Mormon Musings

“Do you want conversion for yourself? I can tell you how that can happen, but it must be something you want. The gospel cannot be written in your heart unless your heart is open. But if your heart is open and willing, like the heart of a child (see Matthew 18:3–4), let me tell you what you can do to be converted. Lay aside any feeling of pride that is so common in the world today. By this I mean the attitude that rejects the authority of God to rule in our lives. Willingly submitting to God’s authority is the first step in conversion. Know the gospel and grow to understand it more fully. That means you will study it. When I say ‘study,’ I mean something more than reading. For conversion, you should care more about the amount of time you spend in the scriptures than about the amount you read in that time. Pray about everything in your life. Your Heavenly Father wants you to pray about your hopes and fears, your friends and family, your school and work, and the needs of those arou

When you're experiencing a severe trial, ask yourself this question: "Am I trying to do what the Lord would have me do?" If you're not, then adjust your course. But if you are, remember the boy outside the walls of Jerusalem who turned to his brothers and said, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7.) I bear you my testimony that the Lord will always prepare a way for you to escape from the trials you will be given if you understand two things.  One is that you need to be on the Lord's errand. The second thing you need to understand is that the escape will almost never be out of the trial; it will usually be through it. If you pray to have the experience removed altogether, you may not find the way prepared for you. Instead, you need to pray to

Now, brethren, can we fight against and subdue ourselves? That is the greatest difficulty we ever encountered, and the most arduous warfare we over engaged in. This will apply most perfectly to the brethren who have gathered with the Saints. When we are out in the world we preach faith and repentance, so that the Saints bring the knowledge of first principles with them to the gathering-place. Your next step is to enter into the study of this. A man may learn letters and study all the various branches of scholastic education to the day of his death; but if he does not attain to strict self discipline, his learning will not amount to much. The catalogue of man’s discipline he must compile himself: he cannot be guided by any rule that others may lay down, but is placed under the necessity of tracing it himself through every avenue of his life. He is obliged to catechise and train himself, for he knows his own disposition the best—its fortified and unfortified parts. He is therefore the

“I believe that our Heavenly Father wants to save every one of his children.  I do not think he intends to shut any of us off…. “…I believe that in his justice and mercy he will give us the maximum reward for our acts, give us all that he can give, and in the reverse, I believe that he will impose upon us the minimum penalty which it is possible for him to impose.” President J. Reuben Clark -Conference Report, Oct. 1953, 84

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill 

Are you prepared for the day of vengeance to come, when the Lord will consume the wicked by the brightness of His coming?  No.  Then do not be too anxious for the Lord to hasten His work.  Let our anxiety be centered upon this one thing, the sanctification of our own hearts, the purifying of our own affections, the preparing of ourselves for the approach of events that are hastening upon us.  This should be our concern, this should be our study, this should be our daily prayer...Seek to have the Spirit of Christ, that we may wait patiently for the time of the Lord, and prepare ourselves for the times that are coming.  This is our duty. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 9:3

“As an Apostle I listen now to the same inspiration, coming from the same source, in the same way, that I listened to as a boy.  The signal is much clearer now.” President Boyd K. Packer - Ensign,  Nov. 1979, 21