I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. -Alma 29:9
Posts tagged: lds
I can’t learn something for someone. I can’t feel something, or grow a testimony, or understand something for anyone. And this is one of my biggest frustrations.
Oh how I wish to show everyone how much this gospel will change their lives. I wish I could apply forgiveness for fellow members in place of someone having a hard time seeing past others’ mistakes to the core doctrine. I wish that I could feel happy, charitable, humble, forgiving for someone else.
I feel this way often, and I know that it would be messing with others’ agency. A reason I like Alma 29 (other than 9 and 10) is the first part of the chapter.
1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!
2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.
3 But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.
4 I ought not to harrow up in my desires the firm decree of a just God, for I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction.
5 Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.
6 Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?
Alma 29 is just one of those chapters that I read and I can almost hear Alma saying “I know that feel bro” (or, I guess, a more reverent response.)
So, a quick little story that I heard a while back.
A little over a decade ago, there were three high schools in my city. A, P, and AW. AW had enough kids to establish release time, and it was at that point the stake started to set it up. Around the same time, a fourth school, RV, was built. Half of the kids left AW to go to RV, so release time was no longer a possibility.
Brother Rockwood said that had RV not been built, students at A and P would just do ward seminary classes. That would mean like, six active people in my class (all grades included. It wouldn’t be very fun I don’t think.)
One of the major blessings I count daily is my seminary class - at a stake level. If it weren’t for stake early morning seminary, I wouldn’t have met a majority of my friends. I wouldn’t have gotten the courage to take a single film class for half of my school day this year. I wouldn’t have gone to any dances (especially Mormon Prom). I wouldn’t have been very social. I probably would have decided church wasn’t my thing. I very well could have gone inactive and followed my friend into a whirl of self-harm, depression, and drugs.
The people I had the privilege to meet at seminary got me excited about church, about having good friends, about being me. For that reason, I cannot consider RV and AW rival schools, because people that go there are the reason I can get up most mornings without feeling like crud.
Have you guys ever read 1 Nephi 13 with a historical view? I’ve always loved this chapter but when I mention it, it seems not very many people know about it.
(It talks about Christopher Columbus, the pilgrims, the Revolutionary war, etc. So cool!)
Mutual for me is either great, meh, or I should have stayed home.
Okay, if you post LDS things, please tell me so I can follow. Although, I’m kind of picky, so if you post about TV shows, politics, cats, etc more often than once a week (absolute max), there is a slim chance I’ll follow. Not that your blog is bad, I just would prefer to have as little outside posts as possible. However, I would love to follow you if meet my weird criteria haha.
So I was concerned because I had no idea how to condense preparing for a mission in five minutes.
And then I thought about Ann M. Dibb’s saying “I know it, I live it, I love it.”
It’s the perfect outline and I just
I’m giving a talk tomorrow about preparing for a mission. I actually like this topic a lot, and I’m excited, but this is the one week I wasn’t able to go to mission prep.
Also, I guess I should probably start writing it.
So, you may remember when I talked about a laurel that had attended church for the first time in a while (I’ll call her Nikki.) She attended for about three weeks and then she stopped again. I was so sad, I was going to ask her to be the secretary for the laurels.
So I continued to attend Young Women’s with one other laurel, and I just prayed that something would happen. Nikki goes to our school, but I’m not so sure she likes being approached there.
She came again today, and the love and charity I felt for her came back to my remembrance. I was just so happy today knowing she was there. I thought about asking her to be my secretary again, and then I realized that my sister is turning sixteen on Saturday.
I asked my dad if I could release my second counselor, who is currently pushing the church away. My new presidency will be my best friend first counselor, sister second counselor, and Nikki as my secretary. My dad (who’s in the bishopric) talked to her, and she agreed.
Next week is when they (my sister and Nikki) will be sustained, and I really hope she comes. I now know she has a responsibility, and she seemed to have a lot of friends today. Now, nourishment of the good word of God. Something I can’t measure and see for myself, but Heavenly Father can, and hopefully a miracle will happen.
If she gets back into church, then my sister won’t be left as the lone active laurel when the first counselor and I leave for college. There are two other inactive girls besides Nikki, one I’ve been friends with my whole life (and who is also my former second counselor) as well as a girl that just had her birthday who I haven’t seen for years. My heart hurts for both of them, but I am happy that Nikki is still somewhat close to being back.
If you are in a presidency or just a member of a class/quorum, the best thing you can do to get someone to come to church is to develop a sincere love for them. You know you will feel that when you would do anything so that they could take part in the precious happiness that you feel.
So, because I’m Mormon, and the majority of those reading this are Mormon, lets use a metaphor. Mormons love metaphors.
I’m here eating some ice cream (because yum) and it’s vanilla. My brother is also eating vanilla ice cream; however, he’s complaining that there’s too much cinnamon and he can never get the right amount. As a kid, I also couldn’t eat ice cream without chocolate syrup, sprinkles, the whole getup. Especially if it was vanilla. Vanilla was just the boring flavor of all ice cream, it had no taste whatsoever to me.
I now sit here eating my plain vanilla ice cream, appreciating the subtle sweetness. I appreciate the gospel more than I did as a kid. I was always playing games or something to distract me from the boring talks. Now I always reach for my notes so I can learn everything I can get. Church is no longer boring and bland to me. I like the simple, subtle sweetness that comes from the gospel, without messing it all up with too much cinnamon that overpowers and ruins it all.
As my ice cream comes to an end, I’m glad to know that the gospel won’t.
I wasn’t really paying attention today in church (after donating blood yesterday I’ve just been super exhausted), but I was thinking about a mission, specifically personal and companion study.
I want to get married to someone who will agree to follow the study habits of missionaries. I think studying with my eternal companion would be excellent.
At the beginning of the year, Brother Rockwood was talking about service and how it helps more than just the person you’re serving. He illustrated this by saying, “My goal is to be able to do one hundred pushups by the end of the year. I want you guys to help me by doing this with me every morning. Now, this is all for me and my benefit, not for your own growth.” He actually made us do this a few days in a row and forgot, and he sometimes remembers and has us do it some more (although I don’t think that’s relevant).
As we serve, we are going to grow as well (well, as long as we let it do so). Remember that the benefits of service don’t just go to the person receiving said service, but you can as well.
You know what scripture nearly made me cry?
I didn’t find it until after I had written this post.
It’s truly amazing how much the scriptures seem to be talking to just you.
