28 May 2012

We were teaching a lesson to a non-member couple on Friday when we heard a loud bang from the back of the house.  All four of us hurried to the family room, and looking out, saw a large beautiful parrot lying on the ground with its neck all askew as if it were dead.  The other birds of the flock were dancing all around it, as if to say, “Wake up, friend parrot!”  We stood there for some time talking about what to do.  Then Roger found an old towel, and the men threw it over the bird.  Elder Ashby tried to pick up the parrot gently with the towel to put it into a box, which woke up the bird momentarily, and made him fight like the dickens!  Elder A. was shaking and trying not to hurt the bird, but really thought he must have.  We couldn’t see how it could possibly live anyway, as hard as it had hit the window!  Finally, the poor thing lay still as death in the box.  So in the closing prayer we prayed for the bird, and Jan told me later that he recovered, and flew away!

We drove home today by way of one of our members so that we could deliver a birthday gift to her.  She is a sister who has lost her husband and is losing her children, one by one, all of them to unbelief and inactivity.  It’s even more sad to think that he served a mission years ago in the U.S.  It’s astounding how much difference a father can make in his home!

This man is a fabulous cook, and graciously feeds us each month when we come.  But he doesn’t let us get in any serious discussions, and makes light of everything.  It’s uncomfortable for us to be there.  That is why I was so proud of Elder Ashby yesterday when he so graciously asked this father if he could address his family before we had dinner at their house.  He stood up, and with great dignity bore his testimony of Joseph Smith, and challenged each of the teenaged kids, and then the father to read the Joseph Smith story again.  Each agreed, in his turn, and the father did not make anything less out of the incident than it was.  Even I got to add my testimony later when they asked me about my TN.  I seemed to note an added sense of respect for us last night when they stood out on the drive waving goodbye.

We love these people, and pray that someday something will happen to turn things around for them like the miracles I’ve been reading about that happened to Lamoni and his father.  How readily they changed their hearts!  Standing outside, one can easily see how the blessings of the Lord have been withheld from this family because of the choices they have made.  My heart aches for them.

One of our members is married to a good man who has never accepted the Gospel, probably because of his terrible smoking habit, which started when he was 10!  But he’s a good man, and loves his wife and four great kids.  He agreed to have the non-smoking lesson from us, and we told him all the things to do to prepare.  So after they fed us Tea on Sunday night, we sent the kids to the other end of the house to watch a movie and we all sat down together with his father-in-law, who was there to support him.  He then admitted that he has been having chest pains!

I guess he thought he would listen and then decide later when and if he could do the program.  So it kind of surprised him when we asked him then and there to crush his remaining cigarettes, and sign an agreement that he would not smoke any more for seven more days!  You should have seen his face!  “What, NOW?”

It took 15 or 20 minutes for him to agree to sign, amid long sighs, and much encouragement from all of us who love him.  It was so painful for him!

The first step of the program is to teach them to pray, and to get a commitment to pray both night and morning.  We went around the room and said something we were each thankful for, to which he said, “Family.”  I noticed how he checked the tears that started to gather in his eyes.  His wife had said a few moments before how his boys had said as they went to bed that they would pray for their daddy to quit smoking, and how they didn’t want him to die.  Then we went around the room and said what we would ask for in a prayer, to which he said, “I would ask that I can remain calm and do this without taking it out on my family.”  This is a man who doesn’t express his thoughts easily, so this is really hard for him.  I think it is the love of his boys that is giving him the courage to try.

So this week I’m saying my own private thanks for the good people in my life who are making such good choices and being such good examples in their homes.  And I’m praying for one father who needs to have a mighty change in his life too.