Faith or fear? Faith or fear? Faith or fear? I CHOOSE FAITH!

Sometimes jumping into something new is scary.  It's foreign, it's different, it's out of our comfort zone. We feel so comfortable in our little bubbles and why bother leaving if we are already content right where we are?

Well, why not just try it... where is the harm?
I started thinking about physical walls... Why do we even have them? The answer I initially came up with: walls protect us. For example, walls support the roof of a house, preventing it from crushing us. They protect us from foreign objects that can potentially harm us. But my second thought on walls was that they separate things. Rooms, property, countries, etc. Walls represent the idea of defense, protection, and separation. So at first it seems completely natural and desirable to build up these walls. We have been hurt and we would love some seclusion from the rest of the world. We want to escape the pain and the struggles and wars all going on beyond our walls. We can't get hurt again if the enemy can't reach us, right?   But walls are good at being walls--they keep these people and things out.  But not only do they keep out the bad, they keep out the good as well!  Good things that could actually help us grow and become even stronger than we were before. We may feel safe in our little barricade, but we are missing out on everything else the world has to offer.

"Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism."  -RICHARD C. EDGLEY (First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric)

TEAR DOWN THOSE WALLS AND START EXERCISING FAITH! 

 It's hard; I know.  And it takes time--but we can always start today.  There's no better time than the present, yes? In the Book of Mormon, in 2 Nephi 28, we read:

“For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have”

It takes TIME!  Very rarely we get all the answers at once, or know the exact solutions to the problems.  But the answers, the help, the feelings of comfort--they all come.
But we have to take those initial steps.  We have to get to work.

Often times the answers we are searching for don't come when we are still on our knees praying for them.  We have to put forth the effort and show God that we are willing to act--and as we begin to demonstrate our faith, the answers come.

This was the case for me in deciding to serve a mission.  Anyone who was around me could easily tell you that I had a difficult time in deciding to serve or not.  It wasn't a simple matter of just choosing the one that was right (to serve or not to serve), because both options were really good.  I made all the pro/con lists, prayed my heart out, read the scriptures, talked to loved ones, but I still felt that I hadn't received a good, solid answer.  And I DID NOT receive it, until I finally decided to act.  I had to make my decision, and truly put my faith in the Lord.  I had to have real intent... meaning I was going to do whatever the Lord told me, even if it wasn't what I maybe wanted or what was the easiest.  And let me tell ya, the very day I finally started truly acting, the answers and feelings came.  And it wasn't just a slight drizzle... they poured in.  I had never been so sure of something and so positive in my decision.  The answer came through my actions.  I know that as we decide and show our faith, the Lord will point us in the right direction.  If we make the right choice, we'll feel it in our hearts and minds... If we don't make the right choice: we won't feel at peace, we'll have a stupor of thought, we'll feel uneasy and feel like we still haven't received an answer.  Ultimately, it comes down to just moving.  Opening up, letting God in, and just trying.

We all have our walls--some have the Great Wall of China, others just a little picket fence--but all of us can overcome them and reach our highest potentials.  Choose faith. It's scary, it's new, but God is standing with us, and with the Lord, we will never fail.

INVEST in the Gospel of Jesus Christ

NERD ALERT!!!  So I like school--I like to learn; I like buying new books at the beginning of each semester; I like the library; I like to take notes on everything just because it's so interesting!  What I really love?  math.  My favorite class I've ever taken (by far) is calculus.  So naturally I have dreams about school... cause who doesn't?  And last night I dreamed (I guess the term nightmare would be more appropriate) that I went back to business school at Brigham Young University (GO COUGARS!) after my missionary service and I had forgotten everything I know.  As I did my "30 Day Shred" morning workout with Jillian Michaels, I was completely distracted in trying to remember every single thing I have ever learned and studied.  I started with finance- just trying to think of the terms I had learned, AND THEN.....  EPIPHANY!!!   The Gospel of Jesus Christ applies PERFECTLY to the finance world!  Who woulda thought?

ROI

First thing I could remember: Return On Investment. Fancy words, but a fairly easy concept: "How much profit will we make if we invest in this project?” Basically-is it worth our time, effort, and money? For example, you can study 15 hours for a test and receive an "A"... or you can study 3 hours for a test and get an "A-." Ultimately it's up to you to decide if it is worth it, and there are a lot of outside factors (do you really need an "A" in this class? Do you have anything better to do? Do you enjoy studying? etc.).  And for the most part, we usually want a High ROI.
So I was thinking... The Book of Mormon (when read and accepted) and believing in God brings us the greatest return on your investment ever... more than a TRILLION FOLD in real wealth.... for all my NASDAQ and Dow Jones friends/people who invest-- when do you ever see dividends that high? That's right. You don't.  This looks like a good deal to me!

How does it bring us all this wealth?  Good question. Let's think about ALL of the wealth in the world... all of the gold and precious metals, the money, the land, in fact--all of the assets we write down on the balance sheet. ALL of this is NOTHING compared to what we can have if we follow God.  We have the potential to become like God.  Aka we can make our own worlds!  WORLDS!  We are the ones creating all of this wealth.  If you think there is a lot of wealth in just Earth alone, multiply that by infinity.  These are BIG numbers we're talking about!  So what do ya say-- is it a worthy investment?

Let's think short-term benefits... God promises us peace, blessings, and purpose in life.  (all things we get RIGHT NOW).  Yes we have to be committed and put forth the effort and work... but everything worthwhile in life takes hard work! President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency explains it perfectly in his last General Conference address (Go and enlighten yourself as you read Come, Join with Us).

Okay and Long-term benefits.  Everlasting happiness and joy.  We become Gods and Goddesses.  We get to live with our family forever.  (well that's a no-brainer!)

We all know that all investments are not equal.  Some things outweigh others. God, and the Book of Mormon is definitely something that I want to invest in.  And why not invest today?  Another finance principle: TIME VALUE of MONEY: which basically means that the dollar today is better than dollar tomorrow (because we can invest that dollar and eventually make more off of it....  It's like saving money--the younger we are when we begin saving, the more money we have in the future.)  So start investing in God today.  The more you invest now, the stronger you will be in the future.  Stronger testimony to be able to withstand trials in the future, and more experience to fall back on when times are hard.  Heavenly Father WANTS to bless us.  We must invest if we are to see those blessings.

SOOOOO.  My invitation:  INVEST in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  (no, we are not literally investing in the church).  We are investing by showing our love to the Lord.  Because we follow Jesus Christ and we love Him, we want to follow His commandments.  And we invest as we follow the commandments with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.  Heavenly Father is just WAITING to make us rich.

Missionary work 101

First off, I would like to thank all of my loyal friends and family back home for their belief that I know all the answers.  I don't know if it's the name-tag  or what... but since I have been on my mission, lots of letters and emails have come my way asking what they can do to help the work move forward.  These make me happy :)  Everyone wants to do the Lord's work!  Go team!!!!!

Now despite the fact that I would love to pretend that I am all-knowing and hold all of the secrets to success, I don't.  HOWEVER, I have some pretty good ideas that I've been brain-storming up that I hope can help.  

Secret #1:  (I'll preface this by saying it's not a secret, and us "full-time missionaries" definitely don't want it to be a secret).  WE NEED YOUR HELP!  We can go out and tract for hours and have some success, sure--there are miracles all around us everyday. But it is 8 trillion times better (yes these are accurate statistics) when we are working with members' loved ones.  And just because I'm enjoying typing at the moment I will list out some of the reasons why:

1. Nobody wants to take time from their life to talk to a stranger knocking on their door. I'll be the first one to say that I know I don't want to.  I was that terrible person who hid when people came and I didn't want to talk to them.  oops...
2. Next, it would really help with my fashion statement.  I just completely wore out my favorite pair of shoes from all of the door knocking we do (and they were good shoes too).  We don't have time/money to go out shopping, so I'll just have to walk around bare foot now.  (****Don't worry, I have other shoes. No hypothermia toes for me!)
3. and a bomb quote from a representative of the Lord:  "So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way."
   -Elder Russell M. Nelson

Also, let's just remember that sharing the Gospel is a COMMANDMENT.  umm, that's a good reason to do it if you ask me.  All this being said, (and maybe I even guilt-ed some of you into it) I hope you now understand WHY this is important.  As my friend Elder Russel M. Nelson would say "CATCH THE WAVE!!!!" 

SO HOW DO WE DO IT???

I Buy Myself Flowers

Today I woke up thinking about flowers; I LOVE flowers.  They make me happy and they smell good and there's just something better about life when there are flowers nearby.  Flowers are bold.  strong.  gorgeous.  fragrant.  JUST like us women.  (okay, the men too)  They stand on their own and they just flaunt their beauty for everybody to see!

So my flowery thought of the day:

We are DESIGNERS of our own DESTINY.

What does that even mean?  Good question.  It asks how are we deciding to live our lives and even view our lives?  Do we see ourselves and our experiences as beautiful, rich orchids, or are we simply just the weeds or dandelions that get lost in the wind (or are simply just destroyed by my companion because she enjoys kicking them... no wishes for her!)  Now who wouldn't want to be a flower? 

First off, we are all in God's floral arrangement.  Now I think most people realize this, but they don't truly appreciate it.  Some right now are thinking, "Not all of us can be the deep red rose, or the tropical hibiscus."   But can we just pause right here to remember that we are GOD'S CREATIONS.  God is not the author of anything too ugly, too fat, too depressed, too weird, whatever else.  All of us flowers work together and become this large, theatrical display of floral art.  Also, we get to choose the flower we want to be.  Today, I invite you all to become a Gerber Daisy (if you don't like them, you can pick another one... I guess).  Gerber Daisies are my favorite.  They are happy and simple and you can't look at a Gerber daisy without a smile.  I just adore Gerber daisies; they are unabashedly proud of who they are and they just fill up the entire room.  So be a Gerber daisy!  make no excuses for who you are, be bold and display all your gorgeous self!!!!  Stand up proud and colorful, wear your personality on your sleeve.  you are gorgeous.  Start believing it.    You stand up all on your own  and say to anyone who stops to gander... "This is who I am.  And I LIKE it!"

So be a Gerber Daisy today.  And in fact, go buy yourself a nice bouquet.  Whoever said you need a man to buy you flowers had some serious issues.  I am not scared to go out and by myself a flower.  (Okay, not going to lie--I've only bought myself flowers once in my life.... but it was the BEST.  I got to walk down Champs-Elysees in Paris carrying a colorful bouquet of summer flowers)  I was a Gerber daisy and I didn't care what the world said, because flowers can stand on their own.  No matter how alone we feel, how upset, disappointed, inadequate, or whatever other stupid thing you are telling yourself--Be a flower.  Time to cheer up and start brightening up others!  Nobody can tell us no.  Nobody can take away our smiles that root from our happy Gerber daisies.

"Pulling a Martha"

"I'm TOO Busy...."

This has been on my mind a lot lately... I feel like everybody is just too busy to do anything these days (especially to make time for Christ and religion), and that people take pride in how busy they are.  It's like the crazier, and more full your planner is, the more worth-while people think they are  (I may be one of these people without meaning to be... I LOVE having something going on every second of the day).  Honestly I think it is good to keep ourselves busy and to participate in good activities--HOWEVER, I think there is a line.  It's not necessarily big and bold and black and easy for us to all see and be aware of.  It's this subtle, grey one that we can so easily just step over without even realizing it.  And we cross this line when we are "too busy" to fit in what really matters.  

I've heard all the excuses:  "I have to work."  "I have kids."  "I'm trying to have kids."  "I have school."  "I have grandma duty."  I have to mow my lawn."  "My basement is flooding."  "I'm sick."  "I'm old."  "I'm young."  "I have to prepare for my nieces bridal shower."  Well last time I checked, preparing for my nieces bridal shower didn't take 24/7.  (Maybe I'm just not very good at throwing showers though?)  You get the point.  

Now, I'm not disputing the fact that everyone really is, indeed busy.  I get it.  We all have stuff going on.  But are you SO busy that you're priorities in life are slipping?  I have finally had the epiphany--thanks to Michael Hallmark (possibly the kindest person on the planet).  A couple weeks ago we were talking about making time to do something and he said, "if it's something important, we'll make time for it."  DING DING DING!!!  We have a winner.  Michael has got it all figured out.  If it is something important, we will make time for it. word.  

So how do we figure out what is important?  Cause everything seems/is important.  We can't stop going to work, making dinner for our family, or keeping up our homes.  We PRIORITIZE!  Priority--one of my new favorite words!  Elder Dallin H. Oaks (of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) said, "We need priorities.  Our priorities determine what we seek in life."  We put what is important first.  I don't know about all of you, but I want to seek God.  I believe that God is most important, so He always comes first.  Simple math.  Now I'm not saying that we read our Bible for 6 hours a day or we don't stop praying until our knees are bruised.  I'm saying we start little by little to make God more of a priority.

One of the greatest examples was taught by the Savior when He was with his dear friends, Mary and Martha in the little village of Bethany.  Mary and Martha sat at the Savior's feet, hearing His message.  But then, they got hungry (what's learning without a good snack?).  So Martha, the sweet host that she is, gets up to prepare a meal for their visitor and friend. Martha wanting assistance from her sister, asks the Savior to ask Mary to help her.  Let's pause... how many of us have been in Martha's shoes... working and just wanting a little help so that we can be a gracious host?  We can't charge Martha for wanting to serve the Lord.  We're trained to always be helping and selfless.  She was doing what she thought was right.  She was doing a good activity--she was serving Jesus Christ dinner!  But we go back to priorities.... Jesus kindly reminded Martha that MARY (who is sitting there) chose the better activity.  Mary knew her priorities.  Elder Dallin H. Oaks, “reminds every Martha, male and female, that we should not be so occupied with what is routine and temporal that we fail to cherish the opportunities that are unique and spiritual.”  He said it all.  We cannot let other activities (that ALSO are important) distract us from what is most important.  good.  better.  best.  We need to choose the activities that are best (Read the actual account here without my commentary).

Sometimes we are all like Martha.  We have a million things going on, we want everything to be perfect, and we just can't squeeze in one more thing.  But I invite everyone (myself included) to figure out your priorities.  I promise as we put the Lord first, we'll find time to do everything else.  Read your scriptures first thing in the morning, fill your schedule around church attendance, say a prayer as often as you can.  You will find time to the other things, and you won't be "pulling a Martha."