The spiritual side of things...
This story includes two events: teaching seminary/institute (because of lack of students, it's a combined lesson), and church today.
1. I was really excited when I found out I had Saturday afternoon off from work! I could finally schedule seminary for a time better suited fr the youth here. Then, my coworker forgot she had the afternoon shift, so she wanted me to switch with her. NO WAY! I said no, and told her why. Another girl, who always thinks she's smarter, said that seminary wasn't important, so I should cancel it. It hit me that people don't really see spiritual things as being anywhere near the top of the priorities list!Too bad for them, they're missing out on so many blessings!
Because of my forgetful coworker, I had to leave work, go home and grab the books, and go to church just to go back to work afterwards. So here's how forgetful I am myself! I grabbed the seminar manual, my study journal with some notes in it, but guess what I didn't even think to grab? The Book Of Mormon... it's not that important, since we are studying the Book of Mormon this year!
Luckily, Andra and Emi (my favorite young women :) ) brought their books. We started the lesson with the question: "How much have you read so far?"... nothing... Andra had read the introduction, and that was it... So we started talking about why we haven't studied (I did better than her, but not good enough either) Here are some of the reasons/excuses:
1. Too much school/work
2. Too tired
3. Boring
4. Couldn't find 10 minutes alone
5. fell asleep
........................
So I got tired of it, I was getting more and more tired of it, and it made me a little hopeless... then how could we ever study the scriptures? So we made a list of reasons to study the scriptures:
1. It brings the Spirit (we need the Spirit to make the right choices)
2. Gain knowledge, which leads to wisdom (we don't wanna be labeled as idiots)
3. Draw closer to God
4. Peace in our homes (Gordon B. Hinckley's promise)
5. Stronger testimony of Jesus Christ's reality as God's son, and our Savior
......................
This got all three of us very excited to go home, open the scriptures, and study!
We talked about how obtaining great spiritual knowledge takes effort, and we compared it to Joseph Smith's experience with the angel Moroni in his room at night. After those experiences, he still got up, and went to work with his father. So we need to do our chores, duties, but don't set aside the spiritual experiences that will bring us peace, joy, and strength.
We talked about how the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, how without the Book of Mormon, everything fails! Yes, the bible teaches us a lot of doctrine, but the fullness of the teaching would be lost without the book of mormon.
We didn't cover a lot of the reading assignment, (we should be in 2 nephi 10 by now, yet this was our first lesson) but we were strengthened by the Spirit, and all three of us decided to do better, and search for God , for Christ and their teachings in the scriptures every single day.
2. I had to give a talk in church ... again... This time, it was on the importance of examples. I didn't know what to say! What could I talk about? So I picked some scriptures, and tried to put them together as I started speaking. It was a pretty sweet experience! First, I felt like I was the one being taught! I saw the connection between verses, I feltwhat God wanted me to learn! One thing that I talked about was the conceuences of a good example vs. bad example. I love Jacob in the book of mormon! he's so bold, and he doesn't care what people will think, so he is very straightforward. Jacob 2:35 - because of bad examples, hearts were killed = spiritual darkness. Then, we have the example of Amon who went and taught Lamoni, he was a good example of servie, faith, humility, so Lamoni wants to learn more from him, and he is converted, and so are most of his people = spiritual light.
*What are some things we do today to set a good example?
*What are some of the things we do that set a bad example?
*What kind of examples do we want to set for our families, friends, enemies, people who don't know us, but interact with us?
Paul told Timothy to be an example of the believers in word, in conversation,in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
*What words do we use when we talk to people- when we talk to our friends, or family, or enemies? Are they words we wouldn't like Christ to hear, or words that would make us feel ashamed if the prophet heard us use them?
*What do we like to talk about? Do we have clean thoughts? Do we talk lightly of sacred things? Do we gossip? Do we shre secrets we were entrusted with?
*How do we show people that we care about them? Just saying "I love you" is not enough. Can people feel, and see that we actually love them? Do we hae a hard time forgiving? Are we ready to serve selflessly?
* Do we have sins we haven't repented of? Do we have a clear conscience? Are we worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us?
* How do we show our faith? Do we do our best to be obedient? Do we strive to keep all the commandments, not only those that are convenient to us? Do we sustain our leaders? Do we accept, and fullfil any callings?
* Are we temple worthy? Do we strive to be pur in thoughts, actions, words?
These are some things that got me thinking of mysef, evaluating where I really stand before God. All these questions came to me during my talk. And they helped me later to ponder on where stand bfore God, who I really am in His eyes, and wat are some things I should improve on.
On the lighter side of things, Emi had to teach YW, and she talked about taking care of ourselves, especially nutrition. We had to write down what we usually eat, and to be honest, writing that down scared me! My list contained the followings: chocolate, popcorn, mountain dew and pepsi, sometimes (every 3 days) a sandwitch or some sort of "cooked" food (instant soups). As I looked at my list, I realised I had even more things tochange than spiritual things! So for luch today I cooked pasta withreal tomato sauce with corn and beans... it tasted sooo good! I even picked up the recipe book and browsed it :)) I think I'll be cooking goodies this week :D
Have a fun Sunday :)
1. I was really excited when I found out I had Saturday afternoon off from work! I could finally schedule seminary for a time better suited fr the youth here. Then, my coworker forgot she had the afternoon shift, so she wanted me to switch with her. NO WAY! I said no, and told her why. Another girl, who always thinks she's smarter, said that seminary wasn't important, so I should cancel it. It hit me that people don't really see spiritual things as being anywhere near the top of the priorities list!Too bad for them, they're missing out on so many blessings!
Because of my forgetful coworker, I had to leave work, go home and grab the books, and go to church just to go back to work afterwards. So here's how forgetful I am myself! I grabbed the seminar manual, my study journal with some notes in it, but guess what I didn't even think to grab? The Book Of Mormon... it's not that important, since we are studying the Book of Mormon this year!
Luckily, Andra and Emi (my favorite young women :) ) brought their books. We started the lesson with the question: "How much have you read so far?"... nothing... Andra had read the introduction, and that was it... So we started talking about why we haven't studied (I did better than her, but not good enough either) Here are some of the reasons/excuses:
1. Too much school/work
2. Too tired
3. Boring
4. Couldn't find 10 minutes alone
5. fell asleep
........................
So I got tired of it, I was getting more and more tired of it, and it made me a little hopeless... then how could we ever study the scriptures? So we made a list of reasons to study the scriptures:
1. It brings the Spirit (we need the Spirit to make the right choices)
2. Gain knowledge, which leads to wisdom (we don't wanna be labeled as idiots)
3. Draw closer to God
4. Peace in our homes (Gordon B. Hinckley's promise)
5. Stronger testimony of Jesus Christ's reality as God's son, and our Savior
......................
This got all three of us very excited to go home, open the scriptures, and study!
We talked about how obtaining great spiritual knowledge takes effort, and we compared it to Joseph Smith's experience with the angel Moroni in his room at night. After those experiences, he still got up, and went to work with his father. So we need to do our chores, duties, but don't set aside the spiritual experiences that will bring us peace, joy, and strength.
We talked about how the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, how without the Book of Mormon, everything fails! Yes, the bible teaches us a lot of doctrine, but the fullness of the teaching would be lost without the book of mormon.
We didn't cover a lot of the reading assignment, (we should be in 2 nephi 10 by now, yet this was our first lesson) but we were strengthened by the Spirit, and all three of us decided to do better, and search for God , for Christ and their teachings in the scriptures every single day.
2. I had to give a talk in church ... again... This time, it was on the importance of examples. I didn't know what to say! What could I talk about? So I picked some scriptures, and tried to put them together as I started speaking. It was a pretty sweet experience! First, I felt like I was the one being taught! I saw the connection between verses, I feltwhat God wanted me to learn! One thing that I talked about was the conceuences of a good example vs. bad example. I love Jacob in the book of mormon! he's so bold, and he doesn't care what people will think, so he is very straightforward. Jacob 2:35 - because of bad examples, hearts were killed = spiritual darkness. Then, we have the example of Amon who went and taught Lamoni, he was a good example of servie, faith, humility, so Lamoni wants to learn more from him, and he is converted, and so are most of his people = spiritual light.
*What are some things we do today to set a good example?
*What are some of the things we do that set a bad example?
*What kind of examples do we want to set for our families, friends, enemies, people who don't know us, but interact with us?
Paul told Timothy to be an example of the believers in word, in conversation,in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
*What words do we use when we talk to people- when we talk to our friends, or family, or enemies? Are they words we wouldn't like Christ to hear, or words that would make us feel ashamed if the prophet heard us use them?
*What do we like to talk about? Do we have clean thoughts? Do we talk lightly of sacred things? Do we gossip? Do we shre secrets we were entrusted with?
*How do we show people that we care about them? Just saying "I love you" is not enough. Can people feel, and see that we actually love them? Do we hae a hard time forgiving? Are we ready to serve selflessly?
* Do we have sins we haven't repented of? Do we have a clear conscience? Are we worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us?
* How do we show our faith? Do we do our best to be obedient? Do we strive to keep all the commandments, not only those that are convenient to us? Do we sustain our leaders? Do we accept, and fullfil any callings?
* Are we temple worthy? Do we strive to be pur in thoughts, actions, words?
These are some things that got me thinking of mysef, evaluating where I really stand before God. All these questions came to me during my talk. And they helped me later to ponder on where stand bfore God, who I really am in His eyes, and wat are some things I should improve on.
On the lighter side of things, Emi had to teach YW, and she talked about taking care of ourselves, especially nutrition. We had to write down what we usually eat, and to be honest, writing that down scared me! My list contained the followings: chocolate, popcorn, mountain dew and pepsi, sometimes (every 3 days) a sandwitch or some sort of "cooked" food (instant soups). As I looked at my list, I realised I had even more things tochange than spiritual things! So for luch today I cooked pasta withreal tomato sauce with corn and beans... it tasted sooo good! I even picked up the recipe book and browsed it :)) I think I'll be cooking goodies this week :D
Have a fun Sunday :)
I wish I could've heard your talk and your seminary lesson! We gave a lesson yesterday about the Holy Sabbath and used a talk by John Bytheway called "The Best 3 Hours of the Week" and it reminds me of your list in seminary about how to overcome the natural tendencies we have (I fell asleep, etc.). I miss you, Eni, and am so happy that you have a blog so I can keep up with your crazy adventures. :) Tell Emi hello for me!
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