Get up and win that race!

The Race By D. H. Groberg

Whenever I start to hang my head in front of failure's face,
my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
A children's race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn't hard to tell.

They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son,
and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one.

The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of the fire,
to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy's desire.
One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,
was running in the lead and thought "My dad will be so proud."

But as he speeded down the field and crossed a shallow dip,
the little boy who thought he'd win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace,
and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.

As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn't win it now.
Humiliated, he just wished to disappear shomehow.
But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
which to the boy so clearly said, "Get up and win that race!"

He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that's all,
and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again.

He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.
"I'm hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn't try to race."
But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father's face
with a steady look that said again, "Get up and win that race!"

So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.
"If I'm to gain those yards," he thought, "I've got to run real fast!"
Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten...
but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.

Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.
"There's no sense running anymore! Three strikes I'm out! Why try?
I've lost, so what's the use?" he thought. "I'll live with my disgrace."
But then he thought about his dad, who soon he'd have to face.

"Get up," an echo sounded low, "you haven't lost at all,
for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall."
"Get up!" the echo urged him on, "Get up and take your place!
You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!"

So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit,
and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn't quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he'd ever been,
still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win.

Three times he'd fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.
They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place,
head high and proud and happy--no falling, no disgrace.

But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place,
the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, un-proud,
you would have thought he'd won the race, to listen to the crowd.

And to his dad he sadly said, "I didn't do so well."
"To me, you won," his father said. "You rose each time you fell."
And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face,
the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.

For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,
another voice within me says, "Get up and win that race!"

I know that our Heavenly Father is just like the dad in this poem. He loves us. All he wants us to do is to live with him again, and He has sent His Son to do that for us. Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to get up, in the face of adversity and in the face of sin, and win that race. How grateful I am for a Savior and a loving Heavenly Father who provides us a way to win this race that we are all engaged in today. I Stand All Amazed...at the love of God and the sacrifice of His Son that makes it possible for ALL of us to "Get up and win that race!"

His yoke is easy, and His burden is light

"Footprints in the Sand"

One night I had a dream. I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Across the sky flashed scenes from my life...

For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me, and the other to the Lord..When the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that many times along the path of my life there was only one set of footprints. I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in my life. This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it: "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I need you most you would leave me."

The Lord replied: "My precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

Mary Stevenson

I know that in times of hardship, the Lord is there to carry us and to bring us to the place where he would have us go. I testify that He is real. He is our Savior, and I know that He loves us. I love this scripture in Matthew 11:28-30..."28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I Stand All Amazed...at the love of our Savior.

He Lives: Testimonies of Jesus Christ

Families Can Be Together Forever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J-_f4oRuWI

This video on the Mormon Messages Channel of youtube is awesome! I'm grateful for the priesthood and in that, I know that my family can forever be a family. I know this because God has called a Prophet and has given his Prophets priesthood power to act in his name. I know that we have a Prophet today, and his name is President Thomas Monson. He is a man of God. I'm grateful that my family has the oppurtunity to be together forever. I'm grateful for righteous parents who have shown my siblings and me the way to live. I love my family. I love how close we are and the relationships that we share. They are my world. Families can be together forever; I know it! I Stand All Amazed...at my eternal family.

"We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet" - Gordon B Hinckley

Transfers!!

Campbell has left us. He took off this mornin to be a Traveling Zone Leader. We talked to President Hutchings last night and Elder Baker and I will be getting a third companion, Elder Barnes. He's from Las Vegas and we know each other a little bit, so its gonna be fun to get to know him better. Its been a rough morning for me. I dunno whats wrong. I think I'm kinda in a funk right now or something. It was good to watch a couple videos about Jesus and his life on mormon.org. I know that He is our Savior and I know that He has felt everything that we have ever gone thru. He's felt our pains, our sufferings, our low points, our downs, our sicknesses, our sins, and the list goes on and on. I love my Redeemer. He is my all. I Stand All Amazed...at my older Brother Jesus Christ.

Chainsaws!!! Well, just one chainsaw...

Friday was a day to remember! We (Elder Campbell and I) drove home from Leitchfield, Kentucky early that morning. When we got back, there were four missionaries in our apartment. Elder Baker, Elder Dellrie, Elder Gilbert, and Elder Gunter. Come to find out...Elder Baker went to the ER late Thursday/early Friday. He went in because his stomach was killin him and he thought it might have been appendicitis. He was told that he might have Crohn's Disease...that would be no bueno. Its just a might, but still a possibility. I guess Elder Gunter and Elder Baker were the ones that went to the ER and didn't get back until Friday morning at 5:45. So they were passed out, and Elder Gilbert wasn't feeling well either, so he was passed out, and Elder Dellrie...side note, the poor kid is a visa-waiter and so he gets jumbled around when missionaries need a third person or what not, un-side note...slept on the couch in the living room and answered the door in a daze when we knocked on it. Well, after that ordeal, Elder Gunter, Elder Campbell, and myself went to the Angels. And their last name fits them perfectly. They are both converts, have strong testiomonies, and are like the Grandparents of the ward here. They needed help dropping some trees in their backyard. It was awesome! Brother Wheeler, who is in our ward bishopric, chops down trees for a living so he came over and we started droppin the trees. He was the only one that handled the chainsaw, but we got to help by pulling the trees down and cleaning up the limbs. Brother Wheeler also cut the trunks into fireplace logs and we hauled those from the backyard to the front. I think we knocked down three fifty foot trees. One of the trees we dropped fell on the house, but didn't do too much damage. After all that, Sister Angel made some vegetable beef stew that knocked my socks off! Brother Angel made some awesome homemade bread and we ate that too. When we got home, I showered and shampooed a bunch of crap outta my hair. Bugs, tree bark, dirt, bugs, moss, sand, oh yeah and there were a ton of bugs on my body. It was a great morning. I Stand All Amazed...at Sister Angel's cooking, Brother Angel's bread, and dropping three huge trees and realizing the hard way that there are a ton of bugs in Tennessee.

Hop-Town "Special Ops"

Right now, we are up in Hopkinsville, Kentucky with the Hop-Town district. We are doing the "Special Ops" training that the whole mission is doing to improve our teaching skills as a whole. President Hutchings has asked all the Zone Leaders to do this training with all the companionships in the Zone. Elder Campbell and I had the oppurtunity to teach the Sisters today. I dunno what it is about Sisters, but they can connect with people so much better than us Elders can. You can feel the love and care that they express thru their teaching. One thing that we stressed today was being ourselves. Yes, we are set apart to teach the gospel and to build up the kingdom, but that doesn't mean that we have to change who we are to fit that mold. We talked about how we need to rely 100% strictly by the Spirit and one way that the Spirit works thru us is thru our personalities. I think it helped them a lot, but I know I learned a ton today about just being myself. We aren't boring robots teaching about something we believe in. We are normal people (peculiar people) teaching about something we KNOW. I Stand All Amazed...at Sister Missionaries and Personalities

Speeding Tickets...

So there we were, driving back from Murray, Kentucky. We had Leadership Training today. Leadership Training is a fancy name for a meeting for all the missionaries in the mission who are serving in a leadership postition. Today was something special. All the Trainers (missionaries training new missionaries), and the District Leaders (missionaries who serve a group of other missionaries) had a meeting with President and Sister Hutchings. The Assistants (missionaries who directly help President Hutchings) took all of the Zone Leaders (missionaries who serve District Leaders and the other missionaries) and did something called "Special Ops" training. They took away our clocks, cell phones, and pretty much anything from the outside world and locked us in a room. We took 3 water/bathroom breaks and they did one on one training for 7 hours with us. We did role play lessons where one of us acts as an investigator and the other missionaries teach and vice versa. We talked about how to be better missionaries and talked about how to utilize the spirit more. The coolest part was for about a third of the training they split us up individually and put us in our own room and said, "Talk to God." One of the coolest experiences of my life. My knees are gonna be a little sore. The Spirit I felt today was something that I couldn't deny. Many tears were shed, but more importantly the feelings described in Galatians 5:22-23 were felt. "22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." So, after our "Quarantine," we went to grab some grub at a mexican restaurant in Murray. Food was pretty good, I was just so hungry that anything would've tasted good. Well, we were cruisin home and the speed limit was 55 mph for the most part and when we went thru a city it would drop down to 45. We were about 30 minutes into the drive and the road pulled one of those. We hit the BOOMING metropolis of Dover, Tennessee and it went from 55 to 45. I slowed down, I was doing about 47 to 48 and then, to me, it seemed like it jumped back up to 55. We came down a hill and I was doing fine at about 59....or so I thought. Before I knew it, red and blue lights were blaring behind me. I got nabbed for 59 in a 45. $105...I can either pay that or show up at court in po dunk Dover on April 27th to try to fight it. I love missionary work. I Stand All Amazed...at $105. Much love

I Stand All Amazed

So, they, the missionary department...side note...when I used to work for Papa Murphy's Pizza, it was locally owned and was franchised. From time to time "Corporate" would come in and do inspections and fix any problems that were happening. Every time I would hear the word Corporate I would cringe and grimace and the sound effect of "DUN DUN DUUNNN" would go thru my head. Well, when the missionary department calls, I get those same effects...un-side note...have asked us to create a blog about our endeavors and as I was looking around at the other missionaries who did blogs they came up with catchy names and phrases and did really, really awesome blogs. I couldn't really think of any cool name or phrase that would catch people's interest or be really fun or exciting, so I decided to name my blog "I Stand All Amazed." This is my favorite hymn in the mormon hymnal and gets me choked up everytime. Well, the experiences I will share on this will "Amaze" me, but more importantly, everytime I get on I will be reminded of this song that I love very much. So, that's my story. Here are the lyrics:

193
I Stand All Amazed

Thoughtfully

I Stand All Amazed, no. 193

1. I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.
I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,
That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.

[Chorus]
Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me
Enough to die for me!
Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

2. I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine
To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine,
That he should extend his great love unto such as I,
Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify.

3. I think of his hands pierced and bleeding to pay the debt!
Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?
No, no, I will praise and adore at the mercy seat,
Until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet.

Text and music: Charles H. Gabriel, 1856–1932

I Stand All Amazed

Yeah...I couldn't believe it either. Missionary work sure has changed a bunch. When I first got called to Tennessee, I was thinking to myself, "I'm gonna do a lot of door knocking and I'm gonna come home 40 pounds heavier." I did not expect to be on Facebook and making our own blogs and such. I reckon by the time my little brother comes out on a mission, they'll have Blackberries and laptops and they'll be driving around in a MHV (Mormon Hover Vehicle). Well, I will be adding to this blog multiple times a week, so if yall want to check in from time to time, yall are more than welcome too.