From St. David's Day to Missionary Delights

Our FHE had 19 in attendance and several were either investigators, non-member friends, or newly baptized. Many were new so Paul had everyone introduce themselves by giving their name, where they were from and their favorite sleeping position. That broke the ice! Thanks to our grandchildren, I now have ideas for activities for weeks to come if they ask me again. The Institute choir Elder Cable has started is doing very well.  We had 28 stay for practice last week after class.  They really sound great.  The video they are making should be very amusing. They are depicting the scene from Alma 20 between Ammon, and the two King Lamonis as seen through the eyes of a hoodlum - very dramatic.  

It was a good and busy week.  Luc and Jamie called us Thursday to let us know Jamie got his mission call to the Scotland Edinburgh Mission.  They are so excited and pleased with the call and I was very happy that they cared enough to let us know as soon as the call was opened.  In fact they invited us to Swansea to be there when he opened the call, but we had a teaching appointment with the Elders to go to Peter's.  

As I've said before, teaching Peter is a very unusual and humbling experience. Elders Gerber and Wood taught on tithing and asked us to each bear our testimonies of this principle and we were happy to do so.  I gave the example of our Thanksgiving dinner in San Antonio, Texas to which we had invited company when we were first married and were very poor. When it came time to shop for the dinner we realized we did not have enough money to buy anything if we paid our tithing. We did contemplate not paying then and try to make it up later.  We knew the Lord would understand, and we did have GI's to think about. We did not want to ruin their Thanksgiving. But we went ahead and paid our tithing, not knowing what we would do.  A few days later Colonel Cowley and his wife invited us to Thanksgiving dinner and when I explained that we had already invited some soldiers at the base to eat with us, they said, "Please bring them too." What a great relief!  We had a wonderful time. Wayne talked about tithing not being about the money, but it is a sign of our obedience.  He also told of the time while he was a student at BYU earning $0.75/hour, he had no money, no food, but decided to pay his tithing but wondered what would happen to him.  The next day he got a letter in the mail with no return address.  Inside was $10 and he does not know to this day where it came from.  Elder Wood testified about when he had a date for the Jr. Prom but the only money he had was his tithing money. It was a hard test, but he paid his tithing then prayed that Heavenly Father would help him solve his problems. The next day his tax refund came and he had a wonderful time at the prom. Elder Gerber told about his grandpa whose advice was, "You can't afford not to pay tithing." Peter listened to all this then he turned to Malachai 3:11-12, all on his own, read it to us then said, "I know the devourer will be rebuked. That is why I pay tithing. I have paid tithing, 10% for 15 years." He already lives this law and knows it is a commandment. When Elder Wood tried to explain what tithing is used for in our Church, Peter said he doesn't need to know. "It is God's money." He has such faith and there is always a sweet spirit when we are with him.

We saw Ben at the baptism tonight and he was excited to tell us that he will get the priesthood Sunday and will be made a Priest.  Isn't it amazing that he was not even a member two weeks ago and tomorrow he will have the authority to baptize others.  He is very happy about that.  I asked him if there was anything we could do for him and his reply was, "Just stay in my presence as long as possible."  He is very fun.  

Probably one of the more meaningful parts of the week for me was the time spent with David Beale Wednesday and Friday. He is a master teacher and has such a fun personality. He told us that because we are converting so many from Africa, we need to teach about the history of the priesthood as it related to Blacks and it should be done early on rather than have them be surprised after they are baptized by our former practices. He has a great article on this that I need to get. He also told us the Parable of the Happy Islanders he made up to explain foreordination.  I keep thinking about what he told us about how to teach:  Teach less. Talk less. Testify less. Have the students: Teach more. Talk more. Testify more. When preparing a lesson, don't focus on what you are going to teach, but focus on what your students will be doing. You are not teaching lessons, you are teaching students.  Don't worry as much about covering the material, instead worry about having the students teaching, talking and testifying to each other. It is a new paradigm and hard to implement after years of teaching differently.