Lehi is the first Book of Mormon hero. Although we don’t currently have his writings, we learn of him through his son Nephi, who wrote the first record of his family and people. From Nephi, we learn that Lehi was a good father, a prophet, and a man of great faith and courage.

Lehi was a wealthy man, living at the time of Zedekiah’s reign over Judah (about 600 B.C). He and his family lived quite comfortably and their life could easily have continued along a smooth and undemanding path had not Lehi received, and more importantly, accepted a call from God. When he was called to be a prophet, he promptly went to work doing the challenging assignment God gave him. He was to call the people to repentance. As can be expected, the people didn’t want to be called to repentance. This was at a time when there were numerous prophets, including Jeremiah, and none of them were successful at bringing the people back to the path God required of them.

All of the prophets were in great danger. Jeremiah was imprisoned after he warned that the temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed if the people didn’t change their ways. For his own safety, Lehi was instructed by God to pack up whatever belongings were needed to live in the wilderness and leave. His wealth must be left behind. The man who once lived in a large, impressive home was now to live in a tent.

"And it came to pass that he was obedient unto the word of the Lord, wherefore he did as the Lord commanded him. And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness. (1 Nephi 2:3-4"

How would you react if asked to leave behind everything you own except for the absolute essentials? Do you remember the rich man who approached Jesus?

"And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.

"And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

"And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions." (Mark 10:17-22)

When Heaven seems far away and a long time in coming, sometimes we can begin to focus so much on our material possessions we lose sight of eternity. When weighing the eternal results of our choice, it would seem easy to give up our possessions, but very few actually do it.

Lehi did, however. God said to leave it all behind, go live in a tent and go someplace, but you won’t know where until you get there. He had no idea where he was headed or what the journey or the rest of his life would look like…and yet he went without question.

The years ahead were difficult, filled with hardships and sorrow, as well as joy and faith. While Lehi was not perfect—no one is—he was remarkable for the way he worked hard to follow God’s plan for him and for his family no matter how long and hard the journey was. He continued in faith through years of hiking the wilderness, a long ocean journey, and the building of a new home in the land God had provided for them. During this time he struggled with the wickedness of two of his children. His wife delivered two more children in the wilderness. He watched with pride as his younger son Nephi grew into a valiant prophet and was followed by all but the two rebellious brothers.

It was many years before Lehi again lived in a real home instead of a tent or a boat, but throughout it all, he held onto his faith. When God asks us to leave behind something we thought was important, and go to uncharted territory, whether it’s a physical move, a spiritual journey or a simple walk into a new way of life, we can look to Lehi for inspiration and comfort.

It's been raining here all day. Rain, rain, rain! So much for our plans for the day. Now, we have to postpone them for tomorrow which means tomorrow's agenda has to be pushed off for another day. Ordinarily, postponing tasks for another day isn't such a big deal but we are moving in a couple of weeks. We need to get our stuff packed, shampoo the carpets, clean the windows, paint a couple of walls, and so on. In short, we've got a ton of stuff to do and could have used a nice sunny day. Instead, we got rain, lots and lots of rain!

Have you ever had days like that? Sometimes, does it feel as if things, events, and even people are conspiring to make your life miserable, or at the very least, harder than it should be? Well, I sure felt that way today. Fortunately, that didn't last very long. Today was supposed to be 'cleaning the windows' day. It was one of the rare days when the older boys were both available to help with the tall windows so it was a perfect plan. Or so I thought! Apparently, we were meant to do something else today. Something more important. Something that we will all treasure for a very long time.

We didn't clean windows. We made memories instead. One of the boys came up with the idea. He thought it would be neat if they made a recording of their favorite times with their dad. They wanted to present this to their dad when he deploys in a few weeks. We all agreed that it was a wonderful gift and one that my husband will undoubtedly cherish and love. My husband is out of town for work so it was a perfect day to do it.

At first, the boys were a little awkward but then they got into the spirit of the project. It was amazing how much they remembered. The two oldest at 19 and 16 talked about experiences they shared with their dad when they were as young as 7 and 8. There were many intimate and special moments shared today. It was quite an emotional day for all of us. Tears were shed, and words of love and appreciation were expressed. In the end, we were all blessed just as surely as my husband will be blessed when he listens to these messages in the days to come. Reliving those memories helped us all to remember how important our family is. It brought us closer and strengthened our bond as a family that much more.

What started out as a bleak and rainy day turned into the brightest and most beautiful day for my family. Sure, we still have to wash windows. We lost a day so that probably means extra work but I'd gladly trade a day of washing windows for a day like today if given that opportunity again. What's an extra hour or two of washing windows if we can have that kind of time with our kids? It reminds me of that commercial on TV. I don't remember all of it exactly but if our experience today was part of that commercial it would conclude with something like this: "Quality time with the kids - priceless!"

After today, I will try hard to always look for the silver lining in all of my days. Likewise, I will strive to remember that even in the midst of my trials, there is always a silver lining. I know that this knowledge and my faith in the Lord will sustain me in the days to come. Things may not always go as we plan or want but if we trust in the Lord and listen to the promptings of the Spirit, it will all work out. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

Even if you cannot always see that silver lining on your clouds, God can, for He is the very source of the light you seek. He does love you, and He knows your fears. He hears your prayers. He is your Heavenly Father, and surely He matches with His own the tears His children shed.

No, not that Cha-Cha!

Information is my business so I'm very wary of information that comes from unverifiable sources. I view it with the kind of suspicion reserved for "Get Rich Quick" and "Lose 30 pounds in 3 weeks" schemes. As an information seeker, I need to know where the information is coming from and who it is coming from. Helping others locate elusive information is a huge thrill for me. Sometimes the information needed is seemingly insignificant or of a sentimental value only. Other times, the information requested will have a major impact in the decisions people make. Whatever the reasons, I work hard to ensure that the information I provide is accurate, reliable, and valid. My sister-in-law told me the other day that I was her favorite search engine. She made my day!

Speaking of search engines, I tried a new one recently. You guessed it - it is called ChaCha. I know, I know, old news already! Be that as it may, I finally decided to try it. In case, you're even slower jumping on the bandwagon than I am, ChaCha is basically a text-message search engine. That's right - it's for your cellphone, not your PC. Did you get the part about a text-message search engine? You heard right. So if you don't speak text, you and I are probably better off sticking with Google.

ChaCha is proud of the fact that questions are answered by actual human beings rather than an automated service. Some questions can be answered in under a minute. Others can take longer than 10 minutes. You simply type the text of your question in either plain English or text lingo if you speak the language, and send it on its merry way to 242242 (ChaCha). As I was saying I was curious about this service so I decided to test it.

I sent in 4 different questions. I chose questions that I considered to be of varying difficulty levels. Three of the questions were answered within a minute. Of the three answers, two were correct and one was incorrect. The last question, the one that I expected would take the longest, was answered in just under 20 minutes. Surprisingly, the answer was correct - incomplete but correct.

My biggest reservation about ChaCha is that I've no idea who is answering my questions. The questions I sent weren't critical to me as I already knew the answers. But what if I didn't know the answer? What if I had a real question and the answer to that question would determine something important? Would I still go with ChaCha? Probably not! But this doesn't mean that ChaCha isn't useful. From what I've seen, ChaCha is great and there is certainly a place for such a service. However, for the important things, I need to know that my source is credible and reliable and in order to know that, I need to know who my source is.

When it comes to spiritual questions, isn't it great to know that there is a reliable source that we can go to? There is no greater testifier of truth than the Spirit. When it comes to questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we can ask friends, read literature from a variety of sources, and search for information online. We can do all these things and gain a picture of what the Church believes and teaches but to have a real testimony of the truth, we need to go to the source of all truth - our Heavenly Father and His son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. When we pray in faith to our Heavenly Father, having a sincere desire to know, He will answer. When we receive this witness of the Spirit, we can be assured that this source is one that we can trust with our hearts, minds, and souls!

Recently I’ve found myself contemplating my future should I outlive my husband. The truth is that he is not well and it is likely that I will survive him. It isn’t a happy truth or a fact I care to look at too closely—nevertheless, it remains.

I could choose to ignore it and carry on like always—without a plan, like an ostrich with its head in the sand, as they say.

Or, I could face the problem, acknowledge it, and make a plan.

I would imagine, I would have a great deal more peace as I consider my possible future, and a lot more happiness and freedom to enjoy my today because of a good, solid plan.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (or Mormons) have an advantage over much of the world because we are not left alone to contemplate our futures in a world that has turned so hatefully against the values we hold most dear.

We are blessed with a Prophet—the voice of the Lord on the earth today—and he leads and guides us and helps us to know the path that we should follow.

The scriptures speak of prophets as “watch[men] upon the tower” who see “the enemy while he [is] yet afar off” (http://scriptures.lds.org/dc/101/54#54 D&C 101:54) and who have “beheld also things which were not visible to the natural eye … [for] a seer hath the Lord raised up unto his people” (Moses 6:36.)

The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. It is filled with wonderful stories that teach and inspire. More importantly, it presents us with the Plan of Salvation and invites us to live our lives according to that plan.

President Boyd K. Packer said, “If you understand the great plan of happiness and follow it, what goes on in the world will not determine your happiness” (Ensign, May 1994, 19.)

Planning for possible outcomes in our lives can bring us peace. But reading and adhering to our Father in Heaven’s plan of salvation can not only bring you joy in this life and eternal happiness in the world to come.