(I gave this talk tonight at my seminary graduation. There are s
meo spelling and grammar errors. Sorry!)
I’d like to start out by sharing a quick story. When my friends and I would get bored on a weekend or summer night we would play what we call the spontaneous game. It consisted of a dice, a camera, and a car. We would get in the car and roll the dice. Different numbers meant different things from knowing if you were turning left or right. Driving past a crushes house, doing something spontaneous, taking a picture or rolling the dice again. We have countless memories with this game and took a boring night to one a night we will never forget.
Luckily our destiny is not determined by rolling the
dice. We don’t wake up in the morning
and roll a dice and the number it lands on determines what we do for the day,
however if this is how we made our decisions and rolling a 6 was go back to bed
school is cancelled for the day I would be finding myself a weighted dice.
Instead of rolling a dice we have been given the agency to
make our own decisions but we have been given different navigation tools to
help us. The scriptures are one of our
biggest influenctional tools. In James
it says “If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not: and it
shall be given him.” (James 1:5) This
scriptures has been know as one of the most important scriptures in our church,
if Joseph Smith had not read that who knows where we would be right now. This works for us to. I know that if we have a question and we are
asking god with a pure heart, in faith, not wavering he will give us
answers.
Now how many of you have ever asked for something?, Been through a trial?, Or felt like your prayers were not being
answered? I can say I have. Throughout my seminary years I have been
through the biggest trial of my life so far.
At times I questioned why all this was happening and why my prayers were
not being answered when I was trying my best to live the gospel and doing
everything I could do to repent of what I had done wrong. But I still felt like I was not being
heard. Through this I had to learn a big
lesson of the power of patience. Elder
Uchtdorf says “Patience-the ability to
put our desires on hold for a time-is a precious and rare virtue. We want what
we want, and we want it now. Therefore,
the very idea of patience may seem unpleasant and, at times, bitter…Patience is
a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses
action, and offers hope for peace.” He then continues to say, “Patience is far
more than simply waiting for something to happen-patience requires actively
working towards worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results don’t
appear instantly or without effort.” Heavenly Father has a purpose for
requiring His children to wait.
I have learned that sometimes when we are in the midst of a
hard time we don’t fully recognize all the blessings we are receiving. Elder Holland says “
“Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some
don't come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ,
they come.”
Elder Uchtdorf shared this experience in one of his general conference talks.
I remember when I was preparing to be trained as a fighter pilot. We
spent a great deal of our preliminary military training in physical exercise.
I’m still not exactly sure why endless running was considered such an essential
preparatory part of becoming a pilot. Nevertheless, we ran and we ran and we
ran some more.
As I was running I began to notice something that, frankly, troubled
me. Time and again I was being passed by men who smoked, drank, and did all
manner of things that were contrary to the gospel and, in particular, to the Word of Wisdom.
I remember thinking, “Wait a minute! Aren’t I supposed to be able to
run and not be weary?” But I was weary, and I was overtaken by people
who were definitely not following the Word of Wisdom. I confess, it
troubled me at the time. I asked myself, was the promise true or was it not?
The answer didn’t come immediately. But eventually I learned that
God’s promises are not always fulfilled as quickly as or in the way we might
hope; they come according to His timing and in His ways. Years later I could
see clear evidence of the temporal blessings that come to those who obey the
Word of Wisdom—in addition to the spiritual blessings that come immediately
from obedience to any of God’s laws. Looking back, I know for sure that the
promises of the Lord, if perhaps not always swift, are always certain.
I know that it might feel like our prayers are being answered sometimes but we need to keep our heads up and know that everything happens for a purpose.
I'd like to close by sharing one more story.
This last summer many of the youth here tonight and in our stake had
the opportunity to participate in a reenactment of the pioneer trek. I had many wonderful opportunities on this
trek. One inparticular I would like to
share with you happened the last day of the trek. We stopped for lunch at the
bottom of a very large hill. As we
started examining the hill we noticed very large rocks in the path, a small
stream we would have to cross over and sharp turns we would have to take in
order to stay on the path. All these
obstacles would be very challenging but the worst part for me was a little ways
up the hill trees started and you could not see how much farther the hill continued.
However these thoughts were pushed to the back of my mind and we continued
eating lunch and enjoying our break.
Once everyone had had the opportunity to rest we started preparing for
our big push up the hill. We started
positioning our family members in the proper spot so we could get up the hill
in a good manner. But we soon learned
this was not an ordinarily pull the stake leaders came and told us this was the
women’s pull. I watched as all the men
walked up the hill leaving us behind to pull our carts up the hill. I turned back to my family of 4 girls one who
had received an injury to her foot and it would be an accomplishment for her to
just climb the hill. But for those of
you who know me know I’m a very strong willed person I was not about to give up
and I was ready to pull this cart up the hill even if I had to do it by
myself. We watched as the groups in
front of us struggled to pull their carts but slowly made progress and
disappeared into the trees. It soon came
our turn to start the journey up the hill.
I was in the yoke with another sister and my mama and the girl with the
injured foot were on the back. We
crossed the stream but then came to the worst party we had to mange to go over
some big rocks while going straight up and then make a sharp turn. We had watched many groups before us struggle
on this part but we thought we had seemed enough to know the correct way to
take. I yelled 1 2 3 pull and nothing
happened. We tried over and over again
but our cart was not moving. Many women
without families were standing by to help if we needed it but we had to ask
before they would help. I was reluctant
for a while to ask for help. I’m a girl
who likes to prove I can do things. I
sometimes feel that asking for help shows I’m not strong enough and I have
given up. But after a few more times of
failed attempts we asked for help. We
started up the mountain and after some time made it to the top. Once we had stopped I stormed back down the
mountain to help others who were farther behind. This whole time I was anger and crying. After we had gotten everyone up the never-ending
hill. We pulled for a short amount of
time and made it to our final campground.
I set up camp still mad. I left
my family and went and found my mom. I
burst into tears and started angrily kicking and possible screaming. When I finally started talking to her I
explained how I was mad that I had to ask for help from others and that I
couldn’t pull the cart up the hill by myself.
I eventually calmed down and all was well. But I learned a valuable lesson
that day. Brothers and Sisters we cannot
pull our carts up the hill by ourselves, we cannot make it through this life
without asking for help and guidance.
Some of you might be like myself and feel the need to show that you can
do it on your own but that is not the way this life is set up to be. I challenge you to humble yourselves. You have a heavenly father who is anxiously
waiting to hear from YOU! Talk to him,
ask for help, and never forget to thank him.
I would like to close with my testimony of these
things. I know that if we have a
question and we ask sincerely with a strong desire really wanting to know
what’s right the lord with give us an answer.
I know that sometimes those answers don’t come instantaneously or in the
way that we would have thought but he does bless us. I have a testimony of patience and it is a
hard principle to master but if we surround ourselves with the gospel with
service to others he will not forsake us.
I feel like Elder Holland said is best “Hold on, Keep trying. God loves
you. Things will improve.”
Amen.
