promised land

Yes, I know I am a little late for Independence day.  But I never get time to blog anymore and I have been thinking about this all week, soo... I will write it anyhow :).

                                               This is a picture of my niece that I stole from my sister

I hope you all had a marvelous 4th of July.  I have been thinking about how truly thankful I am to live in a country that is founded upon the principles of freedom.  At this time in my life, I am particularly thankful for the freedom of religion.  Were it not for freedom of religion in this country, Christ could never have re-established his church through the prophet Joseph Smith.

You might say we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are a fairly patriotic people.  Even though the majority of our members live outside of the United States, we are all indebted to the early leaders of this nation because they allowed for an environment that enabled the restoration to take place.  We also study from a volume of holy scripture that was written primarily in the ancient American continent.  We study from the Holy Bible as well, but The Book of Mormon was written by ancient prophets in the Americas. 

These people, though far from Jerusalem, knew and prophesied for centuries about the coming of Jesus Christ.  And come He did.  After he visited the people in Jerusalem, he visited the Americas as a resurrected being.  The prophesy, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd" in John 10:16 was fulfilled when he told the Nephites and Lamanites, "Ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold" (3 Nephi 15:21).

Christ is the Savior of the whole world, and God loves all of His children everywhere.  Of this I testify! 

God bless America