090624, Friday

Vitals: Weight: 221.7, GMI: 7.0

Book of Mormon review (review of earlier Come Follow Me lessons): 

Helaman 3

Journal Entry:

I served as a substitute in the temple today. So far this week I served Tuesday and Thursday in the Bishops Storehouse and Wednesday and Friday in the temple. It feels good to have served that much but I'm feeling like it was too much for a 78 year old guy recovering from two recent spinal surgeries. Plus Cathy and I are going to an endowment session on Saturday morning. If it was necessary that's one thing but I am feeling that two shifts at the Bishops Storehouse and one shift as an Ordinance Worker each week is sufficient. Then going to the temple on Saturdays as a patron is a lot more enjoyable.

Come Follow Me 

Helaman 12:2-3, Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.

And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.

"...[T]he challenge to remember has always been the hardest for those who are blessed abundantly. Those who are faithful to God are protected and prospered. That comes as the result of serving God and keeping His commandments. But with those blessings comes the temptation to forget their source. It is easy to begin to feel the blessings were granted not by a loving God on whom we depend but by our own powers...

The key to the remembering that brings and maintains testimony is receiving the Holy Ghost as a companion. It is the Holy Ghost who helps us see what God has done for us."