Reflections Then and Now: January 2014

Sunday, January 19, 2014

100 Days of Happiness and the Restoration

This is part two of three parts of the July Messenger message from President Pulsipher entitiled: Experience the Master Teacher

***July 2004: Messenger: President Pulispher's Message: Experience - The Master Teacher - pt2
The Wilkinsons are serving on Palau. When they first came Sister Wilkinson got very sick and they had to return home. She was able to get her health squared away and they have returned. She told me, "before I got sick I thought I understood prayer, I now understand on a whole new level." How would we really learn the value of prayer if all our times were good time? Experience - The Master Teacher.

19 January 2014

Yesterday Tiffany P. posted this: http://100happydays.com/ the site explains:

We live in times when super-busy schedules have become something to boast about. While the speed of life increases, there is less and less time to enjoy the moment that you are in. The ability to appreciate the moment, the environment and yourself in it, isthe base for the bridge towards long term happiness of any human being.

The challenge is to post a picture a day of something that made you happy for 100 days.

I'm not tried a picture challenge, even though I've been on instagram for a while, so I decided to try this one. I like that it's not too specific and focuses on happiness.

I started yesterday 18 January 2014 and should finish 27 April 2014 if I have counted 100 days properly (definitely check my math!) Yesterday we attended a baptism and that made me happy:

Elder Clawson gave a really good analogy of the restoration in their missionary presentation of the Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He talked about how a 1961 Camaro Convertible (he used a '64 Mustang, but the Camaro is better!) is an old car. To be a true restoration you cannot use parts produced now, they have to be the authentic parts made in 9161. So it is with the church. After Christ and his apostles died, Christ's church with the gospel and God's power was no longer on the earth. In the Latter-Days Joseph Smith restored Christ's church with Christ's gospel, God's power and all the same parts.

I know the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is that same church that Christ himself, organized

while he was on the earth. I know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever and that the church and the gospel are unchanging regardless of the beliefs of society at any given time. I know that there are true and real, tangible and spiritual blessings and gifts that Heavenly Father gives to us when we live His gospel and worship him.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Experience the Master Teacher Part One and Pictures of the last SIX months

***July 2004: Messenger: President Pulispher's Message: Experience - The Master Teacher - pt1
On three occasions when I have taught the Plan of Salvation I was asked, "If we lived with God in the pre-existence why in the world would we ever leave, what could be better than living with God?" First, we had to come to earth to gain our body to continue our progression. Beyond that, the question can be answered in one word, EXPERIENCE! We had to leave and come to an earth to learn some things that can be learned in no other way. " . . . and he, Jesus Christ, said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell: And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them:" Abraham 3:24-25 The proving in that verse is not proving ourselves to God, He already knows us and what our potential is. I believe we came to prove to ourselves who and what we are. That proof will come in what we learn and how we grow from our experiences.
After listing all the potential things that could happen to the prophet Joseph Smith, most of which we would consider pretty bad, he was told, "Know thou, my son, that all these thing shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." Doctrine and Covenants 122:7 Which tells me, no matter what the experience we can grow from it.
Lets talk about the value of experience. Sister Wilkinson has a friend back home that had to give a talk on missionary work. She told Sister Wilkinson, "I don't know what to talk about." Why didn't she know what to talk about? She had never had the experience of finding and seeing a Cornelius come into the Church. She could read in Doctrine and Covenants 18:15, ". . . how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" But, she never had experienced that joy. Take a few minutes and reflect on your joy of seeing Cornelius come into the church. That joy can only come through the experience. Oh the joy of serving in the Micronesia Guam Mission. Experience - The Master Teacher.

12 January 2014

Here, we are. We are still here.

Here's a pictorial highlight of the ending of 2013