Week 10: Slowly but Surely

March 23, 1988

On Thursday morning, we were out on our way to see one of our contacts and we saw some Jehovah's Witnesses, who also happened to be out and about.  Our contact was not at home, and on our way to our next stop we spotted the JWs talking to one of our ward members, so we circled back to bail him out.  As we walked up to his doorstep he was saying, “I don’t know of a scripture that supports my beliefs but I’m sure there is one.”  Then he saw us, “And I’ll give you two Mormon Missionaries.”  They turned around and just freaked out when they saw us.  "No, no," one said, "we don't want to talk with Mormon elders."  They gave us and the member a pamphlet and beat a hasty retreat.

On Friday, we had a teaching appointment set with Lloyd, our only investigator.  We showed him the video How Rare a Possession, but didn't teach him a discussion.  As we watched the video the spirit was very strong, and I prayed in my heart that Lloyd would feel it.  I don't think that I have ever prayed as hard for someone as I did then.  I wanted so much for Lloyd to feel the spirit.

Before we started the video, he told us that he was Catholic and would probably stay that way.  He just likes to have us come by and talk with him and he's not really very interested in changing.  He hasn't read any of the passages marked in the copy of the Book of Mormon that we gave him.  He was recently in the hospital for a heart operation, so this was the first time I met him.

Also on Friday, I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the third time, the first time on my mission.

On Saturday, we went on team-ups with the assistants to the president.  Elder Baker and I tracted a street without success.  We did talk to a physically handicapped individual -- he had been in a drunk driving auto accident.  We told him that his body would be made whole in the resurrection.  His response was that Christ was dead, which is his problem with Christianity.  We testified to him that the Savior lives.

In the afternoon, Elder Golf and I stopped by to see a graduate student that he and his last companion had tracted into.  He had read the passages in the marked Book of Mormon he had been given, but to him it seemed more like a novel than scripture.  He confessed that he had had so many things going on that he couldn’t get into the proper frame of mind.  We encouraged him, when school is out, to sit down as read the Book of Mormon when nothing is really going on.

On Sunday, we had a dinner appointment after church, it was good.  I studied in the morning and started reading Truth Restored.  In sacrament meeting we had another homecoming, this time for a son of one of the counselors in the bishopric.  We had a good discussion in Gospel Essentials class during Sunday school.

We didn’t get any work done on Monday.  Elders Golf and Lima were busy filming videos that they are going to send home.  Golf made a huge, staged mess in the kitchen and living room and then came out with the video camera and complained about the geek who had messed up the apartment.  Naturally, he had to clean up after he finished filming.

I finished reading Truth Restored, it is a short book, but it was great.  I loved it; it gave me such a sweet feeling that is hard to describe.  I felt so much empathy for those early saints, and great joy as they rose above their trials.  I also got a little homesick reading about the church in the Salt Lake Valley.

On Tuesday afternoon, as we were heading out, a man waved us down.  He told that that he had been fishing down in Santa Cruz, when some men stole his wallet and siphoned his gas, leaving him just enough fuel to get as far as East Palo Alto.  He needed some money in order to get enough gas to get to his home in Concord.  I gave him seven dollars, which he said that he would pay back, and we did give him our address, but I wasn't really concerned with the money.  It felt good to help out, and who knows, maybe we planted a seed.

As we were talking, this fellow told us that he had concluded a year ago that there is a God.  This happened when his wife ended their marriage.  Since then, he has been getting into religion just a little.

After talking to this man, we headed off to see a contact, only to find that he was not at home.  Then we took a long bike ride down to Corina to see Leslie, a lady that we had tracted into a few weeks ago.  She was busy, so we gave her some pamphlets.  Slowly but surely, steady wins the race.

Today, we spent a few hours driving around Palo Alto with Elders Fox and Lima.  Golf, Fox and Lima are making videos to send home, and we hit all the sights in East Palo Alto, Palo Alto and on the Standford campus.  Each time we have gone over Highway 101 into East Palo Alto, Fox has done his airline captain routine and asked us to roll up the windows and lock the doors.  All over downtown Palo Alto are some clever and even humorous murals.

It was kind of a waste of a good P-day, though I did get some good photos.  I think this video making has also been a distraction from the work that last few days.

Well, that's it for this week.

Love
Douglas

Week 9: Sweet and Sour

March 16, 1988

Things may be looking up.  Yesterday, we committed one of our investigators to hear a discussion on Friday.  Finally!  I'll get a chance to teach a discussion.

Last Wednesday night we had President and Sister Douglas up for dinner; we fixed sweet and sour chicken and cashew chicken.  It was great.  We got the idea after an apartment dinner where we made the first dish in our wok.  They turned out great and we thought, "Hey, let's invite President and Sister Douglas!"

The week before the dinner, we sent a menu to our mission president who, apparently, hates broccoli with a passion.  Everything on the menu we sent had broccoli in it, to include items like sparkling broccoli cider, broccoli sherbet and cream of broccoli soup.  When Sister Douglas handed President Douglas our fake menu she said "Here honey, look what we're eating."  He looked at it and said "I don't believe it!"  She then let him off the hook.  They both thought it was funny are are going to put the fake menu in their scrapbook.  They thought the real menu was great, too.

The next day we had my first zone conference up in San Mateo, at the Hillsdale chapel.  One thing that was talked about was the idea of expressing love on door approaches.  The last couple of days we have tried that, and it is hard.  Love is an important part of being bold or, rather, if you are not loving, you are not only being bold but you are being overbearing.  If you are overbearing you have no right to be heard.

President Douglas spoke about the mission goal for 100 baptisms a month.  Last month we had close to 80, the month before that we had 60.  He said that 100 baptisms should be a minimum, but we have yet to reach it.  He then made an analogy of a baseball player who has hit a home run; he knows he can hit home runs and so he won't try for just a base hit; he will go for the home run because he know he can hit them.

The conference ended with a testimony meeting which was powerful.  A few days earlier I had gotten my hair cut by a member; she asked me how I wanted it and I said, “shorter,” and she then gave me a buzz cut. Some of the missionaries at the conference made comments, so when I got up to bear my testimony I said, “About the haircut, I only asked for a trim.” The whole room erupted in laughter. I can still see Elder Fox's face as he busted up laughing and, of course, President Douglas laughed the loudest.

On Friday and Saturday, my comp was sick, this time with the flu.  On Friday morning I went out with Elder Fox, and we came very close to teaching a first discussion to one of his and Elder Lima's contacts; unfortunately, she was busy cleaning her house, so it didn't happen.  So close, yet so far.

At lunch the zone leaders came and down and we finished off the leftovers of the sweet and sour chicken and cashew chicken.  In the afternoon, I studied.  I studied all day on Saturday.

We got out tracting on Monday morning.  In the afternoon we had an appointment with Fay.  She had read the first scriptures marked in the copy of the Book of Mormon we had given her, up to about page 65.  She thinks it is all a bit like the Old Testament.  She said that she is not interested in changing her religion as she is happy being a Midianite.

Fay is incredibly busy as a midwife, particularly this time of year, but we set up a return appointment for the middle of April.  We are praying that the Book of Mormon will really get to her.  She said that she believes it is true, that she has no problem with it.  Midianites, apparently, believe in continual revelation, too.  We are praying that as she reads the Book of Mormon that it will touch her or prick her heart.

On Tuesday we went on team-ups with Elders Fox and Lima.  Fox and I tracted a street that used to be in our area, but is now in theirs.  We got one call back.

This morning we had a zone activity.  We had breakfast at the stake center on Valparaiso Ave. in Menlo Park, and then had a car wash.  After that, we went to a park and played a game of capture the flag, which was fun.

After that the four of us went "thrifting".  There are quite a lot of thrift stores here and a favorite pastime of missionaries in this mission is to go "thrifting."  I found a suit for $12, that almost fits, but it could use some alterations.  A suit bought at a thrift store is called a "thrifter," and a lot of the elders out here have at least one.

We'll, gotta run

Love

your missionary

Douglas

Week 8: Conflict

March 9, 1988

It has been an interesting week.  On Thursday at our district meeting our zone leaders said we were filing out our presidents letters incorrectly.  This led to some contention between my comp and one of the zone leaders.  On Friday we called the office about an unrelated subject, but while on the line we asked the finance clerk about the letters.  The way the finance clerk explained it, my comp thought he was vindicated, but he apparently misunderstood.  Thinking "we" were right, "we" called the zonies and left a message on their answering machine.

The zone leaders called the mission officer secretary, who happened to be the one who designed the letters, and he said the zone leaders were right. The zonies then called us to pass the word; while one of the zone leaders talked with our district leader, my comp got a little bit obnoxious, as was loud enough that the zonie must have heard him. The finance clerk subsequently called me on another matter, a question on my rent check.  Before giving me the phone, my comp said that the secretary disagreed with what the finance clerk had told us.  Ten minutes after talking to me, the finance clerk called back to say that my comp had misunderstood and that the zone leaders were correct.

I have to say that I was turned off by my comp's attitude.  He was mad at the zone leader for not admitting that he was wrong, but how can you admit that you are wrong when you are not?  Maybe it doesn't help that I like the zonie, I think he is a cool guy.  Well, with the controversy settled, things calmed down a bit.

Just in time from another controversy.  On Sunday, the ward boundaries were changed and a new ward was formed.  In the process, we lost a part of our area and two investigators to the Palo Alto First Ward.  We weren't the only ones to lose investigators, everybody was affected, and this led to some more contention in the district.

The Elders in the Menlo Park First Ward have three baptisms scheduled, but they are now in the Menlo Park Third Ward.  The senior comp in that ward is a bit of a go-getter -- his brother was an A.P. on his mission and he has this idea that he will be a failure unless he also makes A.P.  Naturally, he is more than a little concerned with numbers and he is lobbying to stay in the MP 1st.  My comp, and the district leader and his comp in fact, are pretty mad at this, but I could care less.  Rather, I am bothered by all of the contention.

I have to go back to Thursday, when my comp and I had an apartment inventory with the district leader and his comp.  I raised the issue of my quiet personality and asked if it was a problem.  My comp immediately laid into me, ripping me from one side to the other.  The first thing he said was that if I didn't talk to the members, and if I am quiet, they will think that I am not excited about the gospel and don't want to teach, and they won't want me to teach their friends.  What a load of rubbish.

Next, my comp said that if I don't love myself that I am sinning.  I don't understand what that has to do with anything, my personality is what it is, it doesn't mean that I don't live myself.  Though I do have to admit that I have often struggled with doubts about myself.  When almost everyone you know, it seems, treats you like trash, your self esteem can be so low as to make it rather easy to hate yourself., and I have done far worse than that.  [There were a few occasions when I thought that God hated me, and I considered that to be worse.]  When your self esteem is that low, you're not in the proper frame of mind, and I think the Lord takes that into account.

My comp went on to say that you have got to think you are the greatest person in the world.  While it is important to love yourself, and perhaps even have some pride in yourself, I think he was taking it a bit too far.  To think that we are the greatest person in the world would seem to be getting into the area of false pride.  Now, maybe I'm taking what he said the wrong way, we do need to think that we are great, but not the greatest person in the world.

I don't mean to say anything bad about my comp.  Since the apartment inventory, things have been much better, and we seem to be communicating better.  In response I kept stressing that I could only do the best that I could, that they should not expect too much from me because I can't give more than I am able to.

We did some tracting on Saturday and did find another contact.

We are working with the ward mission leader on a better way to work through the members and to get them more excited about missionary work.  We have been stressing 1 Nephi 7:4 (Nephi and his brother gained favor in the sight of Ishmael) and are working on a five step plan.  We have member progress sheets and everything.  We would like to set up a member missionary class, but the bishop said that there are too many Sunday School classes as it is.

Well, that's basically it.  Life is good.

Love
Douglas

--

Several months after this letter, President Ezra Taft Benson gave his well known conference talk, "Beware of Pride." (see: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/beware-of-pride?lang=eng)  I believe it was one of the last talks was gave at a general conference.  Whether this talk had anything to do with subsequent events, I do not know, but at Christmas time that year I got a card from my trainer expressing thanks for what he had learned while we were together, and then at the Christmas conference of the mission, he and his comp sat as lunch with my comp and I.  We became friends and have remained so.

President Benson warned that "Pride is the universal sin, the great vice. Yes, pride is the universal sin, the great vice."  He than said that "The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness.  It is the broken heart and contrite spirit."  He then quoted the poet, Rudyard Kipling:

The tumult and the shouting dies;

The captains and the kings depart.

Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble and a contrite heart.

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget, lest we forget.

What Are We Emitting?

Winston Churchill once said that the one thing that frightened him the most during World War II was the German's u-boat campaign against allied shipping in the Atlantic.  "The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war," Churchill claimed. "Never for one moment could we forget that everything happening elsewhere, on land, at sea or in the air depended ultimately on its outcome."  The Battle of the Atlantic was as much a war of scientists and engineers in their laboratories as a war between sailors above and below the surface.

Two "weapons" which helped win the Battle of the Atlantic were radar and something called "Huff-Duff."  The former, of course, is relatively well understood; a transmitter sends out a radio signal which bounces off objects and returns to a receiver.  The latter may be less well understood; it refers to high-frequency direction finding (HF/DF) equipment which attempted to locate the source of a radio transmission.  By using antennas at different locations, Huff Duff received a radio transmission at different angles and used the differences to determine a bearing to the transmitter.  What made Huff Duff so successful during the war was the speed with which it could determine the bearing to a u-boat transmitting a radio message; this allowed allied warships to locate and attack the enemy submarine.

The battle of the laboratories continued during the Cold War, and the U.S. Navy spent a lot of effort on what it called "emissions control," or EMCON.  The purpose of EMCON was to prevent the Soviets from homing in on the radar and radio transmissions of U.S. Navy ships.  EMCON could be as simple as turning everything off, radar, radio and other equipment that emitted an electronic signal.  During World War II, the Germans developed a radar detector and such detection equipment became more sophisticated during the Cold War, to the point that it was no longer necessary to use radar to search for the enemy as you could track him through his electronic emissions -- assuming that he had not turned everything off.

Since the end of the Cold War, there has been another wave of technological progress with wireless communications.  Rear Admiral William Leigher, USN, a veteran cryptologist who recently carried the title "director of warfare integration for information dominance," stated in a 2013 interview that the electronic emissions problem is significantly greater now that it was in the past.

“It’s not as simple as EMCON that I might have done in the mid-’80s or early 90s,” Leigher warned.  For one, you can't just turn everything off because you need your sensors to detect incoming missiles and your jammers to disable them.  In the future, suggested Leigher, instead of shutting systems down to avoid detection, a Navy ship might deliberately change the signals it emits to make the enemy think that it is something else -- during World War II, the allies tricked German u-boat commanders into turning their detectors off by suggesting that aircraft could home in on its signal.

Fascinating as all of this is, I'm sure there are many of you who are wondering just what it has to do with anything.  As humans, with or without the aid of electronics, we are always emitting something.  People see us and hear us, and we send signals through body language as well as through the things that we say -- or even the things that we don't say.  Social media allows us to interact with people around the world, even people we don't know -- even people that we are not aware of.  We might try a form of EMCON by avoiding people, on social media or in person, but that would leave us isolated and, in any case, probably wouldn't actually work.  Even when we keep to ourselves we are sending out signals.

It would be more useful, then, to take a look at what we are emitting.  (I have a friend who is a seminary teacher and she recently posted about a comment she made during a class; she was talking about vulnerabilities and weaknesses and said something like "We all have a crack, where is your crack?"  The question "What are you emitting?" seems to be just as risky, but I'll go with it anyway.)

Through our body language and our words we may signal happiness and friendship, generosity and other good things, or we may signal anger, suspicion, selfishness, etc.  We may signal other things via social media by what we choose to post, or what we choose to like or share.

In recent efforts by members of the LDS Church to share the gospel via social media, people have been using the hastag "sharegoodness".  We can share goodness, or we can share things that are less than good.  We may even share goodness on the one hand, while also sharing some not so good things on the other, in which case we are sending mixed signals that may serve to confuse.

When Alma the Younger started his mission to the Zoramites, he took along with him Amulek, Zeezrom and two of his sons.  One of these sons left his mission to chase after a harlot; Alma later said to this son, "Behold, O my son, how great iniquity ye brought upon the Zoramites; for when they saw your conduct they would not believe in my words" (Alma 39:11)

Alma went on to say, "And now the Spirit of the Lord doth say unto me: Command thy children to do good. lest they lead away the hearts of many people to destruction" (Alma 39:12).

People are watching us, whether we like it or not.  If they see in us a good example, they may become interested in learning more about the church.  If they see in us a bad example, they may be less likely to become interested.

We, of course, are human, and we will make mistakes -- and there are those who will deliberately seek to push our buttons in order to accuse us of hypocrisy -- but let us strive to be a good example, let us strive to share goodness.  Let us be ever mindful of the signals we send when we post, like or share things on social media.

--

Freeberg, S. J. (2013) "Navy Battles Cyber Threats: Thumb Drives, Wireless Hacking, & China." Breaking Defense.  Accessed September 10, 2014 at: http://breakingdefense.com/2013/04/navy-cyber-threats-thumb-drives-wireless-hacking-china/

Week 7: "It Gets Better or Worse Depending on Your Attitude"

March 2, 1988

We just had a slow week.  My comp was feeling sick and it rained a lot.  It's too dangerous to ride our bikes when it rains, that's what my comp tells me.  We got out on Saturday morning to deliver thank you notes and do some follow up on some contacts.  We dropped off a pamphlet to a lady who had inquired about our family home evening program.

On Sunday, we had a DA at the Branson's.  They made us earn our food by telling them our most spiritual experiences on our mission.  They excluded MTC experiences so, having been out here just a few weeks, I had few experiences to choose from.  The best I could come up with was how strong the spirit was the other day as I was reading Helaman chapter 5 -- I don't think they were impressed.

At church, the bishop's son had his homecoming -- he just got back from the New York, New York City Mission.  In Gospel Essentials class I taught the lesson because the regular teacher was out of town.  I literally tore apart Ephesians chapter 6 about the armor of God.  The ward mission leader said I did a good job.

On Monday, my comp was sick.  On Tuesday, my comp was sick.  He's had a cold for about a month and a half now.  On Tuesday morning we gave him a blessing -- hm, that's the second comp in row who has needed a blessing.  Maybe its the curse of being my companion -- ha, ha.

This morning, Elder Fox and I went over the bridge and down Newell to the library, while my comp and Elder Lima went to get haircuts.  At the library I, of course, went looking for the World War II history books -- and I found a gold mine of books!  Seriously, this library puts the Bountiful library to shame.  We ended up spending three hours at the library, and I had a blast looking at some books I have been searching for for years.  I'll probably never find those books in Utah.

I just wrote a letter to a friend who should have gotten his call by now.  Basically, I told him that a mission is challenge after challenge and trial after trial.  By overcoming these challenges and trials, and using them as stepping stones, we grow and return two years later as men.

I wrote my friend about something my present companion told me about -- a friend of his who left the MTC after only one week.  Another friend, who had come home from his mission after just one year, told this guy that if he didn't like his first week to go home because it doesn't get any better.  My reaction was to recall something Geoff said many times in missionary prep: "It gets better or worse depending on your attitude."

Trials will come, that is what a mission is.  I wrote my friend: "If you went home early, think of all the people you would let down: your parents, your brothers who have served successful missions, your friends, your friends who are presently serving or are preparing to serve, your ancestors, Jesus Christ, your Father in heaven, and many others."

More than a few times, when it has been tough out here, I have had thoughts about going home early, but then I said: "How could I ever look dad and Geoff in the eye."  There is no way.  Then I read Alma chapter 38.  Alma the younger was counseling his son Shiblon.  In verses 3-5 we read that Shiblon was bound and even stoned while he was serving his mission to the Zoramites.  Shiblon overcame his trials, bearing them with patience, and was greatly blessed as a result.

I told my friend about the trials I had with my MTC comp.  "But I learned from that," I wrote.  I told him about the the trials I have faced with my present comp.  "But I am learning from it."

I am sure that my friend didn't need to read all of this; I am sure that he knew it already.  But how true it all is, and this way, no one will lead him astray.  Not that there is any chance of that happening.

One of my zone leaders told me that if we look back and work hard, the time will fly, but if we look ahead, working sort of hard, counting the days, the time will only crawl by.  If we work hard, looking back, amazed at how fast our mission is going, by the end of two years we won't want to go home.  That is a successful mission.

Well, life is great!  All smiles!  Truth will prevail.

Week 6: Tough Week

February 24, 1988

It was another hard week; didn't get in any doors and we've got no on to teach.  One investigator is in the hospital and another is in the orient for three weeks on vacation; two others we cannot get a hold of, they're dogging us.

Today we toured Stanford University, it was great.  We went all over the campus and I got some good photos.

On Monday morning, we were getting ready to go out when, suddenly, I got the feeling that my companion was avoiding me.  I walked into the living room and he got up real quick and left the room.  He was in a bad mood all morning and hardly said a word, which was quite unlike him.

Then our zone leaders popped in for a visit.  One of them spoke with my companion, while the other stayed in the living room and chatted with me and my other flatmates.  It was a cool chat; Elder Baker is very knowledgeable, another McConkie, he really seems to get into him.

The zone leaders left, but my comp stayed in the bedroom for a while.  We finally got out in the afternoon, going on team-ups with Fox and Lima.  Fox and I tracted, but without success.  We were out on the edge of our area, near Los Altos Hills, and we had to walk up some steep hills.

Anyway, nothing against Elder Golf, he is a good guy.  But he has said that of the four comps he's had since coming out, three have been bad -- the only good one was his trainer.  I worry sometimes that I might be another bad companion because I have a hard time making conversation.  I feel like I'm doing the best I can, and I do try to take opportunities to talk, but it is hard.  I get too scared sometimes to ask him things that I think I really should ask him.  I guess I'm afraid of what he'll think of me.  It looks like I've still got some of that inferiority complex.

I hope he doesn't give up on the companions ship like my MTC comp did.  If he does, this companionship is history.  All I can do is the best I can, but I don't think it's good enough.

I just finished reading Drawing on the Powers of Heaven, what a great book.  I got a lot out of it -- loved it.

On Sunday, at a DA, I tried eggplant (what? I tried something new?).  It was good.  They served us omlettes with eggplant and some other stuff.

Tomorrow we have a follow up appointment on a lady we tracted into.  She lives next door to the guy who was the first door I got into.  She was busy when we first knocked on her door; we stopped by last Tuesday, but she was still quite busy.  Then she went out of town, but will be back tonight.  She is a Midonite, but she seems like she might be interested.

Well, that basically sums everything up.

Love
Douglas

"For In His Strength I Can Do All Things"

One of my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon is the mission of the sons of Mosiah to the Lamanites; its also a good story to read when we feel discouraged.  The sons of Mosiah were going around with Alma the Younger, persecuting members of the church when an angel appeared and commanded them to repent.  After repenting, the sons of Mosiah wanted to bring others to the knowledge of God, but they didn't just pick any people to go preach the gospel to, they decided to go preach the gospel to the Lamanites.

"And do you remember, my brethren," Ammon would later say, "that we said unto our brethren in the land of Zarahemla, we go up to the land of Nephi, to preach unto our brethren, the Lamanites, and they laughed us to scorn?"

Ammon went on to say, "For they said unto us: Do ye suppose that ye can bring the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth? Do ye suppose that ye can convince the Lamanites of the incorrectness of the traditions of their fathers, as stiffnecked a people as they are; whose hearts delight in the shedding of blood; whose days have been spent in the grossest iniquity; whose ways have been the ways of a transgressor from the beginning?"  (See Alma 26:23-24).

In fact, their brethren in Zarahemla suggested that, instead of going on a mission to preach the gospel to the Lamanites, that they should instead take up arms to destroy the Lamanites.  "But behold, my beloved brethren," said Ammon, "we came into the wilderness not with the intent to destroy our brethren, but with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls." (See: Alma 26:25-26).

The sons of Mosiah went on their mission, but before even arriving in the Land of Nephi, they became discouraged, and they were even about the turn back; the trip through the wilderness was difficult, they didn't have much food, and the task ahead was daunting.  "Behold," said Ammon, "the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst they brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." (See: Alma 26:27).

With the Lord's promise, they continued on, reached the Land of Nephi, and separated from each other to preach to as many different Lamanites as possible.  To jump ahead in the story, the Lord kept his promise, and thousands upon thousands of Lamanites were converted.  "Behold," said Ammon, "the field was ripe, and blessed are ye for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might, yea, all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number of your sheaves!" (Alma 26:5).

Ammon's brother Aaron became concerned that he was boasting in his own strength, but Ammon replied, "I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things." (See: Alma 26:11-12).

Several hundred years earlier, on the other side of an ocean, Nephi and his brothers labored to build a ship, but only after Laman and Lemuel had first rebelled.  They laughed at their brother and said that he could not build a ship.  Nephi told them that "If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them, If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I say it, it would be done; And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?" (See: 1 Nephi 17:50-51).

Lamen and Lemuel, it seemed, had short memories when it came to miracles.  They saw an angel outside of Jerusalem when they had been sent back to get the Brass Plates; they had witnessed their brother breaking free from the cords with which they had bound him; these and other amazing events did they forget.  Before they had bound Nephi with cords, their brother had said to them, "Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him?  Wherefore, let us be faithful to him." (1 Nephi 7:12).

I have been wondering recently if we really believe that God will do all things for his children.  I am sure that we believe he has the power to do all things, at least, we say we do.  But will he really help us?  Nephi does give an important caveat when he says "according to his will," but, if it is according to his will, do we really believe that he will help us do the impossible?

At the April 2014 General Conference of the LDS Church, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf recalled the story of Rip Van Winkle who, as a result of a 20-year nap, had slept through the American Revolution (or War for Independence).  President Uchtdorf then asked, "are you sleeping through the Restoration?"

President Uchtdorf explained, "Sometimes we think of the Restoration of the gospel as something that is complete, already behind us -- Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, he received priesthood keys, the Church was organized. In reality, the Restoration is an ongoing process; we are living in it right now. It includes 'all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal,' and the 'many great and important things' that 'He will yet reveal.'  Brethren, the exciting developments of today are part of that long-foretold period of preparation that will culminate in the glorious Second Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  This is one of the most remarkable periods of the world’s history! Ancient prophets yearned to see our day."

 We believe in miracles, but perhaps we believe they mostly happen to other people, or mostly happened in earlier times, like the 19th century.  The prophet Mormon asked "Have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men. . . .  And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased?"  Mormon then gave us the answer, "Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men."  Finally, Mormon gave us this warning, "It is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain." (See: Moroni &: 27, 30 & 37).

If we wonder why there seem to be fewer miracles these days it is likely because of a lack of faith on our part.  The work of the Restoration, begun in 1820, has not been completed, there is still work to be done and we are called to participate in that work, either as full time missionaries or as member missionaries, or as teachers, or as priesthood holders.  "The Standard of truth has been erected," and it is still standing, "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing," and it is still progressing.

As President Uchtdorf said in April 2014, "I testify that the cleansing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the transformative power of the Holy Ghost can heal and rescue mankind. It is our privilege, our sacred duty, and our joy to heed the Savior’s call to follow Him with a willing mind and full purpose of heart. Let us 'shake off the chains with which [we] are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust.'”

Let us humble ourselves before God and exercise faith in him; let us acknowledge our weaknesses before him; let us repent and seek to do his will; then may His grace, which is sufficient for all, make weak things become strong, even help us to do those things He has asked us to do, even the daunting tasks.  This is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Uchtdorf, D. F. (2014) "Are You Sleeping through the Restoration?" Ensign, May 2014, accessed at https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/are-you-sleeping-through-the-restoration?lang=eng on August 28, 2014.