Week Twelve

WEEK TWELVE September 23, 2013

This week, as companion to Sister Haddock and with the blessing of the Stake President, I was able to spend an evening with Sister Elaine Dalton and her husband as they spoke to the young women and sisters in the Rancho Santa Margarita stake. It was a wonderful evening as the Dalton’s heaped confidence upon the sisters present as to their worth and possibilities. One of the statements Sister Dalton made was “A faithful women and the Lord can change the world.” Included their remarks was an experience they both referenced. When Elder Gordon B. Hinckley sealed them as husband and wife forth-five years ago in the Salt Lake Temple, he said to them: “Always live in such a way that when you need the Lord’s blessings, you can call upon Him and receive them because you are worthy. There will come times in your life when you will need immediate blessings. You will need to live in such a way that they will be granted—not out of mercy but because you are worthy.” What a wonderful thought and objective for all of us.

We received a sweet expression of thanks from the Two family mother to the letter we had sent their son: “Hi, we just wanted to thank you for your thoughtful, kindhearted letter. We all really enjoyed reading it especially our son;” and from the father “Our son got your letter. He loved it. In fact all of us did too. Jakob was really glad to get it from you. He wanted me to reread it to him about three or four times. I can sense God’s spirit and power. Thank you for leading us in Gods way. I’m realizing that you guys are literal answers to prayer and that the Church of Jesus Christ is literally and truthfully his church.” You can imagine the feelings of joy that welled up in us over this dear family. Isn’t that the continuing blessing we received when engaged in missionary work—joy?

We had presented the Family Mission Plan to John and Jalane Hong about two weeks ago. Our followup consisted of one hour of sailing on Lake Mission Viejo, my first time at the helm of a sailboat which brought some exciting moments as the wind caught me unawares and I was too slow in easing the tension on the sail. Made me think of life and the importance in keeping a balance if we are to keep our direction where we want to go. We ended the event with a picnic and brats!

We had a quickly arranged Mission Conference at the Irving Stake Center with Elder Kent Richards who serves as a counselor in the Area Presidency on his way for a mission tour of the California Riverside Mission. It was apparent, at least to us, that the purpose of his message was to remind the missionaries that their current mission president holds the keys to revelation for the direction of this mission, not former presidents, and the missionaries would be mindful to listen and obey President Orgill if they wanted to be blessed in their missionary endeavors.

We were unable to meet with the Two family this week because of work complications but we did have another positive discussion with the Six family and following some expression by Jan concerning the wonderful qualities she has seen in them, noticed some tearing in their eyes. In the next visit or two the discussions I have prepared for them will run head long into an issue we were told previously they would not be able to handle. So there is some apprehension there but four of the previous discussions, with no direction from us at all, have touched on the “forbidden” subject already and this week, at length. The brother said he enjoyed by lesson in Gospel Essentials on Prophets of God but enjoyed more the third hour which was a discussion in priesthood on the light of God. He mentioned some serious tragedies he has experience recently, including some deaths, and felt he needed to hear the message given in priesthood today. That conversation opened the door for a positive response when we asked if we could close our discussion with prayer in behalf of those in need.