Fall colors? What's that?

Here in Arizona there are a lot of thermostats. In the summer it seems as though there should be more. The best thing about this time of year is that when the day is over I'm not drenched with sweat. I can see outside a window from the computer that I'm at and see trees. The trees have bright green leaves on them. I know it autumn time because leaves are on the ground. I think that the trees here skip the whole changing color phase and go straight to falling off when they die. At night time in October when I'm walking around in my short sleeved shirt I always think to myself 'So THIS is why people live in Arizona.'

This week has been a good one. I've taught the plan of salvaion more times this past week than I've ever taught it in a period of one week of time ever before. With that I decided that I should take a refresher look at what is in lesson 2 (the plan of salvation) in PMG. As I was studying it something stood out to me that I had never before noticed. There are 8 principles in the lesson (the pre-earth life, the creation, the fall, our life on earth, the atonement, the spirit world, resurrection+judgement+immortality, and kingdoms of Glory) and 5 of the specifically mention the we can 'Become like God.' This is a fundamental principle of the gospel and of Christ's church, and is also constantly under attack from many anti-mormon and christian groups. On my mission I've seen many missionaries try to sweep this principle under the carpet or minimize this principle. This ought not to be. The whole purpose of this life and of the church and gospel of Jesus Christ is to prepare us in this life to return to live with our Heavenly Father AS HE LIVES. I decided I wanted to look into the Bible and see what it has to say about this principle. I found many references that speak of this principle:
Man May Become like God
1) God commands us to be like Him
-Lev 19:2
-Matt 5:48
2) "Ye are gods"
-Psalms 82:6
-John 10:34
3) We are offspring of God (what do offspring grow up to be?)
-Acts 17:29
4) We can be heirs of God with Christ
-Romans 8:17
-Gala 4:7
-Rev 3:21
5) "when we see Him we shall be like Him"
-1 John 3:1-3
6) Equal with God
-Phil 2:5-6
7) Disciple is not above master, but if perfect can become like master
-Luke 6:40

God has a purpose and a plan for our lives. It is for us to follow His gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that we will be prepared to return to live with Him as He is- To Become Like God. What is stopping us from reaching our potential?

-Elder John Henrichsen