FAITH

The following is a copy of an e-mail message:

Hi Grandpa Bill,

I just wanted to write you and tell you about the time I had at priesthood camp. It was a nice Monday. Me and some of my friends went off to priesthood camp. We had thought that it was going to be a waste of our time. When we got there it looked like it was going to be a long 3 days.

When I finally found out who my companion was; it kind of changed. My companion was a man named Nate. He was about to go on a mission and was ready to learn more about the gospel and how to teach it. When we started to study all the time together, we started to get closer and we seemed to feel the spirit stronger. We got ready for dinner and they had said that there was more food then we needed. I had thought that they had never seen teenagers before, but when we got there, there really was more food then all of us could eat. This just got us more ready for the week. They had told us that we were going to teach some people about the first four principles of the gospel.

Time went on and it got closer to the time when we must teach what we had learned. Just as I thought that I would not be able to teach what I was told to teach, the camp leaders took all of us to the building, They blindfolded all of us and then they lead us around the camp for a time. Then someone took us away from the others and told us to find our way. I felt lost; I did not know the way to go; then out of nowhere I heard hymns. It was the sweetest thing I had ever heard, It was the key for me to follow. I knew that I had to go for it.

Once again I got lost. I was trying as hard as I could to follow it but I seemed to be going nowhere. Then I heard someone say this is the spirit, so follow me, you’re about there. He led me all the way to where I needed to be. Then someone said, “You are at the tree of life. Would you like to go back and help your brothers or stay here? I said that I would like to help. That’s when they took off the blindfold. I say that the greater part of the boys had gone back to help. When I had done all I could to help I went back and saw that the tree had letters from our family.

Mine was from my mom it told me many things I needed to hear at that time in my life. After this, it was the time to teach what we had learned. Me and my companion were given a man to teach about the gospel. It was a great feeling in my life to feel that feeling. Me, a boy that never had done anything great, could teach the greatest thing of all. I would like to share one more thing with you. I found something in Alma 32:21 and it says” And now as I said concerning faith-faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” I hope you can see what kind of time this camp was for me.

I love you,
Your grandson,
Alex.

Dear Alex,
21 July 08

I’m glad you enjoyed priesthood camp. I’m sure many worked long and hard to make the camp meaningful for you. Faith is indeed the first principle of the gospel. One type of faith helps you believe that things are going to happen. (Alma 32:21 that you mentioned) Like, fall will follow summer, winter will follow fall or that the earth will continue to rotate and bring us to a new day. That’s one kind of faith, but another kind of faith causes things to happen.

By faith the earth was made, by faith Jesus could walk on the water. Remember the Apostle Peter had faith enough to walk on water for a little while, but he doubted and began to sink. There’s a message there for us. We can have faith like the Savior if we really want it and don’t doubt. Trouble is, not many men work at it hard enough to get it, including me. It takes keeping the commandments with all our heart, really keeping them, prayer and fasting for help. Boyd K. Packer from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said:

“There are two kinds of faith. One of them functions ordinarily in the life of every soul. It is the kind of faith born by experience; it gives us certainty that a new day will dawn, that spring will come, that growth will take place. It is the kind of faith that relates us with confidence to that which is scheduled to happen…

There is another kind of faith, rare indeed. This is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. It is the kind of faith that is worthy and prepared and unyielding and it calls forth things that otherwise would not be. It is the kind of faith that moves people. It is the kind of faith that sometimes moves things. Few men posess it. It comes by gradual growth. It is a marvelous, even transcendent, power, a power as real and as invisible as electricity. Directed and channeled, it has great effect.

But faith must be faith, One man tried ‘experimenting’ with faith. He had spoken of his certainty that an event would transpire and his desires were not brought to pass; the event he so much yearned for did not happen. Afterward, his bitter comment was, ‘Well, you see, it didn’t happen, I didn’t think it would.’

In a world filled with skepticism and doubt, the expression ‘seeing is believing ‘promotes the attitude. You show me and I will believe.’ We want all of the proof and all of the evidence first. It seems hard to take things on faith.

When will we learn that, in spiritual things, it works the other way about—that believing is seeing? Spiritual belief precedes spiritual knowledge. When we believe in things that are not seen but are nevertheless true, then we have faith.” (Boyd K Packer, “What is Faith?” in Faith, pp. 42-43).

With love and also yours in the Priesthood,
Grampa Bill Ray

For more information see http://www.mormon.org/

ANGELS ON MY SHOULDER

I relate the following stories from a friend I work with at the Temple. I’ll call him Fred:

“I’ve always tried to live a good life. I do my best to keep God’s commandments and pray every day. When my wife and I were young, we would frequently go long distances across the Arizona Desert to visit my in-laws. We had and old 1951 Ford that had seen better days, which came with four bald tires. Having more faith than sense, we braved the long trip with twenty dollars, just enough to pay for gasoline. We would never pull such a stunt today. On one occasion, we threw our belongings in the trunk and that included a metal record holder with a copper bottom and lid. After we had traveled for awhile, the day ended and we turned on the headlights, which kept flickering on and off.

We stopped, checked things over but could not find the problem. We finally decided to stop at what we called “the Gap,” really just an out of the way gas station, and get help. The attendant said he thought he knew what the problem was but that it wouldn’t be cheap and he wouldn’t have time to fix it till the next day. We were downcast, since we had no money for costly repairs. Just then, a stranger came by and said, “Check the trunk, Fred.” I did not know the man and he immediately left the gas station in his vehicle. I looked around in the trunk and found that metal record can leaning up against the tail lights. Every time we hit a bump, it shorted the wires and flickered the lights. We moved the can and never got a chance to thank the man who knew my name. Now, if this had been an isolated case, I could have written it up to coincidence, but things like that happened just when we needed them most.

On another trip, to the same destination, the car began to lurch, as if it was not getting enough gas. It would speed up and slow down, over and over and we finally limped to a garage. The mechanic was looking it over, when a different stranger, walked by, peeked over our shoulders and said, “Oh, I see the problem, you’ve just got a loose fuel pump bowl.” He reached over, hand tightened the bowl and the problem was fixed.

A repeat journey found us in need of a new tire to replace a puncture. We told no one of our predicament but in the morning, we found an envelope with 25 dollars in it, taped to our steering wheel, to pay for the new tire. God and His angels watch over us, especially when we do our best to follow His ways."

BOMBS AWAY

The following information was relayed to me from one of the military men serving currently in Iraq:

“It was about 0400 (4AM) when our team was called out to identify a suspected bomb. It was inside a truck semi-load filled with various crated food items. Right in the middle of all that chow was a round cylindrical metal container, connected by wires. The very fact that it was hidden made it highly suspicious. The only way that I, the ranking NCO (E-7), could get next to the device was to strip off all my body armor and get in there with a flashlight and tools to see if I could identify it. I could not send in one of my men to do what I would not, so I asked them to take cover behind the perimeter, while I investigated.

Thoughts like, “this may be my last assignment,” and “I may never see my family again,” filled my mind. I figured, if the thing blew, all I would see would be a flash of light and it would be all over. To say that I was scared was a serious understatement and yet, I really had no time for it. I was paid to do a certain type of job and I wanted to give it my best shot. It was very cramped quarters, around the device, and I was perspiring heavily. After serious inspection, however, I discovered that it wasn’t a bomb at all, but instead, an industrial flour mixer for the galley.

It’s always easy to laugh about such things, after the pressure is gone, but it could have been the real thing. We don’t always have the equipment we need and many of us have been involuntarily extended past our enlistments, some of us as much as five years longer than we signed up for. We are told that it had to do with the fine print in our enlistment contracts.

Our bosses tell us that they just don’t have enough people to replace us, so we are stuck for awhile. Some of the guys have developed really bad attitudes and will purposely get into trouble, just to be able to be shipped home sooner. Most of us are good guys, trying to do our job, but between the bombs, the heat and the bullets, it’s not that easy. Our families fear for us and we can’t blame them. May God grant us a safe journey home soon.

AMMON & THE LAMANITES (Ancestors to the American Indians)

20 And as Ammon entered the land of Ishmael, the Lamanites took him and bound him, as was their custom to bind all the Nephites who fell into their hands, and carry them before the king; and thus it was left to the pleasure of the king to slay them, or to retain them in captivity, or to cast them into prison, or to cast them out of his land, according to his will and pleasure.

21 And thus Ammon was carried before the king who was over the land of Ishmael; and his name was Lamoni; and he was a descendant of Ishmael.

22 And the king inquired of Ammon if it were his desire to dwell in the land among the Lamanites, or among his people.

23 And Ammon said unto him: Yea, I desire to dwell among this people for a time; yea, and perhaps until the day I die.

24 And it came to pass that king Lamoni was much pleased with Ammon, and caused that his bands should be loosed; and he would that Ammon should take one of his daughters to wife.

25 But Ammon said unto him: Nay, but I will be thy servant. Therefore Ammon became a servant to king Lamoni. And it came to pass that he was set among other servants to watch the flocks of Lamoni, according to the custom of the Lamanites.

26 And after he had been in the service of the king three days, as he was with the Lamanitish servants going forth with their flocks to the place of water, which was called the water of Sebus, and all the Lamanites drive their flocks hither, that they may have water—

27 Therefore, as Ammon and the servants of the king were driving forth their flocks to this place of water, behold, a certain number of the Lamanites, who had been with their flocks to water, stood and scattered the flocks of Ammon and the servants of the king, and they scattered them insomuch that they fled many ways.

28 Now the servants of the king began to murmur, saying: Now the king will slay us, as he has our brethren because their flocks were scattered by the wickedness of these men. And they began to weep exceedingly, saying: Behold, our flocks are scattered already.

29 Now they wept because of the fear of being slain. Now when Ammon saw this his heart was swollen within him with joy; for, said he, I will show forth my power unto these my fellow-servants, or the power which is in me, in restoring these flocks unto the king, that I may win the hearts of these my fellow-servants, that I may lead them to believe in my words.

30 And now, these were the thoughts of Ammon, when he saw the afflictions of those whom he termed to be his brethren.

31 And it came to pass that he flattered them by his words, saying: My brethren, be of good cheer and let us go in search of the flocks, and we will gather them together and bring them back unto the place of water; and thus we will preserve the flocks unto the king and he will not slay us.
32 And it came to pass that they went in search of the flocks, and they did follow Ammon, and they rushed forth with much swiftness and did head the flocks of the king, and did gather them together again to the place of water.

33 And those men again stood to scatter their flocks; but Ammon said unto his brethren: Encircle the flocks round about that they flee not; and I go and contend with these men who do scatter our flocks.

34 Therefore, they did as Ammon commanded them, and he went forth and stood to contend with those who stood by the waters of Sebus; and they were in number not a few.

35 Therefore they did not fear Ammon, for they supposed that one of their men could slay him according to their pleasure, for they knew not that the Lord had promised Mosiah that he would deliver his sons out of their hands; neither did they know anything concerning the Lord; therefore they delighted in the destruction of their brethren; and for this cause they stood to scatter the flocks of the king.

36 But Ammon stood forth and began to cast stones at them with his sling; yea, with mighty power he did sling stones amongst them; and thus he slew a certain number of them insomuch that they began to be astonished at his power; nevertheless they were angry because of the slain of their brethren, and they were determined that he should fall; therefore, seeing that they could not hit him with their stones, they came forth with clubs to slay him.

37 But behold, every man that lifted his club to smite Ammon, he smote off their arms with his sword; for he did withstand their blows by smiting their arms with the edge of his sword, insomuch that they began to be astonished, and began to flee before him; yea, and they were not few in number; and he caused them to flee by the strength of his arm.

38 Now six of them had fallen by the sling, but he slew none save it were their leader with his sword; and he smote off as many of their arms as were lifted against him, and they were not a few.
39 And when he had driven them afar off, he returned and they watered their flocks and returned them to the pasture of the king, and then went in unto the king, bearing the arms which had been smitten off by the sword of Ammon, of those who sought to slay him; and they were carried in unto the king for a testimony of the things which they had done.

For additional info, see the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz3rggCnhxQ

(FROM ABOUT 91 TO 77 B.C.).
The Official Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints© 2006 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

TENSE EXPERIENCES


The following paraphrased comments were given by a man with 40 years of law enforcement experience:

“One of the most tense experiences I had as a cop in the military, happened when I was assigned to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. My boss said I needed to deliver an urgent message for the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), about five miles from our station. I was supposed to go with another cop but we were short handed, so they sent me alone, through enemy territory at night, in a jeep. I was armed with a 38 caliber pistol and about twenty rounds of ammunition. This was slightly more firepower than a pile of rocks. I just knew that I was going to die and my imagination saw the enemy behind every tree, but I finally arrived back to my post a few hours later, glad that the journey was over.

After I arrived stateside, I was assigned to cop unit that had been receiving complaints that the base pharmacy was being broke into and that various drugs were missing. Four of us were assigned night stakeout at the Pharmacy. Two of us were hidden on the roof of the building and two of us watched from the outside. After about two nights of this, when my partner and I were on the roof, we saw two teenage boys climb a ladder to the Pharmacy rooftop.

They removed the air conditioner vent and then used a water hose that was already on the roof, to lower one teenager down, into the pharmacy while the other boy stayed on top and kept watch. We arrested the boy on the roof easily and after notifying our street unit, they unlocked the door of the pharmacy and arrested the 2nd young man, again, with no resistance. Neither of the boys was armed. We were very surprised by the ingenuity these two boys showed, unfortunately, it should have been put to better use.”