Something happens inside of us

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the April 1996 Conference.
I'm so familiar with the story about Joseph F. Smith saying to Joseph Smith in his dream, after Joseph reproved him for being late, "Yes, but I am clean, I am clean." I don't know why I've heard it so often; it must have been in other talks too. Anyway, the story must have been one of President Hinckley's favorites. This whole talk is about what it means to "be clean."

Here's what President Hinckley quotes Joseph F. Smith as saying to sum up his dream:

[When I had this dream] I was alone on a mat, away up in the mountains of Hawaii—no one was with me. But in this vision I pressed my hand up against the Prophet, and I saw a smile cross his countenance. …“When I awoke that morning I was a man, although only a boy. There was not anything in the world that I feared [after that]. I could meet any man or woman or child and look them in the face, feeling in my soul that I was a man every whit.
Then President Hinckley says:

The result of that dream was that a boy was changed into a man. His declaration “I am clean” gave him self-assurance and courage in facing anyone or any situation. He received the strength that comes from a clear conscience fortified by the approbation of the Prophet Joseph. 

There is something in this for every man and boy assembled in this vast congregation tonight. 

Are you beset with doubts and fears? Has discouragement pulled you down? Do you need added wisdom and strength to go forward with your life? 

I call to mind the words of Tennyson’s Sir Galahad, “My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure”. 

Everything looks better when there is cleanliness. In Joseph F. Smith’s dream, he could look into the eyes of the Prophet and say, “I am clean.”

I like the idea that being clean and following the commandments gives us confidence. It reminds me of the scripture (which President Hinckley quotes later) in Doctrine and Covenants 121:45. “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God." But even more than that, I like the idea that it's our efforts to become clean that change us. President Hinckley gives an example:

It is amazing what courtesy will accomplish. It is tragic what a lack of courtesy can bring. We see it every day as we move in the traffic of the cities in which we live. A moment spent in letting someone else get into the line does good for the one who is helped, and it also does good for the one who helps. Something happens inside of us when we are courteous and deferential toward others. It is all part of a refining process, which if persisted in, will change our very natures.

It's encouraging to think that it's not so much BEING perfect or avoiding mistakes that makes "something happen inside us"—it's the cleansing and refining process. It's repenting and making more of an effort and turning back toward God. I like imagining my heart changing and softening inside me as I make those efforts.


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Compensatory blessings

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 1996 Conference.
Richard G. Scott's talk reminded me of a beautiful idea the gospel has brought to light for me. I've believed in this concept for a while, but I haven't thought about it lately, so this talk was a timely reminder. The concept is this: even when things in life are very, very bad, there will be moments of joy and light. I admit I haven't yet had the chance to test this in the hardest of circumstances like some people face. But I've seen it come true amidst my own small trials and worries. Hard experiences WANT to dominate your life and thoughts. It's all too easy to sink into them and never come up for air. The joyful news is that we don't have to—that through the peace of Jesus Christ, we can experience moments of relief amid the trials.

In another post I described these moments as being like stepping stones we can pause on across the deep waters of our suffering. I think about that image a lot. Sometimes I think the worst part of feeling terrible is that you tend to project it into the future—to believe you'll always feel this way; it will never end. So when I'm in my worst moments, I try to consciously fight that feeling and say to myself, "I won't always feel this way. It will get better." And I visualize those stepping stones. There will be a moment when I laugh in spite of myself, and the tension in my heart will ease. There will be a moment when I feel God's love strong and sure. There will be a moment of being absorbed in another task and forgetting, just for an instant, the worries that surround me. There will be a moment of hope when the future lightens just a little. And I need to remember, when each of those moments ends, that there will be another one coming soon! It makes the hard moments so much easier to bear when you know they're not permanent. Likewise, it makes the good moments so much more meaningful when you see them as steps on a path of goodness stretching toward a final deliverance, rather than isolated incidents never to be repeated.

Elder Scott elaborates on this theme. He describes the moments of relief, which I have called "stepping stones," as "compensatory blessings." (Elder Andersen has used this phrase more recently as well.) Elder Scott says:
Sadness, disappointment, and severe challenge are events in life, not life itself. I do not minimize how hard some of these events are. They can extend over a long period of time, but they should not be allowed to become the confining center of everything you do… 
Simple, rejuvenating experiences surround us. They can be safety valves to keep the tension down and the spirit up. Don’t concentrate on what you don’t have or have lost. The Lord promised the obedient to share all that He possesses with them. You may temporarily lack here, but in the next life, if you prove yourself worthy by living valiantly, a fulness will be your blessing.

Find the compensatory blessings in your life when, in the wisdom of the Lord, He deprives you of something you very much want. To the sightless or hearing impaired, He sharpens the other senses. To the ill, He gives patience, understanding, and increased appreciation for others’ kindness. With the loss of a dear one, He deepens the bonds of love, enriches memories, and kindles hope in a future reunion. You will discover compensatory blessings when you willingly accept the will of the Lord and exercise faith in Him.…

I know that every difficulty we face in life, even those that come from our own negligence or even transgression, can be turned by the Lord into growth experiences, a virtual ladder upward…

No matter how difficult something you or a loved one faces, it should not take over your life and be the center of all your interest. Challenges are growth experiences, temporary scenes to be played out on the background of a pleasant life. Don’t become so absorbed in a single event that you can’t think of anything else or care for yourself or for those who depend upon you. Remember, much like the mending of the body, the healing of some spiritual and emotional challenges takes time.

Your faith in Jesus Christ gives life enduring meaning. Remember you are on a journey to exaltation. Sometimes you have experiences that yield more happiness than others, but it all has purpose with the Lord.

 Elder Scott also discusses the role that creativity (of any kind) can play in helping us find those stepping-stones or compensatory blessings. That's advice that's dear to my heart and could be a whole other post (or talk—Elder Uchdorf gave a talk on the same subject that has been a big influence on my thinking), but for now I'll just say that it's been really good for me to seek out light and goodness and beauty, especially when I'm feeling like there isn't much of it to be found. I like Elder Scott telling us to find and discover the compensatory blessings, because I love the idea that Heavenly Father is actually placing those things for us to find, putting them in our path for us to stumble upon when we need them most.

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December and January

Now that I've finally posted about our Hawaii trip and gotten Abe sent off after Home MTC, I have a minute to put up these little bits and pieces of the rest of December and January. It's all kind of a blur to me now, but it was a happy blur! Gus had his birthday and turned TWO the day we got home. He had a happy day and didn't mind being celebrated twice—once at my mom's house, where the girls and Teddy made him a snow cake:
And once at home. Here he is reading his favorite book, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, which he refers to as "Clomp Clomp."
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Christmas

Christmas was nice. I had been thinking a lot about how this would be Abe's last Christmas with us…at least for a couple years…but the usual traditions just kept spinning along with no particular fanfare, and no particular time to think about their momentousness, and it was probably better that way. Our Christmas Eve Cafe Rio dinner is probably Abe's favorite tradition of all, so I'm glad he was here to do it one more time.
 
Seb did his 3 a.m. Christmas run with friends again—the one where they SPELL "Merry Christmas 2022" in the GPS map of their run. So cool. They are a funny, silly, dedicated group of boys!
Our Elf Olympics was short, silly, and missing a person who had gone to bed so as to be up running at 3 a.m. But we still had fun. We had to give Elf Recruitment pitches for this activity.
Malachi and Abe put together an impressive PowerPoint presentation.
Kids lined up to go see their stockings…Gus pulling anxiously at Daisy, Seb pounding out something festive on the piano.
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Goodbye, Abe

He likes the first picture, pre-haircut. I like the second, of course.

Back in the mists of time when Sam and I had only one baby, and that baby was Baby Abey, I used to be so pleased that our initials—Sam, Abraham, Marilyn—spelled SAM. It seemed right somehow that together, we made up one unit, and that unit was also…one of us! Like fractals, if you follow me. So I guess there is something fitting about the fact that Abe goes off into the Missionary Training Center on…Sam's birthday! Today! (Except not really today…since I am writing this post in advance.) I'm losing a son and gaining a husband…or something like that.

Anyway, it feels like I ought to give Abe SOME sort of sendoff here before his mission. Thinking about Abe, our family, and my own role as his mother occupies a great deal of my thoughts these days, but many of those thoughts are…inexpressible, for one reason or another. At the same time, it's been sweet to me, thinking about the parts of Sam (and me!) that Abe will…and won't…carry with him as he launches off into the mission field and beyond. So I thought it might be fun to list some of those things I've been thinking about.

Ways Abe is like Sam:

• He's obedient even when he doesn't particularly feel like being so. (That's something Sam learned on his mission.)

• He does what has to be done. If there's something unpleasant looming over him, he may put it off for a time, but he will do it. And he will do it well.

• He works hard. Once he's put his back into something, he completes it.

• He retains random information, like the contents of various Psych episodes, or facts about the Marvel Universe. He will share that information at the opportune moment for either a.) comic effect or b.) to win an argument.

• He's capable and figures things out. If you need something fixed, retrieved, rigged up, or fit in—Abe can do it. Whether he WILL do it…depends on who's asking.

• He loves to laugh. Even better, he loves to make other people laugh.

• He loves to introduce people to experiences he loves. He really enjoys taking his younger siblings to movies or out to lunch, and though he WILL go alone if he has to, he'd much rather take someone that hasn't seen that movie/eaten that food before, and have the joy of seeing them experience it too. (I'm hoping this talent will come through as he introduces people to the gospel of Jesus Christ.)


Ways Abe's like me:

• He's polite and measured in his public conversation, but when he gets into the safety of an intimate talk, he doesn't hold back from speaking his mind! Many's the time I've heard him say he "abhors" something or "can't stand the inconsistency in _____." He gets very exercised about politics, government, and economics, and does not see much call (in private, anyway) for moderating his views! This is not necessarily a trait I am proud of in myself, and it's a little alarming to see it multiplied fivefold in him. Hmm. The upside is, he's passionate and eloquent in defense of his principles, and thus can (theoretically) be a force for good, if pointed in the right direction. Ha!

• He loves to eat good food, and would rather eat…nothing, than eat something less-than-ideal!

• He loves to delve deep into the worlds he likes. He'll dive with great nerdiness into themes, characters, metaphysical questions, philosophical implications…and if he can find someone to dive with him, pity the fool who comes upon them deep in conversation and hopes to escape with a perfunctory "It was pretty good, I guess." Abe and Malachi do this deep-diving into board games and it goes mostly over the heads of the rest of us, but one of the joys of my life has been reading books with Abe. I gave him a "Great Books" list to read for High School and we went out to lunch every month or so to discuss what he'd read. More recently, he got me into Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive (which I never would have read on my own, having a personal policy against starting any thousand-page multi-book series that aren't even finished yet 😩) and would not let me rest (and I mean that literally…he was hounding me morning and night) until I'd finished all four of them. Then he took ME to lunch and we hashed out all our questions, interests, and speculations. Great fun.

• He prides himself, perhaps unduly sometimes, on not following the crowd. He will sometimes have to sheepishly admit to liking something after all, when he'd been determined not to like it because "too many other people like it." (This was the case with the aforementioned Stormlight Archive, in fact.) Other times, he remains a proud outlier (for example, joining me as a Harry Potter naysayer, to our credit or discredit—you decide).

• In spite of this, he wants to be liked, usually IS liked, and finds it a little incomprehensible if he ever ISN'T liked by those around him. He works hard, does his duty, and is pleasant to others no matter what, with a dash of self-awareness thrown in, which is generally a winning combination.

• He likes stuffed animals and secretly thinks they're alive, to the point that he feels a bit guilty after throwing them on the floor or rolling them down the hill. But not guilty enough to stop.

• He doesn't like to see others in distress. He has a tender heart and often finds small ways to comfort and uplift in a given situation, without overreacting or embarrassing anyone, when he senses something amiss.

And some ways he is all his own…

• In spite of the above, he's matter-of-fact. He doesn't have much use for the over-anxious, the ultra-dramatic, or even the sentimental. He can occasionally be found patting my shoulder with a bemused look on his face when I fall victim to one of the above.

• He prizes his own quirkiness in a few areas and cares not in the slightest if others find it strange. In fact, he enjoys that. He brought a 6-foot-tall stuffed giraffe to his seminary class once, for example, and just set it next to his desk without saying a word and proceeded to act utterly normal about it for the rest of the class period. He also wrote only aliases (the sillier the better) instead of his real name in that class, again without comment or explanation. He had a glitter-pink scripture case for years, and just said "Thank you" equably whenever anyone commented sarcastically about it.

• He loves board and card games, the more complex the better, and especially loves introducing them to others (see above) and then strategizing about them with an almost mechanical precision.

• He's great at math, grasping concepts in that intuitive sort of way that (as far as I know) can't be taught. He loves seeing how things fit together, and respects anyone who helps him do this, whether in the scriptures or in physics.

• Maybe a manifestation of the previous point, he likes to organize things around him: himself, his room, his schedule. He is not always neat, but he definitely always thinks that he can come up with a better way of doing things when he sees "sloppiness" in any form. He is always tinkering with something to make it more efficient or more intuitive, whether it's the menu layout at the diner he worked at, the way we divide up house-cleaning, or the fit of his board games inside their boxes.

• He's got a stubborn streak (and maybe this should go under me or Sam above, because don't we all, when it comes to things we really think we're right about?)—but just when you think Abe is the mildest, most laid-back person on the planet, he will astonish you by being absolutely immoveable on what appears to you an extremely minor point.

• He does not like eggs, and it is a great disappointment to the rest of us that he is missing out on this Food of Foods. But he likes most everything else, so I suppose we will excuse him.

Oh Abe, Abe, Abe. Such an essential part of our family. What are we going to do without him??
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Sunsets

This is what you expect to see in Hawaii. Beautiful white beaches and palm trees! On our last day, our flight didn't leave until almost 11 pm, so we checked out of our house and had a whole day to do a few more things. We couldn't really swim (though I really wanted to, because as I've mentioned, the water was WARM and I've never been anywhere else where you aren't freezing on the beach!) unless we wanted to pack wet and sandy clothes in our suitcases. So we just waded and looked in lava-rock tide pools and watched the airplanes fly in low over the beach. 
Light and shell-y. So different from the black sand beach we went to on the south side of the island.
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Hiking, Black Sand, and the South End of the Island

We spent our last few days on the drier, sunnier side of the island (the westish…southish…side) and it was SO beautiful. (I liked the rainy side best. But was so glad to get to experience both!) We stayed right by a pebble beach, all made of black lava rock. It was beautiful to look at but definitely not a place to frolic barefoot, even though the rocks were smooth and round and looked like they might feel nice…but there was just too much variation in their size and placement. Plus, your feet would sink into the pebbles and that made it feel like you were sliding two steps back for every one forward. Very daunting. We did try wading in the water a little but it was just TOO painful! The waves caught the pebbles and tossed them up at your legs and feet, none too gently! Ouch! (I do think it would have been fine if we'd had water shoes, so if we ever go back, we'll know to bring some!)

However…wading or no wading, it was a great beach for exploring! The sound of the water on the pebbles was amazing. Amid the usual growl of the waves you could hear the constant clacking and shifting of the pebbles sliding against each other, and the quiet rattle of rocks being tossed up and down when a wave swept back out to sea. In the Stormlight Archive books I just read with Abe, there's a world (Shadesmar) where the ocean is made of millions of little glass spheres. This beach sounded just how I imagined those Shadesmar beaches must sound, with their endless clatter of shifting spheres.
Such pretty black pebbles. They had that same reflective quality that we saw on the lava fields, where the black turns into silver from certain angles. I also thought it was pretty to see little pieces of white coral nestled in among the rocks.
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Sunday Drive around the Island

Sunday seemed like a good day to drive all around the upper half of the island. I know it's "the Big Island," but I liked that it wasn't SO big you couldn't tell you were ON an island—we could see our progress as we drove around and the ocean was on different sides of us depending where we were. 
But first we went to church. We saw a couple of our churches in Hilo (maybe there are more we didn't see). You can always tell when it's one of ours! Even if they are different-shaped than the ones back in Utah that look much the same as each other. This one had beautiful rainbow stained-glass windows in the chapel.
And a cool little open courtyard in the center! I love going to church in other places. Here, the bishopric wore leis and there were Christmas decorations in the foyer. So fun. People were friendly to us and it was just nice.
After church we drove up through Hilo again. There was a road all lined with Banyan Trees. They are so cool! I've only seen pictures of them before. They're like…those bead curtains people hung across their doorways in the 70s. Or like flap-brushes in a carwash. But alive!
(I'm fine with them as long as I don't think about those long vines growing down, down, down…INTO the ground. Thank you for asking.) (What do they do if there's something in their WAY when they get there? Just grow…through it? *shudder*)
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Flora and Fauna of the Big Island

Here is a sampling of the different flowers we saw in Hawaii. It is so fun to see flowers I've never seen before! Some of them I vaguely remember from my Floral Design class when we studied tropical arrangements, and some I know just because I've heard of them, like the plumeria—but some are still a mystery to me!
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Never misunderstood

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the April 1996 Conference.
This quote from Elder Keith B. McMullin was interesting:
But amidst differing views on spiritual matters, there comes to us from scripture the wonderful and comforting promise “Ye may know.” Though our backgrounds are different, we are all children of the same Heavenly Father. He has provided a way to bridge our differences, a way each of us may know. This way is through the power and sure witness of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead, sent forth by God to reveal all needful things. He teaches and testifies with divine power and clarity. His witness may go unheard or unheeded, forsaken or denied, but it is never misunderstood.

On one hand, I'm not sure about this, because I can think of several times when I HAVE misunderstood the Holy Ghost! I'm doing so all the time, in some ways, when I feel vague senses of insights but can't quite catch hold of what they mean for me, or what I'm supposed to do with them. There have even been times I've been pretty sure I understand what the Holy Ghost is telling me, only to later feel like I must have gotten it wrong. So, I'm not sure why he says "it is never misunderstood."

On the other hand, I do sort of see what he's getting at—that, once you do feel and know something through the Holy Ghost, it is undeniable. Even if you can't explain it to others, revelation that comes through the spirit carries its own special weight. It does feel like it transcends the sort of mortal miscommunications that spoken and written words so often carry. And I'm so grateful for this other, higher, way of learning and knowing things!

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Waves, Fruit, and a Morning Walk

There weren't very many beaches on the rainy side of the island. Just steep lava cliffs and powerful crashing waves. The view was so beautiful from the house we stayed in! I love watching waves anyway. But big waves are the best!
I loved watching all the different kinds of skies, too. Lots of rain coming in and moving out over the ocean. Lots of rainbows. Lots of mist and moisture in the air from the waves or the rain or both.
There were many little fruit stands and farmer's markets around. We wanted to try everything, but there just wasn't enough time! I still don't know what that huge spiny fruit is on the top right there. It looks vaguely menacing.
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Hilo and round about it

Hilo is the biggest town on this side of the island. Even right by the town there are beautiful streams and waterfalls, if slightly less wild than some of the other rainforest areas we saw.
Clementine looked very darling in her tiny Hawaiian dress. Even though it was too big and the little bloomers kept falling off of her.
Beautiful, beautiful brown-eyes!
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Rainforest

I didn't know that the Big Island of Hawaii had so much variety in climate. One side of the island is much drier and sunnier, and one side is wet and rainforesty. We ended up driving around the whole island over the course of a week, and it was cool seeing how different each area is, but by far my favorite part was the rainforest side! I LOVE rainforest! I've always wanted to see one, but I never thought I would get to! Well—I suppose I've been to a temperate rainforest at the Redwoods. But THIS little fella is as close as I've gotten, or thought I would ever get, to a tropical rainforest! (I'm sorry I called that a "little fella." I already regret it. But no going back now.)

Anyway, Hawaii's tropical rainforest was everything I dreamed it would be. There weren't any jaguars or macaws or monkeys, which I guess is a little sad, but it was still SO BEAUTIFUL. The sheer number of plants, and then the diversity of those plants, and the exoticism of them, was almost overwhelming. We drove along the Eastern Coast and it seemed like we couldn't drive more than a couple miles without crossing another stream, and every stream had multiple beautiful waterfalls, and every waterfall was surrounded by dense green forest full of ferns and flowers and vines. It made me think, desert-dweller that I am, about how there is definitely not an even distribution of greenery on this planet (and I suppose it would be quite boring if there was!).
When you look at a map of that side of the island, you can see why we were crossing so many streams. They are everywhere, feeding those green forests and running right down into the ocean—and that led to one of the most beautiful sights, which was where the rainforest met the ocean, like this:
You can stop along the road to look at vistas and waterfalls, and we did—many, many times; it's lucky Abe is a very patient person and likes rainforests too. But we stopped often enough that even from him, Sam and I could feel emanating waves of "Ugh, let's get on with it!" after a while. Perhaps you, O Reader of this Hawaii Trip Chronicle, find yourself sympathizing with him? Ha! Sam and I have no sense of getting on with it, left to ourselves. I suppose for that's reason it's good that we are so rarely left to ourselves! (As I said earlier, if it were up to me I'd probably be still standing and watching that volcano…which would have meant I'd never have gotten to see this amazing rainforest!)
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