Goal-Making with God | Our Turtle House: Digital Fireside

[Music] hello and welcome to tonight's our turtle house fireside we hope you had a fantastic christmas i know i've got my christmas tree still set up but don't worry that'll be down for next week's fireside thank you so much for joining us and hope that you you and your family wherever you may be throughout the world had a fantastic holiday season now it's time for new year's resolutions and goals and and recommitting yourselves to the things that are that are important to you so that's what tonight's fireside is all about i'll introduce our speakers in just a few minutes but before we do if you haven't yet go to turtle.link slash app and download the r turtle house app it's 100 free and you get so much amazing content from some of your favorite speakers like john by the way hank smith meg johnson and so many more and that includes some brand new turtle talks that i'll tell you about in just a few minutes but uh before i get to that please share your feedback and your ideas for speakers and topics because we pull from from those ideas every single week and so if you've got somebody that you'd love to hear from or a topic you'd love to hear about then please go to turtle.link share and let us know your thoughts there's a couple people that we're gonna we're gonna call it this week for the feedback that they shared with us first off is lindsay who said these firesides have been the best thing this year thank you so much for continuing to organize and share them with us lindsay thank you so much for tuning in every week and we're glad that you have enjoyed these firesides there's so much to put so much fun to put on so thank you so much for tuning in we also want to point out andrea who says thank you thank you thank you for bringing so much light and love into our world and for lifting us every week andrea thank you so much we're so glad that you've enjoyed these fire signs this week's topic like i said is about goals and dreams and and it's for margaret who said goal making with god thank you so much margaret for sharing that idea and it actually goes right along with a turtle talk by meg johnson that was just released this month and it's going to be free on the r turtle house app all the way through january 5th so if you have a goal or a dream or something that you'd like to succeed in in your life this turtle talk is 100 free and it is fantastic it's going to be it's going to bring a different side of goal making that you probably haven't considered before it's a it's a formula for success so go ahead and check it out for free on the r turtle house app and with that let's go ahead and introduce our speakers for tonight's buyer side our first speaker has introduced or has inspired thousands in the classroom and on the court he loves to engage and equip learners and players with transferable skills to help them become their best selves unofficially he can considers himself a pong guru and a diy pioneer he loves a great challenge he's an adventure a love is a great adventure or a pair of back basketball shoes but most of all he loves being a husband and a dad and he just wishes that he was better at both let's welcome jake blaser jake how are you doing man good how are you doing doing well do you guys have a did you and your family have a great christmas awesome so awesome i uh wish i would have got a new ping-pong paddle but i do have this one here i love it i love it maybe next year maybe santa will bring it to you next year well thank you so much for being with us here tonight okay our next speaker you may have heard of brother richards before but just in case you haven't here's a few interesting facts about him he grew up attending the mountain view baptist church in san diego before missionaries baptized him and his mom he served a mission in the jungles of honduras where he cut things down with machetes he lived in a hut and he even ate spiders and what's really cool is that now his son dawson is serving in the same mission as his dad he met his wife as at efy and eventually moved to utah so that he could teach seminary play water polo and volleyball for utah state and of course to marry his wife and now just a couple random little facts about him he can clap with one hand he's left-handed he's part white polynesian black and native american he eats chocolate every day he grew up as an only child his mom is an only child and his grandma was an only child too so his family reunions are pretty small and he's known for his constant smile and excitement for the gospel an excitement that some people say reminds them of olaf from the movie frozen so with that let's welcome our next speaker eric richards eric how are you doing fantastic thanks again for having me i can i can kind of see the resemblance between you and uh you and olaf i i don't know what it is but i can kind of yeah yeah it's a white shirt it's the white shirt it's the white bird that's what it is it's the white shirt well thanks so much for being with us eric hey you better love this time of year and uh i just love what you guys put together what a blessing you are to to the world really thanks for having me on oh thank you so much that that means a lot and thanks again for being with us okay our final speaker motivates and moves audiences he creates an experience that touches hearts for a lifetime he's one of the youngest ever to be inducted into the prestigious national speaker hall of fame and in 2001 at the age of 27 his life changed in an instant with a when a 2 000 pound bale of hay shattered his neck leaving him a quadriplegic but his dreams were not paralyzed that day he became an example of what's possible he's a best-selling author a president of his own communications company and recognized world-class wheelchair athlete in 2003 he set a world record by wheeling his chair from salt lake city to las vegas that's 513 miles his speaking career he speaks in the area areas of leadership team building and customer service and mastering change and that's brought in multiple honors he served as a president of the national speaker association the utah chapter and is a member of the elite speakers roundtable one of the 20 the world's 20 best speakers in the world as a member of the national speakers association he travels as many as three hundred thousand miles a year captivating and entertaining audiences around the world he's graced the stage of hundreds of professional and civic organizations including wells fargo blue crash blue shield att rain bird ihc american express prudential life uh vast fx and merrill lynch let's welcome chad hymas chad how are you doing my friend hey mark good to see i want to clarify one thing i don't think i've traveled three miles this year i was gonna say i was gonna say that's probably cut down quite dramatically oh buddy oh you have no idea oh my gosh great to be with you all though this is exciting this is this is gonna be so so much fun we've never had this group together before and so i'm so excited for tonight's fireside with that chad would you go ahead and offer us an opening prayer honored you bet our father and have we come to thee this sabbath evening grateful for the opportunity to have this week this christmas week and be able to honor the upcoming year and to be able to rekindle and rejuvenate and set some goals we're grateful for the speakers tonight that have given of their time and grateful for the platform of uh turtle conferences and for what they offer and for the the much needed content and need of it in the world we are grateful for adversity and for what it teaches us and and how it helps us to grow we ask a blessing to be upon all of us that are sharing tonight that we might have thy spirit to be with us that we might share those things that are pertinent and that are needed for thy children again we're grateful for this opportunity and we see these things in the name of thy son jesus christ amen amen awesome well thank you all again for being with us tonight and we'll have chad and eric go backstage for a little bit and i get to hang out with jake jake this is i bet this is kind of a cool topic to for you to talk about where you you're a semi-professional ping-pong player well obviously you'll have basketball too and tennis too if i'm not mistaken is that correct yeah yeah i coach and and teach and it's it's been part of the makeup of everything i'm i'm about and loved so it's i'm excited it's it's a fun topic thanks thanks for having me i love it well i'm excited to hear what you have to share with us so go ahead and take it away my friend awesome i uh was looking at some new year's resolutions and things that i'm working on doing and i saw this meme and uh i got to share a couple things from it with you but uh for 2021 right new year's resolutions one of them said travel to the other side of the room another one said uh eat a vegetable wear a different shirt bathe reduce screen time from 12 hours a day to 11 hours a day go on a vitamin and supplement shopping spree and finish at least one bottle before i give up uh i think sometimes our goals change drastically and maybe we've seen it different different times right i know chad we were talking to him about how travel's been stifled and everything that's happened this past year well as our goals change and vary and we're we're trying to just do a little bit better make one better decision each day the cool thing is god's goals remain the same think about it moses 139 right for behold this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man and while god strives to to bring us home and have us back and and help us be better it's interesting what the devil does with our goals uh i actually had a student reading that verse one day and she was the sweetest girl but she's like for behold this is my work in my glory to bring to pass the more to immorality and eternal life of man i said no no no read it again to bring the best the immorality in eternal life is like no that's interesting though because that's the devil and the devil is striving to get us to do bad right to be immoral and and to not meet our goals to not get up off the couch and move around the house and and wear a different shirt and different things like that he wants us to be immobile and and so we don't have that that passion and zeal for life and so it's interesting to think about as we set goals and and resolutions how god is such a big part of that and as our goals are in line with his we see miracles happen look at daniel for example in the old testament daniel is a perfect example of goals and in fact i wish we knew more about his life before he gets to the king's palace it says this this is fascinating to me in the chapter one there it says the children in which there was no blemish they were well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning and knowledge and understanding of science and such had an ability in them to stand in the king's palace right they've been through this ancient stem program and they're the elite they're not just brought into training camp because they just kind of threw a few passes or they but they've been through this goal setting idea and i i wish we could see a glimpse of the things that they've accomplished and maybe their journal maybe someday we'll read that and see everything they did but it's cool they're in the king's palace they're at training camp they're going to see miracles aft miracle after miracle and little did they know maybe right at the time that all the the little patterns that they had created in their life what it would do for them there for example right the king's meat comes and the wine and daniel says i've already committed in my heart he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself and so he says no i'm not going to do it and he he received favor with the prince and so the prince says okay well let's do this 10 day challenge and i know we're all going to do some diet challenges this year and they do this 10-day challenge after the challenge daniel shadrach meshach and abednego right their faces and countenance appeared fairer and fatter and that's awesome we they they see these blessings because of maybe this preparation and i know sometimes when i get on the scale i feel a little a little heavier and i just i just tell myself that it's the armor of god right that's that's what's making me feel a little more a little more weight different times of the year and anyways but these four children it's interesting they're called children they're obviously younger here but god gave them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams god helps them with their goals they've purposed it in their heart and god wants to bless them and help them and so they go through this cool pattern of all these different things and uh later the the king says ah you guys are 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in in his realm and they they have all these challenges come their way it's interesting right we know shadrach meshach and abednego in the third chapter they see this challenge they get thrown in the fiery furnace they come out they don't smell like smoke and they're able to overcome and move forward and then daniel says blessed be the name of god forever and ever for wisdom and might are his he changeth the times and the seasons he removeth kings and sets up kings giveth wisdom to the wise and the knowledge to them that knoweth understanding he revealeth the deep and the secret things he knoweth what is the dark is in the darkness and the light dwelleth in him what a better way to go about setting our goals than than to be connected with the source of all understanding the source of truth henry b ia ring said that what we do allows the atonement of jesus christ to make us what we should be as we let jesus christ be a part of our lives right and goal and we're connected with that through prayer and uh just this diligence of of nearing god and and jesus christ each day they bless us and it's it's a miraculous thing in fact darius uh right king darius has daniel be one of the three presidents over 120 different princes over the entire kingdom how did daniel get there these are goals with god he gets there and i wish we saw more of the details anyways but he's one of the presidents and they they make this decree you shouldn't pray we're going to do this for a month no praying and daniel gets on his knees three times a day still he still prays because he's created this pattern in his life regardless of of maybe things that others try to push on at him or peer pressure he he's gonna he's gonna stick with this goal he has in his life because he knows what it's doing for him and he gets thrown in the lion stand you're familiar with this right he comes out and the king is so grateful that he's saved and the king actually fasted for daniel and and so you see this system of goals that shadrach meshach and abednego have and daniel as they strive to do what's right to do good continually and to see those blessings in their life and so as you think of goals this this new year and different challenges you want to take on i hope it's a relationship that's connected with god could you imagine meeting the girl of your dreams or the guy of your dreams you go on this first awesome date and uh you loved it you're in love you love this this idea of being with them and then you don't do anything with them for a while no dates no hanging out no text and then next christmas comes and you're like oh yeah i i gotta reach out to that girl or that guy again and i i got to make this relationship work and that obviously we've done that before time and time again with goals and one of the best things we can do is have this constant relationship with them so a few years ago here's a bad but maybe good example i uh i felt like i just was starting to get this dad bod like things were not going the way i wanted like i was playing basketball and tennis and i was doing some things to keep active but i just started to feel it come on right i was i was getting soft and i said i gotta work out i don't have time to work out we have three little girls and and life's crazy three under the age of three uh for a time was just chaos but awesome and i didn't have time to go to the gym or do different things that i wanted to do maybe actively so i said okay i'm just gonna do push-ups maybe i'll do 30 push-ups a day and that was that was my goal 30 seconds right i don't know minutes some days but 30 push-ups every day i'm going to work on this goal and then every month i'm going to go up 10 push-ups so i did this 30 push-ups every day if i missed a day i the next day i had to go back and and redo it or do 60 right the next day and so i did this 40 push-ups the next month 50 60. that year and i still like i'm like what just like compound interest right you put in the time to do it and it's not crazy amounts of time but that year i did over 33 000 push-ups right by that next july after right i i was doing 140 push-ups in a row every day it was amazing so i said well i got to do with pull-ups so i did with pull-ups i started doing 17 pull-ups a day and and then i'd say okay i'm going to go up three every month and i'm still doing push-ups and trying to be active and time after time right and it was everything i had and my wife would help me be accountable and and it was so good for me anyways by the end of that year i met a goal that i never thought in my lifetime at but i'd be able to do but 50 pull-ups in a row every single day and that next month of or that 12 months later in july and it's because of the simple goals and steady consistency of doing those goals every single day each month and i'm not a i'm not super good at this but i i've seen this small impact of little things i tell my tennis players all the time it's the daily acts of of doing it right what we do allows the atonement of jesus christ to make us what we can be or help let god help us with our goals and our lives and allow us to see that and so i challenge you to do that with any goals that you have in mind there are some great people out there that are really good at goals and and how they've been able to accomplish it but just look at what's something you could do better this day what could you see happen this day so god can bless you and you can see those things happen in your life and maybe it starts with with those simple prayers and being steady and repetitive with that like daniel was and it helped him get through possibly this this craziest time in his life little did he know right he was going to be thrown into this den of the lions and are they these challenges and so many things and i just love this think about this 25 31 19 and 20 and think about goal setting with god as i just read this and now my beloved brother and after you've gotten into this straight narrow path i would ask if all is done behold i say unto you nay you've not come this far save it where by the words of christ with unshaken faith in him relying holy upon the merits of him whose mighty is saved wherefore ye must press forward with a steadfastness in christ having a perfect brightness of hope and the love of god and all men and if you press forward feasting on the words of christ and endure to the end behold thus saith the father you shall have eternal life that's goals that's that's power to to move forward intentionally in your life and i just know that's real i i testify of that those good habits that you create and micro habits maybe as you stack them on things that you do regularly will have an impact in your life and in this new year 2021 and you'll see those blessings just just come and pour like they did for daniel and his and his buddies and i know that's real and i testified that i felt it in my life in a amazing ways in the classroom at home and on the court in so many different ways it's been a miracle for me to see goals with god happen and i testify that share that in the name of jesus christ amen amen jake i love you talk about micro goals that you you don't accomplish this massive thing it can it can just be something small like 30 push-ups or i remember talking with one of my friends about going to the gym and and the goal that i set was just i'm just gonna show up i'm gonna if i walk in the doors of the gym then i can i can count it you know because once you show up it's like well i guess i might as well go run or go lift some weights and it just builds from there i love i love how you talk about just taking things really really simple and really small and building up from there thank you so much for sharing that thanks one of the best things you can do is just put your shoes on right exactly exactly exactly so fun i want to hear what these guys have to say yeah chad and eric what are you what do you what really stood out to you about uh jake's oh no not about my talk i want to hear from them i want to hear about it i was i was inspired about the 10 push-ups i want to per i want him to come personally train me how to do and i also you know his his love for basketball we have the same passion i i think i can take him oh hey i would love anything right eric right eric you know me you know you know my game you know my game absolutely absolutely you know what i i i put some money on chad yeah i think i'd put some money on chad maybe thanks for talking about betting mark's talking about betting on an lds on an lds platform i love this this is what we need for the new year on the sabbath day good job mark [Laughter] we're having too much fun well this is a great time of year this is an awesome job jake i love your talk you know jake i read something that said if you can improve one percent every day at the end of the year you'll be 365 percent better and that's what i thought of when you were talking about that push-up challenge that that's pretty impressive yeah you're cool that's awesome man so good so good just i love it's all about just keeping things simple we don't we i think we would make things more complicated than they need to be a lot of times at least i do so well jake thank you so much for for sharing your thoughts and your testimony tonight and uh and just giving some ideas on how we can make goal setting with god a little bit more simple so thank you so much go ahead and move to our next speaker our next speaker is sir eric sir eric olaf richards mikey crack me up man i just think of the last time that you were on or one of the last times that you were on and and uh and i put a side by side of you and olaf up that's right that's right you did you know i don't know you're like who exactly exactly well my friend you're awesome i can't wait to hear what you have to share with us go ahead and take it away hey mark i might have a little slide if you could uh stay on and uh i have a little list that it might be kind of fun to see it we don't need it but if you're able to i'd love to to do that but love this idea this time of year with goal setting and if if any of you are like me you know that setting goals uh can be a little bit daunting a little bit challenging mostly at least for me because i worry i have fears i hate to fail and so setting goals and dreaming big and huge is hard because i worry about failure i hate being embarrassed by failing i looked up um fears just to see what most americans are afraid of and some of you are probably on this list um spiders is on the list many of you that's my mom oh my mom bless her heart she is so afraid of spiders um snakes is on the list as well and i don't blame you if you're afraid of snakes i don't blame you because they can move and they don't have legs and that's just not natural so i don't blame you there at all heights that's my wife oh she is so afraid of heights um needles and shots that's on the list um clowns were on the list i don't know why that made the top 10 list but sure enough clowns are on there maybe that's you public speaking believe it or not that'd be kind of fun to share in this video the public speaking is on the list of common fears for americans the one that cracked me up though you guys was the fear of long words have any of you read this before what the fear of long words is called it happens to be hippopotamus rosa's kipidalia phobia it's 36 letters long the fear of long words the dictionary word that the psychological term is 36 letters long for the fear of long words okay i don't know what psychologist came up with that but that's that's cruel that's mean i'm here to witness and this is kind of fun in the bible the phrase fear not is used 365 times i love that one for every single day of the year as you look forward to this new year called 2021 as you come up with your goals and ideas fear not i think that the lord wants us to remember that message in fact most every time that an angel comes and appears to immortal the first two words out of that angel's mouth are fear not and i think that's the message that god and heaven want us to hear more than anything else is to fear not and i don't know our little uh turtle uh audience what you're afraid of but a group this large is probably some of you that are afraid of you know likes on social media or finding friends or maybe fears about your future your body your mission your future marriage the career that you choose if you're like me maybe the fear of running out of chocolate because i oh i love chocolate i'm such a chocoholic there's a difference you guys between worry and fear worry is just you have something negative that needs to be addressed and we're going to have worry that's part of mortality that's part of living in a telesco world but fear and you know this fear is a monster fear hijacks the way that you and i think fear keeps us up at night fear might make it where we can't eat we can't sleep fear can control our our bodies it it paralysis it causes a paralysis within us it is a monster that hijacks the way that we think and the way that we process our lives and again scripturally we're going to have fears as many worries but scripturally over and over and over again the mandate is to fear not here's one reason why we fear in our brains we have an organ called the amygdala it's about the size of an almond and what it does is it records any negative stimulus anything bad that's happened to something negative something painful something awkward something embarrassing the amygdala records it but it records it and actually processes it so that remember it bigger than it actually was so when you were bit by a dog you remember that dog bigger than it actually was you remember the pain being more painful than it actually was it's kind of a self-defense mechanism that we avoid returning to negative situations so for you if you were betrayed when you were younger you might now have a fear of talking to people if your parents were divorced you might have a worry or a fear of dating or marriage if you've been teased about your looks you might worry about your appearance if you uh failed you might over analyze over process and overthink your life i read this on on pinterest about fear and worry it says that fear is a conversation we have with ourselves about things that cannot change but faith is a conversation we have with god about things that he can change isn't that beautiful another one that i read um the only thing that that fearing can change is your personality and that is so true in fact the savior said that you can't even add one inch to your height by worrying about it okay uh really fear does not change anything here's here's one little um thing again if you think about your goals for this upcoming year maybe some of your worrying in your you have fears about your goals and maybe that fear of failure remember this that fear is caused by thoughts fear is simply caused by thoughts in our mind let's say again back to the dog analogy if you're walking down the street and you see a dog and all of a sudden you feel fear you don't feel fear because there's a dog you feel fear because of what you think about dogs in general if you had a negative experience with dogs you think oh there's a dog dogs are mean dogs are vicious dogs bite people dogs cause me pain therefore i'm afraid of dogs right i have a little uh a little technique that i use that's been so helpful instead of saying phrases like i'm afraid i try to change that to i am feeling fear or i am feeling sadness or i am feeling worry or i am feeling anxiousness if i can come up with a one word description of how i'm feeling it helps me separate from my feelings from my thoughts and i can just process it a little more cognitively it helps me then really analyze what i'm really feeling and it helps me be able to cope with it in a much much more positive way i would invite you if you have a worry or a fear about one of your goals maybe it's a big goal for this upcoming year but you're worried about rejection or failure instead of oh i'm just i'm afraid no no you're not afraid you're feeling fear you're feeling where you're feeling anxiousness process it through those thoughts rather than with your feelings and you'll see an amazing empowerment come as you separate your thoughts from your feelings okay now i love um i love what our prophets have taught about fear in fact every prophet president nelson president hinckley president montz you got on the list they have all shared at least one talk about being confident being courageous and it's so fun i put it to the test though i actually went to the scriptures to see is there anything that god cannot do we have all these wonderful quotes about optimism and courage and being able to do things but scripturally is there anything that god cannot do i'm not sure if i can share um my screen with you let me give it a try here and uh see if it will come up aha it will share share there we go um let me add that perfect there it is so watch this you guys i found 10 things that god cannot do as you set your goals for this year keep in mind there's there's things that god cannot do yes the creator of the universe the father of us all the one that created this beautiful world in worlds without end has some limitations did you know that god cannot create a child that is a loser that's from psalm 139 did you know that god cannot break a promise that's dnc 8210 did you know that god can't pick favorites in fact he's no respecter of persons that's acts 10 34. did you know he can't have mood swings first nephi 10 18 he's the same yesterday today and forever did you know that god cannot let you be tempted above that what you're able to bear first corinthians 10 13. did you know he can't become tired of you first peter 5 6 and 7. he can't give up on you that's romans 8 38-39 he can't forget about you that's isaiah 49 15 in fact he's engraving you upon the palms of his hands he can't ignore you that's psalm 136 verse 1 and god cannot stop loving you he will love you forever isaiah 41 verse 10. yes the god of the universe the creator of everything that has ever existed has some limitations but they are so beautiful and they show that he is a champion for our causes i love that you guys let me share just a story as we bring this kind of all together uh as mark said i grew up in this baptist church and we had a a very energetic uh pastor he was so fun so fun to listen to i remember the story they told about a young boy sitting on a park bench reading his bible he said this young man was out there and he came from one of these charismatic churches where they say hallelujah and praise jesus and and they love to worship very demonstratively it is so delightful as i go back to visit some of my friends it is so fun to worship our savior with them because they are so expressive in how they praise our lord and savior as this boy was studying he just hallelujah praise jesus god is good a professor came walking by and noticed this boy's enthusiasm and he said son why are you so excited about this bible he says oh sir i'm reading here in exodus the lord he is so good so mighty so powerful he's just led the children of israel out of bondage and now moses is part of the red sea and they're walking through the dead sea or the red sea on dry ground i can't believe how good our god is and this professor shook his heads and said i have some bad news to share the archaeologists the climatologists the historians they have actually studied the story and at this moment in history there was a huge drought and the red sea was probably at most eight inches deep so when they walked across the red sea it was only eight inches of water this poor boy felt defeated and this professor feeling encouraged to enlighten this boy this ignorant young man about the truths of the bible began to walk away he had taken about 10 or 15 steps when all of a sudden from behind he heard hallelujah praise jesus and this professor went back over and said son didn't i tell you didn't i tell you this boy looked up with faith and said sir i know exactly what you told me but i read the next verse the next verse says right here that god drowned the entire egyptian army in only eight inches of water god is better than i thought he was hallelujah praise jesus he is my god the almighty is so fun because we can have that that sense of of confidence in fact the word i use to love when i i think about goals is god fidence it's a confidence in god as we make goals it's a confidence in god this confidence is we try to become a little bit better scripturally it's jeremiah 17 verse 7 blessed is the one who trusts in the lord whose confidence is in him and i'd like to show you maybe an example of that um in scripturally abraham was given a promise he was told this abraham if you if you're interested i'm going to bless people that bless you i'm going to curse people that curse you if you will be my people and if you let me be your god so again abraham anyone that is good to you i'm going to be good to them and anyone that messes with you no not on my watch i'm going to mess with i'm going to curse them if you will just be my people and let me be your god and that's jeremiah 30 verse 22. that's a summary what we call the abrahamic covenant abraham said that sounds great made the covenant with god he then passed that same covenant on to his son isaac isaac to his son jacob you know this jacob changed his name to israel you guys right now if you look at your hands you have little veins these little purple streaks on your arms your forearms your i have some right here my little thumb the back of my my hands if we could take out your blood and put it underneath a spiritual microscope it would show that you have that same blood in you that blood of israel is alive in every single one of you by virtue of you accepting the gospel of jesus christ meaning that same promise given to abraham is alive in you people that are good to you god is going to be good to them people that curse you your haters people that hate on you guess what god is going to curse them if if you will simply try your best to be his people if you'll try your best to be obedient strengthen your covenants with him and obey him and let him be your god let him rule and reign in your life if you want a a good goal for this upcoming year maybe the goal is simply to strengthen that covenant with your heavenly father and remember you know this what does the word israel mean it means god will prevail and i testify in 2021 if you'll allow him god will prevail in your life in fact president nelson our our final quote that i'd like to share with you um he's so good and we love this talk that he gave about what it means to be uh the blood of israel that literally in our blood we have uh israel in us he said this are you willing to let god prevail in your life are you willing to let god influence what you do each day will you allow his voice to take priority over any other are you willing to have your will swallowed up in his what a promise as you set your goals for 2021 have confidence have confidence in god and please remember if you will make and keep your covenants with him who is almighty that he will prevail in your life what's in you i don't know but i testify in a group like this there are races that are going to be won there's going to be victories there's going to be books written there's going to be concerts performed there's going to be people you're going to date and associate with they're going to be people that you might introduce the gospel to there's going to be mission calls from this group there might be some engagements and some marriages oh the the possibility is endless if if we simply have that confidence that confidence in god as we approach our goals this year my brothers and sisters i testify that we have been commanded to fear not i testify that we can have confidence in our sweet marvelous father in heaven if we will make and keep our covenants with him he is rooting for you he is your greatest champion he is your ultimate cheerleader he wants the best from for you just like jake said his work and his glory every single day his goal is to exalt you and i testify he will as you may keep those sacred covenants i testify that truth and my confidence in you as children of israel in the name of jesus christ amen amen eric i love that word confidence i think that's that's a fun play on words and and it makes me think the quote from uh president nelson that you read it made me think almost like god is daring us like like let me in your life and let me show you what i can do with it type thing i just i think that's so cool thank you so much for sharing that even god loves to show up and show off in your life and that is so true can we get a copy of the i don't know i'm going to put you on the spot a little bit live is there any way we can get a copy somehow uh through some platform of the 10 things that god cannot do um yeah with our audience that's awesome well eric thank you so much for for sharing the things that god cannot do and the things that uh that he can do when we have confidence in him so thank you so much for sharing your thoughts your testimony and for helping us see how we can use god as we as we set goals for for our life thank you so much we'll go ahead and wrap things up with our final speaker of the evening sir chad how are you doing sir chad let's let my wife know that's what you have now been knighted wow you have now been knighted my friend i'm so excited to have you with us again this is it's just i always love hearing from you and and uh and especially on this topic i'm excited to hear what you have to share with us so go ahead and take it away all right thanks a lot appreciate it and thank you so much for hosting this platform uh jake wonderful message eric always delivers um i have the challenge of following them and so i'm going to do the best i can to add to what they've had to say and keep the same spirit i hope you all had a wonderful christmas holiday thank you for joining us this sabbath the evening after the christmas holiday and we want to talk about um eric talked about the biggest word i'm going to give you probably one of the smallest words the word is re re and as we talk about goal setting i want you to think about it's a time of year where we can rethink rekindle where we can reset reactivate rejuvenate i always like to put the word re in front of in front of nouns or even adjectives that will allow me to kind of get a re-boost or just just just think things about it in a different way and format and in order for me to talk to you about setting goals i thought i would use an analogy of a goal that i said i think it's good to set big goals i do i think it's good to set big goals as long as we keep into perspective what will allow us to get to those big goals because it's not by large things that god makes things come to fruition or past but it's by the small and simple things and i learned that through a goal that i had set and i want to share that with you and hope that it that it engages you and that you can somehow relate to it as you start your year and you you rekindle and rethink and re-motivate and find a way to look beyond 2020 has been a dark year and been a year of challenges and adversity and look at 2021 despite the adversity that we're still going to face and the oncoming crisis and pandemics will occur in our lifetime and still find a way to rejuvenate yourself with that said let me take you back you got to go back with me about 18 years ago 18 years ago i had been paralyzed for two years so now i've been you know it's been 20 years since i've been numb i'm a quadriplegic paralyzed on all four limbs and i had this this goal that i wanted to set a world record in my wheelchair a lofty goal i was going to push from temple square to another place called the mirage in las vegas not really from temple to temple kind of the opposite but but that said my goal was to push 513 miles and it was going to take about 11 days to get there if we could stay on track and i trained for 18 months to set that world record at the local high school where i live i trained indoors during the winter time and i trained outside on the track in the summertime and i just kept doing this i mean it just kept and some of you can see i'm in the chair today i'm always in the chair but you know i just i just kept pushing that's the way that people like me get stronger and i would i would some of you have seen meg johnson how she lifts weights or works out i i use duct tape or velcro straps to get my biceps a little bit stronger even though i can't feel my biceps just do what i could to get stronger and so here is this big lofty goal to set a world record and push 500 plus miles and do it in 11 days here's what i learned about that race you know when we start with a goal and we share that whether it is to be more healthy to be a better husband or a father or to read read our scriptures or be more be more steadfast and earnest in our prayers this year and try and gain a close relationship with our father in heaven through our savior jesus christ whatever those goals are you always find that we're good the first couple weeks you know that initial start because maybe we're we're thinking about it daily and but but there's that where it starts to get a little bit stagnant and stale have you ever experienced that in your life where right at the beginning we do good and then it kind of falls off the map we forget about it well that morning that i pushed off from temple square i wanted to know that that it was four o'clock in the morning that we decided to push off full police entourage i was very very motivated because there was about three thousand people there at temple square because they've been broadcasted on the news and i have a picture i want to show you guys gotta check this out so there's my wife you can see i've got my hard hat on there's my dad kind of cheesy he's in his motorcycle helmet because he's not gonna not gonna walk alongside me he's gonna ride his motorbike but i love my dad there's an abc or a nbc camera right there that's interviewing me they're getting my water tube hooked up and i've got tape on my fingers and the gloves ready to go and i can tell you that i was feeling really good i i was excited i felt like we're going to conquer this thing and we're going to get there faster than ever before and i'm going to just master this goal have you ever felt that way in your life kind of like what eric shared with us courage and confident and you're gonna you're just gonna knock it out of the park well sure you have and then real life kicks in you know day number one i did better than expected our goal was 53 miles a day i pushed 78. so i did 20 plus more miles the first day because i was feeling so good and i just i overachieved i over accomplished at least that's the way that i i didn't quite pace myself the way that maybe i should as as marathon runners well know what to do i just i over i overused my energy day number two i did the same exact same thing i was feeling good i pushed another 70 plus miles but the goal was 53. so i didn't stick with a game plan i kept thinking hey we're going to get to this record when we get there faster than we ever thought that we'd get there and we're just going to blow the news media out and blow this record of pieces and and then that's when it hit me day number three it caught up to me i i kind of got a little excited i didn't pace myself i i didn't use what i've been taught about you know it's not by the great things and it being all about me but it's by the small things that that we choose to do and how we perceive things that our goals come to fruition day number three i had a headwind have you ever had that before in your life where sometimes you have to push or walk even going downhill no one's ever climbed uphill i'll say that again no one's ever climbed no one's ever climbed going downhill everybody's got to climb uphill i had a headwind at 15 miles an hour going downhill i had to push my chair with a headwind going downhill that's how bad this was and i thought to myself i wonder if i'm going to get to my benchmark of 53 miles today the next day we hit beaver mountain now for those of you that don't know anything about beaver mountain you can look it up it increases in over 2300 feet in just four miles so 2300 foot incline in just four miles four miles it took me two days so now think about how far behind i am now it took me two days to get to the peak of that i mean my family i'll never forget my dad getting off his motorcycle and my wife coming out of the motor home behind and there was a police you know entourage behind us but but but no more people it got a little bit more lonely out there in the middle of the desert and my dad would come out and he'd stick his foot behind my tire so that i didn't lose what i had gained i think heavenly father does that a lot for us doesn't want us to lose what we've gained the knowledge the wisdom even though we're still going to face adversity and i learned that with every uphill there comes a down and going into cedar city i want you all to know that i hit 37 miles an hour in my chair did you all know that when you're in a wheelchair going 37 miles an hour death is totally an option you all need to know that it's unbelievable and i coasted my way into cedar city let's fast forward to day number eight day number eight i'm in a plea and a place called mesquite nevada only 87 miles away we'd made up some time and but we had a problem on day number eight the heat it was just it was it was it was a killer it was 122 degrees on the on the on the base on the asphalt and and i don't sweat and so i know that seems like a modern miracle to a lot of you i've saved a lot of money in deodorant and i have a lot more friends than many of you for that very very reason i i just don't have that problem of stinking unless uh you know i don't unless the kids throw horse manure on me or something like that so so that's that could be a very very bad thing as well and so we had to change the marathon from a daytime marathon to an evening marathon so that night on day number eight i went out and pushed and have any of you ever seen the movie forrest gump forrest gump we just he's running from east coast to west coast from the mexican border to the canadian border and he just keeps running and running and then all of a sudden out of nowhere he just stops and he says i think i'll go home now remember that i love that movie especially that part because that's exactly what i did 87 miles away at 2 30 in the morning with my dad behind me no more police escort very lonely i could see las vegas 87 miles away because when it's that dark and it's clear you can see the lights from vegas up in the sky i mean lights up like a temple it's unbelievable but i was done i'd given up on my goal it was just too much i i know that eric just shared with us that god will not give us more than what we can handle i actually felt the opposite eric i felt like this was just too much you know whether or not i handled it right maybe it's because i didn't pace myself whatever it was i just if you'd have told me that on that marathon when i quit that night hey chad god will not give you more than what you can handle i had told you to jump a crick eric that would have been my that would have been my comment back i stopped the marathon and my dad came out of the motor home and he came up to my wheelchair and he said son are you all right i said well i think i'll go home now he said okay i said dad i tired i just i don't think i can i don't think i can do anymore i my hands are blistered and bloodied i mean it doesn't hurt it just looks really bad and i'd fallen out of my chair i didn't share that with you i fell out of my chair just outside of st george and they had to run me to the urgent care and i got stitches in my back but i mean that didn't hurt it just that kind of takes a toll on your body and what the body can do even though you might be numb and not feel the pain and i just i just i felt like hey i'd done enough i'm sure god was proud of me for doing all i could do and and who would really be disappointed i mean i'd gone further than what most thought that i would do and so i uh i think dad will go home my dad picked me up left the wheelchair right there on the street and he carried me back into the motor home and he set me on the couch gave me a bottle of gatorade and he just sat there and it was quiet it was dead quiet and i was just sitting there and i was crying a little bit i was that's pretty emotional and because i felt like i had trained you know trained all this time and really wanted to hit this goal and i failed you know i i'd given up my dad started his first comment with this right here listen close now son how have you been measuring your success i said i'm sorry what dad i don't understand that son how have you been measuring your progress on your goal i said why i don't know i can see las vegas out there i know we're close he said son you're not you're not listening to me you're not hearing me son what have you been doing to measure how close you're getting to your goal maybe some of you can ask yourselves that as it pertains to spiritual goals i mean are you reading the book of mormon so fast that because it's your goal to get through it and yet we miss all the content in it are you counting the pounds that you're trying to lose is that the way that you measure the goal are you counting how many calories you're eating what are you doing to measure what what's the measuring tool i told my dad what mine was i said dad i i've been looking at the the green mile markers you know the whole trip so i know how many miles i have left at he said that's not a bad way to measure he said those mile markers though sometimes though they don't come fast enough i mean sometimes those pounds just don't come quick enough when you're trying to lose that weight sound some sometimes those chapters that you're reading you can't get through them fast enough and so you miss all the the content and what the lord is really trying to talk to because it's just about reading a chapter in the book of mormon sometimes you'll just whiz through a prayer just to chalk it off on the chalkboard and say you prayed to god that night but you're missing the whole point son i said dad what do you mean i don't understand the lesson sir dad i'm sorry i i just i'm not getting this he said son i'm gonna put blinders on you i said you're going to blind me he said no so i'm going to put blinders on you so you can no longer look at the right side of the road and look at the green mile markers i said well how am i supposed to know where i'm at or what i got left he said you're not you're supposed to have faith and trust that you can do this and if you're willing son if you're willing i'm gonna take you back out right now and set you in that chair and i want you to look at one thing and one thing only i said what's that he said i want you to look at the yellow stripes in the middle of the road you can count those if you want i said well anyway i i do trust you dad i don't feel good about this i don't i don't like it but one thing i will never ever do is you know i'll never lose the faith and trust of my father my dad kind of like eric was telling us that heavenly father will never lose faith in us ever we might give up on him but he'll never give up on us my dad has that same quality i went back out that night 2 50 in the morning 3 o'clock in the morning and i push just over 2 000 stripes went back and slept the next day and got back out the next night and pushed just over 7 300 stripes and on day number 11 i pushed 8 342 stripes and i hit apex junction for those of you that don't know where apex junction is apex junction is only 17 miles from las vegas and it's all downhill from there we waited until nine o'clock the next morning on day eleven so i finished like at six we waited three hours till nine o'clock in the morning on day number eleven they shut down the strip full police motorcade entourage a helicopter in the sky and i coasted my way into the mirage and as i was going through the strip i'll never forget the feeling i got so many people because it was on the tv screens in the casinos they were running out of the casinos they'd been gambling all night apparently and and they were cheering me on now granted they were all drunk but i didn't care about them being drunk i was just excited to have that same kind of feeling i had when i started now at the end it didn't bother me that they were drunk i was excited and they kept running they were following me and i was motivated by other people and their belief in me and when i crossed that finish line you know you guys got to check out this picture let me when i cross the finish line at the mirage here we go there went up a chair that made me weep and i remembered what my dad said was true that while we set big goals and lofty dreams and that's good it's the small and simple things that god works as greatest miracles like sending an angel to visit a fourteen-year-old boy that no one would believe like bringing forth the book of mormon by the power of the urim and thummim it's funny everybody believes that angels came to visit the mother mary to tell her she was going to give birth to the savior of the world everybody believes that all christians believe that but when you start talking about angels coming to visit a 14 year old boy they just can't grab a hold of it isn't that amazing i think it's amazing here's the last photograph i want y'all to see please remember that it's the stripes the little things that we do every single day that will bring about our goals our dreams those things we want to accomplish during 2021 even amidst uncertainty fear doubt and even when you feel like you can't go any further you can't go any further you can't push anymore you're too tired it's too long i don't know if i can make this work i don't know if i can make this happen i i'm just tired of being isolated i'm tired of wearing a mask remember that when you're going through those feelings you only need to have a little more faith love serve and give a little bit more and that my brothers and sisters is what allowed me to finish a goal that i had set even though i wanted to give up being so close to that goal i want you to know i hope that you know that i am grateful for a savior i am grateful for this wonderful time of year for the christmas holiday that we just celebrated i'm way i'm grateful for the sabbath day the sabbath day evening after after christmas and and the opportunity that we have to start a new year and it's not going to be an easy year we we know that but it'll be a year that we're going to grow i love a comment that was made that we all get old but growth must be intentional everybody gets old but growth growing that has to be intentional by each one of us that is my testimony to each one of you love you all thank you so much for joining us on the turtle house this evening god bless you all set some lofty goals and we'll see you all soon in the name of jesus christ amen amen chad i love i love that especially how you talk about how small small things can can't make big things possible it's like you know in the book of mormon nephi's bow breaking you know something so small as a bow breaking can can help teach so many lessons in the book of mormon as a result of a bow or you know just like i love i love that idea that that small things can bring to pass amazing things you know mark do you remember what do you remember at lee uh layman and leniel did when nephi's what they did the same thing that i did they said we're not gonna have any meat now we're done it's over it's over it's over that's why i love layman and lemuel because i'm just like them i'm just i'm probably one of the few latter-day saints that love layman millennial because i can relate to them very very well [Laughter] no i love that it's so true we're i think we're all whether we like to admit it or not we're all a little late layman and lemuel [Laughter] hey what did you do when you lost track of how many stripes there were so that's a good question my dad would haul her out for the bus he'd been tired of riding his motorcycle and he'd yell out how many are you at and i said 2300 he said you're wrong you're at 23 13. so he was counting him from behind me he had this uh what do they call that the microphone that you that you yell out of yeah what do you yeah maybe yeah yell out and he said he said how you doing you know and it's not like he couldn't walk out there and run and see how that wasn't going very fast but he would yell at me from the side of the side of the motorhome and it was great it was it was cool could you show me the face you made 37 miles an hour oh buddy i wish we had a picture i can show you me getting stitches and getting plastered and 37 miles an hour i i can i can show you the uh the the what what burnt skin looks like i mean the and gloves i think i went through 40 50 pairs of gloves a couple of chains brake pads left and right it was unbelievable it was it was unreal 37 miles an hour so we they clocked me at going going down beaver mountain into cedar city it was unreal i almost got pulled over i think i think i was going to get pulled over chad we literally just made that dry we drove from um from logan to vegas that's i'm in las vegas right now i and i complained you know it's a six seven hour drive i i will not complain on my drive home i'll think about you every time i see them right along 9 15. when you when you come across um and there's a couple of hills there when you come across periwan and you head into fairview and beaver just look at that slope look at that hill and you'll know exactly what i'm talking about you'll see there's two of them right there and i can't every time but yeah chad i'm just glad that you went from salt lake to vegas and not vegas to salt lake that trying to push up hill that'd be a slightly different story a whole different ball game yeah for sure thank you so much for being with us i love hearing that story and uh and it's such a great example of how how we can accomplish goal even massive goals that uh that we're sitting in front of so thank you so much for for sharing that we're gonna wrap welcome thanks for having me now thank you so much we're gonna wrap things up with the closing prayer but before before uh we have the prayer if you go to turtle.link notes you can get the uh the notes on the ten thing the ten things that god cannot do uh just so we wanna make sure that that's available to everybody so turtle.link notes and you can grab that from eric's talk earlier tonight and so we'll finish things up with a closing prayer and then just like we do pretty much every week we're going to hang around for a few minutes and chat and catch up about each other's christmases and whatnot and and new year and again just as a reminder if you go to turtle.link slash app you can get access to the our turtle house app along with meg johnson's turtle talk for free through january 5th and that's all about setting goals with god so thank you so much for being with us here on tonight's fireside and we'll finish up with a closing prayer by jake awesome our father in heaven we're humbled and grateful for that guidance in our lives we're grateful for the spirit we felt and this new year a new opportunity to be intentional with our lives and set goals with with thee and have the the savior be a big part of our lives as we strive to be better each day and make those micro habit changes that can bless us not fear so much and have more confidence in me we're grateful for examples of those around us and those that strengthen our faith to do likewise and pray that we can embrace their their stories and their help and encouragement along this this journey that we have in life and these things father we pray and give thee thanks in the name of jesus christ amen amen [Music] well i'm gonna put all you guys on this on the spot right now first off thank you again again for being with us but uh i'm gonna put you on the spot and what what's a goal that you guys want to accomplish in 2021 mine is i'm gonna try to convert jake into uh playing pickleball from tennis oh man i don't know if i can do it twice basketball and pickleball you're going to have some uh some good contests this year my friend you got some challenges buddy we've been challenged now twice tonight we're gonna have to go two on two maybe mark will be on my team i i played pickleball for the first time a couple months ago and it's a blast so i mean if you're willing to have a newbie i'll play it's gone and the tennis guys uh jake to be honest they they are the best because they have those natural strokes and everything hackers like me and mark we try our best but you would you probably handle this pretty easily that'd be fun i do love uh all racket sports so that's awesome have you played chad never i haven't played pickleball i i i'm not even i think i've watched it as i was driving by one time but i'm not even that familiar familiar with it so i'd have to even learn more and watch it but anyway i have not played how would you describe it eric it's kind of like it's like kind of like ping pong but with more like a cross between ping pong and tennis right exactly perfect way to say it yeah human size painting their table like with a volleyball net but well i guess that would be like that snap yeah yeah 34 inches high and it's just you can fit four ping-pong four pickleball courts onto one tennis court it's just a miniature version and it's so fun so what size of ball do they use it is it like a tennis ball or smaller what is it like it's a wiffle ball almost like a wiffle ball yeah i feel a little bit and it's uh i'm not i haven't played competitively serious but it's it's different but it is fun it does yeah good feeling i love it so we're going to know is i'm going to move uh to the other couch [Laughter] you know what i mean maybe two vegetables that's awesome move to the other couch keep eating food that's what's great about christmas through new year's last friday through this new year is just just how much good food can i get in because it's all right in front of my face seriously oh my gosh i'm wearing my stretchy pants we'll just leave it at oh that love it what uh actually um what what is there do you guys have any new year's traditions things that you guys typically do on new year's eve or new year's day or anything like that with your family i got one i'll share so my mom is catholic my dad's a latter-day saint but my mom has been very supportive of all three of her boys going on missions uh she goes to the latter-day saint church weekly but but she's very very faithful to her beliefs and so we go to midnight mass which i love i even got to do the reading there on a couple of occasions in her church so we don't go to church too often with mom but but mom just goes to our church but we never miss midnight mass it's awesome i love it i love that that's cool that's really really cool we uh my grandparents and mom they lived in ecuador uh for eight years and uh my wife served a mission in mexico i served in honduras the latinos have a fun tradition it's called burn the man you take all well for us we take our empty boxes that we compile at christmas time and uh we create a man called 2020 um you know feet torso arms head and we light him up at midnight on new year's eve saying goodbye to 2020 ring in the new year um we'll throw some things in that we hated about 2020. i remember throwing in textbooks when i was in school and uh this year yeah the brush i love to throw my mask oh i'd love to throw my mask so that's been and we we make a pretty big bonfire and we have neighbors come together and bring their boxes and uh yeah it's fun fun tradition that's cool i like that yeah let's just kind of like you said it's just a cool way to send off the new year old year and one year right yeah it's fun latinos they know how to party it's fun i served in mexico on my mission eric and that is so true yeah it's called burn the man is that right burn the man yeah i was in the south mexico city south okay had a couple more yeah it's a different world different world down there in central america so that we do a fun uh just a tractor pull on the farm there in morgan we'll go around and hook up i don't know eight sleds behind this this tractor and all the grandkids and all our kids let's just get out and we'll just kind of cruise around and have a big battle i didn't know you were a redneck jake man i'm not chad hymas but some hay that needs to be hauled every once in a while all i'm missing is the duck dynasty beard that's all i need [Laughter] oh i love that that's so cool that is mark what about you uh you know i might i got this from my dad but my dad makes some amazing shrimp cocktail and so we would always we just get a spread out of just random little foods to eat you know snacks and stuff like that to munch on through the day and he would he'd make a big uh bowl of this amazing shrimp cocktail and so then we'd uh we'd have that and then we would use that to make some other stuff too it's just i just love it so probably gonna make uh some shrimp cocktail this year bringing the new year so good i miss uh i grew up in san diego and we had you know fresh seafood all day love utah but i miss produce and uh and good seafood uh amen brother i grew up in the bay area so same thing you got the the fresh creme chowder at the bread bowls at fisherman dwarf and everything and that's so good so good and i'm hungry what's that you got a farm don't you where where are you where are you at again yeah we have a farm we have so if you um in fact if you want so you was talking about hayrides we just did a hayride on saturday so we have a lot of elk on our farm we used to be an elk ranch by the way in morgan where uh where jake is familiar with but um or where he's from but we have several hundred head of elk and we just put 530 people through the hayrides on saturday that was our third one we'll do another one between uh between the new year holiday and probably some time towards the end of january and so it's usually on a saturday and and we just eat it up we have the clydesdales of pula and the tractor poles as well so we have both and it's just a lot of fun to have people come up they have they have hot chocolate we have usually some games on the flat screen tvs in the lodge it's a pretty spacious building so we can social distance and use the upstairs and the downstairs there's two levels and it just makes it nice people to get out and spend time with our families and and we have a manger scene set up uh with the baby jesus and of course uh you know mary and and and and we actually have live animals instead of fake so we use real lambs and real cattle just kind of and try and keep embedded down with grain if they got grain and water they're fine they just bed right down so you kind of spoil a few of the animals and let people enjoy that so that's cool how fun that's neat well guys it sounds like uh it's gonna be a great new year for all of you and we hope that for all of you who are watching at home that this brand this new year is uh is a fantastic one we know we've kind of all we've all gone through some craziness this year but we hope that 2021 whatever it holds for all of us is is something wonderful so thank you so much for tuning in for this week's our turtle house digital fireside we hope that you and your family had a fantastic christmas and we wish you the very best new year so thank you so much for spending your evening with us and we'll see you next week on another our turtle house digital fireside thanks so much we'll see

Channel: Our Turtle House

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Id: seHoUy69wh4

Length: 75min 15sec (4515 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 27 2020