The Plan of Salvation

The Plan of Salvation is basically God's plan for us, the reason we are here and what has come before and what will come after our Earthly lives. It is also referred to as the Plan of Happiness.

To read more about the Plan of Salvation yourself, here are two links:

http://www.lds.org/topics/plan-of-salvation?lang=eng
http://mormon.org/beliefs/plan-of-salvation

The Plan of Salvation answers the questions: "Where did I come from and why?" Which is a really big question that everyone wants to know the answer to!


There is a God.

Alma 30:44 says, "...all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." 

He is the Father of our Spirits and we are made in his own image. He is our Heavenly Father and He loves us more than we could ever possibly imagine.


I got the following images from HERE

So here we are, spirits in our premortal existence.

The Plan of Salvation starts here, where we are God's children, but only in spirit form. We didn't have bodies and so there were things we couldn't experience. God wanted us to be able to be more like him and to understand joy and happiness, so there were two plans given. One, from Satan, was to have us come to Earth and be forced to choose only right and so we could all gain exaltation. The other plan, from Jesus, was that we would come and make our own choices, and a savior would be provided as a way for us to repent and return to live with Heavenly Father again. Those of us who chose this second plan have come, are here or are coming here to Earth! Yay!! Good choice! 

So, we pass through the veil and are no longer able to remember our premortal existence, so that we can make our own choices on faith.

And because of The Fall of Adam and Eve, we are able to be mortal and experience joy.

In mortality we are tested. Our bodies aren't perfect which gives us temptations and struggles, we have to find faith and learn repentance (which we are able to do because of Christ's Atonement for us). Eventually, our bodies die.

And our spirits go to a place we call Spirit World. If you lived righteously, you are in a place of "Spiritual Paradise" and if not, then "Spirit Prison" which is really a great way of describing what it is like. The missionaries came over recently and gave a great example. They said that the Spirit World is more like waiting in the Dentist office, if you cleaned and took care of your teeth, you have nothing to worry about and you're felling good. If you neglected brushing, you will be nervous and it will feel like torture waiting, which is more what Spirit Prison is like, not fire and demons but more of a personal upset that you now have your eyes lifted and feel bad about how your Earthly test went.

What is great though is that our Church teaches that ins the Spirit World you can still choose to follow Christ. Remember that God is our loving Heavenly Father and will always want to give us more chances, this is kind of like his final plea.

After the time that Jesus Christ returns to Earth, there will be a time that all of our bodies are resurrected and restored to a perfect state.

And eventually we will have our final judgement, determining what reward we will gain.

Yes, reward. We don't believe that God wants to punish us for all eternity. But no unclean thing can dwell in God's presence, so unfortunately not everyone will be able to be in the highest degree of glory. But there are three degrees. The Telestial Kingdom is a wonderful place, as is the Terrestial Kingdom, but the Celestial Kingdom is where we will be the happiest and is the highest reward. Scriptures relate the kingdoms to the brightness of the stars, the moon, and the sun. 

 We are here to live by faith, not knowing our premortal lives, and to use our faith in God and Christ to be good people and follow the commandments and make sacred covenants (like baptism) through the proper authority (given by Christ) and return to live with our Heavenly Father in bodies, which we didn't have before. We are here to be able to have joy and happiness.

1 Corinthians 15 talks about the different glories of Heaven and basically the whole plan of salvation! I suggest reading it. Here is a link to it http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/1-cor/15?lang=eng This is the King James Version of the Bible, which we believe to be the most accurate and full version. I'm no so keen on random people trying to make my Bible easier to read by changing the words ;)


 This Plan of Salvation is what I believe. It is our purpose in coming to Earth. It is amazing and it is a perfect plan. I am so grateful for my knowledge of this plan and my purpose. It gives me an eternal perspective that helps me get through daily tasks and challenges. I love it!

We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

The title of this post is Article of Faith 6, you can read the other Articles of Faith HERE

Take a look at these pictures (I got these HERE if you want to look at more pics or download them for your own use):

All of these pictures show Prophets acting with Priesthood Authority to do what Prophets do! What is a prophet exactly? A prophet is a man called by God to be His representative on earth. He is a special witness for Christ, he teaches truth (of the gospel) and interprets the word of God, calls unrighteous to repentance, receives revelation and directions from the Lord for us, he may even see the future to forewarn us (think of Noah!) There have been many prophets throughout history and we can read about many of them in the scriptures.

If you lived in Noah's time, or Moses's time, or Jacob's time, would you want to hear what one of these Prophets had to say? Would you want to go listen to him preach and share the word of God? Would you want to try your best to obey the commands he tells you and want to follow guidance and warning given?

I think it would be very interesting to sit at the feet of a prophet and hear what he has been told to convey to us.

Well, there's some great news. There is a living Prophet of God on the earth today. His name is Thomas S. Monson and he is the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It can be a lot to take in, for someone who has their own beliefs and is suddenly given this news. Honestly, a lot of people think us Mormons are nuts for thinking this. But, isn't that what people in the scriptures thought to? Who actually listened to Noah? Only his family was on the Arc, everyone else thought Noah was nuts.

Wouldn't it be awful, if you met Christ at the Judgement, and he said, "Why didn't you listen to my Prophet?" Isn't it worth looking into, checking out, and finding out for yourself if Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet? If the Twelve Apostles are who they say they are (yes there are Twelve Apostles on the Earth again too!)

This is wonderful news. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I'm reading the Bible and I get to parts about how to cleanse myself of leprosy, I wonder if I really need to know that bit. Well, those instructions were important in that time, but there are things that we need to know now, like how to avoid pornography on the internet or not be addicted to video games. Those things are important now and we have prophets and apostles to tell us these things and other important things. Of course there is always the repetitive "pray, read scriptures, be like Christ" but there is a reason that is repeated over and over throughout scriptures and in the talks of our living prophets.

Christ's established one church while he was on the earth. He gave authority to twelve apostles who spread the gospel. When Christ was killed, the apostles still tried to keep the church going, when one of them was killed, they new it was important to call another apostle. But eventually, too many of them died and eventually, the authority was lost. But like in other dispensations throughout the bible, after a time of turmoil and confusion among the people of the world, a new prophet was called, and the authority has been reestablished.

Amos 3:7 "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."

Listen to a prophet of God:

Tomatoes!

So, no watermelon or cantaloupe, lost a strawberry plant...but...I saw a tomato seedling! Yay! I was giving up hope for that little guy! Waiting on the bell pepper seedling still though :( Everything that is still intact after the dog got out there is doing great. I have a lot of work to do though. We bought some fencing that sticks into the ground since we found that our dog was going under the fencing. I haven't worked on the garden like I have wanted. It's been super hot and I'm not feeling well. I definitely need to work earlier next year on the garden.

:(

Well, the dog magically got into the garden. She is determined. I am extremely mad. She could've done more damage, but she got rid of those beautiful watermelon seedlings and one of the strawberry plants. I am sooo mad and sad. I put so much work into that garden and everything was growing so wonderfully and the dog just got in there and ruined it. I have so much repair work to do and I have to figure out how to keep this dog from getting into the garden. I have no idea how to keep her out of the garden without spending hundreds of dollars.

Watermelon!

Phoebe and I went out to check the garden. Looks like we have 3 watermelon seedlings that are gorgeous and now 2 more bean seedlings! Our strawberries are looking great. Some plants look better than others, but all of them have some good green leaves on them. A lot of them have some red leaves, I don't know if that is normal or what, I'll have to look that up. We have one more watermelon seedling I can see popping through and we saw a little bitty green basil seedling growing in one of the cinderblock squares.

Next year I need to mix soils better. The cow manure and compost seemed like a good idea, but it's very muddy. I think it needs to have some sort of potting mix mixed into it or something to keep it light and not packed down when it rains.

Not tomato or bell pepper seedlings yet. I'm thinking it might be a good idea if I try to grow some seedlings indoors so that we get some growing in case those ones outside don't grow.

That Dog!

Well, yesterday the dog got past our fencing into the garden. She didn't do anything until Dan yelled at her and she ran through the wooden garden, getting rid of the beautiful cantaloupe seedlings, ruining a chance at carrots and some of the lettuce. Luckily most of the garden is unharmed and I can replant those things. But those cantaloupe seedlings were so beautiful :( Dan worked hard on fixing the fencing and did a great job. I can't see the dog getting past it now.

I was questioning whether Dan was actually interested in the gardening stuff. I'm assuming he likes the product of a garden, but he hasn't been helping with the garden because he works so much. But I appreciated him really working hard to get that fencing put up well, so I'm assuming he is appreciative of my work on the garden as well. Silent shows of appreciation are nice.

What's growing?

Well, tons of things are growing! I still haven't made room on my phone to take pics, but here's what's growing right now:

Basil in the pot (planted a couple weeks ago, 3 seedlings growing)

Planted on Monday:
Green onions (and tons of them! from onion bulbs)
1 lettuce seedling
Cantaloupe!! I saw one seedling popped through and another on it's way!
Onion (saw one coming through, from the same onion bulbs as green onions, but these ones were planted to grow as onions)
Marigolds Everywhere! (the ones in the garden bed are all growing, they were planted in 4 different places. Also, the ones my daughter planted on Tuesday are growing. Her's are in a pot)
Zinnias (planted in 2 places and both are growing seedlings)
Beans! (1 seedling)
Blackberry bush is growing well and has some reddish berries and green ones
Strawberry plants (some have berries forming!)

I'll take lots of pics later today or probably tomorrow :)

Plants are Growing!

Basil in our pot. Chives were planted on the other side, but they never started growing and it's been a few weeks. Looks like the basil will be lonely :) In a week I'll go a head and thin them out and probably only do 1 or 2 basil plants in this pot. I'll also spread them out later on or put just one in the middle. I don't need them growing strangely on the side.

 

Here's some lettuce I believe! It's growing in the lettuce spot at least, so we'll see :) It's tiny, so if the other ones start poking through we'll know for sure. The thing growing among the carrots I think is just a weed. I'll wait a little longer before I pull it but pretty sure it's just a weed.

 Look at those pretty Zinnias! I'll thin it to only one in about a week by snipping with scissors so I don't disrupt the roots of the Zinnias. I read that they don't like to be disturbed.

I believe this one was found in the Marigold spot! I can't wait for it to grow bigger!

I believe this is the other Zinnia. I will have another check when I go outside and edit.

 Green onions and lots of them! They'll be ready in about 3-4 weeks. I love green onions on baked potatoes. There's about 5 growing above the soil now :) Which is surprising because I planted them about 2inches deep!

More Pics to come! I ran out of memory on my phone

The Garden Soil

Yesterday I went out to water the garden. It had rained a little bit the night before, but not a ton. It seems that the top of all the soil/compost was dry. I'll need to check to see if it's just dry on the top or dry all the way through a few inches. If so, it's going to need a lot of watering! That's okay, I just want my plants to live ;)

I forgot to mention that in one pot we have basil and chive seeds. We planted them about 2 1/2 weeks ago. The chives haven't started growing, so I don't think that they will by now. There's a few basil seedlings. We'll need to thin them out but at least those are growing.

Our rosemary plant from last year is still growing well. I'm considering planting it into the ground. You're suppose to bring them inside to protect them during the winter, but I didn't do that last winter and it seems to be fine.

Last night I had Phoebe pick out which flower seeds would go into the last pot. She picked Marigolds and Snapdragons. I put marigolds in the middle, we'll just let one seedling grow, and snapdragons around the perimeter, I may let a couple grow and see how it does.

Dan showed me out to use the weedwacker, so today I will be doing that so that we can plant the blackberry bush (which is doing great and growing berries) and the sunflowers. I might grow a few more things in with the sunflowers since they get so tall and could probably have some bush beans or something on the ground. We'll see ;)

What's Growing in the Beds?

All of the seeds are from Organic packets except the onion bulbs and flowers. The strawberries aren't organic except the labeled one. The soil isn't labeled organic so I wouldn't consider these organic in the end product. But we are trying to stay away from pesticides and GMOs. Last year I didn't use any kind of chemical on the plants (although they weren't organic seeds) and there weren't any bug problems. This year I planted some marigolds because I've read they are great to keep pests away. We'll see how it goes! I don't expect much from the strawberries this year. I got them pretty late in the season and some were on sale. But since they are perennial I expect a great strawberry harvest next year! I still have to plant the Sunflowers and blackberry bush

Gardening this year

I haven't posted on this blog for a while, but I plan on using this as my garden journal, so I guess I will start posting on here more. I want to share some pictures of our garden so far this year and make some notes.

This year, we are using our 4ftx4ftx8in cedar bed that we got from Home Depot last year It was about $40
We also started a new garden bed, this time more frugal but pretty awesome. I made a cinder block garden bed. I used (10) 8inx8inx16in blocks from Menards, the total cost was about $15. It made a bed that is 4x4x8 but the inside is about 3x4x8 and I can use the squares of the cinder block to plant things in.
We filled the beds with some organic soil mixed that had a fertilizer and some bags of cow manure/compost. I got all of it at Lowes and I'd say for all the bags I paid about $30, I believe we bought about 18 bags. I also used 3 bags I had leftover from last year. Boy, you sure do need a ton of soil for these things! I have a few bags left right now as I haven't planted some of the plants yet that are going straight into the ground.

I also invested in a big tomato cage and a medium cage for the tomato plant and bell pepper this year. Last year the tomato plant monopolized the entire garden bed.

I did all the work myself this year, my husband has a new job that he's at all day every day (except Sunday!) so it was up to me to get this garden done. We're getting a very late start, but I'm hoping we get at least some small harvest.

 Yesterday, I started building the cinder block garden bed. I didn't dig it out. Instead, like last year, I laid paper down to prevent the grass from growing through. Last year I used newspaper, but I didn't have any this year so I used paper bags from grocery shopping. I put paper in all the holes too so that I can grow things in them without worrying about grass growing through.

 My cat has been helping.

 I've been finding TONS of slugs in our yard. They are a garden pest. For now I've been relocating them, but if they become an issue with the plants we'll have to take some more drastic steps. I want to start small with them though, I don't want to just go killing them if it isn't needed and I don't want to spread pesticide around my garden bed either. I don't think we'll need to do that. I think they won't be an issue and if they are we'll try egg shells or mulch first. I've also read putting a bowl of beer or something in there will attract and drown them, but like I said, I don't want to have to kill them if I don't have to. I also don't want beer at my house. 

 Finished garden beds all filled up with soil.

 I built a trellis, I haven't put it in the ground yet because I have to weed wack first, but I didn't want to spend $20 on a trellis. So, I bought some 6ft stakes and 2ft bamboo and used wired to attach them. This cost about $4 I believe. It will be for the blackberry bush I bought.

 After planting pic! I planted everything today after a good rain last night. I haven't done the blackberries or sunflowers yet, but the garden beds are complete :)