Compost, braai ashes, flames!

I have a special appreciation for compost because my mother taught me from young about its value.

I spent some time in 1980 to 1981 working under the lofty title of Horticultural Chemist. Part of that involved visiting a place where pine bark compost was made. They had large mounds covered with plastic sheets that would increase the buildup of heat in the mound and prevent excessive evaporation.

Compost is lovely. It is wonderful to dig a hole and put my hand into the hole. It is dirty (clean dirt), but it is hot, even without a plastic sheet over the heap. That heat is generated by earthworms, lice, bacteria and other decomposers that are working away at breaking down the organic material in the heap, releasing nutrient rich, light textured, dark brown material that is wonderful to add to soil for improving the quality of what is grown in the enriched soil. It gives a wonderful water holding, nutrient rich, aerated and well draining substrate that improves the growth of most plants. Some plants cope well without compost, some are better off without compost, but those are rare exceptions.

Sometimes I'll go to the compost heap that I have in my garden and pour on large amounts of cold water. That is not to dampen the spirit in a successful decomposer party, but that cold water is very quickly absorbed by the organic pile and the moisture improves the ability of the decomposers to do what they do best!

A few years ago I had a braai (barbecue) fire on which I cooked some meat on a Saturday afternoon. After the fire cooled I poured the ashes into the compost heap because ash adds valuable nutrients and texture to compost. I was confident that the ash was cold, and I would probably have watered it down with a hose to make sure that it was cold.

The next morning I was startled, to say the lest, to see flames leaping up outside my bedroom window. I rushed outside to hose down the compost heap! Some of the ashes must have got buried as I hosed  them down more than 12 hours before, and as cold as they were, had enough warmth in them that heat built up again with the warmth of the compost heap and then reached a point of combustion. The flames were about 2 metres high!

I was very glad that I was on hand when this excitement occurred and I could immediately douse the flames. A little later and I would have left home to go to Church and then the flames might have been undetected and it is scary to contemplate what damage might have occurred.

This little experience reminds me of the flame of testimony that may seem to be dead, but that can rekindle when enough warmth is added as in the "hot coals" story. It won't happen without warmth, and may not happen with warmth, but if it happens, it can be dramatic! May it happen as much and as often as Heavenly Father wants it to, and may we help to make it happen whenever He wants us to have a part in it.

Appreciating Providence

Today is Christmas eve. As I prayed this morning, I was thinking  about a TV set. It has become what it is to support the great industry that creates the content. Without the content, there would be no TV such as we have it. Entertainment, news, sport, learning, whatever the content, it's there, and so the means of presenting it to you on small to large screens was invented, developed, refined, marketed – all the steps involved in the process – and you get to watch the content. 

But you cannot enjoy the content without access to those devices that bring you the content, ensuring power and signal to those devices, and, in most cases, a paid subscription. The content is there whether you watch or not, but so many things are entirely within your control and choices that you make determine what content you view. 

When viewing, almost everything is living someone else's dreams and not particularly bringing you any closer to any of your own worthwhile dreams. All too often, time that we choose to spend watching what other people have dreamed actually prevents us from achieving some of the dreams that we really do want to achieve for ourselves!

I love the beauty of the sun today, the rain that fell yesterday that is so much needed in this severe drought, the fresh air, the mountains, great rivers and small streams, vegetation, all manner of life. All things that beautify this Earth whereon we dwell, that please the eye and gladden the heart. I praise my Messiah for His great providence and I desire to do all that I can to benefit from the 'content' that He wants me to enjoy. That is why He created it all. I love Him for it. 

This Christmas, and in the next year, let us enjoy the providence of a loving creator who has made so much 'content' available, by having the devices, power, signal, subscriptions, or whatever is required and within our control, to enjoy what He makes freely and abundantly available to us. 

I hope and pray that each end every one of us will give our love and devotion to Him – Jesus Christ – and His and our Heavenly Father, this Christmas and throughout the next year, to enjoy and benefit from His providence. I know that He is the great Creator. I love His creations. 

I have talked to Heavenly Father in prayer, and He has talked to me through the scriptures. This is not just some urban legend that I am sharing that someone somewhere sometime may have experienced, but this is my firsthand witness that I share from Cape Town on this, the day before Christmas 2016.

Do our spiritual muscles also ache when exercised after a long break?

Yesterday I exercised after six weeks of not specifically exercising.

I have spent a wonderful break with family and at the Temple, and I did walk and bend and lift and climb, but I did not do specific exercises that worked the muscles and heart. Then I did my normal 20 to 30 minutes of stretching, bending, running and lifting and today my muscles are letting me know all about it. Not too serious, but definitely aware of these muscles, especially in my legs and back.

This set me wondering as to whether someone who has not been exercising their faith might feel some pain and discomfort when doing some spiritual exercise such as pondering, scripture study, pondering the scriptures, or starting some form of spiritual activity? I suspect that the feeling of remorse about sins of omission or of commission, feelings of guilt or uncleanness, or anything else prompted by our conscience might give us similar discomfort, reminding us of those 'spirit muscles' and we may be tempted to complain and stop exercising. But, just as with physical exercise, it is important to continue exercising, and gradually, but determinedly, increase the pace and frequency of the exercise to get the spiritual heart pumping in a healthy manner and to improve the spiritual muscle tone and decrease the spiritual fat.

If you have been neglecting your spiritual exercise, or are feeling those discomforts from sudden exercise, I encourage you to exercise well and press forward with with a steadfastness in Christ, and persevere. The gain will definitely outweigh the pain.

The Hundred - Thirteen test

I have been at a low spiritual ebb all too often. That may surprise some, but it's true. 

I find the Hundred – Thirteen test helps me.

The Hundred part is inspired by something my older brother Tim shared with me years ago when he heard I was considering being an airline pilot. He came to me while I was doing my homework one evening and discussed implications of what I was considering (the fact that I wore spectacles, my lack of knowledge of geography, being away from home a whole lot, etc.). He suggested that I list the pros and cons of each alternative in the choice. My adaptation is to take a piece of note paper and prepare three columns: one for a scripture reference; one for the question like 'Become an airline pilot', 'Pack up and move to Nelspruit', 'Move to Cape Town to marry Sally', or 'The church is true as it claims' and one for the alternative 'Not become an airline pilot', 'Stay in Cape Town and look for work here', 'Stay in my parents' home and not go to marry Sally', or 'The church is a hoax'. Then randomly and prayerfully read 100 scriptures and after each one, write the scripture reference, and put a mark or cross under the appropriate column. I have to be honest in letting the Spirit guide me in the process. Should you take this test, you can decide if 'a scripture' is one verse; one chapter; 10 minutes; reading sequentially from the beginning of the book, e.g. Genesis 1:1 or Matthew 1:1, or whatever you feel appropriate. The important thing is to read the scriptures so that Heavenly Father can communicate with you through His Word. In research, one has to do sufficient testing to be confident in drawing a conclusion – a small sample size is not defensible. One hundred is a pretty reasonable sample size in some studies. Tens of thousands can be an appropriate sample size in very large populations. With more than 31000 verses in the Bible, even 100 is a small sample size, but it is a good start.

Another analysis that may help with some tough choices is the SWAT analysis (examining Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). The object of either exercise is ‘studying it out in my mind’ (See D&C 9:8).

The Thirteen part is to write down my own personal thirteen Articles of Faith. I read each that Joseph Smith wrote, and then write down my own. This is based on my mother's conversion story and the role that a challenge issued by an Anglican minister played. You can read her story in my blog http://personaltouchworks.blogspot.co.za/

When I’ve done this, I enter my Garden of Gethsemane and pray to my Heavenly Father and listen, hopefully being prepared to submit my will to His.

I believe it was one of my fellow missionaries Mike McLean who, in Port Elizabeth in 1973, shared a comparison with mathematics and receiving answers to prayer. A teacher will teach a mathematical principle and then give homework to be solved. The student then goes and applies the method to the problem in question. He returns to the teacher with the homework and the teacher either approves of the answer, or sends the student away to try again. If the student is still unable to solve the problem, the teacher might show the working out to get the solution, and then give the student a similar problem to go and solve. This continues until the student masters the principle in question. We similarly need to apply principles to solve problems in our lives, and go to our loving Heavenly Father and ask if we have reached the correct solution? We read that He will tell us in our minds and in our hearts when we have come to the correct conclusion. He will cause that 'your bosom shall burn within you' or, as I feel it, an incredible peace and feeling of completeness and clarity with no confusion as opposed to a stupor of thought or confusion when I need to go and give more thought to the problem.

It is not a quick fix – anything worthwhile is not a quick fix – but it is wonderful to receive personal revelation through the word already revealed to prophets. Talks in General Conference and other words of latter-day prophets and apostles also provide valuable insight as I ponder them. I do a great deal of pondering! I can recall one of my first experiences of pondering when I was probably about 16 years old. I received what Andre Naude would describe as 'a light bulb switching on in his brain'. I realized ‘Of course I must have a mother in Heaven because I cannot get to the Celestial Kindgdom without being sealed to a wife, so Heavenly Father must be sealed to a wife’. Yep, I was about 16 years old at the time! I know I must have been pondering because otherwise I would surely not have received such a prompting ‘out of the blue’. I don’t for one moment think I am on a par with Saul of Tarsus who was such a ‘chosen vessel’ that an angel would be sent to me to stop me on my road to mischief and cause me to have a few days of being without sight as I became cleansed and ready for someone like Ananias to come and restore my sight. I am just an ordinary person, but I have nonetheless had the Spirit speak to me through the scriptures, especially as I have pondered them. I have often said that some of my best scripture study time has been without a book in my hands, but while I am mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, or something like that and I am pondering the scriptures as I work

Perhaps another thing to contemplate is how I reflect each year at this season how interesting it is that when the temperature is 18°C (64.4°F) I am comfortably dressed in the kind of clothing that I would be wearing only at 27°C (81°F) three months previously. But at 18°C (64.4°F) three months ago I would be wearing polar neck sweater and jacket and still feeling chilly. I reckon the difference is not so much in the temperature as it is in my body becoming tolerant of the temperature. This reminds me of the story of a frog being placed inboiling water or being slowly brought to the boil, I become tolerant of lower temperatures, and if I do not check myself, I will be all too comfortable in the lower spiritual temperatures so that I don’t keep myself spiritually warmed. It is up to me to keep myself spiritually fed and nourished so that I can be more likely to be in tune with the Spirit and notice that the ambient temperature has dropped and I am becoming accustomed to it. I love the way Dieter F.Uchtdorf said it ‘first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith’

I have often questioned my faith, sometimes doubted, but I have taken to heart the advice to write what I do believe, and to know that although I do not know everything, I do know enough to declare confidently that God does live, He is my Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ is my Messiah, and I have enough experience with the Holy Ghost to confidently promise you that you, too, can know the truth of all things by the power of the Holy Ghost if you read, ponder and pray with a sincere heart, with real intent, and having faith in Christ (see Moroni 10:3-5).

My parents' stories of their conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ

My father Charles Kenneth Powrie 

Born 5 November, 1921 in Lydenburg, Transvaal (Mpumalanga), South Africa

New horizons were there to conquer a year later in the form of an offer of a job by a former shipmate who asked me to move to Johannesburg to join the firm of Stanley Motors, Limited. This I accepted and -in 1946 we moved to Krugersdorp and here we found happiness and joy in building a home and in rearing our two children. Timothy was born here in 1947.

This was a strange, quiet life which seemed to be the calm before the storm. Finally in May, 1950 the change came, quietly and determinedly, when two young Americans knocked on our door with the offer of a message of great importance. My wife, Philippa, as though moved by some unforeseen force, invited these young Elders from Utah and Idaho to come inside whilst the week's wash-for a growing family became of secondary importance.

Mother led the way in this new intellectual exercise, whilst father tagged along in somewhat polite boredom, bred of post experiences which had resulted in such religious excursions. They had provided nothing more than a temporary distraction ending in on obscure wilderness. This time, however, it seemed different, as mother's arguments (given to her so strongly by her mother) appeared to be losing ground in the face of truth which was irrefutable. This resulted in talk of baptism and then why not both of us taking the step? On the 10th of September, 1950 we entered the waters of baptism at old Ramah to join what we now know to be the only true Church and Kingdom of God here upon the earth. We shall always remember with affection the four missionaries who spent time and effort in our conversion, Elders E. Mauary Payne, Parry D. Harrison, Farrell J. Roberts and Dean D. Baxter. Thus started the new life in a Church which, in its temporal appointments, showed very little sign of being the one and only Church of Jesus Christ, for we met in dingy halls and other humble surroundings in limited numbers and with very inadequate facilities. However, the true sweet spirit was there to guide us as we, like infants, crawled, then toddled, then stood upright and walked with our heads high yet humbled by the testimonies which we felt growing within our hearts.

The wisdom of the Lord in prompting growth and testimony through activity soon became manifest in my being called to one assignment after another - branch clerk, branch teacher, counsellor in the Krugersdorp Branch Presidency and then, after having been a member of the Church for just over seven years, the staggering and humbling call to serve as the Transvaal District President. This call in itself was one of the highlights of my life. The day as Transvaal District Conference, 13th April, 1958. We had returned home between sessions and, during that time, received a call from the District President, Brother I.C. Louw, requesting that we come in early. We duly arrived and were ushered into the presence of the Mission President Glen G. Fisher and President Louw, who dropped what I described in my diary as “the bombshell”. I had anticipated some call or another but certainly did not think of a position as the District President! Philippa and I looked at one another in astonishment, but the spirit whispered to us that we could do nothing but accept this high and wonderful calling. We appreciated the sobering honour and I was set apart by President Fisher that he admonished me to recall the promise given to Nephi of old that the Lord would not do anything save he would open the way for them to accomplish that which they had been commanded to do. This had the effect of helping me to recognize the promptings of the spirit in this calling and has been a blessing and a testimony. I have felt my inadequacy fall away in the face of the strength and guidance of the spirit which has helped me to do many things beyond myself and has indeed brought the treasures of Heaven into my life in this great service to the Lord.

The years have rolled by and our family has been increased in that three other precious souls have been brought to us namely, Jane in 1950, Leslie in 1954 and Ronald in 1959. These three children, sent to us during the course of membership in the Church, have all by strange coincidence been born on the 23^rd of their respective months - an honour we felt indeed to be thus matched in some small way with our prophet Joseph Smith, born 23^rd December.

The Church is our life. We have found the answers to every problem in service and in this association with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Recently we celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary of our wedding day, and Philippa and I are able to bear witness to the fact that the sweeter years are here with us now because of the fact that we have attempted to mould our rebellious, stubborn lives, and the lives of our children, to the restored Gospel. We know without any doubt whatsoever, that these Gospel principles hold the key to that happiness and joy which is the heritage of children of men here upon the earth.

We hope and pray that we may continue to serve in this Kingdom and that-we shall be able to enjoy such precious experiences as we have in the more recent years, in having our eldest daughter, Judy, serve an honourable mission in South Africa. Currently our son, Timothy, is serving a mission in the British South Mission, thus bringing the Gospel to others as we had it brought to us.

Our next goal in life is to visit the House of the Lord as a family, to be sealed thus for time and all eternity. With the blessing of the Lord and with our ability to work in this direction also, we hope to achieve this in July, 1969. We pray that this will lead us to be able to serve better in the future and thus repay our Father in Heaven in some small measure for the great and glorious blessings which he has showered upon us over the years.

My mother Beatrice Philippa Dryden Dymond Powrie

Born 26th September, 1917, Mossel Bay,  Cape Province (Western Cape), South Africa

When Judy was nineteen months old, we moved to Krugersdorp, Transvaal, and Timothy was born there on the 2^nd August, 1947 and we decided that our family was complete!

In May 1950 a friend of mine asked me “Have the Mormon Missionaries called on you yet?” I replied that they had not.

“Well, when they do, you must ask them in just to listen to their lovely accents - you don't have to listen to what they say!”

Meanwhile the Church of England Padre had called on me just a short while before that and during our, discussion I had said “But I don't believe that,” or “I don't believe that either”. He challenged me to do the thing which prepared me to receive and accept the gospel when the missionaries presented it to me. He said “Forget what you don't believe and read the Bible to find out what you do believe. Write out a list of the things that you do believe.” I did just this, reading the New Testament, and my list started with 1. I do believe there is a God. 2. I do believe that Jesus is the Christ. 3. I do believe the Bible to be the Word of God.

This surprised me because my mother had studied and passed on to me Theosophy, Yogi-ism, School of Truth, Unity Church of Christianity, etc. She believed that every time the earth needed a Saviour, one would be supplied and that Jesus Christ was only one of many. Also, she far from accepted the Bible to be special word of God, although she quoted from it so often.

The spiritual climate created by my reading the Bible and writing the list of beliefs – I regret that space does not permit me to tell of some of the fancy and very interesting ideas that came into my mind on, the subject! – was just the perfect one for the reception of the message brought by the Missionaries. When they knocked on our door I said “Oh yes, I've heard about you, come right in.”

We joined the church three months later; I, because I knew that it was true, and therefore was duty-bound to support it, and Ken, so he says, to keep me company. Elder Payne, in his last two Months of mission said that he had never lost his temper with any other investigator, but he used to get really mad with me for arguing in favour of reincarnation. In the end he said, “Pray about it,” and I did, because I knew I was right and I wanted to prove him wrong! The answer came to me one morning in a vivid flash of light inside my brain, “either you must believe in reincarnation or you must believe in resurrection – you cannot believe in both.” I investigated the two ideas and decided that I believed the Bible, so I accepted resurrection, and joined the church.

My mother taught me the Law of Tithing, in principle, although as far as I know she never paid tithing herself. A month before we were baptized, when the Missionaries, who were staying with us paid their first month's rent, I said to my husband, “Now can we start paying tithing?” I believed that tithing was the Lord's due, although it still did not seem to matter to me which church we paid it through, so we have been paying tithing ever since, for one month longer than our membership.

We also decided to have a larger family – Elder Harrison said I was still young enough to have four more, but that fourth one has never come. Eleven months later Jane was born on 23^rd August, 1951. Leslie followed on 23^rd February 1954 and Ronald on 23^rd January, 1959 - we began to wonder if the “23^rd” has any special significance for us!

Citation:

Extracted from their autobiograhical entries in a collection of Autobiograhical Sketches.

Wright, Evan P (Editor). 1969. Autobiograhical Sketches - South African Mission - 1969. South African Mission, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Johannesburg, South Africa

Students throwing tantrums about the weaknesses of their seniors rather than working to change the world themselves

South African institutions of higher learning, the students attending them, and others have been seriously impacted over the past few weeks by students demanding that fees must fall. Somehow they feel that it is not reasonable that fees increase although inflation erodes the value of the currency, and government have been reducing their financial support for universities. I guess they are as yet ignorant of the realities of life, and that life simply does become more expensive and that they have the choice of being proactive and preparing for tough times, or just moaning that there are tough times.

I am concerned that the students who are effectively throwing tantrums (an immature thing to do) should rather be working really hard to get themselves well qualified and able to go out and lead South Africa in the way that they are frustrated that the older generation are failing to do.

When they are the older generation they will probably realise that things in 2015 were not as bad as they were led to believe. I have no doubt that the a very big problem is a small group of trouble-makers who are telling the masses that the masses are unhappy. Certainly they are not as happy as they would be in the perfect world, but the world is not perfect – and that comment is not limited to the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Western Cape, or even South Africa. They will in due course notice that the entire world has problems and is not perfect. I suggest that they should get over it, and become people who will help to make a better world by building on, rather than causing more problems by destroying, the tremendous good that there is.

Anyone who destroys is undermining the very thing that they say they are trying to achieve. Burning or damaging buses or property is, in my view, not defensible. Showing disrespect towards others is not acceptable. We have seen a lot of this in these riots and demonstrations. Of course, now that they have caused damage, some of the money that could go to supporting students has to go into repairing the damage. 

We need a nation of builders and agents of change, not tantrum-throwers who just complain because others are not building the nation and being agents of change, that everyone else is not perfect. Let them work to become more perfect themselves and make the difference that they want to see. Let them be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Imperfection, hypocrisy

When is imperfection acceptable, understandable, justifiable, tolerable?

 Sometimes we see a bug and are not aware of the flaws. Then we look at another perspective and we see that we are looking at a rather unique insect. In this case, instead of six legs that are typical of an insect, this one has only five.

But I suspect that this bug did not choose to have five legs! Our choices are what make us what we are.

I have heard that there are people that refuse to go to hospitals because hospitals are supposed to make people well, but are of no value because they are full of unwell people. The very reason for going to a hospital is to become well, and it is foolish to condemn a hospital for having unwell people in it! If it is helping to improve the state of well-being of patients then it is achieving its purpose. There will be no shortage of people who are unwell, and hospitals will always be occupied by people who are unwell.

Indeed, it is very possible for one patient to infect a fellow patient, health care professional, or an innocent visitor. One can easily go away from a hospital with a bug that he or she did not have when entering the hospital. But I laud the efforts of people who care for unwell people and wish them well in their efforts. On the whole, people leave hospitals better for having been there.

I was told recently about someone who found some imperfection in an individual - a hypocrite - and feels that the entire Church is to be condemned as being imperfect because it has one member who is a hypocrite. 

I have often thought of our perceptions. 

Today we sustained three new Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. Elders Ronald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevenson and Dale G. Renlund. I have no hesitation in saying that each of them is imperfect. Two of them inferred it themselves!

So - do we condemn the entire Church because three, or fifteen, or 100, or 500, or 5 million of them, or each and every one of them is imperfect?

In 1973 I received a personal witness from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself declaring that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true and living church upon the face of the Earth 'with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually—For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance;'

I leave that ending with the semi-colon because the reader would benefit from reading the context of the extract from Doctrine and Covenants 1.

I suppose it is reasonable that people would judge a church by its leaders. One prominent church leader criticized his leaders. He boldly declared them to be hypocrites! He also drove people out of the temple! He also spoke judgmental words of his close associates and others. He was strongly criticized for many of his actions, most particularly because he was accused of blasphemy. Jesus Christ is that leader. The Jewish faith was the only true and living faith. He was devout in His faith. But He did criticize the leaders, the Scribes and Pharisees, telling them that they were hypocrites. He did drive people out of the Temple with a whip. He did reprove Peter and others for their lack of faith and other weaknesses. He, who declared that we must love our enemies, do good to them that despitefully use us, He it was who did these things. If a person is looking for faults, I daresay he will very easily interpret these actions as failings and hypocritical!

Peter denied Christ three times before the cock crowed on the morning of the Christ's last day of mortality. He went fishing rather than leading the saints following the crucifixion. His state of conversion was challenged when he was told 'when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren'. Would we refuse to accept that church because Peter was quite apparently a hypocrite?

Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ - now is that not extreme! Do we deny the entire church because it had one of its top leaders who was such an extremely bad person - a hypocrite?

Ananias and his wife Sapphira lied to the apostles about freewill offerings that they had made. Hypocrisy!

Yes - if one is looking for faults, he or she will find them!

But equally, if one is looking for good, there is abundant good to be found. 

My father once said that he was so glad that he did not have to judge someone who had erred, but could leave that to the bishop. He did not have to be burdened with being a Judge in Israel. Sometimes we look at things that people do and assess them in one way without knowing what is in the heart. We may condemn them for gross imperfection - for hypocrisy. And we are probably absolutely right! They probably are imperfect. And so am I. And so is the reader, and every person, especially those who condemn the conduct of anyone else.

The true Church of God is likely to always have less than perfect people in it - it is the hospital for sick souls. It is there to make bad men good, and good men better. It will always have an abundance of spiritually unwell people to help to improve.

But the challenge to the reader is to judge where we can affect some change. I cannot bring about change in anyone else. But I can bring about change in myself. My responsibility is to assess my own performance relative to divinely appointed standards of performance and work to improve myself. I need to strive to be better each day than I was the day before. I can be so busy working on myself that I really do not have time to judge and condemn others because I will be all too conscious of the beam in my eye that is causing me to not see clearly the mote in the other person's eye.

The Lord Jesus Christ did declare that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true and living church upon the face of the Earth 'with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually—For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance;' He made it very clear that He cannot look upon my weaknesses with the least degree of allowance. 

I must clean up my act! My act! Not someone else's imperfections. My act. I have so far to go before I think I'll be worthy of hearing those blessed affirming words 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant'. I am trying! But I know all too well that I am not at that stage as yet. 

Please clean up your own act. But, in the meantime, ask God the Eternal Father, with a sincere heart and real intent if the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints is the only true and living Church on the face of the Earth, and if He is indeed well pleased with it. And if He says that it is, then do something about making and keeping covenants with Him by being baptised by His authorized ministers, and pressing forward toward Temple covenants, then enduring faithfully to the end, even receiving the greatest of all gifts of God, Eternal life.

So, to answer my question. Imperfections are a part of Mortality. They have always been, and will always be. That does not make them alright, acceptable, justifiable. 

The Lord cannot look upon sin with the last degree of allowance. We all have imperfections. But if we choose to act in imperfect ways, then we sin. Ignorance is not sin. Little children are innocent doing things in ignorance. But I suggest that anyone able to read this blog is likely to be able to discern between good and evil. If we choose evil, we sin. That is never acceptable, understandable, tolerable, excusable, justifiable, allowable. We are in Mortality to learn to choose good and to not choose evil. That was what Adam and Eve learned in the Garden of Eden. That is what we learned early in life. We have to continually refine our ability to make right choices. To think as God thinks, choose as He chooses, act as he acts. Then we will be continually refined and redeemed by the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, enabling us to more effectively refine our ways to become more god-like.

I bear my solemn witness that Jesus Christ does live, and has declared this to be His only true and living Church.