In a recent General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Elder Mark L. Pace asked a question. "How can the attacks of the adversary be increasing exponentially while at the same time the influence of the adversary is actually decreasing?" It is a dangerous time that we live in today. The adversary has the whole world gripped with his chains. However, this does not mean that things are worse than ever. President Russell M. Nelson has said, "The adversary is increasing his attacks on faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate. To survive spiritually we need counterstrategies and proactive plans."

The counterstrategy is studying the scriptures in our homes. We each need individual study and group study. The Lord promises that by doing this, the adversary will have less influence. I have found this to be true. By studying the scriptures more diligently, I have been able to feel the Spirit of the Lord more in my life and I have noticed that I have been more willing to serve those around me. One interesting thing about this promise is that it affects everyone in your home. My roommates and I have tried to study the scriptures together at least once a week and it has made a huge difference. I have one roommate that is struggling with a lot of things in his life at the moment. He can rarely make it to our scripture studies. However, as we have increased our efforts as roommates, things in his life have been improving. I know that diligent scripture study can reduce the power of the adversary for you and everyone in your homes.

This week the idea of destiny has been on my mind. I read a scripture in Ephesians that caused me to ponder. "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.... In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated." Ephesians 1:5 & 11. What does predestination mean? Does it mean that it does not matter what we do? Does it mean that it doesn't matter how hard we try? Do our choices even matter?

I think that we all have a destiny. I believe that God has great and mighty plans for all of us. However, I do not think that the word destiny always means that it will be handed to us no matter what we do. We have the choice to live up to our destiny or to avoid our destiny.

When I think of destiny, one of the things that comes to my mind is the movie Kung Fu Panda. It is a great movie that really highlights what it means to be destined for something great. In the movie, Po, a panda with dreams of being a kung fu master is told that he is destined to be the dragon warrior and the greatest kung fu warrior of all time. In the movie there is a scroll that is said will turn whoever reads it into the dragon warrior. When Po finally reads the scroll he realizes that it is blank. Po learns that his destiny is not handed to him but that it was inside of him all along. Po goes on the defeat his enemy and he does become the greatest warrior of all time. Just like Po, our destiny cannot be handed to us in scroll. Instead, it is inside of us. We are all destined for greatness. We just have to realize the wonderful potential inside of all of us.