WEEK 2

Rel 275

Reading about Abinadi this week has been very eye opening. I also was able to teach my children from the Come Follow Me manual about Abinadi. I learned things I had never before realized as I read the story of Abinadi in the past. For instance, it completely escaped me that he came back to preach the word of God to the people in disguise. I never realized that before. and the fact that him being in disguise had multiple reasoning was also eye opening. the opportunity to use the study skill of clustering helped me to identify other instances in the scriptures where people had also been in disguise. I also loved the words that explained how Abinadi’s face shown with exceeding luster as Moses did while in Mount Sinai. Again I remember these stories but never the fact that they shown with exceeding luster. to me this is proof that God is all knowing and powerful that the truths of the gospel are out there for us to find if we would just take the time to explore the words of God and the words of the prophets.

I know that a lot of people would think that I’m crazy for believing in the words of God because they have chosen to believe the words of men because they make the most sense or are easier to hear, much like the people of King Noah did, but believing in Gods miracles brings me so much more peace than it has in the past. I have been on both sides. I have chosen to believe the things of men because they were easier to hear and do follow and I just felt like I was walking around with a cover over my eyes. it was like I was walking around in a fog waiting for someone to turn the lights on. it wasn’t till recently when I cleansed my life of all resentments, fears, character defects, sins, etc that I was able to truly see Gods light in my life and felt that light switch being turned on. now that I know that God lives with out a doubt I can never go back to that darkness and confusion.

choosing the path of God is not always easy or comfortable or safe for that matter, as Abinadi has proven. but as he says, “it matters not wither I go, if it so be that I am saved.” I used to be afraid fo what people would think of me as I lived the gospel and spoke of God and Jesus Christ but now I know that Gods opinion and the opinion of my Savior are the only opinions that matter. I am grateful for the scriptures and the truths that they teach. I am so thankful for the peace that comes from knowing my Savior and my Father in Heaven. It doesn’t take away the challenges and pain that life brings but it can take away the fear and the worry if we give our will over to the Father and allow God to lead and guide us through those trying times.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

2 Nephi 2:1And now, Jacob, I speak unto you: Thou art my ^afirstborn in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren.

2 Nephi 2:11 For it must needs be, that there is an ^aopposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

Citation

“2 Nephi 2.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/2.1?lang=eng&clang=eng#p1.

This was a tender experience. I shared these scriptures with my husband, Morgan. He has been struggling with his testimony lately. Blaming God for things we have been struggling with. It has been hard for me because I feel I am closer to God then I ever have been and I know it will all workout the way God has planned and for our benefit. But seeing him struggle and suffer in his anger and resentment is difficult. When I shared my thoughts about these scriptures I spoke about how I had never thought about how Christ suffered and died for all of our pains, not just our sins. That He has felt our sadness, anger, depression, anxiety, fear, etc. which brings me peace. I got emotional and started to cry (I have struggled with anxiety and depression most of my life) and I testified to my husband that I knew Christ felt how I felt and that I wasn’t alone and because of Him I don’t have to hold on to the pain. I can give it to Him. He responded by acknowledging that he hasn’t ever thought about Christ suffering for all our pains and sadness. He didn’t say much, but I hope he felt a small amount of peace. To help remind him that God is here and I am here and that he is not alone in his struggles. I wasn’t expecting to get emotional but I felt the spirit in the same room I was in with my husband for the first time in a while. For a moment there was a little peace. It was a sacred experience I will hopefully always remember. 

this week was much better but equally confusing . haha I felt very lost on google analytics but encouraged that I would be able to do more to learn how to work it more efficiently in the future. I wish there was a second level to this class where we could improve our website that we built this semester to help us dive deeper into the tools we learned about. I definitely want to take the free classes and watch a lot more tutorials to help guide me through improving my site.

I can’t imagine going through this process on my own it would have been so frustrating and discouraging without brother Becks help. I will truly miss this class and will do my best to continue to improve my website to make him proud! 🙂

this week was by far the most challenging for me. I was neck deep in code and struggling to figure out all the ins and outs of my Shopify templates. I watched so many YouTube videos and read more articles on how to change things then I ever thought possible. With my kids home schooling and my home work schedule and my dad and husband both working from home I really struggled to find a balance I REALLY relied of my Father in Heaven to lead and guide me and I refused to give up. I got frustrated but I took breaks and prayed and meditated till if felt inspired to do something and eventually I got my contact sheet to customize and I was SO HAPPY! haha I even yelled YES!! when I finished. I almost cried. I was so proud of myself because I am the furthest thing from a programer and I am on a tight budget so I cannot pay anyone to do it for me so it was a great accomplishment for me to know that if it comes down to it and I need to make changes I can with the Lords help.

I am also so grateful for all the tools I now know how to use to improve my site. I still want to learn more about google Adwords. that’s stills so confusing to me but I am excited to learn

MAN! this week was so full of inspiration! I love listening to all the ideas my peers have for their sites. it really sparks my creativity and helps me to better utilize the tools we are learning in the class. I am just hoping to be able to remember everything so that when I try to continue this in the future I don’t get lost in all the information. I am working on putting together my notes on things we have learned so that when I start a new ad or continue improving my website I will remember the correct routes to take.

prayer is key for me in this process. I get easily overwhelmed when I think of all the things I need to do or fix on my site. so I often start off each week, each day, each assignment with a prayer to ask my Heavenly Father for His direction and to inspire to to know what to do and how to do it in a way that will set me a part from my competitors.

if I am being honest I am super broke, my 3 kids and husband and I live with my parents, we have for the last 4 years, my husbands been in and out of work for the duration of our stay here with my parents and I can see the pressure piling up on him. I desperately want to change the current situation and relieve some of that stress instead of adding to it. I want to be able to help lift the financial burden from him and shoulder it together. he is a hard worker and so am I, I just think I have been working hard at the wrong things. I believe God wants us to be happy and I believe that God will bless our lives if we work hard and follow his commandments. He knows me and loves me and He knows I love my business and that this is something I have dreamed of for so long, to create things that allow me to be home with my kids and provide for my family. if it is in Gods plan for me than it will become my reality. I just need to rely on Him and on the things I have been learning. I feel truly blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel and the advice from our prophets, apostles, leaders and teachers.

This week I struggled a bit with how to get everything linked and where to put the code. but I am SO grateful for google and YouTube and the resources that are available there. I also relied a lot on prayer to guide me in the right direction so that I could be productive and not get frustrated. I also kept an open-end and utilized the resources given in the assignment information which helped me a lot.

I think the number one detorant that people run into when creating a website is really only lack of knowledge and lack of patience. we aren’t all going to know everything all the time. but the more we focus and stay dedicated to learning the craft we want to utilize the better off we will be in the long run and the more we will retain the information.

but on the other hand we are not all good at everything so we need to know when to cut our losses and let things go and just pay someone else to do what we know we cannot. its ok not to be great at every aspect of website building. time is money so if you put forth a good effort but you are still stuck and wasting valuable time and resources then I would rely on the abilities of others. there’s no shame in that. but that’s only if you gave it a good effort. don’t just phone it in.

This week was probably my most challenging one. I relied on prayer and my Father in Heaven more than any other week. I get frustrated easily when I am not in control of how things are going and this week taught me to slow down and focus and do one step at a time. I can’t run before I walk. I need to take it line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a little. someone once told me that we often forget the here a little and there a little part which gets us into trouble because we end up getting ahead of ourselves before we are ready.

I am looking forward to using a lot of the ideas posted in the discussions and learning more about the analytics and ads so that I can feel more confident in how I am running my site. I am so grateful for google and YouTube and be able to use my classmates as resources as well. we all see things different ways and have different talents so it is so inspiring to see what everyone is going to bring to the table. I feel very blessed.

This week was all about details. there has been so much data and information thrown at us over the last 7 weeks so it was nice to be able to slow down the past 2 weeks and really focus on the details. really dig deep and focus on what really matters. what we really wanted to get across and what the customer wants to see.

because after all if we have no customers we have no business. it doesn’t matter how many ads we have or how much we spend on them. if we aren’t writing ads that are effective then we will just be wasting our time and money. I am grateful for the Lord and His inspiration. I find that sometimes I fail to involve the Lord in my life and then I end up wasting time and money and energy. But if I involve Him in everything I do then I will be successful and I won’t waste anything. I may not always succeed the way I think it correct but I will succeed the way the Lord wants and I will realize later why I went through the trials that I did.

this week was so eye opening. I wasn’t expecting this much thought and detail to go into something I thought was as simple as choosing a few words to describe my products and my site. there’s so much detail that needs to be considered. I utilized my Heavenly Father a lot this week. I have been fighting a cold and tending to 2 sick kiddos and working on a few other family and personal issues and homework got the best of me this week. which disappointed me because usually this class feels like a fun hobby not a task I have to accomplish. I have said quite often that I want to be one of those annoying people who never work a day in their lives because they love what they do. I have always been too afraid, but this course and a few other factors have really given me the confidence to think it can actually happen. and I know that even getting this far wouldn’t have been possible if I wasn’t enlisting the help of my Heavenly Father daily.

This week was a whirlwind! So many legalities and paperwork and reading and researching. I knew starting a business would be a process but it’s the research that kills me and making the correct decision for my business and my family.

I want to make sure I made the correct choice on my business set up so I am not putting my family and my business at risk. I know that I really should be an LLC but financially I just can’t swing that right now. It has a lot of benefits but none of them outweigh the financial burden that it would put on my family. not to mention the pressure it would put on me. But I am hoping to one day own a C corp. so that my business is a separate entity and not linked to me or my family at all. I also find it sad that as a sole proprietor if I die my business doesn’t get to be passed on to my children or husband it has to be dissolved. SO, if I pass sooner than I expected my hard work could just go away in the blink of an eye.

but I suppose that’s more motivation to get things up and running properly and making some profit so I can get that stuff in order. I am grateful that all of the government agencies that I contacted were very helpful. I was expecting a lot of rudeness and frustration as I went through this process. but everyone was very kind and patient with me and all my questions.

I am excited to be ahead in my projects and to have my site live and ready to accept orders. now I want to go through it and remove and simplify my content. I think my home page may be too busy so I will readdress that this next week. I am excited to get the google ad words going and get more traffic to my site 🙂