July 10, 2011
Introduction
We are the Coulters. My husband's name is John, my name is Brin. Mine is a little less common so just remember Brin likes to Grin. To give a little background, John grew up in Sandy. He's the youngest of six. John went to a private middle school and had a hard transition to public high school so he quit. I enjoy saying I married a high school dropout. But as our new friend Brother Orwin has pointed out, that hasn't stopped John from being successful. John graduated with his Associates from CEU about the same time his friends graduated from High School. He went on to USU to start on his Bachelors before leaving on his mission.
I am from West Valley and I'm the youngest of ten. As you can guess both John and I, being the youngest, are spoiled rotten. I was the last one of my siblings to get married. Between John and I we have over 40 nieces and nephews. Unlike John, I thoroughly enjoyed High School, but I was glad to move on to USU.
John went on his mission to Phoenix, Arizona, Mexican speaking, which is where he decided he wanted to marry a Latina girl. I'm from West Valley so I guess I'm good enough.
John and I met at USU in November 2008, but it took him 6 months to ask me out. It's okay; we both had our eyes on other people. We started going out in May 2009, got engaged that November, and got married last year on March 12. So we've been married almost a year and a half. We do not have any kids yet. That will come.
For John's last semester of college he did a study abroad in Monterrey, Mexico and dragged me along. I now consider myself at a Jr. High level of Spanish, unlike John who aced top-level courses in it. We returned form Mexico in December. John graduated from USU in Management Information Systems (business and computers) and got hired by the church's Tech department in Riverton, where he started working in January.
Since married, we've moved all over the place, but we most recently lived in Draper. We bought the house on the corner of Clubhouse and Greenbrier the end of May and we couldn't be happier to live in this gorgeous city of Eagle Mountain.
How Studying the Scriptures Helps to Strengthen our Testimonies
This is a great topic because it's centered around a very basic principle of the gospel. We all know the Primary answers, and I think many of us have realized the real reason we keep going back to them. They are the most important, and everything about the gospel clings to these repeated answers.
Prayer, scripture study, going to church, keeping the commandments, going to the temple. I think any one of these, if looked at by itself, could seem overwhelmingly important -- so important that it must be more important than the others. But each of them still needs the others for us to be complete.
I think all of us can look back on a time in our life when we went to church and did our best to keep the commandments, but didn't practice daily scripture study and prayer. Our lives may still have been blessed, but I'm sure we didn't feel whole. Even if we do read the scriptures but don't pray, how much can we really take in without the humility that is necessary for us to ask our Father's help? If we pray but do not read the scriptures, from where is the Lord to give us answers?
Everything we learn as we grow in the church is essential. If we do everything else, our scripture study will be so much more meaningful.
In the October 2000 General Conference, Elder Russel M. Nelson gave a talk titled: "Living by Scriptural Guidance." The tag-line put with it in the Ensign says, "We all need guidance through life. We obtain it best from the standard works and teaching of the prophets of God." Elder Nelson begins his talk with a story from when he and his wife visited Denmark. He explained how he clung to their road map as they navigated such unfamiliar territory. When they got lost is when they took the time to stop and diligently search the map to figure out how to get back on course.
He, of course, was making a comparison of the map to the scriptures. He asks, "Many people travel through life without good guidance, lacking knowledge of a desired destination or how to get there. But if rapt attention is paid to a road map for a day's journey, isn't it also wise to pay attention to authoritative guidance on our journey through life?"
Elder Nelson went on to explain that God gave us life so that we may learn what is necessary to obtain eternal life and exaltation. We cannot learn if we do not have guidance. The guidance does us no good if we never turn to it.
In the April 2010 Conference, Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk "The Blessing of Scripture" centered around the scripture in Alma 37:8:
"And now, it has hitherto been wisdom in God that these things should be preserved; for behold, they have enlarged the memory of this people, yea, and convinced many of the error of their ways, and brought them to the knowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls."
Elder Christofferson said, "The scriptures enlarge our memory by helping us always remember the Lord and our relationship to Him and the Father. They remind us of what we know in our pre-mortal life. And they expand our memory in another sense by teaching us about epochs, people, and events that we did not experience personally." Elder Christofferson says the scriptures remind us of mistakes of generations past, which we should learn from: "Those who either don't have or ignore the recorded word of God eventually cease to believe in Him and forget the purpose of their existence."
That quote hit home for me. I have watched far too many friends and family members leave and reject the church. This is not because they were doing everything they were supposed to and realized the church is not true. That doesn't happen. They left because they were not doing what they were supposed to do, and wanted a release from the guilt and from supposed "restraints."
Elder Christofferson goes on, "In the end, the central purpose of all scripture is to fill our souls with faith in God the Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ -- faith that They exist; faith in the Father's plan for our immortality and eternal life; faith in the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which animates this plan of happiness; faith to make the gospel of Jesus Christ our way of life; and faith to come to know "the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He has] sent."
I bear my testimony that studying the scriptures and feasting upon the word if God not only strengthens our testimonies, but is essential to obtain eternal life.
I know that this church is true and I am eternally grateful that I have been blessed to have it through my whole life. I know that as I, and each of us, follow God's teachings and do our best to learn and grow, our lives will be blessed beyond measure.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
