There were two thousand of those young men, who entered
into this covenant … to defend their country. … They were exceedingly valiant
for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not
all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were
entrusted. (Alma 53:18, 20.)
I have been blessed to serve with many great ELDERS. As I have served with them, I have
realized how important they are to the progressing of the
church. Many people think, WHY do we send out these young men and trust them with the MOST IMPORTANTmessage in These ELDERS are
like the young stripling warriors found in the Book of Mormon. They have been raised by wonderful parents, who have sent
them out to teach of truth. In the Book of Mormon story of the stripling warriors, not one of them died during the
fight. Every single one of these young warriors were injured, but not one was
killed because of God’s protection. As you prepare to serve missions, always
remember that these young men went out VALIANTLY, trusting in their God. The warriors had only
an idea of what they were getting themselves into, but no experience. You may feel like you do not have the
experience to serve, but if you trust in God, you will come out of the
fight alive.
My last companion Sister Correia was from Hawaii. When we became companions, one of the first things I told her was how excited I was about HALLOWEEN. She confessed to me that she had never carved a pumpkin. At first I was SHOCKED that she had never had that chance... I know that my reaction would probably be considered an overreaction. However I knew how much FUN it was to carve a pumpkin, I knew it was not easy, but at the same time it was something worthwhile. I told her that I would teach her and we could do it together. So we planned it out, we bought pumpkins and got down to business carving. We loved it, it took her a little bit to get into it, but she trusted me and she kept going. By the end we both had somewhat good looking pumpkins.
As I laid in bed that night, praising my pumpkin, I thought about how happy I was that I got to share one of my favorite traditions with Sister Correia and how she loved it in the end. At the beginning she was very hesitant at what she was getting into, but she trusted me and so she went forward. I thought about how that relates to sharing the BOOK OF MORMON with our friends. I know it is not something that they have usually heard of, or something they are familiar with. However, they might never have that chance if we don’t offer it. I know I could not just let Sister Correia carve her first pumpkin by herself; she might have really used the ice cream scOoP the whole time… I know that when we are willing to share the BOOK OF MORMON with our friends, it is a learning process for both people but both end up learning a lot :0
“I say again that
youth today are being raised in enemy territory with a declining standard of
morality.”
-Boyd K. Packer
Halloween 2010
I loved the talk Counsel
to the youth that Elder Packer of the quorum of the 12 apostles gave in this
last General Conference. He spoke to the youth! He talked about how the youth
are being raised in enemy territory, and honestly that is the best way to describe it. Youth, you are behind enemy lines. There is so much sleaze around us
in this world, that we start out on the wrong side. In the talk he gave a great
story about listening to the Holy Ghost. I think that is one of greatest tools
as we go out into battle in enemy territory. I know that as we continue to read
the Book of Mormon, Pray, attend Seminary, and go to Church, it will only act
as ammo for the Holy Ghost to work with us. Youth, you have the
chance to be in this dangerous territory, use it to your advantage. It is time to suit up for battle and win :]
“If you are slipping
into things that you should not slip into or if you are associating with people
who are pulling you away in the wrong direction, that is the time to assert
your independence, your agency. Listen to the voice of the Spirit, and you will
not be led astray.”
As a child, I played a lot with Lincoln Logs. My brother Max and I would sit and play for hours. Unfortunately it would always end up with us throwing the logs at each other , its been a good memory. This past Christmas, my nephew received some LINCOLN LOGS. I decided to relive some of my childhood and play with him. I was so impressed with how he quickly caught on to building these strong log houses. At first he was just putting pieces together, but by the end he was building houses that could withstand our attacks. When I asked Hayes why he had built the house so strong he said that it was to withstand the storms! That's when I had Helamen 5:12 from the Book of Mormon pop into my head. Hayes taught me, that I need to build MY foundation strong so that when storms come my foundation will stand still. As we go through our life we are going to have many storms and sometimes we are going to break down. However the STRONGER we make our foundation the longer we will last. There are many things you have to do to make a little log house strong...and they are many things we have to do to make our testimony strong. Read the Book of Mormon, and pray about it. The Book of Mormon is ONE thing that will give you a strong foundation...don't believe me? Try it out!!!
“And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon therock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty stormshall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”
“Change is an essential part of life’s experiences.”
- Elder Steven E. Snow
Youth, you face MANY changes. Many changes start with your body...Some of you will get tall, some of you will stay short. Your voices will change, you WILL gain weight, but these are all things that are just going to happen and so we have to LOVE it. As you get older temptations and pressures become a lot heavier. It all starts when you turn 12 and walk into Junior High. You are entering a new school, making new friends, and learning new things. It just sounds like A LOT of change because it is! To be honest with you change is going to be something that continues to happen to you. When I first went to college MANY things changed. I had a hard time with the big changes, until I picked up a Book of Mormon. I realized as everything around me changed, the Book of Mormon did not. I knew I could dive into Nephi building a ship and feel like nothing had changed. I came to realize how LUCKY I was because, I had been given something that DOES NOT CHANGE.
“Many of these changes come as we naturally make our way through our earthly journey. Our lives change as we progress from childhood through youth and on into adulthood and finally old age. Schooling, missions, marriage, employment, and retirement are all examples of milestones of change.” - Elder Steven E. Snow
Youth....GOOD NEWS...Things are going to keep changing. CHANGE is a good thing. When we come to a big life change and think of it as a NEW opportunity we can make it into something new and exciting. Always remember when you come to a change, think positive and make it Right :]
"You who are members of
this Church must have a loyalty to it. This is your church. You have as great a
responsibility in your sphere of action as I have in my sphere of action. It
belongs to you just as it belongs to me. You have embraced its gospel. You have
taken upon yourselves a covenant in the waters of baptism."
-President Hinckley
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints. I have learned the valuable lesson of being true to the church that I belong to. I remember one of my first weeks in High School, a boy had asked me about Mormon's. I decided to tell him all of the negative things that I thought about the people in it. Inside I could feel my heart drop, but was so angry at the people. Earlier that week, I had been greatly offended and as a 15 year old I took it pretty personal. So I decided to take it out on the church. I had easily forgotten that the people in the church are not perfect but the organization is and so was Heavenly Fathers love for me. I can tell you that to this day I regret not standing up for my beliefs. Now as I serve in the sacred sites of Palmyra New York, I get to bear testimony of the church and its organization. I get to stand in the top of the Peter Whitmer home where the first church meeting was held on April 6, 1830 and tell how I came to know that the church was true. At the end of every tour, I stop and say a prayer, thanking my Heavenly Father for letting me come here and testify of the truth, I know that I can not make up for the things of my past, but I can do my best now.
Through out my youth I found it very hard to get along with members of the church. It was stuck in my mind that Mormons, as a whole, were judgmentalpeople and that I did not fit into their category. As a teenager those are pretty common feelings. I decided to do whatever I wanted to do. This included not reading my scriptures. It was not until my second year at Utah State that I decided to read the scriptures. My best friend had started to meet with the missionaries and they asked her to read the Book of Mormon. So I decided to secretly accept that challenge, that I had never before conquered. I finished it for the first time on my 20th birthday. I knelt down and prayed, and received the perfect birthday present, an answer. It was true, and I was at peace. I had come to know for myself that the things in the Book of Mormon were for me. I could see within myself a change for the better. I realized it has nothing to do with people in the church but things I gain from the church. Now I get my second chance to be true. I get to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it changed my life and saved me. I can tell you what it is like to not have it in your life as the corner stone, and it is something you do not need to experience. Last week I got to go to the Hill Cumorah where the plates were found, and as I stood in the middle of the Forrest, I heard a whisper just as I did on my 20th birthday, Its all true...
"Be true to your own convictions. You know what is right, and you know what is wrong. You know when you are doing the proper thing. You know when you are giving strength to the right cause. Be loyal. Be faithful. Be true, my beloved associates in this great kingdom"
“Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World”).
THE START
The family started when Bret met Kristi at BYU-I. They fell in love and were married in the Logan Temple, together they raised six CRAZY children who each have different talents and abilities. I am so grateful that my parents honored the sacredness of marriage and chose to raise their children to understand that they are children of God.
THE FUN STUFF
There is one thing that I absolutely LOVE in this world, FAMILY DINNERS. Sunday's were the only days that every single person could sit down for at least an hour and enjoy each other. Most dinners would break out into long debates, sometimes tears, and my favorite, FOOD FIGHTS. My favorite memory is when my Mom handed my dad his roll that was leftover from the boating trip the day before. Instead of eating it he launched is across the table it at Max and pegged him right in the head. After that we all loaded up on ammo. The dinner ended with all of us running around the house throwing rolls at each other. It was so fun to not have any worries of a mess but to just play together as a family.
THE QUALITY TIME
My mom would ALWAYS read to us. I think we would spend at least an hour of quality time together listening to my mom reading. I love to see her read to the grand kids now and understand how it uplifts them to have the one on one attention that kids LOVE. I am so lucky to have a mom that read me the classics Harry Potter, The Great Brain, Cheaper By the Dozen, Little House of the Prairie, Box Car Kids, Junie B. Jones, and even The Princess Bride.
THE TRADITIONS
In the FOR THE STRENGTH OF THE YOUTH phamplet it says to participate in ttraditions. I love family traditions. Christmas is a pretty big deal at my house. We started the tradition of an UGLY Pj's contest that is judged before the big sleep over. All six of us would sleep in the basement and keep the movie Christmas Story on all night on replay. In the morning Mom and Dad would read the Christmas Story from the the Bible and pray! Then we would all line up on the stairs and go down one by one to see what Santa had brought us. To finish Christmas Day off we go to Golden Star a Chinese Restaurant and enjoy a nice "Christmas Story" meal. Traditions have changed over the years but you can see we still participate as adults and that we still enjoy them!
THE SIBLINGS
Emily, Me, Alex, Mitch, LauriAnn, Max
I grew up lucky. I always had a brother or sister around to play with. There were many times when we would fight and maybe even bite! I remember there were times when I absolutely could not stand my siblings through my teenage years. That is something I wish I could change. As well all got older we became best freinds. Through many "sibling dates" I have been able to get to know each of them to see their strengths and their weaknesses. I have been able to grow to love them and to have them as my best freinds. It is so important to build these relationships young, its going to happen eventually you might as well do it now!
THE SPIRITUAL STUFF
Joe (best brother-in-law), LauriAnn,Alex, Me, Emily, Mitch, Max
I grew up with a loving Father and a kind Mother. I am so grateful because they took the time to raise us each differently according to our needs and our understanding. They strived with all of their might to get all six of their rascals to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every morning my Mother would DRAG us out of bed to read the Book of Mormon. Max, my younger brother, would lay on the couch and would yell out his infamous statement "Mom make me some waffles." We rarely made it through a morning with out many comments about how we could have had another 15 minutes of sleep. Even though it was always a fight to get us there, and I still could not tell you every story in the Book of Mormon, but I can tell you that we did read together and we did pray together, these mornings unified my family. I love my family more than anything. It has not always been fun, but when there are PEACEMAKERS families get along alot better and have the spirit in their homes. Like my Mother always said.....
As a Sister Missionary one of the BLESSINGS that we RECIEVE is the ability to study the scriptures for an hour a day, called Personal Study. So every morning from 8 to 9 we get to DIVE into things like the King James version of the Bible, The Book of Mormon (Another testiment of Jesus Christ), and Ensigns (Church Magazines). It is seriously like CHRISTMAS every day, to just sit down and read and have no other cares in the world.
The creen would not come out!
Today I was reading in the Bible in St. John chapter 10 http://lds.org/scriptures/nt/john/10?lang=eng (if you want to read it :), and it just HIT me. It was talking about how we need to enter through the DOOR and not theWINDOW. After reading that my first thoughts where how do I usualy enter a house, the answer was the DOOR. I thought of times when I have had to use WINDOWS and those have not always been the ideal situations. Seriously think about times you have had to use the WINDOW....Some may because you got locked out, your keys are lost, it may or may not be your apartment, or maybe you SNEEKINGout. In all of those situations it is a solution but not the easiest and even the cleanest. Think about how easy it would be if we could just use the DOOR.
Dont get Stuck in the window!
I started to think about my favorite people in the world the YOUTH. They have so many things comming up against them. So many times they are pressured into drinking, drugs, and things with chasity. I remember how hard it was to say no to things like that because I wanted to do what my freinds were doing, I wanted to fit in. However as I watched people "CLIMB IN THROUGH THEWINDOW," I saw how much harder life was for them. I had many freinds who would choose the "DOOR," and I was able to see how happy their lives were. I now have a new perspective when it comes to making decisions that will impact my life and the lives of others.... Am I using the DOOR or am I climing through WINDOWS. Another way to look at it is how would my parents react if they caught me climbing out the WINDOW late at night, my guess is not good.
In John it talked about how Jesus Christ is the door, I thought that if Jesus was inviting me into his house I would want to use the DOOR and would not be sneeking in through the WINDOW.
Now the DOOR and WINDOW can represent MANY different things, that is something I LOVE about reading the scriptures we can relate it to our lives....Feel free to COMMENT and give your thoughts or if you have questions!
