Pres. Faust - Seeing an Angel

Knowledge comes through faith. In our day and time we must come to know the truthfulness of what was on the golden plates without seeing them. They are not available for us to see and handle as they were for the Three Witnesses and for the Eight Witnesses. Some of those who actually saw and handled the golden plates did not remain faithful to the Church. Seeing an angel would be a great experience, but it is far greater to come to a knowledge of the divinity of the Savior through faith and the witness of the Spirit.
April, 2002 General Conference

Pres. Hinckley - Peel off the selfish shell

Most of our temples could be much busier than they are. In this noisy, bustling, competitive world, what a privilege it is to have a sacred house where we may experience the sanctifying influence of the Spirit of the Lord. The element of selfishness crowds in upon us constantly. We need to overcome it, and there is no better way than to go to the house of the Lord and there serve in a vicarious relationship in behalf of those who are beyond the veil of death. What a remarkable thing this is. In most cases, we do not know those for whom we work. We expect no thanks. We have no assurance that they will accept that which we offer. But we go, and in that process we attain to a state that comes of no other effort. We literally become saviors on Mount Zion. What does this mean? Just as our Redeemer gave His life as a vicarious sacrifice for all men, and in so doing became our Savior, even so we, in a small measure, when we engage in proxy work in the temple, become as saviors to those on the other side who have no means of advancing unless something is done in their behalf by those on earth.

And so, my brothers and sisters, I encourage you to take greater advantage of this blessed privilege. It will refine your natures. It will peel off the selfish shell in which most of us live. It will literally bring a sanctifying element into our lives and make us better men and better women.
Oct 2004 (Ensign Nov 2004 p. 104)

THE WIVES OF WEINSBERG

THE WIVES OF WEINSBERG

Adapted from a telling

by Charlotte Younge

          Here are some heroines with quick wits and great hearts.

          It happened in Germany, in the Middle Ages.  The year was 1141.  Wolf, the Duke of Bavaria, sat trapped inside his castle of Weinsberg.  Outside his walls lay the army of Frederick, the Duke of Swabia, and his brother, the Emperor Konrad.

          The siege had lasted long, and the time had come when Wolf knew he must surrender.  Messengers rode back and forth, terms were proposed, conditions allowed, arrangements completed.  Sadly, Wolf and his officers prepared to give themselves to their bitter enemy.

          But the wives of Weinsberg were not ready to lose all.  They sent a message to Konrad, asking the Emperor to promise safe conduct for the women in the garrison, that they might come out with as many of their valuables as they could carry.

          The request was freely granted, and soon the castle gates opened.  Out came the ladies -- but in a startling fashion.  They carried not gold or jewels.  Each one was bending under the weight of her husband, whom she hoped to save from the vengeance of the victorious host.

          Konrad, who was really a generous and merciful man, is said to have been brought to tears by the extraordinary performance.  He hastened to assure the women of their husbands' perfect safety and freedom.  Then he invited them all to a banquet and made peace with the Duke of Bavaria on terms much more favorable than expected.

          The castle mount was afterwards known as the Hill of Weibertreue, or woman's fidelity.

The Old Fisherman - Story

THE OLD FISHERMAN

          Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.  We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the clinic.

          One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door.  I opened it to see a truly awful looking old man.

          “Why he’s hardly taller than my eight-year-old,”  I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body.

          But the appalling thing was his face - lopsided from swelling, red and raw.

          Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, “Good evening, I’ve come to see if you’ve a room for just one night.  I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there’s no bus till morning.”

          He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but with no success.  “I guess it’s my face.  I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments . . . “

          For a moment I hesitated but his next words convinced me.  “I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch.  My bus leaves early in the morning.”

          I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch and I talked with him a few minutes.  It didn’t take long to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body.

          He told me that he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.  He didn’t tell it by way of complaint; every other sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a blessing.  He was grateful that no pain accompanied hid disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer.  He thanked God for giving him strength to keep going.

          At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children’s room for him.  When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch.  He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, “Could I please come back and stay the next time I have to have a treatment?  I won’t put you out a bit - I can sleep fine in a chair.” 

          I told him he was welcome to come again.  And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning.  As a gift he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen.  He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so they would be nice and fresh.  I knew his bus left at four a.m. and wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this. 

         

          In the years he came to stay overnight with us, there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.

          Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery:  fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed.  Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these, and how little money he had, made the gifts doubly precious.

          When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next door neighbor made after he left that first morning.  “Did you keep that awful looking man last night?  I turned him away.  You can lose roomers by putting up such people.”

          And maybe we did, once or twice, but oh, if only they could have known him perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear.  I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God.

          Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse.  As she showed me her flowers we came to the most beautiful one of all; a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms.  But to my great surprise it was growing in an old, dented, rusty basket.  I thought to myself, if this were my plant, I’d put it in the loveliest container I had.  My friend changed my mind.

          “I ran short of pots,” she explained, “and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn’t mind starting in this old pail.  It’s just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden.”

          She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven.  “Here’s an especially beautiful one.”  God might have said when he came to the soul of the fisherman.  “He won’t mind starting in this small body.”

          But that’s behind now, long ago, and in God’s garden how tall this lovely soul must stand.

I searched on Google, but could not find the source.  WDM

Linda K. Burton

"We'll Ascend Together"  April 2015

Sincerely praised my companion

Expressed love, earnestly prayed for companion

Stopped myself from saying - hurtful

Apologized, humbly asked for forgiveness

                      Chose to be happy rather than demanding to be "right"

WDM:  Do it !

Pres. Kimball - Faith & Works

The exercising of faith is a willingness to accept without total regular proof and to move forward and perform works. “Faith without works is dead” [James 2:26] and a dead faith will not lead one to move forward to adjust a life or to serve valiantly. A real faith pushes one forward to constructive and beneficial acts as though he knew in absoluteness.²

One may enjoy the benefits of the miracles in the physical world without a complete knowledge of the underlying principles involved. He may turn darkness into light by pushing a button and read in the darkest night. He need not be able to develop the electricity, nor to have the knowledge to wire the home. But he must have the faith sufficient to secure lamps and faith to turn the switch. He then may receive the light. … He may turn a dial and enjoy sweet music from afar without being able to fashion a radio or understand fully its workings, but the blessing will never be his unless he connects his set with the power, and turns the dial correctly. In like manner, one may receive spiritual blessings and manifestations, by establishing contact turning the dial. Faith manifested by prayer and works is that key.³

We pray for enlightenment, then go to with all our might and our books and our thoughts and righteousness to get the inspiration. We ask for judgment, then use all our powers to act wisely and develop wisdom. We pray for success in our work and then study hard and strive with all our might to help answer our prayers. When we pray for health we must live the laws of health and do all in our power to keep our bodies well and vigorous. We pray for protection and then take reasonable precaution to avoid danger. There must be works with faith.⁴

There must be a faith in God that will cause men to cleanse their lives; to forget themselves in the service of their fellow men and to overcome all weaknesses of the flesh; a faith that will bring about a repentance which is total, continuing and which will bring them to baptism, the priesthood, and temple ordinances.

“Beloved Youth, Study and Learn,” in Life’s Directions(1962), 188–89.

Pres. Hinckley - Optimism

To no less a publication than the New York Times, President Hinckley recently said in an interview conducted in Nauvoo, Illinois, “I see so many good people everywhere—and there’s so much of good in them. And the world is good. Wonderful things are happening in this world. This is the greatest age in the history of the earth.”

From what source does this irrepressible optimism come to President Hinckley? It comes from that foundation of faith which inspired our forebears in this church to “carry on.” Indeed, the New York Times, in interviewing President Hinckley, received not only a lesson in LDS history, but great insight into the very meaning of faith:

“We have every reason to be optimistic in this world,” President Hinckley insisted. “Tragedy is around, yes. Problems everywhere, yes. But look at Nauvoo. Look at what they built here in seven years and then left. But what did they do? Did they lie down and die? No! They went to work! They moved halfway across this continent and turned the soil of a desert and made it blossom as the rose. On that foundation this church has grown into a great worldwide organization affecting for good the lives of people in more than 140 nations. You can’t, you don’t, build out of pessimism or cynicism. You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen.”

Whether the reporter for the New York Times knew it or not, he was getting vintage President Gordon B. Hinckley—articulate, knowledgeable, courteous, confident, stirring. And always filled with faith in God and in the future.

“Things will work out” may well be President Hinckley’s most repeated assurance to family, friends, and associates. “Keep trying,” he will say. “Be believing. Be happy. Don’t get discouraged. Things will work out.”

WDM at the FH Library

This photo appeared on the main page of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City - British Floor, B-2.  We love to serve in the library.  Our current assignment is Thursday and Friday from 1 to 9 pm.

Christmas - with the Piano Guys

This link is fantastic !

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-00-0120-o-come-emmanuel-christmas-version?lang=eng

Pres. Monson - Courage, cheerfulness, humility.

The principles of living greatly include the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and trial with humility.

I searched for the source of the quote, but could not find the original source.  (wdm)

Christmas Orange

Sometimes it is easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas. The busy traditions of the season and the appealing advertisements for material goods can leave the pure and simple truths far, far behind.

Jake was nine years old with tousled brown hair with blue eyes as bright as a heavenly angel. For as long as Jake could remember he had lived within the walls of a poor orphanage. He was just one of ten children supported by what meager contributions the orphan home could obtain in a continuous struggle seeking donations from townsfolk.

There was very little to eat, but at Christmas time there always seemed to be a little more than usual to eat, the orphanage seemed a little warmer, and it was time for a little holiday enjoyment. But more than this, there was the Christmas orange!

Christmas was the only time of year that such a rare treat was provided and it was treasured by each child like no other food admiring it, feeling it, prizing it and slowly enjoying each juicy section. Truly, it was the light of each orphan's Christmas and their best gift of the season. How joyful would be the moment when Jake received his orange!

Unknown to him, Jake had somehow managed to track a small amount of mud on his shoes through the front door of the orphanage, muddying the new carpet. He hadn't even noticed. Now it was too late and there was nothing he could do to avoid punishment. The punishment was swift and unrelenting. Jake would not be allowed his Christmas orange! It was the only gift he would receive from the harsh world he lived in, yet after a year of waiting for his Christmas orange, is was to be denied him.

Tearfully, Jake pleaded that he be forgiven and promised never to track mud into the orphanage again, but to no avail. He felt hopeless and totally rejected. Jake cried into his pillow all that night and spent Christmas Day feeling empty and alone. He felt that the other children didn't want to be with a boy who had been punished with such a cruel punishment. Perhaps they feared he would ruin their only day of happiness. Maybe, he reasoned, the gulf between him and his friends existed because they feared he would ask for a little of their oranges. Jake spent the day upstairs, alone, in the unheated dormitory. Huddled under his only blanket, he read about a family marooned on an island. Jake wouldn't mind spending the rest of his life on an isolated island, if he could only have a real family that cared about him.

Bedtime came, and worst of all, Jake couldn't sleep. How could he say his prayers? How could there be a God in Heaven that would allow a little soul such as his, to suffer so much all by himself? Silently, he sobbed for the future of mankind that God might end the suffering in the world, both for himself and all others like him.

As he climbed back into bed from the cold, hard floor, a soft hand touched Jake's shoulder, startling him momentarily and an object was silently placed in his hands. The giver disappeared into the darkness, leaving Jake with what, he did not immediately know!

Looking closely at it in the dim light, he saw that it looked like an orange! Not a regular orange, smooth and shiny, but a special orange, very special. Inside a patched together peal were the segments of nine other oranges, making one whole orange for Jake! The nine other children in the orphanage had each donated one segment of their own precious oranges to make a whole orange as a gift for Jake.

Sharing what we truly value is the true spirit of Christmas. Our Heavenly Father gave us His beloved Son. May we, like the children in the orphanage, find ways to share His love with others less blessed.

Rewritten from an anonymous source by Laura Martin-Buhler

---

C. S. Lewis - Overcoming Temptation

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”

Elder Packer - Profanity

A number of years ago I went with a brother to tow in a wrecked car. It had been a single car accident, and the car was demolished; the driver, though unhurt, had been taken to the hospital for treatment of shock and for examination.

The next morning he came asking for his car, anxious to be on his way. When he was shown the wreckage, his pent-up emotions and disappointment, sharpened perhaps by his misfortune, exploded in a long stream of profanity. So obscene and biting were his words that they exposed years of practice with profanity. His words were heard by other customers, among them women, and must have touched their ears like acid.

One of my brothers crawled from beneath the car where he had been working with a large wrench. He too was upset, and with threatening gestures of the wrench (mechanics will know that a 16-inch crescent wrench is a formidable weapon), he ordered him off the premises. “We don’t have to listen to that kind of language here,” he said. And the customer left, cursing more obscenely than before.

Much later in the day he reappeared. Subdued, penitent, and avoiding everyone else, he found my brother.

“I have been in the hotel room all day,” he said, “lying on the bed, tormented. I can’t tell you how utterly ashamed I am for what happened this morning. My conduct was inexcusable. I have been trying to think of some justification, and I can think of only one thing: In all my life, never, not once, have I been told that my language was not acceptable. I have always talked that way. You were the first one who ever told me that my language was out of order.”

Isn’t it interesting that a man could grow to maturity, the victim of such a vile habit, and never meet a protest? How tolerant we have become!


Because of little protest many of us, like the man in the shop, may have fallen victim to the habit of profanity. If this has been your misfortune, I know a way that you can break the habit quickly. This is what I suggest you do: Make an agreement with someone not in your family, but someone who works closely with you. Offer to pay him $1, or $2, even $5 each time he hears you swear. For less than $50 you can break the habit.

Smile if you will; you will find it is a very practical and powerful device.

Pres. Uchtdorf - Simplify

And all of us, as members of the Church, we need to make a conscientious effort to devote our energy and time to the things that truly matter, while uplifting our fellowmen and building the kingdom of God.

One sister, a Relief Society instructor, was known for preparing flawless lessons. One time she decided to create a beautiful quilt that would serve as the perfect backdrop to the theme of her lesson. But life intervened—there were children to pick up from school, a neighbor who needed help moving, a husband who had a fever, and a friend who felt lonely. The day of the lesson approached, and the quilt was not completed. Finally, the night before her lesson, she did not sleep much as she worked all night on the quilt.

The next day she was exhausted and barely able to organize her thoughts, but she bravely stood and delivered her lesson.

And the quilt was stunning—the stitches were perfect, the colors vibrant, and the design intricate. And at the center of it all was a single word that triumphantly echoed the theme of her lesson: “Simplify.”