Kirtland

It's crazy to think that 2 weeks ago I was standing in the Kirtland Temple. The little town that all of the saints lived in has been preserved so we can walk through the Whitney store and home, Joseph Smiths home, the school of prophets, and so much more. Kirtland is a beautiful town and there's such a special spirit on the grounds where the saints lived and built the gospel that we now have today.

This is the table that Joseph Smith himself sat and wrote D&C, studied the Book of Mormon, and recieved a lot of revelation. 

This is the school of prophets. The room was as mall as the picture makes it look. It's crazy how many men fit in this room and how they could all recieve very different revelations and visions in such a right space of each other. There's a story of all the men sitting in there smoking their cigars and Joseph was compelled by the power of God to tell them that smoking was bad for them and others around them so every single man got up and threw their cigar in the fire. They all trusted Joseph and loved heavnly father so much that they didn't argue with their orders and all obliged to the request.

The Kirtland temple is a different type of beautiful. It not only is physically beautiful, but the things that went on inside and the stories told about it are beautiful as well. So many angels and Jesus Christ himself visited this temple frequently. They would hear and see angels singing along side to the hymns they sang, a popular hymn at the time was Spirit of God.

As we were exiting the temple after our tour, a man who was also on the tour with us had him and his family sing The Spirit of God. It was beautiful and the spirit was so strong at that moment, not to mention he's in the Mormon tabernacle choir so that helped with the beauty! 

The temple was used for church meetings and a few times durring those meetings Joseph smith would become pale and stand in awe because he knew the Jesus Christ has been in their midst. At night there would be lights in the temple when no one was there because the angels would be visiting. Joseph has written in D&C about how he has communicated with Jesus in this very building. It's a spectacular, surreal place to be and I'm so thankful I was able to be there.

The Palmyra Bookstore

When we were in Palmyra, New York we went to the book store that Joseph Smith first published the Book of Mormon. This is an original, first copy of the Book of Mormon, it's crazy to see one with my own eyes! 

The amount of work that went making the book of mormon's was astounding. There were so many steps and they had to make 5,000 copy's to sell and give away. They were sold in the main shop of  the book store. The book store also had the originals of paintins that all LDS people know every well.

It's surreal to see these paintings and the Book of Mormon with my own eyes. They hold such special spirits and stories.

The sacred grove

So I spent 10 days in New York and a few other states around that area recently and I can honestly say there wasn't one place that we stopped that I didn't have to stop and stare in awe because everything was just so beautiful. One of my favorite places we stopped was Plamyra and the house Joseph smith grew up in as well as the sacred grove. 

This was Joseph's house that holds the room that he first saw angel Moroni visit him. We learned that angel mormoni was able to communicate with Joseph while 4 other boys slept soundly in the same room. So many amazing miracles happened in this house as well as the barn and the second house built on the property that didn't get pictures of. They golden plates were able to be hidden and never found by mobs in these places. Not to mention Joseph's faithful and loving family who did everything they could to protect Joseph and the plates from the mobs. There is a story about Joseph hiding the plates in the bricks of the fire place and waking up one night feeling the need to move them so he brought them to his sisters and the sisters held in tightly to the golden plates in their bed. When the mobs came the first place they checked was the fire place and when they went into the girls room, they quickly left and didn't cause any harm to jesephs sisters or the plates. The Lords hand was so obviously helpful in these times because they plates are so crucial for the world to have. Next place we went was the sacred grove.

They don't know exactly where Joseph saw God the father and Jesus Christ but in joesphs description of seeing them, he describes a pillar of light cast down on the ground. I tried to capture a few pictures that embodied the description,

The feeling in the sacred grove is so special and hallowed. Even if I hadn't known that Heavenly Father himself had stood in this plot of land, I still would've felt the very clear, identifiable spirit that this land holds. You could spend hours in there walking and meditating and still never want to leave. I feel so blessed and privelaged to have been able to walk on the very land that Joseph smith had the vision that begin the religion that I live by every day.

Testimony

Having a strong testimony is very important when wanting to have a good life. A good life is a goal every human wants, it's human nature to want to be happy. Happiness can come in many ways but the most long lasting happiness I have ever had is when my testimony is strong. There are three major components to a testimony; charity, hope, and faith. With these three things you'll be able to be happy and strong in the gospel.

I love this quote. Hope in Christ and belief that he will give you blessings if you follow his commandments leads to faith. When you have faith it means you follow Christ no matter what the world says or what the advisory says about the real ness of Christ because you know in your heart that he lives. With strong faith you will be compelled to be filled with charity for others. Charity is, in my opinion, the most important thing you can do to show Christ you love him. Activiley doing these things will cause you to have a strong testimony in Christ and Christ will bless you with happiness.

Moroni 7:6-10

I really liked our work sheet we did today in seminary based on these four verses. 

It's such a good reminder to us to have real intent when doing good deeds. If we don't have real intent and have greed in our hearts, we will recieve nothing, be counted as evil before god, and counted evil before our peers as well. We must be able to pray with full intent to recieve any blessings in return. That is something I feel that I need to work on, it's hard to not get in the habit of repetitive prayers but with real intent and yearning for blessings it makes it easier for us to remember to be sincere in prayer. If you not only pray but do everything good with real intent, you will gain more friends and people will be more attracted to your spirit. I know for sure when I am doing things for others with real intent and purpose, I am happier and usually feel closer to The Lord and people generally seem to like me better! Remember, charity is he true love of Christ!

Sacrament

We all know these scriptures very well and I'm sure most of us know how important they are. It's important for us to be able to remember the importance of these words and not just go through the motions when it comes time to take the sacrament. In order to help us remember how important this is, Sis M had us make a list in our journals of the promises in these scriptures!

It's important to remember that by takin the sacrament we promise to take Christs name upon us, always remember him, and keep his commandments. In return Christ promises to help us remember him and give us the spirit of Christ to be with us as long as we are righteous. She also gave us the idea of looking up quotes to think about while taking the sacrament. I chose this quote by Richard G Scott:

I like the idea of drinking from the word of God bwcause not only is that somewhat literal, but our spirits drink from the work of God as well. I'm really enjoyed this lesson!

Chastity

So I am very fortunate to have a best friend who is also LDS. My friend Sophia is the only person on the planet that i have been able to relate all of my thoughts to. She gets me on such a strong level because not only do we relate on worldly topic but we relate on gospel topics. She's been such amazing help for me and building my testimony. I've never had a friend that I feel comfortable bearing my testimony to on a daily basis. Every night after we read our scripture we will text each other our favorite verses or spiritual thoughts we had. She's been reading a book written by Profit Gordon B Hinckley and she sent me this picture of a page in the book.

I don't have problems with chastity but I love how beautifully this is put. I'm not gonna lie, I hate church lessons on chastity because they end up being fairly awkward for the teen audience. This page puts it so perfectly, it made me realize chastity and cleanliness of the body is not only important but beautiful and rare and nothing to be ashamed of. As a teenager it is kind of hard to being one of the few kids at school who isn't interested in taking part in "un-chaste" activities. People kind of treat you differently and some even make fun of you for it, it's really a shame that there are boys out there that have the nerve to hate on a girl that interested in having a conversation with a boy instead of having sex with one. I think chastity and virtue are hard things to follow for some of the LDS youth, but if you have faith in Christ and the knowledge of how beautiful a pure person can be, then it won't be nearly as hard as it seems to be.