May 26, 2007

I love Shabbat. Can I just tell you? Things are so great here. First, it's the day to sleep in! Breakfast isn't until 8 am. That's over an hour later than normal! Needless to say, I slept until 8. For possibly the first time, I got a full 8 hours of sleep. No, the first time had to have been in Galilee. But it was definitely only the second or third.

Church was amazing, as normal. I wrote 7 pages in my church journal. I just couldn't stop writing. Typically, when I write during church, I just write quotes and such that I hear and like. Today I wrote feelings, impressions, thoughts, etc. inspired by things I heard. Sometimes they had nothing to do with what was being taught. I suppose that's what the Spirit does, though, isn't it?

In Shabbat School we studied Luke 15. Sis. Heyes taught which made it that much better. She is yet another example of what I want to be like. Between her and Rebecca, I couldn't have better role models. I was meant to be here, if only to rub shoulders with those two great women. She took the chapter and pulled a theme from it that I wouldn't have typically thought of, "Rejoice with me for I have found." Typically, this chapter is associated with forgiveness, repentance, and bringing lost souls unto Christ. Which we did talk about. But mostly we focused on rejoicing when the lost is found. We should look forward to the conclusion of the repentance process as a celebration—rejoice! Help others to repent and rejoice with them. Some interesting insights:

- vs. 7. In reality, it's more like there are 99 sinners and 1 just person. But Christ treats each of us individually as though we are the only sinner and gives us personal attention to bring us back.
- vs. 8. If I were lost, I would hope someone would seek diligently for me. Am I seeking diligently for someone else who is lost?

Relief Society was equally incredible. Mindi taught... she did a fabulous job. I am a firm believer that the best teachers disappear into the lesson. The lesson is taught by the Spirit and the sisters. The teacher only leads the lesson. I recall towards the very end of the lesson she said something and it startled me. I had completely forgotten that we were in an official lesson because she had done such an amazing job at pulling us all together to teach each other. I was very impressed.

The lesson was based on the conference talk, "In the Tongues of Angels." I immediately realized that this lesson was pointed straight at me. Here are a few of the thoughts I had during class:

- When people say things about me, whether good or bad, it has a huge impact on how I view myself. How am I affecting other people's vision of themselves?
- John 1:1—"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." That's how our words should be. —Rebecca
- For those of you girls out there (including myself) trying to find the "perfect man" did you know the scripture actually tell you who he is?! James 3:2—The "perfect man" is the man who does not offend with the tongue.
- James 3:9—I would never dream of cursing God or His image, yet I criticize those people made in His image. There is something vitally wrong with this picture.
- "In the golden age of civilization, undoubtedly, someone grumbled that it was too yellow."
- "There is no situation so miserable that complaining about it won't make it worse."
- Never think of yourself as the victim. As soon as you do, you succumb to Satan's power. As long as you view yourself as in control and having the power to help others that may be victims, and do something to help them, you will rise out of the situation.
- In greeting, don't start with, "I'm so tired" or "It's so hot" or "I'm so stressed" or anything else equally pessimistic. Rather, think of a compliment for the person. Turn something pessimistic into something optimistic. Submit to your burdens cheerfully like in the Book of Mormon.
- Pray to see people as God sees people. If you still view people poorly, pray harder.
- What you give thought to, you give power to.

I left church filled with the Spirit. I wanted to come down to my room and write and ponder and pray for hours. I don't get that intense of a feeling very often, so I was highly irritated at the amount of homework I had yet to do. I was torn. I don't do homework on Sabbath, but is it the same at the Jerusalem Center? All of my homework that I needed to do is scripture related. But as I really thought about it, I realized I simply couldn't study for my test on Sunday. (It sounds weird that I can't study on Saturday, but I'll take a test on Sunday. Ha!) However, I realized that there is absolutely nothing wrong with reading my scriptures on Sabbath. In fact, that's a good thing to do on the Sabbath. So I holed up in my bedroom and read all of 1 and 2 Kings, Joel and Amos. All in one afternoon/evening. I stopped only for dinner. It wasn't exactly what I wanted to do, but I felt better still being productive and not breaking the Sabbath. I went to bed early—10:30 pm. I did this for good reason, however. My alarm was set to go off bright and early at 3:30 am. ~sigh.