PRESIDENT SNOW & TESTIMONIES & WAREHOUSE MOVING

W-o-w!  What an exhausting week!  But not bad... just tiring.

Skittles thinks he's the boss of the warehouse...

Scott has been planning on moving the warehouse for over a month and the move happened this weekend.  It was a lot of work, and it was successful and the space is amazing!  Kiara and I were without husbands for most of the week as they left for work at 5:00 a.m. every day (including Saturday) and didn't get home until around 11:00 p.m.  Despite the exhaustion, Scott is excited and happy about how it all "went down."

Working hard... with a smile.

S-P-A-C-E

"Grandpa's chair... and I stole it!"

Thursday I got this book in the mail:

It was AMAZING!  I pulled an all-nighter reading it.  I finished it in a little less than 20 hours.  Suzanne Collins is truly a genius and arguably one of the best authors of our time.  I couldn't stop reading.  The story was compelling.  And many questions from the original Hunger Games were answered.  President Snow is still despicable and pure evil, but I "understand" him better now.  I also believe completely the opposite of him.  I believe that people are born with the Light of Christ inside them and that freedom is our God given right!  Government does NOT need to control the population.  With that said, I loved the book despite the dark subject.
I am definitely too old for all-nighters.  I have been trying to play catch-up from my foray into "reading like a teenager again."
Today we were able to share our home-church with a few of the guys from Idaho that were here for the move.  We also shared dinner with them.  It was a nice change having more than just 4 of us - we had 8!  I was assigned a talk...
I hope everyone has a great week!  I'm looking forward to it because my sister is coming to visit and DeGooyer Day is next week!  Have a great week!
I'll end with a copy of my talk:

Have you ever noticed that converts to the Church love to tell their conversion stories?  I love to hear them!  My favorite is my father’s conversion story which, we are blessed to be able to read when ever we want – because of his autobiographical novel.  Most of these stories explain how they discovered the truth, who helped them and how they searched for the answer.  Finally, they share the moment they knew the gospel of Jesus Christ was true.  In my father’s case, it came as he read the Book of Mormon by a Coke machine while serving his country.

As much as I love these conversion stories, sometimes, they lead me to think that conversion is a once and done event.  But testimony is much more complicated than a one time event.  Questions and doubts and gaining further testimonies is a life-long process.  Sharing our initial stories can help others better understand the role of faith in becoming a member of the Church, but once we have our “beginning” we need to continue to grow and nurture our testimonies.

When we talk about testimony, we are not talking about blind obedience.  We are taught that if we don’t understand or believe something, we should find out for ourselves.  As Glenn Beck says, “Do your own homework.”  And I believe that spiritual homework is the best (and most fun) kind of homework to do.  Alma also says that we need to continue to “experiment upon His words, and exercise a particle of faith…”

Once we have an answer from God, it’s no longer blind faith – it is believing.  The exciting thing about all of this is that if we ever hear something we aren’t sure about, we can continue to pray and get a confirmation about it.  We can trust God and gain stronger testimonies that won’t just fall apart with a puff of wind.

Doubt is another aspect of testimony that I’ve struggled with.  Having a doubt doesn’t mean we don’t have a testimony.  Doubts happen.  But as Elder Uchtdorf said, “doubt your doubts before you doubt your testimony.”  Most of us have faced moments when we have doubted or struggled.  Since we’re not perfect, we don’t always understand the bigger picture of the gospel.  This isn’t apostasy.  This isn’t bad.  God anticipated this and it’s why he taught us how to pray for a testimony.

Testimonies emerge over time through life’s experiences.  Elder Robert D. Hales explains, “We can compare testimony to the process of watching a photograph develop.  Powerful impressions of the Spirit come like flashes of light on receptive photographic film.  Like the chemicals needed in our lives for our personal testimony to develop into a certain truth and knowledge.  And like a photograph, a testimony, if not carefully preserved, will fade with time.”

Praying for a testimony isn’t something we reserve for that first personal revelation.  It’s something we can draw on always as a way to keep our testimonies strong, and to cope with doubts and false information and challenges that the world sends our way. 

I’ve used prayer to help me with different aspects of my testimony throughout my life.  When I struggled with infertility and growing our family, my testimony of the commandment to “multiply and replenish the earth” really lacked.  It took prayer, continual study and many prayers on my behalf from my husband and daughters to develop my testimony of my divinity as a Mother and Nurturer.  But that testimony, because of the work and struggle I had to go through to get it, is strong to it’s core.

Another way to gain a testimony is to share it.  One of my favorite meetings at Church is the first of each month when other’s testimonies help strengthen my own.  Sharing our testimonies of gospel principles also keeps our faith strong and helps us to grow our testimonies. 

Because of the quarantine, I’m still grateful that we can share our testimonies in our families.  And I’ve realized the blessings of sharing our testimonies through other means too.  When a friend shares a quote by one of the brethren on FB, my heart is brighter. 

On a tangent:  I’ve also tried to use my blog as a medium of keeping our families together but also sharing my testimony.  And I’ve noticed than many other LDS bloggers do the same.  Our Church leaders have instructed us to use technology as a means to share the gospel with others.  It’s sometimes scary to make ourselves so vulnerable by sharing our personal feelings, but we can positively influence others through out words.  Elder M. Russell Ballard counseled us to not give into what the Apostle Paul calls the “spirit of fear”: “Do not be afraid to share with others your experiences as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We all have interesting stories that have influenced our identity.  Sharing those stories is a nonthreatening way to talk to others.”  Here are some ideas on how to share:  1. Share personal life experiences or insights from your scripture study.  2. Share what you learned in general conference or in a Sunday meeting; explain how you’re applying these teaching to your life.  3. Share what you’re passionate about in the gospel – whether it’s general conference, FHE, temples, food storage, etc.  4.  Share your conversion story.  5. Ask questions and spark discussions. And finally, be real!  Don’t pretend your life is perfect.  Try to show how the gospel helps us in our daily lives and how it brings us joy despite trials.

Testimonies help us grow in our understanding of gospel truths.  It’s a beautiful and wonderful gift from a loving Heavenly Father.  Let’s make good use of that gift – and make sure we let others in and out of the Church know it is a desirable thing to receive a testimony.  Remember that even Nephi, as a teenager, went to God to find out for himself if what his father had said was true.  He got his answer and stayed strong.  Praying for and sharing our testimonies is not a one time event.  It’s something we get to do all our lives – and that is something to celebrate

Amen