Week of January 7 2017: An Ensign to the Nations

Dear Sisters,

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Week of January 7 2017

Read: Helaman 15-16 and Our Heritage pages 81-86 (PDF attached)

Write: In Helaman 16, we read that some Nephites declare that “it is not reasonable that such a being as a Christ shall come.”  Do you ever feel challenged for holding to your faith?  How do you remain strong and inspired? 

We hope that you had an exhilarating first week of the new year!  As you think about goals for this year, we hope that you will consider taking a small amount of time each day to read The Book of Mormon and reflect on  your personal life story.  Our reading and writing journey will continue until April General Conference, and we promise that your life will be changed if you take this opportunity!

This week we read about becoming an "ensign to the nations," and we invite you to reflect on the way you serve as a strength and a beacon to your family and community.  We know that you shine a light to the world every day!

This week's personal story was written by Jenni Currit, from the Discovery Park ward.  Thank you Jenni for your thoughtful reflection!

Prompt:  Write about a time when you received guidance or a warning from someone you trust. How did that guidance or warning help you in your life?

The prompt and readings this week took me all over the place in my thoughts as I pondered times when I have received much appreciated advice and guidance from parents, prophets, friends and teachers. One experience stands out to me as something of a parable. 

Several years ago my husband and I had finally finished school and scraped together enough cash to buy a home. We met with 2 different real estate agents in an attempt to find someone to help us with this dream. The first came highly recommended and had years of experience in the area we were looking. But he came with bad news. In our meeting he said he would be willing to show us houses but that he was watching trends closely and he thought that there were serious indications that the market was about to take a serious downturn and he recommended that someone as vulnerable as we were would be wise to wait to buy a house for a few more years to see what happened to the market. We were of course excited about the prospect of owning a house and the general feeling around us did not agree with his dire predictions. So we turned to another agent who came to our house wearing a flashy watch and driving a fancy car and he sat down and told us exactly what we wanted to hear. In fact--not only should we buy a house with a conservative loan but we should leverage ourselves as much as possible and buy as big as possible--or maybe even 2 homes! We would become rich in less than a year. Now, that's more like it! But we couldn't get the other agent's warning out of our minds so we went to the websites and researched what he had given us and looked carefully at our personal situation and in the end decided to put off buying a house. Of course within the year the bubble on the housing market burst and the great recession began. The following years were particularly rough on my husband's industry and we proceeded to eat through all of that savings we had set aside for the house. But, oh how grateful we were for that advice we received from a wise agent who knew the markets better than we did. And, how grateful we were to have taken his advice. It put off our dream of owning a home for more than 7 years, but in those years we were blessed with stability, more children and wonderful friends every step of the way. It wasn't the dream we had but it was even better, given the greater forces at work around us. 

As I read this week in Helaman 13 about true prophets and false prophets who will say "walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth" (v27) I find myself grateful for prophets who may not tell us what we want to hear and may defer the dreams we have, but who see the greater forces at work in the world and who are able to keep our priorities and perspectives true and in line with the Lord's greater plan for us.

Have a wonderful week sisters!

Marni Campbell, Theresa Roth, Michelle Quinn, & Jenni Currit

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