March 22, 2016

SISTER CLAWSON called this morning and asked me to give the spiritual thought in our weekly prayer meeting. I chose to talk about my experience in the Temple when I was assigned a post where there was no activity and I was standing there thinking and wondering if I was truly ready mentally to do this mission. Because I had nothing to do, I picked up the scriptures and flipped open the book and it opened to D&C 64 and my eyes were drawn to verse 29 & 33 "Wherefore, as ye are agents, ye are on the Lord's errand: and whatever ye do according to the will of the Lord is the Lord's business. Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceed that which is great". 3 Nephi 19 :29 This is Jesus Christ speaking: "Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou has given me out of the world, because of their faith, that they may be purified in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one, that I may be glorified in them." Then the miracle happened. I was not sure how I was going to close my remarks, and the scripture that says open your mouth and I will put words in it happened. I was almost to the very end before I realized I was saying some pretty awesome things but the thoughts were not coming from my head but the words were coming out of my mouth. It was good! I spent the morning with Sister Barney. I really like her. She gave me the medical run down we are suppose to get. She shared a couple of stories with me. 1. She was showing me some of the pictures she has taken as she has gone out and visited the people of Ghana. She and a team of nurses and doctors were invited to go into the bush country and do breast exams and anything else that might come up. The village was actually spotless. The rest of Africa is a garbage pail. I commented on the cleanliness and she told me it was a witches village. There are 5 witches villages in northern Ghana. The women are claimed to be witches because someone close to them has died. The way they determine if a woman is a witch is they take one of her chickens and slice its neck. If the chicken dies with his feet in the air the woman is a witch. If the chicken dies sitting on its feet, the woman is not a witch. There are two women per hut and the huts are thatched roofs. 2. One time she and her husband went to visit a village and when they got there the whole town was in celebration. All the people had their faces and bodies painted, the men were wearing women's clothing, and the women were wearing men's clothing, and everyone was singing and dancing. When they were noticed by the people,the people surrounded their car and began banging on their car and demanding money. Brother Barney gave them money and they were allowed to leave. Sister Barney called the missionaries and told them to go home, stay in their homes and not to leave until the celebration was over. 3. Sister Barney was asked to come to a school and teach some women about resuscitating babies. Sierra Leone has the highest rate of infant and mother fatalities in all the world. She told them she only wanted 10 women. When she got there she met the headmaster and he took her to her classroom and told her her students were ready for her to teach them about nutrition. She was not prepared to teach on nutrition. She entered the room and walked over to the desk and turned around to face her 10 students and there were 140 men and women. She looked at the headmaster and said "just a minute" she turned to the blackboard and said a prayer and was impressed to teach the people how to wash their hands and when to wash their hands and how germs and illnesses spread. After this class, she was led into a room of 10 women and she got out all her baby equipment and was just beginning to teach when someone came into the room and announced there was a woman in the bathroom having a baby. Sister Barney ran into the bathroom and got the woman and led her to the labor room. She was pregnant with twins and was only 34 weeks along. The first baby was born and was not breathing. Being very premature Sister Barney did not think the babies would live. She took the first baby and did all the things nurses do to get a baby to breathe and nothing was working. She got her resuscitator, which was already out and ready to use and showed the nurses how to resuscitate a baby. The baby lived and so did her sibling - two girls. Scripture for the grandkids: Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."