A Work in Progress

As usual. I modified my blog a little to reflect my state of mind better. Lately, I've been missing the islands a LOT (pathetic, right? It's only been a few months... But that's a subject for another post that may or may not ever get written). This means that while there's been snow outside, I've been sitting inside listening to my island music station...except for when I have to put on warm clothes and walk to class. Bleh. Admittedly, though, it's been pretty darn warm for January, and even though there's still a little snow on the ground (a lot of it has melted by now), it did take a while to finally show up, so I guess there's no complaining allowed. We need the stuff.

Happy New Year, by the way. I kind of neglected to post a list of resolutions like I had resolved to do...ironic. :P To ring in the new year, I partied in the USSR (haha, the only people who really get this joke will probably never read this) with my two roommates who were here over the break. I got a new camera for Christmas, which although I didn't fully realize it, I really did need the upgrade. Thank you! :) Also, I've been considering starting an offshoot (primarily photo? I know, everyone and their dog is doing it) blog from this one, which would be called "Looking at Life Through Heaven's Eyes." That may or may not come to fruition this year, we'll see.

Today has been an exceedingly good Sunday so far. I love those times where the Spirit teaches you exactly what you need to know, or when meeting topics seem to directly address your needs or worries at the moment. I can't really tell you how many times that has happened in the last couple of weeks, but it's great. It testifies to me over and over again that our Heavenly Father is mindful of us and cares about our concerns. Frankly, I'm really glad that this experiences happen a lot, because even though I shouldn't, I often forget simple truths like that or find them hard to believe.

Some more little gems of truth from today:

• The Lord will seldom do something for you that He knows you can do for yourself. Okay, I guess I already knew that, but what did I just say about being reminded of things you already knew? Good for you. Most of the time I'm ridiculously lazy and just want the Lord to solve all my problems for me. You know, "please fix this or make this happen" sort of thing, but I don't do my part at all. Is that really fair? No. Instead, He wants us to learn. That was the whole point of coming to mortality, remember? So, like any good parent wanting to teach His children, He gives us the tools necessary to accomplish our goal (faith, talents, etc.) and lets us take the initiative rather than doing it all for us. There would be no learning if that were the case. Even though the way isn't always clear (ain't THAT the truth), He will never leave us alone with nothing; He will always provide a way for us to do what He has asked of us (Nephi 3:7, anyone?).
• "It's not enough just to be good. You have to be good for something." (Gordon B. Hinckley) Pretty self explanatory. While being a good person is great, if you don't actively do something with that goodness inside you, it won't be worth much. Use your abilities. This kind of segues into the next gem:
• Service increases your ability to LOVE. Love's a funny thing, isn't it? You can feel it for family you've known your entire life, but you can also feel it for people that you hardly know at all. What a wonderful gift. What is love, anyway? Mass? Energy? Charge? If so, it doesn't follow conservation laws: It can be created, but it can't be destroyed. Redistributed, maybe, but never destroyed. And how is it created? Through service. The quickest way to get someone into your heart is to serve that person. And hey, apparently it's also an effective remedy for shyness.
• Writing things down is important. Seriously. I know I'm being a hypocrite here, since I haven't seen my physical journal in months and months, but think about it: what are the scriptures composed of? Writings, secular and sacred (but mostly sacred). The written testimonies of prophets of old and the power of the Spirit are what convince countless others of the truths found in the scriptures. What kind of good could you do? What do you believe is so important to you that you want to share with others? I had the opportunity to write my testimony and have it put in a Book of Mormon to share with an investigator earlier this month, and it was a good time to stop and think about what it is that I truly believe. You never know the extent of the good that can come from sharing your testimony.
• Lastly, Your relationship with the scriptures directly reflects your relationship with Jesus Christ. This one hit me hard today. The way I treat my scriptures is the way I treat my Savior? Well yeah, I guess that's true. The scriptures are His words and teachings, and that's how you get to know someone, really. In order to build a solid relationship with my Savior, I need to immerse myself in His words and get to know Him better. He knows me better than anyone.

Well, I'm leaving for Living Legends' mid-semester tour to Southern California tomorrow morning, so I should probably get around to packing pretty soon. If you have family in the areas of Irvine, Oxnard, Riverside, Claremont or Escondido, spread the word! Ticket prices probably vary from location to location, I don't really know that much about the individual venues. But as I've said before, it's a great show with a great message, and it will be worth it. In case I don't blog again before our Provo shows (which is extremely likely), we're performing at BYU on February 10-11 and March 22. You can catch us then too. :)