To do uncommon things for others

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Relief Society Session of the October 2009 Conference.

I thought a lot about ministering as I read the talks in this session. There was a lot of emphasis on Visiting Teaching from the speakers, and as I remembered those days it made me miss the clarity of all the sisters just expecting each other to come once a month and share a message. I liked those little messages, and I liked the discussions they led to. I know I could still bring such a message on a ministering visit…but now I feel like it would be weird. Ah, well. I am doing my best to learn how minister in a more Christlike way. Here are some quotes from the various talks about visiting teaching that also apply beautifully to ministering:

Sister Julie B. Beck said this:

A sister in this Church has no other responsibility outside of her family that has the potential to do as much good as does visiting teaching.

and this:

It is our blessing to pray for another sister and receive inspiration as to how the Lord would have us care for one of His daughters.

Sister Silvia H. Allred said:

I have witnessed the same miracle in the lives of many women in different parts of the world. They embrace the gospel, and Relief Society helps them strengthen their faith and grow spiritually by giving them leadership and teaching opportunities. In their service, a new dimension is added to their lives. As they progress spiritually, their sense of belonging, identity, and self-worth increases. They realize that the whole intent of the gospel plan is to provide an opportunity for us to reach our fullest potential.

And Elder Eyring said:

[Covenant-keeping women] have done and are able to do uncommon things for others and to find joy even when their own unmet needs are great.

I want to be better at ministering. It seems like every time I start to feel real friendship for a sister, my assignment gets switched and I'm back trying to reach out to a stranger again! But even that does, gradually, help me build small relationships which can slowly grow into bigger ones. My current ministering sisters have only visited me once. We talked for 20 minutes or so. And they've dropped off a treat a time or two. So our contact has been very minimal, but even with that, when I see them at church or an activity, I feel a little warm feeling of familiarity and recognition: "Oh! There's Sister Merrill!" I feel like I could go sit by them. They smile at me. It's all on the very most basic level of friendship—we aren't sharing secrets or life advice yet—but it is a start, and a happy start at that. It always surprises me how relatively few contacts it takes to get to that point. To do "uncommon things," we first have to do common things!

Now, of course, our goal is to do more and become more to each other. But in my experience, that does happen naturally as we keep connecting with each other—even through awkward and imperfect connections. Ministering really is such an amazing and inspired opportunity for sisterhood!

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Biscuit in Quebec

 

This is Biscuit. (The bunny—his name is Biscuit. You can say it "Bis-qwee" if you want, because he's a Québecois bunny, but we just call him the American sort of biscuit.)

We bought him right before we came home from Québec. He was on a Christmas tree in a store window—the last bunny on the tree. He only had a hat at that time, but then Daisy thought he looked cold, so for Christmas she crocheted him this little red coat, and now he's warmer and happier.

Biscuit loves us (especially Clementine), but he missed his first home a little. So we told Clementine we would take him back for a visit. We went with him and took lots of pictures of how much fun he was having in Québec.

Voilà. This post is for Clementine!

Biscuit enjoyed a chocolatine at La Boîte à Pain.

He rode on Sam's shoulders (head) when he got tired, just like Clementine did:

We always liked this little window alcove that jutted out over the street at our favorite Doner Kebab place. Biscuit sat there while waiting to eat lunch one day.

Then he enjoyed his lunch.

Biscuit took a quick look at the weird mural on the way past it (he was still unimpressed).

Biscuit insisted on stopping at his favorite playground. One of the trees has been taken out and he was sad about that!

But he had fun anyway.

He played on the cannons at Parc Montmorency.

And then of course he wanted to go and walk by the Château.

Biscuit loves the Château!

And he liked looking out over the St. Lawrence river to see the ferry. No cruise ships this time of year!

When we lived in Quebec, Clementine once saw a little stuffed bunny sitting on this railing right here. We were hurrying past on our way to something, and Clementine was calling out "A bunny! A bunny! I want that bunny!" but her words didn't really register at first. Our group continued on (maybe we had Abe and Seb with us at that time?) but when Clementine started wailing forlornly as I pulled her along, I finally stopped to see what she wanted. Then I walked her back to see the bunny, but I didn't let her take it in case some other little girl came back looking for it! And in a few days it was gone. But from then on Clementine always commented on it whenever we passed that spot. "The bunny is gone. A little girl took that bunny home. She found her bunny. Now he's happy."

Anyway, it seemed appropriate to have Biscuit sit in that spot for a picture.

Biscuit looking at some animals in a shop window

Biscuit having some ice cream from Chocolats Favoris

Biscuit trying on a Quebec shirt

Biscuit visiting his Gnomie friends

Biscuit visiting our house (he wished he could go in, but he couldn't!)

Biscuit by Porte Saint-Jean

Finally, after having such a fun time, Biscuit started to miss Clementine, so he had some breakfast…

and flew back home to Utah on the airplane!

The End.

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Anniversary trip to Quebec

You don't need to read this post. How's that for a way to start off? Of course you don't need to read ANY post, but when I imagine friends and acquaintances sitting down with this, I feel like one of those archetypal travelogue-ers who buttonholes strangers to come watch him flip through the 300 slides in his Hawaiian Vacation slideshow. However, when I envision my future self and children reading through old blog books…I don't want to leave out a single picture. So here we are.

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A keystone in the counteroffensive

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Afternoon Session of the October 2009 Conference.

Wow, this session was full of good talks! There is Elder Holland's classic talk about the Book of Mormon, "Safety for the Soul," the words of which even now I hear ringing in my ears from time to time ("If anyone is foolish enough or misled enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text teeming with literary and Semitic complexity without honestly attempting to account for the origin of those pages—especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now tens of millions of readers—if that is the case, then such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit"). I get goosebumps every time I read his powerful testimony:

I hope I have a few years left in my “last days,” but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days.

So good! 

Another good talk in this session was Elder Renlund's masterpiece "Preserving the Heart's Mighty Change" which just hits so hard coming from a heart surgeon. 

But something that has stayed with me this week is from a third great talk, Elder Christofferson's "Moral Discipline." The part that struck me was this:

We cannot presume that the future will resemble the past—that things and patterns we have relied upon economically, politically, socially will remain as they have been. Perhaps our moral discipline, if we will cultivate it, will have an influence for good and inspire others to pursue the same course. We may thereby have an impact on future trends and events. At a minimum, moral discipline will be of immense help to us as we deal with whatever stresses and challenges may come in a disintegrating society.

Something about that just seemed so sober and full of warning. We can't resume that things and patterns we have relied upon will remain as they have been. We've all seen it—how fast trends in the world can change, how far values can skew from their centers. I start to get terrified for my kids if I let myself dwell on it. How can they possibly make sense of things in a world so full of darkness? How can any teachings be enough to overcome the relentless pull of the culture they're surrounded by? Elder Christofferson's talk keeps emphasizing that we need to help children learn "moral discipline," but beyond saying that parents should teach the gospel with "love and discipline," he doesn't go much into HOW! 

Going back to Elder Holland's Book of Mormon talk, though, I found these words helpful and comforting. Elder Holland mentions those same sobering warnings about the last days, and then tells us how God has prepared help for these very times:

The Savior warned that in the last days even those of the covenant, the very elect, could be deceived by the enemy of truth.…[but] The encouraging thing, of course, is that our Father in Heaven knows all of these latter-day dangers, these troubles of the heart and soul, and has given counsel and protections regarding them. 

In light of that, it has always been significant to me that the Book of Mormon, one of the Lord’s powerful keystones in this counteroffensive against latter-day ills, begins with a great parable of life, an extended allegory of hope versus fear, of light versus darkness, of salvation versus destruction…

Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times—including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair. That is the message with which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends, calling all to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.”

I know there have been many promises from prophets about the power of the Book of Mormon to help our families. It contains so many good doctrines about how to come closer to Jesus Christ. So of course using its teachings, and reading its words to ourselves and our children, can provide safety and hope even in this "disintegrating society" at "the end of times"! 

I need to remember that for everything Satan throws at us and our children, the Lord has already provided a "counteroffensive"! He doesn't leave us alone to face the Last Days. He will give us all the "love, healing, help, and hope" we need to return to Him, and to help our families return!

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Hour by hour

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Morning Session of the October 2009 Conference.

I really liked Elder Eyring's talk from this conference. Abe sent it to me to study together once while he was on his mission, so I have read it recently, but I notice new things each time I read it.

One quote from this talk is something I've had around for years in a note on my phone, because I feel like I need to read it often:

Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion.

Of course I want to just naturally BE this type of person and have this type of love, but sometimes I forget that it doesn't happen automatically for anyone (even very nice people, haha). Anyone who has this sort of love in a relationship has prayed for it and practiced it. I can too. 

I have also loved this for a long time:

…Any believing Latter-day Saint is an optimist about what lies ahead for him or her, however difficult the present may be. We believe that through living the gospel of Jesus Christ we can become like the Savior, who is perfect. Considering the attributes of Jesus Christ should quash the pride of the self-satisfied person who thinks he or she has no need to improve. And even the most humble person can take hope in the invitation to become like the Savior.

The quote I have been thinking about most, though, is this one:

Love is the motivating principle by which the Lord leads us along the way towards becoming like Him, our perfect example. Our way of life, hour by hour, must be filled with the love of God and love for others. 

I wonder how, exactly, one sets up a life that, "hour by hour," is filled with the love of God? How can we arrange our days and our weeks so there is room for attention and service? So many parts of life require worrying about ourselves—what will we eat, how will we pay for things, where will we go to find fulfillment? You can quite easily get caught up those things and never notice the people around you at all! Families, of course, help jolt us out of our self-focus. Motherhood is almost guaranteed to do so. It makes you a little more unselfish whether you like it or not! :) But there are still so many ways I could work on that "hour by hour" type of focus on loving God. Can I really remember Him so frequently in my day? Could I set up pictures, habits, routines, reminders that keep me constantly looking outward and bringing me back to Him—even while I'm driving, cleaning, cooking, making phone calls, organizing, keeping track of schedules, and so forth? Interesting to think about.

Other posts in this series:

"The -ity virtues"—by Rozy

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