Sheri Dew

As promised, here's my follow up about what Sheri Dew spoke on at the Toronto conference in July.

As sister Dew got up to speak, she told us that she was going up to the pulpit, not knowing what it was she needed to speak on that night. She mentioned some of the comments people had said to her as she asked them about the conference. One guy mentioned that he had met a cute girl, so that was good (lol). From there, she decided to give us a little background on herself. Sheri Dew is a 57-year-old single (never been married) woman. She is President and CEO of Deseret Book (an LDS publication company) and she served as a councellor in the general Relief Society presidency.

Sister Dew said that she wasn't married, and not for lack of trying or opportunity. She said that the opportunities she had just didn't feel right or they didn't work out. She said "never in the history of the world has any husband been prayed about more than mine has". That made me fall in love with the woman. She said that she understood the importance of spouses and children, because she had neither of them. Nothing in her life could fill that void. Sister Dew expressed her faith that the Lord has assigned her to a mission that doesn't require her to get married at this point in her life, but she continues to hope and pray that someday it will happen for her.

From there, Sister Dew went on to speak about our conference. She said that we, as YSA, go to conferences like that one because we want to come away from it changed. Then she moved on to, what I feel, was the main message she gave that day (which she didn't prepare for in advance, but was amazing regardless). She began by saying that God knows who you are, where you are, and what your mission is in life. He knows exactly what you need to accomplish this mission.

Sister Dew then quoted 2 Nephi 28, and said that the adversary's main mission is to:
-get you confused about who you are
-get you confused about your gender identity
-at all cost, he will prevent you from finding out what the Saviour did when he atoned
and
-he will try to prevent you from learning how to receive personal revelation

She said that sometimes we act like we're going to stay in the earth, that we have lots of time to repent and get on the right track, but we're not going to stay here, and we don't have much time.

Sister Dew spoke of how almost all prophets from the beginning of time have spoken about Christ and the Latter-Days. She said (and this is my favourite quote) that "foreordination is profound divine confidence". That really struck me, and I challenge you to really think about that for a minute.

From there she gave us some advice on how to counteract the adversary's mission. She quoted D&C 33:3-6 and said that we must be fearless in building Zion. She also said to read D&C 138 and Abraham 3 looking for the verses that talk about the "noble and great ones". She said that we can become the noble and great ones, and to ask the Lord to speak to you about those verses.

Sister Dew told us to get clear on who we are. She said to learn about what the Saviour did when He atoned and how eager He is to help us. Luke 4:18. The doctrine of the Atonement is a doctrine of healing. Christ has strengthening and enobling power. 3 Nephi 11:32. She told us to repent and believe and to ask for help with our struggles and weaknesses. She also told us to "unplug" ourselves. Cut the time you spend "plugged in" to the world in half because it affects your ability to feel the spirit. Are we going to listen to the Lord or to the world? And finally, she said to learn the language of revelation. Learn what it sounds like when the Lord speaks to you.

This conference confirmed to me that my Heavenly Father knows who I am and what I need in my life. He understands what I need to hear and what I need to feel in order to accomplish my own personal mission. I feel a little closer to that mission now, and feel like I am figuring it out. I hope that you will ponder on what your mission may be (or even missions, because we may have more than one!) and that you will ask and seek and pray about it.

Until next time,
-J

Thoughts to Ponder

As a follow up to my last entry, I thought that I'd share some of the things that I learned at the Toronto conference. I took some notes and I think that the things we learned can really help everyone in their lives. So here goes.

David Ulrich (look up a bio of him, he's totally awesome!)

He based his talk on a scripture John 10:10 "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly"

He said that in a world in crisis (economic recession, psychological recession, mental illness, cynicism, hostility, erosion of commitment, isolation, challenges of change, uncertainty about the future etc.) we need to find abundance or meaning in the decisions we make. Places we can find abundance include work, home/family, church, personal life, and friends.

Brother Ulrich gave 8 questions and ideas of how we can accomplish these questions.

1. Identity: What am I known for?

• Be self aware

• Build on your strengths...then strengthen others

-create and identity that you want to be seen as
-what are my strengths?
-What am I good at?
-If you don't like your identity, CHANGE IT!

2. Purpose: Where am I going?

• Figure out your definition of success (what do I want?): insight, achievement, affiliation, empowerment
• Be willing to satisfice

-Satisfice--some things are worth doing even if they're done poorly...meaning that some things you need to do for experience, or because they're so important even just to go through the motions, because they will help you to grow.
- don't let things happen to you make things happen

3. Relationships: who do I travel with?

• Close vs. loose ties
• Give and receive bids
• conflict resolution: avoid deadly horsemen: defensive, stonewall, contempt, criticize
• Repair: apologize (did, feel, fix, else?)

-We need "loose" friends because they come and go in our lives, they are the ones we are going to learn from the most, not the people we see every day
-learn to disagree without being disagreeable

4. Engagement: what challenges interest me?

• easy, energizing, enjoyable
• Guaranteed success
• Evolve challenges (time and season)

-do what engages us

5. Context: How do I build a positive work and life setting?

• surround with positive people
• practice service, grace, humility, charity, forgiveness
• Find resources that meet my demands

6. Resilience/learning: how do I respond to setbacks?

• Do hard things...experiment outside comfort zone
• see failure as an opportunity to learn
• build learning agility (reflect, improve, adapt)

-trials are hard, and you don't always have to be happy while experiencing them, but you can think, MAN am I gonna learn a lot while I'm going through this
-resilience means trying, overcoming, and learning from
-push yourself and learn

7. Delight: How do I find delight in my life?

• Have fun/be upbeat
• rejuvinate...15 minutes, 3 months, 6 months

-think about things that give you quiet moments of delight
-something as simple as watching a sunset, reading a good book, or singing a great song

8. Transition: How do I manage the transitions required of change?

• let go...(identity, engage, enchanted, oriented)
• start anew...start small

-change doesn't come overnight, neither do these transitions, but sometimes they're necessary. We have to learn how to let go of things we can't change and move forward with the change and accept it.

He gave a lot of interesting things to think about in his talk. A lot of the time I think we focus on the things that are going wrong in our lives and whine and complain about them rather than changing them! I know that sometimes we can't change what is happening to us, but we can change how we react to it and our attitude about the situation. I have to constantly remind myself of all the good things I have in my life, which makes me realize that they far outweight the bad things, which makes me feel better. The main questions I want you to think about from this message would be these:

What do you want to be known for?
What am I driven by?
What do you want?
What gives me delight?
Why do I feel so good (or so bad) at this point in my life?

A lot of the time, we don't sit down, take an hour or two and really ask ourselves these questions. I know that I've felt afraid of being left to myself sometimes because doing a thorough introspection can be intimidating, and you might find things you don't want to see, but it is those things that will really help you develop the aspects of your character that you want to change the most. You want to find yourself? Sit alone in a room and think about these things. Think about what makes you tick, what makes you happy, and why you react the way you do in certain situations. It's really worth it.

I will post my notes from Sheri Dew some other time.

Until then,
-J

It's been a while...

Well, since JANUARY!! Lots has happened. I could go into the painstaking details of the past 9 months, but instead I'll just tell you the highlights. First off, I passed all of my spring semester courses with flying colours, bringing my GPA back up to 3.5. As I was trying to decide whether to go home to Ottawa for the summer, everything fell into place in Lethbridge to allow me to go home. I.e. I couldn't find a job in Lethbridge, I had one offered me back in Ottawa, and someone even offered to sublet my room for the summer so I didn't even need to pay rent! So, I went back to Ottawa and, yes, Subway.

Over the summer I attended a number of YSA (young single adult) conferences. I went to Palmyra twice, (once for a conference, once for the pageant) and Toronto. In Toronto I got to meet Sheri Dew and listen to a number of amazing speakers, including David Ulrich and Elder David Murray of the seventy. The topic of that conference was "Great Expectations", the title of a famous book by Charles Dickens. I'm not lying when I say that this conference changed my life.

Every talk I heard, every feeling I had, and almost every workshop I attended spoke the same things to my mind. The same questions kept emerging and I was forced to really think about them. Brother Ulrich spoke about finding meaning in you life, finding quiet moments of delight, and thinking about and working towards who you want to become and what you want to accomplish. Sister Dew spoke about our own personal mission. She mirrored what Brother Ulrich had said and expanded on it (even though they didn't collaborate and she didn't hear his talk at all). She said that we need to be clear about who we are, we need to learn about the Atonement, and we need to learn how to receive personal revelation.

These talks caused me to question what it is that gives me joy, and expanding on that, what I need to do to accomplish my life mission. For me, I think I discovered part of my life's mission through thinking about these things. What gives me the most joy is also, coincidentally, what I feel my life mission is. It is just trying to fit them all into my life that has been my struggle since that conference.

However, since that conference, my perspective on life has changed greatly. I have been happier in the last month and a half than I have been in years. A lot of that has to do with letting go of the past, and focusing on the future and what I can do to become a contributing member of society. I feel that everything I am doing in my life now is helping to prepare me for greater things later on.

I've even noticed a difference in the way people react towards me since I've found this "happy place". I've had more people introduced themselves to me in class, more people want to talk to me at church and school, and people being genuinely happy to see me and want to talk to me. I feel like the joy that I feel on the inside is somehow radiating on the outside as well, and people notice.

I hope that you can take from this, that doing an intense inward survey of what makes you feel the most joy, and what gives you "quiet moments of delight", will cause you to realize that those things are many, and cause you to seek them out. Perhaps once you do, you will be in a similar situation as me.

Until next time,
-J

Happy New Year!

Hey all,

Well, it's a new year and I hope you all have your resolutions ready! I've got a few, but my main one is taking this year to really concentrate on me. I changed the title of my blog to a year of growth. Last year, it was a year of change, which it certainly was, but not really for the better in a lot of instances. 2009 was not so good to me, so I plan on making 2010 awesome. It is a year for growing, for expanding my horizons and for working toward what I want in my life at this time. I'm setting goals, I'm looking ahead and I'm feeling confident about what I have decided to do.

I hope you all had a great holiday and that 2010 brings you all that you need. I hope it's a year of prosperity and growth.

Until next time,
-J

End of the year!

Hey all,

Lots has happened in the last 2 months. What with salsa dancing and concerts galore, I haven't have a lot of time on my hands.

November 20 was our choir fundraiser for school where a bunch of people performed and it was a great night. Afterwards, some of us went out salsa dancing at a local club and it was a lot of fun. They have free lessons from 9:30-10pm and open the dance floor until about 1am. So much fun! I went a few times with my favourite Mexican, and a bunch of other friends and we tore up the dance floor. Possibly more dancing in the new year.
A week later, we had our school choir concert where I ended up with two solos and I was really happy about it. Apart from messing up on my first note, I think it went really well.

Our Christmas program for church was on the 13th and though we had a few people missing, we managed to pull it off wonderfully. We got lots of compliments on the performances and I was pretty happy with it. Last week we had the stake choral festival where I sang with the stake choir and my friend Jocelyn and I sang a duet. I was a good night. I then had a bunch of exams and lots of studying but I managed to somehow pull it off. I've passed all my classes for the semester and am looking forward to the new year!

I flew home from Alberta on the 23rd and got in in the evening. I almost missed my flight, what with the Christmas crowds at the airport, but thanks to a number of helpful strangers I managed to jump the line and get on my flight in time. Thank goodness. The next few days was spent baking, socializing, opening presents, eating and playing games with family and friends. It was some good times.









As for this week, it's the last few days of 2009 and I plan on spending it with my friends and family. I've got a number of new years resolutions that I need to keep and I am excited for the new start. I'm also planning to change the title and quote of my blog so keep posted!

Until next year!
-J

Halloween!!

Hey all,

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. I guess it's time for an update...as I'm procrastinating studying for my music history midterm, which is tomorrow. Ok, let's see...this past month has been quite eventful. I still don't have a job, so I'm freaking a little, but I'm hoping something will turn up soon, and I keep applying to job postings on Kajijii.

As for school, everything has been going really well. My voice lessons are going really awesome this year, so I'm really excited about that. I performed in Masterclass a week ago, the video is on facebook if you want to check it out. I'm getting more and more comfortable taking on the roles of the characters I am faced with in my songs. You can't see with this video, but the working video (that's too long to post on facebook) you can see me really getting into it and being the character, with encouragement from my audience and instructor.

I have only 2 midterms left, my aforementioned music history one tomorrow, and a conducting terminology one on Thursday. I'm not too worried about that one though. All it is is terms in French, German, and Italian and we have to translate them into English...and they're all music terms that we use on a regular basis, so it's pretty easy.

My social life has really taken off the past few weeks. I've gotten to know a bunch of new people and have been to many late-night parties and movie nights. We even held our own halloween party at our house this past Saturday and about 35 people showed up, so it was good! We had our friend DJ and everything so it was a lot of fun.



















As for church, I got called 2 weeks ago as the choir director! I'm really excited this time around, since my conducting class is actually helping me learn things I need to in order to direct the choir properly. I expected maybe 10-12 people to show up yesterday for our first practice, but I was pleastantly surprised when about 25 people showed up! We even have 8 basses! It's totally awesome. I love it. I'm really looking forward to starting Christmas music for our program in December, so we'll see how it goes! Hopefully I can keep people motivated to come.

That's pretty much it for now. I'll try to give another update soon, but we'll see!

Until next time,
-J

Semester One

Hey all,

So I've been in Lethbridge for almost 3 weeks now. I like my new roommates and we get along pretty well. The house here is great; nice and big and new so it's comfy. I'm only taking 5 classes this semester, so I have it a bit lighter than last year. I'm taking music history (final semester, thank goodness!!), studio (voice lessons), Conducting, Woodwind and string methods (I'm learning violin and flute!), and choir. They're all pretty good so far...except history but this is my last semester of it and I'm done forever! I really like learning how to play the violin. I've never played a string instrument before, so it's a challenge and it's fun!

There hasn't been much news in the church department...that is, we've had stake conference and the long-weekend so I don't really know who's in my ward or anything yet. Plus my records haven't officially been transferred so I can't get a calling...I don't know when that's going to happen. I hope soon.

I also went out about a week and a half ago and applied for a bunch of jobs...I haven't heard back yet, so I'm a bit anxious. I'm trying to be patient but I need something to fill my time and bring me $$$. That's pretty much all my news for now. I do miss Ottawa, but Lethbridge is only temporary, so I'll be back there soon enough.

Until next time,
-J