Our Puerto Rico Ward

Saturday night we went to a baptism in our new ward. It is all Spanish.  President wants no more than 2 sets of missionaries in any ward, but I think maybe the senior couples are not under that injunction.  There were 4 elders and 2 sisters there, and the two elders who work in the office were out in the country delivering some furniture.  It turns out that there are two wards meeting in that building, so all the missionaries attending were from those two wards.  Anyway, it was a great experience to be there.

As we entered the building we were warmly greeted by the sisters and by some of the ward members.  Gaye asked if they needed any help with the music.  When they learned that she plays the piano there were happy smiles by many, not the least of whom was the brother who was playing the keyboard with one finger.  So Gaye was invited to play the music.  It turned out that the keyboard was identical to the old one she had been playing in St Kitts Branch, with the same theater organ setting.  It did give everybody a pitch to hang onto, though.

The sweet sister being baptized was led into the water by the young man baptizing her.  She let out a little gasp as her foot hit the cold.  With each step the gasps grew louder.  When she stepped onto the bottom of the font she actually squealed from the cold water.  They stood there for several long seconds as they reviewed the coming ordinance, how to hold the hands, hold your nose, etc. Then finally the prayer was said and he lowered her into the water.  As he did, she gasped out loud and almost cried out.  He tried to push her down, she turned stiff as a board, her feet flew up out of the water, and of course, it had to be done again because it was not right.  Then one of the sisters in the room stepped up to the font, gave her some specific instructions, all in Spanish, and it was attempted again, which I happily report was successful.  She had to be physically helped out of the font.

She was a good sport about it all.  While she dressed we sat in the room conversing, which was growing louder by the second.  So the sister who led the music stood up by the keyboard and began singing Christmas songs, which Gaye then began to play along with her.  A few voices in the congregation joined in, and soon everybody was singing, which quickly brought the reverent spirit back into the room.  The last song was Noche de Luz, the most perfect Christmas song that has ever been written.  People were singing parts with enthusiasm and accurate harmony.  It was sweet.

So Sunday morning we drove straight to the building, not like the night before when we got lost trying to find our way.  We were there in plenty of time, walked into the chapel greeting everyone we saw, and noticed the CD player pouring forth the recorded hymns as prelude music.  When Br Berrios saw us come in his face lit up, he introduced Gaye to the chorister, a beautiful young woman on the stand, and Gaye became the ward organist again.  We sang Christmas carols in Spanish.  I know how to pronounce the Spanish letters, so I sang out like I was in our ward choir at home.  It was a special experience, for many in the ward congregation also sang out with gusto.  

The Puerto Rico experience will be vastly different from the island experience.  We are enjoying having other people around to talk to.  The office work will be new challenges. The apartment is fine, even without AC in the living room/kitchen part.  Sally is good to have along.  We have found that when I drive, we get lost more.  Gaye is a better driver, and I am a much better map reader.  So I will navigate and she will drive.  That way we can stay happily married.

Christmas Card

                            Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

            

Greetings from the Caribbean!  We hope that this Christmas Season finds you and yours doing well and happy with the blessings of Heaven in your homes and hearts.

Ken and I are currently serving a mission in the San Juan Puerto Rico mission for the LDS Church and have served the past year in the beautiful Islands of the Caribbean.  We have learned to love these Islands and the people who live here.  We have had the good fortune of serving in several different areas and have loved them all.  We started out in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, then St. Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies and this letter comes to you from in St. Thomas, which is the American Virgin Islands.

 We will be transferred soon to the mission office in San Juan Puerto Rico to finish our mission helping with cars and apartments.  We have enjoyed our experience very much—have laughed often, cried some, and loved much.  There are wonderful people all over the world and we have been fortunate enough to meet many of them.  We will finish our mission sometime in May.

We have missed home, our family and our good friends but have loved helping people learn of Christ and the Joy that comes with the knowledge that great happiness and peace can come from accepting Him as our Savior.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the Earth and we can live with Him again by following His plan for us.  We are so blessed.

We hope the coming year will find you all well, healthy and happy.

Love, 

Elder Ken and Sister Gaye Patterson

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela died today.  He was 95.  He is rightly remembered as one of the great leaders of the 20th Century, and into the 21st.  Many others will give more eloquent eulogies of this great man.  My profound respect is centered in how he responded to what he was put through.  He was imprisoned for 27 years in harsh conditions for standing against Apartheid, the enforced segregation laws of 20th Century South Africa.

Mr Mandela could have come back into society when he was released and exacted violent retribution against the minority White people who had suppressed the Native population in South Africa, but he knew that not all White people supported Apartheid, and he knew that the violence of the opposition to Apartheid was not the way to make things right. He simply set the standard of forgive and move forward.  South Africa and the world are better because of his taking the higher road.

Some people will say that Nelson Mandela is a hero of Black people.  Yes he was that.  But he is also one of my greatest heroes.  He belongs to all of us, and now he is closer to receiving what I believe will be a great reward from the One who sees all things.

As a young missionary in South Africa from 1966 through 1968, I never heard of Nelson Mandela.  I never heard of Steve Biko, or of Robert Mugabe either.  I honored Ian Smith as a good man who was trying to preserve civility when all around there was chaos.  I was there when Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd was assassinated by a mad man in Cape Town during a session of Parliament.  I was there when Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis.  I was there when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated during the presidential campaign of 1968.  None of those events seemed enormously important to me then, because I was there to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to anybody who would lend an ear.  However, I have learned much, and much has changed, since those days.  But through it all, Nelson Mandela is a lasting example of a forgiving soul.  My life is better for his example.

A Story of Faith

Last week the sisters took us with them to teach a lesson to a man they had met.  I will call him Fred because I haven’t asked him if I can tell his story.  Fred is married to a less-active member, is about 49 years old, and is recovering from a massive stroke about a year ago.

Fred stays home all day.  He loves to read, he climbs up a long flight of stairs and walks along the roadway above the apartment where they live, and he has a sweet spirit about him.  

STT Sisters, Sigler and Pinnock 

View from Fred's deck

So we went over to his apartment to teach a lesson about the Restoration.  He had already accepted a Book of Mormon and he was reading it.  I told him that if he will go to lds.org or mormon.org he can find online versions along with the rest of the scriptures and some information that will help him put it all together.

View from a road near our house, above Magens' Bay

Fred’s wife works 14 hour shifts at a gas station.  She doesn’t know until a couple of days before whether she will be working on a Sunday.  She was raised in the Church but not in the traditional way.  She came from a large family, with several different fathers involved in the genealogy, but they were living with the latest version.  Well, he died, so the other kids in the family went to live with their own dads, but she and her sister had to stay with their mother, who was quite mentally unstable.  Somehow they became acquainted with the local LDS ward, so the members of the ward took them under their wings to get them to church, get them baptized, see that they got to school, had food to eat, etc.  They generally raised them.  When she was old enough to be on her own, though, she sort of quit going to Church.  But she has a wonderful feeling of love and respect for the Church.  In fact, her membership was not even here, but one day the sisters went into the gas station and she greeted them enthusiastically and told them she is a Mormon, etc.  Anyway, she is not often able to attend church or even be present when the missionaries meet with Fred.  That is why thy invited us to go with them, because they are not allowed to teach a lone man without another person present.

So Fred received us in his home and accepted the invitation to come to church.  He also accepted the invitation to follow the Savior and be baptized when he knows that the message we bring him is true.  A date was set but I think we need to work on bringing his wife along with him first.  I drove out to the other end of the island and picked him up for church last Sunday while Gaye was at the church playing the piano.  We made it, but a little late.  I explained to him what our meetings are like, that we meet for 3 hours, what happens at sacrament meeting, Sunday school, and priesthood meeting.  I told him that the first Sunday of each month is a little different in that we don’t have assigned speakers but that everyone is encouraged to stand and bear (or bare) or share his own testimony of God’s love for him or her.

We had a return lesson scheduled with Fred on Thursday, Thanksgiving.  The sisters called us before the lesson, though, to say that he had a question that had come up as he was reading Mosiah 15:1-6.  They asked me to help answer that question.  It goes a little beyond the normal Preach My Gospel lessons.  In those verses Abinadi is telling how Jesus is both the Son and the Father.  We had just told Fred that Joseph Smith had a visit from the Father and the Son, two separate and distinct beings.  So I prepared for that experience, and I learned some great things from The Holy Ghost.  

First off, as Elder Holland and Elder Douglas Callister said in recent conference talks, remember what you know.  Abinadi was talking to apostate priesthood holders.  They knew very well the real nature of the Godhead, but they were so involved in their own apostate practices that they had lost all connection to the teaching of The Holy Ghost.  So in this section Abinadi is calling them to repentance, and they didn’t want to heed the call.  Abinadi was also explaining that Jesus wears at least two hats, and that because Jesus and His Father are so completely united in their method and purpose that when one speaks He speaks as if he is either the Father or the Son, and that the universe will acknowledge such. That explanation was sufficient to Fred.  He is excited to be reading the Book of Mormon and he is gaining a beautiful witness of its truthfulness.

So today Gaye and I drove out to pick him up.  He lives at the extreme west end of the island, and the chapel is at the extreme east end of the island.  That might not seem like a long way, but it takes about 35 minutes to drive from his place to the church.  We made it in time.  Gaye was worried that nobody would be there to play because the sweet lady who usually plays is off island, but there were some visitors, among whom was a piano player.  It worked out great.

On the way in we were just visiting with Fred about how he is doing with his recovery.  I asked him if he ever feels discouraged and how he deals with it.  Keep in mind that this man has been active all his life.  He was training race horses when the stroke struck him.  He has lived in Alaska, Arizona, Oregon, been in the Navy, and was raised in Treasure Valley, near Boise.  His dad is a Baptist minister, but Fred was raised more in the Seventh Day Adventist denomination.  (When he was invited to be baptized he said he thought he would do it, but he has already been baptized twice and he doesn’t want to make this a habit.  I told him this time it will be the best because he will be baptized by someone who holds the priesthood authority and can trace it back to Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith, the prophet of the restoration, by the laying on of hands.  I used my line of authority as an example. He was impressed.) But I digress.

Fred said he has not been discouraged.  He uses the example of Job.  He said he has a different view of Job than the usual explanation of the events in that Old Testament story.  Usually it is used as an example of Job’s faith and trust in God.  He has learned since his stroke, however, that another application of Job is in how God is giving Job a chance to prove himself. It is an expression of God’s trust in Job as much as an expression of Job’s trust in God.  So he said he is patiently trying to learn what God has in mind for him, and he is showing his dependability to God by letting God test him.

Every day we meet people and situations from which we can learn valuable lessons.  We just need to be alert and receptive to what the Spirit is trying to teach us.  Perhaps that is the most difficult lesson of all.  At least it seems to be for me.  But if God will continue to be patient with me, I am getting there.

Making Thanksgiving Dinner, STT

December is here.  Let’s enjoy this season of joy and service as we think of how we can trust Jesus, and how we can show him that he can trust us.

Threatening Clouds STT. View from Sr Apt

We had three days of rain, probably several inches.  Much cooler, maybe down to 75F.  Brrr.  Gaye is sleeping with a blanket.  I sleep with a sheet only.

Military Correctness

Last Sunday I introduced myself in priesthood meeting at the STT branch.  I said I was from Idaho.  There were a couple of men in the group who had been in the military.  One is a pilot of 33 years’s experience who has joined the Church and is just the sort of guy I would enjoy sitting next to on a river in Alaska, catching fish or just enjoying the scenery.  The other guy graduated from high school in 1960, is of African descent, and was drafted into the Vietnam mess.  So I said I was also from the military, and that I had joined the National Guard to get out of the draft and had then served 24 years.

Well today, December 1, one of those men came up to me and asked if he could speak to me privately.  He leaned over and said, (paraphrasing) “Could I say something about one thing you said last week?”

“Sure,” I said.  

He then said, “Last week you said you joined the National Guard to get out of the draft.  Never say that again!  You remind me of George Bush who is the worst president we have ever had, getting us into two useless wars.  When you say things like that you offend some of us veterans.”

My first reaction was to tell him exactly what I was thinking, but sanity rescued me from that poor decision.  I didn’t want to be responsible for perhaps offending someone and have him maybe stay away from church because of it.  So I toned it down.

“Thank you for telling me that,” I said, “but I do not think George Bush is the worst president we have had.  In fact, I think he was a good president.’” I did not tell him that Jimmy Carter was my previous first choice for worst president, until Obama demonstrated his astonishing ability to tell bald-faced lies, do all he can to demolish and ignore the Constitution, and do other things that I consider downright despicable.  I didn’t say that.  Instead I said, “I joined the National Guard because it was best for my career.  Besides that, I am also a veteran.  But thanks for telling me that.”  I didn’t tell him that it is a bit arrogant to think that only those who did a tour in Vietnam are real veterans.

I don’t need to apologize for my service and how it developed.  But I do need to be more forgiving of perceived offenses.  He spoke his mind, and I disagree with his conclusions, but this Church is big enough for all kinds of people.  There is room for Mitt Romney and Harry Reid, so there is surely room for people who adore Obama and hate Bush, and vice versa.  In the end we will all need to make a lot of changes.  Who is to say that the changes I need to make are bigger or smaller than those defects in another.

All of Me

Elder George E Patterson, Missionary in Texas 1938

There are some really bright people in the Church.  My dad is one to whom I look as one of those.  Today is the 96th anniversary of his birth.  I just read a talk given at BYU by John, Welch, the editor of BYU Studies, among many other impressive credentials.  He poses the question:  How can (do) we love God with all our minds?  I won’t summarize what he said, but you can read it here.  http://www.ldsmag.com/article/1/13613/1/page-1

Elder Maxwell often commented on the need to give our whole selves to the Lord.  Sometimes it seems hard to do that, for I wonder if God will take as good care of me as I will.  I see evidence all around me of situations where I think I could do a better job of things.  But my vision is limited and my experience is very limited.  As Paul said, we see through a glass darkly, even with modern revelation and living prophets.  At some point it becomes necessary to walk by faith, not by sight.  That is true for every one of us, no matter how bright or dull our comprehensive skills might be.  So the hard part is to let it go and trust God, even when it might seem dangerous or potentially uncomfortable to do so.  

I am reading the Book of Mormon again.  In doing so I am rediscovering the beauty and power of the book.  President Romney taught the power of the Book of Mormon in many of his talks, but the one I remember best is the one he gave at the sesquicentennial conference in April 1980.  Others, including President Benson, have quoted that talk on many occasions as inspired counsel to read from the Book of Mormon every day.  It has taken me a long time to really learn that message.  That is a sad confession, but in another sense, it is a day of rejoicing.  I often think of the Book of Mormon.  Every day I have lessons pop up in my mind of things I learn from the stories and discourses in the Book of Mormon.  I have participated in classes at the LDS Institute at the University of Washington and at the College of Southern Idaho, almost non-stop since 1973.  Even during the years when we were in the military in Louisiana or Alaska I was involved in teaching Sunday school lessons or priesthood lessons, or even teaching home study seminary lessons that involved the Book of Mormon.  I have been greatly benefitted by participation in those activities as my testimony and knowledge have grown.  But I have not been 100% committed to reading from the Book of Mormon every day.

When our kids were young we tried to have scripture reading in the morning.  At some point I decided it would be better to back off a little than be guilty of injuring one of my kids.  So we became inconsistent in our practice.  We held family prayer every morning and every evening, but daily scripture reading was sporadic.  One of our more productive efforts was to read the headings of each chapter, just to get a view of the story line.  

I have thought many times about why we were only partially successful in our commitment and achievement of daily scripture reading.  I have also been hard on my family and harder on myself because we were not perfect in these attempts.  It is finally dawning on me that what we are after is a final product, and the method or the path to that product is good or not good depending on the success of attaining the product.  This pragmatic approach is valid.  As I look at how we determine if we achieve our goal of returning to God, the success or failure of the effort is simply defined by the final product.  That is the beauty of the doctrine of repentance, and it is the greatest product of the Atonement.  

Jesus came to open the door and invite us to come through it.  As missionaries our purpose is “to invite others...” in the same sense that Jesus invites us.  He set the example and defined the path that leads to the desired product.  There are no counterfeit products that will supplant the real one.  There is no fake salvation, although that is precisely what Satan wants us to think.  There is the real, true product, or there is nothing.  Defining the measure of success in those terms is a little stark and unyielding, but it is real.  Is the reality of the Path and the  Rod of Iron actually so unyielding or unbending?  Yes, for there is truly no other name or way but through Jesus Christ.

So the only thing left to be determined is whether I am the kind or type of person who can enter and dwell in the presence of God.  That presents an interesting challenge, too.  Elder Oaks spoke on Becoming in October 2000.  The take-away for me from that inspired presentation defines the purpose of this life a little differently than what I grew up with.  The sectarian Christians out there often accuse the Mormons of trying to earn our way into heaven through an accumulation of good deeds, which they see as contrary to Paul’s declaration that we are saved by grace.  Nephi also said we are saved by grace, following or in spite of all we can do, but some of our friends do not want to read the Book of Mormon to find the exciting and mind-expanding treasures that are there.  

This life, then, has two purposes relating to this discussion.  First we are here to demonstrate who and what we really are.  We do that by being obedient or rebellious.  We do that by our actions.  We are judged by what we do more than what we say, although our words and thoughts have tremendous effect on what we do.  But the doing is not what it is about, except that what we do demonstrates what and who we really are.

Which brings us to the second purpose, namely to become what we need to become if we are to achieve our goal of eternal or endless, or Eternal or Godly, joy.  It is still about what we really are, but we can change what we really are into something above that level by doing the things that will bring us to that level, and in the process, will change our very nature.  That is the beauty and strength of the Atonement.  In the end, this second purpose is what it is all about.  

We need to be here in mortality long enough to become what God wants us to become, not to just be what we are.  Thus I get tremendous hope from a comment made by Elder Oaks in another conference talk on Resurrection, in April 2000.  He said, “In our eternal journey, the resurrection is the mighty milepost that signifies the end of mortality and the beginning of immortality.”  I interpret this to mean that mortality ends with the resurrection.  Mortality is a term that refers to our probationary state, the time when we will have opportunity to make the changes and corrections through obedience and repentance that need to be made, in order to become what God really wants and hopes for us to become.  It is a state of being, a state of existence, a real condition.  When we have had enough opportunity to demonstrate our true nature, the real person inside, who we really are, then we will be judged and go off to the place prepared for such persons.  God in his mercy and grace will delay that day of judgement until we have had ample opportunity to become and to demonstrate that level of being.

In the the pre-Earth life where we were engaged in a conflict with Satan and those who chose to follow him, we made a preliminary declaration of who we would follow and who we wanted to be like.  That we have mortal bodies of flesh and bone, and blood, indicates that we chose to follow Jesus. Led by Michael and numerous other valiant sons and daughters of God, we demonstrated varying levels of commitment, and that we accepted the plan presented by The Father, championed and to be enacted by The Son.  What was the minimal level of commitment  that put us in one camp or the other?  Are all those who chose to follow Lucifer on the same level of rebellion?  What was the minimal standard of choice and action that denied them a chance to later change their minds?  On the other hand, what was the minimal commitment we made in order to be among the ones who avoided being cast out with Satan.  Those spirit children of God had to do something, or avoid doing something, that defined their future opportunities.  To me it is still a matter of demonstrating the real nature and character of the person within.  Those who rejected Satan would be blessed with a body.  But the real question was still to be answered by how we kept our second estate, or our second test.

I am trying to be like Jesus.  I am trying to become like him.  I love him and want to be with him, with the mortals I have come to know and love who are part of my close circle of friends and family.  I am thankful for the opportunity to remain here long enough to change my character and demonstrate that the change is total and everlasting.  I am motivated every day by many things, but the one that probably teaches me the most is what little Lois Cook said.  Lois was born with a heart defect that for whatever reason was not repaired, so she was always a little blue and was sickly and weak.  She had a powerful spirit, though, and was remarkable in her wisdom.  One day she was struggling to breathe and her mother, a dear family friend whom we affectionately referred to as “Aunt Lucille”, one of those saintly people who will be in the Celestial Kingdom and with whom I want to be forever, said to her, “Lois, my little darling, I wish there was something I could do to ease your pain and make it better for you.”

Lois was only about 5 at the time, and she died just a couple of years later.  Lois smiled at Aunt Lucille and said, “Mother, if Heavenly Father wants me to be this way, I’ll just be this way.”  Aunt Lucille told me that story, and there were tears in her eyes as she did.  There are tears in my eyes every time I think about it, too.  That is what I want to be like.  I want to be that faithful and patient and loving.  I want to be that obedient.  I want to be in that state of being.  God help us all to become like that.

Family Visitors

It seems like another lifetime ago that we were going to Nevis with instructions that we should have our family come and visit us there.  Fortunately President Smartt rescued us from that instruction and told us that we could come to St Thomas for a visit from our kids.  So we arrived on St Thomas on November 11, Kendra's birthday and one day before our one-year mark. 

We had the typical LIAT delays in getting here, but we made it.  The sisters picked us up and brought us to our apartment.  They took us to the grocery store and we decided to try to find our way home.  We made it with only four phone calls to the sisters asking for directions.  I think the best way to learn our way around is to try to do it on our own.  The next day we spent an extra hour getting lost and found, but now we know our way around pretty well.  The sisters even had a family for us to teach a lesson to, which we loved doing.

On Wednesday Kendra and Ryan arrived.  It was late at night for us, but was it ever exciting to see them come into the baggage area!  It seems that we have been gone from home for ever.  We made our way home, with a couple of wrong turns, and finally got to bed about midnight, which is only 9 pm for them.  

Thursday was decompression day.  We got a late start and then wandered our way to Magen's Bay Beach, just down the hill from our apartment.  It is one of the most favored beaches in the world, and now we know why.  

There is little wave action, just lots of soft sand, no flies or mosquitoes, picnic tables, rest rooms, showers, and lots of ocean.  

After a nice day we returned to the apartment for the afternoon nap.  Sounds like a tough life, I know.

Friday we loaded on the car barge to St John, another of the US Virgin Islands. Most of that island is a Virgin Islands National Park, thanks to a big donation by JD Rockefeller.  

We spent our time at Trunk Bay, the most photographed beach of the Caribbean (or so they say).  

This one has medium waves crashing in on the beach, so it was fun to go out and bob up and down. 

The ocean sure is salty, and the salt sure does sting my eyes and nose.  

Fun nevertheless.  

After the beach we returned to St Thomas and went to dinner at the Shipwreck Tavern.  Then home and to bed.

Saturday we were up early and on the ferry to Tortola.  

They have a new boat since we last rode this route, and it is really nice, quiet, and smooth.  We found a rental car and drove to the apartment where we lived when we were there.  The couple there moved out last week and there is no couple to take their place yet.  The sisters there had the key.  It was fun to be there again.  

We soon changed into our swim suits and went to Baptism Bay for swim and snorkel.  

Kendra and Ryan had a good time paddling around.  

They saw a couple of rays, fish, sea fans, and lots of other stuff.  Then we returned to the apartment to shower and rest.  Dinner at Pussers in town finished the evening.

Sunday was exciting as we met with the Tortola Branch again.  

Those sweet folks hold big bleachers in our hearts and we enjoyed hugs and handshakes.  

The branch is growing.  

The chapel now has curtains on the windows, after 9 years of asking the area FM people for some help. 

Anyway, we were privileged to be present for the setting apart of Kendrew as a missionary.  He leaves Tuesday for the MTC in Dominican Republic and then he will serve in the DR, speaking Spanish.  He will be a great missionary.  Kendrew is one of the young men we helped prepare to become an elder and then went through the temple prep class, along with two other young men who also have their calls.  The small Tortola Branch now has 7 full-time missionaries out!  That is more than some stakes in Puerto Rico.  The area FM people still think they don't deserve a better place to meet, but I have already said all I need to say about that.

The ferry trip back to St Thomas was nice, followed by a comfortable evening visiting with our kids.  They packed up their bags and we all hit the sack.

Today we took Kendra and Ryan to the airport for their return to Utah. 

They are probably almost home by now.  This all went by too fast, which I am sure is a harbinger of what our next few months will be like.  In just three weeks we will go to the mission office for some training, then we will become the mission apartment and vehicle supervisors.  That could be exciting since we will be working in Puerto Rico where Spanish is the language du jour.  Stay tuned.