Scrappers

With the help of some loyal friends, my wife and I have taken over the responsibilities of the youth wrestling club here. To our surprise and delight over 90 kids have signed up and are participating with us - nearly double what it has been in past years!  What a great group of kids too!  I genuinely love the sport like kids love cake :).  We are the Silver Creek Scrappers.
This week especially, in practice we have discussed what it means to be a scrapper. We have developed drills around and worked hard to develop this attribute in our wrestlers.  For what it is worth, here is my definition - A scrapper is someone who recognizes, seizes and takes full advantage of the opportunities they are given.  Scrappers work hard, are opportunistic, and filled with a positive hopeful attitude.  They anxiously await, even expect, each coming opportunity and know that hard work and hustle will help them take full advantage of it.    
I aspire not just to be a "scrappy" wrestler I guess, but a scrappy person overall.  We each have so many opportunities to do good.  Many more than we are ever able to handle.  Some of them feel different than others though.  They seem to bear heaven's recommendation.  Those are the ones that need to be seized immediately and magnified.  Each time that I have done so, I have found joy and fulfillment in increasing measure.  Each time I have hesitated or neglected to take such an opportunity I have missed out.  Just because it s right though, doesn't mean that it will be easy.  Like with our wrestling club - it will, more often than not, be a scrap. 

To missionary work

I've decided that missionary work is right up there with my favorite things to do.  Yep, right next to bouncing around with an upside down sleeping bag on my head with my kids on the trampoline.  Okay, okay -- even better than that  (hard to believe, ..I know). 
In all honesty, I have coveted at times the great opportunity it would be to raise my family out in the mission field as a mission president.  I have wanted my kids to be there - young enough to be  in the home and around the Elders and Sisters from time to time.  I have imagined fondly what a great mission mother Deana would be, and the great need she would fill as more and more sister missionaries hit the mission field and mission 'mother' responsibilities increase.
What a time to be alive too!  The Lord is hastening His work, gathering His elect with increasing speed and efficiency and we get to be part of it all!  As the prophet lowered the missionary eligibility age for both males and females the Church saw a jump from 700 to 4000 new missionary accounts being opened online in the weeks following the announcement!  I'm not certain that can continue at such a pace, but imagine -- even if it is just double continuously at 1400.  What that would mean for the world and for the harvest...
Our stake has made Preach My Gospel the 2013 FHE curriculum -- the youth, Church wide, are also going to be taught in a new more engaged and interactive way with their new curriculum.  MTC stays will be shorter, and more missionary training will be required of wards, and more specifically families beforehand.  Temples have been dotting the earth at an elevated pace for years now as we push toward the incredible 170 mark!  Seminaries and institutes are also unveiling a new retooled curriculum for teaching the Book of Mormon for the next school year to match their newly drafted objective and points of emphasis.
All this happening now means that the field is whiter than ever!  It is time to stand up and help move this work forward like never before!
I remember hearing when I was in the MTC that this stone - the one seen by Daniel in vision would roll forth to fill the earth, but only if it went forward by the hands of the members.  I see this announcement and moving missionary training back into the home to some degree infusing the joy of the missionary service back into the homes of members as well.  How can they help but share as they teach their children to do that very thing?!  I am so grateful to be able to be a part of it in a small way.  What a neat thing thing it is to share the gospel with those you love and care about.  As great as it is in the mission field, sharing the gospel at home in your community is to me even better.  My family can now be part of this wonderful experience and feel the great blessings of it!  Being able to link arms with those you love and live with in a community and seek together to try to be like Jesus is such a great blessing!  So here's to the increasing momentum of that rolling and growing stone and the thrill it is to be along for the ride with the people I love very most in all the world!
       

Something for Everyone

 
 
Something for Everyone Video Link

Sharing General Conference

Faith Always Faces Forward

In the midst of studying and teaching about Abraham I found myself dissatisfied and even a little depressed that I am not a more effective teacher.  I desire the ability to make a difference in their lives for good so much that my impotence to do so is very painful at times.  Isaiah and Jeremiah must have had such incredible personal struggles in their efforts with a people much more difficult than the youth I teach.  They are good here - just distracted and reckless sometimes.  I worry sometimes that they are not being prepared the way they need to be for the challenges that certainly lurk up ahead.
I found hope in a great devotional message and a subtle reminder.  The devotional was given by Jeffrey R. Holland at BYU in 2009.  It's title, "Remember Lot's Wife"  Among the many great lines was found the one I chose for the title of this post. 
Abram has been promised that he will be a father -- his name even means "exalted father."  This is obviously what he desires most.  The power, wealth, and land he has obtained leave him empty and still crying to his Father in Heaven for a son.  God promises and Abram believes him.  That's that...simple faith.  Yet Abraham must still wait nearly 15 years for its fulfillment - for the birth of his covenant son Isaac.  The name Isaac denotes both laughter and rejoicing in the Hebrew.  In my estimation, it must the laughter and rejoicing that comes as one stands speechless both amazed and overwhelmed at the great blessings that the Lord pours out upon them.  This is the emotion of Isaac - the lesson of the covenant son.  Sarah and Abraham share it nearly in disbelief.  They had hoped against hope, and now it was truly coming to pass - truly and solely through the power of the Only Begotten of the Father.  The reminder was simple - a scene from a dream that has brought me to teaching - a new understanding of the dream and it's message that have made me both grateful and have given me faith in the future.  Of a truth, it is as bright as my faith.  I see more clearly now the vision that is placed before me, and rejoice in He who wiped away the tears that obscured my vision.

Volunteer -- Take II

You know those times when you sit around with friends and talk about what you really "ought" to do.  Well I came away from one of those in April sometime convinced that we were serious.  The more people I talked to, the more excited I got.  So I did it - I submitted the sanctioning papers to the national governing body, I created a web site, I went out and contacted sponsors, set up the registration account, opened a bank account started a 501c3 not for profit corporation and (wait for it...) I'm directing a triathlon this weekend.  We have been in the paper three times, my wife is training for the triathlon, my supervisor is volunteering to help under me (a little awkward), and 70 people have signed up to date paying 65-75$ each.  We have raised around $4,000 for the local pool.  It will be neat to see what they can do with it.
This has been a big whirlwind of adventure for me - I feel grateful the Lord put me in position to step back and try my hand at these things.
These experiences have not only been exciting to me, they have blessed many of my relationships.  They  have also streamlined my views about volunteerism -- It feels wonderfully patriotic to seek to build your community.  It feels great to put your self to considerable trouble to make a difference.  Seeking to be anxiously engaged in a good cause has helped me come to know myself better and feel more connected to my community.     

"Hesed"

Recently I was made aware of a Hebrew word as part of my preparation to teach the Old Testament this year.  The word is "Hesed."  Hebrew terms, the teacher explained were more general than English terms usually - I found this one deeply personal nonetheless.  Hesed is translated in the Old Testament as mercy, loving kindness, or goodness in the King James Version.  In Hebrew it denotes, "an attitude of man or God which arises out of a mutual relationship."  It is shown in "the little things a person does in a covenant relationship to express love." 
As I thought about "hesed," my mind was drawn back to Elder Bednar's address regarding the "tender mercies of the Lord" noted by both Nephi and himself -- that God would have his favorite hymn sung in General Conference before his first address.  That sure beats unexpected flowers for my wife - it is certainly more personal - and more covenant focused.  Then I thought how many many more opportunities a person has to show love in little ways in a covenant relationship - I can show my wife and my God my love and loyalty today by pushing out any impure thought that may enter my mind.  I can show my love to my family by studying the scriptures with the intent to be led in my daily decisions in the home.  I can show love by praying silently for the welfare and happiness of my wife and children, these and countless others can fill my days.
What is infinitely more impressive though is the was my Father in Heaven shows his love to me.  What a wonderful thing it is to be alive another moment to experience his beautiful and powerful love.  What a beautiful concept is encompassed in the Hebrew word "Hesed!"