The Transforming Power of Faith and Character - Richard G. Scott

  When Elder Scott was in our home he left a connection with our family.  They were young and he found the way to connect with them by building some paper airplanes sitting on the floor of the family room.  Then in his suit, he went outside with them and flew them.  He was then and still is what he teaches us.
  There is so much in this talk that it needs to be read and pondered to be understood personally.  Some influential quotes I like:

• Faith in the future is demonstrated by a couple sealed in the temple.  ...when the challenges intended to be growth opportunities come, they will find ways, as prompted by the Holy Ghost, to overcome them in ways that are productive and character building.
• ...character is not developed in moments of great challenge or temptation.  That is when it is intended to be used.
• Hugh B. Brown said: "Wherever in life great spiritual values await man's appropriation, only faith can appropriate them.  Man cannot live without faith, because in life's adventure the central problem is character building - which is not the product of logic, but of faith in ideals and sacrificial devotion to them."
• Thus every time you try your faith - that is, act in worthiness on an impression - you will receive the confirming evidence of the Spirit.
• Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes.
• Your happiness on earth as well as your eternal salvation require many correct decisions, none of which is difficult to make.
• You cannot be passive in life, or in time the natural man will undermine your efforts to live worthily.
• Satan's increasing influence in the world is allowed to provide an atmosphere in which to prove ourselves.  While he causes havoc today, Satan's final destiny was fixed by Jesus Christ through His Atonement and the Resurrection.

  It seems there is no end to adversity, pride, covetous desires, contention or other challenges in the quest for character and that is as it should be during this life.

Never Leave Him - Neil L. Andersen

  This is so timely here in our area of Brasil.  In this district, the leaders here have told us that over 30 returned missionaries have "left Him."  We hope events will bring some of them back during our stay but access is hard. 
  The story of Frederick G. Williams brings us to his family connection with JR Price and the calling of one of his great grandchildren: (From my Journal)

        In the early fall of 1926, Elder Melvin J. Ballard spoke at the Phoenix Ward just after returning from opening the South American Mission.  My grandfather, James Robert Price was the bishop of the ward at that time.  One of the attendees at that meeting was a young man, Frederick S. Williams.  Brother Williams had not been considering a mission at that time, but this talk was a pivotal point in his life.  Soon after, Bishop Price interviewed him for a mission.  He was sent with another young man from the ward, Paul Davis.  Soon after, J.R. Price was called to be the Stake President of the Phoenix Stake from which Elder Williams left for his mission.

  Upon receiving my mission call to Brazil, the first person I called to announce this news to was my Grandfather, James Robert Price, the then President of the Mesa Temple.  Upon telling him that I had my call, he calmly told me that I was going to Brazil!  How did he know?

  Now we know of Fredrick G. Williams (a grandchild of Frederick S. Williams) again as the Temple President in Recife, Brasil.  He was the Assistant to President Bangerter when I arrived on my mission in 1962.

  From this article, I emphasize that we all have only one "personal enemy."  We will always have mortal animosities between people, but remember they are caused by the success of the Enemy who lives his marks on each of us in offences, accusations, contention, then counter-accusations.  Peter warned, "your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." He is the cause of the wars down to the personal dis-affections of our times. They are only temporary. Our acquiescence is more permanent, less we repent.

Temple Mirrors of Eternity: A Testimony of Family - Gerrit W. Gong

After reading this talk, I was humbled to learn and then research some interesting points.  He mentioned that Gerrit de Jong, Jr. was an influence on his mother Jean Gong.  I remember well brother Gerrit de Jong as he taught Portuguese there at BYU and during the one semester that I was there, he was my teacher and I was able to test out 16 credit hours of A in Portuguese.

Our family should know a few things about us.  Sunday, November 21 will the the birthday of Nonny Allen’s grandfather, Charles Marsteller Alexander.  We should all have a party for him in our family that evening!  Before calling Mom and Dad, on Wednesday, I checked for birthdays in our line and found that Charles Marsteller Alexander was born on November 21, 1846.  On the phone call, Mom was pleased to remember this and told me that he lived with them in the Palm Lane house for many years.  This is her grandfather.  His wife had died in 1913.  He used to get up and fix toast with sugar for Mom and her siblings.  He also liked to sit on the porch and chew tobacco, spitting it in the bushes nearby!  Dad said that his grandfather also had that habit and that it was not uncommon among members of the Church in that time.  I’m sure they have both kicked the habit where they are now. Grandfather Alexander would get on the street car and go get his haircut.  One day he fell from the street car and no one saw him so he laid there until an acquaintance of the family who knew him helped him get home.  He had a broken leg which then never fully mended and he died from it.

Now some perspective about the eternal nature of what we are about in this earth life.  Brother Gong said that he is in the 33rd generation of his direct line.  Well the software that I use has an icon labeled “treetops.”  This creates a report of all the direct lines from any person to the earliest ancestor in the record.  I am in the 26th generation of that oldest treetop.  The treetop person is Johannes De Kawode of England, born about 1200 AD.  I could list all of those direct line people, all 26 of them but you would put this aside for “later.”  Just a few points:

John Cawood, a Printer was born in1514 in Cawood, England.  The appellation, printer was somehow attached to his name.  If you know a little history, you know that this was the time that printing was changing the world.  Now copies of one document or book could be made after one “setup.”  People began to be able to read the Bible and other important things.  This began the turmoil that caused many of our ancestors to leave England shortly thereafter and set the stage for the Restoration of the the Church of Christ.

Some generations later, Mary Virginia Marsteller, another direct ancestor in this line, married Henry Samuel Alexander on October 12, 1845 in Nauvoo, Illinois.

The rest is history or so they say.

Now, that is a lot of people when you look at the 26 individuals and all of the children born into these families and their families down to today.  Every one of them had a story.  Can you imagine the stories!  Many were part of the great historical events that changed their lives and of course ours too.  Because of the love of the Savior for all of us and them, they can all repent and be baptized in our time.  What a blessing.

This information was at a dead end for many years until Rick Price engineered the break-through with some help of others.  That is another story in and of itself.

Our Very Survival - Kevin R. Duncan

  In our time we do not hear much of the fact that many did not follow Brigham Young's counsel to "...go, now, and plant ... your ... seeds."  Many left for California, some following the lure of gold.  His prophecies about the Salt Lake Valley have come true over time.  It begs the question; What happened to the families that went on?  I have read books, not a few, on the topics mentioned giving us temporal advice but life's experiences have taught me to come back to the teachings of the living prophets.  They were and are right for our time on earth.
  Once again we hear about the "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet."  Elder Claudio Costa from Brasil referred to these in his earlier talk.  They must be important for our time.  The points define a "Prophet" by what we can look to and expect as his followers.  I will not list them again but we should all read them to focus our thoughts on what it is that we hear from these men.  It makes it clear that we have the source for setting the parameters of important decisions we make.

Faith-the Choice is Yours - Richard C. Edgley

  You can boil all the confusion and temptation down to his suggestion;  "That choice is faith."  To make that choice to have faith requires us to ask and then follow Alma's 7 words to be used following our choice to have faith.

1. Awake
2. Arouse
3. Experiment
4. Exercise
5. Desire
6. Work
7. Plant

See if you can find the use of these actual action words in relation to gaining faith within his talk.  All were used but one was only alluded to unless you can find it.
  The daily use of the actions regarding faith will then result in being able to testify and know that Jesus is the Christ and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet.
  This would be a good talk to use in a Family Home Evening with a game being made at the end using the 7 words in some activity.

Let There Be Light! - Quentin L. Cook

  Elder Cook gives us a commentary on the declining morality of the nations of the world and how we should and must relate to it.  "...we need to do our best to preserve light and protect our families and communities from this assault on morality and religious freedom.  Rather than repeat the factors that we have heard often and try to live, I would suggest that a detour to the reference to the commencement address given by Clayton Christensen at South New Hampshire University last year.  The title and topic may be important to our quest to understand a live a better and more careful life.  "The Importance of the Right Question" leads to thinking about how we might better approach our life's journey.  He says; "Unfortunately, most of us are so eager to formulate the right answer and then begin implementing it that we often forget to think about whether the right question has been asked."  Here are the questions he recommended to the graduates to ask themselves:

• What is the purpose of my life?
• Does my behavior reflect the instincts of honesty, integrity, respect and consideration for others that must be my contributions to our nation?
• If not, what changes must I resolve to make?
• How can I do for others the things that bring me enduring happiness?

  If you really have the desire and time to ponder (and interpret the old scottish language), I recommend finding the Robert Burns poem referred to in Note 21 of Elder Cook's talk.  It is sweet and brings our focus back to the foundation of family.  This effort to ponder and understand has great blessings in store for each humble seeker.

Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life - Robert D. Hales

  It is interesting that the online dictionary had 10 definitions of the word "agency" and not one of them expressed the most important defininition in light of our happiness and progress.  That definition is key to our understanding the plan of salvation and happiness.  "Agency is to act with accountability and responsibility for our actions."
  I loved the story, oft repeated, of painting himself into a corner.  We do not always see the impending consequence of a choice, but perhaps with more care in our choices we can at least avoid our self-imposed consequences or corners.
  "Selective Obedience" illustrated by the story of Saul is always a risk in our lives.  Perhaps one of the most important issues with our society is the selective obedience regarding debt.  It is easy to think that debt is ok when used to start or build a business.  Isn't that different from credit card debt or other personal debt?  But his counsel is; "As we obey the counsel to avoid and get out of debt now, we use our agency and obtain the liberty to use our disposable income for helping and blessing others."  At least in this matter, are we like Saul being selectively obedient?
  We should use this test in conjunction with prayer whenever our personal wisdom seems to be contradicted by scripture or prophetic counsel.  This tool is readily available, now more than ever.
  It is wonderful that when we find ourselves "painted into a corner" we have the opportunity to repent and therefore pay the price to get back.

Of Things That Matter Most - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

  In reading President Uchtdorf’s talk, several things resound to experiences more current and also on point for me.  Talking about slowing down for the “speed bumps” we understand this at one level in North America.  In Brasil however, it has a much more poignant meaning.  The name of these very large bumps here is “quebra molas” or translated “break the shocks.”  If you do not slow down, you will very likely break the shocks or maybe even worse.  Like the speed bumps of life, sometimes here they are not marked and at night you may hit them at speed to your detriment. 

  Commenting also about “...what does it have to do with flying an airplane?”  I remember early in my flying lessons coming in too low and too slow for a landing at the Glendale airport.  I became very concerned as I could see the large vehicles on Grand Avenue there in front of us.  I expected my instructor to take over and make the corrections needed but he just sat there with his arms folded and asked; “what are you going to do, let us crash?”  The natural response to this situation would have been to pull back on the yoke and lift the plane higher, but that would have had the most dangerous effect of slowing the plane down, perhaps even to the stall level.  Fortunately, I remembered to apply power and slowly seek the appropriate approach configuration.  The same lesson is here to approach challenges and difficulties carefully and appropriately and not to overreact and make it worse.

  While not expanding our "to do list," his counsel includes these four important activities to improve upon:

1. First, our relationship with God is most sacred and vital.
2. Our second key relationship is with our families.
3. The third key relationship we have is with our fellowman.
4. The fourth key relationship is with ourselves.

  I love this talk and am so thankful for this Senior Mission time where we have been given the gift of time to use in these most important relationships.