The Power of Choice

So this week started out with me fighting the despair and discouragement; it seems to me that Satan must have been running a campaign against me. I asked Heavenly Father to help me overcome but promised to do what I can to overcome it. I will say that Heavenly Father helped provide me with love and support that I needed. I want to share an idea that helped me. I have made a list of songs that I call my "Pick Me Up" . I listened to that song which contains a mixture of my favorite hymns and quite a few of my favorite modern songs that have positive music and positive lyrics. Listening to these songs truly helped keep me buoyed up through that rough patch.

On Tuesday, I think I had a pretty powerful lesson in Brother Pyper's class; his pictured below with me. One of my class mates told a story from her life and taught us an application of scripture.

This week, I had a string of good scripture study sessions mainly because I followed the promptings of the Spirit and I read some different talks and scriptures that I wouldn't normally have read. On Friday I went and watched a movie with one of my good friends, Chellie. The movie is called "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time". As may be obvious from the title, it was about time travel. I liked the movie because without meaning to, it highlighted how our simple choices have a large impact over the long run. This seems to have been a theme for me, at least this weekend.

The last two days the stake to which my sister and I belong has had it's stake conference. It has been very good to get so much instruction. This afternoon, a girl in my French class (who's apparently in my stake) gave a really good talk about the Atonement and choice. She said that everyday she gets on her knees and tells the Lord that she's going to give or loan him her agency; I really like that idea and want to set that as a goal for myself. Another sister in our stake referenced President Ucthdorf's talk "A Matter of a Few Degrees" and said that we should also look at that a few degrees of improvement can have a large impact for good. She also encouraged us to get to the temple as often as we can.

So this week I'm going to try to make some improvements in my life. One of them is smiling. I feel that if I'm happy that I should be smiling more than I do. Another thing that I'm going to do is pondering after doing scripture study so that I can better apply it. I will continue to make a small list of things to improve. My challenge to you is to find small things that you can improve and to make those choices and stick with them because you don't know the importance it may have in your life.

The Greenie Theory

So this week has been long and kinda hard but the good news is that it ended with my family coming up. Then the next day I had a date.

Monday we had a fun HE. One of my roommates planned it. First we played a game of missionary tag. Then we did a fun activity that had someone get their face dirty in the dark. Then the same girl named Monika volunteered to have her face remade into a Sundae. So we did that. Here are some photos.

I should mention that the guy Monika is hugging is my roommate Risto. He's one who came up with both the ideas that got Monika dirty. So you can see that she was just being "sweet" and sharing with him.

On Friday my family came up from Utah to spend some time with me and my sister Megan (Refer to last post). We had dinner together at Applebees which was really good. We had fun and got to feel like a family again.

Saturday morning I worked and then I came home. My date happened earlier than planned because she had some time constraints. I made Sloppy Joes that were more like soupy joes because I added too much water. My date brought a cinnamon apples in syrup which was really good. We decided to make Muddy Buddies (also known as puppy chow) on the spur of the moment which was messy but fun. Before I left, my date gave me a full bag of muddy buddies to take home. This is what's left.

On Tuesday we had another excellent devotional given by a Brother Wilkins who's grandfather was President Harold B. Lee. He gave a great talk about not worrying about the future but living to the fullest today as the best preparation for today. To be honest I really needed to hear that. As of late I've been worrying a lot about my immediate future in different aspects and it was creating a burden of worry and doubt. This burden had been stressing me out and limiting my productivity. So I talked to the Lord and I've worked at removing it; that talk helped me because it's changed my attitude about how to deal with stressful things.

I came to realize that this burden has stopped me from doing something important. Stretching myself. No, I'm not talking about making myself taller (as nice as that might be). I mean getting out of your comfort zone and learning. My religion teacher Brother Pyper (I'll get a picture of him one day, I promise) has a theory that I believe is at least partly correct called the Greenie Theory (hence the title). It goes that when one goes on a mission, you get in the MTC and you're nervous and don't know what to do and you're really uncomfortable but learning and growing a lot. Then you're sent to the mission field and the same thing happens. This cycle repeats itself at many other different stages of our lives.

I think that can be like being humbled. Originally the Lord will humble us but as we grow more spiritually mature, then He expects us to humble ourselves. If we forget, then He will come along and humble us again. I feel like the Lord will initially move you out of your comfort zone but eventually He expects you to do that by yourself. I personally had forgotten and it had created a spiritual burden that I had not consciously recognized until this week.

Remember that God created "things to act and things to be acted upon" (2 Nephi 2:14). We must act for ourselves. If want our talents to grow we cannot bury them in the ground or use them solely for our own benefit; we must take them to the money changers or use them to help others then and only then will our talents grow. If we do no use our talents, we will find them diminished or taken away. I hope that each you looks for you talents. If don't know them, go find some one to serve. I promise that you'll find them then. I hope you find a way to stretch yourself and find a way to get out of your comfort zone so that you can grow in the Lord's way. This my humble prayer. Have a good week!