Why are there mosquitos?

 When I was a kid, I remember going to Hyrum Dam and being eaten alive my mosquitos.  I remember a bunch of us kids running into the car and smashing mosquitoes against the glass.  I sat their thinking, "Why did Heavenly Father make mosquitoes?"  I could see no purpose.  To this day, I am still trying to figure out why God lets all the negative things happen in our lives...


Sometimes I just don’t sleep. I go to sleep, and wake up an hour later. I toss and turn, doze off, and within an hour I’m awake again.  I change beds, read a book, listen to BYUI devotionals.  On Sunday night, I had one of those nights.  I listened to four BYUI devotionals before I finally got to sleep near 4 a.m..  I’ve listened to all the current devotionals, so I’ve started searching “all years” by topic..

One talk I quite liked was Hearing the Voice of the Spirit by Ned C. Hill, on March 11, 2008.  I recommend the whole talk, but here are a few of his pointers.
Guideline 1: We Must Do Our Homework First.
Guideline 2: By Keeping the Commandments We Tune Our Spiritual Receiver.
Guideline 3: Minimize Competition with the Voice of the Spirit.
Guideline 4: Seek out Places Where the Spirit is More Likely.
Guideline 5: Practice Listening to the Spirit’s Voice by Serving Others.
Guideline 6: Practice Listening to the Voice of the Spirit through Scriptures and General Conference.
Guideline 7: Learn to Differentiate the Spirit’s Voice from Imitators.
Guideline 8: Avoid Boasting about Spiritual Matters.
Guideline 9: Recognize that Sometimes the Answer is “No” or “Not What I Wanted”

But, back to my insomnia…  I try to blame my cholesterol medication (Crestor) for my sleepless nights.  I had a great deal of trouble getting used to it.  The doctor prescribed a dose every evening.  I had a whole week of sleepless nights.  After a google search, I learned I was not alone.  I started taking the medicine in the morning half as often.  The problems were much less.  However, because of that early experience, I still blame Crestor for my occasional  lack of sleep.

After Sunday night, I said to myself, “Do you REALLY need to take Crestor?  Can’t you control cholesterol through other means?”  I know the doctor told me things to do like increase fiber, exercise, and intake of Omega-3 and decrease weight and intake of animal products.  After six months of trying, my cholesterol was still too high and he put me on medication.  That was a few years ago.  However, I didn’t really try all that hard.  In the intervening years, I’ve made some progress – increasing exercise and fiber and taking fish oil capsules, but I could do more.  Now, I am motivated.  I am going to bring my cholesterol down so I can get off medication.  Then, if I can’t sleep, I’ll know I’ve done what I can.

I’ve decided that sometimes we need to have bad things happen in our lives to motivate us to change.