A Learning Experience

           As a former sister missionary I remember introducing non members to strong members to be fellowshipped. Finding strong priesthood members who would remain in the ward long after the missionaries had gone.  Wouldn’t it be more meaningful to be baptized by a fellow member and still have that connection down the road.  I remember one of my brothers making it a goal NOT to physically baptize those he taught but to pass the reign onto another.  Not that it’s a choice for just anybody to baptize.  One must have authority and has to be interviewed the same at the individual to be baptized.

          Missionary baptisms are handled by the missionaries while primary baptisms arrangements are made by primary leaders and/or parents depending on the size of the ward or stake and the amount of children being baptized.  I remember making the arrangements for Jaime’s baptism before I was aware that there were others in the stake who would also be baptized.  Still she was the only one from our ward and although the program started in the chapel with the five children from the stake, but we broke off into wards each time a child was baptized (here)   

          The missionaries had made arrangements for a program set up for two youth.  The program was not complete and they had mentioned that before Richard took the reins of printing up the program to his own perfection and satisfaction.  He asked why baptism is spelled with an "s" while baptize is spelled with a "z". He printed up several programs. But changes were made to include more youth and ward involvement. The Elders had picked up the programs and used a white out where some names had been but had not been filled out with the names of those who had been newly assigned. 

         A counselor in the YW class presidency gave the first talk on baptism instead of the sister missionaries whose names were initially on the program.  Though both elders had their names under the baptisms only one performed a baptism while one of the elders baptized one youth, the other was baptized by the bishop.

           Between the baptism and the talk on the Holy Ghost there was a soft reference that came with the prelude music of primary songs.  There was still visiting among members who did so in whispers unlike this baptism . Usually the elders show a video while those who have been in the water change into dry clothes.

           I made an error when it was announced those who would be welcoming into the church.  First the young women’s president was called and she would be followed by the bishop. I thought they had forgotten to include the primary representative.  I decided to inquire thought it wasn’t my place. Turns out the other youth was no longer primary age but a young man who the bishop welcomed.  I woke up this morning disturbed at my having meddled.  My slow mind then realized that there had been two leaders from the primary and not just the one I pointed out.  Of course Bishop was fully aware of the other. I chastised myself and tried consoling myself with excuses - none which have worked. It was not just a learning experience for the elders but for me as well.

Feb 20 Diversity Talk part 1

 

The two conference talks I finally settled on were “Hearts Knit in Righteousness and Unity” by Elder Quentin L Cook (here) given in October 2020 and “Room in the Inn” by Elder Gerrit W. Gong (here) given in April 2021.

Elder Cook started off his talk by relating a story about the Kane family who had traveled from Pennsylvania with Brigham Young and company. One day the Kanes were visiting with Thomas and Matilda King and their family in the King home in Fillmore, Utah. As the Kings and Kanes were sitting down to their dinner, there were five Native Americans who came into the room.  Matilda King spoke to them in their dialect and one of their guests, Elizabeth Wood Kane, asked about what had been said. 

Elizabeth learned that Matilda had told the group that she had prepared a meal for the Kane family who would be eating their meal first and that the other five would have to wait but assured them that she had another meal for them cooking over the fire.  Each received the same meal and the same amount of food. Elizabeth had been impressed with the compassion Matilda had to do the same for all that entered.

Unity is enhanced when people are treated with dignity and respect, even though they are different in outward characteristics. Although outward appearance may seem easier to identify, there are inward characteristics as well.  We are always going to find people that think differently than we do or worship differently than we do or may have different values or seemingly no values at all.     

We are all children of God regardless of our backgrounds, whatever challenges we may have faced and what walk of life our path has led us to.  We are ALL equal in His eye.  He doesn’t label us his brown children and white children or his Mormon children and Jewish children and so forth. God wants ALL of His children to return to him and desires for ALL to come to Him in His inn.

I have a granddaughter who appears to be on the chunky side as well as academically or perhaps socially challenged compared to some of her peers.  Recently the school she attends celebrated the first one hundred days of school.  Each child was told to bring 100 items of his or her choosing.  Ally chose Band-Aids as it is a product that she uses on a daily basis and because “she has some really cool ones."

Ally has a rare disease called Kabuki syndrome which requires her to receive two shots per day. Her mom had figured that Ally will go through over 120 Band-Aids a month on average.

 She says, “My girl is a warrior. She is strong. She is brave. She recognizes that she is different but let's it be known that being different is okay.”

 There are some of us who embrace the differences, and then there are others who feel threatened or afraid of the unknown – why that man has a different skin color, why a parent would allow his or her child to dress a certain way – but until we really get to know a person, we don’t know what makes them tick – and even when we do learn something that makes up part of their personality, we still don’t know everything.

Walls and Bridges

          The Roseburg Stake had a blog which would refer members to stake conference.  It provided a list of speakers and the meeting agenda.  I remember the leaders referred to it in years’ past, but did not have any information for it this year.  I unfortunately did not write down the name of the speaker who gave a beautiful talk comparing physical walls and bridges to what wills us. 

          She started out her talk with a brief history of the Berlin wall which was built in 1961.  Citizens were informed that the wall was for their protection.  Whether we choose to call it protection or defense, for many the wall was a personal prison.  The wall did not come down until almost two decades later.  That is a long time to feel trapped and apart.  It isn’t healthy.

          The speaker then went on to talk about the bridge that was built between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan – a simple bridge really.  There didn’t seem anything special or sophisticated about the structure itself – and yet the bridge seemed to open many doors and provide opportunities that the bridge eventually became known as “Friendship Bridge” because it provided a way to transport things through.

          She compared this to the ministering program – how sometimes we may run into sisters who have placed walls in front of themselves and may not wish to share personal information about themselves – and that is okay.  Perhaps we can be the ones to build up the bridges that if they ever decide to move beyond the walls that they may choose to extend that bridge.  I realize I am not doing the talk justice with my notes.  I hope those that read may get the gist of the message.  Sometimes it is just the small actions that help build and support lasting friendships.

          For more information on the history of the physical wall and bridge see here, here and here or go research on your own.  I know it's just a small sample.  I wish I could have documented the entire talk - I just don'e write that quickly and my short term memory isn't great.

Sunday Meeting

            On Thursday someone had called Roland’s phone to see if I would offer the closing prayer at the end of today’s sacrament meeting.  I didn’t know how my throat what be, but as it has started healing, I decided I would go to Church and stay for at least sacrament meeting but might not stay for Relief Society.  Jenna made other arrangements for getting a ride home.

            Sacrement meting was really good!  The first speaker expanded on Elder Uchtdorf’s talk “Our Great Adventure”(here) in which he compares the hobbit creatures to each of us.  For those who have seen or read “The Hobbit” the parallels may have been easily understood.  I’m not really big fan of fantasy and felt somewhat lost with Elder Uchtdorf’s talk which evidently our sacrament speaker had also and provided some more in depth detail to make more sense out of the talk that some of us just didn’t understand the first time around.

            The concluding speaker was our new bishop – a newly called bishop who was just sustained a high priest two weeks ago.  I have LOVED every talk he has given.  Today was no exceptions.  He reminisced a few quotes and conference and spending time with the family.  He just does it with such awesome enthusiasm that it just made everyone smile. 

            The Spiritual exceptions happened during the sacramental and concluding hymn.  I found it ironic that the first hymn “In Remembrance of Thy Suffering” had the word suffer in it as it seemed suffering to listen to the congregation struggling to sing it as though it was the first time each member had seen that particular piece of music.  Granted, it isn’t sung as regularly as some of the other sacrament hymnals that are in the book, but I know I have sung it before.  But the congregations very unsync efforts pretty much butchered the song.   

            The closing hymn didn’t sound as bad, but it was quite obvious that they both needed work and a professional choir we are not.  I gave  the closing prayer and returned home.  My plans were to kick back and drink some herbal tea.  Instead I am writing a post and drinking something terrible that should work like medicine because the taste is like medicine.

            Roland had purchased a box of vanilla protein shakes a while back figuring they might work as a substitute for milk in my lunches.  There is no substitute for milk!  I had told him that.  I had told him not to purchase the protein drinks but he gets a bee in his bonnet and forgets conversations.  I love him for thinking of me.  But come on.  It’s something you drink when you don’t have time for a meal – not with a meal.

           

            When I am not hungry but feel the need to eat, I will break on out but not enjoy it though the vanilla protein is better than the chocolate – which I can only drink when I mix it with actual chocolate milk (that is really milk) and so my drink is always twice the size of the intent.  Roland absolutely hates the vanilla.  Again, I told him not to purchase them in the first place.

            Anyway I am supposed to drink warm liquids – not that a warm protein drink is on the agenda, but I thought I’d try it figuring it would taste worse than refrigerated or room temperature.  Boy, did it ever!  What sane person does Not Love the taste of chalk?  My mouth is now on death row. When it cooled off, I added some honey to it.  That seemed to help.  But it hasn’t gotten rid of the yucchy residue build up on my tongue.

            And that concludes this post.  Now for kicking back and perhaps having the tea I should have had in the first place.

I Would Rather Hear It Fresh

            I have mentioned before that both my mom used to  use her children as her sounding board before giving a talk or presenting a lesson.  For my mom, it was a lack of confidence in herself.  She needed the feedback, the practice, the input to build up her confidence.  She yearned for ideas on how to improve.  She would go over it again and again until we knew it better than she did - or at least in the case of Corey and me.

            Roland does the same thing - only he does not lack confidence.  I thought he did it for validation - but he says it is because he values my opinion.  Talks and lessons are one thing, but lately his ideas and thoughts have had to do with his participation at the theatre.  I am not in the theatre.  I am not part owner in the theatre.  I don't manage, perform or have any input with the owners.  I know my personal preference varies with theirs and certainly with Roland's. 

            It isn't his job to write the skit, but he was asked to emcee and somehow feels obligated to contribute more.  He'd like to do a "Burns & Allen" type skit while reading a story to a seagull puppet.  I suppose my input was helpful as Roland's first choice of story was out of the Bible and suggested he change it to "Twas the Night Before Christmas" as it is a familiar one, and cracking jokes (even a childish innocence) after every other line would go over better with the audience than offending several audience members with lines like "Why did the wisemen bring gold and frankenstien and not diapers?" or "espoused wife?  you mean they weren't even married?"  and gear his jokes toward Santa Clause and the reindeer.

            Some of the jokes were funny.  I smiled at a few of them, but never laughed out loud.  I certainly wasn't providing a belly laugh that I suspect Roland was looking for.  Jenna provides more sincere laughter, and is able to re-laugh at a joke she's heard before - but each time he tells the same joke, I give a weak smile and sometimes roll my eyes when he isn't looking.  The freshness has worn off for me.  Though he is proud of his contribution and shares the praises and compliments he's received for creating laughter, it has gotten stale.  I don't even smile anymore.

            When Corey and I give talks, we practice on ourselves.  It's rare for each of us to call on another to sit through something that he or she will be sitting through in church or elsewhere.  We want it to be fresh for them just as we would like to hear it fresh.  Neither way is wrong or right.  They are just different is all.