A Prayer of Faith

Article by Kathatina Betz Birch
Ensign, July 2006

Birch describes the sometimes bleak reality of mission life starting with the description of a day that included all that the title of her article entails. She was faced with a feeling that she “was doomed to failure as a missionary, and hadn’t even been in Germany two months yet.”

She was inspired by an article by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Inconvenient Messiah,” and quotes, “…All but a prophetic few must go about God’s work in very quiet, very unspectacular ways. And as you labor to know him, and to know that he knows you; as you invest your time—and inconvenience—in quiet, unassuming service, you will indeed find that ‘his angels [have] charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up’ (Matthew 4:6). It may not come quickly. It probably won’t come quickly, but there is purpose in the time it takes. Cherish your spiritual burdens because God will converse with you through them and will use you to do his work if you will carry them well.” Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve heard this phrase before in the scriptures. God’s course is “one eternal round.” This shows up various times in the scriptures. I’ll include one of those references here, from D&C 35:1:

Listen to the voice of the Lord your God, even Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, whose course is one eternal round, the same today as yesterday, and forever.

I never really quite understood what “one eternal round” meant; I probably still don’t to a great degree. But I did read something a couple of months ago that gave some significant meaning to this concept for me. Read the rest of this entry »

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Read the rest of this entry »

I can feel it in the vibrations of the floor. I can see it in the rhythmic dancing of my monitor. Bam! Bam! Bam! It’s the spin cycle, and once again, my washing machine is unbalanced.

So it is that I can relate to Emily Watts, a self-proclaimed “fourteen-towel woman in a ten-towel-capacity life” (p. 6). Like her, I, too “have lots to do, and all of it is good and worthwhile and important, but I simply can’t do it all at once” (p. 6).

In this short, sweet, and to the point book from Deseret Book’s “Time Out Classics” series, Sister Watts shares a better view of balance and how to get there by listening to the Lord, accepting His love, and living it. Read the rest of this entry »

Alright, I promised you answers to your questions and here they are. Read the rest of this entry »

“Experience is the raw material of life. It is abundantly available to every person. We can use it to discover, grow, and change; or we can simply let it happen and keep breathing until something else happens, never using what we have learned to positively influence and shape future experience” (p. 83). Read the rest of this entry »

From the time I was a child, foreign languages fascinated me. After dabbling in Latin and Spanish in high school, I decided to take on the challenge of Russian at BYU. Soon after beginning my study, I began to have an intense desire to visit Russia—to see for myself the land of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, which was then under the iron rule of Communism. This was back in the early 1960’s, when the Soviet Union under Khrushchev routinely issued dire threats to the free world, but welcomed the chance to earn dollars by conducting carefully chaperoned showcase tours for Americans.

I was thrilled when BYU announced that they would be participating for the first time in a Russian summer study program. I immediately applied, was accepted, and started saving money for the trip. I obtained a passport. My whole family sacrificed to help fund my study abroad experience, and I was elated at the opportunity to realize my dream.

Suddenly, only a few weeks before I was due to travel, I was shocked to hear that the Board of Trustees (at that time consisting of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve) had cancelled BYU’s participation in the program. Although the Board gave no reason for the cancellation, we were told it was not saying that it was unsafe to go, nor that no BYU students should go to Russia. Faculty members would help any of us who so desired to apply for open places at the other universities participating in the program. I had to decide immediately whether to go, or to abandon my dream—at least temporarily. Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago, for ward conference, the meeting was about keeping the Sabbath day holy. What does it mean, and how can we make it what it truly is, not just a day of the weekend, but a day of worship? It was mentioned that we do not often think of attending our Sunday meetings as worship — but this is what it is. We are going there to worship the Lord and renew our covenants. What is our frame of mind when we attend? Do we really appreciate the symbol of the sacrament table, and the sacrament? Read the rest of this entry »

To all of you who decided to participate in our experiment: How is it going? How is your heart? Is it more open? Have you noticed a difference in your life? We are so excited to hear about your experiences, feelings and insights!

With the holiday this week and all, we have shuffled things around a little, so check here on Friday for the next article in our series. (And, if by chance you have forgotten about the experiment, you have a couple of extra days to give it a try!)

Welcome to Foo!

Obert Skye discovered it several years ago, and he invites you to make the journey yourself through the characters in his book, Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo. Foo is “the fantastic realm that allows mankind to hope, imagine and dream.”

Leven Thumps, a fourteen-year-old boy living in Burnt Culvert, Oklahoma, has the power to save Foo from its chaotic state and he must journey to the secret gateway that connects the two worlds, the real one and the magical. But first he must discover the power and potential within himself, discarding self-doubt and believing that he is meant for bigger and better things than the wretched life he has lived thus far. Read the rest of this entry »