Haven’t you ever had a dream?

This is Rapunzel from the Movie Tangled. You may or may not have seen it, I know I have since coming home from my mission. It’s cute, sometimes its funny and sometimes it’s sad. Overall, I like it. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Rapunzel is stolen as a baby and raised as the wicked Gothel’s daughter, who is never to leave her tower in order to protect her hair from ‘evil people’ that would use and abuse and cut Rapunzel’s hair. However, every year on Rapunzel’s birthday, lights fill the sky-they’re not stars though, and Rapunzel feels as though they are meant for her and she wishes with all of her heart to see them. One day, a thief discovers Rapunzel’s tower in his effort to escape and Rapunzel enlists his help in making her dream come true. Flynn Ryder, Rapunzel’s escort, is a wanted man and so he gets caught and in an effort to save him, Rapunzel screams “Haven’t you ever had a dream?” And she shares her dream, and those who were initially going to give Flynn over to the authorities change their mind. It’s really a delightful movie, one that I wanted to focus on because we all have hopes, and dreams.

We all have the desire to see something or experience something. Eventually, Rapunzel learns that once her dreams come true, she needs to find another dream and she does. I know I’ve done that.  I pretty much had my life planned out until I graduated from high school, once I made it to that point, I was like “now what?” and I had to f ind another dream, create another goal, and move on with my life. Most of my dreams have been tangible, graduating from high school, college, working regularly so I’m out of debt, finishing my mission, going to Europe, finishing my degree, living happily, and so many more! All of these are tangible, and as I reach for them, I can get them. I’ve learned though, that the dreams I have now, the ones that have come to replace the ‘dream come true’s are not as tangible as these are. What I want most, is to be with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again, I want my family to be together forever, something that can only happen through following the Savior. I dream of being with them again! This is a dream that will turn into a reality if I do my part. I can’t just have faith in Christ, I need to act on such faith in following Christ. I love the book of John in the Bible, he quotes Christ as saying “If ye love me, keep my commandments” John 14:15. If we truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will do and become what He would want us to be.

If we don’t yet fully know if keeping the commandments will bring us happiness, we’re challenged to try it out and see if it will change our lives for the better in turning us to God. “If any man will do his (God’s) will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself (Christ)” John 7:17. I’ve done that for myself and I’ve never been happier in my life. Following Christ has not only brought me great peace and happiness, it’s given me a dream that is only possible through the Savior, Jesus Christ. I can’t get a better dream than that and neither can you!

 

Thank You

Do you ever just have those days when everything is good. Not that everything goes right or that the world is a perfect place but you have a positive few of everything that is going on in the world? That is how I woke up this morning. I woke up rejoicing in my God, in my world, and the miracles that each of us experiences on a daily basis. For example, a few weeks ago I was playing tag with my younger brother, 9, and my younger sister, 11, on a playground. It was pretty fun except for telling me how woefully out of shape I am. Well we’re running up stairs and sliding things and all manner of goodness when I tried sliding down something similar to this piece of quipment. Sliding down it was painful and I knew immediately that it was going to bruise pretty badly. Guess what? I was right for once. It bruised and it bruised badly. People would see it and say “man it looks like somebody beat you, what happened?” So it was painful at first but I was fine the next day, it was a little tender.

Two weeks later, I’m happy to report that the horrible disgusting bruise is almost completely healed. Now for one who bruises easily and the bruises last forever, I’m thrilled that it’s healing so quickly! I woke up this morning, just astonished at how well it looks and how it’s getting to be so much better. Which lead me to rejoice in my Heavenly Father who was wise enough to make our bodies with the ability and the capacity to heal themselves especially when we do stupid things. I am so grateful that all things denote that there is a God, He is real and HE LOVES US! I am so grateful for this. Whenever I’ve had a moment of reflection today, this thought has crossed my mind and believe you me, it has been one of the best days in a while.

I am so grateful that although this life is not perfect, we can find joy and peace in the good things that God has given us. I’m grateful for His love. I’m grateful for His Son, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself so that we might overcome all of the trials and the sicknesses that we may have. I know that our bodies are far from perfection and we suffer as a result. When we hurt, they don’t always heal the way we want them to but I certainly am grateful that Jesus Christ made it possible that we all may have a perfect body some day. I’m grateful for the hope that comes as a result of having the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and I am especially grateful for a God that loves us enough to give us more than one witness that Christ came for everybody on this Earth. Thank you Heavenly Father!!!

Father’s hugs

So I’ve been pondering this whole life thing, as of late, and the end of my mission was really the beginning of the rest of my life and everything that the mission has helped me create in myself. I loved my mission with all of my heart. There is something so special about constantly testifying of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I will always remember it fondly. Of course I look back and try my best to see all of the good but it’s not hard by any means to see the rough times either. I remember talking with one of my companions when everything was so hard and we just wanted to have a fathers hug. I know there have been times in my life where I’ve been needing something and just wanting relief and I’ve turned to my father and have found that comfort and I know there were times on my mission where I really just wanted a hug from my Dad. He was only 1700 miles away.

Now that I’m home and I have access to my Dad, it really hasn’t been the easiest transition back into ‘normal life’ I feel like my life as a missionary was normal and something that I could do forever though I’m happy to see my family and to hug all of them again. Though it’s been wonderful seeing my family and re-entering society as a normal person (which I don’t think I will ever actually fully fit that description by any means), I’ve felt lost. I know that I control my future at this point and it’s a scary prospect and there are times that I just want to break down and cry. In those moments, that’s when I feel the love of my Father-my Heavenly Father. He knows how I am feeling and He knows how I can overcome this sense of loss. Now all I have to do is my part, I have to continually turn to Him and His words, in the scriptures, and I will once again feel that peace and I have.

In those moments where I feel the weakest, I can reach for my Father and be comforted. Just as I once longed for a hug from my Dad, I now long for a hug from my Father and to feel of that continuous peace and reassurance. Luckily, it’s something I can look for, seek after, and find on a daily basis. I just have to reach for Him and He’s there. If I do my part, if I work on my part of my personal relationship with my Father in Heaven, with His Son Jesus Christ, I will feel the peace of the Holy Ghost in my life. Just like Christ promises in John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Oh what marvelous comfort and what marvelous joy which can be found in the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They invite all men and women everywhere to repent and to taste of such peace.

Testify of Christ

One thing that has always stuck out to me on my mission is the fact that so many people have a testimony and a witness of Jesus Christ. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve spoken to that have a wonderful witness that Jesus Christ is their personal Savior and Redeemer. It’s something that I’ve found so much glory and so much hope in. People believe in Jesus Christ. That is something that I love, I’m so grateful for the goodness of people. People are much better than I tend to give them credit for, which I’m grateful to be wrong.

After receiving that witness of Christ, it is our obligation and our duty to share our happiness and the joy that we’ve found in the knowledge that Jesus is the Christ. My companions and I were reading out of the Book of Mormon with someone the other day and we were reading in the book of Alma about a prophet named Alma who is calling the people to repentance, to change, to turn back to God. He then shares his testimony of Jesus Christ and how he came to know it for himself. This is approximately 83 years before the coming of Christ. “…I say unto you, that I know that Jesus Christ shall come, yea, the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth. And behold, it is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world, yea, the sins of every man who steadfastly believeth on his name.”  After that, Alma states what his calling is. “And now I say unto you that this is the order after which I am called, yea, to preach unto my beloved brethren, yea, and every one that dwelleth in the land; yea, to preach unto all, both old and young, both bond and free; yea, I say unto you the aged, and also the middle aged, and the rising generation; yea, to cry unto them that they must repent and be born again.” (Alma 5:48-49

Now there are many forms of preaching and teaching about Jesus Christ that take place. St. Francis of Assissi said “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words” I’ve been preaching the gospel with words and with authority for the past 18 months, which isn’t very long. I’ve been held to a high standard all of my life though. I haven’t always lived up to this standard but through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I have been healed of many of my hurts and overcome many of my mistakes and that’s why the message of repentance is so vital. Christ can and hals helped me in my times of trial and in my times of grief and I’m so grateful.

I’ve been using words to spread the gospel for a long time now, I’m excited to begin preaching the gospel through my example and my words. It’s a wonderful thing.

Just around the river bend….

I look once more. For those of you that don’t know, this is from Pocahontas. Ok so how often do you find yourself singing Disney songs? I know I do it still. I’ll get a random urge and the songs just come bursting forth, I always feel badly for those that have to hear me but I love Disney songs and amazingly enough, there are great lessons to be learned in some of them.

This song is especially one that I loved singing as a child. I really wanted to be Pocahontas so badly but knew that I never could. Now that I’m a little bit older I can see the value of what she was contemplating. Often we’re making life changing decisions that will affect us in ways that we can’t even imagine. Sometimes I seem to make those decisions in a snap but other times I hem and haw my way through until I’m forced to make a decision. Sometimes I don’t feel bad when sitting in a restaurant and I don’t make my mind up until the server arrives and is asking me what I want. Other times I can’t do that.

Today I wanted to compare us to the river. Pocahontas loved the adventurous water and kept bringing surprises around each corner. Her father loved the steady moving water-it wasn’t fast, it wasn’t exciting but it was moving. Of course, if we are to be like that water than we need to be continually moving forward and getting to where we need to be. This is how our progression towards God can be. We either move forward very quickly or we move forward steadily but we can always be moving forward.  Sadly, I know I’ve reached points in my life and especially on my mission where I seem stuck, almost like a dam in a river. Dams stop our progression and keep us from going to where we want to go. Now in real life, dams can be quite useful but spiritually, you don’t want to be dammed.

We want to keep moving forward and we want to continue to learn and move closer to our Father in Heaven. We can overcome those spiritual obstacles that keep us from our Father through prayer, through scripture study, through service, through becoming more and more like our Father in Heaven and then we will no longer be damned and we can experience true joy.

Like a river, always looking towards the next bend, being prepared for anything and witht he Lord on our side, we can take on any white water, any tricky bends, any currents, open water, waterfalls, or whatever nature or life throws our way. Don’t get trapped in the idea that you’re stuck forever when you get stuck because you can change, you can have that joy and you can continue to overcome anything and everything.

Reason for the Season….of Easter

This is why we have Easter, come listen to a prophet testify of the divinity of Jesus Christ and the hope we can optain as a result of it.

A Perilous Terrain

So I love dirt roads. I love bumpy dirt roads that it feels like you are surrounded by potholes the size of Montana! It’s fun to drive on them and go slow when you don’t want a jarring experience or to go fast and get an adrenaline rush. It’s an adventure to go off roading and see how much of nature you can conquer and overcome. Nature is fun!

It can also be some perilous terrain. Sometimes you choose what’s coming next and if you are on a certain pathway then sometimes things just get in the way that you have to overcome. Of course, that’s exactly what this life is like. Sometimes we choose the pace that we travel at and at other times, we just have to roll with the punches. Luckily we have a loving Father in Heaven that helps us along our perilous journey without Him. He gave us the plan of salvation or the plan of happiness so that we can know the purpose of this life and how to overcome it through our Savior, Jesus Christ. He’s also given us a lot of tools to get to where we want to go.

So if we’re wanting to offroad or go jeeping. We need the tools to actually do it. We wouldn’t just want our shoes to get over everything that you need to do. You can’t just use shoes to get over lives problems. It’s the same thing with a 10 speed bike. Yes you’ll get to your destination faster but overcoming some of those trials just isn’t going to happen the way that the Lord intends you to do it. Now if you are in a front wheel drive car, it’s still not going to be the same thing as having an all wheel drive vehicle thats is going to help you get to where you want to.

Now we can choose how much we want our Heavenly Father in our life. We choose how much help we are going to accept and if we allow Him to help us. It’s like having that all wheel drive vehicle that will help you overcome any obstacle and help you withstand any climb. If we choose anything less than that or we deceive ourselves, by having a vehicle that’s not fully prepared or we’re not following the plan of salvation or the gospel of Jesus Christ perfectly, it’s like being in a front or back wheel drive car. You’re going to get stuck. The nice thing is, we don’t have to have a lot of money or be perfect or anything like that to upgrade to the vehicle of our choice. To accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, we just have to do what the Lord would have us do. He wants us to follow Christ, to feel of His peace and to overcome all that perilous terrain successfully!

“And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.”                                                                                                  Mark 10:27

Lessons Learned from a Pheasant II

Ok so everything in life has a purpose right? So thinking back on that pheasant, it is one beautiful creature! I love all of the many colors and designs that are on there and it amazes me how pretty it is. Well I also know that that is not it’s only function. Now I don’t know what the purpose of that bird is but it certainly made my day a little bit better. Well I’ve been thinking about how each individual person brings different things to the table. Which, in turn, makes the world a more diverse place and extremely beautiful.

Each of us has different talents and skills and because of that, to make the world go round the way it does, we need to be different and unique and Heavenly Father loves us each the same. We are all given spiritual gifts that help the world become a better place. In the book of Moroni in the Book of Mormon, Moroni echoes the words of prophets in the past when describing a few of the spiritual gifts that are on the Earth, in the past and today. Each of us is given a gift that will help lighten and brighten the world around us and make us better. I know I’ve met plenty of people in my life that have made not only my life better but the world a better place to be in.

It’s amazing to me how each of us has a sphere of influence. Though we may not be able to make a grand difference to the world at learge when we first want to, each of us makes a difference to the people that we surround ourselves with. Each of us can listen and help those who may be hurting. Each of us can help the world become a better place. Horace Mann once said “To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is godlike.”  We really can truly make a difference in each person’s life that we touch. We’re meant to. No man is an island and Heavenly Father wants each of us to reach out and help another one of His children. I know He wants us to remember who we are and how we can do good, we can make a difference and we can make the world a better place!

Nothing Left Untouched

We were speaking with a family the other day and they brought up that as a family they’ve decided to go to the “Most Magical Place on Earth” otherwise known as Disneyland. The more that we talked about this family’s upcoming trip and how much fun they were going to have, the more I wanted to go their with my family.

Honestly Disneyland and Disney World are great places because it’s a place that you can strengthen your family and have some amazing, good, clean fun with your family. Disney does it right. They work hard to make sure that everybody that goes there has a ‘magical’ experience and they leave wanting to come back. They work so hard to keep it a clean environment where people come to feel welcome and special. I know when I was younger, it’s always fun to go up to the character that you admire and they learn your name and you get to talk to Belle or Cinderella and  everything just makes you feel so wonderful. Well Disney does this for a reason. They want you to have a wonderful experience so when you go home, you can tell all of your friends about it and especially that children leave feeling special. It really is amazing everything that they do.

The woman was saying that Disney doesn’t leave anything untouched. Even the door handles are etched with little Disney characters and they do everything right. Because Disney goes into such great detail-no wonder it can be a hefty price to get in. My missionary mind started moving. If Disney works so hard to make it a great experience for us to go there and want to go back, how much more does our Heavenly Father do to help us get to his kingdom? He gives us many great things to help us along our way. He gives us prophets as is stated in Amos 3:7. Heavenly Father is the same, He’s dependable and so if He’s manifested himself through prophets in the past, He will do it again-and He has.

He also automatically puts us with people that their job is to help us grow and be happy and come closer to Him. It’s called families. Though our families aren’t perfect, it’s a great way to foster growth in the Gospel especially because this world is loosely patterned after that of heaven. So our Heavenly Father gives us Prophets, He gives us families, and He gives us friends. When speaking of God, a previous prophet said “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.” Spencer W Kimball “Small Acts of Service”

Heavenly Father leaves nothing untouched and there is a price that we pay in order to “gain admission” into the kingdom of God. We do that by following the example of Jesus Christ. We follow in His foot steps into the waters of baptism, into serving those around us, into helping others gain access to the kingdom of God: by being like Him. When we do gain admission into that kingdom, it will be so much better than meeting a Disney Prince or Princess because we’ll be going up to our Heavenly Father that already knows our name. He already knows how special we are. For that, I am so grateful that God loves us and cares for us and wants us to be happy.

When life gets to be tough…

…the tough get on their knees. How many times have you stayed up at night just feeling overwhelmed? How many times have you felt like you can’t handle what you are going through anymore. I know it happens to me all the time where I just don’t think I can handle what is going on in my life anymore and so I turn to people that I trust to help me know how to handle it or lighten my load. Often this is a trusted friend, my sister, or my parents but Sheri Dew once said “Christ is not our last chance, He is our only chance.” And so in order for us to overcome our trials and our pains and our sicknesses or anything that is negative in this life, we have to turn to the Saviour. We need to turn to Jesus Christ. In the Book of Mormon, a prophet named Alma is speaking to a group of people and telling them about the life of the Christ and his mission in this life and it says

“And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of ever kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flech, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.” (Alma 7:11-12)

So Christ took upon himself not only our sins, not only our joys but also all of the pain that we will experience in this life. He did it so that we could be happy, so that we could let go of the burden that we carry-the burden of guilt because of our sin. We can let it go!

Now sometimes life is hard not because of our sins but because of the effects of other people and although it would be wonderful to escape the pains of that, sometimes the purpose of going through those trials is to make us stronger, it’s to better us, and strengthen our faith that Jesus is the Christ and that we can turn to Him at any time. That is the only way that we can be healed is through that faith, through that power that we can overcome, if we turn to the true source of all power.

We have been promised that we will not be tempted above that which we can bear, this is stated not only in the Holy Bible but also in the Book of Mormon. The same prophet, Alma is again speaking to people and he says this “But that ye would humble yourlselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering. Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest.” (Alma 13:28-29)

God will not leave us comfortless. As long as we turn to Him, as long as we follow the steps of the Savior, we can find true happiness..