Willy Wonka

Tonight I was asked to speak at our ward Relief Society activity. The theme was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and they asked me to incorporate that theme into my talk.
So I'm going to put my talk on here, because I feel like that would be a good thing. Not that I anticipate ever giving a talk on Charlie again, but I try to listen to those thoughts. Maybe you'll just enjoy it. Either way, here it is:

I have always really identified with Augustus Glute. How, I ask you, can you be presented with a giant chocolate river and not put your grubby little hands in it? I don't know if I could resist!
I was thinking last night about how we all have different struggles but we can all relate to each other.  We're all trying to do our best but we have issues along the way. Maybe you're like me and you're an Augustus.
Maybe you're the kid who struggles with impulse control and falls into the chocolate river and gets stuck in the pipe.
Maybe you're the kid that struggles with being honest and following instructions and you turn into a giant blueberry.
Maybe you're the kid who has a hard time being nice to others and you get declared a bad egg and get sent to the incinerator.
Maybe you're the kid who struggles with selfishness. So you get atomized, miniaturized, and sent home in your mom's purse.
Or maybe you're the kid who is a really great kid but you just have to try that fizzy lifting drink just one time and then you almost get chopped up in a giant ceiling fan.
We're all somewhere in there, hoping for someone like a nice Mr Wonka who will give us the reward, even though we didn't follow all the rules and we don't deserve it. Happily for us, there is someone. And he's so much better and kinder then Willy Wonka, and the reward is so much greater then a lifetime supply of chocolate. It is, of course, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
I have been studying the scriptures about the Savior in the topical guide of the Bible since April conference, when the Spirit let me know that was something that I needed to do. It has changed me. He is so much greater, so much kinder, so much bigger and more wonderful then I ever knew.
He understands how much we want to be good, how hard we try, how often we fail -- and why. He understands our sorrow, our joy, our pain, the things we worry about -- and He compensates for it all. He is the PROMISED MESSIAH. As we make and keep our covenants, He fills in the gaps. Think about this quote from Elder Oaks as you take the sacrament this Sunday:

"Because it is broken and torn, each piece of bread is unique, just as the individuals who partake of it are unique. We all have different sins to repent of. We all have different needs to be strengthened through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we remember in this ordinance.”

He WILL strengthen us.
A week or two ago in my personal scripture study I was reading in 3rd Nephi Chapter 11 (Woot! Woot! Everybody's favorite). I noticed something I've never noticed in quite this way before. When the Savior appeared to those gathered in Bountiful, they thought He was an angel. But when He told them who He actually was, they all fell to their knees. They had been told all of their lives that He would come, but here He was. The PROMISED MESSIAH. He said to them:

"14 Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.
15 And it came to pass that the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.
16 And when they had all gone forth and had witnessed for themselves, they did cry out with one accord, saying:
17 Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Most High God! And they did fall down at the feet of Jesus, and did worship him."

I felt the Spirit witness to me that this was a real event, but I was also taught something else: they went forward as a multitude, but they got to experience their Savior as individuals -- one by one. The atonement is for individuals. We all get to be blessed by it, but it is for each one of us separately. It is for you and it is for me.
When we realize that, when we truly accept it, when we embrace it and let it charge our lives, we can move forward like Elder Rasband suggests (his was my favorite conference talk, so I had to get him in here!):

"What should you be looking for in your own life? What are God’s miracles that remind you that He is close, saying, “I am right here”? Think of those times, some daily, when the Lord has acted in your life—and then acted again. Treasure them as moments the Lord has shown confidence in you and in your choices. But allow Him to make more of you than you can make of yourself on your own. Treasure His involvement. Sometimes we consider changes in our plans as missteps on our journey. Think of them more as first steps to being “on the Lord’s errand.”

He can save us when we are stuck in the tube of the chocolate river. He can press us and relieve the pressure when we've turned ourselves into a giant blueberry. He can help us to change -- and to become a good egg. When we make ourselves small, He can take what is small inside of us and make it mighty and great. He can save us when we are in danger from what would chop us up and destroy us.
All we have to do is choose HIM.

"28 And now, my sons [and daughters], I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit." (2nd Nephi 2:28)

All we have to do is choose.

I have a testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I feel deep within my heart that He lives and that He so deeply loves us, and that He is truly "mighty to save."