You are never alone

I have learned something so important since coming to college. I will tell you, that I have never felt more alone than I have here. Being surrounded by strangers is something I'm not used to. Back home I would know someone everywhere I went. Now, I walk around and look at everyone around me and I am surrounded by people that I have no idea who they are. I also don't have my family here with me, which is so hard for me. My three siblings are my best friends. My family is the most important and special thing to me! It was so hard leaving them.

But then I thought about how everyone else around here is feeling. A lot of people probably feel the same way-alone. Everyone has sacrificed their old friends from home and leaving their family to be here. And then I thought about something else. I'm not alone. I'm never alone. NONE of us are EVER alone. Heavenly Father is always with us. Whether we notice it or not, He is always there. He is working miracles for us and guiding us on our path. 

I don't have my dad here with me anymore. I used to be able to walk down the stairs in my house just to give my dad a hug and talk to him, but now the closest thing I have is being able to call him. This has been a hard transition, but it has increased my relationship with my Father in Heaven. Instead of walking to give my dad a hug, I can kneel and cry to Heavenly Father. He always has His arm stretched out to give me a hug of comfort and love and peace when I need it. He is also there to laugh with me and rejoice with me. 

It took me realizing how prideful I was and not recognizing the Lord's hand in my life. Through humbling myself, I know that we are never left alone. He is in every aspect of our lives.
"Because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we don't have to..." -Elder Holland

Also, I want to say that He answers our prayers. Always. It may be hard and the answer may not come in the way you want, but He will always answer your prayers. Be faithful and live worthily of the Spirit and you will feel the influence of the Savior.

Prince of Peace

This past weekend was my favorite weekend of the year, LDS General Conference! All of the sessions were so great, and it was amazing to hear talks given in native languages for the first time! The gospel is the same, the message is the same, the spirit is the same, no matter what language. I also had the opportunity to attend conference live for my first time! I attended the Sunday morning session, which was so great. The general authorities have such strong spirits they can simply be felt by being in the same room as them.
I want to talk today about my favorite talk given in conference. It was given by Elder Richard G. Scott in the Sunday afternoon session. His talk is entitled "Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority".
My favorite title of Christ is that He is the Prince of Peace. I have a personal testimony of this title because I have cried to Him in prayer and every time I am encompassed with His love and I find peace in my life through Him.
Elder Scott talks about our trials and how we can use the Atonement to find peace through these hard times. The four tools he talked about to find this peace are four things that those of us who have grown up in the church have been taught since we were in primary. But, his conviction and emotion when speaking about these topics changed these simple things for me.
The first one is prayer. He said "CHOOSE to converse with your Father in Heaven often...as you exercise this agency and include Him in EVERY aspect of your life, your heart will begin to fill with peace."
The next is scripture study. Throughout high school, I (regrettably) often made the excuse that I had too much studying to do to read the scriptures. I would often just read a few verses really quick and then get back to studying. This was even happening to me the first couple weeks here at BYU. But, my Book of Mormon class has really helped me with this because studying scriptures now has become homework. Elder Scott said that studying scriptures is even more important than sleep and school. He promises that peace does not come from the outside world, but by reading scriptures we will feel His peace.
The third is family home evening. Here at BYU, we are put into FHE groups in our ward and hold family home evening every Monday night. Some nights it's really hard because I just need to study, but just as Sister Linda S. Reeves testifies, family home evening takes away stress.
The last is temple attendance. This is the section that I felt most influenced by the spirit. Coming to BYU in the summer, I came with the goal to go to the temple every week, but unfortunately that goal only lasted about 2 weeks. The temple is the most peaceful place on this earth. Elder Scott said, "The temple is one of the best places to come to understand the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ...Seek Him there." After hearing this, I rededicated myself to going to the temple every week. I went yesterday, restarting this goal, and Satan has already tried to get me to slip up on this goal of mine. I woke up at 5 AM to go before classes. My alarm went off and I woke up, but then laid my head down for just a couple more minutes. I kept thinking 'I'm so tired, maybe I'll go later'...and then I sat up and literally said, "NO!" I knew Satan was telling me that I was too tired to go to the temple. Though I hadn't gotten much sleep, I got dressed and walked to the temple at 5:30 AM. The whole time, I was thinking of the line in Praise to the Man that says "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven". I knew that I would be blessed by sacrificing a couple more hours of sleep. I promise the temple brings so much peace and the blessings we receive are so great.
My favorite line in this talk was "Challenges help make us more like our Father in Heaven, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible to endure these challenges." That thought is amazing to me. Our trials we go through are making us more like our perfect Father and more worthy to be able to stand in front of Him again one day. Instead of focusing on the negative in our trials, which is much easier said than done, we can realized how blessed we are through these hard times. He is giving us the opportunity to be perfected like Him. Elder Uchtdorf reminds us, "He is not waiting to love you after you have overcome your weaknesses and bad habits. He loves you today with a full understanding of your struggles."
Remember, peace does not come through this world, but only through applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ into your life. Pray for peace. Study the scriptures. Make family home evening a habit. Attend the temple. Peace will flow into your hearts.

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL

I wanted to share my favorite message from my favorite man today. And though this talk is titled 'To Young Women', I suggest boys watch this too, because I know not only girls struggle with self confidence. This message is so important especially in our world today. 

Imagine you are an artist, and you are painting a picture for a close friend or family member-someone you love so much. When you finish the painting, you look at it and you are so proud of what you have created and you think it is the most beautiful thing. You give it to this person you care so much about and when they receive it, all they do is point out the many flaws in the painting. You feel so upset because you worked so hard and you knew you had created a masterpiece. This is how Heavenly Father feels when we critique ourselves and point out our flaws. He created you beautifully and in the image of himself. He wants us to see ourselves as the marvelous masterpiece we are. He created you and He doesn't make mistakes.
We are all beautiful literal children of our Heavenly Father. We need to never forget that. And more importantly, as Elder Holland says, we should not compare ourselves or want to look more like someone else. Comparison is the thief of joy. "When you let people's opinions make you self conscious you give away your power." YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. Don't let anyone make you think otherwise.
Spread this message. Our world today needs to be reminded of this. It is so important. Make everyone feel beautiful!

He is ALWAYS there

It's been a while...
With the new "share goodness" theme going around on social media, I have been thinking about something I want to share to share a little bit of goodness.
The past several weeks I have really opened my eyes to seeing the Lord in my life. My testimony has strengthened in this aspect so much.
Being away from home, I am far away from my family, which has made me rely more on my Heavenly Father than I have ever had to before. This has been such a blessing to me because as I struggle with homesickness and stuff, I can turn to my Heavenly Father and my strengthened relationship with Him.
The Lord is in the details of our lives. He is EVERYWHERE! He is in the phone call you receive from a friend that you needed to hear from. He is in the parking spot in the front of the lot after a long and tiring day. He is in the callings you receive in church. No matter where you look, He is there, and it's because He sincerely cares about you.
He cries with you. He laughs with you. He aches with you. He rejoices with you. He suffers with you. He smiles with you.
Even when you feel alone, and I promise you will feel like it at times, you are never alone. Because He is always there.

Life is an uphill battle

I spent this past weekend in Bear Lake for a family reunion. It was so much fun and it was so great to see family and spend time with them! Family is so important and special to me and I am so grateful I got to spend time with all of them. 

So, one day while I was there, one of my cousins and I went on a run. The cabin we were staying at was on the mountains and we decided to run up the mountain. To be honest, I thought I was going to die. Running, though I love it, isn't a strength of mine, and then to be running all uphill made it even harder. I seriously thought I was going to die. When we conquered one hill, we would reach the top only to see that there was another hill we had to climb. 

This made me think about something in life. Our life is an uphill climb. We are constantly climbing mountains of different sizes in our lives. Struggles, doubts, sickness, and trials are all a part of these "mountains" in our lives. 

There are going to be times through our journey where we may feel like we might die. We might want to give up or climb back down because it is too hard. But we need to endure and keep pushing onward. The reward will always outweigh the bad. 

Each of us have different mountains in our lives. And each of us are traveling at different paces. Some may be moving slower, and others may be stuck on one huge mountain for a long time. 

Similar to my run, when we reach the top of a mountain, there is always going to be another one ahead. But, another thing I learned from my run, is once you reach the top, you can turn around and see what you just accomplished. You can feel proud of what you just did and nothing can take that away from you. 

This is the same in life. When you go through a trial or struggle and you have made it through, you can look back and see how experiencing that has blessed you. 

And then we keep going. We face our next trial and we repeat the process. And one day, we will make it to the very top and we won't have another mountain to climb, because we will have reached home with our father in Heaven. What a blessing that day will be. 

Life may get hard, the mountains may be long. You may want to give up. Don't! The sweetness we will experience will be worth the pain we have to endure here. 

God is a God of miracles

Mormon 9:19 says: "And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles." 
My family has experienced an incredible miracle the past 7 months. My cousin, Eli, was born on Christmas day this past December weighing 2 pounds 7 ounces. He was supposed to be born in April. It was unknown of what was going to happen, but we all prayed for this little baby and for his parents and had faith that God's will would be apparent to us all. 
Eli suffered more in his first few weeks of life than I have had my entire life. He went through surgeries and treatments and scary things that babies, or anyone for that matter, should ever have to go through. 
Today, I was able to attend his blessing. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever experienced. Looking at little Eli, I knew that he is a direct gift from God to remind us all that God is still a God of miracles. Eli is living proof that there is a God who is ready to bless us and answer our prayers. While Eli was receiving his blessing, I just sobbed because I was reassured that God loves us and He has a plan for each and every one of us. 
Eli has made many people depend on their faith in Heavenly Father for comfort and for answers. Eli is a miracle and he has helped many people strengthen their relationship with the Savior. Miracles strengthen our faith. 
I know that miracles are still performed today, just like they were when Christ was on the earth. 

The House of the Lord

Last night I drove to the Draper temple (my favorite temple!!!) with three amazing people I have met here at BYU. I am so grateful for the temple. It really is a special place and I am so grateful that we have temples on earth. It is the closest thing to heaven on earth. Walking into the sacred building, I can just feel all of the stress from life vanish and all that matters is the work I am doing.
I was so overwhelmed with the Spirit. I couldn't help but cry when I walked into the baptistry and just sat and thought about my Savior, Jesus Christ. While I was sitting, I looked at the paintings around and there was one that caught my eye. It was a picture of Christ surrounded by white sheep and he was holding a black lamb.
One thing I have learned at college is that there are times where you feel alone, but you are never ever forgotten. Christ is always with you. I have felt like that little black lamb before: alone, different. That doesn't matter to Christ. He will always stand by us no matter what our circumstance. He does it because He loves us.

This time at the temple was a different experience for me because I have always been confirmed and baptized by the temple workers, but the young man that went with me performed these ordinances. I had never had that experience before. It made me even more grateful for the priesthood and even more importantly, worthy priesthood holders. I look up to young men who honor their priesthood so much and I treasure their examples in my life.
The temple is such a special place for me. I try to go once a week so I can be edified by the wonderful Spirit that is felt there. It is my one on one time with my Savior. I am so grateful for the holy house of the Lord and that I am able to attend. I can not wait until I can be sealed to the love of my life in the temple.
I am especially grateful to be here in Provo, where the temple is just down the road and I am able to walk to the temple. I wasn't ever able to do that back home. I love walking around campus and always being able to see the steeple and Angel Moroni. Elder Holland said, "I testify that angels are still sent to help us." Angel Moroni is a symbol for me to come unto Christ and remember Him at all times. Seeing him all the time keeps Christ on my mind at all times. I am eternally grateful for all my Savior has done for me and that I am able to go into Heavenly Father's home and feel His love for me.
"As long as you can see the temple, you are never lost."