Today was AMAZING. Church was seriously the best. It was our last time gathering together as a Freshmen Ward, which was really, really sad. On the other hand, the Spirit was so strong throughout all four (count 'em. FOUR) hours of church. Relief Society was taught by Alysha, and what really struck me the most was about how we can go through this life going after goals that are "bubbles" and that will pop either once they're achieved, or retain little to no significance in our life to come. Some of them were the obvious: Fame, fortune, social standing. But others were less obvious. Such as the difference between getting a good grade without retaining the knowledge that we learned, or choosing between two things that seem equally good. I also learned that people are always more important than things/tasks. Listening to a roommate who needs you is more important than a paper due the next day. Building lasting relationships are better than seeing how many people one can know. Needless to say, it was awesome. Then it was Sunday School, where we learned about the scattering/gathering of Israel and the allegory of the olive tree found in Jacob ch 5. I learned so many interesting things about the history of the tribes of Israel, but one of the things that struck out was about how we can't use less desirable circumstances and trials that we face as an excuse for not following God and His commandments.
For Sacrament, we had testimony meeting, where we got to listen to a fraction of the ward bear their testimonies of how they know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has the true gospel, that Jesus is the Christ and how He lives today, and other great things about how God answers our prayers today and other great topics. I love testimony meeting, because the Spirit is always so strong. There were so many times that I got chills, and could feel Heavenly Father's love for all of us. It was the BEST. I was just so happy that we got to have two hours of that wonderfulness, because we ran over an hour. It was so worth it.
Afterwards, I was in my room, getting a head start on nice notes, when I called a good friend of mine to see if he could give me a blessing in the super near future because I was stressing out about finals. He ended up being right at my back door, so as soon as I got off the phone with him, he was in my apartment. My FHE dad was in my kitchen at the time, so it worked out perfectly. They gave me the blessing, and again, I was just overpowered by the Spirit and Heavenly Father's love for me. It was one of the best things that had happened to me in awhile, and I totally needed it. It was such a great experience.
We had our last Ward Prayer today, where the Bishopric left us with some advice. The gist of it was that Heavenly Father loves us and that he puts people in our path that we can not only serve, but be served by them. We then went to set off floating lanterns. Like the ones that are in Tangled. We'd been planning to do this for awhile, but because of bad weather, we couldn't do it till tonight. And it was seriously the best night to do it! It was so much fun! Afterwards, we went back to Braodbent (the boys' dorm) and wrote nice notes. And wrote nice notes. And wrote nice notes. It was great. Then a friend and I just went on a little walk around campus for a few minutes. And I decided that I'm going to the temple tomorrow (today?) with friends, so that's also going to be awesome.
So basically, I learned today that Heavenly Father loves me, He has a plan for me, and He is willing to help me out when I need it, but I need to humble myself and ask for His help before He can help me. Heavenly Father lives, and so does his son, Jesus Christ. They love us, and will help us all they can. "...Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Luke 11:9) Today, I gained a testimony of this scripture, and I felt the Spirit so strongly. It's such a wonderful feeling!
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