Being happy while studying

Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in studying and lose sight of why we are here studying day after day. In the grind and monotony of tests, assignments, papers, it is easy to get caught in a lull and forget just how amazing learning really is. We all could learn from from Sister Lyman when she said, "It did not matter that the building was a warehouse, nor that the desks were long, crude, table affairs... But that year seemed the happiest of my life."

Whether we are studying anatomy, or any other subject, "men are that they might have joy." (2nd Nephi 2:25). So remember, among the toils of the day, we are supposed to be more happy now than ever!

The Miracle of Life

This Thanksgiving season I was able to spend some time with people I love a whole lot. Something anatomy has taught me, is that the term "the miracle of life" is pretty accurate. After learning the section on embryology, I have often thought just how amazing it is that everyone in my family has turned out pretty healthy. My sister recently had a baby and it amazes me to know all that is going on inside of that little boy! If God did not have his hand in the development of his children, there is no way that people would develop as perfectly as they often do.

I think this quote from Elder Holland explains a little about why God cares so much about our development and growth:

The church is in need of people who are healthy and capable so that they can therefore help others and bring them to the fold. Our bodies are an important part of our spiritual well-being, and God cares that each spirit has a proper place.

I can't quite comprehend why some people are given mortal challenges such as health problems, but I still think it is amazing that after all that could possibly go wrong in the developmental process, people are still alive and the work of God continues to go forward.

Learning Through the Spirit

Anatomy is literally us learning about the vessel that our Heavenly Father has provided for us. That is humbling!

Thankfully, we have the opportunity at BYU to openly talk about our connection with God and His creations in our lives. That’s why the first time I walked into the Education in Zion, a quote hit me very powerfully:

“You must not attempt to teach even the alphabet or the multiplication table without the Spirit of god.” – Brigham Young

This struck very true to me. I remember learning at the very beginning that anatomy is not so much memorization as it is understanding a new “language” of sorts. And we discover this new language every time that we go into the class and participate in engaged, inspired learning. This awesome quote from Education in Zion really helped me understand just how vital God is in our education, and how important being inspired of Him is in order to progress both spiritually and temporally.

The Education in Zion

"Morning in America", a song written and performed by Jon Bellion, highlights a lot of the underlying social issues that many youth face in America today that are kept secret or ignored. It probably takes its title from a the nickname of a popular political ad from President Regan, which claimed that everything was great and going well in America, even though that wasn't necessarily true. The point the song is trying to make is the great expectation of perfection that force youth to mask the struggles they face in drug use, family instability, pornography, teenage pregnancy, and alcoholism.

The purpose of my post isn't to discuss the conflict of interest between the expectation of perfection and the social pressures that youth face. Rather, I want to compare education of youth who are studying under such social pressures and the education of students at BYU, where such pressures are significantly decreased. Please note, I'm not trying to say that BYU and its students are better than other schools and their students, but that certain issues are less prevalent.

At some universities around the country, raucous parties, alcohol and drugs are prevalent. There are schools that have the colloquial nicknames of "party schools." While the students attending these schools may receive an education, it seems to come at the cost of much adversity, considering that spending time partying, drinking and using drugs doesn't contribute to education but is detrimental to its process.

As students at BYU, we are surrounded by students and faculty that share many of the same beliefs and moral standards, by which drinking and drug use are found as unworthy activities. That isn't to say that there aren't students or faculty that don't struggle with the aforementioned issues, or that those who do are somehow less in anyway. Rather, it means that fewer people have those struggles and those who do can receive support to overcome whatever obstacle they may be facing. It also means that distractions from the true purpose of the university are more infrequent than they would be at another university where drugs and alcohol are much more prevalent.

Now how does that relate to anatomy? For me, anatomy is the most time consuming class I am taking at the moment. If I were involved in any of the issues or activities I mentioned before, it would be hard for me to find the time I need to learn what we learn in class. I simply wouldn't be able to do well in the class due to the distractions and effects of those activities. Anatomy helped me learn what is required to do well in hard classes and it has helped me learn how to study more effectively.

For that I am grateful. I am grateful to be surrounded by others who have come to learn, who push me to be better and learn more. I'm grateful for the peaceful, family-friendly environment that is found at BYU.

The Language of the Spirit

After viewing the Education in Zion Exhibit, and studying hard for my anatomy midterm, I realized something amazing. Amidst all my studying, I found that I was making all kinds of connections in my various classes at BYU. I related different terms from my anatomy class to my nutrition class, my dietetics class, and to my organic chemistry class. Even before being taught a concept, I found myself trying to determine what a word meant by how it was spelled, and in that I realized that I was (like Dr. Wisco said I would at the beginning of the semester) learning a new language.

I'm not saying this semester is getting any easier, but I was blown away by how I could break down terms in each of these classes and be able to understand what they meant. I came to the grand realization that I was no longer memorizing facts, but I was truly gaining greater knowledge and becoming a better learner in classes that seemed would be impossible to understand.

Then, I began to think of how this related to my gospel learning and thought of converts from my mission. For them, being able to learn and become fluent in the gospel language was challenging at first. Some of them, being so frustrated and scared of the task ahead, even stopped trying somewhere along the journey and fell away. Others, after learning a little, began to hunger and want to be fluent in the language of the spirit. They practiced prayers, talks, testimonies, reading of the scriptures, and much humility. Nothing compares to the joy I could see in them once they felt they had begun mastering this new language.

This is exactly how I felt starting the semester. Everything was new and difficult and I found myself taking up way too much time trying to figure my classes and homework out. As I practiced learning a new medical language I knew nothing about, I found that school became a little less time consuming, and a lot more enjoyable.

If there is one thing that anatomy has made me view differently, it is that all great things take effort, but can also be achieved and are definitely worth it.

Angelic Teachers

In the Bible, after Jesus has been crucified, Mary was at the tomb trying to anoint the Savior in His grave where His body was laid. Mary was then appalled to find that the Savior's body had been removed from the grave, and Mary was distraught. She then was greeted by an angel who said to her, "He is not here: for he is risen." (Matthew 28:6). The Savior who had been crucified, had been resurrected.

The fact that the bodies that we have here on this earth is the one that we will be resurrected with, it is important to know about them now, because we will one day be resurrected with those same bodies. More proof to that is that Joseph Smith was taught by angelic messengers, who also had bodies. This just goes to show that our bodies really are eternal. Through anatomy we have come to understand just how miraculous of creations they really are, and the more we know about them the more respect we'll have for their eternal importance.

Study, Experience, Revelation

This week we are preparing to take our anatomy exam, which means a lot of cramming, late nights and study groups, often with people we barely know. During this intense preparation, I think it is a good time to reflect back on the the method of study we often seen in church.

The picture above is a of a part of the Education in Zion exhibit. Particularly, this exhibit examines the education of Jospeh Smith. It is commonly known that Jospeh Smith didn't have much formal education. Which causes us to ask the question: how did he learn what he knew and taught? This exhibit highlights three of the principles of Joseph Smith's educational process. I would like to take the opportunity to briefly connect those to our study of anatomy.

First, the Prophet Joseph studied. He read the scriptures, he read the writings of others who were well versed in scripture and he did what he could to learn the principles he was reading about. This is comparable to our study that we do every day. We go to lecture, we read material in our books and online, and we review the principles with study groups and teaching assistants. This is where the majority of our knowledge comes from. However, it is only a part of how we retain and learn the material.

The second part of learning for Joseph Smith was experience. When he had a question for the Lord and he read James 1:5, he experimented with and applied the Word. In response, he received an answer and experienced the Lords willingness to answer prayers. As anatomy students, we can have experience with what we are learning. Our lab allows to go in and see the structures we are learning about. We may have experience with people who have the diseases we discuss or we may have previous experience with some part of the process we are studying. This cements the knowledge we have studied through experience.

The last part of education is revelation. This can often be the most important. Jospeh Smith studied often, but he couldn't always find the answers he was looking for just by reading the scriptures. He needed to receive revelation and inspiration to understand clearly the concepts he was studying. We, too, rely on revelation. There are often concepts we don't understand or we need help finding the answer to a certain question we have. Revelation and inspiration can help us learn and understand. It can also come in critical moments during a test, if he have prepared appropriately.

In a lot of ways, our education in terms of religion is very similar to our secular education. I believe if we see it that way, we can better our understanding of the material we are learning.

Stay focused on the goal

In the process that all of us students go through of studying daily, memorizing countless facts, formulas, and patterns can really leave us distracted by the storm. Anatomy is a class that we learn so much, and if we forget our purpose, it can be easy to get overwhelmed and focus on the massive clouds around us.

The exhibit showed this picture, and it is easy to realize in this picture how our eyes are directed to the temple lit up in the distance. As we learn about the different, and spectacular functions of the body we come to realize just how much control God has. Thus, even in the midst of the clouds of studying and exams, we realize the end goal is to go to the temple, and return to God one day.

The Spirit Quickens All Things

I had the opportunity to visit the Education in Zion exhibit the other day and as I was examining the exhibit, there was a scripture that caught my attention:

"The power of my Spirit quickeneth all things." - D&C 33:16

As I read this scripture, the idea struck me that our bodies, as amazing as they are, as intricate as they are, need to to be quickened by a Spirit to really be anything more than a lifeless mass of cells. Every lab period, we have the blessing to be able to look at the cadavers and learn from them. But I have never really been able to think of the cadavers as people, not in the same way I think of another person who is living. This is no disrespect to the person the cadaver was. But I think it shows that the part that really, truly makes a person human, the part that makes them who they are, is no longer there.

Just as the temple of God is the place where His Spirit resides, our bodies are the temples where our Spirits reside, just as 1 Corinthians 3:16 teaches us. It is a intricate, beautiful thing. But, just as the temple is just a building when it Gods Spirit doesn't reside there, our bodies are is nothing more than an empty house without our Spirit within.

This insight is important to me because it helps me appreciate the body for what it is and respect it more for its sanctity as a temple of the human spirit.