This is a picture of the Salt Lake City Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was started April 6, 1853, and finished April 6, 1893. This picture was taken from the observation floor at The Church office building, located next to the temple, by my Uncle while on one of his trips.
I was baptized, on September 14, 1997, into The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints; I've completed the 6 discussions for investigators of the church. This is very exciting for me because I have been looking for a religion to follow for a long time, now. I chose the church for many reasons. One, being the Missionaries, Elder Abrego, Elder Jones, and Elder Greene. They cleared up a lot of myths for me. Another major role in my choice of faith was God. He is the Heavenly Father, who created all things and to whom we will return after our time is over. I am forever in debt to him, for he is far more superior than I and everyone else. So, as I am here on earth, trying to succeed so that I can be with the father, I am trying to learn more about the church as best I can, and I hope to go on my mission when I'm 21. In December of 1997, I was called to be Second Counselor of the Laurel Presidency. I love this calling because it has brought me closer to The Church and the people in it. On January 19, 1998, I got my Patriarchal Blessing. That was an extremely important day for me. In May of 1998, I met my best friend, Danny.
One of the most humbling quotes I've heard is this: "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it" ~Jesus Christ.
Please, if you have any questions about the church, email me at findjess@hotmail.com.
Below are some of the scriptures and excerpts that I like.
"Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25)
And also:
(John 3:16)
(Doctrine and Covenants 121:7)
This is a passage from Truth Restored:
Joseph's Story
"...I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally...
"Having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desire of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was siezed upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.
"But, exerting all my powers to call upon God,...and at the very moment when I was ready ot sink inot despair and abandon myself to destruction-not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being-just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.
"It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other-This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!
"My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself...than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right-and which I shoudl join.
"I was answered that I must join none of them,...that: 'they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.'"
For those of you who don't know who Joseph Smith was, he was a prophet who recieved revelations and was told where the gold plates were hidden. He then translated the plates into what is now known as The Book Of Mormon. *correct me if I'm wrong*
"For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked." - Alma 34:35
"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." - Nephi 3:7