Recognizing our Personal Liahona, Part 3: Timing is Everything

And the trilogy continues... :)

In part one of this trilogy I talked about a scripture in 1 Kings 19. As I was writing my thoughts about this scripture, I had to go in take care of something. As I was away I had another thought about that scripture. I figured I would just work it into the original post but as I continued with it I realized that would have made it way too long! I mean let's be honest, it is already a fairly long post. I didn't want to make it any longer than I had to! So I decided I would just write a separate post about this idea. I am glad I did that because over the past few days I have thought of a few other things to talk about with this idea so now it gets to be a regular sized post instead of a short post with a random thought attached to it! :)

In the previous two blog posts, I have been talking about the Holy Ghost and how to feel and recognize His promptings. This post is still about the Holy Ghost, but I am going to take it in a different direction than the others. This time I want to share another insight about not just how the Holy Ghost comes to us, but rather when He comes. In 1 Kings 19 (this is the scripture that prompted this thought!) we read,

"And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
"And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice."

In the first part of this blog trifecta I used this scripture to point out that the communications from the Holy Ghost are small things that are hard to notice. As I thought about the verse, I learned something new that I had never seen before! I have always loved these verses because they explain how the Holy Ghost communicates, but up until a few days ago I never realized that they also explain when the Holy Ghost talks with us. Notice the order in which things happen in these verses. The Lord tells Elijah to go to the mountain. While he is up there, he experiences a strong wind that breaks parts of the mountain he is on, then a strong earthquake, then after that a fire, and finally the Lord sent the Spirit to him!

Recognizing our Personal Liahona, Part 2: All the Small Things

I wasn't intending for my last blog post to have any sequels, but today I was in the temple reading through some scriptures and a few things caught my eye. They tied right in with my last post so I decided I would make another post about it. As I kept finding scriptures, though, I realized that I had two different ideas going on that both related to feeling the Spirit. I didn't want to put them both in one post and make a ridiculously long blog post that nobody would ever read, so I decided to make them two separate posts. So welcome to the second installment of the "Personal Liahona" trilogy! :)

One of the men in the temple today suggested that we all do a little studying while we were there today. He specifically suggested that we turn to the Index or Topical Guide (found in LDS scriptures to help study the scriptures) and look at the scriptures that talk about small things. He shared a few examples from history about the importance that the little things can have on us and encouraged to look at those scriptures and find more. I was surprised to find that a few of them talked about the Liahona! So I read those verses, read the verses around it, and was inspired with a new perspective on things--especially on feeling the Spirit!

Recognizing our Personal Liahona

There is a story in the Book of Mormon about a family on a trip. Lehi, a prophet, lived in Jerusalem and told the people of their wickedness. He, with many other prophets, prophesied that if they didn't repent, they would be scattered and destroyed. The people were very stubborn and quite frankly didn't like anybody telling them that they were doing the wrong thing so they rejected Lehi and even tried to kill him. Thankfully, God warned Lehi and told him to take his family and get away. So Lehi took his family and some basic needs and went into the wilderness.

One morning, after being in the wilderness for a few days, Lehi opens his tent door to find a "round ball of curious workmanship" which we later learn is called the Liahona. This ball acted as a compass and "did work according to the faith and diligence and heed" that they gave to it. As they  were righteous and obedient to God's commandments, the Liahona pointed them in the right direction. As they were rebellious and wicked, the Liahona stopped working and they got lost. Eventually, by following the Liahona, Lehi and his family were brought by the Lord into "a land which [was] choice above all other lands".

Total Eclipse of the Gospel

A few weeks ago we had the great privilege of watching a solar eclipse (yes I know I am way behind on this post). I had never seen one before so it was kind of a big deal for me! I also love the wonders of the solar system and I am always fascinated with how it all works so it was an especially great treat to get to watch this event! I tried doing the whole pinhole camera thing with the pieces of cardboard but that was a futile attempt. I tried everything I could think of so that I could safely watch the eclipse but in the end nothing worked so I ended up just watching it with my bare eyes. I do realize that this is not the best idea, but I wasn't about to miss what could have been my only chance to watch a solar eclipse!

So I watched it happen and noticed other things happening at the same time. I noticed that as the moon got closer and closer to blocking the sun, clouds rolled in and began covering the sun. At the same time, as would be expected, it got darker and darker for us. I didn't think much of these things at the time and just kept enjoying the phenomenon that I was witnessing.  I very much enjoyed getting to watch the eclipse and when it was over I went back to my usual missionary activities.

Alana's Baptism

It has been a while since I have made a post on my blog! And the best part is that this is another baptism story! New post and baptism story; double bonus! :)

Back in February my teaching companion and I talked with a woman named Alana on Mormon.org chat. The chat went really well and she seemed very interested and intent on developing a relationship with God and coming to know if Jesus Christ was true. Right from the beginning she was willing to do whatever it took to improve her life and find greater peace and joy in her day-to-day life. The first chat was great, we became friends with her on Facebook, and she said she would send us a message to work out a time to talk again. I waited to hear from her for a few days and still hadn't heard a thing. After about a week of not hearing from her I figured she must have changed her mind and decided she didn't want to meet with us again. A few days later I got a message from her! She said that some things had come up (which you will read a little more about in her testimony) so she wasn't able to send me a message any sooner. We set up a time to talk and started teaching her.

Lessons From Popcorn

Anyone who knows me knows that popcorn is one of my all-time favorite snacks; that and M&M's! Whenever my family and I would sit down for a movie or to play a game I would often pop a bag of popcorn and eat the whole thing by myself without any thought. They always told me how unhealthy it was but I didn't really care. It tasted good! What else mattered? :)

Since I have been on my mission I have been working hard on eating healthy foods instead of the junk that I used to eat. I have been doing a pretty good job! I have Raisin Bran for breakfast every morning, I have salads for lunch and dinner almost every day, soda only at one meal a week, and have been eating a lot less candy and other junk foods. I never would have willingly touched a salad or even a vegetable before my mission and suddenly here I am eating them every day! I would say that is quite a big change from how things used to be!

Lloyd's Baptism

Back in December I was introduced to an awesome man named Lloyd. He is someone that my companion at the time, Elder Hathaway, had been in contact with for a little while. So Elder Hathaway and I started teaching him more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and out beliefs. From the very beginning Lloyd told us about some of the amazing experiences he had had from simply seeing his local missionaries. I will let him share those experiences though! From before he even started talking with us, Lloyd had had some amazing experiences. I remember the first time we talked about them and we asked how he felt about it. He said he would need some time to think about it. Later that night (probably around 2 am his time) he sent a message sharing his thoughts on those experiences. This became a fun pattern of us teaching him a little bit, then him taking it and pondering and praying about what we shared, and sending us a message in the middle of the night with his findings!

After a few months of teaching him we talked a lot about baptism. He knew the Church and knew that baptism was something important but was still having some problems with it. For the longest time it seemed like his thought on baptism was something like "It will happens when it happens." (You will have to correct me on that if I am wrong, Lloyd!) And for the longest time it seemed like things kind of hit a standstill with us but Lloyd continued to do the right things--go to church, pray, read the Book of Mormon, meet with the local missionaries, etc. Then one day in early March, we got a message from Lloyd saying, " Look forward to meeting Saturday. Oh by the way, I have a new profile pic on skype....." Of course we immediately checked out his new picture to find that he had decided on a date to get baptized!!