best quote of the day…it used to be the Holy Sabbath, then it became the Sabbath, then it became Sunday and now it is the weekend!
 I was fed by a number of things that I read or heard today – ideas that need pondering!
First from a 1984 conference talk by Vaughn J Featherstone I read a number of stories of how YM and YW programs touched the lives of young LDS and in this case even non-LDS…
“A year ago at Flagstaff, Arizona, a special banquet for Eagle Scouts was held. There were 1,150 Eagle Scouts. John Warnick, the director of Mormon Relationships, invited all those who would commit to go on a mission to stand. All 1,150 stood. Later, one of the young men, a Catholic boy, went to the bishop and said, “I am not a Mormon, and I committed to go on a mission. What do I need to do?â€Â The bishop said, “Let’s talk to your parents.†During the visit with the family, it was decided that the family should hear the discussions. The family, including the Eagle Scout, are all members of the Church now.Â
Then there was this quote from C.S. Lewis used in a sacrament talk : â€œThere are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.â€Â
Brother Ellis gave us this thought in Priesthood as we discussed keeping the Sabbath Day Holy…He said that long ago it was called the Holy Sabbath, then it was shortened to the Sabbath, then it became Sunday, and now it is the weekend.
And finally this evening from President Anderson’s letter for the week…
“we found ourselves very low on blessings Sunday night after services at the branch.  We had a few more alluring things we could have done but the need was clear to harvest so we could be blessed in the coming week. We began relatively early in the evening and the results were coming slowly.  We pressed forward knowing we’d be blessed for the sacrifice and immersed ourselves in the harvest.  Finally we were able to leave some great blessings and were able to find a great amount of prepared people that we could actually keep for our own area. At long last we were at the last blessing to hit standard in the last minutes of the night at the last apartment door of the floor. We knocked and found a young woman who seemed surprised.  As we invited her to receive the blessing she responded with ‘….this is weird…’  She explained that she had just returned from Costa Rica where she witnessed a change in her family.  She said that after being baptized they had transformed completely from what they’d been and gave her a Book of Mormon to read with the command to find the missionary boys. We testified that we had been sent from God to her, that we’d love to explain more about the book… She accepted baptism for the 16th and after our return appointment she knows exactly how to prepare. “
It has truly been a Holy Sabbath Day….