061625, Monday

Daily Vitals: Weight: 225.7,  GMI: 6.8, Steps (previous day): 4,906

Journal Entry:

Yesterday was father's day and Cathy, as is her custom, saw it as an opportunity to host a nice get together... This time with Jake, Jill and Fredrick (Erica and Alexander were ill) and Eileen Black, Meredith's mom. Meredith was still on her way home from her trip to London to visit her sister. We had a good time and a nice visit with everyone. Cathy is going to need some time to recover. She loves putting on a nice dinner and did a great job but she's suffering today. She has difficulty recognizing that she has aged some and doesn't have the physical stamina she once did.

So today should be peaceful for me. I'm in pretty good health right now. I don't bend very well but if I did a better job of doing my physical therapy exercises that would undoubtedly help.

Come Follow Me 

D&C 64:2 For verily I say unto you, I will that ye should overcome the world; wherefore I will have compassion upon you.

"…[B]ecause Jesus Christ overcame this fallen world, and because He atoned for each of us, you too can overcome this sin-saturated, self-centered, and often exhausting world…

Each time you seek for and follow the promptings of the Spirit, each time you do anything good—things that “the natural man” would not do—you are overcoming the world.

Overcoming the world is not an event that happens in a day or two. It happens over a lifetime as we repeatedly embrace the doctrine of Christ."

President Russell M Nelson, October 2022

Elder Boyd K. Packer in his general conference address in October 2007 shared the story of bearing his testimony to the First Presidency of the Church:

Forty-six years ago I was a 37-year-old seminary supervisor. My Church calling was as an assistant teacher in a class in the Lindon Ward.

To my great surprise, I was called to meet with President David O. McKay. He took both of my hands in his and called me to be one of the General Authorities, an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

A few days later, I came to Salt Lake City to meet with the First Presidency to be set apart as one of the General Authorities of the Church. This was the first time I had met with the First Presidency—President David O. McKay and his counselors, President Hugh B. Brown and President Henry D. Moyle.

President McKay explained that one of the responsibilities of an Assistant to the Twelve was to stand with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as a special witness and to bear testimony that Jesus is the Christ. What he said next overwhelmed me: “Before we proceed to set you apart, I ask you to bear your testimony to us. We want to know if you have that witness.”

I did the best I could. I bore my testimony the same as I might have in a fast and testimony meeting in my ward. To my surprise, the Brethren of the Presidency seemed pleased and proceeded to confer the office upon me.

That puzzled me greatly, for I had supposed that someone called to such an office would have an unusual, different, and greatly enlarged testimony and spiritual power.

It puzzled me for a long time until finally I could see that I already had what was required: an abiding testimony in my heart of the Restoration of the fulness of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith, that we have a Heavenly Father, and that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. I may not have known all about it, but I did have a testimony, and I was willing to learn.[4]