Blessings and Nerves

So on Thursday night I got a phone call from President Johnson, our Stake President. I was a little surprised he was calling me, I mean he's an extremely nice person who has a similar conversion story as me. 

I answer the phone and he asks me how I'm doing and everything. Then he asks "Kristina, we have Stake Conference next Sunday on May 31st. And myself and Elder Kopischke (of the 1st quorum of the 70!) would like you to speak." 

I was shocked. Out of everyone in our Stake (which is huge), me? I thought of this scripture in 1 Corinthians 1. 

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

(1 Cor. 1:27) 

There was only one problem. My family was scheduled to leave for Key West on the 29th. I told President Johnson that I will have to check. I asked my parents if I could fly out late (and use my own money for the plane ticket). They said it should be fine. This is a HUGE honor to speak. And it was by assignment from Elder Kopischke. So I couldn't bring myself to say no. If this was the Lord wanting me to speak, I was going to speak. 

It turns out too that one of the missionaries that I know is going to be playing the violin at the same stake conference! She was supposed to already be home, but she got hurt and had to go home for a little while. (I got to see her while I was in Utah!) 

It's crazy how things work out like they're supposed to. 

Well, it's going to be the craziest thing preparing a talk for 400 people. They want me to speak on my story and what I learned from it. (I'll post my talk on here!) it's a blessing, but I'm going to be very nervous. I just have to pray. And I'm not worried because everything works out in Gods way. 

Family History Blessings

Welllll after about 2 weeks I finally got my church membership record number! It was so cool to log into my LDS account even though there's not really much else I can do (but hey, I can sync my scripture markings on my devices!) 

But then I got to add my church membership number to something even cooler...FAMILY SEARCH. 

I had already had a Family Search account for a few months, but it didn't show any of the temple work stuff on there (you know, you have to be a member to do that stuff). But all the ordinance work finally showed up. Needless to say I spent four hours on there... 

Then something even cooler happened. My great great grandmothers work HAD ALREADY BEEN DONE. I started crying. The thought of some of my family already accepting the ordinances of the gospel was incredible. It was a major blessing. 

1 Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

2 And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.

3 If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.

(D&C 2) 

5 ¶Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

(Malachi 4:5-6)

Faith or Works

Before we can understand how we are "saved" from our transgressions, we need to understand about Gods grace and what it means. 

When I think of the word grace, I think about the popular song and hymn "amazing grace" 

Some of the lyrics are "amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wrench like me." 

Being Gods loving grace, his sacrifice, his atonement for our sins. HE made it possible so that everyone can be raised up, and be made into something greater than we are now.

Through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repenting of our sins, we can receive assistance to do good works that we would otherwise not be able to maintain by our own means.

Grace is an enabling power that allows people to hold fast on eternal life after they have given there best efforts to keep their covenants and follow our savior Jesus Christ. 

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

(James 2:18-20) 

A great example upon how God's grace makes repentance possible, is expressed in Jesus' parable of the vine and branches. (see John 15:1-11) 

 

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: 

Not of works, least any man should boast. 

(Ephesians 2:8-9) 

This scripture in Ephesians 2 has brought unto me a lot of thought about how we are saved. Being born and raised in Alabama around many Protestant religions, most of them teach that if we accept Jesus Christ in our hearts we will be saved. 

This lead me to ask, then why are there commandments? Why did Jesus Christ ask us to "come follow me" and walk in the path of rightiousness and be good people if we could just accept him and move on? 

This is where I thought "works are the true way to discern the true followers of Christ, the ones who speak with there words they are of Christ, but there hearts and disires are far from him."

That's where I though how the three kingdoms of heaven make complete since. We are all raised up after death at the judgement day, and what glory we are placed in depends on our faith and how we accepted His gospel and followed him on earth. (See 1Corinthians 15:40-41) 

Being a disciple of Christ isn't just showing up to Church on Sunday, it's something you yearn to be all the time. Putting Christ first in everything. Really putting your faith in him and following him. That is truly accepting him.

Most likely we are going to make mistakes, that's when grace and faith come in, and we have the beautiful gift of repentance. True repentance isn't just telling God "I'm sorry", it's telling God "forgive me of my mistakes, I am going to try my hardest to do better." Repenting is progression, it's slowly trying to become more like your Father in Heaven. 

(lds.org) 

Works and Faith go together. You can't have one without the other. 

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

(Ephesians 4:4-7) 

Why a Temple?

The Holiness to The Lord

The House of The Lord

This verse is engraved on all of the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

It was actually written on the first temple, a moveable temple that the children of Israel carried during their travels through the wilderness. They went through all the trouble of carrying a temple, why? To receive inspiration and guidance from The Lord. The same reason temples are used In the restored church today. 

     (Salt Lake City, Utah Temple) 

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God" - D&C 88:119

Ancient Temples

From the beginning of time The Lord has declared to his people to build temples. 

The best know temple, mentioned in the Bible, was built in Jerusalem during the days of Soloman. This temple was destroyed in 587 B.C. but was rebuilt by Zerubbabel around 70 years later. This rebuilt temple was partially burned in 37 B.C. and was partially rebuilt by Herod the Great, the rebuilding continued in A.D. 64, but was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. 

Some people might think that the building of Temples seized with the coming of Jesus Christ, but by the temple being rebuilt after the coming of Christ we know that this was not the case. The adversary was strong in stopping the growth of a temple so close to after the ministry of Jesus Christ. 

      (Payson, Utah Temple - Under Construction) 

Why so many Temples?

The LDS church has 144 operating temples, 15 under construction, and 14 announced all over the world. The Jews recognize only one temple in Jerusalem. So that may lead people to ask, Why do we need and recognize so many temples as Houses of The Lord? 

Ancient Israelites needed only one temple at the time due to everything being geographically constricted. (You could now fit over 25 Israel's in the state of Alaska!) Now, due to growth in population and migration geographically all over the world it would be extremely difficult for members to go to one central location during there life to partake of these sacred temple ordinances. 

Incidentally, there were also other places of worship in Israel besides the Jerusalem Temple, though worship was centralized in that Temple. 

- Gideon's Shrine in the Easten Jezreel Valley (Judges 6:24-26) 

- Solomon's high place at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:2-5) 

- Elijah's altar on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:30) 

Today there are temples all the way from Utah, to Birmingham Alabama, to Johannesberg South Africa, and even Hong Kong!) 

Baptisms for the Dead

Baptisms for the Dead are one of the ordinances of the gospel performed in The Lords holy temples.

Baptisms for the dead were not performed in the Jerusalem Temple, nor were any ordinances for the dead because Jesus Christ had not organized that work. Not until his visit to the spirit world between his death and resurrection (1 Peter 3:18-19, D&C 138). Baptisms for the dead were mentioned only after Christs resurrection (1 Corintians 15:29). 

I had the blessing of going to the temple to do Baptisms for the Dead a couple of weeks ago. I somewhat knew what to expect, because this is a simple ordinance that I had already partaken of when I received my own baptism. There was just one difference. I went to the House of The Lord to do them for people who did not have the oppourtunity to do them while on this earth. 

It was an incredible experience. With every baptism I could feel the spirit so strong, and it felt a little different. I was acting as an agent for the exhaltation of another persons immortal soul. In the temple, all the things of the world just seem to leave your mind and you can only focus on happy, spiritual things. I encourage everyone who can to go to experience this for yourself, and to gain a testimony of the temple and of the powers within. 

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

(John 3:5) 

Me.

I guess I should start this out with a little about myself. I'm Kristina, I'm 18 years old and I'm from and currently live in Alabama. And I'm a Mormon. 

I converted to the church a few weeks ago actually. One of the craziest steps I've ever taken in my life, but it's the best thing I've ever done and the best thing I will ever do. 

Growing up I never made the best decisions. I had some problems making friends (mostly because I was that mean). As I hit my early teenage years I started having a lot of depression, gained weight and was seriously unhappy. Once I hit High School things started getting a little better, and I was getting better. 

I was in Jazz Band (and something you've gotta know about me is I'm a musician! I play the saxophone) and there was this kid who annoyed me so much, he was pretty good (though I would NEVER admit that!) What's interesting is that I never knew why I was so mean to this kid, I thought I was mostly happy all the time. His name is Daniel. 

I eventually found out Daniel was Mormon. I thought it was rather "mystical" and started asking him the craziest questions about it. Growing up a Catholic in a very Protestant part of the country I found religion interesting, but rather annoying and I never really thought about it. 

I asked him about G's and if they pray to Joseph Smith and all these insane questions. He mostly blew me off because he thought I was kidding but I was dead serious! I looked up more about it online and it lead to some rather crazy stuff. 

Well a few months later I found myself at the Jazz Educators Network concert in Dallas, Texas. Daniels father was a chaperone. I found this as a great opportunity to completely embarrass Daniel in front of his dad, and started asking him questions about the church. It was kind of funny because I got to her the Brigham Young University Synthesis Jazz Band play too - it was really good! 

A few weeks later I found myself sitting at home during a week off school due to snow storms, I went on Mormon.org and started watching Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration and a few other movies and "Mormon Messages." I don't even know why I started doing that, but I became so fascinated with it. 

That week I sent a text to Daniel saying "Hey, could I come to church with you?" You could say he was surprised. He was like "are you sure you want to come?" Haha really funny. So leading up to that Sunday was crazy because he actually didn't believe I was coming to church. On Sunday he sent me tons of texts like "are you seriously coming" and "do you know where this place is?" 

Now coming from a Catholic we normally get to church like 10 minutes early to pray and stuff, but little did I know Mormons are on there own time system (MDT) - Mormon Standard Time. Which means the entire congregation shows up 3 minutes before church actually starts. 

When I walked into church I saw these two dudes with name badges on and thought "oh hey, they must work for the church." I walked in the chapel and there were about two people there...I thought Daniel was already there...nope. I asked the guys with the name badges on "Is Daniel here?" One of them said "Yeah I think Brother ... is here." I thought "oh my gosh, he's like ordained?!" Haha. 

In walked Daniels father who said "Kristina, what are you doing here?" I was going to kill Daniel. He didn't even tell his own father I was coming?! I was so embarrassed/ angry at him. We went in and sat down and I had him explain the whole brother/sister thing to me, I looked back and saw a woman who I work out with every morning at CrossFit, Lauren. I told Daniels dad "oh, I know her." He was a little surprised. 

It turns out Lauren was called as Young Women's President just weeks earlier. Crazy, because at the time I was 16, just about to turn 17. Turns out she joined the Church when she turned 18 and didn't have the easiest time with that either.

That Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting (for those of you who don't know what that is it's when members fast for 2 meals and the time during sacrament meeting members of the congregation are invited to bear their testimony of the gospel!) Daniel leaned over and told me "people might start crying, so don't be freaked out." You can say that weirded me out a little. But it probably was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. I felt this feeling, and at the time I didn't know what exactly it was, but I had to find out more. 

I asked Daniel for a Book of Mormon afterwards, being very interested in what it said. I wanted to know everything about this religion. 

I kept reading, and it came to a point where I would spend hours studying the Book of Mormon and things online about it. I also became highly fascinated with temples, I wanted to go inside so bad, but when I found out I couldn't I was a little upset. 

About a week later I met with the missionaries, and we had an interesting lesson. I knew almost everything they were saying and it was like I already knew this doctrine, they were just reminding me of it. I decided to take upon myself to pray to know if it was true. 

A few days later I got my answer. I can't really describe how I felt, but it was just an overflow of emotion, something I definitely didn't feel often. I knew it was true. And I never in my life thought this would happen, but I knew I was meant to be a Mormon. 

Things got really challenging after that. It was like the things of the world were going against me. My parents wouldn't let me get baptized. It took every ounce of courage in my body to tell my father, and when I did things got really bad. I had to sneak out to go to church, had constant fighting about church doctrine, and they were very disappointed in me. 

What got me through it was faith. It was knowing this was Gods will and this is what made me happy. These people made me happy. The happiness that came from the church is something that couldn't come from this world, but from the power on high.  

And about year later, on April 11, 2015, after numerous trials of my faith, I was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

Throughout my journey I would ask myself "If this is true than why isn't this happening now?" And the answer was simple. Heavenly Father has prepared a way. It isn't always how you want it to go, or even how you expect it to go, it's wayyyy better than anything you can ever expect. Through my trails and waiting of becoming a member I learned so many things I would have never learned otherwise.

I learned patience, faith, prayer, the power of the atonement, the power to be forgiven. I learned how important the scriptures are, and the power that comes from them. I learned to NEVER take the gospel for granted. I needed that wisdom, and Heavenly Father provided that (just not in the way I expected.) 

This is the way, the truth, and the light.