25 April 2018 - Wednesday

25 April 2018 - Wednesday

We were up early this morning and just a little anxious to get started on our mission journey.  We worked out in the exercise room at 5:00am, got ready for breakfast and taking our first load to the car from our MTC room, and then left Provo at 8:15am for the missionary village in Wyoming.  It was an absolutely beautiful day to travel the Provo Canyon to the open lands of Wyoming and into the missionary village.  

Our only stop was in Rock Springs for gasoline, and a few groceries, and we arrived at just before 2:00pm.  And we had fun talking to each of our children as we came in and out of reception areas!

Our trailer was unlocked and we had a few minutes to check it out when the mission president and his wife came by to greet us.  Then our district leader and his wife came by with some members of the district and helped us quickly unload the car.  They even brought us dinner for this evening!  Mom was able to get everything unpacked and we worked together to sanitize the entire trailer.  

It certainly appears that we will hit the ground running after our district leader, Elder Taylor, gave us a brief orientation of the rest of this week.  We have correlation meetings Monday through Saturday in Martin'as Cove, (about 10 miles east), at 8:30am, for about 30 minutes.  For tomorrow, after the correlation meeting, (Thursday), we will then have a P-day to go into Casper, about 60 miles away, and get our groceries.  

On Friday we have a full day of training and on Saturday we have a full work crew day.  We are the second of 4 waves of missionaries coming to work this summer.  I understand there will be 38 senior couples in the mission this summer.  It appears that there is a lot of fellowship that goes into this mission after our regular day.  Let's hope we can keep up with the social aspects!!

Here are some pictures that I took here at the missionary village this afternoon;

Part of our district helping us unload!  Thank you!

"Bucky" a native resident of the village

"Peter" another native resident under our trailer...

Elder and Sister Lasher residence #1 trailer

The living-room into the kitchen picture

From the kitchen into the living-room

We have three bedrooms and two full bathrooms.  We were told by the counselor in the mission presidency today that there will not be any missionaries needing our third bedroom.  That means we have free access to the entire trailer and that makes for plenty of room for each family!  Yea!  So make plans to come and stay with us.  We will have either a Saturday P-day or a Monday P-day.  This will be something mom and I will greatly anticipate when we know you are coming!!!

24 April 2018 - Tuesday

24 April 2018 - Tuesday - The last day of the MTC training!

Here we are, 10 days into the MTC!  We had our last meeting this morning that concluded at 12:30pm.  Our instructor was Brother Hawkins.  He and his wife have served together as mission president and Visitor Center President in New Zealand.  His wife had a medical emergency over this past weekend and he condensed our training to accommodate assisting his wife who is recovering well. 

 With the afternoon that opened up we took advantage of attending the Provo Temple one more time.  We got a good portion of the car loaded after the temple and then we had our last devotional at 7:00pm.  Elder D. Todd Christofferson spoke tonight with his wife.  The devotional was broadcast to all 14 MTC's world-wide!  No pictures were allowed in the meeting but the impressions from the Spirit were so sweet.

He spent all of his time quoting President Nelson's April conference talks.  Mom and I have been listening to them each morning while we exercise.  I absolutely love the messages pertaining to the upcoming events in the Church with the miracles and the invitation to be worthy of personal revelation.  That will be a focus for me to get to that point so that I can be an instrument in the Lord's Hands in these last days!

Exciting times!!!  And at the end of the devotional, Elder Christofferson spent a few minutes with the developmental missionaries that are working in the MTC call center.  There was one missionary that stood about 4' tall, and had the biggest smile on his face every time I saw him this past week. 

It was such a huge tender mercy to be here tonight to end our MTC experience!   

Brother Hawkins up front as we concluded the class.

Look at the snow-capped peak in between the two mountains

A much improved smiling selfie

Now, I have the last three murals to post;

Moses and the Red Sea

Points to Ponder:

• What symbols of light and darkness do you see in this mural?
• How do you feel about taking that first step in the sea before the water parted?
• What can you learn from this mural?

Now read together Exodus 3:11

• How must you live to receive revelation in times of great need?
• What kind of faith must you have to receive revelation in times of great need, such as Moses had when he led the children of Israel out of bondage?
• In Moses 1:20, Moses began to fear exceedingly, and, as he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell.
• Discuss - do I let fear get in the way of my faith?

Do I have enough faith in Jesus Christ to accomplish anything He wants me to do?  

Moses

Points to Ponder:

• How do you feel when you look at this mural?
• Proportionately, why do you think that Moses appears to be so small in this mural?
• How do you think Moses felt after viewing God's revelation to him?

Now read together Moses 1:6

• What was God teaching Moses?
• What is God's mission?
• How can I help God fulfill His purpose?
• How can I discover my role in God's plan?

What role do I have in God's plan?

Sons of Mosiah

Points to Ponder:

• Why did the sons of Mosiah go to the Lamanites?
• What was their message?
• Can you feel the hope that the sons of Mosiah had as they went to preach the Gospel?
• What was Ammon's approach to those he taught?
• What was Aaron's approach to those he taught?
• What can we learn from each of these methods of teaching?

Now read together Alma 17:3

• How can I serve with the same desire as the sons of Mosiah?
• What can I do to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ?
• Can you see the opportunity to become a more effective missionary?

How can I teach with the power and the authority of God?

Mom and I are so blessed to have precious family members and friends who know and love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  These murals put so many things in perspective as we pondered the messages and studied the scenes depicted.  We hope this makes it easier to share some things with those precious grandchildren!

We are here tonight at the MTC and will be on the road tomorrow morning for Wyoming and to get started in the mission field!  We are excited and grateful for each of you following the blog.  Please comment anytime and know that we love you and so appreciate your love and your support and your prayers on our behalf!

23 April 2018 - Monday

23 April 2018 - Monday

Mom and I like to go to the cafeteria early in the morning.  It opens at 7:00am, so we need to get up by 5:00am to workout in the exercise room.  I finally got smart yesterday and turned on General Conference on my phone and the workout goes so much faster!  This morning we listened to Hugh B. Brown's "Profile of a Prophet".  I went 3 miles and burned 500 calories during that 45 minute presentation!

At breakfast we had the MTC Mission President and his wife join us at our table.  This past week we have just said hello to either him or her, but this morning they chose to sit by us, and we had a wonderful conversation.  He has been a mission president in the Philippines and now at the MTC.  He was pleading with us to recommend any senior couples that might consider serving a senior mission.  He and his wife seemed to be very warm and sincere and it was a real treat to visit with them.

This day began the first of two days of Visitor Center/Historic Site training.  With the uniqueness of being  in the Wyoming Mormon Handcart Mission, we have the guests coming to us rather than seeking out individuals to share the messages of the Gospel.  We traveled to Temple Square this morning with Elder and Sister Roberts and got pretty much what we expected with the young sister missionaries presentations.  They were told to treat us as investigators and they did an excellent job with that!

However, I took some significant pictures on Temple Square of the beautiful flowers and the Tabernacle, and the Assembly Hall.  After I post the pictures, I have some additional information to share;

Beautiful flowers on Temple Square

Going into the Visitors Center for training

3rd generation Assembly Hall

Inside the 3rd generation Assembly Hall

We took these pictures on Temple Square this morning.  We wanted to take the beautiful budding trees and flowers home with us!  But the big reason I took the pictures of the Assembly Hall was to help you understand the time period of 5 October 1856.  Brigham Young had just received work from Franklin D. Richards that there were still about 1,000 immigrating Saints on the plains.  He was in a General Conference when he made the comments below.

It was in a smaller building on this spot of ground or in a covered tent area on this spot of ground that he called for the rescuers to gather food, clothing and medical supplies for the starving and struggling pioneers.  He had no idea that they were still immigrants so late in the season heading for Zion!

 “Many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with handcarts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. …

“I shall call upon the Bishops this day. I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until the next day, for 60 good mule teams and 12 or 15 wagons. I do not want to send oxen. I want good horses and mules. They are in this Territory, and we must have them. Also 12 tons of flour and 40 good teamsters, besides those that drive the teams. … First, 40 good young men who know how to drive teams, to take charge of the teams that are now managed by men, women and children who know nothing about driving them. Second, 60 or 65 good spans of mules, or horses, with harness, whipple trees, neck-yokes, stretchers, lead chains, &c. And thirdly, 24 thousand pounds of flour, which we have on hand. …

“I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains. And attend strictly to those things which we call temporal, or temporal duties. Otherwise, your faith will be in vain. The preaching you have heard will be in vain to you, and you will sink to Hell, unless you attend to the things we tell you.”

It is so interesting to picture where the rescuers came from and the immediate attention  Brigham Young gave to the rescue effort.  Had they not started the next day, the deaths would have increased significantly.

Back to the murals -

Joseph Smith in his youth

Add caption

Points to Ponder:

• What does the mural tell you about the kind of upbringing that Joseph had?
• What do you see in Joseph's face?

Read together Joseph Smith History 1:28

• How did Joseph align himself with the Lord's will?
• What do I need to change in my life to align myself to the Lord's will for me?
• How will that change help me to represent Jesus Christ?

What does it mean to me to represent Jesus Christ?

Nephi praying 

Points to Ponder:

• How do you think Nephi is feeling in this mural?
• How do the living conditions of Lehi's family contrast with the living conditions that they had in Jerusalem?

Now read together 1 Nephi 2:16

• How has Nephi prepared himself for this moment?
• How would you have reacted if you experienced what Nephi has experienced?
• How does Nephi show gratitude for this experience?

Have I inquired of the Lord?

Alma the Younger

Points to Ponder:

• What could the light symbolize in this mural?
• What does this mural tell us about the kind of setting that conversion would most often come in?

As a side note, we learned last week that about 40% of the returned missionaries go inactive after their missions.  It is a heartbreaking statistic that tells us that too many missionaries have testimonies without actually being converted.  Conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what will keep us clinging to the iron rod and always moving toward the Light of Jesus Christ!

Now read together Alma 5:46

• How does the Doctrine of Christ relate to this mural?
• What is required for true conversion?
• What is the difference between being a member of the Church, and being converted?

Have I personally experienced a mighty change of heart?

As I type these messages to my precious family, I can't help but think how much more prepared our grandchildren will be if you have these kinds of discussions with them.  We think about our precious family every single day and include you in every prayer!  We love you and are privileged to be serving this mission!

22 April 2018 - Sunday

22 April 2018 - Sunday

This has been a marvelous Sabbath Day in the MTC!  We had our senior district Sacrament meeting and classes.  We had three closing firesides throughout the afternoon, and we are now settling in for the evening.  To be real honest with you, I have been excited to blog some experiences I have had today.  Are you ready?

First, mom and I attended Sacrament meeting this morning and the topic was "enduring to the end".  Our friends, the Bates, spoke about enduring to the end and Sister Bates even emphasized "enduring well".  Then our district President's wife, Sister Giles spoke and made this observation;  Jesus is known and endeared by many names, two of which are "Beginning" and "End".  And then she put the theme of the Sacrament together, "enduring well to the End".  Enduring well until we greet the Savior.  I have never thought about that before!

Then mom and I gave some simple 5 minute training discussion modules for Sunday School.  Mom gave "knowledge" from the Preach My Gospel manual, and I gave some thoughts and discussion on the Priesthood ordinance of blessing the "sick and the afflicted".  Mom did an excellent job on her presentation on knowledge.  It is so much fun to see her in action!

I had to share the definition of afflicted from  the dictionary and used some examples from Job as definitions.  A few minutes later an Elder spoke on the attribute of patience and quoted from Alma 17:10-11;

10 And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted.

11 And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.

Without any knowledge of our assignments, the messages were the same.  It was apparent that the Lord coordinated our assignments through the Spirit.  That has been the rule this entire week.

Now to continue the observations from the murals here at the new facilities at the MTC:

Joseph in Liberty Jail

Points to ponder:

• What could the light represent?
• What could the darkness represent?
• Have you ever felt such hopelessness and despair?

Read together D&C 122:7-9

• Why did Joseph receive these words of comfort?
• How did he yoke himself with Jesus Christ and let Him help bear his burdens?
• How can you teach this kind of reliance on the Lord to those you serve?
• What experiences have you had that have helped you to grow?
• What are other phrases in the Scriptures of the Lord speaking to those who are enduring trials?

Now ask each other; How will I allow my experiences to help me grow?

Martha preparing to receive the Lord in her home

Points to ponder:

• What do you learn about Martha from the mural?
• What general feeling in the room do you get when you look at the mural?

Read together Luke 10:41-42

• How has Martha been preparing for the Savior?
• How has Martha shown that she loves the Lord?
• How are we like Martha?
• How does the Lord help me realign my priorities?

Now ask each other; Are my priorities aligned with the Lord's?

Paul's journey

Points to ponder:

• What was Paul's journey?
• Do I let others influence my decisions?
• Do I fear man more than God?

Now read together Acts 9:6

• How can I be ready to receive instruction from the Lord?
• Am I humble enough to put aside my perceptions and do the Lord's work?
• What was the Lord able to do with Paul after he was "enlightened"?
• What qualities did Paul have that helped him be a disciple?

Now ask each other; Am I ready to do the Lord's work in the Lord's way?

As a final thought tonight, aren't we so grateful to have a living Prophet as a guide to help us through these challenging times?  As we are steering our ships to the rocky coastline, with the goal of returning to our Heavenly Father, we have a Prophet that gives us a second course setting as we navigate the treacherous harbor filled with rocks and shallow waterways and reefs that can destroy us.  President Russell M. Nelson is that Prophet today and I know he is directed by the Lord to help us maneuver these challenging times.  There is no question in my mind that his leadership will help us safely through!  I love this quote from Sunday morning's General Conference on April 1st; 

"Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost."

21 April 2018 - Saturday

21 April 2018 - Saturday

Today was our P-day in the MTC.  We have been busy this entire past week and now we have had a day all to ourselves.  Our agenda was fairly simple.  We wanted to prepare our Sunday School lessons for tomorrow where we both lead separate 5 minute discussion.  Mom has hers on "knowledge", and I have mine on Priesthood Blessings.  They sure keep us busy at the MTC!  Fun times!

After we had a good nights rest, we were up at 5:00am this morning and went to the tread mills, just in this building we are in, and had a good workout.  Then we dressed in our MTC clothing and had breakfast and took a tour of the new buildings just completed here on the MTC campus.  In one of the new buildings they have 12 different murals that depict some deep thought provoking messages about various scripture happenings.  They suggest to us what our commitment is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can better take on the Character of Christ in our lives.

Our observations of these events are something we wanted to share with our family.  These murals are only available to MTC visitors and special community open houses, (of which there has been just one so far).  So take a look at these pictures and explanations.  The murals are about 10 feet high and about 24 feet wide.  They are digitally produced pictures with LED back-lights that illuminate the settings in a most dramatic way.  I know that my pictures won't give them justice but I think these images will be worth pondering in your FHE or just a Gospel discussion setting with those precious grandchildren;

Nephi looking over the city of Jerusalem, to get the plates from Laban

Points to ponder;

• What does Jerusalem represent?
• How do you think Nephi is feeling as he goes back to Jerusalem?
• Why did Nephi go back to Jerusalem? 

Read together 1 Nephi 4:6

• How did Nephi demonstrate his faith in Jesus Christ?
• What made Nephi different than his rebellious brothers?
• How was Nephi prepared to be led by the Spirit?

Now ask each other; "How am I being led"?

Esther entering into the court of the king without permission.

Points to ponder;

• Esther seems to be full of light as she approaches the king...
• What is the general feeling in the room as she enters?
• The symbolism of red and power is strong in this mural, what does that tell you about how Esther was feeling when she entered the room?

Read together Ester 4:14

• What can you learn from Esther?
• How can you inspire others to stand firm for truth and righteousness?
• How can you increase your own courage?
• What helped to increase the courage of Esther?

Now ask each other; "What can I accomplish with the Lords help"?

The brother of Jared on mount Shelem.

Points to ponder;

• What is the brother of Jared doing in this mural?
• Why is that significant?

Read together Ether 2:23

• How can you develop faith like the brother of Jared?  
• What can you learn from the communication between the Lord and the brother of Jared?
• How can you teach others who are living in darkness in some aspect of their lives, about the light that Jesus Christ offers us?
• How can your teachings and invitations inspire someone to act, and how will that impact their lives?

Now ask each other:  "How am I acting in faith"?

Any one of these mural events can take up some sweet time with a great family discussion.  If you want, I can email you the pictures.  For tonight I am posting the first three murals.  Stay tuned for the next three and then the three after that and then the three after that!  We love these opportunities to help better establish the precious principles of the Gospel!

Please comment on the blog!

Enjoy!  We love you!

20 April 2018 - Friday

20 April 2018 - Friday

It is officially the end of the first week here at the MTC!  We have had a marvelous experience getting to know senior missionaries assigned all over the world.  Some were leaving today for various destinations here in the United States and those going overseas are leaving next week when we do.  On Monday we will begin a two day training session on the Visitor and Historic Sites.  Then mom and I plan to leave early Wednesday morning for Wyoming.  It will be about a five hour drive and we have one of the senior missionaries there who will meet us at the Missionary Village where our trailer is located.

We have been involved in a variety of activities!  The meals we have shared with so many different senior couples have been fun to get better acquainted.  Even doing our laundry last night as all the other missionaries were eating dinner gave us a peaceful time together.  As we were about finished with our laundry we got to talk to the senior couple going to Nauvoo as FM Missionaries.  We got to relieve their minds about what to expect from working in the FM department, and we got to send our greetings to those full time workers at Nauvoo that we got to work with!

Then, guess what?  I was able to download some pictures tonight!  Somehow with a regular Samsung update, my pictures all became available to download!!  Yea!!  I will give more detail about each picture;

These are our wonderful friends, the Bates

District members, Lllewellyn's, us, Sister Barlow (trainer), Teuscher's, Kizerian's (DL) 

Our closing meeting for PMG this afternoon

And this is our goal!!

Beautiful spring temple flowers!

The Provo Temple after the 4pm session today

Lesson in selfies... SMILE!

We were able to walk to the Provo Temple again and attended the 4:00pm session.  This will probably be our last time in the "indoor" temples!  The next six months we will cherish the experiences of the "Outdoor" temple in and around Martin's Cove, Sixth Crossing and Rock Creek. 

These memories and experiences are precious and are excellent motivators to be the best missionaries we can be.  We spent a lot of time in our district meetings getting to know each other and felt a real closeness.  With Elder and Sister Bates, we spent some really focused time in teaching by the Spirit and this was especially rewarding for us.  They are the ones we had the teaching experience concerning their gay son.

Now are you ready for "the rest of the story"??  Today we all had a member of the community in a teaching session where we got to know them for 15 minutes,  then we had 10 minutes to prepare a Gospel message tailored to that person and then 20 minutes to deliver that lesson.  Mom and I had a sweet experience working with a sister that had been abused and was taking steps to overcome those wounds.  Mom was awesome in identifying and reaching out to her with the information we gathered.

But probably the rest of the story we had to share here is that the Bates were able to peel away some sensitive layers from a young man's same sex attractions and were able to use what we had shared yesterday along with their personal experiences.  Now none of us knew anything about those we met beforehand.  It was the Spirit working through us to be connected to them.  It was a very sweet experience.

19 April 2018 - Thursday

19 April 2018 - Thursday

Here we are on day four of the MTC.  We have been in district meetings most of the day, and we have had some marvelous discussions.  Our young mission trainers have been returned missionaries and they have such a good spirit about them!  As part of the training experience we have been paired with a missionary couple who are going to the London, England Mission, and we had one of the neatest experiences with them today.

Our assignment was to follow-up on a training segment we had yesterday.  In our interviews and discussions the past few days, we found out that they have a gay son.  They have been very concerned about him and the choices he has made.  We can only imagine their feelings and what they have gone through with his choices.  As difficult as this was, mom felt impressed to include this in our training with them today.

We started off the meeting with them by asking if they would mind considering some ideas we had about homosexuality.  With tears in their eyes, they thanked us for being willing to talk to them about it.  They indicated that they have not had friends willing to discuss their feelings.  Needless to say we had a marvelous discussion and training session with them.

However, during the course of our twenty minutes of training exercise, she told us about this amazing story.  Her son indentified as gay when he was 15 years old, (about 20 years ago).  After he acted upon his choices, they got him to move away from his hometown and live with an aunt in Utah.  They were living in Missouri at the time.  The mother was visiting with him one weekend and had been praying for a special experience for their son to realize he needed to change.  To this date, he has not changed.  However, the mother was close friends with President Hinckley's daughter who lives in the house that President Hinckley remodeled in his early marriage years.  This mother and her gay son went to visit Jane (Hinckley), to say hello while she was in town from Missouri.  When they came in the front door and were talking in the living area, the son noticed that President Hinckley was out in the back yard walking around.  The daughter invited her and her son to go out and say hello.  They did and then they went back inside where the boy decided to take a walk outside in front.  When he went out, he met face to face with President Hinckley.  He had a brief conversation, one-on-one with him.  He told President Hinckley that he was having some problems.  President Hinckley said; so you are one of those teenagers having problems?  Then he said; "Things will be OK, keep plowing ahead".

When they were back in the car, the boy said he got to talk with President Hinckley.  She was excited and asked him to tell her the story.  She knew that this was the spiritual experience she had been praying for.  She later made a plaque with a picture of President Hinckley with the inscription "Things will be OK, keep plowing ahead".

Mom and I were grateful for the promptings to discuss this sacred and sensitive subject with them.  They will not allow him to come to their home and share a bedroom with his partner, but they willingly invite them to come and stay in separate bedrooms.  They love the sinner, but they do not condone the sin.  They have often been told by their son that the parents love the church more than they love him.  And the parents are quick to say that they would love to set aside the sin and welcome him into their home under his conditions..... but they will not do that.  I was impressed to tell them that their expression for love for their son was much louder by following the parameters of the Gospel.

In our district discussions we talked about senior missionaries and how they get to pick and choose their missions.  The young trainer brought this up and the discussion was lively.  Some thought that missionaries should be willing to do anything at any time when they are called on a mission.  However the consensus of the group was that seniors have had specific experiences that can add significantly to a missions success.  One example was a life long heavy equipment operator would probably not be successful as an IT missionary!

Our district with Sister Richins (afternoon trainer)

Then mom got to tell our story about the Philippines.  During the discussion we discovered that our trainer married a young man who came home after six weeks in the mission field, for health reasons, and he has felt the judgments of the members for not completing a full time mission.  The rest of the story was that this young man received a blessing from his uncle who was very close to the spirit.  The uncle asked him after he had been home several weeks if he would be willing to do whatever the Lord indicated in a Priesthood blessing.  This uncle was one of those who felt strongly about him finishing his mission.  

The young man was not ready to have that blessing until he fasted and prayed.  When he was ready, about a week later, he received the blessing.  The uncle laid his hands on the missionary's head and proceeded to give him the blessing.  He stopped after several sentences and paused.  He had tears streaming down his face when he continued and told him his mission was to stay at home and not return to his field of labor.

MTC April 2018