Filling your Life with Light - 2-10-09

William,

How has this week gone for you? I hope that you have everything taken care of with the bike. I am proud of the way you chose to handle that whole situation. As you continue to grow in gospel you will become a great tool in the hands of the Lord. But you will also become a target for Satan to work on.

The story you talked about last week, "A Child of Promise" was incredible. I sent a copy to Mom like you asked and I also included the entire story as a footnote with your last letter on your blogsite. What was the bit about singing at a fireside? Were you with a duet, trio, or a group? Or did you sing a solo ( I can't even imagine that.)

How is your Spanish coming? I hope that you are having success with your families. Remember, they won't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. Corny I know, but it's true.

I got some bad news, but I want to tell you so that you can learn from it. Matt Bentz, is coming home from France in 5 months. He has collected 3 cards full of pictures on his digital camera over the last 19 months, and has not sent any pictures home. Last week, Matt left his camera somewhere and lost all of his pictures from his entire mission. He has already contacted his past companions to try to get copies of pictures that they have taken. But he will never replace the pictures that he took. Please, send home pictures often. The camera can be replaced, the pictures can not.

I know I told you about the Quilt that Mary Ann is making for Trisha. She is working hard to finish it soon because we are going to Arizona in a couple of weeks. Garth is working as a tech in a play in Las Vegas and Mary Ann wants to support him, so we are going to stop there on Thursday and then continue on to Arizona.

Grandma Boy went to the Temple last week, and really enjoyed that, she said that she can't believe that Grandpa has been gone almost a whole year. She is really excited about us coming down.

We delivered the headboard that we made for Steve and Tausha. It turned out really nice. Mary Ann and I took the old door that used to lead to the laundry room and painted it chocolate brown. Then we painted it with "Crackle paint" and then Almond White over that. We added some crown molding on the top edge (turned sideways) and added some legs. The finish looks really old with the chocolate brown showing through the cracks in the almond white. They really liked it. The whole project cost $13.

Benson and I have taken out the old "Ghost Recon" game. remember the fun times we had playing that? Benson and I have been having a blast playing it together.

I can't believe that you have been gone for 4 months already, boy how the time flies. I hope that you are enjoying your new companionship, I think that it is great that you get to work on your spanish again. I found this lesson in the "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts" manual. I thought that it had good message.

I hope you get something good from it.

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Filling Your Life with Light
taken from "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts", (1969),2–3

The Savior Jesus Christ promises those who follow Him: “Your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you” (D&C 88:67 And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.). Fill your life with truth, righteousness, peace, and faith. As you fill your life with goodness, there will be no room for pornography and other sources of spiritual darkness.

Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve observed: “Light and darkness cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Light dispels darkness. When light is present, darkness is vanquished and must depart. More important, darkness cannot conquer light unless the light is diminished or departs” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2002, 80–81; or Ensign, May 2002, 70).

You fill your life with light as you pray and study the scriptures with real intent, seeking to know, understand, and follow the Lord. You will find that the word of God has a “more powerful effect” upon you “than . . . anything else” (Alma 31:5 And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.). An understanding of true doctrine will help you change your attitudes and behaviors.

Attending Church meetings and partaking of the sacrament, keeping the Sabbath day holy, fasting, and paying tithing will help you keep yourself free of the darkness of the world (see D&C 59:9 And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;). Appropriate music and uplifting visual images will invite the Spirit into your life.

Regular worship and service in the temple will also strengthen you. President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of the fortifying effects of temple attendance: “Make a habit of going to the house of the Lord. There is no better way to ensure proper living than temple attendance. It will crowd out the evils of pornography” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2005, 109; or Ensign, May 2005, 102).

As you draw near to the Lord, your behavior and your very nature will gradually become more Christlike. Through personal conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will learn to “have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.).

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William, never let your guard down, pray often, and turn to the Lord in all things.
Keep up the good work, and take care of yourself out there.

We Love you,
Dad, Mary Ann & Benson (& Grandma Boy)