This has been a week of Ups and Downs, lots of joys and lots of heartaches.Some of the families we have been fellowshiping and love so much and had great hopes for are just falling apart because of poor choices. It seems Satin is working overtime to destroy these beautiful families. Husbands don't work or single mothers who have financial difficulties, budget unwisely, impatient, criticize, selfishness, priorities, and the list goes on. As we visit we teach them how to apply gospel principles to improve their lives, get commitments, and promise blessings. We carry a supply of "The Family, A Proclamation to the World' teach from it and leave a copy in their homes. One paragraph reads, "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." This is a divine principle and it can bring happiness.
This week we visited with a sister with three young children and another on the way. Her husband is without a job but was out fishing. Our hearts ached as she cried and poured out her heart and told us she couldn't go on much longer. Elder Berry and I have visited many times with both husband and wife. Elder Berry continues to strongly urge the husband to get a job, bring home a pay check each week, and support his family. We encourage them to pray together and with their family, read the scriptures, attend church, obey the word of wisdom and even how to budget. As we go back and visit and check on their progress, we find they haven't applied these principles in their lives but do them sometimes. This sister cried and said but Sister Berry prayer, reading the scriptures and coming to church won't pay the light bill. We asked her if she was doing that, the answer of course was sometimes, then not really. We suggested she pray with her husband and ask the Lord to bless her husband that he will be able to find and keep a job so he can help support the family. She still has a problem with smoking so we encouraged her to stop. Her reply was well I only have one or two a day which is much better than a pack or two. We reminded her that she was not keeping her baptismal promises which is to obey the word of wisdom. After a good cry and a listening ear hopefully her day was better but her problem was not solved. This family will continue to have problems until they live the gospel of Jesus Christ and apply these divine principles.
Another sister locked her husband out of the house and got her family involved and the situation has turned ugly.This is a young couple which appeared to have a good relationship with four young children We visited them often, taught home evening lessons, baked cookies together and encouraged them to attend church. If they came to church they were usually late.seldom staying for classes. The husband is devastated. He has only one brother who is in the army, his mother died earlier this year. Since he was without a job the bishop was arranging to get him a bus ticket to go live with his dad in another state when he learned his dad had just died. Planes were changed and his brother in the army is coming to pick him up this Thursday and take him home to live with him. Elder Berry and I have spent some sad times this week as we visited and checked on him and tried to encourage him. This family has had many ups and downs in their marriages but mostly downs. If they had applied or will apply divine principles in their lives they could or would have mostly ups.
We visited a single sister this week with two children. When she joined the church she had one little boy but fell into inactivity. Now she has another child, a little girl and no husband but a boy friend. Each child has a different father. Our heart ached for her situation, financial problems, a broken down car and no job. We asked about her parents and learned her mother died when she was very young and was mostly raised by an aunt and lived with her dad when she was in high school until she had to leave when she was in her last year of school. Since then she has been on her own. As we drove away I thought of my grandchildren and the security they enjoy and shed a tear. Saturday we went back to visit her between conference sessions. I visited with her while Elder Berry checked on her car. I talked to her about chastity, the need for repentance since she was a baptized member of the church and remaining chaste until she married, and returning to activity. I promised her if she would do these things her life would change and she would get the job she needs, she would not only have security but would be able to experience peace and joy.
Another lady in the ward learned last Wednesday that her youngest daughter who lives in South Carolina was stabbed to death. Someone broke into her home and it is still under investigation. Her boyfriend was ruled out as a suspect. Her delima - they needed seven hundred more dollars to have her body shipped to Augusta, Georgia, have it cremated and have a memorial service. Since Elder Berry and I had visited with this sister, who is a recent convert, the bishop sent us over to check on her. We talked to her about death and the plan of salvation. She was surprised when we told her her daughter's spirit was in heaven and was greeted by loved ones who had previously died. After assuring her that her daughter was in heaven she excitedly named off family members who had welcomed her home. Her heart was heavy over the tragic, senseless, sudden death her of daughter, she was angry and the stress of insufficient funds was more than she could bear. This dear sister will experience many ups and downs as she morns the loss of her daughter. We hope to help her strengthen her understanding of the atonement and how this understanding can bring her hope and peace. Elder Berry and I can't imagine how difficult it would be to loose one of our children to such a tragic and sudden death. Our hearts sorrowed for her as we drove away.
Now for the Ups. We had a wonderful Zone Leaders Training Wednesday. Once a month the zone meets together under the leadership of the zone leaders. Each companionship stood accountable for all that they are doing or planning to do to increase baptisms. Since Elder Berry and I don't do the same things the Elders and Sisters do and since their main focus is finding, teaching and baptising, we usually don't stand accountable in our District Development Meetings. This meeting we were asked to stand accountable. We reported to them how we spend our time and offered to assist any of them as they serve. It was very humbling to stand at the front of the room before young Elders and Sisters and stand accountable. The zone leaders gave training from Preach My Gospel and we did lots of role playing.The meeting was very inspiring. We love meeting with the missionaries and watching as they respond to these training times and applying what they have learned and practiced. After the meeting Elder Berry and I went to lunch with our four Sister missionaries. It was such a pleasure to visit as each of us shared our different experiences. The two sister companionships live such a distance apart that they don't get to see each other or visit except maybe once a month. As we were finishing our lunch Sister Brand quietly spoke to our waitress and invited her to learn more about our church and beliefs. The waitress excepted, names and phone numbers were exchanged and she took a pass along card. Elder Berry and I were so impressed with Sister Brand and her dedication and sweet spirit.
Saturday and Sunday we had the opportunity to watch all four sessions of General Conference at our church building. We loved the messages, testify that what was spoken is true and they are the Lords message for us. Many of our recent converts have never seen or heard the prophet or the apostles speak at general conference. We testify that we have a living prophet, President Monson so our desire was to get as many of the recent converts to church to see and hear the prophet and feel his spirit and experience a general conference. To many this is just a time that they don't have to come to church. In order to give them this experience Elder Berry and I planned a pot luck dinner between sessions on Sunday with the approval of the bishop. We encouraged the members to come and listen to our prophet and bring a dish and stay and have dinner. We had about sixty for dinner and lots of food. We were sad many of our members returned home after dinner but we were happy they had experienced a general conference session and saw the prophet as he spoke. Mission accomplished!
Although this has been a week of ups and downs emotionally. We have shed tears of sadness for our sisters in such unfavorable circumstance and tears of joy as we bear testimony and especially as we listened to our church leaders. We hope the people we visit will experiment upon the things we teach,and have hope in Jesus Christ and his atonement, turn to him in their trials, live the gospel and endure to the end. The seesaw of ups (joy) and downs (discouragement) has been busy this week.
Love Elder and Sister Berry
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