How should I change as a result of what I have studied?

-As a missionary I LOVED my hour of study time.  When I came home my study habits changed, I didn't feel like I had a purpose in my studies anymore, and I didn't study quite as much.  It is still not the same as my mission, but this blog has helped me have more meaningful study time.  One day as a missionary I guess I kinda felt the same way.. or that my studies weren't super meaningful.. (looking back now, heck yes they were).  Here is what I studied that day and how my morning studies changed after that.

Effective Study Ch in PMG
What do the scriptures teach about learning the gospel?  1 Nephi 10:17-19
That it is eternal.. the course of the Lord is one eternal round.  -our learning never ends.

D&C 88:18  Seek learning by study & FAITH.. by faith.. PMG pg.21 'As you study in prayer and faith, your knowledge and testimony will grow.' ( I wrote this as a missionary in a little different way): When I pray each morning Do I have the faith to know that Heavenly Father will help me by allowing His spirit be with me... -Now I can ask.. Heavenly Father will help me having meaningful study..

"True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior"
~Boyd K. Packer

After you study ask yourself these three questions:  1. What is the author saying? 2. What is the central message? 3. How does this apply to me?

-The most important message I got from my studies this day Was HOW SHOULD I CHANGE AS A RESULT OF WHAT I HAVE STUDIED?  I should not study just to say I studies.  I should study to learn and to change.

Here's what PMG says:
'As you feel the joy that comes from understanding the gospel, you will want to apply what you learn.  Strive to live in harmony with your understanding.  Doing so will strengthen your faith, knowledge, and testimony.  Acting on what you have learned will bring added and enduring understanding.
As you treasure up the words of the scriptures and latter-day prophets by study and faith, your desire to share the gospel will increase.'  pg. 19

PMG pg. 22 Study Ideas and Suggestions
-Wonderful suggestions.. some need a little tweaking for me now as a wife, and a future mother.
Bullet point number three:  Plan your study around people, their needs.  -plan my studies around my family, how can help them, how I can be a more patient wife, and one day mother.. lots of topics!

The personal study activity:  Evaluate how well you live the principles that you teach.. -for me the ones I will teach my children.. Always strive to improve.

Remember this PMG 24: 'pursuing the desire to learn is important to your salvation.. and your success as a missionary.. changing that last bit to your success as a wife, and mother, and member of this church.

ALWAYS remember to ask yourself this: HOW SHOULD I CHANGE AS A RESULT OF WHAT I HAVE STUDIED.  If I do this my studies will be more meaningful!

Quotes

"The greatest blessings of all are that my children love the Lord and we are a family forever."

"But regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, if we first pay our obligation to the Lord and then, USE WISDOM & JUDGMENT, the Lord will help us manage the resources He has given us."
~Sheldon F. Child

Quotes

I believe that in the midst of all these tribulations God will send fire from Heaven, if necessary, to destroy our enemies while we carry forward our work and push that stone until it fills the whole earth.  Your destiny is to do that very thing and, this is the kind of protection you will have.  You do not need to fear about world conditions.  You do not need to fear anybody.  Just serve the Lord and keep his commandments and build the kingdom, and as you do so you will be protected in these last days."
~ Mark E. Petersen

Relationships

I heard a wonderful talk one week in Auburn CA from a Stake President about relationships.  I ate everything that he said up!

He started by saying that he heard on the radio a commercial about training dogs.  It said something to the effect of if you want to have a good dog you need to give them love, praise, and affection.   The Stake President said, now why can so many people to these principles and apply them so easily to a dog, but if they take those same principles and apply them to their spouses, it is a lot harder.

-I thought about this and was like holy cow this is soooo true.  It is a lot easier for some people to give their  animals praise, love, and affection, but not their spouses.   It is crazy how true this statement is.

Here are some more thoughts he had:
Be humble:  allow the healing power of the Atonement to work in our relationships.
Don't be arrogant enough to put any problem above the Atonement.
Be humble enough to take hour weaknesses and trials to the Lord.

Forgive: Our unwillingness to forgive is the greatest source of our misery.
Don't put restrictions on the Atonement of forgiveness in your relationship.

Our Heavenly Father has to be a huge part of our relationships.

Go to the temple often.  There is nothing that is beyond the healing capacity of the temple.

The purpose of eternal families is for us to be happy.. we can be wonderfully happy!

A good relationship takes work, effort, Atonement, commitment, LOVE, PRAISE, AFFECTION, and soooo much more.

Repentance

Some wonderful repentance scriptures:

Mosiah 26:30 Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.   Alma 36:30 Keep the commandments and prosper in the land.
D&C 1:32 Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven.
D&C 19:16 For behold I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent.
D&C 58:42-43 Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.  43: By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins- behold, he will confess them and forsaken them.
Isaiah 1:18 ..thou your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Quotes:
"What relief! What comfort! What joy! Those laden with transgressions and sorrows and sin may be forgiven and cleansed and purified if they will return to their Lord, learn of him, and keep his commandments."
~Spencer W. Kimball

"Repent: Perhaps the most hopeful and encouraging word in the Christian vocabulary."
~Jeffery R. Holland

“Men cannot forgive their own sins; they cannot cleanse themselves from the consequences of their sins. Men can stop sinning and can do right in the future, and so far [as] their acts are acceptable before the Lord [become] worthy of consideration. But who shall repair the wrongs they have done to themselves and to others, which it seems impossible for them to repair themselves? By the atonement of Jesus Christ the sins of the repentant shall be washed away; though they be crimson they shall be made white as wool [see Isaiah 1:18]. This is the promise given to you.”⁸
-Joseph F. Smith

Faith in Jesus Christ

PMG= Preach My Gospel

'We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.'

ARTICLES OF FAITH

My lesson Today out of the Preparing for Exaltation handbook was caled Faith in Jesus Christ.  Here are some tid bits about the lesson that I loved:

Question and answer from the book: What two things does this Article of Faith teach us about faith?

That faith is the first principle of the gospel and that it must be centered in Jesus Christ.

'..this article of faith teaches us that "faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," rather than faith in general, is the first principle of the gospel.  We can have faith in other things.. but faith faith in Jesus Christ isn the only faith that will lead us to exaltation'

-Without Jesus Christ and his Atonement we could not be saved, or live with our families again one day.  We have to have faith first in Jesus Christ to know that Plan of Salvation is true, and that our families can be eternal.   

  

"The need to exercise faith in Jesus Christ is absolutely essential.  It is the foundation of the plan of salvation"

~Richard G Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles 

From the manual: 'faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle of the gospel because it is the basis for understanding and accepting other principles and ordinances of the gospel'.  -Everything else that we believe in stems from first having faith in Jesus Christ.
"We can develop faith in a particular principle.. by first believing in Jesus Christ strongly enough to obey His commandments"  PMG

'When we have faith in Christ, we accept and apply his Atonement and teachings'

PMG 61

HE IS RISEN

This is clip that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints made and put on their website.

HE IS RISEN

What a wonderful thing to know!  I do know that Jesus Christ lived, and died for each of us.  I know that he was resurrected, and that one day I will be too.  He made it possible for me to live with my family forever and I will be forever grateful for that knowledge!!

Easter

I love Easter time.  It comes around the best time of year, SPRING!  New life, warm weather, school ending.. I just love it.
This Easter Sunday I had a special lesson prepared for my class about our Savior and his resurrection.  I kinda just made it up as I went along, but I think that it came together really well.

Easter

1.   What is Easter… what do all of these things mean? Show items.. I had an Easter basket with candy, presents, and eggs in it.  I went through and shared some of my own insights and some I found on Wikipedia with my class.  

2.   Egg Hunt: I believe that the egg symbolizes the hunt that each person has to make to find the Savior and his gospel.  There are lots of choices out there so it makes it hard, but with prayer and sincerity we can find the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
I took my kids outside and had a hunt prepared for them, I told them that there was 8 eggs but only his 7.  I had the other one and then after a while of looking I finally told them I had the egg.  I said there is a point to me hiding the egg but I read them this story first:

3.   On the day before Easter, Kurt’s grandparents invited his family to a barbecue. Kurt was especially excited to go because his favorite uncle, Darren, had just come home from his mission. He had missed Uncle Darren a lot.Kurt bounded into his grandparents’ backyard, ran past Grandpa, who was standing over the sizzling grill, and found Uncle Darren sitting in a patio chair.“Hey, Kurt,” Uncle Darren greeted him. “Are you excited for Easter, little buddy?” “Yes!” Kurt scrambled into his uncle’s lap. “What do you want in your Easter basket * ?” Uncle Darren asked. “Candy, I guess.” Kurt grinned. He imagined finding chocolate bunnies, marshmallows shaped like baby birds, and jelly beans spilling out of his Easter basket. His heart skipped excitedly just thinking about it. “What do you want in your Easter basket?” Kurt asked, poking his finger into Uncle Darren’s chest. “I don’t think I’ll get one this year,” Uncle Darren said. “I guess I’m too old for that. But it’s OK because last year I got the best Easter basket ever.” “What was in it?” Kurt asked. “Don’t you remember?” Uncle Darren looked surprised. “You helped send it to me.” Kurt tried to think about last spring, but it was a long time ago. He remembered the family gathering at Grandma’s house to make a package for Uncle Darren. Plastic colored eggs and stringy Easter grass had been strewn all over the kitchen table. Strips of paper, markers, and pens had been piled on the countertop. “Why was it your favorite Easter basket?” Kurt asked. He couldn’t remember sending anything special. Uncle Darren squeezed Kurt tightly. “It was my favorite Easter basket because there was no candy inside.” Kurt giggled, expecting to see a teasing twinkle in Uncle Darren’s eyes, but he looked serious. “No candy?” Kurt cried. “Why not?” Uncle Darren laughed. “Come in the house. I want to show you something.” Kurt watched Uncle Darren rummage through a shoe box full of letters. He reached into the box, pulled out an envelope, and handed a strip of paper to Kurt. The Church is true, Kurt read. I love Jesus and my family. Last year he had written these words, folded the paper up, and placed it inside a plastic egg. Everyone else—his parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins—had done the same. Now Kurt remembered! Uncle Darren’s missionary Easter basket had been filled with testimonies. “You liked these papers better than jelly beans?” Kurt asked. He couldn’t imagine why. Uncle Darren nodded. “Easter is the time to celebrate Jesus Christ’s Resurrection,” he said quietly. “Do you know what that means?” “Jesus came back to life so that we can all be resurrected someday,” Kurt answered. “And do you know what that means?” Uncle Darren asked. He rested his hand on Kurt’s shoulder. “It means that I will always be your uncle!” Kurt was confused. “The Resurrection makes it so that you can be my uncle?” “We couldn’t be an eternal family without eternal life,” Uncle Darren said. “Jesus Christ died for us so that we could live forever with Him.” When Kurt and his parents had visited the temple grounds, Mom had pointed to the temple and said that she and Dad had been married there. Because of the sealing ordinances, they could be a family forever. Mom hadn’t said anything about Jesus’ Resurrection. “What about temples?” Kurt asked. “I thought we could be with our families forever because of temples.” “The temple is the Lord’s house,” Uncle Darren explained. “Without Jesus Christ and His Resurrection, there wouldn’t be any temples, either. The power that seals us together is His priesthood.” Kurt hadn’t thought about that before. Uncle Darren continued. “I taught people on my mission who didn’t believe in eternal families. They believed in Jesus, but they didn’t understand everything He did for us.” “That’s sad,” Kurt said with a frown. “Reading everyone’s testimonies reminded me that our family can be eternal,” Uncle Darren said. “It was the best Easter gift I could have received.” Kurt looked up into his favorite uncle’s beaming face and suddenly felt very grateful. He had missed Uncle Darren terribly during the past two years. He couldn’t imagine being separated from him forever. Uncle Darren suddenly swooped Kurt up on his shoulders. “I bet the hamburgers are almost done. Should we go find out?” Kurt was giggling too hard to answer. “Then we can be partners for the Easter egg hunt,” Uncle Darren promised. Kurt was excited, but colored eggs, candy, and Easter baskets didn’t matter so much compared to spending time with Uncle Darren. Kurt smiled, knowing that he could call Darren his uncle forever.

After I read this we went back inside and told them about how each of us has our own hunt to find the gospel and to come to know our savior.  

4.   Eggs: Easter eggs are dyed red to represent the blood of Chris, shed on the Cross, and the hard shell of the egg symbolized the sealed Tomb of Christ, the cracking of which symbolized His resurrection from the dead.  New Life.

5.   Gifts: The greatest gift we could ever receive is the life Jesus Christ.  His resurrection finished up the atonement.  Because Jesus lives we too shall live again.  With our families.
I brought in pictures of my grandparents who had passed away and told them that I had lost people that I love dearly, but that I know that I can be with them again.

6.   Who knows the story up until Jesus was resurrected..  Matthew 27:56-66, 28:1-8

7.   Bear testimony 

I made this and gave it to them after class was done.  Along with some candy and rice krispy treats.

It was a fabulous day!!