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.

Strengthen your weaknesses

One of my favorite things to do in seminary is write in my journal and document all of the things that stand out to me as well as doodle! Our focus today was to come unto Christ to help strengthen our weaknesses. We made lists of all our stregths and weaknesses and sis M asked us if we want all our weaknesses to become strengths. The way we can do that is by coming unto Christ in prayer and asking for help.One scripture i loved was ether 12:27

All we have to do is make our selves humble and then Jesus will help us the rest of the way. The best sum of how to come unto Christ is written in verse 41 of ether 12,

I don't think I can ever begin to explain that scripture, it's so self explainatary and true. I love it very much.

Anchor⚓️

In seminary today the analogy of the anchor was a pretty big focus we had. In life, we are a boat setting sail out on rocky waters of trial and temptation. Anchors are generally used for keeping a boat still in harsh waters, so we much be sure we have a solid anchor made of faith. With faith God will easier reveal himself unto us and help us gain a stronger knowledge of his existence. With that stronger knowledge we are able to easily withstand the tough waters. When we live our lives, if we are going to be happy in anyway, we must have an anchor made of the things that will remain constant and true in our lives. In my anchor I wrote that I have 3 things that keep it strong, my family, the gospel, and love. 

Faith

Recently we've been learning about the broth of Jared and he's really such an inspiring person to learn about. If we all tried to have the amazing faith and the brother of Jared had, imagine how amazing it would be to live on earth. The Lord showed himself in the flesh to the brother of Jared, which really shows how strong his faith was. We all need to aspire to have such a strong faith and knowledge of The Lord.

Ether 3

So I've been really interested in Joseph Smith and all to that he did and I love when old scriptures prophecy his coming and the translation of the Book of Mormon. In ether 3, the brother of Jared has such strong faith that The Lord shows him everything and commands him to write it down. The brother of Jared is told that after her writes down his experiences, to seal the writings with two stones and not show them to anyone until The Lord shows them unto the children of men. So essentially, the brother of Jared finish up the Book of Mormon and sealed it with two stones that would later help Joseph smith translate the Book of Mormon when The Lord was ready for them to be public. I love how true this book is and all of the connections you can make with real events and the evens that were prophecied in the Book of Mormon.

Mormon 9:28

So the other day is seminary we finished Mormon and we were asked to illustrate a scripture we liked and one that stood out to me was 28 Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God. I love that first of all, Heavenly Father has made it so easy for us to run ourselves of sin through repentance that all he has to say is "strip yourselves of uncleanliness", because it really is that easy. This scripture is really basic guidelines to live your life by. Yield to no temptation, don't give into your lustful thoughts, and serve the true and living God. I find something beautiful and thought provoking about the words "living God", you think that because he is in heaven that he isn't living when in reality he's living right along side us everyday. It really comforts me to know how much he is there to be by my side whenever I need him.

Questions!

So at church the other day I had some a question that I really wanted an answer to. I wanted to know if everything Jesus Christ said to Joseph Smith in the sacred grove was recorded or if it was too precious to be written down. So I got onto LDS.org and did myself some research. 

These were the things I found! I love love love Joseph Smith History and I haven't read it for a while but my answer was there were things that were able to be recorded and things that weren't. I'm so intrigued by our gospel and everything that was put into it! Joseph Smith wrote some amazing things and I'm so glad he was chosen and worthy enough to receive such amazing revelation. If Joseph Smith hadn't been such an astounding, curious, young man, we wouldn't have the exact gospel that we have now. 

This Sunday we had a lesson about the history of the bible and how the King James Version of the bible came about. It was really interesting and one of my favorite history lessons I've ever had! One thing I found extremely interesting is that William Tindale said this quote to a preacher who was questioning Tindale's translation of the New Testament:

If it were not for Tindale's translation, a plowboy names Joseph Smith would have never read the proper scriptures and may not have been inspired to go have the vision in the Sacred Grove. I find so many things about the history of our gospel so interesting. There was so much preparation and work that Heavenly Father had to put into getting the Book of Mormon available for our mordern times.

Hill Cumorah

Yesterday in seminary we had the honor of having Bishop Bradford as our teacher and we read the the chapter where the Nephites got completely wiped out for being unrighteous. The battle took place on hill Cumorah and I thought it was really interesting to read because I'm going to go to the hill Cumorah this summer. It's amazing all of the things that happened there and I am really excited to go visit! My job in the family has recently been to do some research on the places we are going to visit this June and I've been quite blessed with being able to find amazing scriptures on all the places I'm going. I give family home evenings on the research and scriptures I find and it's a lot of fun and I'm glad I get to do all of this, it helps deepen my understanding of the gospel! These are my favorite scriptures and the ones that really stood out to me in Mormon chapter 6.

Trek part 1

Last weekend I went on a trek and boy oh boy it was amazing!!! So much spirit and love was felt in those two days I think I'll be good for the next six months! I'm just gonna briefly describe my trek in this first post and really go into details on it later. It was so interesting to feel how it felt to be a pioneer, to grow close to 9 people if never met before, and to form really strong bonds between my friends. I loved every aspect of trek, that does include sleeping on rocks under the stars and waking up to a big black spider the size of a nickle about 10 inches away from my face. I can honestly say that I love my ma and pa, the Hursts, they were hilarious and amazing and I honestly feel like it was a blessing a got them. They made the experience so awesome for everyone including a 3 week old convert we had in our family! He didn't know much about our church history but he definitely was touched but all the hardships and struggles we learned about at each stop of our trek. It was only 2 days long but there is about a weeks worth of things to talk about. Every experience I had nearly brought me to tears and some managed to make me cry like a baby, it was wonderful and everyday since I got home I wished I could return to trek. I'm so thankful for the leaders who put it on and how strong many testimonies got because of those two days.

Conversion

Today in seminary we read 4 Nephi and we spoke abou how important conversion is. 

I love the quote sister McGruder gave us today because it really wraps up the whole meaning of conversion. There are few things that can impact a true conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints but one of them is pride. At the beginning of 4 Nephi it discussed how happy the nephites and lamenites were after they had all been baptized and were living righteously. Quickly the lamenites began to be prideful and they lost all of their faith and started new churches and began criticizing the nephites and their beliefs. The nephites when quite a while before being effected but they began to be prideful too. When pride filled their hearts, the spirit left and contentions began in the land and there was unhappiness. I was really relating that to modern times and how there are few people who aren't prideful and are true members of the church. Not much has changed since the Lamenites began to be prideful and it's really sad but knowing how terrible pride is, it helps me remember to keep pride out of my heart and remember to love all of Gods children. "Pride is the great enemy of unitiy".

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! I love this holiday, especially recently since my testimony has become so strong. I've learned to really understand and appreciate the gospel, Christ, and everything we are taught. I went on trek this last weekend and the spirit I felt there while simulating the pioneer experience was absolutely outstanding. I'm gonna dedicate a few blogposts purely to my experiences on trek but I feel very blessed to have gone on trek before Easter. The gospel makes me so happy and with out the atonement , I would not be in the same spiritual place that I am right now. Nothing could make me happier than the power of the gospel and if I was instructed by the prophet to go to Zion, I know with all my heart that I would go. I'm so thankful for Jesus Christs coming to the earth and I'm so thankful for his resurrection. I love being a Latter-Day Saint with all of my heart and if I was given the choice to live my life a different way, I wouldn't. 

I love this quote from conference because it's so true. When I'm feeling spiritually strong and my testimony is strong, I feel love for all of Gods children. Love is such an essential part of the gospel and I'm so thankful for the love I feel all that I have in my life.

3 Nephi 28

Today in seminary we learned about Jesus's 12 disciples and what they desired of Jesus before he left earth. Nine of them wanted to live a normal length life and die at 72 to return to live with Jesus Christ again. Three others decided to live on earth forever to help the rest of humanity. We don't know for sure if they're still on earth, but I truly believe that those 3 Nephites still wander the earth and help people in need. As we discussed this topic in seminary I got a strong feeling in my heart that they are still on earth and it makes me feel very comforted to feel that strongly on the subject. It not only makes me want to be kinder to strangers I meet daily but it makes me want to do more service and love others more fully and all around be a better person.

Focus Your Life On Jesus Christ

In seminary yesterday we read 3 Nephi chapter 27 and it was Jesus telling the people what to call the church. He instructed us to call the church in His name and to pray in His name. Essentially we should do everything we do in His name considering when we are baptized we take His name upon us. It's so hard to remember all day that we have taken Jesus's name upon us because sometimes we will do things with out thinking and things we will regret. That's why Jesus died or us, so we can repent and hopefully better ourselves everyday to remember that we represent Jesus Christ in all we do. Wether strangers know it or not, it's important that in your heart you know that you're being a good representation of Jesus Christ and truly taking His name upon you in all you do.

D&C 110

Today I had a neat experience in seminary, a blessing if you will! My family and me are going on a trip this summer and we've been discussing various family home evenings we could have that teach us about the locations we are going. One of the locations is the Kirtland temple and my mom wanted me to give family home evening on it tonight. So I go to seminary today and my teacher tells us to go to D&C 110 to read a few verses, coincidently that verse is about an amazing vision that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery had IN the Kirtland temple!! So I share this scripture with my family and it was a very spiritual discussion. The scripture is absolutely beautiful, miraculous and testimony strengthening and I highly recommend reading it. However, I'm not blogging about the scripture, I am blogging about the fact that u went to seminary this morning with no intentions of reading anything on the Kirtland temple e cause we are in 3 Nephi. It was such a cool little blessing that I found the perfect thing I needed to hear before going to the Kirtland temple. Had I not read that scripture, I wouldn't know the amazing experiences that have taken place in that temple. Going to seminary or other church meetings really can be a blessing in our lives and experiences like the one I had today really strengthen my testimony in the little things we do for church everyday. I love the gospel and I have total faith in every meeting we have been asked to attend and I enjoy attending them all.

Strengthen your tent!

3Nephi 22:2: Enlarge the platform of thy tent, and let them strengthen forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes;

Today we had a short lesson on explaining the importance of strengthening our tent, the tent being The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You don't realize it but there are little things everyone can do to help strengthen your stake! Sister McGruder told us to think of some thing we can do by ourselves to strengthen our stake. Because I am a youth and I have many stake activities, i have a lot of opportunities to be more friendly and make myself seem more approachable to meet new people. And usually at youth conference and girl camp we have a testimony meeting at the end and I've only bated my testimony once at girls camp. I think if I start baring my testimony more regularly it could really help me and inspire some of the other girls in my ward to go up too! As for expanding my tent, I hope to go on a mission at some point in my life. Being able to share the gospel is such a different an amazing feeling, I would love to be able I go off with no other distractions and just expand the Lords tent! 

Holy Ghost

Today in seminary we spoke about 3rd Nephi 20 and how the people were preparing themselves for he sent fathers return! We discussed how we would prepared if we were out in that position an we knew Jesus Christ was coming to visit. We read that the people were trying to really get into touch with the holy ghost my praying and mentally preparing. We discussed that the Holy Ghost isa separate being from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. And the Holy Ghost also a personage of spirit where as Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father have bodies. I really love learning little things like this, of course I knew these thing but i really appreciate the reassurance and how much my thoughts are provoked. These little topics are really fun to think about and help me understand deeper, the topic of the Holy Ghost. 

Bloggy-blog-blog

At the begining of seminary today, sis McGruder put up three statemtents on the wall:

• Pray before church to understand what im going to be taught.
• Ponder what you've been taught in church
• Pray about what you've been taught so that it's easier for you to apply it to your own life.

She then asked us to write down one thing that we do that makes the most impact on what we learn at church and afterwords, write down what we don't do as often or don't get as much  out of and how we can change that. I decided that the thing i get the most out of would be pondering what I am taught at church because of my blog. My blog has caused me to really reflect on my day to think about the things I was taught at seminary and how that effected my day. I am really thankful that I started my blog because I love having to make myself think about the things that were meaningful to me. I know i enjoy myself at seminary but it's a different thing when you have to express those emotions to other people and this blog has made it much easier for me. I am able to make my thoughts and feelings more clear in my own head and hopefully clear enough to explain to others! Pondering the things I am taught at church has really helped strengthen my spirit.

I then thought about what i could do more and i realized that when I'm saying my prayers, i generally dont include seminary in my prayers. I am going to really try to remember to pray about seminary and the things I am taught and how i receive them! I have feeling that it could really influence my experience at seminary and make it even better than it already it.

I hope that i cause you to think of these things as well, it's really important to me to inspire people through my blog :)

3 Nephi chapter 11

So we read an amazing chapter in the Book of Mormon today and it was really unique because it was a chapter of only Jesus Christ speaking after his resurrection. I feel like anything I say won't do justice to how wonderful this scripture is, and I highly recommend you read it for yourself. We had to do a worksheet that kind of broke down the first half of the scripture and helped me think more of my personal goals and my testimony so ill post some of the questions at the end of this so you can read this chapter and hopefully answer the questions in your journal! The feeling I got while reading these scriptures was just so unique and I seriously felt the trueness of the gospel and the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. Sis McGruder instructed us to write, "Jesus Christ invites me to receive a personal testimony that he is my savior" next to verse 15. That is the verse that he tells the people he is visiting to "thrust their hands into his side, and feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet." After the people had done so their reaction was " [they] did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come... They did cry out with one accord saying; hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Most High God! And they did fall down at the feet of Jesus, and did worship him." Those verses are just beautiful, you can feel the amount of love and trust they have in Christ and I can't help but think about how we would react if this had happened now days. It would be amazing to see all of your friends and family rejoice so purely and lovingly about the return of their savior. This scripture has strengthened my testimony very much and I hope that you are compelled to read it too.

1. 3 Nephi 11:11-12

    •which of the saviors statements in this scripture is most meaningful to you?

    •why is it important that Jesus has always been submissive to Heavenly Fathers will?

2. 3 Nephi 11:13-15

     •the people went to the savior one by one until they had all gone forth. Considering there were about 2,500 people in the multitude, what does this teach us about how the savior feels about each one of us?

3.   •how do you think it would have affected you to be able to touch the wounds the savior received while atoning for your sins?

4. Consider writing "Jesus Christ invite me to receive personal testimony that he is my savior" in the margin of 3Nephi 11:11-15
     •what exercises have led you to gain your own testimony that Jesus Christ is your savior?
     •what do you think the savior would like you to do to strengthen your testimony?
     •when have you felt that the savior knows you and has blessed you individually?

    

Women's Conference

Last night I went to a meeting held for all women 8 and up and it was an amazing broadcast. I'm going to briefly discuss a point that really stood out to me last night! The quote is from the Young Women's President who spoke, she said "you can't truly call yourself a Christian while constantly judging yourself and others around." This really stood out to me because I have been on all ends of that, me judging myself, judging others, and being judged. I feel very strongly about this subject because I know how it feels to frequently be misjudged by people and misjudge others and I know how much it hurts to hear what people say. Knowing some of the things people have prejudicely thought towards me has helped inspire me to not be prejudice towards others. I have a bad habit of seeing someone and assuming that they are a troubled person just because maybe they have a tattoo or are kind of loud and out spoken but I've been able to control those thoughts a lot more easily lately and I know that I couldn't have had the ability to control my thoughts with out the help of Jesus Christ. We need to learn to love others the way Jesus does. Jesus doesn't say "I love Chloe, but sometimes she's a brat.", Jesus says "Chloe can be a brat but I still love her despite her negative qualities and I look past them". If you struggle with being prejudice, just think to yourself "what if they thought that of me? How would that make me feel? Would they be wrong? Would they be right?" Thinking those things has helped me be less judgmental towards others. Another thing that has helped me be better with controlling my thoughts is knowing what people think of me and knowing that what they think is wrong, so if I think something negatively of someone then I am probably going to be wrong as well. You can't call yourself a Christian if you don't love others the way Jesus loves others.

Helaman 14

I'm so thankful that I have sister McGruder as my seminary teacher because she has taught me how to read the scriptures. I know how to generally read of course but being able to comprehend and understand the scriptures as you read them is a whole other ball game! And I am so glad I finally have a seminary teacher that has helped me develop that skill! We are finishing up Helaman this week and I love being able to understand the stories while we read. Yesterday we read Helaman 14 which is the story of Samuel prophesying Jesus Christ's coming to the earth. He prophesied that in five years The son of God will come to earth and listed all of the signs: The night before Jesus comes, there shall be light in heaven and no darkness for two days and a night and a new star shall be in the sky. Then later in the chapter Samuel prophesied that Jesus will have to die in order for the atonement to be in effect. The signs given for that are: no light for some time after Jesus dies, cities will be de, and graves shall be opened as well as other terrible things. The biggest emphasis in the scriptures was repentance and being prepared for Christ's coming which I believe still applies to us today. We don't know when Christ will come again but we always need to be prepared for the day that he does.

Quick thought

Usually I use my blog for seminary lessons but I really enjoyed my short lesson at church today so I thought what the hay, ill post about it! Today we learned the parable in Saint John about the vine and the branches and it explains that we as humans are the branches and Heavenly Father is our vine. When a branch falls off of the vine it can no longer grow or thrive but when a branch stays on the vine it is able to live and grow. We need to do all we can to stay on the vine or else we will wilt and shrivel until we completely fall off! If we do what we can to stay on the vine, Heavenly Father will give us the nourishment we need to keep growing. Always try to stay on the vine:)

Helamen 5

In class last week we had some homework that I ended up really enjoying! We had to to read a few verses of helamen 5 and we would either illustrate or describe what was going on in those verses. It makes the chapter a lot easier to understand and also more easy to relate to. The chapter explains the story of Nephi and Lehi getting captured by the Lamenites and being commanded by God to convert the Lamenites back to the ways of The Lord. The Lamenites are still skeptical even after seeing Nephi and Lehi be saved from burning fire, so The Lord sent a dark cloud over the Lamenites as well as Nephi and Lehi that was so dark that no one could see therefore no one could leave. A voice came out from the heavens telling the Lamenites to repent and then the Lamenites looked over to Nephi and Lehi to see that the dark cloud was not surrounding them and they were light where everything else was dark. And then in verse 42 it states: And it came to pass that they all did begin to cry unto the voice of him who had shaken the earth; yea, they did cry even until the cloud of darkness was dispersed. I found this to very inspiring and an amazing experience to read. To think that they all felt so compelled by the spirit to turn away from their sins and feel so humbled as to cry for forgiveness, it's a really special story. If these wicked people can be converted why can't the wicked people of our day? There are so many people ready to learn of the gospel, we need to all be missionaries in our everyday lives. 

Justice or Mercy

Last week we learned about the difference between justice and mercy and then asked to write our own lesson plan on how we would teach justice and mercy. Our teacher gave us the idea to give this lesson as a family home evening so I did! I decided to give my lesson tonight and I started my lesson off with asking "what seems better to you, justice or mercy?" and everyone (mom, dad and brittany) answered mercy, I on the other hand answered justice when my teacher posed this question to the class. I feel like "hey I'm not that bad of a person but, all the bad people should feel the suffering that they've put others through!" Which is obviously not a great way to think and I quickly changed my answer to mercy after reading a couple of verses is Alma 43. So then I had two chairs on my right and left side, both seemed very appealing. One had some expensive and shiny objects on it and the other had a beautiful bouquet of flowers and other gorgeous things. I had my sister come up to me and tell me she had cheated on a math test and then asked me what side she should go on (the sides being a hypothetical heaven). I told her the side with the shiny, expensive objects was the side for justice and if she wanted to go there I had to give her a minor punishment. Then I told her that the side with the flowers was the side for mercy and if she asked for forgiveness and took advantage of Jesus Christ atoning of our sins, she would not need to be punished and she could live happily on the beautiful side. I proceeded to ask every family member which side they want to be on and they all said the side with mercy. Both mercy and justice are appealing to us humans because we always want what we deserve which entails seeing others get the punishment they deserve. Luckily for me, I was raised in the church and I am knowledgable enough to know that justice may seem fantastic now on earth but in the long run, I want mercy to help us all when judgement day comes. No human is perfect but God does recognize when we have good intentions and when we genuinely feel sorry for a sin. That is such a comforting thought, to know God knows us and knows our thoughts and feelings and loves us enough to forgive us for our imperfections.

XOXO,

Chloe.

Alma 37 & 38

I'm going to combine these two chapters because Alma in chapter 38 reminds his son Shiblon of the things he told Helaman in the chapter before hand. In chapter 37, Alma speaks to Helaman and tells him that if he does not listen to the Lords commandments he will not prosper in the land but if he does listen, he will have many blessings and many things in his life will work in harmony with each other. If we make the promise to God to be obedient unto him he promises back to us to give us blessings. If we break our promise then God does not need to follow through with his half because we were too lazy to do our part of the deal.

In seminary, Sis M had us write a list of small things that make us or other people happy (I'm not sure how "I didn't die last night" got on there but I deem "Reese's" acceptable). We then were asked to write the big impact that doing these things can have. The right side of the board is a little hard to read, iPod cameras are no Nikon cameras. The Big Impact side lists "knowledge of God, Laminites saved, knowledge of salvation, and convinced many of the error of their ways". So those are some of the small things we can do to obey God and some of the huge things he will do back for us!  In chapter 37:36 I found a few words that were very powerful to me, "yea let the affections of thy heart be placed upon The Lord forever". Love our Lord and show him that you love Him by being kind to his children and kind to yourself.

XOXO,

Chloe.

Alma 36

Today we ready the wonderful chapter that is Alma 36. It is the most amazing chapter I have read thus far, it had me on the verge of tears at some parts. Every verse is so powerful and beautiful, I just kept thinking "this could be poetry". I could not stop highlighting everything I read!

The chapter is about Alma telling Helemen about his transformation from evil and wrong doing to being a prophet of God. Alma tells Helemen that when he set out to destroy the church of God an angel stopped him and immediately Alma fell to the floor. For three days Alma could not move or speak and the only thoughts that came to his mind were the images of all of the sins he has committed in his life. He compares the feelings of sin to being tourmented, which in biblical terms means twisted. He said his head felt as if it was being harrowed, and a harrow is a tool with spikes that turns up soil. The definition of harrow states "to cause distress to", which makes perfect sense in Alma's context. He also states that he feel as though his soul is being racked. A rack is a table that your hands and legs are tied too and with a single turn of a knob, your legs and arms and be stretched outward which sounds about as painful as it gets. When Alma humbly and totally goes to God to repent for his sins the experience he has is just beautiful. He describes the amount of joy he has as an equivalent to the amount of suffering he felt. My favorite verses that I read in the entire chapter were verses 21-22: "21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

22 Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there." I've only had one experience that I can compare this too in my life but the words that Alma says correlate so closely to my exact feelings that I have felt, it is just one more testimony of how true my church is. You feel nothing but regret until you pray but when you humbly and apologetically repent for your sins you instantly feel nothing but warmth and love. Not only do you feel loved but you feel love for everyone else surrounding you and you want them to be just as wonderfully happy as you are. My teacher played a little game with us in which she got out a bag of Kit-Kat's and said "These candys are my favorite so I think I'll eat one." She went on to describe how delicious it was and invited us to have a Kit-Kat of our own. I felt that it was a perfect example of the gospel (and not to mention that Kit-Kat's are my favorite candys as well ha), when you love something and it makes you very happy, you want everyone else to love it and be just as happy as you are.

Think about it, maybe you should share.

XOXO,

Chloe.

Feb. 11, 2014

In seminary today we had a nice Brother from my ward, Brother McComis, dress up as Amulek and read Alma 34 to our class. He read it as if we were the people he was teaching us. The topic mainly covered was the atonement. A topic brought up that really caught my attention, however, was repentance. I find repentance intriguing because its amazing how much power we have over our own lives. We have the power to choose between right and wrong and we have the power to admit what we've done wrong and be humble enough to ask for forgiveness. After he spoke to us, Sis. M have us a couple of quotes that we had to answer questions over and I found the quotes to be really thought provoking and different. This one is about repentance,

I love that because I've found it very fitting and true when I've repented for things in my life. Of course we repent if we break a commandment but have you ever pondered over what the most important commandment is? Well this quote from president Harold B. Lee has the answer for you!

And I did save the best quote for last!!

It amazes me that Jesus was literally half human half God (I couldn't stop thinking of Hercules as I read this:) ). The power that Jesus has to be able to sacrifice himself because no other being on earth could have done it. It was so unselfish and loving of Jesus Christ to die for us and it really helps my heart to grow to be more loving towards others.

XOXO,

Chloe

Feb. 10, 2014!

Today in seminary we were asked to quietly read Alma 33 to ourselves, which I very much appreciated because I enjoy being able to ponder the scriptures on my own. It easier to clear my head and concentrate on something first thing in the morning, it helps me realize how important the scriptures are to ME. In the chapter I read that Alma was teaching the Zoromites and reminding them that three prophets of old (Zenos, Zenock, and Moses) taught their people and the consequences their people had. After we read the chapter Sister McGruder shared her feelings and thoughts over the scripture. She told us that Alma teaching the Zoromites is a lot like present day profits teaching and warning us. The thought intrigued me because it really related the scriptures to our modern day life which makes them a bit easier to comprehend. The scriptures seem a bit extravagant as a whole but when you really break them down, they're very relatable to modern times. I love when I can feel the spirit and read the scriptures the way I would read a John Green novel!

I felt it appropriate to add in a picture of all of our wonderful profits from our church's history. I'm so glad to have had their teachings bless my life and so many other lives.

 

XOXO,

Chloe