He spoke about the church's efforts in Haiti, education being sacred, and that the Earth has enough resources for everyone. It really was a fabulous talk. I always feel the love from the leaders of the church when our apostles preach to us, makes me want more! I want to start reading talks from the past, see what I've been missing. Look more intently at my notes from previous conferences. I just want to be better.
Concerning Haiti, I have decided to give what I can when fast offerings come this next Sunday. Watching the news, you see really devastating pictures of these good people homeless, and many without family. What would you do if your home was destroyed in just one day? What would you do if you were separated from your family, not knowing if any of them were alive? I breaks my heart to think about it. Surely I can live off of baked potatoes and ramen for one more week to help the people in Haiti.
Education is sacred. I've never thought of education as being sacred before. Sure I've heard of its importance, that it is eternal, but sacred? That gave me food for thought. Nelson's reasoning was thus: Our minds are sacred. Our minds are our best ticket into the celestial kingdom (along with our hearts), because when we die, all of our possessions, every dime, will be lost to us. But our knowledge will be kept, preserved and expanded upon for the rest of eternity. What we put into our minds, directly effect the course of our lives, which, in turn, directly effects where we will end up in the eternities. Therefore, education (by definition means, acquiring knowledge through instruction and personal study) is sacred.
The Earth has enough. Russell m. Nelson shared a very interesting fact today. There are approximately 6.8 billion people living on our planet. If every one of them was given a quarter of an acre of land (that would mean that a family of four; including a mother, a father, a daughter, and a son, would live on one acre), you could easily fit all 6.8billion people in Brazil, with 20% of Brazil still remaining unoccupied. Is that not absolutely nuts? This makes me want to point this out to those who say we're running out of room for people, we need to stop having children, we are over populating the Earth, we are going to run out of resources (etc.). We need to have more faith that the Lord will provide for us, he's got this whole deal figured out!
I would also like to share that I attended the temple today and performed baptisms for the dead. It was the first time I had gone to the temple for at least a couple of years, and I'm ashamed it took me this long to renew my temple recommend. But what a joy it was! I felt so at peace and calmed when I was at the temple. I love knowing that God is watching out for me, and I can feel his love when I perform temple work. I can't imagine what it must be like to be endowed, but I'll be sure I'm worthy for it when my time comes.
If any one who is reading this has put of renewing their recommend, like I had, I want to encourage you to do all you can to go to the temple again. One thing that held me back was feeling unworthy, telling myself I wasn't ready yet, I wasn't good enough yet. But now I realize that, though there are some of us that do need to repent before coming to the temple, for many others, it is going to the temple that we really need. I remember an old bishop telling me that the temple is a place of healing, and I know that the temple can help you heal those misleading feelings of unworthiness. I know because it happened to me today.
What a good day, I'm glad I am able to be here in Rexburg, Idaho. I've really become closer to my Savior since moving here, and I'm excited to see what else lies in store for me here.
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