Losing Grandpa

My grandpa thought that I was invincible, incredible, athletic, musical, and a genius.

I love my grandpa for many reasons. One of them was that he was convinced that I was better at everything than I actually was. After I performed in our local high school musical, he told me in all seriousness that I had enough talent to go on Broadway. Hahaha.....

He was wearing some HEAVY duty rose colored glasses.

Another was that with grandpa there was always room for ice-cream, chocolate cake,doughnuts, or any type of sugar.

We got a long REAL well!

The day of my grandpa's funeral was one of the saddest days of my life.

It was hard for me to process his death. How could someone that I loved so much, someone that had always been a part of my life, all of a sudden be gone? It was the first experience that I have had with death that has really hit close to home.

Even though my grandpas death was sad and horrible, I am comforted because I know that death is not the end. It is actually a part of God's plan for us.

God wanted us to be able to become like Him. His whole purpose is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men." So He established a game plan. 

Simplified, this game plan goes as follows.

-God creates a place for us to come (earth)
- He allows us to have agency (or the ability to make our own choices)
- He allows us to experience challenges and trials to help us grow and stretch ourselves
- He gives us a perfect example to follow, Jesus Christ
- His son pays for our sins and mistakes that we made and would make while learning and growing
- His son breaks the bands of death, allowing all of us to live after death with perfected bodies

This plan is real, and because of it I am able to have the knowledge that I will see my Grandpa again. I know that death is part of the plan.

This plan is also part of the reason why I am on a mission. How could I not want to share that with others?

It makes me want to shout with Paul when he said,

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

 Losing someone you love is awful. But I take joy in the fact that because of Jesus Christ, we have hope and knowledge that death is not the end. A prophet Abinadi from the Book of Mormon says,

"And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

But THERE IS a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ."

 I am grateful for God loving us enough to give us a plan to get back to Him. Because of His perfect plan, I will get to see my grandpa again! I want my entire family to have this knowledge and follow God's plan for them. I love them too!

 If you want to read more into it, here are some of my favorite sites and articles!

General overview

http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/plan-of-salvation

Scriptures

The prophet Abinadi talking about part of this plan- https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/

The apostle Paul testifies of the resurrection- https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/1-cor/15

A modern day prophet testifies of the resurrection- https://www.lds.org/general-conference/resurrection

Peek Inside a Mormon Temple

Rain dances, mystical voodoo chants, live animal sacrifices- search the internet and you'll find people saying that all kinds of weird goes on in Mormon temples. 
 
I hope that this blog post can clear up some of the misconceptions you've heard about Mormon temples. Go ahead, scroll down and let me take you on a tour so you can see what really goes down in Mormon temples. Don't worry- it's nothing too crazy and IT"S FREE!

 

Baptismal Font

Alright, let's start with the baptismal font! In the Bible, Jesus taught about baptism (see, for example, John 3:5). Because many people do not have the opportunity to be baptized in this life, the fonts in temples are used by the living to be baptized in behalf of those who have died. The baptismal font rests on the backs of 12 oxen, following a tradition dating back to the Temple of Solomon that is described in the Old Testament. The oxen represent the 12 tribes of ancient Israel. And no, we DON'T baptize dead people. We are baptized in behalf of our ancestors.

Ordinance Rooms

Let's walk into the ordinance room. In ordinance rooms an overview is given of God's plan for His children. In here we learn of our premortal and mortal lives, the creation of the world and the Fall of man, the central role of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of all God's children, and the blessings they can receive in the next life.

Celestial Room

Here we have one of my favorite rooms in the temple. The celestial room symbolizes the exalted and peaceful state that all may achieve through living the gospel of Jesus Christ. This room represents the contentment, inner harmony, and peace available to eternal families in the presence of Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. We go in here to ponder, to read the scriptures, and to feel closer to God.

Sealing Room

In a sealing room, a bride and bridegroom are married not only for this life but also for eternity. I love looking in the mirrors, because it looks like you can see on forever. This is where I want to get married someday.


Well, that concludes our tour. Any questions? Shoot me a message. I know that the temple is the house of God. I feel closer to God when I am there and feel His spirit.  I don't understand everything, you can be sure of that, but I do know how the temple makes me feel. It uplifts and edifies me every time I go and helps me to be a better person.

A sweet 3 minute video of why we build temples!

Want to learn more? Check out www.mormon.org









To My Friends of Other Faiths

Today I felt like I should write to my friends of other faiths

As a missionary, I go around teaching people about my faith every day. On Facebook, I post all of the time about my beliefs. The reason why I do this is because my faith is the single biggest part of my life. It means the world to me and brings me immense happiness.

I recognize however, that a lot of my friends worship differently than I do. They have a passion towards their faith equal to mine, and I think that our differences are highlighted more than our similarities.

In the world today, there is a need for EVERY religious person to defend Christianity and the right to believe in God or worship however they may choose. As I have been on a mission I have noticed that

WE ARE IN A FULL SCALE RELIGOUS EPIDEMIC!

Belief in God and adhering to the values and commandments that He has given us is giving way to social popularity. Morals are almost a thing of the past in our media. Religion and worshipping God is frowned upon by many in our leadership, in our school systems, and in the general public. In a nation that was founded upon God, THIS BOTHERS ME A LOT.

I have witnessed this first hand on my mission! I knock doors and talk to hundreds of people every month about God and Jesus Christ. And it has bothers me so much that I feel inclined to write this post.

I want all of my friends to know my standing. And it is this: regardless of your religious background, your faith, or your denomination, I respect and value your belief and zeal toward God! Not only do I respect it, I applaud it!

I have had amazing neighbors, classmates, teammates, teachers, and friends that have been members of other faiths. I have seen them defend and be examples of Christ in their daily life. They say "No" to conformity, and stand for values that I appreciate.

In a world whose morals and belief in God is slowly diminishing, I think that we need to unite in our similarities and defend religious freedoom.We are all God's children, and we have more in common than we realize.

There are cultures within every religious organization, I for one admit that mine has one! I know that religion can be a sensitive subject, and a lot of feelings are hurt because of the culture of any denomination. There is plenty of room for offense to be taken within a religious community.

In my opinion, the time for all of that is long past.

We, as believers in God and followers of Him, cannot afford that for a second longer.

I hope that all of my friends know that regardless of religious beliefs, we are first and foremost friends. I look up to you and look forward to serving with you in our communities and defending the right to worship God, however we choose!

I hope you will share my statuses about God when you like them, know that I will do the same. I appreciate seeing God in my Facebook news feed.

I hope you know that you always have a friend that respects and will defend you in your belief in God, regardless of the church you belong to!

Joseph Smith, a man I believe to be a prophet of God and the founder of the church I belong to, said this:

"If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing before Heaven to die for a “Mormon,” I am bold to declare before Heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist, or a good man of any other denomination; for the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics, or of any other denomination who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves."

I feel the same way. As a missionary, my job right now is to share my beliefs and "invite others to come to Christ." I am open about my belief in God on Facebook because I know that He is there and that He loves us. I know that as a society, we need God. Without Him, our nation and our communities will fail. We also need each other, and the support that comes from all churches and all denominations uniting to defend God and religious freedom.

Please feel free to message, comment, or share my blog post with your insights and feelings. I respect and appreciate them!

Love your friend,

Sister Kami Evans

 

 

 

 



 

Burnt Pancakes- The Most Important Lesson I am Learning on my Mission

As I was contemplating what to write for my first ever blog post this morning, I decided to go and surprise my companion by making pancakes for breakfast. Sister Bickmore LOVES pancakes, so I figured I would do us both a favor and cook us some good home cooking! (Aunt Jemimas pancake mix totally counts). In my rush to surprise her and get the pancakes done in time, I turned the griddle to the hottest it could go. I mixed up our Aunt Jemimas pancake mix and had the pancakes on the griddle by the time she came out.

Little did I know that my pancake dream would soon turn into a CHARCOAL NIGHTMARE!

As soon as I got the pancake touched the griddle it turned a horrendous charcoal black! But seriously, it instantly turned straight up black right as it hit the griddle. I am no pancake professional, but I have flipped a few before and I know that that is NOT normal. I could not figure out what I had done wrong. Therefore, I blamed the mix and then tried again. The next pancake turned out just the same! After further investigation I learned an important lesson: the griddle needs to be the right temperature. And when your cooking pancakes, patience translates into perfection (or at least perfect pancakes). Unfortunately we had to eat burnt pancakes as a consequence.

Coming on a mission I expected to learn a lot of lessons and to grow a lot. Guess what? I have! But in ways I never thought I would. The lessons I have learned have been a lot more important than learning how to cook pancakes, but some have been just as unexpected and random.

After I ate my charcoal pancakes I finally realized what my first blog post had to be about! The most important lesson I am learning on my mission. It's kind of hard to distinguish from all of the lessons I am learning what is "most important", but after some honest thought I decided on one. Learning this lesson is changing my perspective on life. I hope that it can change yours as well.

The lessons is this:

God is Our Loving Heavenly Father

I've grown up singing, "I am a child of God" , but I don't think I have ever internalized it. What changes when we internalize that God is our loving Heavenly Father? The literal Father of our spirits?

For me number one is this:
1.) We know that we have someone to count on, trust, and turn too. But not just someone, an all knowing, loving God!

President Uchtdorf, a modern day apostle, said this:

"Brothers and sisters, the most powerful Being in the universe is the Father of your spirit. He knows you. He loves you with a perfect love."

HOW CRAZY IS THAT!?!?!?!?! Just think about that. The creator of the universe-a God who designed the planets, made matter, and knows everything from begining to end is our spiritual Father. On top of that, HE LOVES US. He wants what's best for us, and because of that He asks us to communicate with him through prayer.

2.) We know that our challenges are for our benefit and to help us grow.

In the book of Mormon Lehi, a prophet of God, says this to his son, "Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain." (2 Nephi 2:2)

This video "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father" explains it perfectly

Learning and internalizing this truth has helped me more than words can express. Friends and family, it is true. He loves each one of us.