Taking ourselves out of the slums

This week in my new testament class, we had a lesson that really impacted me.  In it our teacher Brother Griffin talked to us about the Savior cleaning the feet of the twelve apostles during the passover feast.  In John 13:8 it says "Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."  Christ had to wash the feet of the disciples, the very dirtiest part of them.  He wasn't taking the disciples out of the world or going to stop them from traveling and getting dirty, but he would clean their feet so that they would want to be clean again.  Brother Griffin said that Christ takes the slums out of the people and then they take themselves out of the slums.

This really hit me.  Christ won't remove temptation from me.  He won't make it so that I don't get dirty, but he will clean me from my past temptations and then I will be more motivated to stay away from temptation in the future.  This kind of reminded me of how it goes when I clean my room.  If I just showered I hate having my room be dirty because I feel like it will make me dirty.  I then decide to clean my room so that how I feel and the place that I am in, will be the same - clean.  We can even go a step further.  When my room is clean I try to keep it clean as long as possible.  I avoid letting things sneak in or get messy.  If we relate this to our lives.  If we go partake of the sacrament each week, we become clean.  We are still in the world(room), which is messy, but we can clean up the area we are living in.  We can become more righteous and stay in the right path.  We will be in the world, but not of the world.  We will be removing ourselves from the slums because the slums have been taken out of us.

To Each Accord to His Several Ability

In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus gives the parable of the talents. In verse 15 it says that he gave to each "According to his several ability"  To me, this scripture means that they were given as much as they could handle and put to use.  It also tells me that each person is an individual and that the Lord knows what he is doing when he gives us assignments or callings and gives is to us according to our abilities.  Since they also use the words talents for what the servants were given in the parable, this made me think of different talents I have been blessed with.

I have been given a talent with music.  I love to play the piano and sing.  If I am going to be a good and faithful servant to my Lord, I will use this gift and talent to bless the lives of people around me.  I can do this by singing or playing in church or by sharing my talents with others.

One thing that we talked about this parable was the fact that the servant who only got one talent was afraid to displease his Master, so he hid it in the ground.  This was the wrong decision because it was made out of fear rather than looking at what his Lord would have him do.  My teacher told the class that if we base decisions out of fear, we will not be making the correct decision.  Fear causes us to shrink and not act.  We need to act in the name of the Lord and not react out of fear of Him.  This reminded me of another scripture in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  When we are doing the Lord's work he will give us peace not fear.  We can all move forward in faith and share with people our talents.

Look up, God is there!

This week has been an extremely hard week for me.  I have been trying to figure out how to put my feelings and thoughts into words.  Everything has been a jumble in my brain.  Since that is how I still feel, I will try and put together a coherent blog post, but if it's jumbled, I apologize in advance!

For those that don't know, this last week there was a typhoon, Category 5, in the Philippines.  This typhoon destroyed so much.  The wind and the water was everywhere.  When I heard about it for the first time was when my Uncle posted about my cousin who is serving in the Philippines.  He said that all the missionaries were moved to secure places and that they were all accounted for.  Well, Saturday came and I went home to visit my family.  My mom pulled me aside and told me that my best friend Jess was in the mission that was hit the hardest in the typhoon and was unaccounted for.  This news sunk into my heart like a lead weight.  Jess has been a part of my life since I was born.  She was my first best friend.  She is like a sister to me.

Saturday night I heard of the numbers of the dead in Jess's mission.  The numbers were sickening.  I felt like I was constantly praying for her safety, but in my heart I wasn't sure that she was alive.  This was not a lack of faith, this was me recognizing that Jess was serving the Lord and was in His hands.  His will might be that she not survive the storm.  Well, Sunday afternoon came and her family got word that Jess was alive.  She had survived the storm and was "being taken care of".  I have never been so relieved!

Monday the posts about Jess started rolling in....  "Jess is alive and being taken good care of.  She is recovering, but has been through a traumatic experience that will take a while to heal from...." etc...   This was not the most comforting things to hear.  On Tuesday I begged my mom to tell me what had happened and for her to send me the email so that I could be a better support for Jess and not be left wondering what had actually happened.  That night I read the email.  I couldn't stop crying.  My heart went out to my best friend that I could do nothing for.  After reading her story, I realized that there is something I can do with this knowledge.  I can share the testimony that it has given me and the things I have learned.

Jess and some of the other sister missionaries receiving help in Manilla

When Jess and the other missionaries found out about the storm, they hunkered down in an apartment to wait it out.  They were on the second floor because they thought it was the safest place to be.  As the winds picked up speed and the strength of the storm was upon them, they realized that this was going to be intense.  The water started to rise, and the sister missionaries and my best friend remembered that there were bars on the windows, if the water kept rising they wouldn't be able to get out.  They tried to get to the front door, but it was underwater.  Jess resigned herself to die.  She felt utterly and completely alone.  She prayed to Heavenly Father that he would watch over and protect her, but realized that it might be her time to go.  Miraculously, one of the missionaries was able to kick out a skylight.  The missionaries all piled through onto the roof.  The water was still rising and they realized that they could be swept off the roof, and some of the missionaries couldn't swim.  Everything was dark and the storm was still raging.  These sisters prayed for the water to stop and another miracle occurred, the water stopped rising.  The sister missionaries experienced many more blessings and miracles on their road back to safety, but I want to stop here and explain the testimony that I gained because of it.  If you want to know more, here is a news article about what my friend Jess and the other sister missionaries went through. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865590735/Surviving-the-typhoon-A-story-of-fear-faith-and-what-it-means-to-be-prepared.html?pg=all

Jess and the other sister missionaries laughing between interviews.  It makes me happy to see her smiling!

Jess's story is one of faith and the working of miracles.  When all seemed lost and there was no escape from the storm or the awful fate of drowning, theses sister prayed to God to show them the way out.  There was no way to go sideways or down, they had to go UP.  So often in life we are all tossed about by storms that we can't escape.  Everything that we do to move out of the storm (going sideways out the window) may be blocked for one reason or another.  We are barred from those escapes for our own protection.  God knows the way out and he will watch over us.  We need to look up and God will be there providing a way to weather our storms.  This was such a testimony builder for me.  I hope that as all of you go through the storms of your life, that you'll remember to look up because God is there providing an escape.

In God's Image

In Matthew 22:17 Christ was asked the ultimate question by the Pharisees, "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?"  Jesus had the perfect answer to this question.  He had the Pharisees show him the tribute money and asked who's image was on it.  They answered and said that it was Caesar's.  Christ then responded and told them to give unto Caesar's that which is his, and unto God, that which is God's.  In my new testament class my teacher said that Christ could have been pointing to the Pharisees when he told them to give to God that which is His.

I love the thought that Christ would be pointing to the Pharisees because we are all made in God's image.  This made me wonder though, how can I more fully give myself to God?  I don't think I can answer this completely because giving myself MORE FULLY is a constant process.  It requires each day deciding and choosing to live my life in the way that my Heavenly Father and Savior would have me live.  Now the trick is learning how to know what the Lord would have me do each day.

Something I have been learning about this lately is that prayer is the key.  When I have meaningful prayers each morning and night and also little prayers in my heart each day, I can feel the Savior's guidance in my life.  Someone mentioned, in a Sunday lesson, that even though we are not on formal missions right now, each of us can use the guidance from the Holy Ghost in every decision we make.  I love this thought because it shows that the Lord is there for us no matter what.  He wants to guide and direct our paths whether we are on a full time mission, or serving in our wards at home.

Another thing that allows me to give myself more fully to God is by reading my scriptures and following their guidance.  Whenever I read the scriptures I know that I am doing something that the Lord would have me do because it helps me align my will with the Lord's even more.

I am made in God's image.  I am his and I will do my best to render unto God what is his, which is my heart and will.  The nice thing is that it is a constant journey.  Each day I can become better and better.

Journaling

So, I want to rant a little about journaling.  First off, keeping a journal is a wonderful thing!  I love being able to write things down that have happened in my life and keep those memories safe.  I like being able to go back and read my journal and have it help me in my life or to be able to see how much I've changed.  It's also nice to know that my posterity will be able to read what I went through and what I thought about.  Those are all great things about journaling.

The problems I have found with keeping a journal is that unless you are on top of writing things down, when you catch up on the things you want to remember, the thoughts are tainted by the knowledge that you have gained since the experience.  This happened to me recently.  I was catching up in my journal, writing the things that had happened recently, but I didn't finish getting to the best parts.  Well, low and behold, later that night something happened that changed my feelings and thoughts.  Now I will never get to catch those exact things down in my journal.

This is really a small problem that could easily be fixed by being good and writing every night, but that is hard.  I guess that I will just have to keep pushing on and doing my best to catch my emotions and feelings before things change.

Another cool thing I wanted to share is the fact that I am almost finished with a journal I started at the beginning of this year!  I haven't finished a journal in years.  It is amazing how nice it is to read it and know that important events from my life will be remembered.  Am I a key figure in the history of tomorrow?  Probably not, but my children will care what I went through and will value the things that I wrote down.  Something else that I think is cool is the fact that through keeping a better journal, it has made me want to go and find my ancestors journals so that I can learn about them and get to know them.  I feel like this is a fulfillment of the prophecy of turning the hearts of the children to their fathers.  It's amazing to feel that in my life!

Jesus Wept

One of the most powerful things I have learned this year is the power of love.  This point was kind of hit home when I had a New Testament lesson on John 11:35, which says "Jesus Wept."  This is one of the most powerful verses in the scriptures.  This verse comes in when Jesus was beckoned by the crying Mary and Martha to see where they had laid their dead brother Lazarus.  Christ knew that in a few moments Lazarus would be raised from the dead and that Mary and Martha would be crying for joy instead of sorrow, but he was willing to "mourn with those that mourn".  He loves Mary and Martha and hated to see them so upset.  He was going to take away their sorrow, but first he wept with them because of the great love that he had for them!

Isn't that amazing?  That same love that Christ has for Mary and Martha, he has for you and me! He understands that sometimes we need to cry and feel the emotion, but we are never alone in those feelings of pain or sorrow.  Christ is always there crying with us.

Another point that was made during this lesson, was the fact that to love someone is to be vulnerable.  I hadn't really thought about it in that way, but it is so true!  So often we are afraid to open our hearts to possibilities because it opens us up to be hurt.  This is a valid excuse, but at the same time, opening ourselves up allows us to truly love others and be loved in return.  When I am scared of being hurt by loving someone too much, I remember that if I get hurt, the savior will be there to help me through it and ease the pain. 

Jesus has wept for us and has felt our pain.  This short verse gives so much peace!  I know that my Savior loves me and is willing to comfort me when I stand in need of comfort, and mourn with me when I mourn.  Jesus has wept for me and loves me forever!