Lessons from Liberty Jail

I should be doing laundry, cleaning up the apartment, and making a grocery list. But here I am with my Dr. Pepper blogging instead. With all the changes me and Nick have been going through and with the passing of three great apostles in such a short time I have had a lot on my mind. Then today while watching Elder Scotts funeral I thought to myself, "What am I going to do when Elder Holland dies." His talks always seem to be just what I need to hear. He always seems to be speaking right to me. He is so wise and has such amazing faith. I am in awe of him.

So I thought I would share parts of my all time favorite talk by Elder Holland.... ok so I think it might be my all time favorite talk ever. Its called Lessons from Liberty Jail. I believe its in the September 2009 Ensign. But I could be wrong. If you have not read it...do it!!

It compares what Joseph Smith had to deal with at Liberty Jail to what trails we face today. It reminds us of what Joseph Smith had to endure. He was poisoned, cold, made fun of, had to hear crude jokes and blasphemy etc. This teaches me, "That you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly

instructive experiences with the Lord in any situation you are in. Indeed, you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life— in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced" Elder Holland. WOW!  How amazing is that. Even in our most miserable state we can still have sacred experiences! 

He talks about how we will all be in our own Liberty Jail at one point in our lives. Weather it be from a choice we made or something we might have no control over. But with Gods help he can turn our Liberty Jail into a learning experience into something good. "Whenever these moments of our extremity come, we must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us or that He does not hear our prayers. He does hear us. He does see us. He does love us. When we are in dire circumstances and want to cry, “Where art Thou?” it is imperative that we remember He is right there with

us—where He has always been! We must continue to believe, continue to have faith, continue to pray and plead with heaven, even if we feel for a time our prayers are not heard and that God has somehow gone away. He is there. Our prayers are heard. And when we weep He and the angels of heaven weep with us" Elder Holland. “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; “And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes” ( D&C 121:7–8 ). He hears me and is always with me!! No matter if I am in Utah or South Carolina he hears me and is with me. And my afflictions and trails will not last forever. 

Elder Holland also reminds us that not only did Joseph Smith suffer greatly but so did our Savior. "Not only has the Savior suffered, in His case entirely innocently, but so have most of the prophets and other great men and women recorded in the scriptures. The point is this: if you are having a bad day, you’ve got a lot of company— very, very good company". He goes on to say, "It has always been a wonderful testimony to me of the Prophet Joseph’s greatness and the greatness of all of our prophets, including and especially the Savior of the world in His magnificence, that in the midst of such distress and difficulty they could remain calm and patient, charitable and forgiving" Elder Holland. 

And then there is probably my two favorite parts of the talk... "I testify that the Father and the Son live and that They are close, perhaps even closest via the Holy Spirit, when we are experiencing difficult times. I testify that heaven’s kindness will never depart from you, regardless of what happens" Elder Holland. I love love, love, love this. Our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ are close. How amazing, how comforting is that?! And knowing that no matter what "heavens kindness" will always be there with us! "I testify that bad days come to an end, that faith always triumphs, and that heavenly promises are always kept" Elder Holland. I love what peace this brings... bad days do come to an end. Even when you don't think its possible for things to get better and when you think there is no way things are going to work out.... they do. They do because faith triumphs, the Lord loves us, and "heavenly promises are ALWAYS kept". 

You might be thinking... "Well whats the point of even reading Elder Hollands talk now". Trust me I left out so much... and he is much better with words than I am.... and you really want to ha. It's amazing. Sorry for all the ramblings. But like I mentioned before... I love this talk. It has taught me so much and has changed my perspective and has helped me on my bad days. So I just had to share :) . 

The Great American Road Trip: Part 2

Day seven of our trip we went to The Grand Ole Opry. It wasn't really what I pictured... but it was still pretty cool. And huge! After The Grand Ole Opry we headed to Chattanooga Tennessee/Georgia. In Chattanooga we went to Civil War battle fields. We got to walk around and explore the different battle fields. It was different than Gettysburg. Gettysburg was a lot of grass, some trees... and pretty flat. But still beautiful. Here the battle fields were in the mountains. Tons and tons of trees, dirt, with great views.  It was also beautiful.

The next day we explored Atlanta Georgia. Of course we went to Hard Rock. We walked around Olympic Park. Saw CNN headquarters. We had lunch at The Waffle House. It was good. While at the at lunch we saw the Minnesota WNBA team. They were all so tall. After lunch we went to The Wonderful World of Coke. I loved it!! Parts were kind of boring. But overall I found it interesting. My favorite part was the taste testing!! I had different drinks from all over the world! We tried every flavor. There were some really really good ones. Ones that I wish we had here. But there was this one.. oh my gosh... so GROSS!! Like I almost threw up. It was strong. Nick hated it too. From what I saw no one liked it. After drinking way too much we headed to the Braves game. Nick really wanted a classic Braves shirt. Outside the stadium they had shirts for sell. Nick saw a blue one kind of what he wanted but he has tons of blue shirts... so he didn't get it. Shellie did buy it for Alex. So went into the stadium... and searched and searched.  We couldn't find one anywhere. The ones we could find were for kids or for big and tall and they were way too big. We walked all over that stadium. Finally we found one. Nick went into the bathroom to change. He came out and the shirt was way way too tight. We were all so confused because it was his size. So he switched Alex. He changed into Alexs shirt. We started the game. And he kept saying stuff on how he really wanted that other shirt. So finally we decided for him to go down and see if they have a size bigger or something. He came back wearing his brand new red Braves shirt. The right size. He said that the one he had on before was women's!! It was fun game. I'm glad we got to go. 

Taste Testing

The next day we woke up and headed to Charleston SC. It was about a 4 and half hour drive. We were all just so excited to get there. I had never been there and it was kind of scary not knowing what we were getting ourselves into. But we finally made it. After we got our keys we checked out downtown. It was pretty cool. So full of history. After we explored a little we went back and moved all our stuff. Thanks to Shellie and our friends Russ and Tiff it went by faster. 

Our new home

Even though we technically made it home. Our vacation wasn't over... not until Shellie went home. So while she was here we took advantage. We went on a carriage tour. I loved it!! We learned so much about Charleston. We learned about pirates, slavery, wars... etc. It was my favorite. We went to Boone Hall Plantation. The Notebook was filmed there along with other things. It was beautiful. We went to the beach a few times. We love the beach! And of course Nick tried chicken and waffles. It was sad seeing Shellie go. It made it no longer a vacation but real life. 

Rainbow Row