Happy Mother's Day

What a wonderful Mother's Day I had. I feel so blessed to be able to spend the day with my kids and my hubby. We were able to talk to Alex for quite a while and it was so great. I can see why there is a rule that missionaries can only talk to their families twice  a year...it is hard to hang up! We all did really well until the good-bye then the water works started. He is good and loving being a missionary still. He is in a beautiful new condo that is in a pretty area. He said the ward is really great and they have really been trying to help the missionary work go forward.  I'm grateful for this awesome experience he is having which in turns means we are having. We do have a loving Heavenly Father who knows each of us and loves us and wants us to be happy. He has provided all that we need in order to be happy. Doesn't mean it won't be hard, but if we are obedient it will be easier. One of the questions David asked Alex was what advice would Alex give to the missionaries in David's mission prep class now that he has been out a while. Alex said he would probably have to say "be exactly obedient" He knew you needed to be obedient but he has learned that exactly obedient means more than just being obedient. It means that when you have a rule to follow you don't question that rule or complain about that rule, you are obedient to that rule exactly and support that rule and know that by obeying that rule exactly you will be blessed. I thought that was good advice for all of us. On one hand I can't believe it has been 10 months on the other it still seems like years since Alex has been gone. I know that he has grown so much and has a deeper understanding of the love our Heavenly Father has for each of his children and he has been able to rely only on the Lord through so many experiences. I love this gospel and love to see my children and family happy in it. Alex was asked to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday. I'm glad he wrote some notes so he could send them home since I would love to have been a fly on the wall and hear him speak on Mother's Day. His letter is the next best thing though. :) and here is the most recent picture of Alex while we were skyping.

Hola!! Feliz (día después) día de los madres!!

It was so awesome to be able to talk to you guys yesterday!! I love you! You're the best. :) 

 

We didn't end up having a lesson. They weren't there, but we talked with another lady who wants us to come teach her family and give them a prayer that should be cool. :) 

That's weird that you're talking to Abi, but it's cool. Haha yeah I miss Bradenton, but it'll be fun to go visit. We might go exploring later. We haven't had much time yet. And Elder Lagunas family is good. Everything is going well. 

Alright, well, not much to say so I'll combine the spiritual experience and the scripture again. I'm just going to put the gist of my talk from sacrament in here. It's kind of long, but it was fun preparing for. Here it is: 

"So I was asked to speak on how to make and keep covenants to lead us to the temple. And along with that, I need to incorporate mothers. 

I am going to be taking ideas from two conference talks for today. One of them was from last October. It is called "Personal Strength Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ" - Elder Richard G. Scott. The other is from this last one in April. It is titled "A Priceless Heritage of Hope" - President Henry B. Eyring. 

A Priceless Heritage of Hope... What does that mean? Well, a heritage is something we leave behind for our descendants and, this heritage is priceless. President Eyring talks about one of his Great Grandparents who was a convert from Germany. This man went through a lot. He served 3 missions, all of which were longer than 2 years, and he left a family for all of them. He suffered many trials and afflictions, but he was happy. He knew the truth that this gospel has and he taught his family that. He left President Eyring with a priceless heritage of hope. We can do the same. Ere is an example of this in the BOM. I would like to share this story with you today and while I am going through the story I will pause and kind of pull it apart so that we can relate it to ourselves. 

Now, we all know the story of the 2000 stripling warriors. They were a band of young men who had to fight because their fathers had sworn to never again pick up their weapons of war. Although I love the story of these courageous young men, I would like to focus on their fathers. Their fathers grew up as Lamanites. They hated the Nephites and delighted in the shedding of blood. They loved war. They were carnal. However, they were converted by some missionaries and they immediately Covenanted with God to bury their weapons of war. These brave men would rather just stand there and die when their enemies came to fight them, rather than take up their arms and fight back. This act ended up converting many of their enemies, who then joined their band and buried their weapons as well.

Now, I have your attention and want to bring something else up. We will come back to the story in a minute. We have many covenants that can and will lead us to the temple. We have the baptismal covenant, which we hear every week as the sacrament is blessed. The men in this chapel have priesthood covenants, and the women are there to help us keep these sacred covenants. And, of course, we have the covenants that we make in the temple. But how do we make and keep our covenants in order to get to the temple? Well, baptism is an essential ordinance in order to make the baptismal covenant. There we made the covenant. Now what? How do we keep it? Well, we need to know what it is first. We promise to always remember our savior. Always. This takes a lot of effort. This takes time. And in turn, we are promised to always have his spirit to be with us.

These basic covenants are not the only ones that we can make. This is where the story comes back into place. The fathers could not fight because they had made a covenant with The Lord. The sons, however, could fight, because they had not made the same covenant. They did not need to. Sometimes, we make mistakes. We mess up. Each of us has our own weaknesses. Some may be similar, but they are different depending on the person. These fathers knew that if they began to fight again, they would fall back into their old ways. Yes, they had repented and they had been forgiven. But once they put themselves in that situation, Satan now has more power. He knows us perfectly. He remembers before this life. He knows how to tempt us. So these fathers could not break their covenant. Sometimes, we might have to make our own personal covenants with God. We know our weaknesses. We know how Satan works on us. So, in order to get to the temple, we need to follow those basic essential covenants, but we might also have to make our own, specifically for us.

The great thing about this, is that we don't ever have to do it alone. We always have God there with us, and we also have our earthly parents. This is where our mothers come into play. They raised us, they cleaned up after us, they taught us right from wrong. Our wonderful mothers have made us who we are today. And the 2000 stripling warriors were successful because of their faithful mothers. I would like to read two quick versus in Alma 56: 47-48. It says: 

47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

48 And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.

 The mothers of these young men had taught them how to be faithful, trusting, obedient, loving, dependent on God, and of course, how to keep a covenant. 

Due to the faith of these mothers and the way they had raised their sons, none of the 2000 warriors were killed in battle. They were all injured to some degree, but none of them lost their life. As we make and keep our covenants we will face trials. Things will be hard. We might have to deal with some spiritual blows and some tough times. But as we stay faithful and rely on The Lord and what we have learned, we will never die. We will always triumph over evil and we will be able to make it to the temple to continue making and keeping our covenants. These wonderful mothers left their sons with a priceless heritage of hope. Each of us can start now. We need to do our best to make and keep covenants, as well as show and teach our children how to do the same. They look up to us and we need to lead them along the right path.

Motherhood is difficult. Nobody said it was supposed to be easy. But each of you are part of a divine partnership with God. Yes, you are raising your children, but they are his children too. He is always there to help you, especially during those times when you don't think you can keep going. God loves each of you for your sacrifice and for your willingness to help him raise his children. Each of you, is leaving a priceless heritage of hope for your children. They might now realize it now, but they will eventually. I always knew that my mom made sacrifices for me and my siblings, but I never realized how difficult it was for her until I got out here. 

I am so grateful for my mom and everything that she has done for me. I would not be here right now if it weren't for her. And I am so grateful for all of the faithful women in my life. I am grateful for the opportunity that we have to celebrate you amazing women today. You don't receive as much thanks as you deserve, yet you keep going. You are blessed daughters of our Heavenly Father and he loves you very much. I know that this church is true and I know that we have the families that we have for a reason. "

So that was basically my talk. Some parts were different, but those are kind of my notes from all week. :) I love you all!! Have an amazing week!! Happy late Mother's Day to all of you wonderful women!!

 

Love,

Elder Moyes