Education Week Notes -- Tuesday

CULTIVATING OPTIMISM (MARY ELLEN EDMUNDS): Showing up is 88% of life.  We need to strive for light as the world gets darker.  The world seems to be increasingly lacking in moral values.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news and Heavenly Father's plan is a plan of happiness.  There is hope!  Cultivating sounds like you're going to dig in the dirt.  We need to cultivate a spirit of optimism.  Heavenly Father doesn't ask us to do things we can't do.  We really can cultivate optimism.  Even with all the challenges in our world and nation, our homes, and families, we can have hope.  She looks around at everyone and wonders what's going on in their lives. She prays that something she's spent 500 hours preparing will be helpful in lifting their heavy burdens.  Do you know some optimists?  Some pessimists?  (Yes, she avoids the pessimists!).  What is the difference?  When the pessimist when faced with the giant will say, "Oh, he's so huge there's no way I can beat him."  The optimist will say, "Oh, he's so huge there's no way I can miss him."  Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope.  Feast upon the word of Christ and endure to the end.  A pessimist has a hard time pressing forward and enduring.  It's hard for them to have a perfect brightness of hope.  Hope and optimism go hand in hand.  They see trials as learning experiences, not as the end of the world.  Tribulation works patience.  Experience brings hope.  Looking back we can see how experience has taught us hope.  Are you more often positive or negative?  Did people get caller ID just so they could avoid your phone calls?  When you're around someone who is negative, they drain your energy.  You find a dollar bill when you're out jogging.  (a) Why didn't I find a $100 bill? (b) Way to go! You get an anonymous thank you note in the mail. (a) My mother probably sent it.  (b) What a kind thing to do.  Your child got an award. (a) Probably 500 kids got an award like this.  (b) Way to go!  You can't figure out something on your computer. (a) Why did I waste my money on this stupid thing? (b) "Honey, could you come show Daddy how to do this one more time?"  Do you find yourself answering A or B more often?  A young woman fell on some rocks in a river when a homemade zip line broke.  She developed a rare flesh eating disease.  Her leg had to be removed to save her life. She was on life support, critical condition, and her chances of survival were bleak.  All they could do was pray. Her five major organs were failing.  Her father said that the whole purpose of evil is to destroy hope.  However, God is in control.  Instead of seeing a hopeless end, he chose to see endless hope. Her remaining leg and both her arms had to be removed.   Thousands of people all over the world prayed for her.  A miracle occurred! She displayed such courage. She struggled mightily, but after praying and meditating, she was overcome by peace.  She had to submit to the will of God.  Anger was not the answer.  God is in control.  Her condition was upgraded from critical to serious.  She was breathing and eating on her own and all her major organs were functioning well. Eight weeks after her accident her condition was upgraded to good and she was able to go home in a wheelchair.  She said she felt like she'd been blessed.  Instead of concentrating on what she'd lost, she was grateful for what she had.  She felt blessed to have an experience that most people don't have.  She felt blessed to be different.  As she left the hospital, she was smiling. She was fitted with four prosthetics, for her two legs and two arms. Four days after leaving the hospital, she was feeding herself and brushing her teeth. There is a  connection between faith in Jesus Christ and hope and optimism. The spirit of the gospel is optimistic.  It looks on the bright side of things.  A pessimistic spirit drags people down and away from God.  It is slow to yield to obedience.  There was a well with two buckets.  When you'd pull one up, the other one would go down.  One bucket was an optimist and the other one was a pessimist.  The one bucket said, "no matter how many times I come up full, I always go back down empty."  The other bucket said, "no matter how many times I go down empty, I always come back up full."  It's all how you look at things.  How can we cultivate optimism?  We can control our thoughts.  Keep your thoughts full of hope.  Stop being self centered.  Nourish deep spiritual roots--study and pray.  Look at life through the windshield and not the rear view mirror.  Do you know someone who keeps going back to when someone stole their bike in the third grade?  Keep learning.  Do random acts of kindness.  Serving others brings a happy spirit and joy.  Develop a good sense of humor.  Laughter and good humor are contagious.  Ultimate hope and daily grumpiness are not reconcilable. Pessimists become critics.  Pray for help.  Tell Him you'd like to have a more positive outlook. Make this a desire of your heart. Judging others, especially judging them hastily with anger can bring on pessimism.  So can worry.  Constantly being worried can drive out optimism.  Don't be preoccupied with "what ifs" or worse case scenarios.  Change what you're thinking about.  If somebody is 20 minutes late, don't imagine them dead.  These things are habits, but we an train our brains and overcome these habits.  Postpone worry.  Give yourself permission not to worry now and then later pick a corner of the basement conducive to worrying and go there for a few minutes.  Tell yourself, "I have to skip worrying today, but tomorrow I'll deal with it."  Hope and optimism are contagious.  It's more fun to be with people who are optimistic.  Some companies only hire optimistic people.  Her nephew is on a mission.  He writes to her "This week was great!  A lot of fantastic have happened.  Today was the best day of my mission."  He's written that every time he's written during the whole year he's been on his mission.  His father, her brother, said, "Somebody should tell him a mission is hard.  He thinks he's on vacation."  How do you influence people?  How do you share your hope in Christ?  Faith creates optimism.  It strengthens hope.  Optimism can be learned.  Say something positive to a deacon.  Find something good to say to a young woman.  Ask her how camp was.  Teach children to learn to laugh at themselves.  Help them experience success.  Don't expect perfection.  Don't compete with them.  Rejoice with them.  Do with, not for.  Don't let children watch how well you do things, but learn to do things themselves, even if it's not perfect at first.  Find things they succeed in.  Say positive things in your prayers with them, about how grateful you are for them.  You have control over your thoughts.  Be positive.  Point out good things.  Act as if you are an optimist.  Visualize good things.  Act as if everything will turn out all right.  Act as if April showers will bring May flowers and there is sunshine in your soul today.  Look for the good in others and point it out.  If you can't find anything else to say to your kids, tell them they're good breathers.  "You do it so consistently."  Instead of looking at what everybody else has and whining you don't have it, be grateful for what you do have.  Increase awareness.  Notice blessings.  Ingratitude nourishes the seven deadly sins.  Write down three good things that happened to you every day.  Anne Frank exhibited optimism even in their grave trials.  She called her home a "comfortable hiding place."  Knowing our relationship to God brings optimism--we are His children.  Take the cheerful view.  We need heavenly help to cultivate these qualities, especially as the world gets more obnoxious.  Ask yourself what an optimist would do.  Listen to feelings and impression.  Be of good cheer and do not fear.  Hope and optimism are the best gifts and we're to seek after them.  There are seeds of happiness planted in every human soul.  There is as much need for sunshine in the heart as for sunshine in the world.  We have the power to choose happiness.  It is an attitude of the mind. 

AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE (DAVID A. CHRISTENSEN): He has prayed really hard that those with weaknesses would show up to his class.  Pointing to us, he told us we must be really pathetic. We can overcome our weaknesses and be inspired.  We're all different.  He paid particular attention to people as he walked from his car.  It's sad.  Some of you may be stronger than he is.  Does that bother him?  Yes!  As the teacher, he's supposed to be the best.  Mother's Day is horrendous at church.  People get up and in tears talk about their saintly mothers.  His wife comes home with her little plant and purposely kills it.  When the Holy Ghost personally tells us what we need to do, we are edified.  Marion G. Romney said "When a man wages war against his weaknesses, this is the most holy war he can ever enter. And the joy of accomplishment is the most exquisite." When his handicapped son broke his leg and had complications, it taught him how to overcome some things.  Why do you think, when you enter the Kingdom of God, you'll be so happy?  It's the joy of having overcome and stand in the presence of Heavenly Father.  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.  We are commanded to be perfect.  When we hear familiar scriptures and think, "I already know that" we cut off inspiration that might come to us, teaching us something new.  We need to look at this scripture with an eternal perspective.  There is no perfection until the resurrection.  But there can be finite perfection. We all have problems.  And when you get through them, there are more.  We can't become perfect without trials.  When we were born, we already had a personality well defined.  We brought down what we are.  Satan attacks us personally because he knows us well from the pre-existence.  We brought weaknesses down with us.  We are a product of our DNA.  His wife's great grandfather was a hanging judge.  She has some of that in her.  Just kidding!  Her great grandmother on the other side was burned as a witch in Salem.  He saw some of that in her mother.  Just kidding!  We are influenced by our environment.  His parents swore.  It was almost an art form. You should have heard his mother!  He still struggles with swearing.  He and his wife were on their way to the temple when they stopped at their daughter's apartment to check on her.  They found her dead.  He went bananas.  He hates funerals and viewings.  If you like them, enjoy them, but don't come to his.  Don't stand over his coffin and say, "Oh, he looks so natural."  They didn't have a viewing for their daughter.  Elder Holland spoke at her funeral.  He said that she was being embraced by the Father and the Son at that very moment.  This was a week after she died.  Even though she was worthy and had a temple recommend, it took her a week to be ready to meet the Father and the Son.  Don't judge.  It's not over until the slim lady sings (she's slim because she's been resurrected).  Be as perfect as you can, for that is all you can do.  One reason we get depressed is because we see where we think we ought to be.  We see the difference between where we are and where we want to be, and it discourages us.  We think we can't possibly overcome and close that gap.  Satan plays a wonderful game with you telling you that you're not good enough and you cannot make it.  You are too far away.  When someone gets involved with pornography, talk about depression!  Is it possible to overcome?  Yes!  Father is holding out His hand, as we're crying, "I can't make it."  "One more step, try it!"  Heavenly Father loves us so much.  When you climb a ladder, you must begin at the bottom.  You do it step by step.  We have a great work to do, even after we cross over.  Instead of discouraging you, that should give you hope.  What if Jesus came today.  Would you be caught up to meet Him?  You'd go up about 30,000 feet and then be dropped?  You're so weak.  We all are.  God has created man and woman with a mind capable of instruction.  The nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views and the greater his enjoyments, until he has lost every desire for sin.  He loves diet coke.  Can he be exalted?  Not with a coke can in his hand!  He plans to be exalted and create a beverage that tastes amazingly like diet coke.  We don't need to be perfect to be saved.  If you think you have to be perfect to be exalted, you'll be miserable because you can't be perfect.  Be very careful what you decide to overcome.  It's going to be a lot of work after we pass through the veil to be exalted.  No unclean thing can enter the Kingdom of God.  The only qualification is that we be clean.  The dictionary says that being perfect is being without fault or defect, to be complete.  You won't be complete until after the resurrection.  Keep your mind clean, control yourself, being nice all the time, never yelling.  Finite means having a definite limit.  You can pay a complete tithing every year for the rest of your life and that will be a finite perfection.  Never swearing (he can't imagine that) can be a finite perfection.  What's the problem?  I-15!  Twice yesterday they would have been killed if he wasn't alert.  Infinite means limitless, boundless, endless, eternal.  Infinite perfect is eternal perfection, which cannot be attained in this life.  How many of you have a weakness?  How many of you have more than one?  Many?  That's me.  We're in this together.  The Lord will teach us how to overcome, but we need to be careful in deciding what is most important for us to overcome.  We can lose weight, but is there something else more critical?  Harold B. Lee said most of us don't set priorities and most of us forget our first priority is to maintain our physical and spiritual strength.  Then comes our family--mate and children.  Then comes the church.  When he was a bishop and stake president, his ward and stake adored him, but his children never saw him.  It took him years to rebuild his relationship with his children that he lost when he was bishop and stake president.  Next is civil and community responsibility.  Our priorities are critical and they all need time.  He's overtime.  Good for him! 

DAILY CONCERNS, REPLACING FEAR WITH FAITH (DIANE BILLS PRINCE):  Keep it simple.  If you give people a long laundry list of things to accomplish, they probably won't get many of them done.  But if you keep it simple and give them one thing to concentrate on, they're likely to do it.  How do we deal with daily concerns?  1.  Strive to live righteously (obedience).  2.  Call upon the powers of Heaven (exercise faith).  When Ed was a young child, he was active in sports.  When he turned 11, he developed a fever.  They thought he had the flu, but after a battery of tests they found out he had a rare form of polio.  He would be confined to a wheelchair.  Ed decided he wouldn't let this influence his attitude.  He decided if he couldn't use his body, he would use his mind.  He read everything he could get his hand on.  He was so knowledgeable in the gospel, he was amazing.  His best friend in high school was Mark.  Mark was tall, dark, handsome, very athletic.  Sometimes when they were practicing, they'd lower the basket and let Ed play with them, in his wheelchair.  When Ed graduated from Seminary, he wheeled himself up to the front.  Mark came up and lifted up Ed out of his wheelchair so everyone could see him.  What an act of love.  Ed wanted to serve a mission.  He'd spent years studying the gospel and knew it better than most adults.  Ed and Mark put in their papers for their missions.  Mark received a mission call to Canada.  Ed received word that because of his disability, he would not be able to serve a full time mission.  Ed was devastated.  Mark told him that his mission would be their mission.  He would share his mission with Ed and write to him every week.  Ed still had an overwhelming desire to serve, praying daily and pleading for God to make a way for him to serve a mission.  A year into Mark's mission, he was called to serve in the office at a typewriter all ay.  Ed penned a letter back to him "What I wouldn't give if I could sit at a typewriter all day if I could serve a full time mission."  Mark showed Ed's letter to his mission president.  The mission president asked Mark if he could take care of his physical needs, such as lifting him into the bathtub.  The mission president called church offices and said he was willing to have Ed serve in his mission.  President Monson called Ed personally to tell him that he was being called to a full time mission.  Ed went off and served a valiant, fabulous mission, serving as secretary to the mission president, with Mark as his companion.  A distraught mother called the mission home one day saying her son had been taken ill and was in the hospital and he needed a blessing.  The mission president's wife took the call and said her husband was away.  She drove the streets looking for missionaries and found Ed and Mark, having been directed by the spirit,  and took them to the hospital to see this young man.  He had just been diagnosed with a rare form of polio, the same illness that had befallen Ed.  All things that afflict us will work together for our glory.  Faith replaces fear.  Faith is a gift of God bestowed as a reward for personal righteousness.  It is always given when righteousness is present, and the greater the measure of obedience, the greater the endowment of faith.  We need to obey and show our faith through prayer.  The powers of heaven are governed by faith.  God can perform mighty miracles in our lives.  Her mother and brother took a trip to Idaho to attend a funeral.  Her brother was 17.  She saw aunts, uncles, and cousins, and enjoyed visiting with them so much that she stayed late.  This was in the late 70's when there was a gas shortage and gas stations closed early.  As she arrived in Bountiful and still needed to drive to Holladay to get home, the gas gauge read empty.  Back in those days there was no leeway in the gas gauges.  When they said empty, you were empty.  She said a prayer and felt impressed, "Keep driving and don't look at the gas gauge."  She drove on and on and the car kept running.  When she was two blocks from home she finally snuck a peak at the gas gauge.  The car immediately and abruptly stopped.  She was able to walk home.  She knew that her car had run mile after mile on nothing but faith. Joseph Smith taught in the lectures on faith that faith has power and dominion over all things.  Without faith, you can do nothing.  After Boyd K. Packer was called as a general authority, he went to see Harold B. Lee.  He said he saw no way to follow the direction he was told to go. President Lee told him that he didn't need to see the end from the beginning.  He needed to walk a few steps into the darkness and then he would see the way that he was to go.  You receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.  When she was 9 years old she stood in front of a TV in her grandmother's living room.  She was watching the Tabernacle Choir and announced that when she grew up she wanted to sing with the choir.  In high school she sang in the choir and she took voice lessons, all preparing to sing in the Tabernacle Choir.  At that time you couldn't be in it until you were 30.  She could hardly wait to turn 30!  But when she turned 30, she had a new baby and knew the timing was not right.  Later her marriage fell apart and it was the time of her greatest sorrow.  She was a single mom struggling.  Her dreams of the Tabernacle Choir were far, far away after that.  Four years later she met a wonderful, amazing man who is now her eternal companion and they have a family of 9 children, a blended family.  Now after 14 years they all love each other.  While she was engaged, he told her that he was auditioning for the Tabernacle Choir.  She was thrilled.  Later on he found out about her dream to sing with the choir and he asked if she'd like to try out.  She said there was no way she could, with 9 children.  Somebody had to stay home with them.  He kept encouraging her.  Later on Neil Maxwell gave her a blessing.  He told her that the Lord would use her and her husband to lift the sorrow of those who are suffering.  She thought maybe she'd be speaking with her husband.  One day she was driving down the street pondering and the spirit spoke to her, telling her that one of the ways to lift the hearts of the suffering is through music.  For the first time she realized that maybe she could sing in the choir.  Then in the grocery store she ran into a woman who sings in the choir and who has 10 children.  So she decided to audition for the choir.  She was rejected.  She then felt impressed that she was going to be called as the primary president and that someday she would be able to sing with the Tabernacle Choir.  So when the bishop called her to be the primary president, she was really excited. While serving for three years as primary president she took voice training to prepare and then auditioned again.  She was again rejected.  Five years later she tried again and finally made it.  She was nearly 55, the oldest that you can be to get into the choir.  Blessings do come to pass.  We may have it in our minds that things should happen immediately, but sometimes it's a process over many years.  The Lord has a better way.  The Lord knew that some of their children would not stay active in the church if both mom and dad were gone.  It took the Lord's timing.  His timing is crucial and it will make a huge difference.  Blessings pronounced upon your head will come to pass.  Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can.  He will multiply our blessings.  He can raise up friends and pour our peace.  Whoever will lose his life to God will find that he has eternal life.  The powers of heaven are real.  Learn how to pray boldly, not in word only but in spirit and in power.  All of us can turn to God for our daily fears that come up.  When she has feared, she can pray with faith to her Father.  Two nights ago she was rushing back from Michigan to get here for Education Week.  She tries not to travel on Sunday, but she had a baby blessing on Sunday and she had to be here on Monday, so she had to travel on Sunday, arriving in Salt Lake at 11:30 p.m.  Her mother picked her up and took her home.  She found she was locked out of her house.  She could go sleep at her mom's house but all her notes were locked in the house.  She was in such a panic mode!  Her mother prayed and felt like she should call her children.  But she wouldn't listen to her mother and called a locksmith.  He charged her $350 to come in the middle of the night to come and unlock her door.  If she's called her children who had extra keys like her mother told her to, she could have avoided all that.  A man got off a bus and realized he'd left his wallet on the bus.  He prayed.  Someone he knew stopped and asked him if he needed a ride somewhere.  He said yes, go follow that bus.  They caught it and found his wallet sitting on the seat where he'd been sitting.  The righteous need not fear, for they will be preserved.  The powers of heaven can lighten frightened hearts.  One time she was to travel across the country to give a 6 hour seminar.  Her mother wanted to come with her.  When they arrived at the hotel, she got chills and fever and became really ill.  She told her mother that there was no way she could give the seminar the next day, and that her mother would have to give it for her.  Her mother stayed up all night long praying over her, pleading with the Lord to make her well.  The next morning she woke up feeling great, able to give the seminar after all.  Her mother was sound asleep, having been up all night praying.  The powers of heaven can lift a heavy burden.  They can help us find that which is lost, including lost children.  A man lost important papers that he needed for work.  He prayed and received an impression of exactly where those papers were.  A senior couple was called on a mission to Russia.  Because of health concerns they needed to delay their mission, but they sent their papers in a year later, requesting that they not be sent someplace cold.  They were again called to the same Russian mission.  They decided there must be some reason they were to go there so they went.  There they found their son that they had not seen in 20 years.  The powers of heaven can magnify intellectual abilities.  She remembers praying to understand an assignment that seemed totally confusing to her.  The Lord opened her mind so she understood it and she passed a test 100% the next day.  Her daughter had a conflict between being on a volleyball team or serving with the young women.  She told her that she needed to put God first, so she did.  She attended the volleyball practices one day a week and the other day of practice she went to Young Women's and then raced to the last 15 minutes of practice.  Her volleyball skills improved and she made a better team.  Then the team was traveling all over the country and would be playing on Sunday.  She told them she wouldn't play on Sunday.  She didn't get to play much.  The next year she found another volleyball club that didn't play on Sunday and didn't play the night of Young Women.  She became the center of the team and their team took the state championship.  God had kept His promises to a righteous daughter.  She became all state in girl's volleyball. 

FAITH NOT TO MURMUR--LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD (KIM M. PETERSON): Studying the parables have made a big change in his life.  He was excited in April conference when there were talks about the parables. In Matthew 20 the land owner agreed with every laborer for a penny a day.  A penny refers to a day's wage.  None of us today would be happy working for a penny, but it meant a day's wage.  The land owner offered to pay later laborers "whatever is right."  At the 11th hour it was now 5:00 p.m. and the day ends at 6:00 p.m.  These laborers were hoping for one hour of work.  They were turned down earlier and now they hope to get even one hour of work.  They were told that they would receive whatever is right.  The master of the vineyard called the laborers and gave the ones who arrived last got the penny.  Those who came at 6:00 a.m. are thinking they'll get proportionally more.  But when those first laborers only got a penny, they murmured.  Why were they murmuring?  They got what they agreed to.  At 6:00 a.m. they were glad for the day's wage. But when they get what they contracted for, they murmur.  And we would probably do the same in these circumstances.  The master told them he had done nothing wrong.  It was lawful to do what he wanted with his money.  It's a good practice to answer the questions in the scriptures.  Surely the answer is, of course it is lawful.  Our murmuring should start to decrease.  Jesus is just, fair, and merciful.  Many will be called but few will be chosen.  In the Murmuring Hall of Fame, Laman is king. He murmurs against his father who asks him to go back to Jerusalem.  So he murmured because he did not understand the dealings of God.  An angel tells him not to beat up his brother, and that gets him to murmur.  We fail to understand how God works in our lives, so we murmur.  When Nephi called him to repentance, he complained that he was speaking hard things to him.  We murmur because we are unrighteous.  Laman murmur because of suffering and afflictions in the wilderness.  We murmur when we are not comfortable.  Three years ago he moved from Colorado to Utah.  He came to understand that Heavenly Father is more concerned with his exaltation than he is with his comfort. However, he finds that most of his prayers are regarding his comfort.  He is murmuring,  "Yeah, but what about my car.  What about my house?  What about my neighbors?  What about politics?"  He has many things to complain about. At times Heavenly Father uses discomfort to teach us.  Try to look at Laman.  He wakes up one morning and his dad says they're going to leave their home and go into the wilderness.  What would we do today?  We ask why?  Sometimes murmuring takes the form of one word, why?  Then their obnoxious brother says he'll go.  They travel three days' journey into the wilderness.  Then Lehi says he forgot the plates.  Nephi says he'll go.  Laman says, "Are you kidding?"  They go back. Nephi is obeying a higher law.  He gets the plates. Laman goes into the wilderness.  He goes back for the plates.  He goes back for the daughters.  He eats raw meat in the wilderness.  He builds a ship.  He travels to the promised land.  There is not a separate path for Laman.  He did the right things, but he murmured while he did them.  Do I go to church?  Do I pay tithing?  Do I go home teaching?  Do I follow my church leaders?  Do I have a calling? But do we murmur when we do these things?  If we do all the right things but murmur while we do them, we are not righteous.  Murmuring takes an action that seems good but it disqualifies it.  How do we become the people who not only do good things, but we do good things willingly without murmuring?  The prophets have spoken often to us about murmuring, even in the past five years. Murmuring is but one of the symptoms of unrighteousness, and it effects everything.   We murmur because we have to believe before we'll see. If our understanding increases, our murmuring decreases.  One of the antidotes to murmuring is to gain understanding.  We murmur out of self righteousness.  Somehow we think it raises us above others if we can complain.  There is a counter relationship between faith and murmuring.  Decrease our murmuring.  Faith will naturally increase.  As faith increases, murmuring will decrease.  It's a cycle.  Our faith is adversely affected by murmuring.  Those of great faith don't murmur.  They are generously disposed.  They are reluctant to murmur even while in deep difficulties.  Accept the atoning gift of Jesus Christ.  The Lord's interest is in our faith, not in the hour of the day or how long we have labored.  Isaiah said that oxen know who their owner is and how to follow.  But Israel doesn't even know that much.  In other words, he's telling us we're dumber than oxen.  Isaiah was not a warm and fuzzy prophet.  Why do we do the things we do?  Isaiah tells us to bring no more oblations (work or worship) which are vain.  Think of the labor in the vineyard.  If it's vain labor, we'll murmur.  Of if it's real labor, it will qualify as works that are good.  If we had the same employer and got paid the same and wrote the same tithing, one of us might be giving a vain oblation and one might be doing a good work.  The difference is the attitude or the intent of our heart.  What is our purpose?  The good news there are resolutions to this.  If we'd like an experience of decreased murmuring, try to pull off 24 hours of not murmuring.  He has challenged many classes to do this.  Exactly 0% have pulled it off.  But 100% have experienced a decrease in murmuring and it has had a profound change in their life.  Follow the cue of Preach my Gospel that tells us it's not just changing our behavior that changes our behavior, it's learning true doctrine and understanding it that changes behavior.  Understand the doctrine that will decrease murmuring.  Don't dwell on old issues and grievance--not toward yourself, your neighbor, or the church.  If you learn the doctrine of forgiveness, murmuring will decrease.  Faith will decrease murmuring.  The more we understand about patience, gratitude, and grace, the less we'll murmur.  If we understand the grandeur of the reward, it won't matter what other people get or how long we worked to get it.  Murmuring will decrease.  Enjoy the work.  Have you ever had a job where the payment was secondary to how much you enjoyed the work?  Salvation and exaltation are good work.  The thorns are so minimal compared to how much fun it is to be in mortality.  If you like the job, your murmuring will decrease.  So like the job.  Faith without works is dead, being alone. However, works without faith may be equally dead (being alone) in the opposite direction.  We should add faith to our works and works to our faith.  There is a difference between works and good works. 

CHANGE YOUR PERCEPTIONS (ANDREW S. BRIMHALL): People would call in a radio station with their problems and he was expected to solve their problems in 30 seconds.  Some would share heart wrenching problems.  The people in our families are the people we want most to feel close to and who mean the most to us.  It takes an incredible amount of work.   He had us do an experiment of trying to keep three balloons in the air at the same time, with a partner.  Almost no one was able to do it.  Most of us were working with partners we just met and we didn't understand who was supposed to do what.  It was hard enough keeping one balloon up, let alone all three.  Static electricity came into play, showing outside forces have an impact.  There are analogies between this balloon experiment and our relationships.  There are changes we can make.  One time he was feeling like he didn't have enough time for his family.  He felt a prompting from the Lord that he was spending an hour and a half a night watching TV and this time could be better used.  Sometimes we not only put expectations of change on ourselves, but also on other people and they don't happen as quickly as we'd hope.  Changes in nature come from conflict--water running over rock.  We don't always do things perfectly, but Heavenly Father appreciates us trying to make ourselves better.  We don't change overnight.  His wife is very patient and forgiving.  Satan works very hard to try to keep us from making positive changes in our lives.  A cucumber is transformed into a pickle through a process that takes weeks.  It doesn't happen overnight.  If you take them out of the brine too early, they are still cucumbers.  They have to stay immersed for an extended period of time.  Pray always.  Don't treat prayers like isolated events.  Try to connect our prayers together.  There is a shift in our culture in regards to marriage.  Back in agricultural times, we were dependent on a marriage partner or we could not survive.  Now we often have consumer marriages--look at our partner as someone to fulfill our needs.  Sometimes we treat our partners like cell phones--if they're not satisfying us we throw them away and get another one.  Past reasons for divorce were abuse, abandonment, infidelity, or chronic alcoholism.  Now reasons are that the relationship wasn't working out, we can't communicate, our needs are different, I wasn't happy, I fell out of love, we grew apart, I deserve more of a companion than she is willing to be, the relationship became stale.  The old marriage vow was "as long as we both shall live."  Now it's often, "as long as we both shall love."  Marriages don't last the way they used to.  Many people consider first marriages as starter marriages.  But the love relationship between a man and a woman becomes a marriage, when it is entered into in the recognition that the personal feelings of both partners--no matter how much they had based upon them--0must be subordinate to, and serve, an idea that for both of them is higher than love itself, the kind of idea that as a rule exacts the lifetime of both, and whose demands may reach even further.  Gordon B. Hinckley said that marriage requires a high degree of tolerance, and some of us need to cultivate that attitude.  Anyone who thinks that bliss in marriage is normal is going to wake up thinking they've been cheated.  Our marriages aren't going to be perfect.  Think about how often you're emotionally available to those you love.  You may only be emotionally available about 50% of the time.  The changes of you both being available at a time when you can both connect is only about 25%.  That's different from what our expectations are.  We should try to make ourselves more available, but this is something to consider.  Take one day at a time.  Make a daily time when you can spend time as a couple.  Talk about your day and your feelings.  How am I showing my partner I choose them?  F. Burton Howard talked about how his wife had a valued set of silverware which she would polish and take care of.  When guests would come over, she would weigh whether or not to use the good silver for them.  If we want our marriages to shine in a dark world, we need to treat it special like that silver--protect it and polish it. 

TURNING FEAR TO FAITH (KRIS BELCHER):  She said don't sleep during her class because even though she's blind, she has really good ears and she'll hear you.  When Saul was in front of King Agrippa, he told the king about his conversion to Jesus Christ.  He'd been causing all kinds of problems throughout the land to the believers.  Then Christ appeared to Saul and called him to the ministry.  He said he was supposed to turn people from darkness to light that they might receive a remission to their sins.  This is her specialty because Saul was blinded for three days and then was turned from darkness to light.  It is the gospel that opened his eyes.  We want to turn from the darkness of fear, including worry and anxiety and fear.  Most of us have anxieties and concerns.  We want to work those problems into faith.  When she was seven months old her mother took her to a doctor who found tumors in her eyes.  It was eye cancer, a childhood cancer.  She was taken to a number of specialists and received treatment.  Her life was saved and she had partial vision.  She lost vision in one eye when she was 9 years old and a few years ago the vision in the other eye was fading.  The radiation she received as an infant, 32 years ago, had caused more cancer and she needed to have her eye removed.  They also had to remove everything around the eye to get rid of the cancer.  She couldn't even be fitted with an artificial eye because she would have no eyelids.  It took five surgeries in five months to get rid of all the cancer. She'd never been so scared in all her life.  She was paralyzed with fear.  The fear was so real.  She couldn't imagine how she'd get through the rest of her life.  We all have different fears.  We may fear for our children, or fear not having children, or fear because we might be pregnant.  We might be afraid for our health or someone else's health.  We might be afraid of death.  We may fear people.  We may fear being in groups.  What do we do with this fear?  Fear stifles initiative, saps strength, and reduces efficiency.  It weakens faith, brings doubts, and begets mistrust.  Indeed, it tends to impede the very business of being.  It's poison can seep into our souls.  How do we turn that darkness into light?  When she was a little girl, she had a recurring frightening dream.  Godzilla would chase her brother and then hover over their house like he was going to eat her family.  She had a fear of the oak tree falling on her house and killing them.  No matter how irrational her fears were, they seemed real to her.  She would run to her parents' room.  We can run to our Heavenly Father with all our fears.  If we go to our Heavenly Father and honor, revere and obey Him, He will help us.  God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  Fear doesn't come from God.  He gives us gifts to get through the fear.  We also have the power of love that comes directly from Jesus Christ.  We can overcome fear.  Instead of staying stuck in fear, we can activate the gift of God.  When we're stuck in fear, we may be tempted to think Heavenly Father doesn't love us.  But we can turn to Heavenly Father.  Think of the day on the Sea of Galilee when a sudden storm arose.  The disciples were panicked.  They wondered where Jesus was.  They found him asleep.  They asked Him if they didn't care if they perished.  Jesus helped them.  He can calm the raging sea and He can calm us.  He invites us to have more faith.  All of us have seen some sudden storms in our lives.  A few of them, though temporary like these on the Sea of Galilee, can be violent and frightening and potentially destructive.  As individuals, as families, as communities, as nations, even as a church, we have had sudden squalls arise which have made us ask one way or another "Master, carest thou not that we perish?"  We always hear in the stillness after the storm "Why are you so fearful?  How is it that ye have no faith?" None of us would like to think we have no faith, but I suppose the Lord's gentle rebuke here is largely deserved.  Some of her fear comes from knowing Christ will help her but she'll still have to go through things that are hard to go through.  Think of David and Goliath.  Right before she was going in to have her eye removed, she was so scared she didn't want to get out of the van.  She listened to a song about David and Goliath until she had enough nerve to go in and face her Goliath.  Nobody had the courage to face Goliath.  But David refused to wear the king's armor and explained that the Lord helped him fight a bear and a lion.  The same Lord who delivered him from a bear and lion would also deliver him from Goliath.  David remembered.  We need to remember.  God was his shield.  And He can be our shield too.  Alma tried to calm down people who were frightened, telling them to remember the Lord.  They hushed their fears and turned to the Lord. He softened the hearts of the Lamanites.  Through faith, we can change our circumstances.  Turn to the Lord.  She loves to look for promises.  There are tons of promises in the scriptures.  Be of good cheer and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you.  D&C 68:6.  Fear not, I am with three.  Be not dismayed.  For I am thy God.  I will strengthen thee.  Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10  When she found out her eye would be removed, she was full of fear.  She went to Temple Square with her mother.  She heard the scripture that said let not your heart be troubled.  How could she do that?  If she lived, she would be blind.  How could she change diapers in the dark? She could turn to the Lord for His power and His love.  It was difficult for her to keep turning to God until she was able to live again.  It took about a year and a half before she stopped being angry that her life had been turned upside down.  And she was scared of so many things.  It took a long time to work through that.  Our fears might be hushed but may not be completely quiet.  We need to continually turn.  Because of the Savior's birth, life, and atonement, there are no unsolvable problems.  There are temporary tragedies and difficulties of course, but they need not be permanent or unconquerable.  Can you imagine anyone having a problem God cannot solve?  He always has a solution that will advance our eternal progress.  That is both the reason for and essence of the atonement.  Perfect love casts out all fear.  When she was recovering from her dark ages, as soon as she was almost healthy enough, she went to downtown Salt Lake City where she went to school to learn how to be blind.  Did you know you could go to school to learn how to be blind?  She's still on a preschool level of learning Braille.  She learned computers.  She has software that allows her to navigate with key strokes instead of mouse clicks.  She can go on the Internet.  She learned how to knit.  It's very rewarding to be able to learn a skill with your hands and be able to make things.  She learned how to navigate with a cane.  That was a scary class.  She met with a teacher who taught her how to get around safely without sight.  It was really scary.  He would teach her a principle and then give her a route to walk.  He would follow about 15 feet behind her.  She was nervous, not knowing what she was going to run into.  She bounced her cane all over the place.  She realized that instead of looking down at the ground (like she could see it anyway) if she stood up straight and looked up, she did better.  She was an emotional wreck.  If we stand up and look up to the Lord, we remember and turn and rely on His promises, He'll get us back to Him.  She learned about light.  It's strange to teach a blind person about light.  Think about the sunshine.  She remembers standing on a corner and her teacher telling her she could keep herself oriented with the sun.  She couldn't see the sun, but she could feel it.  If it's morning and she feels the sun on her back, she knows she's facing west.  Listen to traffic.  Listen to sound as it bounces off buildings.  It's different than if the buildings aren't there.  She was so sad and not wanting to go on, but these things helped her.  If she could feel God's power through the Holy Ghost she knew she was going the right way.  Don't be stuck in darkness. Turn to the Son and remember that He will keep His promises.  We can use audible clues.  Even though we feel like we're all alone, we're not.  The Holy Ghost will come as we turn to Heavenly Father.  He will not leave us comfortless.  He gives us peace.  Fear not.  He has overcome the world.  In 2001 she was living in fear of terrorist attacks. Continue to think how in your life you're going to stir the gift within you.  Think about one fear you're facing and ponder one way you can stir the gift within you. She was pregnant with a baby who was supposed to come in February, but he came before Christmas.  He had to be taken to Primary Children's Hospital.  She was stuck in a different hospital recovering from a C-section.  She laid there praying for her baby.  For the most part she trusted Heavenly Father that he would be okay, but when she was healed enough to go to the hospital and sit by his side, week after week, she started to fear.  One night he had a huge fever.  The fear just crept in.  It was paralyzing and made it so she couldn't move forward.  She relied on her Savior.  Jesus Christ got her through that experience.  Her Benjamin is okay.  He's now almost 10.  It's a great exercise to look back on all the tender mercies of the Lord.  What things have you feared and how has the Lord gotten you through them?  The next time we can look back and remember that God has the power and ability to get us through.  He has done that with her blindness.  She thinks of all the blessings she has received.  The only light she really needs is the Lord.  When she was at the Blind Center she had a class with a social worker who told her being able to see was a want, not a need.  She could say that because she was blind too.  Now she knows that the only light she needs is the light of Christ.  Heavenly Father will answer when we pray.  Remember God's power.  He does not leave His children alone.  When we're in the midst of the storm, know and remember and turn to the Light so you can feel His warmth.  Remember, turn, stir.