New Callings and Fresh Outlooks

I have always found that callings can teach you a lot about who Heavenly Father wants you to be.  I have always been so grateful in accepting callings and responsibilities because each has taught me a little bit  more about the gospel and about my place in it.  This semester, I received my first calling in the Relief Society as a Visiting Teaching supervisor.  I thought that was going to be it for the semester at least and I took joy in checking up on my Visiting Teachers and the girls they visit.  It was pretty easy duty.

On Friday night, I was out with some friends from the ward and we were talking about how the Relief Society President was getting married and we joked about who was going to be called.  In the middle of the conversation, the thought came to my mind that I was going to be called.  I laughed it off because, hey, girls like me don't get called to be Presidents...of ANYTHING!  I got home that night and I lay in bed and the thought kept coming back.  I couldn't sleep at all and it was so strange!

I did finally fall asleep, but then at about 7:30 I got a phone call from my ward clerk saying that the bishop wanted to speak with me.  Now I don't know my bishop very well, so I figured it was just a getting to know you interview...WRONG!  After chatting for a while about my life, my bishop looked me in the eye and said, 'Well, I guess I'll stop wasting your time and get to the point, we want you to be the new Relief Society President.'  WHOA!

My setting apart was really cool and he promised me a lot of things that have been weighing down on my mind lately which was really comforting.  I have realized that really, if we are paying enough attention, Heavenly Father will give us heads up and guide us to where we need to be.  The timing of all of this is really the most amazing part.  IF I had been called a few weeks ago I probably would have gone insane with my block classes and Mr. BYU, but it has all just worked out.  I am so grateful for this gospel!!

Where the Wild Things Are

Yes.  I am writing about a movie that doesn't come out for another week.  But I can guarantee that I will be at the first showing on Friday.  I can remember reading that book over and over and over again when I was younger and I know it is weird to have such strong feelings towards a book, but I feel the same way about the Polar Express and really any Dr. Seuss book that turns into a movie.

I have watched the trailer a ridiculous amount of times.  It makes me cry.

So I thought I would write about how excited I am, and just so you know, you should all check out The Arcade Fire.  Their song is on the trailer and they are great.

Wake Up
by the Arcade Fire


Somethin' filled up
my heart with nothin',
someone told me not to cry.

But now that I'm older,
my heart's colder,
and I can see that it's a lie.

Children wake up,
hold your mistake up,
before they turn the summer into dust.

If the children don't grow up,
our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to
rust.

I guess we'll just have to adjust.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin' to be
when the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin’
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am, go-go, where I am

You'd better look out below

Sacrifice

I have been really thinking about sacrifice over the last couple of days...


Today I was sitting in a class helping a 7th grad history teacher plan an ESL appropriate two week long lesson on citizenship so that we can learn how to adapt.  While sitting there he started talking about WHY the pioneers were so important and what we could learn for them and he said something along the lines of, 'They were so committed to what they believed in that they were willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING.'


Now normally, this comment wouldn't have struck me that hard, but because I have been pondering sacrifice for the last few days, it really hit me.  I have never been uncommitted to anything that I have done.  For a long time I have felt like there have been things that I have done in my life that have been fruitless, things that I have done because I FELT like they were right and yet nothing became of them.  And as I sat there in this random meeting today, I realized that they weren't fruitless, it wasn't that nothing became of them.  I was willing to sacrifice.  I sacrificed and so someday, the blessings will come.

Sacrifice allows us to learn something about ourselves—what we are willing to offer to the Lord through our obedience.

This is from a talk by M. Russell Ballard

Brother Truman G. Madsen tells about a visit he made to Israel with President Hugh B. Brown an Apostle of the Lord who served as Second Counselor and then First Counselor in the First Presidency. In a valley known as Hebron, where tradition has it that the tomb of Father Abraham is located, Brother Madsen asked President Brown, “What are the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?” After a short moment of thought, President Brown answered, “Posterity.”

Brother Madsen writes: “I almost burst out, ‘Why, then, was Abraham commanded to go to Mount Moriah and offer his only hope of posterity?’

“It was clear that [President Brown], nearly ninety, had thought and prayed and wept over that question before. He finally said, ‘Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham’ ”.

Sometimes we are required to sacrifice because it shows us what we really hold dear.  Abraham needed to know that he loved the Lord more than anything else, even his own son whom he had waited for for YEARS.  Likewise as we learn to sacrifice, what we are willing to sacrifice for teaches us what we really value in this life.  

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “Whenever the Lord revealed Himself to men in ancient days, and commanded them to offer sacrifice to Him, … it was done that they might look forward in faith to the time of His coming, and rely upon the power of that atonement for a remission of their sins” .

President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) once explained to a young man struggling with his testimony that effort and struggle are necessary if we are to be saved through Jesus Christ. He told my friend, “Through sacrifice and service one comes to know the Lord.” As we sacrifice our selfish desires, serve our God and others, we become more like Him.

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught:

“We are still commanded to sacrifice, but not by shedding blood of animals. Our highest sense of sacrifice is achieved as we make ourselves more sacred or holy.

“This we do by our obedience to the commandments of God. Thus, the laws of obedience and sacrifice are indelibly intertwined. … As we comply with these and other commandments, something wonderful happens to us. … We become more sacred and holy—[more] like our Lord!” (“Lessons from Eve,” Ensign, November 1987, 88).

In fact, the word sacrifice means literally “to make sacred,” or “to render sacred.”

I recognize that this might be something very random to blog about, but I feel like I understand this principle so differently now than I did four days ago.  We always sing 'Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven' but I have never really seen how they correlated.  It brings forth blessings because the Lord can TRULY see when we are committed to him.  It is the action behind our faith.  It is us saying, 'I know that this is something that I want very much, but I know that it is not what you want for me.  I will let it go because I trust you and know that you would not ask me to do things that were not for my own good.  I will let this go because you have promised something better.'

I am grateful for the tender mercies of our Heavenly Father and for the ways that he chooses to teach us things.  This las little part is from a talk by Monte J. Brough.

Can we escape sacrifice? Not if we would be exalted. The Prophet Joseph Smith helped us understand this significant requirement when he said, “All the saints of whom we have account, in all the revelations of God which are extant, obtained the knowledge which they had of their acceptance in his sight through the sacrifice which they offered unto him”.

Our greatest blessings in this life and in the hereafter will come through our willingness to sacrifice as the Lord directs. Only through sacrifice and the faith it generates, the Prophet taught, can we achieve happiness in the eternities: “A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; for, from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things. It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life”.

The law of sacrifice should be taught and practiced in every Latter-day Saint home (see M. Russell Ballard, “The Blessings of Sacrifice,” Ensign, May 1992, 77). We do this by making repentance a part of our lives, by faithfully paying our tithes and offerings, by obeying the commandments, by doing family history work and attending the temple, by being an example to others, and by being “willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father”

That may seem absolutely impossible at times, but as we learn to be submissive, we will be shaped and molded into the people that the Savior and our Father in Heaven need us to be.  I am trying to be much more willing to sacrifice things, it isn't easy, but I know that someday it will all be worth it.

Louis, this one's for you

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine, Louis, and I drove up to Salt Lake.  While driving he brought a CD by Ingrid Michaelson, and I fell in love with this song.  I love its lyrics, and so I thought I would share them...Silly, I know.

The Chain

The sky looks pissed.
The wind talks back.
The bones are shifting in my skin and you my love are gone.

My room seems wrong.
The bed won't fit.
I can not seem to operate and you my love are gone

(Chorus)
So glide away and so be healed and promise not to promise anymore and if you come around again then i will take, then i will take the chain from off the door

I'll never say, I'll never love
but I dont say a lot of things and you my love are gone


So glide away and so be healed and promise not to promise anymore and if you come around again then i will take, then i will take the chain from off the door



So glide away and so be healed and promise not to promise anymore and if you come around again then i will take, then i will take the chain from off the door

Well, it happened.

Yesterday Steven broke up with me.  It was definately something that I wasn't expecting, especially since we had had a really fun weekend together, but he said he just couldn't do the distance for as long as we were going to have to do it.  I guess I can understand that, its not fun living apart, and its not fun only seeing each other on the weekends.  In the end I guess I just wanted it more, and that is the problem I suppose.

I don't even know really what to say about it.  I'm upset, I'm sad, and I just don't know if I can do this again.  I don't want to start over.  I don't want to move on.

I guess it doesn't really matter what I want though.  There are things I have to do...so I need to just do them.  24 hours to mourn and then on with life...right?

Reflect

I love this time of year.

I think it is because I like scarves and sweaters, but I love walking and hearing the crunch of dry leaves under my feet.  I love getting into bed and wrapping myself up in covers to avoid touching any of the cold parts.  I love realizing that another year has passed and I am one year closer to accomplishing a goal I set for myself a long time ago.  I love knowing that this time next year I will be a few months away from graduation...something that I thought I might never do.

I also love conference.  I am sure a million people will write about this, but I love hearing from General Authorities and redefining my life.  I adore those men and their faith and I love to look at my life on sunday evening and see where I am doing well and recognizing areas where I need to improve.  Something about this time of year breeds change, improvement, and just all out peace for me.