"Foolishness In Me"

Yeti X: 00:00:01

Welcome friends to the Creative Spiritual Journey podcast,

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Sonny Bonani from South Africa.

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It's here that my husband and I are

serving a mission for the Church of

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Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.

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My name is Judy Cooley, and together

with my sister-in-law, GIA Cooley,

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we are your host, but we'd rather you

consider us more like hiking buddies.

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So together we will step out our

front door and onto the path that

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leads through the wilderness beyond

the horizon to stand on mountaintops.

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We will share what's in our hearts,

our love for the savior and his

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beautiful creations, as well as

the joys and the lessons that we

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are discovering along the way.

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So will you rise up, shake off

the dust, pick up your packs,

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and join us on the trail.

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It's gonna be a beautiful day.

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Today is day 455.

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We started counting down

nd,: 2023

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And did you know that the total

days we'll be serving is 700?

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Well, maybe.

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It might be 800.

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We have really thought long

and hard on this decision.

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It hasn't been easy and has kept me

up at night wrestling with it, and it

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most definitely doesn't make any sense.

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We are 100% sure our family is

not going to be happy about this.

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Many of you will think we are crazy,

and a year ago, there's no way

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this would even be a consideration.

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We've gone back and forth, made pros

and cons lists, but with new mission

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leaders coming into our mission in

July, There will only be two senior

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missionaries that will remain.

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And so you know how sometimes

missionaries request to extend

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their missions by a few weeks.

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Or months, which would be very helpful.

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Plus the number of senior

missionaries being called to our

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mission has slowed down greatly.

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We guess the RAs band wave has passed.

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There's definitely a huge need for more

senior missionaries all around the world.

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So I'm announcing on this podcast

that we have decided to say yes.

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Yes to having a happy April Fool's Day.

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I'm sorry, did I get you?

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Maybe just a little bit.

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Those of you who know me probably

looked at the date and already

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had your radar up and not gonna

buy a single thing I say today.

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Today's April 1st.

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I have a great love for April Fools.

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It began when I was a young girl.

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Oh.

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Just so you're wondering, we're

still only staying 700 days.

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I remember my first grade teacher

announced, there wasn't lunch so we had

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to go home and I was so upset because, I

was a latchkey kid, which means my parents

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were at work and I was gonna go home.

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To myself, and I was really bummed.

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I loved school.

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but as a little kid, my imagination

for pranks hadn't matured yet.

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That part of my brain fired up

after marriage and having children.

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One time I made pancakes with wax

paper in them, and our youngest

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son was really little, and for, oh.

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Months and months after, whenever

I'd say, do you want pancakes?

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And he'd say, yeah, but not those

ones with the paper in the middle.

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One morning I jumped up while Eric

was in the shower and took our

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old crappy Volkswagen rabbit car

around the corner and jumped back

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in bed as like I was asleep and he

thought someone had stolen the car.

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One morning our family woke up

to a for sale sign by owner.

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Out in front of her house, and I

even got the neighbors on that one.

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I put, it's a baby boy announcements,

balloons and banner out on the

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front lawn of my best friend.

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But then I've had some

April fool's backfire on me.

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One of our sons thought it would be really

funny to put baby powder in my blow dryer.

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A rubber band around the kitchen,

sink, hand, squirter, and oh, there was

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something else in the shower, I was in a

hurry that morning, which made me late.

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And I also have a best

friend who is single,

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Yeti X-7: And I came across this

ginormous trophy at, a secondhand

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store and a bunch of golf clubs, and

I stuck 'em in her lawn and the trophy

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on the doorstep and wasn't quite sure,

wow, what am I gonna do with this?

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A trophy for what?

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And her son recommended

the Lonely Hearts Club.

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And so she won.

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Second place, For the Lonely Hearts Club.

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Well, this backfired on me.

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It hurt her feelings, and I felt horrible.

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Yeti X: So my April fools

was carried to foolishness.

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And so I have to admit, I've

toned down my April Fools,

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Yeti X-19: In preparing for April Fools

in this episode, I've done a lot of

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deep diving into this word foolishness

and, what it means to be foolish.

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Yeti X-20: Course foolishness in the

scriptures you come up with, , the foolish

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man who built his house upon the sand,

the foolish virgins that showed up at the

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wedding party with no oil in their lamp.

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There's oh, the foolishness of man.

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That think they are wise.

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the foolishness of following blind guides.

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But I wanna begin this episode

with, I think is one of my favorite

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scriptures found in Alma 37 verse six.

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Notice the word foolishness.

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Yeti X-21: And of course the backdrop to

this scripture Is Alma speaking to his son

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Heman, giving him some fatherly advice?

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And I think it's great

advice for us as well.

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So this is Alma 37 verse six.

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And now you suppose that

this is foolishness in me.

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But behold, I say unto you that by

small and simple things are great things

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brought to pass, and the small means in

many instances does confound the wise.

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Yeti X-22: Gee.

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And I did our creative coaching

certification together, from

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Brooke Snow's program.

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And I'll tell you the biggest takeaway for

me was this daily small steps of becoming.

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A lot of us think of goals as a to-do

list, where it's more of a becoming

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of living in our true identity.

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fulfilling the measure of your creation,

becoming who you are born to become.

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I, I don't know if you've ever read

the book by James Claire Atomic Habits.

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This is how he states it.

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That your identity emerges

out of your habits.

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In fact, the word identity was

originally derived from the Latin words,

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which means being.

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Indented.

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Indented, Oh golly.

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Don't know.

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My Latin, Indented,

which means repeatedly.

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So Your identity is literally your

repeated beingness, so whatever

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your identity is right now.

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You only believe it because

you have proof of it.

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If you go to church every Sunday

for the past 20 years, you have the

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evidence that you are religious.

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If you study, for one hour every night,

you have evidence that you are studious.

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If you go to the gym and you

work out, even when it's storming

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outside, you have evidence that

you are committed to fitness.

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The more evidence you have for a belief,

the more strongly you believe it.

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The first step is not

what or how, but who.

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do we want to become?

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Ultimately, your habits matter

because they help you become the

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type of person you wish to be.

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identity is the north

star of habit change.

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Now, I miss the North Star.

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I live down now in the southern hemisphere

where we have the Southern Cross.

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Same concept.

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It is constant.

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It is steady for direction.

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They are the channel through

which you develop your deepest

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beliefs about yourself.

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So quite literally, you become

your habits this beingness.

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So when I read that, it

reminded me of preach my gospel.

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Now preach.

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My gospel is written for the

young missionary, and so it's

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been really interesting to

read it as a senior missionary

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Yeti X-24: We have some pretty ingrained

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Yeti X-22: habits.

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a lifetime,

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Yeti X-24: repeated beingness, wouldn't

you think after all these years and

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we carry with us on this mission, so

many experiences in our mind and in

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our heart, and it can be kind of rocky.

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There are times I am definitely

foolish more than I am wise,

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Yeti X-35: Let me give you a quick

example, and I find this, when I

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take time to really study, ask a

question, read in the scriptures,

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as well as in preach my gospel

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And, um, in my patriarchal blessing,

This is what this Holy Ghost does for us.

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teaches us in this becoming.

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So my question was.

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of course, how can I be

more like the savior?

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And that day in preach my gospel was

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Yeti X-36: The attribute of humility,

and this is what Peach my gospel

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said, the opposite of humility is

pride, and to be prideful means to

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put greater trust in oneself than God.

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It also means to put the things of

the world above the things of God.

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Pride is competitive.

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Those who are prideful seek to have more

and presume they are better than others.

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Pride is a great stumbling block.

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Pride is one of my great stumbling blocks.

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And then I ask myself, how can

I recognize pride in myself?

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Yeti X-38: And so what would

a humble person do each day?

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How would a humble person

approach missionary work?

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How would a humble person

treat their spouse?

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How would a humble person

talk to their neighbor?

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So I'm becoming humble by asking me

that simple question throughout the day.

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How would a humble person handle this?

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Yeti X-35: Oh Spirit will help you

get on your knees and ask for help.

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Where do I need to improve?

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Yeti X-23: In hopes of making the changes

that I need to change daily to become

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more like the savior and to fulfill

the measure of my creation, and not

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just here on mission, but throughout.

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E turn it.

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This is an eternal progress,

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' Yeti X-22: cause

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The Savior has called you to

some work, not just me out on the

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mission, but you also have a work

and he invites us to follow him.

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What manner of man or

woman ought you to be?

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He asked Verily I say

unto you, even as I am.

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Elder Holland said, the Lord blesses

those who want to improve, who accept

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the need for commandments and try

to keep them who cherish Christlike

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virtue and strive to the best of

their ability to acquire them.

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If you stumble in that

pursuit, so does everyone.

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The Savior is there to help you.

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Keep going.

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Soon enough, you will

have the success you seek.

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, Yeti X-29: we need to ask ourselves,

what do we wanna stand for?

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What are our principles and our values?

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Yeti X-30: Once we've decided this type

of person, we wanna be like Christ.

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Then we do the daily things

to prove to ourself with small

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wins that we're like him.

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We change bit by bit, day

by day, habit by habit.

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We are continually

undergoing what is called

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Yeti X-39: A micro evolution of self.

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We say, Hey, maybe this

is who I really am.

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And we continue to show

up in our true identity.

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And the reason we celebrate the wins

is because he makes us feel good.

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And when we feel good, we do more good.

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Is that such a thing more good?

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It's like more better, but when

we feel good, we do better.

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Yeti X-34: Through these values of

integrity and hope and faith and

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charity and diligence and obedience.

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These Christ-like attributes.

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We mesh 'em and merge 'em

into who we are becoming.

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And it's not just spiritual, it's

temporal also being our very best in

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caring for our bodies and caring for our

time and caring for our relationships.

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This becoming.

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Yeti X-22: And I can testify.

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It's by small and simple means

that we create great things.

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I wanna go back to Alma 37 verse six and

look at the footnotes of that scripture.

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Yeti X-21: I'm hoping this doesn't

feel like a Sunday school lesson

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because that's not my intention.

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I just wanna, unravel this

thought of foolishness.

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This is kinda like a scripture.

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Treasure hunt takes us to To doctrine

Covenants 64 verse 33, where for be

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not weary and well-doing for you're

laying the foundation of a great

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work and outta small things proceed.

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A that which is great.

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It is this foundation.

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I wanna share story with you

about, sand the foolish man

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building his house upon the sand.

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We've had the opportunity in.

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Some service projects here.

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Now the homes here are made out of sand

mixed with a cement I am not about to

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tell you how the formula of building

bricks, But I did have the experience

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of painting a wall that had been made

out of this sand and cement mix poorly.

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This reminded me of the man who

built his house upon the sand.

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So as I was rolling the paint on what

was supposedly a primed wall, there were

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patches that as the roller hit the wall.

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all of a sudden I just saw dark sand

on my roller and no paint on the wall.

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I was trying to paint sand.

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Where these places where the mixture,

the formula of building a strong

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foundation with a cement rock mixed

with the sand and water, and getting

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my analogy here, the wise man built

his house upon a rock and the foolish

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man Builds his house upon the sand.

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Yeti X-27: It appears to me that

the foolish man just didn't get

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the formula right of this mixture.

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He missed out on the rock.

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Yeti X-25: So it's foolish to build our

lives, our character, our destiny on sand.

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Those things that crumble and do not last.

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Those small and simple

things are our daily.

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Scripture, study our daily serving

others our daily prayers, our finding.

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Jesus in the temple.

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Finding Jesus in church as

we gather with our friends.

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Partaking of the sacrament and

remembering him is a foundation.

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The small and simple things of

finding your savior, Jesus Christ,

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and becoming more like him wise.

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Not foolish.

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Yeti X-26: So my invitation, I

love leaving you with an invitation

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is to do some self-reflecting.

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Figure out where you are.

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That's where we begin on a map, right?

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Figure out where you are.

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I might suggest you do look in,

preach my gospel in chapter six.

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Under the attributes of Jesus Christ,

there is an attribute evaluation,

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That you rate yourself and see maybe where

you're a little weak, maybe you're being

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a little foolish, and how you can improve

just by beginning with your beingness,

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your identity daily drop by drop.

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Which brings me to the foolish virgins

that showed up without any oil.

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I think maybe they were too

concerned about what they

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were gonna wear to the party.

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I find myself like that.

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Way too often here on mission concerned

about the things of the world that really

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don't matter, instead of focusing on the

oil in the lamps, that what matters most.

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And my promise to you as you take time

to ponder and evaluate this foolishness

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That by small and simple things are great

things brought to pass, my promise is that

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you will discover this beautiful change.

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You'll become more like your savior, which

brings of course, more joy into your life.

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And I wanna finish with just telling

you how awesome I think you are,

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that you show up every day, you

show up and do those hard things.

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It's.

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It's a lot of work becoming like

the savior, but stay cheerful.

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my favorite scripture.

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I see that about every scripture I know.

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In doctrine covenants 1 23, I have this

hanging on my fridge to remind me that

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this is a joyful work therefore, dearly

beloved brethren, let us cheerfully

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do all things that lie in our power,

and then may we stand still with the

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utmost assurance and see the salvation

of God for his arm to be revealed.

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We do that.

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Small and simple.

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And I wanna finish with just telling

you how awesome I think you are,

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that you show up every day, you

show up and do those hard things.

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It's.

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It's a lot of work becoming like

the savior, but stay cheerful.

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Yeti X-31: And Go have some fun today.

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It's April Fools.

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Yeti X-32: I think I will go cook some

pancakes for the elders and maybe they

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might have some wax paper in the center.

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Yeti X-31: If you find wisdom

and joy in this podcast

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Yeti X-2: will you do, gee and I a

great favor, and give us a thumbs up.

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Give us a high rating.

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I don't know how you do that.

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Give us a trophy.

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Share us with a friend

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Yeti X-31: Our goal is to reach.

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Over a hundred of you with this

message of finding joy in the journey.

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Yeti X-2: and I will see you on the trail.