My Second Claim to Fame

Today during my family history missionary shift, I found this article in the Daily Universe:

(Source: Daily Universe, July 23, 1998, page 3)

What a fun trip back down memory lane!  I can't believe I looked so young.  (I also can't believe anyone would actually think we traveled to 10 cities a day and had time to teach music lessons at each one.  So much for the accuracy of the press!)  

Accurate or not, I'm glad I found it and can preserve it as part of my history.  Guatemala was a valuable learning experience, and I'm glad my parents chose to give me such a unique opportunity to serve those who are less fortunate than me.

The Family and Same-Sex Marriage

I shared these thoughts on Facebook today, and I decided I wanted to share them here as well.  The definition of marriage is an important issue to me, and I want to explain why exactly it is so important and what it means to me.

There has been a lot of furor lately over the Supreme Court's hearing on the legality of homosexual marriage.  My personal beliefs are that homosexual marriage (and behavior) is wrong and sinful.  In the words of the prophets, "Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children . . . Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose . . . We warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets." (The Family: A Proclamation to the World)

I understand this may be difficult for those of you who do not share my belief system to comprehend.  From a purely secular viewpoint, defining marriage as a man and a woman doesn't totally make sense.  But, my beliefs are not based on secular knowledge.  My beliefs are based on faith in God and the teachings of his prophets.  The book of Isaiah says "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Holy Bible, Isaiah 55:8-9,)

I believe that God has greater understanding than we do.  He sees the big picture, the eternal scheme of things, where we see only a small portion of it.  Just because we don't understand everything doesn't mean that something isn't true. Oftentimes, both in religious matters, and in secular matters, things initially don't make sense, but turn out to be for our benefit.  Did it make sense to people in the 1800s when doctors suggested that sickness came from tiny, invisible life forms?  Did it make sense for Washington to attempt to stop the powerful British army with a ragtag band of half-starved and frozen farmers?  Did it make sense for God to command Abraham to sacrifice his only son, to tell Noah to build an ark in the middle of dry land, or to direct Moses to lead the Children of Israel straight into the Red Sea?  Did it make sense for Jesus Christ, the only perfect person to ever live on this earth, and the literal son of God, to allow himself to be killed, even though he had the power to protect himself? 

The answer is NO.  None of these things made sense from a logical standpoint, yet each in each of these instances the thing that didn't make sense turned out to be the best thing in the long run.  And like these examples, I know that in the long run, it will turn out to be the best thing to preserve the definition of marriage as purely heterosexual.  It may not make sense now, but some day it will.

I know that I probably didn't convert anyone over to my viewpoint, and I didn't really intend to.  I just hope that this piece helps those of my friends and family who support gay marriage to understand where I come from and why I feel so passionately.  Please believe me when I say that I grieve deeply to hear about people who are pro-heterosexual marriage who name call or physically, emotionally or otherwise abuse or bully those who support homosexual marriage.  Bullying, abuse, name-calling, and other such negative behaviors are not Christlike and are never acceptable.  Even though I may disagree with those of you who support same-sex marriage, I care about you.  I stand by my views, and the words of the living prophets, but I love and respect each of you, and I hope that you will show me the same love and respect, regardless of your viewpoints. 

Forget Me Not

This week was the birthday of one of the sisters I visit teach.  I was trying to think of a simple gift idea when I picked up a Deseret Book catalog that had just come in the mail.  Deseret Book was using President Uchtdorf's October 2011 Relief Society General Broadcast talk, Forget Me Not to market little Forget Me Not starter flower pots.  The idea inspired me to do something similar for the sisters I visit teach.

I thought it was a fun, inexpensive idea.  The whole thing cost less than $3.  The paper is Elder Uchtdorf's talk.  Most importantly, I hope that it helped remind my friend of her infinite worth in God's eyes.  I hope it reminds all of you of how precious you are in God's sight, too.

He is Risen

Thoughts

The other day I was surprised to learn that a good friend of mine had married unexpectedly. The biggest shock, though, was to learn that she had been living with the man for several months before they married. I was blown away. She is a returned missionary and has a good heart. We had talked multiple times about the future-- the kind of person we wanted to marry, what we wanted our weddings to be like, etc. We both agreed that we wanted to be married in the temple, to receive all the blessings that only come through those covenants.

Why do some people give in and make choices they know they will regret? I know my friend already regrets her choice. To their credit, she and her husband are working towards a sealing in the temple, but it will be a long, uphill battle. A battle that could have been completely avoided.

I'm grateful to have parents that have always taught me not to give in. I definitely want to be married, but I will not settle. I will never give up my blessings for a mess of pottage. It's not worth it.

The same day that I found out about my friend's marriage, I had the opportunity to attend an endowment session with my family. My mom, four of my sisters, and I all attended a session together. The spirit that was there was indescribable. I felt completely at peace. I couldn't help contrasting that experience with my friend's experience. It makes me sad to think that she will have to wait a long time before she can go to the temple again. How could she give that up for the moment?




Sitting in the celestial room with my family made me realize how lucky I am. I would never give up that experience. Not even to be married soon. I'd rather wait another twenty or fifty years, or even until the next life. It would be worth the wait. It's worth it to be able to kneel at the altar and know that I'm doing the right thing at the right time at the right place.

In the words of Maltbie Davencourt Babcock:

Be Strong! We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.
We have hard work to do and loads to lift.
Shun not the struggle-- tis God's gift.

Be Strong! Say not 'The Days are Evil-- who's to blame?'
And fold the hands and aquiesce-- oh shame!
Stand up! Speak out and bravely, in God's name.

Be Strong! It matters not deep intrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long.
Faint not! Fight on! Tomorrow comes the song.

Goals

I used to hate the word goals. I think my antipathy for goals began at the tender age of twelve, when I was introduced to the Young Women's Personal Progress Program. Personal progress always seemed so tedious to me. I would put off my goals until the last week or two before New Beginnings (the recognition night for the acheivement of said goals). Mom would always discover that I hadn't started on the goals and would force me to sit down and immediately make plans to finish them in time. This always seemed like such a tedious process to me. Did I really care what the definition of integrity was? Did I really need to write in my journal examples of times I had shown faith in my life? Without exception, I would end up picking the shortest and easiest goals to complete--ones like telling your mom you love her or doing an anonymous good deed for someone (I could always find someone's bed to make and have that completed in five seconds.) As far as I was concerned, goals were just another checklist to mark off as fast as possible so Mom would stop nagging me. I remember thinking with great relish "I can't wait until I'm out of Young Women and I never have to set another goal again!"

Obviously I realized the fallacies of this logic fairly quickly. Even after Young Women I found that there were times I still needed to set goals. When I started college, Mom helped me set goals to be more social and talk to people in my classes and at church. Dad "encouraged" me to set goals to earn enough money to pay for my year at the dorms myself, and later to pay for my mission myself (an encouragement I admittedly didn't appreciate at the time, but afterward was grateful for it). Begrudgingly, I had to admit that goal-setting didn't end with the presentation of my Young Women Medallion.

In spite of my continued efforts to set goals, my true conversion to goal-setting didn't happen until I became a missionary. As part of the missionary rules, missionary companionships were required to set goals we wanted to acheive for the transfer, the week, and the day. In addition, we were encouraged to work on personal goals individually. At first I found this annoying, tedious, and time-consuming, but as I began setting and acheiving personal goals, I was surprised to find that I actually liked it.

In the missionary guide, Preach My Gospel, in the section under goal-setting, it says:
"Goals reflect the desires of our hearts and our vision of what we can accomplish. . ."
"The ultimate measure of success is not in acheiving goals alone, but in the service you render and the progress of others." Reading this gave me a fresh perspective on the purpose of goals. Contrary to my twelve-year-old impressions, goals are not a torture-device created by parents to make their teenage daughters miserable. Goals actually make me happier. I love the satisfaction of knowing that I have set a goal and actually made it. It gives me hope and makes me want to try better. As Preach My Gospel says, "through goals, our hopes are transformed into action."

Lately I have been feeling a little bit down-- just not as happy as I'd like to be. It seems like life has become a boring trudge down the same barren paths-- school, work, school, work, etc. So, after some reflection I decided that maybe what I need is some new goals to brighten my perspective and give me fresh hope. With that in mind I came up with 3 new goals for myself:

1. Go to bed by 11pm every night. (This one will be the hardest, but I really want to do it. As motivation, I've promised to reward myself with a new haircut if I can stick with it for a week.)
2. Read scriptures before nighttime. (I always read them right before bed, and I'm always too sleepy to get much out of them. Time for a change.)
3. Write in my journal every day.

Already I'm more excited just thinking about these goals (and not just because of the prospect of a cute new haircut). It will be fun to see how my live improves from these few simple steps. At any rate, I'm off to a good start-- I already acheived two of them (scripture study and journal writing) for today. Now if I can just make it into bed on time-- I can picture the new haircut already!

Highlights of this last General Conference

1. President Hinckley "knighting" President Eyring with his cane after he was called to the First Presidency.

2. Elder Wirthlin showing what it really means to teach by example as he continued his talk on love for at least 10 minutes after he started shaking badly.

3. Getting to see conference in Salt Lake for the first time.

4. Taking Trax for the first time

5. Watching Jacob alternate between tired, confused look and cheesy smile.

6. Finding out who would be the next apostle and member of the First Presidency.

7. Being with the family all day long!

8. Mom's heavenly chocolate cake.

9. Driving up into the canyon afterward to see the leaves and the view of the valley.

Looking back at this conference weekend, we were blessed with a lot of great moments. It's nice to have a conference weekend like that to put things in perspective. Sister Mary N. Cook said that we should strengthen our relationships with our brothers and sisters because they may become our best friends. I'm grateful to know that my best friends are within my family. "For I have no greater joy than to know that my [family] walk in truth." --1 John 1:4