One thing that stood out to me as I reread 2 Nephi 31 was verse 10: "can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?" (vs. 12 also talks about being willing.) In the sacrament prayer on the bread, we say that we are willing to take upon us the name of Christ and always remember Him and keep His commandments. None of us do these things perfectly. None of us actually keep His commandments perfectly...so it is so beautiful that the Lord accepts not just our actual performance but also our willingness to try. He is good to me, so much beyond what I deserve or "earn" or "qualify for"... I also want to think more about the phrase in verse 19 "unshaken faith"...because I definitely have faith, but I think that sometimes my faith does get a little bit shaken so I want to ponder how to reach that point of having unshaken faith...what exactly that would look like for me and what I would need to do to get there.
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Why I Stay
An Instagram page that I follow asked us to consider and perhaps share why--when so many are choosing to turn their back on religion--why we stay. I've been thinking about this and there are so many answers I could give. Here is what is on my mind and heart today as I think about why I stay.
First and foremost, I love the Savior Jesus Christ. Christ has given me everything. Everything that really matters to me is a gift from Him.
The words of John 6 come to mind:
66 ¶ From that time many of his adisciples went back, and bwalked no more with him.
67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the awords of eternal life.
69 And awe believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the bSon of the living God.
Where would I go if I left? Christ is the source of all that is good in my life. How could I walk away from Him?
About 6 months ago, I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. It was based on Elder Renlund's talk in October 2020 We Talk of Christ. I've thought a lot about his words since October.
He said,
Like a guiding star in a clear, dark sky, Jesus Christ lights our way. He came to earth in a humble stable. He lived a perfect life. He healed the sick and raised the dead. He was a friend to the forgotten. He taught us to do good, to obey, and to love one another. He was crucified on a cross, rising majestically three days later, allowing us and those we love to live beyond the grave. With His incomparable mercy and grace, He took upon Himself our sins and our suffering, bringing forgiveness as we repent and peace in the storms of life. We love Him. We worship Him. We follow Him. He is the anchor of our souls.
He spoke a bit about how so many are choosing to walk away from religion. Some predict that in the next few decades more than twice as many people will leave Christianity as join it. What should we do in such tumultuous times when it may seem unpopular to believe in Christ? We should strengthen our faith in Christ and learn of Him. He said,
You and I speak of Jesus Christ, but maybe we can do a little better. If the world is going to speak less of Him, who is going to speak more of Him? We are! Along with other devoted Christians!
I want to be among those who speak more of Christ!
Why else do I stay?
I stay because I love the temple. When I go to the temple, I literally feel power and peace envelop me. I find greater strength, guidance, clarity, hope, revelation, joy, love, perspective and knowledge when I attend the temple often (or even reflect on my experiences there and honor my covenants if attending the temple isn't possible such as during the pandemic.) In the temple I come to see more clearly who I am and who and what I can become. I am cleansed and purified. I become more holy, more whole, and a little more like Christ.
I stay because I love my family. The thought of spending eternity without them makes my heart ache. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ and the covenant path offer me the opportunity to live with my family forever.
I stay because I love to serve. I grow as I magnify callings, as I struggle, as I increase my faith, and as I accept assignments that stretch me. I am able to develop relationships with other imperfect people who are also trying to be disciples of Christ. Trying to develop unity and love with others who have different weaknesses and strengths, opinions and backgrounds than me, with those who have questions and doubts but are trying to live lives of faith makes me a stronger, better, and more Christlike person.
I stay because the Spirit has witnessed to me that the gospel is true. Over and over again, the Spirit has whispered to me that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. Despite my weaknesses and questions and mistakes, the Holy Ghost speaks to me and guides me. It is a privilege and a tremendous blessing to have the gift of the Holy Ghost to strengthen, guide, comfort, purify, teach, and bring things to my remembrance. I can't imagine going through life without the guiding influence of the Holy Ghost. How can I leave when I know it is true?
I stay because I am grateful for the gift of repentance. I am so grateful that I can repent and be forgiven. I am grateful that I don't have to carry the burden of guilt throughout life. The gospel urges me to change, to turn away from bad habits, improve, put aside selfishness, and become the best version of me. I'm grateful that who I am today does not have to be who I am in 5 months or 5 years or 50 years or 5,000 years--that I can continue to progress and eventually be perfected in Christ. That is the GREATEST news I know.
I stay because I believe the covenant path is a path of growth, struggle, learning and JOY. It is a path of becoming.
Language Minister Temple
I was able to attend the temple this morning. I've been a couple of times in July but this was my first time doing an endowment session since the beginning of March 2020. One of the men at the recommend desk thanked me for coming to the temple and "bringing your 1,000 watt smile". I couldn't help smiling...I was so happy to be there! I ran into Olevia Tafiti, a teacher I worked with at Mountain View about 15 years ago. She is an ordinance worker so I see her from time to time at the Jordan River Temple. I gave her a big hug; it was so good to see her.
I was near tears through much of the endowment. I have been reading The Temple Experience by Wendy Ulrich so I was eager to think about some of the things I've read as I was in the temple. I didn't have any huge epiphanies, but several small ones.
Before the endowment session began, there were four individuals who needed headsets to translate. The temple workers made sure they had what they needed. One of their headsets wasn't functioning so they got a new one and then stood by to make sure it was going to work. It was a small and simple thing, but I watched as they cared for this individual, one by one, making sure that he could understand the endowment in his own language. It reminded me that God cares for each one of us, individually. We should also care for one another.
It also made me think of D&C 1:24: "24 Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these acommandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their blanguage, that they might come to cunderstanding."
And 2 Nephi 31:3 "3 For my soul delighteth in plainness; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding.
Lessons Learned: God speaks to us so we can understand.
Each person is precious in the sight of God.
We should patiently and lovingly care for one another.
Friday, July 30, 2021
Simple Sources of Happiness
My friend Veronica posted a list of things that make her happy on Facebook. It was so fun reading her list. So I decided to create my own!
Things that bring me joy or happiness:
Feeling the spirit
Fresh pine/mountain air
Time spent on water in boats (any kind)
Waterfalls
Helping others
Talking with friends
Reaching a goal
Watching the sunset
Fresh baked bread
Holding babies
Reading a good book while drinking hot chocolate and snuggled under a blanket
Reflecting on happy memories
Attending the temple
Learning new things
Snuggling with Alfredo
Kayaking
Seeing a student make progress
Connecting with someone new
Recognizing an answer to prayer
Singing a song that brings me peace
Writing in my journal
Sunrises and sunsets
Making a child smile or laugh
Playing games if we don’t get too competitive
Discussing the scriptures or gospel
Looking through photos of past happy moments
Having people over for dinner
Traveling somewhere new
Girls camp
Flowers
Being at church
Partaking of the sacrament
Bearing testimony of truth
Being forgiven
Getting my hair cut and styled
seeing my children succeed at something
Spending time with family
Watching plays and musicals
Hiking by rivers
Delicious food
Smelling fragrant roses
Seeing tulips
Rainbows
The smell after a rain storm
Looking at the stars when camping
Sitting around a campfire
Fresh fruit
Dessert
Taking a long bubble bath
Seeing animals in nature
Seeing a variety of plants and animals
Walking
Watching snow fall from inside the house
Being reminded of who I am as a precious daughter of God
Teaching, especially teaching the gospel
Listening to the All In podcast or podcasts about Come Follow Me
Having summers off with my children
Seeing that I'm improving at something...right now that's playing the piano. (I started taking lessons in January. I'm not very good, but I'm slowly making progress.)
Trying a new recipe and having others love it.
Knowing that something I did genuinely helped someone else.
Looking at art that speaks to me.
Hearing others' gospel related experiences
Sending and receiving hand written notes
Friday, July 23, 2021
Remember Better Genova
As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been reading Remember by Lisa Genova. It was really interesting and I've found myself talking about it with several people. I already created one post about it, but I wanted to do another post with my take aways. Some of them I already mentioned, but the more you read, write and talk about something the more likely you are to remember it (although not necessarily accurately...if you rehearse inaccuracies, you will remember inaccuracies).
The biggest thing I want to remember is that while our memories aren't our whole selves, the way we store and retrieve memories can have a big impact on our happiness. In any vacation, event, etc. there is usually a combination of good and bad. If we focus on, discuss, recount, and replay the bad parts then our overall feeling is going to be that it was bad. If we focus on, discuss, recount and replay the good parts then our overall memory is going to be that it was good. Now this doesn't mean that we should only remember the good or try to pretend that nothing bad ever happens. But the way we tell the story matters. For example, I've told several people that I nearly died climbing Izalco and then I laugh and say that's an exaggeration...but that it was very hard for me. If I focus my thoughts and retelling on how hard it is, as time passes I may forget how Ella stayed with me for the climb down from Izalco and how Alfredo stayed with me as we climbed back up Cerro Verde. I may forget how they both encouraged me and helped me keep going. I may forget that Isaiah 40 and the song "Walk Tall" gave me strength and how I repeated to myself "I am strong. I'm a daughter of God. I am courageous" to help me keep going. I may forget that even though (or perhaps because) it was SO hard, I felt a sense of accomplishment that I finished. But if I rehearse those parts, then over time the memory will be more complete and include the good and the bad. It's all in how I capture and retrieve those memories.
Some other things I learned (and these come from the appendix where she summarizes what she taught but are a great compilation of the most important lessons):
1. We must be paying attention if we want to remember. Avoid distractions. Stop multi-tasking. Focus.
2. Pay attention to visual cues. Make a mental picture of what you are trying to remember. If taking notes for a class, draw pictures or make charts or tables. Visualize what you are learning about. IF POSSIBLE: Make it about you. Visualize yourself in that battle at Antietam. Remember how the general's name is the same as your uncle's and how it occurred on the same day as your sister's birthday.
3. Make it meaningful. When you are trying to learn or remember something, relate it to something you care about a lot. Create a story. This is how mnemonics work. ROYGBIV sounds like a man's name and so you can remember the colors in the rainbow. Never eat shredded wheat (or soggy waffles) helps you remember cardinal directions.
4. Use your imagination. If you're going to the grocery store and need 5 items, visualize getting milk from your mailbox, cheese sitting right next to your door as you unlock it, avocados where you hang up your keys and take off your shoes, tortillas at the top of the stairs, and chicken on the kitchen counter. Then when you get to the store, visualize yourself getting home, getting the mail, going inside and hanging up your keys and then going to the kitchen. Picturing this routine will help you remember the items you need to buy as you picture each location. Or if you need to remember someone's name, attach meaning to it and create a story. If the person's name is Chris Baker, picture a man wearing a chef's hat standing next to a Christmas tree...Chris (from Christmas) Baker...baker.
5. Location matters. If you're creating a story (as described in #4), put the story in a specific location. As you are trying to recall an event, something you need to do, or a fact you learned, returning to the location where you learned/experienced that fact or event often opens the floodgates of memory. Sometimes just returning to the location in your mind's eye can help you remember what you are trying to recall. So pay attention to the setting when important events are happening. Record as many details as you can.
6. Emotion... we remember events when high emotions are attached. We remember when we are scared, sad, happy, surprised, etc. Emotion tells your amygdala that what is happening is important and your amygdala tells your hippocampus (where memories are formed) to pay attention. So if you want to remember something attach emotion to it!
7. Rehearse and retell and record...the more you retell an event or think about it or write about it, the better you will remember it...though this can interfere with accuracy. Retelling or thinking about an event enhances the neural circuitry that help you retrieve memories...but each time you do this, you overwrite the previous telling of the memory and so you can also delete or add information over time and your brain will think that your new telling of the story is accurate. After 9/11 a bunch of young adults were asked to write about their experiences on that day...where they were, who they were with, what they were doing, etc. Then a few years later, they were asked to answer the same questions. Their answers often varied drastically...and when shown their previous written responses, written just shortly after the event, they believed their current version of what they thought happened, not the written version given just after the event.
8. Leave behind your routine. We don't remember every meal we eat or every shower we take or every commute to work (thank goodness!). So if you want something to be memorable, do something new and different. Eat dinner on top of a mountain while smelling fresh pine and watching the sunset. Take a cold shower next to the beach in El Salvador when the humidity is high and you've just spilled fresh coconut water on yourself. These will be things you might remember.
9. Practice. Repeat and rehearse. Quiz yourself. Learn the skill beyond mastery--so you are getting 100% when you quiz yourself and then you keep studying a bit more. Practice a skill over and over and over. Look back at photos, keep a journal, tell stories about your life, look back at social media memories.
10. Use strong retrieval cues. If you drink Dr. Pepper while studying for a test, drink Dr. Pepper while taking the test. Create events on your calendar or place your pillbox in an obvious place so you are reminded of things you need to do. Pay attention to smells because they are powerful for retrieving memories. Perhaps wear a specific perfume when you study for a test and the same perfume when taking a test. (I read once that it's a good idea to have a perfume that you use every time you want to be intimate...just smelling that fragrance will help trigger those memories and emotions for your partner. I haven't tried this, but maybe it's a good idea.) When something important is happening, pay attention to the sights, sounds, smells and feelings because that gives you many ways to access that memory in the future.
11. Believe in yourself and your memory. If you tell yourself your memory is failing and that you aren't good at remembering things, your memory does more poorly than if you tell yourself that you have a great memory. (Maybe this is part of the key for my ability to recall scriptures and quotes from apostles...my patriarchal blessing tells me this is one of my gifts and I believe it and tell myself and others that I can and so that helps me to be able to.)
12. Limit stress. Exercise, practice mindfulness, do yoga, express gratitude do whatever you need to do to limit chronic stress.
13. Get 7-9 hours of sleep a night. This is the BIGGEST thing you can do to help prevent Alzheimers! Sleep is when your body clears away the plaques that lead to Alzheimers but if you aren't regularly sleeping at least 7 hours, your body is unable to do that.
14. Eat right. Fruits, vegetables, fish high in Omega-3's.
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
July 10: Izalco, Ataco
I had an experience while I was in El Salvador that reminded me of how we can access the power of Christ's Atonement. When I was younger, I thought the Atonement really just related to being able to be forgiven for our sins--which is such a tremendously beautiful blessing! But I love what we have been taught about the Atonement also being an enabling power...a power that helps us to do more and be more than we are on our own. That is an aspect of the Atonement that I rely on often.
While in El Salvador, we decided to hike a volcano. You start on one mountain (Cerro Verde), climb down 1500 stairs to the bottom and then hike up the volcano, scrambling over loose rocks in some places, then hike down the volcano and climb back up the 1500 stairs to finish. The mountain with the 1500 steps is lush and green and really pretty. The active volcano (Izalco) is covered in black volcanic rock and while there is a trail, there's also a lot of climbing over rocks and you have to watch your footing because many of the rocks are slippery and not stable. There's no shade. It was hot. I wasn't feeling well. I had been having severe diarrhea for three or four days. And while I typically enjoy hiking, this particular hike felt really, really difficult for me. At several points I literally wasn't sure I could climb/descend the mountain. It loomed over me and felt impossible--much like our challenges in life can sometimes feel. I wanted to give up, but my sweet 16 year old kept encouraging me and reminding me to have a positive attitude and believe I could do it. I wasn't having the best attitude for a good portion of it. I was pretty miserable and pretty discouraged. I listened to my sweet Ella and tried to change my mindset...thinking "I am strong. I can do this." But I wasn't very convincing. So I did what I often do when I'm hiking or when I'm facing challenges. I sang Walk Tall because that song gives me strength and courage and reminds me who I am. Isaiah 40: 28-31 are some of my favorite verses, so I thought about those verses because my strength WAS failing and I was weary and I felt faint. But it promises that God never grows weary or faints and that He can give some of His power to those who need it. And I needed it, just as I have on many other occasions (usually in less physical ways but needed still the same). So I prayed for Him to help me and grant me a bit of His strength. And I reminded myself of some other hard things I have done. And it never got easy. It felt like one of the hardest hikes I have ever done. But I completed it and my strength never completely failed...or rather...MY strength did, but His did not. I have seen over and over in my life, when I feel like enduring to the end is too hard or when I feel discouraged or overwhelmed, if I ask for His help He leads me along (as it says in D&C 78). What a blessing!
Views of Izalco from the top of Cerro Verde after the hike was complete.
Then we headed to Ataco for dinner.
