Had to hospitalize a young woman this week for suicidality.  She was a recently returned missionary too.  Was trying to give her every reason I could think of to reconsider her decision, but she was determined.  Then I had the thought to suggest that our common enemy might be trying to influence her.  I checked with Heavenly Father before saying anything and since I didn’t feel constrained, I went ahead.  I asked her if there was any reason Lucifer would like to see her dead?  She became even more withdrawn so I started second guessing myself & didn’t sleep well.  Begged God to help me be more prudent…. 

We’ve been studying the NT and the next chapter in Mark happened to be about a poor man who lived in a cave and cut himself with stones because he was possessed by a Legion of evil spirits.  As you know, Jesus cast the spirits into ~2000 swine who then stampeded off a cliff into the sea.  Another account of an evil spirit cast a lad into fire & water, trying to destroy him.  I was thankful for the scriptures and the timely validation that evil spirits are not pro-life.  Perhaps it was prudent afterall to suggest a priesthood blessing to my patient. 

Heavenly Father is so merciful.  I beg him every day that other people will feel His love in spite of my weakness.  It was parent weekend at the girl’s residential facility.  We met with 15 sets of anxious parents which is surely a recipe for conflict and stress.  I prayed specifically that God would rid my heart of any resentment toward a Jewish physician and his wife from NY who had on several occasions been verbally abusive to me on the phone.  By some miracle, they went from downcast eyes to laughter and gratitude.  And I was completely free of any animosity.  The nurse that attends me said this is the third parent weekend in a row that no parent has been disgruntled or disruptive.  She said she’s never seen it before.  I told her it paid to fast and pray. 

We’ve been thinking about renovating our home i.e. enlarging the kitchen and adding a bedroom and large meeting room on the main floor.  It would be easier than moving.  Hope it ensures an active and gracious old age.

We are trying to revamp how we set goals.   Both Ker and I are not very good with follow-up so we’re going to use dinner prep time to discuss how we did for the day.  Hope we can be successful following up on our followup!

YSA Ward was uplifting as usual.  All three young adults talked on goal-setting.  One said, “you don’t achieve 100% of the goals you never set”.  Another said, “hope is when a realistic dream comes together with a goal.”  She also said the reason we serve willingly is so the recipient can feel of God’s love (unwillingness dams the transfer).  The special number was a male/female piano duet of “Come Thou Fount.”  I wept it was so beautiful.  The third speaker quoted from Preach My Gospel p121 on diligence:  steady, consistent, earnest, and energetic effort in doing the Lord’s work.  I could use some work on the consistent part.  Get so distracted at times. 

Kerry gave the temple prep lesson today.  He did such a good job using scriptures to teach about the blessings of the temple.  One recently returned missionary said he actually learned something!   It’s interesting how we give the same lesson over and over and it rises to fit each person’s needs.  One girl stayed after because being sexually assaulted  is interfering with her desire to attend the temple again.  She doesn’t feel worthy even though it wasn’t her fault.  I was able to direct her to a number of resources.  

Love you Elder Snell.  

Dear Elder Snell,

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr Day (yesterday)!  He was a freedom fighter.  Too bad it was still necessary after the Civil War.  Read an interesting book called The Lincoln Hypothesis.    Did you know Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Smith had a well-documented and joint belief that national repentance would heal the land and that Lincoln checked a Book of Mormon out of the Library of Congress when the Union was losing the Civil War?  Eight months later, he issued the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation and returned the book to the library.  Hmmmm.

Well I had a hard week.  Rebound illness, exact same symptoms.  Missed getting a Priesthood Blessing the first time but got it the second round.  Amazing, immediate recovery with enough energy to do an 8pm temple session.  Didn’t even get sleepy which is unusual.  Had to go to bed early the two previous nights from shear exhaustion.  Even though I had that wonderful one-day reprieve, I was then hit with deep discouragement, almost despair.  I knew Satan was working on me for some reason. 

Reviewed the temptations of Christ:

1) to use power to satisfy hunger (Christ told Satan-and us-to not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth from God.)  It is a constant temptation to neglect the spiritual for the temporal or to do our carnal will instead of God’s. 

2)  to test God’s willingness to save us by doing something life threatening (Christ said not to tempt, or in other words try to manipulate, God.)

3) to gain power and adulation by worshipping Satan (Christ said to worship only God).

When I fall prey to any of those temptations, the outcome is doubt, discouragement, and/or defiance (the 3 D’s of the devil).  I try to counter with belief (in truth), courage (in spite of fear), and strict obedience (with exactness and honor).  I focused on prayer, scriptures, and serving God and felt better by the end of the day.

One of the things I felt impressed to read was the life and ministry of President Ezra Taft Benson.  He was such a hard worker growing up on a farm.   He even took over the responsibility of it when he was only 12 yrs old because his father was called on a mission.  He always gave himself totally over to whatever God asked.  It reminded me of the burnt offering under the Law of Moses which is symbolic of the total commitment which God requires of each of us.

Hey, did you know President Ezra Taft Benson’s wife Flora was called on a 2-yr mission to Hawaii (1924-1926) before she married? 

Hope you have a good week darlin’

Love, 

Mombaum

Dear Elder Snell,

Someone asked Marilyn vos Savant how many words a person must learn to be able to communicate adequately in a foreign country.  Basic conversation requires 1000 words with some knowledge of verb tenses but some get by with 500.  Just thought you’d like to know what it would take to be proficient in Hawaiian.

I had been feeling a lot of love for Ker—until FHE (You know—the family feud that begins and ends with prayer).  As is so often the case, we started feeling anxious and then aggressive over what could have been a thoughtful stimulating discussion about “The Progressives Rejection of the Constitution and the Rise of Bureaucratic Despotism” by Larry Arnn from Hillsdale College.  I left in a huff after unsuccessfully trying to learn something from our faulty habitual process.  I went downstairs and asked God to help me know what to do.  I started answering emails and was looking up something on “Zoram” when an Apr 2006 conference talk by Robert S Wood (our past bishop who called Kerry to be his counselor) suddenly came onto the screen and started playing his address “Instruments of the Lord’s Peace.”  I was stunned at the answer to my prayer.  I sent it to Kerry who after listening to it said, “ I’ll repent - - - and I love you.”  I told him I needed to repent too.   Elder Wood was an instrument of the Lord’s peace right in our own home!  

Went to bed thinking about “loving our enemies.”  Decided forgiveness is one of the most difficult commandments to obey.  Woke up with this:  If what we want is justice, Christ already paid the price (why would we want to extract more than that?).  Forgiveness is trusting that God will do what He says He will do.  First, if the offender does not repent, he will pay for his own sins (how hard to bear we know not).  Second, if an offender does truly repent, he will receive mercy and be cleansed of all sin (which is what we hope for ourselves).  And third, Christ will heal all wounds and restore all losses to the innocent (if we don't believe that, are we innocent?).  Forgiveness is not absolving someone of their offenses.  It is absolving ourselves from unnecessary suffering over the past

I reread 2 Nephi 31 and had these questions & thoughts for you: 

Why is baptism necessary? V5,7

What evidence do you have that you are speaking with the new tongue of angels? V13

How do you feast on words of Christ? V20

How do we preach no other way without coming across arrogant? V21

Love you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!