Friction

As I grew up, my love and hunger for learning how the world works increased. I started taking more and more math and science classes. That is one thing I love. I love numbers and using them to describe the world around me! This strong love and appreciation for math always put me in the higher math classes and eventually put me in the higher science classes as well. I distinctly remember sitting in a number of chemistry and physics and calculus classes eating up everything that I was taught.

Being on a mission has been hard for me because, among other things, it has taken me away from the classroom, away from that comfortable and familiar atmosphere, and away from learning how the world works. That was a challenge for me to come to grips with at the start of my mission because I just wanted to learn! I craved it! I soon learned that, although I was no longer in a college setting, I was still learning and in a classroom of sorts: the Lord's classroom!

The Blessing to Hope

Difficult circumstances can prove to either be the foundation for our testimony or the beginning of our downfall. There are many great stories of people finding courage in even the most difficult of situations. In the Book of Mormon we find a number of  groups of people who are personal and living testaments that such courage and even happiness and joy can be found in even the most dire of circumstances. Two such circumstances come to mind--the wilderness and prison.

Rebecca's Baptism

I just realized that it has been a long time since I last made a post about someone I taught who got baptized! Well thankfully that is changing right now!

Back in July I met a girl on our Mormon.org system named Rebecca. She seemed really interested in learning more about our beliefs so I worked on helping her get involved with missionaries in her local area. Unfortunately, because of scheduling, she wasn't able to meet with them for a while and eventually we kind contact for a time. A few months later I felt like I should send her a message on Facebook and see how she had been doing. Much to my surprise she had been meeting with missionaries in her local area and going to church and even had a date to be baptized!

Will You Let Go?

I recently watched a great Mormon message. In this video, a man hears rumors of great wealth to be found in the California gold rush. After planning everything out, he sells everything that he owns to go to California and seek his own fortune, one which he hears will be far greater than what he presently had. Once he gets there, he soon realizes that it is nothing like he had imagined and that the wealth isn't coming as quickly as he had hoped. But after the help of an experienced prospector, he is eventually able to begin to build and gain that wealth.

I have watched this video a number of times but as I watched it this time, something new struck me. This man had heard rumors of great wealth and was willing to give up everything to seek them. He hadn't gone out ahead of time to scope it out. He didn't hold on to his stuff and take a quick little trip to see if it was true. Rather, he decided that it was something that he wanted, he knew that he would need to give up everything that he owned in order to obtain that, and that is just what he did.

Behind Thee

Well it is that time of the year again when everyone is obsessed with setting new goals and improving themselves. As you may recall from a previous post, I am not generally a huge fan of the concept of the cyclical pattern of setting new goals once a year that you break two weeks later, give up on completely, and wait until the next year to try again.

Of course, that is how I had always seen it before my mission but with the help of someone last year my view was able to shift and I was able to set goals for myself that actually mattered, that meant something to me, and which have become so ingrained within me that I haven't had to look at them in over eight months. Because I set goals that were so meaningful to me, I didn't have to look at a little piece of paper or a note card to remember what they were. They meant so much that after thinking of them numerous times a day, day in and day out, they became a part of me.

At the beginning of each new year, we all have the opportunity to start again. It is a fresh start, a new beginning of sorts. We are like a new flower awaiting to blossom. And the great thing is that we have the ability to choose how our life will blossom over the coming year. We can do this by the goals that we set. They will set the pace and the focus for our entire year if we set them well!

And now it is yet again another new year.

Sure Foundation

My parents grew up here in Utah but shortly after I was born my family moved to the east and lived there for most of my life. But it seems like we often took vacations back here to Utah to visit some of our extended family members which I always looked forward to! Being the youngest grandchild on one side and the second youngest on the other side of your family has its advantages and disadvantages.

One of the greatest things is that the cousins I have who are close to my age have become some of my very best friends. We practically grew up together and whenever my family came out here to Utah we made it a point of seeing each other. It is also nice to have cousins who are old enough to basically be my older siblings and offer additional insight and counsel when I was going through a hard time.

One of the biggest disadvantages to being so young in my extended family relates to those who are older; my grandparents. I was too young to really remember much about three of my grandparents before the passed away and the fourth one just recently turned 99! Because of this, I wasn't really ever able to have my own personal experiences with them. I have heard numerous stories from my parents and siblings about my grandparents but I never really got to experience much with them myself.

Knowest Thou the Condescension of God?

In the beginning of the Book of Mormon, the prophet, Lehi, has a very symbolic vision wherein he sees groups of people and their different destinations. Some, the true followers of Christ, end their travels at a tree filled with beautiful, white, pure fruit which symbolizes the love of God. Others make their way towards the tree but then fall off the path and go in other directions. Still others go to a "large and spacious building" which symbolizes the pride of the world and they make fun of those at the tree partaking of the love of God.

After he has this vision, Lehi tells his family about it and helps them understand some of the symbolism but not much. One of his sons, Nephi, doesn't understand the vision very well and decides to pray and ask God to show him the vision as well so that he can better understand it as well as the symbolism. So in the beginning of 1 Nephi 11, Nephi goes and prays to have this vision unfolded to him. In response, the Lord shows him not only the same vision but also give him more than what we have record of Lehi seeing.