Past Desires, Current Desires, Near Future Desires, and Future Desires

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take roughly five minutes to read from start to finish.

Have you ever found some time to reflect on some of the desires or all of the desires that you've had in the past? Have you found some time to reflect on some of the desires or all of the desires that you currently have now? 

Have you had a spare moment to think about what types of desires that you would experience in the near future? Have you had a spare moment to think about what types of desires that you would experience in the future?

I know that in the past, I was able to accomplish many desires prior to meeting my husband and I would like to share with you several of those desires. 

~ I had a strong desire to graduate High School successfully which I was able to accomplish; I had great encouraging and helpful teachers, fellow students, my immediate family members and my friends who believe 

in me that I can do it. 

~ I had a strong desire to graduate Seminary successfully which I was able to accomplish, I had great encouraging and helpful teachers, my parents, fellow students, and my friends who believe in me that I can do it. I remembered many hours was spent on catch up with missed lessons. 

~ I had a strong desire to get my Australian drivers' license eventually which I was able to accomplish after my second attempt of taking the practical driving test in Year 2014. I had a great driving school instructor and I have patient parents to supervise me driving to places for helping me to achieve the requirements of being a learner.

"If you desire to make a difference in the
world, you must be different from the world."
- Elaine S. Dalton.

~ I had a strong desire to graduate Institute successfully which I was able to accomplish. I had some great teachers, my immediate family members and my friends who believe in me that I can do it. I learned so much and I took many notes throughout mostly all of the lessons.

~ I had a strong desire to serve a full-time mission which unfortunately I wasn't able to accomplish. I know that I had great missionaries, my immediate family members, my friends and other people who came into my life believe in me that I can do it. 

I know that in the past, I was able to accomplish some desires after meeting my husband and prior to when I got married to my husband. I would like to share with you several of those desires. 

~ I had a strong desire to drive on the opposite side from Australian roads and streets. My husband believe in me that I can do it, he had confidence in me, and he was great at supervising me to drive on the "right" - correct side of the roads and streets in United States when I drove in the car that he rented in Utah, February 2018.. 

~ I had a strong desire to serve as a Temple Ordiance Worker prior to marriage successfully which I was able to accomplish. I appreciated the constant support that I got from my immediate family members, my husband and my friends to help me to remain Temple worthy. 

~ I had a strong desire to finish The Pathways Program via Brigham Young University (BYU) Idaho online successfully and it runs by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm truly grateful that I was able to accomplish. My husband, my friends and I'm confident that my immediate family members has helped me to stay focus with the studies and believe in me that I can finish the program. I learned so much.

What are my top three desires that I currently do have?

~ I have a strong desire to always keep myself busy especially while my husband is working.

~ I have a strong desire to not allow any negative thoughts and suggestions to come into my mind.

~ I have a strong desire to continue being the best person who I can be.

What are my top three desires that I would like to have in the near future including in the future?

~ I have a strong desire that I would be able to get the Green Card interview notice in the mail within a few months to within a year from now, followed by I would be able to go to my Green Card interview, and then sometime after the Green Card interview - I would be able to receive my Green Card in the mail. I applied for the Green Card since towards end of October, last year. Due to coronavirus, the USCIS - United States Citizenships and Immigration Services has delayed many applications includes the Green Card application. 

~ I have a strong desire that I would be able to get my United States driver's license, I want to be able to drive again instead of myself to rely on others excluding my husband for transportation to go to places. 

~ I have a strong desire to continue exercising - bike riding and go on walks regularly. I would like to remain fit and being healthy as best as I can be. 

Stay Tuned until next time.

According to the Desire of (Our) Hearts ~ Part Two

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take approximately five minutes to read from start to finish.

This post is focus on October 1996 General Conference and it is called, “According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts" by Neal A. Maxwell. This post is part two. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk. 

Elder Maxwell mentioned the following;

"Thus knowing gospel truths and doctrines is profoundly important, but we must also come to love them. When we love them, they will move us and help our desires and outward works to become more holy. Each assertion of a righteous desire, each act of service, and each act of worship, however small and incremental, adds to our spiritual momentum.

Fortunately for us, our loving Lord will work with us, “even if [we] can [do] no more than desire to believe,” providing we will “let this desire work in [us]” (Alma 32:27). ... Some of our present desires, therefore, need to be diminished and then finally dissolved. ... Once again, we must be honest with ourselves about the consequences of our desires, which follow as the night, the day. ...

For instance, what is now only a weak desire to be a better spouse, father, or mother needs to become a stronger desire, just as Abraham experienced divine discontent and desired greater happiness and knowledge (see Abraham. 1:2). Our merciful and long-suffering Lord is ever ready to help.

"In order to succeed, your desire for SUCCESS should be
greater than your fear of failure." - Bill Crosby.

... In the same redemptive reaching out, our desiring to improve our human relationships usually requires some long-suffering. Sometimes reaching out is like trying to pat a porcupine. Even so, the accumulated quill marks are evidence that our hands of fellowship have been stretched out, too! 

It is up to us. Therein lies life’s greatest and most persistent challenge. Thus when people are described as “having lost their desire for sin,” it is they, and they only, who deliberately decided to lose those wrong desires by being willing to “give away all [their] sins” in order to know God (Alma 22:18).

Unquestionably, parents have such a profound role in assisting in the educating of our desires, especially when parents combine explanation and exemplification! Even so, given our responsibilities for our own desires, we should not be surprised that Adam and Eve, such superb parents who conscientiously taught all things to their children, still lost some of them!

Lehi and Sariah made the same effort, doing so “with all the feeling of a tender parent” (1 Ne. 8:37). Yet they experienced the same thing with Laman and Lemuel, who “understood not the dealings of the Lord” (Mosiah 10:14). Fixing responsibility for such recalcitrance where it should be, the Prophet Joseph Smith observed: “Men who have no principle of … truth, do not understand the word of truth when they hear it.

The devil taketh away the word of truth out of their hearts, because there is no desire for righteousness in them” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 96). ... Besides, righteous parents are teaching more than they now realize. The later applications of and the grateful expressions for earlier parental influence are often delayed, and often for a long time.

... Brothers and sisters, a loving God will work with us, but the initiating particle of desire which ignites the spark of resolve must be our own! It all takes time. Said the Prophet Joseph: “The nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin; ...” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 51). Thus the work of eternity is not done in a moment, but, rather, in “process of time.” Time works for us when our desires do likewise!"

If you would like to read the whole talk either now or in your own time, here's the link below.
www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1996/10/according-to-the-desire-of-our-hearts

Stay Tuned until next time.

According to the Desire of (Our) Hearts ~ Part One

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take three to five minutes to read from start to finish.

This post is focus on October 1996 General Conference and it is called, “According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts" by Neal A. Maxwell. This post is part one. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk. 

Elder Maxwell mentioned the following; 

"... Exemplifying this happy reality are the doctrinal teachings concerning desire, which relates so directly to our moral agency and our individuality. Whether in their conception or expression, our desires profoundly affect the use of our moral agency. Desires thus become real determinants, even when, with pitiful naivete, we do not really want the consequences of our desires.

Desire denotes a real longing or craving. Hence righteous desires are much more than passive preferences or fleeting feelings. Of course our genes, circumstances, and environments matter very much, and they shape us significantly. ... what we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive
in eternity.

Alma said, “I know that [God] granteth unto men according to their desire, … I know that he allotteth unto men … according to their wills” (Alma 29:4). ... “For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts” (D&C 137:8–9). God thus takes into merciful account not only our desires and our performance, but also the degrees of difficulty which our varied circumstances impose upon us.

"All efforts begin with desire." - Dallin H. Oaks.

.

.. God delights in blessing us, especially when we realize “joy in that which [we] have desired” (D&C 7:8). ... Satan “[desires] that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi. 2:27). 

                                                                                        

Mostly, brothers and sisters, we become the victims of our own wrong desires. Moreover, we live in an age when many simply refuse to feel responsible for themselves. ... But that deflection is, in itself, an act of choice, because we so desired. 

... Like it or not, therefore, reality requires that we acknowledge our responsibility for our desires. Brothers and sisters, which do we really desire, God’s plans for us or Satan’s? Whenever spiritually significant things are underway, righteous desires are present. 

No wonder desires also determine the gradations in outcomes, including why “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14; see D&C 95:5). It is up to us. God will facilitate, but He will not force. Righteous desires need to be relentless, therefore, because, said President Brigham Young, “the men and women, who desire to obtain seats in the celestial kingdom, will find that they must battle every day” (in Journal of Discourses, 11:14). 

... Even a spark of desire can begin change. ... Remember, brothers and sisters, it is our own desires which determine the sizing and the attractiveness of various temptations. We set our thermostats as to temptations. Thus educating and training our desires clearly requires understanding the truths of the gospel, yet even more is involved.

President Brigham Young confirmed, saying, “It is evident that many who understand the truth do not govern themselves by it; consequently, no matter how true and beautiful truth is, you have to take the passions of the people and mould them to the law of God” (in Journal of Discourses, 7:55). ..."

Stay Tuned until next time.

Heavenly Father Has Guided Me to Two Other Righteous Desires ~ Part Two

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take three to five minutes to read from start to finish.

What have you been able to see that has happened in your life by having righteous desires? Does righteous desires really do matter? This is part two. It is crazy how I prepared for a full-time mission, prepared physically, spiritually and mentally to receive my endowments, received my endowments, found out my mission isn't going ahead and I was able to my husband online.

Things didn't seemed serious between me and my husband at first, it was just friends and was always great to have always someone to talk to despite the time zones differences and long distance. Indeed rest is history - enough to say that my husband and I decided to become more than friends, become boyfriend and girlfriend which led into engagement and then led into marriage.

Although my husband and I had a dream of me leaving for a mission and we worried that we might lose each other. I remembered moving into a new ward, I saw the stake president and the bishop. I got a missed call from someone who's in High Council and I called back, it was in regards of my mission papers and he was saying that my full-time mission papers hasn't been submitted since 2016. He kindly asked me if I still had a strong desire to serve a full-time mission and to see my bishop about my decision whether if I do still want to go ahead with serving a full-time mission or finding an alternative way. 

I was able to see the bishop at the time to express my interest of serving in Brisbane Latter-Day Saint Temple as a Temple Ordinance Worker, and I also mentioned about my husband and I do plan to get engaged and married one day. I still had a desire to serve a full-time mission, but I was just emotionally upset to find out that my mission papers did not got submitted. I got a priesthood blessing of what Heavenly Father would tell me what I should do in my deep sleep that I would have overnight. I had a dream of being a mother and having children, therefore I knew then to decide to not go ahead and start the full-time mission papers ALL OVER AGAIN.

"Sometimes life seems very unfair especially
when our greatest desire is to do exactly
what the Lord has commanded."
- Neil L. Anderson.

Not long after I landed over here in October 2018, I got a phone call from Brisbane Latter-Day Saint Temple if I would be interested to come in for an interview and see if I'm ready to become a Temple Ordinance Worker.

I wasn't able to come in, I did mentioned about what day I would be expected to be back and I would be able to come in as soon as I could when I get back to Australia.

My husband asked me .. along of the lines with "Will you marry me?" during my visit over here in November 2018. Within 5 days after being back in Australia, I was able to see the Temple President and I was successfully worthy and ready to become a Temple Ordiance Worker in Brisbane Latter-Day Saint Temple.

I was able to get set apart for the calling. It was such wonderful blessing for me to be serve in Brisbane Latter-Day Saint Temple and I was engaged.

I had the opportunity to get released honorably from serving in Brisbane Latter-Day Saint Temple, and about within a few months, I was able to get married to my husband. Heavenly Father certainly knows our righteous desires, even the littlest desires counts. I know that he always does his best to help us to be guided in righteous decisions throughout our lives as long as we remain worthy, and to be able to be in tune with the Holy Ghost. If something doesn't work out the way you wanted, seek help and find guidance by Heavenly Father of what other things that you can do better and help you to stay active in the Church.

Stay Tuned until next time.

Heavenly Father Has Guided Me to Two Other Righteous Desires ~ Part One

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take three to five minutes to read from start to finish.

How has Heavenly Father blessed you with having righteous desires?
How has Heavenly Father blessed your immediate family and extended relatives with having righteous desires?
How has Heavenly Father blessed your friends with having righteous desires?

This post is part one. Sometime after I landed back to Brisbane from living in Perth for short-term in mid 2015; I fasted and prayed about if Heavenly Father would like me to go and serve a full-time mission. I felt a great impression enough for me to gain a strong desire to serve a full-time mission. I was so excited.

I remembered talking to the bishop at the time and he has given me privileged access to fill the full-time mission papers online and I still remembered when I was filling out the mission papers online. I remembered having my Dad by my side to help me with answering some questions, I remembered when I saw my GP doctor for medical examination of my mission papers and it costed FREE.

I remembered getting my dental work done, I had 4 fillings to be done, and x-rays. Unfortunately, I had to pay 40% from the total cost and thanks to my dental insurance at the time paid the remaining 60% of the the total cost. Total ended up costing about less than $100 US dollars. I was able to see my bishop again to give him the medical examination printed copy and the dental work has been completed printed copy as well.

"Desires dictate OUR PRIORITIES Priorities shape our choices
and choices determine OUR ACTIONS" - Dallin H. Oaks.

I had to see him for an interview of my worthiness to serve a full-time mission; he was able to submit approval at his end and referring me to see stake president at the time (who's still stake president today). I was looking forward to the next stage of the full-time mission papers.

I had to see stake president for an interview of my worthiness to serve a full-time mission about a few weeks or so after seeing my bishop. The stake president has requested for me to come in again for another interview, I came in for another interview, then he delayed about submitting my mission papers because he knew that there would be stake boundaries changes was coming up.


                                                                            Eventually, he mentioned about my mission papers has been submitted to Salt Lake City Church Headquarters. I was so excited. During the process of waiting for the mission call of the full-time mission to arrive; I have given updates of where the mission papers was, and he thinks that I might be called to serve in New Zealand. The stake president even followed up with me if I still had a desire to serve a full-time mission. Of course, I knew that I still had a strong desire to serve a full-time mission. I had nothing to stop me from serving a full-time mission.

After such a long wait, I followed up with the stake president and he mentioned about my full-time mission call was on its way back to Australia and I still didn't get the mission call. I decided to get a priesthood blessing and it mentioned that I would be able to find employment before end of the year. I asked the stake president if I can receive my endowments prior to my sister Emma's sealing and he has mentioned, "no." Emma and I did temple preparations classes together. I was disappointed that I can't receive my endowments prior to Emma's sealing, and he wouldn't allow me to become a Temple Ordinance Worker.

I remembered when I kept applying for jobs, even jobs that was about thirty-five minutes ish drive one way from my family's home at the time. I eventually found successful into employment. I moved away from my family's home. I don't even remember too much about meeting and greeting with the new stake president that I moved into a new stake. I know that he's such a great stake president.

I have spoken to a self-reliance missionary couple about my strong desire to serve a full-time mission, and he mentioned about that I get called to serve. I got called to serve as a Self-Reliance Missionary in Brisbane Australia Mission. I wasn't upset, I just thought it was strange. I remembered to pray to Heavenly Father to express to him that it was okay for me not going on a full-time mission and a part-time mision, it would be good to meet a temple worthy priesthood holder to seal me in the Temple one day.

By the time when I followed up about my mission call, the couple mentioned to me that the mission isn't going ahead. I went ahead with seeing my new bishop and stake president at the time for an interview of my worthiness to receive my endowments. Somehow towards end of that year, I was blessed to meet my husband on LDS Singles and then somehow found him on Facebook. I remembered first time messaging my husband on Facebook messenger and I wasn't so sure if he was ever going to reply.

Stay Tuned until next time.