The Power of God's Love

Yes I have been thinking about love a lot. That's kind of funny since Valentines day is coming up. :) Well one time I stumbled upon a quote that I really liked. It goes like this:

"Trying to find lasting love without obeying God is like trying to quench thirst by drinking from an empty cup—you can go through the motions, but the thirst remains."
John H. Groberg - 2004 Oct. Gen. Conf

I have applied it to my own life in a few instances, just as I have done today. When going through hard times it is really good to be reminded that God is the source of all love, and that he will never fail. Therefore, true love will never fail.

I decided to look up the entire talk today, and I love it. I would recommend reading the entire talk. Here are a few of my favorite parts:

"What is it about true love that touches every heart? Why does the simple phrase "I love you" evoke such universal joy?

Men give various reasons, but the real reason is that every person who comes to earth is a spirit son or daughter of God. Since all love emanates from God, we are born with the capacity and the desire to love and to be loved. One of the strongest connections we have with our premortal life is how much our Father and Jesus loved us and how much we loved Them. Even though a veil was drawn over our memory, whenever we sense true love, it awakens a longing that cannot be denied.

Responding to true love is part of our very being. We innately desire to reconnect here with the love we felt there. Only as we feel God's love and fill our hearts with His love can we be truly happy."

"When filled with God's love, we can do and see and understand things that we could not otherwise do or see or understand. Filled with His love, we can endure pain, quell fear, forgive freely, avoid contention, renew strength, and bless and help others in ways surprising even to us."

Isn't that wonderful?!
I have been writing in my journal almost every day, and I really think it has opened up doors of inspiration for me. Including this one. When you are ready to receive revelation it comes. I know that that is true. I have been more clear minded, and have had questions answered. And when I am feeling discouraged and I just go and put all of my thoughts down in my journal it helps me organize my craziness, and suddenly I feel much better and more ready to handle life. So please: Keep a journal!
This website really helps me. Of course I have a hard time being persistent sometimes, but I have found that I really like doing it this way. When I am already on the computer doing whatever, it is easy to use. ldsjournal.com
But find whatever works for you, and just do it. Even if you just carry around a little notebook and write down thoughts whenever they come to you. I promise you'll be blessed for it. :D

General Conference October 2008

Conference is over, and of course it was wonderful. We had to watch it on our computer, and it kept freezing up. However we managed to catch most of it. But.... =( we missed Elder Holland's talk (cry). But I shall read the entire thing when it comes out in the Ensign, so I'm not tooo sad, although i was at the time as Elder Holland always gives one of my favorite talks.
So, on the the main point. I am just going to express some things that stuck out to me. The entire thing was wonderful, but these are the parts that most impressed me personally. Forgive me if I do not describe everything well, I can't look it up because it's not on the LDS website yet.

#1 - I loved Sister Elaine Dalton's (general Young Women's President) talk. The whole thing was wonderful. But what I loved most about it was how she talked about being virtuous. How we don't realize how much it affects us and those around us. Someone who is virtuous has a confident and good countenance that others notice. They are prepared to face this world, and yet stand strong for what they believe.

#2 - another thing that impressed me was, not a talk, but one of the prayers that was given. I do not remember what one, but I think it was the closing prayer of the second session (anyone feel free to correct me on that). What impressed me was how short it was, and yet powerful. I was preparing myself for another long one, but it was over before I was ready for it to start. The man who gave it said something like "thank you for this conference and the messages we have received. Please help us to do it". And that was it. Wow. If I was asked to give the prayer in General Conference, in front of the entire church, including the prophet and general authorities, I would have thought about it a ton, and organized in my mind what I was going to say. This prayer was an example to me of how I should be. The Lord tells us not to think on things before-hand, but simply to store up in our minds the things that He has taught us, and then when the time comes He will give us what we should say. We do not need to dazzle or impress people, we do not need to be eloquent, or even to think too much about what we should say. We simply need to speak the words that He wants us to speak, and that is enough.

#3 - Of course I loved President Uchtdorf's talk. He spoke of hope. Along with faith, and charity. Hope is what sustains us when we have nothing else to hold on to. When our faith is fading, it strengthens us and keeps us going. And when we have had our faith strengthened our faith gives us charity. Because we want to share the joy of it with others. The one thing that especially struck me was when he said something about how if we could get just one glimpse of the life ahead of us, meaning our Celestial life, we would have a perfect hope, and not any doubt left in our hearts. I think he shared a scripture with it. And he said that fear and faith can not exist in us at the same time. Which makes perfect sense, because they are exact opposites. Christ had perfect faith, and no fear.

#4 - It struck me that the entire conference seemed to have this one theme (along with others). Unity. More than ever we are being told that we need to be one (if we are not one we are not Christ's). Basically we need to build up Zion. ("and the Lord called His people Zion, because they were of one mind and one heart and dwelt in righteousness and there were no poor among them" is that in Moses? It's a scripture mastery so I should know...). An interesting message in these difficult times. We need to prepare. Maybe we have 150 or 70 years left, but maybe we just have 3 or 4. Really nobody knows but God.

#5 and the last thing I am going to mention - as always, I was struck by the power and authority of the Prophet of the Lord. Every conference, with President Hinckley before, and now President Monson, I receive a renewed knowledge that they truly are prophets of God. It is unmistakable to me. The prophet has a countenance that sparkles with personality, humor, knowledge, humility, sincerity. I love to here the prophet speak. When he speaks, everyone listens, and everyone is enlightened. I feel safe when I know that a living prophet of God is here to guide us. No matter how the world goes around us, his guidance is firm and safe. It is the word of the Lord. I know for sure that Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet in that Latter Days.

For all of you who missed it [conference], I encourage you to go to www.lds.org and watch it (it's right on the front page). Or wait for the Ensign and read it. I promise that if you hope to be inspired by it you will be.

The Living Christ

I'm so proud of myself! I finished memorizing the Testimony of the Apostles. I did it as part of my Personal Progress faith project (one of the ten hour ones) and now I need to fill up the last hour, so I'm going to try and type it all out without looking at it.

The Living Christ

The Testimony of the Apostles

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice. None other has had so profound an influence upon all who have lived and will yet live upon the earth.

He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the messiah of the New. Under the direction of His Father, He was the creator of the earth. "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything mad that was made" (John 1:3). Though sinless, He was baptised to fulfill all righteousness. He "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it. His gospel was a message of peace and goodwill. He entreated all to follow His example. He walked the roads of Palestine, healing the sick, causing the blind to see, and raising the dead. He taught the truths of eternity, the reality of our premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come.

He instituted the sacrament as a reminder of His great atoning sacrifice. He was arrested and condemned on spurious charges, convicted to satisfy a mob, and sentenced to die on Calvary's cross. He gave His life to atone for the sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth.

We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world.

He rose from the grave to "become the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20). As risen Lord, He visited among those He had loved in life. He also ministered among His "other sheep" (John 10:16) in ancient America. In the modern world, He and His Father appeared to the boy Joseph Smith, ushering in the long-promised "dispensation of the fullness of times" (Ephesians 1:10).

Of the Living Christ, the Prophet Joseph wrote: "His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying:

"I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father" (D&C 110:3-4)

Of Him the Prophet also declared: "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That He lives!

"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father--

"That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created. and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God" (D&C 76:22-24).

We declare in words of solemnity that His priesthood and His church have been restored upon the earth-- "built upon the foundation of . . . apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:20).

We testify that He will someday return to earth. "And the glory of God shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." (Isaiah 40:5). He will rule as King of Kings, and reign as Lord of Lords, and every knee shall bend and every tongue shall speak in worship before Him. Each of us will stand to be judged of Him, according to our works and the desires of our hearts.

We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles-- that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Emmanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life, and eternal life in the world to came. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine son.

Ok, I typed that all by memory and then checked it to make sure it was right. I forgot three words somewhere in the beginning, and I forgot to add "who stands today on the right hand of His Father," at the end. Other than that the only things i had to fix were punctuation and adding the scripture references (I didn't memorize those). SO there it is. Go me!

"Then will I make weak things strong unto them."

OK, I'm finally getting around to my blogging. Actually, I don't really know what to post about, so you're going to have to endure some random "thinking out loud." Sorry...

Have you ever had one of those weeks were everything seems dull and sort pointless? Well for me last week was one of those. I didn't seem to get excited about anything, and I had no energy. I also felt like I was distancing myself from Heavenly Father. Not really because of what I was doing, more because of what I wasn't. In seminary we talked about how you are always either losing or gaining light (the light of Christ), due to little simple choices that you hardly even notice. I have been losing more than I've been gaining lately I think. Not really depressing, but It was making me gloomy. I knew that that was the problem though, so I decided to fix it.

And this week I think I came close to doing that, I think, though there is always room for improvement. I read something about how if we are humble and have faith, the Lord will turn our weaknesses to strengths. I thought that sounded like just the thing I needed. Sometimes it gets so frustrating to be human. We make mistakes, and those distance us from God. You can't not make mistakes, because of Adams fall we are all subject to them. But we can try and do everything possible to make as little as possible, and stay close to God, and keep the Holy Ghost with us. And I think the only way to do that is to submit to God, have faith and humility. Trust that you are better off in His hands than going on alone. And He will make weak things strong.

I've been praying for that to happen. And i can tell you, it's amazing to take a step back and realize it really does happen! How great is our God! He can make a flawed and sinful human being into an instrument through which so much can be accomplished! Through Christ, even I can be made perfect, and bring more glory to Him through it. How great is my God, and marvelous His works!

I have been getting a surprising amount of things accomplished, and I think many goals that I have been working at for a long time will soon be finished and ready to make way for new ones.

Dallin H. Oaks~
The idea that our strengths can become our weaknesses could be understood to imply that we should have “moderation in all things.” But the Savior said that if we are “lukewarm,” he “will spew [us] out of [his] mouth” Through the prophet Moroni, the Lord gave us this great insight into the role of humility: “I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them”

Good bye for now President Hinckley!

Last night while my parents and i were watching 'Mansfield Park' my Grandpa called to tell us that he had some bad news. I couldn't hear what he said, but as soon as I heard my mom say "President Hinckley" I started crying. Our beloved prophet has passed away, and will be greatly missed by many. You can't be sad for him, he lived a good long life (97 years!). And now he can be with his sweet little wife whom he loved so much. He has done so much good in the world. He was always cheerful, enthusiastic, funny, and optimistic. Now he can rest. But as soon as he's done talking with the people he can now be with I can't help but think he'll go straight to work as a missionary. Teaching all the people he can about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

One thing I personally loved about him is how much love he always expressed toward everyone. Particularly the youth. He loved the young people, and everybody. You could see it shining of his countenance. if you have ever read 'Way to Be!" you will come to more fully realize how much love he really had, and still has! He genuinely wants us all to be happy and successful, and that's why he wrote that book. I would recommend that EVERYONE read that book.

Well, as I said, he will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him. You would have to be a very hard hearted to not to love such a man after listening to him. I can't see how anyone could see him as anything but a sparkling gem of a man , full of life, love, and enthusiasm.

We miss you President Gordon B. Hinckley!