The Book of Mormon brings peace, clarity, and answers to my life.

I am so thankful for the sacrament. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to renew my covenants with God, and to start the week anew. Sometimes I make mistakes, and sometimes I make the same mistakes, but I am learning! I might make the same mistakes, but sometimes I quit while I'm ahead. I think to myself, "Mattie, you're better than this," or, "Mattie, you can overcome this. You're strong enough," and I choose to stop, or I choose to get up and change the situation, and go serve someone. Sometimes our trials and temptations seem like they are bigger than us, or have a hold on us so tight that they won't let go, but at some point, we can overcome. Not all the time, and not always right at the start, but a lot of the time, and early enough. One thing that honestly and truly helps me is reading the Book of Mormon. I have been reading every day for my Book of Mormon class, and it has helped me so much! Yeah, sometimes I slip in my trials/temptations, and I make a mistake again, and I fall backwards. But once every couple of weeks now versus sometimes every other day then is PROGRESS! And I welcome and am proud of that progress! 

We all have our own struggles, our own trials, our own temptations, and they're all different, and require different answers. But I know that the Book of Mormon helps us find those answers. It helps us find peace. It helps us find clarity. It helps us heal and become whole again as we turn to our Savior and trust in His Atonement.

Last night, my roommate and I were studying 3 Nephi 19, and I noticed that Jesus went away from His Nephite disciples three times to pray, much like when He was giving the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Except this time, His disciples were still awake and praying when He comes back. One other thing I noticed is that in 3 Nephi, this is happening during the day, and there is a lot of mentioning how white and bright everything is. In the Garden, it's nighttime, and His disciples keep falling asleep. I don't think the similarity between these two events is a coincidence. I never made this connection between the two events before, and I thought it was just an amazing connection to make. (Another thing I just thought about is that three is such a powerful and repeated number in the scriptures. "Three is a magic number.")

I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting today and I honestly don't remember it at all! I was so terrified, my heart was pounding, and I was struggling to keep my body upright, but I knew I had to get up and say something because I had been thinking about the Book of Mormon during the sacrament and I knew that I had to express my gratitude for it, and how it has helped me through this semester, and through some of the trials I have been going through lately. (Of course, the moment I sat down after I was done bearing my testimony, my heartbeat was back to normal. Glad I can depend on it to keep me calm during moments of extreme terror ;) )

I'm grateful for the lessons I learned in church today. I didn't specifically take too many notes, I mostly listened today, which is all right. Sometimes you just need to listen. Today I just needed to listen, and feel, and take into my soul. I am grateful for my ward–I learn something new each and every day just from interacting with my friends, and they are all so wonderful and insightful and bring new insights to the gospel that I've never seen or thought of before. I'mg grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows just what I need and cares enough about me to send me what I need, and to bless me every day.

Xoxo
Mattie