President Uchtdorf

“We see baptism as the starting point in our journey of discipleship. Our daily walk with Jesus Christ leads to peace and purpose in this life and profound joy and eternal salvation in the world to come.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come, Join with Us, October 2013 General Conference

I love how it all starts with baptism.  I have never really thought about the fact that our whole discipleship begins with baptism, and leads to joy and eternal salvation, who wouldn’t want that? It may not be an easy journey, actually it never will be an easy journey, but the answers are easy. We just have to stick to it.

“In this Church that honors personal agency so strongly… we respect those who honestly search for truth. It may break our hearts when their journey takes them away from the Church we love and the truth we have found, but we honor their right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience, just as we claim that privilege for ourselves.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come, Join with Us, October 2013 General Conference

This is an interesting concept that I never really thought about before. I guess it is hard to think that someone who has been in the church, did not find what they were looking for. But it happens! I am not one to judge them, I don’t know their life, but I do have to honor their agency no matter how sad it may be for me and for their future.

“first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.⁸ We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come, Join with Us, October 2013 General Conference

I love this! When we have doubts we always doubt our faith first! We give the credit to our doubts rather than our beliefs which doesn’t really make sense. We should question our doubts before our faith. It does keep us prisoner from the joy and love we can experience in our faith from Heavenly Father and Christ.

“If you expect to find perfect people here, you will be disappointed. But if you seek the pure doctrine of Christ, the word of God “which healeth the wounded soul,”⁹ and the sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost, then here you will find them.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come, Join with Us, October 2013 General Conference

This is a common thing, people think they k now Mormon beliefs so they judge us according to what they have been told, and when we make any sort of mistake they take that to being that the church must be false. How does that even make sense? People who want to know docrine rather than perfect people will be satisfied with the church.

“there may be times in our lives when rising up and continuing on may seem beyond our own ability. That day on a snow-covered slope, I learned something. Even when we think we cannot rise up, there is still hope. And sometimes we just need someone to look us in the eyes, take our hand, and say, “You can do it now!””
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

I love this statement of hope. Hope is something that I strongly believe in, and when we lose it, we lose out motivation, our happiness, our drive, our reason for being, so hope is a huge thing. We should all strive to be the one that helps others get up and when the time comes that we need it ourselves, Heavenly Father will bless us with angels of friends and family to help us get back up.

“our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

Patience and endurance in the faith are what help us get up on our own. These two principles are things that I personally need to hone and improve upon. Our ‘destiny’ is something that we choose. We have the agency to get up and keep pressing forward or to stop and give up. We just need to make the right choices

“there is an important difference between the sorrow for sin that leads to repentance and the sorrow that leads to despair.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

I just feel like this is an important thing to remember. Growing up, I probably would not have made this differentiation. But it really is so important. When we are in sorrow it can be productive or hindering and I feel like many people just get depressed and never end up repenting and knowing the goodness and joy of being clean again. If only they knew!!!

“when guilt leads to self-loathing or prevents us from rising up again, it is impeding rather than promoting our repentance.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

               

“We have a champion, a Savior, who walked through the valley of the shadow of death on our behalf. He gave Himself as a ransom for our sins. No one has ever had greater love than this—Jesus Christ, the Lamb without blemish, willingly laid Himself on the altar of sacrifice and paid the price for our sins to “the uttermost farthing.”⁷ He took upon Himself our suffering. He took our burdens, our guilt upon His shoulders.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

I love the vivid words here, it paints such a great picture of Christ and what He went through for us! He is the ultimate example and repenting is just one thing that we can do to attempt to repay Him for what He has given us, which is everything! The potential for everything!

“If we see healthy eating and exercise as something only our doctor expects of us, we will likely fail. If we see these choices as who we are and who we want to become, we have a greater chance of staying the course and succeeding.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now!, October 2013 General Conference

This never really crossed my mind before, I am not a very avid goal setter (I know I probably should be) but it is interesting that we really have to want success to our goals in order to achieve them. I mean yeah we all want to get fit, or get healthy but our actions are what really say what we want. If we want the potato chips more than we want to be healthy, we are going to eat them.

“God’s light is real. It is available to all! It gives life to all things.¹ It has the power to soften the sting of the deepest wound. It can be a healing balm for the loneliness and sickness of our souls. In the furrows of despair, it can plant the seeds of a brighter hope. It can enlighten the deepest valleys of sorrow. It can illuminate the path before us and lead us through the darkest night into the promise of a new dawn.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, The Hope of God’s Light, April 2013 General Conference

The power of Heavenly Father’s light is incredible. It can bring peace and happiness to the most desolate situations and lives. It is the letting the light in that I feel like people struggle with. With so much to gain and nothing to lose, what would stop anyone from letting the light in? It is healing, the atonement is part of the light and it can heal our wounds, mend our hearts, give us a future worth living. I personally love light!

“Nevertheless, spiritual light rarely comes to those who merely sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch. It takes an act of faith to open our eyes to the Light of Christ.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, The Hope of God’s Light, April 2013 General Conference

This is an important principle. To take a step of faith does not require that we know something or believe something, it requires a STEP. Acting to get to believing or knowing is how that works, it doesn’t just happen or appear, we have to do something.

“Yes, we will make mistakes. Yes, we will falter. But as we seek to increase our love for God and strive to love our neighbor, the light of the gospel will surround and uplift us. The darkness will surely fade, because it cannot exist in the presence of light. As we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.⁶ And day by day, the hope of God’s light will grow within us, “brighter and brighter until the perfect day.””
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, The Hope of God’s Light, April 2013 General Conference

                I love that we don’t have to be perfect, we just have to strive for it. It is comforting to know that I am not the only person who makes mistakes, fails, has to start over. Because of the light of the gospel I know that whatever happens, no matter how many times I fail, I get get back up and the Lord will help me succeed.

“patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Continue in Patience, April 2010 General Conference

I like the “active waiting” phrase to describe patience. Waiting seems like such a boring and pointless thing, but active waiting, I can definitely see how that can be productive and good for us.  It requires work, hope and faith. Those are all key to patience. We obviously need to work because we can’t get anything if we don’t work for it. Hope is so important because like I said earlier, hope is what gives us meaning. Faith, faith is what helps us rely on our Heavenly Father who knows what is best for us and wants so desperately to give it to us. Endure well!

 “As the Lord is patient with us, let us be patient with those we serve. Understand that they, like us, are imperfect. They, like us, make mistakes. They, like us, want others to give them the benefit of the doubt. Never give up on anyone. And that includes not giving up on yourself.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Continue in Patience, April 2010 General Conference

I like connecting these two things. The Lord is patient with us, so we (taking His perfect example) should be patient with others. I feel like we are all innately a little selfish so we don’t always think about other people and what they might be going through, how similar they are to us, the mistakes that they have made similar to our own.  Again, the example of the Lord is key. Patience can help us think more and help more and be more selfless and kind to those who may be in need of our help.

“We must learn that in the Lord’s plan, our understanding comes “line upon line, precept upon precept.” ⁶ In short, knowledge and understanding come at the price of patience.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Continue in Patience, April 2010 General Conference

As frustrating as this can be at times, it is true and it is important. If we got all of the information that we wanted at once, we would not be able to handle it and our brains would freak out! Again, this is Heavenly Father doing what is best for us even though we don’t understand it so we don’t agree sometimes.

“Patience means staying with something until the end. It means delaying immediate gratification for future blessings. It means reining in anger and holding back the unkind word. It means resisting evil, even when it appears to be making others rich.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Continue in Patience, April 2010 General Conference

                                Amen.

New quotes from President Eyring

“We are under covenant both to lift up those in need and to be witnesses of the Savior as long as we live.”
President Henry B. Eyring, Come Unto Me, April 2013 General conference

I feel like this is an important fact that we should not forget, as I often do. We are under covenant to give service and to witness of the Savior. In this time I feel like most people are simply concerned with their day-to-day lives and Christ is a separate part of life. When really, everything in our lives should center around Him. Everything we do should be with Christ in mind.

“You can depend on the Lord to draw closer to them as you serve Him in faith.”
President Henry B. Eyring, Come Unto Me, April 2013 General conference

              I love this promise from the Lord. We all have loved ones who are struggling in faith and we want to do more for them. The best thing that we can do is to serve the Lord in faith. He will bless us as well as our families for the service that we willingly offer to Him.

“My promise to you who pray and serve the Lord cannot be that you will have every blessing you may wish for yourself and your family. But I can promise you that the Savior will draw close to you and bless you and your family with what is best. You will have the comfort of His love and feel the answer of His drawing closer as you reach out your arms in giving service to others. As you bind up the wounds of those in need and offer the cleansing of His Atonement to those who sorrow in sin, the Lord’s power will sustain you. His arms are outstretched with yours to succor and bless the children of our Heavenly Father, including those in your family.”
President Henry B. Eyring, Come Unto Me, April 2013 General conference

              I know this Is a long quote but this is what stood out to me from the entire talk. Not only is it a promise but it is a direct call to action as well. We need to serve the Lord and His children. We need to offer the cleansing of the atonement to those in sin. We will be sustained and He will bless us with what we need for ourselves and our family.

“We sanctify ourselves and fulfill our individual duties to the commandment to take the gospel to all of our Heavenly Father’s children.”

President Henry B. Eyring, We Are One, April 2013 General Conference

               I love how President Eyring says that we need to help ourselves before we can help others. How can we successfully bring the gospel in to other people’s lives when we ourselves do not yet have it engrained into our being and way of life? We need to be able to preach with confidence to help others. We need to know doctrines before we can teach them. We need to work on ourselves.

“it was not so much the duty anyone performed but the way they all became one in their enthusiasm to bring people into the community of Saints that had brought them such happiness.”
President Henry B. Eyring, We Are One, April 2013 General Conference

               I think that this is so cool that it was not the fact that they did the job but they did it enthusiastically and that is what brought their success! They became one in purpose and then expanded and invited and brought others into their happiness. That is just beautiful!

“It was the love of God and the love for their friends and neighbors that unified them to serve the people. They desired to take the gospel to everyone in their part of the world. And they prepared their children to be worthy to be called by the Lord to teach, to testify, and to serve in other parts of His vineyard.”
President Henry B. Eyring, We Are One, April 2013 General Conference

              Charity unified them. They loved Heavenly Father and they loved their friends and wanted what was best for them and that is what inspired them to do missionary work. I know of no better inspiration and not better cause to be inspired for!  I too have had this desire to bring the gospel to every person that I possibly can. I will prepare my future children to serve by preparing myself to be able to do whatever the Lord wills  when He wills it.

“It is only with the companionship of the Holy Ghost that we can hope to be equally yoked in a marriage free from discord. I have seen how that companionship is crucial for felicity in a marriage. The miracle of becoming one requires the help of heaven, and it takes time. Our goal is to live together forever in the presence of Heavenly Father and our Savior.”
President Henry B. Eyring, To My Grandchildren, October 2013 General Conference

             I love how he mentions that we need to keep our eternal goal in mind. The purpose behind everything. The reason we want a happy and successful marriage is so that we can live with our families and Heavenly Father forever. Having the companionship of the Holy Ghost is so important for our success that I would wager that it is nearly impossible without him! We need to stay close to the Lord and close to our spouses.

“Heavenly Father has perfect foresight, knows each of us, and knows our future. He knows what difficulties we will pass through. He sent His Son to suffer so that He would know how to succor us in all our trials.”
President Henry B. Eyring, To My Grandchildren, October 2013 General Conference

               This is just a simple quote that I feel like we need to remember. This is something that we should have posted on our walls and mirrors. Christ has gone through everything that we have gone through and we can take comfort in that and have hope for a brighter future because of Him. Heavenly Father knows what we will pass through and He knows that we can get through it. We need to remember that while we in the midst of a trial.

“there is joy guaranteed for the faithful.”

President Henry B. Eyring, To My Grandchildren, October 2013 General Conference

             Oh what a promise! The answers are easy! The applications, not always. But we should always know what the answers are. Heavenly Father will help us and with Him on our side, who can be against us?

“The message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is that we can and must expect to become better as long as we live.”
President Henry B. Eyring, Our Perfect Example, October 2009 General Conference

               This Quote is and “endure To The End” quote and I love it. We can endure faithful to the end and to do so we must also become better along the way. We must be progressing because if we are not, we are growing farther away from our Heavenly Father. We should strive to do better every single day. For me this is kind of a stress causer but honestly it is true and nothing will make it less true. I know I just need to do my best every day and realize and repent of the shortcomings I have had daily. This requires constant communication with our Heavenly Father and constant humbleness. No one is perfect and I am far from it, but as long as I know that I am doing my best, I know I will be blessed.

“Love is the motivating principle by which the Lord leads us along the way towards becoming like Him, our perfect example. Our way of life, hour by hour, must be filled with the love of God and love for others.”
President Henry B. Eyring, Our Perfect Example, October 2009 General Conference

             Love, love is everything. Charity, the pure love must permeate our lives as it did the saviors. It needs to be our motivation, our goal, our reason for everything.

“You can pray for your children, love them, and reach out to them with confidence that Jesus reaches for them with you. When you keep trying, you are doing what Jesus does.”
President Henry B. Eyring, Our Perfect Example, October 2009 General Conference

              It’s hard, no one ever said it wasn’t. But as I said, we simply need to do the best we can, always.

“Because of His Atonement for you, your childlike obedience will bring a feeling of love of the Savior for you and your love for Him. That is one of the gifts that is promised to His faithful disciples. And this gift can come not only to you alone but also to the loving members of your family. The promise was given in 3 Nephi: “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” ”
President Henry B. Eyring, Our Perfect Example, October 2009 General Conference

              

Temple Attendance quotes

Temple Attendance -Personal Application Topic

“As you and I go to the holy houses of God, as we remember the covenants we make within, we will be more able to bear every trial and to overcome each temptation. In this sacred sanctuary we will find peace; we will be renewed and fortified.”
President Thomas S. Monson, The Holy Temple – a Beacon to the World, April 2011 General conference

“My brothers and sisters, temples are more than stone and mortar. They are filled with faith and fasting. They are built of trials and testimonies. They are sanctified by sacrifice and service.”
President Thomas S. Monson, The Holy Temple – a Beacon to the World, April 2011 General conference

“The saving ordinances received in the temple that permit us to someday return to our Heavenly Father in an eternal family relationship and to be endowed with blessings and power from on high are worth every sacrifice and every effort.”
President Thomas S. Monson, The Holy Temple – a Beacon to the World, April 2011 General conference

“there is no more important goal for you to work toward than being worthy to go to the temple.”
President Thomas S. Monson, The Holy Temple – a Beacon to the World, April 2011 General conference

new quotes

Patience

“My dear sisters, your Heavenly Father loves you—each of you. That love never changes. It is not influenced by your appearance, by your possessions, or by the amount of money you have in your bank account. It is not changed by your talents and abilities. It is simply there. It is there for you when you are sad or happy, discouraged or hopeful. God’s love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve love. It is simply always there.”
President Thomas S. Monson, We Never Walk Alone, October 2013 General Relief Society Meeting

Scripture Study

“As we read and ponder the scriptures, we will experience the sweet whisperings of the Spirit to our souls. We can find answers to our questions… When scripture study is combined with our prayers, we can of a certainty know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true.”
President Thomas S. Monson, We Never Walk Alone, October 2013 General Relief Society Meeting

Setting goals

“The history of the Church in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times, is replete with the experiences of those who have struggled and yet who have remained steadfast and of good cheer. The reason? They have made the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of their lives.”
President Thomas S. Monson, I will not Fail Thee, nor Forsake Thee, October 2013 General conference

Charity

“Home teaching is more than a mechanical visit once per month. Ours is the responsibility to teach, to inspire, to motivate, and where we visit those who are not active, to bring to activity and to eventual exaltation the sons and daughters of God.”
President Thomas S. Monson,  True Shepherds, October 2013 General Conference, Priesthood Session