| Serendipity | Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell |
The story is told of a young boy building a tree house with his father. For months they planned and prepared; they purchased supplies and mapped out details, and then with great anticipation and excitement they began building. Working side by side, they laid boards and hammered nails as the tree house slowly took shape. After months of preparation and hard work, they basked in the sense of accomplishment that came from their father-son project. But it turned out that the boy didn’t spend much time in the tree house once it was built. Greater satisfaction seemed to have come from working, laughing, and learning alongside his father. When they began the project, the father thought they were simply building a place for his son to play. But in reality they were building much more than that. It wasn’t only about lumber and nails, sawing wood, or laying shingles; it was also about spending time together. As the tree house took shape, so did their relationship. Sometimes our well-laid plans lead to a deeper, more meaningful joy than we ever expected. Serendipity is a word that means “the accidental discovery of something pleasant, valuable, or useful.”[1]While the boy may not have spent much time in the tree house once it was built, both father and son would do it all over again for the serendipitous blessings that came from it. As we learn a skill, gain knowledge, and spend time with someone, we may discover something far more important than what we intended. So open your heart to the unexpected blessings that come your way, and bask in their discovery. Program #4178 Musical Selection: 1. Let There Be Light! 2. Be Still, My Soul 3. Nocturne (Organ solo) 4. Sweet Is the Peace the Gospel Brings 5. The Spoken Word 6. Who Will Buy? from Oliver 7. My God, My Portion, and My Love | |
Sunday, October 18, 2009
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CIA Woman Finds Needed Peace in Gospel
Kedrik Hamblin - LDS Living
Flying to Germany in 2002, during the height of career success with the CIA, Stephanie Smith read in a news magazine a phrase from President Gordon B. Hinckley that he used to describe The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “Solid, strong, and true.” “It just had an impact on me,” Smith said.
She wrote it down on a paper which she put in her wallet. The impression of these words would later lead her to call an LDS colleague for help when her successful world was being turned upside down.
Smith now shares the events that led to her conversion with others. She will be holding a fireside this coming Sunday, Oct. 18, at the Washington D.C. Temple Visitor’s Center.
She tracks her journey starting from 1985, when she moved as a young, single woman to Washington, D.C., where she had been hired as an editor for the CIA. She later married and completed a master’s degree in public administration at Harvard.
Continuing work at the CIA, Smith quickly moved up the ranks; she attributes this to hard work. For a decade she worked fourteen to sixteen hours per day six to seven days per week. Raised as a devout Catholic, she would attend Mass every Sunday and then head off to the office for a full day of work.
“That was an every week routine for me,” Smith said. “Obviously there was no discipline, no time, nor any inclination to any deeper spiritual or scriptural study or introspection.”
The rigorous work schedule and Smith’s drive to succeed had several effects. Along with fatigue Smith said she began to experience herself as an unkind person, began taking small “moral shortcuts,” and neglecting relationships with family and friends.
After becoming Director of Support (the first female in the history of the CIA to achieve that position), she began working even longer days, sometimes up to twenty hours. This continued until her health declined and she was hospitalized.
“I’m going along like that, realizing that my health is failing, starting to feel bad about who I was as a person and starting to wonder will there ever be a time when I can decelerate?” Smith said. “I would say to myself: Yes, just successfully complete this job, the world is your oyster, everything will get simpler.”
However, life didn’t become simpler. The CIA and her career were thrown into a crisis after two of her senior officers were fired. She recognized she was in a line of political dominoes and would probably lose her job.
“It took an enormous toll on me,” Smith said. “I just fell apart. I fell apart physically, emotionally, and spiritually.”
Smith said she believes it was the earlier impression of President Hinckley’s words and her tremendous respect for the LDS colleague that led her to call him one evening from her office. He gave her two messages.
“He said to me: ‘Heavenly Father knows you by name. He knows you as an individual and he, like me, knows the true quality of your heart and he has a very specific individual plan for your success,’” Smith said. “I think he said ‘It may not be success as you’ve come to define it. It’s a very different kind of success.’”
Later he gave her directions to the D.C Temple Visitor’s Center where she went and reluctantly signed a referral card for the missionaries to visit her. Several weeks later, two sister missionaries visited and after they entered the home asked if they could sing a song. Smith felt it was very odd until they began singing “I am a Child of God,” and she began crying. After that she continued meeting with the missionaries.
One evening, before a business dinner, Smith sat in her car reading her “homework.” She came across Alma 34:26, when Amulek was teaching people to pour out their souls to God.
The scripture, which Smith said pierced her through the heart, helped her realize for the first time that she was actually supposed to talk to her Heavenly Father. It was also the beginning of her testimony of the Book of Mormon.
“From that moment on I just read the entire Book and I’ve never been without the Book of Mormon,” Smith said. “I have it with me in my car. I have a bedroom version. I have one at my desk at work. I’ve read it three times since then.”
Smith was baptized in January of 2007. Although she counts many blessings, Smith said the biggest is to know that she has eternal purpose.
“I at last was filled with eternal hope that allowed me to go through three years of intense professional hardships, degradation, and opposition,” Smith said. “I only could get through that because I knew now that I had an eternal purpose and that I had an eternal worth and I was surrounded by a community of people who . . . staked their lives on that very same belief.”
Smith has also learned the joy of serving others.
“The second blessing to me is that I got involved with people in a small way . . . the way Christ would have gotten involved with them,” Smith said.
Smith continues to work with the CIA and is now serving in her ward as the employment counselor. Her Oct. 18 fireside will begin at 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Hither by Thy Help I'm Come--Spoken Word Delivered by Lloyd D. Newell
| Hither by Thy Help I'm Come | Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell |
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Five new temples are announced
Five new temples are announced
By Sarah Jane WeaverChurch News staff writer
Published: Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009
Click here for additional conference photos and articles
In the opening moments of the Church's 179th Semiannual General Conference, President Thomas S. Monson announced plans to build five new temples. With 130 temples currently operating and with another 16 in some phase of planning or construction, these five temples bring the worldwide total to 151.
The locations of the new temples will be Brigham City, Utah; Concepcion, Chile; Fortaleza, Brazil; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; and Sapporo, Japan, said President Monson. The exact temple sites will be made known at a later date.
"We continue to build temples," he said. "We desire that as many members as possible have an opportunity to attend the temple without having to travel inordinate distances. Worldwide, 88 percent of our members live within 200 miles of a temple. That percentage will continue to increase as we construct new temples around the world."
Brigham City will be home to Utah's 14th temple. Two Utah temples were dedicated earlier this year; the Draper Utah Temple, dedicated in March, and the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple dedicated in August.
The Concepcion Chile Temple will be the second temple in Chile. The first, the Santiago Chile Temple, was dedicated in September 1983 by President Gordon B. Hinckley, then a counselor in the First Presidency. There are currently 14 temples operating in South America, with another three announced and in some phase of construction.
There are five operating temples in Brazil. In May 2007 the Church announced plans to build a temple in Manaus, Brazil, making a temple in Fortaleza, Brazil, the seventh in that country. There are now more than 1,060,000 members of the Church in Brazil.
The temple in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., will serve members living throughout South Florida, as well as the Bahamas. There are currently eight temples in the southeastern part of the United States.
The Sapporo temple will become the third in Japan and the sixth in Asia. Dedicated in October 1980, the Tokyo Japan Temple was the first temple in Asia. The Fukuoka Temple was dedicated in June 2000, and became the 88th temple worldwide.
"Millions of ordinances are performed in the temples each year in behalf of our deceased loved ones," President Monson said. "May we continue to be faithful in performing such ordinances for those who are unable to do so for themselves.
"I love the words of President Joseph F. Smith as he spoke of temple service and of the spirit world beyond mortality. Said he: 'Through our efforts in their behalf, their chains of bondage will fall from them, and the darkness surrounding them will clear away, that light may shine upon them and they shall hear in the spirit world of the work that has been done for them by their people here, and will rejoice with you in your performance of these duties.'"
© 2009 Deseret News Publishing Company
Quake, tsunami take Samoan members' lives
Quake, tsunami take Samoan members' lives
By Jason SwensenChurch News staff writer
Published: Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009
Eight Latter-day Saints, including two children, were killed and two others hospitalized in the Samoan islands after a Sept. 29 magnitude 8.0 undersea quake triggered a deadly tsunami that wiped out several villages and sent residents scrambling for high ground.
Meanwhile, local priesthood leaders report that there are members who remain unaccounted for. Communication has reportedly been spotty in some affected areas because of damaged telephone lines.
All of the full-time missionaries assigned to the impacted areas in the South Pacific have been accounted for with the exception of two sister missionaries serving in the Tongan island of Niuatoputapu. The sisters are believed to be fine because their names did not appear on a government-produced casualty list from the island. (Editor's note: As of Friday, these two sister missionaries have been accounted for. See the lds.org newsroom blog for an account of the sisters' story: Newsroom blog) Also, they were serving in a area untouched by the tsunami, according to Lynn Samsel of the Church's Emergency Response office. Both sister missionaries are native to the region. At press time, Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission President Lynn C. McMurray was traveling by boat to Niuatoputapu to check on the sisters.
The Apia Samoa Temple suffered no structural damage following the quake and subsequent tsunami — although the horn from the Angel Moroni statue atop the temple somehow snapped off and fell to the ground.
Two meetinghouses on Samoa's main island of Upolu reportedly suffered severe water damage. Meanwhile, flood water inundated the lower level of the Fa'aala stake center on the neighboring island of Savaii.
There are also reports of extensive damage to member homes in Samoa and Tonga.
Brother Samsel said local priesthood leaders are attending to the temporal and spiritual needs of the Samoan members. Meanwhile, the Church is sending additional food, clothing and other relief items to the islands. The Church is also working with the American Red Cross, which is sending a large contingent of emergency responders to the Samoas.
"It's sad," said Samoa Apia Mission President O. Vincent Haleck Jr. "We have had lives lost here. There is a lot of devastation along the south coast of Upolu."
The massive quake struck around dawn, as many residents were preparing for work and getting their children ready for school, according to the New York Times News Service. Damage was expected to be heaviest in the southern parts of Samoa and in American Samoa.
The temblor originated below the ocean about 120 miles southwest of American Samoa and 125 miles south of Samoa. It was centered some 11 miles below the seabed, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake occurred just as missionaries in Samoa were involved in transfers, so there were several missionaries gathered at the mission home in Apia. President Haleck said the rumbling seemed to last as long as three minutes.
Local residents are said to be devastated by the extensive damage and loss of life caused by the earthquake/tsunami. One Church official in the area said of the situation in the southern area of the Samoan island of Upolu, "There was no adequate language to describe the devastation which appears like a war zone."
Elder Elliott Miller is a full-time missionary from Brentwood, Tenn., who was serving in the village of Malaela on the southeast coast of Upolu when the earthquake struck. He shared his harrowing experience in the moments following the quake with his mother, Angie Miller. Sister Miller passed along his account via e-mail with the Church News:
"A [man] who was up working on a hill called down that a tsunami was coming. Elliott didn't think it was serious...he went outside to see what was going on and saw people running and screaming toward the forest. He grabbed some sneakers and started running too. He picked up some kids and started running with them. His companion turned around and the water was right behind them. There was no high ground to go to so they ran to some trees and climbed them. As he got up in the tree the water hit the tree and started rising quickly. [Elder Miller] said the water came up about five feet and started pulling on the tree. He was afraid the tree would be pulled out and taken out to sea. Pretty soon the water receded and they got down from the tree and ran deeper into the woods."
Elder Miller lost essentially all of his belongings, but his family calls it fortunate that he and others survived the tsunami. He and his companion were brought to the mission home.
In all, there were more than 100 reported fatalities in American Samoa and Samoa with many more missing. The extensive damage in some villages has left thousands homeless.
President Haleck said the missionaries will be used to help out wherever they can. "We are trying to get organized," he said.
As of press time, the catastrophe had left Samoan members living in the United States sick with worry as they tried hour after hour to make contact with loved ones living in impacted areas.
"Most Samoans have relatives living in both American Samoa and Western Samoa," said Abraham Roe, an LDS Samoan who lives in South Jordan, Utah.
Brother Roe said his family has tried repeatedly to contact family members in the Samoas, with no success. "We're just praying, watching the news and hoping for the best."