The Blessings of the Relief Society

On Wednesday, my wife had to go into the hospital for surgery on her knee, the result of damage done from a car accident a couple months ago. The surgery went well and she was able to come home, albeit in some pain, that same day.

We got home around 5 p.m. and as I was assisting my wife from the car to the house, Sister Fabian Heloca-Kaulukukui pulls up to make sure my wife was okay and also to deliver a dessert of baklava. Half an hour later, knocking on our front door was Janice Ahuna, a sister from our ward. She had been dispatched by the Relief Society of our ward to prepare dinner for our family. Thanks to Sister Ahuna and her family, we enjoyed a dinner of shoyu chicken, rice, steamed vegetables, potato salad, and a dessert that looked like an asparagus seedling in a cup of soil (but was actually chocolate pudding and crushed oreo cookies) [see pic at left].

The next night, dinner was prepared and delivered by the Dawn and Ray Shimata (meatloaf, rice, tossed salad).

And tonight, the Gary and Lola Kau brought us a dinner of potato casserole, a vegetable salad, and pineapple upside down cake.

All I can say is bless them every one. And I thank thee O God for the Relief Society and good folks of our ward.

Photo credit: goddesshobbies.blogspot.com

I'm in a Choir (at last)

Since I was in high school, I wanted to be in a choir. Partly because of schedule conflicts and partly because I was too chicken to audition, I never went out for my high school choir.

Well, when I heard an announcement in church that our ward was going to organize a choir, I turned to my wife and asked her, "Can we?"

She was readily agreeable to this, so the Kaneohe 1st Ward choir had at least two eager members.

As things turned out, the choir has had upwards of thirty-plus of us at times though most of our practices, which take place after all our three hours of meetings are pau (finished), draws about fifteen.

We have been blessed with a top-drawer choir director, Micah Hirokawa, who not only teaches us our parts and how to blend them, but he also takes bits and pieces of time to teach us about musical theory and terminology in simple ways we can understand.

At present, we are practicing a set of hymns normally sung before we partake the sacrament for Easter Sunday. One of my favorites is "There is a Green Hill Far Away."

A Honolulu Fireside With Elder M. Russell Ballard

Last night, my wife and I headed to the tabernacle in Honolulu to attend a fireside. The featured speaker was Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Twelve.

It was my first time in the presence of an apostle of the Lord, and I can say with certainty that I know that he knows.

Elder Ballard, who has a strikingly similar appearance to my father-in-law, talked about missionary work, and how as a mission president long ago, he helped a hesitant and skeptical investigator come unto the Lord and enter the waters of baptism by asking him to get on his knees, pray, and ask Heavenly Father if indeed he and the Elders who had been teaching him were indeed true messengers of God.

The investigator heeded the request, felt a prompting, and agreed to be baptized. He later was called as a bishop and did good work in the church.

Elder Ballard also noted that although it was only 7:30 p.m. Hawaii time, it was 10:30 p.m. in Salt Lake City where he lives, and that his usual time for bed was 10 p.m. "I usually turn into a pumpkin after 10:00 p.m" he quipped.

After he concluded his talk, he asked us if we would oblige and excuse him from the post-fireside mingling and handshaking, for he and two other brethren with him had a long drive to Laie on Oahu's north shore to make and a 7 a.m. meeting the next day to attend (they were here to find out the needs and doings of BYU's Hawaii campus).

Not wanting to disappoint us, he asked the hundreds of saints on hand to raise their hands, make a shaking motion while he did the same, and then go write in our journals that we had shaken hands with Elder Ballard. There were smiles aplenty in the tabernacle.

Elder Ballard, along with brethren he was with, filed right past where my wife and I were sitting, so close that I could have reached out and touched him. But I did not. Maybe some other time, if not in this life, then perhaps in the eternities.

EQ Jeopardy and Job Well Done, President Friel!

Well, the adventure in Jeopardy for EQ went well today.

Before that, we got word from our EQ president, Tommy Friel, that he had been released and had been called to the stake high council (counsel?). I'm not sure how long he had served as EQP, but President Friel held the calling when I joined the church in 2/06, so it's been at least two years. Anyway, job well done by President Friel. I can testify that he has magnified his calling, no doubt.

For the lesson, I divided the quorum into four teams (3x3 and 1x4). I then reminded them how jeopardy was played. Instead of buzzing in to answer, they had to raise their hands to offer what they thought was the correct question for the offered answer.

I didn't have a game board prepared. Instead, I announced the category (there were four: facts, faith, family, and fruits), the amount that could be earned for a correct answer, and then the answer.

Brother Oshiro, an advisor from the stake high council, was on hand and at one point he reminded me that we were not wagering (gambling is a no-on in the LDS church). Instead we were "offering up some points to play with" or something along that line.

There was lots of spirited and friendly competition in the jeopardy lesson, and it came down to final jeopardy where in the category "FACTS" the final jeopardy answer was "December 12, 1850."

If you know the question, send me a message.

For the record, Team 1 (Walk, Tacuban, Sellers) amassed the most points, and were one of two teams to get the final jeopardy question. (Unbeknownst to me, the answer was posted in today's sacrament meeting program--wow, what a coincidence!)

I concluded the lesson by challenging the brethren to be prepared to share some information with curious non-members of the church. I even prepared a wallet-sized card with facts, faith, fruits, and family information on it.

I've Got an Elder's Quorum Lesson to Teach

My present calling is as a teacher on the 4th Sunday in the Elder's Quorum. Tomorrow is the 4th Sunday of February, and as such I have to prepare a lesson. In our ward, the Bishop chooses two talks from the most recent General Conference to serve as the basis for 4th Sunday lessons, and the two talks chosen for tomorrow are "Faith, Family, Facts, and Fruits" by Elder Russell M. Ballard, and "Strengthen Home and Family" by Mary N. Cook.

While I haven't sought inspiration through prayer (something I ought to do in this case), my current prompting is to go with talk by Elder Ballard. Nothing against Sister Cook's talk. I just feel that more fruit (pardon the pun) can be borne from Elder Ballard's message.

Using information from Elder Ballard's talk, I am considering the idea of playing a jeopardy-like game with the bretheren of the quorum with the categories of Faith, Family, Facts, and Fruits. Maybe, the next Ken Jennings will be sitting in the Kaneohe 1st Ward Elder's Quorum tomorrow

Then I will challenge the brethren to share the Four Fs with interested or curious non-member family members, friends, co-workers, and others.

But now, I pray.

The road to a testimony

As I mentioned previously, I have made listening to LDS General Conference and other church talks a regular part of my drive-time routine.

Today, I was listening to a talk about church doctrine and there was an interesting story about a young man who was called to be a seventy at age 15 and a stake president at age 23. As the story goes, when having a conversation with Joseph F. Smith, who would go on to become the 6th president of the church, this young man confided that even though he was called as a stake president, he could say with certainty that the gospel was true.

President Smith then remarked that the young man need not worry. "You just don't know that you know," was what he told the young man.

This young man, by the way, was Heber J. Grant, who went on to succeed Joseph F. Smith as President of the church.

I mention this here because there was a time when my testimony of the truth of the gospel was tenuous. Finding out that even a prophet of God had an uncertain testimony is somehow comforting to me.

A lot to learn...

Yesterday in church, during sacrament meeting, one of the talks was given by Brother Robert Carlisle. He's on the stake high council and he's also a member of our ward.

Anyway, he gave a talk about the Fall of Adam and Eve. To be truthful, a lot of what he talked about went over my head, but I was intently trying to listen because I respect the man.

After sacrament meeting, Brother Carlisle left the stand and came down to where I was seated with my wife and said, "I hear you are really into studying the scriptures." Hearing this, I thought maybe he had read this blog (how vain of me to think that), but later I found out that my wife had been talking to his wife, and that is probably how he heard about my attempts to be more versed in the word of God.

He then handed me a book by Garth Allred titled The Eternal Plan of Happiness. Though not officially endorsed by the church, it is an interesting and fascinating book, so much so that during the next hour in Sunday School class, I spent more time than I should have browsing through the Allred book when I should have been paying attention to the lesson being given.

Later, after priesthood meeting, Brother Carlisle came up to me and handed me a second book. He said, "Give this to your wife to read. And, you can read it too if you want." Titled Believing Christ, the book is by Stephen E. Robinson. It's only125 pages but it's enlightening reading, literally illuminating some gospel concepts such as the atonement and grace that I have not yet fully grasped.

If anyone has read these books, I'd be interested in reading your comments.

A typical Saturday?

Before I joined the church, a typical Saturday for me would be spent hiking in the mountains somewhere on my home island of Oahu. I'd hike and then I'd come home and write about hikes I've done.

Nowadays, my Saturdays are different.

Today, for example, I headed to the church to help out with cleaning up the chapel. In my ward, the task of cleaning up the chapel is rotated amongst the Elder's Quorum (which I belong to), the High Priests, the Relief Society, and the Young Men and Women.

Today was the EQ Saturday, so at a little past 8, I was at the church. Our quorum today consisted of just me and Brother Tacuban, who also brought along his grandson. Also there was our Bishop.

I won't be one to ask where the other quorum members were, for there were many EQ Saturdays where Brother Turner was MIA. Anyway, today we got the job done.

After that, my wife picked me up and we were headed to our Stake Center for a 2-hour "Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting" on the family. It was televised from the Salt Lake City and we heard from several General Authorities, including Apostles Packer, Holland and Oaks, the new President of the Church, Thomas M. Monson, and three sisters who head up the Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary organizations of the church.

No, I didn't wish I was hiking.

It was quite enlightening and time well spent on this Saturday. Yes, it was.

Signs of the hand of God

In the Oct 2007 General Conference, President Henry Eyring gave a talk that really made an impression on me. I remember having this impression when I first heard the talk, and I had the same impression again when I listened to the talk again while driving to work with my wife this morning.

What were the words that gave me this impression?

Quoting President Eyring, he said: "I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family."

Hearing this, I felt impressed to do this and continue to do this, not for me, but for my children and grandchildren and on and on.

So what sign have I seen today?

I saw my wife head into work with good cheer and the spirit of the Lord with her. Understand, that she has a job that is rife with challenges and risk (she works as a psych tech in the ER of the Queens Medical Center in Honolulu). Yet, she went today, just as she does every day she is assigned to work, looking forward to working hard and helping people. And she also is taking three college classes, doing her church callings, tending to our children and to me, among many other things she does.

I know that through her, God is blessing our family and blessing her.

Our Stake President said...

I mentioned attending a stake priesthood meeting a couple Sundays ago. Anyway, at the meeting, our stake president, George Kaluhiokalani, mentioned how he has curbed down his TV viewing in order tend to other higher order concerns.

President Kaluhiokalani also mentioned that during his morning and afternoon commutes to and from work, he has taken to listening to General Conference talks instead of the radio. Without coming out and saying so directly, I think the President was letting us brethren know that we best consider wiser uses of our time.

As such, I have taken to listening to General Conference talks while driving. I probably spend at least an hour a day in a car, and I know I've been better off since I have begun (actually rebegun because I used to listen to GC talks at one point a few months ago.

The messages being conveyed have a way of seeping into my brain. And my brain needs a lot of seeping into.

Family Home Evening 2/4/08--All in Favor?

In our family, we have been pretty consistent about holding Family Home Evening on Monday nights. I will admit that in the past month or so, we have let FHE fall a bit by the proverbial wayside, but I am happy to report that last night we gather our ohana for a FHE.

Along with my wife Jacque and I, also in attendance were my stepdaughter Jamie (18), my stepson Dustin (21), and my mom (71). Jamie, Dustin, and Grandma Turner are not members of the church, but they take part in our FHEs with a good bit of spirit and cooperativeness. While it is true that the kids have had some long faces during FHEs, it is also true that at times we have had some really fun, spirited and spiritual moments.

I will testify that Family Home Evenings have blessed our lives.

Last night, the FHE topic was the prophets on the earth. I talked about the passing of President Hinckley and his successor President Monson. I talked about how we as members of the church sustain not only the Prophet, but also other members of the church when they received their callings.

This prompted a discussion about whether anyone ever has raised a hand in opposition to someone's being sustained to a calling. In my two years in the church I have never seen it.

According to our bishop, he said he has seen a hand raised in opposition just once, and it wasn't for the president of the church.

Anyone seen a hand raised to the prompt "anyone opposed by the same sign"? Just curious.

Anyway, I suppose if I asked for a sustaining vote for the continuation of FHEs in our home, we just might get a couple "opposed by the same sign." Given that, I'll hold off on the vote for now.

Church on Super Bowl Sunday 2008

Yesterday at Elder’s Quorum, the lesson was given by the Bishop of our ward. I haven’t been in the church but two years, but this is the first time the bishop ever has given a lesson in EQ since I’ve been here.

What I did notice is a few brethren who rarely show up for EQ were in attendance yesterday. Maybe the bishop should teach more often.

Anyway, the lesson was about time and money. Specifically, we learned or were reminded about our top four priorities, in order, as laid out for us by President Gordon B. Hinckley. And they are

1. Our wives and families
2. Our jobs
3. Our church callings and duties
4. Ourselves

From what I have read and heard, too many of us brethren, me included, have been doing too much #2 and not enough of #1 and #3. Results may vary, of course.

And taking into account my slowly increasing waistline, I’m also falling short in #4, particularly in the exercise and diet part of it.

A lot to work on in 2008 an onward into eternity for me.

Also of note in yesterday’s lesson was information about how the church allocates its money to the thousands of wards in the ward. The amount of funds a ward receives is based on its sacrament average meeting attendance. A uniform dollar figure that is the same for every ward in the world is multiplied by the average # attending sacrament meetings at that ward to arrive at the budget allocated to that ward.

I wonder if attendance will be up for our ward now that we have switched to a 1pm to 4pm time slot for 2008. In 2007, we gathered from 8am to 11am.

Speaking of attendance, not only was it up for EQ yesterday, there was also yesterday one of the bigger gatherings for sacrament meeting in my two years in the church. And it was Super Bowl Sunday to boot.

Good Saints we are. Go Giants!

Faith and Signs

This past Tuesday, my wife and I were on the Big Island and were able to visit the Kona-Hawaii Temple for the first time. Despite an unanticipated problem, all went well.

We flew to Kona on the Big Island on Monday afternoon. On the drive to the airport, I asked my wife if she had remembered to bring certain important items such as her driver’s license which she would need to identify herself in order to get past airport security. She had that. No problem.

When I asked if she had her temple recommend, she said she thought she did and she began looking through her handbag for it. See, her wallet had been damaged so she had to keep all her cards and wallet items loose in her purse. And as she searched through her purse, I started to sense her angst.

Come to find out, she could not find her recommend. No recommend, no admittance into the temple. I thought it was that cut and dry.

However, my wife would not concede. She made calls to a member of our stake presidency who said he would vouch for her if need be if she did not find her recommend, and to our bishop, who also said he would do the same.

When we got to the Kona temple for the 9 a.m. session on Tuesday, we met the first counselor of the Temple Presidency, President Mo’o. He called our bishop, who had left us his work number and his cell phone number. No luck reaching him.

Bear in mind that the this was about five till nine. I was trying my best to remain calm and actually did a good job of it. Then, I thought that I should try to contact our bishop. A call from my cell phone to his office number in Honolulu was successful, and in a minute President Mo’o was talking to him, verifying the information that he needed to verify, and my wife and I were dashing off (reverently, of course) to the dressing room to prepare for the 9 a.m. session

We made it and had a nice session.

D&C 63: 9 says “But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe.”

Yes, I believe.

Photo credit: ldschurchtemples.com