Missionary Thoughts Blog

Missionary Blog:  July 5, 2013

So we attended our second funeral in two weeks, though Sis. Keldorfer  died about three day after Sister Höglmoser ‘s  funeral.  What a difference between the funerals.  We we saw Sis. Höglmosers picture, both of us remember her being in church one of the first days we were in the ward.  They were surprised because they thought it had been a long time since she was in church.  But I believe she was there one or possibly two times right after we arrived.  Her funeral was at her graveside, which was in a Catholic cemetery.  I don’t believe any of her children were LDS, though Bishop Schubert conducted and it was definitely a Mormon funeral.  We believe her grave was probably the family plot.

Sister Keldofers was a typical family LDS funeral.  Her daughter arrived from America and her brother and his wife walked in.  The daughter is very active LDS, but the brother, I don’t believe is because of the style of his wife’s dress did not allow for garments.  It was interesting when Brϋder Tallhammer sang “O My Father,” right after the talk by Monika her daughter, how the sister-in-law was suddenly touched when he started singing.  Elder Storrer noted how the brother seemed to be hanging on every word of August Schubert the last speaker who addressed the beliefs of members of the church of Jesus Christ, especially his mother’s.

July 2

So in checking out facebook, as that seems to be the only place we can see what is happening in our children’s lives.  (They seldom even respond to our emails.)  I stumbled upon some interesting comments regarding the latest Supreme Court’s “New Law” about claiming that Homosexual marriage wil be the new law of the land.  It had nothing to do with interpreting the Constitution. 

After posting this,  The Supreme Court has ruled:
Christianity is false: it teaches homosexual acts are a perversion of sex; but we know they are healthy and good for those who prefer to do them
Christianity is immoral: it teaches that people who commit homosexual acts are sinning; but we know they are sinning by disparaging homosexual acts and, by extension, those who like to participate in them.
Christianity is socially destructive: it teaches that good people should discourage homosexual acts for the sake of everyone, especially those tempted to them; and we know that such judgments are oppressive of a minority and therefore anti-social.

I do not believe it is just about Homosexuals being allowed to marry, but rather an attempt to destroy Christianity. And if you have read your Book of Mormon recently doesn't those odd quotes of "We know that Chrisianiity is immoral But we know that (homosexual) acts are healthy and good for those who prefer to do them, etc, etc. In Revelations we are told the the "daily sacrifice in the temples will cease...Now how does one suppose that will happen?  After which one commentor posted that I must not believe in Evolution.  My answer was that had Darwin had the information we have today about  DNA and the understanding they are finding out about DNA coding his thesis would have been much different.

Her response was something to really study for its flaws.  She responded with the old, “I don’t believe evolution replaces God, but rather God used evolution to create this world.  What I am talking about—“  And then she launched into “Moral Evolution,”  She reasoned that though God made his laws, in the beginning, because of moral evolution, the needs of man has changed and so new laws that accommodate them must change as well.  Wow, was that a statement directly from a philosophy class or what?

Years ago, in 1960, my older brother was home from BYU having just completed taking a philosophy class. I remember he and my father arguing about it way into the night, as they were just outside my bedroom door.  I don’t remember all that transpired, but as I listened to it, I had to side with Dad, because having not taken the class, I had not been swayed by a clever  philosophy teacher and most of what my brother was expousing was ridiculous.  In later years he tried to justify it with, “I was just beginning to think for myself.”  That has always scared me.  Because at that age, children are venerable to the thoughts and ideas of others, particularly those who have clever speech, unless these children have a strong foundation under them.

As a young married couple, we had a young man—in our bishopric, come by our home clad only in shorts as he walked with his wife and young daughter.  In a discussion he was adamantly against the brethren speaking out against the young women’s modest attired.  He referred to Pres Joseph F. Smith, who as an apostle, as an old man out of touch with society (reality).  He told us he was a humanist and believed God was also.

Hum!  Humanist, “Moral Evolution.”  Isn’t Satan so clever with the words he uses.

Today though it is even worse for they use “moral evolution” to describe good old fashioned, “sin.”  It has more appeal while the word, “sin,” is considered a hate word, for it makes people “feel bad about themselves.”

No we do not lie in a world of “enlightenment,” but rater in darkness.”  For when we sin, it takes us a way from God, and from light and truth.  

When Christ was on the cross, having first suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, to continue through the horrible trials of the night and finally on the cross, the most inhuman painful way man knew how to kill at that time, it has been asked, was the sins of the world paid for in the Garden of Gethsemane or did they continue right through until he cried, “Father, why hast Thou forsaken me,”  It has been pointed out that Satan knew when he was most vulnerable and through an emissary, a common man asked, “If Thou be the son of God, save yourself and us.”  In his last ditch effort to tempt the Savior.

One author asks the question.  “Why did God abandon Him, at that time.”  We know that He had to walk the wine press alone.  This author wondered if besides that, God who will not go near evil, probably withdrew because at that moment before Christ died, the weight of the sins were upon his shoulders.  And so it held a two fold purpose.

It is amazing to me how as I read and study both the scriptures and thoughts of others, how much more the atonement has meaning.  Age and experience helps in the process as well.