6 May 2018 - Sunday

6 May 2018 - Sunday

We hope you all had a wonderful Sabbath Day.  This was our second Sunday here in the mission field and our first Fast and Testimony meeting.  I had the privilege to help bless the Sacrament.  The spirit was wonderful as we shared testimonies, and I was prompted to share mine.  There were some visitors that joined us for our Sacrament meeting, and a granddaughter of one of the senior missionaries was there who just received a call to serve in the Philippines Naga Mission.  

The morning sky on our way to Martin's Cove from missionary village.

In our announcements this morning, the mission presidency gave us some of the comments from the trek leader training.  As I said yesterday it was exciting to be a small part of that training and to anticipate the trek season with these dedicated leaders;

"I came to be instructed and I am leaving spiritually fed"

"When we get home we are going to change our entire focus"

In our scripture reading this morning, mom had an insight about recording our thoughts and prompting when she read Mosiah 26:33; "And it came to pass that when Alma had heard these words he wrote them down that he might have them".

As I have thought about this scripture all day, today, I can't help but think that I have missed so many profound messages, directed to me, that I have forgotten, because I did not write them down!  Mom has led the way in writing down thoughts and impressions that she has received every day and sometimes several times each day.  I am trying hard to follow her example!

Before our meetings began this morning we got to talk to the mission presidents wife about her conversion.  She was born into a family that was not LDS, but pretty much lived the standards of the Church.  They lived in Southern California near Anaheim.  Things went well in their family until she was about 16 years old.  Her father then decided he did not want to be married anymore and he started womanizing and drinking and smoking.  

That caused her so much grief that she began to drink and smoke and do drugs, as was so prevalent in the 1960's.  She had a friend that was LDS but very inactive.  One day she saw a copy of the Book of Mormon in his apartment and asked him about it.  He explained a little to her but basically shrugged it off.  As time went on, her life continued in a downward spiral until one night in her 18th year she decided life was not worth living.  She took a massive amount of drugs one night and then realized she was going to die.  

She remembers the thought coming to her to call her Mormon friend.  By this time he had moved back to Utah and was trying to get active in the religion.  She woke up the next morning, still very much alive, and called him, and he invited her to come to Utah.  She got there on, a Greyhound Bus, and the guy asked his Bishop if he could have a Sacrament Meeting in the mountains with her.  

The Bishop thought for a minute and said, "no", she needs to come to the meetings.  Now, keep in mind that he did not know her, but he was following his impressions.  She came to the meetings and did not want to leave.  She loved the feeling there and decided to be baptized just three weeks later after taking the lessons.  She quit her job in California and moved to Utah.  By the time she moved to Utah the friend had gone inactive and left the Church.  He told her he just could not live the Mormon lifestyle.

She remained active, and later met her future husband about two years after her baptism.  She said it took two years just to figure out the Church!  We were so grateful that she was able to share these intimate details with us!  We were, again, very happy to come to Church early!  

You know, it is very hard to even talk about religion here in this sacred place without getting emotional.  The pioneer spirits are strong and very active in helping us know that we are in the right place.  Now, I am showing you these next three pictures;

Split Rock landmark looking south and west

The mountain range looking north

Looking toward Martin's Cove to the east and north

I have had some impressions on these three pictures relating to the path of the pioneers.  These pictures were taken about 500 feet from our trailer here in Missionary Village.  Currently these are the pastures that the church purchased from the Sun Family and the Church runs somewhere around 1200 head of cattle. I can picture the handcart pioneers walking through these fields as they left Devil's Gate near Martin's Cove and heading toward the Split Rock landmark on their way to Salt Lake City.  

They were starving, tired, nearly worn out and feeling that dying would be much more preferred than living.  But they continued on with encouragement from the rescuers and their faith in God and His prophets.  Sometimes we feel like it would be so much easier to stop trying to make a difference when we are met with so much opposition each day.  But these pioneers have shown us the way and I echo the words of Elder Holland; 

“Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”

Then, to close our day, mom and I had our prayers together and she went to bed.  Her ankle was swollen after being on it all day without a brace.  She is worried that it is taking so long to heal.  I went outside  where most of the senior missionaries were gathering around a fire and singing some songs.  I took a picture of the Criddle's leading the singing.  Sister Criddle plays the guitar and they are the grandparents to a friend of Cambry's in Liberty Lake.  I took this picture for Cambry to see!

A close-up of Sister Criddle with the guitar.  Elder Criddle is on the right.

A group shot of the senior missionaries who gathered tonight.

Well, my precious family and precious friends, it has been a good day.  Perhaps the only downside was mom's ankle being swollen tonight.  My take away from today is that we all have burden's in our handcarts.  Some are physical, some are emotional, some are mental and perhaps some are spiritual.  

Like those precious handcart pioneer Saints, they could only place their burden's on Jesus and set the example for us.  When it gets too hard to pull, or too hard to push, hand it over to Him who has already taken these burden's upon Himself so that we can navigate mortality with so much less baggage.  

Have a wonderful evening!  We love you soooooooooo much!!