Maintaining the Spirit

I this is the goal of my everyday life; to have the Spirit with me always. In other words, to maintain the spirit, to feel the Holy Ghost, to know that I am doing good, and to know that I am keeping my covenants. When I was on my mission, I had the Spirit with me because I was living my life to enable the Holy Ghost to be with me constantly. I LOVED it. I became accustomed to it and then I came home. To maintain the Spirit became more difficult and challenging unlike when I was a missionary. Maintaining my relationship with the Holy Ghost is so important because I know that if I have the Spirit with me, then I am living my life so that I can return home to God. 

In the sacrament prayers that we hear in church every Sunday, we are promised that we can have the spirit to always be with us if we do certain things: take upon ourselves the name of Christ, always remember Christ, and keep Christ's commandments (Doctrine & Covenants 20:77). So if we do these three things, we are promised by God that the Holy Ghost will always be with us. I really like the word always.

However, it is so easy to say these things but it is much harder to live them. It sounds clique but there is opposition in all things. Especially in maintaining the Spirit. There are always other voices calling to us and getting in the way of things that will help us to maintain our relationship with the Holy Ghost. 

Maintaining the spirit is like exercising. If an Olympic athlete stops exercising and practicing, they will loose the physic they have worked so hard to gain. In addition, I don't think their teammates would be supportive of their choice and wouldn't hang out with them anymore. They would have different priorities. This applies to your spiritual physic as well. If you stop exercising spiritually, how is the Holy Ghost (your "teammate" since baptism) suppose to be with you? It is easy to loose that connection when we are not doing the things that invite the Spirit to be with us. We are here on earth to learn so many things. One of those things is to let our spirit control our natural man. In other words, how to live to constantly have the spirit with us. 

The best way to let your spirit take control is with some help from the Holy Ghost. The influence of the Holy Ghost will help you to want to do good and turn your back on the bad. This happened to the people of King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon after the Holy Ghost helped them to change their hearts (Mosiah 5:2). You have to take the steps to have the Holy Ghost with you, but it will become easier because He will help you to continue walking down this path. The best way to keep the Holy Ghost with you and maintain your spirituality is to simply keep the covenant we made at baptism and renew every Sunday. 

1. Take upon ourselves the name of Christ
You have already been baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and by doing so took Christ's name upon yourself. You also take upon yourself Christ's name by striving to think and act like Christ (Mosiah 18:9). Be proud to have eaten of the fruit of life and stay by the tree of life (1 Nephi 8)!
This lesson has lot of insights on taking his name upon us. "What does it mean to take upon myself the name of Christ?"

2. Always remember Christ
Something that I like to so help myself always remember Christ is to pray often and thank God for my blessings and for the atonement of Jesus Christ for me. I will pray in my heart as I walk to and from school and it helps me to feel God's love through the Holy Ghost. There are many other things that we can do to always remember Christ like: having paintings depicting Christ in our homes, taking the sacrament, reading our scriptures, and pondering how we are using his atonement daily.
Two talks to read on this topic are: "They That Do Always Remember Him" by Elder Claudio R. M. Costa and "To Always Remember Him" by Elder D. Todd Christofferson

3. Keep Christ's commandments
This one is a little more obvious on what to do; just keep the commandments. The only thing I have to add is to remember the higher law that Christ taught the people on the sermon on the mount (Matt 5-8). The letter of the law is one thing but we are expected to grow to live the spirit of the law as well.

In Preach My Gospel, it says that the Holy Ghost is "a foretaste of eternal joy and a promise of eternal life (page 65)." Who does not want to have those blessings? Having the spirit with you is the best way to remember the reason you are here on earth; to return home to your Heavenly Father. 

I want to bear my testimony that living so that the spirit can be with you is vital to your happiness now and for the eternities. I know that the Holy Ghost is there to help us return to our Heavenly Father; that is why we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost when we are baptized. If you have made choices that make the companionship of the Holy Ghost less of an option, I know that you can change your life so that the Holy Ghost can always be with you. Not just sometimes, but always. Change is always possible because of Jesus Christ and you will be blessed for it with the companionship of the Holy Ghost to help guide you home.

Love Always,
Natalie

“And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit. Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy” (D&C 11:12–13).

Finally Listening

Life is hard!! I know you are thinking, "Tell me something I don't already know." My anniversary of returning from the mission field is coming up. One whole year! Who knew that time could go so fast and life could be so rewarding yet painful in 365 days.

In the last year, I have experienced so much. Highs and Lows and lots of stuff in the middle. I feel like my experiences could help someone else. A few months ago, I started having this feeling or prompting that I should start writing on this blog again. I would tell myself, "I need to do that!" Then life would happen and weeks later I would realize that I never even opened up the webpage. 
Two weeks ago, I was in Arizona in the Gilbert Temple and I was prompted again to write. And topics came to my mind of what to write about. There is no denying that. However life happened and I was not able to start writing immediately. Then, this morning I read a talk by President Henry B. Eyring titled "The Holy Ghost as Your Companion." In this talk, he tell and reminds us that to have the Holy Ghost with us always, we can start by following a prompting. After we follow that prompting, more promptings will follow. Right away, this blog came to my mind, so instead of doing homework, I am here writing this blog because I was asked to and I really need to follow this prompting. I don't know if many people will read this or if it will only help me. But I know that God has a plan for each one of us and that I would not have felt prompted to write this if there was not a purpose.

God is aware of each one of us. He knows your needs and He knows mine.

In this blog, I will be sharing some insights and advice from the perspective of a return missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know that the contents of this blog may not be unique, but hopefully they can help someone.

For now, there are twelve topics that I would like to talk about. Don't worry, I am not going to go into each of them now. (Phew!!) Each topic will get its own spotlight in a blog post.

Maintaining the Spirit

Managing your Time

Dating and Marriage

Scriptures

The Temple

School

Reflecting on the Mission

Continuing to Develop

Member Missionary Work

Trusting God

Charity and Loving others

Being Happy and Finding Joy

I know that God is aware of you because you are His child. His son or daughter. He misses you. If you are not sure about this, ask Him. Kneel down, pray, and ask Him in if He knows who you are and if he loves you. If you really want to know, then I promise that He will answer through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Love Always,
Natalie

June 23rd

Two years ago I entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) to begin my mission!! I can't believe that two years have passed so quickly and that I have been home for about 6 months!! I feel so very blessed that I was called to go on a mission to Temple Square. I am eternally grateful for the opportunities that I was given to better understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and the miracle of his atonement. Thank you to all of the wonderful Sisters, Elders, and people that I was able to associate and learn from on my mission

Hello World!

Wow. I can't believe that I am actually writing on this blog directly. It is a strange feeling. I am so very grateful to my wonderful sister Audrey for creating and constantly updating this blog for me while I was serving my mission. Thank you Audrey!

I have been released as a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 1 month and 17 days. Ugh! How does time go so fast! When someone is called as a missionary for the LDS church, they are set apart by the priesthood power (authority to act in the name of God) just like Paul and Barnabas were in Acts 13:2-3. When someone has finished their service (usually 1 1/2-2 years) they are released from that specific calling as a missionary. So when I was released, I had to take off my name tag and the mantle of a missionary was taken away. It was a tough experience but a memorable one. And I still miss wearing my name tag. :)

Being a return missionary has not been easy. It is so hard to go from serving full time to acting for yourself, especially in college! Although I have had a crazy amount of trials in my short 1 1/2 months being back to "normal life" I have also witnessed so many miracles! I know that God is definitely aware of me and my struggles because he sends me love and miracles that I wonder if I deserve. Last week a fellow RM from Temple Square left me some yummy cinnamon rolls and a note. I needed that to get through that week/day. (Thank you Sister Schill) I am so grateful. God uses normal people who are listening to the Holy Ghost to create miracles and answer prayers. I am happy that I was able to see that clearly for 18 months and that I am still able to be a part of creating miracles and having them happen to me.

I love the opportunity to serve God with all my might, mind, and strength for 18 months. Although I gave everything I have, I feel like all of the favors were done to me. I was able to change who I was into someone so much better. I say this because I now have a close relationship with my Savior Jesus Christ and God my Heavenly Father. I understand the gospel so much better and understand how it is a part of everyday life- and that is the way it should be. I have seen the difference and the power that the gospel brings into our lives when we follow the commandments and council from God and his prophets (ancient and modern). I could go on an on about the many things that I have learned and before I start to ramble I will just say that my knowledge and testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been strengthened so much. I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ in upstate New York in an answer to a simple prayer of searching for truth. I know that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet of God exactly like the prophets of old. Because of this, The Book of Mormon is a true book. It really is the word of God and it changes lives. I know this because it has changed mine and I have seen it change other's lives. Jesus Christ lives today. He died for each one of us so we could choose to live so we can be with Heavenly Father again. He loves us and that is why he atoned for us.

Until next time, remember that God love you and will provided for you. All you need to do is reach out with faith and trust him. That can be hard and scary to do, but life is so much better when you remember his love.

Love Always,

Natalie

More to come!

Keep checking the blog! Soon there will be more posts. This blog is going to transform soon!!!! It will be exciting!