Trust in God's Plan

In this episode, Cydni and Sher share stories, laughs, and lessons from General Conference as they explore what it really means to trust in God’s plan. From honoring President Nelson’s life to finding peace in unexpected places (even without Wi-Fi), they discover that every message pointed to one truth—real happiness comes when we trust God completely. His way is simple, filled with love, hope, and joy. This episode is "Trust in God's Plan" and we are so glad you're here! 

This Week's Challenge
Choose your favorite conference talk and listen again with one question in mind—how can I find happiness by trusting in God’s plan?

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Show Notes

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Transcript

Episode 131 - Trust in God’s Plan

Cydni: [00:00:00] I will admit the older I get, the more I love general conference and I have been very much looking forward to this weekend, especially with the passing of our prophet President Nelson, to find that peace. And we decided as a family to prevent some fist throws. You know, the last session, that's a lot of church. 

Sher: That is a lot of church. 

Cydni: So we decided that our kids would be better off strapped in the seat belts in different rows of the car and we'd drive up the canyon. 

Sher: That was smart. 

Cydni: Thanks. I believe it was inspired by the Holy Ghost, so we drove up the beautiful mountains, which is covered in snow, and the colors are just, they don't even look real. They're so beautiful. here's what was the best part. We drove to the very tip top and just as conference started, we lost all wifi. And I thought, were those parents in the Bible that like. Lead your children astray. We say the prophets and seers are about to speak to you children, but follow [00:01:00] us into no reception. And I thought that was a great example of what not to do as parents, but we did it. The one we heard on the way down though was on repentance, so we turned around, we turned our hearts around and we headed back home and we listened to the rest. It all balanced out. welcome to the Cydni and Sher podcast. As I already mentioned, president Nelson has passed away , and Sher and I just wanted to take a moment and honor our prophet when it comes to President Nelson, I will say that I had an unexpected spiritual experience when I sustained him as a prophet. I was not very familiar with him, and when I put my hand up to say I support this, I felt overcome with the Spirit, and I knew that he was a prophet. I cannot say I remember feeling that way before.

That was my first time that I knew through the Holy Ghost that President Nelson was a prophet of God. We learned about him sitting down together as a family, and here are just a few facts that my kids loved. [00:02:00] President Nelson as a young boy, he once broke every bottle of his parents' alcohol and poured it down the drain of the basement floor. A true prophet sure. 

Sher: They were happy about that. 

Cydni: They were not, they were not happy about that. He played the bugle and he performed the first open heart surgery in Utah. On November 9th, 1955, and they talked about this in conference, but he donated all of his medical journals, which had over 7,000 operations he performed his final open heart surgery while he was a member of the quorum of the 12 on a famous Chinese opera singer. His 10th child was his only son. Can you imagine nine daughters? 

Sher: No, I can't imagine any. 

Cydni: And speaking of daughters, he would curl his daughter's hair and get them ready for church while his wife sang in the Tabernacle Choir. 

Sher: I love that story. is there anything this man cannot do they're saying all these things he was so good at. And then oh, and.

Cydni: There was always, and yeah, there's so [00:03:00] much that he was great at and I loved that he was never late because I told my children that would only be a prophet who was never late. So don't expect that in our household because I'm no profit. 

Sher: You don't have to worry about Cydni being a prophet.

Cydni: He studied at least 12 languages. Amazing. And it talks about his great respect for women. And it is said that President Nelson would often say he chose medicine or surgeon because he couldn't choose to be a mother, which I just love that so much. 

Sher: that's fantastic.

Cydni: And something they loved about him is that. He did not serve a full-time mission due to a war. But also he did not grow up in an active family. my kids found that impressive, that it was truly his choice the way that he lived. And they were really touched by that. Those were just the facts that my kids love. And then we talked about some of our favorite quotes from him. Mine is this. We've shared this so many times in our podcast, but again, it's respect for women because President Nelson made me feel as a woman's, very [00:04:00] empowered and very important. He said, "we need women. Who are devoted to the shepherding of God's children along the covenant path, toward exaltation women who know how to receive personal revelation, who understand the power and the peace of the Temple Endowment. Women who know how to call upon the powers of heaven to protect and strengthen children and families, women who teach fearlessly." I've always loved women who teach fearlessly. 

Sher: Me too. I love that quote. It's so good. And you're right. President Nelson had a way of really respecting and honoring women and definitely being part of the gospel and part of our church. We're not second class. We're definitely arm in arm with our brothers.

Cydni: I couldn't agree more and listening to a few of the speeches at a memorial that was broadcast last week, So many people mentioned how every person he talked to. Was called by their name and was looked in their eye that they felt so important. And when I look through these quotes, he made women feel so important.

But then [00:05:00] also the way he talked about youth. He said, "our youth and children are among the best the Lord has ever sent. They have the capacity to be smarter and wiser and have more impact on the world than any previous generation." And again, he says, "we express our complete confidence in our youth and our gratitude for them." He said stuff about men too, and it was nice, but I'm only sharing those. 

Sher: Fair enough.

Cydni: Actually, I felt like, most of his quotes to men, they're like, step up men, which is true. He does say that, but above all, what I told my children is that President Nelson made me feel loved and important and valued as a woman and as a child of God.

Sher: That was very well said, Cydni. I just wanna add one quote. This is the quote that I'm loving today of President Nelson's. Tomorrow it will be different because he has so many good ones, but today, the one that I really love. Is " in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting and constant [00:06:00] influence of the Holy Ghost."

And I have found such comfort in knowing that it's gonna be hard and it's gonna be difficult, and things are confusing. But as long as I do what I can to keep my covenants and if I am worthy to have the Holy Ghost. He'll help me out and I know that I need somebody backing me up because I can't do it by myself. So I'm really glad that I have somebody that has my back

Cydni: my oldest asked me if I was very sad about the passing of President Nelson. And I said, you know, I actually feel. Someone who lived that long of a life so beautifully, I feel inspired and I felt how wonderful to celebrate his life by jumping right into general conference weekend. ,

Sher: That's a good way to honor him. I didn't think of it like that. You're right. Okay, Cydni we're gonna switch gears now. And what we decided to do with general conference this time is we gave ourselves a little challenge we wanted to focus this month on finding happiness by trusting in God's plan. [00:07:00] And so we listened to conference with that in mind. Listening for that answer, does this really work? Can we really find happiness by trusting in God's plan? And we're gonna find out right now what we learned. 

Cydni: I'm excited to see what direction we both took it, because we have not discussed that yet.

Sher: We have not. So wish luck.

Cydni: Yeah. We have a lot of faith. This will be still easy to edit. Like all the other ones I'm sure.

Sher: I'm sure okay. Cydni this is what I learned. I learned that every single talk answered this question. All of them did. every time they opened their mouth, I was like, and they're answering it again and again. So these are some of the things that I wrote down.

Trust that part of God's plan is he wants us to be peacemakers because that is always the solution. trust, , That beautiful songs that remind us of Christ will bring peace and joy to our souls.

Trust that God knows your true heart and will meet you where you are. Trust that you are a child of God and Heavenly [00:08:00] Father loves you because you are His. Trust that forgiveness and repentance work and neither are a punishment, but will mend your soul and bring you closer to your Savior. Trust that God sees and loves your effort.

Trust that the family unit is God's plan and it works. Trust that your testimony is eternal. Trust that God's plan is less complicated and more simple, and will lead you to more happiness and joy in your life. Trust that God will start over with you as many times as you need because His forgiveness is real, kind and loving.

Trust that God is cheering you on. Trust that God sees you. Trust that God gives us choice. He gives us choice to trust his plan or not. That's all on us. And trust that the Savior completed His life, His atonement and death for you individually because He loves you. And that was just [00:09:00] Saturday Cydni I didn't even write down all of Sundays because that list was really long and I loved it. So I really enjoyed conference and especially looking at it from this angle. because I learned that trusting in God's plan can lead to a happier, more joyful and peaceful life. But I also learned that doesn't make it easier. But it can bring more happiness to your soul. And I know that this is true and sometimes I really doubt my testimony and I think I'm crazy. And that the world is right and that I'm just on this little island thinking incorrectly.

But after listening to conference, I realized that I have had my eyes opened, and I do see the chaos and the confusion and the sadness in this world, and I've seen it over and over again, especially from teaching the last 30 plus years. I have seen the destructiveness of Satan's plan and it's so sad and it hurts, and it leads to so much [00:10:00] heartache, and so many times I pray in my soul that the world would just turn to Jesus to heal it, to heal the hearts of my students that did nothing more. They did nothing wrong other than they were born to a terrible mother or a terrible father, or maybe both. Or they get sucked into peer pressure and they get involved in gangs or the crappy parts of the internet, or they end up with terrible friends that ruin their lives. And it doesn't have to be this hard.

If we turn to our Savior. Our hearts would be healed. Conference taught me that truth over and over again. That trusting in God's plan can lead to happiness and peace in our soul, even in troubled times. 

And then I just wanna point out a couple of things that just. Jumped out to me, and that is, I love the passion that Elder Brown spoke with, discussing testimonies. I personally needed that one. But the talk I do wanna focus on is Elder Hollands, [00:11:00] because to me. Trusting in God's plan and his talk just fit beautifully. And the reason is he reminds us that Jesus used nothing more than spit and dirt to heal the blind man.

This teaches us that Jesus can use any ingredient, even though it may seem silly or embarrassingly plain. Those are my words. he Can take anything. He takes young missionaries and a young Joseph Smith and the uneducated out into the world. But with God's plan, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all because he can use anyone or anything. All he needs are two willing hands and a willing heart, and that's all he needs. He can make simple and plain work for him and his plan and for our good.

Part of trusting in God's plan happiness is knowing he is capable of doing this in each of our lives. We may not know why but trust there is a reason because like the blind man, one day we will see [00:12:00] and understand that the path God wanted us to walk brought us the most growth, the most understanding and the most light. And Cydni, I believe this with all my heart and soul. And because I believe that, I find so much peace in my heart. 

Cydni: I think Jeffrey R. Holland got all of us. I've seen several memes of people crying to him speaking the words of amazing grace at the end. That's so good. I've listened to this talk a total four times now, and I've cried every time. It's so beautiful and I thought there's no coincidence that he struggles with his voice right now too. Use his voice so powerfully it demonstrated exactly what he is saying it doesn't have to be perfect to be powerful.

It just has to be true. And you could feel it. Yeah. I told you I'm having a hard time when I listen to us talk to know what to say about it. All I know is that it's touching my heart and I feel the spirit every time, but I don't know how to put into words why only that it's touching my heart, [00:13:00] because it's truth and I know he's speaking truth and I could feel it through the spirit.

I love so much that you talked about the blind man, that those who were enemies of Christ said to the blind man who was just healed that Jesus is a sinner and he thinks for a moment and says, I don't know if he's a sinner, but I know I was blind and I know that now. I see. And that has caused me to reflect a lot because so often the things we want to say, we don't know how to, but we know what we know and that cannot be taken away from us.

No surprise. We did this completely different. Yours is organized. Yours is actually alphabetically organized. Mine is written in seven different tabs on my computer that's about to die. 

Sher: And when Cydni says alphabetically, it's an outline. It's not alphabetical. It's. Outline. Outline. Mm-hmm. 

Cydni: With letters that are in alphabetical order. 

Sher: There's numbers and letters as part of the outline.

Cydni: [00:14:00] Okay. Well, I'm just saying mine doesn't look like that.

Sher: Maybe I could teach you how to do that. You know, since I am a teacher, maybe we could have a little lesson. 

Cydni: I don't know about this improvement stuff. But what I did is there was a few talks that just stood out to me. And I went back and I listened to my favorite talks with the thought, how do we find happiness in God's plan? So I'm just gonna tell you what came to mind because one of my favorites is someone you said you knew, which is Peter M. Johnson. 

Sher: I went to college with him. 

Cydni: That talk got all of us. We loved it in our house. He's good. He was passionate. It's 'cause he's from my alma mater and his wife as well. Well, we loved that one. And so I just wrote down a few things that came to mind when I listened to it because for me, my takeaway from. Elder Johnson's talk is to make our discipleship our highest priority. He told us to live the doctrine of Christ. And some of this is my own words of what came to me as he spoke, but make time for holiness [00:15:00] through the temple, worship also through the sacrament to make time for service. Ministering to the one. He talked about the gospel as a young missionary, that he didn't understand some of the history and how, it was painful to understand it. And something that stood out the most is that he had an issue that was causing him pain, and he said, I gained the confidence to pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ. My takeaway from his talk was Difficult times, sealed his heart to Christ. He shared this scripture from Dr. In Covenant 6 21 through 24. Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the son of God. I am the same that came unto my own and my own. Receive me not. I am the light, which shineth and darkness. And the darkness comprehended not verily verily I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart that you might know concerning the truth of these [00:16:00] things, did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?

When I thought about happiness and God's plan. And I listened to his talk. My takeaway was that even through difficult times where we don't have all of the answers, that we can have the courage to go to God in prayer, seeking truth, and we could have faith that he will answer our prayers and bring peace to us even in the darkest times.

Sher: I loved his talk also, it gave me comfort knowing that it's okay if I don't get everything 'cause I don't understand all the doctrine, I don't understand all the gospel, I don't understand all the scriptures, but what I can understand. Is the feeling of the Holy Spirit whispering to me that it's true, and that is something I can understand. And it is simple and it is plain and it's beautiful to my soul that I get 

Cydni: well said. I love so much that he shares an experience of darkness and confusion and [00:17:00] anger, and what he gathers from it is to make discipleship our highest priority.

Elder Patrick. Karen's my next one because when I was listening to his and I thought, how do we have happiness in God's plan? His was all about new beginnings. It was about hope he said two things I wanted to share. One was this quote. Little by little, the more we invite his goodness into our hearts and cast out the self-defeating voices in our hearts, we become his people because we truly make him our God. Jesus so keenly wants to be our king and our shepherd and our prince of peace, and we can choose to make him so in our own hearts and our minds.

His whole talk was about that you're not too far gone to change. Doesn't matter how old you are or what you've done, that this church is the gospel of change. It is the gospel of hope and it is the gospel of new [00:18:00] beginnings. I found his speech to be so beautiful and one line he said I just adored is the adversary is the only one who benefits from the idea that you are sunk. You are not. That was a great line. He always has something extra spicy and fun. Yes. He's so easy to listen to. . My final one that I have is from Elder Kevin G. Brown. He shares three truths in the beginning, that God is our loving Father in Heaven. That agency is a gift and a responsibility. To choose wisely. And then he talks about the gift of the Holy Ghost, and he uses President Nelson's quote to take charge of your own testimony. That comes from this quote, I plead with you to take charge of your testimony of Jesus Christ. Work for it, own it, care for it. Nurture it so that it will grow. Feed it truth. Then watch for the miracles that happen in your life. That's by President Nelson. [00:19:00] And then he says to me the words change work, own care, nurture. Feed sound like an agent given stewardship for something precious and important for me. When I listened to Elder Brown's talk and I asked myself, what's the recipe for happiness in God's plan, it was about taking ownership of your core beliefs and living them, and that I saw over and over to understand what you believe and to then live it and live it fully and live it boldly and unapologetically.

We challenge you to pick your favorite talk, and while you re-listen to it and study it again, ask yourself. How can I find happiness and trusting in God's plan. 

Sher: This brings us to our final thoughts. This last weekend. We've realized that every message from conference points back to one truth. Trust. Trust that God's plan is simple. It's not easy, but beautifully designed to bring real [00:20:00] joy to our souls. Trust that he sees us, he knows us and meets us where we are. He can take the plane and ordinary like dirt and spit and turn it into something miraculous.

He can take us and make something divine when we choose to trust him, even when we don't understand the why. Peace replaces chaos and hope replaces fear. We know that trusting in His plan brings the only lasting happiness there is for His way is simple and filled with love, hope, and joy. This is our prayer from Cydni and Sher. And also to my niece, Danielle, I love you. And I want you to kick that cancer's butt, like the tough woman that you are. 

Cydni: Yes. [00:21:00] Rudy has silence. We have faith. He's so offended. Sher. We drove up the canyon for conference for the last session and I found, is he gonna be good? Are you gonna be good? Only one of us could be bad today.

Sher: I may have to answer that. Yeah. Go. 

Cydni: Hello? Yes.

Good. How are you?

 Why can I have such a hard time? Because we're who 

Sher: we are. 

Cydni: Happiness. That's why finding I should have alphabetized this. Okay? You are going to have an easy time editing this. Mm-hmm. Amen. Get a life. I'm just kidding. It's just my kid's school again. Oh, just kidding. It's not. I keep getting spam calls. I mostly promise this will not be horrendous. 

Sher: Have a good week. Bye.