All because of the enabling power of the Savior's atonement

Last week, I got to hang out with my BFF Emily. We had a fun night shopping and visiting at Paradise Bakery. She asked about "my family" and we were able to catch up. She asked questions and I was able to fill in the blanks for her on the timeline of the past 11 years or so. She's always been present in my life, even though we've lived in different states throughout the past 11 years, but she just had questions about some of the details of things she knew about, and some of the things she wanted to know about, but didn't, etc. I'm grateful for Emily. She has truly cared about me since the day she met me. She has that gift though. She's a pretty caring individual. She shared a great deal of the gospel with me when we were seniors in high school and at the tender young age of 17. The Lord prepared my friends to help me. I'm always amazed at how strong my friends testimonies were at the ages of 15,16,17 that they were able to share their testimonies with me and help me along my journey of joining the church. They prayed with me, fasted with me, and even bought my scriptures for me. (I got yelled at by my mother for having an LDS picture of Christ in her home and for wearing a CTR ring around her when I was 17. I just remember she was very angry and couldn't believe how disrespectful I was to do those things. I guess I was UNknowingly being disrespectful to her, since she didn't want me to have anything to do with the teachings of the LDS church. I was truly innocent in all of it. I just wanted to follow Christ.)  I'm thankful for the members of the church and for my friends and their families that helped bless my life when I had joined the church. It's amazing. All they really knew about me was my family had disowned me because I had chose to get baptized and chose to follow Christ and His teachings. I knew that by choosing to follow Christ, my life would be blessed with endless amounts of happiness no matter how hard the road. This has been true. It has been hard, but the joy has made the pain bearable. I have found strength in the enabling power of the Savior's atonement and by drawing upon the powers of Heaven. I'm thankful my friends helped me. In any way they could. I hope the Lord has blessed them greatly for all the love and support they showed me. I would not be where I am today without the special friendships I've been so privileged to have.


*I don't know..... Many still may or do not know that it was my parents who gave me the ultimatum of either I can be apart of their family or I would lose everything (everything meaning material possessions any support from them, relationship, etc.) if I joined the church.


*It's not a big deal or not if people know about my background or lack of family. At this point and time in my life I don't mind sharing. I've had plenty of time to absorb and learn about my life and the Lord's ways of preserving me and protecting me from any potential harm my family could inflict upon me in the present day. (I'm not exaggerating either. My "brother" has a great deal of problems on every end of the spectrum he could possibly have. He's really crazy. I have a private blog for the very reason that I don't want him to ever harm me or my family. He can not be trusted.) 


*It would be the same if I had suffered or endured any other trial in this life thus far. Do all people who lose a child have to tell those they meet that they have a child in Heaven? Do all those who have suffered and endured the bitter battle of cancer have to share their experience with all those who cross their path? Do all divorcees have to talk about why they got divorced and have to explain themselves to others in fear of judgment? Of course what we endure matters, because our trials help mold and shape our eternal characters if we let Jesus Christ help us and if we trust Him. It doesn't matter though if we choose to or not to share our trials with others. People do not need to know about our hardest trials and losses to know us and to respect us. It helps to know, because we gain a greater appreciation and respect for knowing what others have been through, but it's not always necessary to know everything about everyone. It just doesn't simply matter that everyone doesn't know everything we go through or have been through. We all have stories to tell. We all can choose when, where, and who we share them with. What I've been through was pretty rough at such a tender age in life. I hold my experiences close to my heart, because through them they brought me closer to the Lord. I wouldn't have such an appreciation for the gospel and for my Heavenly Family if I had not had to experience the individual trials I've been given. 


*My parents changed the locks to their home not even a week after I had left. 


*My family never knew love. How to love each other. Both of my parents did not have relationships with their parents and siblings. I never met my grandparents or Aunts or Uncles. I've never known much about them. Nothing much was spoken about them except my mother's parents were alcoholics. I hope one day they will all know love and they will know how to love from loving Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I hope one day they will know they are children of God and He loves them. 


*They had asked me several times to leave the church after I had been baptized. They were always waiting for the church to fail me, or for my beliefs in God to fail me. It was very difficult and heartbreaking to be trying to do all the things that I knew were right and true and to feel Satan's pull simultaneously. There is opposition in all things. My family was Satan's way of trying to deceive me from following Christ and from continuing along the path that leads to eternal life and happiness. My family could never tolerate to hear about God and Christ's teachings, let alone try to even understand that God is the same today as he was in biblical times and that His laws and truths are eternal. I hope one day they will all be free from Satan's powers and will be able to turn their hearts to God and know The True Church of Jesus Christ.  

*It was their choice. They do not want to be apart of my life. I have accepted that. I accepted it several years ago. It took me several years to accept it, but once I did my soul was filled with peace and no bitterness towards them. I feel sad for them. For the choices they have chosen to make and for who they choose to be. It is sad that we do live in such a confusing world and instead of choosing to know or learn about the Savior and Heavenly Father, they have choose to follow a very deviant path that leads far far away from all things good, praiseworthy and uplifting. 

The 13th Article of Faith 

1:13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

*I knew my "life" would be following Jesus Christ and His teachings. I knew by the power of the Holy Ghost that the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is another testimony of the life of Jesus Christ and His ministry upon the Earth. How could I deny the truthfulness of the gospel? How could I deny myself something so good as the gospel. I had never known anything as pure and such happiness until I found the truth. The truth that is in Christ's teachings and the happiness that has filled my life from choosing to follow Him and to live His principles. I believe other things in life can make us happy, but for me I know that my happiness is centered around how well I live up to living what I know is true. 


When we all say to someone at one time or another in life, "I don't know if I'd have the strength to do the hard things you have had to do". I know we all can and it's because we can all find strength in the enabling power of the Savior's atonement.