Peace be with you.

Here's your friendly reminder that, no matter how much you love music/performing for people, sometimes it is still downright terrifying:

Thoughts during the sacrament: I'm singing in sacrament meeting today. Honestly I'm terrified. My heart can't stop racing. I wasn't terrified for this at all until last night/this morning. I'm praying for peace and hoping it will go well.  Everyone keeps saying it will be fine–and I'm sure it will be–but my body/brain isn't listening.

It's Father's Day today. I'm so thankful for my dad, all the fathers in my life, and especially my Heavenly Father. I don't know where I'd be without their love, guidance, and examples.

"Peace be with you", I just heard/thought. And my heart has slowed down. I'm still nervous, still a little jumpy, but I feel better. I know He will be with me. And I am not alone–it's a quartet. :)

The first speaker in sacrament today talked about PEACE! I was like, "I need that!" Megan said something that I loved and had never really thought about before: Sometimes the answers to our prayers is to reach out and help others. I never thought that me serving someone could be the answer to my prayers. I know that me serving someone helps someone else and can be the answer to their prayers, as well as make me feel good, but I didn't realize it could be an answer to my prayers. I thought that was really insightful. She also said that the Savior is the perfect example of peace and I really loved that.

Our musical number went great!! I had a solo at the beginning, and during the chorus the second time around I harmonized (because it was too low for me) and this resulted in a lot of compliments today. I'm so glad that it went well! I was really worried and nervous, but it went well. :)

The second speaker talked about how Heavenly Father sees us, and knows us, and can help us. He has the best plan for us, and He can help us overcome our weaknesses, if we ask Him.

Relief Society was great, as usual! Clarissa talked about some things that I needed to hear and I"m so grateful for that!

The topic was Peace and Contentment Through Temporal Self-Reliance. These are just a couple of my favorite lines that were said today:
-As long as we can be self-reliant, we can help others.
-Good things take effort. You are worth the effort.
-We need each other's help. It's okay to depend on others.
-How many times do we have to fall before we can stay up?
-The best things in life take work.
-Messing up doesn't mean we're not good at it and should stop.

"If ye are prepared ye shall not fear." (Doctrine and Covenants 38:30)

I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to perform in church today. I'm grateful for the messages that were shared–I needed to hear the messages of peace today, and the messages that it's okay to depend on others, and it's okay to mess up sometimes.

Happy Father's Day to all you fathers! I'm grateful for my father–I love my dad. He's the best. He's taught me so much and I can always turn to him. I'm grateful for all the father-figures in my life. They teach me so many things and are such great examples. I'm grateful for my Heavenly Father, and for all that He has done for me.

Hope you have had a peaceful Sabbath and that you have an amazing week!

Xoxo
Mattie

He brings peace and He sends love.

It's been quite a week! I now have two roommates–they're both FANTASTIC and I love them! My religion class this term is going to be so good, but a little crazy. I think it will be a really good class though. :)

My thoughts during the sacrament were pretty concise today.

"Making improvements." That's something that Rosie said in the opening prayer today, and I loved it. The sacrament is a time to reflect on the past, and focus on making improvements in the future. None of us are perfect, and we all make mistakes, but with the Lord's help, and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we can work on it. We can become better day by day. And sometimes we might falter, and take a step or two backwards, but we can always get up and try again. We can always overcome. It takes time, and effort, but we can overcome, because the help of Him who overcame it ALL–Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. He brings peace and comfort to those who need it, and He sends love and forgiveness to those who ask.

 Today was fast and testimony meeting, and it was so good! Some of my favorite insights today were:

• We need to be humble enough to ask Him. 
• Compare yourself to yourself.
• Just be proactive.
• We are doing our best, and that is enough.
• Christ has suffered everything to help us.
• Sometimes things require a lot of time and patience. He won't leave us hanging.
• When we have an eternal perspective, and the end in mind, we can get past the trials; past the hard times.
• He is there and He is listening. He died and was resurrected for us. Each of us. 

Gospel Doctrine was really great today :)

• We are blessed in all things if we obey.
• When we keep the commandments we have an outpouring of the Spirit.
• God can take our small offering and make it more, make it better. He takes what we give and improves it.
• It's our duty to choose God in all things. Hold on to Christ.

Relief Society was so wonderful! The lesson was based off of President Eyring's talk from the April 2017 Women's Session of General Conference entitled "My Peace I Leave with You". It was such a great lesson! Here are some of my favorite thoughts:

• We receive peace in His way. Not the world's way.
• We can find true peace through Christ.
• Remember. Remember past experiences, past confirmations of your testimony and the gospel. Remember. They will help you in times of trial.
• Rosie said something awesome–she said that sometimes we have times of goodness–that's adding to our testimony and life–in order to prepare us for times of trial and struggle.
• God needs us to be humble, and sometimes He won't take away our trials because it is supposed to help us be humble.

Today was a great day at church. I learned some things I needed to hear, or was reminded of things in a different way. I loved getting to hang out with my new roommates:) I am so excited for this summer! We have a lot of new people in the ward and I am excited to get to know them.

I am so grateful for my Savior. I honestly was really worried and stressed about this summer, and my new roommates, and being away from home for a whole summer (and then some), but He answered my prayers. I am SO EXCITED for this summer now!! I have some pretty amazing new roommates, and I have some summer plans and I think it's going to be an awesome summer!! I've also been a little stressed about my major–fun fact, I am going to be changing it again, I think, but this time I don't have to apply for it! Which, honestly, is such a blessing and just what I need right now. 

Sometimes God waits a little bit to answer us, and sometimes the way that He answers us isn't entirely the way we expected, but I know that He answers us. I know that sometimes things don't go the way that we planned them to, but I know that it's all going to work out. I know that He brings you peace and sends you love when you want it and need it. I hope you have a wonderful Sabbath day and an amazing week! :)

Xoxo

Mattie

He will help us find our personal happiness.

I know I already posted yesterday but I can't just not post on Sunday. That's not a thing. So that makes this a double post weekend. :)

So, I had a thought during the sacrament this morning. I'm pretty sure it's not for me because I already went through it for me, but I am going to post it still because it might be for you. :)

"Sometimes it's hard to tell if you've been forgiven by your Heavenly Father. But sometimes the problem isn't that we're not forgiven–the problem is that we have not forgiven ourselves. Once you've forgiven yourself, you can more easily feel at peace and recognize that your Heavenly Father has forgiven you. He doesn't want us to hurt or suffer, but that is sometimes what we have to do in order to trust Him and turn to Him. It may hurt and be hard, but with Him we can find peace."

Someone said something in their talk during sacrament meeting this morning that stood out to me. He said, "If we don't have charity, what good is our faith?" And I just thought about that. It makes sense. If you don't have faith–or if you don't believe–what is the point of doing or having charity? There is none. There cannot be faith without charity, nor charity without faith. They go hand in hand.

The last speaker also said something that stood out to me. She said, "If Heavenly Father loves us, and wants us to be happy, then He's going to give us the experiences that we need to be happy. He wants us to be ourselves, and to find ourself. He will help us find our personal happiness." That was something else she said. We all have a personal happiness. I thought that was very interesting and very true. Things that make me happy won't necessarily make you happy.

In Gospel Doctrine, someone said something that I loved. "Feeling sad is okay. You have to be sad in order to be happy." You can't know happiness unless you've known sadness. Just don't let the sadness overtake you. Turn to your Savior–He'll help you find peace.

Relief Society was great! I loved the lesson, based off of Bishop W. Christopher Waddell's talk in the April conference. One thing that was read/said was, "The solution to our problems is the strengthening of our faith in Jesus Christ." We talked about his three steps to peace, based off of the scripture in D&C 19:23: 1) Learn of me [Christ]; 2) Listen to my words; and 3) Walk in the meekness of my spirit. We can learn of Him in all that we do–scripture study, visiting the temple, standing in holy places, etc. I thought this was interesting: partaking (so, consistently doing/listening) is more of a commitment. And for the last one: the Savior invites us to come to Him. Always. He is the pathway to peace.

It was a great first Sunday in my new ward. I'm excited to get to know my new ward. I'm grateful for my Savior and my Heavenly Father. I'm grateful for the messages that were shared today. I needed them. I know Heavenly Father can help me find my personal happiness. I know that He can help me find peace. I know that life may be tough, and rough, and hard, but I also know that with Jesus Christ as my rock, I can be tougher, and stronger, and I can do hard things. And I know that you can, too. <3

Xoxo
Mattie

He brings peace.

First, I would just like to say that I made it through my first week of the new semester!! Friday and Saturday were just a tad busy (okay, a lot busy) but everything went smoothly, which is so great! I wasn't really that worried about it, but when it came time for those days, all of a sudden my brain went into "Oh my gosh, I'm going to be so busy today!" mode and then I was kind of worried, but everything went fine, and then as the day went by, I became a lot calmer. I know that that was because of Christ, which leads into what we talked about in Relief Society today.

Today in Relief Society we talked about the peace that comes from Christ. It was a lesson that I really needed, and so I'm grateful to Sheridan and Lexi for their time in preparing the lesson, and I'm grateful for all of the girls that commented today–I really needed to hear what a lot of them said. Sheridan said something at the beginning of the lesson that I loved: "The only way we can have peace is through God." I loved that. We read several scriptures about peace that I absolutely love and I thought I would just share them all! :)

John 14:27–"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
John 16:33–"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
John 14:6–"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me."

That last one isn't directly about peace, but it gives me peace, knowing that I can come to [know] my Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ.

One of the questions that Sheridan and Lexi asked was this: "How can we receive the peace Christ offers?" I loved what some of the girls answered. Someone said that you have to be open to receive it. The way to do that is to study your scriptures. Another girl said that you can ask Him for peace. It might not come right away, but it will come. :)

Another thing we talked about was that loving others brings you peace. This is my favorite because it's so true. Loving and serving others does bring me peace. It takes me away from my troubles, even if for a brief moment, and, in that moment, not only do I get to share God's love with others, I get to feel His love for me from their gratitude, and from the peace and love that the Spirit gives to me, whispering to me, "You did right."

We also talked about how the Savior can help us find peace regardless of the turmoil around us. This is when I shared my story about this weekend that you already read up at the top but if you don't remember I will share it again (in slightly different words but not but yes): Friday and Saturday were really busy days for me. I wasn't really that worried about it when I thought about it Wednesday or Thursday evening, but when it came time for Friday and then Saturday, all of a sudden my brain went into "Oh my gosh, I'm going to be so busy today!" mode and then I was a bit worried, but everything went fine, and then as the day went by, I became a lot calmer. I know that that was because of Christ. I also know that even though I don't turn to Him as often as I should (I'm trying to be better about that), He will still be there, and He will still help me. I said something during this relaying of events that went like this: Even if we're traveling through a hurricane of turmoil and events, I know that if we stand, even just for a brief moment or two, we can feel the peace of Christ, and that moment of peace can carry us till the storm ends.

The last thing we talked about was that by fixing our eyes on Jesus, we can triumph over elements that would destroy peace. This is so true. By focusing on Jesus (which, coincidentally, is one of my New Year's Resolutions), everything else will fall into place, and He will bring peace to your heart and soul. In conjunction with this, Sheridan relayed the time when Jesus walked on water in the midst of a terrible storm, and after he realized it was Jesus, Peter jumped out of the boat to walk with Him, but as soon as his eyes fell upon the water, he started to sink, and said, "Lord, save me", and Jesus lifted His hand to Peter and said, "O thou of little faith, [why] didst thou doubt?" Your lifeguard walks on water. He will NEVER let you drown.

I know that He brings peace. I know that He is the Son of God. I know that He helps me carry my burdens when I'm overwhelmed, stressed, or frustrated. I know that when I can't continue on carrying it, that He will lift and carry most of it for me. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father, and I am so grateful for their love, and their faith in me, and their patience, and their help. I'm so grateful for the Atonement, and for the peace that it gives me. Life is sometimes really hard, but I know that I am not alone, and that brings me peace.