Daily Gems

So I'm not sure if you've seen these before, but on the lds.org website under gospel library section there are LDS Gems. you can subscribe to them and a message will be emailed to you. they have daily ones, family history ones and a church history one. they also have some for single adults and the youth. i signed up for some of them and i love it. i love getting little messages here and there in my inbox. it brings a smile to my face. anyways, i wanted to share this with you because i have found it so cool. so sign up for them. its great! here's a couple examples of the ones i have gotten this week.....

Place for Imperfect People
"Some are lost because they have strayed. Except for the Lord, we have all made mistakes. The question is not whether we will trip and fall but, rather, how will we respond? Some, after making mistakes, stray from the fold. This is unfortunate. Do you not know that the Church is a place for imperfect people to gather together—even with all their mortal frailties—and become better? Every Sunday in every meetinghouse throughout the world, we find mortal, imperfect men, women, and children who meet together in brotherhood and charity, striving to become better people, to learn of the Spirit, and to lend encouragement and support to others. I am not aware of any sign on the door of our meetinghouses that reads 'Restricted Entrance—Perfect People Only.' "
Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Concern for the One," Ensign, May 2008, 19

And my favorite one of the week......

Total Dedication to the Gospel
"I can say, as did Nephi of old, that I was born of goodly parents, whose own parents and grandparents were gathered out of the lands of Sweden and Scotland and England by dedicated missionaries. As those missionaries bore humble testimonies, they touched the hearts and the spirits of my forebears. After joining the Church, these noble men, women, and children made their way to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Many were the trials and heartaches they encountered along the way.
"In the spring of 1848, my great-great-grandparents, Charles Stewart Miller and Mary McGowan Miller, who had joined the Church in their native Scotland, left their home in Rutherglen, Scotland, and journeyed to St. Louis, Missouri, with a group of Saints, arriving there in 1849. One of their 11 children, Margaret, would become my great-grandmother.
"While the family was in St. Louis working to earn enough money to complete their journey to the Salt Lake Valley, a plague of cholera swept through the area, leaving death and heartache in its wake. The Miller family was hard hit. In the space of two weeks, four of the family members succumbed. The first, on June 22, 1849, was 18-year-old William. Five days later Mary McGowan Miller, my great-great-grandmother and the mother of the family, died. Two days afterward, 15-year-old Archibald passed away, and five days after his death, my great-great-grandfather, Charles Stewart Miller, father of the family, succumbed. The children who survived were left orphans, including my great-grandmother Margaret, who was 13 years old at the time.
"Because of so many deaths in the area, there were no caskets available, at any price, in which to bury the deceased family members. The older surviving boys dismantled the family's oxen pens in order to make caskets for the family members who had passed away.
"Little is recorded of the heartache and struggles of the nine remaining Miller children as they continued to work and save for that journey their parents and brothers would never make. We know that they left St. Louis in the spring of 1850 with four oxen and one wagon, arriving finally in the Salt Lake Valley that same year.
"Others of my ancestors faced similar hardships. Through it all, however, their testimonies remained steadfast and firm. From all of them I received a legacy of total dedication to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of these faithful souls, I stand before you today."
Thomas S. Monson, "Looking Back and Moving Forward", Ensign, May 2008, 88-89

it made me think. I'm always so grateful to mister studly for his example and how he brought me into the church. i actually brought myself into the church, but he contributed :) this one made me think about all the people before him that sacrificed and believed and did the right things though out history to get me to where i am today. i guess i need to be thankful for so many others including my dear hubby. it's just so easy to think of him first. he is my husband after all and i owe I'm so much for begin such a good example to me. i was such a maniac before i joined the church. it's so scary to think to where i could be right now if it weren't for him and all those people before him. before i met him i was at a cross roads in my life. one way would lead me to more craziness and who knows if i would have escaped from it. the other path was calmer and more peaceful. less stress and more love. I'm so glad i chose the right path. he couldn't have come into my life at a better time. just think.... the night of our first date, i was scheduled to go on a date with another guy. i cancelled my plans with the other guy to do my friend a favor and double with her. her date ended up cancelling on her and so it was just me and mister studly. it was the best date of my life and i knew something was different. i went home an told my mom that i was going to marry him. she thought i was nuts and rolled her eyes at me. but i knew. i hadn't met anyone like him before. later, i found out the reason why. it was because he had the gospel in his life. I'm just so thankful that i flaked out on that other guy. one tiny little decision, changed my life forever.