just thinking a little about my Dad this week ..because its fathers day on sunday ,so i decieded that i would try my hand at a poem . however out of everthing that my dad has ever given me i know that the most sweet and important thing is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge that i can return to my Heavenly father by applying its healing truths and it's impowering qualities each day in my life.so enjoy !

Many years ago in a multi coloured haze I was sent to you

From one loving father to an earthly field

Another Daughter, your prosperity more than just a few

Bound in his house we were forever sealed .

Long hot afternoons shine as rubies in my mind

Each early morning misty with the smell of diesel fuel

I would watch you labour with your hands both loving and kind.

Until Sunday morning sacrament renewal

Your piercing eyes gaze from the stand

My little hands to still, my little tough to quiet

You took me to his house and his word you taught me well

With love you promised me one day we would go inside

That through His love once again we could with him dwell

"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