The Puzzle

Over the years, I have found myself subject to the habit of people watching and this last week I found myself watching two different children, on two different occasions, putting together a puzzle. The first was a little boy. He had a large puzzle of the planets. I watched him work on the puzzle for ten to fifteen minutes. Left to his own, he would pick up one piece and tenaciously hold onto it. He would try for four or five minutes to place it with the few pieces that were already together and when it would not fit with any of them he would sit for a moment, stare at the puzzle, then try all the options again. I giggled a little inside at the way that he held so tightly to that one piece. Eventually he would move that piece to the other hand for safe keeping, and then pick up another piece and try it for a while, before reverting back to the original one. Eventually, his father ended up on the floor with him. The father sorted the pieces and then patiently handed the child a piece that would go to the area where the child was working. Sometimes the boy would still hold onto his piece, determined to place it somewhere, in those instances the father would tell him a gentle "Not yet. Try this one first."

The second observation was with a young girl. She got out a cookie sheet, dumped puzzle pieces in it, brought it to me, and announced that I would be helping her assemble the puzzle. We started putting the puzzle together and I noticed that she, like the little boy would also pick up a piece and with determination, try to find where it went. Unlike that little boy, she did not limit herself to the few corner and edge pieces that I had already put together, but she would sort through all the pieces until she found one that her original piece went with.  Again I laughed inside a little. I, at my wise age of 23, knew that the fastest and easiest way to complete a puzzle was to put the edge pieces together first. Yet here I had seen in the space of two days, two children, who were completely unaware of this concept. They seemed to become attached to a piece, unwilling to set it aside for another piece that would make the work easier.

It was at this point that I thought about it from a gospel point of view. How often am I like a child with a puzzle piece? I grab hold of one idea, one dream, or one desire, and I refuse to let it go, trying instead to force it to fit into my life NOW! In many cases my desires are righteous. I want to be married in the Temple. I want a good job. I want a family. I want to travel the world. I want to go back to school or whatever else it might be. No matter how righteous or good our dreams are though, we often forget that we have a Heavenly Father who sees the whole picture and more than that, he knows where and when our puzzle pieces fall into place. I am certain that in the these cases of righteous desires He, like the boy's father, is whispering, "Not yet. Try this one first." I know that the Lord has a great plan for each of us. I know that he knows about all our wants and our needs. Sometimes he asks us to wait on our "wants" long enough to provide for a "need". I also know that as we lean a little more on His aid and guidance, we will find it so much easier to lay the foundation of eternity, through the assembly of our life's puzzle.

When the Devil Shall Send Forth His Mighty Winds

Like this picture, I found myself on the receiving end of what I might consider "shafts in the whirlwind" the other night. The wind was blowing so hard it was causing tiny particles of dirt to sting my skin and if I hesitated for just a moment in bracing myself, I was sure to be blown off course. As I was encountering these mighty winds, I had one scripture running through my head:

"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 foundations; 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."

                                                                                       Heleman 5:12

I have always understood these words in theory. I know that when trials and hard times come, if we have lives centered on Christ, we have no need for fear. It wasn't until this moment, however, when the literal wind was beating upon me that I really understood the importance of the rock of Christ. There are winds that are annoying, there are winds that are brisk, and there are gentle breezes, but there are also those winds that have enough power to shake, tire, stall, and knock you over. These winds have incredible force and bring with them the words, "Give in. Don't stand against me." yet as we build on our rock as we gain a sure foundation we have no need to cower or fall, we can stand tall and face the oncoming winds. Though we will feel their force, and exert full energy of soul to withstand them, in the end they will just rush by leaving us with our rock.

What kind of winds are you facing? What winds have you let blow you over? I testify that Christ is the ultimate source of strength. When we make the decision to center our lives on him, we can withstand those winds. We will have no need to fear.

The Courage to Exercise Faith

I have had many times when I have had to choose faith, and most of those times have required a little bit of courage on my part. I can still remember the first time I had to really exercise faith. I was sitting in my college apartment staring at my recent pay check stub and the tithing slip sitting next to it. My stub read $239.16. My rent for the month had already taken $215 and my tithing was going to require the last $24. That would leave me with exactly 16 cents to get me through the rest of the month.

"I can always catch  up on my tithing later," were my thoughts. "The Lord understands that I need to eat. He knows that I have already been trying to spread $100 dollars over a month's worth of time and that I can't make it through two more weeks on what would now be a grand total of $11.16. I can't do it. He understands." Every fiber of my being was crying out in favor of keeping that $24. It may not have been much, but it tripled what I already had. My conscious, nurtured by the teaching of my parents, was putting up its own fight, however, and even though the litany in favor of waiting to fill out the tithing slip continued it was increasingly losing ground. "Just wait and pay it later. He understands." The words were still echoing in my head but they were getting quieter and quieter as I thought about all the times that the Lord may have understood my parents' circumstances but rather than asking him to, my parents went without and trusted in the promise that the Lord would open the windows of Heaven. With a huge sigh I opened my checkbook and wrote out a second check. The first check made the trip down to the office to ensure housing, and the other found its way into a gray envelope with my Bishop's name on it.

Not all of my experiences have been so extreme. I have not always been asked to step off the edge and pray that the Lord would catch me. In every instance where I was asked to exercise my faith; however, I was never dropped. After I paid my tithing I was blessed by an angel in the disguise of a roommate who offered to share and pay for the first two months of groceries. Another Angel asked if we could carpool to work, helping me save on my gas money. I cannot deny the window to heaven that opened before my gaze or the unmeasurable blessing that fell out.

I learned a lesson that Richard C. Edgley sums up nicely when he says, "Be aware that faith is not a free gift given without thought, desire, or effort. It does not come as the dew falls from heaven. The Savior said, “Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28) and “Knock, and it shall be [given] you” (Matthew 7:7). These are action verbs—come, knock. They are choices. So I say, choose faith. Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism"

Faith comes in small decisions or in big ones, and it often-for me-requires a great deal of courage. Let's not deny ourselves the blessings though. In the case of faith I can echo President Thomas S. Monson's declaration "Courage Counts!"

Billing's Stripling Warriors

     17 And they entered into a covenant to fight for the liberty of the Nephites, yea, to protect the land unto the laying down of their lives; yea, even they covenanted that they never would give up their liberty, but they would fight in all cases to protect the Nephites and themselves from bondage.

    18 Now behold, there were two thousand of those young men, who entered into this covenant and took their weapons of war to defend their country.

    19 And now behold, as they never had hitherto been a disadvantage to the Nephites, they became now at this period of time also a great support; for they took their weapons of war, and they would that Helaman should be their leader.

    20 And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.

   21 Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him.

Alma 53: 17-21



  One of the most well known and loved stories in the Book of Mormon is that of the two thousand stripling warriors. Upon their conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ, these men's parents had made a covenant to bury their weapons of war and to never pick them up again. Knowing that war was coming and the great loss of life their families faced, these two thousand youth stepped forward and volunteered to provide a defense. I love how these young men are described: youth with extremely valiant courage, strength and activity, who were true to their responsibilities before their God and determined to fight for their country and families. What a great generation! What an outstanding demonstration of commitment to faith.

  I often wish that I could have met those boys. The thoughts, "Too bad they no longer exist. Too bad that kind of courage and faith is no longer here," have indeed run through my mind. In many ways that is true. I don't see high school students running out to wage a physical battle. However, since serving in Billings I have seen that they do indeed exist today. 

  Today we are all part of a different war, a war that President Gordon B. Hinkley says "has gone on since before the world was created and that is likely to continue for a long time. It is a war that reaches beyond questions of territory or national sovereignty... It is the war between truth and error, between agency and compulsion, between the followers of Christ, and those who have denied Him."  Just as the stripling warriors of days past, there are many youth today that see the need to rise and take up arms.

    Armed with the gospel of the Lord they trust in the promise of Alma that "the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else." (Alma 31:5). In the three months that I have been serving in Billings, Montana I have seen the youth rise up against the force of the adversary, as they valiantly share the gospel. These youth have the courage and understanding to not merely stand up for the truth and the right but to invite others to share in the joy the gospel brings.

   Not only have I seen many youth bring a friend to church, but they have extended their work to the faltering and lost, building them up and lending support. The reach of these warriors is extensive and still expanding. As a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I have been called up to battle in the Lord's Army. These youth are joining me, standing tall and proclaiming with Helamen's two thousand "behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay [the adversary] if [he] would let us alone; therefore let us go." (Alma 56:46). They truly are Billing's Stripling Warriors and I could not ask for any better comrades.

The Importance of Prayer

I have been thinking about prayer lately. Prayer is different for everybody. For some people it is a personal experience meant to draw us closer to our Heavenly Father. For others it is an intimidating and scary experience. I know sometimes it becomes like a grocery list, filled with nothing but our needs. To others it is a chance to offer all the thanks they have stored up through out the day. I don't know what route your prayers follow, maybe they have a little bit of all of these things at different times. I DO know that the most important thing is to say our prayers.

I came upon a talk by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, given in a CES Fireside in January of last year. The talk is called Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread. Elder Christofferson talks about how it is our daily decisions that will make up the people we become and that we need to look to God to make the appropriate choices. Again I thought of prayer. The daily decision to pray makes up the faithful, Christlike people we wish to be and brings us ever closer to our Heavenly Father. Just as everyday, the Israelites were asked to gather enough manna for their nourishment, we likewise need to collect our spiritual manna, or sustenance for our day through prayer.

As far as how we should pray, Elder Christofferson offers the following pattern with a promise:

"In reality, there aren’t very many things in a day that are totally without significance. Even the mundane and repetitious can be tiny but significant building blocks that in time establish the discipline and character and order needed to realize our plans and dreams. Therefore, as you ask in prayer for your daily bread, consider thoughtfully your needs—both what you may lack and what you must protect against. As you retire to bed, think about the successes and failures of the day and what will make the next day a little better. And thank your Heavenly Father for the manna He has placed along your path that sustained you through the day. Your reflections will increase your faith in Him as you see His hand helping you to endure some things and to change others. You will be able to rejoice in one more day, one more step toward eternal life."

 Elder D. Todd Christofferson

I know that through prayer I have been able to develop a relationship with my Heavenly Father that has sustained me through many a hard time and lifted me higher still at times of joy.

O Remember, Remmeber

I love this clip by President Eyering, but never so much as I have in the last few weeks. I recently started a new journal for remembering the small blessings I have seen in my life each day. I have seen how the Lord is blessing my life hourly! The Book of Mormon tells us that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17). I have heard this phrase so many times in my life and am rather embarrassed to admit just how oblivious I have been to how many people are constantly serving me. These people reach out in love constantly to serve me and in so doing are serving God by providing me with needed blessings. Here are just a few examples of service that I have received recently:

1. A free loaf of bread each week from Great Harvest
2. A letter from my mom arriving at the end of a long day
3. A warm meal to nourish me for the last few hours of my day
4. A note of encouragement in my scriptures from my companion
5. A plate of pancakes to start my morning out with
6. A dentist who will look at my tooth without an appointment
7. A member coming on a visit at late notice
8. Homemade peanut brittle and popcorn
9. A warm home to live in
10. Christmas gifts full of hand and toe warmers

The list goes on and on. Some, or all, of these things may seem pretty small to the average person. But for those who look closely at their lives, it is a list of daily blessings. By serving me, others are the hands through which the Lord can bless my life. I am so grateful for those that serve and reach out to those in need, and am determined to both join the ranks and to no longer let the knowledge and my appreciation for those blessings pass by.

I have been in Montana for two months now and up until this week I was enjoying the most wonderful weather. As a native New Mexican I really enjoyed the dead looking 50 degree weather. Quite frankly it felt like home. I began to be lulled into a false sense of security. Oh I knew that this is Montana and that it would get really cold. As the days got longer and the weather maintained its warm atmosphere, however, I found myself thinking less and less about how a cold front could hit any day. Well this last week it did hit. And I am cold! Suddenly I am rushing to find the warmth I previously enjoyed.

I hear that cold is just an absence of heat which makes sense. It was so easy to float along with a jacket and the occasional glove when there was no snow. With the snow though, I suddenly have to remember a heavy coat, gloves, scarf, hat, and hand warmers. I have to create the heat, or find ways to maintain it.

I think that the gospel can be this way as well. So often we have times in our lives when we feel like we can just float along with a scripture and the occasional prayer. Maybe that is all we "have time for". Then we notice that it becomes a habit to not be consistent about searching out the words of Christ and we enter a spiritual sense of security, until we crash. Then, like I was in the Montana cold, we have to scramble for the spiritual upliftment and guidance we need by holding on to any of the spirit we have and trying to make it stronger. Suddenly that full scripture study becomes important, suddenly we attend all of our meetings at church and we are doing everything that we should have been doing before in order to feel that absent warmth.

2 Nephi 28:30 says:
"For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."

The Lord gives us the knowledge and spiritual growth that we can handle and promises to add to it. He promises that for every measure we receive, we can have more. However, when we are foolish and neglect what we have, we lose it and are left with that absence of heat. I am going to pledge today to be the kind of person the Lord is adding to, not taking away.