tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2297084124368522725.post1819506674080518559..comments2023-05-18T08:34:48.991-07:00Comments on Your mission, should you choose to accept it . . .: Missionary FarewellRoseEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347659950177311506noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2297084124368522725.post-55846044134786439622009-01-18T14:25:00.000-08:002009-01-18T14:25:00.000-08:00The idea of Moroni's loneliness had never really s...The idea of Moroni's loneliness had never really struck me in the way it did you, and I appreciated your giving me a new perspective. Most of us feel lonely, even when we are surrounded by friendly people. We sometimes feel hopeless when we have great reason to hope. It's a part of the human condition to feel these things paradoxically. But Moroni really found hope in a situation which was objectively hopeless, and he found the comfort of spiritual companionship when he was most desperately and continuously alone. I need to grow in my faith until I can be hopeful in my everyday life.<BR/><BR/>Years ago, the Ensign published an article on hope by Rebecca Stradling. I thought it very good a the time, and still do, now that your talk has given me reason to review it. She wrote:<BR/><BR/>Indeed, current popular usage portrays hope as a singularly weak and pallid word, not at all an appropriate companion to those mighty virtues, faith and charity. It is worn to banal impotence in daily conversation, where “I hope” (I hope I pass that exam; I hope it doesn’t rain) usually expresses a feeble with overshadowed by a strongly implied doubt. What does a word like “hope” have to do with faith, or charity—or anything at all but wishful thinking?<BR/><BR/>By consulting a good dictionary, we find that the problem is partially one of misuse, or at least misunderstanding. In spite of the way we are accustomed to using it, a primary definition of the word connotes, not a wish, but an expectation of things to come. This emphasis on expectation harks back through centuries of English usage to New Testament Greek. And it is this sense of expectation, as opposed to wishing, that makes all the difference when “hope” appears in a scriptural context.<BR/><BR/>That's much more to the purpose for me. We believe to such a degree that we come to expect that the actions we take will have certain results. Faith specifically in Christ makes those expectations turn our actions into the direction of service to others.<BR/><BR/>On another topic, we are working with the boys in the youth program to try to help them experience what it is to teach investigators using the techniques of missionaries. It's interesting to see how different the priest-aged boys are from the deacons. The deacons are a bright bunch, and they have learned the stories of the scriptures. They've learned the names of characters in the narrative and the plot lines, but they don't know where the stories came from -- what book of scripture contains the stories. And they don't really have a framework upon which to hang the stories to make, as they say at the Walker Art Center, "the semblance of a whole."<BR/><BR/>I have no worries with you. You know the stuff, and you have the faith, the hope, and the charity you'll need to be helpful the next few months. And lots of folks root for you. We're all watching, in the meantime. And reading.danite1https://www.blogger.com/profile/18377096851958174004noreply@blogger.com