Hello friends-
Happy Easter to all of you! I hope you had the most beautiful Easter and felt closer to the Savior after a week of focusing on Him, His atonement, His resurrection, His life and what it means to you. I certainly did. I feel so blessed to be a part of His church and am so grateful that anyone can, who is willing to take His name upon them and repent and be baptized!
I am so happy each one of you are here and walking on this very special path toward the tree. This has been such a spiritually uplifting weekend with General Conference. Did you watch? Did you hear so many truths and ways to feel God's love and come unto Christ?! It was simply incredible. I want to start the weekend over again. Good thing is, we can watch and listen to and read the talks whenever we want. These next six months we can study them to prepare for next conference and prepare for life!
Speaking of LIFE... Did you notice a talk this afternoon about THE TREE OF LIFE!!!?! I was so excited! Heavenly Father is VERY aware of all of us. This IS His work and was inspired of HIM! I love what Elder Kevin Pearson had to say! You can watch all of conference HERE and I just googled his name and Desert News has already put up a little summary of his talk. Here is what he said about the tree of life and enduring to the end (living our life committed to the gospel and not losing our testimonies). I added my notes to their notes, in RED.
Looking to Lehi’s vision of the tree of life, Elder Pearson shared six important principles that help individuals endure to the end.
1. Don’t forget to pray. (our week #1 challenge, and daily challenge)
“Each of us experience periods of darkness and loneliness,” he said. “When life gets dark and dreary, don’t forget to pray.” pray for strength to endure.
2. Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him.
“We can fill our lives with accomplishment and well-doing, but in the end, if we do not enter into sacred covenants to follow Christ and faithfully keep them, we will have utterly and completely missed the mark.” The tree is Christ and the fruit is the infinite atonement. He is the way, the truth and the light. Keep our COVENANTS!
3. Press forward with faith.
“There is a path that leads to the tree of life, to Christ,” Elder Pearson said. “It is strait and narrow, strict and exact. God’s commandments are strict but not restrictive. They protect us from spiritual and physical danger and prevent us from getting lost.” Follow Chirst's example.
4. The Book of Mormon is key to spiritual survival.
“When adversity comes, don’t let something you don’t fully understand, unravel everything you do know. Be patient, cling to truth, understanding will come." We can be distracted by tribulation. Trials are like mists of darkness. "Search Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day!" (Does that remind you of anyone?)
5. Don’t be distracted and deceived.
“To heed is to give careful attention,” he said. “Heeding those who do not believe in Christ will not help you find Him." Stay away from great an spacious building. They mock the Savior. Beware of political correctness.
6. Stay by the tree.
“Lehi’s message is to stay by the tree. We stay because we are converted unto the Lord. … As we yield our hearts to God, the Holy Ghost changes our very natures, we become deeply converted unto the Lord, and no longer seek the spacious building. ...
“True disciples continue to awaken unto God each day in meaningful personal prayer, earnest scripture study, personal obedience and selfless service." If we stop doing the things that brought us conversion (brought us to the tree) we will regress. Apostasy is the opposite of conversion. Don't indulge in Babylon. STAY AWAKE!!
Begin again to study the Book of Mormon. and live teachings every day, every day, every day! (he said that twice, well.. six times! Haha!) Christ will show you want to do next. Daily discipleship determines eternal destiny. Follow His example.
Here is a special picture and a neat experience that one of our fellow Tree of Life challengers (and my sister's mother-in-law, Sharilyn Wilson, got to experience in Salt Lake City this weekend. Look at these incredible images and imagine what it must have been like for her. I can see her testimony shining in her eyes.
She volunteered to be one of the people who got the privilege of carrying the cross in Salt Lake from church to church in a special Good Friday tradition held by several churches there. Sharilyn is LDS.
Of the experience she said.. "Anyone could volunteer to carry the cross of Jesus. I decided to carry it hale way between the third and fourth church with David's (her husband) help so the cross wouldn't drag on the street. (We walked a total of 6 different churches and outside each chapel, the minister read from the Bible, prayed and we sang songs)....It was a very humbling experience to recreate the carrying of the cross last night down the streets of Salt Lake City on Good Friday (Black Friday) in honor of Jesus and his willingness to give his life for everyone who ever lived. While I carried the cross, my foot didn't hurt and I could walk normally-- he carries our burdens and lightens our load.
"Could my tears forever glow, could my zeal no longer know;
These for sin could not atone, Thous must save, and Thou alone;
In my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling."
(2nd verse of Rock of Ages)
I am so happy that three days later he was resurrected and that HE LIVES!! Because He Lives our lives have meaning and direction. Our focus is on the resurrected Lord who I love and adore! HAPPY EASTER SUNDAY!
What a lucky woman and how great that she was there and volunteered!
Ok- This week's focus is on JOURNALING!!! Hopefully you are all having experiences, thoughts and feelings that you are wanting to write down!! When you show Heavenly Father that what you have learned is important enought to write down, he will teach you MORE! This week we are so lucky to have Carolyn Calton helping us! She is actually writing a book on journaling. I will share with you her initial thoughts and then attach 3 really great resources for you to use as you work on journaling this week. Remember, to get points this week you need to work on getting your memories down, either in a journal, scrapbook, blog or other place. She shares some great ideas in the attachments. PLEASE READ! They are not long at all!
Hi Sarah-
I volunteered to send you some thoughts on JOURNALING. I have been a journaler for many years. I have found it is a great way to preserve your personal history (recording your "History-in-the-making"), and some results can be - self improvement
- healthier relationships
- confidence
- less stress
- greater peace of mind
I am in the process of publishing my first ebook, called JOURNALriffic.
The "riffic: stands for R-eady to grow.
I-n spite of insecurities,
F-rustration and
F-ear, with an
I-ntention to strengthen myself in THIS generation.
C-ourageously and consistently, I pursue my QUEST. (referring to the quest to create positive change in spite of obstacles)
I am attaching 3 articles, which could easily be broken down into tidbits. I'm hoping this will help you when the topic is journals.
Thanks for all you're doing. Lives are changing, and that is good.
Please let me know that you've received this email. I'm leaving Colorado on Friday to visit my family in AZ, and I wanted to make sure to take care of this before I left.
To your happiness,
Carolyn
OK. I know this was a looooooooooooong email! Here is the link to the survey! Have a wonderful week! I will be in touch soon!
Lots of love!
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