Family History

I need to catch-up on my reading here, you all recommend such good talks and with school starting this week I'm getting behind on the blog reading. But I did want to share these gems with you :) Love me some family history!

Change

We have stake conference this weekend, so I looked up some notes that I wrote down from stake conference a year ago. One of the talks was a talk by Elder Hallstrom about change. He told about an experience that he had as a bishop. He met with a man who had a bad temper. The man said, "I have a bad temper. I can't do anything about it. That's never going to change." This made Elder Hallstrom sad to hear him say that. The essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that the Atonement can change us.

Elder Hallstrom also told a story of a man in India who was born with serious physical disabilities. As a young man he met the missionaries, was baptized, and served a mission himself. Years later, he and his wife and children traveled to Hong Kong to be sealed in the temple there. In his community, his potential was to grow up to be a beggar, but his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ taught him of his eternal potential.

Elder Hallstrom's invitation was to make one change to improve.

I wanted to do a little more study on the subject of change, so I searched lds.org and came across something pretty neat--an article that President Faust was preparing before he passed away in 2007: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/10/the-power-to-change?lang=eng&query=change. It's a good read.

Must See!

I recommended this BYU Devotional in my response to Allison's last post. I take back my recommendation and upgrade it to a "must see." I just re-read it, and it is awesome. It impacted me when President Packer gave it just a month after I got home from my mission, and it is just as powerful now:

Exactness vs. Perfection

A sister missionary I correspond with posed the following question in a recent email:  "What are your thoughts about perfection vs. being exact?"  I thought it was a great question and have started pondering and studying it out.  So far I've read the talk Perfection Pending and have been pondering Moroni 10:32.  

It got me thinking about a few things:

1. What does it mean to become perfected in Christ?
2. Is it possible for a pursuit of exactness in obedience to distract us from coming unto Christ?
3. How should I have responded when I had companions whose lack of obedience limited my own ability to be exact in obedience?
4. What is the relationship between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law?
5. Why does it seem that some who pursue obedience with exactness end up stressed out and overanxious?  

I'll try to record some of my insights as my studies progress, but was curious about what y'all thought or things you've learned as well.  So, if you have questions or answers to consider, please share!

Day In Day Out

Here are two graduation speeches I have enjoyed recently. Let me know what you think!

http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/george-saunderss-advice-to-graduates/?src=me&ref=general&_r=2

My favorite part here is this paragraph,
"Most people, as they age, become less selfish and more loving.  I think this is true.  The great Syracuse poet, Hayden Carruth, said, in a poem written near the end of his life, that he was “mostly Love, now.” And so, a prediction, and my heartfelt wish for you: as you get older, your self will diminish and you will grow in love.  YOU will gradually be replaced by LOVE."


In the following speech I love that he teaches us that we choose what we think, and we choose how we see things. Do you know of any talks/literature on this subject?

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/sep/20/fiction

The video link wasn't working, so this is the written talk. I haven't read it (I watched a video version) but I believe there are two swearwords, fyi.