Walking in the Valley of Decision

Faith makes things possible, not easy.

Joshua 3:5- "And Joshua said unto the people, sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders amoung you.

E+R=O

Event+Response= Outcome

3 Easy Stepts to Hard Decisions

1. Personal Effort
2. Counsel with qualified people
3. Involve the Lord

We tend to become like those we admire.

Who can be on my Mount Rushmore?

You can make every decison correctly if you listen to the spirit.

Give Me This Mountain

Sometimes you don't like doing hard and difficult things but you like the end result.
Example:
For a sport. If you play a sport would you want someone who pushed you hard, made you run, push ups, etc... or would you want someone who really did not care. I know I would want someone who pushed me hard. I might not like it when I am doing it. It can be pretty hard but after that I feel so good that I did it. Better for health and better for the games to play.
This can be for anything. An instrument, school work, etc...

Satan wants us to be miserable. He does not want anyone to happy. A testimony brings you happiness, and he really does not want anyone to have a testimony.

To Be an Example you have to stand out.

You cannot stay on the summit forever, you have to come down again. One climes, one sees no longer when has come down, but what you have seen will remain with you forever.

By Small and Simple Things, Great Things Are Brought to Pass- EFY Classes

Today I returned home from EFY. Since EFY is basically like a week long seminary experience, I thought I would post my notes from EFY.

The teacher started off talking that he had met his wife by waiting in a line for BYU. She started talking to him and he really liked her. He learned her name, but he did not ask her out on a date. He really wanted to go on a date with her so he looked up her name and he found out her information. Because of that, he got married for time and all eternity. What if his wife did not talk to him in line, what if he never made the decision to call her up?

Alma 37:7
6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

Small and simple things can bring about eternal purposes. This will bring about the salvation of many souls.

2nd Kings 5
1 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.
2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.
4 And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.
5 And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.
6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
8 ¶ And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15 ¶ And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.
16 But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.
17 And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord.
18 In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing.
19 And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.
20 ¶ But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.
21 So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?
22 And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments.
23 And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him.
24 And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed.
25 But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither.
26 And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?
27 The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.

If the girl had not told him, if he had not gone, if the servent did not speak up, if he did not listen. The small and simple thing would not have come out and make something great.

Numbers 21: 8-9
8 And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Look at the snake and you will be healed. Something so small and simple to do, but it was too easy, so many were not healed.

Self Improvement "The best place to look is for small changes we could make in the things we do often." -Henry B. Eyring

Same thing with the atonement. We have to repent, it may be har, not exactly small and easy to do, BUT it will bring great things!

Many are called, but few are chosen

D&C 121:34-47
34 Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
35 Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson—
36 That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.
37 That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.

Who chooses the chosen? We do! God does not have a list and to hope that we get on it. He does not add us, we add ourselves.

How can I be "cut" from the winning team?
You can try out for a certain part in play, a team, a choir, and you did not make it. I do know those feelings. I have had them, and it hurts.

1 Nephi 22:19
19 For behold, the righteous shall not perish; for the time surely must come that all they who fight against Zion shall be cut off.

Alma 50:20
20 Blessed art thou and thy children; and they shall be blessed, inasmuch as they shall keep my commandments they shall prosper in the land. But remember, inasmuch as they will not keep my commandments they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord.

Helaman 12:21
21 And if the Lord shall say—Because of thine iniquities thou shalt be cut off from my presence—he will cause that it shall be so.

D&C 1:14
14 And the arm of the Lord shall be revealed; and the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people;

D&C 50:8
8 But the hypocrites shall be detected and shall be cut off, either in life or in death, even as I will; and wo unto them who are cut off from my church, for the same are overcome of the world.

D&C 52:6
6 And inasmuch as they are not faithful, they shall be cut off, even as I will, as seemeth me good.

In Acts 7:54-60 it says:
54 ¶ When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Who?- Stephan, Paul, People who wers stoning, God, Jesis
Why?- verse 55 says they are two seperate beings. Preaching- that is why they stoned him.

Being a Good Samaritan

Story:

"A group of religion instructors were taking a summer course on the life of the Savior and focusing particulary on the parables.

"When the final exam time came the students arrived at the classroom to find a note that the exam would be given in another building across campus. Moreover, the note said, it must be finished within the two-hour time period that was starting almost at that moment.

"The students hurried across campus. On the way they passed a little girl crying over a flat tire on her new bike. An old man hobbled painfully toward the library with a cane in one hand, spilling books from the stack her was trying to manage with the other. On a bench by the union building sat a shabbily dressed bearded man in obvious distress.

"Rushing into the other classroom, the students were met by the professor, who announced they had all flunked the final exam.

"The only true test of whether they understood the Savior's life and teaching, her said, was how they treated people in need.

"Their weeks of study at the feet of a capable progesor had taught them a great deal of what Christ had said and done.

" In their hase to finishe the technicalities of the course, however, they failed to recognize the application represented by the three scenes that had been deliberately staged. They learned the letter but not the spirit. Their neglect of the little girl and the two men showed that the profound message of the course had not entered into their inward parts.

"We must at all times search our own souls and discover what we really are. Our real character, much as we would wish, cannot be hidden. It shines from within us transparenyl. Attempts to deceive others only deceive ourselves. We are often like the emperor in the fairy tale who thought he was arrayed in beautiful garments when he was in fact unclothed." - James E. Faust

Previous to the class a girl was outside the classroom, looking like she was having a bad day. Turns out of teacher had put her there on purpose to see how many people would stop and talk to her, ask her what was wrong, anything caring. I think only 4-5 people did. This is a class around 20-35 people. Our teacher asked the ones who did not stop why they did not stop. Some people said that they thought the girl would think they were weird. Others said they did not see her. One boy said that he saw her and me laughing and thought nothing was wrong.

Be a good samaritan-

Luke 10: 30- 42

30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

38 ¶ Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.

40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Just some info on some of the people in the story.

Priests- Were the direct descendants of Aaron and were responsible for the temporal welfare of their fellowmen.

Levites- Were an honored tribe, having been given the priesthood, and were responsible to bless the people.

Samaritans- Were half-heathen with mixed blood from Israelite and gentile ancestors. Apostate worshippers of Jehovah, they were detested by the Jews. They were their bitter opponents and considerd enemies.

The Priest and the Levite were being I guess jerks. They were responsible and the levites were given the priesthood, but the Priest did not help the man in need and either did the Levite. The Samaritan did though, even though him and the man in need were considered enemies. How amazing. I think that all of us should be like the Samaritan.

At the end of the class period we were all given a Band-Aid. We had to put it somewhere on our bodies. I put mine around my finger. We could not take off the Band-Aid until we helped someone in need.

The Power to Be Made Strong

In Acts Chapter Three, there is a lame man. Somehow everyday he goes in front of the temple and asks for money so that he could love.In Acts 3: 6-7 it says:

6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

In Seminary we were saying how he asked for one thing, but he got another, something greater. Our teacher then asked if we had any stories like this. This one girl raised her hand and she told us her story. She has a certain disease that her nerve system randomly just shoots out pains. The doctor told her that there was no cure, nothing for it. She prayed all the time to Heavenly Father for the pain to go away, a new medication to null the pain, or for someone to find the cure. She could not stay at school for a whole day because the pain was to great. Nothing that she was praying was working. She then started to pray that the pain could not be so great and and that she could be able to go to school for an entire day. This worked. This happned in the school year 2007-2008 and ever since then, she has not had to go home because of the pain. One thing that she said really hit everyone hard. She said "Maybe He is not giving me the wrong answer, maybe I am asking the wrong question." That is my new favorite quote.

In Acts 3: 12 it says:
12 ¶ And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?

Peter was very humble about the whole healing thing. He said that he did not do it, the power of God did, Peter just helped.

In Acts 3: 16 it says:
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

In Acts 3: 19 it says:
19 ¶ Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

What is the most important commandment?

President Harold B. Lee said:"The most important commandment is the one you have difficuly keeping today."...make today the beginning of a change in your life. Turn from the thing that you have been doing wrong."...today is the day for you to work on that until you have been able to conquer that weakness."

List the most important commandment and list the blessing of keeping that commandment.

In D&C 66:3 it says:
3 Verily I say unto you, my servant William, that you are clean, but not all; repent, therefore, of those things which are not pleasing in my sight, saith the Lord, for the Lord will show them unto you.

Cirlce the name William and replace it with your own.

If Christ was with you everyday what would you change? They don't have to be HUGE things, they can be but you can also change small and simple things that you probaly don't think twice about. Maybe be more polite. Don't inturupt, say thank you, please, excuse me, etc... Maybe at lunch sit with someone who is lonely, someone who is all alone, and talk with them.

Be Fearless

"...if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." D&C 38:30

Fearless Scriptures

• D&C 38: 30
• Genesis 26:242
• Kings 6 15-16
• Psalm 27:12
• Timothy 1:71
• John 4: 18
• D&C 10: 55
• D&C 30:11

Keep Your Orange Peel On!

When you put an orange in water with the peel, does it sink or float? It floats. When the orange peel is off, the orange will sink.

Examples of an Orange Peel On
Scripture Study, For the Stength of Youth, Obeying the Word of Wisdom, Prayer, Give Testimony Often, Discuss gospel topics with friends/ family to better understand, Listen to General Confrence, Write down spiritaul things in journal, Go to the Temple, Go to church activites.

Examples of an Orange Peel Off
Listening to peer presure, Drugs, Not going to church, Bad Language.

A Way to Escape Temptation
Keep praying even when temptation comes. Remember who you are, you are a child of God. God gave you legs- so use them to run away from temptation. Sing a favorite hymn.

The Start of Mormon Seminary Lessons

Ok, Seminary has had a HUGE impact on my life. Since the lessons are wonderful and just amazing I thought I would share them with you. So here is the start of the lessons that I will be posting. Enjoy!