Well there familia
and friends… I hope that this email finds you guys all doing great, alive and
well! This week was very hot and humid to say the least. We spent a lot of time
at home this week because my companion was sick. We don’t know what he had so I
had to spend like 3 days at home with him. With that being said I did a lot of
reading and just getting my stuff organized and ready to head home soon. I
never have time for that kind of stuff so that felt good to get organized. It
wasn’t that very exciting of a week to say the least, nothing too amazing, or
nothing bad really happened. It was just anther week that passed by like
nothing!!
So this week I spent
some time reading some talks from leaders of our church. There are a few that I
studied that I really liked that I want to share with you guys.
But first this week
we helped a single lady move her entire house, actually we did it this morning.
We got there at 6 am on the dot and finished around 12:00. It was great, I had
the entire zone humping and we got it done fast, in total we had about 10 or 12
people there doing work. More hands make lighter work and we worked faster and we
got done before the real heat of the afternoon hit.
We found also this
week a few new people to teach and all, so that is always exciting. Other than
that this week is going to be super busy because we are trying to find a lot of
new people and I really want to leave this area with a lot of people so that
the next person that steps in is in good hands. Other than that, just grinding
away and enjoying the sun and all!
Thanks for the love
and support. I really would love you guys to read what I am going to share with
you guys. They are very good to learn from. So please read them and learn what
you can from them.
The Music of the Gospel
The
music of the gospel is the joyful spiritual feeling that comes from the Holy
Ghost. It brings a change of heart.
Years ago I listened to a radio interview of a
young doctor who worked in a hospital in the Navajo Nation. He told of an
experience he had one night when an old Native American man with long braided
hair came into the emergency room. The young doctor took his clipboard,
approached the man, and said, “How can I help you?” The old man looked straight
ahead and said nothing. The doctor, feeling somewhat impatient, tried again. “I
cannot help you if you don’t speak to me,” he said. “Tell me why you have come
to the hospital.”
The old man then looked at him and said, “Do you dance?” As the
young doctor pondered the strange question, it occurred to him that perhaps his
patient was a tribal medicine man who, according to ancient tribal customs,
sought to heal the sick through song and dance rather than through prescribing
medication.
“No,” said the doctor, “I
don’t dance. Do you dance?” The old man nodded yes. Then the doctor asked,
“Could you teach me to dance?”
The old man’s response has for many years caused me much
reflection. “I can teach you to dance,” he said, “but you have to hear the
music.”
Sometimes in our homes,
we successfully teach the dance steps but are not as successful in helping our family members to hear the music. And as the old medicine man
well knew, it is hard to dance without music. Dancing without music is awkward
and unfulfilling—even embarrassing. Have you ever tried it?
In section 8 of the Doctrine
and Covenants, the Lord taught Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, “Yea, behold, I will tell you in your
mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart”
(verse 2). We learn the dance steps with our minds, but we hear the
music with our hearts. The dance steps of the gospel are the things we do; the
music of the gospel is the joyful spiritual feeling that comes from the Holy
Ghost. It brings a change of heart and is the source of all righteous desires.
The dance steps require discipline, but the joy of the dance will be
experienced only when we come to hear the music.
There are those who
ridicule members of the Church for the things we do. That is understandable.
Those who dance often appear strange or awkward or, to use a scriptural term, “peculiar”
(1 Peter
2:9) to those who cannot hear the music. Have you
ever stopped your car at a stoplight next to a car where the driver was dancing
and singing at the top of his lungs—but you couldn’t hear a sound because your
windows were rolled up? Didn’t he look a little peculiar? If our children learn
the dance steps without learning to hear and to feel the beautiful music of the
gospel, they will over time become uncomfortable with the dance and will either
quit dancing or, almost as bad, keep dancing only because of the pressure they
feel from others who are dancing around them.
The challenge for all of us who seek to teach the gospel is to
expand the curriculum beyond just the dance steps. Our children’s happiness
depends on their ability to hear and love the beautiful music of the gospel.
How do we do it?
First, we must keep our own lives attuned to the correct
spiritual frequency. Back in the olden days, before the digital age, we found
our favorite radio station by carefully turning the radio dial until it lined
up perfectly with the station’s frequency. As we approached the number, we
could hear only static. But when we finally made the precise alignment, our favorite
music could be heard clearly. In our lives, we have to align with the correct
frequency in order to hear the music of the Spirit.
When we receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost afterbaptism, we are filled with the heavenly music that accompanies
conversion. Our hearts are changed, and we “have no more disposition to do
evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah
5:2). But the Spirit will not endure unkindness
or pride or envy. If we lose that delicate influence in our lives, the rich
harmonies of the gospel can quickly become dissonant and can ultimately be
silenced. Alma asked the poignant question: “If ye have felt to sing the song
of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” (Alma 5:26).
Parents, if our lives are
out of tune with the music of the gospel, we need to tune them up. As President
Thomas S. Monson taught us last October, we must ponder the path of our
feet (see “Ponder the Path of Thy Feet,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov.
2014, 86–88). We know how to do it. We must walk the same path that we walked
when we first heard the heavenly strains of gospel music. We exercise faith in
Christ, repent, and take the sacrament; we feel more strongly the influence of the Holy Ghost; and the
music of the gospel begins to play again in our lives.
Second, when we can hear
the music ourselves, we must try our best to perform it in our homes. It is not
something that can be forced or compelled. “No power or influence can or ought
to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood”—or by virtue of being the dad or
the mom or the biggest or the loudest—“only by persuasion, by long-suffering,
by gentleness and meekness, … by love unfeigned; [and] by kindness” (D&C
121:41–42).
Why would these attributes lead to increasing power and
influence in a home? Because they are the attributes that invite the Spirit of
the Holy Ghost. They are the attributes that tune our hearts to the music of
the gospel. When they are present, the dance steps will be performed more
naturally and joyfully by all of the dancers in the family, without the need
for threats or intimidation or compulsion.
When our children are little, we can sing them the lullaby of
love unfeigned, and when they are obstinate and refuse to go to sleep at night,
we might need to sing the lullaby of long-suffering. When they are teenagers,
we can tune out the cacophony of arguments and threats and, instead, perform
the beautiful music of persuasion—and perhaps sing the second verse of the
lullaby of long-suffering. Parents can perform in perfect harmony the tandem
attributes of gentleness and meekness. We can invite our children to sing along
with us in unison as we practice kindness toward a neighbor who is in need.
It won’t come all at
once. As every accomplished musician knows, it takes diligent practice to
perform beautiful music. If early efforts at making music seem dissonant and
discordant, remember that dissonance cannot be corrected by criticism.
Dissonance in the home is like darkness in a room. It does little good to scold
the darkness. We must displace the darkness by introducing
light.
So if the basses in your
family choir are too loud and overbearing, or if the string section in your
family orchestra is a little too shrill or a little bit sharp, or if those
impetuous piccolos are out of tune or out of control, be patient. If you’re not
hearing the music of the gospel in your home, please remember these two
words: keep practicing. With God’s help, the day will come
when the music of the gospel will fill your home with unspeakable joy.
Even when performed well, the music will not solve all of our
problems. There will still be crescendos and decrescendos in our lives,
staccatos and legatos. Such is the nature of life on planet earth.
But when we add music to
the dance steps, the sometimes complicated rhythms of marriage and family life
tend to move toward a harmonious balance. Even our most difficult challenges
will add rich plaintive tones and moving motifs. The doctrines of the
priesthood will begin to distill upon our souls as the dews from heaven. The
Holy Ghost will be our constant companion, and our scepter—a clear reference to
power and influence—will be an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth.
And our dominion will be an everlasting dominion. And without compulsory means
it will flow unto us forever and ever (see D&C
121:45–46).
May it be so in each of
our lives and in each of our homes is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
ANOTHER GREAT TALK THAT I READ THIS WEEK
Why, Marriage,
Why Family!
Above
the Great West Door of the renowned Westminster Abbey in
London,
England, stand the statues of 10 Christian martyrs of the 2
0thcentury.
Included among them is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a brilliant Germantheologian born
in 1906.1 Bonhoeffer became a vocal critic of
the
Nazi dictatorship and its treatment of Jews and others. He was imprisoned for
his active opposition and finally executed in a concentration camp. Bonhoeffer
was a prolific writer, and some of his
best-known
pieces are letters that sympathetic guards helped him smuggle out of prison,
later published as Letters and Papers fro
Prison.
One of those letters was to his niece before her wedding. It
included these significant insights: “Marriage is more than your love for each
other. … In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in
marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to
come and to pass away to his glory, and calls into his kingdom. In your love
you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed
at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your
own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal—it is a
status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule,
that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each
other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. … So love comes
from you, but marriage from above, from God.”2
In what way does marriage between a man and a
woman transcend their love for one another and their own happiness to become “a
post of responsibility towards the world and mankind”? In what sense does it
come “from above, from God”? To understand, we have to go back to the
beginning.
Prophets have revealed that we first existed as intelligences
and that we were given form, or spirit bodies, by God, thus becoming His spirit
children—sons and daughters of heavenly parents.3 There came a time in this premortal existence of spirits when,
in furtherance of His desire that we “could have a privilege to advance like
himself,”4 our Heavenly Father prepared an enabling plan. In the
scriptures it is given various names, including “the plan of salvation,”5 “the great plan of happiness,”6 and “the plan of redemption.”7 The two principal purposes of the plan were explained to
Abraham in these words:
“And there stood one among them that was like
unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there
is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth
whereon these [spirits] may dwell;
“And we will prove them herewith, to see if
they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;
“And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; … and
they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for
ever and ever.”8
Thanks to our Heavenly Father, we had already
become spirit beings. Now He was offering us a path to complete or perfect that
being. The addition of the physical element is essential to the fulness of
being and glory that God Himself enjoys. If, while with God in the premortal
spirit world, we would agree to participate in His plan—or in other words “keep
[our] first estate”—we would “be added upon” with a physical body as we came to
dwell on the earth that He created for us.
If, then in the course of our mortal experience, we chose to “do
all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God [should] command [us],” we would have
kept our “second estate.” This means that by our choices we would demonstrate
to God (and to ourselves) our commitment and capacity to live His celestial law
while outside His presence and in a physical body with all its powers,
appetites, and passions. Could we bridle the flesh so that it became the
instrument rather than the master of the spirit? Could we be trusted both in
time and eternity with godly powers, including power to create life? Would we
individually overcome evil? Those who did would “have glory added upon their
heads for ever and ever”—a very significant aspect of that glory being a
resurrected, immortal, and glorified physical body.9 No wonder we “shouted for joy” at these magnificent
possibilities and promises.10
At least four things are needed for the
success of this divine plan:
First was the Creation of the earth as our dwelling place.
Whatever the details of the creation process, we know that it was not
accidental but that it was directed by God the Father and implemented by Jesus
Christ—“all things were made by him; and without him was not any
thing made that was made.”11
Second is the condition of mortality. Adam and Eve acted for all
who had chosen to participate in the Father’s great plan of happiness.12 Their Fall created the conditions needed for our physical
birth and for mortal experience and learning outside the presence of God. With
the Fall came an awareness of good and evil and the God-given power to choose.13 Finally, the Fall brought about physical death needed to
make our time in mortality temporary so that we would not live forever in our
sins.14
Third is redemption from the Fall. We see the role of death in
our Heavenly Father’s plan, but that plan would become void without some way to
overcome death in the end, both physical and spiritual. Thus, a Redeemer, the
Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, suffered and died to atone for Adam and
Eve’s transgression, thereby providing resurrection and immortality for all. And since none of us will have
been perfectly and consistently obedient to the gospel law, His Atonement also
redeems us from our own sins on condition of repentance. With the Savior’s
atoning grace providingforgiveness of sins and sanctification of
the soul, we can spiritually be born again and reconciled to God. Our spiritual
death—our separation from God—will end.15
Fourth, and finally, is the setting for our physical birth and
subsequent spiritual rebirth into the kingdom of God. For His work to succeed
to “[exalt us] with himself,”16 God ordained that men and women should marry and give
birth to children, thereby creating, in partnership with God, the physical
bodies that are key to the test of mortality and essential to eternal glory
with Him. He also ordained that parents should establish families and rear
their children in light and truth,17 leading them to a hope in Christ. The Father commands us:
“Teach these things freely unto your children,
saying:
“That … inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and
blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul,
even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the
[Holy] Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten;
that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life
in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory.”18
Knowing why we left the presence of our
Heavenly Father and what it takes to return and be exalted with Him, it becomes
very clear that nothing relative to our time on earth can be more important
than physical birth and spiritual rebirth, the two prerequisites of eternal
life. This is, to use the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the “office” of
marriage, the “post of responsibility towards … mankind,” that this divine
institution “from above, from God” occupies. It is the “link in the chain of
the generations” both here and hereafter—the order of heaven.
A family built on the marriage of a man and
woman supplies the best setting for God’s plan to thrive—the setting for the
birth of children, who come in purity and innocence from God, and the
environment for the learning and preparation they will need for a successful
mortal life and eternal life in the world to come. A critical mass of families
built on such marriages is vital for societies to survive and flourish. That is
why communities and nations generally have encouraged and protected marriage
and the family as privileged institutions. It has never been just about the
love and happiness of adults.
The social science case for marriage and for families headed by
a married man and woman is compelling.19And so “we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring
upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient
and modern prophets.”20 But our claims for the role of marriage and family rest
not on social science but on the truth that they are God’s creation. It is He
who in the beginning created Adam and Eve in His image, male and female, and
joined them as husband and wife to become “one flesh” and to multiply and
replenish the earth.21 Each individual carries the divine image, but it is in the
matrimonial union of male and female as one that we attain perhaps the most
complete meaning of our having been made in the image of God—male and female.
Neither we nor any other mortal can alter this divine order of matrimony. It is
not a human invention. Such marriage is indeed “from above, from God” and is as
much a part of the plan of happiness as the Fall and the Atonement.
In the premortal world, Lucifer rebelled
against God and His plan, and his opposition only grows in intensity. He fights
to discourage marriage and the formation of families, and where marriages and
families are formed, he does what he can to disrupt them. He attacks everything
that is sacred about human sexuality, tearing it from the context of marriage
with a seemingly infinite array of immoral thoughts and acts. He seeks to
convince men and women that marriage and family priorities can be ignored or
abandoned, or at least made subservient to careers, other achievements, and the
quest for self-fulfillment and individual autonomy. Certainly the adversary is
pleased when parents neglect to teach and train their children to have faith in
Christ and be spiritually born again. Brothers and sisters, many things are
good, many are important, but only a few are essential.
To declare the fundamental truths relative to
marriage and family is not to overlook or diminish the sacrifices and successes
of those for whom the ideal is not a present reality. Some of you are denied
the blessing of marriage for reasons including a lack of viable prospects,
same-sex attraction, physical or mental impairments, or simply a fear of
failure that, for the moment at least, overshadows faith. Or you may have
married, but that marriage ended, and you are left to manage alone what two
together can barely sustain. Some of you who are married cannot bear children
despite overwhelming desires and pleading prayers.
Even so, everyone has gifts; everyone has
talents; everyone can contribute to the unfolding of the divine plan in each
generation. Much that is good, much that is essential—even sometimes all that
is necessary for now—can be achieved in less than ideal circumstances. So many
of you are doing your very best. And when you who bear the heaviest burdens of
mortality stand up in defense of God’s plan to exalt His children, we are all
ready to march. With confidence we testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ
has anticipated and, in the end, will compensate all deprivation and loss for
those who turn to Him. No one is predestined to receive less than all that the
Father has for His children.
One young mother recently confided to me her anxiety about
being inadequate in this highest of callings. I felt that the issues that
concerned her were small and she needn’t worry; she was doing fine. But I knew
she only wanted to please God and to honor His trust. I offered words of
reassurance, and in my heart I pleaded that God, her Heavenly Father, would
buoy her up with His love and the witness of His approval as she is about His
work.
That is my prayer for all of us today. May we
each find approval in His sight. May marriages flourish and families prosper,
and whether our lot is a fullness of these blessings in mortality or not, may
the Lord’s grace bring happiness now and faith in sure promises to come. In the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Two photos attached: us doing service this
week at the church this week cutting the lawn with a weedwacker hahaha and the
other one was from this morning moving a sister and helping her out. All is
good!
Thanks for the love and support and everything
that you guys do for me! I can’t wait to talk and see you guys there in the
Promise Land in one month!!!
LOVES! Elder Long
