"Where do I seek satisfaction?"

Hello blogging friends! Blogging and college-ing at the same time is really hard! I just had my busiest week of the semester so far and it feels REALLY good to have a weekend to relax. Tonight I got to see one of my sister missionaries who went home in December! She came back to visit cuz one of her investigators is getting baptized tomorrow :) It's super exciting - the third convert baptism we've had since mine in November. Wow :)

Anywho, so my post tonight is about where we find our satisfaction in life.

#collegebound, and History Trek

This whole being an adult thing isn't working out for me, guys. If we could go back in time one year so I could have my senior year back, that would be great! :)

Pioneers

D'you know how, in the scriptures, they're always like "remember how the Lord brought our fathers out of captivity," "remember the captivity of our fathers," etc?

I was reading Alma 29 the other night, and came across these verses:

11 Yea, and I also remember the captivity of my fathers; for I surely do know that the Lord did deliver them out of bondage, and by this did establish his church; yea, the Lord God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did deliver them out of bondage.
12 Yea, I have always remembered the captivity of my fathers; and that same God who delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians did deliver them out of bondage.

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

Tutoring at midnight

I am exhausted and I really need to get up on time tomorrow, so this is gonna be short, but on Twitter this morning I promised you guys a post. So here it is :)

I'm up super late tonight cuz I was helping my sister with her math homework. Her class is learning the same concept as my Calc II class, but she's seeing it for the first time, whereas we're expanding on things we've seen before. My sister is struggling with the concept. I feel like I finally understand it at the level her class requires, but I'm drowning in the new material I'm supposed to learn. 

Kintsukuroi: a method of repairing pottery and people

The other day, I was listening to a conference talk from October 2013, cuz I have some old talks saved on my iPod and I hadn't yet had a chance to download the new ones (PS I've since downloaded them, just haven't had time to listen to  any of them).

Called of Him to Declare His Word, Elder Randy D. Funk

This talk is all about missionary service, but that's not really the point that hit me.

We are broken so that Heavenly Father can heal us to be stronger than we were before.

Productivity, patience, and also a mini spaz attack.

I was reading the April issue of  New Era trying to find a good topic for a new blog post, and listening to the EFY 2013 CD on YouTube, when this song came on. It's called The Girl I Am and it's exactly what I needed to hear today.

I have a testimony of putting God first

Today, the topic is putting Heavenly Father first in all that we do.

I'm involved in this fundraiser. It's a fashion show, and the entry fee for a design is $250. It's due April 24. I just started planning fundraisers this past week, which was my spring break. I didn't think we could possibly raise that amount in such a short amount of time.

We need our Heavenly Father

Image source

 I super like this image. I found it on the blog Pocketful of Sunshine, by a missionary named Kelsie. She's not posting while on her mission, but she has a ton of old posts I plan to go back and read :)

I find "Sinday," "Tearsday," and "Shatterday" especially applicable. Wait, applicable isn't the right word. They resonate with my conscience? Now that sounds all English-class-analysis-with-some-Zen-like-qualities. 

Anywho.

Puzzle Pieces

Have you ever heard someone compare life to a puzzle?

Each person is like a puzzle piece. We all run around trying to figure out where we fit. But we, as tiny human beings, can't see or comprehend the big picture. It's like trying to understand the entire universe - we're just not big enough; we don't have that kind of mental capacity.

So if we can't see the big picture, how on Earth are we supposed to find where we fit?? If we can only see a couple of pieces at a time, how would we know if we fit in that place or if we need to move to a different part of the puzzle? What if we are in the right place and we can't tell because there aren't enough pieces around us?

Think of putting a puzzle together. If you get all the edge pieces connected, can you guess where that one middle piece goes? Maybe. Now zoom in to where you can't see any of the edge pieces. Pretty much impossible to get that one little piece in the right spot when you have no reference points.

Oh, if only we had the picture on the box to look at....! But didn't we just establish that we're too small to understand that picture?

Guess what? Life is like a puzzle, and only God can see the picture on the box. Oh thank goodness. If He can see the box, His perfect master plan, then we can rely on His guidance to get us to the right place in the puzzle of life.

Image source

<3 Marie-Rose