Jul 04 2009
Final Draft
I just finished what I hope to be the final draft of my upcoming book. Unless I decide to make any major changes in the immediate future, I will be sending this to a publisher. But I decided to give you, my loyal fans, a preview of the book.
Chapter One
Who wants to be happy? Almost everyone does, if they’re not happy already. People look for happiness in many different places; drugs, alcohol, video games, books (like this one) and hundreds of other places. I enjoy being happy, myself.
From the year 1999 though 2001, I served full time as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (more commonly called the Mormons). During that time, I had a question that puzzled me to no end. At one point I went to my mission president and asked him the question. In his wisdom he decided not to give me the answer, but he pointed me in a direction so that I could find it for myself. He told me to study the Plan of Salvation more thoroughly. Trusting him, I did.
As I studied, I took notes. Over the years, I have continued to work on those notes, adding to them as I understood things better. Those notes evolved into the book you are now holding in your hands. And I did find my answer. I will share it with you in the final chapter.
God is our father in Heaven and He loves us, even more so than our Earthly fathers.
“Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matt 7:9-11)
Like all fathers, he wants us to be happy. He prepared a way for us to find this happiness. It is called the Plan of Salvation or the Plan of Happiness. This plan answers the four big questions that each of us is faced with as some point. Not “would you like fries with that?” Questions like “who am I?”, “where did I come from?”, “why am I here?”, and “where am I going after this life?”.
If we follow this plan, we can find the happiness we seek and more. God revealed a very important truth about what he has prepared for us.
“For behold, this is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39)
Living forever with God is the ultimate happiness we can hope to achieve. However, that is not the only thing the Lord promises us.
Who doesn’t want so many blessings we cannot fit any more in our lives? In the following chapters I will explore the details of this plan of happiness and how we can receive the blessings that have been promised to us. I have also included numerous passages from the scriptures.
While I was a missionary, I invited the people I taught to think about what we told them and try following the teachings. I would like to invite all of you who read this book to do the same thing. Think about the plan and how it can help you in your personal search for happiness. Test the promises that the Lord has given us to see if you receive the blessings.
Chapter Two
I was talking to a friend of mine about this book while I was working on it and he asked me a very interesting question. Which God? I sometimes forget that people have different interpretations of God. There is the jealous God of the Old Testament, the merciful God of the New Testament, the Trinity of the Catholic Church, Allah, the singer Jewel’s depiction of God in a certain movie, etc. So which of these gods has a plan for us? My answer to him was all of them. All of these gods are just different interpretations of the same being. He is both vengeful and merciful, punishing the wicked and blessing the righteous.
After having this conversation with my friend, I felt that I needed to add this chapter to my book so that we all start off on the same page.
In the Book of Mormon, an account of the followers of Christ that lived on the American continents during the time of the Bible, there was a missionary named Ammon who went to teach the Lamanites. The Lamanites did not believe in God. Ammon became a servant of Lamoni, a Lamanite king. After performing many great works as Lamoni’s servant, the king called for Ammon and asked him to teach him about his beliefs.
“And Ammon began to speak unto him with boldness, and said unto him: Believest thou that there is a God?
“And he answered, and said unto him: I do not know what that meaneth.
“And then Ammon said: Believest thou that there is a Great Spirit?
“And he said, Yea.
“And Ammon said: This is God. And Ammon said unto him again: Believest thou that this Great Spirit, who is God, created all things which are in heaven and in the earth?
“And Ammon said unto him: The heavens is a place where God dwells and all his holy angels.” (
There is a God. You can call him Heavenly Father, Allah, Yahweh, or the Great Spirit. He is the creator of the universe and is the father of our spirits.
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.” (Matt 5:48)
And on top of all that, he looks like us.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Gen 1:26-27)
Think of all the amazing feats you have seen or heard of. Weight lifters holding hundreds of pounds over their head, people pulling trains and airplanes, geniuses performing complicated math problems in their heads. Our bodies, though imperfect, are capable of many great and marvelous things because we were made in the image of God. We have so much potential within us, all we have to do is put forth some effort.
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