Greetings from California!
My hubby and I are here watching my son play lacrosse with ASU and enjoyed a stunning sunset on the beach! How was week 4, ENJOY NATURE for you? Did your perspective of nature change at all? Did you feel some love for and from nature? Is this something you are going to incorporate more into your daily life? What about the other challenges? Are you still smiling and talking to strangers? Yesterday I got a nice compliment on my pink dress from a scruffy looking guy in the hallway because I struck up a quick conversation as we walked past each other. It was really cute! I hope you are feeling more light and hope and love in your lives, even if it's just a little, from one thing that we've done, that's progress! Or perhaps it has nothing to do with what we've done, but with what God has in store for you. He is a God of miracles and they come in all shapes and sizes!
This week we are Looking at those who came before us! Give yourself points when you spend some time looking at pictures, scrapbooks, reading journals or learn anything about your ancestors. Maybe search online for new ancestors and learn a little about them. You could call your grandparents on the phone if they are alive, or visit with your parents, or aunts/uncles about where you came from. Try and learn something NEW! When I was making my soul book, I had fun making a page about my ancestors because I want my soul to remember all the different people who went into making me! And to remember that they are still around me and my family... that they are still watching over us and helping us when and how they can. I also like to imagine what qualities I might have inherited from them. The good ones I try and amplify, the not so good ones, I can still learn from. I choose who I want to be! :)
I just love this quote from a talk given in 2012, by Apostle, Richard G. Scott (but he was actually quoting the prophet Joseph F. Smith) during a talk about "How to Obtain Revelation and Inspiration for your Personal Life" (isn't that what we are trying to do?) He says that we are in the presence of heavenly messengers and heavenly beings...
" … We are closely related to our kindred, to our ancestors … who have preceded us into the spirit world. We can not forget them; we do not cease to love them; we always hold them in our hearts, in memory, and thus we are associated and united to them by ties that we can not break. … If this is the case with us in our finite condition, surrounded by our mortal weaknesses, … how much more certain it is … to believe that those who have been faithful, who have gone beyond … can see us better than we can see them; that they know us better than we know them. … We live in their presence, they see us, they are solicitous for our welfare, they love us now more than ever. For now they see the dangers that beset us; … their love for us and their desire for our well being must be greater than that which we feel for ourselves.”1
Relationships can be strengthened through the veil with people we know and love. That is done by our determined effort to continually do what is right. We can strengthen our relationship with the departed individual we love by recognizing that the separation is temporary and that covenants made in the temple are eternal. When consistently obeyed, such covenants assure the eternal realization of the promises inherent in them." (To read the whole talk, go here https://www.lds.org/
Don't you LOVE THAT?!! I don't know about you guys but something crazy is going on on this planet of ours. I feel both powers of good and evil fighting such an intense battle. I have never had so many highs and lows in my life so on top of each other. I know the good is winning but I feel like I keep getting punched in the gut and I imagine the same thing is happening with many of you too. I pray for you and I worry about you but I know we are in good hands and are doing the ONE most important thing...turning to God and asking for his help and His LOVE. He will sustain us. He is sustaining me. We are surrounded by those who have already gone through the veil to the other side and they are pulling for us too. We need their strength. I feel their strength. That's why I think it's so important to learn about them and let them know they are still so important to us. We all need each other! Some of them are still waiting for their temple work to be done. They need us too!!!
ONE MORE THING: I found THE PERFECT video for this week's challenge on the Mormon Channel (an app on my phone and a website. I highly recommend it!) I love this man's experience with his grandfather. PLEASE WATCH:
HERE IS THE SURVEY!! Please take before Tuesday morning!
I will leave you with a scripture I found yesterday that I really, really needed today. It's in the Book of Mormon, Jacob 3:1-2
1 But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction.
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