Because I Have Been Given Much

I've said for a long time now that I would be completely happy to rotate between serving in family history and Young Women for the rest of my life, with no other callings.

Because I work in the genealogy industry I was called as a temple and family history consultant as soon as I moved into my ward a year and a half ago.

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to help with a Laurel activity centered on family history. As I reflected on this experience later in the week, I considered how I had felt the spirit, how I felt like I was serving with purpose. "This is what I need in my life," I thought to myself. "This is what's missing." I've been in a bit of a spiritual rut lately and I felt that a calling like this would help to make my church experiences more meaningful. However, I didn't share that thought with anyone.

Before the activity, I decided that I should wear my Personal Progress medallion. But I couldn't find it, which was distressing. How could I lose something like that? It's meant so much to me. The next day, I needed something from the safe in our house and when I opened the small fireproof, waterproof box, I found my medallion safely tucked away there. At some point, I had thought that this necklace needed to be protected. This was a meaningful reminder of my own feelings about the young women program and particularly about Personal Progress. I have such a testimony of this program and the impact it can have on women of any age.

I joined the church in college so I never participated in young women myself. I started Personal Progress as a way to foster my own spiritual growth a year after I was baptized. I later earned my honor bee with one of my mission companions as we used Personal Progress to help reactivate inactive sisters in our ward. We have since seen one of these sisters and her family sealed in the temple. There is POWER in this program.

Yesterday my husband and I got a phone call asking us to come to church early today to discuss our callings. I teased my husband about being called to church leadership. Instead, I was asked to serve as a Mia Maid advisor in addition to my family history calling. This brother didn't even get to finish naming the calling he was extending before I agreed.

Minor complaint. Sometimes for discussion boards for school (BYU-Idaho), I touch on things I actually do well in the church/gospel or areas of doctrine where I have a strong testimony. And sometimes my classmates respond with comments like “Wow, good for you! I I don’t have this in my own home [with my spouse and children] because it was never shown or taught to me by my own parents.” 

My assignment: 

“’You have got to be kidding! A crisis is not an opportunity--it's just...a problem!’

This is how your roommate responds when you discuss the topic of your online course. Now you get to script how you might respond to that roommate...”

What I turned in:

I would simply share with this person Doctrine and Covenants Section 122, particularly verses 7-9:

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. 8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? 9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

These verses have sustained me through some of the most difficult things I have ever been asked to endure, in times of real crisis in my life. I have experienced moments of personal catastrophe and anguish I could not have imagined until I faced them. But by turning to the Lord in these moments, and submitting myself to His will, even when His will seemed like the worst possible option I could see, I have in fact seem that He knows all, that his plan is always greater than my own, and that He does work miracles to make l things work together for our good. After all, you receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. (Ether 12:6)