Words of Wisdom

 

Week 4 at the Temple

Today during our prayer meeting, the Sister conducting shared this story written in President Wilford Woodruff's journal. What an incredible and beautiful experience!

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—“… two weeks before I left St. George, the spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they, ‘… we laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it; but we remained true to it and were faithful to God.’ These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and they waited on me for two days and two nights. … I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon Brother McAllister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence and fifty other eminent men, making one hundred in all. …”

She also mentioned a recent talk by our Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson given on Joseph Smith.

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"The Restoration began with the First Vision. There were at least nine other occasions that Joseph saw the Father or the Son. In addition to “these transcendent experiences with the Father and the Son,” Joseph was visited by, or saw in vision, dozens of ancient prophets and angels, said President Nelson.

“Through these remarkable experiences, Joseph came to understand that worldly knowledge pales when compared to heavenly knowledge.” 

I am so grateful for the testimony I have of the Prophet Joseph Smith, of his experiences with our Heavenly Father,  and his Son, Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost has born witness to my mind and my heart that these things did happen and are real. Just like Joseph who could never deny what he saw and experienced, I too have had enough confirmation in my life that I can never deny my testimony of that these things are true.

One memory I did want to share from today while serving in the baptistry, was that of a girl probably no older than 13 who came up to me as she was leaving and commented on a moth that had been flying around the ceiling that I had also noticed. I responded to her that I wasn't quite tall enough to reach it. And then said "I am sure that moth will have one relaxing afternoon here in the temple." The girl laughed and then said to me, every time I looked over at you, you were always smiling. I told her "It's the Temple, Isn't it such a wonderful place?" She asked me how often I get to come here. I replied every Saturday. She said "That is so cool." Then she told me that she loved my eye makeup and left with her large group to go home. It is such a good reminder to me that many are always watching, even when we don't realize it. I am so grateful for her kindness and her bringing the Spirit to the Temple with her today that I felt through her countenance.

There are Angels Among Us

It's Saturday morning, Hen and I will be boarding a plane in a few hours to go to Virginia to spend time with his family and celebrate his 40th birthday. I recently received a call from the place we normally board the dogs on vacation and was told they had to temporarily close due to a shortage of staff. So I had made a reservation at a new boarding facility that was closeby for the dogs to stay at during our trip. 

This new location, while having many of the same staff that used to be at the old place, would be a new environment for them and a strange one because it is only indoors. You can imagine my anxiety was quite high as I loaded all three dogs into our suv known as the "puptaxi". 

First the dogs stress level was high from not only seeing our suitcases, but also for me putting all three dogs in the car at once. They are so rarely ever in the car all together. Usually the boys are in together to go to their monthly grooming appointment, but other than that, they are usually in the car separately. I was worried about them acclimating to a new place, about dropping them off by myself at a new location that is near a busy street, what if one of them gets out too early and runs away from me? What if at this new location they don't understand that they can go to the bathroom inside? This was in addition to all the of stress of everything I had left to do to get ready before we left on our flight in a few hours.

After loading the dogs in the car. I got in the driver seat and closed the door. I could tell the dogs were extremely anxious. Normally they get in and just stick their heads out the window in anticipation of the breeze. But today they were all moving around so much like they couldn't find the right spot. I can only imagine what the car looked like from the outside with 3 one hundred pound dogs moving around in the back nonstop. 

My heart was nudged to say a prayer. I prayed for comfort for me and the dogs, for calmness, for safety as we drove there (since Lucy has jumped from our moving car before), and safety when I was to unload them from the car and transfer them into the new facility, and help for the dogs to know everything would be ok at this new place and that they wouldn't have to stay there forever.

After closing my prayer, the atmosphere in our car completely changed. It literally felt like unseen angels had come into our car and the dogs became very calm and stopped moving around and I became very calm. Their unseen, but very felt presence brought tears to my eyes, as I could not have denied the abrupt change in atmosphere that happened so quickly. 

I am so grateful for answered prayers. After that prayer I was able to drive with calm dogs all the way to the facility and transferred them in safely. They stayed the whole time we were on our trip with no incident.

So if you are ever feeling overwhelmed, don't hesitate to pray, help is only a prayer away.

I love that song "Angels Among Us". This song is generally about people who become earthly angels in our lives in times of need. But on this day I felt there were unseen "Angels Among Us" that were sent because of my heartfelt prayer.

"Oh I believe there are angels among us

Sent down to us from somewhere up above

They come to you and me in our darkest hours

To show us how to live, to teach us how to give

To guide us with the light of love"

While researching Angels on the Church's website, I came across this article that explains there are two types of angels. I also find comfort in the scripture Psalm 91:11 "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."

Link to Article on Angels

Never Ignore a Prompting

It's Friday morning and I am working from my basement office. The thought came to my mind, "Do not stream your music".  But I always stream my music while working, in fact, I almost don't know how to work without it. I knew Hen was going to be taking a test upstairs in his office. But then the rationalization/justification thoughts came to my mind of "we haven't had an issue before", "what a silly thought". So I turned my music on and began working. Then amidst working I ended up having a video call with a coworker. This created two streaming instances at once, one for my music, and one for the video call. 

All of a sudden I hear from upstairs, "OH NO! The internet crashed in the middle of my mid term test! I'm just sick about it! What am I going to do? The professor may just make me keep this score, and I was only halfway done." 

Of course, immediately I felt regret for not listening to that prompting. While streaming my music might have been ok, having that going on while taking a video call, was clearly too much for our internet to handle. Likely largely because we also have like 8 cameras that also run off of that same signal. 

Henry called down to me telling me what happened. I debated whether or not to tell him, but ended up telling him. I told him, "I'm so sorry, it's my fault. I ignored a prompting. The Holy Ghost told me not to play my music while you were taking a test and I ignored it." I felt terrible. 

Some of you may say, "How do you know it was the Holy Ghost?" I didn't hear a voice, loud, or small in this instance. It was simply a thought that came to my mind. I know it was the Holy Ghost because it was a thought I would not have had on my own. I stream my music while working everyday. And we haven't had internet issues since we got our last router a few months ago. So it wasn't a thought that would have crossed my mind on it's own. 

Part of the purpose of our existence here on earth is to be tested. Can we be obedient? Are we listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost when they come? I think sometimes we have these situations happen because the Holy Ghost wants to remind us he is there. Part of his role in our lives is to guide us to make better decisions and to warn us of danger or harm. In 2nd Nephi 32:5 it teaches us "For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do."

He is a member of the Godhead along with our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. These three beings are completely separate entities but are one in purpose. Their purpose can be found in Moses 1:39 "For Behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." This scripture basically tells us that the purpose of the Godhead is to help us to return to live with our Heavenly Father for eternity after we are resurrected and this can only be done through obedience and good works which includes charity.

In this experience I believe the Holy Ghost was reminding me to not ignore a prompting now or in the future. I believe it was a reminder for me that I must trust his promptings even when they are small, so that when a larger prompting comes along, I won't ignore it.

The good news to this story is that Henry has a very generous professor who let him retake the test on Saturday before our flight out to Virginia. He was able to get a perfect score on it. But it was still a total pain for him to have to retake it. 

Moral of the story- do not ignore a prompting no matter how small or dumb or out of place it may seem.