More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story

A Tree in His Vineyard with Matea

• Lily • Season 1 • Episode 48

Share episode

Send us a text

Has a book of scripture you've read multiple times suddenly taken on new meaning and personal depth? Join us on this heartfelt episode as Matea opens up about a profound memory from her church mission in Arizona in 2014, where a divine prompting led her to a specific verse in Jacob 5 from the Book of Mormon, forever anchoring her faith and deepening her connection with Jesus Christ.

Together, we explore the intricate allegory of the olive tree in Jacob 5 and its powerful connections to personal growth, humility, and becoming the "natural" roots who bare good fruit unto Christ. Matea's personal experiences shed light on the diligent efforts of the Lord of the vineyard to save the good roots, drawing meaningful parallels to our own spiritual journeys. Don’t miss this inspiring conversation that intertwines personal stories with profound gospel insights.

Please reach out to me if you are interested in sharing your story! I would LOVE to hear from you. :)

Follow us on Social Media:

Facebook: More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story
Instagram: mtc.rememberingjesuschrist

Website: https://morethancoincidencerememberingjesuschristinyourstory.buzzsprout.com

Email: morethancoincidence.rememberhim@gmail.com

**Transcripts available on website!

Lily:

Hello everyone and welcome to. More Than Coincidence, remembering Jesus Christ in your Story as the author and finisher of our faith, our Savior writes personal experiences into each of our lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace upon reflection. This podcast is dedicated to sharing these anchoring memories from everyone's unique stories in order to collectively remember and testify of the reality of Jesus Christ and his presence in our lives. I'm your host, lily, and I'm very excited to share these experiences together. Good evening, everybody. Tonight we have Matea on the podcast. How are you, matea, doing? Good, yeah, yay, will you mind introducing yourself a little bit Sure.

Matea:

So my name is Matea Borget. I grew up in Anchorage, alaska, and met my husband at BYU-Idaho when I was studying English with a creative writing emphasis, and then we moved down here because he works at FamilySearch just down the street. Oh sweet and anyway. So we've been here living in this neighborhood for four years. Yeah, yeah, four years. Yeah. We have two kids, both boys, a six-year-old and a two-year-old almost three. Both boys, a six-year-old and a two-year-old, almost three, and when I'm not playing with them.

Matea:

I like to write fantasy books or read books. Read fantasy books. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I do acting and plays at local theaters when I can. Well, that's so cool. You have all these cool things that you like to do.

Lily:

Thanks, so I'll ask you the question, matea what memories do you have in your life that you reflect on, that break your heart in remembrance of Jesus Christ and anchor you to him? Okay?

Matea:

So the biggest one that has been sticking with me for the longest so far is a time when I was on my mission in Arizona. It was my like third or fourth transfer, I can't remember exactly when, but it was my second companion, and this was in 2014. So we had the ability to use iPads and we were supposed to be proselyting on Facebook. Yeah, and so we had about an hour every day where we were going to be either on a computer or on our tablets trying to proselyte to people.

Matea:

Yeah, and I hate just starting random conversations with people that I don't know or have any connection to and being like hey do you want to talk about Jesus, right?

Lily:

No, I'm here to scroll Facebook, exactly. Hey bye.

Matea:

Exactly, and my companion was great, she had been on the mission for a while, but we just kind of butted heads sometimes and I was really tired this day and didn't want to, didn't know what I needed to be doing and I felt a prompting to read. It was Jacob 5, I want to say it was 44 or 49. I don't remember exactly which one, but I didn't even know if these verses existed, because normally chapters in the Book of Mormon are about 30 verses, so I was like 44, that's a weird number, yeah, like where do I get that number from, right?

Matea:

So I knew it was a prompting and I knew it wasn't my own thoughts, yeah. But I looked at it and 44, jacob 5, 44 says and now beholdest that I also cut down that which cumbered this spot of ground, that I might plant this tree in the stead thereof, and I was like, yeah, it's such a weird verse Right After reading that I wanted to know more about what the chapter was talking about.

Matea:

So I went back to the beginning, the chapter heading, and I read through it all and it's Jacob's. Jacob is quoting Zenos about the allegory of the olive tree, right and the vineyard. Yes, yes, and it's supposed to relate to the people of God and the gospel Correct and all the different influences the gathering of Israel?

Lily:

Yes, all that kind of stuff, yes.

Matea:

And then he burns the Lord of the vineyard, burns the vineyard at the end.

Lily:

Yeah, and I just remember being in seminary being like he dunged the tree. Yeah.

Matea:

Yeah, that's definitely in there, pruned it and dugged it and digged about it, yep so, but for whatever reason, that chapter just really stuck with me. And the 48 or 49 later it talks about pride, like the loftiness of the branches, and I was like, oh, maybe I have been a little bit prideful and so I was able to relate this chapter to me on my mission, being like, okay, I've been taken from my home and I've been asked to do something that I'm not always comfortable with, right, and I have good parts. You've been grafted, yes, yes.

Matea:

I have good parts of me and there's bad parts of me that I'm trying to get away. But they can't go away quickly because then the bad would overtake all of the good.

Lily:

Right, because it's all about him, about Christ wanting to save the roots. Yes, right, like the good. Yes, him about Christ wanting to save like the roots.

Matea:

Yes, right, like the good.

Lily:

Yes, right.

Matea:

And so this whole chapter I have notes of like okay, this is when I went on my mission and this is when I was in the MTC and this is when I was learning from my training leader, my first companion, yeah, and everything. And then later on I was able to like predict my next couple transfers in the mission.

Lily:

And it wasn't exact and it didn't need to be exact.

Matea:

Right, but my favorite verse that stood out from this chapter that I keep thinking about yeah, and it helps me just remember who I am is verse 74, close to the end. This is right before the Lord burns the vineyard Right, and this is like the last ditch effort type thing.

Matea:

He's calling in other servants to do stuff. So they begin to work with the tree, the first tree, and it says in verse 74,. And thus they labored with all diligence, according to the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard, even until the bad had been cast away out of the vineyard and the Lord had preserved unto himself that the trees had become again the natural fruit and they became like unto one body and the fruit were equal and the Lord of the vineyard had preserved unto himself the natural fruit which was most precious unto him from the beginning wow and there there's been like little hints of precious fruit in this chapter and natural fruit, and that my goodness is equal to his and that I've always been precious to him and that it's a diligent labor process of drawing closer to him and then just going forward and spreading that goodness around.

Matea:

And so now, because of this, diligence has also really stuck out to me as like a word that I should focus on and try to apply the commandments diligently and take care of my family diligently, as hard as it is sometimes.

Lily:

Yeah, it does seem a little daunting and overwhelming, because I just feel like when I think about diligent, it's like constant, nonstop, 24-7, go, go, going, yeah, and that's exhausting. But maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way.

Matea:

Maybe it's different. It's constant effort, but it's effort with a purpose. Yeah.

Lily:

And Not like just busy work. Yeah, and Not like just busy work, yeah.

Matea:

Yeah, you're moving towards something, yeah so, but yeah. So now, ever since then, I've been really excited about trees and being a good tree, basically.

Lily:

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what it is. What did you think of Elder Kieran's talk that he gave this past conference that God's intent is to bring you home? Yes? Ron's talk that he gave this past conference that God's intent is to bring you home? Yes, and how the entire point of the plan of salvation and Jesus Christ and his atonement is to bring you back. You know, yes, and that's literally what God was doing in this vineyard. Right, he was taking this tree and he was trying to do the best that he could with it, and then, at the end of the day, he collects the fruit and he moves on. So I was trying to do the best that he could with it and then, at the end of the day, he collects the fruit and he moves on.

Matea:

So I thought that was just something I just remembered. Yeah, he just wants to give us a nice big hug when we get up there, right? Yeah, even still in, like, I've known people that have fallen away from the gospel and just trying to center myself on Christ, seeing their process of what happened before they fell away and everything thing, it goes back to again that scripture um, where he talks about the loftiness of the vineyard and the loftiness of the branches, and just reminding myself that I can't be prideful, right, and I can't be judgy, and I just gotta stay rooted in every sense of the word, to the gospel.

Matea:

Yeah, that's how I'll become the goal of being the natural fruit right is to become the roots.

Lily:

Yes, which is what? Yeah, which is the original goodness? I think it's valuable. Yeah, I do. I, like I said before, I don't think I've ever heard anybody describe Jacob five like this, and I think when you put a new spin on it, it really kind of you can look at it and you can think this is how much work the Lord does for me, because that is the biggest thing. When people talk about it, you know, in regards to the gathering of Israel or something, there's always this emphasis on how hard the master of the vineyard works and how much he slaves and toils and mourns and weeps over his vineyard, and so when you apply it to yourself like that, it just is kind of mind blowing of oh my gosh, this is literally what the Lord is doing for me.

Matea:

Right, right, and it's so individual.

Lily:

Yeah, like every he knows how to, he knows how to care for the trees. Yes, even though it might hurt or even though it might look weird, or even though you know he is like. They call him the master gardener.

Matea:

Right.

Lily:

Yes, he knows what he's doing and it's up to us to be like ow, like you're pruning me, but I guess it's going to be okay, you're going to help me grow Right and at the end of the day, you'll see, I bet it's going to feel so good when we can feel and well, I guess you can feel the atonement in your life right now of like true repentance. You really can feel that. But I do think there's going to be this even more magnificent level once we reach heaven and we can just see and realize and look back and reflect and be like, oh my gosh, I did it. Thank you, jesus, I did it Right. Like, look at what you've done for me, look at what we've done together, like this is amazing, you know. Yeah, and I think that's going to be a really cool day, with that giant hug that I hope lasts forever.

Matea:

Yes.

Lily:

Never let me go Right yeah.

Matea:

You also mentioned, just like sometimes, the pruning and the dunging. It looks weird and it hurts, and it's not Heavenly Father giving us those bad experiences to hurt us. It's to help us grow, and sometimes they might even be our own fault, but he's still there watching over us and directing us on how to grow. Another verse or part of the verse chapter that I really liked the Lord of the vineyard and the servant, who are basically Heavenly Father and Christ. They weep over the tree at some point, but he just wants us to be the precious natural fruit that we are.

Lily:

Right, exactly.

Matea:

Yeah, I don't have any other things come into my mind, so cool If you don't have any other thoughts or any other stories you'd like to share, then would you mind leaving us with a testimony?

Matea:

Yeah, I mean, I can definitely bear my testimony.

Matea:

Um, I don't think there's anything else I really want to say Sure, so, um, I never feel like my testimony is very like strong or powerful or amazing or earth shattering, but it's mine and it's what I need and it keeps me going, keeps me motivated in the church, and it mostly just comes from reading the book of Mormon and reading the Bible and going to church every week and seeing the examples of the faithful around me and the unfaithful around me and what's going well in their lives and what might not be, and just knowing that the Lord is there through everything.

Matea:

And so, from all of those examples around me, I know that the church is true and I know that Jesus and Heavenly Father love us profoundly, more than I could ever know, even just got a little glimpse of it. But, um, and they want so badly for us to be home with them and they'll give us all of the opportunities in this life and in the next too, as they can to return home to them, and it's just up to us to follow as best we can and it's not always perfect, but as long as we're diligent it's not always perfect, but as long as we're diligent we can return back to them and I've seen in my life times where I've needed the Lord and he's been right there, not very far away at all, and those have been great reminders to me that I need to stay close and I need to do all that I can to stay with Heavenly Father and stay with Jesus.

Lily:

So that's partly why I wanted to share my story today.

Matea:

Because if I'm not reading my scriptures every day or praying every day, then I can at least share my testimony with my friend. So yeah, I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Lily:

Amen. Well, I am very, very, very grateful that you said yes and that you came, because you've given me a lot to think about with your interpretation of Jacob 5 and what the Lord has revealed to you, and thank you for sharing your testimony. It's amazing.

Matea:

You're welcome, thanks for having me.

Lily:

Thanks again for tuning into More Than Coincidence Remembering Jesus Christ in your Story. Please follow us on social media or share us with a friend. If you have an experience you'd like to share, feel free to reach out to morethancoincidencerememberhim at gmailcom. I can't wait to hear all of the amazing memories you all have of our Savior. See you next time.