Listening to Find the Answers

While I was studying at Utah State University I was taking a class in sociology twice a week. This class required us to take a quiz of about 6 questions on the previous weeks reading assignment every morning before we started. It was projected on the wall and the teacher would read the questions, the options from A to D, and then give us a little time to pick our answers on our electric test clicker. About two weeks into my class I started listening to how his voice fluctuated as he read the question and options out loud for those who had a hard time reading. I found it very interesting how his voice would change on certain answers as he read.

                                                     

One morning I hadn't done the assigned reading for the class. Knowing I would probably fail, I decided to close my eyes and listen to him as he read the options and make my guess off the fluctuation in his voice. Later that evening I got online to see what my score was; 100%! I about fell out of my chair. I decided to try it again 2 more times just to find the same results as the first.

After this experience I studied on my own time how we change the way we say things in our sentences according to how we feel about things. After lots of studies and listening to people talk, I realized the importance on saying a name. How we say it, bold, quiet, coughing, looking down, with a smile, fast, slow, it depicts how we feel about the individual.

Listening to myself, I realized how quickly I end my prayers. One of my biggest pet peeves is when others mumble through the name of Jesus Christ at the end of a prayer, so I decided to slow it down and say it with purpose. His name is sacred, and we should always keep it that way! I have noticed on a day to day basis that the way I feel about Jesus Christ has changed! I no longer refer to the Savior as "Jesus" but as "The Savior" or "Jesus Christ." who am I to think we are on a first name basis? My prayers have become SO much more meaningful as I respect the name of the Savior, and as I picture speaking with Him and Heavenly Father as I kneel.
There was a lady who was baptized in one of my areas that would lightly bob her head down then up as she said "Jesus Christ." She later explained that growing up she was taught to always bow her head
as she said his name out of respect. I loved that! We must hold his name and position sacred.

 

Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the seventy said,
"I have learned as a father, priesthood leader, and mission president that listening carefully to another’s prayers can reveal much about his or her relationship with God."

Let us all listen to ourselves that we keep safe from using his name with vain repetition, but with reverence and love.

Lioness at the Gate

How do I protect my home? What steps am I taking to secure that my family is safe and strong? Is it enough in this world today?

I don't have children nor do I live with my family right now, but I DO teach multiple families every day and see a large variety and struggles and dilemmas. We see on the news, hear from teenagers returning home from school, and on the covers of magazines in the checkout isle that THIS WORLD IS CRAZY! Satan is at his highest caliber to shred the family and distract us from truth. That is why motherhood is the most sacred and highest of all callings.

And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions. Ezekiel 19:2



Julie B. Beck said that mothers are the "Lioness at the gate of our homes and hearths" They are there to nourish and care, but mothers must aggressively protect their homes from the dangers that corrode our society.

"The prophetic counsel to have daily personal and family prayer, daily personal and family scripture study, and weekly family home evening are the essential, weight-bearing beams in the construction of a Christ-centered home. Without these regular practices it will be difficult to find the desired and much-needed peace and refuge from the world."

Make the spirituality of your family and children a VERY high priority, improve family prayer, home evening, and scripture study.

A Phone Call from God

When I was preparing for the A.C.T. I took a specialized class that helped me get ready to take the test. I sat in the back of the class as the teacher stood at the front going over each section and what we needed to work on. Zoning out during the science section, I noticed something on the table behind me; it was the teachers cell phone. As she wrote out problems on the white board, I grabbed her phone quickly, and nested it in my lap before she noticed. Saving my number into it as "Heavenly Father," I threw it back on the table without her noticing. I commenced to send her random text messages through out the week that would put a smile on her face, I even called her a few times during class, even though she didn't pick up.

Later I thought about how many messages and calls we receive from God that we leave unanswered. We pretend that we are unavailable or busy, but in all honesty we are afraid. 

"And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;" 

-Jeramiah 7:13

Elder Eyering said, "Just as God called you and will guide you, He will magnify you. You will need that magnification. Your calling will surely bring opposition. You are in the Master’s service. You are His representative. Eternal lives depend on you."

I hope to never miss another call from the Lord, I want him to know that I will ALWAYS answer, and respond abruptly.

What calls from him have you missed lately that you need to call back? 

Mind Games in the Lava Tubes

I had never been spelunking before. I half expected it to be like the movie batman; waterfalls, bats, swinging around on cables, you know what I'm talking about. But it was much different; we started out walking through very round caves exploring holes and looking at the hard magma that solidified as it dripped down. We were climbing through lava tubes, actual hardened lava from volcanoes in the past that created miles of mazes that wrapped in and out underground.

It was fun to walk through them, but then the path started getting a little tight. At times we had to crawl through tubes to get to the next opening. I was grateful for the knee pads and a helmet that protected me from being scalped and puncturing holes. About a half hour into it, we came to a section that required us to crawl. About ten feet further it was so tight we were unable to crawl, but had to worm our way, inching our bodies forward. The space was so tight, I couldn't look up without hitting my helmet on the roof. Just then my thoughts were, "Wow, I am in a very tight area. . . Under MILES of dirt. . . If I were to have a panic attack, no one could get to me and I wouldn't be able to get myself out. . . " I started panicking as my thoughts suggested. INSTANTLY I changed my thoughts to distract myself, and I was fine the rest of the day. 

I did a lot of contemplating on the drive home about my experience and I came to the realization of the power of thoughts. EVERYTHING is preceded by thoughts: who we are, what we do, who we become, and where we go. 

President David O. McKay said, "We sow our thoughts, and we reap our actions; we sow our actions, and we reap our habits; we sow our habits, and we reap our characters; we sow our characters, and we reap our destiny.”

It all starts with thoughts. We are not born into this world with solid habits or with grounded character. Instead, Heavenly father has given us the freedom and agency to choose for ourselves who we want to be.

When I studied body language before my mission, I learned that we process on average 550 words a minute in our minds, but we express only about 150 of them. So what happens with the other 300? They are expressed through our body language. What we think is always shown through the way we move. Our thoughts become our actions before we are able to realize it! 

Elder Delbert L. Stapley said, "We need to ask ourselves, 'Are my usual thoughts and present actions worthy of eternal life? Am I setting my sights on eternal goals and working to obtain them?' Anything short of our best isn’t good enough, especially in the service of the Lord."

Our personal goal in life should always be to develop Christ-like character, and this comes as we control our thoughts. ALWAYS keep your thoughts optimistic, you become what you think about the most. 

"Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not!"

Going to Church with Judas

"I can't go back to church because of what they said. THEY shouldn't be allowed in God's church, they weren't being christian!"

We hear this quite often from both members of the church and non-members. Sadly, it happens. We have been hurt or offended by those in our church whether they mean to or not. In one of our lessons, this was brought up by someone we were teaching. The spirit then taught me something very profound, and I relayed it to them right there in the lesson. The savior allows EVERYONE into his church. Regardless of your past sins, transgression, mistakes, rebellion, everything! His own apostle, who served with him DAILY and saw his miracles, turned on him. Jesus Christ NEVER turned Judas Iscariot away even when he KNEW he was going to betray him! 

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Luke 22. When the Savior was administering the sacrament (For the first time ever! What a sacred experience!) he said, 

"21 ¶But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table."

He knew. He knew it was Judas. He STILL loved and accepted him. He STILL let him be apart of his church and worship with the most humblest off his followers. I have NEVER thought of this before, but it was so clear when I was teaching. 

To be like the Savior, we are placed around imperfect people so that we can become perfect by HELPING those who struggle. He tells us how to do this in Matthew 5:44, 

 "44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"

AND GO TO CHURCH WITH IMPERFECT PEOPLE! 

It was a lesson to me, a very humbling moment. I need to look past others and what they think about me, but remember the REAL reason I go to church! A member once said in a lesson, "Not going to church because of the hypocrites is like not going to the gym because of all the fat people."

A Pear of Miracles

An elderly lady we were teaching asked us if we would help her pick her pear trees. With the early freeze, these were the first trees I had seen with fruit on them in all of Etna. She was very blessed. For three hours we picked the whole bed full of our truck. We had hundreds of pounds of pears! Being old, she said she couldn't use them so she gave us half, thinking we could give them away. So we made a big ol' sign that said "Free Pears and Free Happiness!!!" and put them on our truck and parked on the busiest street in downtown Etna! We met SOOOOOO many people and gave away pounds of pears and quite a few pamphlets. 

The next day we scheduled to do it from 5 to 6:30. I decided I wanted to do an experiment; my companion and I decided to set an appointment with the Lord. I said, "All right God, we will be there from 5 to 6:30. Send us someone at 5:30 who we can teach. We will be there waiting for them." All day long we talked about our appointment, and even wrote it in our planners, it WAS GOING TO HAPPEN! We got out there at 5 and I pulled my ukulele out and sang hymns as people came and took more pears. My excitement started to build as 5:20 came around. I put my uke away and waited like a little kid waiting for Santa. AT EXACTLY 5:30 A LADY DROVE UP!!! I must have looked like a clown with how big I was smiling. She took all the pears we had and we got her address and scheduled a time to go back and teach her.

I was overwhelmed with joy when I saw how the Lord worked with us. When we show the lord our dependability, he really increases our capability! It was cool to see how we created it spiritually, then the Lord saw that it happened physically.

In Doctrine and Covenants chapter 29, it says, 

31 For by the power of my Spirit acreated I them; yea, all things both bspiritual and temporal

32 aFirst bspiritual, secondly temporal, which is the beginning of my work 

I know that the Lord LOVES it when we make a plan and move forward with faith. Just like the story of the Brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon. He made a prayerfully made a plan and then asked for the Lord to help him accomplish what he could not do. Just like I could not make someone come to me at 5:30, the brother of Jared could not make the stones glow so they could have light in their ships. 

The Lord has asked us to do missionary work, ALL OF US. We can all make a personal game plan, just like the the Lords servants have asked. "We must each carry out our own personal game plan to serve with enthusiasm alongside the full-time missionaries" Elder S. Gifford Nielsen

He trusts us to act. 

I FEAR NO DRUNKARD!

One evening my companion and I were talking with some girls outside their house as a small party was going on behind them. We could tell by the man passed out on the couch outside and the lady throwing up in the front yard that there was alcohol involved. As we were wrapping up our conversation, a lady staggered out using vulgar language to try to get us to leave. Dropping her bottle on the porch, she had her eyes fixed on me as she walked my way. As she was coming, I had the words come to my mind from the prophet Abinadi "Touch me not!" She came within a foot of my face and glared at me as I looked back into her eyes. I had no fear, I KNEW that she couldn't touch me. I smiled and said, "goodnight!" and got in the truck. She walked up to the window and continued to glare at me. Smiling, I said to my companion, "Sister, drive fast!" My companion started the car forward, and this lady walked, jogged, then started running next to my window. When she passed my door, she grabbed onto the side of the truck bed and threw her leg in. She hung on as we continued driving, until one of her friends ran up and peeled her off. My companion gunned it as I watched her get into a fist fight with her rescuer through my rear-view mirror.

I had a deeper understanding of the power of God in the face of foes. Abinadi, a man who stood before his accusers, and said as they stepped forward to constrain them, "Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay your hands upon me, for I have not delivered the message which the Lord sent me to deliver; neither have I told you that which ye requested that I should tell; therefore, God will not suffer that I shall be destroyed at this time" (Words of Abinadi)

I know that God protects those who are on his errand. To help myself remember this, I look in the mirror and tell myself, "I fear no man!"