Monday, October 6, 2014

It's Time to Begin


Familia,
Dang, I don't know where to start.  I guess I could start with the good ol' rundown..
 
THE RUNDOWN:
-We almost died again. haha we came back from the afternoon session of conference on saturday to plan for a few appointments that night. As we were sitting in our house it started pouring rain.  POURING.  A few seconds later there was a huge flash of light with a loud crashing sound that shook the house.  We screamed and ran away from the window to realize that lightning striked the wires outside our window.  2 feet away from me.  Haha it was pretty cool but then we didn't have light in the house..
-Being in trios has its ups and downs.  Downside:  we haven't had food for 3 days.  Upside: they can talk in spanish when I am sick and tired of spanish :)
-Only 6 months left until General Conference...
-I have started praying for God to help me find a good husband.  Thanks Tad R. Callister... haha
 
Conference was bombin.  I'm pretty bummed that it is over already.  I learned so much and found new drive.  I have seen more clearly my shortcomings and want to improve.  I don't have time to say much about it but I'll just share a few brief things that I learned and things that I already knew and had a testimony of, but that were strengthened.
 
>>A recurring theme that I noticed was that we are always advised to study and search the words of God through His prophets in the scriptures and those living today.  We are blessed beyond measure to be guided by a prophet and to know what the Lord desires for us, just as those guided by prophets in times of old.  I am thankful to my God for President Thomas S. Monson.
>>As we study and search the words of God and His prophets and truly seek to understand them, we will receive personal revelation.  We need personal revelation in our lives.  God wants to help us, guide us, and show us the way.  We can understand His desires if we ask sincerely what His desire is for each of us.  Asking spiritual questions leads to receiving spiritual answers, which are absolutely vital in order to learn, grow, and become better disciples of Christ.  We will learn the mysteries of God, know the way back to Him, and the way we should travel along that road.  He will guide our every footstep if we seek Him.
>>As we receive personal revelation, we will always be inclined to, and really required to, repent.  As we learn of God's desires and will, we will see how incredibly far we are from being one with Him.  We will repent and strive to better our lives and align our desires and will with His.  After all, if His plan is perfect, shouldn't we do everything we can to comply?  This is why the sacrament is so important.  Achieving eternal life and having hope for a better place with our Father would be utterly impossible without Jesus Christ, His atonement, and the sacrament in order to have a constant repentance.  This sacred blessing we have every Sunday is so much more important than I ever realized.  It is truly soul saving.
>>As I seek, ponder, pray, and act, I will be able to prepare for my future family.  I will be prepared to enter the temple.  I will be a better wife, mother, and daughter and servant of God if I am constantly seeking to do the Lord's will and put Him first.  The promises of my patriarchial blessing about my future family and husband will come to pass if I am true to my God, his counsels, and love Him before any other thing, place, or person.
>>Our trials are necessary for us to improve.  I will probably talk more about this next week because I have been doing a pretty heavy scripture study on this topic for the past 4 months.  But our trials are blessings.  We are here to progress in ways that we couldn't before when we lived with our Father in Heaven.  We could never progress without hard times to help us know how to lean on the Lord and walk a little bit of the path He walked for each and every one of us.
>>We are a peculiar people.  We fast at least once a month.  We don't buy things or work on Sundays.  We dress modestly.  We pay tithing.  Our youth leave their homes, schools, novios, and work for 2 years to preach the gospel.  We wake up at 5 in the morning to go to early morning seminary.  We gather with a whole bunch of other mormons all across the globe every 6 months to listen to people speak.  Why?  Because in order to serve our Lord in the way that He requires, we need to be separate from the world.  Know it, live it, love it.
 
I have come to the understanding once again that we need to rise up as true disciples of Christ-- We have a divine potential that we don't yet understand.  We need to realize that God is a just God with demands.  We don't set the bar, but we are still expected to rise up to it.  Whether we like the rules or not, we are still expected to comply.  We need to have a constant repentance process.  We need to be converted; personally and absolutely converted to this Restored gospel.  It's a lifelong process, so we should probably get started then, right? :)
 
We are a peculiar people.  But as our recent convert stated in her testimony in church last week, "If being Mormon is weird, then I want to be weird for the rest of my life."
 
I know this church is true and I know God knows me.  I will cherish the chance I have to truly seek Him and be His daughter.
 
No Empty Chairs
Morgan

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