"Commitment is doing the thing you said you would do, long after the mood you said it in has left you." George R. Zalucki


Friday, November 12, 2010

The Lazarus Principle

Do you have a favorite zone conference topic or talk?
I taught institute earlier this week (it was awesome to be with a group of returned and prospective missionaries!)

I told them a little about the Lazarus principle. That was one of my favorites. My epiphany after my temple visit and just prior to speaking was that we should never ask for something unless we are already doing everything we can to make it happen. And sometimes, that's the answer to our prayer. Not that the thing is wrong, but that we aren't doing all in our power yet to make it happen. One thing I learned on our mission, I hope you did, too, is that we are capable of so much more than we think especially when we are pursuing the right course.

Know. Feel. Do!

Monday, November 8, 2010

AMM alum make the New Era conference cover!

Still working miracles!

And still the best missionaries in the world no matter where they're transplanted! 
Elder Jorgensen and Elder Miller formerly of the AMM and now serving as Assistants to the President in the New Mexico Farmington Mission. Look at those smiles. I love it!

When I was 14 or 15, I had a teacher that prided himself on being a thinker. We had some enlightening discussions in his classroom. He helped me ask some great questions that led to tremendous answers that still guide me today. We agreed on many things, but were at odds on a few. One of them was religion. I had a lot of respect for this man, but it amazed me that someone who claimed to be open minded was blind to just how closed minded he was when it came to God. He was always challenging my faith. He considered my beliefs to be a sign of my weakness. His claim was that unless it could be acknowledged by the 5 senses, there was no proof that God existed. I struggled as a young person to help him understand that he was limiting his understanding to what he had personally experienced, cutting himself off from other possibilities. The best that I could do was to try and help him understand how I knew; that things of the spirit could only be understood and perceived by the spirit. Years later, I still don't have a better answer to this one fundamental question, but I face the same dilemma. This blog is dedicated to preserving stories and experiences of missionaries in the Arizona Mesa Mission both during and after their formal missions. Some stories are fun and light hearted, but others are of a spiritual nature. The blog forum is so convenient, yet the format is limiting. There is more to these words than letters on a page. To truly understand the messages requires not only an open mind, but a soft heart.

After all, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, else what's a Heaven for?- Robert Browning"

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