Pictures - 1.25.13

haha that is riley orgill. shes a thug. love her.

These are the greatest!! i get pretty excited.

the homies. elder lowe is the one in blue and elder gleave is next to him.

last monday before we played soccer.

We tracted into a bunch of jehovah witnesses on this street. so lame.

Elder gleave is to my left. then elder byrd and then elder lowe. love these elders!! This is my district. dopeeeeeee

hunter gauvin!! gets the priesthood next week right before i leave!! so excited!

Blog Email - 2.25.13

This week was pretty crazy! We are seeing miracles happen is the Guthrie and Edmond area. I really have come to gain a testimony of the principle of obedience+dilligence+faith=miracles. God really is in charge, we don't have to worry about a thing if we are doing our best to please Him and do what is right. We have had some crazy weather this past week though. Right now as I type, it is pouring rain and we are supposed to be cooped up in our apartment the next couple of days because apparently there is supposed to be a terrible blizzard. We are supposed to get like 12 inches of snow which is bad for Oklahoma I guess. Everything shuts down if there is even a little bit of snow on the streets. It sucks for missionaries because we have to stay in and you go stir crazy!! 

So I am just countin' down the days until next wednesday. I am going to be sad to leave Edmond and especially this Edmond 3rd ward. I really love these people. They are family and we have had so many good times together. It has been such a blessing to serve around them because they have taught me so much about "becoming examples of believers". Unfortunately though, my time has come!! Gotta see the rest of Oklahoma!! I find out where I am going this Sunday night. 

Something that I really enjoyed studying about this week is the fact that we have a loving God. He loves us and His love is very personalized and individual. There was a certain verse that I read in 3 Nephi that struck me and made me ponder of this love that He has. In 3 Nephi 17:21-22 I love what it says about Jesus Christ coming to the Nephites and taking their children one by one.

 And when he had said these words, he wept and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them

And when he had done this he wept again;

One by one is so important. He took them one by one. He wept. He felt emotion for us. He is real! Like us! He loves us and He wants to take us one by one and bless us individually with what we need whether that be comfort, love, or strength. It is very individual. Although God and Jesus Christ are all powerful and omnipresent, they are also very personal and loving and sometimes we seem to forget that. Christ atoned for us so that He would know "how to succor us" (Alma 7:11-13). He knows exactly what it takes to comfort us and to make us feel loved and He will take us one by one if we trust Him and put our faith in Him. :) How comforting. It brings me back to the Hymn "I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, confused at the grace that so fully He offers me, I tremble to know that for me He was crucified, but for me a sinner He suffered He bled and died, oh it is wonderful that he should care for me enough to die for me." I know that He loves us all and He is willing to comfort us and strengthen us "one by one". Have faith! :)

I love you guys. Don't be scared to write me just because I am a missionary now. I know its pretty intimidating...but its alright, you'll be fine. ;) Take care and remember this quote. "You can only exercise faith in something that is true. To truly exercise faith, truth must be known". Think about it. 

Love you all!! Keep on lovin!

Elder Dallin Cutler

Blog Email - 1.18.13

This week was awesome! Just a little update here in Edmond, Oklahoma. It snowed this week and then the next day it was 73 degrees....talking about crazy weather. So on Tuesday we had to all stay in the whole day. Got to work out a bunch so that was good. Felt good to run 13 miles on the treadmill...sike. But then the rest of the week seemed like it flew by. So many people are changing out here that we get to meet. Its amazing to watch the hand of the Lord in everything we do as His children. By the way, as I am writing this I am listening to an EFY song. I'll post the link, so GOOD. https://www.lds.org/youth/music?lang=eng Listen to the first song called glorious. 

So I know I always talk about this and its pretty cliche, but why not talk about a God of miracles. I attest that He is a God of miracles and that He has ALL power and that if we will exercise faith in Jesus Christ, things will happen that we wouldn't otherwise be able to explain without the knowledge of a loving Father in Heaven. You know me and Elder Byrd actually had a good talk with a lady this week. The spirit was so strong and its amazing how much I was taught by the spirit in this instance. This lady expressed a concern that she hadn't had an answer from her prayer years and years back and that she was still waiting for it and finally gave up and believes that God doesn't answer prayers. You know, I felt terrible for her, my heart was sad! Then we began talking and I had the sudden light go on. I realized once again that sometimes God will not answer our prayers the way we want Him to. Sometimes, He will allow us to make our own decision, so that we can learn from our mistakes and reach back to Him for help when we really need it. That's the only way to grow, thats why He gave us the freedom to choose. We will always fall short, but He has provided His Son for a way to get right back up. His arm will always be outstretched towards us, but we need to reach back and grab His and hang on. I promise that God ALWAYS answers prayers, we must pray for the ability to recognize the answer when we get it and be patient and faithful, realizing that He really is in control of every aspect and detail in our lives. He loves us.

Speaking about love, I know I am always talking about love...who would of thought Oklahoma would do that to me, but i also had a really good discussion with this girl we were teaching about the Book of Mormon. This girl is so amazing, she has such a strong faith in Jesus Christ and it really proves that there are so many good people in the world today, its not as bad as the news makes it seem. Anyways, we were talking about the Bible and somehow we got into a discussion about what our favorite Bible Passages were. I am obsessed with 1 John chapter 4 (if you haven't read it, go read it). This chapter is one of the best scripture about what love is. We then got talking about how confused the world is with what love is and what lust is. Everyone throws out love like its nothing and so sometimes we get confused about what really love is. Love is the fact that God gave His only begotten son for us. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might ^alive through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he ^aloved us, and ^bsenthis Son to be the ^cpropitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10) Truly God loves us. His love is pure and sometimes our "love" isnt so pure, in fact its lustful. We read in Moroni 7 that Charity/Love is the PURE love of Christ. I would argue that the reason that we as a society have so much sexual sin and so much confusion about love and lust is because we don't understand God, and we don't know who He is and what He is like, but most importantly we don't know of the love He has for us.  "He that loveth not ^aknoweth not God; for God is love." (1 John 4:8). How can we give something we don't know or don't have? If we don't know God, and if God is love, then how can we truly love if we don't know God? It's impossible. As this society grows further and further away from God, we will continue to see so much sexual sin and transgression. The root of it is the ignorance about God and the love He has for us. My point is that as we get closer to God, and as we develop a better relationship with Him, our capacity to truly love others will increase and multiply. I can attest to that. The pure love of Christ is something that we can be overcome with. It can posses us, we don't posses it. Do what Moroni counsels and you will be filled with this love " line upon line, precept upon precept" "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, ^apray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true ^bfollowers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall^cbe like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be^dpurified even as he is pure. Amen."(Moroni 7:48).

Its the best feeling ever. I just had an aha moment while talking to her. It was cool. Love is all we need. The greatest commandments are Love God and Love thy Neighbor. There's a reason Jesus told us those were the two greatest commandments. :) 

I love you all!! I love serving my Creator and my Redeemer! There is nothing better than being good and obedient!! That is where true happiness stems from!! Follow the Lord and choose the right and remember that God is a God of miracles. Remember!!

Love Always,

Elder Cutler

POSTED - Pictures 2.18.13

Way too early. This was at 6am. Sometimes we get up earlier to study longer. Thats what happens when you fall in love with the Book of Mormon.

Cereal or the "fountain of all righteousness".

This guy is spoiled. Thought you all might want to see this. so GREAT!! Thank you KARAAAA :)

HAHAHA! This is what makes tracting the best!! #classic Oklahoma!! I claim all rights and copyright on this picture. dibs. This reminded me of Jadon :) hahah

Keep posted on #ETERNALIFEORDIE 

;)  back roads of Oklahoma baby!!

another week, another story - Email 2.11.13

I had an awesome week this week. What's not to love? It's all about us...I mean love. :) Unfortunately, there are alot of people out there that don't have love for the mormon missionaries. We got chewed out a bunch out here and got called very colorful names this week and stuff thrown at us. We got called names, we were threatened, and screamed at! :) #classic #ItWasOppositeDayOnThoseDays You know what though, I love them...and we must all "be of good cheer" because even if the whole world is against you, Christ overcame the world. What an awesome feeling.

This week was really cool. We had alot happen and there was one instance I will share with you all that's really quick. The Lord works in mysterious ways through His spirit. At one point this week we pulled up to this guys house who we had been teaching. Well right next to his house we are teaching his neighbor and we had an appointment with his neighbor that night. Well they all pulled up at the same exact time as we did. I just yelled out "hey, we still good for tonight man?" he said they were and we continued up to the house we were originally going to. Well after the appointment we drove off in the opposite direction. All of a sudden I got a strange feeling to go back to the same house and talk to the neighbor of the guy we had jsut left....the one I had said "hey" to. I will be honest, I didn't want to because it would have been really weird and awkward. Well the feeling persisted so I just obeyed it and went all the way back to this guys house. I had no idea what I was going to say. So I just said, i had a feeling to come back and say a prayer with you before our appointment tonight. He looked at me like I was crazy of course and said a prayer with us. We walked away and I still had a feeling that we were where we were supposed to be. All of a sudden, a house popped into my head. We drove down the street to the house and got out. As we got out of the car, his garage opened and he walked out. We talked to him for quite some time and asked us to come back. I knew right then why the spirit had prompted me to go back. It was all on the Lords timing, and even though I looked stupid for 30 seconds, we were where we needed to be. Lesson for me: Courageously follow the promptings of the spirit even if it doesn't make sense to you, it does to the Lord. 

There is so much going on in this area. So many good things and so many miracles. I wish I could tell you all about them!! I have no timeeee!! :( I will say this though... I am sick of brand names, titles, denominations, etc. Why do we all contend and fight over who is right and who is wrong. The fact of the matter is that there is only one name under Heaven "whereby all mankind can be saved" and that is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the light and the truth. He is the way. Open up your minds and realize that there is truth everywhere around us and that we need to constantly seek for light and truth. I have been to a few churches out here in Oklahoma and it has really opened my eyes to the truth that surrounds us each day. That is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ thought!! Its not about what church you belong to, its about whether or not you belong to Jesus Christ's "truth". Its been crazy to me to introduce the Book of Mormon to some christian and they will tell us that they wont even read it, because they are comfortable. Well let me tell you all that truth is truth and someday Christ will come again and we will be held accountable for our actions. If the Book of Mormon is true, then Christ has restored His "truth" once again in its most pure and full form. Why wouldn't a true christian want to know if that was true or not? It all comes down to this principle to me. People are comfortable. They don't think they need more. Well that reminds me of a scripture in 2 Nephi 28:21....And others will he ^apacify, and lull them away into carnal ^bsecurity, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the ^cdevil ^dcheateththeir souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell. Be careful to get comfrotable. Constantly seek truth and light and remmeber this quote!! There is no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone. Keep on trucking.

Love you all!!

Elder Cutler

Una otra semana - 2.4.13

Que pasa!

 

This week was really quite the learning experience. As most have you have already heard, there was a Sister in our mission that was killed while riding her bike home. We got the call Saturday morning and I was shocked. I didn't know what to say. It went completely silent. That day, and as we have continued to ponder about the incident, my gratitude for the gospel and the plan of slavation that God has given us has grown exponentially. I sat there thinking about how fast that happened and how quickly life can be given or taken away. It really put life into perspective for me  "for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity" (Alma 34:33). This life is the time to prepare to meet God. To learn, to progress, to serve and to love others. For this day of life is given to us to prepare for eternity. What an amazing scripture. It really makes you think about what truly is important in this life and what we can probably focus more on...and that is our Savior and His gospel. "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy" (2Nephi 2:25). Everything God has given us, everything He has done for us is for our benefit "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation"(2 Nephi 26:24). All He asks us to do is to remember Him and keep His commandments. I have really gained an appreciation of knowing that this life is only a particle of what eternity is. I know that as we follow the the perfect example of our Savior Jesus Christ, we will gain peace and happiness in this life, and a knowledge that in the life to come, we can be together forever "in a state of never-ending happiness". How comforting to know that Jesus Christ in His atonement made this possible for all of us. He lives. He loves us. He wants us to be happy. He will "not leave you comfortless, (He) will come to you". What an amazing feeling. :)

 

This week has brought many miracles. I can promise you all that everytime we exercise faith in Jesus Christ, it allows for the spirit and miracles to enter into our lives. I see it every day and everytime I decide to open my mouth and talk to someone I don't know. Miracles do happen. God is a God of miralces and will only work according to our faith. It's a process...

 

I want you all to know that I love you. I really do care about you all. I want you to know that I have never been happier in my life and there's a reason for that. The more I strive to be like my Savior, the happier I get. Search for truth and you will find it just like I find it every single day. I want you all to know that this life is only a time to learn and that there is much more to this life than "money" "cars" "girlfriends/boyfriends" "sports" and yes, "soccer". All these things are good, but if they are getting in the way of our relationships with our families, the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ and God, then we need to change and reconsider. :)

 

Oklahoma is the bomb.com...check it check it outtttt!! Keep on trucking!!

 

#eternalLifeOrDie

 

Love (yall) you all,

 

 

Elder Dallin Cutler