I know this post is not inspirational or anything but I could not think of a better place to put this information. Here are the addresses that I will be able to be contacted at over the next two years as I serve in Armenia:
MTC Address:
Elder A. Ross Garner
Armenia Yerevan Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604
Armenia Pouch System Address:
Elder A. Ross Garner
Armenia Yerevan Mission POUCH
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
(Letters sent through the pouch system must be single sheet, folded into three-pannels and taped at the top only, no envelopes, placing the address, return address and stamp on the front of the letter itself. International stamps are not necessary for letters sent through the pouch system.)
Armenia Mission Home Address:
Elder A. Ross Garner
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Vratskan #5
0051 Yerevan, Armenia
(International stamp needed.)
It would be best to send letters through the pouch system.
I am so excited to serve a mission.
Ross (soon to be Elder Garner :o)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Of Love
“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40
The subject matter of the work is love. Love of God, love of neighbor and love of self. I wish to stress the importance of the subject and reiterate what has been stated in the excerpt from Matthew. Love is the great commandment and upon it hangs all the law and the prophets.
Love, as defined by the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary, means “to regard with affection, on account of some qualities which excite pleasing sensations or desire of gratification. It is also described as “an affection of the mind excited by beauty and worth of any kind, or by the qualities of an object which communicate pleasure, sensual or intellectual.”
According to Mr. Webster love is essentially conditional; being extended only to those things which excite pleasing sensations that appeal to our sensual or intellectual passions. Thus it means that I will love you on condition that you gratify my desire for pleasure in some way.
This form of love is not the love we should be striving for as Christians. Christ said in Luke 6:32 that “if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.” This form of love, as stated by Christ, is shallow love. What exceptional goodness is there in man who is nice only to those who are nice to him?
We Christians should be striving for a better love. A love that Paul describes in his teachings to the Corinthians as one that “never faileth.” This love has no pre-conditions, no personal agendas or other limitations. It has no special pre-requisite requirements to worthy of it. This love is completely self-less and unconditional. It is deep and devoted without any sign of hypocrisy. This love is Charity, the pure love of Christ.
The Greatest Commandment
When I was seventeen I decided that I was going to make something of my life. I had grown up in a very active Christian home where I had been taught that God had bigger plans for His children than they could ever imagine and if they would simply turn their lives over to Him, He would do more through them than they could ever do on their own.
I thought on this a lot and I actively sought after the will of God for me through a study of the scriptures and much prayer.
One day when I read the verses in Matthew that were quoted at the beginning of this work I stopped and thought about what I had read. I asked myself what it would mean to me to love God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind. What would I do? How would my actions and behavior change? (What is to follow is the answer I found for myself through further study and contemplation. I realize that it is my answer and so I am not going to assume that it is yours as well. But consider what is to be stated and feel free to take what you like and discard what you will).
“With all thy heart”
When I hear the word heart in this context I think of all the emotional aspects of love. This is rather hard to describe and the best way I think I can portray this is through another personal experience.
During the summer of my eighteenth year I worked as a grounds keeper for a large company along with three other laborers. We developed a very strong friendship over the summer with a sense of unity and comradery that I have never before experienced.
One day as we were working together, not speaking a word, I looked at one of my companions and was suddenly filled with a sense of love for him that I have rarely felt before. Neither he nor I had done or thought or said anything, I simply felt love for him and for my other two companions. That feeling caused me to want to serve them and show them how I loved them. It was an overwhelming, completely consuming feeling that welled up inside me and seriously threatened to pour out through every faculty of my body.
This I believe was the love of God. The energy that came from it was quite astonishing and very powerful. This is what we are asked to give to God. All of our emotional energy God wants devoted to Him.
“With all thy soul”
My personal definition of “soul” is the combination of both body and spirit, thus the commandment becomes loving the Lord with all thy physical and spiritual abilities. I love the Lord with all of my fingers and toes, with all of my skin and my organs, with all of my senses. With all my physical possessions do I love Him with and all of them I would willingly devote to Him.
A good example of loving God with all thy physical ability is given in the film “Chariots of Fire.” In this film we are introduced to a young Irishman by the name of Eric Liddell who is completely devoted to serving his God. His plans were to potentially be a missionary to China, but Eric was also given a pair of legs with which he ran faster than any man he raced.
In 1924 he was given the opportunity to run in the summer Olympics representing the nation of Great Britain. This opportunity he took, but as he got more and more involved in his training his sister, an individual equally devoted to serving her God, became worried that her brother was getting carried away; that his god-given ability to run was running him away from his God.
She expressed her concern to him and in response he said, “I believe God made me for a purpose. For China. But He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. To give it up would be to hold Him in contempt. You were right. It’s not just fun. To win is to honor Him.”
Eric went on to win a gold medal in the Olympics and later fulfilled his call to China to serve as a Christian missionary.
This man loved God. He ran for God. It does not matter what your physical abilities may be, do them for God.
Joseph B. Wirthlin, a great religious and moral leader once said, “Do you love the lord? Spend time with Him.” This quote is at the center of loving God with all of our spiritual ability.
Spend time with God by praying, by reading His words, by fasting, by being in nature and apart of nature, by listening to inspired music, by listening to and being with God. When we spend time, quality time with God, we come to know Him which increases our ability to love Him. For how can a person truly and deeply love somebody he does not know?
“Do you love the Lord? Spend time with Him.”
“With all thy mind”
This, of course, is our intellectual abilities and we are supposed to love God with all of them as well. When in love with someone we usually think about that person a lot. He or she is probably the main subject of our thoughts. We think of them when we are away and we do not want to leave when we are with them. God wants us to give Him that same consideration, but it is also more than this.
The mind is a marvelous, awe inspiring creation. It is one of the things that sets man apart from the common beast. The ability to think and reason to come to great new discoveries has led the human race to the prosperous and advanced state which it now enjoys. And yet the capacity of the brain is still largely untapped. All of this God wants to be given to Him. That does not mean the only thought we should ever have is about God, but that we should essentially think everything for Him.
(It is understood that I have just attempted to separate things that are very interdependent, and so it may be hard identify them separately. My purpose in doing so was simply to illustrate that God wants us to love Him with everything we posses.)
These four areas we have defined basically cover all that man is composed of. He is emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual and all of it man is suppose to give to God. One might think that to do so may seem faulty, extreme and risky. Why would anyone ever make him or herself so vulnerable? Experience seems to tell us that to do so would be inviting pain, sorrow and heart ache. Why would anyone choose to be so exposed?
What must be understood in this case is you are not opening yourself up to a flawed mortal but to a perfect being. He will not trample over you like so many thoughtless people do, but He will cherish that great gift which you have given Him and He will return the favor, in the form of blessings and in personal revelation that shows the extent of His eternal and perfect love for you.
It is as if I am an investor and my stock I am investing is love. The market is full of commodities I could invest in such as material goods, education, relationships, etc., each one promises a certain yield and each has its own risks. But there is only one investment option that has a guaranteed return with huge profits. God is that option and as an investor I am going to hold true to that old adage and put all of my eggs into one basket, investing all of myself in God.
The subject matter of the work is love. Love of God, love of neighbor and love of self. I wish to stress the importance of the subject and reiterate what has been stated in the excerpt from Matthew. Love is the great commandment and upon it hangs all the law and the prophets.
Love, as defined by the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary, means “to regard with affection, on account of some qualities which excite pleasing sensations or desire of gratification. It is also described as “an affection of the mind excited by beauty and worth of any kind, or by the qualities of an object which communicate pleasure, sensual or intellectual.”
According to Mr. Webster love is essentially conditional; being extended only to those things which excite pleasing sensations that appeal to our sensual or intellectual passions. Thus it means that I will love you on condition that you gratify my desire for pleasure in some way.
This form of love is not the love we should be striving for as Christians. Christ said in Luke 6:32 that “if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.” This form of love, as stated by Christ, is shallow love. What exceptional goodness is there in man who is nice only to those who are nice to him?
We Christians should be striving for a better love. A love that Paul describes in his teachings to the Corinthians as one that “never faileth.” This love has no pre-conditions, no personal agendas or other limitations. It has no special pre-requisite requirements to worthy of it. This love is completely self-less and unconditional. It is deep and devoted without any sign of hypocrisy. This love is Charity, the pure love of Christ.
The Greatest Commandment
When I was seventeen I decided that I was going to make something of my life. I had grown up in a very active Christian home where I had been taught that God had bigger plans for His children than they could ever imagine and if they would simply turn their lives over to Him, He would do more through them than they could ever do on their own.
I thought on this a lot and I actively sought after the will of God for me through a study of the scriptures and much prayer.
One day when I read the verses in Matthew that were quoted at the beginning of this work I stopped and thought about what I had read. I asked myself what it would mean to me to love God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind. What would I do? How would my actions and behavior change? (What is to follow is the answer I found for myself through further study and contemplation. I realize that it is my answer and so I am not going to assume that it is yours as well. But consider what is to be stated and feel free to take what you like and discard what you will).
“With all thy heart”
When I hear the word heart in this context I think of all the emotional aspects of love. This is rather hard to describe and the best way I think I can portray this is through another personal experience.
During the summer of my eighteenth year I worked as a grounds keeper for a large company along with three other laborers. We developed a very strong friendship over the summer with a sense of unity and comradery that I have never before experienced.
One day as we were working together, not speaking a word, I looked at one of my companions and was suddenly filled with a sense of love for him that I have rarely felt before. Neither he nor I had done or thought or said anything, I simply felt love for him and for my other two companions. That feeling caused me to want to serve them and show them how I loved them. It was an overwhelming, completely consuming feeling that welled up inside me and seriously threatened to pour out through every faculty of my body.
This I believe was the love of God. The energy that came from it was quite astonishing and very powerful. This is what we are asked to give to God. All of our emotional energy God wants devoted to Him.
“With all thy soul”
My personal definition of “soul” is the combination of both body and spirit, thus the commandment becomes loving the Lord with all thy physical and spiritual abilities. I love the Lord with all of my fingers and toes, with all of my skin and my organs, with all of my senses. With all my physical possessions do I love Him with and all of them I would willingly devote to Him.
A good example of loving God with all thy physical ability is given in the film “Chariots of Fire.” In this film we are introduced to a young Irishman by the name of Eric Liddell who is completely devoted to serving his God. His plans were to potentially be a missionary to China, but Eric was also given a pair of legs with which he ran faster than any man he raced.
In 1924 he was given the opportunity to run in the summer Olympics representing the nation of Great Britain. This opportunity he took, but as he got more and more involved in his training his sister, an individual equally devoted to serving her God, became worried that her brother was getting carried away; that his god-given ability to run was running him away from his God.
She expressed her concern to him and in response he said, “I believe God made me for a purpose. For China. But He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. To give it up would be to hold Him in contempt. You were right. It’s not just fun. To win is to honor Him.”
Eric went on to win a gold medal in the Olympics and later fulfilled his call to China to serve as a Christian missionary.
This man loved God. He ran for God. It does not matter what your physical abilities may be, do them for God.
Joseph B. Wirthlin, a great religious and moral leader once said, “Do you love the lord? Spend time with Him.” This quote is at the center of loving God with all of our spiritual ability.
Spend time with God by praying, by reading His words, by fasting, by being in nature and apart of nature, by listening to inspired music, by listening to and being with God. When we spend time, quality time with God, we come to know Him which increases our ability to love Him. For how can a person truly and deeply love somebody he does not know?
“Do you love the Lord? Spend time with Him.”
“With all thy mind”
This, of course, is our intellectual abilities and we are supposed to love God with all of them as well. When in love with someone we usually think about that person a lot. He or she is probably the main subject of our thoughts. We think of them when we are away and we do not want to leave when we are with them. God wants us to give Him that same consideration, but it is also more than this.
The mind is a marvelous, awe inspiring creation. It is one of the things that sets man apart from the common beast. The ability to think and reason to come to great new discoveries has led the human race to the prosperous and advanced state which it now enjoys. And yet the capacity of the brain is still largely untapped. All of this God wants to be given to Him. That does not mean the only thought we should ever have is about God, but that we should essentially think everything for Him.
(It is understood that I have just attempted to separate things that are very interdependent, and so it may be hard identify them separately. My purpose in doing so was simply to illustrate that God wants us to love Him with everything we posses.)
These four areas we have defined basically cover all that man is composed of. He is emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual and all of it man is suppose to give to God. One might think that to do so may seem faulty, extreme and risky. Why would anyone ever make him or herself so vulnerable? Experience seems to tell us that to do so would be inviting pain, sorrow and heart ache. Why would anyone choose to be so exposed?
What must be understood in this case is you are not opening yourself up to a flawed mortal but to a perfect being. He will not trample over you like so many thoughtless people do, but He will cherish that great gift which you have given Him and He will return the favor, in the form of blessings and in personal revelation that shows the extent of His eternal and perfect love for you.
It is as if I am an investor and my stock I am investing is love. The market is full of commodities I could invest in such as material goods, education, relationships, etc., each one promises a certain yield and each has its own risks. But there is only one investment option that has a guaranteed return with huge profits. God is that option and as an investor I am going to hold true to that old adage and put all of my eggs into one basket, investing all of myself in God.
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