I am GRATEFUL for the Stake Pres. Message to us in Relief Society

Gratitude Journal Entry #59

He talked about six things that we need to do to fulfill the mission we have in our lives.

The first thing he talked about was that we needed to pray and ask Heavenly Father what our Mission in our lives is and then over the days and weeks he said try to notice the impressions we get from the spirit letting us know what it is that we are here for.

The second thing is to Read and Ponder our Patriarchal Blessings, he said wouldn't it be nice to have our children's Patriarchal blessing right when they are born so that we would have some Idea of how to raise them, That would be nice!

The third thing was to have the courage to "TRY!" Find our hidden talents! I liked this one because I have a hard time with this one. He said that we all have a place in this life and we are given things to do to fulfill that place to help us to grow. He said that a long time ago he was asked to be the new Sunday school teacher. He was called to teach the fifteen year olds and he said that they were a VERY noisy and rowdy bunch and he really wanted to say no because he just didn't want to do it. He didn't want to deal with trying to calm them down. So he prayed on what he could do. He was inspired to challenge them all to read the scriptures and they had to read everyday or they had to start all over. So, a lot of them did this and they all had to report to him every Sunday and how far they have gotten. He said that for his work at the time, he travelled to China a lot and he promised them that if they finished the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, he would by them all Rolex watches (he said of course he didn't tell them that he got a five thousand dollar watch replica for only five bucks) so they were all motivated and he said that the class started to change and the kids were participating in the lesson more and getting excited to learn and read. He said that for years he had those kids STILL coming up to him long after he was there teacher, reporting to him on how far they are in the scriptures and how their scripture reading was going. He said that if he had said no to that calling than he wouldn't have had that neat experience and he wouldn't have learned what he learned and grown as much as he did.
He also told a story about Sister Sherry Dew. She lived in Kansas City and in high school she played basket ball. He said that she was a good player and she thought she was. When she graduated from high school and went to BYU and she decided that she would try out for the girls basket ball team there. When she walked into the gym for tryouts and to practice, she opened the door and she stood there not moving then, quickly closing the door, she said to herself that she wasn't in "Kansas" anymore and these girls were good. Really good! She walked the halls for three hours trying to decided if she should go in and try out. She then made the decision to not try out and walked home upset at herself for being discouraged and not trying out. Fast forward, years later... She was at a conf. for the BYU athletics and she was speaking to the girls that were her age when she made that discouraging decision to not try out, and she told that story and then this lady that was in charge of the conf. got up and told Sister Dew that she was the coach at that time and that whole year she was always short one player and was looking all year long to fill that position. That struck Sister Dew in the heart knowing that she REALLY should have tried out and not being intimidated by those girls that she thought were better than here.

The fourth thing he said was that we are ALL given a mantle, wether it's in a calling or our callings as mother's. He encouraged us to Pray and Ask our Heavenly Father how we should use this Mantle.

The fifth thing is NOT to get DISTRACTED from what's important in this life. Will all the technology ect. he said that we need to keep focused on our family and things that are important in this life and to not let the things of this world distract us.

The sixth thing was to Live Righteously, So that we can prove worthy and return back to our Heavenly Father!

I love his talk it was very inspiring!