Chapter
7 - Group 4: Waiting for the Next Arrival of Jesus Christ
Imagine yourself a living house. God
comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps you can understand what he is
doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so
on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and you are not surprised.
But presently He starts knocking the
house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense.
What on earth is He up to?
The explanation is that He is
building quite a different house from the one you thought of: throwing out a
new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making
courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage;
but He is building a palace.
--C.S. Lewis, from Mere
Christianity
We believe that our time on earth is
a testing ground for our reward in Heaven. It's pretty straight forward; when
you face a trial in life, your righteous response to that trial purifies you
and gets you ready to take on the responsibilities and rewards you will have in
the next life.
Thank you C.S. Lewis. I've stopped
saying "when we get rich I want a house with a pool, a movie room and a
dining table for 24" because I imagine God saying "She's asking for
it!" and the next day we have another miscarriage or drive off a cliff,
but our mansion in heaven will be fit for the St. George Parade of Homes (I’ll
describe that later - don’t worry).
I love my life. I love my life....I
love my....
I'm not a big believer that God
reaches out and puts these trials in our path. I believe that he would like to
reach in and stop the consequences of our choices, or other people's choices
that may adversely affect us, but that's not part of the plan either. BAD STUFF
HAPPENS TO GOOD PEOPLE.
I have spoken to many audiences now
about adjusting our grip on the iron rod as we deal with the changing world in
a seemingly slow moving gospel. In the many years it has taken me to write this
book I have wised up too and decided that waiting is not the same as enduring.
Enduring involves trust and it is in the little tiny, tender mercies that I
have built my relationship with God. He has helped me lift my head and heart up
after I have felt my dreams drift away. I have had to really pay attention and
I make conscious choices to stay connected to the Spirit as those blessings
make themselves available to me.
Carli Wright - my English 10
colleague, introduced me to Neil Pasricha's "The Book of Awesome"
which was based on his blog A
Thousand Awesome Things. It’s a book that makes me happy, a book on the
bright side, entry after entry.
I introduced it to my English
classes as the next book we are going to read together and it went over like a
lead balloon because Sophomores only want to read for about six and a half
minutes and then they are ready for a nap, or treats...or...whatever isn't
words on a page.
Kids. (Sophomores!)
Cried.
That was December 3, 2015, the day
after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. The news was heavy that
day and for the next few days the shootings magnified the flooding in Cumbria,
the refugees leaving Syria, to mention just a few of the tragedies around the
earth.
I thought it would be such a good
time to teach a book in which the main theme was looking for the awesome things
in your life.
Then one of my best students was
pulled out of class via the intercom which connects us to the front office and
I can tell you that is never a good sound - unless you are getting excused from
class to go with your family to Disneyland. Thinking back, I could hear it in
our sweet secretary's voice "Please excuse (this student) to come to the
front office." Same as usual, but different. It struck me, the tone in her
voice...after 25+ years, one can tell.
At lunch, a dear assistant principal
came in and told me that I might want to know that my student, the one that got
called out of class this morning, won't be back for a few days because her 10
year-old brother accidentally shot and killed himself with a gun he found while
he was waiting for the school bus that morning.
Now, I have this kid twice - once
for English and once for debate. She is a great debater, one of the best. So,
naturally, with the time I spend at tournaments with debaters, I am invested in
her a little more than the usual tenth grader. A lot more. So when I heard the
news I was stunned. I immediately thought of the new debate topic which is
banning privately owned guns. I wondered how carefully we would need to tread
in the coming days with her in class. I started praying to know what to say,
how to deal, what to do.
That night after school I was
prompted to go out to her house, half hoping that they wouldn't let me in,
because I really didn't know what to say. I'm too smart to ignore a prompting.
Learned that lesson the hard way so many times. I had to go. I stopped by the
school and picked up her copy of The Book of Awesome and I didn't know
if that was lame, like read-this-and-everything-will-be-all-better kind of
lame. But I felt that she would like it...she is a straight A kid and so very
upbeat.
I was invited into the house by her
little sister who looked like she herself had been run over by a train. Her
little 12 or 13 year-old face was bright red, her eyes sunken back into the
hollows of her face and her frequently wiped nose looked chapped and raw. I was
invited in with a croak and an apology. No apology needed.
While she was retrieving her older
sister, I looked around the big house. I felt as though I was walking into a
very crowded room. The Spirit of comfort was so thick I felt ten pound lighter.
There was obviously a multitude of angels surrounding this house today. There
was a familiar picture of Jesus Christ prominently hung above the fireplace.
There was a religious magazine on the table and several sets of scriptures in
piles around the bottom of the couch, perhaps left there from morning scripture
study with the family. Had that little boy sat there this morning among his
family?
The house was filled with people,
but it was silent. There were people bustling about cleaning and doing laundry.
There were several young people in the back yard raking leaves. I could smell
dinner starting, everyone was working...and crying. While I was waiting, I
noticed my student's mom wrapped in a blanket and sitting in the front window
being consoled by a neighbor. "I feel so bad, everybody is doing
everything..." she said quietly. Then, noticing me, she smiled so big! She
looked me right in the face and said "She will be so happy that you
came." All I could say was "I'm so sorry" to which she replied,
"We know we will see him again. Think of what we have to look forward
to!” Then her neighbor added "they also lost a two year-old last
year."
I have honestly, never, in my
prideful, pitiful life ever thought of the wait for my son as a period of time
full of anticipation. Anticipation seems like something...fun. Right? I was
aghast. Like, I cannot breathe aghast. What to say, what to say...please
Heavenly Father, help me think of something to say that didn't sound trite in
the moment. Nothing. I just nodded in horror. I thought about the
Christmas Eve when we lost Noah and how it destroyed the entire season for me
from that moment on. I wanted to tell her how I knew how she felt, but she had
her son for ten years, her daughter for two, she got to know them, to raise them,
and my empathy paled in comparison. She had just schooled me so hard and she
didn’t even know it. I was being taught. That was the reason I was supposed to
come out and see her. It wasn’t for my student. It was for me. Gah!
Then my student came down the
stairs, saw me, ran across the room and threw her arms around me. She sobbed,
wracked with sadness and loss. I wondered how long they would all cry and the
kinds of headaches they were all earning. After the most awesome hug ever, I
lamely told her that I brought her The
Book of Awesome and she said "I'm so glad! I need this book
today." I was relieved and grateful. Not so lame after all.
So today I announced to my
Sophomores what happened to their classmate and her family. I told them about
the accident and that the debaters were collecting money for a gift. I did not
make it back to my desk - which was about 15 feet away, before two kids stood
up to deposit money in the envelope. And it wasn't just change - it was $5 and
$10 dollar bills and one lumbering kid said "I can go home for lunch
today" and gave all his lunch money. And all day long kids contributed
money as word got around. I was in that
lifted, purified air we get when we do things that we know are driven by the
Spirit in His knowledge. It’s the exact same feeling I get when I’m sitting in
the celestial room in any temple. You know that feeling - when it feels like
Sunday but it’s only Tuesday, third period?
Purifying. Humbling. Awesome.
I will never forget that experience
as long as live because of the purified feeling I had as I walked into my
student’s house and saw her mom smile at me - freshly grieving the death of her
second child in two years. Her
testimony of the atonement racks my soul to this day.
One of my favorite scriptures is
Hebrews 12:1, “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” That’s the kind of waiting that I’m talking
about, the kind where you have to run. I just love this verse because it
advocates energy in waiting.
In Thailand, our mission president
was famous for saying “there are 50 million people in this country and only 50
of you. You’d better run.”
My first companion was a native
Thai. She was about 4’10” tall. They called us “The Monster and the Mouse.” She
told me in broken English that her dearest life goal was to go through the
temple one day. Full-time native missionaries were not endowed before their
missions back then. It was too expensive. That realization was heart-breaking
for me! I had only recently been endowed myself, but had already visited all of
the temples in Utah! My blessings had been taken for granted! I felt an instant
empathy for my Thai brothers and sisters. I peddled faster, I studied harder.
They needed those blessings and I was going to dig the hole for the temple myself
if I had to. The mission had been open since 1966 - it was 1986 and there were
just 10 or 12 little branches in the entire country when I was there, and with
a Buddhist temple on every corner, it felt as though Satan was sticking his
tongue out at me from every direction. My expectations were high and in the 110
degree daily heat, I didn’t peddle fast enough. After 18 months, I left
discouraged and felt beaten up.
So for years after I returned - 27
years to be exact - every Spring and Fall general conference I would say a
prayer that the Lord would announce a temple opening in Thailand for the Saints
there. I was disappointed 53 times.
Then on April 4, 2015, I was
watching the Sunday morning session of conference and President Monson stood
and announced that there would be three new temples. “Only three,” I said to my husband in dismay. I closed my eyes anyway to start my bi-annual chant “Thailand,
Thailand, Thailand…” In my head, I thought about my amazing trainer - Sister
Ratana, and her dearest goal. It had become my dearest goal too. It was one of
the reasons I stayed faithful over the years, a reason to pay my tithing, a
reason to pray, a reason to go to the temple. I had her face in my mind when he
said the words “Bangkok, Thailand.”
I have never cried so
instantaneously and to that intensity. My husband bolted out of his chair to
put his arms around me. I was either very happy, he said, or I had been shot. I
could not control my sobbing. When I regained myself I ran back to our bedroom
and fell to my knees. “Praapidaa Bon Sawan, “ I began and poured out my thanks to my Heavenly Father in Thai. I
had not spoken that much Thai in 27 years, but it flowed out of me in
gratitude. He had answered sooooo many prayers with that announcement.
The Bangkok, Thailand
Temple will be the first in this Asian nation. There are now approximately
18,000 Church members in 38 congregations in Thailand. The Bangkok Thailand
Temple will serve Latter-day Saints in Thailand, as well as all of Southeast
Asia. Currently, the nearest temple to Thailand is Hong Kong, more than 1,000
miles from Bangkok. More than 700 members and friends
attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the Bangkok Thailand Temple on January 26,
2019.[1]
There were about 700
members of the church when I was there in 1986. Maybe some of the hundreds of
Books of Mormon that I delivered on the back of those old bikes were actually
read! It took 54 General Conferences for me to feel that all that pedaling was
finally worth it. Imagine that! You know where we will be when the Temple is
finished? Right! There.
You remember the famous conference
talk in which President Uchtdorf spoke of patience by telling the story of the
“marshmallow experiment” at Stanford University? We call it the “marshmallow talk”
at our house. We have never looked at marshmallows in the same way since that
incredible talk. Anyway, he said, “God’s promises
are not always fulfilled as quickly as or in the way we might hope; they come
according to His timing and in His ways.”[2]
That’s not what we
people with children on the other side, or small groups of members desperate to
receive their temple ordinances want to hear.
But he continues
telling us that “Patience means accepting that which cannot be changed and
facing it with courage, grace, and faith…” I think about all the faithful
Saints in Thailand that prayed for decades and decades for a temple to come to
their country and still served missions, serve the church, serve God without
those blessings. Even with 162 operating temples on the earth now, there are
still people in distant countries that save and serve all their lives that will
wait for their temple blessings until the next life. I will wait to raise my
son in the next life! I will! Remember blessings don’t have an expiration date!
How exciting life can be.Think of all the things we have to look forward to.
Recipe
for Chapter 7
Second
Coming Curry (Gang Matsamaan) the Easy Way
This recipe isn’t for sissies. There
are some ingredients that are on the expensive side in our little neighborhood.
Nevertheless - we make this a couple times a year because it is DELICIOUS. This
is my version of the Thai recipe.
2 lbs cubed protein of your choice
(we usually choose chicken or stew beef)
4-15 oz cans of coconut milk
7-8 small potatoes or larger ones
cut into chunks
4 - 5 medium-sized carrots, sliced into bite-sized disks
2 small onions cut into 4 pieces
each (big chunks)
3 T Matsamaan curry paste
Note:
I
just buy S&B Golden Curry in our traditional grocery store’s
international section. We use the mild yellow curry and add spices individually
after it’s served.
1 tsp lemon juice
2 T brown sugar
½ cup roasted, non-salted peanuts
Brown your protein in olive oil in
the bottom of a deep dutch oven style pan. Add the coconut milk and curry paste and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low heat for two hours. Then add the rest of the
ingredients. Cover and cook for 30
minutes on medium-high heat or until potatoes and carrots are tender.
Serve over jasmine rice.
Homework
Assignment for Chapter 7
- If you
have not read Russell M. Nelson’s 1995 book called “The Gateway We Call Death,” you should. Call me if you need a
copy, I have two.
- Go to
the temple after you have read Chapter 7. If you do not have a temple
recommend, find an LDS chapel. Sit. Ponder. Allow the spirit of the House
of the Lord to bring you peace. It’s so important that we find time to sit
in holy places
3.
Here is a 2019 check list of all the
LDS temples in the world. Circle all the temples you have done temple work in.
❏
Aba Nigeria Temple
❏
Bogotá Colombia Temple
❏
Boise Idaho Temple
❏
Bountiful Utah Temple
❏
Brigham City Utah Temple
❏
Budapest Hungary Temple
❏
Buenos Aires Argentina Temple
❏
Cagayan de Oro PPI Temple
❏
Colonia Juárez Chihuahua MX
❏
Columbia River Washington
❏
Columbia South Carolina
❏
Davao Philippines Temple
❏
Feather River California Temple
❏
Grtr Manila Philippines Temple
❏
Guatemala City Guatemala
❏
Johannesburg South Africa
❏
Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the
Congo
❏
Layton Utah Temple
❏
Managua Nicaragua Temple
❏
Mt Timpanogos Utah Temple
❏
Nashville Tennessee Temple
❏
Newport Beach CA Temple
❏
Okinawa City Okinawa Temple
❏
Oklahoma City OK Temple
❏
Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple
❏
Palmyra New York Temple
❏
Phoenix Arizona Temple
❏
Portland Oregon Temple
❏
Preston England Temple
❏
Quetzaltenango Guatemala
❏
San Salvador El Salvador
❏
Santo Domingo Dominican Republic
❏
Sydney Australia Temple
❏
Taipei Taiwan Temple
❏
Tampico Mexico Temple
❏
Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple
❏
The Gila Valley Arizona Temple
❏
The Hague Netherlands Temple
❏
Tijuana Mexico Temple
❏
Tokyo Japan Temple
❏
Toronto Ontario Temple
❏
Trujillo Peru Temple
❏
Tucson Arizona Temple
❏
Vancouver British Columbia
❏
Veracruz Mexico Temple
❏
Vernal Utah Temple
❏
Villahermosa Mexico Temple
❏
Washington D.C. Temple
❏
Winter Quarters Nebraska
(I know we can't attend the temple right now - let's pray that they open SOON!)
- If you
don’t have a temple recommend, what do you need to do to become worthy to
receive one? Make a list and a PLAN NOW! Right here. (I’m bossy! Sorry!)
Here is a whole page just for us to set some temple goals….
