Robert writes home #113 15 March 1998
15 March 1998
Dear Mother,
We went to the temple yesterday. We had three people from the ward getting endowments or sealing ordinances performed. There were about twenty people from the ward there.
From there we went to Turlock to visit our daughter, Megan, and go to her stake's performance of "From Cumorah's Hill." She and all of her husband's family were in it. It was good...It was sure a long day, though.
The peach trees are blooming and the weather is getting warmer. I haven't seen many bees flying, though. I don't know how well they're getting pollinated.
I went on slits with the missionaries this afternoon...Three no responses at the door, one rejection and one "I only have ten minutes, can you just leave the book.?" This was out of five scheduled appointments. It kind of gives me a little feel of what it's like out there for you guys.
In seminary we've been studying Helaman and the account of Helaman Jr.'s sons, Nephi and Lehi. It has given me some great insights. I think it would have been psychologically debilitating to experience...preaching to those Nephites, the people who he had been chief judge over and grew up with and who had been active in the church just a few years before, and being totally rejected...If they hadn't have had the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to buoy them up and reassure them that they were doing what God wanted them to do. Their faith was unshakable and their concern was the sadness they felt for the non receptive people's Eternal future. But their feelings for themselves were ebullient because of their faith and the solace that the spirit brought them. Brigham Young talks about being a true friend of God. These guys were true friends of God. A true friend is someone who is in harmony with your ind..."you click"...you share your values and goals and interests and get excited about the same things. They were in harmony with God and therefore he could communicate with them. that's the kind of faith that it takes to do miracles on you mission...like when they were cast into the prison and when there would be slayers came to kill them they were encircled by the pillar of fire, while their assailants were enshrouded by amist of darkness, so dark they couldn't see to flee...as a result the Lamanites were largely converted.
The same kind of faith brought miracles for Ammon, seventy years earlier.
Also impressive to me is the fact that the thing mentioned in Helaman, about how the members changed when they began to fall away after they became wealthy (the pride cycle) was that they ceased to believe in the spirit of prophecy and revelation. To me that means they started to doubt that calls from the bishop were really inspired of God. They figured that the bishop is just making his best guess.They don't really think the prophet's counsel is inspired when it doesn't make sense.
We are at that prosperity position on the pride cycle today. We should learn from the mistakes of those who went before us.
We're praying for you.
Love,
Robert, Janet, Sam
Dear Mother,
We went to the temple yesterday. We had three people from the ward getting endowments or sealing ordinances performed. There were about twenty people from the ward there.
From there we went to Turlock to visit our daughter, Megan, and go to her stake's performance of "From Cumorah's Hill." She and all of her husband's family were in it. It was good...It was sure a long day, though.
The peach trees are blooming and the weather is getting warmer. I haven't seen many bees flying, though. I don't know how well they're getting pollinated.
I went on slits with the missionaries this afternoon...Three no responses at the door, one rejection and one "I only have ten minutes, can you just leave the book.?" This was out of five scheduled appointments. It kind of gives me a little feel of what it's like out there for you guys.
In seminary we've been studying Helaman and the account of Helaman Jr.'s sons, Nephi and Lehi. It has given me some great insights. I think it would have been psychologically debilitating to experience...preaching to those Nephites, the people who he had been chief judge over and grew up with and who had been active in the church just a few years before, and being totally rejected...If they hadn't have had the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to buoy them up and reassure them that they were doing what God wanted them to do. Their faith was unshakable and their concern was the sadness they felt for the non receptive people's Eternal future. But their feelings for themselves were ebullient because of their faith and the solace that the spirit brought them. Brigham Young talks about being a true friend of God. These guys were true friends of God. A true friend is someone who is in harmony with your ind..."you click"...you share your values and goals and interests and get excited about the same things. They were in harmony with God and therefore he could communicate with them. that's the kind of faith that it takes to do miracles on you mission...like when they were cast into the prison and when there would be slayers came to kill them they were encircled by the pillar of fire, while their assailants were enshrouded by amist of darkness, so dark they couldn't see to flee...as a result the Lamanites were largely converted.
The same kind of faith brought miracles for Ammon, seventy years earlier.
Also impressive to me is the fact that the thing mentioned in Helaman, about how the members changed when they began to fall away after they became wealthy (the pride cycle) was that they ceased to believe in the spirit of prophecy and revelation. To me that means they started to doubt that calls from the bishop were really inspired of God. They figured that the bishop is just making his best guess.They don't really think the prophet's counsel is inspired when it doesn't make sense.
We are at that prosperity position on the pride cycle today. We should learn from the mistakes of those who went before us.
We're praying for you.
Love,
Robert, Janet, Sam
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