The Science of Peace

A speaker in church today was assigned the topic of Patience.  He brought up a very interesting observation.  The word "patience" in Spanish is "paciencia."  If you split that up into two words, it becomes, "paz" and "ciencia" which in English are "peace" and "science".  Therefore, patience is "the science of peace"!  If you think about it, it's really true! When we are patient, we feel at peace; we don't feel like we're running around worried and frustrated by life.  If all the world were more patient, there would be less crime and fewer wars.  Being patient encourages peace!

This is real!

I went on the ward temple trip today.  As always, it was a wonderfully peaceful experience.  Something else happened today though.  It was only for a moment, but I remember just getting an interesting feeling... it wasn't super strong, and it's kind of hard to describe...  In the Church we frequently talk about life after mortality, but I think we don't very often think about what that life is going to be like.  What will it be like to live for an eternity surrounded by our loved ones and in the presence of our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ?  The brief feeling I had was almost like comprehending for the first time in a long time that it really is going to happen one day.  We live our lives, constantly thinking about what we should or shouldn't do, but I realized that I don't think nearly as often about how my choices are going to affect my life after mortality as I do about how they will affect my mortal life.  But the temple, the commandments, and the entire Gospel are not just for our benefit during this life, but also the hereafter!

BYU Devotional: Derek Marquis

Derek Marquis spoke to us last Tuesday.  He's had quite a bit of experience in broadcasting, and shared a great message about the media and the influence it has had on society over the years.  He especially talked about its influence for good.  After all, thanks to miracles such as radio, television, the internet, and texting, it has become easier than ever to spread the Gospel to all the world as has been commissioned by the Savior.  He played for us a sound clip of a recording by President Wilford Woodruff  of him bearing his testimony of the Savior and Joseph Smith, recorded onto a wax cylinder clear back in the 1800's!  And since then, technology has continued to progress in leaps and bounds.  The Lord's servants have always used these advances to advance His work, and Bro. Marquis encouraged us to do the same.  We should take a look at the technologies available to us and determine what more we can do to use them to spread the Gospel and participate in the conversations going on about the Church!