Spiritual Blog ha.

This sunday I had a pretty spiritual experience and i just felt like I should get it down somewhere so I can remember it. I know this is what Journals are for, but i would probably get way too emo in that thing.

The talks were on Forgiveness. The way our ward does it (im sure its the same with every BYU ward) is a group of roommates talk together. So each week there are three speakers blah blah. So the first speaker was this one guy who talked about how we need to remember the pure love and forgiving nature of Christ when we are having a hard time forgiving others. He talked about how for so long he never felt love from God and during that time he was living a very negative and hateful lifestyle. He said once he started praying and reading his scriptures in the pure hope that he would feel Gods love for him, everything in his life started coming together, and once he felt Gods love he promised himself he would never live a lifestyle that would cause the feeling to go away. It was super powerful and you could really feel his gratitude and sadness and man it was just good.

The second talked about how we need to be as children when it comes to forgiveness. He worded this all better and quoted the exact scripture but he talked about how his down syndrome little brother loved hanging out with his dad and one day after his dad got off work he just wanted to go lay down on his couch and watch his shows. His little brother sat in front of the tv and watched with him for a little bit. He started getting bored so he started messing with the tv and vcr. His dad started telling him to stop but he kept doing it over and over again after being told not to. So finally his dad came up to him and gave him a little "love tap" he said haha. His brother started crying after his dad laid back down in the couch. After only a moment his dad said, "Come give me a hug, im sorry" That very second he ran over to his dad and gave him a hug and just started crying in his shoulder. He asked how many of us are willing to forgive someone that quickly. Im sure none of us do really. But he said thats how quickly God can forgive and how quickly we should try to forgive. 

(Sorry this is so long)

By this third talk the whole room was really still and quiet and focused. This never happens at our ward. Everyone is on their iphone or G1 or just talking to their girlfriend or boyfriend. Everyone was paying attention. it was crazy. So the third guy gets up and his tactic is stories too. He was the older brother of the guy who spoke before him. Their stories kind of intertwined and made one giant awesome talk. He first got up and told a story about how he pantsd  him infront of his girlfriend. Everyone laughed and it was funny for a second but then he said that he wanted to take that opportunity to say he was genuinely sorry for what he did. It was a good little intro haha. He told a story about how one day his cousin was out with his younger brother wandering around a dirt road when a 21 year old drunk driver hit one of the boys. The father of the boy was able to get to the hospital just in time for the boy to pass away while holding his hand. The whole family was upset. They were all really close apparently and the guy speaking actually had a really close relationship to the boy. When the court date finally came up and they had to meet with a judge to do final sentencing. The father of the boy had an opportunity to make a statement about his opinon on whether he wanted to press further charges or something like that. The dad stood up and read the verse of scripture from D&C 64: 9  it says, "Wherefore, i say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother and trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin." After he read it he looked at the 21 year old and told him he forgives him for what he did. I know you are just like, oh this story ive heard before its nice. But really we were all just like all dead silent and i dont know i just doubt there was a person in the room who didnt feel the spirit. So he sums up with a story about his down syndrome little brother. One of his brothers had spent an afternoon setting up a domino-like block area in his garage. when his brother stepped away from his project for a minute, his down syndrome little brother (i wish i knew his name hahaha i feel bad for labeling him like that haha) anyways, he tapped the first block and all of his brothers work was ruined. when he found out he yelled at him for ruining it and he started crying and felt really bad. Their mom took him into the kitchen and baked him some cookies and gave him some milk to help make him feel better. As soon as she handed him the cookies and milk, he walked out into the garage and gave his cookies and milk to his brother who had started fixing the blocks. Really. haha for real. everyone was crying. Ive never cried in sacrament meeting in my life and it was just so powerful and i dont even know how it all just kept building up. It was just great though. Anyways. This was terribly long. But i guess this post was mostly for my benefit haha but i hope you learned a thing or two about forgiveness!!!! ha