20 January 2008 – Sunday
We had a great Sunday filled with a number of spiritual experiences. First we went to the English branch to hear three of the students give their talks. Actually we heard four of our IEC students give talks because the first youth speaker was Jin-Young who attended our first IEC. She did a good job and her English pronounciation has really improved.
Our three students – Yuli, Hani and Sam – gave their talks without out reading anything but the scripture they chose. They all spoke about a spiritual experience they had on their mission and did a great job. Poor Yuli was still shaking after the meeting from all the tension she had in giving her first talk ever in English. But she did fine and I am sure that the members could feel her spirit and understood what she had to say. I was given the opportunity of giving the closing prayer.
It is always strange to attend the English branch and to be able to understand what is being said and make comments that you know are in context. I can see why the Lord says that everyone will hear the gospel in their own language – to get the fullness of the gospel and the fullness of the spirit, you need to understand what is actually being said.
We had the opportunity to ask for help from the English branch in hosting our students fro the remaineder of the class. We got about 2/3 of our dates filled in. Saturday and Sunday nights are really hard to get anyone to take and we can understand that. The important thing is that we got the FHEs all taken.
Sister Ventura gave a very thoughtful lesson in SS about Lehi and Nephi’s vision of the tree of life. She gave me a couple of things to consider that I had not noticed before. It has certainly given me things to look into and ponder when I have time.
The PH lesson today was on God the Father and I am finally learning not to bring up things that do not add to the spirit of the lesson. I did comment that I did not think that Satan wanting the Glory for saving mankind had anything to do with God’s decision to choose Jesus to be our Savior. I can not imagine God being very interested in Glory and even less as it being a motivating force for Him helping his children. He helps us because He loves us – our doing well I am sure adds to his pleasure and his joy as our failures adds to his sorrow – but as to wanting or seeking Glory, I think that is more a human desire than a God-like one.
Back at the apartment I spent the day reading the next lessons for SS and PH. I did the PH one in both English and Indonesian. We also read from the Kitab Mormon a number of times – we have about 130 pages to go for our third time through. Before turning off the light I read from the latest Ensign – about the only thing I did not read today was anything from PMG or MIA.
It was a very good Sabbath Day