I had to write this down somewhere...so why not share?!

In my New Testament class, we were given the assignment to think of a Gospel Question, and research in the scriptures and talks from general authorities to see what we could come up with to answer the question. The question, in short, that I chose:

"Why is it that even incredibly righteous people who do everything they're supposed to do still have to go through such hard trials and afflictions?"

While looking for things to use in my paper, I came across a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland that completely, I'm pretty sure, changed my life. This talk is called "The Peaceable Things of the Kingdom" and it was given in the October Conference of 1996. Elder Holland has always been one of my favorite apostles, but this definitely moves him up to the number one spot. I'm posting an excerpt from this talk below and a link to the whole talk here. Read it. Ponder it. Love it. It's amazing. Now for the excerpt:

“But - for whatever reason - life has its moments when uninterrupted peace may seem to elude us for a season. We may wonder why there are such times in life, particularly when we may be trying harder than we have ever tried to live worthy of God’s blessings and obtain His help. When problems or sorrows or sadness come and they don’t seem to be our fault, what are we to make of their unwelcome appearance? With time and perspective we recognize that such problems in life do come for a purpose, if only to allow the one who faces such despair to be convinced that he really does need divine strength beyond himself, that she really does need the offer of heaven’s hand...Surely it is better to find the goodness of God and the grace of Christ, even at the price of despair, than to risk living our lives in a moral or material complacency that has never felt any need for faith or forgiveness, any need for redemption or relief. A life without problems or limitations or challenges - life without ‘opposition in all things,’ as Lehi phrased it - would paradoxically but in very fact be less rewarding and less ennobling than one which confronts - even frequently confronts - difficulty and disappointment and sorrow. As beloved Eve said, were it not for the difficulties faced in a fallen world, neither she nor Adam nor any of the rest of us ever would have known ‘the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.’”

This made me realize, that no matter how righteous or awesome we are, we should always be grateful for any trials we have to go through! No matter how insanely difficult the trial is, if we but endure we can experience true and everlasting joy. We can't experience that without our trials. Amazing right?! I am changed for good. And I'm now even MORE excited for conference this weekend and to hear from more leaders of our amazing church. Oh, how grateful I am to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! :)

We Thank Thee Oh God For a Prophet!

Last week I had an awesome experience. For those of you who don't know, every Tuesday here at BYU at 11 AM, all of campus shuts down for a campus wide devotional held in the Marriott Center. Sometimes they are called forums when it is an academic speaker and not a religious leader, but last week we were blessed and privileged to have President Thomas S. Monson come speak at the Tuesday devotional. So I met some friends at the Marriott Center and got the best seat we could to be a part of it. To be honest, I never realized how incredibly lucky I am for having seen the prophet so many times in my life until I talked to a lot of my friends and people in my ward about it, many of whom had never even seen the prophet in real life. I realized what a blessing it is that between Pres. Hinckley and Pres. Monson, I can't even count how many times I've seen a living prophet. How amazing is that? Also, I am incredibly blessed to go to a school where the one and only prophet comes to speak to the student body and faculty. Amazing. Anyway, Pres. Monson gave an amazing talk about all of the prophets he has personally known. He was quite hilarious too. My favorite story he told went something like this:

"One day I was in President Spencer W. Kimball's office with a parent whose son had just been called to the New England mission. This father seemed not too pleased and said he thought his son should go to the Old England mission. So President Kimball named off all of the missions in the UK and said something like 'I realize we are general authorities, but if you want your son to go there than perhaps he shall', all the while reprimanding the father who didn't catch on. So the father picked the Bristol mission and said that sounded fine. After he left the office, President Kimball said 'Some parents are interesting.' ...That's not the word I would have used, but then President Kimball wasn't in the Navy like I was."

Then after everyone kind of settled down from laughing, he said "That line was not in my prepared address."

He was hilarious. His talk made all the nine prophets he spoke about seem more real, and not just men I had seen in pictures before. He made them seem relatable. He gave a guiding principle that each of them had for their lives. These are the nine:

Persistance

Compassion

Consideration

True Christianity/Love and action

Gospel Scholarship

Dedication

Love one Another

Ability to find the best in people

Do your best

I now want to strive to find my own guiding principle for my life and follow these nine as well. It was so amazing to have him here on campus, a block away from my apartment! And I realized how truly grateful I am to have a living prophet. And as one of my favorite hymns says it:

"We thank thee oh God for a prophet to guide us in these latter days!"

To watch the devotional for yourselves, go here and click "Watch Now."