SERENDIPIDIES

Part of our calling is Public Relations so as volunteers for Army Community Services, we have been preparing to teach classes on post.  The first course we attended was called “Army Family Team Building” (AFTB) and the second was on building resiliency.   The AFTB program is to introduce spouses to Army family life with subjects ranging from Army acronyms, to protocols, to communication skills, to how to be a better leader.  We’ve met some wonderful people. 

The resiliency training turned out to be helpful to us as a couple.  We got sick again which slowed us down and we took time to actually discuss how to handle some of our long standing patterns differently.  We reduced our conflict to 0% the last 10 days which has been an amazing blessing! 

The malady we were fighting was another specialized GA flu (our 3^rd one).  It hit us in the chest this time without any coryza and left us with a congested cough.  We wheezed on exhalation instead of inhalation (sorta like a smokers cough).  Ohmygoodness!  It may BE a smokers cough.  I had to use Elder Baum’s hankie over my mouth one night because there was a blanket of smoke outside.  Apparently, lightning struck & started another fire.  It’s quite dry here because when it does rain, it pours and then quickly runs off without watering the plant life sufficiently.  Fire is actually the most common disaster.

We’ve been re-listening to conference talks.  Here are some quotes we didn’t hear the first two times:

Carl B Pratt:  President James E. Faust suggested that the payment of tithing is “an excellent insurance against divorce” (“Enriching Your Marriage,” Liahona, Apr. 2007, 5; Ensign, Apr. 2007, 7).  The payment of tithing helps us develop a submissive and humble heart and a grateful heart that tends to “confess … his hand in all things” (D&C 59:21). Tithe-paying fosters in us a generous and forgiving heart and a charitable heart full of the pure love of Christ.  

David A. Bednar:  Revelation is communication from God to His children on the earth and one of the great blessings associated with the gift and constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “The Holy Ghost is a revelator,” and “no man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelations” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 132).  

M Russell Ballard:  The future growth of the Church will not happen through just knocking on strangers’ doors. It will happen when the members, along with our missionaries, filled with the love of God and Christ discern needs and respond to those needs in the spirit of charitable service.  When we do this, brothers and sisters, the honest in heart will feel our sincerity and our love. Many will want to know more about us. Then and only then will the Church expand to fill all of the earth. This cannot be accomplished by missionaries alone but requires the interest and service of every member.  

  

And last but not least is this gem from our former Bishop, Bruce D Porter, who is now a Seventy, from a talk he gave at BYU, printed in the June Ensign:  Regardless of what the future may hold, God has ordained that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, the parents of the Church will be given power to help save their children from the darkness around them.