Two years ago, we completed our mission in Europe. Soon after we returned, Russell M. Nelson was sustained as the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At the end of the April 2018 general conference he stated: "Our message to the world is simple and sincere: we invite all of God’s children on both sides of the veil to come unto their Savior, receive the blessings of the holy temple, have enduring joy, and qualify for eternal life." We have tried to make that invitation our priority. President Nelson has revealed "adjustments" that have helped us to minister better to our family and in our community. We have been blessed to truly learn the gospel by embracing the new Come Follow Me curriculum.
I wanted to focus a little bit on the wonderful journey we have had this year learning from the New Testament in Come Follow Me. Our time studying the life of the Savior while studying the gospels was edifying and included our trip to Israel. It didn't seem like anything could improve on the significant personal revelations that we received during those first six months of the year. However, we have been blown away with all the increased learning we have had while studying the remainder of the New Testament, especially the epistles of Paul. I had read them many times, but never really studied them. As we diligently followed the outline of Come Follow Me and followed up with additional resources, these amazing epistles have come alive for us. Through the example, teachings and witness of Paul, I feel like I have learned so much more about my Savior and His plan and doctrine. I will be forever grateful for this experience.
While studying the epistles of Paul, each week we receive significant learnings and light beyond what we had previously understood. Each comes with commitments that I must keep to continue on my eternal progression. The following is a quick list of some of these learnings and commitments.
- Becoming a "Cheerful Giver". This has helped me to serve in our Home Owners Association with a better attitude. (2 Corinthians 8-13)
- Focusing on being more Holy. I love the emphasis on the hymn "More Holiness Give Me". I know that the phrases of this hymn are individual steps that I must follow to become "holier". (1 and 2 Thessalonians)
- Let "joy" be my motivation as I encounter difficult challenges, following the example of Jesus Christ. This is a major learning to better understand how to practice charity, the pure love of Christ. (Philippians and Colossians)
- The understanding of forgiveness and the example of Paul in his letter to Philemon. This was very powerful. (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon)
- The insights of "Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation". This taught me about the true problem of the Israelites in the wilderness. They would not trust the Lord to guide them in their battles. Their fear overtook their faith. We must trust in the Lord in all of our doings, especially in his promises! (Hebrews l-6)
That leads me to the past two weeks of study of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The following comes from my journal:
"We recently finished our studies of Hebrews over the past two weeks. I have been amazingly edified by many new insights and clearer understanding. Several have been mentioned in our Come Follow Me group postings. However, I want to include some additional comments from my journal
However the highlight to all this study was the first two verses of Hebrews 12 which have become some of my very favorite verses of scripture:
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
I know that after all the witnesses that I have received I need to lay aside every weight of sin and “run with patience the race that is set before us”. That is my need, “to run the race that is set before me”, not comparing it to any other, my own personal race. And I must do it looking to my Savior who is “ the author and finisher of our faith.” This has become my favorite title of My Savior for I know that my faith is in the plan of my Heavenly Father and My Savior, they are the authors of my faith. However, after all that I can do, in addition to all that I can do, the finisher of my faith is My Savior. That tells me that I cannot finish my race, but He can. I love that imagery and perfect description of “grace”.
Then the description that President Nelson focused on three years ago, that the Savior “endured the cross” “for the joy that was set before him”. This phrase has opened my mind to the strength and motivation of Our Savior as He suffered for our sins and afflictions. It was because He in His perfect charity saw our joys that we would experience through His atonement and that gave Him purpose in His sacrifice. This is best described in a President Nelson’s words, “And what was the joy that was set before Him? Surely it included the joy of cleansing, healing, and strengthening us; the joy of paying for the sins of all who would repent; the joy of making it possible for you and me to return home—clean and worthy—to live with our Heavenly Parents and families.”
Impact from our Self-Reliance mission:
We just completed two years since we returned from our mission to Germany. We still cherish relationships with the missionaries that we served with. Every six months we have a missionary reunion. This photo was from our reunion in October. These are great people and we all love getting together. We always have plenty of good food and even better conversation.
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| This reunion included missionaries from the Europe Area from the years of 2013 to 2018 |
We also continue to serve as self-reliance facilitators. We just finished two more groups. One was the self-reliance group that we facilitated at Welfare Square with the Church Service missionaries. They were taught in three different groups, those that worked at the Storehouse, the Dairy and the Cannery. Debbie and I facilitated the Cannery and the Dairy Zones, while Elder and Sister Miller facilitated the Storehouse Zone. We met every Monday morning at 8:15 am, covering one of the My Foundation lessons until 9:15 am. These missionaries have many different abilities. Some have significant handicaps, but all have strong spirits. We have grown to love these missionaries and learned much from them. The photo below is from our last day of the 12 week course with their graduation certificates.
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| Welfae Square Church Service Missionaries with their graduation certificates |
We also completed our fourth Personal Finance Self-Reliance course for our ward. We hold the class at our home around our kitchen table. We have developed amazing relationships with each of these dear ward members. We also have found that every time we go through this course, we improve our own personal finances. Some principles and habits take time to put into practice. This photo below is missing the husband of one of the sisters (see his magnifying glass on the table) in one of our last classes. Our service project was to go and do an endowment session, lunch and a sealing session together as a class. It was a wonderful project!!
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| Our class, mission Tom Allen in the photo |
Putting our Family up on the wall:
We have been working on our new family photo and finally getting it up on the wall. We ordered a custom print and framing of the photo so that it would be big enough to see the different individuals. We also updated all of the family photos of our children, printing out new ones that were taken at our reunion. Once this was all done, we tackled getting it up on the wall. Since we had chose to put it above our staircase, the logistics got pretty complicated. Finally we broke down and bought a new ladder that was adjustable to work on the staircase to finish the job. Photos show the process and the finished project.
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| Ladder on the stairs so we could put the photos on the wall |
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| We were pretty happy with the final result. We will be showing this off to others for quite a while. We don't know if it will ever get updated again |
In addition to putting our family on the wall, we continue to cherish the experiences we have individually with many of our family members. I (Tom) have had many opportunities to spend quite a bit of individual time with some of my children. They have allowed me to be part of their lives. Many of them have limitations that came from their birth circumstances, but their hearts are good. I have been able to work with Ben to help him work on his stated priority to help the poor and the needy. His heart is so good and he has taught me so much. Moroni has allowed me to be involved in his finances. He loves his daughter and makes many sacrifices to be the best father that he can be. We have seen miracles from Heavenly Father as he has been able to overcome significant financial challenges in his life. As I visit with Camila and ponder her vey difficult health challenges, I have learned to see her a little bit like my Heavenly Father does and it fills my soul with love for her.
We also have several of our children and grandchildren who have chosen different paths in life than we would have chosen. However, we have learned to love them and their partners for who they are and the goodness of their hearts. As we get to know them better, our love for them increases. Just in the last 48 hours we have had visits with several of them and we have felt their love and respect for us while we are able to give unconditional love to them. We must continue to work on this, but we feel that we are learning to love as the Savior loves.
Family History and Temple Work:
This is an ongoing emphasis for us and many individuals helps us in this process. My mother puts information that we have gathered into Family Search every day. Debbie and I add whatever we are able to in the time we have available. We have wonderful individuals, relatives, neighbors and friends who are constantly helping perform the proxy work for our dear ancestors and relatives. Quarterly we hold sealing sessions with our siblings to do some of the sealing ordinances for our relatives.
On October 26, we had one more of these special sealing sessions with my brothers and spouses. I will share this amazing experience in the words that I wrote in my journal that night.
"Family temple sealing session. 20 couples and 53 children to parent sealings. Started with 8 of us, then Beckie and Rob and Sara had to leave after 40 minutes. Dave had to leave an hour later. We finished with Jim, Debbie and I and my mother. This was only possible due to the new policy change to allow women to serve as witnesses. What a blessing that change was for us.
We still had 5 daughters and 9 couple sealings unfinished, but completed so many sealings. All 20 couples included direct great . . . grandfathers. 17 included great . . . grandmothers. Most children sealings belonged to these couples. The sealer struggled mightily with the pronunciation of the German names. However at the end, as I listened to the last few blessings in the couple sealing, I was overcome with feelings of gratitude for the blessings that were made available during those two hours to our dear ancestors.
As I ponder where we have been able to obtain each of these names and the previous temple work done for each of them, my heart is full of gratitude to be part of this work to gather Israel on both sides of the veil. I know this is certainly part of my foreordained mission on this earth and I rejoice in the resources and opportunities that have been made available for me to assist in this great work."
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| The temple ordinances completed that day, October 26. |
My comments above about my foreordained mission was part of personal revelation that I received in our Come Follow Me Study in the early part of October in the Book of Ephesians. The following are some of my notes from that lesson:
September 30–October 13. Ephesians
“For the Perfecting of the Saints”
As I have studied predestination vs. foreordination, I read the talk from President Eyring with Debbie. He talked about us being foreordained at this time of the world to do this essential family history work. I have felt this before, but as I read the paragraph above, I knew that this is one of my foreordained responsibilities.
"Many of your ancestors did not receive those ordinances. But in the providence of God, you did. And God knew that you would feel drawn to your ancestors in love and that you would have the technology necessary to identify them. He also knew that you would live in a time when access to holy temples, where the ordinances can be performed, would be greater than ever in history. And He knew that He could trust you to accomplish this work in behalf of your ancestors."
Halloween:
One of our best family activities each year is our Halloween party. This year was very special, because our granddaughter McKenzie took charge of the party and we were able to just participate and enjoy. This was part of a YoungWomen's project for her Young Women's Medallion before the end of the year.
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| McKenzie, in charge, Harry Potter style |
Debbie put a lot of time in making our costumes for the party. This was accomplished with some purchases and modifications. We thought it turned out really well. We dressed up as Germans.
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| The German costumes looking pretty authentic |
One thing that makes this party really fun is the involvement of the different families and their own costumes. The following are photos of many of the families from the party or on Halloween Day.
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| Jared and his family as unicorns |
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| Beckie's kids with a Harry Potter twist and Batman |
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| Jamie's kids in a different style for each of them. Cousin Tiancom is in the middle of this photo also. |
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| Gina's family were the Incredibles |
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| Kari's family included her grandchild with her parents |
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| Pollyanna and her daughters |
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| Four cousins together, included Tiare and Arianna who were not in the previous photos |
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| River and Adriane and their kids came over to our house on Halloween night, dressed as wolves |
Birthdays:
Photos of a few of the birthday celebrations of our grandchildren this past month:
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| Asher blowing out his cake, turning nine |
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| Asher opening his card and present (dinosaur came from the parents) |
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| Natalia turning twelve |
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| McKenzie turning twelve |
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| Caide, turning 17 |
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| Katelyn's choir sang at the tabernacle with 7 other high schools to celebrate Veteran's Day |
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| Abbie celebrating her accomplishments in Activity Days |
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| Isake playing in the championship game for his football league |
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| Shoes from Ammon and Tommy |
