The Power of Prayer and a Loving Heavenly Father

I'd like to start by apologizing to my readers for having not written in a while but to be honest I haven't felt like to doing much of anything for a while.

I know that many of my readers will be wondering what happened with my girlfriend. I will not put the details on here. I will simply say however, that I am writing a poem about it entitled "I Am Not A Boat". If you'd like details call, text me, or message me and I'll do my best to respond and give you the details. I apologize to those who have done so and I haven't responded.

The last few weeks have been long and hard. I will say that I know that our Heavenly Father answers prayers. I have felt that more as of late. The week of my breakup was hard for me emotionally. I was blessed to have one of my good friends in town, my old roommate Victor. I will admit that it was a great blessing to have him listen to me every night of this hard week. Having him there was an answer to a prayer.

This weekend I went "home" to Utah to visit my family and to be a part of a baby blessing of my nephew Nikolai. He is really cute.

It was nice to be around my family and have them support me through this rough period of life. I feel like the love that they have shown for me is reminder of how much my Heavenly Father love me. A few weeks ago, I listened to a devotional by Brother Walquist given at school some time ago. It was called "Lord, is it I?". If you click on the link, it will take you to a page that should have a different forms of the talk. It was a really good talk and it made reflect on what I was doing. One thing of which it reminded is that we, as Latter-day Saints, have commandment to pray vocally. I will admit that I have been pretty bad at keeping this one. Within the last few weeks, I have done my best to obey this commandment more. I will say that these prayers have made it easier to focus and to see the answers to my prayers. I would like to invite you my readers to try praying vocally. I promise that you'll more readily see the blessings that our Heavenly Father pours out upon you. I hope y'all have a good week!

Stand Ye in Holy Places

The last couple of weeks have been interesting. I finished listening the first book of the Hunger Games. It is a very interesting series and I'm hoping to get the second book soon, so that I can finish it. For the past several weeks, I would listen to part of the story on my I-pod while I was doing my laundry. I liked this so much that when I finally finished the Hunger Games, I went looking for another audio book to listen too. I found a nice website LibriVox that has free audio books that are in the public domain. Almost all of their books are classics, but very good. Lately I have been listening to Peter Pan. One day recently I realized that Pan is the Greek god of the wild; I learned this from the Percy Jackson series. So I thought that Peter Pan's name was rather clever hint at his slightly "wild" nature. it's a well written book with beautiful prose that are almost musical in nature. The next book that I am looking at listening to is Jane Eyre. If anyone knows other places that I can find free audio books please let me know. I will also say that I am over half way through "To The Rescue" which has been good but heavily detailed.

These last couple of weeks have been rough on Barbara and I. She's a ton of homework, sickness and long days of work. I've done my best to help cheer her up and keep her motivated to do her homework. I've been struggling with somethings of my own. I have two callings now that I love but both are a lot harder than I had thought they'd be. Both have been fun but hard. I'm hoping and praying that I can get a hang of them here soon. Luckily for the last two weekends, Barbara and I have been able to go to the Idaho Falls temple because the Rexburg temple is closed for cleaning. Before going with Barbara, I hadn't been to the temple for two weeks and I was sorely missing it. As many of my readers may know, I love going to the temple. It is a special place where we can feel the Spirit of the Lord more strongly than in other locations. During the last few weeks, it struck me that I don't know when or if I'll ever be able to see my home in North Carolina every again; having grown up in that house, it was a very sad thought. Something that I have come to realize is that for me, going to the temple is like going home. It is a place where I can feel comfortable and secure from the storms and tempests of life. At the temple, I can also receive guidance, comfort, and counsel from my Father in Heaven. I love going to the temple on a regular basis. It wasn't until I was on my mission that I realized the blessing of being able to go the temple regularly. I met many people in France who had to plan for months to be able to the temple just once during the year! After seeing such devotion by the latter-day saints of France, I decided that if I lived close to a temple, that I would go to it as often as I could just like those French saints would. Having been home for a while, I have learned that I need to go the temple to help keep me on the path that the Lord would have me on. I hope for my readers that you do your best to go to the nearest temple. I promise you that you will be guided by the Lord there to understand the things that you need to.

So I included this picture because I see this ring on my hand everyday. It is a CLB ring which means "Choisir le bien" or "Choose the right". I really like this silly ring because I have had it for over two years now. It reminds me of my love for the French and France, and to do my best to choose the right.

I hope that y'all have a good week. Que Dieu vous benissiez!

The Power of Hymns

Sorry, my dear readers, I have been extremely busy with school, work, and my wonderful girlfriend.

The reason I did not post on Sunday, (I don't know why I didn't post the Sunday before that) was because I was Utah and then traveling back up to here. I went on a spur of the moment road trip with my girlfriend Barbara to visit her biological mom who had stopped in Salt Lake City. We had a lot of fun and got to know each other better.

What has stuck out to me this week, is the power of hymns. In the opening of an LDS hymnal, there is a message from the First Presidency about the importance of hymns. A line from it reads "Some of the greatest sermons are preached by the singing of hymns." I will admit that the first time that I read that line that I was stuck out to me because I thought it was really odd. This past week has highlighted the power of hymns. Some of my most powerful experiences with Spirit were while I was listening to or singing a hymn. The lyrics often speak truth and sometimes when you are relate to a certain line it can bring the whole hymn home and bring the Spirit into your heart in a powerful way.

So my challenge to you is to find a hymn and sing it or to read the lyrics while listening to a recorded version. I promise that if you want it that the Holy Ghost will bear witness to you that the lyrics of that song contain eternal truths. Have a good week!

Being Sensitive....to the Spirit that is

I figure I will start out by updating you on what happened yesterday. This is what happened: woke up, work, lunch, homework, comforting a friend, homework, dinner, dance, evening chat. Here's the best best picture of me and a couple of my friends at the dance.
Megan, try not to make weird noises or twitch too much when you see this photo.

Today, I got up and went to Church was good but could have been better if I had managed to get to sleep a bit earlier.

So as today I found a theme that the Lord has given me for the last week. It like my title indicates, that we need to be sensitive to the Spirit. I have to say that is something that I struggled with remaining sensitive to the Spirit. It requires a lot of repenting and doing the right thing no matter how tired, hungry, or what type of 'mood' you are in. It also requires not giving in to those ideas to say something that you know will drive the Spirit away or is inappropriate.

This afternoon, I was reading a devotional given by Elder Bednar when he was just President Bednar of BYU-Idaho, entitled "Line Upon Line" which has some of the same material he used in his talk during the April general conference "The Spirit of Revelation". I found this talk because it was recommended to my teacher Brother Lon Pyper, who has been a spiritual mentor of sorts for me up here, back in 2009 while I struggling to make a decision. I think I'll try to get a picture with him so that you, my dear readers, can have a face with the name but I digress. In this talk he talks about how if we are keeping the commandments and are diligent then we will receive revelation. He says that often times "we receive a series of seemingly small and incremental spiritual impressions and nudges, which in totality constitute the desired confirmation about the correctness of the path which we are pursuing." I like that quote because I've started noticing those 'nudges'. He also talks about the relationship between faith, obedience, wisdom and desire, which I have diagrammed below.

Faith --> Obedience --> Wisdom --> Greater desire for added light and truth

I would also like to note that it dawned on me today, that while Elder Bednar gave both of these talks, the difference being that he was ordained an Apostle in between them, that he has the same basic testimony that he has always had; though his testimony of the principles of the gospel is obviously much stronger now then it was then.

So I would like to encourage you, mes chèrs lecteurs et lectrices, to try to remain sensitive to the Spirit. I promise you that as you do the Lord will guide and help you. He will sustain you in your trials and amplify your joys amid your sorrows. I hope that each you have a good week as you strive to be sensitive to the Spirit.

Some Days I Miss the Rain

I wanted to post earlier this week but sadly I was busy between being ill with a sinus and ear infection, work and school. The end of this week has been largely uneventful for me. Also if anyone has photos of things, people, or places that they want to take pictures of please let me know. I am in need of more ideas.

My title comes from a thought that I had on Friday. I stayed home and did my best to rest; I am my father's son and sitting still and doing nothing are difficult. I did some homework sitting in my room. I was sitting in my room when a rain storm erupted outside. It was lovely and it even reached the point of being a massive down pour. I very much wanted to go out and run around in it but I knew that it would be a poor decision especially because I was missing school because I was already sick.

So on Thursday I worked and after work I was in a good mood for some reason that I don't recall. On my way home a saw a couple of cute girls, and decided to say hi. I said hi in passing and gave them a smile. Then I saw a couple and decided not to say hi to them. The guy said "Hi Smilely Guy." I thought that it was funny because I had an ear and sinus infection and felt more tired than happy. This incident reminded me of a time in middle school; I need to say that for me, my middle school years were rather depressing. I had a friend of mine who was having a crisis in her life and felt that she needed more than what her religion was providing her. She asked a few of friends before asking me about my religion. She started asking by saying something to the effect of "Albert, you're always so happy and I want to know why". I will always remembering thinking about how odd it seemed to me that I could appear happy to someone else, even when, in my mind, I felt miserable. I have since decided that it is because I have the Gospel in my life. I think that because I do my best to live the Gospel that Heavenly Father helps me to see the bright side in even the darkest of situations.

I took the picture below because I did this without thinking while making a sandwich and it ties in so when to this post.

My spiritual thought for this week comes from something that I learned while reading a talk by President Eyring of the First Presidency that he gave at BYU-Idaho in 2001 called "A Steady, Upward Course". I haven't finished the talk yet but from I've read it's very good and it was given only a week after Sept. 11.

In the talk, he talks about the phrase "Remember who you are" which is repeated by some parents to their children as they walk out the door on their way to an activity. He says that this phrase assumes that "you had asked and answered a question correctly to know who you really are." He says that if we have answered this question "well and wisely" that it will allow us to progress in the changing world. In his talk, he refers to teenagers and the confusing period of life that they're going through. I remember being a rather confused teenager and like Joseph Smith wanting to know my standing before the Lord. So at the age of 14, I sought out my patriarchal blessing. In it Heavenly Father makes it clear what He wanted me to do and who He wants me to be. Ever since I figured out who I was to my Father in Heaven, it has a world of difference to me in my life. Remembering that I am a son of my Father and that He expects a lot of me, has helped me to make the right decision in numerous occasions. The Spirit made it clear to me that this was why, He had reminded me so many times of my eternal identity. This revelation humbled me and I thanked my Heavenly Father for those reminders of who I am.

I hope that this week, if you haven't asked who you are that you will ask. I hope you ask our Father in Heaven so that He may witness to you that you are really His son or daughter whom He loves. I feel impressed to remind you, mes chèrs lecteurs et lectrices, that you should never resist running out in the rain of the Atonement. I know from past experience that the Atonement of our Savior can wash off the all filth on you so that you can be the real you, a child of Heavenly Father. Please do not hesitate to use the power of the Atonement. It will cleanse you from sins from which you thought you never could be clean and it can heal all wounds no matter how deep. I testify of this in the Savior's name who's sacrifice can make us clean, even Jesus Christ, amen.

A Nugget

First, I'm glad to be alive. I've had a hard week but I've managed to get everything do that I needed to. I was pretty stressed about finals and some other things.

I've been reminded that discouragement is a tool that Satan uses against us. I've felt a little bit of that and other negative emotions. I'm looking forward to seeing my lovely family next week. Well most of them minus two of them but I guess it's okay since my sister, Catherine is going to hatch my future niece or nephew.

I'm grateful that I've been able to feel strongly the Spirit this last week even if I wasn't able to make it to the temple this week. On Saturday, July 16th, I was able to do an ordinance for one my families ancestors. It was neat experience and I love feeling the Spirit of the temple. I felt like it was a tender mercy from the Lord to feel the Spirit in His house and at other times during the week. To me it is a testament of how much the Lord loves and cares for us. I know that He is aware of our situation and that He loves us. He wants things to work out for you, even if that plan is different from how you imagined it. I hope that you continue to learn and grow in your understanding and testimony of His gospel. The Lord has amazing things in store for you. May the Lord bless you to see His hand and how much He loves you is my prayer in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ amen.