Learning

So you have to learn to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run...but no one talks about how many bumps and bruises and tears are shed as you fall before you walk, and while you walk and while you run. In this picture, I was able to hike in the sacred grove and the connection to nature and walking there was one of the most amazingly spiritual experiences I have ever had. Tonight, Nova wanted me to share my testimony of walking, however, I was unable to attend FHE, so here it is!

Almost two years ago, I enrolled in an environmental education class. It involved walking over the summer for three hours a day twice a week, in hot and humid forest preserves. After that, i went back to college, then an internship at a nature center where I hiked two-three miles a day and emptied fish tanks and cleaned, then I walked 5-7 miles a day at the zoo over the summer, then as a nanny I would walk with the kids for up to two hours a day, and currently I walk 1-2 hours a day around my block. I have lost 40 lbs in the last two years. I have reversed my insulin resistance, retrained my metabolism, and have found peace and joy in walking outdoors. I love being able to do things with much more ease than before and the more I do, the easier it is! I am able to fully enjoy the body I have been given. I am more flexible and it makes my day easier. I will be able to keep up with my job, dogs, and eventually kids and family! I want to be the best person I can be and I now feel that I can achieve that goal. I testify that walking outdoors and small daily exercise can help bring you closer to your heavenly father if you allow it to be a spiritually building experience. He will help you as you define a definite goal. As you enjoy the earth and body God has gifted us, you will come to find great joy in small exercise and it becomes a lifestyle, not a task.

I am taking a kayaking class to get some things down before I move this summer. I am using it as a spiritually and temporally building experience. Its teaching me so much physically, but it's giving me a spiritual base because I am following the Lord's plan for me. It's physically tiring, but also emotionally tiring. I am having trouble believing in myself. But as I keep going, I know that I will do well. We learned paddle strokes tonight and I never did well enough for me. I am beginning a strength and endurance regiment tomorrow. I am rather excited, but a little nervous. So much change in my life...positive change, but its still nerve wrecking! Plus, the fact that I was able to meet someone who worked at the camp really gave me a positive attitude about it. It is fast approaching and I am super excited! I hear its beautiful. All I know is, I'm going to come back in better shape than I have ever been in before! The best part about this is that I am following the Holy Ghost and I know because of that, I will be fine. He will not lead me astray!

The Last picture is me on top of the hill Kamora. I was able to hike up the historic path up the hill and trapse throught the same path that Joseph may have taken long ago. I am so privaledged to have been capable of making the trek.

CHANGING TOPICS: Today I heard on the news about a boy in Virginia...I think...That gave up speaking for Lent. I thought about the discipline that he had. He is only 13 years old. For 40 days, he has not and will not speak. Easter Sunday, his first words will be "thankyou God! I can speak!" He is only 13 and the faith, dedication, and love of God, is absolutely awe inspiring. One day, I hope that I can have that much dedication to my faith. There are so many wonderful people in this world! I hope I get to meet and hear of more of them.

Final thought for the day, there was a new member who came into my church. He was very friendly but I only spoke to him several times and very light conversation. One day, he told me that I made him so happy and he just loved me. And I asked him why. and he said it was because i was such a happy person all the time and that if he was in a bad mood he just thinks, what am i doing? Lisa wouldn't be happy. However, I am not happy all the time. But this helped me realize that you never know who is watching and so it is so important to be your best self and the best example as you possibly can be.

General Conference

This past thursday Bishop Clements in his infinite wisdom told me to take notes on conference and that we would discuss them. Well I misunderstood and thought he wanted me to give a presentation. So Friday night I made my new journal and went to the stake center saturday until 3:45 and then went to work. I got up and watched the rest of general conference saturday session and then went to the stake center for sunday session. I learned several amazing things.
1. The Holy Ghost comes to you in your preparation sometimes more strongly than in the message itself. Preparing the journal Friday night I had many of my questions answered.
2. If you go in with questions, he can answer them in your preparation and converence. And even further confirm the answers you get time and time again. Questions...Ask and you shall receive, but you have to ask.
3. The Holy Ghost talks to us in many different ways. It doesn't have to be a blinding light or physical feeling of peace. He can talk through others and either just coincidences that are tender mercies. And that is ok. As your faith grows, if you look back, You will see Christ everywhere! And the fact that it is not a blinding light does not mean you are unworthy.
4. Rome was given back to me. When I left the catholic faith, i had a great love for Rome, as my holy city, and I felt as if it was not my home anymore. But with the temple coming to Rome I feel as if I can go there and look at history of my ancestors and the history that made me who I am...But still have a home for who I have become.
5. We need to help the poor! By helping people with their temporal needs we are being Christ's hands. And they will often help us more than we help them.
6. Women are the heart of the Church. You could see it in their faces and hear it in their voice. The love that they, the general authorities, have for us, radiated from pore. I could feel how much they love and respect us. I've never felt so honored and so respected as by the general authorities. It was inspiring.
7. I learned of the joy that comes with marriage and a family and I desire that joy.
8. And my testimony of President Monson, as the prophet of the church, was strengthened greatly! He is a prophet, I felt as if he saw and spoke just to me. It was the same presence, love, and intuition with the other general authorities. I felt as if they saw into my soul. Each one was better than the next!
9. 272,000 people apporoximately were new converts in the year 2010. I am one of those! I am so lucky and so grateful.

Conference was amazing! The preparation created in me an attitude of humility. I felt the presence of the spirit so strongly. I am so grateful for Thomas S. Monson. I wanted to reach through and hug him. I am so grateful for a bishop who cares for me so much. I'm grateful for the peace the spirit brings when you don't think you can have peace. I am grateful for promptings from the spirit because his path for me is better than anything I could plan. I am so happy and thankful for my testimony and for this wonderful church. I am grateful that I was being prepared my whole life, that my testimony was not a shock. That I was able to join. That my family supported me. There is so much to be grateful for in this, the year in which I made the best decision i've ever made.

On top of this being such an amazing conference because of the preparation I did, the Peace, comfort and spirit I felt, and The amazing family of 8 that I got to sit with, it was also one year ago, April 3, 2010, that I consented to be baptized three weeks from that day. I was baptized on April 24, 2010...My year mark is Easter Sunday this year! April 3, 2011, was also the one year anniversary of my grandmother's death. The picture was taken just before her funeral last year in front of the house my dad grew up in. Its my cousins, sister, and me.

Her remembrance Card says:

God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through.
God hath not promised sun without rain,
joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
rest for the labor, light for the way.
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

She is proud of me. I know that. And how fitting is this prayer. She understood the law of opposites before I did. Her death helped solidify my testimony of the church. She was sick, but her death was quicker than expected. All that was thrown at me, the further I fell, the more I looked forward to the day when the sun would shine more blindingly than ever before. I was plunged into darkness but I have seen that sun many times over...and she...she is in a place flooded with light. Thankyou Grandma.