Leveling and Growth?

Well hello again my friends, it sure has been a while since I last wrote a blog, if it wasn't for my friend Elder Cabral I think the last post that I did would not have been posted on time. Today I want to talk to you about probably one of the hardest things for me personally in World Of Warcraft and that is leveling. Now Leveling is not as hard as it once was, in fact they made it really easy for someone who is new to the game to level up to 85 way faster then before, but it still doesn't change the fact that I hate leveling. Now what does leveling mean? Well I am going to give you my own definition on what I believe leveling is. Leveling in WoW: When leveling in WoW a player does quest,dungeons and battlegrounds to gain Experience points (XP) to gain a level (LVL). When we level in WoW we gain one level at a time, which brings us one step closer until we reach out ultimate goal of 85.

Now when it comes to relating the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this post I chose to do it on something which I think everyone can relate to, and that topic is growth. Just as we level in World Of Warcraft we level up  in real life. "Just how do we level up Theo?" you might be asking yourself, well let me share with you how we level up in real life...

Services and the Atonement

WoW Race Change

In World of Warcraft there are a bunch of wonderful services which any player can take advantage of fully. Some of these services include character transfers, name changes, race changes, faction change, character customization, etc..... You might be wondering why a player would like these changes and what makes them so great? Well my friends I want to share with you one reason why I love it a lot. Lets say you are a level (lvl) 85 Holy Paladin and you are PvPing (Player Vs Player) and you are one day tired of losing all the time to the Horde, wouldn't it be nice to change your faction and your race because of the mistake you made in picking the wrong faction? Because of these special services that Blizzard provides many players can make the changes that they need to or more importantly want to make.

Now what if I told you there was service that made it so WE (we meaning mankind or people) could repent of our sins and be forgiven, making it so we changed our old ways and made a new us, how would that make you feel? This change that I am referring to is the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Loving your neighbor as yourself. ; )

Well its that time of the month again, oh you know writing another blog and relating it to World of Warcraft as well as something spiritual. Today I chose to talk about something that is or can be hard for a lot of people, which is loving our neighbors as yourself. The question that I have always asked is who are my neighbors? Is it the person next door to me? or is it the guy across the street? Well let me share with you somethings that I think will shed some light on this subject. Loving our neighbors isn't just being kind to the person next door to us or even across the street, it means to love everyone as ourselves. In John 13:34-35 , Christ says:                                                                                     

                                                                             
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

You might be thinking, that is great and all but how does that show that we need to love our neighbor as ourselves?

Who am I?

In World of Warcraft you can play on a server that is called RP which stands for "Role Play." Well I play on a RP server and I will admit that it can get pretty weird sometimes. Well one day I was walking by a couple of people Role playing and there was a line that has stuck with me, this person said. "Who am I?" My friends I have a question to ask you. Who are you? I am not talking about your name or where your from, but I mean Who are you really? I know that when I first saw that I kinda thought it was cheesy, but I want to share with you, who you really are. In Romans chapter 8:16-17 the Apostle Paul really explains who we are.

 16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

 17And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

As we read in Romans, the Apostle Paul just told us, We are the Children of God!

Turning the other Cheek can Bring Happiness?

This life can be very hard sometimes. WE all go through struggles that we sometimes wish we did not have to face, for example: Somebody comes up to you and starts calling you all kinds of names which you really had no idea why, or maybe somebody was being ignorant and did somethings to you. In these times of trials some people would be mad and "Smite" (or in other words retaliate back with something worse.) while other people will harbor anger and hatred for a long time while other people would do as Christ taught them and that is to turn the other cheek. The scripture that I am referring to is Matthew 5:38-39 the Sermon on the Mount.                                                                

38 "¶Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."

The Savior is telling us to be kind to our enemies, even though they might not deserve it.

Reading FTW

Hello to all my friends out their reading today, Horde or Alliance I would like to thank you all for reading Elder Russel Cabral's posts as well as mine... As I said in my (Thank you for the support!),  Today I want to share with you the stats on how we are doing and relate that to why its been great to see you read. When Elder Cabral and I started this blog we had no idea that it was going to take off really fast. This was when Elder Cabral posted some stats on network blogs in (WoW Are You Doing?)  as you can see we were hitting some high numbers for two elders starting a blog in the middle of the month. It is because of you we have been able to achieve our goal, and we hope that you will continue to read this blog and learn something new. Just as you have learned by reading our WoW blog, you too can learn even more from the scriptures themselves. Jesus Christ himself said In John5:39   39¶^aSearch the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which ^btestify of me. As you can read the Savior told us to search the scriptures, the lords apostles and prophets here on the earth today have repeatedly told us that we need to search the scriptures diligently.

                                                                        

My friends I can tell you this much, I have seen the effects of not studying the scriptures and let me tell you this, you will never learn anything about the plan that our Father in Heaven has in mind for us, I can also tell you from experience that reading the scriptures can and will bring peace to our minds, and answers to our questions, the reason why is because God is our loving Heavenly Father and He has spoken to us through His prophets and apostles in the olden days as well as in our time... I really hope that you all at least give the scriptures a chance to help you out in your life.  I will give you this one promise my friends. If you read your scriptures at least 10 minutes a day you will feel the spirit of the Lord in your life more and you will begin to know what the plan is for us in our life today. I love you all very much. Thanks for reading

                                                                                                                                                                        

Purpose to life (2) Where do I go when I die?

Today what I want to talk about is something that I feel a lot of people have asked me over the course of my mission. The question, "Where do I go when I die?" I have had that question asked to me a lot so today I am hopefully going to answer some of those questions for you. So we talked about in our previous post (Purpose to Life (Part1) What's my purpose in life? ) What we are supposed to be doing while we are alive.What I want to do is share with you a quick WoW story with you. When I was in a BG (Battleground) You tend to get hurt a lot in battle to the point to where you will die, now when we die in WoW we go to what is called the spirit healer, which you just kinda wait in the Graveyard until the time is up for you to get resurrected.  Just like in WoW all of us have to die, there is no way around it, but death is not the end! Let me share with you some more scriptures. In 1 Peter 3:18-20, Peter talks about what happened to Christ after he died...

Purpose to Life (Part1) What's my purpose in life?

What is the meaning to life? I am pretty sure that if you were to ask a lot of people, they would tell you it is to live and to die. Others might tell you its to be tried and tested and then go live with God and I am sure that other people would tell you that there is no purpose to life in general-- that we are just here for kicks and giggles. My friends if you want the true meaning to life, then pay close attention to the words that I am about to speak because they will tell you what life is all about. In the Book of Mormon there is a missionary by the name of Amulek, and this is what he says about life in Alma 34:32-33:
32. For behold, this ^alife is the time for men to ^bprepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of ^cthis life is the day for men to perform their ^dlabors...

Happy Fathers Day!

Today I would like to say Happy Fathers day to all of the fathers out there! If it was not for you and the example you set to your children, in fact if it was not for fathers, children in my opinion would really be lost today. I want to start off by sharing with you something that I can remember from my childhood. When I was very young my mom and dad got divorced from each other, so growing up I would always head back and forth between my mom and stepdad's house and my dads home. I can still remember when my dad would always take me to the Oakland Temple whenever I would visit him. As time went on there were some things that I would learn that will always stick with me. My dad has not only taught me things about life, but he has also showed me by example. See also (Be An Example Unto The Players/Believers )  

                                                                                         
If it was not for showing me by example I believe that the words my father spoke to me would have gone in one ear and out the other...

Thank you for the support!

(Alliance paladin being out numbered by the horde.)

I would like to say thank you to all of you that not only follow our blogs, but also take the time to read and comment on our blogs! It is because of you that makes this blog well worth it to write! Today I want to talk about support and what it means.  In the Webster Dictionary online, the word support means: "to keep from fainting, yielding, or losing courage". As you all know by now I usually like to start off with a WoW Story. There was a time when I was in an intense Warsong Gulch match. (Now I want you to use your imagination.) You are a human paladin healing people and trying to keep them alive. As you go about healing people doing good (See Elder Cabrals post's "I Would Learn the Healer's Art..." and Raiding Part Two: He Can Heal Us) (You can learn a little something not only about helping others but also how Christ can heal and support us.) Continuing on with the story now. You are healing people and all of a sudden you start getting ganked by a lot of Horde players, your health is plummeting down to zero really fast and you only have a couple of options left...

Loot and Prayer: The Waiting Game

Good ol' Naxx

Anyone that is familiar with raiding in WoW knows that what you want doesn't always drop. I remember raiding Naxxaramas with my guild as a fury warrior and hoping for two handed weapons to drop. When the weapons did drop, I always lost the rolls and the weapons went to other players. I would seem to always get armor, and did well on the dps charts, but weapons would have made me so much better. As time went on I continued to raid, and as we farmed Nax I eventually got my weapons-- but it took time. It would have been very easy to just give up and quit, but that would not have given me the chance to get those weapons now would it?

As missionaries, we tend to ask people to pray quite a bit. That is something that I really enjoy about the message that we share...

The End of the World

Cataclysm Expansion

The anticipation for Blizzard's patches and expansions can be nerve racking! I remember quite vividly leaving for my mission just after the Icecrown Citadel patch had launched, and thinking that the next expansion would be released in a couple three months tops. It had probably ended up being eight or nine months later, and the Cataclysm finally happened. The World of Warcraft as I had known it had known it had completely changed, and the old Azeroth had come to an end.

We can't say for certain when MoP will come out!

Blizzard seems to work in mysterious ways, and on their own time frame. If I were to ask you when the next WoW expansion were to come out, you might be able to give me a  reasonable guess. This would probably be based on how the expansion is doing at the moment, the length of other expansions, arena seasons, etc. There are of course going to be signs that the next expansion will be in the near future...

Don't we all need some help?

I want you to take a journey with me through the frozen wastelands of Northrend. (Going to have to use your imagination for this one.) You are just flying around doing some quest's and minding your own business, maybe even chillin on your flying mount. (Ha ha get it chillin? freezing cold? oh nvm.) Anyways your doing your thing and then all of a sudden you see this lvl80 asking for some help. As you can probably guess what I chose to do. I chose to help this fellow out by healing him all throughout his dungeon run. Ok now fast forward a couple of months now and you are going around again minding your own business just chillin on your ground mount looking for somebody to help you with a dungeon, you get a whisper from a familiar fellow saying that he will help you, you later come to realize that it is the same fellow that you helped out when he was in need. Now my question that I have to ask is this, don't we all need some help sometimes? life can and will be very hard at times. When I was growing up I always had to be someone who never needed help on things and honestly there were times that when I did ask for help I felt like I was weak. I think that a lot of people probably felt like I used to. If that is the case let me tell you something, there is NO SHAME in ASKING for HELP! If we stop to read the scriptures we will find that the savior has told us to help each other out, as well as asking for help.

If Everyone Wore Nametags

Leeroy Jenkin's Name tag

Have you ever wondered how easy it would be to remember people if they all wore name tags? I was thinking about it a few days ago and it seemed like a pretty awesome idea to me. As missionaries we get to talk to a whole bunch of people (which is great), but a lot of the time I frankly don't remember their names. It might even take me a few times meeting them to actually remember. 

So in my thinking I took it a step further...

Yells and Whispers

RL Gnome and Tauren /Yell

I really enjoy the chat interface that is given in WoW. There are of course different channels that you can be in and read what players are saying. Probably the most packed and trolled channel is trade chat, but of course there are the guild, raid, bg, zone defense, and other general channels. Two of the "channels" that I wanted to focus a little more about would be whispers and yells.

A yell functions much like a yell IRL. It pops up as red text and everyone around you gets to see it. On the other hand a chat whisper is a lot quieter...

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all of the mothers out their and especially to my mom. Today I am going to dedicate this blog to my mom as well as the other mothers. First of all I want to tell everyone today that my mom is the best! you might be thinking yeah yeah we have heard all of this before, now tell us what makes her so special. Well let me tell you some of my moms traits that she has. 1) She is very patient with me. When I was growing up my mother would always try to teach me many things that I would later need when going on a mission. She taught me patience,diligence,hard work, and many other things. 2)She is very motivating...

Having a friend= Missionary companionship.

In World of Warcraft my friend Jake and I always pvped together. (As stated in my Who are my friends?)
When ever we would pvp we would always stick together and fight alongside each other, I will admit there were times when the battles would get so intense that Jake and I thought we were gonners, but somehow we always managed to pull through...(Maybe it was because I would always heal him and he would always beat the enemy back.) Often times after the battles were over we would always ask the question, how did we get out alive when we were being attacked by 3 people? The answer is pretty simple...not only was I healing him as well as myself alive, but we always stuck together. Many times when we would rush our enemies we would make them run away from us by using our spells. In Elder Cabrals blog "He Made Me Do It", we can clearly see that if players do not have the medallion they would not be able to break out of fear and other Crowd Control effects. So naturally Jake and I would beat our enemies so easily that we would be able to rack up the Honor. Now maybe you are saying wow you can't beat them by yourself? or wow you guys are bad players? If this be the case let me tell you this much, its not that we couldn't beat our enemies alone, it made it easier to back up and support each other. In truth the Savior gives his Apostles the same advice.
      
We can read in Mark 6:7 something the Savior does.

7. ¶And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

Notice how the savior sends his Apostles by TWO instead of One. As missionaries we are told that we will be with another person or commonly called our "Companion." We go with our companion and we teach people about the restoration of the Lord's church,we also help people in their lives by teaching them the scriptures and that they can find happiness in them. Now there have been many times that if I had not of had a companion then I know that people would not have believed any of my words,because I am only one servant. But because I had a companion who knew something that I didn't know he was able to not only answer their questions,but he was also able to testify and back up my words that I taught. You may have noticed that Elder Cabral and I have been telling people to check out our blog post's, as well as each others. Well that is because Elder Cabral and I are coauthoring this blog or in other words "We are companions on this blog." My friends in closing to this blog I want to encourage each and everyone of you to meet with the missionaries and to put what they are teaching to the test, I can promise you that if you do this you will come to know for yourself that we speak the truth. You will also know that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God, and that Joseph Smith was His Prophet,Seer and Revelator in this the last days. I love y'all very much and hope that you take up the challenge I leave you.

Get Out of the Fire Noob!

In PvE there is a simple formula to winning. If you know the boss fight, do your job, and get out of the fire, you will ultimately get fat lewts. It sounds simple enough, but sadly there are many "bads" and "noobs" that decide that they want to exchange their lives for foot warmth. While the success of a raiding guild could be attributed to leadership, communication, and patience, the downfall of guilds and boss attempts might very well be that there are too many noobs standing in the fire.

There is a solution to this! The easiest way to avoid death by fire, void zones, poison, and otherwise treacherous things under foot is to get out of there as quickly as possible...

Life is like an exapansion pack

Life in the World of Warcraft can be really fun. There are a lot of things for us to do in game that can make the game very fun, but most of all there is one thing that can make the game even funner, as well as progressing to another level. When we reach the cap level we all want something more to the game to keep it interesting. One of the ways to keep the game interesting is to come out with the next expansion pack. Just what is an expansion pack you might be asking? Well I am about to share with you a link that I found on Wikipedia:

PvP Trinkets & "He Made Me Do It"

PvP Trinket

One item that a PvPer in WoW cannot live without (unless you're OP and rolled human) is the PvP trinket. Why you ask would this trinket be so important? It is because the trinket allows players to break CC (crowd control) abilities like fear, polymorphs, or stuns. Without this trinket you might find yourself at the mercy of warlock fears or mage sheeps!

I like the wording on the trinket's tooltip. It "...removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character..."