A Note from Jim and Shirlyn Allen

No excuses, but from the time of the last post to this blog until now, we have returned from our two year Mission over the Seminary and Institute that covered parts of three Missions in Brasil. With adjustments in front of us that many in that position have to deal with, Shirlyn and I have now visited with our seven children and their families from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Idaho, and our parents in their 90's from Arizona to Wisconsin, all done in a newly acquired car. So now, with at least part of our life calming down we have considered the purposes of this Blog after the April Conference. 

There are three major areas that seem most relevant to us from the perspective of Senior Citizens, Parents and Grandparents: 

1. Empty Nesting and Retirement (although retirement does not show up in the scriptures) 
2. Families with Children at Home
3. Life in a Country (and World) in Chaos 

We will read the talks as usual but will pull out of the relevant talks, some of the advice, actions, potential blessings, and dangers addressed therein. Putting these categories into lists will be helpful in using them as points to ponder. They will be helpful for Family Home Evenings, Life Planning, and Drawing Closer to the Lord. 

This blog was initially intended only as an incentive to ponder and report on each Conference Address for the possible benefit of our family and a few others. It has not received much attention out side of this purpose as it has not reached the attention of the search engines, however, it did get the attention of Joseph Walker of Deseret News. I have included here the relevant quote from his article:

"President Henry B. Eyring's priesthood talk inspires, motivates and comforts"

"Another full-time missionary, James Russell Allen, also reported drawing strength from President Eyring's talk. Upon returning home from a 23-month mission to Fortaleza, Brazil, with his wife, Shirlyn, Allen was concerned about finding ways to serve the Lord after his mission was over. In his blog, he expressed appreciation for the way President Eyring "helpfully gives us a list of service we can consider wherever we are in this quest to … have the gift of eternal life with God.""

By Joseph Walker , Deseret News

Published: Tuesday, March 27 2012 5:00 a.m. MDT

As usual listening to this April General Conference was again the highlight of this past six months.  That's not to say that getting reacquainted with our family and meeting new "Grands" and other new family members hasn't been wonderful as well.

The counsel given us was so inspired and relevant for our day that we wanted our blog to reflect that in our postings for the next six months.

Thomas S. Monson - Dare to Stand Alone

President Monson shared the results of a Notre Dame survey off 230 young adults:

• Regarding questions about right and wrong, moral dilemmas and the meaning of life they did not even have the categories or vocabulary to respond well.
• When they were asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two thirds could not answer or even explain what a moral dilemma was.
• Most said that moral choices are just a matter of individual taste. ‘It’s personal.’ or ‘It’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?’
• Rejecting authority, many went to the other extreme. ‘I would do what I thought made me happy or how I felt.I have no other way of knowing what to do but how I internally feel.’
• Opinion was that the majority of the young adults had “not been given the resources - by schools, institutions [or] families - to cultivate their moral intuitions.”

Those in that Priesthood Meeting should not have these struggles. We have been taught God’s laws and they are unchangeable. So his question to us in that meeting was; “Do we have the moral courage to stand firm for our beliefs, even if by so doing we must stand alone?”

In my experience, we all will be challenged in unexpected ways to stand firm when others are espousing or demonstrating another path. There are an infinite number of choices presented in even attractive ways, but almost always there is guidance to stand firm for the correct principle or doctrine when we are confronted with this type of moral question.

President Monson as a young navy recruit had to face a dilemma regarding the definition of being a Mormon. That would be a great story to use in a Family Home Evening or Home Teaching discussion as it demonstrates that we will not usually know when the decision will be required in a public setting but we should already know how to respond as he did.

We will all have opportunities to answer the question Elder Monson received one day in Dallas on a bus. “Is there anyone on this bus who knows anything more about the Mormons?” It will never be the same but we need to be ready with our answer. For this we are being prepared and sent throughout the world. That is were the Spirit will stand with us and we will know once again that it is true.

Henry B. Eyring - Preparation in the Priesthood: "I Need Your Help"

Returning home from our 23 month Senior Mission, my wife and I can look back and say “Yes we had been prepared” but before arriving in Brazil, we were not so sure. The foundations of experience were there and turned out to be needed in ways we could not anticipate. Now, facing a more complicated “assignment” of serving after this mission we are grateful for our past “preparation” in facing new challenges. So, Elder Eyring helpfully gives us a list of service we can consider wherever we are in this quest to receive the Second Comforter, which is to have the gift of eternal life with God.

• Being Teachers
• Wise and Loving Fathers
• Members of a Quorum
• Being Missionaries

How then does He prepare us for these areas of service?

1. “He calls people, young and old, who may appear to worldly eyes, and even to themselves, to be weak and simple.”
2. “The Lord has given us the opportunity to prepare by something He has called “the oath and covenant [of] the priesthood.”
3. Because of aging, “...service will become more challenging with time.” This natural occurrence “...will take more and more self-discipline every day of our lives.”

His examples of preparation can be referred to in this talk whenever we are called to be the preparers in whatever situation mentioned above we may find ourselves. The Lord needs our help and we need to prepare and be prepared when the opportunities are given.

Brother Eyring has a special gift that helps us when we hear him or read things he has written such as “Draw Closer to God.” He was prepared for his calling as an Apostle and is helping us be prepared to prepare others. Thank You Elder Eyring.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf - Providing in the Lord's Way

Elder Uchtdorf emphasized this principle: “While it is important to have our thoughts inclined toward heaven, we miss the essence of our religion if our hands are not also inclined toward our fellowman.”

And then; “In a similar way, our spiritual progress is inseparably bound together with the temporal service we give to others.”

Then he recounts the experience of Spencer W. Kimball and his request for money to help with the recovery of a flood in the Duncan Valley in Eastern Arizona. “This isn’t a program of ‘give me’ they said. This is a program of ‘self-help’” The other side of the story was that the Church didn’t send money, they sent three great men who didn’t just “tell” they showed how the program worked. They taught the people the principle and the people built the fences and moved the hay and whatever activities that were needed to overcome the challenge. They did it in the Lord’s way and that is he way we must learn.

Since this was a talk given to the Priesthood of the world, he wanted both the Melchizedek and the Aaronic Priesthood to be involved in caring for those in need. It is not temporal, it is spiritual. The young men from my Father's Ward helped clean up the yard of my parents home. Yes, the yard looked much better after their service, but the blessing was not limited to Dad and Mom, it entered the hearts of the Aaronic Priesthood youth which is part of the process of preparing us to receive life eternal. It demonstrated to them a part of life they will need, that of Self-Reliance. They could do this thing for ones in need and therefore they can themselves be self-reliant in their own account.

Having served in the Welfare Program for a three year period, I was blessed by the spirits of our members who came to the Storehouse to learn and to help and then to serve those in need. 

It is not for us to just make a monetary contribution to this program, it is for us to be involved in solving the problems of need that surround us each day in whatever part of the world we happen to be. Rich or poor, we need each other. 

Remember the great promise from the Book of Isaiah: “If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually.”

W. Christopher Waddell - The Opportunity of a Lifetime

Shirlyn and I are at the end time of our 23 month mission as a couple. Ours was certainly different from the missions of the younger elders and sisters, but it was no less important in the Lord’s plan for us and for those who were influenced by out time here. We have effectively had our exit interviews with the two men most responsible for us, we are grateful for their assertions that our time has been of great value. Like the story in this talk about the less-active returned missionary meeting a serving missionary of the very family in Spain whose father the less-active returned missionary had baptized. That father was the only baptism that the less-active had baptized during his mission to Spain. 

The Lord sends missionaries by inspiration and directs their steps. We do not know the end results. We often think of the sixteen families who were baptized into the Church in the formative years after the Restoration. Who were the missionaries in those years whose long-ago missions started the snowball of missionaries who have served from those families until now? How did they fell about those baptisms?

Missionary work is always difficult and filled with challenges as President Monson taught. “Missionary work is difficult. It taxes one’s energies, it strains one’s capacity, it demands one’s best effort. … No other labor requires longer hours or greater devotion or such sacrifice and fervent prayer” We now look forward to some results of our mission as promised to all:

❑ The gift of faith.

❑ The gift of testimony.

❑ The gift of understanding the role of the Spirit.

❑ The gift of daily gospel study.

❑ The gift of having served our Savior.

❑ Gifts carefully packaged in worn scriptures, tattered copies of Preach My Gospel, missionary journals, and grateful hearts.

We understand the requirements of continuing to seek and use those gifts after our sacrifice. 

While the balance of Elder Waddell’s instruction involved preparation to serve, we are grateful for having had this wonderful experience and now look forward to a time to share in unknown ways, those gifts that have been given to us.

Keith B. McMullin - The Power of the Aaronic Priesthood

This quote from George Q. Cannon and reiterated by President Monson embodies the purpose of this talk: “I want to see the power of the Priesthood strengthened. … I want to see this strength and power diffused through the entire body of the Priesthood, reaching from the head down to the least and most humble deacon in the Church. Every man should seek for and enjoy the revelations of God, the light of heaven shining in his soul and giving unto him knowledge concerning his duties, concerning that portion of the work … that devolves upon him in his Priesthood.” I added the bold to emphasize. In every great talk there is a list of actions, and here is the list contained in this one:

• Pray for the mighty change in your life.
• Study the Scriptures
• Desire more than all else to know God and to become like His holy Son.
• Put away childish things.
• Shun profane and foolish chatter.
• Flee all evil.
• Avoid contention.
• Repent where needed.

And then, the promised blessings:

❑ You will gain these qualities, courage, trustworthiness, humility, faith and goodness.

❑ Friends will admire you.

❑ Parents will praise you.

❑ Brethren in the priesthood will depend on you.

❑ Young women will adore you and become even better because of you.

❑ God will honor you and endow your priesthood service with power from on high.

In our family now we have several young men who are now being prepared to receive this holy Aaronic Priesthood. I pray that they will be ready to begin their lifetime of service at that special day.