What Would Jesus Do?

The other day my companion and I didn't know why we needed to walk down this certain street. It was dark, we were about a mile from home, and it was getting late. We said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father where we needed to go. We felt that the street we were on was where we needed to be, so we kept walking. Then we came to this cute little cafe where a woman was sitting outside by herself. We said hi to her and asked how her night was going. Looking into the cafe we saw there was a big crowd inside that she had seperated herself from. Wondering why, we asked her if she was okay. She began to cry. She told us her fears of crowds and how she thought she would be able to overcome just this one night but she just couldn't combat it. We talked with her. We told her that God loves her and knows her. We hugged her. She thanked us for stopping and went on her way.

I don't know the struggle that anyone around me is having at this very moment. I can't read their thoughts. I don't know their hearts. But God does. He knows you and I, very personally. He may not be able to physically be with us right now but that is why He has you and I. We are His daughters and He has sent all of us here to lift, encourage, love, and comfort just as sisters should do for each other.

As I have been on my mission I have met some amazing women that have had a great impact on my life. I've also met many women that I could never see myself loving in a sisterly way, but yet I have tried my hardest to reach out with a helping hand to them. I've come to realize that yes, you and I are so different, however we will always have one thing in common. We are daughters of God, we are sisters, and we need each other!

My little sister, Kallie, is my best friend! I don' think there is anything I wouldn't do for her. Why do we, as women, not have that same love for all the other daughters of God around us, despite the differences we do have?

Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson stated a fact in which I take very seriously now. She said "To be sisters implies that there is an unbreakable bond between us. Sisters take care of each other, watch out for each other, comfort each other, and are there for each other through thick and thin. The Lord has said, “I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.”

I get so sad as I see the world becoming more and more selfish and not kind. It is like finding golden treasure when you find a friend who you know truly cares about you. As women I vote we change this!

Let's lift each other rather than point out our differences. Let's speak kindly, instead of ridicule. Let's put the feeling of love towards our sisters over the feeling of jealousy. Let's reach outside our circles and welcome someone different in. Let's be willing to respond to the little voice in our heads nudging us to go help the elderly women put her groceries in her car. Let's stand up as sisters in Christ and show the world that God does exist through our love and actions towards one another.

The famous saying "What Would Jesus Do" just popped into my mind.

He tells us what to do:
"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." -John 13:34

"The Savior has commanded us to love one another as he has loved us; to clothe ourselves “with the bond of charity” as he so clothed himself. We are called upon to purify our inner feelings, to change our hearts, to make our outward actions and appearance conform to what we say we believe and feel inside. We are to be true disciples of Christ." -Howard W. Hunter

Let's do what Jesus Christ has commanded us to do and love our sisters around us! Let's make the world happy again!

Because of Him

 Do you know who this is?

 

Because of Him you don't have to feel alone in this world. He is our personal Savior. His name is Jesus Christ. He was sent to this earth to live and die for us. He suffered every feeling of pain, regret, sorrow, heartache, depression, loneliness, illness, etc. He has felt it all. He is the One who was nailed to the cross. He, however, is the One who rose again three days later.

When we think no one else in this world knows what we are feeling we can take comfort in the knowledge that He is our faithful friend who will never leave us alone. When we feel like our world around us is crashing down we are able to find peace in His way. When we feel like all hope is lost, we can count on Him to take us by the hand and guide us to a better tomorrow. When we can't seem to find our way out of darkness, we can trust in Him to be our light.

He knows you. He knows how to help you. He stands before us beckoning us to "come unto Him" and be healed.

"Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

Behold, I do not condemn you; go your ways and sin no more; perform with soberness the work which I have commanded you.

Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Amen." D & C 6:34

 

"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 16:13

#BecauseofHim I have become a new person

The Lost Sheep

 I grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All of my childhood I sang "Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam" and "Popcorn Popping". We had family scripture night and attended church regularly. My parents taught me that I am a child of God. They did everything they were counseled to do. There came a time when I reached my young adult years and I left the church. I put myself in all kinds of situations that got me in trouble. I got to a point in life where I saw no way out of the hole I had dug for myself. I felt hopeless and "too far gone."

 

I don't know what it is like to be a parent. I don't know the heart ache that comes when your child strays from everything that you've tried to teach them. I don't know what it's like to have sleepless nights worrying whether or not they will come home.

 

Despite all of this, there is one thing I do know.

I know what it's like to be that child that is worried over, prayed for, and desired to come back home.

 

I know what is needed from parents to make it back onto that straight and narrow path.

 

I don't know the situation your family may be going through with a child that has strayed off that path but I only have one piece of advice for you. LOVE THEM.

 

I know the power that unconditional, non-judgemental love can have on oneself when feeling as the one lost sheep. I can testify that it will have more of an impact on your child than yelling, punishment, or disownment. Christ, our perfect example, showed us what to do when we have a child that strays. Through the parable of the one lost sheep out of the 99. "What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?"

 

Why would he expect any different from those with children? Doesn't he expect us to love them despite of their weaknesses, trials, and shortcomings?

I know there are many Latter-day Saint parents around the world who have a child that has gone against everything you taught them. I was one of them, and I know many others that have left. This is my plea to you as parents. Love your children as Christ loves them. The Atonement of Jesus Christ applies to all of us, including your child. Keep praying. Keep fasting. Rely on the merits of your Savior who knows the heartache you feel and the despair your child feels. Trust in Him.

I am a witness of the unconditional love my parents showed me through my mistake making years. They triumphed in my small success, rather in my failures. They savored the time I did spend with them and made me feel like I was loved, despite the life I lived. The most meaningful thing they have done since I came back is forgotten all the pain and heartache that I had caused them. They "remembered [my] sins no more." I will never ever forget what they did for me.

Your child needs you. Don't give up on them. The scriptures say, "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" What if that one soul is your child?

As long as the days, months, or years may seem, I can promise you as a representative of Jesus Christ that your love with never be wasted.

Hocus Pocus and Caramel Apples

We are going to do a little throw back to Halloween for this post...

A few years ago Halloween night came around and I remember everyone getting ready for the parties and texting me and asking if I was coming. The thought came to my mind.."You can go and just enjoy everyone's company, you don't have to participate in anything. Just have fun, it's harmless." Then I got a text from my best friend saying. "Do you want to come over to my house and we can make caramel apples and watch Hocus Pocus together?"

"Which should I choose?" I thought.

I felt like the cartoon character with the little angel on one shoulder and the little devil on the other.

I knew what the right decision was in this situation.

I knew that staying with my best friend would be the safest option and is what Heavenly Father would want me to do.

But yet, that little devil was still on my shoulder saying "No, go to the party, you wouldn't want to upset all of your friends by not going."

IT WAS SO HARD! I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!

Ladies, we all have values. Sometimes they are a little lower than we should set them but we all should have some. I know what it's like to be faced with the desicion between what you want to choose and something that you should choose. I know how influencial friends can be. I am the biggest people pleaser in this world, and I know that it's hard.

BUT

You need to stand up for what you believe in! I got myself into a whole bunch of situations that I would have never been in if I would have stood up for what my values were. I did, with the help of Heavenly Father, choose to spend that Halloween night with my best friend watching Hocus Pocus and making caramel apples. Did I feel like I was 10 again? ABSOLUTELY! However, it was so much more fun and fulfilling being there with her and doing something worthwhile rather than living with the regret of going to that party.

You may not have had the specific situation I had but you have had one similar. Whether it be deciding to uphold your standards of modesty, of clean language, or of appropriate music and movies. What every it may be, we all go through decision making every day.

Whatever your struggle BE STRONG  and

STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN!

 

Regarless of who is convincing you to do something. I have lots of family that believe differently than me but I have to be firm in what I know and in my values. It doesn't mean I don't love them because they don't decide to follow 

                                                                                             the path I follow, I still love them the same, I just

                                                                                             CHOOSE to walk a different path.

Someone who loves me so much always left me saying REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE.
So, Who are you? What do you want to stand for?

An Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ said:
"O, youth of the noble birthright, make your decision here tonight: “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded” (1 Ne. 3:7). There is power in His way. There is no greater joy in this life than to be found in His service. I bear you my solemn testimony that a decision to live according to His law will bring you life eternal."

My volleyball coach always asked me,
What legacy do you want to leave?
I invite you to ask yourself that same question the next time that you face a challenging decision that will determine the legacy you leave. Do we have the moral courage to stand firm for our beliefs, even if by so doing we must stand alone?

Be Salt not Sugar

Mmm I can just smell those fresh homemade chocolate chip cookies coming out into the oven. When I think of chocolate anything I always think of those skinny models eating Dove chocolate so perfectly on commercials. My companion and I don't eat Dove chocolates or chocolate chip cookies so graceful!
I love to bake! Cakes, especially cookies, bread, and pies! Mmm I just love it so much! I learned how to bake a lot from my Aunt who lived with me for a while. She is the master chef! Of course we always load up on the sugar when making yummy chocolate chip cookies but there's one ingredient that you can't forget or else it might taste a little off. Can y'all guess what it is?

 

SALT!

Who would have thought, right? Not me!

 

So many people use salt to add just that final ingredient to a delicious meal. Salt will
enhance the taste but you hardly ever use a lot of it on anything.

What does salt have to do with anything?

 

In Matthew 5:13 it says "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour,
wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but
to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of man."

 

When I read this I thought there is way too much sugar in the world, as in the same type
of person. It's hard to find the salt of the world that hasn't lost it's flavor.

 

                       EVERYONE IS TURNING INTO SUGAR!

 

We were all created as individuals so why don't we all become individuals? Why is it such a "thing" with us women to be just like the next coolest girl? Why can't we be happy and comfortable with who we are, who God has made us to be?

 

I've learned over my mission that it's okay to desire to have have attributes that someone has but it's not okay to want to become completely like them. It's actually breaking one of the ten commandments when we do that. #commandment10

 

I have a dear friend who is so close and special to my heart. Her name is Sister Hargadon. She is salt for sure. She is so confident in who she is and is a light to so many people. She has let the world become her playground and used each one of her life experiences to make her the INDIVIDUAL she is today. When I first met her I wished I had the energy for the mission, the way she helped people feel comfortable, the light, the earthiness, and so many other things that she had. I wanted to be her. As I was around her for about 6 months I learned that the things she had I couldn't take because I wasn't her. I am Hermana Schmit and I am different but I was able to learn from her. She taught me to open my heart and see things in a different light and to connect with who I really was as a Daughter of God. I always call her my soul sister because I feel like she helped me open my soul. She helped me become "salt of the earth" instead of just some more sugar.

 

Sisters of all ages!! Don't desire to be someone else. Be You! Learn from others, and apply their teaching to your life but don't lose your savour just to become the prettier than the prettiest, richer than the richest, or more popular than the most popular. Remember the salt is the least amount of an ingredient that you put into those delicious cookies you love, but it makes all the difference.

                                                         

                                               Be the "salt of the earth".

 

 

 

Click to read a great talk by a living apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ: The Moral Force of Women

Our Royal Search

Imagine this...
You go to sleep at night, looking forward to a good nights rest...all of the sudden you wake up outside, in the dark, cold night, and don't exactly know how you got there or what was happening...you start crying and screaming for someone to help you....

Pretty scary right?
This actually happened to me when I was younger and lived in Alaska where there were bears!! Lucky me, my Dad got to me before the bears :)

I have felt this same "lost" and "confused" feeling this past week. I don't really know why I am on my mission, why I wake up everyday in Tennessee and not in Washington, and what my purpose is here.

GIRLS.... do you ever feel like that? Like your just another person in this giant world and that NOBODY understands what you are going through? Sometimes I feel like Mia Thermopollous from Princess Diaries who gets sat on all the time by the cute popular cheerleaders of the world because I'm apparently "invisible".

Just as Mia found her purpose as a Princess and later a Queen in her life, we are all on the grand search of what our purpose is in our own lives. Ask yourselves this...Why are you where you are right now, in this very second? How did you get there? What decisions led you to that specific place? But most importantly why are you there?

Through my high school years up until now I have searched up and down and around everything to find the "why" of everything. Finally after a lot of heartache, mistakes, and hitting rock bottom I KNOW why I am here. Why I am here sitting on this computer in Hermitage, TN writing to all of you. I know why I decided to come on a mission. I know why I decided to come to this earth.

You want to know what the greatest part about all of this? I KNOW that YOU decided to come to this earth and live this life also. As I've studied the Bible and Book of Mormon and listened to prophets, and prayed my heart out I KNOW that each one of us chose, before this life, to follow our Perfect Brother Jesus Christ and because of that decision you were given a beautiful body to live this life in and experience the joy that you get when you see your very best friend and the sorrow you feel when nothing goes right.

                                                

YOU HAVE A PURPOSE TO LIFE.

We might have our Mia moments or a moment like mine where you wake up from life and and don't quite know where you are. That is the moment that I invite you to get on your knees and pray. Pray to whatever God you believe in and ask for direction, comfort, peace, love, guidance, whatever you feel that you are in need of. I promise you that you will receive the very thing you are asking for, as you pray in faith. The scriptures say, "Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."  You are His daughter and He knows you better than you think and knows what is in store for your life. Just as you wish to ask your teacher for help during a test, YOU CAN ASK FOR HELP FROM YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN during this earthy test or what we call life!

"Never forget that you came to earth as a child of the divine Father, with something of divinity in your very makeup. The Lord did not send you here to fail. He did not give you life to waste it. He bestowed upon you the gift of mortality that you might gain experience—positive, wonderful, purposeful experience—that will lead to life eternal. He has given you this glorious Church, His Church, to guide you and direct you, to give you opportunity for growth and experience, to teach you and lead you and encourage you, to bless you with eternal marriage, to seal upon you a covenant between you and Him that will make of you His chosen daughter, one upon whom He may look with love and with a desire to help. May God bless you richly and abundantly, my dear young friends, His wonderful daughters." -President Gordon B. Hinckley    

Don't lose hope my dear sisters! You have something amazing to do in this life! Be like Princess Mia and find your purpose and achieve it! You have a Heavenly King as your Father and He is waiting for you to become His PRINCESS! 

A New Beginning

Well, I decided that I wanted to start a new blog frankly because my last one I just wasn't very passionate about, but this one...wow, it's going to be good so listen up!

Isn't that the beauty of life? That we have passions, desires, and dreams? That is what I live off of! I love to dream and be passionate about everything I do. That's why I wanted to write this blog just for girls #sorryboys.

I am a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and I LOVE JESUS! Can I get an Amen? Even though I have dedicated 18 months of my life to the Lord, I had a time where I dedicated all of my life to sports, boys, and having a good time. For anyone who knows a Mormon missionary or sees us on the streets walking, we probably seem perfect to you, very well put together kids, and have all our priorities straight. That's at least what I thought of the missionaries who taught me and who would visit with my family. When I got to the mission I had a big REALITY CHECK...we are far from perfect!

I'm going to really honest and pretty blunt about what I post on here. Even though I'm a missionary now, before my mission I lived a life in the fast lane. My life was, lets just say, a little bit on the wild side. I've been where a lot of parents don't want their little princess to go. I've experienced a lot in my short 23 years. The best part about it is that I have come out of it for the good!

 I want all the girls in the world to know that someone knows what they are going through!

This world is such a beautiful but ugly place to live in. There are so many traps that us girls can and probably will fall into but the beauty of it is that WE CAN CHOOSE. Our Heavenly Father has given us agency (or the ability to choose) which enables US, not anyone else, to choose what we really want to do.

I know it's hard. I know there is that one cute boy who maybe your parents don't want you to date, or let alone even look at. There are all these kids asking you to do things that aren't what you have been taught to do. There is so much pressure to wear the cute new style that I personally think shows more of your skin than any random person should be allowed to see, and I am one that used to dress a little crazy! Are all these things appealing? I'm not going to lie, they were once to me but the question is...Why? Why do you want to be part of that?

My goal with these posts is to help all you sisters of mine to see your divine potential and realize that you are something so much greater than you think you are and have such a bigger purpose in this life than to become the most popular girl in school. I have found my purpose for my life and that I hold so dear to my heart. It took me a few years to get to that point but I'm so grateful for the journey that brought me here. I promise you will feel so beautiful, so popular, so worthwhile, and so happy when you find your true-self!

Look for my next post...coming soon! Things are about to get exciting!