My Institute teacher, Brother Linford, told my class that he was driving on the freeway and received a call from an anonymous number. As he answered with a questioning hello he got a response saying, "Brother Linford, I want to come speak to your students." My teacher responded, "We would be honored to have you Elder Holland." Yes. You heard me right. Elder Holland came to speak to UVU's Institute. How lucky are we that the President of UVU is Elder Holland's son.
Yesterday was a huge day for all at the Institute. Brother Holland was on campus and he would be speaking to us specifically. No general conference setting, but a smaller (yet still huge) crowd. As I had a class that was close to the time of it starting I didn't make it into the actual room that President Holland was speaking. I was pretty bummed but I was still happy that I was a part of this crowd.
Elder Holland spoke on repentance and forgiveness. A reoccurring thing in our lives that we need to do daily. His two main topics were on truly changing and believing that we will be forgiven.
A Change of Heart
Often I catch myself thinking, "How can a person truly change?" We are who we are and it's hard to completely change your ways. We make mistakes some bigger than others, but we always can repent to our Heavenly Father and promise him to be better. Heavenly Father looks at us and sees that we're trying. He knows we're not perfect and what a wonderful thing that is. As Elder Holland told us that we can change through the Gospel I started to think of the daily things that I can do to change myself for the better.
1. Read scriptures and pray daily
Although this is an easy concept I struggle with this everyday.
2. Attend the Temple regularly
Over spring break I attended the St. George Temple and did Baptisms for the dead. As I was packing for this trip I found my temple recommend and saw that it expired in march of 2013... How sad I was to see that I hadn't attended the Temple in over a year.
3. Attend Church meetings every week
High school was a struggle for me, especially in the church department. I think my senior year I went to church like 4 or 5 times... I dreaded going. Moving out was a huge blessing. I love my ward and being a part of church. I love going.
4. Happy POSITIVE thoughts
I'm constantly beating myself up and what for? It doesn't make me feel good, it doesn't make my day go smoother. I say it just because why not? Well that's not healthy. Having happy positive thoughts helps me feel confident and good about myself. We are incredible human beings who were created in the sight of God. Let's always remember that.
5. A grateful heart
Look for beauty in everything. Look for the beauty in having choices to make/agency, missing someone,your daily struggles. There is beauty all around us. We need to be appreciative for everything Heavenly Father has blessed us with.
Although this is a simple list, I think it's a good starting place.
Forgiveness
Some of us feel that we are too far off the path to come back. This is a damaging thought. Many times I have thought this and my faith completely diminishes. As tears came to my eyes listening to Elder Holland preach about my life and my exact feelings I kept thinking "He gets it. He understands." If he understands and doesn't even know me personally think about our Father in Heaven. HOLY MOLY. He knows me better than my parents, He knows me to my very core. From the inside out He knows me. I am so humbled. What a loving God we have. His amount of love is almost surreal sometimes. Elder Holland reassured me that I can come back, In fact he exclaimed, "YES, YES, YES, ETERNITY OF YES!" We all can come back to Christ. No matter how awful you think your sins are, Christ is there with open arms asking you to come back to him. What a beautiful thing the Atonement is. I can't imagine my life without this gospel.
Love,
Lobster
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