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.