February 19, 2018, "Prayer"

Email to Family and Friends

          Hey Family! What a week! I am loving it here in Billings. The big city life is different haha (~100,000 people). This place I huge! Haha I laugh a little bit as I say that because the Phoenix valley is about 3 million! It will be a bit of a culture shock coming home.

           We are having lots of good work going on here, we are doing tons of snow shoveling for service and have been having lots of good success doing that down here. We have had some swear words and some kinds words to some up simply :)

"Prayer"

              I may have shared this before, but if I have I'm sharing it again! "Throughout his life, Joseph Smith would turn to God in prayer to seek the help and guidance he needed. A Church member recalled hearing him pray in Kirtland, Ohio, at a time of great personal difficulty: “Never until then had I heard a man address his Maker as though He was present listening as a kind father would listen to the sorrows of a dutiful child. … There was no ostentation, no raising of the voice as by enthusiasm, but a plain conversational tone, as a man would address a present friend. It appeared to me as though, in case the veil were taken away, I could see the Lord standing facing His humblest of all servants I had ever seen.” (1) 

               I hope we can all strive to rid the rote prayers in our lives and strive always to make them more personal and intimate. Let us have personal relationships with our Father in Heaven. You will be surprised how big of a difference it will make in your lives.

Elder Philip R. Bredsguard

Mission Home- 1848 Rimrock Rd Billings, MT 59102

Current Address- 3286 Granger Ave E #11 Billings MT 59102

Notes

1. Teachings of the Presidents: Joseph Smith, Chp 10 "Prayer and Personal Revelation"

Sent from my iPad

February 12, 2018, "Trust in God"

Email to Family and Friends

          Hey Family! I miss you all! I am having a great time here in Billings! I love my companion, he is pretty funny. I used to serve around him in Butte and he served in one of my old areas so we talk a lot about those times haha.

          I love the ward here, the members are fantastic! We are finding awesome investigators and teaching great ones they had from before! I'm pretty homesick for Kalispell (my last area) but I am just as excited to meet all the wonderful people here, whom I call friends :) 

"Trust in God"

              Alma once said "for I do know [he is speaking from personal experience] that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." (1)

              How true is that statement! We all have trials to pass through in this life, all personal and intimate. But may we all trust in Him who can support all. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (2) In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Philip R. Bredsguard

Mission Home- 1848 Rimrock Rd Billings, MT 59102

Notes

1. Alma 36:3
2. Matthew 11:28-30

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February 5, 2018, "Faith, Hope, and Optimism"

Email to Family and Friends

          TRANSFERS - I am leaving Kalispell, I LOVE THIS PLACE! I will miss it with all my heart. I love the people. But at the same time I know I have done my duty, I have no regrets. I know that we have done the Lords will and accomplished what he has sent me here to do.

          I'm being transferred to Billings, my new companion is Elder Black he is from Thatcher, AZ, he is a great missionary. We came out together, I am exited to be working with him. We will have a lot of good work to do together. :) 

"Faith, Hope, and Optimism"

A conversation Mother and I had today.

              Mom: "Today in Relief Society, we had a council.  We discussed how Faith, Hope, and Optimism are related.  How fascinating!  As we learned together, I gleaned that without Faith, there is no Hope.  Without Hope, there is no Optimism.  Optimistic people are Faithful people.  Look around and see if this is true."

            "This means that Faith is the key to Optimism.  I saw how important it is to plant those little seeds of Faith in people; that what the world needs.  I've done it before with you children."

           "Sad and Angry and Glad are choices, as we learned in our recent General Conference.  In Relief Society today we learned that many people in the world are Sad and Hopeless.  There is nothing to hold to, nothing to believe in ~ not themselves, not their families, etc.  A woman in our ward is a therapist.  She said the majority of her clients are depressed and cannot overcome their depressions because they have nothing to look for to or to improve for, having no belief in anything greater than themselves.  And, they don't like what they see."

            Me: "I loved your last email. I learned so much from it, I love the way you put that Optimism can't occur in ones life tell faith is planted in ones heart, until one can trust in something greater than themselves. One thing I love about faith is it can only produce fruit if it is in a true principle. Your mind can be masked and if you are falling off a cliff, and there is a branch to grab on to, and if you in your heart honestly believe that it is on your right but it is on your left, it has no power to save you, to bless your life. You must have faith in a true principle."

          "That is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is true, and he lives. And we can feel ourselves being saved by his branch as we TRUST that he is there. We can feel our fall stopping. We don't need to know that it is there perfectly, but if we will just exercise a particle of that faith, that trust, through that, we will be saved from falling as we take hold of that branch. Our families WILL be blessed, they WILL find joy in life's trials. Not just some temporary happiness, but peace that is everlasting that can never be shaken save it be by our own lack of faith, our own lack of reaching out and trusting our Father, God Almighty. And consequently lose the blessings so much as if He wasn't even there, because we won't reach out to find Him. 

            "He has given us our agency, and with that agency we are free to chose life or death, happiness or misery. The Plan of Salvation, our Heavenly Fathers plan for our happiness, is so simple, it pains me that this generation is so stubborn that they will not open their heart to see. I don't need to know every doctrine of God to show that this is true, it is shown by the lives of those who live the Gospel. We may not be able to see the surety of the seed, but we can see the fruit of it in the lives of the faithful Saints. And I have never seen any refute that and I never will, the Saints are and will always be happy, because they have faith, hope, and optimism."

Elder Philip R. Bredsguard

Mission Home- 1848 Rimrock Rd Billings, MT 59102

Sent from my iPad