Sins, Stains, and Salvation!

So the other day my missionary companion, Elder Miner, and I were sitting at our table planning what we were going to do the following day. That's when I realized that there was a drop of ink on my hand; almost instantly I remembered that I had just folded my arms to pray. Looking down at my white dress shirt, I saw it...there was a royal blue ink stain. Immediately, I thought "Oh no! this shirt is ruined...." assuming that it was beyond repair. I decided to try anyway! I tried rinsing the stain out myself in hot water; that just made it worse! I thought about it for a moment, and remembered that the lady with whom we live, Karla Larsen, is a mother of 4 children, maybe she could help me! So I ran up the stairs calling out and searching frantically for Karla! She responded to my plea for help and said "I am in here!" When I found here I asked her if she knew of someway to remove this seemingly permanent stain! She said simply "Hairspray!" I laughed in unbelief! She reassured me that it really would help. I put it to the test and you know what?....IT WORKED!!! The stain came out right away! I was shocked and relieved, both at the same time!!
Now, after all of this happened I thought of this scripture in the book of Isaiah! He tells us in Isaiah 1:18  "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet(Or as blue as your Ink Stain), they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Sometimes we feel like we have done something for which we will not be able to be forgiven, or for which we can not forgive ourselves. We may think that there is NO hope but the Lord tells us otherwise in the Book of Moroni 10:32-33

 32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

 33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

 This is when we "Run upstairs to request help from somebody who has more experience than we do!" We need to go to our Father in prayer and ask for help! Now, because our Savior died for us His is the source to which we need to go. He is the hairspray... too often we forget that and/or we doubt that, just like I did! We must trust in Him and He will help us!

I know that He can and WILL help us, if we believe in Him! I love knowing that our Father in heaven loves us and is willing to forgive us of our sins, IF we let him! I testify of these things because I have witnessed it first hand!