Sunday Thoughts on Sacrifice

Stoke and Newcastle Ward Building -  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Mosiah 13:16-19

Sacrament Meeting and the other meetings at church were uplifting as always.  It was nice to meet with people all there because it is the day we worship God and remember the Savior's Atonement, learn His teaching, and encourage one another.

In Sacrament Meeting, I learned that Face Book can be a good thing if we use it to post good thoughts, spiritually strengthening ideas and stories, Church news and YouTube clips, and do positive posts with clean language.  If there is anything lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after those things.  There are many worthwhile things we can share on Face Book.

In Sunday School, I learned that God's children are being gathered to Him throughout the world.  Those with lineage from the original scattered 10 tribes are being identified in various places throughout the world as they receive their patriarchal blessings.  Abraham's ancestors are indeed larger than the sands of the sea as promised by God thousands of years ago.  We are living in a time when ancient and modern prophecies are constantly coming true.  All people who are baptized with the proper authority and join Christ's restored Church, become adopted sons and daughters into Abraham's lineage and receive the blessings promised.

In Relief Society, a woman shared a story as we discussed the subject of sacrifice.  She and her aunt went to a woman's home to help prepare it before she moved in.  The woman was not able to do the cleaning herself, so this was a service project.  As they cleaned, the auntie found coins in various places and asked if she could keep the coins.  When asked why she wanted to keep a few pence, she replied that she collects coins anywhere she happens across them.  She puts all of the coins she finds into a glass jar.  When she has 100 British pounds, she gives them to someone a church she knows is having a hard time.

Another woman said they had once sold their dining room table and chairs and donated the money to the church fund to help pay off debt the ward had accumulated.  The family sat on the floor to eat meals for months before they were able to get another table.

Loving Jesus Christ will develop charity within our hearts, because charity is the true love of Christ.  As we discover how much Christ loves us, we can learn to feel the love Christ has for our fellow man.  Feelings of love for our Savior eventually gives us the ability to see others as Christ sees them and we are able learn to love his children as he has asked us to.

I am grateful for the Sabbath Day that is different than all other days of the week.  It refuels me spiritually and physically so the week ahead is manageable and things go better than if I'd tried to cram others things into it that had nothing to do with remembering Jesus Christ and what He had done for me.  I testify to you that many blessings come from keeping the Sabbath Day Holy as we have been commanded.

Do Your Best With What You Have

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.  James 2:14-26

Playing A Violin With Three Strings     Jack Riemer                              On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City.  If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an awesome sight.  He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.  By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage to his chair.  They remain reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs.  They wait until he is ready to play.  But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap - it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do. We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage - to either find another violin or else find another string for this one.  But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before.  Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that.  You could see him modulating, changing, re-composing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before.  When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to show how much we appreciated what he had done.  He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and then he said - not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone - "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."  What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the definition of life - not just for artists but for all of us.  Here is a man who has prepared all his life to make music on a violin of four strings, who, all of a sudden, in the middle of a concert, finds himself with only three strings; so he makes music with three strings, and the music he made that night with just three strings was more beautiful, more sacred, more memorable, than any that he had ever made before, when he had four strings. So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left.

Going Forth to New Fields of Labor

Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.  Doctrine and Covenants 31:3

And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father.  Doctrine and Covenants 16:6

Transfer! 

We have been called by our mission president to move by the first part of February north to the Chorley/Blackburn area.  Chorley is where the center for the Young Single Adults meet, which is what we shall be overseeing.  I'll post more about the program later.  

We are assigned to the Blackburn Ward, which is about 20-30 minutes west of Chorley (depending on the traffic).  The bishop will probably want us to work with less-active members as we have done in the wards in our current area, but we are not sure yet as to our specific assignment in the ward.  Again, we a juggling two different assignments in two different areas, which isn't unusual for couple missionaries.  More couples are needed everywhere in the world!!  

The couple leaving the YSA assignment (after two years and their third mission) is the medical couple.  Not only did they travel all over helping the missionaries stay healthy, they served at the Missionary Training Center to give health presentations to the new missionaries, served Saturdays at the Preston Temple, helped fellowship in their assigned ward, taught investigators, and supervised the Young Single Adults program.  WOW!  That is probably only half of what they actually did.  Missions are busy places and senior missionaries stay young and healthy thus engaged with the Lord's work, though naps are in order at any given time--ha, ha!

Our feelings are mixed as we prepare to leave those we love and who have blessed our lives so abundantly.  It won't be a goodbye when we leave, just a "see-you-later."  Then, it will be off to a new adventure and meeting more wonderful people who again will richly bless our lives.  With the Lord's help, we shall also bring something to their lives.  A least we know we go there with love in our hearts, our testimonies of the truth and God's Plan of Happiness, and a willingness to serve in whatever way we are needed.  I always experience some trepidation that comes with change and meeting lots of new people, but things will be fine once I get past the initial stress and learn the ropes of our new calling.

The fields are ripe all ready to harvest . . . We shall soon be saying goodbye to our current missionary field of labor (Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-Under-Lyme)

Men in black.  We found this storage shed to rent for extra household goods left over from transferring flats out and the office Elders came to give their seal of approval.  They looked a little suspicious going into the back yard.  These men in suits looking at an old garage made the neighbors wonder what they were up to.

There are a lot of  places we didn't get to see while in our present area--here's Little Moreton Hall, which was closed when we drove past it the other day.  The sign said to stay out as there were security guards and guard dogs, but I mustered up the courage (or stupidity) to go in to at least get a picture!

This is for the horse lovers so they can paint their horse transports cool like this one.  All the horse transports identify themselves with "horses" on them so people will be careful.

Leaving an area means leaving great people like these two.  We had tea with them and they told us of their world adventures, showed beautiful photographs, and shared their stories of life and how they found the Church. 

Here's an area we are checking out--the strange figure seems to convey what we are feeling--which way to go?  Where shall we live?  Chorley or Blackburn or somewhere in between?

We'll let you know where we are living as soon as we know.