Forgiveness

Today I went to see the movie "Invictus" with my siblings. I am not one to write about movies in a religious manner, but I wanted to talk about the principle of Forgiveness that is highlighted in the movie. One of my favorite lines in the movie refers to Nelson Mandela and is said by the other main character Francois. "I was thinking how a man could spend thirty years in prison, and come out and forgive the men who did it to him..." That line really touched me because it is so true. I find it amazing that he could forgive after 30 years in jail.

Invictus is a poem from the author William Ernest Henley. The last line of the poem says, "It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." We are in charge of who we decide to forgive.

Think about people who harbor grudges against another person for long periods of time. Who does that benefit? When we are unable to forgive it is only hurting ourselves. Jesus Christ is the ultimate forgiver. Imagine being treated like he did and forgiving His trespassers. Imagine forgiving all of mankind everyday!!! I am so grateful for the principle of forgiveness and repentance in my life and pray that I may be better at forgiving others.

My Savior

I have felt the love of my Savior so abundantly in the last week I wonder how I am so blessed. One evening last week I felt the spirit so strongly about a subject that I have never had guidance in before. Pretty much everyday I have felt His hand in my life recently and I know it is because of my own personal worthiness. I say this not to build myself up, but because when you are reading your scriptures, praying, and thinking about others daily you are open to receive the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Today, Christmas Day, I was the first one awake in my family, not because I woke up, but I was awakened. So I was able to get ready and read my scriptures by the Christmas Tree without any interruptions. My prayers and scripture study were amazing!!! I cannot describe the feelings that I had with the exception of love from my Savior. I am so grateful for His Birth and Atonement!

The Reason for the Season

Lately I have been wondering if people remember the reason for the season, mostly because I have seen a lot of angry people this week. We have so much to be happy, grateful, and joyful about!

Recently the church announced an addition to the three fold mission of our church. They are adding "to care for the poor and needy." They are no longer calling these four principles "missions", but "purposes." The four purposes will now be:
1-Perfect the Saints
2-Redeem the Dead
3-Proclaim the Gospel
4-Care for the Poor and Needy

When I heard about this announcement I thought a lot about the main PURPOSE of our church. When you look at these 4 purposes the common bond I saw is that they SAVE people! This gospel is about saving people, because that is what the SAVIOR did for us. May you remember the "true" reason for the season as I have tried to do and enjoy the clip below that exemplifies exactly what I am trying to say!

Oh Christmas Tree!

I love Christmas time, but I am not a big fan of decorating, or should I say excessive decorating! For example, I helped set up four Christmas Trees this year, crazy!!! Let's just say I would rather look at trees then decorate them, which is also what I did. If you haven't been to the Festival of Trees you have to go next year. It was my 2nd time going and I loved it. They also have gingerbread houses and other decorations.

So I have been thinking about the symbolism of Christmas items, namely the Christmas Tree. I searched high and low over the Internet for answers and none of them were great. The explanation that I liked best was found on www.lds.org and in the Family Home evening Manual. Here are a few:

Bells-Sheep bells
Candy canes-Shepherd’s staff
Lights,candles,star-The star that appeared on the night of Jesus’ birth
Holly-The crown of thorns
Evergreen tree-Eternal life
Green,ivy-Life and hope
Red,holly berries-The blood of Christ





Pictured:
1- Savior tree (decorated with describing words and paintings)
2- Temple Tree
3- Book of Mormon Tree
4- USA Americana Tree
5- I Love Lucy Tree (For those of you who didn't know, I am a huge fan)

These were my top 5 favorite trees. I took many other pictures, but I decided that these were the best. Sorry about the quality of the pictures!

Hair Hero's

Family, isn't it about time?

For the Thanksgiving Holiday I was able to go visit my family in Missouri. I was grateful to talk about Mormonism most of the plane ride with a 21 year old guy from San Diego going to visit his Mom for the holiday. When we talked about our families I realized how important and lucky I am to have the type of family I have. This was brought on by his apparent lack of family. I was going to see 30 some-odd (yes, that means literally too:) family members and he was only going to see one.

I knew the visit might be rough because of my Mom having cancer. I was grateful at how well my Mom did. I don't think she was sick at all, but she was tired most of the time and took a lot of naps. Then came the hard part. My Mom's hair started really falling out and she wasn't ready for it. To make the long story short, my brother shaved his head to help her transition. She was then able to shave her head, all the while joking with us. I can't remember if myself and my sister-in-law suggested he do this or if he came up with the idea. The point is family is what made my Mom able to cope! I realized how much more I love her and how depressing life would be without my family members.

Pictured in the slide show are my Mom, Brother, and Aunt. My awesome sister-in-law did the shaving. They aren't in order, but remember my brother went first to help. We had fun making Mohawks too. Mom you are amazing, I love your guts!!! And little bro your not so bad yourself!

I love to see the temple

I have been thinking a lot about the temple lately, maybe because it is so central in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in bringing families together. A few years ago my Grandma asked me how often I attended the temple, I can't remember what I told her, but I made a goal right then and there that I would attended weekly, especially since I have 2 temples within 15 minutes of where I live. I am not sure how often my Grandma goes to the temple, but I know she has a 4 hour drive one way and then spends hours in the temple. I try to attend to temple whenever I am traveling and have been to 20 some odd temples now. Today I am headed to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in West Jordan, UT.

The best thing about Temples is that the work we do within the walls enables us do be with our families forever, not just until death. This life sure would seem pointless if I didn't know that I would still have my family after death!

New calling again?

So a few posts ago I talked about getting called as a Gospel Doctrine Teacher instead of being the Gospel Principles teacher. Well that was never fulfilled...I got a new calling in the Relief Society Presidency as the Secretary. I love the girls that I serve in the presidency with and have an amazing new love for all the sisters in Relief Society. We have our first "Relief Society Meeting" tomorrow that is about the center of Christmas. I'm so excited! What a blessing this calling is at a time when I need all the blessings I can get!!

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Recently I was reading my scriptures and had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I knew without a doubt that Heavenly Father loves me regardless of my faults. Instantly the Primary song from childhood "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" came to my mind. The simple truths that we believe are in the text...

" I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.I know who I am.I know God’s plan.I’ll follow him in faith.I believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ.I’ll honor his name.I’ll do what is right;I’ll follow his light.His truth I will proclaim."

Amazing! Just think if the whole world knew these simple truths?!!!

The Book of Mormon

A couple of months ago our Stake Presidency challenged us to read the Book of Mormon everyday until the end of April (I think they were probably thinking until it becomes a habit). Ever since that challenge I have read everyday with the exception of one day. I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true. What a blessing it has been in my life. I have noticed that since I have regularly read, I have been able to recognize the spirit easier. It isn't a book about the history of a people, but rather a book that keeps me asking, "why was this written for me?" The great thing about the Book of Mormon is that if you read it with a desire to know of its truthfulness the Holy Ghost will let you know that it is true! I don't have to twist any one's arm to read it or believe it, they have to find out for themselves how amazing it truly is.

The Essential Things

The last few days have been very busy for me. I worked extra hours at work, packed my things, celebrated my Dad's birthday, moved, went to a Halloween Party, etc... The highlight of my busy weekend was Stake Conference!

Some of you may have been wondering about the title of my blog. My favorite talk from Stake Conference is exactly what the title of my blog is about.

Milk is the simple or essential things of the gospel and life. Meat is the weightier, deeper, more complicated part. Family is the milk or most important part of the gospel. To paraphrase from the speaker~ Anything that turns us away from the family is essentially Anti-Christ. The essential things we are asked to do are the most important; these are things like scripture study, prayer, temple attendance, and family. DO NOT PUT OFF THE LITTLE THINGS! When we understand the Plan of Happiness we are gaining an eternal perspective.

So often we get caught up in the day to day things that do not matter, but if we stick to the "milk" of life we will realize that everything in this gospel revolves around the family.

BYU Football-ENDURE to the END!

Yesterday my siblings and I were able to go the the BYU vs TCU football game. I knew before I went that we would not win, but I was hoping that we would not get hammered (obviously not the case as Hall is tackled above). That got me thinking how really sometimes when we know we might not win or things are going to be really hard we still have to endure to the end! Plus we are told to have joy in the journey. I wonder if that's what the team was thinking yesterday??? At least I am still and will always be a fan of Harvey Unga. Sometimes we may only score one touch down, right? At least Pita pulled that off for us, just like the Savior will pull off everything that we lack. Isn't it great to know that we have the Savior to help us Endure!

Cancer and the Gospel

Last month my family found out that my Mom has cancer. As far as the doctors could tell it wasn't too serious and they caught it early. As of yesterday when my Mom went in for surgery that is no longer the case. It is a lot more serious than everyone thought. Regardless of the details things are still hopeful with the gospel in our lives.

Elder Holland's talks have been especially helpful through this ordeal, but also with life in general. I love his talk entitled "Lessons from Liberty Jail." He talks about three lessons that we learn from Liberty Jail. They are: 1-Everyone Faces Trying Times 2-Even the Worthy will Suffer and 3- Remain Calm, Patient, Charitable and Forgiving. In my opinion this is a direct answer to all those people out there that ask "Why do bad things happen to good people?" You may want to read two other talks from Elder Holland from the April and October Conferences of this year. He is so amazing and gives you so much hope!

To top that off one of my favorite scriptures reads,
"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." Alma 7:11-12

Macbeth

Last week my roommate got us 2 free ticket's to "Verdi's Macbeth" at the Capitol Theatre. I've never seen Macbeth, but have always wanted to even though I am not a huge fan of tragedy's. The fact that it was an opera made a tragedy so much better!!! It was a great Halloween Shakespeare play to see, but I was more drawn to the parallels that I found. The whole thing is about dark and light, good and bad, or to put it bluntly, death and life. Macbeth stops at nothing to gain the crown, which in his case means killing several people. It got me thinking what are the things in our own lives that we are willing to do to gain something. Most of you reading this are not murderers, but do you yell at someone on the road to get ahead or ignore your family to watch a bad TV show??? I know I am guilty of some, but what can I overcome for Halloween? What "bad" things can I give up so that my life doesn't end in tragedy? Suggestion's?

Change of Calling, Sort of????

It all started last week when the girl I visit teach got engaged. She is a convert to the church (as of this year) and a powerhouse. I was lucky enough to get called as the Gospel Principles teacher. Soon after I found out that I was also her visiting teacher. Previously our ward did not have this class as there weren't any new converts to teach.

A couple of weeks ago I found out that the Gospel Principles Manual is going to be used next year in church curriculum during Relief Society and Priesthood. Great news since I found out today my calling was dissolved since the class is no longer needed. I am now a Gospel Doctrine teacher which is essence means I will teach a bigger class and out of the Doctrine and Covenants. So good bye Gospel Principles (until next year) and hello Doctrine and Covenants!

New Beginnings

So I was laying in bed last night and couldn't sleep. My mind was racing about several things first and foremost a blog. I have been thinking about starting one for awhile and asked my Dad for creative titles. He was worried, as I was, about the privacy and security of starting a blog. As I was thinking about this last night I remembered that the "Ensign" magazine had articles about blogging in the most recent October issue. On pages 22 and 27 there are two great articles about sharing the gospel through blogs. After reading these I was hooked on the idea of blogging and here I am. So the purpose of my blog to quote Elder Ballard is "join the conversation by participating on the internet to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Resoration." My Blog may not by entirely religious, but I hope to keep that the overall focus!