I Have a Testimony of General Conference

General Conference is my favorite thing. I remember the first time I'd heard about it, I wondered why my friends would spend an entire weekend listening to churchy stuff. But now I totally get it :)

Guest Post: Letter to a new convert

Happy New Year's Eve! Tonight I have a snazzy guest post for you guys :) WhitneySue over at Feel My Sunlight has been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints her whole life and I super love her blog.

Recently, she had this brilliant guest post idea that we write letters to each other. Her letter is titled "Letter to a New Convert," and mine is "Letter From a New Convert," posted over at her blog (see it here!). When she emailed me to tell me about her idea, she said it would be awesome to see different perspectives on being part of the LDS church. She's been a member her whole life, but admits that sometimes life-long members can take the church for granted - talking to new converts helps remind her of why she "first fell in love with the gospel" :)

On the other hand, life-long members can have valuable insights to share with new converts, plus reading her testimony is pretty amazing. Enjoy, and be sure to check out her blog with my post! :D

<3 Marie-Rose

My baptism

So, as promised, here's how my baptism went :) Be warned, this post got kinda long...

!!!!!!! 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.

Guest Post by Mikayla: A Conversion Story

Hey guys, so I don't remember if I mentioned this, but a while back I had a reader contact me wanting to talk about the church. She had been attending church for like 6 months, but due to the lack of a ride and her job she had to quit going. She had questions about some things, like the Word of Wisdom, but she was pretty sure the church was mostly true. We sent emails back and forth a lot, and eventually added each other on Facebook and exchanged phone numbers. She just got baptized last Saturday the 13th, and I am SO happy for her. I asked her to write a guest post, and here it is :)

<3 Marie-Rose

Making progress

Guess what! I'm at college now! Three weeks of classes under my belt, and I'm really liking it here. Especially the whole I-can-go-to-church-whenever-I-want part :D I'm attending YSA activities, I did (almost) a full fast for the first time on Fast Sunday (still had water, but I get dehydrated easily and that leads to massive headaches. Also, fasting in general used to lead to massive headaches. Last Sunday, though, I was fine!!), and testimony meeting was awesome.

#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! :)

I have a testimony: Beauty in familiarity

Sometimes, it's fun to do the new and exciting. Sometimes, you want to rearrange your room or cut and dye your hair or buy a new outfit that's totally different from your usual style. Sometimes, you can't wait to move on to the next stage in your life and have new experiences with new friends.

And sometimes.....you don't. (Well no duh, Marie-Rose, we knew that)

I have a testimony of the Atonement and Resurrection

The other day in mass, the priest told a joke to open his homily (this is a common way to begin, actually). It went something like this:

So on the 3rd day, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found it empty.

John 20:11-17
11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

(at this point, no one suspects a joke, because it was the Sunday after Easter and it makes total sense to discuss this subject)

Guest Post: Katie's Talk

As promised, Katie's talk from Stake Conference :)

Good evening; I am Katie from the (location withheld) 5^th ward. I am 18, the middle of five children, and my parents were converted into the church after having my two older siblings. This gave me the great blessing of growing up in the church, though we haven't always gone to church consistently. My younger sister is disabled and has to have one of our parents home with her almost all the time. Furthermore, she doesn't have a working immune system, so we can't bring her to church with us. Because of this, only one of my parents can attend church every week with us kids. But, my mom is also a nurse, so when she worked Sundays, us kids would have to be dropped off by ourselves at church. Because I wasn't comfortable being at church without my parents, I often didn't go. Because I wasn't at church often, I didn't know a whole lot about the doctrines. I knew the basics and believed what I had heard, but I felt like I was missing a lot of the knowledge that my friends had.

I have a testimony of fasting and prayer

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend Stake Conference for the first time ever. Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so I didn't think my parents would let me come. BUT my neighbor, seminary class, and various leaders prayed and fasted that I would be able to go.

Friday night, my dad told me I wasn't allowed to go. I was majorly disappointed, especially cuz Katie would be speaking. More specifically, she had been asked to speak about her work as a member missionary, being involved in both my conversion and the conversion of another friend (whom I call BatMoose on the internet). (PS I've asked Katie to email me her talk so I can put it up as a guest post for you guys!)

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.

New series: I have a testimony of (insert here)

​As I mentioned in this post, I'm starting a new series. It's called "I have a testimony of (insert here)" and I will be posting whenever I think of a new topic to post on. I know I would fail at doing a once-a-week type series, so I'm not gonna even try. And I might repeat topics every once in a while; bear with me :)

I love springtime!

Today, I had the opportunity to attend one hour of church. Due to the timing of various other things that happened today, the only hour I could go to was Sunday School. Typically, if I can only go for an hour, I choose sacrament meeting or Young Women's, but this time I didn't really have a choice.

When I arrived at the church, sacrament meeting was still in progress, so I awkwardly stood out in the lobby. I didn't want to walk into the chapel (please tell me that's what it's called...) cuz then my friends would see me and my being there would no longer be a surprise. So I stood there waiting.

Testimony

Image source

First of all, credit goes to WhitneySue from Feel my Sunlight for this post idea. I kinda copycat-ed her post :)

Secondly, click "Image source" for the Facebook post about the picture/Temple. This picture is gorgeous. I love it.

Thirdly, my thoughts :)

Prayer

So today has been all about prayer for me. I went to both mass and church, and prayer came up a lot.

In mass, I don't remember the topic of the priest's homily, but I do remember one specific thing he said. When he was in priest school (actually called seminary, but it's more like legit college than it is like early morning seminary), he felt like he was really bad at praying. So he told one of the instructor-type people; he felt like he couldn't keep doing the whole priest thing. Okay, maybe it wasn't that extreme (I forget, cuz this was before 10am and it's been a long time since then), but he was pretty discouraged. And d'you know what he was told? "Just keep showing up." The quality doesn't matter, just what's in your heart. That really hit me. Cuz I feel like I'm absolutely terrible at praying.

So like a fake-it-till-you-make-it approach? Not faking feelings or thoughts or whatever, but the act of praying. Just do it. Just pray however you know how. We'll come back to that.

Then I got to go to church! For the second week in a row! That never happens. I went literally once in 2013. My friend Sarah gave an amazing talk on how we are children of God. Then a lady that I don't know gave a talk on following Christ's example. And then a guy I don't know gave a talk on that feeling where you just can't keep your head above water, and used a real-life story about a kayaking accident where a guy did actually get stuck underwater and his friends had to pull him out. He compared that to how we are saved. No matter how much we think we will always make good choices, we will all sin sometimes. And we need the Atonement to save us.

The second hour of church, which I think is called Sunday school but someone please tell me if I'm right, we talked about knowing who God is. We as Mormons know that He has a body. He's not just some random cloud. He's a Being. We look like Him. We know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are all one in purpose but separate in being. We know that They know each of us personally. The guy teaching us had us go find scriptures that tell us something about God. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find anything, but I did! 3 Nephi 9:21 "Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin." He is our Savior.

We also discussed beliefs about God that other Christian churches have that are different from ours. One of the guys sitting behind me brought up the Trinity. I was proud of him cuz he correctly identified it as a belief of the Catholic church and defined it as the belief that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in being, not just in purpose. Then the guy teaching us pointed us to some scriptures that seem to support the Trinity. So we talked about how being "one" can mean one in purpose, not being, and how Heavenly Father trusts Christ so much that He lets Him act for Him.

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Then in YW we talked about how we can know Heavenly Father better. Prayer was a big part of it. See, there it is again! And also Sarah gave me the option to say the closing prayer for the second week in a row, but I chickened out. Next time, I think I'll probably do it :)

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Anywho. So the lesson. The lady teaching us (what is the proper term for these people?? Are they teachers, or leaders, or what??) had three things: a flashlight, a map, as a cell phone. Object lessons. The flashlight represents the Spirit, the map represents the scriptures, and the phone represents prayer.

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One thing Abby, another one of my awesome friends, said when we were discussing prayer was the fake-it-till-you-make-it approach! I told you we would come back to that! We can't suddenly magically have a perfect relationship with Heavenly Father. It takes some work and some praying and some scripture reading and some missionary moments and some service and some faith. But you'll get there. And I'll get there. And it shall be awesome :)

<3 Marie-Rose

PS oh and I almost forgot!! Abby also said that we often see prayer as a chore, something we have to do before we can eat or go to bed. But really, it's a gift from God. The gift of being able to directly communicate with Him! And isn't it considered polite to use gifts you have been given, to show your appreciation? Even that ugly sweater you got for Christmas, you gotta wear it once, just so the person who gave it to you feels like you appreciated it. Now, on a scale of ugly sweater to iPhone, how often should you use the gift of prayer? I would answer "constantly" :)

Eternal Awesomeness

I know I've done a post like this before. But I'm just so excited, guys. This is some exciting stuff. 

Six. Months. From. Today. 

Oookkaaayyy, but Marie-Rose, what's so special about June 14?? 

I wanna be baptized that day, that's what's special about it!! 

SIX MONTHS!!!!! That's so very crazy close!! And super exciting! 

It doesn't feel real yet. It probably won't feel real for a very long time. Sometimes I feel like I'm waiting for a possibility rather than a certainty. Like an "I might be able to get baptized" rather than an "I WILL GET BAPTIZED." I still WANT to either way. But oftentimes I'm scared that something will prevent it. Which is totally irrational, cuz I will be 18 and I can't think of anything that could stop it. But ya know how, whenever you want something SOOO much, it seems like it always falls through? I'm terrified of that. 

Because I want to be baptized more than I've ever wanted anything. 

Earthly desires are one thing. But baptism is important. It means something eternally. And I want that eternal awesomeness. I want the Holy Ghost to be with me, I want to be worthy to have Him with me, and I want to be baptized. 

<3 Marie-Rose

Ps I saw Batmoose today and it MADE MY DAY. I hope you still read this, Batmoose :) <3 I got you a Christmas present. Hopefully I see you on Thursday. I love you! 

The Power of Member Missionaries

I have a testimony of the power of member missionaries. Those of you who are out there, trying to share your beliefs with the non-members around you -- some of them just don't listen, and it's frustrating, isn't it?

Guess what?

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I'm proof that what you do isn't worthless. I have an amazing group of friends who were willing to share their faith with me, and they let me share mine in return, and here I am setting my baptism date.

Ya know what the one requirement is in all of this? Patience. Actually, I lied, there's a second one. Kindness.

Patience means that some people take years to start thinking maybe the LDS faith is for them. It took me at least three years, I think, if I'm doing my math right.

Kindness means that you never push people to believe as you do. It means that you ask questions about what they believe. It means that you accept that some people will never change their minds. It means that you be a friend to everyone, regardless of their religion. It means tolerance, and even more importantly, acceptance. If you come across as pushy and aloof, no one will listen to you. Yes, we believe that the Mormon faith is the one true Church on earth. No, we do not force others to accept this as fact.

Think of it this way.

I was originally Catholic. Now, if a Catholic came up to me to try to bring me back, would they be able to do it? Nope. By the same logic, if I walk up to the same Catholic to try to convert them to Mormonism, could I do it? Nope. Unless Heavenly Father prompts a change in their hearts, there's nothing I can do.

Kay, so now I'm contradicting myself, right? Only kinda. You should always be willing to share your faith with others. And don't feel like you're not making a difference. My friends made a huge difference in my life. But don't expect that your sharing your beliefs will always "work". D'you know what? Being pushy just makes people less likely to hear you.

We all just wanna understand each other a little better, right?

<3 Marie-Rose