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.

The Manitou Incline

Ummm . . . my last post about hiking had me searching for my post about my last big hike we did in Colorado. The Manitou Incline.

It wasn't there.

I searched and searched and searched.

And finally I realized that I never documented it anywhere else besides Facebook land.

That hike was a crazy hike too. Not as long but just as intense.

For spring break we headed to Denver to recreate another time we had gone when Alex wasn't in the picture. However, this hike was new. Tyler and Alex stayed behind while the rest of us set out to tackle a hard thing.

2744 steps. 2000 foot elevation increase. 1 mile up. 75 minutes. Slow and steady put us on top of the world.

That vacation also took us to a fun park called Bananas,

the Denver Mint,

and the Zoo.

We watched some March Madness,

discovered a cute bookstore to rival Powell's in Portland,

and celebrated Ashlyn's birthday, something that's happened a few times over spring break. We even made sure she had her celebratory ding dong "cake."

I conquered a mountain

For nine years I've looked out my window at those TV towers and put it on my bucket list to hike to them some day.

That day came last Saturday.

It was a chilly 28 degrees when we started our 9.5 mile hike up and back (about 4000 feet elevation gain).

I won't lie. It wasn't an easy hike. I can commiserate with these two after they attempted this hike back in 2012 and didn't quite make it.

My body ached for several days and the recovery was worse than after any of my half marathons.

On the way back down I was comparing it to childbirth to one of my hiking buddies: I was sure I never wanted to do that hike again, but give me some recovery time and I knew I'd be looking out my window wondering when my next chance would come.

Was it worth it?

Salt Lake Valley

My neighborhood

Definitely. Sitting at 9054 gives you a whole different perspective.

The views were amazzzing. I loved being able to stand on the ridge and see the Salt Lake Valley on one side and the Tooele Valley on the other. So, so cool.

Calf Creek Falls

While grandpa worked on our van, we helped grandma work in their ginormous yard. There were trees limbs that needed moving, a lawn that needed raking, and a garden area to clean up.

Then the next day we headed out for a little day trip to the Escalante area. I had come across a hike I wanted to do and didn't think it would be too strenuous.

First stop was the Anasazi State Museum where we saw some Indian ruins.

 

Next was lunch at the trail head. We had just pulled in when a gentleman approached us. He watched us pull in, saw me get out and thought "I know that girl." It was my sister-in-law's dad who happens to live in Cache Valley. He was down there for the week with a scout group. Can I just say small world!

After filling up we were ready to start our hike to Calf Creek Falls. The website said it was 5 to 6 miles round trip. There wasn't a lot of elevation gain but we would be walking through sand.

We walked.

And walked.

And stopped to take a picture.

We walked some more.

And walked.

And sang as we walked.

At this point I was beginning to feel like a pioneer. Kiersten even commented how much it felt like trek.

We were really beginning to wonder how much further.

Just around the next corner.

Then the next corner.

At one point we were in a canyon that echoed. So we took turns yelling and making echoes. Alex thought echoes were something to be seen. "I see my echo." I kept explaining that an echo was something we heard, in our ears. "Oh." I don't think he got it because on the way back when we were at the same spot, he yelled, "I see my echo."

We had to be getting close. So most of us kept walking. Ash was our leader and would often run ahead and wait.

Finally when I was getting ready to give up and turn around, we made it.

And it was worth it. The falls were spectacular.
There were 14 interpretive markers along the trail. When we started we didn't know how many there were, but on the way back it sure make it easier to know how much further we needed to go. I also decided to keep track with my pedometer. We all thought the hike was much longer than what was advertised (and maybe it just felt long because I had a 2 year old on my back most of the way).

According to my Fitbit it was 7 1/2 to 8 miles round trip (depending on where you calculated from . . . the trail head or the car). I'm glad we didn't know that at the beginning or I don't think we would have done it, especially with a 2 year old in tow.

It was a fun, exhausting way to spend part of spring break. I love that my kids are getting old enough to do adventuresome outings.