The Lord uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible,
–Elder Russell M. Nelson
Door 2 Door
A little piece of a talk I skimmed through. Find it here.
But we must have the desire to open the door, even if it shakes the very foundation of our past beliefs and way of life. And this applies to less-active members as well as those who are not yet members of the Church. I am reminded of the words of a hymn:
Know this, that ev’ry soul is free
To choose his life and what he’ll be;
For this eternal truth is giv’n:
That God will force no man to heav’n.
He’ll call, persuade, direct aright,
And bless with wisdom, love, and light,
In nameless ways be good and kind,
But never force the human mind. 4
Our Father in Heaven will never take away our agency. We must seek after or desire to know our Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. There is a way by which all men can know whether or not the teachings of Jesus Christ are true. As Jesus answered the skeptics at the Feast of Tabernacles, He said, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” 5
Chains
What is holding you back from full commitment to the Lord? Are you not reading everyday? Are you not praying? Are you not coming to church? Are you struggling to abstain from alcohol, coffee, tea, tobacco, drugs, and other harmful substances? Are you living with someone you love, unmarried? The Lord requires commitment. In order for Him to bless you, you must put forth the effort. What are you letting get in the way of growing closer to your Heavenly Father?
You might say, “I know God, I have a relationship with Him.” Well, I’m sure the Pharisees could have told you the same thing. There are going to be many at the last day who plead for the mercy of Christ, and He shall say that he never knew them. Just because you keep one commandment, does not mean you’re safe. We must keep ALL of His commandments, in order to return to live with him.
Are you going to let a cup of coffee, a cigarette, a man, or a woman, keep you from returning to live with your Father in Heaven? Are you willing to stand before Him and say, “I didn’t have enough time…” Or “I really needed to sleep in…” Or “I was too afraid…”
Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith (Matthew 8:26)?
Put behind you all the things that hold you back, put behind you all the fear that binds you down, put behind you the excuses that Satan has supplied you with, and you will find peace and rest with your Father in Heaven.
If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself (John 7:17).
❤ Sister Myers
I Might Just Knock You Off My Steps
Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
2 Nephi 8:7
The door opened and I looked into sad eyes. “We’re sharing a video about Jesus Christ and all the wonderful things he has done for us–“
“Look, you don’t want to know my opinion on Jesus Christ. I might just knock you off my steps if you don’t leave.” Her face was now inches away from mine, and I struggled to say what the Californian in me would say when someone gets that close.
“Okay, you have a great night.” We walked away and could hear her still yelling at us as she closed the door, “I hope he’s doing something for you, because he sure has messed* up my life.”
My heart was pained for his woman, who felt that her life was so terrible because her Heavenly Father wanted her to suffer. My heart was also a little angry because of this woman who felt the need to curse and threaten us for wanting to share happiness with her. Nevertheless, I went on to knock more doors with my faithful companion.
There are nights like that in which people yell at us, people are rude to us, even people who claim to be Christians slam the door in our faces. This could be so discouraging. Walking up to a door is scary when half the people who answer are rude to us, but I know that it would be worse if I didn’t try to share the gospel with others and Heavenly Father had to show me a time that I could have brought someone such happiness, but I was too afraid to knock on their door. Sharing the gospel is hard, and there are some weeks I just want to say, “I’m done,” but sharing the gospel is worth it. When you find just one person who listens, one person who accepts the message, one person who thrives and grows with the gospel; when you see the light in their eyes, you know it’s worth it.
And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.
Alma 26:30
*her language has been changed to be suitable for readers*
Do You Love Him Enough To…
Obedience brings blessings. Jesus Christ is our perfect example of obedience.
There was a man once who said he was doing it strictly out of obedience, not out of love. He saw this because Christ asked that the cup be removed from him. He didn’t want to do it. My companion looked at him and said, “Have you ever done something for someone, even though you didn’t want to, because you loved them?”
Love should be the motivation behind our obedience. Do you love God enough to…
go to church on Sunday instead of watching the superbowl?
keep the word of wisdom?
live the law of chastity?
keep the ten commandments?
pray everyday?
I can promise you that when we show obedience to Heavenly Father, and we follow that example of Jesus Christ, that you will be blessed.
“As we walk in obedience to the principles and commandments of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “we enjoy a continual flow of blessings promised by God in His covenant with us. Those blessings provide the resources we need to act rather than simply be acted upon as we go through life. … Obedience gives us greater control over our lives, greater capacity to come and go, to work and create.”
❤ sister myers
The First Time…
As I was listening to this talk one question that He posed stood out to me: Do you remember the first time you knew there was a God and could feel His love? After pondering that question I thought…no I don’t remember. There has just always been a God. There has always been someone up there with control over everything and knowledge of everything. Some of you are aware that I did not grow up in the church. I joined two and a half years ago. Just prior to that I was of the opinion that yeah maybe something was up there but I didn’t know who or what or why and I didn’t care. I had never felt His love or a necessity to have him in my life. I was pretty sure if there was a “big guy upstairs” he had forgotten that I was down here. So when did I first truly feel His love? In 2012 I had finally decided that I needed to go to church. I felt like something was missing and I needed to find it. I asked people around me what church they went to. I knew I wasn’t catholic. I knew I wasn’t Lutheran. I had been to a Protestant church once, and a baptist church a few times. But I wasn’t really feeling the jumping and hollering thing anymore and didn’t want to stand and sing for that long. I had no idea what I was, or if I was anything. I was staying with my best friend and her roommate was talking about church. I asked her if I could go with her. The entire time I was sitting in sacrament meeting all I kept think was that I was forgotten and that God, if He was there….didn’t want me in His church. By the time I got to third hour I was feeling so alone and forgotten I was ready to give up my whole search for a church, and that’s when it happened. These are the words that hit me in relief society that day by president uchtdorf:
You are not forgotten.
…wherever you are, whatever your circumstances may be, you are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you with an infinite love.
It was that moment that helped me to know that my Heavenly Father loves me. That was the first time I knew.
The rest is history. I met with missionaries, I read the Book of Mormon, I prayed, and three weeks later… I was baptized. I took the first steps to knowing my Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. I took the first steps to eternal life. What were my next steps?
In the end of 2012 I started getting this crazy idea that I should go on a mission. At the beginning of 2013 that crazy idea turned into me putting in my papers, withdrawing from school, and leaving for Montana. Why did I think this was so crazy? I came to montana to share with people the truths that I know and I how they can have an eternal family of their own, and I didn’t even have an eternal family. Not a single person in my family joined with me. To this day that’s still true. It wasn’t until about four months into my mission that I got it. I was working with a family in Absarokee Montana and the parents were coming back to church and the boys were getting baptized and I felt as if this was my family. The last night I was there I told the boys, “I may never get to be sealed to my family forever, but you can.” And I read them this scripture from doctrine and covenants:
“And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father.”
By Sharing the gospel with this family I was making them my eternal family. Maybe that’s not really what it’s saying, but I truly felt that they were my family, and that I would see them again. Them having eternal life together helped me to know my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.
What is eternal life? It is to know our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. I will pose to you another couple of questions posed in last general conference by elder Jorge klebingat and I invite you to ponder the answers to these questions:
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your spiritual confidence before God?
Do you have a personal witness that your current offering as a Latter-day Saint is sufficient to inherit eternal life?
Can you say within yourself that Heavenly Father is pleased with you?
What thoughts come to mind if you had a personal interview with your Savior one minute from now?
Brothers and sisters, You have a great gift. You know what it takes to return to live with your Heavenly Father. Share that gift with others, that they might know their Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ, that they might have eternal life.
Love vs. Lust
“…Lust is an unsavory word, and it is certainly an unsavory topic for me to address, but there is good reason why in some traditions it is known as the most deadly of the seven deadly sins. 2
Why is lust such a deadly sin? Well, in addition to the completely Spirit-destroying impact it has upon our souls, I think it is a sin because it defiles the highest and holiest relationship God gives us in mortality—the love that a man and a woman have for each other and the desire that couple has to bring children into a family intended to be forever. Someone said once that true love must include the idea of permanence. True love endures. But lust changes as quickly as it can turn a pornographic page or glance at yet another potential object for gratification walking by, male or female. True love we are absolutely giddy about—as I am about Sister Holland; we shout it from the housetops. But lust is characterized by shame and stealth and is almost pathologically clandestine—the later and darker the hour the better, with a double-bolted door just in case. Love makes us instinctively reach out to God and other people. Lust, on the other hand, is anything but godly and celebrates self-indulgence. Love comes with open hands and open heart; lust comes with only an open appetite.”
See full talk by elder Jeffery R. Holland HERE
Nothing is Unbelievable
While I was serving in Missoula, I was blessed to know the Furrer family. Brother and Sister Furrer quickly became such wonderful memories in my mission. On Saturday I was blessed with the opportunity to go to the temple and see them get sealed for time and all eternity. This experience taught me so much.
The atonement can change us. It is meant to change us. I have faith that any and all people can change when they rely on the atonement of Jesus Christ. We learn of Alma the younger AND Alma the elder who both relied on the atonement of Jesus Christ to become great men of God. I was able to watch Brother Furrer rely on the atonement of God. I went from believing that he could enter the holy temple to be sealed to his wife, to seeing it. I have always believed in the unbelievable. Brother Furrer did not believe in himself, but I did. I believe that everyone can enter that holy temple, when they have faith, repent, are baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. Whether you lack faith in yourself or in someone else, please hear me: You/They are a child of a merciful God. The atonement is available to all, and all have the potential to change. Mormon 9:27-28 tells us, “O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him. Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.”
There is nothing more rewarding than being an instrument in the Lord’s hands. Be the faith that someone needs to return to their Heavenly Father, even if that someone is you. Doctrine and Covenants 18:15 says, “And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!” Find/Be that one soul.
I love you all, and invite you all to keep the temple in your sights. Go to the temple or go back to the temple. Be a missionary. Talk to a missionary. Write a missionary.
Love,
A Missionary
Sister Myers ❤
Great and Wonderful Things
Recently, I have been reading through last conference’s talks. One of them has really stood out to me. The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood by Elder Dallin H. Oaks has really helped strengthen my testimony of the priesthood. This talk is especially relevant with the Ordaining Women group that is becoming popular today. Here are a few highlights from the talk that I particularly liked.
The divine nature of the limitations put upon the exercise of priesthood keys explains an essential contrast between decisions on matters of Church administration and decisions affecting the priesthood. The First Presidency and the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, who preside over the Church, are empowered to make many decisions affecting Church policies and procedures—matters such as the location of Church buildings and the ages for missionary service. But even though these presiding authorities hold and exercise all of the keys delegated to men in this dispensation, they are not free to alter the divinely decreed pattern that only men will hold offices in the priesthood.
As much as people protest and complain, the church leadership has no say in who holds the priesthood. Only Jesus Christ does. So those who are saying that the church is being unfair in only allowing men to hold the priesthood are really saying that Jesus Christ is being unfair. Jesus Christ is the most fair Being to ever walk this planet. I know that questioning him is the most dangerous thing you can do.
How does this apply to women? In an address to the Relief Society, President Joseph Fielding Smith, then President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said this: “While the sisters have not been given the Priesthood, it has not been conferred upon them, that does not mean that the Lord has not given unto them authority. … A person may have authority given to him, or a sister to her, to do certain things in the Church that are binding and absolutely necessary for our salvation, such as the work that our sisters do in the House of the Lord. They have authority given unto them to do some great and wonderful things, sacred unto the Lord, and binding just as thoroughly as are the blessings that are given by the men who hold the Priesthood.”7
Why do some of the sisters in the church believe we need the priesthood? An apostle of the Lord has said that we have that authority given to us, we do not have the same responsibilities that come with it as men do. We do “great and wonderful things” without having the priesthood conferred upon us.
We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be? When a woman—young or old—is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function. The same is true when a woman is set apart to function as an officer or teacher in a Church organization under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood. Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.
We, all of us, act under the priesthood. If you are struggling with wanting to hold the priesthood yourself, as a woman, I would invite you to pray to receive a confirmation of YOUR divine role in this life. We, as women, have great power. We have a moral force that cannot be matched. We are guardians of virtue. We have the divine gift of bringing Heavenly Father’s other children into this world. What greater gift do you need than that?
The Lord has directed that only men will be ordained to offices in the priesthood. But, as various Church leaders have emphasized, men are not “the priesthood.” Men hold the priesthood, with a sacred duty to use it for the blessing of all of the children of God.
The greatest power God has given to His sons cannot be exercised without the companionship of one of His daughters, because only to His daughters has God given the power “to be a creator of bodies … so that God’s design and the Great Plan might meet fruition.”
I believe that we need to develop more of a knowledge of the priesthood, though we may never understand it all, and gain a faith that our Father in Heaven knows what he’s doing. He has a plan. Do we trust in His plan, His WHOLE plan? Please, make this a matter of prayer.
I have a testimony of this priesthood: the authority given from God to bless our lives. Satan is trying to twist what we know about this wonderful gift by telling us that it is unfair, and by turning us against our prophets, and our Heavenly Father. I do not hold the priesthood, but I will remain worthy so that I can sustain my future husband who can hold the priesthood and bless me and my children with it.
Love,
Sister Myers
A Representative of Christ 