My thoughts

I have been thinking about the Theme for our Stake this year and it is D&C 78:7 and it says: "For if you will that I give unto you a place in the Celestial world, you must prepare yourselves by doing the things which I have commanded you and required of you." As members of the church we know what it is that we need to do!! We have that knowledge, we are so blessed to know what we need to do to live with our Heavenly Father again. Because we know, then we are required to DO those things if we want to live in the Celestial kingdom. The Stake pointed out 4 areas that they want us to place emphasis on: 1. Personally striving to be obedient to the covenants and commandments of the Lord in all things; 2. Extending ourselves to others through Christ-like love and service and assisting our fellow members to make and keep covenants; 3.Bringing others unto Christ by preparing them to be receptive to the Gospel, and referring them to be taught by the full time missionaries; 4. Seeking out our kindred dead and performing the necessary saving ordinances for them in the Temple. I taught a RS lesson recently in the Semoran (Spanish) Branch and it was on the purposes of the RS, from the "Daughters in my Kingdom" manual. Basically these 4 areas are similar to the purposes of the RS which are: Increase faith and personal righteousness; Strengthen families and homes; Seek out and help those in need.

This is what I taught the sisters: To increase our faith and personal righteousness we must; 1. Pray always; 2. Read the scriptures daily; 3. Follow the example of Jesus Christ. When we are reading the scriptures daily (2Nephi 4:15-16), pondering them and learning from them, praying continually and following Jesus Christ's example in all things, we will have a "change of heart and will have no more disposition to do evil but to do good continually"(Mosiah5:2).

When we are doing these things we will then be able to extend ourselves to others through Christlike love and service (in our families and with our friends and neighbors), we will have the desire to bring others unto Christ (share the gospel), and seek out our kindred dead. But I believe that there is a time for everything. We don't just automatically do these things at once, we also have our lives, trials, tribulations, we have days that we can barely get anything done!! But we MUST be working towards these goals. I think if we read the Scriptures and pray daily, we will have "the spirit to be with us" always to help us, inspire and guide us and we will see miracles in our lives. It doesn't happen all at once. We have our whole lives to work towards that goal which is "eternal live" but we need to working towards it, "steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all"(Mosiah5:15).

Sister Peterson taught (first counselor in the Stake RS Presidency) taught a lesson that really impressed me. It was a lesson on "Having a better marriage", I have a great marriage by the way, but she gave some ideas that aply to ANY relationship and I really like the ideas she gave. Anyone can apply them, relationships with your spouse, children, brothers, sisters, grandparents, cousins, grandchildren and friends. She said that: 1. we need to have a good attitude, 2.Don't go to the dark place, 3. Soften your heart. I liked these because, in following the counsel of the Stake Theme, I can do to them to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord. We know ourselves and we know our weaknesses and what we need to improve. This is one area I need to improve. I think I do good at extending myself to others in Christ-like love and service, I am working hard on that. I have always been super friendly, and I like to make people feel welcome and not feel alone. I am also at the point in my life that I have started working on my family history, so that one is going good, thanks to the help of Matthew Herzog who is helping me. I also try to be a good example to others and when possible invite them to church activities. So what am I lacking? What do I have to improve? well, I think I need to have a better attitude about things, I need to not get offended easily, I think I need to be stronger when I am faced with trials and not to judge people and many other things that come up, that I can not remember right now. I have a long list of improvements to do!!

What JoAnn meant by "not going in the dark place" is, and this is the example she gave: You are home making dinner, the kitchen is messy, kids are running around screaming, your husband comes home from work, tired and stressed, he sits down on the couch and turns the TV on and does not help you with anything. What do you do?, you go in the dark place, Why does he sit? I am working hard too!!!! Why can't he help me?? He is terrible for not helping me!!! YOU are now in the dark place!! I do that a lot, not in that sense because Brent doesn't sit down, he HELPS me, but I do it with other things, I go in the dark place when I feel offended!!! I get these negative thoughts which make things worse and then I don't do anything to solve the problem in a positive way!!! This is when I need to soften my heart!! It is a battle between the soft heart and the hard heart and because I am a human the hard heart seems easier!!! JoAnn said that "the Scriptures (doctrine) soften your hearts which makes your behavior in harmony with eternal principles." This is the only way I am going to improve and it is to have a change of heart, a soft heart. The Lord's does not force us to change, we have the agency, we have to want to change. We need to humble ourselves like Nephi (2 Nephi4:17) "Oh wretched man that I am.. my soul grieveth beause of mine iniquities" and acknowledge our weaknessess, I am not better than anyone else!! We can not change anyone else but ourselves, it is through our agency that the doctrine will soften our hearts, we have to want it!!! I have a lot of work to do on myself so I better get started!!