From Dad: February 15, 2015

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Re:  Letter 11 of 3

Dear Riley:

The day is beautiful!  The sun is shining, the temperature is in the 60’s, a March-like wind is blowing and insects are flying around.  The Crocuses are in full bloom and it feels like early spring is in full swing.  We just celebrated Valentine’s Day, which happened to fall on Stake Conference.  In spite of the additional demands on our schedule, we managed to commemorate the occasion appropriately.  We had a delicious steak lunch at Texas Roadhouse and attended a sealing session at the Provo Temple.  I got home just 10 minutes before a leadership training meeting and had a little over an hour between my training meeting and the adult evening session.  G P sat with us and came for ice cream at Baskin Robins afterwards.  We had an enjoyable time and visited until they turned the lights out on us. 

I’ve been feeling for awhile that I need to be closer to the youth of our Ward, so fixed breakfast for those who attended the temple on Thursday.  We had five extra for breakfast and had a lot of food left over.  They all seemed to enjoy it and the general consensus was that we should do it more often.  Friday, I opted to go on the Scout winter campout up at Heber Valley Camp.  It was a good turnout with 9 boys attending.  It was a relatively quick trip and a little raucous (thank goodness for earplugs), but a good experience.  Parker came along and the boys seemed to appreciate his company. 

While up at Heber Valley Camp, we had a short devotional in which we discussed Lehi’s dream of the Tree of Life.  This is something which has become very meaningful to me over the past year, and I see aspects of it played out in vivid Technicolor almost daily.  There is a movement sweeping through the Church which is claiming young and old alike.  Though there are diverse ways in which individuals are lost, every single individual swept away by it lets go of the word.  They stop doing those small and simple things that build faith and testimony and venture off onto forbidden paths.  Not necessarily in this order, but Church attendance wanes, tithing isn’t paid, scripture study is neglected, personal and family prayer is forsaken, the power of fasting is ignored, FHE & regular temple attendance are replaced with other pursuits… Not surprisingly, they start to have a faith crisis. 

Tuesday there was an LDS excommunication which was widely publicized and garnered national attention.  Naturally, the Church declines to comment on such matters, so the only voice is the detractor who lost his membership over a blog specifically designed to help members transition out of the Church, and for being baptized into another church, becoming a minister, and performing same sex marriages for his friends.  At any rate, he told his Bishop over a year ago to not consider him a member of the congregation, but specifically asked that his name remain on the records of the Church.  Why do this?  Because there is no story if you just leave and have your name removed.  He wanted to force the Church’s hand to excommunication, and invite the media to be present when he was.

We are unshaken in our testimonies and resolve. 

People leave the Church for many reasons, but they can almost always be condensed down to one of two categories.  They want to stop doing certain things which the Church would have them do, or they want to start doing something the Church would counsel against.  I say “almost always” because I don’t want to over-generalize, but I have yet to see the exception to this.  Riley, the fruits of true discipleship are real.  I see God’s hand in my life daily; I experience prophecy and revelation at least weekly; I feel the power of prayer and scripture study and sense a loss of spirit when I falter in my attention to these things.  There IS absolute truth and the Spirit is the channel through which it is comprehended and confirmed.  If we get it wrong from time to time, the issue always lies with us and not the Spirit.  “For the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not…”  

Stay true, remember the small and simple things, be obedient, see the miracles and record them so that your faith in Christ becomes unshakable.  The fruits of the gospel speak for themselves and they are delicious and most precious above all things.

Love,

Dad