Taking Elder Perry's Advice into Action

So last time I mentioned that I would  give you my input and let you know how I am putting Elder Perry's tips (posted below) into my life. I love that talk he gave, if you didn't read it he talked a lot about prayer and scripture study and continuing those habits when you are home from your mission.

Well..... I think I may have mentioned this before but my first morning back I was one determined cuss (as my dad says) to make sure I woke up at 6:30 to study and exercise and what not, but my mom swiped her phone, which was my alarm clock in the middle of the night so that I would sleep, the little punk! I woke up in a panic, still determined to do what I had been doing for the past year and a half, so I went upstairs and started to study.

Almost every return missionary that I talked to said that their scripture study took a bit of a hit when they got home.... I can now join that crowd. Mine totally did. Instead of studying for half an hour I am now trying to making sure I study for 10 minutes... hopefully. And trust me I have sat through many a church meeting feeling guilty that I hadn't stepped up my game yet.

So here are my thoughts on it, take it for what you will, but it is so much easier to study when you have that time set apart to study. I never thought I would be busier than what I was as a missionary and I totally thought wrong. I start work and school at 8:00 a.m. so I usually wake up around 6:30 to 6:45 to get ready, and then come home usually at around 9:00 p.m. give or take a couple of hours depending on how many meetings I have or what homework is due the next day. I don't usually have breaks in between and when I get home and get to bed to read usually I am one wiped girl. I always try and do at least 10 minutes or more like I said, but sometimes I don't even get that in...... I feel like this has turned more into a confession so uh.... let's move on :)

Even though I don't have as much time as I would like to spend all day reading the scriptures what I do get out of it still means so much. At the beginning of my mission I heard a talk titled The Character of Christ by Elder Bednar, it is incredible. He talked about studying the scriptures according to a topic and I thought that was a pretty cool idea and tried it out myself. I really like it. I get a little blue copy of the Book of Mormon and the first time I read it was according to Preach My Gospel, a tool missionaries use to help them teach, the second time was according to Justification, Sanctification, and Grace, and the third time we did as a mission together according to the Atonement. I choose different colors to use as marking tools according to the different categories that I study and start at the beginning and read it completely to finish. All along the way searching for those scriptures and stories that have to do with what I am studying.  I had no idea you could get so much out of the scriptures. Not only now can I read their stories and what happened. But I feel like I know these people that are written about and why they are so great.


There is so much power in scripture study, not just scripture reading. And so even though I can't do it for as long, I can still get a whole lot out of it if I put forth that effort.

Elder Bednar for the win!

So let's talk about prayer. There are days where I feel like I am totally holding up my end of my relationship with God and telling my Heavenly Father everything and other days where I feel like a passive aggressive teenager that doesn't want her parents knowing what is going on in her life. How silly huh! So I decided to change. Yeah some days I am dog tired and some days I feel that there is nothing really to talk to Him about. But I'll tell you an experience I had the other day. I was kinda stressin over school stuff and had some questions on what direction I needed to go. I was talking to my mom about it and told her I was worried and she said, "Yeah just lay it all out on the line to God and see what He thinks." So later that night I knelt down and instead of doing a remote, Hey, thank you for this, please bless this ya know? I said, "I am worried about these things and I need your help. I understand that you know what will happen and what not but I just need to know if things will be okay." I was instantly overcome with so much peace. That has happened countless times. If you ever have a question on whether or not Heavenly Father hears you, just listen. Take pauses in between what you are saying to Him and let him speak back with you. You will never doubt that He loves you again.

Those are the two biggest things I have found that help me keep the spirit, but it is in every day things too. I honestly think a lot of it comes when you put others before yourself. Just like how you did when you were a missionary. It is kinda tough to not get sucked back into the junk of being self-absorbed but if you truly want to be happy you will steer clear of that.

This is kinda a stretch, but I like the idea of this article on David Archuleta, and why he chose to go on a mission. I feel that we can do that too now that we are home. To do things that don't necessarily involve ourselves as much. You can find the article here. http://www.ksl.com/?sid=29350800&nid=148&title=david-archuleta-called-to-serve&fm=home_page&s_cid=topstory

I am sooo the farthest thing from perfect. There is no doubt about that. These are just some things that have helped me. You will find those things that help you, whether it's this or something else, be willing to change. Believe it or not you can be even better than you were when you were at your prime of being a missionary.

If you have more questions or would like more information on what the church members say about scripture study and prayer check it out on lds.org just type the info you are looking for in the search bar and it will come up with talks, scriptures, you name it!