This week was a really cool week for me. I was able to go back and witness one of the investigators that I taught in Caldwell get baptized! It is always such an awesome thing to see the continued growth and progress of people I have really come to love. We had probably six other people that aren't members at that baptism as well, which is super awesome! We are seeing a lot of tender mercies in our work here. We don't necessarily find a lot of people to teach for ourselves, but we are finding people that other missionaries can teach! So it all works out! We are enjoying our time so that's all that matters. Its not about how many people you teach!
My thoughts from the week are centered around coming to know our Heavenly Father.
An Emeritus Seventy Elder Bruce C. Hafen came and spoke in one of our sacrament meetings and his remarks along with others created a theme for the whole day.
It centers around John 17:3
" And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
This one verse in the great intercessory prayer has always grabbed hold of my attention. The idea of coming to know our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is nothing short of a lifetime pursuit.
In life we seem to shrink when it comes to the presentation of a difficult task at hand or trial before our path. However it is these very events that bring us to know our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Think of the Paul in the New Testament, Joseph Smith in the early days of the church, Alma the Younger in the Book of Mormon. All of these individuals went through such difficult times and what came forth was immense revelation, growth, and knowledge. I wanted to share this poem called "Lamentations" Its a poem about Eve after they left the Garden of Eden.
And God said, “BE FRUITFUL, AND MULTIPLY –“
Multiply, multiply – echoes multiply
God said, “I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY THEY SORROW – “
Thy sorrow, sorrow, sorrow –
I have gotten a man from the Lord
I have traded the fruit of the garden for fruit of my body
For a laughing bundle of humanity.
And now another one who looks like Adam
We shall call this one, “Abel.”
It is a lovely name“Abel.”
Cain, Abel, the world is yours.
God set the sun in the heaven to light your days
To warm the flocks, to kernel the grain
He illuminated your nights with stars
He made the trees and the fruit thereof yielding seed
He made every living thing, the wheat, the sheep, the cattle
For your enjoyment
And, behold, it is very good.
Adam? Adam
Where art thou?
Where are the boys?
The sky darkens with clouds.
Adam, is that you?
Where is Abel?
He is long caring for his flocks.
The sky is black and the rain hammers.
Are the ewes lambing
In this storm?
Why your troubled face, Adam?
Are you ill?
Why so pale, so agitated?
The wind will pass
The lambs will birth
With Abel’s help.
Dead?
What is dead?
Merciful God!
Hurry, bring warm water
I’ll bathe his wounds
Bring clean Clothes
Bring herbs.
I’ll heal him.
I am trying to understand.
You said, “Abel is dead.”
But I am skilled with herbs
Remember when he was seven
The fever? Remember how—
Herbs will not heal?
Dead?
And Cain? Where is Cain?
Listen to that thunder.
Cain cursed?
What has happened to him?
God said, “A fugitive and a vagabond?”
But God can’t do that.
They are my sons, too.
I gave them birth
In the valley of pain.
Adam, try to understand
In the valley of pain
I bore them
fugitive?
vagabond?
This is his home
This the soil he loved
Where he toiled for golden wheat
For tasseled corn.
To the hill country?
There are rocks in the hill country
Cain can’t work in the hill country
The nights are cold
Cold and lonely, and the wind gales.
Quick, we must find him
A basket of bread and his coat
I worry, thinking of him wandering
With no place to lay his head.
Cain cursed?
A wanderer, a roamer?
Who will bake his bread and mend his coat?
Abel, my son dead?
And Cain, my son, a fugitive
Two sons
Adam, we had two sons
Both – Oh, Adam –
multiply
sorrow
Dear God, Why?
Tell me again about the fruit
Why?
Please, tell me again
Why?
Multiply, multiply – echoes multiply
God said, “I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY THEY SORROW – “
Thy sorrow, sorrow, sorrow –
I have gotten a man from the Lord
I have traded the fruit of the garden for fruit of my body
For a laughing bundle of humanity.
And now another one who looks like Adam
We shall call this one, “Abel.”
It is a lovely name“Abel.”
Cain, Abel, the world is yours.
God set the sun in the heaven to light your days
To warm the flocks, to kernel the grain
He illuminated your nights with stars
He made the trees and the fruit thereof yielding seed
He made every living thing, the wheat, the sheep, the cattle
For your enjoyment
And, behold, it is very good.
Adam? Adam
Where art thou?
Where are the boys?
The sky darkens with clouds.
Adam, is that you?
Where is Abel?
He is long caring for his flocks.
The sky is black and the rain hammers.
Are the ewes lambing
In this storm?
Why your troubled face, Adam?
Are you ill?
Why so pale, so agitated?
The wind will pass
The lambs will birth
With Abel’s help.
Dead?
What is dead?
Merciful God!
Hurry, bring warm water
I’ll bathe his wounds
Bring clean Clothes
Bring herbs.
I’ll heal him.
I am trying to understand.
You said, “Abel is dead.”
But I am skilled with herbs
Remember when he was seven
The fever? Remember how—
Herbs will not heal?
Dead?
And Cain? Where is Cain?
Listen to that thunder.
Cain cursed?
What has happened to him?
God said, “A fugitive and a vagabond?”
But God can’t do that.
They are my sons, too.
I gave them birth
In the valley of pain.
Adam, try to understand
In the valley of pain
I bore them
fugitive?
vagabond?
This is his home
This the soil he loved
Where he toiled for golden wheat
For tasseled corn.
To the hill country?
There are rocks in the hill country
Cain can’t work in the hill country
The nights are cold
Cold and lonely, and the wind gales.
Quick, we must find him
A basket of bread and his coat
I worry, thinking of him wandering
With no place to lay his head.
Cain cursed?
A wanderer, a roamer?
Who will bake his bread and mend his coat?
Abel, my son dead?
And Cain, my son, a fugitive
Two sons
Adam, we had two sons
Both – Oh, Adam –
multiply
sorrow
Dear God, Why?
Tell me again about the fruit
Why?
Please, tell me again
Why?
May we look at our trials tribulations with a hope to come to know our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
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