Write-up

I like to do things in bunches. There were days where I would work on finding quotes for most of the night after the kids were asleep. I didn’t setup a time to sit down and do a bunch of quotes until the last week. For the most part, I was just reading the talks that the quotes. Sometimes it was a grind in working on this project. This semester had me writing so many essays and discussion board posts I sometimes found that I had already done the work and forgot. I really look at doing this project as a chance to see what I could do. What I mean by that is that I have seen that I can push through the apathy that so often felled me in the past. I would look and see that I was getting a good grade and it wouldn’t matter much if I were to take a week off and just relax. Then I would feel that surge of determination coming from my soul that wouldn’t let me slack off. I am a lover of quotes. I have a folder in my Google Drive that is all about the great quotes in my life. And all the ones that I have picked out for this project are doing into it. Sometimes while the sacrament is being passed I will read over the quotes I have and I find that they have given me some pretty good insight later while I'm in Elders Quorum. I don’t do the memorizing of quotes, or really much of anything at all. I have found that I get more out of the thinking and pondering of thoughts/quotes that I have or read. This activity has had me think of the blessings that lay in store for me when I study the gospel.

Pornography

1. Pornography is also addictive. It impairs decision-making capacities and it “hooks” its users, drawing them back obsessively for more and more. A man who had been addicted to pornography and to hard drugs wrote me this comparison: “In my eyes cocaine doesn’t hold a candle to this. I have done both. … Quitting even the hardest drugs was nothing compared to [trying to quit pornography]”
   -Pornography, Dallin H. Oaks ( April 2005 General Conference)
   
   
2. Satan has become a master at using the addictive power of pornography to limit individual capacity to be led by the Spirit. The onslaught of pornography in all of its vicious, corroding, destructive forms has caused great grief, suffering, heartache, and destroyed marriages.
   -To Acquire Spiritual Guidance, Richard G. Scott ( October 2009 General Conference)
   
   
3. Over the past twenty years a plague of pornography has swept across most countries of the world with increasing momentum and devastating impact. What began a few years ago as a few crude picture magazines that startled sensitive people has grown to hundreds of publications, each seeking to outdo the others with increasingly shocking content.
   -Personal Morality, David B. Haight (October 1984 General Conference)
   
   
4. Some persons struggle to differentiate between what they term “soft-core” and “hard-core” pornography. Actually, one leads to another. How applicable is Alexander Pope’s classic, “Essay on Man”: Vice is a monster of so frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
   -Pornography—the Deadly Carrier Thomas S. Monson-(October 1979 General Conference)
   
   
5. We also recognized there is virtually no place on earth that cannot be impacted by salacious, immoral, and titillating images. This is one reason why pornography has become such a plague in our day.
   -Can Ye Feel So Now?, Elder Quentin L. Cook (October 2012 General Conference)
   
   
6. Remember that those young wives said their husbands’ infidelity began with an attraction to pornography, but immoral activity is not just a man’s problem, and husbands aren’t the only ones offending. The compromise available at the click of a mouse—including what can happen in a chat room’s virtual encounter—is no respecter of persons, male or female, young or old, married or single.
   -Place No More for the Enemy of My Soul, Jeffrey R. Holland ( April 2010 General Conference)
    
7. Avoid any semblance of pornography. It will desensitize the spirit and erode the conscience. We are told in the Doctrine and Covenants, “That which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness.”5 Such is pornography.
   -True to the Faith, Thomas S. Monson ( April 2006 General Conference)
   
   
8. Pornography will sap spiritual strength to endure. Pornography is much like quicksand. You can become so easily trapped and overcome as soon as you step into it that you do not realize the severe danger. Most likely you will need assistance to get out of the quicksand of pornography.
   - Press On, Joseph B. Wirthlin (October 2004 General Conference)
   
   
9. A diet of violence or pornography dulls the senses, and future exposures need to be rougher and more extreme.
   - Rated A, Marvin J. Ashton (October 1977 General Conference)
   
   
10. We place ourselves in the path of these spiritual hurricanes when we indulge in anger, alcohol, and abuse; lust and licentiousness; promiscuity and pornography; drugs, pride, greed, violence, envy, and lies—the list is long.
    -Spiritual Hurricanes, David R. Stone (October 1999 General Conference)
    
    
    

    I had a buddy who’s dad collected Playboys. They had joined the church a couple of years before. I was baffled that his dad had all these magazines and that they were available to anyone who wanted to look at them. Needless to say, his house was a place that all the boys liked to congregate. That was 30 years ago. If you wanted to look a naughty picture you had to go to Todd's now its just a click away. When I was first introduced to the internet the guy I worked with was eager to show me how easy it was to find porn. Like drugs, smoking and alcohol its inviting but I put its true allure closer to gambling. Escape is what it offers but you don’t ingest it or breath it in you invite it in. You search it out with the hopes that it will bring you something greater. Relationships die and bank accounts dry up all on the false hope that it will make you real. At the beginning of this project I really didn’t think this subject should be one of the four we had to do and I believed that until the end. That is until I found, what would be the last of the quotes in this activity, quote number ten. We are greater that the hurricanes that society sends our way and we have the strength to overcome them.

Agency

1. These scriptures teach how to overcome the effects of wrong choices, whether they be lying, stealing, gambling, addiction to alcohol or drugs, immorality, inflicting abuse, or anything like it. Simply stated, one must use his agency to obey truth.
   -Healing Your Damaged Life, Richard G. Scott (October 1992 General Conference)

2. We tend to think of agency as a personal matter. If we ask someone to define “moral agency,” the answer will probably be something like this: “Moral agency means I am free to make choices for myself.” Often overlooked is the fact that choices have consequences; we forget also that agency offers the same privilege of choice to others. At times we will be affected adversely by the way other people choose to exercise their agency. Our Heavenly Father feels so strongly about protecting our agency that he allows his children to exercise it, either for good or for evil.
   -Answers to Life’s Questions, M. Russell Ballard (April 1995 General Conference)
   
   
3. Agency is a divine gift to you. You are free to choose what you will be and what you will do. And you are not without help. Counsel with your parents is a privilege at any age. Prayer provides communication with your Heavenly Father and invites the promptings of personal revelation.
   -Choices, Russell M. Nelson (October 1990 General Conference)

4. The principle of spiritual self-reliance grows out of a fundamental doctrine of the Church that God has granted us—agency. I believe that moral agency is one of the greatest gifts of God unto His children, next to life itself.
   -Christlike Attributes—the Wind beneath Our Wings, Dieter F. Uchtdorf( October 2005 General Conference)

5. Our agency—our ability to choose and act for ourselves—was an essential element of this plan. Without agency we would be unable to make right choices and progress.
   -Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life- Robert D. Hales (October 2010 General Conference)
   
   
6. We tend to think of agency as a personal matter. If we ask someone to define “moral agency,” the answer will probably be something like this: “Moral agency means I am free to make choices for myself.” Often overlooked is the fact that choices have consequences; we forget also that agency offers the same privilege of choice to others. At times we will be affected adversely by the way other people choose to exercise their agency. Our Heavenly Father feels so strongly about protecting our agency that he allows his children to exercise it, either for good or for evil.
   -Answers to life’s questions- M. Russell Ballard (April 1995 General Conference)
   
   
7. Often, however, agency is misunderstood. While we are free to choose, once we have made those choices, we are tied to the consequences of those choices.
   - Addiction or Freedom- Russell M. Nelson (October 1988 General Conference)
   
   
8. Agency suggests something very important—trust. Trust on the part of all. Now, just as God trusted us with all he had created here on earth, we must trust his knowledge and love and each other. - Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters – Spencer W. Kimball (October 1978 General Conference)
   
   
9. Free agency means the freedom and power to choose and act. Next to life itself, it is man’s most precious inheritance. - Church Welfare Services’ Basic Principles- Marion G. Romney (April 1976 General Conference)
   
   
10. Your agency, the right to make choices, is not given so that you can get what you want. This divine gift is provided so that you will choose what your Father in Heaven wants for you. That way He can lead you to become all that He intends you to be. 5 That path leads to glorious joy and happiness.- Finding Joy In Life-Richard G. Scott (April 1996 General Conference)

In 1973, President Monson taught the three R’s of free agency: the right of choice, the responsibility of choice, and the results of choice. I would add a 4th one: react. The way we react to things that effect our lives is just as important to what we chose to do. Sometimes we don’t have control of what comes our way. If a trial comes and we react to it in the sense of “why me” and then slip into the doldrums of being beat we don’t allow for the act of faith. Sometimes the act and the action of agency is to take responsibility for actions and then to make things better.

Atonement

1. With this background in mind, let us now ponder the deep meaning of the word atonement. In the English language, the components are at-one-ment, suggesting that a person is at one with another.
   -The Atonement , Russell M. Nelson (October 1996 General Conference)
   
   
2. The Savior subsequently accomplished the Atonement. He took upon Himself the “burden of the sins of mankind” and the “horrors that Satan … could inflict.”
   -We Follow Jesus Christ, Quentin L. Cook (April 2010 General Conference)
   
   
3. I repeat, save for the exception of the very few who defect to perdition, there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no apostasy, no crime exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness. That is the promise of the atonement of Christ.
   -The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness, Boyd K. Packer (October 1995 General Conference)
   
   
4. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone.
   -None Were with Him,Jeffrey R. Holland( April 2009 General Conference)
   
   
5. Alma emphasizes that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, “the arms of mercy are extended” to those who repent.13 He then asks penetrating and ultimate questions, such as: Are we prepared to meet God? Are we keeping ourselves blameless? We should all contemplate these questions.
   -Can Ye Feel So Now?, Quentin L. Cook (April 2012 General Conference)
   
   
6. The Atonement of Jesus Christ was an indispensable part of our Heavenly Father’s plan for His Son’s earthly mission and for our salvation.
   -The Atonement and the Value of One Soul , M. Russell Ballard (April 2004 General Conference)
   
   
7. We access the Atonement through repentance. When we repent, the Lord allows us to put the mistakes of the past behind us.
   - The Miracle of the Atonement, C. Scott Grow (April 2012 General Conference)
   
   
8. Sometimes in the depth of pain, we are tempted to ask, “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?”7 I testify the answer is yes, there is a physician. The Atonement of Jesus Christ covers all these conditions and purposes of mortality.
   -The Atonement Covers All Pain, Kent F. Richards (April 2012 General Conference)
   
   
9. Through the Atonement and those singular events surrounding it, all of the terrible individual and collective sins of all mankind were taken upon the Lord’s shoulders.
   -The Supernal Gift of the Atonement, James E. Faust (October 1995 General Conference)
   
   
10. We are not and never need be alone. We can press forward in our daily lives with heavenly help. Through the Savior’s Atonement we can receive capacity and “strength beyond [our] own” (“Lord, I Would Follow Thee,” Hymns, no. 220). As the Lord declared, “Therefore, continue your journey and let your hearts rejoice; for behold, and lo, I am with you even unto the end”
    -Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease, Elder David A. Bednar(April 2012 General Conference)
    
    
    

    The atonement is massive. I don’t know how it works in a mechanical way. I want to know all the nuts and bolts that make it work. The great thing about it is that I don’t need to know it completely. To be honest, that is hard for me. I have an almost disbelieving instinct that there is something more to it. That being said is a major hurdle for me to overcome. I just don’t think of it that much because of the way my mind wants to understand it. I am grateful that I have done this practicum. Little bits of talks that great men have laid out there for all to study gives me hope, form their testimony’s, that I can trust and let go of my insecurities, and really that is what the atonement is.
    

Tithing

1. Tithing is a test of faith with eternal blessings.
   -Tithing: A Test of Faith with Eternal Blessings, Robert D. Hales (October 2002 General Conference)

2. Tithing is a commandment with a promise. The words of Malachi, reaffirmed by the Savior, promise those who bring their tithes into the storehouse that the Lord will open “the windows of heaven, and pour [them] out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
   -Tithing, Dallin H. Oaks (April 2002 General Conference)

3. Mary Fielding Smith continued in her poverty to pay tithing. When someone at the tithing office inappropriately suggested one day that she should not contribute a tenth of the only potatoes she had been able to raise that year, she cried out to the man, “William, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Would you deny me a blessing? If I did not pay my tithing, I should expect the Lord to withhold His blessings from me. I pay my tithing, not only because it is a law of God, but because I expect a blessing by doing it. [I need a blessing.] By keeping this and other laws, I expect to … be able to provide for my family.”
   -Like a Watered Garden, Jeffrey R. Holland (October 2001 General Conference)

4. All of us can afford to pay tithing. In reality, none of us can afford not to pay tithing. The Lord will strengthen our resolve. He will open a way to comply.
   -Be Thou an Example, Thomas S. Monson (October 1996 General Conference)

5. I want to describe two important lessons I have learned about the law of tithing. The first lesson focuses upon the blessings that come to individuals and families as they faithfully obey this commandment. The second lesson emphasizes the importance of tithing in the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all of the world.
   -The Windows of Heaven, Elder David A. Bednar (October 2013 General Conference)
   
   
6. Paying tithing is not a token gift we are somehow charitably bestowing upon God. Paying tithing is discharging a debt.
   -Like A Watered Garden, Jeffery R. Holland (October 2001 General Conference)
   
   
7. The next item is the payment of tithing. Glorious is the promise of the Lord concerning those who pay their tithes. He says in modern revelation that they “shall not be burned”
   -Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts Unceasingly, Gordon B. Hinckley (April 2007 General Conference)
   
   
8. The promised blessings for obedience to the law of tithing are just as specific as are those for obedience to the Word of Wisdom.
   -Trust in the Lord, Marion G. Romney (April 1979 General Conference)
   
   
9. To develop enduring faith, an enduring commitment to be a full-tithe payer is essential. Initially it takes faith to tithe. Then the tithe payer develops more faith to the point that tithing becomes a precious privilege.
   -Face the Future with Faith, Russell M. Nelson (April 2011 General Conference)
   
   
10. First, pay your tithing. Do you want the windows of heaven opened to you? Do you wish to receive blessings so great there is not room enough to receive them? Always pay your tithing and leave the outcome in the hands of the Lord.
    -Earthly Debts, Heavenly Debts , Joseph B. Wirthlin (April 2004 General Conference)
    
    I never paid tithing until I was 20. I remember getting one of those tithing/missionary fund box banks when I was a kid in primary, I think I put baseball cards in it. Well, when I decided to go on a mission I felt the great need to pay tithing. It wasn’t read the Book of Mormon or is Joseph Smith, the restorer of the gospel it was tithing. Over the past few years, it has been the strength of tithing that has held me up and supported me over some really tough times. Times where there was no way that we could get by. It's a huge part of my testimony. 

Self-Worth

1. Love engenders faith in Christ’s plan of happiness, provides courage to begin the process of repentance, strengthens the resolve to be obedient to His teachings, and opens the door of service, welcoming in the feelings of self-worth and of being loved and needed.
   -We Love You Please Come Back, Richard G. Scott (April 1986 General Conference)
   
   
2. Hard-earned achievement brings a sense of self-worth. 
   -Reflections on a Consecrated Life, D. Todd Christofferson (October 2010 General Conference)
   
   
3. Some might even think that their self-worth depends on the length of their to-do list. They flood the open spaces in their time with lists of meetings and minutia—even during times of stress and fatigue.
   -Of Things That Matter Most, Dieter F. Uchtdorf (October 2010 General Conference)

4. That simple, profound doctrine is worth knowing for another reason as well. It brings a feeling of self-worth, dignity, self-respect. Then self-pity and depression fade away. We then can yield to the discipline of a loving Father and accept even the very hard lessons of life.
   -The Pattern of Our Parentage , Boyd K. Packer (October 1984 General Conference)

5. Some of these people in this category dare not hope anymore for fear of being disappointed. May they and their families be helped with thoughts that will bring action, comfort, and a new sense of self-worth.
   -While They Are Waiting (Marvin J. Ashton (April 1988 General Conference)

6. May the Spirit bear witness of that love and somehow touch your heart that you may find the courage to take those steps that will bring you peace and tranquility, that will restore your feelings of self-worth and place you on the path to happiness.
   -We Love You Please Come Back, Richard G. Scott (April 1986 General Conference)
   
   
7. Another mother of four remarked: “My struggle is between self-esteem, confidence, and feelings of self-worth versus guilt, depression, and discouragement for not doing everything I am told we must do to attain the celestial kingdom.”
   -Keeping Life’s Demands in Balance , M. Russell Ballard (April 1987 General Conference)
   
   
8. The feeling of being accepted by someone we love is a basic human need. Being accepted by good people motivates us. It increases our sense of self-worth and self-confidence. Those who cannot find acceptance from desirable sources often seek it elsewhere.
   -Being Accepted of the Lord Erich W. Kopischke (April 2013 General Conference)
   
   
9. We cannot cope with the confusions and the challenges of this world unless we use a clear and consistent moral compass that will unerringly take us through our own personal trials and the tugs and pulls of our own temptations—a compass that will chart our way to peace of mind, self-worth, and joy.
   -Four Absolute Truths Provide an Unfailing Moral Compass Richard B. Wirthlin (October 1997 General Conference)
   
   
10. Yes, we can experience wisdom, peace of mind, self-worth, and joy not only in the life to follow but in the life each of us lives today by walking in the Savior’s footsteps, guided by an unfailing compass calibrated on these four eternal and absolute truths.
    -Four Absolute Truths Provide an Unfailing Moral Compass Richard B. Wirthlin (October 1997 General Conference)

       

Self-worth. This was the last one I chose to do for this practicum. The consent barrage of negativity that we are bombarded with in today’s world is immense. There is always some thing or someone better and we need to be them or buy what makes them better. To me the truth lies in finding the things that make us happy. Cutting the noise that comes through all the outside influences in our lives. Taking our own accountability as a strength not a burden helps us find that self-worth. We build our individual worth up and in turn we build up those around us. The cool thing about it is its a circular motion that keeps building a positive foundation of self-worth.

Patriarchal blessing

Patriarchal blessing

1. 
   

   1. Help in maintaining the proper perspective in these permissive times can come to you from many sources. One valuable resource is your patriarchal blessing. Read it frequently. Study it carefully. Be guided by its cautions. Live to merit its promises. If you have not yet received your patriarchal blessing, plan for the time when you will receive it, and then cherish it.

   -May You Have Courage, Thomas S. Monson (April 2009 General Conference)

    

   2. While patriarchal blessings are very private, I will share a short quote from mine: “You shall be guided through the whisperings of the Holy Spirit and you shall be warned of dangers. If you heed those warnings, our Heavenly Father will bless you so that you might again be united with your loved ones.”

   -Counsel to Youth, Boyd K. Packer (October 2011 General Conference)

   
   

   3. My patriarchal blessing, received at age 13 from a beloved grandfather, includes this statement: “[Your Heavenly Father] sent you forth in this last and glorious dispensation that you might be born under the new and everlasting covenant by goodly, righteous parents.” With deepest appreciation I acknowledge that this has been the great foundational blessing of my life.

   -Born Again, D. Todd Christofferson (April 2008 General Conference)

   
   

   4. Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you. Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase. Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary.

   -The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn, David A. Bednar (October 2011 General Conference)

   
   

   5. Help can come to you from many sources. One is your patriarchal blessing. Such a blessing contains chapters from your book of eternal possibilities. Read your blessing frequently. Study it carefully. Be guided by its cautions. Live to merit its promises.-Be Thou an Example,Thomas S. Monson (April 2005 General Conference)
      
      
   6. Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you. Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase. Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. -The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn, David A. Bednar (October 2011 General Conference)
      
      
   7. Receive your patriarchal blessing and strive to live worthy of its promises. A patriarchal blessing is one of the most important guides in life that members of the Church enjoy.- Running Your Marathon , Joseph B. Wirthlin ( October 1989 General Conference)
      
      
   8. A patriarchal blessing is a revelation to the recipient, even a white line down the middle of the road, to protect, inspire, and motivate activity and righteousness. A patriarchal blessing literally contains chapters from your book of eternal possibilities. I say eternal, for just as life is eternal, so is a patriarchal blessing.-Your Patriarchal Blessing: A Liahona of Light,Thomas S. Monson (October 1986 General Conference)
      
      
   9. Just like the early Saints, you can regard your patriarchal blessing as your own “personal scripture.”You should keep it sacred and not share it outside of your immediate family.-You Have a Noble Birthright, Julie B. Beck (April 2006 General Conference)
      
      
   10. A patriarchal blessing also includes an inspired and prophetic statement of the life possibilities and mission of the recipient. It may include such blessings, promises, advice, admonitions, and warnings as the patriarch may be prompted to give. It should always be made clear that the realization of all promised blessings is conditioned upon faithfulness and the Lord’s will”- The Lord Blesses His Children through Patriarchal Blessings, Richard D. Allred (October 1997 General Conference)
       
       
       For years, my patriarchal blessing baffled me. I didn’t get what it was saying. I understood the words but not the meaning. It said I would serve the on foreign soil. I went on a mission to California, foreign is some aspects but it wasn’t New Zealand. It wasn’t until I was married that I realized that its a living personal scripture. The times when I went to it when the spirit promoted me has brought me greater insight into it. The blessing are great and the love I feel from my heavenly Father emanates through it, I am grateful for it.

Perseverance

Perseverance

1. I was born into the Church and was taught the gospel at my mother’s knee. Through her diligence and perseverance, she kindled a small ember of testimony that never left me even through some of the roughest times of my life.
   -The Joy of Hope Fulfilled, M. Russell Ballard (October 1992 general Conference)

2. When the Lord advises us to “continue in patience until [we] are perfected,” He is acknowledging that it takes time and perseverance. Understanding the why of the gospel and the why of the priesthood will help us to see the divine purpose of all of this. 
   -The Why of Priesthood Service, Dieter F. Uchtdorf (April 2012 General Conference)

3. Perhaps the famed Winston Churchill best declared the world’s pressing need. Said he: “I have lived perhaps longer experience than almost anyone, and I have never brooded over a situation which demanded more patience, composure, courage and perseverance than that which unfolds itself before us today: The need of a prophet.”
   -The Way Home,Thomas S. Monson (April 1975)

4. Please, dear Father, bless us with faith. Bless us with love. Bless us with charity in our hearts. Bless us with a spirit of perseverance to root out the terrible evils that are in this world. Give protection and guidance to those who are engaged actively in carrying forth the things of battle.
   - Till We Meet Again, Gordon B. Hinckley (October 2001 General Conference)

5. Perseverance is demonstrated by those who keep going when the going gets tough, who don’t give up even when others say, “It can’t be done.” 
    -Perseverance, James E. Faust (April 2005 General Conference)
   
   
6. Patience and perseverance are part of our eternal progression.
   -Ask, Seek, Knock , Russell M. Nelson (October 2009 General Conference)
   
   
7. The Savior’s mortal ministry includes everything else that He did—His teachings, expressions of love, attention to ordinances, patterns of prayer, perseverance, and more.
   -Senior Missionaries and the Gospel, Russell M. Nelson (October 2004 General Conference)
   
   
8. Perseverance is a positive, active characteristic. It is not idly, passively waiting and hoping for some good thing to happen. It gives us hope by helping us realize that the righteous suffer no failure except in giving up and no longer trying.
   -Never Give Up, Joseph B. Wirthlin (October 1987 General Conference)
   
   
9. I believe that perseverance is vital to success in any endeavor, whether spiritual or temporal, large or small, public or personal. Think seriously of how important perseverance, or the lack of it, has been in your own endeavors, such as Church callings, schooling, or employment. I believe that essentially all significant achievement results largely from perseverance.
   -Never Give Up, Joseph B. Wirthlin (October 1987 General Conference) 
    
10. Being in good physical condition comes at a price, and that price is dedication, perseverance, and self-discipline. Spiritual endurance also comes at a price. It is the same price: dedication, perseverance, and self-discipline.
    -The Strength to Endure, Richard J. Maynes (October 2013 General Conference)
    
    
    

    “Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way” come from the song Time by Pink Floyd. I’m half Welsh so that hold true to me. I would never want to go through the last 5+ tears of my life again. Nor would I want anyone I know to have too either. Quote #8 hits me the hardest. We don’t persevere by sitting idle by we engage, whatever it might be, it head on. Being actively engaged in any uplifting this brings us strength. I use to get mad when my volleyball coach made us run so many drills. I just wanted to play the game. I did not get the reason for the. Until I realized why we did them. I no longer did them half speed I did as many as I could before we moved on to the next. I found that I was getting better and better by doing the small things. Perseverance through the drills taught me that I can get better if I just worked hard.
    

Family.

1. And the last words of the proclamation express the simple truth that the family is “the fundamental unit of society.”
   -What Matters Most Is What Lasts Longest, M. Russell Ballard (October 2005 General Conference)

2. The family relationships we have here on this earth are important, but they are much more important for their effect on our families for generations in mortality and throughout all eternity.
   -The Eternal Family, Robert D. Hales (October 1996 General Conference)

3. Strengthening families is our sacred duty as parents, children, extended family members, leaders, teachers, and individual members of the Church.
   -Strengthening Families: Our Sacred Duty, Robert D. Hales (April 1999 General Conference)

4. The family is safe within the Church. We are not in doubt as to the course we must follow. It was given in the beginning, and guidance from on high is renewed as need may be.
   -The Father and the Family, Boyd K. Packer (April 1994 General Conference)

5. From the beginning, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has emphasized family life. We have always understood that the foundations of the family, as an eternal unit, were laid even before this earth was created! Society without basic family life is without foundation and will disintegrate into nothingness
   -Families Can Be Eternal, Spencer W. Kimball (April 1980 General Conference)

6. From the beginning, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has emphasized family life. We have always understood that the foundations of the family, as an eternal unit, were laid even before this earth was created! Society without basic family life is without foundation and will disintegrate into nothingness.
   -Families Can Be Eternal- Spencer W. Kimball (October 1980 General Conference)
   
   
7. Family love is wonderful. Nothing is as specific as the love of a baby for its mother. Nothing is as predictable as the love of children for their parents or the love of parents for their children.- A New Harvest Time
   - Russell M. Nelson (April 1998 General Conference)
   
   
8. I want to remind all of us today that no family has reached perfection. All families are subject to the conditions of mortality. All of us are given the gift of agency—to choose for ourselves and to learn from the consequences of our choices.
   -With All the Feeling of a Tender Parent: A Message of Hope to Families- Robert D. Hales (April 2004 General Conference)
   
   
9. Heavenly Father has made each of us unique. No two of us have exactly the same experiences. No two families are alike. So it is not surprising that advice about how to choose happiness in family life is hard to give. Yet a loving Heavenly Father has set the same path to happiness for all of His children.
   - To My Grandchildren- Henry B. Eyring (October 2013 General Conference)
   
   
10. Teach them to stay on the Lord’s side of the line. Hold family home evening regularly. Hold family prayer twice a day, if possible.
    -Take Time for Your Children-Ben B. Banks (October 1993 General Conference)
    
    There is probably a pretty good theme running through my work on this project, trials and faith. I don’t know how much I have been blessed in most of the things in my life, but I am sure that my family is the biggest blessing I have. I can't even think of where I would be without them. For what I give them I get so much more back. There have been moments of pure fear that were only relieved by my family’s love. I get to see the great effect the love that family’s share with my calling. So many times the issues that plague family lives could be solved if the family would pray together, but it seems to be too easy a fix for some. Families that love and serve each other hold the power to overcome and prosper.