Follow the Recipe For Eternal Life

 I really love using life stories to create gospel analogies. It makes me happy. So here's one from this past weekend.

Once upon a time (two days ago) I found a super great recipe for sugar cookies and wanted to try it out. But, I realized we didn't have enough butter to make the cookies and the frosting, so I determined to make do with shortening for the cookies and use the remaining butter to make the frosting.

The cookies promised to be spectacular. I was so excited to eat them, and my family was, too. We each sat down around the table with a warm cookie in hand and took the first bite... of disappointment. The frosting tasted great, but the cookies were super gross. It turned out that the shortening I used in the cookies was embarrassingly old. Because of this, all of the cookies were rendered inedible.

The analogy:

The perfect sugar cookie is eternal life- it's our greatest desire and our expectation for the future. In order to achieve that, we must follow Christ's true gospel. If we don't have His gospel, then we only have bits and pieces of truth. But these bits are sometimes downgraded substitutions for truth (aka the aged shortening). If we follow Christ and His commandments for us (follow the recipe exactly), then we are sure to gain all He has in store for us- eternal life with Him in the celestial kingdom (the perfect sugar cookies).

I know that we can have so much happiness when we follow our Savior, Jesus Christ, and strive to be like Him.

Here's the recipe I used for the cookies. Don't they look amazing? They're pretty easy, too. I can't wait to taste them when I actually follow the instructions!

I'm SERIOUSLY EXCITED About All My Blessings

I just realized that recently I've been more focused on the things I lack rather than the things I'm blessed with. For example, I've bemoaned the fact that I've been sooooo busy lately, rather than being happy for all the great opportunities with which I've been blessed. I've decided to start rejoicing in my blessings more, and to start off, I'm going to share some of them with you! 

1.) Mi Familia 

2.) The temple being built so close to where I live!

3.) My loving Heavenly Father, Savior, and the Everlasting Gospel

4.) Beautiful fall weather 

5.) Music and my opportunity to learn EVERYTHING about it

6.) Wonderful friends

7.) Holidays coming up OH MY GOODNESS I CANNOT WAIT

8.) Español y mi oportunidad para aprender mucho sobre este idioma (Spansih and my opportunity to learn lots about this language)

9.) My job. I love tutoring. A lot. 

10.) GENERAL CONFERENCE COMING UP!!