First Pray, Then Listen, and Don't Forget to Act

My Dear Sisters,

Last month I talked briefly about praying to our Heavenly Father. He loves us and wants to hear from us each and every day. But prayer is a part of a two way communication, speaking and listening. Many people don't think our Father speaks to us but He does, all the time.

Can you imagine calling your parents and doing all the talking? Would your parents not speak back? Of course they would and so does Heavenly Father. However, we have to learn how to listen and recognize his voice and promptings, then act upon what we learn. I would like to share with you how to recognize His messages to you.



Our Heavenly Father talks to us in different ways. I have had the blessing of hearing a still small voice. I have heard it in dreams as I woke up in the mornings. I have heard it quiet places. I have heard it as I pondered my questions. It was always amazing to me to feel that love and know He has answered me.

Sometimes we feel a peaceful feeling when He answers us. As we toil over an issue in our lives we are told to research our choices and make a decision, then take it to Him in prayer. If we feel peace and good about our decision then he is manifesting it is a correct one. Sometimes we may feel a burning around our heart. But if we feel absolutely nothing or are still confused or unsettled then we need to rethink our choice.

Sometimes our answers come when we are reading something, or a thought comes to our mind. I am learning to recognize the constant companion I have in the Holy Ghost helping to understand what my Father would have me know. I can't count the times I have made a decision about something not knowing why and found later that I was lead by the Spirit. I was so happy to see that I listened to Him.

Sometimes He answers our prayers through others as they come to our aid or say something that triggers an answer to our prayers. I have stood before a congregation and bore my testimony only to find that it was the answer to a question that someone was searching for. Or vice-versa, for me, I have heard people say things that was exactly what I needed to hear.



There are so many ways that He answers us and let's us know He is listening and cares about our worries. But with that in mind how is it then that the world is in so much trouble. Our Father has given us all the tools we need to live happy and successful here in this earth. He continues to be there for us and help us, as we need, on our journey. He has given us the Holy Spirit to always be with us. He hears us and loves us so much.

I can never deny knowing He is there because He has protected me from danger. He has blessed me with the things I need in life because of obedience. He has held me in times of great sorrow and loss. He has  given me courage to walk away from things that are not good for me. He has blessed me with opportunities to see the beauty of nature. He has blessed me with joy in witnessing a new life and the passing of an old one.



I could go on and on because I have been blessed to see those things that bring the greatest joy simply by being obedient, and keeping a good communication open with Him through constant prayers as well as putting myself in a place to recognize His communication to me. I feel so loved; how can I not be happy?

But I will say there are times that I fall and have to be reminded that He is there helping me. And for that I am truly grateful. I can do anything with the knowledge that He loves me and each one of us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. So all you have to do is talk to Him and then listen for His answers because He is always there.



Once you receive your answer or are prompted to do something then act upon it. Don't doubt just go and do. Everything always works out even if you don't know how to make it happen. I loved my life in Utah and wanted to live there for the rest of my life but I kept feeling the prompting to move back to Florida where most of my family were. Finally, after a couple of years of struggling with leaving my life there, I found the courage to move my family where the Lord would have us be.

I have been back for 11 years now and have found many reasons as to why we needed to be here. If I had not acted upon what I was told by my Father above, I would have missed very important blessings and direction for my life, and that of my families. It was the right thing to do and I love Him for leading me back to Florida, even though I still want to live out west.

Also, never forget to thank Him for those blessings and answers. It is easy to find the answers and forget to thank the One who sent them. Gratitude is the key to more of what we need.

Until next month, I pray God's blessing on you as you turn your heart to Him and start that journey with Jesus as your Savior and example.

All my love!!!

p.s. Next blog post will be Sept. 6th. See you then!

Family Search for Family History

Family Search is a LDS Church owned web site. Family Search has made leaps and bounds recently to create a better webpage and collection of data. Everyday they are progressing to create tools to help with your family history search. Here is the link, take a look and see all the new stuff. It's open to everyone throughout the world.

Familysearch.org

It was just announced that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will have free access in the near future to some paid websites like Ancestry.com and Myheritage.com. This is awesome. Family Search has also made deals with many places to give us access to important documents and even obituaries. That's even more awesome.

I can see God's hand in this work because of technology is rapidly changing for good, and it is making the search for ancestors more possible and easier. I love that and it should inspire many to want to seek for those who has gone before us.

With all this new research processes in place, we first need to turn our heart to our families.

The prophet Joesph Smith said,"The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead..." HC 6:312

Wow, that made an impact on me. I have thought a lot about this and found that he was talking to me. This is my greatest responsibility. When I started looking for names and putting together my family history, they were just names but when I started studying more about them and the times that they lived in, they started becoming more than just names. AND...when I took those names to the temple the true meaning of it all...God's purpose...began to unfold before me. My heart was turning to my fathers and I couldn't get enough of it.

Family History work is now my passion. I love this work and joy that comes with finding family and developing my tree. One thing that was an eye opener was when I started tracing the female side of the tree. It was easier to find the stuff on the male line but when I started working on the female lines I realized that there were so many more people to see.

I truly can see now how we are all related, as you do one line then the next and on and on.. your story never ends. And we are all connected, Family Search is trying to show us just that, we are all one big family.

I hope you will look in your hearts to see and understand this great work that God has entrusted to us. The work that brings us all together as God's family. Our ancestors need us to do this for them, the work that they can no longer do. And we need them to help us grow in understanding God's plan for us. I love my Heavenly Father for this great plan of happiness because I know the joy I get from doing this work.

How Can We Have Charity?

Mosiah 2:17
"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn ^awisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the ^bservice of your ^cfellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

The key to charity is serving one another. There are so many ways to serve our brothers and sisters. There are charitable organizations that need volunteers. This is something that is needed all year long.

Forbes - Top 200 Charitable Organizations

There are things we can do for the elderly, or orphans, or the sick. There are things we can do for the lonely, or handicapped, or the poor of heart. There are so many things we can do if we just look around for opportunities and ask God for help.

If you want charity in your life you have to ask God to help you attain this attribute of Christ. When we live righteous lives and focus on God good things happen and we are given that gift.

Last year my youngest son started thinking of ways that he can serve. He wasn't sure what he should do so he took his question to God in prayer, asking Him what God would have him do. The very next day he received an answer in General Conference when the Prophet announced that the age to become a missionary was dropped to 18 years old. He knew this was his answer and has now been preparing for that act of service.

18 Year old missionary announcement

The missionaries call him quite often to go out on visits with them. He is really enjoying and loving what he is doing. He has begun his journey in gaining this attribute of Jesus Christ by understanding charity.

"Christlike attributes are gifts from God. They come as you use your agency righteously. Ask your Heavenly Father to bless you with these attributes; you cannot develop them without His help. With a desire to please God, recognize your weaknesses and be willing and anxious to improve." 
Preach my Gospel Manual

We as righteous women can do the same, all we have to do is ask God what He would have us do and the answer will come. If you don't receive an answer right away, then open your eyes and heart to see what good needs to be done, and act upon it, then you will see the Light of Christ shine through your example a hope and faith for everyone you serve. You will have the gift of charity.

What Does Charity Mean to Jesus?

1 Corinthians 13

I always thought of charity as showing love to people by giving to organizations that helped people, then I started reading the scriptures and found charity to show love for people by helping them in many ways and praying for them. But then when I began to really study the scriptures I found that charity is really something a lot more than showing love and helping where I could.

I love Paul and the things he taught. Reading this scripture has taught me what charity really means.

He says that charity is everything. He says that if you do everything you are supposed to do but you don't have charity then you are nothing. I thought about that for a moment, how do you do all the right things but not have charity?

I know that there were times when I would do things because I knew I was supposed to but I didn't really want to do it; like when I was learning about tithing. I wanted to take the money and use it on something else but I knew I was supposed to pay 10% of my increase. I had to learn that the blessings don't come if you do it with the wrong attitude. I knew if I paid an honest tithe and did it with a loving attitude that I was showing my love for my Father in this commandment. So this part of the scripture did make more sense to me; give it with my heart.

But charity means more than just loving through obedience; some of these were real eye openers to me.

Charity is long suffering: That means we are to be patient with others and with God, as long as it takes. We should forgive time and time again, for as long as it takes. We should continue to help people for as long as it takes. These things are not always easy but if we do this we will know charity in our hearts.

Charity envieth not: This means we are to be happy with what we have and not want what others have. There were times in my life that I wished I was blessed with certain things in my life, mostly material things, but then I realized that even though some people had materials things I had spiritual blessings which others did not, and spiritual blessings last longer than material ones. I found that I was happy with my blessings. It seemed that the more material things they had the more they wanted, they were never happy or satisfied.

Charity never vaunteth itself, was not puffed up: This means we don't go around bragging and feeling mightier than the people we serve. When we serve we have to do it with God in mind, that we are doing these things to help but not make anyone feel less of themselves for receiving. Christians are often accused of being mightier than, if we have charity in our hearts we will disprove that theory by helping people to realize that we act upon these things because we want to be more like our Savior, we want to do it because we love them. Jesus was not prideful in service to others.

Seeketh not her own: We are not to pick and choose who we give service and love to, we should be doing this every day as we go through our lives. If we see a need we help, we don't say well today I am going to do one act of service to help someone. We should be saying I will do what the Holy Spirit prompts me to do and serve where I am needed today.

Charity bearth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endueth all things: We should testify that we are followers of Jesus Christ and try to do as He did, we should testify of the truth we hold in our hearts, we should help others to hope for good things to happen, and we should help others to hold on and continue fighting the battle against evil. When we do these things, and help
others to to these things, we are showing true charity in our hearts. We are showing that we have the true love of Christ.

As righteous women we should seek for good things in our lives and find love in  our hearts for all people for they are our brothers and sisters, children of God. They are not more or less than we are. They are strong in some areas of life that we are not and we are strong in some areas of life that they are not, we can serve each other with the strengths we are blessed with: this is charity.

Paul concludes that charity never faileth, and that we should have faith, hope and charity, but the most important of all is charity.

With Faith and Hope Comes Charity

Moroni 7:47
"But ^acharity is the pure ^blove of Christ, and it endureth ^cforever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."

What is Charity? The scriptures say it is the pure love of Christ. We can find so much information in the scriptures regarding charity, as we are diligent in our study of that topic.

The first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all our hearts, soul and mind. So lets think about that. We are to love Him with all our hearts. How do we love with all our hearts?

Have you ever looked at someone and your emotion just overwhelms you because you can feel the love for that person? For instance, looking at your new born child. Man, the love that pours out of your heart for that baby, you would do everything in your power to protect and provide for the child. I think that is an example of the love we should feel for God. 

That is how we love with all our heart. We have to open our hearts and pray for that love to come in. I remember once a long time ago, that I prayed for love in my heart for all people. Shortly thereafter, I saw a homeless person walking down the street and I began to cry for that person, I prayed for that person and asked how I could help that person. That was a start to how I could love with all my heart.

What is a soul and how do I love with all my soul? The scriptures say that a soul is your body and spirit combined (Abraham 5:7). We can show love with our souls by being obedient to the commandments of God. We show Him that we love Him when we are obedient. Didn't we as children want to please our parents so we would do as we were asked. The same with our Father, we show we love Him by pleasing Him in our daily actions.

How do we love Him with all our mind? This has to do with our thoughts. He needs to be foremost in our daily thoughts. When we put Him first we tend to see where there are needs in this world and find ways to act upon them. We are more aware of the direction our lives should be going. 

By doing these things, opening our hearts, being obedient, and making God our most important thoughts daily, we are beginning to understand and be able to show love to our Heavenly Father. Once we do this we will also be able to obey the second greatest commandment which is to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

We will be showing that we possess the Christ attribute of Charity. By serving God and helping our brother, we will know the pure love of Christ and as the scripture says whosoever is found with charity in the last days will be blessed and received by our Father in heaven. This is a attribute that we can take with us when we die and will find it to be a great treasure of joy.

Hope, the Next Attribute of Christ

 2 Nephi 31:20

What is hope?

Hope is a trust that something you believe in will be so. For example, you have hope, or trust, that when you die you will go to heaven. You have hope and trust that when you go to bed at night that the sun will arise and you will get up to greet a new day. We hope for this to be true, we expect this happen. Hope and faith go together, which you will see this week in the scriptures I plan to blog about.

When we hope in things of God we are showing faith that we trust in Him to lead and guide our lives in a way that will help us gain eternal life. With hope we can endure trials and hardships. With hope we can endure to the end.

When we go through tough times it is hope that gets us through, hope to see a better day. It helps us endure to the end which is something we must do. I have found at times that I just wanted to give up and climb in bed and forget everything but, I know that I have to stand strong in Christ and endure what I must so I make sure that hope and faith are strong in my life and help others to do the same.

We are living in a time when there is so much evil surrounding us and some people don't even see it. They see it as part of life, but we are surrounded and we have to stand firm in Christ and His plan in order to fight for the good to shine through all of this darkness. And when we do, we have the hope of a promise from out Father in Heaven that we will have peace and joy in this life and the life to come in eternity.

As righteous women, we need to shine the light of Christ for others to see and hang on to their hope of a better life. Our example is so important to sustaining our families and helping others to endure to the end. Jesus needs us to do our part by helping our brothers and sisters in this world find Him and learn to do the same. It's time to become part of God's Army and shine the Light high for all to see.

Back to Business

Well, I need to apologize for not posting for a week but I got off schedule due to a few things.

I went out of town to visit my daughter and her family at the end of October. Then it was close week at work. Then Wednesday, we got some awesome news that my youngest daughter was accepted to be a transplant patient and was added to the list.

We went on Thursday to have a blood draw and see if she was a match with my sister. We were told that we would hear anything for a week or two, then on Friday my sister called me, hysterical, saying Life Link called her and told her she was a match for my daughter. We had a good cry together.

Then, we found out that my daughter had a second match with an aunt from her fathers side of the family. So you can see that my mind has been consumed with many things. I will be back on track tomorrow, I promise.

Life is good, God is good!!!

Simple Knowledge

Genesis 1:26-27
"And God said, Let ^aus ^bmake ^cman in our ^dimage, after our^elikeness: and let them have ^fdominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own ^aimage, in the image of God created he him; male and ^bfemale created he them."

These verses are simply said and quite clear on a few issues that seem to plague mankind. 

1) God said let us make man in our image. Here we see that there was more than one person involved in the creation of man, meaning the Godhead, which consists of God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ,and the Holy Ghost. The information about who is part of the Godhead is found later in the scriptures. The point here is there is more than one was involved.

2) This verse also says that we were created in God's image and likeness, not an ape's or anything else's image. They created us to be like them. That makes us special.

3) This verse says that we, mankind, are to have dominion over everything on the earth and the earth included. What does dominion mean? It means responsibility, not dominance over things. We are to take care of the earth and it's inhabitants the best we can. 

4) God created male and female for a purpose, to be together as man and wife; to help one another through life. That's how our obedience to procreate works, it takes a man and a woman. That's simple.

God's wisdom is so much greater than ours. When we try to make sense of things from our point of view, we find  it hard to see things from His. 

As righteous women we need to stand up for what we know if truth and good. This world has too much man's wisdom and not enough of God's. When we listen to man we get confused, when we listen to the Spirit of God it becomes clear again, simple knowledge.

Can we Understand God's Ways?

Isaiah 55:8-9

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

I have no faith in politics yet they consume my life some days. I don't believe in political parties; they have too many selfish ways. Politicians tend to get so caught up in staying up with the what the party stands for rather than what is good for the people.

Some people have questions religious beliefs because they can't understand why things have to be a certain way. We shouldn't question God's way so much because He is able to see the whole picture and we can not. We have to trust in Him and His wisdom. He has a plan and we nay never be able to understand it all.

One example of this is self reliance. Many politicians think the best way to help people is to give hand outs to the poor. But what does that do for them in the long run? It makes them more needy and not able to do for themselves.

When Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden God did not hand them everything; He expected them to work and learn how to do for themselves. That plan is still in place, God expects us to continue to work and learn how to take care of ourselves and our families.

We may not be able to see His plan in this but we must know that it is for our happiness and growth. He will always know more than us but as we study and ponder the things in our lives we will find wisdom and begin to see His ways better.

Self reliance is good; it helps to create responsible and loving citizens. We all feel good when we know we have done good things. We are happy when we know we have taken care of our own needs. And we feel successful when we know we can help others. 

I remember many times in my life when I received help from people, I felt loved. But the greatest feelings was when it was my turn and I was able to help others. 

Righteous women need to be about God's work, we don't have to understand everything we just have to do something to help ourselves and our families and eventually others. We need to focus on God's plan and then we will see a good world.

Third Article of Faith

The Third Article of Faith states:

"We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."

What does this mean? Jesus Christ is the only way back to our heavenly home. And that through his atoning sacrifice we can be saved simply by having faith in Him enough to be obedient to his laws and ordinance.

What are His laws? Jesus came and lived his life here on this earth to teach us how we should live our lives and then he paid the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind - that is to suffer for the price of our sins and lay down His life so we can over come death as He did. By doing the things Jesus taught we are following His laws.  What did he do?

He honored God first and foremost and then looked to the well being of all people ( see Matt 22:37-40). He taught lessons to His followers so they could understand His laws. By studying about Jesus' life on the earth we can come to know him and his ways better and become more like him. We can learn that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much that he sent His only Begotten Son to save us all. We can learn that our most important mission here is love all people and do what we can to help them on the right path. He taught, he loved, and he sacrificed.

What are His ordinances? The first ordinance is baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. We will talk more about that in another post. There are many other kinds of ordinances that are important to our salvation. We as Latter-day Saints also perform ordinances in the Temples which help us to have a higher understanding of God's ways. These things help us to become better people and develop a higher love of our brothers and sisters, which are all people. We make covenants with God to do certain things and He makes a promise to us to bless us with things we need in our lives. Ordinances are meant for our progression to be able to be successful in walking the path here in this life and to be able to walk the path home to heaven.

So, if we honor God by following the footsteps of Jesus, meaning to do as He did, then we are showing our love back to God. We are showing that we love them enough to do what Jesus did while he was here; to follow His example. Also, if we take care of each other, especially those who are needy - spiritually, physically, and mentally, then we are also doing the will of our Father in Heaven.

And, if we fulfill the ordinances and honor those covenants we make with God then we will be blessed and be able to return home successfully into the arms of a loving God.

But first we must recognize that the only way that could have ever happened for us is through the Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His great love for His Father, and us, helped Him to fulfill His part of the Plan of Salvation. He did something that we probably will never fully be able to understand. But we can understand it enough to realize that we are sinners and that we need Him and his atonement in order to return home. Without Him we are nothing. We have to recognize that Jesus is the only way back to our heavenly home.

Through His sacrifice and through our obedience we can find peace and blessings in our lives in knowing that we are on the right path and working hard to help others to see that path as well. Its plain and simple, the plan is laid out in our scriptures. God wants us to be successful and return to Him so he has given us every tool we need to to do this. We just have to do our part by studying and understanding then being obedient to what He wants us to do. Jesus will do the rest.

That is pretty awesome. I am so glad He is on our side. I am so grateful that Jesus suffered and sacrificed so that we can return home, as long as we do what we are supposed to do. I know that Jesus loves us and I know that Heavenly Father loves us and through the fulfilling of the Plan of Salvation we can live for eternity in the most wonderful place ever. What more could we ever want?

What we believe about God

One way to teach what Mormons believe is to share the Articles of Faith. Today, I would like to share the First Article of Faith.

"We ^abelieve in ^bGod, the Eternal Father, and in His ^cSon, Jesus Christ, and in the ^dHoly Ghost."

I have included the text below which came from a talk given by Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008), given in October 1998. I hope it helps.

Question 1: What is the Mormon doctrine of Deity, of God?

Since the time of the First Vision people have raised this question, and they continue to raise it and will do so for so long as they believe in the God of their tradition, while we bear testimony of the God of modern revelation.

The Prophet Joseph declared, “It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 345).

“We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost” (A of F 1:1). This first article of faith epitomizes our doctrine. We do not accept the Athanasian Creed. We do not accept the Nicene Creed, nor any other creed based on tradition and the conclusions of men.

We do accept, as the basis of our doctrine, the statement of the Prophet Joseph Smith that when he prayed for wisdom in the woods, “the light rested upon me [and] I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (JS—H 1:17).

Two beings of substance were before him. He saw them. They were in form like men, only much more glorious in their appearance. He spoke to them. They spoke to him. They were not amorphous spirits. Each was a distinct personality. They were beings of flesh and bone whose nature was reaffirmed in later revelations which came to the Prophet.

Our entire case as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rests on the validity of this glorious First Vision. It was the parting of the curtain to open this, the dispensation of the fulness of times. Nothing on which we base our doctrine, nothing we teach, nothing we live by is of greater importance than this initial declaration. I submit that if Joseph Smith talked with God the Father and His Beloved Son, then all else of which he spoke is true. This is the hinge on which turns the gate that leads to the path of salvation and eternal life.

Are we Christians? Of course we are Christians. We believe in Christ. We worship Christ. We take upon ourselves in solemn covenant His holy name. The Church to which we belong carries His name. He is our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer through whom came the great Atonement with salvation and eternal life.

So, we believe in 3 separate beings but one Godhead with the same purpose which is "to bring to pass the ^cimmortality and ^deternal ^elife of man" (Moses 1:39).

They each have a part in that purpose. It was Heavenly Fathers plan to let us come here to experience earth life and prove ourselves worthy to return home to Him being successful in that plan. He wants us to come home successfully so in order for that to happen we needed a Savior, which is His son ,Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for us to return home through the Atonement. And then, last but not least, is the Holy Ghost which is a comforter and helper for us while we are here on the earth so we can live our lives successfully and gain the knowledge we need to be able to return home to Heaven. That is the purpose of God for us here at this time.

There are three different beings and three different roles with one purpose, us!!!

Arguing with others over this point is of no use because its something that we can't scientifically prove. It is what we believe through our studies of scripture and experiences (testimonies) that we have gained while living life here. No one can change what you know. And I personally think as long as we believe and acknowledge that God exists then we are on the right path. The rest depends on what we learn and act upon  as we move ahead in life. These are my thoughts,

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.