How do you "Christmas season"?

Have you ever been on LDS SMILE? It's pretty snazzy. Sometimes it's spiritual, sometimes it's funny, and occasionally it's weird but that's okay.

Anywho, so one of their posts came up on my Facebook newsfeed this morning, and it's awesome, so I feel the need to write my own post about it. Disclaimer: I borrow liberally from their content and ideas here. All credit for this post pretty much goes to LDS SMILE. And some to my Relief Society president.

!!!!!!! THERE IS NOW A BAPTISM DATE !!!!!!!!

Tonight, I had the opportunity to meet with the sister missionaries. They're pretty much the best. We've been meeting weekly since I've been here at college. And tonight was one of the most amazing spiritual experiences I've ever had.

Patience, grasshopper

Today was my first missionary discussion :D

I'm 18 now, I've finished my senior year of high school (no more homework!!!) and I'm super excited to be taking steps towards finally getting baptized!!!

The discussion was amazing. The Elders told me a little about themselves, and I shared my conversion story (well, the events thus far, anyway, as I obviously haven't been baptized so it isn't quite official). We talked about my parents' thoughts on me joining the church (more on that later). One of them said he felt impressed that we would receive revelation as to how to help my parents feel more comfortable with my conversion. They asked me how I think of God; I said as a loving, Fatherly figure who cares about us. We read some scriptures and talked about the Restoration. My goodness, the Spirit was strong. And also, I learned that I need to have patience.

So maybe I can't get baptized June 14 because my dad needs time to ask questions and come to terms with what this all means. A couple of my friends might miss my baptism, but it's more important that my dad is happy and comfortable with my choice. I really don't want to wait, but I've known for two years that Heavenly Father is trying to teach me patience. Maybe I haven't quite learned enough yet :)

Know this: right now, I am just as serious about getting baptized as I was June 12, 2012, when I was prompted to make my choice. I know that this is the right path for me to follow. I'm not doing this because my friends are members. I'm not getting baptized to make people happy.

I want to get baptized because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's true Church. I want to get baptized because we are to follow Christ's example. I want to get baptized because I know with all my heart that Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost prompted me to choose this path. Baptism symbolizes beginning a new life, but that doesn't change my personality. It barely changes my standards, because I've been trying to live LDS standards for two years now, maybe even a little more. It might change how I spend my Sundays, but that's certainly a good change. "By their fruits ye shall know them," and attending church will certainly bring forth good fruit in my life.

LDS readers, I want you to think back to your baptism. Why did you want to get baptized then? If you were a convert preparing for baptism right now, what reason would you give for wanting to get baptized? How has your testimony grown by attending church since you were baptized? Please share in the comments, I would love to hear your experiences :)

<3 Marie-Rose

CTR rings are my favorite

I love my CTR rings. I wrote another blog post about them here.

Soo I wanted to learn a little bit about their history :)

Self-Adornment

We are counseled to treat our bodies as temples. We are advised to refrain from getting tattoos, getting multiple piercings, or dressing immodestly.

But this isn't a modesty post.

D'you know what it means to me that my body is a temple? It means that I am Heavenly Father's daughter, and no Earthly force is allowed to control my life.

So you could say that dressing immodestly is one way the world tries to control us. But I'm gonna focus on something else.

I have three pieces of jewelry that I wear almost 24/7. Two are CTR rings, and the third is an anklet I made recently. They're my way of claiming myself as my own. I don't wear them to draw attention. I don't wear them as a replacement for tattoos etc because I "can't" have those things. I make the choice not to have those things and my jewelry is totally unrelated.

Sidenote: For the record, even if I had never become a Mormon, I would NEVER have gotten a tattoo simply because I'm scared it would hurt. I don't do needles and I don't do pain. And multiple piercings, same reason (I do have a single set of earrings, but those are fine. By multiple piercings I mean having more than the normal standard one in each ear). Now I just have even more reasons to stay away from those things.

I wear my rings and my anklet because they have great meaning to me. I could go all English class on you and interpret each one as a symbol, but I always hated English class and these symbols aren't something you can assign a fixed meaning to. No, they represent something difficult to put into words. They're my testimony, my conversion, my struggles, my triumphs, my life. And with these inconspicuous pieces of jewelry, I claim myself before the world can claim me. 

Sorry, my iPod camera is terrible quality :P but these are my rings!

I belong to my Heavenly Father, and He has given me this life on Earth to learn and grow and be "in the world but not of the world." That's what my jewelry means to me :)

<3 Marie-Rose