His Holy Temples

With winter approaching, the days getting darker and an upcoming presidential election accompanied by all of its negativity, it is difficult for me to look on the bright side. I'm left feeling down and worried about the future.

Temple Picture by Terry Springer

I worry for people in the world as well as for my family and children. I have spoken to others who feel the same burden settling upon them. In a time when I feel such darkness where can I go to feel the Lord’s peace? Where can I go to strengthen my faith?

I was cleaning out some boxes of old pictures and letters and I came upon a quote by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone. He was speaking at the Manti Temple in 1987 as the President of the Utah South Area when he said:

"Before the Savior comes the world will darken. There will come a period of time where even the elect will lose hope if they do not come to the temples. The world will be so filled with evil that the righteous will only feel secure within these walls. The saints will come here not only to do vicarious work, but to find a haven of peace. They will long to bring their children here for safety’s sake…

Temple Picture by Terry Springer 

We will not be alone in our temples…In a day of desolating sickness, scorched earth, barren wastes, sickening plagues, disease, destruction, and death, we as a people will rest in the shade of trees, we will drink from the cooling fountains. We will abide in places of refuge from the storm, we will mount up as on eagle’s wings, we will be lifted out of an insane and evil world.”

There is a direct relationship to the happiness spoken of in God’s Plan and His Holy Temples. The Temples make it possible for us to gain eternal life, God’s greatest gift to us.

O that I were an Angel

Alma the Younger was mentioned a few times in this past General Conference. The story of Alma the Younger is one of repentance, love for the Lord and missionary work. By his works, it is evident that he has a great love for God and for all people. In Alma chapter 29 we read his words:

  1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

  2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.

  3 But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.

This desire has never seemed like a sin to me. The last time that I read this story in the Book of Mormon I realized that even if it was somewhat of a sin, the Lord could see the good in Alma’s wish. Not only that, I think that the Lord granted Alma’s wish.

Alma the Younger desired to go forth and cry repentance unto every people. Through the Book of Mormon, Alma’s testimony has gone forth and taught repentance in all the world and will be brought forth unto every people. His own beautiful story of conversion and repentance will be read throughout the world; just as he had wished. What a tender mercy this is for him.

His message will also be shared throughout the world in General Conferences. In 2002 President Gordon B Hinckley proclaimed, in reference to Alma the Younger's wish of declaring the gospel unto every people, "We have reached a point where we can almost do that. The proceedings of this conference will be carried across the world, and the speakers will be heard and seen by Latter-day Saints on every continent. We have come a very long way in realizing the fulfillment of the vision set forth in the book of Revelation: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" (Revelations 14:6).

Be Ambitious for Christ

So far I have really enjoyed this General Conference! It is such an uplifting event; one that I always look forward to and am never disappointed by. I was so touched by the talk given by Kazuhiko Yamashita given Saturday evening and I feel a strong desire to implement what he taught into my own life. 

He shared a story of a Christian man named Dr. William Clark who worked for a short time in Japan. Upon leaving, Dr. Clark encouraged the boys he worked with to, "Be ambitious for Christ." 

What was impressed upon me as I listened to Elder Yamashita was what the attitude that being ambitious for Christ means. It means that we focus on Christ and are able to feel joy even when we suffer difficult times. We do not murmur. We may ask the Lord if we must do the difficult thing, but if we receive an answer that we do need to do the hard thing, we do not complain. 

Elder Yamashita shares that Christ understood His holy mission and was obedient to the Father, even when it was difficult. Elder Yamashita encourages us to do the following when we are ambitious for Christ.

Serve Faithfully

Accept Humbly

Endure Nobly

Pray Fervently

Partake Worthily

He tells us to endure with patience and faith and find joy in the covenant path. I felt the Spirit strongly towards the end of the talk when Elder Yamashita says, "He knows you and he knows your struggles and concerns. He knows of your desire to serve with devotion. May he guide and bless you."

After this talk, the Missionary Choir sang a very fitting hymn and one of my favorites, I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go. The lyrics that resonated with me the most were towards the end of the song when it says, "So trusting my all to thy tender care, and knowing thou lovest me, I'll do thy will with a heart sincere: I'll be what you want me to be." #LDSConf

He has come to Trust You

I have been wrestling with myself lately about something that I feel I should do, but I really don’t want to do. I am certified to substitute teach for local high schools and I think it is something that I could get really good at. I get along with teenagers and I enjoy people in general. I have substitute taught in the past a little bit and it has always gone well, but I still have a lot of anxiety about doing it.

That is the hardest thing for me. To feel like I’m supposed to do something and really not want to do it. It’s like a Jonah thing. I understand what he felt like. I have tried to avoid substitute teaching because I know that it is going to be rough at times. I know that there will be a lot of things that I don’t want to hear or see and conflict that I don’t want to deal with.

I know that this anxiety is not really a lack of faith. I have faith that I would be good at it and I have faith that the Lord would help me. I have faith that I would make a difference and I have faith that it would be really rewarding. I lack charity. I think that is probably where Jonah was hung up as well. I'm thinking more about the negative impact on my life instead of loving the kids enough to think of the positive impact that I might be in their lives.

I have a hard time not doing what I feel I’m supposed to do. For example, if I’m asked to accept a calling, I accept the calling. I don’t always do it with the right attitude though. This is what Jonah did. He first tried avoiding the calling and then he repented, accepted the calling, but did it with a less than stellar attitude. He lacked the thing that gets us through every tough calling and that is charity. Charity never faileth.

So, I will do this either way because it’s what I’m supposed to do; if I want to succeed in this, I must first repent and then ask for charity. I guess I do lack some faith then. I lack faith that I can have charity.

I was looking for something uplifting to help me and found a conference talk given by President Henry B. Eyring; Trust in god, Then Go and Do. In it he states, “You show your trust in Him when you listen with the intent to learn and repent and then you go and do whatever He asks. If you trust God enough to listen for His message in every sermon, song, and prayer in this conference, you will find it. And if you then go and do what He would have you do, your power to trust Him will grow, and in time you will be overwhelmed with gratitude to find that He has come to trust you.”

Interestingly enough, conference starts tomorrow. I don’t think that finding this quote was a coincidence. I’m looking forward to what I can gain from the messages taught by the Lord’s prophets and apostles. I may lack faith and I may lack charity, but I have hope so I’ll cling to hope and go from there. 

Cultivate the Positive

As a missionary I remember going through emotional cycles. I would be doing great, then gradually I would get more and more down until I would feel depressed. I would then work really hard to keep negative thoughts out and practice being positive until things were going well again. I kept a journal so I was able to track what was going on and I made a self-discovery.

There was a pattern for what I would do. I would be enjoying life and my companion and then, as is usual in life, some bad things would happen and I would joke about the people or circumstances surrounding the negative situation. I would use sarcasm to “laugh” about the problem. I would be “funny” and would start to thrive on this sarcasm. Like the pleasant flower of a dandelion, I kind of liked the negativity.  

But like a dandelion, the sarcasm would become more and more common. With only so many words to say, the positive would be overtaken with the negative and finally I would be overrun with weeds.

Of course, it usually wouldn’t just stop with me. The seeds of what I was sowing would always carry over to those I cared about most. It would have been better if I hadn’t given this negativity so much water and sunlight; instead I should have recognized these negative words for the weeds they were and gotten rid of them right away.

I read a talk by Gordon B. Hinckley today that he gave at BYU on March 6, 1994. The whole talk is wonderful, but I especially appreciated this part:

I’m suggesting that we accentuate the positive. I’m asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment virtue and effort.

I am not asking that all criticism be silent. Growth comes with correction. Strength comes with repentance. Wise is the man or woman who, committing mistakes pointed out by others, changes his or her course. I am not suggesting that our conversation be all honey. Clever expression that is sincere and honest is a skill to be sought and cultivated. What I am suggesting and asking is that we turn from the negativism that so permeates our society and look for the remarkable good in the land and times in which we live, that we speak of one another’s virtues more than we speak of one another’s faults, that optimism replace pessimism.

Let our faith replace our fears. When I was a boy, my father often said to us, “Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve.”

PS. I wish I could say these weeds weren't from my own back yard. Blowing wishes probably won't make them go away though...

Tired?

I took a picture of my tire after picking my mom up from the airport at 10:30pm. It could have been so bad, but it wasn’t. My mom was supposed to get in at rush hour, but due to an oil spill on the freeway, she missed her flight and had to come in on a later flight. What may have seemed inconvenient at the time, might have saved us from a terrible accident. Instead, we felt the ride get a little bumpy, I was able to safely pull off the road and my father-in-law came and picked us up and my brother-in-law took care of the tire in the morning.

Have you ever felt life get a little bumpy? Have you ever felt like this tire looks? I have…a tired tire. In Mosiah 4:27 it reads, “And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.”

So what might be the key to avoiding a blowout in life? Let’s see…after my brother-in-law (the mechanic) took care of the tire, he reminded me that he had warned me that the tires were wearing thin. He told me to take better care of the tire and gave me some information on how to keep the tires better longer, ie, don’t rub up against the curbs to make sure that you are parking close enough to them. In a way, he was telling me to be “diligent” with my tires (and car overall).

Being diligent is the answer and it has been there all along. Diligence seems overwhelming when we are already tired, but the Lord has taught us things to do, that by living diligently we won’t get to this point. What are some of these things that we must do to be diligent? We must practice time management, money management, health management. We must live economically and plan for the future. We must not fall into the trap of eat, drink and be merry or, in my case, sleeping in, shopping and scrolling through Facebook.

As we try to study the Lord’s directions, we will be instructed on what we can do to cut out the fat, to make better use of our resources and to be better stewards. If we are to become like our Heavenly Father, it is essential that we learn these lessons. I believe in change, repentance and guidance. I believe that, like a blow-out at 11:00pm, it is not too late to call upon our father for help and our brother for His example and saving grace. We can start today to do better, feel better and become better.

In October 2007, Elder Dallin H Oaks gave an awesome talk called Good, Better, Best. In it he states, “Consider how we use our time…of course it is good to view wholesome entertainment or to obtain interesting information. But not everything of that sort is worth the portion of our life we give to obtain it. Some things are better, and others are best.”

An Infinite Love

Last night was pretty rough for me for a variety of reasons. One of the things that I struggle with is knowing that my reasons are not nearly as bad as they could be. I start to feel that I am weak and beat myself up for this. I struggle with feelings of depression and anxiety and these negative feelings hurt me. It used to be hard for me to get past these dark moments or anxiety ridden moments and they could last for days or weeks, but there are two things (beyond medical help) that have helped me to shorten these thorny times.

In order to overcome the dark feelings of guilt and shame that bring me down, I listen to General Conference talks, usually one given by President Uchtdorf at a Women’s Conference. I have my “favorites” list of uplifting talks where these negative feelings are addressed; the talks are a soothing balm to my hurt and pain. One of my favorite talks is “Forget Me Not” from the October 2011 Conference.  I always cry when I listen to these talks but the tears are turned from tears of sadness to tears of gratitude and a feeling of love from my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I feel so blessed to have these messages to study and ponder.

Anxiety is also a challenge in my life that prevents me from doing many things that I should be doing. I consider my anxiety to be a form of fear. I know that this fear is mostly irrational and that it accounts for all that could go wrong, but not for what usually goes right. I can look back and see how the Lord has helped me through things, but in looking forward I have a difficult time translating these experiences into faith building ones that could overcome the fear. I know that we are supposed to turn everything over to the Lord, but I have a difficult time understanding how to really do this. I use Indexing as a tool to help me to turn things over to the Lord. It is something that I can do for the Lord that I have control over; I can give this work to Him and with it I give over my anxiety and my fears. 

President Uchtdorf teaches us, “Sisters, wherever you are, whatever your circumstances may be, you are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you with an infinite love.”