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.

I love seminary

Seminary is my favorite. Yesterday I had the opportunity to go for the 5th time this school year. It made me happy.

We talked a lot about missionary moments and warm fuzzies :) Makes me want to get a bunch of BOMs to carry around with me everywhere. I love hearing what my classmates (and teacher) are doing to spread the gospel. It reminds me of myself as an investigator. I had many much "I can relate" moments that morning :)

Then we moved on to discuss Mosiah 25. To be quite honest, I was totally lost. I guess it helps to go to class every day, d'you think??

I really liked how we talked about being happy and sad at the same time. 

Mosiah 25:7-11

7 And now, when Mosiah had made an end of reading the records, his people who tarried in the land were struck with wonder and amazement.

8 For they knew not what to think; for when they beheld those that had been delivered out of bondage they were filled with exceedingly great joy.

9 And again, when they thought of their brethren who had been slain by the Lamanites they were filled with sorrow, and even shed many tears of sorrow.

10 And again, when they thought of the immediate goodness of God, and his power in delivering Alma and his brethren out of the hands of the Lamanites and of bondage, they did raise their voices and give thanks to God.

11 And again, when they thought upon the Lamanites, who were their brethren, of their sinful and polluted state, they were filled with pain and anguish for the welfare of their souls.

See? Being happy and sad at the same time. Some examples were shared, as well. One that struck me was from church history, when they had to leave Nauvoo, right after they had finished the temple. They were happy to have finished, but sad to be leaving their awesome temple that they had worked so hard to finish. 

For me, an example of being happy and sad at the same time can be found in the fact that I went to seminary yesterday. I was so happy to be able to go, but at the same time sad because it was only the 5th time I've gone all school year. Ridiculousness, I'm telling you. 

Some questions our teacher asked us were, "how's your revelation coming? Do you recognize the Spirit's influence?" I realized I need to work on those things. I'll have days or even weeks when I feel the Spirit regularly, but then life happens and I forget to be listening for His promptings. 

Anywho. So basically, I love seminary and I really wish I could go more often. Especially cuz it's the Book of Mormon. I grew up learning about the Bible (even though it wasn't the best Bible education ever....), but I don't know the BOM as well as I would like to. Having read it three times kind of helps, but there are confusing parts that I still don't quite get. 

Go to seminary, people! It's an amazing opportunity, and you don't wanna waste it :) 

<3 Marie-Rose

General Conference

I was unable to watch general conference over the weekend. It was super sad. My aunt was in town (we never get to see her, she lives super far away), and she's my mom's sister (my mom's side of the family being strongly Catholic), so I didn't want to make waves by asking to go to a friend's house to watch conference. Plus it was homecoming weekend and I had waay too much homework to do and my parents wanted to do family stuff with my aunt......... *sigh* Life. So therefore I couldn't watch conference. (don't get me wrong, seeing my aunt and family stuff and all that jazz was awesome. But still)

So I downloaded audio podcast versions of conference talks on my iPod.

I haven't quite figured out the formatting of the podcast app yet (apparently Apple did some weird thing where they took podcasts out of the music app? And reviews of the Apple podcast app are terrible, so I got some other app. Anywho). But I kinda sorta know how to pick a talk and get it to play. I can't tell which ones go with which session or in what order and it drives me crazy, but that's okay. I turn the volume all the way up on my iPod speakers (I drive a super old car and dunno how to connect my iPod to the car's speakers) and listen to the talks that way on the way to school. It's not quite as loud as I like, and I miss stuff cuz of that (plus driving safely is a little more important in that moment than concentrating 100% on what the speaker is saying), but it leaves me in a good mood.

Which is like my substitute for seminary, seeing as how I can't do that, either (can you tell I'm frustrated with all this stuff I can't do?). Anywho.

So I really like the idea of having access to conference talks on my iPod. Even if I'd been able to watch, I still woulda downloaded them anyway. Cuz there's always those days when you need to go back and remember how awesome conference is. It's a long six months between conferences. And with the holiday season, I'm willing to bet that a lot of us will take some sort of car trip. I know my family will. Twelve hours in the car with my sisters? Yeah, not fun. So I "listen to music" *cough*conference*cough* and that helps a lot. (They don't know I'm converting. That would be awkward. So I just try not to let church come up in conversation....)

Even if you don't take a long car trip, I'm sure you could find a time when it's useful to have access to the words of the Prophet and general authorities. In the words of my speech teacher, the spoken word "goes out, and then falls" (or something to that effect, I can't quote her exactly). But if you listen to it over and over, you can remember it! You ever have that feeling when you're reading the scriptures and you recognize a passage because someone used it in conference? I have. I hear it in their voice, too. It's pretty awesome.

<3 Marie-Rose

Seminary

You might think I'm crazy. And maybe I am. But today I got to go to seminary and I was SUPER excited.

I rarely get to go to seminary. My parents aren't Mormon. I wasn't raised Mormon (convert, remember?). So at my house, sleep and homework comes before seminary. Always. Except today! One of my best friends is moving out of state soon. She asked me if I could come to seminary one more time before she goes. With my work schedule and my sleep schedule and my school schedule, today was the best day for me. So I went!! :D

I absolutely love our teacher. She's so full of energy. She's decided to focus on the scriptures majorly this year, to prepare us for missions. So we talked about the plates that the Book of Mormon came from. She showed a cheesy little video that really explained it well. There's a bunch of different plates, most of them abridged by Mormon and Moroni.

Anywho.

After class, I stuck around to chat with her a little bit, cuz I can't come to class every day. She told me how much she loves it when I can come, and how the class loves it too. She actually remembers that one time when I was 14 or so, when my Catholic religion teacher was doing a unit on other religions and got the Mormonism bit wrong and I corrected her! I've been asking questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints since I was in 7th grade. In 9th grade is when my Catholic religion teacher gave us incorrect information. So my current seminary teacher was pretty impressed that I'd actually stood up for the church, before I'd even decided to become a member.

So seminary kinda made my day :) not only cuz of chatting with my teacher after, but cuz I felt the Spirit during the lesson. We spent much time pointing out why it's obvious that Joseph Smith didn't write the Book of Mormon, he HAD to have translated it, and he HAD to have had help from the Spirit.

I know, deep in my heart, that this church is true.

And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen :)