Stake Conference was a week ago and I had a lot of good insights from it. Instead of going into detail of each thing that I wrote down I just want to list my favorite things and write why I enjoyed them.

1. The way to live a Christ centered life is by living worthily and rendering service to others. I like this because as we strive to have a Christ centered life we may try and do so many things and in the process lose sight of our real goal. If we are living worthily and rendering service we are living a Christ centered life.
2. The best way to keep my covenants is by reviewing them and renewing them frequently. I like this because covenants are the reason why we can have eternal life. It is a promise with the Lord that if we follow his terms we will be allowed into the Celestial Kingdom. Reviewing and Renewing covenants will remind me not only what I have to do but the promise given.
3. You can’t make a difference in the world unless you are different. I have been thinking a lot about the state of the world and how I want to make this world a better place. The best way for me to start is to start being different than everyone in the world. It reminds me of what Gandhi said “be the change you want in the world.”
4. A marriage cannot fail if both parties are filled with charity. Marriage is the next step in my life. With so many divorces happening it does scare me and make me wonder if I will be able to have a successful marriage. If I and my future partner are filled with charity there is no way that that marriage won’t be successful.
5. Never make a decision that leaves you standing outside of the temple. This is a great quote especially going along with the last one. I need to make sure that everything I do is helping me stand in holy places like the temple.

So that was my favorite things from Stake Conference. I enjoyed how each of these things are very different but all were things that I had been thinking about before conference happened. This also goes to show that the Lord knows me and is aware of my situation in life.

Ether 12 is another popular chapter in the Book of Mormon and this time I wanted to learn something from what we normally learn about it from sunday school.
Moroni describes Ether as someone who could not be "restrained because of the Spirit of the Lord which was in him." When I read this I wanted to learn how I can be a man of that faith. I think though that we read things like this that are so powerful but fail to realize how simple it is for us to be like that. All it takes are simple daily choices to do what we know is true. As Richard G. Scott said,

"We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day."  


In verse 27 Moroni quotes the Savior, "...my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me." I love this because it gives me hope to know that I am included (as is everybody) in being able to receive the Saviors grace if I humble myself before him. How do we properly humble ourselves before the Savior though? That is a good question - if you know an answer leave a comment!

Finally I love how in verse 34 Moroni talks about charity again. He focuses on this topic a lot - and for good reasons. He says that if we don't have charity we won't inherit the kingdom of God.

For me I have a good example of charity in my life and oddly enough it comes from my sister and brother-in-law who are Atheists. Even though they don't believe in God the are great examples of the pure love of Christ or as they would probably call it, pure and selfless love.

My sister has been to many different countries over the past few years (mainly teaching english as a second language). It seems that wherever she goes she is volunteering and helping people out. She went to Ecuador and volunteered in orphanages there. She also worked on a dude ranch in Jackson and volunteered teaching english to hispanic immigrants. She has always been apart of different causes to help support human rights and stood up these people. It seems that these are little things, but my sister has made them all apart of her life.

Her husband (my brother-in-law) is the same way. It seems to me that his goal in life is to know every culture the best he can and share the greatness of these cultures with everybody. I love talking with him about the people of different cultures he works with and he talks about the great things about them.
I am finding it hard to put into words all the things that they do - but it is all very little things. I think that they personify what Richard G. Scott said,

"We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day."


I need to focus on being what I want to be - everyday. It is hard but with the Lord's help I can make it - day by day.

Moroni 7 starts with Moroni summarizing what his father Mormon wrote in the rest of the chapter. He stated simply that his father spoke about "faith, hope, and charity." This was a theme that I saw also in Moroni 8-9.


Mormon also speaks a lot about the sources of both good and evil. He gives a good analogy that "a bitter fountain cannot bring forth good water." Our outward actions of goodness can't mean anything if inwards we are not worthy. When we try to be perfected in him we need to focus on changing ourselves on the inside first because the result will be a change on the outside. 


If someone has a problem with pornography they need to focus on having pure thoughts. Just like the Doctrine and Covenants says, "Let virtue garnish thy thoughts."


If someone has a problem with Sabbath Day observance they need to focus on their love of God so that they outwardly express that love by keeping the Sabbath Day holy.


If someone breaks the Word of Wisdom they should focus on gaining a testimony that their body is a temple of God and needs to be respected.


Later on in the chapter (verse 37), Mormon talks about how miracles cease because of the lack of faith. I need many miracles in my life it seems and many times I feel like the Lord is not helping me out. Sometimes it might be because He is testing me but other times I feel like it is because I don't have enough faith in him. 


Also with faith comes hope. Hope comes to us "through the power of the atonement" so that we can "be raised unto life eternal." However all of this comes back to faith because hope comes through faith.


However if we have faith and hope but we don't have charity we are nothing. Charity is something that we need to pray for to get. It is actually something that we need to pray for with all the energy that we have.


These three things are the basics of the Gospel: Faith, Hope and Charity. Hope comes through faith and without charity we are nothing.


I feel like I need to ask myself everyday - What am I doing to develop these three?