Life is messy.

Today was our multi-stake conference, and I'm really grateful for the things that I heard today. I definitely needed to hear a lot of the messages today! I'm going to share a few of my favorites. :)

Even though we missed the beginning of Elder Cook's talk, I loved what he said about the Book of Mormon. He said, "There is power in the Book of Mormon." I fully believe it. I am reading the Book of Mormon for my religion class, and it's been a source of peace and comfort, and has given me strength as I've read it.

Sister Franco talked about being of good cheer.
1. Understand that we have a Father in Heaven and a Savior who loves us.
2. Understand that we have a Heavenly Father who gave us commandments to help us be happy.
3. Understand the importance of gratitude in our lives.
4. Understand that service brings joy to our lives.

Elder Uceda said that, "Mighty prayers overcome apathy." He said that mighty prayers are prayers from the heart. My favorite thing he said was, "As we search the scriptures, understanding comes to our mind, and doubts go away."

Elder Stevenson talked about humility, obedience, and virtue.
Humility:
Humility is willingness to submit to the Lord. The opposite of humility is pride, which gives honor to ourselves, it's competitive, and causes us to hold grudges or withhold forgiveness. He said that meekness, humility, and forgiveness are all cousins. I thought that was a great way of showing how closely related they are.

Obedience:
Obedience is the first law of heaven, and an act of faith. It's a safety and protection for us. It brings blessings, and those blessings bring happiness.

Virtue:
Virtue originates in our innermost thoughts. It is a prerequisite to receiving the Spirit's guidance. He said that reduced screen time and increased scripture study may increase virtue. I thought that was really interesting! But also true, I'm sure. I know I'm more focused and attentive when I'm spending a lot more time out doing things (though that's hard to do during the school year, especially when all of your math homework is online).

Diligent efforts can lead to Christlike attributes becoming or being second nature. Our journey to achieve Christlike attributes requires discipline.

He also shared this quote from Howard W. Hunter: "Mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again." 

I loved this quote so much! I think sometimes we often forget the beauty and grace that is around us. We forget how awesome it is to lift someone's spirits. We forget how beautiful the earth around us is. We forget who loves us. We forget how blessed we truly are, and we forget that those blessings will always come.

This week was the first week of school for me, and I honestly struggled a bit. The first day was fine, but after the second day, when I was looking to the homework I needed to do, I got overwhelmed at all of the homework I was going to have over the whole semester for all of my classes and I kind of had a panic attack. Friday was a little bit better, but Saturday was a giant mess, because I worked from 8-4 and then the football game was Saturday night and it was a struggle getting into the game. But my friends and I made it, and it was fun watching the game with them.

I realized some things about myself this week, and this weekend, and I really need to work on a couple of things. I'm kind of nervous, just because I hate adding to my pile of things to do, but I'm hoping that I can just work them into my life and not specifically have to worry about them or deal with it. It'll just kind of...be a part of my life, and exist. Except life is messy, so that might not happen.  But! I have God on my side, and He knows where I am going, and what I need to do to get there. So, even though things might not happen the way I plan or want them to, things will happen, and I will grow, and change, and become who I need to be.

I hope you have had a great Sunday and weekend! I hope you've learned some things, and made some goals to improve. There's always room for improvement. I am grateful for my Savior, who is always willing to help me improve and progress. I'm grateful for friends, and family, who are always willing to listen, and always willing to help. I'm grateful for new experiences, difficult times, and trials that help me stretch and grow, and get out of my comfort zone. I've never really said this before, but I'm grateful for emotions, and feelings, and the fact that I get to feel so deeply. Sometimes it's hard, and painful, and messy, and I just want to not feel so intensely, but the painful times are worth all the happy and joyous ones that I experience so often. God is good, and I am blessed.

Xoxo
Mattie

We just need to follow Him.

Well, Christmas was two days ago! I had a wonderful day with my family. I hope you did, too. :)

Today in sacrament meeting, the topic was the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is a companion to us–a gift from our Heavenly Father. He is there to comfort us, and to guide and direct us. He helps us know what is the right decision to do. He prompts us to say or do things that will bless others, or bless us, and that will answer people's prayers, even if we don't know that. 

In Gospel Doctrine, we talked about Revelation 6:6-11.
We talked about how the world is falling away from the Lord's laws. The world's definition of right and wrong is different from the Lord's–practically opposite: the Lord's right is the world's wrong and the Lord's wrong is the world's right. We talked about how Satan's plan–his plan in heaven–was to make everyone do the right thing. We would have no agency. Brother Shearer brought up the fact that the world is trying to make everything vanilla–take away all labels, and make everything and everyone the same. Satan is still trying to put his plan into action–except for now he's trying to make everyone do the wrong thing and go against God. He knows he cannot win, but he is going to try and take down as many people as he can.

We talked about how the opposite of faith is fear, and fear is not of God. Fear is from Satan. One of the ladies said that comparison is the thief of joy. When we compare ourselves to others, we usually compare our weaknesses to their strengths, which makes it so we never win. However, this is not a fair comparison! Weakness to strength is not a good comparison. And besides, you shouldn't compare yourself to others anyway, because we all go through different experiences. This is the reason why we have strengths and weaknesses: our experiences are all different, and they give us different results. 

We have to stand up for what is right. Someone (I think it was Brother Shearer again) said that people are becoming more afraid of offending others. Take this holiday season, for example. There is Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, etc. And people have taken to say "Happy Holidays" for fear of offending people. I'll tell you what: If someone says "Happy Hanukah" or Kwanza or whatever they celebrate to me, I will not be offended! I'll say "Thank you! You too" or "Thank you! Merry Christmas". The fact that they cared enough to wish me a happy (fill in the blank holiday) means a lot to me. I don't care what you celebrate. 

Someone else said that good will prevail. Good will prevail! God is going to win this war. You have to stand up for what is right. "Do what is right; let the consequence follow. Battle for freedom in spirit and might; and with stout hearts look ye forth till tomorrow. God will protect you; then do what is right!" (Do What Is Right, Hymn #237). God will bless you and protect you as you follow Him and listen to and follow His prophets and the Spirit. 

In Relief Society we talked about Christlike attributes, and how we need to think and be like Christ. My first thought was, "Perfect! This goes perfectly with the theme of my blog, Keeping Christ In Your Heart". 

We made a list of the attributes of Christ after watching a video that listed them. Christ is humble, obedient, courageous, kind, selfless, a teacher, submissive, full of love, a healer, a servant, and forgiving. Sister Nelson said that divine nature (like in the Young Women's theme) is the process of developing Christlike attributes. I loved that. We then read in 2 Peter 1:5-7, which added to our list of Christlike attributes:

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity." 

When we develop these Christlike attributes, we become more Christlike (I hope that was obvious) and we are closer to being able to live with God again. Christlike attributes help us become a better person. I'm not perfect, and there are some attributes that I need to work on more than others, but trying to be Christlike makes me a better person. These attributes make me more aware of other's needs, though I still need to work on some of them. For example, I need to work on being more patient. That's something that I struggle with, but I'm trying.

Guess what? You can always ask Him for help. :) We don't have to do anything on our own, because we're not alone. We can do it with His help. You can ask Him to help you not feel bad after you've repented. You can ask Him to help you think good thoughts about someone that you don't always get along with. Whatever you need, you can ask Him. Because when we are partners with Him, we can never fail. He is always there looking out for us, even when we stray. He wants us to be like Him, and He wants us to be able to return to Him. He's given us all that we need, and we just need to follow Him. :)

I realized some things this weekend.

This weekend has been fun! My roommate is gone and so it's been just me and it's been fun. :) (Don't get me wrong though—I love my roommate; she's cool. :) ) Last night I watched Netflix, and snacked on my snacks (duh ;) ), and painted my right toes because I did my left toes on Friday. And I had my door open a bit because it makes me feel less confined. And plus I like to talk to people who walk by. But by like 9 or something I closed my door because it was just making me feel sad because no one was walking by and I just didn't want to be reminded that no one was walking by. When I finally went to bed, I turned on music to sleep to for the first time in a long time (because I don't want to bug my roommate) and I got in bed. And then I started thinking about the lyrics to the music and about the day and I just started crying. I don't know why. But last night was just weird. I liked having time to myself and being by myself but I was by myself from like 4-5:30, and from 7 onward, and I just felt...I don't know. I kinda felt alone and I just really wanted someone to talk to but I felt like no one wanted to talk or hang out. But I remembered God is always there for me. So I went to get a drink (my eyes were super red and I'm so glad that no one came out of the hall at the same time as me) and I felt better and then I went back to bed and fell asleep.

Anyway!! I'm fine now. :) SO I was really looking forward to church today, because people! And we talked about Christlike attributes in Sunday School, and being humble in Relief Society. And I realized that I have to work a little bit on being more humble, and not as prideful. And I realized that I need to work on some things. And maybe that's why I needed to be alone this weekend. Maybe I needed to learn some things about myself and how I can improve and be more Christlike. Whatever the reason that I needed to be alone this weekend, I realized that I'm so not perfect—I already knew that but I realized it so much more this weekend—and I realized that Heavenly Father is always there for me, no matter what. Even if I'm alone. Even if no one talks to me. Even if I hurt. He is there. And I'm so grateful for Him and for my Savior.

P.S. Today, at choir practice, we were practicing for ward conference next week. The song we're singing is "Take Time To Be Holy" and the tune of it is the same tune as "Be Thou My Vision"! And I was super excited because I love that song!! I'm super excited to perform next week. :)