Forgiveness

At church on Sunday, we talked about forgiveness in Relief Society. Relief Society is the largest organized group of women whose purpose is to give relief to each other through love and service. The meeting was so powerful and I felt the spirit so strong. To try to better explain the way I felt, I will describe it in more detail. I felt warmth flowing through my body. I felt the love of God and Jesus Christ for me. I felt a little emotion. I felt extreme gratitude for my blessings. It was a spiritual high.
One part that really touched me was a woman who stood up and said, "When I first saw the man who killed my husband, I was walking into the courtroom, and I heard the words 'He is a child of God' so I couldn't hate him after that". Wow.

I know that we are all children of a loving Father in Heaven.

My Husband's view

I feel so blessed to be married to my husband. He is such a pure and loving person. I feel very strongly that God helped us find each other. We met at BYU in Provo Utah through my roommate. We have been married 5 years now. Although we have opposite backgrounds, we seem to be the perfect blend. Here is his story of why he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



"When I was 19 years old at college I was not looking for a church, but
I did enjoy learning about one of my new college friend's beliefs
through the missionaries. I listened to their messages and asked
questions of curiosity, but felt satisfied with my background in the
Christian Science church. When one day I heard the news that an old
friend from home died, I suddenly had many questions about life and
death which I realized I never really knew the answer to. Would I be
able to see him again, talk to him, tell him I cared? I also started
wondering what life is all about. Why are we here on this earth? Did
I exist before this point in time? The missionaries shared many
truths with me that became some of my most treasured hours in my life.
They had concrete answers, and if they didn't have the answers they
got them. Best of all they told me I shouldn't just believe them, but
I should find some time alone and ask God about the teachings they
were sharing. Although I didn't know everything about The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I did know inside of me that it was
the right path to take. Within the next couple years I had some
unique experiences demonstrating the undeniable existence of God, His
great love for me, and that the teachings of the prophets of this
church are true. Thanks for listening to the missionaries - they can
help you find a peace with God that cannot be found anywhere else".

You Tube Videos

I just came across a guy who has done some great videos on mormonism. Here is a link to his stuff

I believe in God

So, why do I believe in God?  It's sometimes difficult to explain because it's all about feelings.  I've never seen God but I know He's there because I feel His love for me through so many ways.  

I believe in God because I've had so many answers to Prayer.  I have already written one blog with a few examples of ways my prayers have been answered, but there are infinite more and I will have to blog about them soon, too.  I believe in prayer!

 I feel His love in so many ways.  When I look into my children's  eyes, see a beautiful sunset, look into the sky, count my many blessings, when I sincerely pray to Him.  There have been hard times in my life when I have struggled to feel His love, but after sincerely pursuing it, I can always feel it again and it is the most precious thing to me.  It causes me to feel such great joy.  It makes me a better person.  It gives me so much hope!  

There have been 3 times in my life when I hit rock bottom.  You probably know the feeling: crying, feeling empty inside, lonely, wondering how you can go on, no motivation.  Well, there have been 3 times I can specifically remember going away from everyone, finding a spot to be alone and just sobbing and praying.  All three times (years apart from each other) my sorrow would end in the same way - after crying a lot and feeling sorry for myself, I look up to behold the most spectacular sunset I've ever seen.  And then I am washed over with God's love for me.  It is so amazing!  It is as if He knows how much I love sunsets (I used to drive up in the mountains in the evening just to watch the sunset), and He uses that as a tool to show love to me.  

There have been many other simple ways He has shown His love to me during hard times.

I'll share a few.

1 - One time when I was feeling very discouraged while serving a mission in Brazil.  My missionary companion and I were sitting on a bus in silence, and I was feeling quite sad for some reason that I can't remember now.  Then, all of the sudden a little Brazilian girl stood up on her seat, turned around and smiled right at me.  Somehow I knew that was God's way of saying, "I love you."  He knows how much I love children.

2- Another time when I was in college, I was having a really bad day (again, I can't remember why).  I went to McDonold's  hoping that maybe an ice cream sundae would make me feel better.  While I was standing in line a very old man came over to me and said, "You have the most beautiful smile".  Somehow I felt that was also coming from God.

Answers to Prayer #1

1 -  One time when I was about 12 years old my parents and older
siblings all went to a gymnastics meet which left me at home in charge
of my 5 year old little sister.  We were watching TV when a tornado
warning came on.  Being from Texas, we were quite used to that sort of thing,
and were not too worried.  Until the news said that it was headed
straight for Irving, which is where we lived.  I started to get
nervous and my Dad called and told us that he could see the tornado
and that it was headed straight in our direction.  He told us to get in
the bathtub and put a mattress over us.  We did as he told us too, and
as we were lying there I told my sister we should say a prayer.  I
prayed that when the tornado hit our house, we would be protected and
kept save.  Then my sweet sister said she wanted to pray, too.  She
prayed that the tornado wouldn't even come into Irving.  I thought,
"Oh no, she is going to loose her faith because the News lady said it
was coming to Irving".  We waited a little longer and nothing
happened.  Soon my Dad arrived,  and lifted the mattress from us.   He
said the tornado had past.  I'll never forget what happened next.  We
went in to watch the news and the lady said,  "A very interesting
thing happened.  The tornado had a sudden change of direction and went
directly around Irving".  My faith grew tripple fold that day.

2 - As a teenager, my father presided over our local church meetings
and he put me in charge of typing up a program for each Sunday
morning.  I would go to the church the night before to use the copy
machine.  My Dad was one of the few that had keys to the building.
One Saturday night, I borrowed his keys to go make my copies.  The
next morning as we were getting ready for church my Dad asked me for
his keys.  I couldn't find them anywhere and started to panic.  He
told me that if I could find them, they would have to change all of
the keys at th church.  I was very nervous and embarrassed that
everyone would be disappointed in me.  I was making it into a really
big deal and getting very stressed about it.  I decided to pray for
help to find them.  I knelt down at the couch and closed my eyes.
Instead of praying to find the keys I felt that I should pray to be
calm.  I felt that it was not as important as I was making it out to
be and that I need to put things into their proper perspective.  Most
of all I felt that God was not disappointed in me and loved me very
much.  I had a wonderful connection with God and felt great peace and
love.  Because I had knelt to pray in that very spot, when I opened my
eyes the keys were sitting in between the cushions right in front of
me.

3 - When I was a teenager, I had a strict curfew and all of my friends
knew it.  I had to be home at 12:00am.  On one particular group date, we
all went to some fun water fountains in Dallas, Texas.  As it was
approaching time to be heading home, our driver dropped his keys in a
deep water feature with moving water in it.  By that time it was dark
and the water was black.  All he could do was reach his hand down with
the water all the way up to his shoulder and search for the keys.  The
time kept ticking by and still no keys were to be found.  I was
getting nervous that I would miss my curfew so I started to pray that
he could find the keys and at the same moment that I said "Amen" he
pulled up his arm and said, "I got 'em".

4 - My brother was recently married and at a family reunion he lost
his wedding ring in the grass.  He and his wife searched the whole day
trying to find it and were quite saddened that it was no where to be
found.  The next day, I went to my mom's house and he was there with a
metal detector getting ready to go search some more.  A little while
after he left, I had the feeling that I should get my 3 year old
daughter and pray for him.  I asked her if she wanted to pray for her
uncle to find his ring and she said, "Yes".  She said a very short and
simple prayer and in the exact moment we were finishing, my brother
called to tell us he had just found it.




more to come:)

The Spirit

In our church we talk a lot about the Spirit.  Well, what is the spirit?  It is very hard to put into words because it is something that you feel, and feelings are often very hard to explain to someone who isn't having them.  I also believe that everyone can feel the spirit in different ways.  I have felt a warm flow through my entire body, I have felt tingles, I have simply felt calm and peaceful, but no matter what, for me it is always accompanied by a feeling a great joy and love from God.

The first time that I can remember feeling what i believe was the Spirit was when I was about seven years old.  At that time my Dad was a leader over the youth at our church and he told them that if they could read The Book of Mormon all the way through, he would buy them a new set of scriptures that would contain the King James version of the Bible and The Book of Mormon together in one book.  Well, though I was not an expert on reading yet, I wanted in on the action.  I remember very clearly laying in the hallway with my little brother reading.  I am sure that I did not comprehend what I was reading, but a feeling of great joy came over me that seemed to say , "This book is a true testament of Jesus Christ".  I have since read that book many times and I feel quite certain that it is true.  I believe that the Prophets that wrote in it were real people just like you and I trying to do their best to please God and testify of their Savior and yours Jesus Christ.  

Although that time of feeling the Spirit stood out to me, I realize now that that was not the first time.  Our home was centered around Christ and His spirit was there most of the time.  I just didn't recognize it until I got older and went into other peoples homes and noticed it's absence.  In our home there was peace, love, and joy.  Please note that I put most of the time - We were a normal family and there was plenty fighting and teasing, too.  But there was still great great love and to this day my brother's and sister's are my best friends.