Going to Sleep and Other Adventures

Last night, I was laying on my air mattress bed at my cousins house; I am staying with them until my friend's wedding. I was trying to fall asleep. It just wasn't going to happen. So I just started thinking... and thinking and thinking. I am turning 20 this year. I am going to be two decades old. A lot has changed in 20 years. I am gonna go out on a limb and guess even more will change. Some of it I see being for the better. I realized last night that with almost twenty years under my belt. I don't have a ton of experience but I have enough to get by. I have adventured and traveled more than most people my age, which I am grateful for. I think it has made me into a more understanding person. I have been able to meet people and to learn from what they have told me. The national average age of deal for women is 78.2, that means I am 25.5754% through my life. If I happen to live an average life span I get 58 years left on this Earth. I am so excited to be able to learn and see where I end up. It is just crazy to me to think that I only get almost 60 years.  I know people who are 60 years old. And to think I have that much time left just kind of blew my mind. I strongly think that life is short. We have so much to learn. We never know when our time will be over. Today, when I found out about the bombing at the Boston Marathon, I was shocked. I was sad someone thought that it was a good group of people to go after. I think no one has the right to end another person's life; even if I think they really do deserve it. I hope Boston becomes safe again. I am really glad so few people died. Everyone needs to be careful, we have gotten a little to complacent.
Stay Safe!

Sara

This is what I Believe

       In my church, The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint, we have general broad casts every Spring and Fall. And I felt really inspired to share what I believe. I know Jesus Christ came to this world and lived the perfect life and died for all of us, for you and for me.  I know that His sacrifice was for every sin I will commit. I feel his love and compassion when I serve other people. Whenever I am feeling low that I can turn to Christ and through small acts of charity I can come closer to him. I know that the Church was restored and that Joseph Smith was the person who had the blessing of assisting is restoring the truth. I know it didn’t have to be him. In a letter from Joseph Smith it says “Our missionaries are going forth to different nations . . . the Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” God could have chosen anyone to do His work, but Joseph Smith was the one who approached God and was willing and prepared to lead in the work. We all can be tools for God’s work if we are prepared.

     All things that we do should be to bring forth the plan of God. I know that we should try and love as purely as we can. God loves us all equally and individually. He loves all of the things that are unique or odd about each of us. I know He created me in His image. He made me the way I am on purpose. He thought this is the most beautiful version of who I can be while still in my human, accident prone state.

     Through the atonement that I can live with God the Father of my spirit; and because of that I can have the blessing of being with my family forever. If I live righteously I will get to be with my family. I cannot think of a greater blessing.

      Every challenge I have been given whether physical, emotional or mental has made me grow into the person I am now. I am actually really grateful that I am being pushed into being better. I am way more understanding and forgiving because of what I have been through. I know that in this life I will continue to be challenged and that I can become an even more Christ-like loving person. God has a plan for each one of us and if we let Him guide us and follow in His way we can go to places that we never thought were possible; become a person we didn’t know we could become.

       We need to endure to the very end. Every time things start getting hard there is a part of us, as humans, who want to give up. Every time we start thinking that way there is a little voice in our heads that says just keep trying. That voice is the Holy Spirit pleading with us to use our agency or ability to choose to pick ourselves up and try one last time. I know God doesn’t let anything happen to us that He knows we can’t handle. 

       We need to just let ourselves be the best we can be. 

This is what I believe.