My decluttering project last week was to get rid of unwanted picture frames and to frame some treasures in the basement. I matched art to frames and collected a big box of frames for donation. I completed my goal to declutter, but the basement floor is covered in art, so it’s hard to tell.
Words by Elder Karl D. Hirst
Paige and her family are coming to visit soon. I can’t wait.
At the family cabin last summer, Mark hid and posed about 50 tiny monkeys for people to discover. I found one wrapped in twine attached to a plastic spider, as if it had been captured by the spider. When my mom found one in a funny place, she told me about it. I confessed to her that the whole cabin had been “Marked.”
Monkeys. Googly eyes on pictures. Funny scenes made with toys. Steadily, these things are spreading wherever Mark goes in the world. At home, I keep in place these little pieces of his humor. It is fun to be “Marked.”
Daniel and McKenna are now Provo residents. We are thankful for all the pieces that came together so they could make this move. Daniel will no longer have that long commute to school at BYU.
We also had a video call with Elder Ross, so it was a bit of a reunion this afternoon.
Fun fact: I think that Tim is Daniel and McKenna’s landlord. 😄 Tim’s new adventure is that he is a property manager at my dad’s company.
Our kids didn’t have social media accounts until late in high school or after high school. This post showed up this week on Facebook from Mark, written in Danish. Missionaries in Denmark are having a lot of success on Facebook, which isn’t their generation’s social media platform of choice. So, despite being new to this part of the social media world, they post their hearts.
As I studied Joseph Smith’s First Vision this week, I made note of two words. What do you learn from the use of these words?
From President Eyring,
Joseph Smith’s experience is a pattern we can follow to recognize personal messages from God…
There may be many reasons God could speak so powerfully to young Joseph, but a primary reason was that his heart was ready.
A BROKEN HEART IS A PREPARED HEART
Joseph had a broken heart for at least two reasons. He wanted forgiveness of his sins and weaknesses, which he knew could only come through Jesus Christ. And he was desperate to know which of the contending churches was right and which he should join.
-Henry B Eyring, The First Vision: A Pattern for Personal Revelation, February 2020.
I think broken hearts are repentant and teachable, humble and malleable. I want a heart like Joseph.
A winter storm in the South has caused a delay in my parents’ departure to Puerto Rico. Richard and I picked them up from the airport after a rough start to their journey and they are staying with us for a couple of days. This unexpected visit has been wonderful for me, a tender mercy from Heavenly Father, who knows my heart. My parents are anxious to be in their assigned mission, but they have taken some needed rest here before their big adventure continues.
I liked studying the Restoration proclamation in my personal study. I colored the words about Heavenly Father in one color, Jesus Christ in another, angels, the Holy Ghost, Joseph Smith, etc all in their own colors. Jesus Christ had the most words about him, but the Father is the driving force, the planner, the initiator of all that Jesus does. Joseph Smith gets a very modest amount of attention, which is appropriate.
When a masterful musician plays, the instrument is important, but not as important as the musician. And there would be nothing without the composer.
I see Heavenly Father as the composer of the plan to save His children, and Jesus Christ as the masterful musician who carries out that plan. I think of Joseph Smith as an instrument who proclaimed the restored truth of Heavenly Father’s plan.