Project: Who Am I?

Today in institute, the lesson that Brother Chatwin taught was exactly what I needed. He started out with having us all draw a self portrait. Mine was horrible, and I didn't even get to drawing my face. Then, he had us turn over the paper and write down answers to the question "Who Am I?" I struggled for a few minutes... do I know who I am? The first thing I decided to write down is that I am Emily. I am a daughter of earthly and heavenly parents. I am full of sass. I am compassionate and I am a friend. Then the question was asked "Who determines who you are? Did you write down the things you did because someone told you them?" I thought for a while. Some of my answers were things people had told me I was. Others I wrote down because I came to know them for myself. We came to the conclusion that we matter because we were created and foreordained by God to come to Earth and fulfill our purpose and potential. I thought a lot about my patriarchal blessing. I think I know who I am and why I matter mostly because of what I learned about myself in my patriarchal blessing. It encourages me to keep working toward my best self. I was important in the pre-mortal World, and I was excited to come to earth. I know that I have a lot to accomplish here on earth, and I was excited to come down here to do the work. I needed this reminder today, and I need to be reminded of it more often. I have the potential to become like God. He is my Father, and I need to stop waisting time, and get going on working and striving to be more like him. To end the lesson he talked about Abraham 3, which was the assigned reading for the day. It Abraham 3 it talks about Kolob, and how 1,000 years is 1 day to God. Then he did an equation to figure out how long we really have been on earth if it were in God's time. He took the age of 20 years old, multiplied it by 12, and then divided by 8.4 to get 28.5 minutes away from God. I have been on Earth for only 28.5 minutes. How have I done so far? Have I been good? He ended with saying, "I think that Heavenly Father pulled us aside and said, I need you to go down to Earth and just be good for an hour and a half? Can you do that? You told him that you could do an hour and a half. You could be good that long." So, I am going to do my best to be good for an hour and a half. He has promised us blessings and guidance for the time that we are here on Earth, and so I will use his guidance and direction, through prayer, to grow and become more like him. All that Heavenly Father is asking of us is to learn and grow and become closer and more like Him. If we can do this, He has promised us eternal life and so many blessings.