Light

My neighbor, Tyler, just got home from his mission. I was struck by how he radiated the light of the gospel. There was something special about him. There was a light in his eyes. He had changed. He looked so happy. I was so proud of him for making the choices that brought him to that point. You can tell that whatever he was doing was right. Contrast that with someone who you can tell just by looking in their eyes that they are not making good choices. They don't look happy. There is no light in their eyes, in fact, they will not look you in the eyes.

I was reading over The Living Christ Sunday and read the description of Jesus that Joseph Smith gave us.

Of the Living Christ, the Prophet Joseph wrote: “His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying:

“I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (D&C 110:3–4).

The part of this that stood out to me was his description of Jesus' eyes. They were as a flame of fire. There was a "light" in his eyes! When we make choices and try hard to follow Jesus' example, we get a light in our eyes. That light comes from Jesus Christ, who is the light, the life, and the hope of the world.

A great scripture I discovered....

The day before I left for YW Camp, I was doing that thing where you look through the scriptures looking for a message from God, something to help you know Heavenly Father is aware of you and looking out for you. This approach works for me sometimes works well and sometimes not so much. Anyway, it worked for me this time. This is the scipture I happened upon:
Alma 25:17 This is when Ammon and his brethren met up again and were marveling at the success they had had in helping so many Lamanites be converted to the truth.

And now behold, Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and Himni, and their brethren did rejoice exceedingly, for the success which they had had among the Lamanites, seeing that the Lord had granted unto them according to their prayers, and that he had also verified his word unto them in every particular.

I love the words verified and particular in this verse. When we pray, especially when we are praying for others, it is important to know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and will verify His word to us in EVERY particular. Particular means detail to me. I think this is another scripture telling us to trust in the Lord and not lean to our own understanding.

I was also thinking that, in a small way, working so hard to make YW Camp a success was like Ammon and his brothers working to bring the Lamanites to the truth. I (and the leaders I work with) were working to bring these YW to the truth.

When I was listening to the sweet testimonies on the last night of camp, I realized that all of the prayers I had offered to God about Camp, He had "verified in every particular". He loves us and He lets us help Him accomplish great things. He could do it so much better Himself, but He lets us help him so that we can grow to be more like Him.

Another great YW quote....

“Give me a young woman who loves home and family, who reads and ponders the scriptures daily, who has a burning testimony of the Book of Mormon. Give me a young woman who faithfully attends her church meetings, who is a seminary graduate, who has earned her Young Womanhood Recognition Award and wears it with pride! Give me a young woman who is virtuous and who has maintained her personal purity, who will not settle for less than a temple marriage, and I will give you a young woman who will perform miracles for the Lord now and throughout eternity.”

Pres. Ezra Taft Benson
13th president of the Church
November 1986

Besides the "Women of God" quote, this was also an optional quote that the YW could memorize for YW Camp. I believe this statement from a prophet of God.

Reading the scriptures online

I just thought I would mention that I like to read the scriptures online sometimes. It is awesome that they are available like that.
They have a great search option. You can type in any words you want and all the scriptures that have those words in them will appear. That's better than the topical guide in your regular scriptures.

Another option I like is that when I am reading, you can click on the references and it will appear.

This is a great resource that I use all the time. :)

They are available at:
http://scriptures.lds.org/

Let no spirit of digression overcome you....

The other day I was listening to this song that was sung in the priesthood session of the last general conference. The words "let no spirit of digression overcome you in the evil hour." This made me think of one of my favorite thoughts: Satan would have us fill our lives with things that are not essential to our salvation. Do the important things first. I looked up the word "digression" in the dictionary. It says to digress is to leave the main subject temporarily in speech or writing. To me, this is truly one of Satan's best tools in this century. We just get distracted for a little while and then we get caught up and then, before we know it, look at all the time that has passed.

The Rising Generation

This post will be a place for me to compile thoughts on the rising generation. It is interesting that this phrase keeps coming up in General Conference.

October 2010 General conference
Courageous parenting by Elder Larry R. Lawrence


There was one talk in the October 2009 General Conference about the rising generation, and this last conference (April 2010) there were quite a few that mentioned the rising generation.

Here are the talks that mention this term:

Henry B. Eyring, "Help Them on Their Way"

We encourage young people in the rising generation to see their own potential to build great spiritual strength. And we plead with those who care about those young people to rise to what the Lord requires of us to help them. And since the future of the Church depends upon them, all of us care.

On reflection I realized that the contents of these booklets are a physical representation of the Lord’s trust in the rising generation and in all of us who love them. And I have seen evidence that the trust is well placed.

It is interesting that there are some incidents in the scriptures about the rising generation. Sometimes there are good outcomes, and sometimes not so good. I am reading in the Old Testament about the generation that came up after Joshua was the prophet. This is in Judges 1:

10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which aknew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

Other examples are:
the rising generation that came up after the group that Moses delivered out of Egypt.
the group that hadn't seen the miracles with Alma.
the people of Ammon whose boys fought because they hadn't made the same vow not to fight as their parents had.

I think it was President Hinckley that said the church is one generation away from apostacy. Reading the examples from the scriptures, it is interesting and understandable to see how much is invested in the youth of our church. We need to keep the flame of testimony burning in each succeeding generation.

A special time in my life....

In between the sessions of General Conference, there was a documentary about Gospel seeds being planted in Cambodia. Watching that brought back a flood of memories of my mission. April 1st was the 28th anniversary of my going into the MTC to begin my missionary service. My mission was to Bangkok, Thailand but the last part of my mission was spent in one of the refugee camps, Phanat Nikhom. I worked with many Laotian, Hmong, Vietnamese and Cambodian (we called them Khmer) people there. It was a special time in my life and I consider it one of the great blessings of my life that I was able to serve there. I have some pictures of my mission available, but I need to get the rest of my pictures put on my computer so that I have better access. Here are some pictures from my mission to Bangkok, Thailand. I served there from May 1982- October 1983.

I prayed for the ability to love the people I served. The Lord answered my prayers and the result was that it almost broke my heart to leave! How thankful I am that I responded affirmatively to the Spirit when I felt the promptings that I should go. I met people I will never forget and had experiences that I couldn't get anywhere else.


                                                                         ASOKE

This is me with my trainer, Sis. Sharon Record inside the Asoke chapel.

Elders Draney and Smith, Sis. Howard, me, Elders Bergener and Carrick, our branch president, Prayoon

                                                             CHIANG MAI

Sis. Howard and I trying to plant some rice. Usually the rows are much straighter than that. It is harder than it looks!

On our bikes

Still on our bikes

Elders Bakker, Barney, Hoopes, Connors, me, Sis. Randall, Elder Draney

Sis. Howard and me in the traditional Thai dresses that we had made.

We did health presentations at local schools.

LAMPANG

Fresh khaw niaw sanjkya served on banana leaves- yummy!

Teaching one of our investigators

Two girls that lived nearby

We didn't go door to door. We did a lot of street meetings. Here we are with our "Plan of Salvation" street meeting display in front of the Elder's storefront apartment. Incidentally, this picture is backwards. You can tell by looking at the Plan of Salvation.

Me with Prathaan Phrot's daughter

Congrag, our Relief Society president, and me

REFUGEE CAMP at PANAT NIKHOM

Me with a Hmong family

Two special Khmer (Cambodian boys) who used to stop by and talk to me at my open window in my office. One of the boys used to paint me pictures all the time.

A Hmong family

One of my Vietnamese students took this picture of me teaching an English class. My translator is Jenny.

Sis. Russon, Sis. Barica, Sis. Paulsen, Sis. McCune, Sis. Madsen, Sis. King and two of our Khmer translators.

July 1983- WSURT staff and translators

A picture I had taken in Thailand.

The Thailand Bangkok missionaries, I think this was taken Dec. 1982

My parents came to pick me up. This is a picture my last night in Thailand with my parents and Pres. and Sis. Hogan.

With Dad at Waikiki beach

With Mom waiting to get on the train to go to the Bridge over the River Kwai