Scripture Study

This morning I read Moroni chapter 8 for my scripture study. I served a Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany and Austria, and so I try to keep up on my German by reading from the Scriptures in German. I have been studying repentance and how those that repent come unto Christ, and eventually will come back into the presence of God. It is amazing to me that in the last three chapters of The Book of Mormon, there are examples of this principle that I have never made this connection with before. How many hundreds of times have I read the Book of Mormon?! I can't even count them. But this is what those verses said today. German first, then English:

Moroni 8:25, 26

"25 Und die erste Frucht der ^aUmkehr ist die ^bTaufe; und die Taufe kommt aus dem Glauben, um die Gebote zu erfüllen; und die Erfüllung der Gebote bringt ^cSündenvergebung;

26 und die Sündenvergebung bringt ^aSanftmut und Herzensdemut; und auf Sanftmut und Herzensdemut hin kommt der Besuch des ^bHeiligen Geistes, und dieser ^cTröster erfüllt mit^dHoffnung und vollkommener ^eLiebe, und diese Liebe harrt durch^fEifer im ^gGebet aus, bis das Ende kommt, da alle ^hHeiligen bei Gott wohnen werden."

Moroni 8:25-26

25 And the first fruits of ^arepentance is ^bbaptism; and baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth ^cremission of sins;

26 And the remission of sins bringeth ^ameekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the ^bHoly Ghost, which ^cComforter ^dfilleth with hope and perfect ^elove, which love endureth by ^fdiligence unto^gprayer, until the end shall come, when all the ^hsaints shall dwell with God."

Isn't it amazing? It describes the whole process of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Before we're baptized by proper, restored, priesthood authority we must have faith. We then repent and the sweet fruit of that repentance is baptism. Our sins are remitted, we are forgiven and made clean through the Holy Ghost's confirmation of the Atonement of Christ. We can keep the Holy Ghost constantly with us as we are diligent, praying always, and enduring to the end, when we will live (dwell) with God. That is the Gospel! We are never re-baptized, but we can renew baptismal covenants every week as we partake of the sacrament. We can remain worthy of the Gift of the Holy Ghost given to us in a priesthood ordinance of Confirmation after baptism. We keep commandments, we exercise faith, we repent, we pray, we serve, we love, we make further covenants and remaining faithful to those covenants, the Lord will bless us. It's beautiful. :) Check it out. Make some connections of your own. LDS.org

2 February 2012

It's been a long day and I'm sitting down at my computer, researching geisha wig construction for the spring opera, "The Mikado." My roommate comes in after having been gone for two days and offers a vibrant hello. I muster a response after a straight 9 hours on campus on 6 hours of sleep, looking at at least 4 more hours of homework before bed. (I thrive on sleep, and without it, life is MUCH more difficult.) I thought my response sufficed, because I thought it could clearly be seen that I was busy. The roommate comes in and throws her arms around me, kisses me on the cheek and says, "What's wrong?!" as if my mother had just died. Does something have to be wrong just because I have no energy to describe what is right? It's been a good day. I've been busy, productive, and prepared. I'm preparing for another day after I finally managed to get some food in my grumbly and ever-shrinking belly. Nothing is wrong, but leave me alone because your suggestion has struck a sore nerve called "I have to do this all over again tomorrow."

Roommate, should you ever read this, know that I love you. I had a great day. I didn't respond to your greeting in kind because I wanted so badly to finish my project and play with you guilt free.

Everyone else, just because someone doesn't meet your expectations doesn't mean they're depressed, angry, or upset in any way. Leave them alone and get over yourself. The world doesn't revolve around either of you.

Good night.

ps. Don't ever try to make a geisha wigs for an opera in less than a million hours or with less than $2500 if you've never done it before. It's craziness!