Finals hit hard today and I have a ton of studying to do but luckily I did this service without even thinking about it! First of all I went to an accounting study group and we all had strengths in different areas of the practice exam so we all got to teach each other, but then at the end of the study session I remembered a cool trick I learned while I was a missionary in Mexico and decided to share it with them. It's similar, but not identical, to this video right here!
I hope we can all remember the importance of Christ in our lives! I'm so thankful for the things I learn from those around me and I hope that I can have as good an influence on my friends and family as they've all had on me.
Today's service was difficult for me! I don't have kids, and I my congregation at church consists of young single adults from 18-30 years old. I live in college housing. All of these things make it semi-difficult to minister to children! My sister lives nearby with her family, but they were busy today and all my other nieces and nephews live too far away. So I was stuck! I didn't know what to do, but then I remembered that I've had an idea for a long time to make a series of children's books teaching the principles of faith, prayer, and scripture study. I didn't even come close to completing them, but for today's service I began working on them hoping that someday they'll help children learn about Jesus.
Also I watched a few of these videos. This is one of my favorites.
My dear friend Jessica Smith was in charge of organizing the Christmas party for her LDS congregation and as part of the event they had a box for donating shoes which she is going to deliver to Soles4Souls. It was a big success and I feel blessed to have been able to donate a pair.
They are a great charity and it really does bless a lot of lives. I think we often take for granted the simple things in life like owning shoes. By making a simple donation we can help people walk.
I was afraid that today I would not find time to do my service. I woke up and immediately began studying for my accounting final, after a couple of hours I went to my friend Stephie's to study for anatomy and I was there all day! It was around 7pm that we decided to take a study break and the topic of the light the world campaign came up. I work at an assisted living home as a server in the dining room and so I thought it would be fun to go and visit one of my friends that live there. Stephie and I went and visited one of the residents named Bill. It was a great time! I got to learn about his service in the Navy, his family, and his passion for classical cars, and by passion, I mean PASSION. His walls were covered with photographs of cars and he had a small table dedicated to building model cars. It was a lot of fun to get to know him beyond his food preferences and hopefully we could brighten his day a little bit as well!
Studies show that 60% of residents living in nursing homes never get visits, so if you ever have any extra time, then there's a great way to fill it!
Today's service was simple. I just organized a list of people that have asked me to pray for them. I have people always ask me to keep them in my prayers and I always agree but admittadly I find it hard to keep track sometimes of who I should be praying for. So I now have a list that for reasons of not broadcasting people's problems to the world, I won't include a picture of!
Service doesn't have to be difficult or expensive.
For today there were a lot of things that I was able to participate in. The first two are past activities. My Dec. 1 service was participating in a canned food auction with my congregation and we had A LOT of food that was then donated to a shelter. And then I was able to participate in my church's monthly fast Sunday. The first Sunday of every month member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints fast for 24 hours and then donate the money that they would have spent on food to a fund called "Fast Offerings". Fast offerings don't go to the headquarters of the church but instead are kept at the local level and used specifically to help the poor and needy in the community.
Apart from those two activities, I wanted to do something extra today so I was driving to a shopping center where I know that there are typically people asking for money. My plan was to buy a gift card to some food spot and then gift it to whoever was standing out with a sign, but as I pulled into the shopping center parking lot I felt a distinct impression that I should just give the cash and not a gift card. I turned the car around and someone was standing at the parking lot exit. I handed her the cash and with tears in her eyes she said, "Thank you so much. You have no idea how cold it gets at night" and at that moment I realized that just because today's theme was feeding the hungry, it doesn't mean I should ignore every other need that people have. Her concern wasn't where she would get food, but how she would survive another night in below freezing temperatures without a home. I am so thankful for the spirit that impressed me to skip one step of my service today.
I don't know if what happened next was inspiration or indigestion, but I went hunting for food. I didn't have much time before work so I figured I would run into one of my favorite grocery stores Sprouts and just pick up an apple or something to munch on before work. I picked up a few apples and some yogurt covered pretzels and then when I got to the checkout line I saw this sign:
It was the perfect way to end my day's service of feeding the hungry. It was so easy. I just grabbed one of their pre-packed bags and bought it and then they set it to the side and it will be donated to the needy. No need to hunt through aisles or anything.
I know that as we sincerely look for ways to serve the Lord will open our eyes to the endless opportunities we have. I'm thankful for the Gospel in my life and how it encourages me to look outward. It really does feel good to stop thinking about myself so much.
As a Latter Day Saint I believe not only in the Bible, but also in the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and continuing revelation.
The Bible is a record of God's dealings with His people in the Old World
The Book of Mormon is a record of God's dealings with His people in the New World
Doctrine and Covenants is a collection of modern revelations given to restore and organize Christ's church in this dispensation.
The Pearl of Great Price is a small collection of scriptural works both ancient and modern
And Latter Day Saints believe that their leaders, a prophet and twelve apostles, continue to speak the word and will of God today.
Like Sunday, today's service was directed more toward God and showing my dedication to Him.
I decided to read a chapter from every collection of scripture at my disposal and then to share my favorite scripture on Facebook with my friends.
The chapters I read:
Old Testament- Ecclesiastes 12
New Testament- John 9
Book of Mormon- Ether 11
Doctrine and Covenants- Section 76
Pearl of Great Price- Moses 2
Continuing Revelation- The Perfect Path to Happiness by Thomas S. Monson
I don't know why I chose the passages I did, and to be completely honest, not all of them enlightened me in great measure. But I felt like my growth wasn't so much from the words, but from the act itself of reading. I have finals coming up and I love Youtube and Netflix and Hulu, but today I was able to put God first. I was able to show that even if I wasn't on the edge of my seat with every word, I value the words of God.
I once heard the story of a rock climber. He was climbing with a friend on a very dangerous surface of the mountain. Their ropes were connected so that they could support one another in the climb. As this climber reached for the next hand hold his missed the mark and found himself falling. His partner dug his fingers into the cliff, causing his skin to tear and bleed profusely. He was able to hold on enough that the weight of his falling partner did not pull him off the cliff and they both survived and finished the climb. The first climber, the one who fell, questioned "What can I do to repay my friend? Would new climbing ropes be enough? No!" he exclaimed, "There is no way to repay him and he doesn't expect me to. The best thing I can do is to remember him."
So it is with our Father. We can serve him, but we can never repay Him. The greatest thing we can do is to remember Him and studying His word is a great way to do that.
That brings me to my favorite scripture:
Mark 10:26-27
26 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? 27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
I am amazed at the number of things we can do to help the sick. I chose to go with donating blood today. I'm blessed to be at a University filled with students who believe in God and strive to serve their fellow man. Today there were two blood drives on campus and both were very busy. I had to wait two hours to donate but finally got my turn. At the blood drive there were a couple guys with signs who were gathering photos to do a short video about the LDS Church's campaign and so I let them take my picture and asked them to take one on my phone as well.
I haven't donated blood in a long time because I thought that if I was going to let them take fluid from my body I might as well get paid for it and I started selling plasma. Today however I dug deep inside of me and decided that I could live just fine without that little bit of supplemental income. I'm glad I did because even though I had to wait two hours, there was a great spirit in the room as everyone selflessly served their fellow man. My sacrifice was not without rewards though! I got a nice can of apple juice and a bag of mini-Oreo's. Yum!
To show my gratitude for my Father in Heaven and to worship him, I did what I do every Sunday and I attended Church. Today was the first Sunday of the month which for Latter Day Saints means that the first hour of church is dedicated to sharing testimonies. Anyone can share and so to increase my worship of the Father I decided to share my testimony of the Gospel and the greatest gift he ever gave us, His son Jesus Christ.
However, I wanted to do something more than my weekly worship routine. My decision to go above and beyond began on Friday. I know that my church does not have a monopoly on good and so I decided to try and find the good in other faiths. I attended an event called "Meet the Muslims" at the Utah Islamic Center in Sandy, Utah. It was an amazing event and I learned so much about their faith, but what struck me most was their dedication to their personal relationship with God. They pray five times a day and truly believe that they can have direct communication with Allah and that is something that I would like to apply in my life.
I also reflected on my experiences with the Seventh Day Adventist faith which I learned a lot about during the spring of 2015. What I love most about that faith is their focus on music. I think hymns are a powerful way to worship God and they have a hymn book that consists of nearly 1000 hymns. It was an amazing example to me of worship through song and I hope that I can be more thoughtful during the hymns I sing at church.
I also had the amazing opportunity to call my dear friend Lizya. We talked about a lot of things but I wanted to hear her ways of worshiping God and I loved her answers. First she said that she finds time to spend with people with whom she can discuss matters of God, for example her mother. Then she said that to remember the creator, she likes to create. She worships God through her painting and art. I thought that was an amazingly profound answer and I hope to apply that principle in my life.
Lastly I opened it up to the Facebook community. I asked my friends to share with me how they worship God and I got a lot of amazing responses. Some include:
-Pray
-Study the scriptures
-Serve others
-Adopt a positive loving view towards God and not a feeling of fear
-Respect and admire our Heavenly Mother
-Share our testimony of Him and of the Gospel
-Count our blessings
-Make Him a priority in how we spend our time
Thank you so much to all those who helped me grow today. It was an awesome experience to try and go above and beyond my usual Sabbath worship and I hope to apply the things I learned today in my future worship practices.
I know that God has given me more than I can ever comprehend. It's impossible to repay Him, but just like a Christmas present for our parents, or a phone call expressing our love will never pay for all the food they bought us and all the money they spent on us, those things are appreciated by our parents and our efforts to worship God are appreciated by the perfect parent. We CAN serve Him, even if it will never come close to what He does and has done for us.
I hope we all seek to grow closer to our Father in Heaven.
Today for my service I subscribed with the "Be my eyes" app. It isn't available yet for android so my subscription means that I will be notified as soon as it is. I also shared the app on Facebook to encourage my friends with Apple phones to download it now! It's an awesome app that literally lets you help people see.
I also am so blessed to have the ability to be financially able to make some donations to charity. I signed up for a recurring donation for a year with Charity Vision. The program is 12/25 which is the date of Christmas so for Christmas they want as many people as possible to sign up for 12 months donating $25 a month. Why $25? Because a $25 donation is enough to perform 1 cataract surgery. They perform thousands of vision restoring surgeries in dozens of underdeveloped countries. I was able to attend a presentation at BYU by this charity and they are the real deal.
Today was exciting for me because I thought that any service would be metaphorical. Christ literally restored sight to the blind but I can't do anything that literal. I was wrong though. We literally can help restore sight to the blind. What an amazing time we live in.
I love our Savior and feel so honored to follow His example.
Today I was able to serve first by finding an old video of my Great Grandma Pearson talking about her love for her children and giving some great wisdom. A few pearls of wisdom she taught is the importance of hard work. She said that as long as we can take care of ourselves we ought to. She also talked about the blessing of sight. She was losing hers and said that we need to appreciate the beautiful things of the world. Lastly she shared her feelings that the most important thing we can do in life is gain knowledge because we can't take any material things with us into the next life, only gain knowledge. I was able to share this video with family and it was a blessing to honor her memory.
Secondly, I had the opportunity to skype with my parents! This is a particularly special blessing because my dad recently suffered a heart attack. It was very scary news but I was blessed that when I learned about it they already knew that everything would be okay. He is at home and resting and it was so great to talk to him and my mom. They are such wonderful parents who have been so supportive of me in everything I do and I'm so blessed to have been born into their family. I took a couple screen shots of our skype call, but none of them came out right so I have to use a picture where my mom's eyes are closed... Sorry mom! Haha
Today was the beginning of the #LIGHTtheWORLD campaign and it was a great day. I didn't do anything spectacular or over the top but I took the time to call a few really good friends that I haven't talked to as much as I would like and it was fun to catch up and let them know I care about them.
Also my ward (wards are Mormon congregations) organized a service auction where we offer services and then members of the ward bid on the services with canned food. It was an exciting evening and we had so much canned food it will be a great contribution to the food shelter. There were some great services offered as well! Everything from a nice talk about life over Frozen Yogurt to Violin lessons to a week of dish washing. It was a fun event where we were able to offer service to each other while serving those who are in need of food.
As finals approach I have felt a lot of stress but today as I strived to think of others a lot of the stress melted away. It's not gone! I still have my tests to prepare for, but taking some time to not think about yourself is maybe the best thing you can do for yourself. So if you're a generous person, go out and serve, and if your a selfish person, go out and serve. I promise that both groups will end up happy.
