We got the New for Strength of Youth Booklets yesterday! I was so excited! I wanted to talk about some of the things in The For Strength of Youth.

Agency and Accountability:

I really like this scripture 2 Nephi 2:27- Wherefore,men... are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death. In The For Strength of Youth it says that Heavenly Father has given you agency to choose right from wrong. I really like this because lately I have tried to get an inactive girl to come to seminary and I have tried everything and her parents have to but she has the agency to choose not to come. I have really struggled with this because she knows so much about the gospel but doesn't want to come to seminary. I have the agency to go to seminary every morning and I am grateful for that. What also plays into this is that it says you are responsible for the choices you make. Even though she is not picking the best choice, I have faith she will come again. But, I am responsible to encourage her to come to seminary. Another thing it says is that we are also responsible for developing the talents and abilities Heavenly Father has given us. Yesterday, someone in our ward that is a senior in high school, that is getting baptized on Saturday, asked me if I would play  the piano for her baptism. I feel very honored to play the piano for her baptism and so I had the agency to choose whether I wanted to play for her baptism. I am glad that we have agency to make good choices. I hope that you will use agency in a good way.

Dating:

I want to share another scripture Doctrine and Covenants 88:40- Virtue loveth virtue: light cleaveth unto light. So it says that we should not date till we are 16 and that when we do date that we should go on double dates. It says that we should not steady date till we are older so that you can keep our moral standards. I am not 16 and so I have not had this experience yet, but it gives me something to look forward to. I encourage that when you do turn 16 that you go on double dates to keep your high moral standards. This is really important to live by. 

Dress and Appearance:

Another scripture I like is 1 Corinthians 3: 16-17 - Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?... The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. It says that your body is sacred and you should respect it. I have had an experience with this one. We had an eighth grade breakfast before we moved on to high school and so we were suppose to dress up for this. Well, I went dress shopping and I would like a dress and try it and see that it went above the knees or I needed a shawl thing to go over the dress and none matched or worked. I was thinking is it going to be impossible to find a dress? I came discouraged until I found this dress that was perfect. It went below that knees and had a shawl thing that matched it. I was so glad that I kept my standards because even though it was one day, I wanted to keep my standards. It says that we should never lower your standards of dress for any special occasion. It says that being immodest will send a message that you are using your body to get attention and approval. It also says that you should never disfigure yourself with tattoos or body piercings. If women get piercings in the ear, we should only have one pair of earrings. You should show respect for the Lord and yourself by dressing appropriately for Church meetings and activities.

I will post more about the For Strength of Youth Booklet  tomorrow. Thanks! :)

Mormon.org

I wanted to let you guys know that I have my mormon.org profile out there. I am very grateful for this website. Anyone that is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I advise you to visit this website. I also, challenge those that have not made their mormon.org profile, that I advise you to. I am grateful that I am a Mormon and know of the truth. I know that I know that this is the true church. One thing that I want to talk about is on mormon.org, and it asks you my you are a Mormon. Well, I really thought about this and I want to share a few things that I wrote.  One thing I want to share that I didn't put on there, is that I didn't have to have people always telling me that the church is true; I found out by myself by reading the scriptures and going to church that the church is true. I want you to know that you guys are children of God and he loves you tremendously that you can't describe it in words. I hope you all will remember that and NEVER forget it. I want to give you the link to my profile on mormon.org. Click on this link to see my profile.  http://mormon.org/me/6V9V/#  

Return to Virtue

I wanted to share this Mormon Message with you. This one is one of my favorite Mormon Messages. I like that it says that the root word virtus means strength. I want to tell you that as I watch this it talks about having moral standards which I hope everyone has. I am grateful for this Mormon Message. It tells us how important virtue is. I know that WE need to return to virtue. WE are guardians of virtue. I have really been thinking about this Mormon Message as I have been working on Personal Progress. For virtue in Personal Progress, it says that we need to stand in holy places. I really hope that all of you will stand in holy places. One thing that really struck me during this Mormon Message is that we need to leave aside the things OF the world. I have tried to do this and it has helped me a lot! I hope that you all will know how important this Mormon Message is. I challenge you to, if you haven't already, and live virtuous and stand in holy places, and leave aside the things of the world.  I would like to bear my testimony that I know this church is true. I know that everything that they said in this message is true. I hope to strive to be a better person and be more virtuous. I am grateful for the scriptures. I hope you all will keep the covenants and live the word of God.

So sorry I have not blogged in the longest time! I am going to do better and blog once a week so that I can pass off my Good Works Project in Personal Progress.
So lately, I have really focused my life on reading the scriptures and working on Personal Progress.  My testimony has strengthened so much. I am grateful for Personal Progress and the opportunity I get to work on it. Also, by reading the scriptures, I have found answers that I have been trying to find.
Lately, at school, I have had a hard time with friends. I felt like I was losing all my friends and that I was all lonely. I was really struggling with it and have gone home many nights crying because I thought no one cared about me. The next day, I talked to one of my greatest friends and by her just saying I love you and I will always be there for you, was a way I knew that I was not lonely and that people really do care about me.  By that experience, I have really tried to reach out to others and help them to feel that they are loved.
Last night at church, we had New Beginnings, which is welcoming any of the girls that will be turning 12 this coming year. I know that as I went to New Beginnings, I learned some experiences people had and what they felt was important about the values. I had so much fun and getting to know the new girls that will be coming into Young Womens this year.
I am grateful for people and their love they have for me. I am grateful for Personal Progress and that I am able to work on it. I am also thankful for the scriptures and that I get to read from them and grow from them. I hope you all know that you guys are children of God and He loves you very much and I know he loves me.
 

Sevice Project!

                 On Saturday 9/17/11, I had the opportunity to a service project. We were cutting down trees for the trail and also we were doing a food drive and we collected over 50,000 products! We had so much fun! I love serving people and it makes me feel really good inside that I am going something good. It was awesome to see everybody in our stake and what was even more awesome was that there were about 500 people there. I was so grateful to hear that number because it is amazing that, that many people showed up to serve!
                 I also want to talk about how I gave a talk on Sunday. I was nervous but I loved giving it. If you ever get the chance to look it up it is by David B. Haight about Come to the House of the Lord in April of 1992 General Conference. I advise you to read it because it has very many good quotes. I am also so excited for next Sunday cause the youth get the opportunity to hear from one of the Quorum of the Seventy. I am so excited that we get that opportunity to have one come up. I hope everyone has a great week!

HIGH SCHOOL!!

Last week we went back to school and surprisingly I am in High School! I have great classes and I am so glad to have classes with my buddies. This year I was lucky to have church friends in my lunch which is Sydney, Taylor, Lauren, Jourdan, and Amy! They are awesome! I was really nervous for high school but after the first day, it was really easy. I also have the chance this year to go to seminary! Seminary started today and I thought it was amazing. We are doing Old Testament this year and am excited to learn new things in that section. I am really excited about this school year!

Forth of July Weekend!

 

Our forth of July Weekend was amazing! We had the chance to go to Nauvoo and Carthage and it was by far my favorite day that day! Sorry I don't have any pictures of us on the forth of July! We had a great experience at Nauvoo and Carthage and encourage you to go sometime if you can! I know that this church is true and that Joseph Smith was and is our Prophet! I know that scriptures are true!

This is by  the Window where Joseph Smith was shot.

This was at the Visitors Center in Nauvoo

This is Patty Sessions home and we are related to her!

This is another person we are related to!

This is us by the Nauvoo Temple! I love the Nauvoo Temple!

This is at a nature center and this use to be our favorite place to go when it was Ryan, Shantelle, Josh, and I!

This was our favorite bridge at the Nature Center and we use to play the troll under the bridge!

This is most of the family, Shantelle and Ryan were gone and my dad was taking the picture!

This was at a tree that we found at the nature park.