"Do Not Quit. Enjoy the Ride!"

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English | French | Portuguese | Spanish

Andrea Muñoz Spannaus: Hello, dear friends! I am happy to be with you for the next few minutes. And thank you for choosing to watch this brief devotional.

I have a lot of friends who are studying at BYU-Pathway. And I also have a friend that, when she graduated, asked me to bake some cookies to celebrate with her gathering group. Here is a picture of the cookies. Yes, what can I say, now I am a fan of BYU-Pathway!

As you can hear, English is not my first language. I was born in Argentina and lived almost my entire life there. If this is your case and English is not your mother tongue, well, I understand your situation.

A few years ago, I studied English at EnglishConnect Level 3 and had a great experience improving my language. I understand some of the challenges you might have when you want to study in English, if English is not your first language.

Now with my calling to serve in the General Presidency of the Young Women, I need to give 98 percent of my talks and devotionals in English, like this one, and the time and effort I need to put into this is usually double. I also need someone to correct my grammar and make sure that my message is understandable. So, I understand when the same thing happens to you.

Also, I imagine you having a job, caring for your family, and serving the Lord in your Church calling. And of course, sometimes, you will not have enough time to finish your homework or write your papers with the perfection you would like. And I know what could happen then: because of this, maybe your grades are not what you expect and, sometimes, you could feel disappointed or frustrated. My friends, this is okay. Please, listen to me: hang in there, and do not quit!

In the scriptures, the Lord invites us several times to remember, and today I would like to invite you to do the same. Go back in your mind to the days when you wanted to start studying. Are you there? Remember when you were full of energy making your plans? It could have been a few years ago or just recently. Okay, now grab a paper and something to write with, and divide the paper into two columns. And in the left column, make a list of your objectives, goals, or dreams when you started your career at BYU-Pathway. You will need to pause the video and take a few minutes to write your list. I will wait for you here. Come on, hit the button!

Did you do it? Okay. We will go back to your list, but first I would like to tell you about something that happened to me when I was about 21 years old.

At home I slept in the bottom bunk bed. One day, I decided to write my goals for the year on a paper and stick the paper on the underside of the top bunk, in a way that every night and every morning I could see what I wanted to accomplish that year. At the end of that year, I realized that I had accomplished each one of my goals.

One of the goals off my list was to learn how to drive. I had no car and no possibility of buying one, but I knew it was important to me to learn how to drive. Because my goal was so present to me, I was able to recognize the opportunity to learn as soon as I had one. I learned, and then, five years later when I got married, we bought a car. I would like to introduce to you my dear friend Karen. She has a wonderful experience to share with you.

Sister Karen Fogg: Your story reminds me of my Grandma Jo. She was born in 1895 and died in 2005. That’s right, she lived to be nearly 110. In the 1920s when cars were beginning to become popular, most women didn’t learn to drive because the men would do the driving. Jo was a schoolteacher and rode on horseback to the schoolhouse, but she wanted to learn to drive.

This turned out to be a useful skill. She loved to travel and was quite adventurous. Here she is in 1925 with her sister — my grandma’s the one on the ostrich.

Sister Spannaus: This is a wonderful picture!

Sister Fogg: Grandma Jo used to drive me and my sisters to museums, fairs, daffodil gardens, and gold mines. We were fascinated by her stories.

She taught me to love learning and was a great influence in my life. Years ago, when I had three young children and a job as a morning news anchor, my day started at 3:30 a.m. I was so tired. I had the opportunity to move into my dream job doing the evening news, but that meant not being there for my family.

When I prayed for guidance, I felt impressed to change career paths and become an author. Now I knew nothing about how to publish books, but I did have a passion for storytelling, and I was confident I could learn. Every day, it felt as though an unseen power was sending me ideas for the story, and I couldn’t wait to get to my writing.

These positive feelings motivated me to keep working at it until my books were eventually published. My goal at the time was to become a rich and famous author, but that didn’t happen. The Lord had other plans for me. Now I have the ultimate dream job of supporting Church leaders, like you, in bringing the message of Jesus Christ to the world.

Sister Spannaus: Thank you, Karen. If you haven’t noticed any grammar mistakes so far, it is because Karen has been helping me with my talks and PowerPoint presentations. Thank you, Karen.

How is your attitude when you are setting goals? Are you setting your goals from a positive state of mind, with positive thoughts and energy? We need to involve our Father and pray with faith because it is not just you; it is with the Lord’s help that you can reach your full potential.

Now, please, go back to your paper and observe your goals. Do you need to make any adjustment to achieve your first objective? On the right column, write the adjustments you need to make. And maybe you already have better objectives than the ones you had at the beginning. So, pause the video as you write and observe the differences between the two columns. Yes, I’ll still be here when you come back.

How was it? I wish I could be there to hear about your experience.

Only with God we can accomplish our righteous dreams and goals. He is there to share our load, to yoke with us. He will do His part, but we need to do ours.

In this talk President Nelson said:

I would like to extend these two invitations to you:

Do you want to improve your English level? Read the Book of Mormon every day in English. Out loud? Even better!

Do you want to know how to organize your time or make your plan with positive thinking and passion? I invite you to pray with faith: asking Heavenly Father in faith to show you how you can achieve your goals in a more effective way.

Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ are very interested in your life. They will help you in such a way that you will find time to do all that you need to be doing with your family, your calling, your job, and your studies. He knows your efforts and your desire to study and to graduate.

I promise He will magnify your efforts. He will help you. Exercise faith and involve the Father in your plans. And then open your eyes to see the heavenly help and miracles that will come.

Enjoy the ride! In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.