Sue: This week I have been studying Zeniff, King Noah, Abinadi, and Alma establishing the church at the waters of Mormon. Two verses grabbed my attention:
Mosiah 12:27 Abinadi speaking ‘Ye have not applied your heart to understanding; therefore ye have not been wise.’
Mosiah 18:12 Alma speaking ‘O Lord, pour out thy Spirit upon thy servant, that he may do this work with holiness of heart.'
These made me think about how I spend my time, and analyze my motives for serving.
We made two trips to Dijon this week. The first was to pay the person who hauled away the furniture off the balcony. He only took cash. The next was to deliver and replace 20 new casters on 4 desk chairs, a new vacuum cleaner and a standing fan. The sisters were delighted. Perhaps it will inspire them to clean. Since returning we have learned that Dijon is a UNESCO world heritage site. We will go another day en touristes.
Yesterday, I was excited to send 93 pages of stories about my life to the Storyworth publisher. One of my sons, for Mother’s Day, composed a set of questions which I have answered. Some were in detail but others only 6 or 7 lines. All have now been recorded in my own words and will be hardcover bound with one for each of our children. This writing experience has reaffirmed that LIFE is GOOD. I will also admit to weeping through some parts. I hope this will help my grandchildren, and great grandchildren who I will never know, feel like they can relate to me in some way.
I tried walking and jogging this week. It is much more difficult than just walking. I made over 19.4 miles in 5 days. I hope I can keep this up.
Tom: I had the assignment to teach the priesthood lesson today about Pres. Oaks’ talk from April conference: Divine Helps for Mortality. At first read it seems straightforward, but on studying there is a great deal of meat there.
He describes in perfect simplicity the Plan of Salvation. However, in his justification for why God had to create the earth for us, he uses the analogy of our muscles not growing unless they have resistance - gravity - to work against. That made me think that we needed to come to earth for our spiritual growth because there was no “resistance” in the pre-existence - no temptation to bring about a strengthening of our spirit. We were like astronauts floating in zero gravity and needed to be born in a material world to grow.
Pres. Oaks gives us examples of many divine helps in mortality, the most important being a Savior who dies for us. I will skip most of the talk. However, the part about distinguishing between the manifestations of the spirit and the Gift of the Holy Ghost led to several men telling about the manifestations of the spirt which gave them a testimony. The most interesting was a man who plans on being baptized in late September. He described his experience while reading the Book of Mormon: he felt a sudden warmth in the back of his head which slowly descended into his back and chest and filled him with such a wonderful feeling that he was moved to tears. Others had similar but unique experiences for them which were manifestations of the Holy Ghost.
There is an interesting section in paragraph 15. In English it talks about how those who obtain a remission of sins and who regularly renew their cleansing by daily repentance and living according to the covenants they make through the sacrament - qualify for the Holy Ghost to always be with them. In French the word used for cleansing is purification. A class member also used the word sanctification.
My final comment is about paragraph 17 where Pres. Oaks talks about his disappointment that so many remain unprepared for our appointed meeting with the Savior despite all these helps provided to bring us home. The translation in French is rendez-vous. We never know when that rendezvous is scheduled. However, if we are having meaningful personal prayers every morning, and then die mid-day, our rendezvous might be quite short. We might be tempted to say” Hello again! How are things since this morning?” We can have a rendezvous with the Savior at will or whenever we need, but a regular rendezvous will help keep us on the path of happiness.
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| A beautiful building in Lyon |
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| Sunrise over the Saône |
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