The sad demise of a watermelon that looked so good

Last week we bought three watermelons - I always tap them to make sure that they sound normal and these all looked fine. When we got home, one was feeling a bit wet, but I presumed that was just condensation from the cool day. I tapped each, as usual, and selected one to cut up for us to eat.

This morning, four days later, I noticed a patch of water on the counter below a watermelon. I rolled it and noticed that it was not as firm in parts as it ought to be. Upon further examination, I found that it was squirting juice - no putrid smell or anything, but it was soft like an underinflated football. There was a lot of liquid beneath is, and then I saw a patch on the chest freezer close by, and what looked like sticky spray.

So, I started to clean up and prepare to see if I could salvage any of the watermelon to eat. Sally warned me to not try it in the kitchen, but at the compost heap - that turned out to be very sound advice...

On the whole, the watermelon was looking quite normal. But there was this unmistakable evidence of something not being right.

I inspected the watermelon and found some patches where liquid may have escaped.

Then I saw air and liquid were bubbling out from was one small spot. 

I found that I could push in parts of the skin and it was like an underinflated soccer ball.

I cut into the fruit using a bread knife and out poured an abundance of liquid. 

It continued for a long time as can be seen from the large puddle on the ground.

The rind is brown and soft, and all of the flesh is like a smoothie. It was not smelling particularly offensive or anything - I thought of tasting it, but did not give in to the thought... 

I was glad to be working at the compost heap and not on the kitchen counter!

We found that the liquid had gone around the lid of the freezer and was getting inside. There was quite a lot of it! The watermelon had been standing where the rag is on the counter on the left.

I took this as an opportune time to defrost the freezer that I noticed a few weeks ago was approaching time for attention.

The moral of the story - beauty can be skin deep! Don't judge someone from outward appearances. Its what is inside that really matters.

Some of the things I have learned about serving in the Kingdom of God

These thoughts are based on a talk given at the Brackenfell Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 19 April 2019 about things that I have learned while serving in the Church, and then about my new calling as stake patriarch. 

Preparing the talk gave me much about which to think. I have served the Lord for many years, with the first of my formal callings being about 1967 as youth class or quorum leader and secretary. I reckon I was not the greatest example of service in those days. We all need to start somewhere.

I reflected on the words of King Benjamin in Mosiah 2:9-26, particularly verses 17 to 19, and expressed the wish that we could have leaders in our communities and nations that were even a little bit as humble as this king.

17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. 

18 Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another? 

19 And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!

Then, I thought of Jesus Christ who said in Matt 20:26-27 that we need to be the servant of all, and in Matt 10:39 that we need to lose our lives for His sake in order to really find our lives. This does not necessarily mean dying for Him, but living for Him - giving up our own will and aspirations for His better will and aspirations - living for Him rather than living for ourselves.

I read the section Service from For the Strength of Youth.

As I contemplated the Lord's work and glory declared by Him in Moses 1:39, I contemplated the Ward Council that comprises a team of leaders with many years of experience and insight, and diverse talents, skills, interests, insights, strengths, weaknesses, and a whole bag of individual attributes. This is a wonderful training ground for learning to be like the Saviour as a council works in unity to aim for a shared goal. I shared an instance recalled by sister Lisa Harkness, First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency, who recently visited our stake, shared in 2015 by president Russell M Nelson.

Sisters, do you realize the breadth and scope of your influence when you speak those things that come to your heart and mind as directed by the Spirit? A superb stake president told me of a stake council meeting in which they were wrestling with a difficult challenge. At one point, he realized that the stake Primary president had not spoken, so he asked if she had any impressions. “Well, actually I have,” she said and then proceeded to share a thought that changed the entire direction of the meeting. The stake president continued, “As she spoke, the Spirit testified to me that she had given voice to the revelation we had been seeking as a council.”

Another wonderful example was shared by M Russell Ballard in 1994, involving a response by a Primary president when a bishop in a ward council expressed concern about reverence in sacrament meetings, and humility and unity in that council.

What a wonderful thing if a ward council can focus on growing individual members rather than running programmes. I recalled a General Conference talk by Elder Loren C. Dunn in which he said to a neighbour who was pointing out errors that he and his brother were making on the farm, “Jim, you don’t understand. You see, I’m raising boys and not cows.”

I then mentioned the Family Council and our responsibilities where President Russell M Nelson said 'It is time for a home-centered Church, supported by what takes place inside our branch, ward, and stake buildings.' Another very simple, yet important aspect of serving in the Church is our opportunity to minister to our brothers and sisters.

I included portions of the section 19.1 'Determining Whom to Call' in Handbook 2

A person must be called of God to serve in the Church (see Articles of Faith 1:5). Leaders seek the guidance of the Spirit in determining whom to call. They consider the worthiness that may be required for the calling. They also consider the member’s personal or family circumstances. Each calling should benefit the people who are served, the member, and the member’s family. 

Although service in Church callings requires sacrifice, it should not compromise a member’s ability to fulfill family and employment responsibilities (see 17.2.1). Before calling a married person to an assignment that requires a significant time commitment, Church leaders consider the effect of the calling on the marriage and family.

Then, from section 19.2, a bit about the person who is extending the call

'conducts a personal interview to determine the member’s faithfulness and willingness to serve. If the member is willing, the leader extends the calling.'

I recall the story shared by my sister Judy of a call being extended to a young sister in the 1960s wherein an effective exploratory interview preceded the call which, when extended, felt like a sacred call from the Lord - a sacred experience. I have tried to conduct interviews in such a way that the members will have a sacred experience where they feel that it is the Lord extending the call, not just me - a call of inspiration and not a call of desperation.

I have been greatly blessed in my years serving in the home, community, work, Church, Scouts and other settings that have helped me to develop wonderful skills that have increased my abilities to serve in the other spheres. For example, I have developed skills doing administration in the Church that enabled me to give improved service in my employment and vice-versa.

My service has helped me to a small degree to learn empathy, compassion, selflessness, a Zion spirit. Hopefully I have become more fitted for Zion through my service than I would otherwise have been.

I love the words of the hymn Love one another (136 in our Childrens Songbook and 308 in the Hymn Book) Listen and watch

As I have loved you,
Love one another.
This new commandment:
Love one another.
By this shall men know
Ye are my disciples,
If ye have love
One to another.

I know that the Lord is merciful and gracious. His greatest desire is for each of us to soften our hearts and become like Him, learn of Him, come unto Christ to become perfected in Him. I cannot picture our Heavenly Father saying of any one of His children, even the most difficult of characters, 'I am glad to get rid of him!' I am fully confident that His greatest desire is for each of us to be worthy of His saying to us, as He said in the parable of the talents in Matt 25:14-30 'Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.' He said in D&C 38:27, 'be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.'

I am sure that the greatest success that any team will ever have, such as a hockey team, is for each team member to work as one with the team having a single vision of success, rather than trying to get the ball and score goals without involving others in the team. Somehow, I cannot see a team of individuals competing with each other ever winning a world cup! Anyone who wishes to 'exalt my throne above the stars of God' as in Isaiah 14:12-17 is losing the game for the team - that was Lucifer's plan - let us not make it our plan.

Now I have a different focus since my recent call as stake patriarch. I am not part of any council - the only counseling that I have is an occasional one-on-one meeting with the stake president. But I have been really impressed by how my thoughts for the recent while have been on the seed of Abraham and the house of Israel - and that is an important part of the work of a stake patriarch as he declares the lineage of the recipient of a patriarchal blessing. My study has brought me to this subject for a while, and I have been particularly struck in so many chapters in scripture by their relevance to the seed of Abraham, Israel, and gathering them in these latter days.

I had occasion to find out about the learning process that my father had when he was called to serve as a stake patriarch in 1970. I have been able to read patriarchal blessings of many members of my family in preparing for my service. I think that my father's personal experience with patriarchal blessings was possibly limited to being present when he, my mother, one sister and I received our blessings while visiting the London Temple in 1969.

I remember elder Marion G. Romney telling my father when he ordained him to the office of patriarch in the Melchizedek priesthood, that he was the first patriarch on the African continent since the days of Abraham. That struck me then, and came to mind again when I chatted to Louis Groenewald who had been the first to receive a patriarchal blessing from my father, the first recipient of a patriarchal blessing on the African continent since Abraham, and who is now serving as a stake patriarch in the Pretoria area. I was asking for any advice that he might give that could help me in my new assignment. One thing that he said struck me - he said he realised that this is a calling of trust. The Lord and the quorum of the twelve trust that I can do it. Now I need to trust myself and be humble and in tune with the Spirit to receive the revelation that the member needs who comes seeking the blessing of their Heavenly Father, to learn of their life mission and possibilities as a child of the King of Kings.

In conclusion, the blessings that I have come to understand that we receive from serving in the Church, are that we come to know the doctrine, whether it be of man or of God, because we are doing the will of the Father and Christ as inspired by the Holy Spirit. This was a promise made by Christ. I love the Lord's declaration in John 15:8 'Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.' My hope and prayer are that I will receive the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to help me to be a useful chisel in the hands of the creator, and adding glory to the Father as I serve and bear fruit. I pray that I will be worthy enough to have pure and blessed water flow from this rusty old tap to bless others as the Lord would do if He were here, serving in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Shosholoza Meyl train rides

During July Sally and I travelled on the train to Johannesburg and back. We went for the wedding celebration between our daughter Cindy and Dom Wentzel.

Here is the feedback that we gave to the railway operator on our experience with travelling on ShosholozaMeyl. travelled Tourist Class from Cape Town – Johannesburg and back.

We enjoyed the two trips very much. We found the trips comfortable and relaxing.

We appreciated being in a 4 sleeper compartment going to Johannesburg so that neither of us had to climb onto the top bunk. We were comfortable enough in the two-sleeper coupe for the return trip. It was ironic, however, that we as a senior couple and a US senior couple were in the two coupes of carriage 10 (we in 10C and they in 10D) although a young unmarried couple who had not booked managed to get moved from the sitter section to 10B, ironic because they were not related and of opposite sex. It appears, from what I heard in the wee hours of the morning, that a man embarking in Kimberley was dissatisfied with being put into a compartment with three women.

The food and service were good and friendly. I think better on the trip up than the return trip. The waitress going up was far more flexible and accommodating when I asked for toast to replace bacon for breakfast, whereas on the return trip it was cheese and nothing besides cheese could replace bacon! But she did relent later and brought a second egg to replace the bacon, but did charge for a second slice of toast.

The service is not as good as we remember from the 1970s and 1980s, so hopefully they are working towards getting at least that level of service again. That said, I was impressed that a man who I heard introducing himself to a foreign passenger as the manager, was very much involved with the passengers and staff on the trip back. He interacted with the passengers and gave some information regarding the reasons for being delayed by rail maintenance.

Bedding should be easy enough to have in sufficient quantities. It should be easy enough to predict how much is needed, especially after making one or two mistakes. Rather have more than is needed than insufficient.

The kitchen ran out of milk, fruit juice and other supplies. Again, it should be fairly easy to predict with a little experience, and surely you have enough experience? Perhaps if passengers from the sitter section take bedding and dine in the dining car then that would make prediction more challenging?

It was frustrating that the heater was not working in our compartment. I did not ask if other heaters were working, but with-2 degree weather outside, the heater was missed. I was impressed that on the return trip a young staff member mentioned when I asked if the heater would be working, that it would not because it only worked with the steam locomotives. I was impressed on two counts, because he was probably too young to remember either working heaters or steam locomotives and I thought that maybe his telling me that indicated that he has some personal care and interest in his work, and that perhaps Spoornet is giving some background training to their staff.

The train ran almost 4 hours late without really clear explanation, or any explanation at all, on the trip up, but with better explanation on the return trip. It was explained that there was maintenance being undertaken on the rails tracks.

Something in the undercarriage of sleeper unit 8 on the trip up was making a really loud flapping noise such that it sounded a lot of the time as though we were traveling in a steam or diesel locomotive. I could not make out if it was a compressed air noise our something like a spring or pipe flapping with a resonance. Carriage 10 on the return trip was impressively quiet.

I was surprised that 220V power for cellphones or laptop computers is not available in this day and age. Wi-Fi connection might also be easy enough to supply, and the increased clientele will surely make these more than pay for themselves.

The door of 10C for the return trip was extremely heavy to open and close. I found that some of the fabric from the mat had ripped off and was sticking out from under the door. I suspect that there may be more fabric causing the door to stick. I suggest that compressed air may help to remove some material from the bottom slider, but it would probably be well to remove the door and service the top and bottom runner parts.

It might be an idea to give staff name badges. This will enable passengers to interact better with them by name, as well as enabling communicating compliments and complaints such as I am doing. Some staff were apparently far more enthusiastic and interested in their work than others.

It might also be worth drawing up a simple feedback slip to be placed in each compartment so that passengers can evaluate the trip and facilities.

We felt that the general care and maintenance were lacking. The walls and facilities are grubby and not in as good working order as they could be. As also mentioned, perhaps in this day and age power sockets and Wi-Fi could be supplied?

You may consider a simple play and/or entertainment area for children.

We wish you great success in providing increasingly good and favourable service. I am recommending train travel to others, so I trust that they will not regret following my recommendation. I love South Africa and am proud of my beloved country. I believe that we can give quality rail experience for passengers, and constantly improve as we learn from past experience.

Kind regards

Leslie W. Powrie

Harvest, the devourer, dangers, and blessings in disguise

I shared an analogy with the youth today. I ended up teaching them with no warning and no preparation, and shared an analogy that has been developing in my mind. The theme is Marriage and Family and I chose to teach about learning and teaching in the home. 

It is as though we each have a farm, and each of us has the same size farm, with the same potential. It has 168 hectares of good soil, and we are allowed to do with it as we see fit. Each hectare represents an hour in the week. The harvest that we will eventually reap will depend on the amount, kind and quality of seed that we sow, or do not sow. If we sow maize and tend it well, then we have the potential of harvesting an abundant maize harvest. If we do not plant all 168 hectares then we will not reap the maximal harvest. It is also feasible that we can sow the entire area and do all that we possibly can to ensure the harvest, but then at the last moment before a very promising and exciting harvest we can lose everything due to lightning striking and causing all to be burned up, or there could be locusts or hail that destroy the crop, and we might harvest little or nothing. That is not a measure of failure on our part, but the harvest will not be what we hoped. 

The harvest is a result of our effort, but far more significantly and important is the sunlight, fresh air, rainwater and soil nutrients and quality that are provided free by a loving and provident Father. All that we reap is a free gift to us, and nothing is fully guaranteed or deserved. True, we will not have any promise if we do not sow, but even with our most faithful effort we still are dependent on the providence from above. Our input costs remain the same if we plant for the maximum harvest whether we have no harvest or the most capacious harvest. So everything is entirely due to the goodness of God. He invites us to give back 10% of our harvest, thereby showing our gratitude for the harvest. In return, He promises us in Malachi 3:11 that ‘I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.’ We can then hope for the maximum harvest in accordance with our greatest efforts. We cannot hope for more, and can hope that there will not be less. But if we do not bring our tithes into the storehouse, so that there will be meat in His house, then we cannot hope for any such blessing of protection from the devourer or the variableness of nature. We cannot complain if the devourer destroys the fruits of our ground. 

But, by the same token, even if we seem to have mishaps, we cannot always know what protection we may have enjoyed. We may have been spared far greater mishap that would have happened, and the small mishap that we do experience may be simply to try our faith. My son Richard pointed out that sometimes the mishaps might be because Heavenly Father knows our potential and is preparing us for a greater harvest. He cited the example of a field that needs to be burned in order to have a better harvest the following year. After thinking about this, I thought more and realised that it might be for us to learn a lesson, or for someone else to learn a lesson from the way that we handle our loss. We need to be trusting enough to accept the loss and not ask 'why?' but 'how?'. How do we move forward, rather than why did we experience the loss?

I am fully confident that very often we are spared a lot of problems and have blessings in disguise. I say this because of thoughts that have come to me as I have pondered the promise given in my patriarchal blessing that many physical dangers and difficulties shall continue to pass by me, giving unto me blessings in disguise. One such blessing was that I was not bitten by a puff adder that was right next to me. I wonder how many times I have been spared from dangers, but on this one occasion it happened while I was pondering on the promises given in Mark 16:18, Luke 10:19 and Doctrine and Covenants 84:72 and whether I as a young LDS missionary was worthy enough to be given this blessing should I be bitten by a snake on this occasion when I was alone for a very brief time in Kloof Gorge. I wonder how many times I have been blissfully unaware of such protection, and even complained that I do not see the blessings in my life, but that was because they were ‘blessings in disguise’.

Weeping and joy in the School of Mortality

Talk given by Les Powrie, Panorama Ward, Cape Town South Africa, 29 December 2013.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. I started off telling about the painting that I did of the ship in stormy seas. 

I pointed out that one of the stormy seas in my life is that I cannot undo the fact that I painted the masts in front of the sails instead of behind the sails. 

That always bugs me - but it is a mistake that I made and it is there for all to see. But more importantly, it is a reminder that a calm sea never produced a good captain. I reflected on how we sent our children out to school where we knew that things would not always be pleasant. There were lessons to be learned and these were essential. But there would be unpleasant things about being at school - many rough seas - stress, panic, exams, trials, proving, testing, peer pressure, unreasonable people, unpleasant discipline, punishments both fair and unfair, hormone issues, and so forth. We had a bigger long term view that you might have had - we dreamed of an outcome where our children would become educated, able to achieve some greatness, develop talents, achieve greater potential, even do better than their parents (because that is progress), and become responsible adults. I am sure that most of the time those were not uppermost in the minds of our children. 

Heavenly Father introduced his first two children into a school as well and left them there to learn their lessons. The first lesson that they needed to learn was to recognise the knowledge of good and evil. He gave them a beautiful garden with abundant fruits, flowers, animals and all to please the eye and to gladden the heart, to name them, to tend them and take care of them. But they were told that while they could eat of the fruit of any tree in the garden, they were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day they ate thereof they would surely die. We don’t know how many days or months or years they enjoyed garden before they did partake of the fruit, but they, in their innocent states, were beguiled by Satan. They needed to have a knowledge of good and evil in order to become like their Father in Heaven, and the only way that they could have that was to transgress and partake of the fruit of the tree and thus gain knowledge – even wisdom. He had this outcome in mind, but they could not comprehend the outcome, especially when first placed in the garden. His view of the outcome was, and is for us, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, and for us to have joy now and in the eternities. We read some important principles in this regard in 2 Nephi 2: 14-29.

I shared a journal entry that I wrote some weeks ago: Did we have knowledge of good and evil before we received mortal bodies? I was listening to elder Bednar's April 2013 talk WE BELIEVE IN BEING CHASTE (https://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/05/we-believe-in-being-chaste?lang=eng) and how 'Simply stated, there are lessons we must learn and experiences we must have, as the scriptures describe, “according to the flesh”'.

I was wondering if Satan has knowledge of good and evil, or if he only knows about it? Is it just like book-learning or theory to him, but with no practical experience it is actually not knowledge to him, so he is not like the Gods, knowing good and evil? I never thought about that before. I often think how he seems to be really dim continually trying to thwart God’s plan, but maybe he actually does lack a lot of savvy! Imagine millennia of fighting a war in which you remain ignorant of the central issue!

Similarly, we instruct our children – ‘do not put your hand on the stove’, not to make life miserable for them, but so that they do not injure themselves. They need to have some experience that helps them to realise that there is great benefit to learning from their parent’s instructions and injunctions. So, we might heat the stove so that it is very uncomfortable to touch, but not hot enough to cause injury, and then let them learn from touching that so that. Otherwise they might touch the stove when we are not looking at a time that it is hot enough to cause really serious injury. We also instruct them to not walk on a hot road in bare feet, but did not fully appreciate the wisdom until we had experienced the consequences. 

Similarly, Adam and Eve would not have learned to distinguish good from evil if they were constantly diverted from partaking of the tree, constantly reminded to not partake, or if the tree were kept out of their reach. That would remain ‘book learning’ or theory and the lesson never really become learned. They had to learn the lesson that obedience is essential, and that we need to choose good (and eternal life) rather than evil (or eternal damnation).

So, in our school of mortality, exams last for hours but the graduation and qualification remain forever. In Psalm 30:5 we read that weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning. Elder Holland gave a talk in 1999 in which he talked about Jesus Christ as the high priest of good things to come. He said “Every one of us has times when we need to know things will get better. Moroni spoke of it in the Book of Mormon as “hope for a better world.” For emotional health and spiritual stamina, everyone needs to be able to look forward to some respite, to something pleasant and renewing and hopeful, whether that blessing be near at hand or still some distance ahead. It is enough just to know we can get there, that however measured or far away, there is the promise of “good things to come.””. In Hebrews 5:6-10 we read that even Christ, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered.

I shared examples from an article in the December 2013 New Era ‘When Good Things Happen to Others and Bad Things Happen to You’. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught, “Envy is a mistake that just keeps on giving. Obviously we suffer a little when some misfortune befalls us, but envy requires us to suffer all good fortune that befalls everyone we know! What a bright prospect that is—downing another quart of pickle juice every time anyone around you has a happy moment!”1 I related two examples from the article about tough lessons, but the benefits that come from them. One about a girl in the school tennis team, but where the rules changed in her senior year where she had to try out again for the team and was not automatically included. She worked really hard to prepare for the trials but she did not make the team.

“I felt like my heart was breaking. I’d worked for an entire year to make my goals a reality. I was also embarrassed. I was angry. Why didn’t my coach give me a fair chance? Why didn’t Heavenly Father help him choose not to cut me from the team?

“Struggling to overcome the hurt led me to think about the sorrows of the Savior. He spent His entire ministry in the service of His neighbors, yet He was despised by many of these same people (see Isaiah 53:3–5). Although He was the only person who did not need forgiveness, He willingly suffered the anguish of all sin. With His stripes to rescue me from death, how could I resent the small injustices in life? The miracle of the Atonement beckoned to me, urging me to seek the merciful Son.”

Then there was a missionary in Malaysia who was biking home with his companion one night when a truck rising on the wrong side of the road struck him. Jeremy broke multiple bones, his aorta was torn, his lung collapsed, his brain swelled, and he contracted pneumonia. In short, he should have died.

But time after time, little miracles occurred and he not only survived but also continued to heal. Even so, the recovery was long and painful. “And there will be trials for the rest of my life,” Jeremy says. It would have been easy for Jeremy to wonder why something like that could happen to him, especially when he was serving a mission. But turning to the Savior taught him many things.
“Because of what I learned, I can bear witness that our Savior suffered for all of our trials. As we humbly and faithfully endure our trials, we can be filled with a new spiritual strength—the strength that we will need to endure to the end, the strength that we will need to obtain our exaltation.”

There was the brother who sat listening to members criticising the leaders who sent the Willie and Handcart companies off to face a severe winter. After some time he stood and said:

“I was in that company and my wife was in it. . . . We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? . . . [We] came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.

“I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it. . . . I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.

“Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.”

The desired outcome for us is to sit with the noble and great ones in the eternal realms. But, would one feel comfortable sitting with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Nephi, Joseph Smith, members of the Martin or Willie Handcart companies, and others as peers if we got there easily whilst they endured great tribulation in the courses that they travelled? 

Our learning experiences taking many different forms. I shared something shared by elder Loren C. Dunn in 1974. He said of his father: 

‘While we were growing up in a small community, my father saw the need for my brother and me to learn the principle of work. As a result, he put us to work on a small farm on the edge of town where he had been raised. He ran the local newspaper, so he could not spend much time with us except early in the morning and in the evening. That was quite a responsibility for two young teenagers, and sometimes we made mistakes. Our small farm was surrounded by other farms, and one of the farmers went in to see my father one day to tell him the things he thought we were doing wrong. My father listened to him carefully and then said, “Jim, you don’t understand. You see, I’m raising boys and not cows.” After my father’s death, Jim told us his story. How grateful I was for a father who decided to raise boys, and not cows. In spite of the mistakes, we learned how to work on that little farm, and I guess, although they didn’t say it in so many words, we always knew we were more important to Mother and Father than the cows or, for that matter, anything else.’ 

Some lessons are learned at our mother’s knee, like Joseph Fielding Smith shared “I was trained at my mother’s knee to love the Prophet Joseph Smith and to love my Redeemer.’ - and how he taught his son in a gentle but powerful way.

“Reyn confided that he had had a cigarette in his mouth only once in his life, and then for only a fleeting moment. It occurred when he was a student at the Roosevelt Junior High School in Salt Lake City. [The school’s] entrance was on a quiet side street that had very little vehicular traffic. On this day, Reyn had just walked out of the front entrance of the school with a friend who smoked who urged him, as he had often done, to ‘just try one.’ On this occasion, the friend succeeded. Reyn took one of the cigarettes and lit up. A few puffs later, who should pull up at the curb in his car but Reyn’s father. Rolling down the window, Elder Smith said to his astounded son, ‘Reynolds, I want to talk to you tonight after dinner’ and drove off. Reyn reported, ‘When my father called me Reynolds, I knew he meant business.’ Elder Smith let Reyn stew in his guilt the rest of the afternoon and during the evening meal, when he had surprisingly little to say. Afterward, seated uncomfortably in his father’s study, … Reynolds faced judgment. What he received was merely a kindly, loving lecture about the evils of ‘that filthy habit’ and a reminder of who he was and how his conduct reflected on the whole family. It ended with the request that Reyn promise he would never again put a cigarette in his mouth. Reyn took the pledge. ‘It never happened again,’ he said. Through all the intervening years, including a stint in the United States Navy during World War II where smoking was endemic, he honored the commitment made to his father.”

We need to learn to consider our blessings – to ponder them in our hearts, to count the blessings to help to recognise the joys in between the weeping. In my experience the times of calm seas are far greater than the times of rough seas. But the real learning comes during those shorter times with rough seas.

I was given a video for Christmas ‘The secrets of Jonathan Sperry’. This is not an LDS movie, but great for teaching about missionary work. One of the things that Jonathan teaches to a twelve-year old boy who thinks that the Bible is full of restrictions is that the commandments are good. He says ‘Do you want someone to steal from you?’ to which the boy says he does not want that, so Jonathan says that then the commandment tol not steal is kind of a good thing. Similarly, do you want someone lying to you? So ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness is kind of a good thing’.

So - in the outcomes that Heavenly Father wants for us in this school of mortality, just as we send our children out into the schools of the world, so we are here in this school to learn. We want mortal success for our children, Heavenly Father wants us to have immortality and eternal life. The tests are brief in time, and even more brief when measured against eternity. May we have ourselves built on the sure foundation of Christ as we read in Helaman5:12 

And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty
storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. 

Then, when the stormy seas pound and beat about us we can stand firm. May we remember that 'man is, that he might have joy' (2 Nephi 2:26)

May we become great captains because of the experiences that we have on our stormy seas in this school of mortality, and may we enjoy mostly calm seas!

PS. I can make the painting look good in digital form, but not on the original painting.

I also thought of a saying on a calendar that Judy gave to me when I was a youth. 'Men, like rivers, become crooked when they follow the path of least resistance'. I reckon this fits well in this topic.