Sunday, October 25, 2009

Blessings Gained By Keeping the Commandments

So this past Wednesday basketball practice started after school. Wow I did not have any idea about how intense and tiring practice would be. After one day of practice I was so exhausted. It was basically two and a half hours of sprinting none stop. I thought of how I was ever going to make it through that till February when I remembered one of the promises for keeping the Word of Wisdom. "And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint" (D&C 89:20). That night I prayed for that blessing to give me strength to get through practice. The next day I found it easier to complete all the running that we had to do and i was not as tired as I was the day before. When you keep the commandments you can really gain blessings and call upon them when you need them most.

Didn't See That Coming

So this past Thursday night I was in helping decorate the varsity football locker room like I do every week and I was talking to the mom in charge about Matt (my brother). We were talking about him coming home and I said he wasn't coming home till Christmas and then after May he would be gone for two years. The mom was like "Wait, why?" I simply responded well we are Mormon and he is going to serve a mission. And she asked where he would be going and I said we don't know until he puts in his mission papers closer to his 19th birthday. She then proceeded to tell me how her brother-in-law's kids are Mormon and how his son went on a mission to Finland and got married in the Houston Temple. Then she said how her brother-in-law was upset that he couldn't go to the wedding and she just simply said that she told him that he just has to respect it. I just thought it was neat how she respected our beliefs that you can't go into the temple with out being a member and she didn't judge. So it's always interesting to see how random conversations about religion can come up anywhere even when you least expect them.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

How did I get through that??

So Saturday night was homecoming and we stayed out till 3 Sunday morning. Church was so hard to get up for with only 4 1/2 hours of sleep. Somehow I got motivated enough to go to church and made it there 30 min before like every Sunday because my mom has to get her seat. So I thought it was going to be the hardest thing to stay awake during church but somehow I managed and stayed awake for almost all of it except the couple times i dozed off for a couple minutes. After church I was even awake enough to get all the things I needed to get done like homework, gathering information for the YAC (Youth Activities Committee) meeting, going to the YAC meeting and being productive, and then making it home to finish more homework. Honestly I think if I would have skipped church I would not have been able to accomplish all of those things. It truly was a blessing that day to get through everything that needed to be done. Heavenly Father really does help us out when we are having a hard time doing something when we choose the right things first! :)

Monday, October 5, 2009

Sailing Trip :)

So on Friday a couple of us went sailing with Bro Janis. It was so much! We got to help set up the sail and then put them down at the end. This made me think about something. It takes work to get a sail boat's sails up to get you going in the right direction just like in the gospel. You just can't expect to get to the Celestial Kingdom without trying. You have to have to work to get there by keeping the commandments, reading your scriptures, praying, ect.


Well here are some pictures from our sailing trip :)



Sarah, Me, and Julia


Working to get the sail up

Me, Julia, and Sarah on the back of the boat

Alrighty that's all the pictures going up because this up loader and moving them around is making me frustrated. haha

My Adventure On The Way To Seminary

Well this past week I had an adventure on the way to seminary. So basically I turned a corner to sharply and end ended up running over a median and knocking my hub cap off my car (which is still off if you were wondering). I went to pick up Gavin like I do every morning and I got out of my car to check to see if anything happened. At this point I didn't know my hub cap was gone. To my horror my front left hub cap was gone. I literally started freaking out and Gavin can testify to that. So we went back to the spot of my "accident". Luckily my hub cap was still all in one piece. Now it was decision time...Should I call my father and tell him what happened right then or wait till later that night and tell him when he got home from work. I chose to call then and to my surprise he wasn't upset with me. I was totally shocked! Who would have thought?!? Later that night he even told me he was glad that I called right away and didn't wait because chances are I would have gotten in a lot more trouble if I would have waited.
Now how does this apply to the gospel? Let me make a parallel for you. Many people when they commit a sin become frightened of the consequences and sometimes feel unworthy to pray to their Heavenly Father. However, no matter how big the sin is, Heavenly Father will always be there to listen to you and through Christ, his son, you can repent. Heavenly Father will be glad to hear from you and know that you realize what you did is wrong and want to repent of it. He will welcome you back with open arms like my earthly father did when I told him what I did.