Revelation as pure intelligence

"A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus."

-Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith

This week's Come Follow Me study has included Doctrine and Covenants 8-9. I call those the revelation chapters. More specifically how to obtain revelation. One of my very favorite talks by Jeffrey R. Holland references these chapters.

Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence.

It's a BYU Speech that you can find HERE.

I was thinking about revelation this week on my way to and from work. It's not an easy thing to know when God is speaking to you. And he speaks differently to one person than he does to another. For me, I get thoughts and nudging's. I've also also had that pure intelligence flow into me that Joseph Smith describes.

I recall sitting in a sacrament meeting in Magna and getting the impression that I would be called as the next Primary president. I immediately began looking around the ward as to who my counselors might be. Same thing happened here in my current ward, only the outcome was a bit different. I knew big changes were headed my way, was pretty confident about the new calling I would be getting, and I had already decided on a counselor; the bishop caught me by surprise with a different calling and then informed me that my "counselor" would be filling a similar position (they were redoing two separate organizations). So even though I may have been a bit mistaken in my next calling, I was still given a heads up that my life would be changing.

Those "sudden strokes of ideas" or pure intelligence has also come to me as I write. One time I had to write a letter to someone very close. As I sat writing, the thoughts just flowed through my fingers onto my keyboard. I got done composing, reread it, and knew that it had come from God. Those were not my words. Another time came recently in a talk I wrote. The words flowed to me late one night, and again I knew they were from God. Just last week I had another person reach out to me about that talk. Every time this happens I am quick to tell them that it was not my talk. Many times I have put together a Facebook post where I know I had help from above.

It's a miraculous thing to be a conduit to God's words. And how do I know they came from above? Because I am at peace. I feel light.

These are the days of . . . 

*Beautiful January weather. Perfect for a hike to the "T."

*A science fair project. Alex made it to the district round of the science fair and because they are not in person, we had some extra work to do on our part to get his project uploaded to the site. Then he had to login Friday morning and wait his turn to be interviewed. Tyler says he nailed it.

*An unexpected visit from our kids due to Jason's grandpa's funeral.

*A missionary parent Zoom meeting. I have been so impressed with Nate's mission president. He seems to genuinely love those missionaries and makes sure to keep parents very informed. He invited all parents to a Zoom meeting tonight just to give us updates on what is happening in the mission and give us a chance to ask any questions we might have. I loved hearing from him and his wife.

Transfers!

 Hey Everyone! 

Sorry, not much time today. Elder Gulbransen fell through the ice trying to get a disc during disc golf and we spent a lot of time getting him cleaned and warmed up, and then washing his clothes and cleaning the apartment he tracked mud through. He is also leaving today to go to Brighton, and since he had packed his clothes, he was in his suit pants and shirt from yesterday. Transfers was Thursday, and I am staying with Elder Rosenlund. Elder Gulbransen thought he was staying but got a call from President Blake and is going to Brighton to be with my trainer, Elder Hales. Hope you're all having a good week! I want to close by saying that God loves answering our prayers. I know He will always answer, but we have to do our part by following His counsel of "studying it out in our minds", or doing all we can first. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Halfway Vaccinated!

Moses and the brass serpent. Naaman and his leprous body. In both accounts a prophet gave a simple remedy for healing whether it was simply looking to a raised serpent on a staff or washing in a filthy river. This was their form of inoculation and many balked at the easiness of it. My religion and Jesus Christ teach me to care for the least of those among us and that all lives have value. To protect those lives, this past year public health officials have asked us to do simple things much like in the time of Moses and Naaman.

In being a good global citizen, I choose to "look" and to "wash" that I might help suppress this virus.

Round one is complete with only a sore arm.

Also I got some Tooele County School District award along with $10 to Walmart for Positive Behavior Intervention Support. Okay.

Exchanges and Eli

This week we had an awesome training by Elder Wong, a General Authority, on coordinating with the ward more. I also went on an exchange with my district leader, and we put someone on date for baptism!

Elder Wong was super cool. He had some great insights, but a few times he called out some companionships who answered questions and gave them some very personal advice in front of the whole mission. He told one companionship to go reread their patriarchal blessings because they had a future in church leadership and we just kind of sat there wondering what was going on, but it was super cool.

My exchange was fun, and also, in Spanish. Turns out if your district leader is in a Spanish area one of you gets to speak Spanish for the day. Well, try to speak it anyway. I read the Book of Mormon in Spanish during my study and said a lot of prayers in Spanish. I even ended up giving one in a lesson and bearing a simple testimony at the end. It was a lot of fun, although I really didn't understand much of what was said.

Lastly, we put someone on date, although they're not really committed. They grew up religious, and have a big issue with our claim to Priesthood authority. We talked about acting in faith and setting a date, and promised that he would get an answer to his prayers if he did so. Please pray for him, his name is Eli.

I know that this is the Lord's work, that He loves each of you, and that He blesses us with feelings of His life and of peace through the Holy Ghost. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

All my love,
Elder Leary 

2021!

Happy New Year!

This was the first year in a long time that I did not actually stay up for the new year. We got to watch the ball drop in New York at 10:00, and we celebrated and went to bed. Our mission president told us that we would be grateful for that trick when we have kids who want to stay up but we're finishing school or working two jobs or something like that.

We had zone conference this week, and we combined with the Brighton zone, so I got to see my trainer again! (Although he showed up 20 minutes late when we were supposed to be half an hour early) He thought it started at a different time apparently. Zone conference was awesome though! We had a ton of cool trainings, but my favorite by far was President Blake's. He gave us some great advice and then we did an activity.

He had us each go stand in a spot to show where we were assigned. (Africa, Asia, North America, etc) He then had us rearrange to show where we needed to go based on the population of the world and how many missionaries we need there. We had 45 missionaries in that meeting, which he said was the number of missionaries in the two missions in India, which contains a quarter of the world's population. We only had 2 missionaries in there that were assigned somewhere in Asia, so he had 28 of the 45 missionaries go stand in Asia so we could see how much we needed to change.

We're really starting to change missionary work because we need to be way more efficient about it. We need to take 90% of our missionaries here in North America and send them out while still doing the work here just as well. This means we need every ward to be missionary minded. There's a few things that you guys can do to become great member missionaries!

Use your social media to spread the Gospel by posting something you learned in church, a video, a favorite talk, or by liking pages with gospel content so that Facebook will recommend them to your friends. Minister to those going through hard times: they need to feel cared for, and many who dislike the church for one reason or another may change their hearts through your efforts to love them. Lastly, invite people to come! You have the opportunity to invite friends and neighbors to support you anytime you give a talk, do a musical number, or participate in any way. This has never been easier than now because of technology: many will say no, but " how great shall be your joy with [the one]" who comes!

I want to close by saying I know it's easy for me to focus on this while I'm out here, and I know all of you have a lot going on. However, I have seen miracles come from members participating in the work in any way. Your Heavenly Father has put you where you are now for a reason, and you can be the light that someone needs in their life. I ask that you just pick one thing to do better on this week, and I can promise that you will see your own personal miracle come from it if you're looking. I know this gospel is true, that it brings joy, and that it can bless the lives of those around you. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Babies make everything right with the world!

Kiersten, age 7 months

Kiersten's baby Oliver, age 7 months 

2020 Hindsight

I can truly say that now since 2020 is behind us.

To borrow a line from Charles Dickens: "It was the best of times and it was the . . . ". He ends it with the worst of times. But honestly I can't even say that. There have been periods of time where people have worried and fretted over way more serious issues.

But I'll reflect on something more than this past year now that I have a complete understanding. I wrote a much better post here, but the following was a gratitude post I made on Facebook about my dear friend and mentor who took a chance.

Four years ago the Lord made a deep chess move in my life (remember that post last month). I needed to work fulltime to help support our family. I had been substitute teaching and discovered I loved being in the classroom, and thus my journey began to find employment and become a student again to get my teaching certificate. I KNEW I wanted to teach upper elementary and those are the only jobs I applied for.

One job interview found me in Grantsville at Willow Elementary sitting in a room with a lot of people, one being Stephanie Maughan Nicholls. I didn't get that 6th grade job but several weeks later I got a call from the principal offering me a job . . . to teach 2nd grade. I actually told her I needed to think about it. Lower elementary was never my favorite. A couple of days later I took the job because I knew I needed to start somewhere. Little did I know that day that the Lord was moving me into a position where HE KNEW I would thrive and succeed. I later learned that when the 2nd grade position came available, instead of interviewing, my principal asked Stephanie, the 2nd grade team lead, who she would like.

I absolutely love my job. The Lord knew exactly what I needed, where I needed to be, and when I needed to be there. He knew that my love of reading would be more beneficial in a 2nd grade classroom than an upper grade. He knew I would work with the best team of teachers anywhere. He knew one of my team teachers would also be my classmate as we traversed the school path together for our credentials. Three years later I honestly could not ask for a better place to be.

I will be forever grateful to Stephanie for taking a chance with an unknown somebody who really didn't know a thing about teaching 8-year-olds at the time. She took me under her wing with her mentoring and believed that I could truly do this gig.

I am also eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father who plays way deeper chess than I do and sees the grander picture in my life.

A couple of Nate's emails

12-21-2020
Almost Christmas

It is almost Christmas, although it sure doesn't feel like it. That part of being out here is definitely strange, but in a good way. This last week was awesome! 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Blake, which was really cool. He talked with me and Elder Gulbransen about some ways we could reach out to people in our area since they haven't been very responsive. Then, we spent the whole week inviting people to church for our Christmas program in church.

I got to do a musical number for church which was really fun. We also got a family and two other people to come to church in person, and a bunch over the zoom link. It was awesome to be able to invite people to come and learn about Christ during the Christmas season.

Lastly, we had a baptism Sunday afternoon. It wasn't our ward, it was the YSA, but our zone leaders asked me to do a musical number for it. I told them that the sisters and I were doing one for sacrament meeting, so they asked them and we did the same number at the baptism. It's been really cool to see all the success we've had. Both of our zone leaders have a ton of faith, and it shows by what they've helped us as a zone to do. There's been 4 people that got baptized in that building in the last 9 days, and we have more to come in the next few weeks.

I know that my Savior lives, that He was born in Bethlehem to Joseph and Mary, and that His birth fulfilled all the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. My favorite part of the Christ Child is seeing how much the wise men were willing to sacrifice to come to Christ. I know that as we sacrifice more of our time to Him, by learning of Him and ministering to His sheep, that we will have the same joy that they did. I know He loves you, and wants you to be happy. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

-Elder Leary 

* * * * * * * 

12-28-2020
Christmas!!

This week we got to go caroling in downtown Denver! On Wednesday we went downtown and sang while some people handed out wrapped Books of Mormon. (Book of Mormons? There's been quite the debate among my district about that) Anyway, that was a ton of fun to see the Capitol building and all the lights. We also went caroling on Christmas Eve, but just through some neighborhoods.

Christmas we had some zone activities and called our families, and it was such nice weather. I even went and played tennis a little bit since it was so nice. Needless to say, it was a very different Christmas than I've ever experienced, and I'm sure that can be said for almost everyone.

Lastly, with New Year's coming up, I'd encourage everyone to set some goals. Part of our nature is to continually grow and learn, and setting goals is a big part of that. My friend Elder Bishop put it best in his email so I'll let you read what he put.

If you don't feel like setting any goals, read this quote by Russell m Ballard:

“I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.”

So set goals. (Elder Bishop, email entitled "In these troubling times...buy our product," 2020)

I want to ask each of you to set at least one realistic, measurable goal that will help you become more like Christ this year. I know that as we set goals and work towards them, we discover we are happier during the process before we even finish them. I know that goals motivate us, and above all, I know that as our goals involve becoming like our Savior, we will discover heavenly help when we most need it. You will not have to be perfect, many days you may not succeed in your attempts, but in the words of our Prophet, "The Lord loves effort." He will help you as you consistently strive to become like Him, no matter how often you may falter on that path. I testify of this in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, amen.