"...for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." -1 Nephi 3:7-
Many of you probably are very familiar with this verse but I want you to read it again and ponder about it. We believe that the Lord is omnipotent and omniscience; however, we sometimes forget what that means. Let's continue with Nephi's story. Nephi and his brothers tried to obtain the plates of brass twice without any success. After the first try, Nephi said:
"As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us." -1 Ne 3:15-
Nephi was not about to give up because he knew why the Lord wanted them to have these plates:
"And behold, it is wisdom in God that we should obtain these records, that we may preserve unto our children the language of our fathers; And also that we may preserve unto them the words which have been spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets, which have been delivered unto them by the Spirit and power of God, since the world began, even down unto this present time." -1 Ne 3:19&20-
We receive revelations and know what the Lord wants us to do, but many times, we are not sure how to accomplish them. However, just like Nephi, we can continue to do what we think is right to do the Lord's will then He will guide us to accomplish His will. We should never be discouraged when things don't go right. We should never complain to God saying, "I thought this was what you wanted me to do but why can't I accomplish it?" We should always remember that if this is what He wants us to do, then He will provide a way but maybe we must come up with our own plans or ideas to accomplish it. Remember:
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." -Ecclesiastes 3:1-
Before I explain anything, I want to ask you how much I should talk about my patriarchal blessing. Should I keep these things to myself? I feel like it is a great opportunity to share the gospel and hopefully inspire some of you.
This post is excerpts from Sunday and today.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
"I just realized as I was reading my patriarchal blessing about 'talents and opportunities and responsibilities' that the Lord has blessed me with. When I look back [in my life], there were so many opportunities in my life which I did not recognize. How grateful I am for my patriarchal blessing and the Holy Ghost that teaches me all the time! A very recent experience of this was from yesterday; I was thinking about applying for an internship in Provo and was working on my resume for it at work. R. (a friend) came by to talk to me and I found out that she works at this internship so I got to learn what [she does] so that I could tweak my resume for it. What an opportunity! Also, having worked at Head Start, I would be more qualified for this internship."
*Just for your information, Head Start is a government funded program that help children from low-income families.
Monday, November 7, 2011
"...I got an email from the place I applied an internship for and they want me to come in for an interview! ...I am so excited and what I said about opportunities are so true! Things just happen in my life and I go with it."
Seriously, things just happen in my life and I go with the flow. Think about how I got to live in a house with all the friends from the last ward (plus Spencer). The Lord truly has blessed me so much with these opportunities.
I dislike you with greatest intensity that I can muster.
I dislike you when you give me lazy group members.
I dislike you when I have to pull all their dead weight.
I dislike you when everybody tries to do everything at the last minute.
I dislike you when I tell the group members that we should work on our project when we had time but they don't listen so we have to do it the day when it is due and everybody is super busy and tired so I have to do so much work for all of us to finish this (insert an angry word) project.
Love
Hatred, malice, antipathy, abhorrence, enmity, fury, anger,
For the longest time, since I moved to the US, I thought that my best quality is my ability to smile/laugh at everything. It's not that I am making fun of you or of the situation. I just laugh and smile. I don't know why. I think it started when I moved here; I didn't understand a word people were saying so all I could do was smile. Now, it became a habit that I smile at everything. (Yes, I do understand words coming out of your mouth.) Don't you think it's my best quality? Or maybe my best quality is being Asian.
If you have been following my blog for a little while, you should know how much this blog inspires me. This post is inspired by the same blog, especially this post. This morning I was reading Genesis 3:18,
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
What was so amazing about this verse is the footnote of "thorns" which says "opposition." I have to read my study journal to quote exactly what I learned from just that verse but here's my thought: Adam worked hard and did what was good in the sight of God when he was kicked out of the Garden of Eden; however, that didn't stop weeds to grow and trials to occur. When farmers sow seeds, they don't sow weeds at all; however, that doesn't stop weeds to come out. It is the same for our lives because we do our best to live our lives according to God's will and commandments but sometimes bad things still happen to us. It's not that we are sinning but it's just the way life works.
Christ had "thorns" in His life also.
I am going to quote some of the things Lori, the author of the blog I mentioned in the beginning, quotes in the post.
"A broken heart is an open heart and [the Savior] can fill it." -Truman Madsen-
"[The Holy Ghost]... fills up every longing of the human heart...When I am filled with that Spirit, … my soul is satisfied." -Eliza R. Snow-
And this is what she wrote about her husband who passed away:
"Wes hardly ever complained about having cancer.
It was inconvenient, of course.
Bothersome.
Didn't jive with all of his plans.
But he dealt with it very quietly. Tacked it onto his agenda as one trial among a long list of mortal grievances and simply went about life as usual, working hard, loving his children, loving me."
No, I have never even met who these people are but somehow and somewhere (probably from the 100 Hour Board) I found out about them and started reading their blog. It is touching and very inspiring to me. I hope I can be more like Wes who knew what it meant to have "thorns and thistles" in his life but never stopped living his life the way the Father wanted him to. No matter what happens in my life, I should look for the future and be positive.
This reminded me of Elder Wirthlin's talk.
I hope we all can say, "Come what may" and "love it."
So I felt like I was getting sick last night and of course, this morning I got up with cold.
Stress of writing a literature review for my Psychology class and of tests coming up next week and lack of sleep combined forces with the evil virus to attack me. I lost the battle but the war is still going. I am at work right now with four layers of clothes and a scarf. I am not even supposed to dress like this at work but who cares? My supervisors don't work today and I am SICK! Even with this much clothes, I am still freezing! All I can think about is going home and wear another layer of clothes then bundle up in a blanket or two. That sounds like heaven!
I just got sick so I know tomorrow will be the worst day! I still have to study for a test on Monday! This is getting really ridiculous. I should have bought some soup!
I realized that whenever I am sick or pulled an all-nighter the night before, I get pretty easy going and stop caring about things. Nothing bothers me at work. :)
I looked up some questions that other people posted about dating because I have females friends who wonder if it's OK for girls to ask guys out. So I did some research where you find answers to your every question of life: The 100 Hour Board. Here are three that I really liked.
1. You know how guys feel.
Many guys are nervous to ask girls out on dates so this question was very "dear" to me because this girl started to understand how guys would feel. You, girls, start asking guys out; you will understand why some guys are scared to ask you out.
2. "Ask and ye shall receive."
I don't know about this whole "other country" business the werf (he/she) was talking about but if you are complaining about guys not asking you out, you can ask them out. It's no big deal. At least the guy will know that you are interested in him.
3. Stigma!
Guys should never get freaked out if a girl ask them out. For my first date ever in my life, I was asked out by a girl. I only freaked out because it was my first date but I thought it was pretty cool that she asked me out. Of course, it didn't work out since I was interested in someone else. Anyways, going back to what I was really talking about, I think girls should just go for it.
I couldn't find anything about some tactful ways for girls to ask guys out so I asked that question. Once they answer that question, I will update this post.
Update
So the 100 Hour Board basically said,
I'm going to say that girls should ask guys out in pretty similar ways to how guys should ask girls out (see here). Specify that you'd like to go on a date with them and suggest an activity. Be casual about it, but go for it. Board writers in the past have commented that most guys like getting asked out by girls, though girls shouldn't necessarily expect an immediate reciprocation of interest. Seriously. Just use the word 'date' but don't be creepy. Tell them you want to go see a concert, eat at a certain restaurant, etc. and you'd enjoy doing it with them. Go for it!
We planned to have a family dinner about on Sunday and this is an official La Casa (that's the name of our house) family dinner. We missed our other roommate Beau who was out of town. We had chicken, turkey sandwich, pasta salad, chips, taquitos, ice cream, and Sunkist. Very manly meal. :)
We are trying to figure out what we are going to have for next family dinner. Any suggestions?
