Aug 20-26, 2023
SUNDAY
Today Doug spoke in church and did a wonderful job. Following is his talk (English), but he actually gave it in Dutch.
CHARITY (Naastenliefde)
Some years ago a priests quorum decided to gather food for the needy as a service project. Pieter, one of the priests, was excited to participate and was determined to collect more food than anyone else. The time arrived when the priests met at the chapel. They all went out at the same time and returned at a specified time later in the evening. To everyone’s surprise, Pieter’s cart was empty. He seemed rather sober, and some of the boys made fun of him. Seeing this the adviser said, “Come outside, Pieter.”
When they got outside, the adviser asked Pieter if he was upset. Pieter said, “No, not really. But when I went out to collect the food, I really got a lot. My cart was full. As I was returning to the chapel, I stopped at the home of a nonmember woman who is divorced and lives within our ward boundaries. I knocked on the door and explained what we were doing, and she invited me in. She began to look for something to give me. She opened the refrigerator, and I could see there was hardly anything in it. The cupboards were bare. Finally, she found a small can of pears.
“I could hardly believe it. There were all these little kids running around that needed to be fed, and she handed me this can of pears. I took it and put it in my cart and went on up the street. I got about halfway up the block when I just felt warm all over and knew I needed to go back to that house. I gave her all the food.”
The adviser said, “Pieter, don’t you ever forget the way you feel tonight, because that’s what it is all about.” Pieter had [experienced the joy] of selfless service.
He had experienced charity, the pure love of Christ.
Spiritual Nutrients
October 2006
James E. Faust
How Can Charity Strengthen Our Testimonies
Foundational Principles of Charity are described in:
Matthew 22:36-39
36 Master, what if the greatest commandment?
37 Jesus said unto him, [FIRST] Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, [SECOND] Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
When this pure love of Christ—or charity—envelops us, we think, feel, and act more like Heavenly Father and Jesus would think, feel, and act. Our motivation and heartfelt desire are like unto that of the Savior. He shared this desire with His Apostles on the eve of His Crucifixion. He said:
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you. …
“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34–35).
The love the Savior described is an active love. It is not manifested through large and heroic deeds but rather through simple acts of kindness and service.
Finding Joy through Loving Service (Vreugde vinden in liefdevol dienstbetoon)
April 2011,M. Russell Ballard
What is Charity
47 … charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; …
48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.
“As you pray to have charity fill your heart, [1] you will taste of God’s love. [2] Your love for people will increase, and [3] you will come to feel a sincere concern for their eternal happiness. [4] You will see them as children of God with the potential of becoming like Him, and you will labor in their behalf.”
“As you pray for the gift of charity, you [5] will be less inclined to dwell on negative feelings such as anger or envy. You will [6] become less likely to judge or criticize others. You will have [7] more desire to try to understand them and their points of view. You will [8] become more patient and try to help people when they are struggling or discouraged.”
Heavenly Father bestows it ‘upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; … that when he shall appear we shall be like him, … that we may be purified even as he is pure’”
Charity is a foundational principle in our relationship with God and becoming more like Him. If we develop the Christ-like attribute of charity we come to know, love, and understand God and Christ; thus our testimony of God the Father and Christ becomes stronger and deeper.
Why? Because as we become more like Christ – more charitable – we draw closer to him and our testimony of Christ grows and we become more like him.
How did Jesus Christ show charity?
Ether 12:33-34
33 And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men.
34 And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father.
How can we become more charitable?
One way we can become charitable is by studying the life of Jesus Christ and keeping His commandments. We can study what He did in certain situations and do the same things when we are in the same kinds of situations.
Second, when we have uncharitable feelings, we can pray to have greater charity. Mormon urges us, “Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love [charity], which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ” (Moroni 7:48).
Third, we can learn to love ourselves, which means that we understand our true worth as children of our Heavenly Father. The Savior taught that we must love others as we love ourselves (see Matthew 22:39). To love ourselves, we must respect and trust ourselves. This means that we must be obedient to the principles of the gospel. We must repent of any wrongdoings. We must forgive ourselves when we have repented. We will come to love ourselves better when we can feel the deep, comforting assurance that the Savior truly loves us.
Fourth, we can avoid thinking we are better than other people. We can have patience with their faults. Joseph Smith said, “The nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 428–29).
Hoofdstuk 30: Naastenliefde
Evangeliebeginselen
MONDAY
District Council is every Monday morning now. It is a good adjustment and allows the Elders and Sisters to start the week off in a very good way.
Elder Doxford gave the spiritual thought today. He said sometimes when he really needs to hear something, he notices or 'hears' it three times. For example, yesterday he was studying in Alma 32:28, [the word of God] will 'enlighten my understanding'. In Preach My Gospel chapter 4 under the heading 'Learn to Recognize the Promptings of the Spirit', President Gordon B Hinckley said,"...that which enlighteneth, that which buildeth up, that which is positive and affirmative and uplifting and leads us to better thoughts and better words and better deeds is of the Spirit of God." The third time he noticed this word was when they were driving to the President's house, he randomly chose a talk to listen to."The Spirit of Revelation" by David A Bednar. Elder Bednar also spoke about enlightening your understanding. Recognizing that God enlightens our understanding allows us to also recognize revelation. As we act upon those impressions, we receive more understanding and enlightenment.
Miracles continue in the office. The monthly Rent payments are Pre-set and easy to do as I compare each of the 41 rent payments to a spreadsheet. Today I made the payments, but before sending them for the President to approve, I paid the other invoices. So instead of just clicking and sending, I had to go through one by one. And I noticed that the changes I made last month with a change in Vendor, had not been completed in IMOS. Had I not needed to go through each payment, I would have missed it and the old Vendor would have been paid the rent. It not only caused the correct Vendor to be paid on time, but saved so much time by not having to try to fix it. I'm grateful (again!) that the Lord guided me today...even in the small and simple things having to do with my office assignment.
TUESDAY
One of the sweet things of interacting with the missionaries is also communicating with their parents. I have sent dozens of emails to parents over the past 2 years with a picture and short note about their son or daughter. Always we are thanked and occasionally get a follow-up email. Elder Vanderlinden had written in his 'weekly' The Glausers, who are the senior couple in charge of finances and transportation, will soon be leaving and so they gave their departing testimonies. It's hard to describe the impact they've had on just about every missionary in our mission. They are two of the most incredible people I have ever met and to hear their testimonies was a great blessing. , his mom forwarded it to us, we thanked her and then got this reply:
Dear Sister Glauser,
The Rotterdam Zone had a Sister's P-Day in Gouda today. It was good to see them for a few minutes at the office!
This evening we visited Harm and Kitty Wolthers, friends from the Utrecht Ward. They are leaving on holiday tomorrow to go to Greece and we wanted to give them a little travel gift. They have been married 46 years and recently finished the Temple Preparation classes. They plan to be sealed in the temple soon. It has been our pleasure to get to know them.
WEDNESDAY
The Departing Missionaries, their companions and a few others went to the temple today. We had mixed emotions as we realized this is the last time we will be at The Hague Temple with a group of our missionaries. It warms our hearts to see them there and we get a little glimpse of eternity.
THURSDAY
Audrey Omer and her husband are new Senior missionaries here. They are serving as Military Relations and since she is a nurse, she will be taking over as the Mission Health Advisor. We had a second training session today and she said she is feeling more comfortable, but their apartment still does not have internet service and the phones are a little sketchy as they live right on the border of Belgium and Netherlands. Once all that gets sorted out, I will hand over the duties to her. Hopefully it will happen soon, as next week I need to start training the new Financial secretary.
This week our missionaries have a goal to find 100 new people to teach. The Road to 100! Every day there is a new video, assigned by the APs, to motivate everyone to get out there and find! Friday is our day so today Doug filmed a short video with the help of the Content Team, Sister Bair and Sister Anderson.
It will be fun to see how the Sisters edit it. Hopefully it is motivating to the missionaries!
FRIDAY
Moving Day! Today we spent most of the day packing, cleaning and moving to a vacation rental to finish out our mission. Elder and Sister Johnson will be here Sunday to take over in the office for us and they will be living in the apartment we have been in for the past 20 months. We need to train them for a couple weeks, so we moved to another place. It is one of several short-stay apartments in the renovated Rectory of the Catholic Church next door. We are still just a 10 minute walk to the office so it will be very convenient.
SATURDAY
We attended the Temple today, invited by Elder De Jong. He is one of the service missionaries and received his endowment today. He works two days a week in the office and we have really come to love him. What a wonderful day!
Comments
Post a Comment