Mormon Bloggers

New Testament Lesson #24                      “This is Life Eternal”                                     John 16-17 Study outline: John 16:1-15: Jesus prepares his Apostles for the … Continue reading »  Read More →

Personal revelation is an important principle in the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s a topic Sister Julie B. Beck has talked a lot about when speaking to the women in the Church. In this Mormon Channel Relief Society program, Sister Beck responds to several women’s questions about how to receive and recognize personal revelation. What does personal revelation feel like? How do you know if answers are coming from God or they are just in your mind? How can you receive revelation when life is tiring and stressful? What if answers aren’t coming even after a lot of effort, scripture study, prayer, fasting, etc.? Is it OK to have questions? Hear what Sister Beck has to say in response to these and other questions. Hear her share things that have helped her learn to develop this ability to hear and recognize answers to prayers.  Read More →

An experiment was conducted by Wendy Watson Nelson.  For two weeks, she asked women to do a simple exercise, and the results were stunning.  Here’s what the women who participated in the experiment reported: An increased desire to de-junk their physical environments. A greatly reduced desire to watch TV. An increased desire to reach out to others and follow through on commitments. An increased desire to be kinder, gentler, and more patient. An increased desire to take care of their bodies by living the Lord’s law of health more fully. An increased ability to see how they could have handled situations better. An increased mental focus. An increased ability and desire to really study and learn. Old habits of backbiting, gossiping, and cynicalness falling away. A dramatic increase in their physical energy, because energy-draining negative emotions were gone. An unbelievable reduction in stress. Profound changes in their conversations with others. What would cause... Read the rest of this entry »

A car lurched from the Oklahoma country road into the highway. The driver didn’t stop at the stop sign. Instead, he stalled on the road a hundred yards in front of us. “Why doesn’t he get out of the way?” I asked from the middle of the front seat. Dad didn’t respond. He locked up the brakes and laid on the horn. Our late 1960’s American Rambler slid down the hill on screeching tires. Mother stopped talking mid-sentence in the back seat. She had just changed places with my sister and me a few miles back to talk with grandmother. I was in the middle of the front seat. My sister was to my right. Seatbelts? I can’t remember. Shoulder belts became law in 1968. I can tell you I wasn’t wearing one. Our California car probably crested the hill before the intersection doing 65 mph. Best guess from the photos looks like we hit the other car going 35 or 40. The impact pushed him into the ditch twenty to thirty feet past the crossing. Our car ended up on top of the stop sign. I remember... Read the rest of this entry »

~by Heather L. I LOVE the Women’s Conference concerts! I love the talks, and the service too, but my very favorite part is the concert! This year was no exception, except that this year it came as part of an amazing answer to prayers! You see, somehow getting kids out the door the morning of Women’s Conference is harder than almost any other day of the year. Seriously. I thought I had it all under control at my house, especially since one of my kids got up at 4:30am to do homework. Being up that early, I was sure I was ahead of the game. NOT! It seemed like everyone else got up in slow motion, or on the wrong side of the bed… or both. We were running behind, and patience was wearing thin. I took a deep breath of relief when the last one was finally off to school. Little did I know that one of my dear friends, Patti, was having a similar time getting her children off to school. She was so discouraged that she considered not even going to Women’s Conference. That was when the first... Read the rest of this entry »

I posted this last week, but a glitch at Blogger made it difficult for nearly everyone to find it. So I’ll try again today… It’s easy to think about the great prayers of the scriptures. The Savior in Gethsemane, Enos on his hunting trip, the brother of Jared with his sixteen stones, Joseph Smith in the grove. Prayers with purpose in places set apart with the attention of the prayer-givers focused intently on the matter at hand. And yet, I also think about a prayer my MTC companion told me about. Late into our missions we were serving in the same zone. We happened to be on a split together and he told me about a moment with his companion that had so upset him that when he went to bed that night, all he could pray was this: “Heavenly Father, I’m so mad I could spit.” It helps me to remember that God hears both kinds of prayers. And yes, of course the first kind is valuable (and more likely to be fruitful), the second also has its place as we lay our burdens at the Lord’s... Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend I remembered something that happened to me years ago. I was begging God to let me live. And bargaining by offering whatever He wanted. Period. Now, King Benjamin does teach us that we’re all beggars, but I’m not sure this is what he had in mind. Here’s the backstory: I was on a plane from Hiroshima, Japan to Seoul, Korea. I felt an incredible tightness in my chest. Breathing became very difficult. And I hurt! I was not yet 35 years old, but I thought I was having a heart attack. I kept trying to remember those warning signs I’d read about. Was it a heart attack? Whatever it was, it hurt. And I was on a Korean airliner surrounded by Korean and Japanese nationals. And I don’t speak either Korean or Japanese. (And did I mention it hurt?) So I prayed. I probably started off pretty calmly, trying to keep my cool. But very quickly, my prayer escalated to pleading in the first degree. Please, God, don’t let me die. I’ll serve any way I can, wherever... Read the rest of this entry »

I was once talking to a friend about an issue she had with something the living prophet had said in conference that she didn’t fully agree with. “But he is the prophet,” I said, “his counsel is coming from the Lord.” “But what ever happened to seeking out direction for yourself from the Holy Ghost?” She said, “We have to ask for ourselves if we should follow the counsel or not.” Her response troubled me. I realized that she didn’t recognize that God is not going to “inspire” us to do anything that is contrary to what the prophet says. That’s not because the prophet is greater than God. It is because the instruction we receive personally from our Father in Heaven will never supersede the instruction given to the prophet from God. His discernment of revelation is flawless, but ours is not. We can be deceived. The prophet will not be deceived. It was as if the girl I spoke to had a testimony of God and His Spirit, but it then stopped there. Indeed, we... Read the rest of this entry »

Image by More Good Foundation on flickr The scriptures talk a lot about keeping prayer sincere – about praying with all your heart, with real intent, and that we should pray fervently every day. We know that an insincere prayer is not as meaningful or as beneficial as the heartfelt, faith-filled prayer. So what do you do when it’s time for evening prayers, and you’re just not feeling into it. Of course it might help to just start praying, and see if you start feeling better about it, but if you’re like me, sometimes it’s hard to be “fervent” when you’re exhausted or in a bad mood. What do you do then? How can you pray sincerely, or with real intent, if you’re just not feeling it? Our Heavenly Father is a person. He’s human – albeit a perfect, all-powerful, omniscient human, but he’s a human being. He knows that we will not constantly have a burning desire to be constantly serving and demonstrating love. But He does want us to talk... Read the rest of this entry »

So I know that it has been a little bit since I have posted, and I have tried to come up with something to write about several times in the past week or so but the time always seems to slip away from me, and I don’t have a chance to get a post written.  Well, today, I decided that since I had a good idea I should sit down and get it written so I could post it.  Over the past couple of weeks, President Allen, our Branch President here in my mission, has been talking quite a bit about the Plan of Salvation, particularly our own personal plan that Heavenly Father has for us.  I have been thinking a lot about my own personal plan the last little bit since there have been quite a few changes going on.  We had a zone conference just over a week ago and with that came a switch of my teaching companion.  I’m now working with Elder Spencer, who is also a fantastic missionary.  You can take a look at his blog to learn more about him as well. So I now have a new... Read the rest of this entry »

So I know that it has been a little bit since I have posted, and I have tried to come up with something to write about several times in the past week or so but the time always seems to slip away from me, and I don’t have a chance to get a post written.  Well, today, I decided that since I had a good idea I should sit down and get it written so I could post it.  Over the past couple of weeks, President Allen, our Branch President here in my mission, has been talking quite a bit about the Plan of Salvation, particularly our own personal plan that Heavenly Father has for us.  I have been thinking a lot about my own personal plan the last little bit since there have been quite a few changes going on.  We had a zone conference just over a week ago and with that came a switch of my teaching companion.  I’m now working with Elder Spencer, who is also a fantastic missionary.  You can take a look at his blog to learn more about him as well. So I now have a new... Read the rest of this entry »

When I was a little boy, prayers or apricots? was the defining question of my childhood. Apparently, if the truth be told, at one time in my life I believed the value of prayer was higher than whatever mundane task (bottling apricots) was before us. As I have grown older and more self-reliant, perhaps hardened in my thinking, I believe I have become too proud to ask, too self-assured to need to bother Heavenly Father with trivial things — even when “sore trials have come upon me,” and even when I’ve been too weary to believe prayer would deliver the needed rest. The words of a familiar hymn are instructive. I’d suggest you hit the play button and listen while you read: You’ve all heard the stories about praying for lost keys and finding them, yet you wonder, don’t you, if such simple things are worth taking to God in your prayers? I do. I tend to think He’s got plenty on His plate helping His children in Sendai, Japan, for instance. In... Read the rest of this entry »