My dear friend from Barnhart sends me a letter every month--and one arrived today! Along with other interesting items there was good news about her friend who has begun to read The Book of Mormon! I know the power of this book, and if her friend sincerely prays to learn if it is true, Heavenly Father will answer by the power of the Holy Ghost. The really wonderful thing is that Heavenly Father wants to establish a communication link between Himself and each of us. One author describes this as dialogic revelation. I like that term, and even more I appreciate the communication I have occasionally received in this process. Often this comes through feelings, but I have also received direct instructions. So I know this process is effective. And in a world where there is so much turmoil and confusion, I am so grateful to know for myself that when necessary I can receive guidance from my Heavenly Father.
This morning began with something a little unusual for me. I am a volunteer with FairMormon, an online group which strives to give faithful answers to sometimes difficult questions. I usually spend some of my morning stair-climbing reading emails that are sent in. Only rarely am I the volunteer who answers an email [my biggest contribution to the group is facilitating the transcription of talks given at our annual conference]. This morning I read the emails. One of the questioners asked how we can believe in a loving Heavenly Father when the majority of people in the world live or have lived in very difficult circumstances.
During breakfast I try to read at least one of the articles in our Ensign magazine, and the article I read today seemed to address the questions in that email, so I sent this link to the questioner:
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2016/09/refiners-fire-and-fullers-soap?lang=eng
Our Savior describes Himself as a Refiner's Fire and Fullers' Soap, and this article explains those terms. I invite you to also read this article. The questioner emailed me back to thank me for sending that link.
At the Library I mostly was busy with occupying positions--two hours as trainer, one as Floor Manager and one as Greeter. I did get to help one man learn about our resources--and he followed an impression to look up German Military Records through a Wiki link, and found his grandfather's death and burial information! He said he comes in to Salt Lake City often on business, so he will be back to follow other suggestions, including looking up his grandmother's lines in a small town in Brandenburg which has microfilm records from the 1920s back into the early 1800s.
The other help I gave was to one of my fellow missionaries whose grandmother's record on FindaGrave gave an incorrect maiden name. I helped her learn how to send in an edit, and also how to contact the original contributor, including how to word her reason statements so she would be taken seriously. This week's in-service in on Reason Statements for FamilySearch, and as I told her, it is all the same process.
I had such a good talk with my Sweetheart tonight. We reconstructed a memory from last year, thanks to his great visual memory. We figured out the incident had to have happened in September because it was still warm, and we did not see each other again for any length of time until more than a month later, in the middle of October. It is so much fun to relive those times in reminiscing together.
I made flax seed crackers tonight--and discovered that adding sugar just makes them stick tight to the parchment paper, and does not even make them very sweet. So I hope to remember to just stick to making savory crackers--I can always drizzle them with honey to make them sweet!
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