Today was the first Sunday of the month – of the
year, actually. I was thinking of my dear parents, wishing I could be there to
visit and soothe them. Here are some random, unrelated thoughts shared today
that stuck out at me from our fast and testimony meeting:
• Thinking of the Book of Mormon in terms of ‘so
rare a possession’ – rather puts you in mind of the parable of the pearl of
great price. (Matt 13:46)
• Trials and tribulations have the potential of
bringing us closer to God. We can either fall by the wayside or else do all we
can to press forward. (2 Ne 31:20)
•Several mentioned goals: one sister said in the
new year that rather than making lofty goals she hoped to continue to magnify
what she’d been given.
•No matter what challenges we face, Christ will
always love us.
•One of the sister missionaries in her testimony
(who has been out for only three weeks) mentioned that her mission president
had counseled to not deny ourselves of blessings by giving up. As she has
already experienced an ample opportunity of knocking on doors, she wondered if
she’d have the level of courage that would be required - the kind Joseph Smith
exhibited when he stood up to those who scoffed and scorned, even to the point
of harsh persecution, all the while never denying what he knew.
•One person quoted President Hinckley, ‘if life is
too hard, kneel down.’ Another added to the thought: ‘if you want to speak to
God, kneel down; if you want him to speak to you, open the scriptures.’
[An unexpected observation from our meeting today:
there was a constant flow of priesthood brethren to the pulpit, many more than
of sisters - much different from the usual proportions in my experience.]
As for Sunday School, it was the first day for study
of the Doctrine and Covenants, as well as of church history. Points from the
lesson worth sharing: We’ve all heard that the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, and that
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, but
did you know that the Doctrine and Covenants is considered the capstone? (Page 136 of the 2013 RS/Priesthood lesson
manual, Teachings of the Presidents of the Church - Lorenzo Snow, shows an 1892
photograph regarding the placement of the capstone on the Salt Lake Temple – the top most stone of a
structure, the highest pinnacle of all.) Did you come to the same conclusion
in your lesson today as we did, that the ONE thing the Doctrine and Covenants
has that none of the other standard works have is – a preface, and that
dictated by the Saviour himself? Our instructor – he’s going to be a good one,
very stimulating – brought to our attention the profound statement that
constitutes the 8th paragraph of the introduction, and I, in turn, recommend
it to you.
Another query, for which I did not have a ready
answer, was what distinguishes the seventh and final dispensation, of which we are
a part, from every other that has gone before it? While the others ultimately
ended in apostasy, this will not. While it will be brought to a fiery end, yes,
until that time there will always exist a remnant of faithful saints to welcome
the Saviour when he appears. We, ALL of
us, are not here on the earth at the
present time by accident – we have been sent to aid in building up the kingdom
of God, in advance of the Second Coming. The revelations found in the Doctrine
and Covenants are a really good place to get started in that preparation – a latter-day
handbook, as it were.
In Relief Society we were reminded that while the
stake president’s directive last month had encouraged us to stay out of debt,
his emphasis for the first month of the year was to increase our faith through
prayer and scripture study. The presidency member giving our lesson said that on
one particular occasion, as she accessed a situation she found herself in,
thought, ‘why doesn’t somebody DO something about this?!’ and then realized SHE
was ‘somebody.’ She encouraged us, in the year ahead, to help which ever sister
was giving the lesson by studying the materials ahead of time, and coming
prepared to share our experiences and insights.
Following church we gave several church members a
lift (I keep forgetting to refer to the elevator as the ‘lift’ – we have one here
in the hotel – lots of elderly people, you know), in the van – the back of which
was discovered to be full of torn up tiles from the house remodel.) Loraine was
going somewhere with Andy right after today’s meetings and had offered to save
them a bus ride back to their homes in Bridport. One by the name of Sylvia, a single woman, whose
home is in the country outside of London, is visiting her daughter. The other,
a sweet older couple, actually spent the night at the hotel – in fact, do so on a regular
basis. It seems that as Joan does NOT drive and David has macular degeneration,
Loraine puts them up in a room most Saturday nights to get them closer to
church the following morning, for practically nothing – a further witness to
her generosity. Not only that, but as Loraine had a few things to ‘sort’ out
before taking off, these folk sat in the lounge while I made them a sandwich – after
which I sat down and chatted. (This was Plan B for me – but, of course, what
else is new! What I had anticipated as a ‘few minutes’ turned into almost
hours.)
Had first met the Ayles (said like aisles), Joan
and David, now in their seventies, in the entryway of the hotel as they arrived
the day previously. My next awareness of them was hearing the voice of Brother
Ayles’ through the mutual wall of our rooms as he crooned in his sweet old-man
tenor voice. Later, as we got chummy in the lounge, with a little bit of encouragement,
he sang again for all of us – this time a number of old-time songs, from the early
part of last century – songs he might have heard his own mother sing. I had asked
him to sing a romantic song and he chose ‘If
You were the only Girl in the World (and I were the only boy)’ – a tender
sight as he in total earnestness, tilted back his head and put his whole soul
into it. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_76Orifagsost) I learned that they had gone
to a care facility the evening before, to visit his sister who has Alzheimer’s,
when he had thought to sing to the residences there. He said he had twenty some
odd, little old biddies singing along – many with dementia – to the old songs
that would have been popular when they were children. It is amazing how
singing, and the lyrics of songs, can be accessed from a different part of the
brain than verbalization, as many were at the point where they were beyond
remembering much of anything.
The Ayles had first met at a New Year’s Eve dance
fifty-six years ago – he had asked her to dance. She had been painfully shy, he
said, (and Joan did not disagree) and her answer had been, ‘I wouldn’t mind.’
At the end of the evening as he asked her if she’d want to go with him to the
pictures sometime, her demur answer, once again, had been, ‘oh . . . I wouldn’t mind
it.’ (He said that had been her answer for everything, very non-committal.)The
rest, as they say, is history – they got married when she was 18, and he was a
year older. (I found it very telling when I learned that David life’s work had
been as a salesman – a perfect fit: a shy, retiring girl to offset the usual
characteristics of what I associate with a salesman-type –ambitious, passionate,
enthusiastic – with plenty of determination.
At 72, Sister Ayles, having replaced her shyness
with confidence through her years of experience, is an avid dancer – a passion
not shared by her husband, unfortunately! They have been reactivated in the
past few years, after twenty some odd years outside of the church. Brother
Aykes had actually been the branch president in Weymouth, but had let doubts
about Joseph Smith’s legitimacy creep in. Then there had a come a time when they
had received a considerable inheritance and tithing had become an issue, and
eventually had moved to Bridport, making getting to church more of a challenge.
Little by little they had dropped out of church life, and had done so for
almost thirty years. (Sounds like the inactivity was more on David’s side, and
Joan had more or less gone along.) In his testimony today he told how he had
had a sort of vision, where he was sitting in his living room and it seemed to
him as if he were in a wind tunnel – everything was blowing. He remembers
thinking, ‘what is this then?!’ He
heard a voice which said four simple words – as he recounts it – ‘return to
church NOW!’ And so they did. I look forward to getting to know them even better.
In the meantime, Sister Ayles is looking into getting more information for me
about the local dance group. (She knows them –l as I said, they used to live in
Weymouth – plus the neighboring communities are closely linked.) Country
dancing, yes!
Photos_
1- the Ayles, Joan and David
2- Sabbath sunrise thru my window to the sea
2- Sabbath sunrise thru my window to the sea
