Quick to Observe

So for work we got to read this talk by Elder Bednar entitled Quick to Observe. - First of all I just need to say that I love my job. What other job, anywhere, pays you to read amazing and inspiring talks and articles and reflect about them just to help you become a better student and mentor, and really just a better person? Answer: there's not one. I am a lucky duck.

Anywho, as I read this talk something really hit me. Elder Bednar told the story of a young man who was seriously dating a young woman and he wanted to marry her. It was at the time that the prophet asked young women to only have one pair of earrings. This young man waited for his girlfriend to follow the prophet's counsel and remove her second set of earrings but she never did. The issue of course wasn't the earrings; it was the fact that she had not followed a prophet of God when he gave a new commandment and the young man did not want to marry someone who was slow to observe the counsel of the prophets. 

"Wow" I thought. Do I follow the prophets' counsel that they give us in General Conference? Am I Quick to Observe what they tell me or do I forget what they say and fail to read the Ensign again when it comes out? I definitely do NOT want the latter to be true, so I committed to read the talks from Conference again and be really observant of what it is our prophets want me to be doing. 

          I want whoever I'm dating to notice that I am Quick to Observe the prophets' counsel, just as I'm going to be looking for that quality in a spouse as well. I am not perfect at following the prophets' counsel yet; I'm still working every day for the desire to change, the confidence to make decisions to do something differently, and the courage to act on my choices so I become something great. I want to marry someone who will work alongside me so we become something great together.

So what have the prophets counseled me to do lately? Today I'll tell you what I'm learning from President Monson...

President Monson's Sunday morning session address was called "The Holy Temple- a Beacon to the World". I was able to attend Conference for the first time ever this last April and this was the session I got to go to. So I heard President Monson give this talk in person - that was pretty powerful let me tell ya. What I remember most from this talk were the stories he told. He told of families who's whole life goal was to get to the temple. They worked, earned money, sacrificed buying nice things just so they could earn enough to take their families to the temple to be sealed. 

I just kept thinking, "what is my whole life's goal? I can tell you it's not going to the temple...but our temple is 3 minutes away!I need to go to the temple more often" So my desire changed, I made a goal to go to the temple every week for the whole summer, and I have done that. It has been the most amazing blessing for me. I have been blessed with peace, comfort, and the ability to get through every trial that has come up. I have been so happy the last two months and I have the spirit with me constantly; this is also because I've been reading the Book of Mormon and praying to Father in Heaven every day, but I've chosen to do those things because I have the spirit. I think that's just a big cycle - you make righteous choices; you feel the spirit. having the spirit makes you want to make more righteous choices, and you keep the spirit in your life. Fabulous.

I want my temple attendance to be a habit so that even when I get back into my crazy college semesters I will make time for the temple and the peace and happiness I know it will bring me. Thinking even farther into the future, when I get married, I want to go with my husband to the temple - another part of that growing together thing. Plus also I can't wait to be able to go to the temple for ordinances other than baptisms. I look forward to that day when I receive the endowment and then the day when I can be sealed for time and all eternity to my best friend. President Monson said, "Until you have entered the house of the Lord and have received all the blessings which await you there, you have not obtained everything the Church has to offer". Ok, I can make the temple a priority. 

So just one last thing before I go get ready for church... at the end of his talk that morning President Monson told the story of the ground breaking for the Rome, Italy temple: 

The day was overcast but warm, and although rain threatened, not more than a drop or two fell. As the magnificent choir sang in Italian the beautiful strains of  "The Spirit of God " one felt as though heaven and earth were joined in a glorious hymn of praise and gratitude to Almighty God. Tears could not be restrained.

The song following his remarks and closing the session was "The Spirit of God". I have never been in an auditorium that big with a choir that huge, nor felt so much of God's love coursing through the room as I did then. The music sang right to my soul and my tears could not be restrained. I didn't want to leave that building when it was over because I just wanted that feeling to last for ever and ever. It was absolutely amazing; I will never forget that day.