Test E-mail For Blog

Hi Mom!

This is just a test e-mail for you to practice posting to my blog. I can't wait to go out and serve the people of Peru! Here is a picture of me at the Idaho Falls temple.

Love and miss you!

Hermana Furness

Food For Thought With a Grain of Salt

As I watched a religious film with my family for FHE, many thoughts came into my mind and this late night rant sort of happened! Take it with a grain of salt and realize that I'm not the best publisher of exactly what I'm thinking. Enjoy! (:

Sometimes we ask ourselves and others, “why does God allow bad things to happen?” I’d like to pose a question that might stand opposite to it—“why has God blessed me when another is more worthy?” The answers to both of these questions differ slightly but must be addressed with one valuable and important truth; whatever happens and for whatever purpose it DOES happen, God loves us unconditionally and does not favor one individual, race, nation, history, or kind above the other. Oh how quick we are to doubt. And Satan…oh. He is SO clever. So so VERY clever. Such doubt slides into our hearts like a black silk glove slips over our hand. It is so comfortable and so much easier to side with doubt. What we don’t know doesn’t hurt us right? I am one to say wrong. We cannot doubt. We cannot take that narcotic and expect to feel happiness the remainder of our days. As we doubt that there is a God because bad things happen, can we honestly believe that there is a God in a world where nothing bad happened? Is it just ‘paradise’ all the time never knowing sin from salvation? Darkness from light? The worst of times to the best? The depression and low of addiction to the freedom and joy of recovery? We must stop blinding ourselves to the idea that there is no God behind creation and existence. We cannot expect the purpose of life to be, 'simply exist.' 

Truly. Ask yourself. Think and feel as hard as your soul and mind can bear it. Why do we exist? 

What is the point?

Why why why??

I’m not the one to chip in and say, "look here! I have the #1 top selling religion that tells truth more effectively than the leading bargain brand. It’ll answer all of your questions and provides a sensory evidence guarantee of God or your time and money back.” 

No. Just no. 

Those who believe in a God or ‘higher power’ arrive to that belief like the individual arrives to happiness. There are personal and general things that make each person on earth tick. Some are fancied pink by dogs. Some find joy in clean sheets on a bed. A lot of people find comfort in chocolate! It’s a safe bet that all people find happiness in love. But with the comparable journey to finding happiness, the journey to a belief in God is detailed and tailored to fit each individual. It is comprised of trials and blessings in which a belief in God, the Atonement, or other means of religous nourishment have fulfilled otherwise sorrowful states. The only way the individual wears such a coat of belief is if they allow the prick of a needle to correct a misunderstanding. 

While many may argue, “you're just choosing an unintelligent and easy path to believe in a God instead of facing facts, science, and philosophy to explain life,” they miss one very important principle in their argument. God is not the opposite of science and fact and vice versa. Why does God have to be associated with make-believe, magic, and smoke & mirrors? And why is science viewed as a sensory based explanation that allows no spiritual revelation of thought?

It is such a fault of human nature to box God and man’s work into two separate categories. If both sides—and I mean the nonreligious and the religious—would lend themselves to the truths found in both, I believe there would be so much less contention between the two.

I can testify that as a religious person, I’ve witnessed the dismissal of scientific fact as explanation for many things on earth as an ‘evil that man has created to lead away the minds and hearts of men.’ This doesn’t infer that all science is sound and that every theory is perfect. It does infer, however, that man—and I believe with the mercies of a God who has brought revelation to men through the spark of intelligence and creative thought—can explain parts of this world through scientific discovery. 

On the other hand, as a student and friend to nonreligious individuals, the dismissal of God is often derived from a belief that crazed individuals are paranoid about a damning and hateful God who won’t save them unless they do every little thing he commands perfectly at the turn of his thumb. In trusting what science points to and what they can only see, hear, taste, touch, or smell—the confirming of truth beyond the abilities of man is evidenced in a quiet but ever real feeling in the heart that is NOT excluded to the mind. 

My hope in bringing awareness to the combination and complementary power within science and religion is not to create a perfectly matched fit with both of them. There are times when religion admits that they simply don’t know and when science just doesn’t have the means yet. When so called ‘proof’ of some scientific theories is the rumor and conjuring of false facts from deceitful sources so it is even with religion. There are many who conjure up and deceive men with false beliefs and ‘truths’ about God. There is evil on every side but there is so much good to be found as well. If we so allow, a humble respect and reverence for both practices can invite the environment of a beautiful intertwining. 

As this is coming from a pondering of religious thought, I must bear my testimony. I bear because I need my testimony for myself and I bear in hopes that you will feel compassion for new ideas and not feel deceived or wrongfully persuaded. I truly can’t prove with physical evidence that there is a God who loves and cares about me. But I feel it. I feel it in every single mercy I’m given, in every kindness from mankind, in every shoulder given to cry on, every tear fallen at the loss of love, every affectionate kiss of loving parents, every last breath I’m granted to take. Open yourself. Open yourself as I have to the love that God will provide you and open yourself to an understanding of the imperfections of our carnal state. He lives and while He lives I’ll sing. There is beauty to be found. There is joy to be felt. There is a God who longingly awaits your return. 

The Journey Begins!

Hola amigos y familia!
I'm so very happy to say that I've received a mission call from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I am assigned to labor in the Peru Chiclayo Mission and will report on September 23, 2014 (:

As you can guess, this blog will be used to keep anyone and everyone updated on my adventures in Peru. I won't be directly writing the blog--hopefully I can teach my mom some tech savvy skills to transfer e-mails to here (: *for any of you family members out there that know about computers my mom might need your help once I'm gone! (:

Also, to any visitors passing by my blog, I hope that my words will inspire and uplift your hearts through my testimony of Jesus Christ. He is my Lord and my Redeemer and has provided me happiness that I had never known. Please, if you have instinctively pushed the concept of a living God out of your mind all I ask is for you to pray. Just get on those two knees and humbly talk to our Heavenly Father. He will always receive you with open arms and once you have felt the love he has to offer you just as I have, you'll hardly believe that you ever doubted yourself. He is there. I promise.

To any one wanting to write me--please do! I have to admit though that I'm a terrible responder but I have a feeling that I might be in need of some of your words once I'm out in the field :)

On this exciting journey I have been asked to speak in the Spanish language. This will probably be one of the toughest mountains to climb for me but I am SO excited to learn. A mission may be a brutal mental, physical, and spiritual challenge but it is oh so sweet as well. If any of you would like to write me in Spanish, I highly encourage it! I will be thrilled to practice this great language and correspond with you bilingual folks out there :)

I want to express my love for all of you that have supported me throughout the years. I truly hope I haven't offended any of you and desire your forgiveness if I have. There are innumerable blessings in my life and each one of your spirits have impacted me more than you will ever know. To my family, I don't know how I can ever repay the love you've given to me. I feel so undeserving but extremely lucky that I was born into my family. May God bless all of you for sending you to me.

The last thing I want to do is bear you my absolutely genuine testimony. There are certain things that we know in this life and I feel like the most blessed human being ever to know that there is a living God and his son, Jesus Christ. They are so special and sacred to me; my personal relationship with them has brought upon me unshakable faith. I have faith in their existence, faith in their timing, and faith in their answers. I believe that Christ has walked this earth in days past and was crucified for our sins. Along with that, I believe that He was not only crucified for our sins but for the infinite grace we need to return to a loving Heavenly Father. I believe that with the dislocation of Christ's church upon this Earth, our dear brother Joseph Smith has brought the restoration of the gospel back again. I undoubtedly know that the Book of Mormon is 100% real, ancient, and true scripture and that it was through the power of God that Joseph Smith was able to translate it. I believe that there is a prophet today who speak and receive revelation from God. And lastly, I had once believed but have come to know that through the power of prayer and study of scripture that God offers us a love that no man can understand--that obedience to this love and his commandments do not bind human nature but free it instead.

I hope that you will enjoy my blog and a peek inside the country of Peru! May God be ever present in your life from today and that my blog will strengthen that testimony. As they say in Spanish:

Adiós por ahora!