79. Comfort and Joy

0:00 Hey, what’s up everyone, it’s Jennie Dildine, the LDS mission coach and you are listening to the LDS mission podcast episode number 79, comfort and joy. I’m Jennie, the LDS mission coach. And whether you’re preparing to serve a mission, currently serving a returned missionary or a missionary mama like me, I created this podcast just for you. Are you searching for epic confidence? Ready to love yourself and to learn the how of doing hard things? Then let’s go. I will help you step powerfully into your potential and never question your purpose. Again. It’s time to embrace yourself. Embrace your mission, embrace your life, and embrace what’s next. Hey, everybody, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here. What it shows me if you’re here is that you care a lot about our young adults, and the missions that they’re serving and preparing for. And you care a lot about these young adults who have served missions and that the transition home can be kind of hard. And so thanks for being here. Thanks for being invested in your own mental and emotional well being, or even the mental and emotional well being of someone that you love is super important mental preparedness for the mission is way more important, I think, than it ever was before. And what I found really cool is that when our Preparing missionaries have mental and emotional tools before they leave, then that transition home after the mission goes so much smoother, as well. So thanks for hanging out with me. I hope your December’s going well, I hope everything’s going really smoothly for you. We’ve got Christmas here in just a couple of days. And so on the podcast, during this time of year, I like to do one episode right close to Christmas. That is a little bit different. I’m going to teach you just a couple things today and also share some of my thoughts and feelings about our Savior and this time of year. It’s actually really fun to be working in a space with people who have the same beliefs as me and who care so much about faith and love and our Savior. So I actually, by the time this podcast airs, I will have performed in a concert with the millennial choirs and orchestras. They have several locales throughout the United States where they have been doing a concert series. And also by the way, millennial choirs and orchestras the founders, Brandon and Brett Stewart were recently featured on the faith matters Podcast. I’m a huge fan of the faith matters podcast and also a huge fan of Brett and Brandon Stewart. And the music that they have composed. It was fun to listen to them on the podcasts, the face matters podcast and find out all kinds of things about the reason that the this organization that I sing in was founded, they talk about when we sung at Carnegie Hall, or when we sang is that the more correct way to say it. When we sang at Carnegie Hall, when the lights went out in New York City anyway, it was just a really super interesting conversation if you want to go back and listen to that on the faith matters podcast. But I also have been rehearsing this music because I sing in what’s called the Grand Chorus. It’s the adult choir, I’ve been rehearsing this music over and over and over not only in our rehearsals on Thursdays. But in the time that I spend throughout the week kind of working on the music. It’s challenging music. But super fun to sing and moving. It’s almost like movie score music. But anyway, one of the songs we’re seeing an arrangement of is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. And the there’s this part in the song in this arrangement where we sing comfort and joy, joy, comfort and joy over and over and over and over again. And so these words are the words that have been in my mind most of every week since the beginning of November ball really since the beginning of the semester when we started in September. Working on getting ready for this Christmas concert. I’ve got comfort and joy, joy, comfort and joy in I mind and such a treat for you guys that you’re going to hear me sing last week and this week, just a little bit, but not my best performance for us here on the podcast. But you get the idea is that I’ve just had this word, these words comfort and joy in my head constantly, pretty much since September. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about comfort today. And also a little bit about joy. The way I like to think about our emotions is that there’s two umbrellas of emotion. There is a comfortable umbrella of emotion and there’s an uncomfortable umbrella of emotion. So I think most emotions, if not all, probably all could be categorized into emotions we like to feel which are comfy emotions, and emotions that we don’t necessarily like to feel more uncomfortable emotions. Now, remember, the way I teach about an emotion is it simply a vibration in your body. And if you need to learn more about that you can go all the way back to episode three all the fields, and learn more about what I mean by that. But basically, there are no good or bad emotions. There’s just ones that feel more comfortable. And there’s ones that feel kind of uncomfortable. Let me share with you what some of the uncomfortable emotions are. Let me share with you what some of the uncomfortable emotions might be sadness, loneliness, annoyance, guilt, discouragement, fear, worry, doubt, overwhelm. Now, remember, none of these are bad emotions. Nothing is wrong with any of these vibrations or emotions being in your body. Really, there is nothing wrong with that at all. But they’re also a little bit uncomfortable to feel. Here’s something interesting as we can also add to the list of uncomfortable emotions, maybe courage, and commitment. Now notice how we tend to think of courage and commitment more as like a quote unquote positive emotion. But I think we could all agree that feeling courage is a little bit uncomfortable. And commitment is also a little uncomfortable. Again, no good or bad emotions just do they feel kind of good, or not feel as good. Now the comfortable emotions and especially some of the ones that we talk about this time of year would be like peace, contentment, contentment, abundance, love, calm. Acceptance. One of the quotes that came to my mind was from elder Holland’s talk in general conference of October 2020. The talk was called waiting on the Lord. And what he said was my beloved brothers and sisters, Christianity is comforting, but it is not often comfortable. And what I want to add to that is that being a human is sometimes like Christianity is comforting. But being a human is not comfortable. Half the time. So, about half the time we’re going to experience sadness, loneliness, annoyance, doubt, discouragement, fear, worry and overwhelm. And half the time we’re going to experience peace, contentment, abundance, love, calm hopefulness and happiness. Okay? So I like that he says that Christianity is comforting Christianity, meaning your belief in Jesus Christ. But being a human, you guys is not going to be comfortable. I love in John 1427, where it reads, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give it unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. So I love this so much because it talks about in this world, what we what’s available to us this in this world is both sets of emotions, the comfortable ones and the not so comfortable ones. But we still are told that we can have peace. Notice that this scripture doesn’t say like you won’t have other emotions, you’ll only have peace. But that we can have peace, even when we have some of these uncomfortable emotions.

9:51 In Doctrine and Covenants, section 98 verse one, it says Verily I say unto my friends, fear not love let your hearts be comforted, yay, Rejoice evermore. That’s where the joy comes in, right? And in everything give thinks. So how do we let our hearts be comforted? How do we do this? How do we create these feelings of being comforted, and feeling comfort, and it’s with the way we choose to think. So if you want to experience true joy, a fullness of joy, you need to surrender to the comfortable and the not comfortable emotions. It’s part of our being a human. It’s part of our human existence here on this earth. So the way I kind of like to think about it, is that there’s me, having like, all of these experiences that a human can have, where I feel all of the emotions that are comfortable, and then all of the emotions that are not comfortable. And even when I’m feeling those uncomfortable emotions, I never tell myself, I shouldn’t be feeling this way. Instead, you can just tell yourself, like, God’s got me. Jesus Christ knows what I’m feeling. Not that we shouldn’t have those emotions and only experience peace, but we can experience peace, in the discomfort, we can become comfortable with discomfort. And that, for me is what this phrase comfort and joy has come to mean, not comfort, that we’re never going to have anything go wrong. And that we’re never going to experience negative emotion, but comfort and knowing that the discomfort is okay. It’s meant for our growth, it’s meant for our learning. It’s meant for our transformation. It’s actually meant to make us more like our heavenly parents, and more like our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that he’s got us. And same with joy, joy, is the embracing and the surrender to Heavenly Father’s plan, knowing that there was no other way to gain experience than to come here and feel all of the feelings. I loved this quote from Dieter F. Uchtdorf. I don’t know. He is the one that kind of introduced the new Strength of Youth pamphlet in this most recent conference in October 22. And I want to read a little bit of that to you. He said, My dear young friends, if the saver were here, right now, what would he say to you? I believe he would start by expressing his deep love for you. He might say it with words. But it would also flow so strongly just from his presence, that it would be unmistakable, reaching deep into your heart filling your whole soul. And yet, because we’re all weak and imperfect, some concerns might creep into your mind. You might remember mistakes you’ve made things you wish you hadn’t done, or wish you had done better. The Savior would sense that and I believe he would assure you with words he had spoken in the scriptures. Fear not. Doubt not be of good cheer. Let not your heart be troubled. Isn’t that so? Good. But notice how UHC dwarf President oak dwarf elder oak dwarf I’m not sure what we call him now. Notice how he didn’t say we’ll never experience fear will never experience doubt will never, like experience sadness or never be troubled. It’s like this. The comfort and joy is like this. Overarching what the Savior would say to us is like yes, you fear it’s okay. Fear not about that. Yes, you might have doubt. But it’s okay. Don’t doubt me. He would say it’s okay that you’re sad. It’s okay that you’re you have concerns. But I’ve got you. So be of good cheer. When he says Let not your heart be troubled. He’s not saying like, Don’t ever be troubled. He’s saying even when you have trouble you don’t need to trouble because I got this. Like this was always part of the plan. I was always going to come to earth I was always going To sacrifice for you. And it’s O. K. It’s an over arching comfort. It’s an over arching joy. In John 1633, it reads these things I have spoken unto you, that in me, you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Isn’t that awesome? So then the question just becomes like, we can access, comfort and joy here and now. Trusting that Christ did overcome the world. We can have thoughts like, he did what he said he was going to do. I believe him, I believe in His Atonement, I believe it works for me. And those thoughts are over arching, comfort, enjoy thoughts, not that on your mission, you are going to have tribulation, after your mission, you’re going to have tribulation as an adult you’re gonna have with children, and you’re gonna have tribulation. But we can be of good cheer, knowing that all of it is part of the plan. And he’s got us he has overcome the world. Last this month, and fast and testimony meeting, there was a woman who were her testimony and of someone who recently had passed away, I can’t remember if she had recently passed away, but she was just recalling a memory. And how one of the last nights they spent, together with as a family that they had some Silent Night. And this part just really stuck out to her when they were singing it, Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep and heavenly peace. Especially as this friend of hers was kind of passing on. And that really struck me because I think sometimes we reserve that heavenly peace for the future, like when this life is over, but as I sat there and listened to it, I want to share with you that I think that this heavenly peace is available right now. It’s available to you today. And it comes from trusting. It comes from not fearing fear. It comes from trusting that our savior has overcome the world. It’s from trusting that it’s okay, wherever you are, right now, emotionally, mentally, physically, is Oh, Kay. You’re right where you’re supposed to be. You’re not doing it wrong. It’s tapping into this like eternal comfort, this an eternal joy, this eternal knowing that when we have tribulation, when we have heartache, when we have doubt, when we have worry and overwhelm, and guilt and discouragement, that that was all part of the plan to and if we believe and trust in our Savior, all of those things can be sanctified for goodness, and for our growth. The beginning of the song that I’ve been rehearsing over and over and over and over, is God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen. That sleeping in heavenly peace that like overarching comfort, that overarching joy, that overarching surrender and trust and faith in God, and in Jesus Christ and our heavenly parents, that rest is available to us right now. That sleeping in heavenly peace is available to us today. We just have to turn our thoughts and our hearts towards them. Nowhere in the scriptures, nowhere in anything that any of the prophets have taught us. Does anyone say? You’re just going to have comfort and joy only?

19:52 comfort and joy or the acceptance of both the comfortable and the uncomfortable God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Let nothing nothing you dismay, nothing. Don’t let anything just me you, even when you’re feeling those uncomfy feelings. And then it says, Remember, Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day. That’s pretty amazing, right? I love thinking about that baby, and how we were at probably in heaven, singing, comfort and joy, here comes comfort and joy, that comfort and joy was born that day. And some day, like, he’ll come again. I love thinking about that at Christmas time that not only was he did he come, but he’s coming again. And then all of it will be made right. All of it will make sense. But in the meantime, we can trust in him. Nothing, you just may remember Christ, our Savior, was born on Christmas Day. All right, sending you guys the most love, I hope you have the merriest Christmas, wherever you are. I hope if you’re on the mission, that you’re getting really well taken care of. You gotta talk to your families know that they’re not the only ones thinking about you. I am to sending love to all of you RMS, also you missionary moms. This is a hard time of year to be a part. So just know that it’s all okay. That it’s all we’re all right where we’re supposed to be. And that’s all because of our Savior Jesus Christ. Right? Everyone Have an amazing week, we will talk to you next time. Serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints can present a unique set of challenges. And many of those challenges you might not even see coming. So you’re gonna want a unique set of solutions is easier than you think to overcome worry and anxiety serve the successful mission you’ve always dreamed up and navigate your post mission experience with confidence. That is why I created some amazing free goodies that I’m sharing in my show notes. Maybe you’ll want to grab the free training for preparing missionaries, my video course for RMS or maybe you and I should hop on a free strategy call. If you’re ready to take your preparedness to serve or your preparedness to come home to the next level. Then go grab one of those freebies. And in the meantime, no matter which part of the mission experience you are involved in. Just know that Jennie, the LDS mission coach is thinking about you every single day