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.