Cry & Pray

Helping to prepare for a wedding

This morning, I read an article from this month's Ensign on defending marriage and family.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/08/the-proclamation-on-the-family-transcending-the-cultural-confusion?lang=eng

I ask each of you to read it along with the proclamation to the world on the family.

https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng&cid=PA0414-02

As you read, please let the words resonate within you and commit anew to be a valiant defender of marriage and family, to uphold the plan of God and His divine commandments.

My companion and I are extremely privileged at this time to teach many couples and many families. We struggle and cry and pray to help them receive the gospel so that they may find peace and security within themselves, within their relationships, and for their children.

It is a miracle for me to see them little by little, being filled with gospel light.

M and A... are a Tahitian-Italian couple with three children. Their questions are golden. They ask things such as: Why are there so many churches on the Earth today? Where is the authority? Is the eating of the fruit by Adam and Eve really a bad thing? Do our small children need to be baptized? Do we need to be baptized? We LOVE teaching them because they are thirsty for understanding, hungering after answers and we are filled with joy as we teach them because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the answers!

A and T... are another couple we teach who want to be married, want to be baptized by immersion to follow Jesus Christ, and they want eternal life. Yesterday, T... says that he is looking for a job so that he can earn money to pay for their wedding. We promised them as they put spiritual things as priority, they will be taken care of temporally and Heavenly Father will help them to obey the commandments. We are so excited to see the miracles that will come into their lives this week.

The family T-R... is progressing well. Both parents want to be baptized because of the examples of their children. They hold family home evening 3 nights a week and help their children to memorize scriptures. After coming to church this past week, some drunk men came and demolished their house (house being: tree trunks and a roof covered with sheet metal, and a dirt floor surfacing the area of about 10x14 feet). They can't stay there or collect their possessions (clothes and bedding) until the police file all the reports. But they are holding strong and trying to make the best of it, still making time for their lessons and trying to take care of their children.

I am grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am grateful that we can be Saints as we are 'sinners who keep on trying'. I am grateful to see the blessings of gospel living and the safety that comes from living the commandments. I am grateful for the prophet and the weight he carries. I am grateful for miracles. I am grateful for adversity because it brings refinement. I am grateful for refinement, even though it hurts. I am grateful for Jesus Christ. And I am grateful for the opportunities we are given each day to try and follow in His footsteps and do the things which He would do.

Let us each try a little harder to be a little better everyday.

Soeur Spackman