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.