"Do you want to play a game?"

On Saturday I have to do a 5 km run...for those that know me you are probably laughing right now. When I signed up for it a month and a half ago I had every intention of training so that I would get better at running. However when I noticed that September was far spent, I kick up a fuss and told my companion that I couldn’t run. To which she replied you could run if a cheetah was chasing you...very thought provoking thank you Sister Stoker. Would I give up my comfort for my life? I find this is just like in the Book of Mormon when King Lamoni says to Alma that he would give up all his sins to know God. Sinning is never happiness but I find that we can become comfortable in our sins. So the name of this blog is from a quote a movie called Saw. Don’t judge me for watching a terrible slasher movie. But it inspired me because it in captures the choice between change and death through hopelessness. In this movie there is this creepy old guy who has a life threatening disease and is angry at people that don’t make the most of their lives so what he does is he kidnaps them and puts them in this life or death situation where they have to endure self inflicted pain to escape in a limited time frame or be killed or trapped forever. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is made of two parts. First the Savoir Jesus Christ overcoming spiritual death in the Garden of Gethsemane which enables us to repent of our sins and return to our Heavenly Father to live forever. Second overcoming physical death by being resurrected after being crucified so one day we can overcome this as well. When we sin we are trapped just like the people in Saw and just like me and my hypothetical cheetah, but have you ever noticed how hard it is to run when you are carrying lots of things?

I love in the book of 2 Nephi 2:27 how it explains:

Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

I love this because life is not hopeless. Heavenly Father has given us a choice and a way to escape these problems. It hurts to change but I know through Jesus Christ we can build up our (spiritual) muscles through exercising daily (prayer)and we can give over our (spiritual) baggage so that we will be able to escape those eternal life threatening things. To quote Aaron Edson “the pain will go away some day but the strength will stay with you.”So choose life! Run you’re hardest! Don’t give up! Because there is someone at the finish line who loves you very much and has given up everything including his life to help you train for this challenge. I know when you do choose life it will easier to run from Cheetahs, lol.

''its a verb to love someone"

My sister Katie once said something that really stuck with me she said "that if she loves someone that she will make them a star in her universe ". Now when I was watching this Mormon message don’t worry I wasn’t boy date-dreaming I was thinking about those that I love mainly my family ,my best friend Hannah and my companion Sister Stoker and How when I really started to love them I would want to do things for them .I remember a time when Hannah and I lived together and I would work days and she would work nights we would always try and do nice things for each other like she would do the dishes for me or I would wash her clothes and put them in her room or how my mum would make my bed and put hot pj’s from the dryer out for me when I would get back from road trips with work. Just those little things that takes a little bit of your time but makes someone else’s day just better .I know that I am good at serving those that I love but I think what I really need to work on is having a whole universe of stars instead of a small consolation .

So I guess what I am challenging lol or inviting you to do is to love!

The BOM diggity

The book of Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ ....this is how the book starts them the testaments of the three witnesses then the 12 then first Nephi who was born of goodly parents then I would get distracted and put the book down until I was next inspired to pick to up which could have been months or in some cases years. Reading the book of Mormon was not my strongest point because I didn’t really understand what it was.

it’s strange how someone can impact your life without you ever telling them or them even knowing. When I was 18 I had been staying with my parents in NSW for a few months before I moved from Tom Price WA to Perth WA at this time a movie had just been released, a movie that has impacted a lot of Mormon girls probably more than I would care to admit ..this movies name was twilight ...and my older sister Heidi had somewhat of an obsession with it frequently reading me chapters and giving me advise from the book .so with much frustration I came to the conclusion that I must read this book and judge for myself so I did .it took roughly 4 days to read the entire serious and I couldn’t see straight after but I remember sitting on the couch at my chapel and reading while my mum was conducting Tuesday night activities when a boy came up to me one that I maybe didn’t value for his intelligence or strength in the church and started talking to me about twilight so naturally I boasted how fast I was reading it and that I would soon be finished to which he replied “but how many times have you read the book of Mormon" this hit me like a ton of bricks

The best way to describe it is to in 1 Nephi 16:2 "wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center."

 I was guilty I thought through the hundreds of books I had read from cover to cover and was ashamed to say that the book of Mormon was not one of them. After that that sentence "but how many times have you read the book of Mormon" would replay in my head when ever I went to pick up a book to read that wasn’t the book of Mormon .it took me a little while before I eventually bit the bullet and read and it’s true that it is the most true of all the books on the earth and I am so grateful that I am able to serve in a place where it was restored to the earth and tell the stories of the miracles that had a major part in its coming forth .

I know this because I have read it and I study everyday and I challenge you to take Moroni’s challenge and know for yourself as well because i can tell you all till i am blue in the face but until you read for yourself you will never be able to know.

Moroni 10:4

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

The best things come in the mail

What a wonderful week it has been! It’s funny that my life has been ruled by the postal service for so long .before my mission i waited for letters from my friend on a mission then I waited for my call now I wait daily for post cards, letters and any type of love in a cardboard box from home  lol. One of the best things that i received this week was a letter from my little brother David in the MTC i was confused at first when I saw that the letter was from Elder D.Meister to Sister D.Meister but then my heart skipped a beat, letter ! It’s a letter from David ! My older sister Sharron in all her infinite wisdom counseled me to write David as much as possible whilst we were both missionary because it would be some of the most uplifting letters that we would ever read from her experience writing to my older brother Shane whilst they both served back in 1998. So this concept got me thinking about building relationships and how my dad had once told me that we needed to build our relationships as adults so that we could relate better and so that he could help me spiritually progress.
we need to communicate in order to build strengthen and maintain family relationships this is especially pertinent with our relationship with our father in heaven .i can only imagine how hard it would be for him each day to see his children suffering and struggling through this life with him just waiting to help if they would only ask .
Praying is just like writing a letter you start with who it’s to
Then you thank him for all you blessings and acknowledge his hand in your life and his influence
Then you talk. I have noticed that with my parents they enjoy it even if i would call just to talk .it s the same with heavenly father

Tell him about you day, asks him how you can improve ?talk about your worries and your friends he really does care but like the scripture says.

 39 For behold, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal  life of man.

i love this because god doesn’t have anything going on right now this is his full time job to hear us and to love us .

SO DON’T FORGET TO PRAY KIDS BECAUSE HEVENLY FATHER IS WAITING AT HIS MAIL BOX TO HERE FROM YOU !

live high ,live mighty ,live righteously

I love music so much but the best songs of all are the ones that I can belt out at the top of my lungs and still feel the fizz of the spirit rush over me. one of  the first song that I ever felt this was not actually a church song it’s called " let the river run" and I learned it in choir with my older sister Heidi when I was 11 .It exclaims come “ The new Jerusalem” when ever I used to sing this I would want to cry and rejoice all at the same time and I have been thinking about that a lot lately probably because as a missionary what I am doing is calling to the new Jerusalem to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and come through the fog of confusion and into the light blue skies of the knowledge of the restored gospel.

Doctrine and Covenants 25:12

 12 For my soul delighteth  in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.

I have come to the realization that music can bring the spirit fast and can take it away with the same hast. It is unfortunate that the adversary misuses the best things in life to lead people away from true and everlasting happiness.

So I guess what I would like you all to think about  next time you are listening to something is it uplifting?

Could I maybe be getting more out of listen to something with a little more depth and substance?

So I promise that if you try and put good music into your life that you will feel the spirit more abundantly and you will feel a greater happiness in your day to day life.

sweet dreams

This week was my very first zone conference! i was so excited .zone conference is a day where all the missionaries in your area gather together and have the president of the mission teach for a whole day.* ps it totally comes complete with taco salad and many smiles :) so something that I really got out of this particularly was the importance of prayer especially on your knees .president talked about kneeling as a sign of submission and of obedience and how important personal prayer is. Well I have a confession I have a tendency to pray whilst I am laying on my bed which prayers generally lead to accidental sleepage. So when president said this I felt a little pang of guilt permeate through me. So when I got home that evening I was absolutely reconciled that I was going to show my father in heaven the respect that he deserved by opening my heart in genuine supplication to him. now I love being a missionary however something that has been really disheartening is that I have been having nightmares really frequently and although i can deal with it makes my early missionary mornings somewhat of a drag. So I went about my nightly rituals of brushing my teeth and so forth then I got in to bed and then remembered what i had wanted to do .I then dragged myself out of bed and knelt next to my bed and began to pray and all though I thought that after praying numerous times during the day that I would have nothing to really say or ask for however when I opened my mind to the promptings of the spirit I found my mind filled with gratitude and needs that needed to be addressed .but one of things that came to my mind was to pray that I would have good dreams and be able to feel peace from the slumber I had .so with very little more thought on the subject I laid in bed and fell asleep immediately and had a dream that my best friend Hannah came and saw me on my mission and was here serving with me .long story short I woke up with a smile on my face and a bounce in my step and when I rolled over and put the little black dot on my called to serve calendar I felt as though each day would now be easier if I would pray more because just like the hymn says "I need thee every hour" and I am so glad that my heavenly father is always waiting for me to figure these things out and help me though .
 So some quick tips top stay awake:
In the word of John Bytheway “if you can’t pray on your knees without falling asleep pray standing”
Pray with the light on
Know what you want to say before you start
Bow your head but don’t lay your head on the floor or bed
I promise that if you pray sincerely at the end of each day you will be blessed  

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain .

Today is a rainy day in upstate New York .Which is good because I love the rain .It reminds me of some of my favorite memories, playing in the rain in the beautiful parks in northern western Australia with my best friend Hannah ,Christmas time and  it also reminds me of my Mum .For a while we lived away from the school that my siblings and I attended and had to catch the bus which was a drag most of the time however when it would rain my brother David and myself would try and get as wet as possible because when  we got home mum would always be waiting there with hot cocoa ,towels and pjs . If it was in school holidays she would take us to the video store and let us get videos and make cookies and have our blankets in the lounge room ...which my Dad didn’t enjoy and had voice his opinions frequently on the subject lol
But there is one very rainy day that is my favourite of all and the reason I have been thinking about this particular day is because on Saturday a lady that my companion and I have been teaching is going to be baptized .If you haven’t guessed already the day that I am referring to was the day that I was baptized .It was Monday the 16th of February 1998 and as the seasons go in Australia especially where my parents lived it rained every single one of my birthdays .I had waited a very long time to be baptized after having had seen my 2 older sisters be baptized and having felt the awesome spirit and the specialness of the occasion. My mum worked really  hard to make me feel like a princess that day .I had caught the bus home and began to make a box for the memories of that day when my mum finally came home she carried all type of fun and interesting things with her but my favourite of all things was a dress that I was to wear after I was baptized it was a beautiful 90 style princess dress and my mum told me the specific reason that she had purchased this dress for me was because I was her princess and now by being baptized I was showing my heavenly father that I wanted to be his princess and that I was going to try and act the way that a princess would .so that one day I would eventually be a princess in heaven.
I was baptized by my Daddy that evening in the presence of all of my family and a large multitude of my branch and I have not felt more clean and beautiful or as close to my heavenly father until I was able to go to the temple.
I am really looking forward to helping people feel those very special feelings that are associated with taking those very important steps to returning back to our heavenly father. Because I know that through making and keeping these very special promises that we make when we are baptized that we will all be able to return to the presence of our heavenly father and be princesses and princes living in eternal happiness with our family and loved ones. I am grateful for my savoir Jesus Christ for preparing this way for me.

This was and is still my favourite baptism song even though it is short but hey so was I back then

 When I am baptized

1. I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain
and ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

2. I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,
And I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

Chorus
I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

"Give said the little stream"

One of the hardest things that i am learning as a missionary is selfless service. Charity is defined as the pure love of Christ and each day I am trying to be more like Jesus so that I am able to teach his gospel in the manner in which he would be pleased but it’s hard not to think with singleness of mind. Thoughts such as, what I want, what’s in it for me? Make it almost impossible to have charity.

I remember when I was at home in sacrament meeting if we would sing the hymn “have I done any good?” my little brother David would often turn to me and mouth the words  have you done any good in the world today ?which would often get me thinking how I had spent my time in the last week "had I cheered up the sad or made someone feel glad? " "If not I had failed indeed.”
Mosiah 2:17 says: “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”

One of my mum’s favorite sayings growing up was “service begins at home” .I believe what she was trying to teach us was to start small by serving our biological siblings before we could reach such climbs as serving our siblings in the gospel or even our brothers and sisters in the human race .(exclaims sister Meister dramatically)…lol

As most hard and useful lessons I have learned as I child I learned this particular lesson in a sneaky cunningly planned family home evening. On this particular Monday many years ago my mother gathered all 5 of us in the family room and handed us each a letter that explained that there was a family in the ward who was having trouble keeping their house clean and they were in dire need of some help .So with the wilting spirit of compassion we all piled into the car and drove around for about 15 minutes all scared stiff as to what horrid task we had been enlisted to serve in .finally we reached our destination ...HOME what?

At this time mum passed us all another letter with one of our siblings name in it and request to clean and or tidy their room. Painfully and completely complacently we all set about doing our tasks. And when we were all finished we went out and got ice cream.
finally it came time to go to bed (I think that I was doing early morning seminary at this time and was generally tired all the time).As I walked into my room I saw everything in its place and my bed made lovingly so that I was able to just slip in and sleep .

I didn’t really realize until that moment that when we are called to serve in any capacity when we rise to that calling heavenly father will take care of those things that we would like to attend too that we are rendered unable to .So I guess it’s the same with missionary work we are promised that if we serve with all our hearts might mind and strength heavenly father we look after our families and other people we love and care about he will also take care of us temporally.
So with that in mind dearest readers I pose this question “have you done any good in the world today?”

Cemented

Lately I have been thinking a lot about Jesus Christ visiting the Americas and how it cemented all of the teachings of the prophets in the book of Mormon .When I was preparing my papers to serve a mission I was really keen to serve the lord and was trying to finish the book of Mormon before I finished my papers .It was really hard especially because at the time I had 2 jobs because I was trying to be financially ready to serve a mission as well .I remember being almost at the end in 3rd Nephi  and I was sitting on the couch in my chapel in Australia waiting for  an interview with my bishop to finalize my papers . I was reading and then I looked up to see what was in front of me . I saw this picture and just like the Nephites had witness of The savior I felt the spirit whisper of his reality and the truthfulness of the prophets in the book of Mormon. I always believed that the book of Mormon was true but at that very moment I had my own personal witness that the book of Mormon was true .I feel amazingly blessed for that dense and heavy reality whenever I serve at the historical sites of the church .it builds my testimony everyday as I get to see with my own eyes the places and the methods in which the restoration of the lords church. I am so glad that I know. That I no longer just believe that like the Nephites I have seen for myself and I encourage everyone to find out for themselves as well .

proud to humble ,weak to strong

I find that even though that I have only been out for a little while on my mission, I am changing. I am not reaching new climbs but  I find that I am revisiting old ones and remembering things from when I was a little girl , recognizing the importance of simplicity in the doctrines of Jesus Christ  and in the constant development of my testimony in the building of the foundations of the missionary that the lord wants me to become. I guess it reminds me of a scripture in Mosiah 3:19


" For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."


I find sometimes that it is easy to feel the exact opposite .stubborn ,proud impatient hateful and contentious .I really feel this sometime especially when I am trying really hard to follow the example of Jesus Christ but I know that I have can  put off the natural man through the strength that the atonement provided for me .
 this scripture is so inspirational to me in (Ether 12:27).


“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them”


I love this because I know that if I willingly submit unto the lord and centre my life and purpose to following him back to my heavenly father, he will make me stronger and stronger so that one day I will be worthy to stand in his presents being able to say that I have done my best  .

The Happy Prince

My Dad is my hero ,when I was a little girl he always found ways to teach me the gospel in way that I would be able to understand. I love to hear how from an early age he was prepared to hear the message of Jesus Christ and his restored gospel. When my Dad was a little boy he wasn’t a member of our church he lived in New Zealand and spent a lot of time staying at his grandparents house. His grandparents were also not Mormon but had a very strong belief in heavenly father and Jesus Christ and prayed regularly. When my dad used to stay with them he used to listen to the story of "The Happy Prince” and even as a small child it touched him so deeply that it caused him to cry every time that he heard it. So I have been thinking about my family a lot since I have started my mission because I am going to be finding people just like my young parents. I am not sure if this is the exact version but here it is!

The Happy Prince

“One cold night a little swallow flew over the city where a beautiful statue stood. The swallow’s friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had not because he was in love with the most beautiful reed. The other swallows had told him that his love was ridiculous because the reed had no money and too many relations, and she was always flirting with the wind.

While he was flying he saw the statue. It was covered by thin leaves of fine gold; for eyes he had two sapphires and a large red ruby glowed on his sword. When the prince whom the statue was made after he died he did not know what tears were - he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed. The court used to call him the Happy Prince, and when he died the Town Councilors decided to build the statue, which was set up so high that he could see everything in the city.

The swallow decided to sleep on the statue’s feet, but just when he was putting his head under his wings, he felt a drop of water, and then another. When he looked up he realized that the Happy Prince was crying because he could see the misery and ugliness of his own city. So the Happy Prince asked the swallow to be his messenger. Through a small window the Happy Prince could see a very poor seamstress who was embroidering passion flowers on a satin gown, and he could also see her ill boy. They had no food to eat, so the Happy Prince told the swallow to take out the ruby from his sword and give it to them.

The following night the Happy Prince saw a man in a cold garret trying out to finish a play, but he was too cold to write, so the Happy Prince asked the swallow to take out a sapphire from his eyes and give it to him in order to buy wood. The following day, he saw a match-girl whose matches had fallen in the gutter, whose father would hit her if she did not bring home some money. In order to help her, the Happy Prince asked the swallow to pluck the sapphire from his other eye to give to the girl. As a result of this action he became blind and the swallow had to fly over the city in order to tell him what he had seen. He saw two children crying of hunger and a lot of poverty, so the Happy Prince decided to take out all the golden leaves so as to give them to the poor children.

At last the swallow realised that he would die because of the cold winter, and he decided to stay with the Happy Prince. The Prince asked the swallow to kiss his lips as he loved him, and once the swallow did so he fell down at the Prince's feet. At that moment a crack sounded inside the statue as the Prince's heart broke.
Early the next morning, the Mayor saw the statue but, as it was not beautiful, he decided it was no longer useful, so he decided to pull it down. The statue was melted in a furnace and reused. The broken lead heart, however, did not melt, and so it was thrown away on a dust-heap alongside the dead swallow, the Prince's final friend.

However, an angel charged by God to find "the two most precious things in the city" returned with the dead bird and the Prince's broken heart. God approved of the angel's choice, and decreed that both the swallow and the Prince would live happily in His presence forever.”

The end

My dad told me that he later found out why the story had touched him so deeply. Jesus Christ is the happy prince. The literal Son of God our King who would have never felt any sorrow or pain if had remained in our Fathers kingdom but instead he came to earth and sacrificed everything even his life for us, for me. Such an awesome sacrifice brings tears to my eyes and makes me thankful for such a merciful Savior and such a loving Heavenly Father to prepare a way that I could be made clean again through Christ atoning sacrifice .