Today was a joyful Sunday. Yesterday I read Psalms 100 and thought how this has been part of my life since I was 10 or 11. At that time I was going to the Grace Methodist Church because it was just a half block from our house. Although our family was not any particular religion and we never went to church as a family, they thought everyone should get to have some religious training so I attended the closest Christian church.
One of the programs at the church was for young children to receive their own special bible if they memorized the 100th Psalm. So I did and got my bible. I would love to be able to say I still have it but it disappeared some where along the way after I stopped going to church when I was 13 or 14. But the Psalms 100 never got lost and although I could not repeat it perfectly I always remembered the part about making a joyful noise unto the Lord and coming into his presence with singing. Â So as I read it this morning I decided that I wanted this to be a Joyful Sunday and it was.
Mary played the organ for sacrament and we got to hear two beautiful talks by the Smiths. Sister Smith has just been put in as Primary president and brother Smith was made executive secretary about the same time. They were nervous about their talks – we sat just behind them on the stand – but I must say that they spoke from their hearts about their own experiences with goal setting and it was great.
For Sunday school we went to Gospel Principles where the lesson was on the Gift of the Holy Ghost and brother Wood gave a very good lesson and afterwards we made an appointment to go over to one of the recent convert’s home to help them with genealogy so they can get some names to do when they go and do baptisms at the temple in February.
During Priesthood the lesson was on Elder Holland’s conference talk about missionary work and I was able to get in some good comments on using pass-along cards …some of the HP even requested some to give out this week… and a good plug for senior missions. There were also some very positive thoughts from other members of the groups.
In the evening we went over to the Perez home to have dinner. We were not sure which was their home so I pulled into one of the driveways and asked the young man who was there if it was the Perez home and he said no so we knew it was the next one over. After I parked the car at the Perez’s I walked back over to their neighbors – they had just moved in a week ago so they really did not know the Perezs – and talked to the young man, found out about him and his family and gave him a pass-along card. The Lord does give us chances to do missionary work if we are open to the spirit.
Dinner was great and afterwards we got to see one of their daughter’s art work. She graduated from the Y in December as an art major. We had a great time talking about art and artists which is something I do not think she has got to do much since she got home. All in all it was a nice meal and good conversation…we even got some plugs in for missionary work as I suggested that they try to get to know their new neighbors and invite them to Church.
So you can see it was a Joyful Sunday and we did serve the Lord with gladness.