God hasn't given up on you.

Had a great last Sunday today!! We had some cute visitors (granddaughters of our stake high councilor) who sang "Gethsemane" beautifully during sacrament meeting. And several of my friends performed "Because I Have Been Given Much" and it was so good!! I had a great Sunday morning and I'm so blessed to have been able to live with and learn from and love the girls in my hall!! It's been a great freshmen year and I wouldn't change it for all the money in the world! ❤️

Some lessons I learned today:

In sacrament meeting about enduring to the end:-You have to prepare for trials now. -It's not enough to just have faith and pray. You have to also continually do good. 

My sweet friend Olivia shared these thoughts today in sacrament meeting:-It's not enough to endure. We must endure it well. -The Lord doesn't ask us to have a rock-solid testimony. He asks us to have faith and trust Him. -He gives us our trials because He loves us and wants us to grow.-Endure means to go about your life in faith.

One of my other friends, Shane, shared these:-We came here [to Earth] to be perfected.-You will only be able to endure if you face and overcome.-"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit." ~Aristotle.This next one he didn't say exactly like that but I still thought it was a good piece of advice:-God hasn't given up on you. So don't you [dare] give up on yourself.

In Sunday School we learned about the Allegory of the Olive Tree (Found in Jacob 5):
-God is never going to leave us.
-Christ has done everything He can for us, and He still wants to do so much more, even after we've fallen.
-You have to focus on the roots (the Gospel, your testimony of Christ, etc.).

Relief Society was SO GOOD YOU GUYS!!!! I'm going to miss learning from my favorite ladies.
-The church isn't led by men, but by Jesus Christ. He is the head of the church.
-The church has always had a prophet, seer, and revelator.
-Christ is always at the head, and directs the prophet.
-God passes on the to the prophet what we need to work on now in order to prepare for the future.
-We have to open our minds to the revelations of the prophet.
One of the topics we talked about was "In this day of spiritual famine, we can find spiritual abundance."
-We can't find the spiritual abundance if we don't listen to it.
-If we're humble and teachable, we can have the abundance come to us.
-We also have to look for it.
Another topic we had was "If we follow the teachings of the living prophets, we will not go amiss."
For this, we watched a video with a portion of a talk by Sister McConkie, and she said, "Following the prophet is always right."

I had a GREAT last Sunday with my ward. I love my ward so much, I love the girls in my hall so much, and I am so blessed to have had such a great freshmen year!! I heard many things today that strengthened my testimony and answered questions I've had recently. God is so good, guys. I know that He lives. I know that He loves, leads, and guides us. He loves us so much! Now and forever. I know that He will never leave us when we fall away. He is always waiting for us to come home. You can never fall far enough away that He will say, "It's a lost cause" and leave you to fend for yourself. I know that from personal experience. You can always come back to Him. He is just waiting for you! He loves you so much! He wants you to come home. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Change.

Change is something that will always be happening. Maybe you married someone and your life will never be the same again. Maybe someone who was always a constant in your life is now gone from your life or farther away. Maybe you have a new addition to your family. Maybe a lot of your friends are going off to college. Whether for better or for worse, change will always be a constant thing in our lives. But you know one person who will never change? They'll always be there and they'll always be the same? Jesus Christ. He is always there and He will always be the same. He will always be there to hold your hand through tough times or pick you up if it gets too rough. He will always be there. He will always be there when you're scared for a good change that will really mess with your world. He will always be there when you're sad and frightened. He will never leave you alone. He will always be there and He will send people--angels--to be His helping hands. Maybe that girl down the street that you just waved to or said "hi" to needed someone to be friendly. Maybe that compliment you gave your best friend lifted them up to be able to get through the day. Maybe that compliment you received helped lift you up. Maybe that hug or smile you received gave you hope. You never know who Heavenly Father sends you to to be their angel, or who He sends to you to be your angel. No matter the story, no matter the person, no matter the ending, He will never leave you, nor forsake you. He will always be a constant thing in your life and He will never change. 

He will never leave.

If The Lord brought you to it, He will bring you through it because you are good enough and He does care. He will never leave you nor forsake you. That is not the kind of God He is. He won't just leave you in the times that you need Him most. He's not going to say, "Oh, it's a trial/troubled time for him/her right now. Time to let them deal with it on their own." No. That's not the kind of God I worship. That's not what He does. He is ALWAYS there, whether or not you feel Him, or know Him, or recognise Him. He is there. He is there, waiting for you to turn to Him.