You are never alone

A look of the stairs as I headed to the top

P-day this last week Sister Tucker and I along with Elder's Merrill and Cannell decided to go to the beach. As we walked down the long flight of stairs to the beach, I saw a bunch of rocks and realized that we were headed in that direction for our activity. We had to climb the rocks. I am not much of a climber, I don't like to do it but in order to do the activity I had to climb. First, I want to mention that I did not have the right shoes, I was climbing rocks on flat slick shoes. Climbing with shoes like that did not improve my attitude on climbing rocks, I chose to be unhappy on this task which made the task seem impossible. Every rock I climbed I felt that I was going to fall, I used all the energy necessary to hold on.  Once we had finished our activity, we had to climb over the rocks and climb back up the stairs. Its easy to come down, hard to go back up. I will honestly say, I was the last one up. I was embarrassed and mad at myself that I had not made it to the top fast enough. The next day I woke up sore. During Personal Study I was reading about Captain Moroni and how he fought for his country, family, and religion and I wondered to myself, how I was giving up due to my attitude and my shoes...simple things that I put as a stumbling block. I wasn't fighting the fight.
The Savior himself has said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

There will be many days in our lives that we will have to make a climb, we might not be prepared with the right equipment or the right attitude. We may even have to put all of our energy into not falling back to where we started. We may even feel that we are alone, that there is no one to help us make the climb to get to the finish, to fight the fight. We may even want to quit our climb.  Never quit! That is a fall that is hard to come back from! Although it seems that we are doing this alone, I am here to testify that we are not! You are never alone in your climb! The Savior is always there to help you, to lift you up and to carry you to help you reach your destination! When all seems dark and dreary look around you for the light and you will see the Savior! My family has a motto that goes, "The Hernandez's never give up." so I extend this motto to you as well, apply it to yourself, for with the Savior all that seems impossible is made possible!

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The Power of Hymns

For those of you who do not know me well enough, I love music and when I say love it, I mean it. I LOVE music! Music is power in my eyes. Power, because it can say what I cannot express, music has a way to touch our hearts, it has a way to bring the Spirit into our lives. Jay E. Jensen stated, "Hymns are “an essential part of our church meetings. [They] invite the Spirit of the Lord.” They often do this quicker than anything else we may do. President J. Reuben Clark Jr. said, “We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer.”
Music has power, more importantly Hymns have power. This last Sunday I had the privilege to sing in sacrament meeting "I am a Child of God." I always knew the power that this song had, but never did I fully appreciate it until I sang it. Until I fully read the lyrics. It goes as follows:
1.I am a Child of God
And He has Sent me Here
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear
2.I am a Child of God
And so my needs are great
Help me to understand His words
Before it grows to late
3.I am a Child of God
Rich blessings are in Store
If I but learn to do His will
I'll live with Him once more
4.I am a Child of God
His promises are sure
Celestial Glory shall be mine
If I can but endure
Chorus:
Lead me, guide me walk beside me
Help me find the way
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.

What power this song has! To know that we are all children of God! An all powerful being and we are his children! He loves us and wants nothing but the best for us! How great to know that His promises are sure for each of His children and that if we endure we can live with Him again! This song is in the Children Songbook today as well as the Hymn Book. This song has the power to help us remember, to realize we are God's Children and we are of worth! There will be times in our lives where we will struggle and just to recite or to sing a hymn will bring us the comfort and strength necessary to continue pressing forward.
The First Presidency has said: “Brothers and sisters, let us use the hymns to invite the Spirit of the Lord into our congregations, our homes, and our personal lives. Let us memorize and ponder them, recite and sing them, and partake of their spiritual nourishment. Know that the song of the righteous is a prayer unto our Father in Heaven, ‘and it shall be answered with a blessing upon [your] heads.”

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An improved vision

These are my actual glasses!

This week I had the chance to go on Exchanges with Sister Cluff. It was an amazing exchange! I realized that the vision I had for myself, was great but at the end of our exchange, my vision had improved. There are many times that we lose sight of our goals, our purpose, and our vision. We tend to do good, when we could do better! Don't get me wrong, doing good is great but when you can do better, why not do it? That is what hit me the hardest as we went about our day in Eureka. I could do better, so why not do it? I relate this to being able to physically see. I usually wear glasses, why? Because I can't see. Imagine if I decided to not wear my glasses for a day? I would be LOST! I couldn't see anything or anyone in front of me. And lets say, that I found some other glasses, and they weren't the right prescription but I could still kind of see, and I wore those, my vision would slightly improve. But if I wore the right prescription, my vision would drastically improve. I would see the color of the world, I could see what is in front of me, I could see what I wanted to change and what I could improve in.
We all have area's in which we need to improve in. For me it was having a better vision, a better attitude, and becoming more christlike towards others. It reminds me of what President Monson said, "Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time."
Having this improved vision in mind, I now know the goal in sight as it says in Mosiah 4:27, "...And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order." All things must be done in order to change, in order to win the prize, or the goal! We can all achieve our goals in sight, if we put our whole trust in the Savior, for he will always lift us up, help us achieve our goals when we feel we cannot go any further. He will help change us!

As I said before, we all have the chance to improve our vision, sometimes our windows need to be cleaned in order to see a clearer picture, to see what we need to do to become better!
Charity Never Faileth-President Monson

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