The World We Live In

We had a senior conference today, held by Go-to-Meeting with all the senior missionaries attending online.  It was a good experience.  We held a couple of senior couple’s conferences earlier in the mission where we all flew to San Juan, at great expense.  This conference was more productive than either of those other two.  President Smartt read from the mission president’s handbook to answer a couple of questions.  Couples are not to be moved around, generally speaking, but should be left in one or two places for the duration of their missions. Hmmm.  Mission conferences for senior missionaries should be held no more than quarterly and at least annually.  Budget restraints must be considered.  Hmmm.  Senior missionaries should not be overly protective of the young missionaries, treating them like kids and grandkids.  Activities with the branches and wards must not develop dependancies of members upon the missionaries.  Hmmm.

President read a letter from the First Presidency saying that missionaries should never use complete names or personal details that might allow someone to access information about members or investigators or even missionaries from The Web.  There are evil souls out there who find investigators and new members and flood them with all kinds of anti-Mormon junk once they find them. There are disaffected parents of missionaries who want to tear down the Church and will not hesitate to destroy their own sons or daughters in the process.  President says this has happened in this mission.  So my blog has been in error.  Henceforth, I will not use complete names or information that might let someone identify anyone.  That is the world we live in.  It is sad, but it is real.

I was looking at a camera on the internet yesterday.  It was a specific camera on a specific website.  Today when I went to a blog I like to read, there was a commercial from that same online store offering a deal on the exact camera that I had been checking out.  This is getting really scary.  The classic George Orwell novel 1984 told things that would happen in the future that we all considered to be ridiculous in magnitude and subject.  The predictions seriously missed the mark.  They shot way too low.

President Benson said Helaman and Third Nephi in the Book of Mormon present a type or shadow of what will take place in the last days.  For that matter, it is throughout the whole book.  Alma encountered it, King Benjamin preached about it, Nephi saw it in the expanded version of his father Lehi’s vision.  Mormon and Ether and Moroni told how it happened and how it could have been prevented.  What does our future hold for us and our children and grandchildren?  The Book or Mormon tells it all.  But don’t despair, for the Book of Mormon also tells us how to escape what is coming.  Repent, be obedient, love God and fellow men, and spread the message of redemption through Jesus Christ.  There is no other way.  For those who do not like that message, then to paraphrase Joshua in the Old Testament, choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Make a decision.  Don’t claim to be of one kind of person and then act as a different kind of person.  Obedient people obey the commandments.  Faithful people are faithful to their covenants.  Choose which gods you will serve, and then serve them.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!