Tag Archives: religion

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

5 Uses for Olive Oil

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Olive Oil

This week at institute we talked about the process of making olive oil and how that is a symbol of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I’ve heard this lesson multiple times.

It is finished; it is finished! The Lamb of God hath overcome and trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. D&C 88:106

What impressed me about this institute lesson this time around is that we talked about the different uses of olive oil.

  1. Food – Olive oil is used to eat to nourish your body. It contains monounsaturated fatty acids which is one of the healthier fats around (omega 9).  [1]
  2. Light – Olive oil can be burned in a lamp to be used for light to see. [2]
  3. Healing – Olive oil is used for many different medicinal purposes. This is just to name a few: dry skin, gallstones, dandruff,  make-up remover, diabetes… ect [3]
  4. Fixing things – Olive oil can be used for fixing things like: polishing, cleaning, things that are stuck… ect [4]
  5. Blessings – The priesthood uses pure olive oil to bless the sick and spiritually afflicted so olive oil can heal you spiritually too! [5]

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:  And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgivenhim. James 5:14 – 15

I was really impressed that olive oil is truly a symbol of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He can heal us spiritually, physically and temporally. Jesus also lights our way to help us see clearly in a fallen world. I’m so grateful for Jesus and His healing power. I would be so lost without His guidance, love and forgiveness.

What do you use olive oil for?!

[1] http://www.omega-9oils.com/omega-9-advantage/healthier-profile/omega-3-6-9.htm

[2]http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Olive-Oil-Lamp/

[3]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-hannah-grufferman/olive-oil-health-benefits_b_945506.html

[4]http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning-organizing/olive-oil-benefits-uses-460609

[5]https://www.lds.org/topics/priesthood-blessing?lang=eng

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Family Life, Mid West, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

St. Louis Temple Pictures

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Back this March we went to visit Grandma in Illinois. We flew into St. Louis. This was the second time we visited Grandma. The last time was back in 2010 (see post here).

Here is a picture of the famous arch. When we were driving around the arch I received the idea to create the WordPress Ward which is finally a reality. The WordPress Ward recently was awarded Honorable mention at the 2014 LDS Tech Conference! This motivated me to find my St. Louis pictures because I remember distinctly that right next to the Gateway arch is where I received the inspiration from the Holy Ghost to create the WordPress Ward.

At the St. Louis Gateway Arch Visitor Center, we ran into a group of Sister Missionaries on their P day (Preparation Day). We had to take a picture with them! It was so random.

The arch is a monument to Thomas Jefferson and the pioneers who went west during the  Westward Expansion between 1830 and 1870.

The Mormon Pioneers were among the first people to trek across the terrain to find a place to safely practice religion because of persecution.

In 1847, Brigham Young lead the first group of pioneers to Utah where President Young declared that, “This is the right place”.  Salt Lake City is now where the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The church membership is now 15 million and there are currently 141 operating temples.

This time when we were at the St. Louis Temple it was closed for cleaning but I decided to take pictures anyways! 🙂

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I’m so grateful for the pioneers who suffered much to get to Salt Lake City! Their example and sacrifice is a blessing to us all. The church has been blessed because of the great faith of the Mormon Pioneers.

 

Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Payson Utah Temple Underconstruction

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This is the Payson Utah LDS Temple. This temple was announced on January 25, 2010 by President Monson. Its estimated completion date is early 2015.

I took these pictures in the passenger seat while my husband was driving by last fall.

I can’t decide which one I like better. Can you help me decide? A or B?

So far on my facebook there are:

3 votes for A

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4 votes for B

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To see the rest of the drive by pictures see full gallery here.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Who are you?

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Every person on this planet is a child of God.[1]  Each is a precious, son or daughter of a Heavenly Father. What does this mean?  Why do we care?  Well the succint answer is that this simple fact makes all the different in our day to day actions.

Who is God, our Heavenly Father? That is one of the most important questions to answer in this life (and can only truly be answered by praying to Him).  But I will give a short synopsis of who I know He is, and why that makes a significant difference in my life.

Heavenly Father is a loving, perfect, just, merciful Father.  Much as a goodly Father listens to his small children, talks to them, helps them understand their world, and guides them, our Heavenly Father does to us in our world.As a small child is in his Father’s care, so are we. Our Heavenly Father “wants to communicate with us, and we can communicate with Him through sincere prayer.”

Because each of us is the child of a perfect, omniscient, loving  Heavenly Father, each of us has divine potential to become like Him.  We may, through faith in the Savior Jesus Christ, repent, and be baptised, and be changed into a better person everyday, en route to eventually attaining perfection. This is our Fathers goal, so see each us reach perfection. And I know it is possible!

One of the best ways for us to learn how to be perfect is in our families.  Heavenly Father made it so that children are naturally born only into families with a mother and father, so that we could prepare to become a perfect Parent as He is and return to live with Him one day. Even though sometimes our earthly father or mother is missing from our lives, He is still our Heavenly Father and is constantly there providing for us, listening to our cries, and helping us.

But as is all good stories, their is an evil character as well as the good.  Satan, the great master of lies, is concurrently trying to bring us down to destruction, and cause us to fail in reaching perfection.  He knows that if he can trick us, he can destroy our happiness, and thus is constantly seeking to tear down, destroy, confuse, and hinder all that is good.  His primary focus is to destroy families, and cause disbelief in Jesus Christ, because that is the center of our happiness and salvation. [2]

Thus comes to one of the greatest and most important gifts given to every single person… the power to choose.  Because God knows we cannot become like Him without choosing to do so, He has made us  free to choose good or evil.  To choose if we will seek for God, or follow Satan.  There are no other alternatives, although it may appear so.  Eventually all have to make the choice whether they will believe in God, or not, and thus follow Satan.  But the freedom to choose is ours, and remains ours as long as we do good. [3]_MG_8987

There will be temptations and persuasions from both sides, as we can see throughout life.  The powers of good and evil are in constant struggle. But we can choose to follow the Good,  to believe in our Heavenly Father, to follow His commandments and eventually one day return to our Father in Heaven.  He has given us a guiding roadmap, through the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the living Prophets today.  He has not abandoned us and loves us more deeply than we can imagine.

Even if we follow the good there will be problems and trials.  Our loving Father gave us the freedom to choose, and with that freedom we will make mistakes. Just as a good father lets his child have the freedom to ride a bike, he also must allow us the possibility of falling over and scraping our knee, otherwise we would not be able to learn.  Sometimes we have problems just because we live in a mortal world where sickness, disease, disasters and other things happen.  But the truth is if we follow Heavenly Father’s plan, and believe in Jesus Christ we can return and live with God one day, in spite of all the problems and trials of this mortal test.  And I’m sure it will be a sweet family reunion for all, if we have chosen to believe in and follow our perfect, loving Father in Heaven.

-Dallin

1. We are Children of God https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1998/10/we-are-children-of-god?lang=eng.

2. The Family Proclamation http://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation

3. Book of Mormon; 2 Nephi 2:27 “Wherefore, men are afree according to the bflesh; and callthings are dgiven them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to echoose fliberty and eternal glife, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be hmiserable like unto himself.”

Architecture, Family Life, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Rexburg Idaho Temple at Sunrise

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This is a picture of the Rexburg Idaho Temple at sunrise taken on Thanksgiving morning 2013. One unique thing about this temple is that there is a big wheat filled in front of it. There is also a bunch of wheat in the temple garden and wheat carvings in the architecture. Wheat is a symbolizes the righteous people being gathered together in the Parable of the Tares in the New Testament. 

I haven’t felt like blogging the last couple of days because I lost about 300 gb of data while I was backing up my pictures. I accidentally unplug my 1TB hard drive during a massive data transfer. When I plugged it back in the computer went ahead and tried to fix the corrupted files but instead half of my pictures/videos disappeared. I was emotionally distraught for a few hours before I could stop moping about it but actually do something about it (I need to get over my picture addiction… haha!). Over the last week I’ve been able to recover around 15,000 files after consulting with my family and friends. I also read lots of online forums. A lot of the files I found were corrupted but I’m grateful for the ones I did find. This experience has been a blessing in disguise. First, because I did have a back-up of most of the pictures so I didn’t loose too many… just about 4 months worth of pictures. Second, I got to use the skills I learned studying computer science in school about data storage and data deletion. Third, I learned NEVER to use ctrl-x for video or picture transfer. Fourth, it made me more humble and also grateful that only half the files disappeared and not all the files. Fifth, I am never letting that happen again!! I’m so grateful I found so many files but it is going to take days to organize the files and check for duplicates. It would have been much easier if this never happened but of course, life doesn’t always work that way. God does want us to learn from our mistakes.

I was able to recover pictures I took back in November when our family took a trip up to BYU-I in Rexbug, Idaho for Thanksgiving. I prayed hard that I would find these temple pictures because I knew I only had one copy of them. I felt confident that I would find this folder but all the methods of data recover I tried didn’t work or the files I did find were corrupted. I guess my faith was tested.

Finally, last night I found these files while searching through  ~121,000 possible deleted files using Recuva.

What a big blessing! I know Heavenly Father answered my prayer. He really didn’t have to but I know God is very merciful and full of grace if we are willing to pray to Him and have faith.

What blessings have you seen in your life lately?

Architecture, California, Family Life, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

San Diego Temple dubbed “Mormon Disneyland”

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My husband had to go to San Diego, California recently for a conference trip. He never likes leaving the family at home so we all went with him. While we were planning the trip, the question came up: “Should we go to Disneyland?” We went back and forth on the decision but we finally decided that we didn’t want to take our kids to Disneyland yet because they are too young (2 years, 3 months). We had planned on driving from Salt Lake City to San Diego; so as an alternative to Disneyland, we decided to stop at every temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) along the way.

Micah, our two year old, loved our temple trip! He said “TEMPLE! TEMPLE!” every time we arrived at one. Traveling with kids can be very stressful, especially when they get restless and start crying. Stopping at the temples was the perfect rest stop because we could feel the Spirit instantly as we stepped foot on the temple grounds. When we got to the temples, we strolled around and took pictures of each temple.

I decided I’m going to blog about the San Diego La Jolla Temple first because it is by far the most unique temple I have ever been too and I’ve been to quite a few. As you drive south towards downtown San Diego on the freeway I-5, you suddenly see this magnificent castle on the left hand side of the road.  This temple gets random visitors, who get off the freeway, just to see what kind of building it is. I love all temples but the San Diego temple is exceptionally beautiful! We heard multiple times on the trip that the San Diego temple is nicknamed “Mormon Disneyland.” Even customer reviews on Google say stuff like “I’m not Mormon, but it’s a spectacular view from the freeway, reminds me of Disneyland.”

While some people spend lots of money getting married in the Disneyland castle. There are far greater sacrifices to get married in a LDS Temple. First, we have to be a member of the LDS Church and have a testimony of the Godhead, atonement, and restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then, we have to be worthy to enter the temple by obeying all the commandments of God the best we can. Some of these commandments include tithing, law of chastity, the 10 commandments, and word of wisdom. Finally, we have to witness to our bishop that we believe we are worthy to attend the temple during a temple recommend interview. I know what you’re thinking “Nobody is perfect enough to go to the temple!” Well, because we are imperfect people, we can repent to become worthy to go to the temple. When we repent, we are cleansed through the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Now you’re probably thinking  “Holy cow! That’s a lot of work!” Getting married in a LDS Temple is worth all the sacrifice because marriages in the temple are sealed up for time and all eternity and not just “till death due us part.” These temples are literally “the happiest place[s] on earth.”  But not only that, Temples are where we can go to learn more about God’s plan for us. Members of the LDS Church, whether single or married, starting at the age of 12, can attend and re-attend the temples regularly to pray and learn more about the Plan of Happiness. If you’re already married, you and your current spouse can prepare yourselves to go to the temple to get sealed. We don’t have to be perfect people to attend the temple but constantly attending the temple will help us become perfect.

I can’t express in words how happy, wonderful and peaceful I feel to be inside a temple. It doesn’t matter how many problems I have that day, if I can make it to the temple, I will feel peace. My problems don’t go away but I receive strength and comfort from God when I attend the temple. I can also more easily gather my thoughts when I’m at the temple, especially when I am confused about something in my life.

I invite everyone to attend or prepare themselves to attend the temple so you can witness for yourself the peace and serenity of being inside the House of the Lord. I invite you to the temple to receive eternal blessings of salvation and eternal families. I invite you to visit one of our temples even if you can’t go in. They are spectacular and you may even be greeted with a free tour guide. Some of the LDS Temples have visitor centers where you can learn more about what we do inside a temple. To find you local temple please visit the LDS Temple website.

What is your favorite LDS Temple?

Child #1: Micah, Children, England, Family Life, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

Preston England Temple Pictures

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The Dublin Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went on a temple trip in March. The stake spent a whole day traveling to get the temple by taking the ferry and bus. Then they spent the entire week doing temple work all day long. The temple patrons and their families can stay at the temple accommodations which is like a hotel.  The temple only charges 11 pounds per person per night.  My husband called it EFY for adults. 🙂

I’ve never had to travel so far to go to the temple since I’m from Salt Lake City. It was so nice to be able to go to the temple again! I haven’t been for three months. Every time I go to the temple I can feel the peace and comfort of the Holy Ghost. I’m so grateful that I can go to the temple to pray to God and ponder about life’s questions.

Can’t help but to add some pictures of little Micah. 🙂

Family Life, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Living a life guided by revelation

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Today marks five years since I got baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was one of the most difficult but life changing decisions I have ever made. I was never a religious person. My family wasn’t religious either. I didn’t know if there was a God nor did I care to find out. Whenever I saw missionaries I would run and hide behind the couch. I was an epitome of the “disappointing investigator”.

Growing up in Utah, most of my friends were “Mormons“. They invited me to church, activities, dances and camps. The social part of church was fun and all but I was never interested in learning religion. Most of my friends tried once or twice to teach me the gospel but usually left me alone after I told them I wasn’t interested. Some of them were more persistant than others. 🙂

Yet, like most people I went through a series of hard times in my life. I was plain miserable and depressed. No matter how hard I try to pick myself up, I felt hopeless and my life was falling apart.

I could go on with details of my conversion but the details don’t matter as much as how it happened. Eventually after years and years of people inviting me to read the Book of Mormon, I was finally ready and willing to read the book. Along with reading the Book of Mormon, I started to pray everyday to ask God if He exist and if the Book of Mormon is true.

It was March of 2008 when I started reading the Book of Mormon and I got baptized on April 19, 2008. I didn’t know very much doctrine and I didn’t have a sure knowledge of God when I got baptized. I just knew that I felt the Holy Ghost a few distinct instances during the time I was truly investigating the Church. However, the feelings always left me and I had to act on pure faith. It was not an easy decision! I felt very criticized and doubtful at times but that just lead me back to my knees to pray to ask God again. On my baptism day, I felt dark and lonely but all the darkness went away when I made it to my baptism and received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Now after five years, I can truly say that I know without a doubt that God lives and that He does answer prayers. I know without a doubt that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the earth and is lead by apostles and prophets that are called by God. I also know that Jesus Christ is the foundation of this Church. I know all this because I have lived the last five years of my life being guided by revelation from God through the gift of the Holy Ghost.

My Original Plans

  • Graduate from high school, go to the University of Utah
  • Graduate in 4 years in Electrical Engineering
  • Get a nice job and make lots of money
  • Get a MBA and be promoted
  • Become successful!
  • And hopefully get married sometime around 30 if the right guy comes
  • And may be have kids sometime

God’s Plans for Me

  • 2008 – Get baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints

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  • 2008 – Move to Logan, go to Utah State University on a scholarship and meet lots of new friends. Attend church, institute, read scriptures and pray everyday, be part of lots of clubs, and here have the best roommates in the world!

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  • 2008 – Grow spiritually so here are some callings: Family Home Evening Mom, Primary Teacher, Ward Missionary, Bulletin Board Specialist

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  • 2009 – Meet Dallin, your future husband

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  • 2009 – Be an EFY counselor

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  • 2010 – Get engaged, go to the temple and get married in the temple

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  • 2010 – Transfer to the University of Utah and study Computer Science

  • 2010 – Live in the University Village and meet lots of happy families.

  • 2010 – Have some more church callings: Relief Society Presidency, Stake Primary Presidency and Ward Missionary

  • 2011- Have a baby and name him Micah!

Micah

  • 2012 – Graduate from college and be a full time mom

  • 2013 – Take your family to Ireland and serve in the Bray Branch.

Has my life been easy the last five years? No. I still have lots of trials and problems. Were the decisions I’ve made easy? Not really. But has it been worth it? Most definitely! I know by experience that because the atonement of Jesus Christ my burdens can be made light. Living a life following God’s plan is not always the easiest but it has definitely been full of joy, blessings, fulfillment, and miracles.

Can you believe what I would’ve missed out on if I never decided to get baptized five years ago?! I would not be the person I am today or have my family or be in Ireland for that matter. I would be completely lost in my own world.

I love the quote by Presiden Hinkley that says “When you save a girl, you save generations.” It’s so true!!

Family, Family Life, Ireland, Landscape, Photography, Travel

Bray Ireland Pictures

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Here’s some random pictures on our weekend adventures to the city Bray outside the border of Dublin. It was a really really cold day! In fact, it snowed right after we took these pictures. That’s why we all look like eskimos because we wore four layers of clothes that day. We actually starting walking from Dun Laoghaire to Dalkey. Then took the train called the Dart to Bray.

     

There are a bunch of Catholic churches here so we stopped by when they were having their mass on Saturday.

I thought these washing basins are similar to the ones in King Soloman’s Tabernacle. Way cool!

The architecture of the churches are so neat! I can’t believe how old they are.

Ireland, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Taxi Ride and 35 Euros Pooer

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We had an exciting adventure on Sunday. We woke up a little late. I was trying to get Micah ready for Church. Dallin was still sleeping at 10:00 am. Our train was going to leave at 10:25 am to get to 11:00 am church at the Bray Branch. We planned this perfectly to get to church right on time. We leave our apartment sprinting to the train station. I was standing in line buying a round trip ticket for 5.50 Euro. Dallin already scanned his transportation card which keeps track of how many stops you go and then deducts money from the account. The train went by right before our face.

Great! The next one doesn’t come for 30 minutes. We would miss sacrament meeting. We hesitated for a few minutes then Dallin thought we could go catch the bus. There was no way the bus was going to get us to church on time. We left the train station looking for the bus. Dallin forgot to scan off his transportation card so it automatically deducts the maximum of 8 euros.

Hmm ok 13.50 Euros down the drain. Now what? The bus doesn’t come for another 15 minutes and it’ll take another 30 minutes to get there. That won’t work.

Can we call anyone? No everyone is already heading or headed to church! What are we going to do?! Taxi!

There were about 10 taxis lined up in the taxi line.

“Can you take us to Bray? Do you take a credit card?! We don’t have a car seat!!” we asked.

“Yes. No cash only. We can buckle the tad in.” said the driver.

We needed to find cash! So we sprint to the ATM to get out cash and it charged us 2 euros for ATM fees.

15.50 euros gone!

We got in the taxi and he took us to Bray. Surprisingly the taxi driver knew all about the Mormons since he lived in Utah for a few years. We invited him to church but he kindly said no. He was nice. The taxi ticker when up and up. It reached 21.65 euros by the time we got to the Bray Branch. The driver was kind to cut it down to 20 euros.

35.50 euros later… we made it to church at 10:59 am.

*Sigh of relief*

All I wanted was to make it to church to partake of the sacrament. We didn’t do a very good job of keeping the sabbath day holy that morning and I needed to be forgiven of my mistakes. I’m so grateful that we can go to church each week to take the sacrament. By taking the sacrament we can renew our baptismal covenants, be cleansed again from our sins and have a fresh start. The Savior administered the first sacrament the night before he was crucified. The sacrament is to remind us each week of  the great sacrifice He made for us.

35.50 euros equals to $47.94; however the blessings of the atonement and taking the sacrament are priceless. It was definitely worth it. We were even blessed because someone offered us a ride home.

We learned our lesson to wake up earlier next Sunday!