Talks and Things

So I forgot to post this until now. . . This is the talk I gave last Sunday. 

"How We Can Strengthen Our Relationship With The Savior

I want to start by introducing myself a little. My name is Kalani, I'm from Brookshire Texas and I am the oldest of eleven. Today I am giving a talk on how we can strengthen our relationship with the Savior. 

Most of what I'm going to say I learned or grew to better understand while I was on my mission, and because I will be referencing it a lot during my talk I served in the California San Jose Mission, English speaking. 

While I was studying for this talk I found a talk by Elder Dallin H Oaks. In his talk "He Heals the Heavy Laden", he quotes part of a letter which says "Intense, daily scripture study, regular temple worship, and serious, contemplative participation in the ordinance of the sacrament are all indispensable parts of a true repentance process. This, I assume, is because all of these activities serve to deepen and strengthen one’s relationship with the Savior, one’s understanding of His atoning sacrifice, and one’s faith in His healing power." (Oct 2006 Conference). 

As I kept looking I found a talk by Elder James E Faust titled "A Personal Relationship with The Savior" (Oct 1976 Conference). In this he talks about five essential things that can help us get closer to the savior. 

Number one is communication through prayer. Before my mission prayer and I had a complicated relationship. I knew that if I prayed Heavenly Father would help me in some way - like the time when I was 8 and prayed for twin baby dolls, and the response came in the form of twin sisters when I was 9.  On my mission I learned the importance of prayer, it was something we asked people to do all of the time. One of my favorite things about prayer is that Heavenly Father wants to hear from us. Yes He knows what happened throughout the day but He still wants to here it from us. He gives us a promise in Matthew 21:22 which says "And all ​​​things​, whatsoever ye shall ​​​ask​ in ​​​prayer​, believing, ye shall receive."

Number two is service. My mission was a service oriented mission. We did service almost every single day, and I came to understand that the best thing about service - as well as following the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ, I found out that through service to others - self less service with no thought to gain anything in return, can heal us. Service can help us have peace. I'm going to use the missionary scripture in D&C 4, verse 2 which says "Therefore, O ye that embark in the ​​​service​ of God, see that ye ​​​serve​ him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand ​​​blameless​ before God at the last day."

Number three is striving to be obedient. I didn't figure out the main reason Heavenly Father asks us to do things until my mission. To put it very simply, it's because He loves us and wants us to be safe. Because of that we have the commandments and a perfect example to follow - the Savior. I love D&C 82:10 "I, the Lord, am ​​​bound​ when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no ​​​promise​." He has promised us so many blessings when we do as He asks - one of those blessings includes a better relationship with our Savior. 

Number four might just be my favorite while also being one of the hardest things to do, because of how simple it is - remembering and acknowledging the divinity of the Savior daily. I like to think that this also includes remembering that the Savior loves us for who we are, no matter what. 

Number five is reading the scriptures daily. Reading in the scriptures, we find out about the Savior's life. How better to strengthen our relationship with someone than to learn about them? Because in the scriptures "..we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." (2 Nephi 25:26). This is where we go to read about the miracles He preformed and the blessings He gave. And we know He loves us because we are constantly receiving more scripture through the words of the Prophets and Apostles. I'm always excited for General Conferences and I love reading the Ensign and New Era to hear what they have to say. 

Now I want to say something. I know some of you were probably listening to me list these things and just nodding and rolling your eyes thinking "yes I know, that is always what we are told to do" and I understand. I've done that before, and thought that before. But I also want you to know that I know how much these things really do help us to strengthen our relationship with our Savior. I felt it happen to me on my mission and I saw it happen to those I taught. These are really simple things, which also makes them really hard, but I know how much they help. Even if you only have time to read or listen to a verse of scripture or a hymn, it helps. I'm not going to say I'm perfect at any of these things, because I'm not. But I'm trying and I know that as we all try to do these things our relationships with the Savior will be strengthened and so will our relationships with our family and friends. 

In his talk Elder Faust quoted a missionary who said " Is not the greatest need in all of the world for every person to have a personal, ongoing, daily, continuing relationship with the Savior?” Elder Faust then says that "Having such a relationship can unchain the divinity within us, and nothing can make a greater difference in our lives as we come to know and understand our divine relationship with God."

I want to bear my testimony to all of you that I know these things are true, and I can promise that as we continue to do these things our personal relationships with our Savior will be strengthened. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Kalani

Moving Away

Summer was really busy, with work and people. I loved being home with my family and spending time with friends back in Texas, but sadly I also knew it was coming to an end. 

I took family photos and Raymond's senior pictures (lots of fun). 

I'm not really a fan of traveling by myself. It's kindof scary. But I do love adventures, so. 

I love being able to see mountains again. Was always a comfort growing up. 

It's weird driving past temples and church buildings again when they're on almost every block. But it's also  really cool. It was awesome drive less than 20 minutes to the temple!  

Even though it was a little scary to finally be out on my own, it's going be a fun adventure. I've made friends and I have cousins close by. :)

Have a great week! I think I'll try updating more frequently again. :)

Kalani

It's June? What?

So many pictures this past two weeks. . . Not sure I can put them all on here. . . xD

Now I'll just talk about what I did that made it so I didn't post last week.

My boss asked me to go to a training camp to become the aquatics director at Bovay. I agreed, because they really needed one and I like water. I drove there with coworkers to the camp which is near Dallas/Fort Worth area - yay long drive! Bleh.

When I arrived, I found out that I couldn't be an aquatics director because I wasn't a lifeguard yet (I get that training sometime in the next few weeks), which was something I had mentioned to my boss, like, don't I need this for that? and he said no so I didn't worry about it. Until I got there. My coworker, Miss Becca, called and arranged things and I was able to stay at the camp to become a program director. I think I had more fun doing that than I would've with aquatics. . . :)

It was a crazy week but also kindof fun. :)

As it it now almost the end of June. . . haha. I think I'm way behind now. Well, some highlights: Lisa turned two. Natalie came home. :) We went hiking. Made some new friends. Three of our cousins came to stay for a week - fourteen children is a LOT. It's been a while since we had to use two cars, our fifteen passenger didn't quite fit sixteen people, but we had fun!

So many things wow. 

Today is Hannah's seventh birthday! It's crazy how time flies. 

Well. I've found I'm to leave Texas soon. I planned everything, so I knew this would happen, but I find I don't want to leave my family. I fly up to Utah August 8th, and I'm going to live there and work until I can get instate tuition at Utah State. :) It's going to be a fun adventure!!! 

Haha, hope everyone has a great week. 

Love, 

Kalani 

Camping Alone and Happy Mothers Day!!

It was a pretty good week. 

                             

I worked on Monday. At FHE we played murder in the dark. 

Tuesday and Wedsneday I worked. Thursday was institute. 

On Friday and Saturday I went camping with nine of my younger siblings and no parents. Somehow we survived. ;) I went to a YSA event on saturday at the beach in Galveston (California beaches have ruined any other beach for me, sadly - or not, as there Galveston ones are gross in my opinion). I had a lot of fun with my friends, even if the drive there and back were long. 

Today I was in charge of getting said nine younger siblings to church by myself. Whooohooo. I taught my five year olds about the importance of the Book of Mormon and why it is the word of God. :) Spent the rest of the day wishing I could sleep. 

Also I'm going to be the chauffeur for the week. This should be an adventure. :)

Love y'all,

Love, 

Kalani 

Birthday and Star Wars

Well this has been a fun week! 

 

             

This is Coach Kalani (am I spelling it how he does? No clue!) and Ty at the BYU Fan Fest. It was cool to meet someone else with the same name! 

              

On Monday I had to work in the morning. I went to the library after to organize some mission pictures (I took around a thousand pictures in my first area alone. . .) and was there until it closed. Mom and the littles made it there just after to pick me up on their way home from the park. For FHE we played dodgeball. 

Tuesday I drove Lydia to seminary. 

Thursday I drove to seminary. It was Star Wars day (May the 4th be with you) and also my birthday. It is really weird that I'm 21. . . But its okay. One of my companions from my mission, Cora, called me and we made The Eternally Sober Club. :) I finally saw The Force Awakens. Sadly, I had to work on my birthday as I forgot to ask for it off. For institute we had an assessment and then played games, one where you are on a team and one person picks a name out of a bowl and has to get their team to guess who it is without you saying the name. The other was more. . . Interesting. We sat in a circle and there was a blindfolded person in the middle who had to use a pillow and sit on someone's lap and then had to guess who the person was after the person quacked. Awkward. 

Friday I had work again. 

Saturday we went to a BYU Fan Fest. It was fun. :) I got slightly sunburned because Texas and no shade. I hung out with a friend for a little and then after dinner we watched Rogue 1. I am sad with the ending. Grr. Oh well. 

Sunday I only had one kid in class. We talked about obedience being something we do because of our love of God and our faith in Him. I went to a YSA Broadcast, Elder Kim Clark and his wife spoke. It was awesome. 

I hope everyone has a great week! :) 

Love,

Kalani