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| a few ward members at a service project a week ago |
Today we heard from a young man who will be in the Missionary Training Center on Wednesday. He is so excited and well prepared to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He testified powerfully of the love our Father and Jesus Christ have for each one of us. He said, "I have come to know through many experiences that God loves ME, and that is amazing! We can all have those experiences that let us know that. You are known to God and He loves you."
He taught us about the tree of life in the vision Lehi and Nephi saw; that it's 'beauty was far beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty; and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow.'
And that this tree represents the love of God, that it is 'the most desirable above all things', and most 'joyous to the soul'. (See 1 Nephi 8 & 11)
Maybe my favorite of all he said was: "Life got so much better the minute I started reading the Book of Mormon. Read it, you will find Jesus Christ in your life and have very personal experiences".
17 Miracles
Dave and I went to the movie last week, and since we both wanted to see different movies that's what we did. He saw Harry Potter, and I saw 17 Miracles.
Dave said Harry Potter was very good, not being a fan myself I will just take his word for it.
17 Miracles was great, but if you go see it, be sure to take at least one tissue. It's about the Martin and Willey handcart companies and the experiences they had crossing the country in 1856, traveling from Iowa City to Salt Lake City. Most of them were recent immigrants from Great Britian, they were city people, not frontiersmen. As the title implies, miraculous events occurred on their journey; never were their trials and hardships removed, but always enough was given to keep them moving and helping each other. I am humbled to know that one of my grandmothers, I have forgotten how many generations back, traveled with the Willey handcart company. Knowing of the horrible conditions they faced and the way they met those conditions with dignity, commitment and faith strengthens my resolve and desire to be as true to my testimony of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ as they were.
The Miracle of Freedom: 7 Tipping Points that Changed the World by Chris Stewart and Ted Stewart
This is a wonderful book, gives perspective on how greatly blessed we are to live in a free country.
"The best estimates of how many poeple have ever lived on the earth range from 100 to 110 billion.
Even being generous in our estimates, it seems clear that fewer than 5 billion of the earth's total inhabitants have ever lived under conditions that we could consider free. This would be something like 4.5 percent of people who have ever lived. And these are generous estimates. The actual numbers might be much lower than this." p 12
