Sunday, February 1, 2015
Thoughts on today 2/1/15
I know we can't just rely on other people's testimonies and expect to build a closer relationship with our Heavenly Father through that. But I do believe that listening to other people's testimonies can strengthen what we already have. I'll admit, I'm usually pretty bad at paying attention in church. But today I made it a point to find one thing that really stuck out to me from what each person said.
Lately I've felt that my testimony has been a little dim. That's not to say that I haven't known that this church is true or that I've been doubting my beliefs in any way. I just haven't felt that same conviction that I used to. And I've been praying that God would help me build it back up. I've also been planning on serving a mission, and I just started my papers last week. And you know what? I'm scared. Really scared. How am I supposed to teach other people about the Gospel when I don't know all the answers myself? How am I supposed to go share God's word with people I don't know when I can barely do normal-people things like going to the bank or the post office without getting scared? Am I ready for this? And why does everything seem to be happening so fast?
One thing I heard today in Fast and Testimony Meeting was that God will ALWAYS provide a way for us to follow Him. And I've noticed recently that that is definitely true. I've sort of been pushing off serving a mission. Not because I didn't want to go as soon as I could, but because I'm the WORST at saving money. I was hoping to leave as soon as I turned 19, but by the time summer was ending, I had -maybe- $500 saved up from the job that I'd gotten the previous year in an attempt to save for my mission. I'd been searching for a second job so I could leave around January, and Heavenly Father blessed me with an awesome job at an elementary school. Of course, I ended up pushing off my mission plans until the beginning of summer so I wouldn't be leaving halfway through the school year. Aaand again, I'm really bad at saving. Then there was the issue of Princess Festival. See, I've been working at the Princess Festival every summer for the last five years, and it's always been the highlight of my year. It's the thing I look forward to from the end of one festival to the next. But the way things have been going the last couple of years, I wasn't sure how long it would stick around (due to financial issues). I was scared that if I missed out on this year, I might come back and the best part of my teenage years would be gone. So I asked the director when it would be this year. It's usually the last two weeks of June, so I wouldn't be leaving much later than I'd been planning. He told me that this year it would be a three day event in July. I thought "Only three days? And so much later? Is it worth it? ...Well, it IS Princess Festival, and I don't want to miss it." And I decided that I'd stick around. Just a couple weeks after deciding I'd leave at the end of July, I found out that Princess Festival was being cancelled this year in order to rebuild their funds and plan better for next year. If that wasn't a sign that I need to leave soon, I don't know what is. I know my Heavenly Father needs me out there in the mission field, and He has provided a way for me to go on a mission and has helped keep me focused on that, even though I could still be doing other good things.
Another thought that I really liked is that God puts people in our lives at the exact moment that we need them. The best example I can think of as far as my mission story goes is my friend Nick. I met Nick my sophomore year through another friend of mine. We weren't necessarily close friends, but I thought we was a really cool kid and I really admired him. Up until high school, I'd had no intention of ever serving a mission, so when I decided that I wanted to serve, it was kind of a huge deal for me. Nick was one of the first people I told, and he was nothing but supportive. He said, "That's awesome!! You're gonna be great!" And asked if I'd like to recieve his daily scripture texts. I didn't think that texts could mean so much to me. They reminded me to do my own personal reading (which I'm really bad at), and gave me insight on scriptures I hadn't thought to study before or helped me see familiar scriptures from a different perspective. I'd decided on my own to serve a mission, but Nick played a big part in me sticking to that decision and growing closer to Heavenly Father. Anyway, Nick just got back from his mission, and I was trying to decide whether or not to go to his homecoming. I thought maybe it would be weird, since we weren't like, super close or anything back in high school. But I decided to go, since he had made such a big impact on my life. I got there maybe ten minutes early, and I didn't see anyone there that I knew, so I sat by myself. A couple minutes later, a girl from school came and sat by me. I recognised her from some of my classes, but I didn't really know her. We started talking because, you know, we were sitting next to each other and it would've been super awkward otherwise. She told me about how she'd been finished with her mission papers since fall, but things weren't working out in her old ward and everything. But she came back home to finish, and she was hopefully going to submit her papers that day. That got me thinking that I really needed to set up an appointment to get mine started, since I'd been planning on it for a while but kept procrastinating. Thanks to her, I got that extra little push to set up the appointment right there in sacrament meeting. I was expecting the appointment to be the next week or so since Bishop was probably busy, right? WRONG. Here's how it went down.
-texting-
"Hey, you're the one I talk to to set up an appointment with the bishop, right?"
"Yep"
"Okay, cause I need to do that."
"Alright, does 3 pm today work?"
*INSERT PANIC HERE*
WUT.
"Yeah, That's great!"
And with that, I started my papers. Heavenly Father sent a girl whom I barely knew to come sit by me and inspire me to get working on what I needed to do. And this happened at the homecoming of a guy without whom I very well may have gone back on my decision to serve. God knows us each individually and knows exactly who to put in our lives to help us reach our full potential.
I know that when we trust God, we can do SO much more than we could ever have done on our own. And whenever we're feeling like we're alone and no one knows how we feel, we can always turn to our perfect Big Brother, who has felt not only every sorrow or pain that we've felt, but also every joy. Every smile and moment of warmth. And that's why I want to serve a mission. I want to share the happiness and peace that comes through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want others to know how to find true joy.
So yes, I'm scared. I know I don't know everything there is to know about this Gospel, and I'm scared that I won't be able to share it with the power and eloquence that it deserves. But you know, other people are scared too. They're scared that there isn't a life beyond death, that they won't see their loved ones again. They're scared that they're alone in the world, or that they'll never find true happiness. They're scared that they don't have a purpose, and that maybe life isn't worth living. And I can at least help with that much.
Because I KNOW that Christ lives. I know that there's a plan in place that will bring us back to be with our Heavenly Father, and that there's life after death, and that families can be together for eternity. I know that we have loving Heavenly Parents who know us perfectly and that Christ understands us more than we even understand ourselves. I know that we've come to this earth to grow and become perfected like our Heavenly Father, and that He wants nothing more than to see us again after having done the best that we could have done while here, even if that means making mistakes and needing to repent a lot. And I know that everyone is worth loving, because everyone is of infinite worth in God's eyes. I'm SO EXCITED to do the Lord's work. And even though I'm definitely not perfect, Christ definitely is. And through Christ I can do anything.
Lately I've felt that my testimony has been a little dim. That's not to say that I haven't known that this church is true or that I've been doubting my beliefs in any way. I just haven't felt that same conviction that I used to. And I've been praying that God would help me build it back up. I've also been planning on serving a mission, and I just started my papers last week. And you know what? I'm scared. Really scared. How am I supposed to teach other people about the Gospel when I don't know all the answers myself? How am I supposed to go share God's word with people I don't know when I can barely do normal-people things like going to the bank or the post office without getting scared? Am I ready for this? And why does everything seem to be happening so fast?
One thing I heard today in Fast and Testimony Meeting was that God will ALWAYS provide a way for us to follow Him. And I've noticed recently that that is definitely true. I've sort of been pushing off serving a mission. Not because I didn't want to go as soon as I could, but because I'm the WORST at saving money. I was hoping to leave as soon as I turned 19, but by the time summer was ending, I had -maybe- $500 saved up from the job that I'd gotten the previous year in an attempt to save for my mission. I'd been searching for a second job so I could leave around January, and Heavenly Father blessed me with an awesome job at an elementary school. Of course, I ended up pushing off my mission plans until the beginning of summer so I wouldn't be leaving halfway through the school year. Aaand again, I'm really bad at saving. Then there was the issue of Princess Festival. See, I've been working at the Princess Festival every summer for the last five years, and it's always been the highlight of my year. It's the thing I look forward to from the end of one festival to the next. But the way things have been going the last couple of years, I wasn't sure how long it would stick around (due to financial issues). I was scared that if I missed out on this year, I might come back and the best part of my teenage years would be gone. So I asked the director when it would be this year. It's usually the last two weeks of June, so I wouldn't be leaving much later than I'd been planning. He told me that this year it would be a three day event in July. I thought "Only three days? And so much later? Is it worth it? ...Well, it IS Princess Festival, and I don't want to miss it." And I decided that I'd stick around. Just a couple weeks after deciding I'd leave at the end of July, I found out that Princess Festival was being cancelled this year in order to rebuild their funds and plan better for next year. If that wasn't a sign that I need to leave soon, I don't know what is. I know my Heavenly Father needs me out there in the mission field, and He has provided a way for me to go on a mission and has helped keep me focused on that, even though I could still be doing other good things.
Another thought that I really liked is that God puts people in our lives at the exact moment that we need them. The best example I can think of as far as my mission story goes is my friend Nick. I met Nick my sophomore year through another friend of mine. We weren't necessarily close friends, but I thought we was a really cool kid and I really admired him. Up until high school, I'd had no intention of ever serving a mission, so when I decided that I wanted to serve, it was kind of a huge deal for me. Nick was one of the first people I told, and he was nothing but supportive. He said, "That's awesome!! You're gonna be great!" And asked if I'd like to recieve his daily scripture texts. I didn't think that texts could mean so much to me. They reminded me to do my own personal reading (which I'm really bad at), and gave me insight on scriptures I hadn't thought to study before or helped me see familiar scriptures from a different perspective. I'd decided on my own to serve a mission, but Nick played a big part in me sticking to that decision and growing closer to Heavenly Father. Anyway, Nick just got back from his mission, and I was trying to decide whether or not to go to his homecoming. I thought maybe it would be weird, since we weren't like, super close or anything back in high school. But I decided to go, since he had made such a big impact on my life. I got there maybe ten minutes early, and I didn't see anyone there that I knew, so I sat by myself. A couple minutes later, a girl from school came and sat by me. I recognised her from some of my classes, but I didn't really know her. We started talking because, you know, we were sitting next to each other and it would've been super awkward otherwise. She told me about how she'd been finished with her mission papers since fall, but things weren't working out in her old ward and everything. But she came back home to finish, and she was hopefully going to submit her papers that day. That got me thinking that I really needed to set up an appointment to get mine started, since I'd been planning on it for a while but kept procrastinating. Thanks to her, I got that extra little push to set up the appointment right there in sacrament meeting. I was expecting the appointment to be the next week or so since Bishop was probably busy, right? WRONG. Here's how it went down.
-texting-
"Hey, you're the one I talk to to set up an appointment with the bishop, right?"
"Yep"
"Okay, cause I need to do that."
"Alright, does 3 pm today work?"
*INSERT PANIC HERE*
WUT.
"Yeah, That's great!"
And with that, I started my papers. Heavenly Father sent a girl whom I barely knew to come sit by me and inspire me to get working on what I needed to do. And this happened at the homecoming of a guy without whom I very well may have gone back on my decision to serve. God knows us each individually and knows exactly who to put in our lives to help us reach our full potential.
I know that when we trust God, we can do SO much more than we could ever have done on our own. And whenever we're feeling like we're alone and no one knows how we feel, we can always turn to our perfect Big Brother, who has felt not only every sorrow or pain that we've felt, but also every joy. Every smile and moment of warmth. And that's why I want to serve a mission. I want to share the happiness and peace that comes through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want others to know how to find true joy.
So yes, I'm scared. I know I don't know everything there is to know about this Gospel, and I'm scared that I won't be able to share it with the power and eloquence that it deserves. But you know, other people are scared too. They're scared that there isn't a life beyond death, that they won't see their loved ones again. They're scared that they're alone in the world, or that they'll never find true happiness. They're scared that they don't have a purpose, and that maybe life isn't worth living. And I can at least help with that much.
Because I KNOW that Christ lives. I know that there's a plan in place that will bring us back to be with our Heavenly Father, and that there's life after death, and that families can be together for eternity. I know that we have loving Heavenly Parents who know us perfectly and that Christ understands us more than we even understand ourselves. I know that we've come to this earth to grow and become perfected like our Heavenly Father, and that He wants nothing more than to see us again after having done the best that we could have done while here, even if that means making mistakes and needing to repent a lot. And I know that everyone is worth loving, because everyone is of infinite worth in God's eyes. I'm SO EXCITED to do the Lord's work. And even though I'm definitely not perfect, Christ definitely is. And through Christ I can do anything.
The Bravest Knight
This is a little story I wrote after my cousin passed away on his mission. It means a lot to me and I thought I'd share it here. :)
The Bravest Knight
Once upon a time there was a young knight. He had a wonderful family who loved him more than anything. One day he received a special calling. There was a dragon in a far off land, and he was needed to help defeat it!
Though he was very scared and sad to leave his family, he rode on bravely, knowing it was what the King needed him to do.
Being in the new land was very difficult. His horse ran away so he had to walk everywhere, and he couldn't contact his family. The only thing he had from home was a book called “How to Fight Dragons.” Luckily there was another knight who was in the same situation. They became the best of friends.
After many weeks they realized they couldn't beat this dragon by themselves. They had to teach the villagers. They went door to door, telling people about their book. It could teach them how to fight the dragon! But many people slammed their doors, thinking they were crazy. Others even liked having the dragon around.
However, there were many people who wanted to know. The knights taught them, and the people became knights for their own village. Then they’d move on. The dragon would threaten a new village, and they’d do the same thing there.
It was very, very hard on them. They missed their families, people were rude to them, and sometimes they just wanted to go home. But the King would often send them gifts as a reward for their hard work. This helped them to keep going.
It took a long, long time, but one day with the help of all the villagers they had met, the dragon was defeated! Everyone thanked the two knights, and they all celebrated.
The King sent each of them letters. The other knight was overjoyed. The King had said he could go home. He asked the young knight if he was doing the same.
“No”, came the reply. His letter said -
My dear friend, there is a terrible Dragon in a kingdom across many seas. I need my bravest knights to help me. Can I count on you to be there? Sincerely, The King
He wasn't sure how to feel, but the King needed him. He said goodbye to his new friends, and set off to be with the King. He was sad to leave his family behind. He wouldn't see them for far too long.
But this whole journey had brought him more joy than he had ever known! He was helping so many people, and he really loved that.
One day the King gave him the most wonderful gift! It was a small looking-glass. But this wasn't just any looking-glass. It allowed him to watch over his family.
So he continued in that far away land. He watched over his family, sometimes sending a dove to comfort them when they were struggling. He knew he’d be with them again someday, but until then he worked valiantly, side by side with the King. . .
Because he was the bravest knight.
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