"Your body is a what?"

A TEMPLE! :)  

I get so excited whenever I see the Temple off of the beltway or as I drive up Beach Drive in Kensington.  If you are with me in the car, I will usually exclaim in a high falsetto-voice, 

"Temple, temple, temple! Temple temple! It's the temple!  Ooh! Temple temple!"

Washington DC Temple

Yeah, I am still a kid at Hart... Heart!  (oh my Hart puns...)

The time on my mission is flying by.  I have realized a few things as I am nearing the end of my mission.  One of the things I continue to learn is that my body is a temple for my spirit to dwell and for the Holy Spirit to dwell.

Elder Thornton, my roommate, is pretty conscientious of what he eats and how he works out.  He understands that his body is a temple.  

As I am going towards my 22 month mark of my mission, I realize I will be home shortly.  I want to look good.  I have admired Elder Thornton and his good decisions in how he treats his body and I have tried to follow him sometimes.  I feel good when I do things like push-ups, sit-ups, eating vegetables and fruit.  
I seem to have more energy if I eat fruits and vegetables with my meals.

We can CHOOSE whatever we want to put inside our bodies.  If we want, we can eat a whole chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but it is better to fuel our body with a well balanced diet.

Remember this: Your body is a temple.

Rexburg Idaho Temple

There are things WE KNOW are harmful to our body such as Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs.  There are many things that we might be tempted to put into our body.

But remember: Your body is a temple.

Boise Idaho Temple

At these neat places called tattoo parlors, we can permanently put ink in our skin into a cool design that doesn't wash off.

Don't forget though: Your body is a temple.

Brigham City Utah Temple

When we read the scriptures, our spirit is filled with light and it effects how we act.  When I read the scriptures, I seem to be more grateful for the life and the body God has given me among other blessings.  When we read garbage, we feel like garbage.  Don't read garbage.  Your mind is part of your body.

and remember: Your body is a temple.

Salt Lake City Utah Temple

Knowing that my body is a temple reminds me that I need to keep it clean.  A temple is a house dedicated to the Lord.  It is HIS HOUSE.  We won't live in these mortal bodies forever, but while we are using them, we should keep them neat and tidy.  Organize, clean, prioritize.  The Savior Jesus Christ can dwell in these temples.

Here's a way to put ***LIGHT*** into your "temple."

I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! :D

If we prepare our lives for the Holy Ghost to be there with us, He will be with us.

God has given us a body to live this mortal life with the GIFT of a physical body.  We can't change bodies with someone else, unless this is SUPER-the-future and I am oblivious or ignorant to the fact that we 

can switch with someone else.  In my day, kids were trading pokemon cards and these days, they are trading bodies?  WHAAT?!?  That's messed up man.

(The above italicized words are not church doctrine.  They may not even be funny.  Oh well, I tried.  Sorry if my thoughts are disturbing.  I am weird sometimes.)

So yeah, the whole point of that was... we can't just trade with someone else.  We have to work with what we have been given.

Here's something else.  I think many people are very judgmental to others just because of the body he or she has.  People make fun or tease because of how fat, skinny, dark, light, ugly, pretty, short or tall others are.

Matthew 7:1 says Judge not, that ye be not judged.

There is NO NEED to put others down for us to feel good.  We do not need to feel better than anyone else.  We all are special.  

Remember: EVERYONE'S body is a temple, and everyone deserves to be loved.  

Your Father in Heaven loves.

So show love. It's a commandment.

God expects us to treat our bodies (his gift to us) with respect.  

God loves us and wants us to be happy.

That's why He gave us commandments.

God has given us commandments such as to Love Him, to love your neighbor, to honor your father and mother, to keep to word of wisdom, to live the law of chastity and to keep the Sabbath day Holy.  We need to have Faith to try to keep the commandments or even one commandment.  When we keep a commandment, we receive the blessings God has attached to that commandment.  Keeping commandments will bless our lives spiritually AND temporally.
Try it and watch the blessings come.  I promise they will.  God never shirks on His end of the deal.

Try it and you may like it! :)

God gave us a power to create life.  That is a sacred power.  

God has set the bounds for which this power should be used.  Those bounds are in the law of chastity.  

Get and Stay in those bounds and you will be happy.

Here is a link to The Family: A Proclamation to the World

like choir?  Me too. :)          eeeeeeenjoy!

My life is a gift, my life has a plan,

my life has a purpose, in heaven it began

my choice was to come to this lovely home on earth

and seek for God's light to direct me from birth.

I will follow God's plan for me

holding fast to His word and His love.

I will work and I will pray.

I will always walk in his way

and I will be happy on earth

and in my home above.

We choose what to fill our body and spirit with.  There is light, and there is garbage.  True, there are the things in between,

But remember:  Your body is a temple, so keep it clean... hey that rhymed!

San Diego California Temple

Prone to Leave the God I love

Ever felt like this guy?  This is probably how it will be when I get back from my mission and see my parents again.  Big embrace of a hug.  My mom might tell me to get a haircut if it's like this guy's hair though.  Nice mullet!  Oh yeah! Business in the front, party in the back!  I got this from the church website. :)  I have fun sometimes.  I hope this made you laugh.  Laughing is healthy.

Before this life we lived with God.
After this life we will meet God.

This life is the ONLY TIME in our existence that we are separated from God.  We can feel him near when we pray.  We can feel His spirit when we read from the scriptures or when we are at church, but we are not physically with God.

Prone to wander Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love.  Here's my heart, O take and seal it.  Seal it for thy courts above.

This is the chorus to one of my favorite songs, "Come thou Fount of Every Blessing."  As I wrote the title, I couldn't help but write the next line.  "tune my heart to seek thy grace."

check this out!                           

Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wondering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor 

daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, 

bind my wandering heart to thee

CHORUS:

Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love!
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above!

My knowledge of the Plan of Salvation has helped me understand that I came here to receive a body and to make choices.  Although I am separated from my Heavenly Father for a time, I can feel him near me when I make righteous decisions.  When I make choices that my Heavenly Father would not want me to make, I feel separated from Him even more.  I feel I am as a sheep and "wander" from the fold of God.  I am so glad I have come to the knowledge of a Savior who gave his life, so I could get up, brush off, and try again to live a Christlike-life.   If YOU have ever felt like you have wandered from the fold of the Good Shepherd, then please... please know that you are loved and invited to come back.  There is a way back.  It is the only way back and I highly suggest it.  Seek out the Savior.  Learn what faith, repentance and forgiveness really are.  I know that the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real, and because of it, we can return to God again.

Alma says: God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice.  (Alma 42:23)

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.  (Articles of Faith 1:3)

All mankind includes you. :)  I invite you to listen to the Holy Ghost which God gives us because He loves us.  Listen to His promptings.  Listen to... the MISSIONARIES! :)  I love being a missionary.

This is my invitation to all.  God loves you.  Sometimes when life gets rough, it makes it harder to feel His love... but sometimes God allows life to get rough, so we can turn to Him... humble ourselves... and choose to trust Him in all things and feel of the love He has for us.  

If you feel "prone to wander," keep trying to come back.  You can.

We will meet God again.  Of this I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

-Elder Matthew H. Hart

God's perfect plan

1 And now, my son, I perceive there is somewhat more which doth worry your mind, which ye cannot understand—which is concerning the justice of God in the punishment of the sinner; for ye do try to suppose that it is injustice that the sinner should be consigned to a state of misery.

 2 Now behold, my son, I will explain this thing unto thee. For behold, after the Lord God sent our first parents forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground, from whence they were taken—yea, he drew out the man, and he placed at the east end of the garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the tree of life—

 3 Now, we see that the man had become as God, knowing good and evil; and lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever, the Lord God placed cherubim and the flaming sword, that he should not partake of the fruit—

 4 And thus we see, that there was a time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God.

 5 For behold, if Adam had put forth his hand immediately, and partaken of the tree of life, he would have lived forever, according to the word of God, having no space for repentance; yea, and also the word of God would have been void, and the great plan of salvation would have been frustrated.   Alma 42:1-5

I have been reading in Alma 42 lately.  I suggest you just read the whole chapter.  It's pretty deep, but if you study it out with a prayer to understand it, you will understand it.  (Alma chapter 42)  I'm learning how God's plan is perfect.  It links mercy and justice together perfectly.  Justice is not removed or slackened when mercy happens in His Plan.  He loves us and wants us to be in His kingdom after this life...
but God is  just.  "No unclean thing can enter into the kingdom of God" (Alma 40:26)

6 But behold, it was appointed unto man to die—therefore, as they were cut off from the tree of life they should be cut off from the face of the earth—and man became lost forever, yea, they became fallen man. (Alma 42:6)

We all sin.  God knew this.  John 3:16-17 says:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Here's where it gets deep.

 13 Therefore, according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be brought about, only on conditions of repentance of men in this probationary state, yea, this preparatory state; for except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice. Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God.

 14 And thus we see that all mankind were fallen, and they were in the grasp of justice; yea, the justice of God, which consigned them forever to be cut off from his presence.

 15 And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also.

 16 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.

 17 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?

 22 But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.

 23 But God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice.

 24 For behold, justice exerciseth all his demands, and also mercy claimeth all which is her own; and thus, none but the truly penitent are saved.

"so... what do I do?"

well, if you want happiness and eternal life...

REPENT!

oh and check out this scripture.  

Alma 7:14-16

God has a plan for us in this time we have to prepare to meet Him.  He has given us a way to make covenants with Him.  Baptism is our first covenant.  When we are baptized, we are washed clean from our sins and we promise to remember Him, to keep His commandments, and to always remember Him.  In return, we are promised to always have His spirit to be with us.  After we are baptized, we can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. These ordinances must be done under the proper authority.  

God has given us opportunities to make more covenants with him than just baptism.  We can make covenants in places called temples.  A temple is literally the House of the Lord, and we can feel Him near when we prepare ourselves and enter in.

Here is the temple in Washington DC
I am so glad I am serving a mission here.  The visitors' center is awesome here and it has become my home away from home.  The feelings I have in the temple are those of peace, comfort, understanding, love, virtue and divine nature.

Here is one of my favorite songs from primary.  I sang this as a young boy and I sing it to this day.  I have a testimony of it.  The song testifies of our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ.

"I lived in Heaven"