time loving people. My understanding of the gospel and of the Atonement of Christ was very limited. I didn't fully understand my purpose here, and I was very hesitant to change. The natural Sister Nealy is very stubborn and a little bit cynical.

Being a missionary and being under the constant influence of the Holy Ghost has helped me to become better. I have become more patient, more positive, more loving, more outgoing and out-reaching, more humble, and more willing to submit to the will of my Father. I've gained strength in the face of discouragement and temptation by turning to my Heavenly Father in prayer and by  remembering the example of the Savior. The Atonement of Jesus Christ has helped me to put off my "natural man" tendencies.

Even still, I find myself wanting to repent a lot; sometimes I feel like I'm doing things wrong and that I just need to be better. I can take that one of two ways: I can believe Satan's lies and think that I really am doing everything wrong, or I can understand that this means the Atonement is taking effect in my life. I can believe that I am inadequate, or I can be humble and repent, finding strength in the power of Him whom I serve. To repent means to change or improve oneself in order to become what God wants one to be; the desire to do so is an effect of the Atonement that was fully intended.

In Alma 42, we read:
"Now, repentance could not come unto men except there were a
punishment, which also was eternal as the life of the soul should be,
affixed opposite to the plan of happiness, which was as eternal also
as the life of the soul. Now, how could a man repent except he should
sin? How could he sin if there was no law? How could there be a law
save there was a punishment? Now, there was a punishment affixed, and
a just law given, which brought remorse of conscience unto man." (Alma
42:16-18)

God has established a law of guilt to motivate us to repentance. When I do something wrong or fall short on doing what's right, this eternal principle causes me to feel a remorse of conscience. I know that I am striving to keep the commandments, so the desires I have to repent are, in reality, my desires to become more like the Savior. This law of guilt shows me my potential to be  more Christlike, which is a direct result of the Atonement. My desires to repent and improve tell me that the Atonement is taking effect in my life. I always tell myself, "If you want to repent, you're doing it right."

My heart is in the process of undergoing a mighty change. However, I need to beware of the natural man--my natural tendencies to doubt, become casual, disbelieve, or think negatively. I need to continue to strive each day to align my thoughts and actions with my Heavenly Father's will. I need to endure to the end.

"Enduring to the end can be challenging because the tendency of the natural man is to reject the spiritually changed heart and allow it to harden. No wonder the Lord cautioned to 'even let those who are sanctified take heed.' ...

"To endure to the end, we need to be eager to please God and worship Him with fervor and passion. This means that we maintain faith in Jesus Christ by praying, studying the scriptures, partaking of the sacrament each week, and having the Holy Ghost as our constant companion. We need to actively help and serve others and share the gospel with them. We need to be  perfectly upright and honest in all things, never compromising our covenants with God or our commitments to men, regardless of circumstances. In our homes we need to talk of, rejoice in, and preach of Christ so that our children--and we ourselves--will desire to apply the Atonement in our lives.We must identify temptations that easily beset us and put them out of reach--way out of reach. Finally, we need to frequently biopsy our mightily changed hearts and reverse any signs of early rejection"
(Preserving the Heart's Mighty Change, Dale G. Renlund, 2009).

I've learned that I need to continually rely on the Atonement--to constantly be trying to improve and to maintain the changes that I have undergone. It is for this reason that the Atonement is infinite and eternal; we need to use it constantly.

Christ's Atonement makes it possible for me to repent and improve, and His example shows me the improvements I should strive for.

The best example He gives me is that of the perfect love He shows everyone. I love the stories in the New Testament; I love to picture the Savior's face and imagine His voice. I imagine His eyes filling with tears as He be holds Jairus' daughter, lying small and still on her little bed; I imagine the calm assurance in His voice as He tells Jairus not to be afraid (Mark 5:36). I picture the tenderness with which He took her hand and helped her to rise from her bed. He is filled with joy as she rises, and He glorifies His God for the miracle which He performed. The love He showed for Jairus and his daughter is so pure and unselfish; these are qualities I strive for.

The act of the Atonement itself was a "supreme expression of love for His Father and for us" (Preach My Gospel, 52). I can't even begin to imagine the agony He felt in the garden and the immense love that must have motivated Him to do it. What is even more amazing to me is what
He did immediately after he had suffered so much. I love Luke's accounting of the story:

   "And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled
down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup
from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there
appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being
in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were
great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
   "And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he
found them sleeping for sorrow, And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise
and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.
   "And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was
called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto
Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the
Son of man with a kiss? When they which were about him saw what would
follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword?
   "And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off
his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he
touched his ear, and healed him." (Luke 22:41-51)

After Jesus Christ had suffered unfathomable pain for what must have seemed like an eternity, He wiped off the blood from his body and began to carry on as if He hadn't just taken the entire world upon His shoulders. Then an angry mob came to condemn Him, and He healed one of the very men who wanted to kill Him. He knew what they were going to do to Him--He had just suffered the pain and the consequences for that very act of injustice--and He still stretched forth His hand out of love for this stranger to heal him.

I asked my dear friend, Elder Amaya of the France Paris mission, for his thoughts on the Savior. His answer rung so true to me that his words have become my own: "Why do we call him the Master? He was a great teacher of course, but he completely mastered the flesh as well. Because he did that, he was able to be perfect and never sin. ... Because he has perfect control of himself, he can be perfectly charitable and extends an open arm to us always no matter what we've done. How else could he be able to forgive us if he couldn't cleanse himself of all unclean and contentious feelings, displayed or hidden? Isn't it the natural man that always keeps us from forgiving others, while our free spirits cry that we gladly we'll forgive our fellow spirit brothers and sisters? ... He's the Master in both teaching and discipline, and, especially as missionaries, we have no better role model than him."

One of the main purposes of mortality is to develop self-mastery and become temperate in all things. Christ is the perfect example of that. He mastered the flesh enough to fast for forty days. He was disciplined enough to resist the temptations of Satan in his weakest mortal state; He relied on His Father for support, saying, "It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God" (Luke 4:4).

Even in the face of ultimate agony, Christ showed mastery of the flesh. In the garden of Gethsemane, Christ plead to His Father with these words: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). He had all power, and He could have stopped the suffering right then. But He forsook his natural tendencies to fulfill His Father's will in atoning for everything--not just our sins, but our pains and our trials. He could have called upon legions of angels to take Him down from the cross at Golgotha, but He did not. He showed ultimate discipline in allowing Himself to suffer in body and spirit without being moved.

Sometimes, when I am struggling through a hard day, all I want is to quit. I want to curl up and go to sleep, completely ignoring my problems and just escape consciousness for a while. The natural man in me uses sleep as a defense mechanism to deal with hard things. But when I remember the Atonement of the Master of self-discipline, I receive strength. If Christ can endure ultimate agony in the garden and on the cross without succumbing to His "easy way out," I can be strong enough to finish the day without trying to escape. His perfect example brings me strength in my endeavors to overcome the weaknesses I face in mortality.

I can't say that I know much for sure, but this much I do know: Because of the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, I want to be better, and I know I can be. He is the perfect Example to me in all I do each day. I am grateful for the love I can feel from Him as I read about His life and as I pray to my Father in His name. I hope that one day, through the grace of his Atonement, I can become a worthy servant of my Father and His Son.

On Itchy Eyes and Temptations

I have allergies, especially in Oregon--everything grows here and there's a ton of pollen. Most of the time my allergies are fine. I really only have difficulties when I'm doing yard work or spending a lot of time outside. Congestion, watery eyes, itchy throat, the whole nine yards. Fun stuff.

Well, the other day, our ward was doing a service project: cleaning up and landscaping a cemetery. There were about 3 lawnmowers and 5 weed eaters going all around me. I was raking up the grass and the weeds that had been mowed/clipped. There was one moment when my companion was right next to me with a weed eater when the wind blew a little bit, and a bunch of grass clippings hit me in the face. I sneezed a couple of times, which was fine. But then my eyes started itching like crazy.

I was so tempted to rub my eyes to scratch them. It itched so much! The temptation was almost too strong. But I knew that if I rubbed them, they'd just get even itchier and I'd have to keep rubbing them and pretty soon they'd be really puffy and sore from all the itching and rubbing. So I used all my willpower to keep my hands away from my eyes.

In that situation, when my weakness was being attacked from all sides--I was surrounded by weed eaters and breezes--I was very aware of my temptation. I made a specific effort not to give in to that temptation because I knew of the lasting effects. But as I go about on a day-to-day basis, when I'm not in a situation where I'm being consciously attacked like that, I catch myself rubbing my eyes sometimes. I don't even think about it--my hands automatically go up to rub my eyes whenever they itch.

This illustration is kind of like facing temptations in our lives. Sometimes we'll have days when Satan is attacking us from all sides--sending forth his "mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind"--and the temptation to give in--to scratch the metaphorical itch--is so strong (Helaman 5:12). Perhaps even more dangerous are the day-to-day temptations, when your eyes start itching and you don't even realize it; it's so easy to give in if you're not consciously aware of the seemingly small temptations all around you.

Satan leads us "by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he [binds us] with his strong cords forever" (2 Nephi 26:22). I don't know if you've ever seen a flaxen cord, but it's really thin, almost like a piece of thread. If someone put a flaxen cord around your neck and tried to lead you away with it, all you'd have to do is stand firm and the cord would break. But as soon as you take a step, Satan can wrap another little strand around you. He works with small, simple temptations to add one tiny cord at a time, until eventually, you're all wrapped up. Those little flaxen cords become raveled up together until they form strong ropes.

So when you notice your eyes itch a little bit, don't scratch them. Be aware. Rely on the Savior--He's better than Zyrtec. Use your willpower and call upon God for help. If you give in once, it'll just itch more, and it's so much harder to get out of that trap. Don't let the adversary bind you up with one little metaphorical itch. 

Overcoming the World, Part II: On Doubts & Faith

I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about the moral challenges in our modern society. I'd like to do a follow-up and focus on something a little more specific.

Something that really bothers me is the fact that society values a declaration of weakness more than a magnification of strength. It seems like an especially common occurrence is people declaring holding their doubts in higher regards than their faith (I call it the "I don't believe in anything because I question everything and the fact that I ask so many questions and think so logically means that I'm really smart so basically I don't believe in anything because I'm really smart" mentality). Yes, people have doubts. That's natural. But clinging to those doubts and uncertainties will strangle your faith. 

(Cheesy analogy time!) It's like you have two little wolves inside you--a black one (your doubts) and a white one (your faith). You get to feed whichever one you choose to feed. The one you pay more attention to will eat, grow, and eventually fight the other wolf off. The fight is inevitable--we all have faith-testing moments--and the decision you make now on whom to feed will determine the outcome.

Just something to consider.

This is a struggle I've had. It's a struggle I still face sometimes. It's not easy to re-train your mind to focus on faith rather than doubts. It is easy to tell yourself that you don't know about this, so you can't be sure about that, and when it all comes down to it you'd just be kidding yourself if you said you actually believed in anything. 

Stop it.

Look at things the other way. Start from the other end of the stick--begin with the things you do know to be true. "When problems come and questions arise, do not start your quest for faith by saying how much you do not have, leading as it were with your 'unbelief.' ... I am not asking you to pretend to faith you do not have. I am asking you to be true to the faith you do have. Sometimes we act as if an honest declaration of doubt is a higher manifestation of moral courage than is an honest declaration of faith. It is not!" ("Lord, I Believe," Elder Jeffrey R. Holland)

Why does this matter? Because doubts don't bring you happiness. They don't bring you peace of mind or strength in hard times. Faith does. Excessive doubting does nothing but confuse, upset, and drain you mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. 

Questions are good. Ask them. "It’s natural to have questions—the acorn of honest inquiry has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding. ... Please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" ("Come, Join With Us," President Dieter F. Uchtdorf). Accept the answers you find. Hold to them. Build upon them. Feed your faith.

I promise, you'll be happier. Give it a shot.

(Reference: Alma 32, The Book of Mormon)

How to Become Spiritually Self-Sufficient

Because let's face it, we've all felt that gaping void of emptiness inside ourselves at some point. You may or may not even be consciously aware of that internal, spiritual/emotional hole, but once you fill it, your quality of life will improve tenfold. Here are some simple steps to find life-enriching spiritual well being. (And click on the links!)

1. Gain an understanding of God. Learn who He is and what He is like.

2. Learn how God works among His children. He works in patterns because He is unchanging; gain an understanding, follow His instructions, and you'll be fine.

3. Gain an understanding of God's eternal plan for us. It really puts things in perspective.

4. Develop good habits. Learn to nourish your spirit like you would your body.

Simple as that.

Test it out, I dare you. Tell me how it goes, and let me know if you have any questions or need any help with any of this. Happy trails, friends!