My Mormon Moments: God is All Loving and All Knowing!

Here is this week's Book of Mormon thought for you guys!
2 Nephi 31 verses 9 and 10 reads “And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, he having set the example before them.  And he said unto the children of men: Follow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?” As I thought about these verses, all the people who have ever sacrificed for the gospel came to my mind. I think it is so tender that Jesus Christ, our Savior wants us to become better. I have wondered how I can be more like Him and sometimes I tend to complicate things, but as Nephi describes it is just as simple as keeping the commandments. Knowing that keeping the commandments and sacrificing does bring forth the blessings of heaven, I see that living the gospel is not a burden but a tremendous blessing. I am grateful for the peace and love that my Heavenly Father has for me and all His children, and that He was willing to give up His Only Begotten Son to be the perfect example for me.

I love this picture!

My Mormon Moments: Handling Our Wilderness

     Alright so I have already survived 2 weeks of BYU life! This post is going to be more of my moments with the Book of Mormon (another testament of Jesus Christ). It is truly a powerful book that has helped me throughout my life, and even recently as I have experienced so much change over the past weeks.
     In class we are moving through the book quickly and mid terms are rapidly approaching, because summer term is so short. As I may have mentioned before I am studying about Nephi and his family who were originally from Jerusalem (600 BC), but were asked to leave the comfort of their homes by the Lord. They traveled in the wilderness for 8 years and experienced all kinds of hardship as you could imagine. Nephi experienced many trials within those years in the desert including: being threatened by his brothers to kill him on multiple occasions, building a huge ship, becoming a new father, experiencing constant opposition from his brothers, having to fix his broken bow while his whole family was starving, and on top of that his father dies. Those are just a few of the recorded events and I think just being in the wilderness and not knowing where we are going for 8 years would be more then I could handle. Clearly Nephi was am amazing man who had a bunch of faith. He knows why he has been able to carry on. He explains, "My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness" (2 Nephi 4:20).  Something about this verse spoke to me. Here I am having just left my home (of course it is nothing in compared to Nephi) and am experiencing the most change I have ever had to deal with in my life. It can be confusing taking it all in at once, but just like Nephi I have felt God's support and love as I have left my friends, family, ward (congregation), and sweet sister missionaries in Georgia. I have felt His spirit comfort me and I know He loves me and surely has a plan for me, even though I may not know exactly what it is right now. I am so grateful I could feel peace as I read this passage and know to keep trekin', because He knows me.

Nephi and his wife comforting him during a troublesome time.