Don't Judge Because I Serve Differently Than You!

The world gets crazier and crazier every day and there is a constant need for charitable service. Between food drives, natural disaster clean-up, delivered cookies, and moving "parties", the Children of God have many opportunities to serve and hopefully experience charity.

My iPad's definition of charity is, "The voluntary giving of help, typically in the form of money, to those in need."  We have come to think of the word "charitable" as giving a couple dollars to the homeless guy waving a cardboard sign at us. Looking on lds.org, charity is, "the pure love of Christ. It is the love that Christ has for the children of men and that the children of men should have for one another. It is the highest, noblest, and strongest kind of love and the most joyous to the soul (see 1 Nephi 11:23)"  Through my studying, serving the homeless man would most definitely be charity, but only if you do it because you truly love the person.

In my favorite town in the world, Klamath Falls, there is a woman in the community many would look down.  She has, for the past 12 years, fed a cat that lives in the gutter near her home. She goes down to the little tunnel with a blanket and bowl of cat food thee times a day and sits on the ground while the cat comes to eat.  She has told us that she would take her home, but the cat won't let her pick her up. In fact, it has only been in the past year that the cat would even let her pet it. Now who on earth would feed and take care of something for 12 years without anything in return and even through enduring some mocking from friends and neighbors for it. Rain, snow, heat, or hail, this woman gives so much of herself to something she truly believes in.  I don't know very many people who would give so faithfully for so long for a close friend or even a relative like this woman has served a homeless stray.

She has taught me so much of charity. It is there without the gratitude. It is there without the recognition and survives the persecution. As President Monson teaches us, "God's love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve love. It is simply always there." ("We Never Walk Alone," September 2013 general Relief Society meeting).  It is because of Him and his love for us that we have the opportunity to share that love and feel the blessings of true charity for ourselves. God is amazing! By blessing us with the blessing to bless others, He allows those blessings to in turn, bless us. So many blessings! And it all comes down to love. His love.

What is Your 'Promised Land'?

Exchanges are beautiful things for a missionary. Every few weeks, we may swap companions with one of our mission leaders for 24 hours and glean new ideas about teaching, finding, and studying from the other missionaries in our awesome mission!  A few days ago, I got to go on an exchange with Sister Durfey and was reminded of a key element in one of my favorite stories I suppose I never noticed before.  A long time ago, God lead a group of people across the ocean to the "Promised Land".  These people had never been there or seen it, or really had any proof that it existed. But they followed the council of the Lord and built "barges" for them to cross in.  These barges had to be big enough to carry all of their food and grains and animals besides their families for an extended period of time, and had to be "tight like unto a dish" so that water couldn't get in from any side.

Off these people went, with no steering wheel or rudder, or even a window to guide them. All they had was faith and trust in the Lord that they would get to this "promised land" someday. And what does the Lord do?


"...and it came to pass that when they had done all these things they got aboard of their vessels or barges, and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God.

 5 And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.

 6 And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind." - Ether 6:4-6

Why on earth would He do that?!  These people have done everything He asked of them, and He sent huge waves and winds to crash down on them. Why?  Listening to Sister Durfey tell this story, a thought hit me: if the sea had been calm and kind, they wouldn't have made it to the promised land. They wouldn't have gotten anywhere! It had to be a storm, or else they wouldn't have reached their full potential, all that was waiting for them.  Then I wondered, what is my promised land that God so kindly sends "furious wind" and "terrible tempests" to guide me to? 

Heavenly Father said, "This is my work and my glory; to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." - Moses 1:39

All that He sends is so that we can live with our families forever.  So that we can be in paradise with Him forever. That is our promised land, and I am so thankful for the example of those written of in the scriptures to help me remember to keep an attitude of gratitude for the hard times, because they are what will push me to the better ones.

Members Capturing the Vision

My mom is so awesome! She has worked really hard to earn a cruise trip with her company and now that she is leaving this weekend, she writes me, her missionary daughter, asking for tips on how to best share the gospel with those she meets in Florida. What an example!!  When I first read her email, I was super brain-blocked and gave her pointers that we missionaries use - unfortunately (for her :) she isn't a missionary and the ideas were of no use at all!
So after going home and thinking more about it, the thought came to me, "gee, maybe I should teach her the 4 steps my mission president has asked us to teach all the members of the church in the Oregon Eugene Mission to help further the missionary effort!" Yeah, maybe!

Let me proceed this 4 step process with the fact that President Young has been called of God to lead and guide the missionary work in this part of the world.  He has prayed and received this revelation (for that is truly what it is) so that the members might experience some of the joy and blessings that come with sharing the gospel with others.  With that said, the four steps are:

1. Pray
2. Faith
3. Talk
4. Invite

1. PRAY - we need to pray for a missionary opportunity - a chance to share the gospel
in some small way.  Growing up in Utah, the excuses always came to mind, "Everyone at school are members. All of my friends are members. Everyone in Utah is a member! There's nothing for me to do." FALSE! There is always work to do, we just need Heavenly Father's help in recognizing it - which is why we pray. See how that works? :)

2. FAITH - missionary work takes a lot of faith! We need the faith that Heavenly Father will actually provide those opportunities we're praying for.  We need to have faith that He will tell us what to say and how to act when those opportunities arise.

3. TALK - we need to OPEN our MOUTHS! As members, we at times have the
misconception that mentioning our church or activities is taboo. We are members of an amazing organization that helps us in every aspect of our lives and it is OK to talk about it - in fact, you probably should... :)  You can start out by changing your answer to the question "what did you do this weekend" from "oh, nothing " to "I went to church and had a really cool lesson about eternal families" Easy-peezy-lemon-squeezy!

4. INVITE - (this is my favorite part:) It is awesome to be an outstanding example andinvite others to enjoy! We have primary, scouts, activity days, mutual, relief society, service projects, family history, welfare programs, church sports, family night, etc.  The list truly is endless! We have to start inviting. We can talk all we want, but until we make some kind of an invitation, nothing will come of it.  Like I said, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an amazing organization that we should

I know that as you implement these 4 steps into your daily lives (and cruise ships ;) opportunities will come and you will be able to receive the blessings reserved for those willing to share.

Good Timber

As I've gotten older and especially as a missionary, I've come to find out more about how hard life can be.  I hear all the time (in various forms) the question,  "If God really loved me, why would He let this happen?"
I'm going to trust an apostle of the Lord to answered that one for you:

"How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, 'Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then, let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy Joy!' "

-Neal A. Maxwell 

It is because of the love our Savior has for us and the sacrifice He made that we can take these experiences we have been given and turn them into opportunities of growth.  If we choose to use His Atonement, we truly can become more like Him.  What an amazing gift!  We have the chance to actually become like Jesus Christ!  He really will let us "come and dwell with Him and fully share His joy" IF we take that chance and turn our times of trial into times of change.


A few other missionaries have this poem on their walls and I really love how it encompasses the truth that hardship IS because God loves us and wants to help make us strong.  

GOOD TIMBER

By Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

But stood out in the open plain

And always got its share of rain,

Never became a forest king

But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil

To gain and farm his patch of soil,

Who never had to win his share

Of sun and sky and light and air,

Never became a manly man

But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:

The stronger wind, the stronger trees;

The further sky, the greater length;

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,

We find the patriarchs of both.

And they hold counsel with the stars

Whose broken branches show the scars

Of many winds and much of strife.

This is the common law of life.

I just want to share my own testimony that I know that God loves us.  He never does anything that isn't for our own good. I love Him and I thank Him for, as this mormon message says, "loving me enough to hurt me."

My Lucky Day

My companion, Sister Marble, and I pray every day (many times each day) that we will be able to touch someone's heart through the help of the Holy Ghost.  Most of the time we don't know who that person will be or how, but we do our best each day to keep the Spirit with us so that when the opportunity arises, we will be ready.

One day we were walking down the street and saw a man trimming his fruit tree and started to make simple small-talk with him and eventually started teaching him about prophets and the Book of Mormon.  After a while, he came down off his ladder and said, "look ladies, I need to get back to work so do you have some kind of pamphlet or book you are handing out or something?"  We looked at each other smiling and pulled out one of our many Book of Mormons and said, "Definitely. We're actually handing out free Book of Mormons today" and handed it to him.  He took it and jokingly said, "Well, it must be my lucky day!"

With that declaration, Sister Marble and I felt the Spirit testify so strongly to our hearts that it was his lucky day. This man had no idea what he was holding in his hand.  He had know clue that those pages held the key to exaltation and eternal happiness.  And that made me wonder, do I?  Do I really understand the enormity of what I'm handing out and testifying of.  I obviously don't have a complete knowledge of what the Book of Mormon entails, but I do know and testify that it is the Word of God.  That it was He who inspired the prophets of old to write what they did so that we could come closer to Christ.  I know this with my whole heart!

That morning when we prayed for a heart to be touched, I had no idea it would be mine.  I will be forever grateful that the Spirit was able to guide us to a man pruning his tree, and through him, strengthen my ever-growing testimony of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

"No thanks, I choose life!"

 Sid the Sloth's sarcastic statement encompassing his lack of faith in the plan before him is funny and cute, but can (if you try really hard) teach us an important lesson.  We have so many choices before us everyday and sometimes we can get distracted by what we think we deserve.  We have ample opportunity to sit down and feel sorry for ourselves, to get upset when things don't turn out right, or to believe ourselves to be all alone in our trials. As hard as some of the circumstances we may find ourselves in may be, we have the ability to look at them and say, "No thanks, I choose life!" Choose to live a life full of happiness, peace, joy, and laughter! That option is up to you!  

One of my greatest heroes, President Dieter F. Uchdtorf said, "There will always be things to complain about—things that don’t seem to go quite right. You can spend your days feeling sad, alone, misunderstood, or unwanted. But that isn’t the journey you had hoped for, and it’s not the journey Heavenly Father sent you to take. Remember, you are truly a daughter/ son of God!"  

We can take that understanding of who we are and apply it in our lives to live up to our potential. We are children of God! We have the divine power to choose to be happy in this life!  If we look to Jesus Christ as our example, the path to true happiness is unfolded before us and all we have to do is take that first step and follow it.

Chased By An Elephant?

In the LDS church, children have the opportunity to learn from a very young age the morals and values we cherish in our homes and families. One of the ways we encourage this is by memorizing the 13 Articles of Faith. Which, as some might guess, tend to get a little muddled up when a large group of primary children recite them together. The line, "chaste, benevolent..." in the 13th Article can be mistaken for "chased by an elephant". It is silly and fun, but ultimately the message gets across. To hear little kids say that they believe in being "honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men" is a humbling and inspiring experience I have been blessed to witness.