The Parable of the Truck Driver

My seminary teacher has shared a great story with us on several occasions. Since it teaches such an important concept, I decided to share it with you.

A company was hiring truck drivers to carry loads of huge logs up and down a dangerous, winding mountain road. The drivers would need to be very cautious and precise so that they would not fall off the edge of the road.

Three men applied for a position. The first one told the interviewer, "I'm such a skilled driver that I can drive just one foot away from the edge of the road and not fall off." The interviewer thought this sounded all right, but called in the second applicant.

The second man said, "I'm such a precise driver, I can drive within six inches from the edge and be totally fine!" The interviewer shrugged, thinking Six inches...wow...and called in the third and final applicant.

The third man said simply, "I will stay as far away from the edge of the road as I possibly can."

Guess who got hired?

We need to stay as far from the edge as we possibly can! Especially among youth, a popular question is, "How close can I get to the line without actually sinning?" The problem with that is that it is MUCH easier to cross that line when you're close to it. If you're far, far away, and intend to stay there, then it is much easier to stay there!

My family enjoys this Youth Mormon Message that emphasizes this point with another analogy:

And All His Hail and Mighty Storm Shall Beat Upon You...

Helaman 5:12, right?

Well, a few days ago my mom, siblings, and I all went and enjoyed a beautiful day at the beach! There were some reports of rain, but we still risked it. Though it was slightly overcast when we arrived, the sun soon came out and it was AMAZING!!! (Almost too amazing--we all came home with crazy sunburns!) But anyway...

On the drive home, we started hearing some claps of thunder in the distance. Before we knew it, it was raining hard and then--it started hailing! It was certainly something to be described as "hail and mighty storm"! Soon, it got so crazy that we couldn't see anything but rain and the taillights of the school bus in front of us. My mom was understandably nervous driving through this, but it was still amazing (in a terrifying way!) so she asked my brother to take a picture.

When he held the phone up to take it, he noticed that he could see more clearly through the phone's camera than he could through the windshield! After he snapped a picture, he continued to hold up the phone with the camera on for my mom to see through the rain! And miracle of miracles: we didn't crash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes, there's a lesson to be learned in all this! Let's pull out the scriptures and read the fullness of Helaman 5:12: And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

The hail and mighty storm definitely came along! But it couldn't drag us down because my mom is a good driver and our van windows are strong, right? And another element that isn't mentioned in the verse but I think is important: when my brother held up the camera for my mom to see through, I think that was like the Spirit that guides us through our tough times and problems, and if we weren't built upon the rock of Christ, we would never have the Spirit. Does this make sense? Feel free to share your thoughts/help clarify this for me! :) Enjoy your weekend!

Flour, Baking Soda, and the Gospel!

So, last night I was in charge of making dinner for the sister missionaries. For dessert I decided to make chocolate cookies! They are some of our favorites and are really yummy. However, the directions were designed to be functional. In some things, this is good. Not in recipes. Because when you have functional directions, they are not clear directions and you tend to pass over stuff...Oops.

It says, "Cream butter/sugar. Add eggs/cocoa. Add other stuff." Etc. and etc.

It was the "Add other stuff" that tripped me up. I totally missed that and went on, shaping my butter/sugar/eggs/cocoa mixture into balls and rolling them in sugar. Noticed that the dough felt sort of thin but ignored it, because it looked and smelled (and tasted--SHH!) great. Put the potential cookies in the oven at the correct temperature and set the timer for the right amount of time.

Eight minutes later, my brother claimed he smelled something funky. I couldn't smell anything, but right then the timer beeped and I opened the oven to this:



Okay, so that was after my brother mauled it with a knife and my family 'sampled' a considerable amount--but you get the picture. The cookies had melted together into a flat, shapeless mass, it was going off the pan, the top was baked but the inside was mush. Pretty much a baking horror story.

My wonderful mom (who has done a LOT more baking than I have!) suggested calmly that I check the recipe again.

Well.

Can you guess what I forgot? Yes--flour, baking soda, and salt. And any of you who have EVER done ANY baking know this: those three ingredients are pretty much the common denominator in every baking recipe ever.

Epic fail, right?

Well, I salvaged the last two batches of chocolate goodness, thanks to some flour, baking soda, and salt. And thankfully, they weren't mad about being forgotten at first.

Don't they look yummy?




And if any of you have ever read any sort of LDS blog, heard a sacrament meeting talk, or studied the scriptures, you know where this is going--an analogy/object lesson/allegory (whatever you want to call it)!

But for real, one of the first things I thought of when I realized that the flour was missing was an object lesson. If we don't have all the ingredients in our life, it's not going to turn out right, whether or not we're members of the Church. If we aren't members of the Church, but we still live good lives, we may look and smell and maybe even taste good. However subconsciously, though, we know something's missing. For us, then, our 'flour' would be joining the true church of Jesus Christ.

But even if we've been in the Church our entire life, we can still be missing an ingredient or two. We might get slack in our scripture study, or take the wonderful blessings we have for granted. We might not be serving our fellowman enough. I could go on. I'm guessing we could all find a missing ingredient somewhere in our lives--an ingredient that really changes how we (the cookies :P) turn out. Do we want to be melted together and dripping into the oven instead of baking and becoming better because of it? Do we want to be scraped into the garbage or cast off instead of being enjoyed and munched on and glorified human beings???

We know something is missing and it's time to add it! And even though we might add it a little later, after some trial and error, it will still turn out yummy in the end.

Happy cookie making!

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

mormon.org

I finished my Value Project for the value of VIRTUE last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was beyond excited! I LOVE the Book of Mormon! I love to read overall, but this is definitely my all-time favorite book! It gives me the best feelings ever. The Spirit testifies to me that what I read is true and that if I follow its teachings I will be blessed! It contains the fulness of the gospel and, as Joseph Smith said, it is the most correct book on the face of the earth! (I'll get back to this in a sec--I've got some thoughts on it.) It is the keystone of our religion. (I'll talk more about this too.) It was written by prophets of God who taught His principles. It is God's word and a second witness to the Bible. The Book of Mormon does not replace the Bible and the Bible does not replace the Book of Mormon.

Now, as I said a minute ago, Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon is the most correct book on earth. But in Mormon 8, Moroni tells us that, even though it is from God, he used man to bring it forth and no man is perfect. Moroni says that there are faults in the text, but they are the faults of man, not God. There are people who would say, "Wait! Joseph Smith said that the book was the most correct on earth! But Moroni says that there are faults! Who is right? Who is wrong? Isn't God an unchangeable God? If so, wouldn't his prophets be consistent?" Well, the Book of Mormon is the most correct book spiritually speaking. Remember, the Book of Mormon often reminds us that there is a difference between spiritual and temporal. The same is true here.

I also said I would expound my thoughts on 'the keystone' concept. Many times the Book of Mormon has been compared to a keystone. The arch in this analogy is our religion--that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Anyone who knows anything about arches knows that without the keystone, the arch will fall. But what about the other stones of the arch? Aren't they important, too? The other stones in an arch represent all of the other concepts of our beliefs. Families can be together forever, the Word of Wisdom, repentance, tithing, the list goes on. And without these stones, there literally would not be an arch. These principles make up our religion. So they are important--very! But the keystone is what holds the arch together. (If there are any engineers reading this right now, please tell me in the comments how that works!) If we didn't have the Book of Mormon, all of the other principles we listed would fail. They would crumble, and what would we have then? _____________ You couldn't fill in this blank with anything. We would have nothing, nowhere to turn. No iron rod to guide us!

The Book of Mormon is SO important! I urge you, as prophets have urged, to read and study the Book of Mormon if you haven't already, no matter what age, and no matter how long it takes you. Don't give up. And if you have read it, STUDY it over and over and over and over. You only get the important stuff  by STUDYING! Never stop! Don't let anything deter you from studying this Book day after day after day, for the rest of your life! It truly is the most correct book in principle on the whole face of the earth!

Happy reading studying!

Deleting Emails...

My awesome, hilarious cousin is visiting me here in the 'deep South' from Utah for almost two weeks! We are having so much fun and laughing lots. 

What does she have to do with deleting emails? Well, she was checking her emails the other day, reading messages from people she knows. After she finished either reading or writing an email, most of the time I watched as she clicked the 'Delete' button without hesitation. 

I was horrified. What if she wanted to go back and read the exchanges she'd had with her friends as a teenager? What if she was in an emergency and had to search up that one email in which she'd typed only 'Yes' or 'Lol!' but she had deleted it? What if, what if, what if?

Obviously, those are totally irrational thoughts. You guys are probably scoffing or laughing (or both!) and thinking I'm exaggerating. Nope. Seriously. 

And even more astonishing, I have probably deleted only 10 emails in the entire 5 or 6 years I have had an email address. True. 

I mentioned this last bit to my cousin, and my mom happened to overhear. She informed me that every time I keep an email, more of the computer's memory gets used up.

Oops. 

Well then. I decided I should probably start deleting emails. So, just before I wrote this, I was on my emails, deleting like crazy. Of course, I checked to make sure that I REALLY wouldn't need the email later on, but I definitely deleted it. 

So I went through, deleting most emails, but some went into other folders, etc. It felt (and still does feel!) good!!!

Seriously though. What does this have to do with anything?? Why do you care if I am deleting emails? You don't. So I'll get to the point of this post.

Repentance. Yes, I know I have written lots about repentance. Why? Because it is so 
important! 

When we repent, it's like deleting useless emails. It feels good. And when you haven't repented or deleted emails for a while, and you're scooping all this muck out of your soul (or inbox), it feels really good. 

But the best feeling of all is when you delete the emails as you go so they don't build up and you don't have to spend hours and hours and hours deleting emails. It's like repenting immediately. Then your shoulders aren't always weighed down with the burden of sin. Or the thought of all of those EMAILS that you are never gonna read again! 

And then there is the 'putting into folders' part. That is compared to when you have committed a serious sin, but you have talked to your bishop, you know that you're forgiven. However, the memory of that sin will never go away, unlike some of the little sins, or stupid emails. These sins are like the emails that you don't want to delete, but you don't want them in your main inbox either. So you put them in a folder. It's not that they're totally gone, but they aren't in the way anymore. 

I hope you have enjoyed my quick analogy! Please leave me a comment or two!

It's Go Time!!! Be DEAF to the Things of the World!

Last night we had a wonderful joint activity with our stake president. He invited us to his wonderful backyard and made us delicious (excuse me, I mean the BEST!!!) pizza in his outdoor brick oven. At the end of the evening, after we had eaten our fill and participated in some fun active activities like basketball and a little bit of golf, the bishop gathered us all around the fire pit and informed us that the stake president had been serving us all evening. We gave him a hearty thanks and applause, then he stepped forward and shared a message that I think none of us will forget easily. 
He started by giving an analogy from his own life. He's originally from California and loves to surf. There's a point in a wave that is called 'go time'. The wave is just getting started and the surfer starts paddling as hard as he can towards that wave so he can catch it. The stake president said that we are at that point. We're in 'go time' mode. Now is the time when we can make some great choices and choose which way our life is going to go. 
He then shared four things we can do to ensure that we make the right choices and have a fruitful, fulfilling, joy-filled life. He taught us this in the form of an acronym: DEAF, as in 'deaf to the things of the world.'

Decision. Make good decisions. There are two ways to do this--the easy way or the hard way. You know what he said? Choose the hard way. If your alarm clock rings and it's time for seminary, you can choose the easy way (hit the snooze and go back to sleep) or you can choose the hard way (get up and go). Of course, you'll be happier you chose the hard way when you've seen the big picture. 

Endure to the end. We've all heard this one...over. And over. And over again. It must be important. ☺ He quoted Galatians 6:9: "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." So basically, don't get tired of doing good and you'll get results! Don't worry! It. WILL. Be. Worth. It.  

Attitude. Have a good attitude about the gospel and a good outlook on life. He quoted President Hinckley: "Accentuate the positive." He also repeated the old adage "Fake it 'til you make it." Put a smile on your face, even if you don't feel like it, and soon enough, you will feel like it. 

Faithfulness. It's simple. The key? The questions in your temple recommend interview. If you live righteously and answer those questions with complete honesty and sincerity, and you are 'valiant in the testimony of Jesus', then you are deemed faithful. 

So, don't forget to be DEAF to the things that the world whispers and paddle! It's 'go time'!

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