Conference for Teens

I watched the first session of conference this morning with my family, and it was so great! I'm so excited for the next session in a few hours!
My favorite part about conference is usually the beginning when President Monson talks about the growth of the church, the missions, and especially the new temples! A few years ago he announced a new temple that will be only thirty minutes away from me, instead of two and a half hours. Ever since, the announcing of new temples has a special new meaning to me because I understand the joy that people all over the world feel. It's incredible, and it's beautiful!
As a youth, there are many things we can listen for in conference. Even the words aimed towards adults about marriage and such can have unique meaning for us. For example, talks about marriage have huge significance to us even though we're not married. As teenagers in the church, we are on the brink of sooooo many giant life decisions! It is wise for us to heed these talks because it will help us know more about these choices as we prepare to make them.
The prophets and leaders of the church have so much knowledge and experience that they can impart to us. I know our lives will be blessed as we cherish conference. I have seen it in my own life. A few conferences ago, I picked out one piece of advice which stuck out to me that I was going to work on for next conference. President Monson gave the counsel. He told us to NEVER post-pone a prompting and to act immediately on inspiration. I instituted this counsel in my life and I saw immediate blessings! I became closer to my Lord, and the Holy Ghost. I learned to recognize the Spirit better, received more promptings and inspiration, and was able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands to further His work. Sure, I wasn't perfect, but the improvement I saw in my life by following teachings from conference was amazing!
So what can you do this conference to bring it in and make it personal? How can you act on the counsel given? Will you go the extra mile to be inspired and better your life? This divine knowledge from on high is being bounteously poured down to us. What will you do with it?

Singing for Elder Ballard

Hello wonderful people! So on Friday a very special opportunity presented itself to all the youth who live in my state. Yes, state, not stake. Elder Lansing, from the quorum of the seventy, Bishop Stevenson, the Presiding Bishop of the Church, and Elder M. Russell Ballard of the quorum of the twelve came and gave us a fireside. It was incredible! But, the fireside was even more special for the girls in my ward and me because we were the musical number. We sang for all of the youth in our state, all of the bishops and stake presidents, and our guests.
It was spectacular to look out into the sea of faces of kids my age. These were the faces of righteous, loving youth who loved and value the same ideals as I. When we sang, I felt the Spirit so strongly. Usually, when I feel the Holy Ghost, it's a very still, tender, sweet feeling that makes me cry. This time it was joyful, and exuberant. I looked at all of the beautiful people as I sang to them, and made eye contact with as many as I could. I wanted them to feel the power of the words I sang just as acutely as I was feeling them. I was smiling so much that my face hurt. :D Afterwards, my friends who were in the audience said, "I could tell that you were just feeling it! It was like something was emanating from you." and "You sang like an angel.". Singing for the youth in my state and for Elder Ballard was an incredible experience!
So, after we sang, the three visitors gave an awesome fireside where they were speaking directly to us, youth. Here are my favorite parts of what they said:

Elder Lansing:

• “Right now the eyes of the Lord are focused on the youth” –Elder Lansing
• President Monson is the most youth-oriented prophet there's ever been. He's 85. Most people at that age are looking back on their lives, but he is looking forward into the future of the church. President Monson has brought to pass:
• New For Strength of Youth
• New Youth Curriculum
• Missionary Age Change

Bishop Stevenson:

• Satan tries to make us look at things as they aren't. He tries to confuse us. But we have the proper tools to combat the confusion.
• We have the Plan of Happiness.
• We have these formulas:
• Obedience/Righteousness --> Blessings --> Happiness
• Disobedience --> Punishment --> Misery

Elder Ballard:

• "We have experiences in our future we can't even dream of."
• "Keep the beam of heaven guiding our thoughts and minds."
• He explained how we can be like Nephi by using this scripture: 1 Nephi 2:16:
• "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers."
• 1) Have a great desires to learn about God
• 2) Pray and sincerely study about Him, develop a relationship with Him
• 3) He will come unto you

• We need to kindle the desire
• "We all have challenges. That's why we're here."

I know that the Lord's servants speak His truth and His gospel and that when we follow their counsel we can't go wrong. I'm so grateful for this opportunity I had. 

 

Some Random Thoughts and Stories...

Good Friday to you all. Someone posted the words which are on the picture below as a facebook status, and I thought they were so great that I had to make a meme. I hope you like it!

This week has been pretty awesome. Our high school is putting on the show "Guys and Dolls". I went and saw it yesterday. It was phenomenal!  I had lots of friends who were in it, so it was tons of fun.

These next two weeks are fall break for me. I may or may not write any posts. But, I'm super excited for the much needed break!

Ohh, guess what? I gave away a Book of Mormon today. I think this will make either the second or third one this school year. I gave it to a friend in orchestra who always teases me about being Mormon. When I gave it to him, he looked through the index and said "Where does it say you can't drink coffee? Why do you have a dictionary in your book?" He was teasing me, but I also gave him a mini copy of the For Strength of Youth. Even if he doesn't read these anytime soon, he may eventually read them.

Here is the link to his extremely awesome conference talk from last week!

Hope everyone has a stupendous weekend full of donuts, sleeping, and watching Phineas and Ferb. Wouldn't that be a wonderful weekend? :D Anyway, even if your weekend isn't like that, I hope it's wonderful!

Conference: Why it has Everything to do with You

 

Next weekend, something exciting is happening. I'm not talking about a football game, or a concert. I'm talking about General Conference.  You may be wondering, "What does this have to do with me?". I'll tell you. General Conference has everything to do with you. Here's why.

1. Being a teen is hard, as you know, and you can gain specific revelation that pertains to you during General Conference. Here's how.  Before Conference, prayerfully ponder some questions you have, or some of the difficulties in your life. During conference, listen to the speakers, songs, and prayers. Also listen to the Holy Ghost. He is the one who will give you the teach you. Be prepared to write down any thoughts, feelings, or promptings you get during conference. This is more important than taking notes of the speakers' talks. Their talks will be published for you to read over and over again, but the Holy Ghost's whisperings that day might not be.
2. Even though the speakers are not young, they still have things to say that will interest you and better your life. Because they are much older than us, these General Authorities know what they are talking about. Not only do they receive revelation from God about what to tell us, they've been in our shoes. They have been through our stage of life. Sure, President Monson probably didn't have a phone when he was in school, but he still went to school. He, and all of the other apostles and prophets know what we're going through and can impart wisdom to us accordingly.
3. The prophets, apostles. and other speakers will tell us what Heavenly Father wants us to know right now.  I actually don't know what else to say about this. It speaks for itself. The speakers pray for so much guidance in choosing their topic and preparing their words. Their goal is to be a conduit for Heavenly Father, and they achieve that by paying close attention to the Holy Ghost when they are pondering over which words to speak. This allows them to speak what Heavenly Father wants them to say.

What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my ^aword shall not pass away, but shall all be ^bfulfilled, whether by mine own ^cvoice or by the ^dvoice of my ^eservants, it is the ^fsame.

-Doctrine and Covenants 1:38

I know that every one of us will benefit from watching conference. I love it. And I'm so grateful for it! I'm grateful for my Father in Heaven who loves His children enough to send the Holy Ghost and living Prophets to give us guidance and counsel. 

 

The Choice is Yours: A Guide to Decision Making

Making choices is one of the hardest things we have to do. It's so difficult, and often stressful. There are so many choices, and so many ways we can use our time. And it seems like there is so much pressure put on us to choose the right decisions. We face such a variety of choices everyday. There could be so many ways to categorize the choices we have to make, but I'm going to categorize our choices into three categories:

Unimportant Decisions

Life-Altering Decisions

Momentous Decisions

Unimportant decisions are the most common. What shoes you will wear, what font you choose to type your paper in, drinking juice or water with lunch..... you get the point. These choices either impact nothing at all, or have such a small ripple that nothing happens. In most cases, these decisions don't matter.

Life-Altering Decisions are just that: life-altering.  These include the college you go to, the career you pursue, choosing chastity, gaining a testimony, going to the temple regularly, etc. These are either one-time decisions like getting married, or many long term decisions like attending the temple. Life-Altering Decisions are planned for ahead of time and are focused on when decision making is discussed.

Momentous Decisions are the choices that people don't often think about. These include how you manage your time during a given day, your attitude for the day, or how you choose to dress that day. Notice how all of these choices are daily choices. Will you choose a modest outfit today? Will you read the scriptures? Momentous Decisions are vastly important, hence the name momentous. However, they are made in a second, and only seem to affect a moment. But, the ripple effect of momentous decisions reaches much farther than anyone could ever know. For example: If you choose not to exercise today, you know it will be harder to choose to workout tomorrow. Not only will it be harder, but you may feel more sluggish that day, be in a worse mood, etc. 

Lots of people overlook momentous decisions everyday. I know I do all the time. One of the hardest things we must learn to do in this life is to balance our time and choices. 

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a talk in a 2007 General Conference about making decisions. He focused on "Good, Better, Best". This talk is very helpful when trying to learn how to determine what decisions to make. He says:

"We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives."

 "As we consider various choices, we should remember that it is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better, and still others are best. Even though a particular choice is more costly, its far greater value may make it the best choice of all."

-Good, Better, Best, October 2007

I know that we will be blessed in our lives when we learn how to choose wisely when making all kinds of decisions. While there is sometimes, a lot of pressure, we also have many resources to help us. But most of all, I know that Heavenly Father will guide us when we make choices. And I know that no matter what we choose, He loves us.

"Come Follow Me"

Well, I've officially finished the reading that I got to do for our Extreme Book of Mormon reading activity. YAYYY! I did it!! This weekend, we (all of our ward's young women) are going to stay up all night and read the second half of the Book of Mormon! I can't wait!
So today, I was reading in the beginning of Matthew. I really love the New Testament because it really focuses on Christ. There were two verses that really stood out to me.
Matthew 4:19 & 20:
 (I'm going to include verse 18 here, just for the sake of background info. )

18. And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were ^afishers.

 19. And he saith unto them, ^aFollow me, and I will make you ^bfishers of men.

 20. And they straightway left their nets, and ^afollowed him.

I really like this because of the examples of Peter and his brother Andrew. When Jesus asked the pair to follow Him, they didn't ask why. They trusted in Jesus. Notice, they also didn't say "Hold on, let us just finish bringing in the rest of these fish, then we'll come." No. Peter and Andrew straightway left what they were doing to follow the Lord.

The Savior always has an open invitation for us to follow him. We should ask ourselves, "Are we straightway leaving our nets when we may be doing something that won't bring us closer to the Lord? Are we immediately turning to Jesus to follow Him again?"

This reminds me of a phrase that Elder D. Todd Christofferson, of the Twelves Apostles, said in this October's General Conference:

"Repentance is a divine gift, and there should be a smile on our faces when we speak of it."

We can follow the Savior in many ways. 
First: We can literally follow His example. By doing this, you are letting His light shine through you, and other people will be uplifted.
Second: You can repent. You can straightway leave your nets of sin to repent, and follow the Savior.
Third: You can follow Jesus by working to build a relationship with Him. You can read the scriptures, pray, and fast. These things will help you feel the Spirit, and know Christ.

I know that Jesus is pleased when we follow Him. And I am grateful for the confidence and peace I feel when I know I am doing the right thing. I love my Savior, and I KNOW He loves me. I'm so grateful for His influence in my life, and will try to do everything in my power to serve others and Him.

To learn more about repentance, click here.

To learn more about the Savior, Jesus Christ, click here.

To learn more about the Holy Ghost, click here.

To learn more about the Twelve Apostles, click here.

General Conference!!!!!!!

Heyyy. Today I'm going to talk about General Conference.
I love General Conference. And, for those who may not know, General Conference is a semi-annual church meeting that is broadcasted world-wide. There are 5 ten-hour sessions in which the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, the Twelve Apostles, The Quorum of the Seventy, and other Church leaders.  This is a time when these leaders share with the world the things that the Lord wants them to know.
I'm going to share my thoughts/opinions/notes/feelings/favorite talks (haha) from this General Conference.

• I really loved President Boyd K. Packer's talk because it was focused on the youth.  He told us that even though there is opposition, we need not fear. He also said that because so much is expected from the youth, we will be blessed.
• I also enjoyed Elder Robert D. Hales' talk about humility. Everything that Jesus did on earth was The Father's plan and will. Trials are given to everyone. THey are given to see if we will use our agency to follow God.
• I really love the words of Elder D. Todd Christofferson in his talk: We should always have a smile on our face when we talk about repentance. 
• Ian S. Arden, of the Seventy, spoke of time. He said that time cannot be sold or bought. When wisely used, it's value is immeasureable. We are all given the same amount of time. If we are busy, busy must equal productive. People who are close to the Savior won't be distracted by distracting pursuits.We should always review what we are doing to prepare to meet God.
• Carl B. Cook, of the Seventy, also had a fantastic talk. He said that "We should always look up!" We can be healde and strengthened by the Atonement. To "Look Up" is a metaphor for looking to Christ. We should Look up, step up, and cheer up. Looking up isn't a one-time experience.

I really love General Conference.And I have a testimony that the Lord truly speaks to us through the mouths of the prophets and apostles.

If you would like to watch, read, or listen to General Conference, click here.

If you would like to learn more about living Prophets and Apostles, click here.

Kindness.

A lot of people underestimate the value of kindness.  In fact, nowadays, many children don't have good homes in which to learn this essential social skill. Sometimes, kindness can seem like a pretty vague term.  So what does it really mean?
Dictionary.com states:

kind

1.of a good or benevolent nature or disposition, as a person: a kind and loving person.

2.having, showing, or proceeding from benevolence: kind words.

Synonyms
1.  mild, benign, benignant, gentle, tender, compassionate. Kind, gracious, kindhearted, kindly  imply a sympathetic attitude toward others, and a willingness to do good or give pleasure. Kind  implies a deep-seated characteristic shown either habitually or on occasion by considerate behavior: a kind father. Gracious  often refers to kindness from a superior or older person to a subordinate, an inferior, a child, etc.: a gracious monarch. Kindhearted  implies an emotionally sympathetic nature, sometimes easily imposed upon: a kindhearted old woman. Kindly,  a mild word, refers usually to general disposition, appearance, manner, etc.: a kindly face.

Antonyms
1.  cruel.

There's a lot to think about. According to this source, kindness is an attitude a person might have.

Why is kindness important?

Everyday I walk down the hallways of my school listening to the profanity, harsh words, rumors, threats, risque comments and jokes. This is not kindness. Not to me, not to the recipients of these words, and not to the speaker. Most of the time nobody knows exactly how hard their words will affect someone. And it's not only verbal words. Facebook posts, tweets, emails, and texts can be just as or more harmful as spoken words.  People who are rude and unkind usually feel insecure about themselves.  People with true self confidence don't need to insult or berate to feel good.  In fact, it probably wouldn't even cross their mind to do so.
The thing that bothers me the most out of anything in  the whole entire world is when people aren't kind to one another. It takes away the Holy Ghost, and stops our progression of becoming like our Father in Heaven.Just think. If everyone were truly kind to each other, most of the world's problems would be eliminated.

"Jesus, our Savior, was the epitome of kindness and compassion. He healed the sick. He spent much of His time ministering to the one or many. He spoke compassionately to the Samaritan woman who was looked down upon by many. He instructed His disciples to allow the little children to come unto Him. He was kind to all who had sinned, condemning only the sin, not the sinner. He kindly allowed thousands of Nephites to come forward and feel the nail prints in His hands and feet. Yet His greatest act of kindness was found in His atoning sacrifice, thus freeing all from the effects of death, and all from the effects of sin, on conditions of repentance."
-Joseph B. Worthlin, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

I encourage everyone to rethink their actions.  A good rule of thumb is before you say something or post something ask yourself if you will regret saying it in 10 minutes.

I know that kindness is essential to our wellbeing. We are happier with it, and everything in our life is better.