Post Lesson # 3 Work

I started working on the post gathering work at 12:45 today and I did it from home because Mom was too sick to go to school and I should be here if she needs something.

The application activity, or reflection time, was first on the agenda. It talked about what we want to learn and when, but there is not a start date or finish date for such learning, as it is LIFELONG.

I really want to learn how to socialize better in group settings, as that is a weakness of mine with the disability that I have, because I need to learn social skills in order to successfully navigate friendships and any potential relationships that might come to pass. Pathway gatherings and the institute class beforehand, plus attending church and any church-related activities, are helping to become more comfortable in social settings and the group activities are helping me to become more comfortable with talking to people. However, I still need to keep putting myself in social situations so I can develop deeper interpersonal relationships and it does not hurt for me to read books or utilize social media in order to develop and practice skills that I need to develop personal relationships necessary to my eternal progress. I do not think there is a specific start date for when I want to initiate or stop learning better social/communication skills, as it is something I am continually working on and my goal is to keep working on it, as I will always need to be able to communicate with others around me.

In terms of media use, I work very hard to try and watch programs that invite the Spirit and also educate me to what kind of person I want to become. If I have the Spirit, I know it is easier for me to work on becoming a better person, so I try to watch things on TV or engage in Internet activities that will help the Spirit feel safe in my environment. If I am engaging in good TV or internet activities, I feel more compelled to want to take anything I may learn from either source, as you can learn very valuable things through media sources, and apply it to situations where I can be of help to others and try to make whatever they are going through less burdensome on them.

If I have the Spirit with me as a result of utilizing good media, I will be able to be more aware of the needs of those around me and be able to perhaps make their burdens lighter as the Savior wants me to and thus, I try very hard to do things that would allow the Spirit to stay with me at all times. If there is something that does not invite the Spirit, I evaluate what kind of content I am viewing and change to some other activity that I know will make the Spirit feel safe and welcome.

My short-term goal concerning the use of media is to continually evaluate what I watch or view on the Internet and how it makes me feel. If I can feel the Spirit and I feel motivated to do good or engage in pleasant activities, I will know what I am doing is right and will probably keep engaging in it. If what I am engaging in makes me feel uneasy and negative, however, I will stop what I am doing and ask myself if what I am doing is helping or harming me and if I feel like it is harmful, I will switch over to an activity that will invite the Spirit and any accompanying promptings.

I then had to practice the online communication principles by writing a practice email.

I began my email with a proper introduction and a clear explanation as to the purpose of my email. I then followed that explanation with a summary of my skills and strengths so to provide the recipient with opportunities that might be useful in their effort to provide me with sufficient help. I was very clear and to the point with what I wanted and also in that I knew that the recipient could potentially provide assistance based on what I had heard from others, thereby complimenting and acknowledging their strengths and/or abilities, as people always welcome comments on what they do well. I ended the communication by expressing gratitude to them for taking time out of their busy day to acknowledge that I had written to them and expressed the desire to hear some sort of reply when they had the time to do so.

The gospel of Jesus Christ has been one of the very few constants in my life and growing up within a family in which my father struggled with alcohol and nicotine addiction and brought forth a great deal of unpredictability as a result, I was very grateful for any constant I could get my hands on. After spending 10 years in High River where there is at least a ward and somewhat of a good influence to be found among people, my family moved to Nanton, Alberta for nearly two years. Nanton had few members and very terrible influences that could and would change a good person into something unrecognizable unless they were strong and bravely stayed away from the influence. was young and easily impressionable, wanting anyone as a friend who would take the time to overlook my disability and that worried my mother to no end and so because of a spiritual prompting, we ended up moving away from that place and to a place called Raymond.

Raymond was overly strong in the Church until the summer before I entered seventh grade and being around so many members and spiritually positive influences pretty much saved me from going down a very dark path. Because of my disability, it took me time to adjust to the strong spiritual influence and although it was very socially difficult at times, I eventually developed a love and appreciation for God, Jesus Christ, and the everlasting gospel as I grew older and it was a wonderful blessing to have that constant in a part-member family where all was not peaceful most of the time.

As I grew older and began to absorb more knowledge of the gospel, I came to appreciate the Atonement and how it could not only help me turn my weaknesses into strengths, but it could also help me to forgive my father of the problems he had caused our family with his addictions and when I did forgive him, I felt free. Having the Spirit help me be able to forgive my father when I did was a very fortunate thing, as he became sick with a very rare and untreatable cancer at the end of July 2014 and as he neared death, I did not have to focus on what I had already forgiven and could instead focus on being there for both my mother and him as he went through the agony of what closing in on death is. My dad passed away on October 26, 2014 and because of being there for his death, his final blessing from our bishop, and for the majority of the process, I came to have an appreciation for the Plan of Salvation and how the Atonement can help those on the other side of the veil who could not grow anymore in mortality.

The whole experience with my dad taught me that God does care about what happens to people and that Christ died so that He could be the Lord of both the living and the dead, thereby offering the dead a chance to have what they could not have in mortality for whatever reason. In my father's final blessing, there was mention of rose colored glasses soon being removed and I know that because of the Atonement, all of us can have our rose colored glasses removed and I am grateful that I can see the gospel for what it really is and what it can do and be for us because the Atonement helped me to overcome myself.

Discussion Post Replies:
You are right in that we are the ones who are the barriers to our own success simply because we allow fear to overrule our faith and the faith that the Lord has in us to accomplish something He asks us to do. If The Lord has faith in us, we need to stop lacking faith in ourselves and know that the Lord will provide us a way to accomplish what He asks of us.

I find it rather amusing that people doubt each other and themselves all the time when we are given both knowledge and opportunities to help us learn and grow. People automatically think they will screw up, so they do not even bother to try and end up surrendering any opportunities to learn simply because they were scared of failure. It is better to fail having tried your best than to having never tried and cheated yourself out of an opportunity. Am I right?

Is it not the nature of the Holy Spirit of God to go only where it feels safe going and to whom it feels safe dwelling with? If we make a safe environment for the Spirit by engaging in positive and uplifting activities that motivate us to do good and live well, the Spirit will want to be with us so we can become even better at living well. If we engage in activities that do not motivate us to do anything good or wholesome, however, why would the Spirit want to stay with us when we have clearly asked it to go away by engaging in immoral or other negative pursuits? Negativity makes the Spirit feel unsafe.

Took a break at 2:00 p.m.