living the abundant life

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to speak in church on President Monson's First Presidency message this month - Living the Abundant Life. I normally don't write out my talks word-for-word, but for some reason I did this time and so I've copied it here if anyone is interested (probably just my mom and dad...) :) Enjoy!

Hello friends,

For those of you who don’t know me, my friends call me Cece and my favourite holiday is Christmas, followed by Easter, Thanksgiving, and my birthday (in that order.) New Years Day I’d rank somewhere between Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s Day, and New Years Eve falls somewhere around like... Labor Day. I’ve just never been a fan, and after the spiritual high and focus on family and our Saviour at Christmas, it just seems sort of lame to have a holiday about Martinelli’s and weight loss. Plus being constantly challenged to make New Years resolutions is overwhelming for me. But that’s just me.
That being said, I’d like to share one of my favourite Christmas scriptures - John 10:10. The Saviour is teaching us about His mission, why He came to earth, and what He says is, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” I love that - not only did He come to give us life (how awesome!) but life more abundantly.
The First Presidency message this month is a challenge from President Monson to “undertake a personal, diligent, significant quest for... the abundant life—a life filled with an abundance of success, goodness, and blessings.” This is a New Years resolution that I can get behind - a challenge from a prophet of God, given to us for this exact time, helping us to take advantage of the Saviour’s awesome gift for us. My hope is that as I share some thoughts from this message, the Spirit will teach each of us what we can do to more fully partake in this abundant life the Saviour came to bring us.

Christian History & the Restored Gospel

So first of all, it's a new semester. And I am so excited about my Christian History and the Restored Gospel class. I've only been three times and it's been the awesomest thing ever. The professor is Alonzo Gaskill and he is the coolest. He talks at like the speed of light and he has a Bachelors degree in Philosophy, a Masters in Theology from Notre Dame, and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies. Which is awesome. And he's one of those religion professors who isn't afraid of the truth, like the fact that LDS Church History isn't perfect and that Joseph Smith borrowed some things from the Methodists and that other religions have got some things right and do some things better than we do. Too often I feel like Latter-day Saints are afraid to admit any fault or imperfection, so I really appreciate it when a professor is able to admit it and even show how that makes the gospel more true. It's very testimony-strengthening. Anyways, I really like the professor and I feel like I'm going to learn a lot from him this semester.

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