Chiya's story in Chiya Lynn.

I have been blessed with minimal pain in childbirth.  Chiya's birth was even more of a miracle in that there was no pain.  That intense sensation that she was placed directly into my arms by unseen angels has remained with me ever since.  I fully expect that the pain most mothers experience as they bring their little ones into their earthly family will be absent in the eternities.  I was given a very real testimony that there doesn't always have to be pain in order for there to be joy.

We know that the conflict between good and evil, between sadness and happiness, between wickedness and righteousness and between pain and comfort is specifically needed for our development in mortality.  That does not mean that there must always be pain or grief or evil present in our lives to fully experience the blessings of joy and goodness.

When our life is filled with light, we can rejoice in that moment.  We need not darken the day with suspicion that darkness is just around the corner.  When the darker moments happen, we can maintain our attitude of being turned toward the brilliance of eternity.  In this way, we see life in better perspective and live with a joy that can exceed the trials that surround this temporal existence.

Neil introduced me to Rebecca, his patient who taught me NLP, and the door of personal revelation and deepening understanding of the power of our Eternal Father opened before us.

I was having such a hard time dealing with my feelings about the doctor for whom Neil was working.  This was causing tremendous stress in our life.  I talked with Rebecca.  Then we sat down to do a session together.  My goal was to freely support Neil without tearing him apart because of feeling that he was abandoning me in favor of work.

What an experience!  It was so much like when I have had visions!  The particular technique that I did was called Internal Affairs.  It brings different aspects of a person's personality into an imagined meeting.  The various needs are determined and met so that all parts are working together on the goal instead of fighting each other.

Rebecca and I became close friends and the things I learned from her deepened my knowledge and testimony of the gospel and Heavenly Father's plan for us.  She was not a member of the church and when we lost contact with her she still had not investigated the gospel.

Neil and I were used to enjoying many types of people.  We enjoyed learning from them and never felt threatened by differences in religions.  We had formed the habit of taking from the various philosophies the things we found to be true and filled with light.  We would then leave behind those parts that were not true.  This sifting process has been a healthy one for us over the years.

I already knew some of the gifts that I had been blessed with before meeting Rebecca.  However, watching this woman who had similar gifts be able to easily use them by simply asking was very inspiring.  I began to realize that when I had joined the church I had set aside my natural inclination to ask for the use of these gifts.  I had somehow associated my actively seeking the gifts as being contrary to my faith. I caught onto the idea that if the Lord wanted me to know something he would send the dream or vision without my expectations.  I had read but ignored the commands such as, "seek ye the best gifts."

As I associated with Rebecca, I remembered those very attitudes and that very relationship which had brought me to the gospel.  Certainly those things should be more manifest and magnified now that I was a member than before I had the Gift of the Holy Ghost. These things do indeed follow they that believe.  So I started to ask.

More even than just asking I found myself expecting such outpourings of the Spirit.  I was doing my part and the Lord had promised his part.  I never realized that I had limited him by simply not understanding that my gifts were part of his plan for my life.

I learned that the veil between the physical and the spirit was as thin as it had ever been before my baptism into the Lord's church.  I learned that the knowledge that was available to me through prayer and magnifying the gifts was as clear as any knowledge that came unbidden in moments of need.  I found that the more I prayed and expected revelation the easier it came.

I also found that there were blind spots.  I had a nearly impossible time trying to understand the timing of things that I saw.  It is as if I keep getting the message that the Lord's time and temporal time are two different matters.  I also found that I could get visual answers that helped other people such as patients that Neil asked my help with, far easier than I could for my personal matters.  For my own answers I often needed to struggle as much as before to be sure that the answers I got were truly the Lord's and not of my own creation.

I learned from Rebecca that my great skill is in my ability to teach, communicate, to envision and to discern truth.  I am certain that the Lord brought her into my life for that brief time to refine the direction of our lives so that we could magnify our missions in mortality beyond what we were doing.

Rebecca used the concept that light came from God.  She would judge things by how much light she felt or saw present.  This reminded Neil of a study he did when on his mission.  He spent time learning what the scriptures had to say about light.  This then caused us to restudy the matter.  We than began our ongoing study with our children on the matter of light in connection with our Heavenly Father.

Rebecca also taught us about the light that is in and surrounds us all.  We call it a person's spirit she used other words.  We learned to actually feel the warmth of its energy and found that it could be muscle-tested.  When the spirit is hurt or stressed its energy will develop holes or gaps.  These holes can be mended by visualizing or asking energy from the Lord to be added.

This light comes in different colors depending upon health and gifts of the person.  A white light for instance is Christ's light.  It can be given to anybody for the asking.  It can be put around people and things.  Such as when prayed about, "Please protect..." then that very light can encircle the recipient of the prayer.

We then understand on a very real and physical level that when we pray there is an actual physical effect upon that for which we prayed.  When people's names are added to the prayer roll in the temple it is not without effect.  There is real power in prayer and she taught us to visualize that power as light.  By having a picture that our finite brain can recognize it makes things more real and the more real something is the more we can understand our use of that thing.

I also learned that each of us remain an individual to the Lord.  If I am praying about Thomas Scott then the Lord knows from the intent of my heart which Thomas of all the Thomas Scotts in all of existence about which I am concerned.  I realized that we must each have a unique spiritual signature that our Father knows because of his love and relationship to us.

This understanding made our knowledge of priesthood blessings even more concrete.  Neil could see himself standing encircled by light as he called upon the Spirit to bless someone.  It made priesthood power more concrete than before.

A person can protect himself from evil by envisioning himself, a form of prayerful asking, to be enveloped by white light which represents Christ's light.  Using concrete visual connotations to increase one's closeness to the Lord or ability to resist evil is found throughout the scriptures.  One that is most famous is putting on the whole armor of God.

Other colors that I like to utilize are healing green, lavender, and blue.  The blue color I imagine when my children are restless as it is a calming and peaceful color.  The green emanates from a healer and from someone being healed.  Once though I gave some of my own green to Ben and became very weak.  My green was from healing that was taking place and was not abundant enough to give the way Neil's is.  Now when I visualize giving green I imagine pulling it from Christ's white light.  Lavender is a high spiritual color, showing healing of spirit and body or the gift to help with that type of healing.

All of this has helped us remember that there is so much still to learn about Heavenly Father and His kingdom and that He is willing to share with us what we seek.  We had been doing so many things that He commanded us to do and yet we had lacked that thrill of magnification that comes to those who seek after the best gifts.  The blessings that have come from this knowledge are priceless to our family.

Rebecca brought a man to our home to meet Neil.  He so impressed her with some things he had done in the healing profession.  He was an older man and for a long time he was very hesitant to talk with us about how he learned the techniques he used in his art.  Certainly there were some impressive experiences and we were curious how they were developed.

Finally the gentleman opened up and began to talk with us about his education process.  He told us that there were several levels of apprenticeship in this healing art.  Each level then cost $10,000 to obtain.  There was only one man on earth at a time who held all of the keys (these were his very words) of this practice.  One obtained a level in this art by having a person of a higher level hold his hands in the air above the head of the new initiate.  Then mathematical symbols were drawn and energy was transferred.

As I have said, Neil and I have been exposed to many different healing techniques.  We have never had any trouble sifting truth from error.  We enjoy increasing our study through the scriptures and prophets to learn something new that we might not have known.  However, this entire meeting felt wrong.  This was the most obvious counterfeit of the priesthood that we had ever experienced.  We have never been left with a more uncomfortable feeling concerning these matters then we were that day.

We have taught our children that all things testify of Christ.  Even those things that are the darkest testify of Christ by simple comparison with His light.  When Alma was speaking to Korihor, the antiChrist, he declared, "All things denote there is a God" (Alma 30:44).

We have heard various beliefs of the New Age religion and while all things have an element of truth in order to appeal to man, there remain some things that are not true.  The things that are based upon true principles are found on both sides of New Age and true Christianity.  The difference is that the source of all truth and light is not recognized as being Christ.  Many who pursue the New Age do so with the belief that there is no God and that man has within himself all that he needs to become that perfected spirit for which they strive.

Recognizing this has helped us sift the truth from the error in these matters.  However, we were really stumped over this gentleman's claim to healing by faith and yet clearly being ordained in a manner abhorrent to truth.  As Neil pondered this matter over the next few days, he realized that this man was accomplishing something on the sly that the Lord had promised specifically to those who hold the priesthood.  Yet this man was getting results where Neil sometimes felt so unprepared when he tapped into that power.

Neil had always felt the priesthood was kind of "up there, floating around somewhere, kind of vague and waiting to settle."  For the first time he realized that he really had the ordained right to call upon the Lord by the power of His very priesthood and when done in righteousness the Lord will be there for him.  He then could see the priesthood as something more concrete, something that had true substance and not just a vaguely pleasant concept.

As out of line as that gentleman and his religious healing was with what we knew as truth we were still able to learn and deepen our understanding of the Lord and his power.

 When Chiya was a year old and became sick, we found we had to use a medical doctor for the first time since our marriage except for childbirth.  This was very difficult for Neil.  It was something that required him to become humble and to recognize that there truly is a time for all things.  This was another turning point for us because we could open up to the fact that medicines really do have a place.  Often they come with consequences that need to be overcome once the need for their use is over.  Still, they do work quickly and in an emergency or in specific weaknesses they can be the greatest of help.

Being humble is easy in the areas that don't challenge your learning or inclinations.  Being humble in areas that you are nearly adamant about is a tremendous struggle.  Once that struggle is overcome, you can be taught by the Spirit and life is again enhanced with a deepened testimony of the Lord's hand in all things.

  It is the consistency in our lives that makes up how we relate and develop.  Sometimes the consistency is hard to find because we think our lives are chaotic but even that chaos could be consistent.  We have found that by teaching in the same manner that Moroni taught the prophet through repetition and addition we all learn faster and more thoroughly than the brief one-of-a-kind lectures.

 We need to have traditions that build a firm path toward Christ.  There are great promises connected to traditions.  This is also one of our very favorite scriptures:

 This scripture tells us exactly how Satan gains control over the children of God.  Through disobedience and through the traditions of the fathers he has his power.  By building for our children traditions that lead them to Christ, we cut Satan's power over our loved ones in half.  Then we cut his power in half again because those Christ-centered traditions bring a peace and Spirit to our home with which our children become familiar.  This will increase their being able to feel the initial warnings of the Holy Ghost when the temptation to disobey first starts to worm its way into their thinking.

 Through consistent Family Time our family learns to relax and experience the joy of family ties.  Through consistent family scripture study they learn the companionship of daily conversation between family members and the Lord as they study his words.  Through the constant influence of the temple in their lives they feel the peace that renews their parents.  Through consistent church attendance they learn to be persistent in obedience and they learn the commitment that brings their family ever closer to the Lord.  Most important, through the consistent following of the Spirit, they learn who they really are and that they have through Christ and his teachings all that they need to return to their Father in family units.