My September 27th 2015 Church Talk

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 In every way we’re troubled, but we aren’t crushed by our troubles. We’re frustrated, but we don’t give up. We’re persecuted, but we’re not abandoned. We’re captured, but we’re not killed. We always carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies so that the life of Jesus is also shown in our bodies.

The topic of my talk is:

“Faith in God will sustain us in times of adversity”

Difficulty	hardship	sorrow	misery	trauma
setback		burden		trail

My name is Cynarra Starlette Jamerson. I’m a medical Assistant, teacher’s assistant, and I’m going to OCC to become a neurodiagnostic Technician. I’m the only member of the church in my family for the past 5.5 years.  Thanks to my dad I love horror films and video games and thanks to my mom, I have a great sense of style.

I grew up on Atari games which includes Space Invaders, Pac-Man, frogger and 2,600 other games. My family was into Pac-man. I thought it was the only game worth the challenge and when I needed help, my mom and friends always helped me out. I’ve played other games but it only made me realized that Pac-man was the best game in the world

Until one day I see a friend playing Super Mario Brothers and I liked what I saw. “Two brothers traveling far and wide in hope to save someone that can’t save themselves.” I even liked what the other players brought to the table. So I played that game so much with them I knew I had to look up what other people say about it…They hate it and have nothing positive to say about Super Mario Brothers. I listened for a while but eventually I made up my mind and ask my mom how she feels about the game. She tells me it’s a waste of time and Pac Man is the original game the true game. I thought about it some more and eventually this game is so embedded in my mind and spirt that I have to get with the program and join the Super Mormon-I mean Mario brothers team…Even though I play Pac Man (Baptism) on holidays with my family.

The first trial (I mean level) is pretty easy. I encounter Goomba (negative creatures that just don’t know any better than to hurt anything around them) After all, they DO serve Boss Bowser. By taking the high road hitting a few bricks, and leaping to the occasion I’m rewarded with a mushroom of spiritual growth. Now I am a force to be reckoned with and with great ease I passed that level. There are fireworks and music and a private victory dance.

Then the next level starts. They get harder and the Goomaba get sneaker and faster to keep up with me. They are my car troubles, work issues, money issues, arguments ect. I might get a set back from here or there but I’ve learned so much that I don’t scare easy. I know that if I stay on the straight and narrow one dimensional path set by the game maker, I will level up. Plus! I have great friends around you to help you get through those tough levels.

Then there comes THAT level. Everyone has their breaking point where they keep getting knocked down and nothing you do seems to be right or working. You think that no one wants to help you pass or could help you pass. I can’t ask your mom, she only has Pac Man answers and she’ll just ask me to get back to that game. So I turn it off because the sight of it makes me so angry I can’t see straight. I don’t want to play that game or any other one; in fact I’m just upset with Atair all together.

Time passes and I think I’m fine but sometimes even with my anger I still kind of miss it. One day I come across the cheat sheet book. A part of me says this book isn’t going to help but I ignore that feeling and I read

Romans 5:3-5 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

D&C 121 7-9

7My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment

8And then if though endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes

9Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.

A light comes on inside of me and when I’m ready, that game is still there waiting for me. I’m a little rusty and have to start from scratch but the 1^st level is easy to beat and the so are the next ones. That one level comes up and I get nervous but I did my homework and I know how to get through it! I pass. But I know that there will be other levels like this in the future so I brace myself and play it.

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

Brothers and Sisters there will always be trials. You do not know what you are capable until do go through them. You will not show your true colors until you go though them. And with my years of experience I am learning that there is no way around them. You have to go through them and sometimes you will feel like you’re all alone. Each Goomba, fire ball, Boss, abyss to nowhere is placed strategically to make you better, faster, and smarter by the game maker. You are going to get stronger with each one. Because the game maker wants you to get to the last level.

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
― Maya Angelou

So Cal Events & Activities

Are you already bored THINKING about the plans you aren't going to have!? Well all you answers are in this little blog. And yes, that was me steeling a bit from I Love Lucy.
If you know of any other festivals, carnivals, beach events, or anything else in the best part of the best state in the country (yeah I said it Texas! WHAT!?) ...Let me know and I'll add it in.


April So Cal Activities

May So Cal Activities

June So Cal Activities

July So Cal Activities

August So Cal Activities

...This story is still being written

Three years ago I did what I thought would be like any other phase in my life, like boy bands, glitter eye shadow, or overalls. May 23rd 2010 I was baptized to the Church or Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints where I still remand a strong Latter Day Saint.  It’s been great…not perfect,but great. I see things so much better now than I've ever seen before in not just me but everyone and everything around me. I've found my worth,patience, forgiveness, and most importantly my faith.  I’m almost positive I’ll lose those things in the future, but I have them right now and I’ll hold on to them with everything that I have. I’ll probably fight myself like I do everything and everyone else,but I always get back on track, as long as I pray first and act second.

 I don't think praying is like making wishes so I feel confident in sharing. For months and months I have been asking for the wisdom to know when something I’m doing is wrong and the strength to stop. I've also asked to hear God's voice louder than any other voice around me. For months and months I didn't think it was such a hard request,so I couldn't understand why I wasn't getting results.

April 6-7 was our church conference and it changed my life and answered my prayers but I wouldn't know it till the end of the 7th. I missed the first 2 conferences by a miscommunication. The 3rd...I guess I wasn't ready because I figured’ whose gonna know I missed it!’ Everyone was talking about it and there was even an FHE that played Conference Jeopardy and I was jealous and embarrassed that I didn't know what was going on. The 4th conference I was having a bad week but I didn't want to be left out of the loop again so I forced myself to go. I made the last talk for the beginning section on Sunday and stayed for the afternoon section. My attention span is short so when I got fidgety, I would take a walk.

This was my 5th conference and I only saw the one on Sunday.Saturday night I helped cleaning up and cooking to get ready to co-host a conference party in Bellflower till 1 am knowing I would still have to wake up at 7 to remind the other host to put something in the oven, cook two more dishes and get a shower and drive over there. I was an hour late and still had to put some final touches so headed to the kitchen first, but one of the voices stopped me and I had to write down exactly what I heard; the devil wants you to be miserable like him, said Tom Perry. I went back to the kitchen noise and I heard something else that I couldn't just write down, I had to go in the living and sit to take notes. "We must not pick out which commandments we want to follow."

President Monson talked about God making a failsafe plan to ensure our safety and he also brought up the story of Abraham. This was always my least stories in the bible growing up because all I could think of was how cruel can God be to ask him to kill his son and then told Abraham don't do it,I just wanted to see if you would. I thought about how his son could ever love a father who would do that and what he must have felt after that. As I heard this story told again I have to admit those old feels were starting to spread through my mind again.

Right after that talk I heard Jeffery Holland talk and those feelings were put at ease. "Hold the ground you do have...hold on strong to the truth you do know...Don't let your faith be overridden by your questions.”“Don't apologize for JUST believing, it's the first step towards your quest."  And then of course "Be patient, kind and forgiving." I couldn't see why everyone made such a big fuss over this guy but know I see why.

The entire day I had been in and out of the kitchen, taking notes, and cleaning. Dallin Oaks took a jab at my heart when he told me, “We love the praise of men more than the praise of God." It only hurt because it was true, I was cooking and cleaning making sure the people around me were perfectly comfortable instead of doing what's right which was sitting down and take more notes.

Enoch W. Kopischke let me have it when he told me to look for people who lift and encourage us, because the bad people in our lives that we keep will eventually make us feel abandoned. "Having your spirit is a comforter, and the only companion you’ll need."

The day was almost over and I realized I didn't get fidgety or restless or even that tired. I almost took a nap during Todd Chrisofferson's talk because I thought I earned it. Muffling sounds would come in and out as I closed my eyes, but certain phrases would open my eyes and I had to write it down. "Redeem your sins and pay what is owed by confessing and abandoning your sins...help others to achieve greatness too." And the Les Mis reference just tore into my soul. I went over my notes and I could see how sleepy I was but how shaky my writing was. That only proved to me how important writing that down was.

I was pretty out by the end and I'm sure it was President Monson who said it and I could barely read it now but like I said, it must have been important if I would open my eyes and eyes to it. "If any man opens his door to me, I will come in."

When I got home I was in my room looking over my notes and reviewing the day in my head and I realized that my prayers were answered. I heard from men who talked to God. I heard them louder than any other voice and sound around me. I've been asking for the wisdom to know when something I’m doing is wrong and the strength to stop. I didn't realize it until then, but I had been doing that for a while now.  Sunday was a perfect day and any number variables could have stopped me from being there and I still chose to be in front of that screen. I probably wasn't ready for the first 4, but I was more than ready for this one.

Since my conversion I have been embarrassed to talk about the church and why I joined. I knew it was right but I could never defend it or express what I felt then or how I would feel in the future. This was supposed to be a phase that I would get over in a year max. Nevertheless May 23rd 2010 I was baptized to the Church or Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints where I still remand a strong Latter Day Saint.  It’s been great…not perfect,but great.

Crying wolf gets People Kilt!!

            Since the mayor of Chicago thinks he has the right to outlaw Chick Fil A for their beliefs...like the entire company speaks for every employee, (sounds like its election time Mr. Mayor) I am institutinting a new Law for Florida.

          Their media is not allowed to use the term Zombie attack ever again!! (Click here for Zombie Attack Article) They abused the right to use it on two PC addicts on two separate occasions. That is just as worst as faking tornado's watch just for your stupid ratings. And to show how outraged I am, I wrote everything in bold print! We Americans take that term very seriously and I can't take anything from Florida serious ever again. I turned the cheek for that (clear my throat) Bush election hiccup, and I tried to ignore the whole Zimmerman thing, even though it might not be as serious if they had stricter laws on Guns. But I will not let 'heaven's waiting room' fool me again on Zombie attacks!!

and that is how...Cynarra C's it!!!!!

Stand fast through the Storms of Life

The story of the (insert name) horses. They started off on one side of the desert and their masters would ride them to the other side and back with very little water and food, and with even smaller amount of rest.The masters loved and cherish theses horses and seeing quite a few die off hurt the masters heart. The horses that remained, breed a new generation of horses. The Masters would ride the the new generation making their trials harder than the generation before. And he repeated this time and time again until the master had these beautiful, big and strong majestic horses that were ready for any war or famine, or storm...metaphoric or literal.  Some might argue for the generations before. Was their only purpose to make their future coats stronger?

While watching Smallville, one of the greatest tv shows of all time, I was listening to Jonathan Kent (one of the greatest TV dads of all time) talk about how he was a nobody farmer in a nowheresville town. And when he found Clark in the cornfield- before he knew he had powers he said he found his meaning; to raise this kid on his morals and the morals of his father before. He had no idea that he would be raising the savior of mankind in a fictional world. As I wite this I know I probably should of use the story of Jesus, Mary and Jospeh.

Ive looked up lots of reasons why we go through what we go through. And even though, I honestly dont want to go through them, it does humble and soften my heart when i do. When life was easy, i needed more to make me happy, and I never really appreciated when I had it. Which is weird, because I grew up pretty poor…in Compton…during the 1980s so I should have been waaaay more humble as a teenager. I believe God knew this too, but in a storm, you can’t see what’s going on. When parts of my life were taken away from me, I was furious and went through Hulk like fits, and it came at me all at once. If I would of stopped to appricatiate the things and people I still had, it wouldn't of taken me so long to get to where I am now.

 God litterally got me the job i have now. **** Teenagers look up to me and ask me questions that are not school related. And because of a combination of having lived through a lot mixed with being active in the chruch, I answer those questions appropriately and good enough to where they trust me with questions in the future.

Now, that I’m through one of my storms in life, I seriously love the simple, smaller things. Small things might make me mad…but even smaller things make me happy, and if that’s the price that I have to pay ill gladly take it. Lucky charms and being infront of a tv playing old cartoons, make my day, sometimes week. ******Someone recalling something I said a week ago makes me feel so special you wouldn't believe because I know I can talk a lot and super fast and if you retain any of it, that is either a great talent or very faltering.

I'm doing a Book of Mormon challenge...it's not really a challenge for most of you  since its just one chapter a day, but Its pretty hard for me and some chapters I have to get my easy read, and phone a friend. Ive read up to Nephi (add stopping point). And I'm getting lost into this story, probably deeper then anyone in this room gets lost into the Hunger Games. Mostly because I have no idea what's going to happen next, where most of you knew the story as a child and read it later in life.

So Nephi is shown the future of his brothers and all these horrible and then great things. And he's dealing with the roller coster of their faith, tring to keep his family alive while maintaining his own faith. In Chapter 16:5 Nephi is happy and full of hope that his brothers have humbled and soften their hearts at the sight of a miracle. In that same chapter Ishmael died and the brothers quikly turn on what they know and have seen and their first instict is to turn on their father and brother and try to kill them.

 

I don't know where I was when I read this, but all I wanted to do was cry. To know that the people put on this earth that were designed to love you, want you dead every time something goes wrong. I would lose it at the knowledge of someone harming my family. And to think that sometimes I'm the one doing it kills a part of me every time. So just reading that Nephi's faith has not budged through the storms of hunger, death, and betrail at any time, and has handled all of this with such class, just makes my problems seem so petty and vein. They are my trials which are different from everone elses, and I know God will only give me what I can handle.

The only one stopping us from knowing that and standing in our way is ourselves. Our trials will get us ready for what we were ment to do and it will not be easy, but when we go through it, we will be able to handle it with great class and our faith intact. One of my first Firesides I was listening to an anthropologist who proved the location and time periods and stories in the Book of Mormon. Places you can’t make up when translating it (insert Joseph Smiths location and time). This fireside was the last straw that made me convert by softening my hard head and heart.  I testify to everyone including myself that I believe everything I’m reading in the book of Mormon, and everything I’ve talked about in the past (insert time here) , whether I take my own advice or not. Your problems should not stop from being with God; it just means you need to get closer. Ever religion I’ve encountered had touched on the simple phrase for their church, ‘Come as you are, and Let God do the rest.’  I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

...How I could just kill a man (Or woman)

You know the worst job in the world, and by worst I mean the hardest and the one with the least amount of ‘thank you’? No…Not a super Hero.  Let’s talk about the murdering elephant in the room. People who exhale in life over life adversities, whether it be poverty or drugs usually give praise to their father. Its either, ‘He was never there so I had to try twice as hard,’ or ‘he was very overprotecting,’ or my favorite,  ‘He abused me and I worked hard to leave,’

You know what psychologist look at in serial killers? Their relationship with their mother.

Was she keeping the kid a little too close to her apron…even when he turned 30?

 Was she abusing them because she blamed them for her being single?

 Or did she give her son “too many ‘man of the house’ duties?

 If you look at the pattern of a typical Serial Killer, they did kill prostitutes, so they think this guy has serious mommie issues. But news flash, its super easy to kill one (not that I would know). They willingly get in your car at the right price, plus the chances of them being runaways are seriously high. Oh, and who wants to kill a guy when their chances of being stronger is unknown. You don’t know if that little white boy in the club knows jujitsu.

And that’s how....... Cynarra C’s it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I see the bad moon arising

Water is of major importance to all living things;

·         in some organisms, up to 90% of their body weight comes from water.

·         Up to 60% of the human body is water,

·         the brain is composed of 70% water,

·         and the lungs are nearly 90% water.

·         Lean muscle tissue contains about 75% water by weight, as is the brain; body fat contains 10% water

·         and bone has 22% water.

·         About 83% of our blood is water, which helps digest our food, transport waste, and control body temperature.

Earth and the moon are attracted to each other, just like magnets are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is able to hold onto everything except the water. Since the water is always moving, the Earth cannot hold onto it, and the moon is able to pull at it.

This usually drives people crazy(er) on a full moon. The term Lunatic comes from the moon (Luna). So next time you feel a little…lunatic-like, and you have burned through your black card, your pms Card, ‘The devil made me do it card,’ or ‘The spirit made me do it.’ Just remember you have one last card up your sleeve…the Ace up your sleeve: Bad Moon Rising. Thank you Creedence Clearwater Reviva!!!
And That's how Cynarra...C's it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!