Recognize and Rejoice with Darcee Waddoups

As one adds the light of Christ into their life, they will receive more power.  Darcee is a living testimony of this truth.  She has dedicated her life to following and rejoicing in Jesus Christ and she has received power to persist in difficult situations, power to wait on the Lord, power to achieve her desires, and power to achieve things she never even dreamed of.  As a lover of words, Darcee, looked up the definitions of Recognize and Rejoice and what she discovered brought this podcast to a whole new level.  

Recognize: to show official appreciation of. 

Rejoice: to experience joy and gladness in a high degree.  

Darcee points out that we can recognize or show our official appreciation for all Jesus Christ has done for us by our actions; actions such as attending the temple, listening to His prophets, serving others, etc.  Then as a result of showing our appreciation we experience joy and gladness, as a gift.  We don't create joy, we experience and receive it as a natural consequence of worshipping our Lord.  

Enjoy the show!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello everyone. Welcome to Recognize and Rejoice with Megan and Kaylin, where we rejoice together as we recognize the hand of the Lord in each of our lives. We would like to recognize and thank our sponsor, Coach Katie Swim School, which helps keep our episodes available indefinitely. Welcome to Recognize and Rejoice with Megan. Today we have Darcy Wattups with us. We are so excited to have her today. Just to let you know how I met her, I received a calling and I had no idea who Darcy was. I have no idea how she knew who I was. But one day the counselor in the stake presidency came and said, Hey, Megan, we would like you to be in the stake primary presidency. And I was like, What? How do you even know who I am? Why do you even think of me? And it has been such a blessing to me that Heavenly Father directed Darcy to ask me to be her counselor. My life has been extremely blessed because of this relationship I have with Darcy. And so I am so excited to share her testimony. I hope that you all feel of her spirit and are able to feel Jesus Christ through the things that she has to tell us today. Her life is full of recognizing and rejoicing in the hand of the Lord in her life. Now Darcy's going to tell us about her stage of life and then when she decides to follow Jesus Christ, and then she'll go right into her stories.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Thank you, Megan. Thanks for having me. And I wish I had a story of how I knew you. I actually don't really remember that portion of that experience, but I do know it was directed because I have felt very blessed by you as well. I didn't know you really, other than Heavenly Father said, here, here you go, here's someone awesome. And it's rolled out. Great. As far as introductions go, I am the most average of all the average people out there. I am so boring. I actually rewatch my husband so often after attending a funeral. What is anyone gonna say about me at my funeral? So I am so average, and I'm great with that. I do have an amazing husband and five wonderful children, five awesome grandchildren. To give you an idea of our children, there was one year that we had one in college, one in high school, one in junior high, one in elementary school, and a preschooler, all in the same year. And so we had some pretty hectic years of toddlers and teenagers in the same house, and it was great fun stretching, but good. I am a stay-at-home mom, and I I love that, and I'm so thankful for that opportunity. It allows me to have more time to serve, and I'm thankful for that. I did back in many, many years ago, I did teach school for 10 years, and I used to publish in the scrapbooking industry when that was big. And so I've had a few other things that are my old life, I call them sometimes. What makes me tick now is to plan fun activities for my family and to make good food. I love good food, and I get bored of the same food, and so my mind is always thinking, what could I add? What could I take away? How to change this, what's new. And so I do like a kitchen adventure. Um, as a little story that kind of defines how I function. Years ago on a relief society, there was a get to know you activity. And one of the questions was, where's your dream vacation? And I really had no desire to have a dream vacation, but I would like my kitchen updated. I like to cook, I like to function there, I like to make dinner for my neighbors, and that's to me was a bigger goal than to go on a dream vacation. And so I wrote that and I was kind of made fun of because I had no ambition to see the world and to be adventurous, but I don't need adventure to be happy, to be totally happy. I'm boring. So that that is me. But that said, we just finished a three-year contract of living in China. So that was so very adventurous. We took our two youngest girls who were at the time age 13 and age 15, which is very difficult ages to uproot, and we carried off to China. So it was a stretching, adventurous experience. I believe I've always had faith. I've always been a believer, but I will share some experiences we go along that have deepened my conversion. It's one thing to believe, it's another thing to act and be converted to Jesus Christ. And I will share a few of those. So I'm going to start off with a story to kind of set some background that will kind of tie into some things the next few minutes. But Christmas, because I like to plan activities for my family, and I have this little creative gene that goes wild. At Christmas, we have a theme every Christmas, and there's always a doctrinal theme like charity never faileth, be of good cheer, seek this Jesus, gather Israel. I'm a peacemaker, follow the prophet, etc. And then we'll have some kind of a fun theme to go with it. So this past Christmas, we had a theme of I am a peacemaker, and we did a Lego theme. And so we did a play on words, P-I-E-C E, that kind of piece, peacemaker. And then we did activities with peacemaking and peacemaking, and that was our Christmas theme this past year. So years ago, one of our themes was be of good cheer. And for this theme, the Christmas Day activities, well, I let me just say that our kids never have woken up in the morning on Christmas and there's just the presents, and we open the presents and have a good time. There's usually no presents under the Christmas tree, or there's presents, but they're task lists, and they have to accomplish these certain things to be able to open presents and it's wild. And my family likes it, but it's not for everyone. But this one year, it was the theme was be of good cheer. And they were gonna do breakout rooms, and all five kids were gonna be home. My oldest son was married, and his wife was there, and so we had this Brady Bunch theme on Christmas Day, and we had Greg, Peter, Bobby, Jan, Marsha, Cindy, and they were all labeled with their names, and they had these different breakout rooms that they had to discover ways to be of good cheer in difficult times. And they were things like gratitude and service and hard work and good music and family history and just these different things. And in planning those activities on the breakout rooms, we wanted my husband and I wanted to make it so that the child whose natural gifts would shine through on that task. We wanted them to be handicapped on that. So we would give them a limitation like that child couldn't speak, or that child couldn't see, or that child couldn't hear. We give some kind of handicap, and then others, their roles would shine through, and they would have to struggle and work and discover the answers to these breakout rooms. Kind of hard to explain. And just a few days before Christmas, I go to the temple, and it was like December 22nd, 23rd, and I was just buzzing with busyness. And I go and I sit down in initiatory and I just take a breather, and the spirit says to me, You should see my spreadsheets. And my mind exploded of like, well, yes, of course, there's no coincidences, and things are orchestrated. And I'm not proclaiming that there's divine spreadsheets as doctrine, but it makes sense to me that it's organized on something like a spreadsheet. But that our heavenly parents would orchestrate our lives, put us in points of contact, give us experiences that are going to strengthen our faith, challenge our weaknesses, help us grow. The same kind of things that we tried to recreate on a little Christmas morning with our family and some breakout room activities. And so that has guided my thinking a lot of where is Heavenly Father guiding me? What does He need me to do? What do I need to work on for Him? And then also to have greater patience when things are challenging of that divine spreadsheet. What's the outcome? What are their goals for me on this? And that has been a powerful way for me to think about life and process life and challenges and growth. So that is the first little story.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Darcy, you're like, I'm a nobody, I don't do anything really cool. And I have never met anyone who does this at Christmas time. You really go all out to making Christmas such a Christ-centered experience through all the experiences that you create for the month of December, like this spreadsheet. I remember when you told me this story the first time, the spirit I felt of how much Heavenly Father is invested in our lives through a spreadsheet idea, just it really hit my heart that yeah, he knows the situation we're in, he knows who we have contact with, and he's orchestrating things all the time. And if one thing doesn't match the way that he had intended, or like we miss a uh revelation or something, we miss an inspiration to go talk to somebody, that's okay. God comes back around and he's got it on his spreadsheet to figure it all out. And the way that you made it understandable to me through that story was was very profound in my life. I think of that story often. Every time I come to Christmas, I'm like, okay, I know Darcy does this. How can I help my family come unto Christ even better? You're an astounding example in my life, and I appreciate you. So even though if you don't want to go on vacation, the things that you do want to do and the things that you do accomplish, they are grand. Anyway, I just want to put that out there. I love that story. Well, thank you. You're very kind.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Before I go to the next story, I just need to preface this next part with something that is a firm conviction and kind of guides my life and my actions. And that is, I believe, and I have a strong conviction that following the prophet is not only right, but brings remarkable blessings. President Nelson has said that obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles. And I have found that to be true. And one thing that I started to do after President Nelson became a prophet is prior to the general conference, a few weeks before, I listened to all of the talks given on the Gospel Library app prior to general conference. That is such a life-changing experience every single time. I mean, it was life-changing the first time, but every time that I have done it, it has just exponentially been a blessing. And so last or yeah, a few Sundays ago, Elder Anderson gave a BYUI devotional, and he actually talked about President Oakes' talk at BYU. And he said this taking deliberate steps to follow the prophet will change your life. Read his words and think about them enough that they become part of your life. So that is kind of the realm that I live in. And so in order to tell this, the next two stories about blessings I've received from following the prophet, I need to read some from my journal from right after we first moved to China. So I'm just gonna read a little bit from my journal to give some context. It is one thing to move, it's another thing to move internationally. It's totally another thing to move to China during COVID. As one of our flight attendants said, it's a big adventure to move internationally, but to do so in China right now is an extreme high adventure. Everything has been taken to a whole new level when you have to personally obtain visas for a family to get into China during COVID. To obtain visas has been such a strenuous, stretching, and difficult process. All that we had heard about moving internationally and moving to China has been heightened because of COVID and China's response to it. We would make some progress only to have it halted. We would be told the processes needed to make it happen only to find new difficult layers of requirements. Add to that, any time frame we were in we were given would be multiplied by three or higher. Early on, we packed up book tickets for July 7th, 2021. We canceled everything in our lives because we are told that's how it would roll out. But it didn't. We waited and waited and waited. School started, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas came and went. I planned Christmas three times. One as if we were settled in China, one as if we were in quarantine, and finally just a few weeks before Christmas, I plan to spend it at home. New Year's, Valentine's Day, and Easter all moved into the rearview mirror. We lived out of boxes with our life on hold for nearly 11 months. So many times we were wondered why hedges and roadblocks showed up left and right. It would have been much easier to give up. We felt compelled to press forward despite world conditions, China's responses to COVID, and many other uncertain and unpleasant circumstances. So just a note right here that when we got to China, we had to quarantine in a hotel for 25 days. We couldn't leave the room. They brought us food, which was very bad, and we had to have nasal and throat swabs, temperature checks, everything. A few days before departing, we had a couple of severe testing experiences as to whether we would keep our covenants and whether or not we would let God prevail. We also have been tutored in many areas over this past year, teaching us how to live with extreme uncertainty and how to obtain the power to press forward. President Nelson has taught turbulent times are an opportunity for us to survive spiritually. We have found this to be true. Although difficult, it has been a very sacred year. A few things we've learned. You don't really need pictures on your walls. Patience is a spiritual capacity that is given as it as divine laws are followed. Mattresses directly on your floor make rolling out a bed really easy. Stuff isn't really that important. Having most of your things in boxes makes it feel quite useless. The Savior is never closer than when you are climbing a mountain with faith. That's a present Nelson quote. Temples really do help you build a strong spiritual foundation. Waiting faithfully upon the Lord for his blessings is a holy position. It must not be met with pity, but instead with sacred honor. That's a quote from Elder Gogh. You can get pretty good at living out of boxes after a few months. So that's the end of that journal entry. Um, so the first experience that I want to share about following the prophet was we needed to get these visas. And like I said, that there were all these layers of difficulties to obtain them. But one thing that we had to do was get permission from the local and provincial governments in order to enter the country. At that time, they were only letting individuals into the country, and that was with great reservation. Anyway, we were requesting to go as a family, and we were denied, just straight up denied. But we felt like we needed to still press forward and keep going. And one night in our prayers, Tom and I, I had this distinct um impression to write a letter to the Chinese government and to tell them that we were a strong family and that strong families with less communities. We were coming, we would serve, we would obey the laws, and things kind of along that line, and that they should allow us to let us come in. So we submitted that letter along with the family picture to the Chinese government or to the company for translation, and they wrote back and they said that what they wanted to add this to our letter. That that would be this would be their edition. They wanted to write, these people are Mormons and believe in the eternal nature of families and they need to come all together. And President Nelson's words came to me. His words were, I promise you that if we will do our best to restore the correct name of the Lord's church, he whose church this is will pour down his power and blessings upon the heads of the latter-day saints, the likes of which we have never seen. We will have the knowledge and power of God to help us take the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, and to prepare the world for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, with those words in my mind, I said to my husband, it just needs to be changed. So it says the Church of Jesus Christ of Larry Saints. Everything was submitted. And I thought, well, at the very least, we've put the name of Jesus Christ into China. But a few days later, we'd received permission for our entire family to come. That does not seem like a big miracle, but especially after having lived there, that is a most remarkable miracle for them to make that adjustment. And I know it was because we were following a prophet and the power of the name of Jesus Christ and the power that he gives when we use the name of his church, it was opened up. It was opened up. So that's the first story about a blessing, a direct blessing from following the prophet and having his words in us so that we knew them, that we could follow them. The second story is about when we first moved to China and we had 28 boxes of things to send in the shipment, of the things that we were going to bring with us cooking supply or plants and pans, and you know, just a lot of different things. And in the shipment, there were strict rules that the Chinese government would allow and not allow, and we followed those with exactness. One of the things that I put in the boxes were about 50 picture books that I was going to read to my grandchildren over video calls. And these were my favorite picture books. My oldest son at the time was 30, and they were ones I'd been reading to my kids for decades. These were the top favorites. And I didn't take a list, I just put them in. Like, I want to read this one, I want to read this one. I put in about 50 picture books. And the shipment got in the ocean, was being shipped across, it was halfway across the ocean. We got a message from the Chinese government saying that they were going through our list of supplies that were coming, and they were gonna throw out my husband's big monitor, a little red step stool, and my books. I was devastated. And not only were they just going not, you know, could send them back to the US, something, but no, they were just going to be disposed of, completely gone. Nothing usually makes a lot of sense in China, we found. Um but I I was devastated, and I remember sending messages to my family and friends. Please pray, please fast. And I know that made a difference, but one night I was praying, I was sobbing, pleading for my books. And a few lines from one of President Nelson's talks came into my mind. It was from his talk, A Plea to My Sisters, where he was telling this story about his wife Danzel. He came home from work and one of his young patients had passed away, and he threw himself on the floor and sobbing all night long. And his wife's response, Danzel's words, came to me just in a different form. And here I was sobbing and crying, and the words came to me, are you finished crying? Get up and get to work. No one else is prepared to do. And I remember just being stopped in my tracks. And it didn't bring any kind of peace about the books are gonna be fine or don't worry, you know. It wasn't a comforting, you know, a feeling of comfort per se, other than I knew that the Lord knew me. But I got up from that prayer, changed. I had courage, I had a mission, and I knew I needed to get to work. And I remembered a quote by President Packer that said you have your agency and inspiration. Does not, perhaps cannot flow unless you ask for it or someone asks for you. No message in scripture is repeated more often than the invitation, even the command to pray and to ask. Prayer is so essential part of revelation that without it, the veil may rema closed to you. And I reasoned that the Chinese people needed me to pray for them. They did not have the spirit of the Lord, they did not know how to pray. And so I started praying very specifically for those custom agents who would be reviewing our shipment, who would be checking it and maybe looking in it. I prayed specifically that when they looked or handled or touched our shipment, they would be filled with divine inspiration for answers for the challenges which they were having, that they could feel some sense of light and some sense of truth in some miraculous way, somehow be able to find Jesus Christ. And so we finally got our shipment several months later. And when we opened it, they had gone through everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. They even opened up picture frames and looked between all of the backings because you could tell everything was just jostled and put in different ways. And like I had sent a picture over of my mom, and I could just tell it had been opened, the back and other things too. I was just, there was just traces. And I thought these people had a lot of time handling my shipment. They received a lot of revelation because I pray for it. And I know the Lord answers prayers. And in the end, the only things that were removed from our shipment were two small American flags, just like a little four by six American flag that I had put in. Those are the only things missing. So there were miracles on both sides of the story. I'm waiting on that divine spreadsheet to know what happened with all those custom agents. But I know that there were miracles on both sides.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

There's so much I love about that story. But how you switched from please bless me, that my shipment and all the things that I want, to blessing the people that are looking at my shipment, that they will have divine inspiration by looking through our stuff. And I just think of my own life and things that I'm going through right now and how much I'm praying for myself. And if I could have the spirit of Jesus Christ in my life so that I could switch things to pray for other people, like what a blessing that is. It totally changed your perspective. It totally changed your attitude about things. It totally changed everything. And it was because you had the spirit of Jesus Christ with you. Get up and go to work. I have a work for you to do. And it's not to pity yourself, it's to go out and help other people. That's that's really beautiful and powerful for me. So that was an amazing story. What else do you have for us, Darcy?

SPEAKER_01 25:13

The next thing I want to talk about is the temple and how the temple has influenced my life and the blessings I've received. Years ago, I started having some health issues. And in trying different things, going to doctors and whatever, nothing could be identified. I wasn't debilitated, but I was living in constant pain, constant pain. And we did testing and specialists and lots of things. I changed my diet, I changed exercise, I changed everything I could. I prayed, I fasted, I tried to do everything I could to make some grounds and some headway. And I just really wasn't. And it was discouraging. And I was talking to a friend one time, and she told me that she was in a situation where another friend told about her state president who promised them that if they would double their temple attendance, their problems would I don't know. I wasn't there, I don't know the exact promise, whether they would go away, whether they'd be decreased. Anyway, but my friend said to me, I have some problems that I want resolved. So I have been doubling my temple attendance. And I said to her, weren't you already going once a week? And she said, Yes. And she says, but I can feel a difference. And so here I was in these struggles and being a stay-a-home mom, my kids were all in school. I thought I can do that. I need the blessings. And so I doubled my temple attendance. And that does bring a spiritual power. It it really, really does. It helped me manage what was in a way that was more productive and healthier than I would have without it. But it didn't solve. I still live with persistent chronic pain. And at some point, you know, when you're going through those kind of things, there's depression and anxiety that accompany that of or you have to live with this forever. And the emotional weight of chronic pain makes you less capable to deal with things well. And and it's just it's heavy. It's a heavy, heavy load. And the temple helped me navigate that to some degree. When 2020 hit and the temples were closed, I was devastated because that took away a big thing from me that I relied on. I heavily relied on that divine power that came from the temple. And I know that it didn't leave because I kept my covenants and I still had those covenants, and that's the protective thing. But the the nurturing, spiritual nurturing that was constant was missing. So I'm gonna kind of pause at that juncture and leave that on a little bit of a cliffhanger and go to the next part. And I'm gonna read a little bit again from my journal, then I will jump back. When we first learned about the possibility of us moving to China, and we learned about in December of 2019, one of my first questions was, How am I gonna leave the temple? I can't. I depend upon it so much. That question was answered in part during the closure of temples in 2020. However, when the joint venture was signed and Tom was officially offered the position in China in November of 2020, I began fasting and praying that I would be able to attend the temple just once before we left. Our original flights were July 7th, 2021. And just a few weeks before that, our temple opened. Appointments were very difficult to get, but miraculously, I was able to get two appointments for baptisms and four appointments for Tom and myself. I cannot express my deep gratitude for those six precious appointments. Then, when we didn't obtain the visas in time to fly at that date, I took up a new hobby, temple scheduling. And my girls teased me that it was an obsessed hobby. But since we had no callings, we had no classes or um practices, we were free. And we could go to the temple and I would make appointments wherever they were found. We traveled all over the Wasatch front. My car was on autopilot from Brigham City to Payson. And if there was an appointment, I took it. Even if it meant early morning or late at night or travel. And in that time between July 2021 and when we actually flew to China in April of 2022, 40-ish weeks, a little bit more than 40 weeks. My girls went to the temple, did baptisms 60 times. I went to the temple 162 times in that time period, which averages about four times a week. And you consider that a lot of those were traveling. We went to all the temples in Utah. I was willing to go to Monticello, Inferno. We went to Idaho, but that was such a revelatory experience. I knew we were gonna be without the temple for a long time because we were going during COVID and we knew we couldn't leave the country. We knew we couldn't just go to the temple, even by plane, because the way China was handling COVID. But we were able to go so much in that time, and I wanted my tank to be overflowing, and it was it was such a remarkable time. Now the next part about moving to China, although I'm not adventurous by any means, and it was stretching. The other thing that was difficult was my health. There was no diagnosis, there was no help, I was living with chronic pain, and here I was going to go to a country with decreased medical help. It took a lot of faith to say I would be willing to go with that kind of condition. But the temples empowered me to go. President Nelson had promised a lot of promises about the temple, and we flew over, and on the way over, I was in such chronic pain and more intense, and I know some of that was nerves, but more than usual. And I just thought, what am I doing? I'm taking two girls, and the flight was the people on the flight were just Chinese people. No one else were like us. Our flight attendants all were like, What advice do we need? Do you know what China is like? And here we were, and I was scared to death, uprooting my family, leaving my other kids at home, leaving the temple, leaving a war family, leaving everything that I knew. But while we were in the plane, I got at my conference talks and I started reading the beloved words of my prophets. A piece came that could not be given any other way. And then we got into quarantine 16 pieces of luggage, four people in a tiny room, teenage girls who don't want to be there. That was a stretching time, but it was such a sacred time for me because incrementally I would have a few hours of freedom from pain. And then the next day, I would have a few more hours of freedom from pain. I hadn't had this for more than five years, and it had been at least five years that I have been living with chronic pain. It began to lift. It began to lift. And I could only attribute that to my Savior Jesus Christ and following his prophets. It brought me such remarkable peace and assurance that I could do this and that he was watching over us and caring for us. And as time went by, I started experiencing a day here and a day there where I had freedom from pain. It was such a blessed and remarkable experience. Jesus Christ is the master healer, and his goal is conversion, and he wants us to act on his words, and then he can provide healing in whatever form is best for us on our divine spreadsheets. But I know I know that he cares and will heal us in whatever way is needful for us to fulfill our missions and is best for us to grow to return to him. So just one other little bit on the temples. Um I want to read a couple of scriptures and then just read a little bit of a short list of a few things that I was able to do in China with the intersections that we experienced. So, first Nephi 14, 14, came to pass that I Nephi beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth, and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory. DNC 109 22. And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them. So when we listen to the scriptures, we're like, oh, this sounds glorious, this sounds big, this sounds marvelous. But I'm anything but that, and it didn't ever feel glorious, it didn't ever feel impressive. It didn't. The Lord works in small and simple ways. I had the power to go against my natural tendencies of extreme low adventure to live a very adventurous life. During my time there, I became a volunteer at a junior high school. I made baby blankets for a children's hospital. I gave a speech at a university. I was asked by a college dean to come and give him advice on how to train teachers. I orchestrated a major service project for the children's hospital. I introduced people to Family Search, which was allowed in China. Speaking about the church is not, but family search is okay. I served in my branches. And of course, I invited people over for dinner because that's what I love. And I will insert here that that alone is not either, is not easy either, because the food is very different. My kitchen was tiny. I had no oven. I was able to get a little oven. I called it my easy bake. The little loaf pans that you bake little tiny loaves in, you could fit three of those in there if they were touchy. That's how big it was. And I had to make all my own bread bagels, crackers, tortillas, everything I had to make it. I had to make my own pickles, my own barbecue sauce, my own ice cream, hot fudge sauce. I mean, anything that was American that we wanted, I basically had to make. I did find a source of cheese, which was a remarkable blessing. But cooking there was an extreme adventure as well. But I invited people over for dinner very often. And it would take me two to three to four days preparing because I wasn't going to feed them Chinese food. I wanted to give them a cultural experience. And even chicken noodle soups, we know is an adventure for them. And so I would have to find something kind of safe in their mind, but yet that I could get supplies for, and that I had the capabilities to produce enough food. Because in my little kitchen, producing enough food for the four of us was kind of taxi. So those are just a few things that I did when I was trying to listen out. I'm like, oh, I could go on and on. But I mean it's it's needless just to point out that intersections are really important. And often foreigners in in China are are noticed and they are stared at. And I took that opportunity to smile, to turn my light on, let them take my picture, wave, and then I would go home and I would pray for them. Please bless them, that they might be able to define the light of Jesus Christ through me. I have no idea how those prayers are going to be answered. I have no clue. But I know that the Lord answers prayers because my prayers have been answered. And somehow those prayers will be a blessing to those people. So I have a testimony of temple attendance. I know it has power to change our lives. Even an increase, and not everyone can go to the temple that often. If you're going once a year, go twice a year. Just an increase in the temple attendance will change your life. I know that to be true. That is what has given me power to do the very difficult things that I did.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

I have nothing to say. It's so good. Everything you say is teach me more. I'm ready. Just teach me more. One thing that I feel as you're talking is how much increasing the light of Christ in one's life gives you power. Like you have increased the spirit of God in your life by going to the temple, by reading the words of the prophet. And by so doing, like with the books, you didn't get affirmation that you were good, your books were going to be fine, but you got power to move forward in a difficult thing. And I just think how many, all those things that you just rattled off that you did in China. I was a volunteer at this place. I spoke at a university. I helped a teacher teach English. I did a major um volunteer or service project at a hospital. Those are not easy things. And I bet that each of those things that you listed came with a lot of prayer, a lot of um fear and anxiety and apprehension. But you always knew the source of your strength was Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. And therefore you had the power and the strength to go forward in those intersections that you called them. That's the feeling I get out of what you're saying is as we fill our lives with Jesus Christ, we have the power to do things that we never thought we would be able to do. And I love how you said they didn't seem miraculous and big and huge, like the scriptures make you think or feel as you're reading them in one verse. But in your life, they're there and they're constant and they're little. But in the end, you turn back and you're like, wow, look at all the things that I accomplished. They didn't feel big at the time, but then looking back, you're like, wow, with Heavenly Father, I I really helped him move his plan forward, which is all you want to do in the first place, anyway, is let me be a tool in thy hands. Let me do my part on your spreadsheet. And you did because you filled your life with his light.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

Absolutely. That's exactly what I'm saying. The more you can bring Jesus Christ in, the more power you have. It's a good summation.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

Well, you are a good example of doing that. We will end with our final question. What advice or practice would you suggest to help others recognize and rejoice in the hand of the Lord in their lives? So I have thought about this question. I love the question.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

And I'm a word girl, so I looked up the words in the dictionary. And so recognize has got two meanings. One is to identify and acknowledge, and we identify and acknowledge so that then we can rejoice. And one of the definitions is to make joyful, to gladden, to animate with lively pleasure. We're happier when we show gratitude and we can rejoice. Absolutely important. But when I was looking at the definitions, the word recognize has another definition, and that is to show official appreciation of like, let's recognize this person for doing an amazing job. Let's let's give a ceremony, let's do something to recognize their efforts. And I thought, well, actually, that's how I want to recognize my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I want to recognize him by official actions, by listening to his prophets, attending the temple, serving others. I want that to be my official act as much as I can to recognize with an action. And then in the 1828 dictionary, one of the definitions for rejoice is to experience joy and gladness in a high degree. So it's not something that I am causing by my recognizing and identifying, acknowledging, but it's something that is a gift. Kind of, it's the I experience. And I realize that as I act with gratitude and recognition of this is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, giving me these experiencing, intercepting me, giving me a temple, giving me profits to be able to follow. That's such a remarkable blessing. To recognize that with my action, the natural result is just a gift to experience joy and gladness in high degree. I live a life of joy because I try to officially recognize Jesus Christ. I hadn't thought about that until I pondered your question and started looking up words, and I thought that that's why I live. In such a high degree of gladness and joy because I love my savior and I want to live so that he knows it and others around me know it. He's done so much for me. And I just want to testify of that. I want to finish with quote by President Nelson. He says, as we strive to live the higher laws of Jesus Christ, our hearts and our very natures begin to change. The Savior lifts us above the whole of this fallen world by blessing us with greater charity, humility, generosity, kindness, self-discipline, peace, and rest. And I will add that all of those things is just joy. It's a life of joy. Jesus Christ changes us because we act on his supports. And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

You have been listening to Recognize and Rejoice with Megan and Kaylin, where we come together to rejoice in the many ways that the Lord shows up in each of our journeys in unique ways. We hope you have found peace and joy in the time you've spent with us today and encourage you to continue recognizing and rejoicing in the hand of the Lord in your own life. We would be honored if you would follow and share this podcast so others may come and rejoice with us. See you again next week.