Happy Easter everyone! He is Risen! This past week and these past few days have brought me hope as I have studied a little bit about the life of Jesus Christ and His resurrection and how His Sacrifice or Atonement make forgiveness possible. During my study this past week I found some definitions of forgiveness that strengthened me:

1. Receiving hope and healing through Jesus Christ .
2. Sharing our yoke with the Savior; sharing our burdens with Him and allowing Him to lift our load.

When we seek for forgiveness in Jesus Christ or extend forgiveness to someone else through His help, we can find hope and healing in Him and He will carry weights of the world with us so that we can press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all men.

This week while studying in Exodus with my family and seeing how as the Lord worked to free Israel, he would warn Pharaoh before each plague and he would remove each plague whenever Pharaoh made a step towards repenting and promised to obey the Lord. Maybe at times we find ourselves in a situation like Pharaoh’s, struggling to obey the Lord’s commandments, and maybe we ask ourselves why does the Lord keep giving me chances when He knows all things and knew I had a high likelihood of failing. My wife shared something special her dad told her, even though the Lord is all knowing, when we tell Him we will change and do differently or be better or be obedient this time, He believes us and through Him we can change and beat the odds, however stacked against us they may be.

This past General Conference, prophets proclaimed that pouring out our souls in private places in prayer brings power and peace and heals the problems of the patient penitent who places their faith in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Sister Freeman shared that “joy is not the absence of sorrow in your life; [it is] the presence of [Jesus] Christ in your life.” We come to know Jesus Christ, the Enduring Joy of the Gospel, as we repent daily and draw nearer unto Him. He is ready to receive us and walk with us in His yoke. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.