Ever feel like you're being DOUBLE TEAMED?

This picture was taken at the first round of the state tournament at
the University of Utah my senior year of high school. If I could
explain how much this game meant to me...Man it would take days. You
know that dream every sports kid has at becoming a state champion one
day?? Well this was my last shot at it.

Growing up with a dad as my coach, I was use to looking at game film
and dissecting each play to see how I could improve. Honestly, I
wasn't always the best sport about it but it worked so props to my dad
for sticking with it!

So let's have some basketball talk for a moment. Here's me...number 14
on Cedar. If you notice, I'm looking AWAY from the basket. (The basket
is in between the two other players not guarding me) That means I'm
not in a position to shoot the ball which doesn't make me a threat to
score. Now lets say I was looking TOWARDS the basket. I would not only be a
threat to score but I would have seen the little gap #4 and #22 were
leaving me. A clear path to the basket. Pretty obvious to see from the
view of the photographer...just a few feet away. Yet I couldn't see it
because I was too caught up on getting AROUND the two players rather
than go through the STRAIGHT PATH.

This was something my college coaches really helped me see the
importance of. Most players I played against in college were faster
and more athletic than me. So if I tried to get AROUND them...I wasn't
going to win. BUT if I was smarter than they were then I
wouldn't have to be as fast. As coach Visger would say, "make a
straight line to the basket!" The difference if I got to the basket or
not was if I was lazy and went "horizontal" or "vertical".

In my life I've seen myself and others make the same mistake. We are
faced with a problem. It seems too big and daunting to even look at
(like being double teamed) so we waste our time by trying to find a
way around the situation. We often call it "beating around the bush".
But really, if you just attack the situation head on, there's a lot
better outcome. Often times  in life it's good to ask ourself the same
question my coach implemented in me...are you going horizontal or
vertical?

3 Nephi 27:33
And it came to pass that when Jesus had ended these sayings he said
unto his disciples: enter ye in at the strait gate; for strait is the
gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that
find it; but wide is the gate, and broad the way which leads to death,
and many there be that travel therein, until the night cometh, wherein
no man can work.

The "broad" way = basically all the court I was looking at. There were a
lot of places I could dribble but none of the ways I was looking at
we're going to help me reach the goal of getting the ball in the
basket.
The "strait" way = the very specific, narrow path that would have lead me
to my end goal.

People that love us, warn us and try to help us get through the
situation. If we are smart we will listen but a lot of times our own
stubbornness gets in the way. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the same
way. The steps we need to follow are actually really simple and
STRAIGHT forward:

 *Have faith in Jesus Christ
*Repent
*Be baptized by someone holding proper authority
*Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost
*Endure to the end

Just as I was given coaches that wanted to see me and our team
succeed...our Heavenly Father wants to see us succeed. We are
given the steps of eternal life, it's up to us to choose which path we
want to take. Do we want to try and find happiness our own way...or
the way God has given us?? In basketball I have learned that my
coaches are a lot more experienced than I am. They know what's best
for me. Same in life. Heavenly Father has A LOT more
experience than us :) Don't make the same mistake as I did in this
picture! I can tell you...the outcome wasn't what I truly wanted. It
may have seemed like the right choice at that time of the game...but I
never got that state championship title i always dreamed of.

Fortunately in God's plan, there isn't just one state champion. As we live the way He has commanded us, we have a promise that we will all experience more joy and happiness than we can imagine...even more than the feeling of being the best basketball team in the state.

Cherry Blossoms and Jesus Christ???

The sun is finally shining in DC! Yesterday I was able to go see the world famous...cherry blossoms in Washington DC. Man it was the coolest thing ever! You know how you see things in pictures and you just never imagine you will be in a picture with it...yeah that just happened to me.

Springtime is here and you can smell it in the air. As soon as we got out of the car to go check out the cherry blossoms, something seemed familiar to me. It had been so long to see a nice sunny day outside that I almost forgot what it was like! Immediately my thoughts started going back last spring time. EASTER! My favorite time of the year...let me tell you why:
1-I like being warm and tan
2-My weird passion of mowing lawns gets to come un-hibernated
2a-I get really attractive Mormon tan lines
3- Come on...who doesn't love Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs.
4- Someone may have a birthday in the month of April and is a little obsessed with it
5-Basketball tournaments every weekend. Can it get any better than that? Believe it or not...it can. Wait for it...
6-Easter time is a time we can all reflect on the Saviors birth and sacrifice for us.

If you notice...numbers 1-5 are all worldly things. Yet, sometimes we catch ourselves, as I did, focusing on these matters more than what's of eternal importance. These things I listed aren't bad things...Heavenly Father wants us to find joy in this life and if sports, chocolate or tan lines do that for you then I'm sure He is happy for us. However, what I fail to remember sometimes is what will matter to me most after this life.

It's not going to be the time we beat a national ranked basketball team. Or what I got for my 21st birthday...it's going to be centered on God's plan for us which is made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ. #BecauseofHim (if you haven't seen that enough of facebook!), we can all change. He literally made it possible for us, as imperfect humans, to eventually become perfect and return to live with God again if we follow his teachings. I'm sure He didn't necessary want to have to suffer all He did, but He still did it willingly because of His love for us and I will always be in debt for that.

Please take time to watch this movie if you haven't yet. And while you're out there having your Easter egg hunt, think just a little more about the Savior this year. There is a lot this world can offer us...but nothing close to what our Savior offered us. It is the supreme expression of love from our Heavenly Father and brother, Jesus Christ. The gift of eternal life.

Missionary March Madness

Just over a year ago, my college basketball team were just finishing our regular season before we headed to our conference tournament in the great Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. Our coach asked each of the players to share with the team their favorite motivational quote to finish to season strong. It was at a time where honestly, I was lacking that drive that my normal self usually carries. It was near the end of the season and I was tired. Everyday I would wake up, go to school, then straight to practice, then if I was lucky and didn't have a night class...home to do homework and off to bed. Same thing day in and day out! So who was I to pump up the team when I would rather skip practice and go home to sleep??? I luckily came across this quote and it fit right in to exactly how I was feeling...

"People don't play sports because it's fun. Ask any athlete, most of them hate it, but they couldn't imagine their life without it. It's part of them, the love/hate relationship. It's what they live for. They live for the practices, parties, cheers, long bus rides, invitationals, countless pairs of different types of shoes, water, Gatorade and coaches you hate but appreciate. They live for the way it feels when they beat the other team, and knowing those two extra sprints they ran in practice were worth it. They live for the way they become a family with their team, they live for the countless songs they sing in their head while training all those hours. They live for the competition, they live for the friends, the practices, the memories, the pain. It's who they are. It's who we are."

Sometimes life isn't fun. We may not feel like waking up in the morning to go to church. Reading the scriptures and praying every night. We go through trials of every kind. Sometimes we wonder why we even try. Then we realize everything good that comes out of life. The miracles that sometimes we completely look over and don't realize. Waking up to see your family, hanging out with friends, actually getting an education that most of the world doesn't. For me...Playing college basketball?? Like seriously, who gets the opportunity to do that? And I'm over here complaining about not getting enough time to myself? I signed up for that! And we all signed up to come to earth. We knew the trials we were going to be given and we still wanted to come to earth to get a body and learn and grow. We live for the way it feels to come out on top. I know that we can receive the true happiness life can offer as we first put God first. Our record may not be a perfect, UCONN record of 40-0 but we can do OUR personal best and Heavenly Father will be proud of that.

So when life gets hard, please please remember...IT WILL BE WORTH IT. Those 2 extra sprints that you hate so much in the moment, are little by little going to shape you into who your Heavenly Father wants you to be. Look at the bright side of trials...the long bus rides, the friends you make along the way. Yes, this life can get hard sometimes but one of the biggest purposes of life is to have joy! I have received so much joy from putting God first-I have seen a change in my life and therefore I know it can change others lives as well :)

Sister Duncan's a Convert???

One thing I have learned on my mission is that we ALL have a story; a story that defines who we are, where we have been, and what we hope to become. One person may be a high school dropout living on the streets while another may have just been offered a scholarship to a prestigious school. I have found that often times my knee-jerk, initial reaction upon meeting an individual is generally wrong and is often totally opposite of who a person actually is. Similarly, my story is one that I don’t think most people have uncovered; one I don’t share often because it is a story I hold very dear and close to me.  But I think it can and will help many to know what I went through and that we are all imperfect people just trying to do our best to follow Christ’s example. And, well, that is the reason I have decided to try this blogging world out!

As you all probably know, I grew up in the church with a great, strong, and active family. I have been a member now for all of my life, but the level of my conversion to the gospel was not of much strength until just recently. I was baptized at age 8 (like most Mormons are- Doctrine & Covenants 68:27) and went to church faithfully with my family. Throughout high school I did what my parents and siblings taught me-followed in their shadows. I graduated seminary with straight A’s. I prayed every morning and night. I got the “gold” award for scripture mastery. I received the 4-year consecutive reading award. My seminary all-star team won every single scripture mastery tournament. A pretty good resume, right? Well, little did I know, while doing this I couldn’t even explain how Christ’s sacrifice had blessed my life or how I could actually have a relationship with my Heavenly Father through prayer instead of just saying the same thing every night.

Growing up in Utah I felt like there was a certain “competition” to who could be the best Mormon. I’m not saying that is correct…I’m saying that is what Sister Duncan once thought! So, I did everything I could to make it look like I was the “perfect” Mormon. Looking back now, it’s pretty obvious I never had the desire or discipline to be that person I was acting to be. I normally would be ashamed to admit such a thing-It’s in my nature to be the best at EVERYTHING I do. One of the most important things being on a mission has taught me though is to humble myself enough to acknowledge I’m not ALWAYS right! Most of the time yes…but not ALL J I realize that it’s ok that I wasn’t “the best” at the gospel. Yeah, it would have been really nice to come out here and already know how to teach people and hit the ground running. But, when I first arrived in the mission field, people on the streets and doors I knocked would annoy me with the same questions, “well how do YOU know this is true?” and “why do I need this in my life?” I would get frustrated. They are great questions and if a random person just showed up at my door and wanted to tell me how to live my life, I would probably ask the same ones.  But yet…I never had that amazing “lightbulb” moment that I THOUGHT you had to have to be truly converted. I wasn’t expecting a Joseph Smith moment but I wanted that story that most converts have. So the question arose…do I actually know this is true?

Not being one to give up that easily…I decided I would follow the promise of a prophet in the Book of Mormon. (Moroni 10:3-5). This is a scripture we share a lot with people not of this church so it took me quite a while to humble myself enough to ask. Basically it says that if I have a question and I have enough faith, real intent and a sincere heart…I WILL receive an answer to my question. So I got down on my knees. I knew I couldn’t do this for 16 more months if I wasn’t 100% committed to what I was doing. And guess what? I STILL didn’t get that moment most people (who I thought) did. But I wasn’t going to give up that easily. I decided to take another step in the fog. As I continued to pray, read from the scriptures and become a little better each day…things started to click. I was blessed to recognize those small answers to my prayers. I realized how I felt every time I read from the Book of Mormon. Then this is where it all comes together…I looked back to when I was at college. This may seem totally weird to you. But, for some reason I got this sick feeling about it. College was fun and I know everything that happened there was supposed to happen. But, I thought about me now and was filled with this feeling of happiness. I had no clue why I felt so happy. But I was. And I am now still to this day. The only difference in my life now and then (other than no basketball anymore J)…the gospel. That’s the only possibility of my feelings I have now compared to before I decided to make it a priority in my life. Now, instead of being jealous that I wasn’t a convert of the church with a huge lightbulb moment, I am grateful that I was raised in the gospel. At some point of all of our lives we have to come to know what we believe is true. And I know that I can share my experience with others. You don’t have to have a huge miracle to know this is true. I didn’t and actually, most people don’t.

As I reflected on my life I realized one thing. I had always put things before the gospel. Sports, friends, school, sleep, etc. Those were the things that made me happy. So why in the world would I take 18 months out of my life to do something that didn’t make me happy? Well…if you would have asked me when I put my mission papers in…or even the day I left on the mission, I WOULD HAVE HAD NO CLUE. Still to this day I don’t know how in the world I made it on a mission. If it’s legal to have 2 words as a middle name…Socially awkward would be mine! I even remember different basketball games where I was out on the court playing and then all of a sudden glance and see a newspaper writer in the stands. My stomach would sink and after the game I would try to leave the gym as fast as possible without making eye contact so I didn’t have to talk to them.  One of my nicknames in college was even HERMIT. Again, my point is…looking at a mission LOGICALLY for me, it just does not make since. But somehow God gave me a shove and now here I am!  A lot has happened between then and now. When people say that missions are the best 2 (18 months) years of their life, they aren’t lying. BUT they might be leaving out a few details! It’s hard. It takes discipline and self-control. But like everyone says…it’s worth it. Looking back seeing where I came from on March 21, 2013-reading those words “WASHINGTON D.C. SOUTH” on my mission call letter and not knowing what in the world I was getting myself into…to now. I’ve never been this happy in my life. EVER. I’ve learned SO much I can’t even express how grateful I am. The number one thing I’ve learned is that when you’re doing what you should, God WILL micromanage your life.  

 

 

I have seen the difference in my life. I know for a fact that my life has been changed the past 8 months because of the gospel. There is no other way. Now I want everyone else to see that same change in themselves! You don’t think you can change? Yeah, I didn’t think so either. Trust me, I know it’s hard to see it in yourself but all things are possible if you put God first and give it your best effort. Now, contrary to what you all believe…Sister Duncan is NOT perfect! Far from it…but I try to be better every day and I know that my Heavenly Father is proud of that. I have gained a KNOWLEDGE that Christ’s original church has been restored to the earth today through a modern day prophet Joseph Smith. But, it all started with a DESIRE to believe and know. Humbling myself enough to admit I can’t go through life without that relationship with God. I had the desire to get answers to my questions and that’s all He is waiting for. He wants to help each of us; He is just waiting for us to reach out to Him. To end I wanted to share my all-time favorite quote with you that a sister gave me at the very beginning of my mission. It’s from one of our 12 apostles on the earth today, Elder Jeffery R.Holland: