For the most part, though, I am loving college. I forgot how much I love learning new things. One of my classes right now is about Literacy and Language Development. It is truly amazing to learn how children learn literacy. It's almost miraculous that their brains are able to comprehend so much when they are so young. I could study stuff like this forever. It is incredible to see how perfectly God created us.
I've been studying in the scriptures a lot about remembering lately, and what it really means to remember the Lord. I liked the quote from Elder Holland in this month's visiting teaching message in the Ensign. He says, all are invited "to join in the adventure of the earliest disciples of Christ who also yearned for the bread of life - those who did not go back but who came to Him, stayed with Him, and who recognized that for safety and salvation there was no other to whom they could ever go." The VT message also reminded me of a Mormon Message that one of my companions always talked about, one from Elder Christofferson's Daily Bread series called Pattern. (Watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMJ6ZDCAp4)
It's hard to come home and see the choices some of the people from your mission are making. It brings tears to my eyes sometimes because I know that they could be happy if they just kept living the commandments. But I have to let them have agency. All I can really do for them is love them and help them remember the Lord. In Dueteronomy 4:9 it says, "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons." Honestly, this is probably one of my new favorite scriptures about remembering. If you don't diligently keep your soul, your testimony will depart from your heart. I particularly love how it emphasizes that the best way to keep your testimony is to share it with others.
I think about those people I love, investigators, converts, less actives, returned missionaries, and how disappointed and sad I am when I watch from a distance as their testimonies depart from their hearts. I just wish they could remember. Remember those things that they knew. Remember the Spirit that they felt. Remember the covenants that they made. That "godly sorrow" I experienced as a missionary when people wouldn't change is still there sometimes.
All those people are sinning because their needs aren't being met. They just need someone to go and show them that the gospel will meet their needs and that they can come back. All it takes is a little bit of remembering. And that's what it really means when we take the Sacrament - that we're remembering all that our Savior did for us and we're promising that we will never forget.
I've been studying in the scriptures a lot about remembering lately, and what it really means to remember the Lord. I liked the quote from Elder Holland in this month's visiting teaching message in the Ensign. He says, all are invited "to join in the adventure of the earliest disciples of Christ who also yearned for the bread of life - those who did not go back but who came to Him, stayed with Him, and who recognized that for safety and salvation there was no other to whom they could ever go." The VT message also reminded me of a Mormon Message that one of my companions always talked about, one from Elder Christofferson's Daily Bread series called Pattern. (Watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMJ6ZDCAp4)
It's hard to come home and see the choices some of the people from your mission are making. It brings tears to my eyes sometimes because I know that they could be happy if they just kept living the commandments. But I have to let them have agency. All I can really do for them is love them and help them remember the Lord. In Dueteronomy 4:9 it says, "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons." Honestly, this is probably one of my new favorite scriptures about remembering. If you don't diligently keep your soul, your testimony will depart from your heart. I particularly love how it emphasizes that the best way to keep your testimony is to share it with others.
I think about those people I love, investigators, converts, less actives, returned missionaries, and how disappointed and sad I am when I watch from a distance as their testimonies depart from their hearts. I just wish they could remember. Remember those things that they knew. Remember the Spirit that they felt. Remember the covenants that they made. That "godly sorrow" I experienced as a missionary when people wouldn't change is still there sometimes.
All those people are sinning because their needs aren't being met. They just need someone to go and show them that the gospel will meet their needs and that they can come back. All it takes is a little bit of remembering. And that's what it really means when we take the Sacrament - that we're remembering all that our Savior did for us and we're promising that we will never forget.
What does that mean? It means that we choose to be converted. We choose to always put the Lord first. We choose to act on the testimony that we have. We choose to patiently endure the hard things that come in front of us. We choose to keep reading our scriptures every day and keep praying and keep going to Church and keep our covenants. We need that daily spiritual sustenance to nourish our Spirits almost more than our physical bodies need to eat.
I like the perspective this quote gives:
Our relationship with the Lord, the things we know to be true, the testimonies we have, all of those things are supposed to help us become something. That's the whole purpose of the gospel - to help us become like our Father in Heaven.
I think about this in relation to my studies for school. It's important for me to remember the things I am taught and to remember the skills I learn, otherwise my education is worthless. In the same way, if I don't remember the Lord, my knowledge if Him grows meaningless. If my testimony doesn't change me, than it really isn't worth very much.
I think about this in relation to my studies for school. It's important for me to remember the things I am taught and to remember the skills I learn, otherwise my education is worthless. In the same way, if I don't remember the Lord, my knowledge if Him grows meaningless. If my testimony doesn't change me, than it really isn't worth very much.
Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a talk in April about gratitude. He said that gratitude is the solution to all of life's ails because it forces us to remember the Lord. I won't expound on that much more, it's just good for the thought. Ask yourself - what did I do today to remember the Lord? How have I expressed my gratitude? How has my testimony changed me? And how could I help others remember the same things?
That's all.
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