Personal Projects

FDREL333: Teachings of the Living Prophets

August 24:

I decided to take a step back and look at my own life to see what I need to work on. I personally, didn’t think that I had anything big that I needed to work on. However, I’ve recently been struggling with losing weight. I’ve always been told that the Atonement can be used to help us with any problem that we’re struggling with, so I decided to apply the Atonement in my life by utilizing it through my weight loss journey. If I come to Him with this big problem, then he’s bound to help me through my own faith and through his will and what he wants for me. My plan to conquer this is to start praying every morning and ask for help with personal portion control and asking him for the energy that I need to keep the calories off of me. I hope to lose about 10 pounds by the end of week 7.

September 4:

It’s not the end of week 7 yet, so I haven’t lost the 10 pounds I set out to. However, I started feeling a lot more confident and comfortable with where I’m at right now. Since I set out with this goal and started praying and asking for help, along with fasting this last Sunday, I have started making progress. I also discovered a new feature on my Wii Fit game that will help me out with a calorie burn daily goal.

September 7:

It's the end of week 7, and I never ended up hitting my goal. However, I've been able to see the results. I was talking to my best friend earlier, and she even said that I looked like I had been losing weight. Overall, I think the fat is being shed and the muscle is starting to come back. I should see more weight loss in the future. I learned a lot about the Atonement through doing this. It's not just about expecting the Atonement to work however you'd want it to. It's about taking the time to let the Atonement work in your life the way that it should. In summary, Christ knows what he's doing with me. I need to let go and trust that he will help me.

FDREL211: New Testament

For this block class, (Fall 2017) I chose to work on gratitude, my favorite Christ-like attribute. When I was given this assignment, I thought of gratitude, as it has been something that I have been struggling with in my spiritual life lately. Specifically, I thought that I should be more noticing of the Lord’s hand in my life. He has done a lot for me that I didn’t recognize as much as I should. A solution that I came up with to solve this problem was to mark down scriptures in my journal that are actually about gratitude, just adding them reference by reference to add to my project. However, this didn’t work out as well as I expected. There is so much to be grateful for, but still too many scriptural accounts to count and keep track of.
I chose this Christ-like attribute because I used to be good at being grateful, but I seem to have strayed from that recently. I wanted to get back to being good at it because being grateful for everything makes me a happier person. It seems that the people in scriptural times are either grateful or the complete opposite. I’m excited to learn more about how I can become more like Christ and the righteous people within his life through gratitude.

1- What were your measurable goals (markers)?  How did you do with your "measurables"?

 To accomplish my goal, I chose four week-long actions:
1. Every night have a discussion about the Lord’s hand in my day with my spouse.
2. Every time I get upset about something bad happening, I will thank God for the fact that it could be worse.
3. Mark scriptures about gratitude, at least once a week.
4. Write down 10 things that God did to bless my life during the day.
Throughout this block class, I saw a lot of little miracles happening in my life. A bunch of my friends left on missions, and some of my old classmates got engaged. I found myself starting to feed off of their gratitude as I thought more and more about this project. Though I found it hard to have a discussion about everything that’s going on that I’m grateful for with my spouse, I still found that every day there is something to be grateful for. Though it may be something small or isn’t very significant to your own situation, it still feels amazing to feel gratitude for others and what’s happening in their lives.
My becoming project had a little bit of a rough start. My commitment for week 2 was that I would be able to, at the end of every day, write down the tender mercies that the Lord has shown me and how he has helped me accomplish what I’ve needed to. I don’t think that I was too successful at doing this because I just really haven’t had the time or put the goal somewhere visible where I could see what I needed to accomplish. I just forgot about this goal to become more grateful. That week was really busy and full of different responsibilities, and it was really hard to be more grateful when I’m getting pounded on Wednesday’s with what seemed like millions of different assignments. I was able to find gratitude, however, for the Institute program that we have in Rigby. I get to go to that every Wednesday night at 7, so I’m really grateful that I’m usually able to get all of my homework done by then. It’s kind of a chore to push myself to be able to attend by getting all of my homework done on the weekend, but it’s always worth the reward of going to institute with my friends.

2- What specific experiences did you have during the semester that helped you see "change" in yourself

During week 3, I got the flu and had a lot of trouble getting all of my assignments done and getting back to work. Somehow, I was able to pull myself together and remind myself that I was still getting things done. I was starting to feel gratitude that I was sick in the first place! I was feeling so stressed and started to complain about how I was never home anymore, and I guess that I ended up getting what I wanted anyways. God has a sense of humor, and he definitely showed me a way to be grateful throughout the rest of this block class.
A couple weeks ago, one of my close friends was able to become a service missionary at the bishop’s storehouse. At first, I was a little confused at the fact that he was becoming a service missionary and not a full-time missionary. However, I thought back on all of the times that we had spent together growing up, and was so thankful for his friendship. My husband and I attended his farewell, and I thought about how thankful I was that we have a missionary in our lives and that my husband still has a friend in close proximity to us. Our friend makes us so happy, and there are so many things that we like to do together with him, so it turned out to be a blessing that he’s serving a service mission.

3- What scriptural principles and study skills helped in your quest to change?

1. Matthew 15:36 – The sacrament is really about giving thanks to our Heavenly Father and all that he has done for us.
2. Luke 2:38 – A widow, whose life sounded terribly hard, still gives thanks for what she has. Why should we stop giving thanks when even the people, who are in worse situations than we are, continue to rejoice?
3. Luke 10:21 – Jesus rejoices in God’s all-knowing wisdom and so should we. He knows all things, and if Christ is thankful for what God is putting him through, then we should be too.
4. Alma 37:37 – When we wake up, our hearts should be full of thankfulness because of the things that God has done for us.
I think that the most impactful study skill for me throughout this class was the doctrines and principles study skill. Though I don’t think that I used it the correct way, I was able to think more deeply about the reasons why certain things needed to happen. Having read Mary Magdalene’s story at the end of the four gospels, it is easy to wonder why she was the one that discovered the empty tomb. One might be surprised at how the disciples were not the ones who discovered Christ was resurrected. I had to ask myself if there was there a greater reasoning behind Christ having Mary Magdalene seeing him first rather than the disciples. Did it have to happen that way because nobody would believe the disciples if they said Christ was risen (because they were biased in things concerning Christ?) Perhaps this is so that Christ can give somebody else a chance to run and tell the world that he is risen, or to show continuity with the disciples’ betrayal of Christ. (John 20:1-18) This deepens my gratitude for the Savior. He did everything for a reason, and this was giving someone else the opportunity to spread the good news of the gospel.

FDREL 121: The Book of Mormon

This semester, I find myself a little bit more unfaithful than I usually am. I struggle with looking at the bigger picture and knowing for sure that the Lord is on my side in all that I do. I thrive when I know that he's there, watching over me. I can't help but feel guilty when I think of Christ-like attribute projects. I am thankful for all that he has done, and I know that he will help me when I ask, but I struggle with the unbearable knowledge that he is always there, even when I don't ask. We've been struggling a lot lately with finances and tossing around the idea of moving into a bigger place. I feel like I can't tell what God wants for us. These things are very important to us, and I can feel Heavenly Father helping me to accomplish my school work, but I struggle knowing what he might want us to do. It's almost as if I can't hear him anymore.

I know he's there, and I love to feel his spirit surround me. He blesses us with so much, but I just want to be able to hear what he has to say again. To know that the choices I am making are for the best, or aren't for the best. So, for my Christ-like attribute project, I've decided to become more faithful. Christ might not have known every little detail on what was going to happen for him, but he definitely knew that God was going to be with him through it all. I want to be okay with not knowing every detail and letting God take care of it for me. He knows that I struggle with having little to no control over little things, but I'm glad that he's taking the reigns, and steering us through the fog. We may not be able to tell whether we are going in the right direction, but I think that with faith, everything will become a lot less complicated.

My 2-Week Plan:

First, I need to reevaluate the steps that I've already taken towards moving. I need to ask the following about those steps: Were the steps made to get closer to Christ? Was that step necessary to better the lives of my family? Am I deserving of taking the next step? If I can answer yes to all of those for the steps I've taken, I think that it's pretty clear to assume that I am being led in the right direction.

Second, I really need to clean my apartment sometime during this upcoming school week, or during this weekend. I find that I am much more susceptible to the Spirit when I am in a clean environment. If I do this, then I will be able to increase my faith that I am doing what the Lord wants for me, and that he will stop me if I shouldn't.

Third, I should walk forward with faith that he will help me, progressing in the steps to move. If God isn't helping me and is hindering my progress out of the apartment, then what needs to happen will happen. If he is helping me out of this apartment and into a new one, then my testimony will grow as he helps me. I just need to be the first one to walk out and trust that he can and will catch me.

Results:

(pending)