Family Mission Statement

A Family Mission Statement is "a written statement of what you want your life and family to be and the values by which you will live your life" (Families with a Purpose).

I've been learning about this in my online Parenting class. One of my assignments required me to write one for myself, or with my husband if I was married. Obviously I am. So for Family Home Evening we began work on a rough draft.

A family mission statement involves the whole family in its creation which means that the whole family has a clear knowledge of what the family values and what the family's goal is. Ideally this means the whole family works together for the goal.

My Book of Mormon Goal

Back on Monday, November 7, 2011, I began my goal of reading the Book of Mormon and blogging about it daily. It was planned to be done today, Thursday, July 3, 2012, if I followed through with writing about one chapter a day. And I've done it. I've completed my goal.

I just want to share with you that I know the Book of Mormon is true. In reading it, trying to figure out a lesson from each chapter, I know it is true. It has blessed my life being able to read it. Often times I thought about how I could possibly find the time to really study a chapter a day. But I've been able to do it. During the Winter Semester, I was taking 18 credits of college courses (which I hadn't realized until halfway through). Then, during the Spring Semester, I've been attending school and planning my wedding and marriage (because I'm engaged and getting married soon, in case you weren't aware). When I made time to study the scriptures, I discovered that I was more prepared for the day. That I could get done everything else that needed to be done. I was blessed in having my heavy load of difficult homework assignments, homework assignments I didn't think I could properly complete, be done and be done early. Homework assignments and tests that I had enough time for and earned great grades on them. Please, please read the Book of Mormon. It will bless your life.

In August of 2005, President Gordon B. Hinckley gave everyone a challenge:

"We studied the Book of Mormon in Sunday School this past year. Nonetheless I offer a challenge to members of the Church throughout the world and to our friends everywhere to read or reread the Book of Mormon. If you will read a bit more than one and one-half chapters a day, you will be able to finish the book before the end of this year. Very near the end of its 239 chapters, you will find a challenge issued by the prophet Moroni as he completed his record nearly 16 centuries ago. Said he: 

'And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust? … 

'And God shall show unto you, that that which I have written is true' (Moro. 10:27, 29). 

"Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God" ("A Testimony Vibrant and True").

I'd just like to add that I know my Savior Jesus Christ lives. I know he loves me. I know that through him I can repent and return to my Heavenly Father, who also loves me. I know the Book of Mormon is true and it has blessed my life in a multitude of ways. Please read and study it for yourselves. How grateful I am for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you would like to know more about the Book of Mormon and what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe in, you can meet with the missionaries here.

Here are my blog posts about each chapter in the Book of Mormon:

New Year Resolutions

In case you happen to be totally oblivious, New Year's is right around the corner. We all know that a new year marks new beginnings or a fresh start. It happens to be the time of year where we make resolutions that will better ourselves.

So what are a few of my New Year Resolutions?

• Follow a budget
• Be a better listener
• Learn to say hello in 5 languages
• Strike up a conversation with a stranger
• Be available for others when they need me
• Add to my favorite recipes
• Make a short video
• Do some sort of exercise once a week outside of my normal routine
• Manage my time better
• Write a story
• Become an expert on something
• Donate my time
• Discover adventures
• Read a classic
• Learn about my ancestors
• Write old-fashioned letters
• Take a photograph of life

New Year's resolutions can be whatever you want them to be. They can be serious, amusing or silly. But they're great. This time of year is when it's best to take full advantage of making goals for yourself. Here is a website that I just found that could help you in creating your own mixture of resolutions.

Have fun everyone!

Repeating Personal Progress

The Personal Progress is the program created by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for young women ages 12-17. In the current booklet it lists what the purpose of the program is:

"Personal Progress will help you strengthen your faith in and testimony of Jesus Christ as you learn His teachings and regularly apply them in your life. It will help you strengthen both your present family and your future family. It will help you prepare to make and keep sacred covenants and receive the ordinances of the temple. And it will prepare you to be a faithful, contributing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

"The Personal Progress program uses the eight Young Women values to help you understand more fully who you are, why you are here on the earth, and what you should be doing as a daughter of God to prepare for the day you go to the temple to make sacred covenants. It will help you prepare for your future roles as a faithful woman, wife, mother, and leader in God’s kingdom. Participating in Personal Progress teaches you to make commitments, carry them out, and report your progress to a parent or leader. The patterns you establish as you work on Personal Progress—such as prayer, scripture study, service, and journal keeping—will become personal daily habits. These habits will strengthen your testimony and help you learn and improve throughout your life" (Overview for Young Women).

I received my Young Womanhood Recognition on September 7, 2008. The Young Women Personal Progress booklet I was given just before I turned 12 years old is in a state of possessing a faded blue binding, as well as highlighter and pen marking each page accompanied by messy handwriting, dates and signatures. That little booklet helped teach me a lot of things in life.

239 Days from Today

The Book of Mormon contains 239 chapters.
If I begin to reread The Book of Mormon once again and I read one chapter a day for the next 239 days, I'll finish Thursday, July 3, 2012.
So I have a goal. A chapter a day.
But I also want to make sure that I incorporate it into my personal life. I don't want to read a chapter in a hurry and then totally not remember what is was I read a moment ago, or even a day ago. I want to be able to take out as much as I possibly can in relation to my own life. Thus, I have a plan as to how to be kept accountable.
Each day I'm going to require myself to type up a blog post. A blog post about that chapter. A post of the chapter in relation to my own life.
I'm actually terribly excited for this.

(Though, life will probably get a little crazy. So completing it by July may be a little intense. At the latest, I'll have it done in a year from today.)


Recently, MormonMessages came out with a YouTube video about The Book of Mormon. I think it would be a good introduction to everyone.

Book of Mormon

As I was unpacking, organizing and cleaning my room I found one - two - Three! copies of The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. This doesn't count my own personal copy. These copies were given to me by the missionaries. I've asked them for one throughout the years so I'd always have one on hand with me through high school, work, or anything really. I was ready. I was even blessed enough to have given several to people throughout my life. But I found three still in my room.

I haven't really used them much in the past two years because I've been away at BYU-Idaho for 7 months straight and pretty much everyone is a member there. Sharing the gospel and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon is a bit different there. As a result, I've always left my copies to hand out at home in California where there's a lot more opportunity to hand one out spontaneously.

But this month is unofficially Book of Mormon month. The October 2011 issue of the Ensign is a special issue focused on the Book of Mormon. Then a blog I follow, "We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ", has decided to also focus on the Book of Mormon this month. Then during General Conference, the Book of Mormon was also mentioned, as it normally is. However there were three talks where the Book of Mormon was truly the theme: Richard G. Scott's "The Power of Scripture", Henry B. Eyring's "A Witness", and Tad R. Callister's "The Book of Mormon – a Book from God".

When I found these three copies of the Book of Mormon without a home where they can change it from the inside out, I was rather depressed about that fact and decided that I'm going to give these copies out before the end of the year. I'll be keeping my ears, eyes and heart open so I can find homes for them. I'm going to have to get back into the habit of carrying a copy with me everywhere I go. Luckily purses exist!

You just have to love The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It's a book that changes your life every time you read it. You know you are on the right page when you are experiencing a moment of confusion and loss, then you recall a verse from the scriptures that gives you comfort and guidance. It's a book that changes you from the inside out. When you're changed from the inside out, you just shine. It makes you truly joyful, even when you experience the sadness of mortality. It helps you discover the purpose of life. The purpose of a great many things actually. Every word just rings with sincerity and truthfulness. You can't doubt it when you read and study the words and lessons it has on every page.

And yet, I have three copies in my room. Not doing anyone any good. Quite the waste of a marvelous, true book that changes people.

I've met people who think that people can't change who and what they are. They think that people can't change their characteristic of laziness, or fear, or pride, or whatever else. Many think they can't change themselves. But you can. You can, and this wonderful book teaches you how. Just reading it, wanting to know, it begins a change. A marvelous change. From good to better, from better to best, from best to even better than best. It only helps you up. It's impossible to read it with true intent and not become even a little bit better. This book is truly a marvelous thing. Sometimes I just don't think that any of us really take full advantage of it.

So I have a goal. These books sitting on my desk are going to find a home in the next two months. It can only do good out there. Meanwhile I'll continue reading my own. It can only do good to my heart and life. From the inside out.

The Weekly Goals

I am reading Mormon Essays by D. James Cannon and it got me thinking. The author came up for the idea with the idea of these essays from the scripture Alma 32:27 which says, "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." The phrase I wish you to focus upon is "experiment upon my words".

Cannon decided to choose a scripture for a week and then try to apply it in his life for that week. When the week ended, he would write a little essay on the the scripture and what he learned about it. Cannon: "My personal experience in taking one scripture per week and putting it to the test, living by it, and applying it to my problems, decisions, and attitudes of daily pursuits has been most rewarding."

How motivating that is! How I wish to do the same!

And I shall!

That just shows a true and deep understanding and intellect, or at least a wish to gain it. It's an admirable trait: the wish to progress.

I shall try to do this.

I think it will also make my daily scripture study more effective as I seek for the ways I can take that scripture and apply it to my life. Could you imagine if I ended up taking every verse in order and assign each a week?? How much progress I would make in the time period of several hundred weeks? I think I shall try that. I really shall. but maybe not every single verse. yet. :)

Library: the Collection

I was about 8 years old when my parents began looking for a new house to live in, because we were having an addition to the family, my little brother Robert. Once in awhile, they'd take the rest of us children with them. One time we were looking at different house models, and I clearly remember wanting a certain model because they had two high walls of bookshelves. My parents had to explain to me that the house we were building wouldn't automatically have the bookshelves in it. I knew that, but didn't really believe it, because since I could now visualize it, I wanted that house just because the dream of having a little library like that seemed more realistic when living in that house.

Cicero has said, "To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul."

Since I was little I began to picture owning a library in my home. But what amazed me was that as I grew and matured, so did the context of my imaginary library. The shelves were first filled with the Harry Potter books, the Eragon books, the Alex Rider books, the Dr. Seuss books, mostly the entertainment and fantasy books. Soon, the were filled with a more classical, science and historical fiction angle. But I never really had much of an interest in the non-fiction genre. Until recently.

As Holbrook Jackson said, "Your library is your portrait."

Now my library would include all the perviously mentioned books, along with Way to Be! by Gordon B. Hinckley, as well as some of his other books like Standing for Something. It would include Elder Neal A. Maxwell's books such as Moving in His Majesty and Power. Also, I'd love to get some works by President Thomas S. Monson and the other church presidents. It would also contain Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell, Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach their Kids that the Poor and Middle Class do not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter, The Five People you meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, Seven Miracles that Saved America: Why they Matter and Why we Should have Hope by Chris Stewart and Ted Stewart, Live your Life for Half the Price by Lyle and Tracy Shamo, Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell, Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

Of course, this isn't all. I'd include all my textbooks from college, some literary journals, some encyclopedias, church magazines, talks on CDs like The John Bytheway Collection Vol. I & II and The Little Things that can make a Big Difference by Daryle Hoole. I'd add on biographies, "How To" books on different skills, essays by Thoreau and Emerson, and journals of my ancestors and relatives, including my own. My library would also contain little inspirational thought books like Small and Simple Things by Marjorie Pay Hinckley.

I'm sure that in a few days I would even have more to add to this imaginary collection.

President Hinckley has said, "I love libraries. I love books. There is something sacred, I think, about a great library because it represents the preservation of the wisdom, the learning, the pondering, of men and women of all the ages accumulated together under one roof to which we can have access as our needs require."

What a wealth of Knowledge! What a wealth of Wisdom!

There are few things I wish to collect in my life: friends, family, and wisdom.

"A library of wisdom, then, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it," says Richard de Bury, one of the very first English collectors of books.

I don't entirely agree, as there are more important things then books, such as family, the gospel and the goal of achieving Eternal Life, but a collection of wisdom, even if it is only located in the mind, is something to always increase and magnify.

How I wish to make my dream a reality. And I am working on it. But it'll take awhile. Books and the like cost a bit of money, and poor college students do not have that much to spare. Except slowly and surely. The textbooks will be a required buy, and every once in awhile I shall buy a book to add to my currently non-exsistant shelves. It'll be an adventure.

When I was little I learned about the Library of Alexandria. I noticed it because, well, Alexandria is my name, then the word "library", and I discovered that it was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I learned it was the largest library of the ancient world. I then came to the startling question of "What is the largest library in the world today?" I learned that the Library of Congress was in fact the largest library. It soon became my goal to visit that place someday and own a library card for that library (though not long after, I learned that public can't check out books, though they can use them). So someday I would visit. What's rather ironic of course in the fact that my family this Spring Break is going to D.C. without me. Sad sad sad. Oh well, I shall accomplish this goal someday! I have a whole life ahead of me!

What an adventure it will be! To collect knowledge, wisdom, and experiences.

Learning about the Financial

Perhaps its because I am at college and am more aware of all the knowledge out there and try my best to soak it up, but it seems to me that themes are occurring and repeating. Possibly because I really need to know this information for some strange reason. It amazes me that if you are open to inspiration, you learn things that would be most beneficial. It seems to me that one of the most ideal times in which to learn and gain wonderful habits are in our college years. However, I also think that in all stages of our lives is the best time to be learning more and gaining better habits.

In anycase, yesterday was Fast Sunday and some of the young men from our ward go around to our homes to collect Fast Offerings (which I didn’t know and so turned them in earlier at church). As they do so they also drop off an Ensign for our home: one per home. I began to read it and near the beginning was the Visiting Teaching Message which is entitled “Managing Resources Wisely and Staying out of Debt.” Then today, in my College Success class, the lesson of the day was entitled “Financial Awareness” taught by a Senior who’s major is accounting and who works in the financial advising department. It was very interesting and enlightening.

As a result, I now have some new goals. I’m more knowledgeable about what these goals should approximately be and how to accomplish them. That’s my problem sometimes; the lack of knowledge, also known as ignorance, causes me to not know what it is that I want to attain.

But first, let’s continue with what I have learned and perhaps you may learn something as well, or come to a better understanding with me as I rewrite what it is I have acquired from these different sources.

Why should I care about my financial state? Personally, I think that is a stupid question. I mean, money matters. Not in the way of wealth and ambition and greed, but rather in the way of taxes, bill payments, education, food and other necessities. As it does matter we need to be wise about the money we are given. It’s not actually ours anyways. It’s our stewardship, we are to manage and be responsible over it. Use it for righteous means. Money is a blessing, but it can be used for evil as all things can be.

Another reason as to why we should care: the Deficit effects the economy. Less jobs for those of us who are looking for them, even after graduation from college with a major.

What we do with our money depends on our perspective. There are three words that people don’t really like to hear or do: “Debt”, “Budgeting” and “Savings”.

DEBT
What is debt to the average American? An everyday thing. Something you run up everytime you go shopping. It’s a normal occurrence. Debt is something that defines life in the normal way of the world, at least in America.
What is debt to many LDS members? Something bad and to be avoided at all costs. However, there are good debts. What? you ask. Good debts? Why, what is that? Good debts are debts that are made as a result of education, housing, and transportation. Although, it has to be reasonable and not overboard on buying some topnotch super expensive car just because it’s cool and whatnot. But there are somethings that it is acceptable to have a debt for.

BUDGETING
To many people, budgeting is something you do when you are poor and broke. That is a False Statement, as budgeting is something in all actuality is an asset to making you far more prosperous. Budgeting, in my own words, controls the “natural man” to spend. Budgeting is just telling our money where to go. It is also a collection of financial goals. Another false statement: Without goals any failures can be looked at as a success. No progressing equals no improvement and no achievement and no success.

SAVINGS
This is something Americans just do not do. In fact, we are in the negatives of saving. Meaning we spend that which we do not have. We need to plan ahead as we don’t put into account all that we should. For example, what is the estimated cost of education? $1640 for tuition. Then an high estimate of the cost of books at $500. Housing off campus at an average of $900, many places are higher. $700 for food. Possible $150 cost of transportation of gas if owning a vehicle, and even if not, for other kinds of transportation. So an estimated total of $3890 per semester. Do we college students keep that in mind as we are home from school and working, of the amount we should be saving for only one semester of college. For one year, or two semesters, its an estimated total of $7780. And this is only at BYU-Idaho. (Now, hopefully, my parents are freaking out right now. :P) Another something to be aware of as we try to plan ahead is the resources available to us. The free financial advisors, the scholarships and grants, and such. Sacrifice is a huge part of planning ahead. How? Well, explain to me when it is convenient to save. When you are single? When you are newly weds? When you have children? When your children are older? Is it truly convenient at any of these times? No. But we should do it anyways. Even if is just a small amount. At least something should be saved. Excuses shouldn’t really be accepted as to why you can’t save. Although, obviously the amount depends on the situation of each household.

“To provide providently, we must practice the principles of provident living: joyfully living within our means, being content with what we have, avoiding excessive debt, and diligently saving and preparing for rainy-day emergencies. When we live providently, we can provide for ourselves and our families and also follow the Savior’s example to serve and bless others.
‘. . . Of course some debt incurred for education, a modest home, or a basic automobile may be necessary to provide for a family. Unfortunately however, additional debt is incurred when we cannot control our wants and addictive impulses.” So says Robert D. Hales in “Becoming Provident Providers Temporally and Spiritually”.

I like this. The Principles of Provident Living:
Joyfully living within our means
Being content with what we have
Avoiding excessive debt
Diligently saving and preparing for rainy-day emergencies

What does Provident Living implies?

President Spencer W. Kimball says that provident living implies:
Conversing of our resources
Wise planning of financial matters
Full provision for personal health
Adequate preparation for education and career development
Giving appropriate attention to home production and storage
Development of emotional resiliency

It’s interesting to learn all these things and then try to apply them into our lives.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin has 5 key steps to financial freedom:
Pay your tithing
Spend less than you earn
Learn to save
Honor your financial obligations
Teach you children to follow your example

That is a lot of information and there is even more out there. But it honestly just amazes me the financial information that I gained in these last few days. I really shall be making goals and keeping to them.

Gotta love learning. :D