Russ's Thoughts

Russ's turn. The other day, on the way home, I had a short conversation with a man that was anti-Mormon. It started by my noticing he was pushing his bike up the hill and remarking that the hill gets in the way. As we passed he asked if I was here for a wedding and I said I was going home and that I worked here. He then very vehemently said,"God is not an exalted man!" I stopped and we talked briefly and parted on fair terms when we both agreed we would be "saved" through the blood of Jesus Christ. I pondered for a while on what would agitate him so about the possibility that God was once as we are and here are my thoughts. I am sure, in his mind, the idea would in some way diminish God and how that would compare to how I feel. First, most Christians believe that we are all children of God. (not literally in the flesh like Christ) The scriptures are pretty clear on that. Thinking about my earthly father, Bill Fellows, I realized that at this point in life I am much of what he was as my father. I am a father, husband, grandfather, veteran, bread winner, etc. In my mind, this in no way diminishes my father in my feelings for and admiration of him. In like manner, if I were to progress and become like my Heavenly Father, it would in no way lessen who and what he is. It seems natural to me to think that if I am his child, as Christ taught, I would be able to become like him. I did not have enough time to go into this with this man but do wish that he didn't feel that I in no way disrespect God by believing, if I mature properly, could become to Him, as I am to my father Bill Fellows, a man (a God) and a son, always a son, always following.

It's a small price to pay

     I have been continuing to work on understanding the words of Isaiah. The 58th chapter is pretty clear, though. I have to wonder how many people, because they are intimidated by the complexity of this awesome prophet's writings, just avoid trying to read him. If so, they may be missing some really straight-forward advice, like in the 58th chapter. He starts off with the Lord telling him to "spare not" in sounding like a trumpet to His people. The Lord goes on to talk about how people pretend to seek Him, even fasting, yet don't do it with a sincere heart then question why He doesn't recognize their great sacrifice. He tells them why- "Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors." What He means by exacting labors is people who will have others work for them so they can seem more pious in their avoidance of worldly labors. That happens among people today who will not cook at home because it's the Sabbath yet they will eat out requiring the labor of others. That happens with people of certain religions who reportedly like to invite guests over so they can do the labor they so piously avoid. Then He goes on to accuse them for fasting only to cause "strife and debate" as they give in to the crabbiness that often results in the effort to overcome the natural man in us by refusing to eat for a little while. Just as the mortal Lord later criticizes those who pray aloud for the purpose of impressing others rather than humbly seeking the Lord, through Isaiah He explains what is meaningful to Him as we fast or observe the Sabbath.  He wants us to fast to "undo heavy burdens" that are a part of being mortal- in other words, as a means of overcoming the natural man in us. He also wants us to "deal thy bread to the hungry" meaning that even if we have little to give others, if we skip a meal, we can donate what we didn't eat to the poor. (We call that a fast offering in the LDS Church.) But He doesn't just scold us to make us miserable. He goes on to promise that He will be our "rereward" (which means He's got our back!) and if we cry, He will answer "Here I am".
     The chapter ends with His instruction about the Sabbath day. It's really a shame that the Sabbath has become so meaningless to so many people. Even those who purport to be religious ignore God's commandment to keep the Sabbath "holy". It's supposed to be one day in seven that we show Him we care about Him but we can't even seem to do that. Too often, we feel that not pursuing recreation or shopping or eating out is unjustly restrictive.  But He is so clear here: "If thou turn away they foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord..." and He goes on to give promised blessings. Is it so difficult to spend just one day a week striving to please the Lord when we spend the other 6 doing what we want? He has given us everything. God has given us His Son and His Son gave His life for us. Jesus never got to ride a roller coaster, shop at Sam's Club, or eat at Wendy's! The Lord spent His life teaching, serving, giving, then allowed Himself to be crucified after suffering in Gethsemane. Is it such a sacrifice for us to give one day out of seven to Him and skip a couple of meals occasionally? I can never thank God or Jesus Christ ENOUGH to justify all I have been blessed with and continue to be blessed with every day. I may whine about things sometimes but, truly, I have suffered almost NOTHING compared to what my Heavenly Father suffered in allowing His Only Begotten Son to suffer so I can have the chance to make a mess of my life then be forgiven when I recognize the extent of my foolishness and rebelliousness. I only have to love Them enough to give Them my will because They love me more than I even know how to love and They will see to it that I will have happiness forever beyond what I can even imagine.

Magic in Nauvoo

I have mentioned before that Nauvoo is a small town and NOT primarily LDS so there is not an excess of resources. However, when including some of the nearby small towns, there are 2 wards (church units) that meet in the church building here. These two wards combined their talents and time to set up a magical themed party for Christmas. Then they had their members come on successive nights so they could all enjoy the scene and still have room for everyone to sit and eat and enjoy a program. One of the men (who also works every week in the temple) is an artist. (You can purchase his work in a little store here in Nauvoo.) He made this wonderful introduction to the theme of the night- the first thing you see when you enter the building and follow railroad tracks on the floor (made of duct tape.)

 Once you have the "conductor" at the door of the cultural hall (gym) punch your tickets, you enter the room and see yet another "train", the engine of which is attached to the back side of the piano which is used during the program after dinner.

 The man who emceed the program did an amazing job impersonating the Tom Hanks voice from the movie.

 Basketball hoops are a permanent fixture in LDS cultural halls and it's always fun to see how they are incorporated into decorations for various events. The hoops can be raised so they're not as much in the way. Here they used the raised hoop to extend lights down to a large hoop on the floor, creating a giant lighted "tree".

 The ceiling, high as it is, was laced with strings of lights and giant paper snowflakes. The walls were covered with sheets upon which the youth of the wards painted unique Christmas trees.

 The meal served was breakfast and people were invited to come in pajamas. We had a blueberry stuffed French toast casserole, a hashbrown/bacon/onion/cheese casserole, sliced ham, cinnamon buns, orange juice, water or milk and lots of various fresh fruits. Below you can see the people lined up for the yummy food but you can't actually see the food. sorry.....

After the meal, the program began, including some little clips of the movie followed by some of the young women dancing to the "Hot Chocolate" song as the young men came out appropriately dressed with carts filled with hot chocolate and cookies. The end was a live nativity scene presented by the teenagers and some Christmas carols. It was a wonderful evening!

Messiah

These aren't necessarily really good pictures but they're all I've got. Russ has been rehearsing with a community group for a couple of months to perform Handel's Messiah. Considering that Nauvoo is a tiny town in the middle of cornfields, putting this together was quite ambitious. Apparently they have done it annually for several years now. The conductor is the Nauvoo temple recorder. He knows former Tabernacle Choir director Craig Jessop and is startling similar in appearance to him!

I actually recorded some parts of the performance but somehow when transferring from my phone, the videos ended being upside down. If anyone reading this knows how to turn them over, please let me know because I would love to be able to include some of the recording.

As I looked over the names listed in the program, there were 14 for sure that I knew from the temple, mostly temple missionaries but some local ordinance workers, too. It's just another case of generous active Latter Day Saints are in volunteering their time and how much we support quality arts and the sharing of talents. (By the way, it was somewhat painful for me to not participate. I have had to excuse myself from performance singing because my voice is no longer dependable. I have only one functioning vocal cord and it is old and worn out. After singing all of my life, this is tough.)

Christmas in Old Nauvoo

 

 Last night Russ and I attended the annual Old Nauvoo Christmas celebration.It started with a couple of high school choirs and a high school jazz combo presenting some musical numbers followed by a local politician turning on the lights for the big tree in the Visitors Center. The place was filled with the proud parents of the performers as well as lots of the temple missionaries who were fortunate, like us, to be on the morning shift so we were free in the evening.Without any long speeches or further fanfare, everyone was invited to ride in one of the horse drawn wagons down Main Street.

 The wagons pulled by these hard-working horses, normally filled with tourists, were festively decorated.We were delighted to find that the group of people of various ages that filled the wagon we got on happily sang all the Christmas songs we could collectively remember off the tops of our heads. The kids were the most exuberant and sang some of their favorites more than once, but we just enjoyed the happy spirit of the occasion. By the way, everything was free, just like it always is in Old Nauvoo.

 The night was cold, but not too cold and fairly still with lots of stars you could see because electric lighting in old Nauvoo is minimal. The sidewalk next to the street had been lined with luminaries (paper bags with cut-out stars containing battery powered tea lights). This picture gives you an idea but doesn't give the full effect of the old-time festive atmosphere. There are more site missionaries than temple missionaries, especially over the winter, but the site missionaries continue to work just as hard yet cheerfully as ever. In 4 of the buildings there were  couples who told stories of the origins of Christmas songs then sang them, a cappela, with guitar, or a keyboard. Outside each of those buildings was a group of missionaries standing around a burning barrel to keep warm while they enthusiastically sang Christmas carols. In the cultural hall (the largest historic building), there was a live nativity scene re-enacted every half hour. In the family living center where missionaries usually show visitors how rope, or rugs, or bread were made by the pioneers, there were refreshments. Hot cocoa was served along with cheese and crackers, vegetables and dip, and cookies. I had made candy cane cookies and dropped them off earlier but there were none of mine left when we got there. That wasn't a problem because there were others to try and I had some of mine still at home!                                                                                                                                                                                        

My younger son

From the very beginning................

through the rebellious stage

to the stage where we really enjoyed being with him,

Russ and I loved this son. He was born 36 years ago tomorrow and he left earth life way too soon for our liking. I'm grateful to KNOW where he is and know how good he is. I look forward to being with him again and am grateful for having had him as a part of this mortal experience.

Joan of Arc

     I haven't posted a blog in the past couple of days because I have been struggling with my confidence. I think it started with the usual reaction to holiday seasons. I miss my family. Don't get me wrong, the people here are really wonderful. I can't say enough about how exemplary the temple missionaries are as well as the local people who work in and attend the temple. But there's something about the tenderness of feelings for people with whom you have long been familiar, a comfort from being with people who love you despite having watched you grow up through awkward phases as well as do and say dumb things. As I have prayed for insight as well as assistance in regaining a feeling a peace and joy, I have been waiting for some good news (certainly not finding any in the national or world news!) to reassure me just a little. Today the Lord gave me a couple of "tender mercies". I met a local temple worker I had not previously known. She hasn't been here for awhile. When in the course of the normal get-acquainted conversation she asked where I was from, I told her "upstate New York". She asked where and I said "Ithaca" and proceeded to give the usual description of where in the state that is. She interrupted me to say she knew where it was because she grew up there! I added that I wasn't from Ithaca exactly but nearby, a little town called Dryden. She said she knew exactly where that is! For the next few minutes we had the thrill of discussing familiar things about the area- the beauty of the gorges and waterfalls, the farms with cows, and especially the variety of apples. Without any prompting from me she nodded her head and mentioned Cortlands and MacIntosh and Empires! As I worked through the morning, I continued my quest to better understand Isaiah which was reassuring (I'll further explain later) and had the opportunity to talk to some other temple workers because there weren't a lot of patrons in the temple today. It had been snowing outside and being mid-week, it was just slow. It was wonderful to talk to these good people, sharing concerns and values and hope.That was really all I needed to get me started on an upward path again.
     Not long ago Russ and I watched a docu-drama about Joan of Arc. I have know about her most of my life but had not been aware so fully of her experience. She truly had perseverance and great faith. Even at her young age, she stood up to skeptics and cynics and critics. She continued to pray and press for virtue in others, especially the soldiers she led in battle. She truly exemplified Isaiah's words: Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. The Lord has given me instructions and direction so many times but when I don't see results for my efforts, I get discouraged. I am grateful that He keeps giving me little "tender mercies" to cheer me on when I don't have the wherewithal to persevere. I need to be reminded that it really doesn't matter whether others agree with me or listen to my counsel. What matters is who I am. I know I have said it before, but I need to repeat it for myself- I just need to keep doing my little part of the job and He will take care of the rest.