Refreshing

A few days ago our church broadcast a Christmas Devotional. Normally Jerry and I would have watched it online that evening, but since we had been visiting friends that day and got home right at Lo's bedtime we decided to just view the archived devotional later.

Still not having watched the devotional, yesterday I went shopping for Christmas gifts and felt an undeniable pressure and anxiety surrounding me. Then, after returning home, I finally got around to reading the online summary of the Christmas devotional. An instant peace filled my heart and pushed away the holiday stress. If there is anybody else needing to refresh their spirits and remember the true joys of the season, check it out.

Easter Part One

I do love a good holiday. Jerry got Good Friday off work even, so the long weekend was especially good with him around more. What is it about Easter Eggs that just gladden the heart? Plastic and hard boiled alike!

That Lo got to decorate eggs for the first time. I put him in his craft-project tee shirt, and Jerry had slapped protective vinyl over the carpet, so the mess stayed mostly contained...

On the ground there is a crushed hard-boiled egg. That Lo Lo kept getting so tempted to squeeze them in his fist while he was putting decorations on them. We also ate a fair amount of eggs during the project.

And even though I love the secular fun parts of Easter, our family is trying to make the holiday more Christ-centered overall. So we took this idea from a friend: in the week/days leading up to Easter Day, discuss the final week in Christ's mortal life. We did this with the Gospel Art picture kit we have at home. One of the pictures shows Christ riding the donkey into Jerusalem, and Lo Lo listened so intently as we told him the story. Then, all of a sudden he jumped up and ran to get his little deer that he rides on. After talking about the gospel pictures, we put them up sort of haphazardly on our dining room wall and that was pretty much the extent of our Easter decorations.

It actually really did help me to keep my thoughts on the Savior to see all those depictions of His life. We also used the picture wall for an activity with friends on Easter Day. We hosted an Easter dinner at our house yesterday, and after people had finished eating, we played a little game trying to put the pictures in chronological order. The meal was yummy, and we cooked our first ham. Sometimes it feels difficult to live far away from family when the holidays roll around, but getting together with a group of friends really brightens the mood, and we had a great Easter!

ps. also note in that photo above, I hung Easter Eggs from the chandelier. I know it isn't that creative or original of a decoration, but I was proud of it because Lo Lo cheered and commented on it quite a bit. Holidays are so much more fun now that we have a kid. :)

Of quaking countries and hearts

After hearing of the Japan quake yesterday, and also due to my recent reading of the Afghan history-based novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, I found myself mourning the state of the earth. Then I did my daily reading of a General Conference talk. As I recently finished all the talks in the October 2010 General Conference, Jerry suggested I read the talks from conference a year ago. The one I read after feeling my heart go out to all the suffering in the world is President Boyd K. Packer's talk entitled "The Power of the Priesthood." This paragraph in it seemed to jump out at me:

We live in a day of “wars [and] rumors of wars, and earthquakes in divers places.” As prophesied, “the whole earth [is] in commotion” and “Satan is abroad in the land.” He seeks to destroy all that is good and righteous. He is Lucifer, who was cast out of the presence of God. Against all of that, we have very positive feelings about what lies ahead.

Positive feelings! Against all the suffering on earth? I felt instant warming of my heart that I did not have to feel down about the Japan quake, or Afghan tragedies, or any other aspect of life's challenges. God is fully aware of the suffering on earth, and yet He doesn't go around with his head hanging. Heavenly Father is joyful because He knows the end result is tears will be wiped from all faces.

I think it is also interesting that recently General Authorities visited the Pacific saints and those in Japan and Korea. To me, the timing of their visits and messages are evidence of their prophetic calling. I remember while I was serving as a full time missionary in Canada, Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the United States. One man we tracted into said, "If you have prophets on the earth today, why didn't they warn the people about Hurricane Katrina?" Of course, the testimony I gave seemed not to have swayed that man to believe our message, since he was in a contentious mood...but I have since then thought a lot about how much preparation the prophets do give us, the entire world, for help to overcome any challenges that arise if we will only listen and apply their teachings.

We are now less than one month away from another worldwide General Conference, in which living prophets and apostles will speak the words God wants all people to hear. I hope everyone will begin now to prepare their ears and hearts for that conference and make it a priority to listen. I promise as you do, the turmoil of the world will have no power to take peace from your heart.

prayers and profiles

For family prayer last night, Lo folded his arms on his own for the first time. Jerry had showed him a photo of a little boy praying, and then suddenly Lo folded his arms, just like the boy in the photo! We smiled and practiced doing it again, again and again, because he is just so adorable to us with his chubby arms that cannot even reach all the way around his belly.

Also in faith/religious news, I finished my profile on www.mormon.org this morning. It is still pending review, so it might not be visible for awhile. Not sure why it took me months to complete, but it feels great to have it posted anyway. They have some great new profiles up right now on the home page. Check it out.

Mormons know the most about the Bible

Wow, this is a fun study looking at religious knowlege in the United States. Direct quote from the study summary: "Mormons are the highest-scoring group on questions about the Bible." Granted, I am a Mormon and therefore feel inclined to believe such praise. It seems legitimate anyway, and they even have a fun quiz so you can see where you stack up with other Americans on religious knowlege. I'll take a moment to pat myself on the back for getting 100% correct on the quiz. Though I should point out that religious knowlege and spiritual knowlege are not the same thing, and I'm far from getting 100% correct in my spiritual walk with God each day. But I am trying my best most of the time.

If you want to focus on spirituality as well as religious knowlege, General Conference is happening this weekend. Yesterday I got to listen to the whole morning session almost entirely free of interruption since Lo took his morning nap at a freakishly late hour. Turned out for the best. I could go on forever about my favorite parts, but I'll just say for now that what stands out to me the most are themes of agency and integrity. I liked what Elder David M. McConkie said about a good teacher getting the students to act, not be acted upon. "A good teacher facilitates knowlege being caught rather than taught," he said. I have been thinking a lot about teaching our Lo, and especially wondering how to manage church now that our baby is so active. So I think I'll do a separate post on it another day, but do have some interesting thoughts now after prayerfully listening to the conference talks during Saturday's sessions.

Hope you can all tune in today to Sunday's speakers. Come, listen to a prophet's voice. And I hope we can all do better on our religious and spiritual knowlege--in America, and all over the world.

odds n ends of the Palmyra trip

Here are a few last pics from the trip. Check out the other posts below to see other good times we had this past weekend in New York. A big thank you to Uncle Lynn and Aunt Carolyn for letting us use their house as our base to sleep and eat, etc. It really helped us (especially because we travelled with a little baby) to get to break up the trip into more enjoyable shorter driving periods (their home is exactly a half-way point between our Ohio residence and the Palmyra sites). Four-Church Corner. There is a different denomination on each corner of this Palmyra intersection, really illustrating the competing faiths Joseph Smith spoke of around the time that he sought direction to know which of all the churches he should join and subsequently received his First Vision.

We just did a quick stop at the Grandin Print Shop, and plan to do a more thorough visit next time we go to Palmyra. We also have to keep on our "to-do-list" for next time: Fayette Chapel, the Peter Whitmer Farm, and...? Maybe more time spent at the Smith farm as well.

Such a treasure to live close enough to see all these historic sites. We love it!

Hill Cumorah--Site and Pageant

I guess we came expecting something just a step above a local roadshow type play, but the Hill Cumorah Pageant left us absolutely dazzled and amazed. We talked afterward about how we cannot figure out how some of the special effects even came to pass. And yes, I shall speak unto ye in scriptural language from this time hence. Because that is how blessed this pageant was unto us.

The moon rose as we waited on the field for the pageant to thus begin (it must have full darkness to start).

The setting sun came and with its colors, the actors in their garb filled the field:

Their joy was contagious as they wandered among the audience. Lo ceased his crying to say hello to a few of the colorful cast. (he wailed for about an hour straight right before the pageant began, as his bedtime was long past and the rest of the journey had proven taxing for him).

A wise man from the East. The set in the background is of exceedingly fine workmanship which left us astonished beyond all measure. And maybe left this woman astonished also:

We did cause that our position be relocated to the top of the hill for a time, in order that we might view the secret parts of this creation. We saw behind the scenes, the trebuchet that lifted the cross and figure of Christ, the stone which held the gold plates on Cumorah (and an actor putting the stone in place), as well as Moroni's monument.

This monument also had positioned around the base the names and statements of witnesses who saw and felt the gold plates from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. There are 3 witnesses who were shown the plates by an angel, and 8 who saw the plates from Joseph's hand.

Here are the words of Moroni as he stood on Hill Cumorah thousands of years past:

And when ye shall receive these things [these plates, these scriptures], I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things.

There are some in the world who fight against this truth. They and their children lined the road which borders our church's Hill Cumorah land, and all throughout the pageant, used bullhorns to blast slander and lies about Joseph Smith, the Angel Moroni, and current members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I normally do not like to waste any time even acknowledging these types of sad and pathetic fighters against Christ. But I want to mention them at this time because of a good memory I had that night as we left the pageant. Jerry and I felt so warmed and thrilled as we walked back to our parked car leaving the pageant. It had been a richly spiritual experience for us, as well as a joy to the physical senses. As we neared our car, the sounds of the protesters on the roadside became audible yet again (during our time in the pageant the church music had drowned out the protesters). At first, we felt a growing dullness in our hearts, as we were forced to listen to the protesters because it took about 30 minutes of sitting in traffic to drive beyond their range of noise.

But then it dawned on us that we did not have to listen to the din. We turned up the volume in our car of the latest EFY CD, and began sharing with each other our favorite parts of the pageant. "Mine was when the actor playing Christ descended to the crowd of people--how do you think they lowered him like that?? Wires?? I bet he will look just like that when he comes to earth in real life--so glowing, bright, and powerful." Jerry agreed, and shared that he was struck by how realistic it had seemed when the prophet Abinadi was burned to death. There will always be wicked people who fight against the prophets. As the sounds of the protesters faded from our consciousness, we felt again the warmth of the Holy Spirit fill our hearts.

The adversary is powerless when we make good choices. As Jerry and I chose to fill our car with uplifting conversation and spiritual music, then the bad feelings we had concerning the protesters simply left. I am grateful to have had this reminder. The entire evening was a testimony building experience.

Got Spiritual Births? Especially Medicated Ones?

There is occuring right now a compilation of stories from LDS women who have given birth, as well as their thoughts on motherhood, pregnancy, etc. It is worth contributing if you've got a birth story ready to go, and they are especially in need of medicated birth stories right now. I know some of my readers have had GREAT experiences with medicated births. They point out that for some reason natural birthers are just more eager to share their stories, though they are certainly not the only ones having spiritual experiences related to birthing children. Anyway, here's the link: check it out.

Got Love?

Two friends eat a bowl of spicy curry. One shudders while the other smiles.

Two sons hear of the death of their mother. One cries, but the other remains silent.

Two people listen to a sermon. One says, with shaking head, "Weird." The other says, with joyful heart, "Wow."

I observed or experienced the latter occurrence yesterday, and feel intrigued. What causes people to have unique preferences, views, and reactions? Probably too many variables to count. Here are a few parts of my life experience that I figure contributed to me being one of the joyful types after last night's sermon:

1. The sermon was given by someone of a different faith than mine, and while I feel confident in my own beliefs, I also highly respect and value the varying religions of the world. I have been deeply enriched from friends of other faiths, be it through the non-denominational worship services I attended regularly in college, or the countless conversations I had with investigators during my full-time missionary service, or the dozen or so Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings I attended with a friend (by the way, AA meetings seem similar to my own church's testimony meetings, though with more of a "rated R" feeling...lol). I generally believe there is some truth to be found in all walks of belief, so I actively look for it when given the opportunity.
2. The 3-4 women seated directly near me during the sermon were thoroughly enjoying it, laughing loudly at all the right times, and nodding or otherwise affirming quietly when they agreed with the speaker. Probably their reactions colored my own.
3. The personal theme I have developed lately in my attempts to grow my faith was addressed in the first minute of the speaker's sermon--thereby putting me on the edge of my seat with anticipation. The speaker said, "I do not come to entertain or instruct. I am here today to help you feel the love of God in your life." Feeling the love of God is something I seek daily, and wish upon all humanity. I have even lately started praying for specific people to notice God's love for them--to feel it, be changed by it, rejoice with me in it.

The preacher at last night's sermon stated that one of the most sure ways to feel God's love is through studying scriptures. "This book," he waved his Bible above his heart, "Is God's love letters to you." It is true in my life as well as this man's; the times I have felt most touched by the tender teachings of the living God have come through my study of His words. I believe the Bible is the word of God, recorded through ancient prophets. I also believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

So here is my shout-out to the blogosphere today: is there anybody within the sound of my voice who wants to feel more of God's love? If you do, please leave your address in a comment (I moderate, and will not publish your address for anybody else to see) and I will send you a FREE copy of the Bible and Book of Mormon. These two witnesses work hand-in-hand. I am excited to spread the joys I have found through living Jesus Christ's teachings. If you are more comfortable requesting the scriptures from an official source, check out my church's website: mormon.org.

Literary Musings

Here is an opening attempt to catch up from all the December-post backlog. Most of our other tales of Christmas adventure have photos to go with them, but I am not currently in the mood to upload said photos, so please accept my humble offering of just one bit of image-free news from the 2008 Christmas with the Tams.

Over the past couple weeks of holiday, I have burrowed into uber amounts of purely enjoyable bookworming. From revisiting old friends (like Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot) to examining stranger territory (I'm now half-way through The Secret Life of Plants), my reading lately has spanned all sorts of diverse interests. Through all this reading, my brain feels refreshed and ready for a new semester. Never underestimate the value of a quality break from school to stimulate intellectual growth.

Recently BYU asked me to serve as part of a focal group to discuss possible changes in the academic calendar at my institution. Most of the other students in the group nodded along with me as I proposed that there is a need for adequate time off from classes in order to enhance the learning process. "Students need time to contemplate and absorb all the cramming of knowledge that happens during a semester," we decided. And indeed, even during the apparent random selection in my recent reading experiences, I have pondered the themes of my last several classes, and found principles gained during Fall Semester are now lodged more firmly in my heart and mind as a result of my free reading.

Furthermore, I have incorporated reading into one of my New Year's Resolutions. Sweet Husby and I both decided to complete another rereading of the Book of Mormon, beginning at January 1st, and finishing by General Conference in April of this year. We decided to do this "cover-to-cover" reading on an individual pace, because my husband will most likely get a lot of his reading done via audio recording while on his computer at work. Our bishop encouraged the entire ward to adopt this goal, but we Tams made it a matter of personal consideration because we both already had other scripture study programs in place. After some pondering and prayer, we decided to join with many of the others in our congregation to read the entire Book of Mormon in this 3 month time frame. Anybody else care to join us?

A prophetic statement of the blessings that will accompany our endeavor:

Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God.

--Gordon B. Hinckley

Jerry's Conversion

I first met the missionaries through my classmate who was not a member of the church. My classmate, my brother, and I went to DeliFrance (cafe) every Sunday evening while we chatted with the missionaries in English, since it was more a one-on-one and effective way to learn English. Although we went through many pairs of elders, trust and friendship was established. A pair of Elders gave me a Book of Mormon during Christmas (1998). Upon walking home, when asked by my classmate, “Are you ever gonna read it?” I said, “No.” It was the first BOM I threw away before I arrived home that night.

Elder Bell first brought me to the senior missionaries’ English class, which was my first time to go to an LDS church’s building. After about a year, since the public exam was done, we stopped contacting the missionaries.

About a few months later, I wanted to learn English again and found Elder Bell, who was the AP at that time, serving in the mission office. (The Hong Kong Temple has a chapel and the mission home within the same building.) After visiting, Elder Bell and his comp taught me the “first discussion” at the visiting lobby of the HK Temple. The Spirit was strong and I felt it, although I didn’t know what the Spirit was at that time. I got the BOM again and sincerely read 3 Nephi 11. I called and left a message at the mission office. For some reason, I never heard back from them. The BOM was put on my book shelf. One day cleaning up our home, my mom asked, “Are you ever gonna read it?” “No,” I replied. It was the second time I threw the BOM away.

A few months later, I saw a pair of elders doing GQ on the street, (GQ=Golden Questions=street contacting). Among all the people passing by, brushing them off, I had the same feeling I felt in the temple. That feeling drove me to them, Elder Wong and his comp.

This time is different…. I have always been a “question boy,” who asks many deep questions in whatever I learn in class. Many questions like, “How can people be made out of dirt?” “Where is the exact physical location of heaven?” I mean, come on, how can those US missionaries explain all this in Cantonese? Elder Wong was a HK native. Within two weeks, the Lord sent another native to the area, Elder Lai. (Notice it was a miracle; because of the hard language, it was rare that two natives served together.) Without language barriers, many of my questions were answered.

I still remember the first time I knew the BOM was true. It was a quiet night; and I was alone at home. After reading it for 30 mins that night (I had been reading it daily for two months), I knelt and prayed, and prayed for a few mins. Suddenly a strong feeling came to my heart and mind. I knew it. I knew it was true.

I was baptized by Elder Wong and confirmed by Elder Lai on Feb 13 and Feb 20, 2000.

Now…, would you like to hear my mom’s conversion story…??? She was Buddhist all her life. Later..., I baptised her…. Well, before boring you, I will tell you next time.