Sister Savannah Slater: Be Prepaaaaared

Jun 6, 2016

Be Prepaaaaared

This week, I've been thinking a lot about being prepared in a couple of different ways. The first way has been seeing how people are prepared to receive the gospel. Let me tell you something, Eli and Christine are probably the most prepared individuals you will ever meet. They had never been to the temple grounds before, so we were able to show them around and take them on a tour around the Trail Center. As we were sitting by the temple, Eli turned to us and said "Just looking at this feels right." Oh, man. Talk about your heart swelling. Both he and Christine have been through a lot in their lives and it amazes me to see how far they have come. It is those experiences, however, that help people prepare their hearts to be open to the gospel. When we were talking with them about eternal families, Eli told us, "This is exactly what I want for my family and more." They want this so badly and we are all counting down the days to June 25.

I was also thinking about how we prepare ourselves for the gospel. Even though I was blessed enough to grow up in the church, I still have to work at strengthening my own testimony every day. That is why we are asked to pray and read from the scriptures each day because just like our bodies need daily nourishment, so do our Spirits. We need to help our testimonies grow and prepare for the future because we never know what could happen. The storms of life are going to come no matter what, so I have to ask myself, "Am I ready?" To be able to answer "yes" to that question takes a lot of hard work. But as we work not only hard, but diligently to come closer to Christ, we will be able to constantly have peace in knowing that no matter what happens, our foundation won't fall because we will know that our Savior is always there. It reminds me of Alma 34:32 where it tells us that "this life is the time... to prepare to meet God." To be honest, that sounds kind of terrifying because I know that I make so many mistakes and there are so many things that I need to work on. But I also know that because this is the time to prepare, that is why we have Atonement. We don't have to be perfect, we just have to work hard, try our best and let Christ make up the rest.