The Family

I love my family! it is the most important thing in my life! I remember this one time as a little girl, we all got together as a family to say a prayer,dad offered it... in the middle of the day...we thought it was kinda weird but we went along with it, and in his prayer he said something along the lines of "help us to have fun in Disneyland" my older brother and I just about fell out of our seats!and it felt like an eternity till he said amen, we packed up and left for Disneyland an hour later, and had a great time!
    I remember we would go camping all the time.  and this one time Corey, my older brother, brought his Bat-mobile car with him, we put some trail mix in it and watched squirrels for like 2 hours come and take the mix out of the car! It was so much fun just to sit there and watch. It is memories like this that i will remember for all of my life, and will tell my children about. This is what true Happiness and Joy is all about, creating memories with our family by spending time together, teaching eachother, learning, and growing.
   Yesterday we went to go see this wonderful lady in our ward, we felt impressed to share The Family: a Proclamation to the World. I absolutely love this Proclamation! it tells us the purpose of families, how they are supposed to function, and how we can have peace and harmony at home. It says in there:  "THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."
  I added the bold and underlined because this is what it takes to have a successful family!  I'm so grateful to have the family that i do! and that my home is founded upon principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Is our all good enough?

   This last week we have focused on the Atonement A LOT! It's been so amazing to study it! i feel like i draw closer to my Savior every time i study.  we were given a talk on Tuesday that President Bunker wanted us all to read, it is titled "The Atonement: All for All" by Bruce C. Hafen.  it is such an amazing talk!
  Elder Hafen talks about Adam and Eve, he says: "The Fall was not a disaster. It wasn’t a mistake or an accident. It was a deliberate part of the plan of salvation. We are God’s spirit “offspring,”  sent to earth “innocent”  of Adam’s transgression. Yet our Father’s plan subjects us to temptation and misery in this fallen world as the price to comprehend authentic joy. Without tasting the bitter, we actually cannot understand the sweet.  We require mortality’s discipline and refinement as the “next step in [our] development” toward becoming like our Father.  But growth means growing pains. It also means learning from our mistakes in a continual process made possible by the Savior’s grace, which He extends both during and “after all we can do.”
  He later talks about our "all" he says: "If we must give all that we have, then our giving only almost everything is not enough. If we almost keep the commandments, we almost receive the blessings."....Almost receive the blessing? that doesn't sounds good enough to me! I would like the WHOLE blessing... don't you? we talked about sacrifice...we were asked "what are you willing to put on the alter to sacrifice?" I have thought about that a lot since yesterday... what am i willing to sacrifice? Am i willing to give up my possession? my worldly things? are you willing to give up your worldly things? Elder Hafen continues..."

Some people want to keep one hand on the wall of the temple while touching the world’s “unclean things”  with the other hand. We must put both hands on the temple and hold on for dear life. One hand is not even almost enough."
    My fellow Brothers and Sisters... what are you willing to put on the Alter to sacrifice to become more spiritual? to become one with God? "When the Savior’s all and our all come together, we will find not only forgiveness of sin, “we shall see him as he is,” and “we shall be like him.”" I love you all and hope you are giving Heavenly Father your all!
 God bless all of you!

Elder Bruce C. Hafen's talk: http://lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/the-atonement-all-for-all?lang=eng

What are you willing to pay?

    
     What are you willing to pay to be closer to God? that has been sister Fulton and I theme for the day.  yesterday as we were planning for the next day (today) and we pulled out a book on the heritage of the early saints of this church.  I was reading about there trials, the triumph's, and there victories! they were so courageous.  In the Book Our Heritage in the 6th chapter it talks about a man who crossed in the Martin Handcart Company and he was over hearing 2 people talk about the leaders of the church and criticizing them for making them come when they did.  the man listened till he could bear no more, he turned the the 2 men and spoke with such great emotion saying:
   "I was in that company and my wife was in it... we suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism?... We came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.  "
  " I have pulled my handcart when i was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that i could hardly put one foot ahead of the other.  i have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and i have said, i can go only that far and there i must give up, for i cannot pull the load through it... I have gone on to that sand and when i reached it, the cart began pushing me... i knew that the angels of God were there. was I Sorry that i chose to come by handcart? NO. neither then nor any minute of my life since.  The price we paid to become acquainted  with God was a privilege to pay, and i am thankful that i was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company."

Brother's and Sister's, what are we willing to pay to become acquainted with God? are we truly giving of ourselves? are we helping the people we need? are we following the promptings of the Spirit?
  I am so thankful for the pioneer's who came across the plains so that we would be able to worship our God freely! I love this gospel with all my heart! I am trying to do everything i can to become more acquainted with my God. 

Sisterhood

    Last week we had our sisters conference, It was just amazing to be around all of the sister's in the California Santa Rosa mission.  there was about 40 of us there and I have never felt that much love and of a connection to any group of girls than I did them.  There is a link between all sisters and as the scriptures tell us we are all sons and daughters of God which makes us all brothers and sisters.  we are bound together because of our choice to serve a mission. Sister's are not required to serve mission's but can do so if they choose, our mission is full of Elders so sisters are few and far between. 
  at our conference we were asked to share an experience or a trial that we had on our missions and a scripture that helped us get through it.  the "theme" i guess you could call was inadequacy or weakness, we shared our experiences and the scripture, for every girl that got up and every experience they felt, I have felt, every scripture they shared was what i needed to hear.  I felt like every sister was talking to me.  I'm pretty sure that every sister in that room felt the same way.  some of the sisters shared scriptures from the Book of Mormon, Alma 7:11-13, Alma 40:11-12, the Bible: Matthew 11:28-30, Romans 8:15-18.
   In my family I am the only girl out of 5 kids.  for growing up in a family of mostly boys I am pretty girly and I have my mom and dad to thank for that.  my dad never let me mow the lawn because its a boys job, or pull weed's.  but i was taught how to clean the house and cook food.  It is something that I enjoy doing now (not so much the cleaning part, but having everything clean).
   I am so grateful for this gospel and for all that it teaches me to do. I am so grateful for all the sisters that i serve around, they all teach me so much, I am grateful for all of my past companions and future ones.  i have learned so much from each of them.  I love my savior and my Heavenly Father and all that they teach me.  I'm so glad that i was prompted to serve a mission and that i was called to serve in the CASRM.  I'm grateful for parents who helped instill my womanly nature.

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