I had the opportunity to speak today at the Iganga Branch Conference and felt unity would be a good subject. You see all over the scriptures when everything is going well for the church there is a strong spirit of love and unity. We know that where you have contention the spirit will not dwell. I came across this experience from in one of the articles I used for information. "Let me give a personal illustration of how using scriptural insights helped me overcome anger. I was praying to know what to do about someone close to me whose frequent outbursts left me depressed and suffering stomach pains for days at a time. As I prayed for understanding, the words "A soft answer turneth away wrath" (Prov. 15:1) came into my mind. I immediately asked, "Whose wrath?" And the answer was, "Yours!" Then the flood of insight came. My problem had not been caused by the other person's anger but by my own anger that arose because of my answering back in kind, either defensively or in counterattack. Thus the soft answer would prevent my anger from arising. The other person's anger by itself could not cause me any discomfort. The result was a great miracle in my life. When I answered the person's outbursts with neutral or even loving words, my anger did not arise, and I felt no residual resentment. I later found that using soft words alone was not sufficient to control my feelings, but I had to get all bad thoughts out of my mind. I could not even think any resentful or critical thoughts."
How powerful is it when we understand there isn't a person alive that can make us angry. Now I get angry on occasion, but knowing that I have chosen to be angry has been very insightful for me. I no longer dwell on "who" is making me angry but rather why am I letting myself be angry because of...doesn't matter what ... means.
Jackie pealing the Ma-toke (they look like green bananas) that will taste like potatoes when cooked. This was for the second Sister's P-day activity for the other half of the sisters in the mission.
Helping/learning to prepare the meal.
Some type of crisscross pattern in her hair. Very clever!
When the cameras come out the silliness begins.
A not-so-silly picture of the group.
Sister Squire will patrol the playgrounds and if she sees a kid playing will go over and try to push them while singing some type of nursery songs. It gets a little weird when its a big kid on the swing. (This is Agnes who lives here in Jinja and does sewing for Nancy).
At the elders we had this sugar cane growing in this little piece of dirt on the cement in the drive.
We have been out looking for some future property for a church building. To make sure the property will work you need a model and a tree. If the model looks beautiful, the property will be beautiful. This property is a keeper.
The flower in her hair came off the tree.
This young man came along to see what we were doing and pushing his wheel toy.
As part of the Iganga Branch Conference we went out visiting. We were able to visit three families that lived about 5 miles from the church. They usually have to walk because it costs too much to ride a boda-boda.
This is one of the sweet potato gardens. This is impressive when you think it is all planted and maintained by hand.
If you look close you can see the ears of corn start about head level. The corn was at least 12 feet high.
This was the second visit. She was so excited she went and got her neighbors to come and see her visitors. Man, I love these people.
Our third visit. This is a family of 10 that was baptized 3 months ago. Such great people and all three families came to conference today.
On Saturday we had two weddings scheduled. Nancy made the wedding cakes and when we drive up to pick up the first couple the bride has been taken away because his mom, where they are staying, did not want them to get married and join the church. The second wedding we showed up but we had a run-away bride. We waited and looked around for about three hours but no luck. Later we found out she had a big fight with her partner the previous night. She wasn't sure she wanted to still marry him. They had a good talk and after church today they performed the wedding.
It is interesting, our last mission fast was for the mission to find and baptize more families. Often, in Africa, that means they have to be married first. There is usually a "bride price" that is paid to the brides parents. Usually the couple cannot afford it so they just live together. To be baptized, they have to be married and it has been a miracle to see how many couples are now in the missionary teaching pool. The adversary is working hard to make sure these weddings do not happen but we all know the end of the story and He (the Savior) will win.
As we were waiting for the bride one of the local groups uses the basketball court to help teach the game to local kids. This was a dribbling drill.
At home, we purchased this fruit drink while Ty and Alison were here hoping to get them to drink it. It looks like fish eyes in the bottle. Alas, I couldn't waste it so down the hatch. It wasn't bad and wasn't good.
One of the families we visited before conference. Big families!
Closer to home we found these triplets all having to wear the same skirts. Love them all!
Another task we did was to take one of the future married couples out to see the brides mom. They said it was close to home but that ended up being an hour drive and some on dirt roads. We found the place and were thinking about buying some random meat products for our dinner.
The papa and son who were finally married today.
What a cute girl...er, oh wait, I looked a bit closer and well never mind.
Guarding the front while the grooms mum and mothers mum work out the details of the wedding.
Another random band while we were in downtown Jinja buying some grocery items.
And finally, the sisters singing the closing song at their P-day activity.
Those are some great thoughts about anger. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThat drink makes me nauseous just thinking about it. Yuck!
ReplyDelete