Starting Up Again!!!!

OK, so I decided it was time for Nathan and I to keep up with this blogspot. But I would ask if you would bare with me as I try to learn how to use this program, and apologise that I am not really saying much but, that we are going to keep up with this now. Yea! We are starting up again!

I was thinking about the argument faith vs. works tonight. As latter-day saints we often fear the concept "saved by grace" because we are covenant making people, or we're doing "works", and because of the way "saved by grace" is used in so many other churches. To say that we are not saved by grace is false and a total misconception because Jesus Christ is the grace of God. It was not a must that God send his son to suffer for our sins because we could have saved ourselves if we lived perfectly. But of course none have lived perfectly so by the grace of God he sent his son Jesus Christ, who did live perfectly, to suffer for us. He is the only one that could meet the demands of justice or perfection, which God requires, and at the same time offer the rest of us the blessing of mercy, or in other words grace. But there is a misunderstanding by many other churches that works are not required to receive grace. Many theologians speculate that to put any preconditions on grace would then destroy the true blessing and meaning of grace. So many other religions claim that one must accept Christ and then they are saved. They reject the idea of being saved by works, as do latter-day saints. But to believe that works has no place in grace then speculates that all who are born are saved by grace and need not do anything. But if you then state that you must accept Christ as your savior then instantly you are "doing" something. Believers in other religions are doing works to be saved, by accepting Christ, and latter-day saints do works as well. We just believe that you must do a little bit more. That God does provide grace through Jesus Christ but one must make certain covenants with the him and continue to uphold those covenants. This is a tradition that ancient covenant people practiced and one that we believe in today, but all are sinners and come up short so all are saved through the Grace of God. And in the words of one of my favorite authors Stephen E. Robinson, "So the old debate faith versus works is a false dichotomy, a phony either/or. No matter which side we choose, faith alone or works alone, we destroy the concept of a covenant, of the partnership between the individual and God." I thank God for sending us his Son Jesus Christ because, after all we can do, we are saved by the pure grace of the Holy Messiah, the only begotten of the Father, the Redeemer of Israel.

Ok so I was thinking today that it's almost our 7th month anniversary. Before we know it, it's going to be time for us to be sealed in the Dallas, Texas Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What a blessing this will be. We've often talked about the opportunity to go and receive the full blessing's the true gospel of Jesus Christ has to offer. Recently, my brother and sister-in-law, Aaron and Jamie Moon, were sealed in the Winterquarter's Temple in Nebraska. I could not imagine a more beautiful event then this. Where else in the world is one able to make covenants with the Lord that allows them and their loved ones to be together for time and all eternity. Where else in the world does one have the assurance that what is sealed on earth, is sealed in heaven. Where else can one go to be endowed from on high and learn a little more about the workings and mysteries of our Heavenly Father and his son, the only begotten, Jesus Christ. How great it is that the Lord is not only willing but wants us to become closer to him and, even greater, wants us to learn how to be like him. Nothing in life seems to matter much until one receives these blessings and slowly begins to understand their true worth to our God. What more can I say except hosanna, hosanna to the Lord our God who dwells from on high. Christ lives and he lives to bless us everyday.

Future Blogspot

Ok everyone I've decided that I'm going to start another blog spot on top of this one for Korina and I, and the one that I use for my political opinions. I know that most of the people that go to our blog spot are family members and a few friends so I've made a new year resolution to keep up with blogging a little more often. My new blog spot is something that I'm really excited about and something I believe will be a daily strength to anyone who reads it. My reasoning for this is that I'm not the one actually writing it. I'm going to create a blog for some of the most inspirational and strength building quotes, essays, and articles I find on The Book of Mormon, Mormonism, and more accurately, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I always come across great articles and quotes from some of the best scholars that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has to offer. I've decided that as I come across some of these fantastic articles I'm going to post them to the blog spot so that they can be accessed anytime from almost anywhere, all in one spot. I plan on only adding a few opinions of my own for each article because I want the eloquent words of those scholars to do most of the talking. I hope you enjoy it as much I will keeping it up. Be on the look out!

Our Honeymoon

We finally got around to posting the pictures from our honeymoon. Our wedding night some of the people from work pitched in and got us a room over by the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The room was beautiful, more beautiful then we both could have imagined. We picked up the key to our room and when we got up there, Sarah from Nathan's work surprised us with rose pedals and candles spread all over the place. We were to afraid to light them though because there were so many and we didn't want the smoke detector to go off. Monday we finally left on our honeymoon down in the Texas hill country in a little town called Fredericksburg. We rented out a private bed and breakfast for the week and spent time out in the hills. Every morning there were deer at our doorsteps as we ate out on the balcony. We spent a few of the days there intown visiting the public library, going to the local parks, eating at some of the German restaurants in town, and going to the only theater in town, which only had 3 screens and had 3 showings a day. We later went into San Antonio to Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Sea World. Sea World was amazing but the funny thing was, when we first got there Nathan thought it was lame. We had spent the previous day riding rides at Six Flags and he thought that Sea World was just another place to ride rides. Once we started going to the shows and mapping out the events, we had a blast. We both agree that Sea World was worth every minute of it, especially the sea lions. Our honeymoon was great but eventually we had to come back home, and our love has only gotten stronger since then.

Pre-Wedding Work

Ok so we haven't received any of the pictures from our ACTUAL wedding yet but I do have some of the ones from all of the pre-wedding work. When we first decided to get married we thought that we would plan the wedding all by ourselves, which we thought was a good idea. After a little bit of trial and error we decided that it might be better to employee the services of Heidi, Nathan's sister. We never imagined that the wedding was going to turn out as beautiful as it did, and we have Heidi to thank for that. The behind the scenes stuff though is what you usually never get to see, but we wanted everyone to know just how much work it actually took. One never knows just home much work goes into a wedding until you actually start planning one. We had to iron table clothes and chair covers, spraypaint, blow up balloons(almost all of that was Heidi), get this and get that. I don't know how we ever finished it all bt it turned out gorgeous. So until the real wedding pictures are finished, feel free to enjoy these rarely seen photos. Oh, and by the way, we're sorry to Dayne for completely destroying your house as we got ready for this whole thing.

Our First Blog

Well, it's Korina and Nathan's first blog together. It's funny that after you get married you start doing a lot of first things all over again. Things have been crazy busy the first month of our marriage with the reception, honeymoon, trip to El Paso, work, and just getting accustomed to being married. You would think that after dating someone for a while that it wouldn't be difficult to adjust to being married, and it's not. However, it is an adventure getting to know someone and all the cute little habits that you never knew they had. In a month of being married we've learned more about each other then in the previous 6 months (like sleeping habits, food addictions, and bullfrogs), but it's great and we wouldn't have it any other way. We've found that marriage isn't always easy, but the worst times married are a whole lot better then the best times being single. Well, there will be more blogs to come and pictures of all the things we've been up to. Oh, and for those of you who were gracious enough to give us gifts for our marriage, yes we're slow but we are getting the thank you cards out.