End of my Second Semester

Well, my second semester at college is about to end, and I have to say, it went way better and way worse than last semester. My grades suffered comparatively, but my social life blossomed as well. Overall I have to say I am profoundly grateful that I had the opportunity to be at college. Still, this semester was full of challenges I have never faced before, and there were some trying parts throughout the months I was studying before my (eventual) mission. Honestly, I feel college his has some parallels to Jesus's plan as said in Revelations 2:11. For both college and Life, those who overcome will be greatly rewarded. College offers an education and a chance to start off life with open doors in areas where without the knowledge there could be no entry. But to pass college, work must be put in and trials must be overcome due to the difficulty and nature of how the educations are earned. This is incredibly similar to our spiritual lives. Choosing to come to earth (of which the LDS church and I believe that everyone currently on earth has chosen) is a chance to earn greater gifts and to access higher states of being than were ever possible without coming to earth. But we also have to work and to try to get by in the greatest challenge any of us have had to go through, which is the challenge of life. So in a sense, by going through college we are going through a mock version of the Celestial plan while actively going through that very plan. Not just is this  astounding (and a bit trippy), but it is also incredibly interesting. To think that we are going through a mock of the plan of salvation to better help us to get by in the plan of salvation is incredible. Frankly, I would feel it to be an astounding way of preparing me for later life, if it wasn't for the fact that grades are hard. But at least the parallels are incredible.

As Christ Reaches Out

For this post, I felt that I should change it up from taking some scripture in the New Testament and instead talk about my interpretation of one of the talks from April 2015 General Conference, which just finished. Namely, my interpretation of the story from Elder Holland's talk in the Sunday Morning session. The story he gave, in short, is about how two brother went to climb a cliff without equipment, and they got stuck near the top. The elder boy bolstered his younger brother up, but was stuck himself. After trying to get his younger brother to search for a stick, the older boy tried to jump up. He made it to the ledge, but lacked the ability to pull himself up. However, the younger brother stayed and saved his brother from falling by grabbing him and pulling him up. I interpret the story very similarly to Holland, who talks of how Jesus is like the younger brother, and he will not leave you, but will instead wait to save you from the mistakes and hardships of life as long as you are willing to trust in him. I personally found this talk extremely heartwarming as it talks about how we can get through our challenges  through faith and trust. As difficult as it is to make a leap of faith, oftentimes that leap is what we need to be able to get through many challenges. It is the idea that despite the difficulty of many of our trials, the ability to find Christ waiting to help us in our lives is not just comforting but also incredibly helpful when braving through the challenges of life. If you were unable to see General Conference or are not part of the LDS church, I highly recommend looking up Elder Holland's talk.