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!

Written for Their Good

I apologize to my readers for not having written in a while. I was going to post on Sunday but then my nephew decided that he wanted to come into the world. So I decided to hold off until he was born. Well the last few weeks I had to get over a cold that I caught from my roommate a few days after I got back here in Rexburg.

For the past several weeks, I've been reading President Monson's biography "To The Rescue". Two weeks ago, I read about how he was in a stake conference, when he was called upon (without an interview beforehand, which is normal) to become a mission president over the Eastern Canada mission. Acting in faith he excepted the calling. When I read this part that I laughed to myself and thought about how nice it was that this type of situation didn't happen anymore in the Church. Well the very next Sunday, the bishop of my ward, Bishop Wagner, called my name and had me sustained to two callings for which he hadn't really interviewed me. This is one of the many times, that I know that the Lord truly does have a sense of humor.

The following week I was released from my calling of being assistant ward clerk. It was almost 9 months to the day that I'd had that calling. It was interesting because as much work and despite the many long Sundays that this calling had required, I'd really come to love it. For about 9 months, I'd been able to work with my bishopric on a weekly basis. I can tell you that they are just as human as you or I are. They have jobs, families, and worries like other middle-aged men. But I can also testify that these humble men are inspired of God. They have given callings to young adults that they barely know and yet those people have been ideal for those callings. They ask these same young people to give talks every week, and the talks that they give are inspired often despite their speaking abilities. To be honest, there are many Sundays when I feel blessed to be a member of the Lord's true church.

These last few weeks, I've done a lot of scripture reading, listened to a quite a few devotionals, and I've even been blessed to listen to an Apostle, Elder L. Tom Perry come speak at my university. Needless to say, it was rather difficult for me to come up with an idea as to my spiritual thought to share. I know someone reading this post will say that I've already shared one but that wasn't entirely intentional. In the last few weeks, I will say that I've had an epiphany. If you don't know what that word means or are too lazy to look it up on Dictionary.com then I'll try to explain what I understand it to be. For me, it was like I'd been struck by lightening and I suddenly understand something. Growing up, I'd always heard the phrase that "The Book of Mormon" had been written for our day but I had always figured that this was more of a figurative meaning rather than literal. Well during the past few weeks, my little brother Aaron wrote a post about his political views about a certain subject. This sparked a conversation and I ended up reading some articles posted up by uncle Chris that were written by Orson Scott Card. I want to remind my readers that he is the author of my favorite series "The Tales of Alvin Maker". Anyways, I was reading one of the articles by Brother Card when I had my epiphany. The Spirit made it perfectly clear to me that was a correlation between what HAD happened in the Book of Mormon and what we are experiencing TODAY. Earlier I read this scripture written by Nephi to the Gentiles (or non-Jews) where he writes "for I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days; for in that day shall they understand them; wherefore, for their good have I written them." (2 Nephi 25:8) It was a moment that changed my life and, at the time, sent chills down my spine. Now I can testify as did President Benson that "The Book of Mormon... was written for our day. The Nephites never had the book; neither did the Lamanites of ancient times. It was meant for us. Mormon wrote near the end of the Nephite civilization. Under the inspiration of God, who sees all things from the beginning, he abridged centuries of records, choosing the stories, speeches, and events that would be most helpful to us." (Emphasis added)

I hope that those of you, my dear readers, who have read the Book of Mormon will try looking for how the Book of Mormon relates to our day. If you're having trouble with it, ask the Lord to help you see it and I promise you that He will help you to see how it relates. To those of you, my readers, who haven't read the Book of Mormon. I challenge you to get a copy of it; they are sold at many different places or you get them for free from some LDS missionaries. I ask you to read it. I want you to know that I know that this book was written by prophets inspired by God and that it was written for us. If you ask God about it's truthfulness, He will tell you in your heart. Then if you decide to follow the Lord, it will change your life as it has mine.

For any of those who have forgotten, my dear nephew Nikolai was born just two days ago.

And I am now 24. I hope that y'all have a good week!

Trust in the Lord and Be Not Afraid

Since the last post I have been united with my wonderful girlfriend and spent time with my family. After my girlfriend finally made it to my parents house we exchanged our Christmas gifts. Sadly, I got Barbara ANOTHER journal while she got me an awesome CD and the second season of Avatar: the Last Airbender which is my favorite TV series. I feel bad that my gift for her was not as good. The day after Barbara got in we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. We talked to two different sets of sister missionaries. The first set of sisters talked to us about the gospel and the need to share it. The second set we talked to because I really wanted to speak French with someone and Barbara was kind enough to let me do so.

The next day Barbara and I went on a triple date with my sister Catherine and my brother-in-law Jesse, and Megan and Garret (Megan's boyfriend). It was a lot of fun even if I did a lot of ice cream, Garret was close to falling asleep (due to a super long delay), and we ended up talking more than playing games. On the first of January, my family, Barbara and Garret, and myself all went to church together. The next day, my parents left with my sister Megan, Garret, and a friend from North Carolina. Barbara was really kind and we traveled up to Rexburg later that same day.

I have now returned to apartment in Rexburg. Barabara celebrated her 23rd birthday on the first day of school which seems to me to be just a bit cruel. Luckily, I was able to take her out to dinner for birthday. We went to a local Thai restaurant which was really good. We also got to watch the second part of the seventh Harry Potter because Barbara hadn't seen it and she liked it. Well I've gone back to work and got myself settled and caught a cold. So I've been trying to fight it and get everything else done.

My spiritual thought this time comes from second Nephi chapter 22; here Nephi is quoting the 12th chapter of Isaiah, it reads "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid..." I like this part because, I know that sometimes fears can seem to overwhelm us. Fear of failing, fear of not knowing the future, fear of losing someone, can seem to block out all the hope that we have for our lives. But we have to remember to trust in the Lord and His promises, and we must do as Ether directs those who believe in God that they "might with surety hope for a better world." Once we have learned to trust the Lord and hope for a better world then we must move forward and do what we can. I know that the Lord's promises to us are true and that He will fulfill them in His own time. I hope that y'all have started your new year right. I hope y'all have a good week!

And Upon These I Write the Things of My Soul

So these last two week have been pretty crazy with clean checks, finals, going down to Utah, and the holidays. I love spending time with my family and even being able to help my friend Crystal stay sane. On the other hand, I have really missed my girlfriend and I missed being able to always be there for her. Luckily, I was able to go to the Salt Lake City temple with my friend Crystal.

These holidays have been interesting because my sister Catherine is nearing the end of her pregnancy and her little boy tends to move around quiet a bit. Being the oldest of four kids I remember being little and feeling my mom's stomach when she was pregnant with my two youngest siblings. It now strikes me as odd to realize that my sister that I grew up with, that I was little with, will be having a little person of her own soon.

For me, this is one of those things that is mile marker. It is also reminder that we all are in different phases of life and that we will always move from one phase to another, often silently and slowly. I think some of the greatest changes in this world are often silent and slow, and if we are not careful we may over look them.

These last few weeks have been enjoyable but hectic. I will admit that in the last few weeks I have not been as diligent in my journal writing as I ought to have been; hence why this post has been less events and more thoughts. For about the last month or so, I have been going through the Book of Mormon again because I haven't done so since I was on my mission in 2009. Since then my life has taken many turns and I have had many scriptural classes both of which have greatly improved my understanding.

A few weeks ago, I ran across a scripture that stuck out to me. It's found in 2 Nephi chapter 4, in this chapter Nephi talks about the plates and what they mean to him; he writes about them in these terms "And upon these (the plates) I write the things of my soul... Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord..." (verse 15, 16) I like these verses because I to me, that is what I should writing about in my journal "the things of my soul". In a small extent, I feel that I understand it's importance. My grandpa Sebright wrote a journal while he was in school. Years later after he had passed away, my dad read it and it helped him to come closer to his father. Think about it this way, if someone only knew you from what you wrote in your journal, would they recognize your personality? Would they understand your motives? My challenge to you and myself my dear readers is to try and do better at your journal writing and try to write more of "the things of [your] soul" upon them. May the Lord bless and keep you is my prayer. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A Grateful Currant Bush

This week has been good but a little long because I worked hard on a big project and getting other things done. This week I had a ton of papers, finals, and other things that I needed to get done. Between this post and the last one, I have been able to give one of my good friends, Crystal Champion, two priesthood blessings of comfort because she was going through a really rough time since she's graduating this week and starting a whole new adventure. I won't lie, I'm going to miss her because she's like a sister to me. We've been friends since we both started school back in 2006. We're both dorks who love the South, the gospel and who both speak French (I speak it more than she does but she does a good job understanding me).

A few weeks ago, Barbara and I attended the annual Jane Austen Yule Ball. It was lots of fun to get dressed like the guys on Pride and Prejudice. For those of you who don't know, I have read the book and my favorite movie version is the A&E 5 hour version. I should note that it seemed to take quiet a while to get changed into the garb which made me thankful that I didn't live in that time period. It was a lot of fun doing the dances and seeing lots of different people that I know. Here's a good picture of Barbara and I.

Going back to the blessings that I gave Crystal, it was interesting because in one of them, I told her as the Spirit directed that "Heavenly Father was proud of what [she'd] done with the friendships that [she'd] made and the lives of the people [she had] blessed." I had to pause for a moment after that because it was a tender moment because my friend Crystal truly has blessed my life.

So this last week, I reflected a bit on my past and where I thought I'd be. I was reminded of the talk "The Currant Bush" by Hugh B. Brown. This is one of my favorite talks and some of my longer readers will recognize that this is not the first reference that I've made to it. I remember feeling like the currant bush earlier this year because I through a third and rather painful breakup. Coming to the close of a year, I am definitely not were I planned to be and this next year will be to be interesting and full of new challenges. While Elder Hugh B. Brown saw some 50 years later that the Lord had hurt him to put him on a new path, for me it has not been 50 years but I will say that I am thankful for the path that the Lord has put me on. Because here, I have been able to help my friends and family, and I was able to meet Barbara. Barbara has been a great blessing in my life (for the short time that she's been a part of it) and she has helped me to learn things that I could not have learned anywhere else.

I hope that you my dear readers will be able to look at your past and see the places where God put you on another path even if it meant hurting you a bit. I hope that you will see His hand directing you and thatone day, like I am today, you will be thankful for Him redirecting your life so that you grow more and better become who He wants you to be. This is my prayer for you. I hope y'all have a good week!

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!