Robert writes home #33 Mar 20, 1994 Includes"The parable of the kayak demonstrator."
Mar 20, 1994
Dear Mother,
We're having nice weather (we need more rain).
Janet's Merry Miss Luau was a big success last night. Her girls danced the hula after the delicious dinner, then she showed the video of the Polynesian cultural center program. It was great!
Megan is still undefeated in tennis. She's the only one on both girls and boys teams. Charlie lost a tie breaker last week.
Janet and Charlie are going to Tuscon to visit her sister Nancy and family next Friday.
This week we're getting in new kitchen cabinets. The ole ones look like they've been through too many kids.
I hope things are going well for you. We're praying for you every day.
Love,
Robert, Janet and kids
PS I'm enclosing another little lecture:
The value of the demonstrator model...
Once upon a time there was a man who had a kayak manufacturing business. Kayaks are those little boats that the Eskimos used to use to hunt seals. They were a little canoe with a hole and a drawstring apron to pull tight around the rider so the water couldn't get in if they capsized or a wave crashed over them. Now they are used to run whitewater rapids and are made out of fiberglass... In this fictitious story the guy who made the boats opened a store in a valley high in the Andes in South America where a world class whitewater stretch of river ran down a narrow gorge in the valley. The natives were afraid of the rapids and tried to avoid traveling up or down the gorge. Occasionally they had to and occasionally someone fell in and was almost always drowned before he could get out...
The local people were not interested in kayaks...When the dealer tried to explain how they could travel the whitewater in them they weren't interested. They would rather take the long walk around to get to the bottom of the gorge.
So one day he took a kayak and went up to the head of the gorge. Alot of people followed to watch. He got in the kayak and ran the rapids. The people were amazed when they saw him travel rapidly and safely to the bottom of the gorge. Soon many of them wanted to try it and later bought kayaks.
I think that Heavenly Father needs demonstrators to show people how the gospel works. If he chooses you to be one of his demonstrators then you will have to run the rapids to show the people how well it works. Sometimes I think he sends families who live the gospel to live in communities where they can demonstrate the impact of the gospel and how faith in God sustains them as they endure physical calamity, (like house fires, life threatening sickness and or loss of life).
My son who has been dealing with a malignant brain tumor for the past two years (which has been put in remission with radiation therapy presently) often has his teachers comment on how cheerful, happy and calm about the future he is. I think they are overlaying how they think they would act if it happened to them. They would probably feel angry and despaired to be cheated out of their youth (his pituitary gland which controls the endocrine system has been badly damaged if not destroyed.) So they are amazed that he is not and probably think he doesn't understand what lies ahead. But what they don't understand is that he knows that his life is just a short episode in the total life and that somewhere down the road he gets to be superman and leap over tall buildings with a single bound...just like Heavenly Father. (We're his offspring and have the potential to become like him.) And furthermore, he has faith that Heavenly Father knows what's best and is orchestrating the whole thing. Faith is a wonderful gift.
Dear Mother,
We're having nice weather (we need more rain).
Janet's Merry Miss Luau was a big success last night. Her girls danced the hula after the delicious dinner, then she showed the video of the Polynesian cultural center program. It was great!
Megan is still undefeated in tennis. She's the only one on both girls and boys teams. Charlie lost a tie breaker last week.
Janet and Charlie are going to Tuscon to visit her sister Nancy and family next Friday.
This week we're getting in new kitchen cabinets. The ole ones look like they've been through too many kids.
I hope things are going well for you. We're praying for you every day.
Love,
Robert, Janet and kids
PS I'm enclosing another little lecture:
The value of the demonstrator model...
Once upon a time there was a man who had a kayak manufacturing business. Kayaks are those little boats that the Eskimos used to use to hunt seals. They were a little canoe with a hole and a drawstring apron to pull tight around the rider so the water couldn't get in if they capsized or a wave crashed over them. Now they are used to run whitewater rapids and are made out of fiberglass... In this fictitious story the guy who made the boats opened a store in a valley high in the Andes in South America where a world class whitewater stretch of river ran down a narrow gorge in the valley. The natives were afraid of the rapids and tried to avoid traveling up or down the gorge. Occasionally they had to and occasionally someone fell in and was almost always drowned before he could get out...
The local people were not interested in kayaks...When the dealer tried to explain how they could travel the whitewater in them they weren't interested. They would rather take the long walk around to get to the bottom of the gorge.
So one day he took a kayak and went up to the head of the gorge. Alot of people followed to watch. He got in the kayak and ran the rapids. The people were amazed when they saw him travel rapidly and safely to the bottom of the gorge. Soon many of them wanted to try it and later bought kayaks.
I think that Heavenly Father needs demonstrators to show people how the gospel works. If he chooses you to be one of his demonstrators then you will have to run the rapids to show the people how well it works. Sometimes I think he sends families who live the gospel to live in communities where they can demonstrate the impact of the gospel and how faith in God sustains them as they endure physical calamity, (like house fires, life threatening sickness and or loss of life).
My son who has been dealing with a malignant brain tumor for the past two years (which has been put in remission with radiation therapy presently) often has his teachers comment on how cheerful, happy and calm about the future he is. I think they are overlaying how they think they would act if it happened to them. They would probably feel angry and despaired to be cheated out of their youth (his pituitary gland which controls the endocrine system has been badly damaged if not destroyed.) So they are amazed that he is not and probably think he doesn't understand what lies ahead. But what they don't understand is that he knows that his life is just a short episode in the total life and that somewhere down the road he gets to be superman and leap over tall buildings with a single bound...just like Heavenly Father. (We're his offspring and have the potential to become like him.) And furthermore, he has faith that Heavenly Father knows what's best and is orchestrating the whole thing. Faith is a wonderful gift.
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