WHAT WOULD WE GIVE IF JESUS VISITS OUR HOMES ON CHRISTMAS?

by: Norberto Betita

It’s December 24, 2017, the day before Christmas Day and the time when everybody seems to be very busy preparing for the Christmas Eve celebration.

The Church’s Sabbath services has been reduced to the lowest possible time and meetings postponed to give more time for members and families to prepare and celebrate the special day of the Lord. Consequently, we have our combined Sacrament meeting for the three branches which are regularly using the District Center.

In his Christmas message for us, our District President related the story in a Church video entitled The Old Shoemaker---an account adapted from the story of Russian author Leo Tolstoy. There had been several adaptations of Tolstoy’s story, but I loved this 3.27-minute video produced by the Church. This was a story of Martin the old shoemaker who heard the voice of the Lord in a dream that Jesus will visit Him the following day. And while he was looking over the window, anticipating the visit of Jesus, he happened to see a man shoveling the snow which he offered something warm to drink. There was a young mother and her child cold and weary whom he invited into his shop then gave his own coat and some money. Then there was an old woman selling apples and a hungry little boy stole one from her basket, and Martin saved the boy from being apprehended by the police by paying the stolen apple, after which the boy promised not to steal again. As it was related by my son---our district president, I was again moved to tears as I had been each time I viewed this video each Christmas.

In one concept it was told that, Martin, the Old shoemaker, read about the story from his old leather Bible of the wise men giving their best gifts for Jesus. Then he thought, “If Jesus visited me, what would I be able to give Him?” The story is the same although there are slight variations.

I thought that if by chance we will hear the voice of the Lord speaking to us in a dream as it was in the story of Martin---the old shoemaker---what would we give if Jesus visits our homes on Christmas?

Perhaps at this time of great calamities that befell so many people we can give Him food, clothing and some materials for shelter. His sandals might have been torn for long use and we wanted to give Him a pair of shoes. He might have been cold because of walking under the heaviest of rain and we wanted to give Him a warm jacket and rain coat and a warm blanket to protect Him from the cold of December nights. In His weary walk we might offer him a ride home. He so loved children and perhaps He would need fruits, candies and toys for them to enjoy.

As it was in the story of Martin, the old shoe maker, Jesus did not physically come. Yet throughout the festive season we might have seen and witnessed so many whose lives are in distress. There are the garbage men working under the rain and braving the foul smell of filthy garbage in our neighborhood. There are the children passing by walking barefoot. Old and young singing carols if only to get a peso or two to be accumulated for a kilo or two of rice for a day’s meal. Children come at our gate and sing carols if only to satisfy their craving for chocolate and candies they wished to receive from generous homeowners. We see many even more of the destitute living in slums. When we extend our hands to these suffering people out of love and kindness and generosity, like the old shoe maker we can be the happiest man or woman on Christmas Day.

I and my wife felt such greatest joy as we were made the hands of a very generous donor to extend her benevolence to the poor and needy on several Christmases notwithstanding her own needs. Those things were not ours to give, but a service to share and render.

The story concluded with Martin wondering why the Lord did not come. But he was made to understand later that those who were in need and of whom he extended his helping hands in love and mercy were actually representations of the Lord’s presence. As Martin opened a verse from Matthew 25:40 he was reminded of the Lord’s words: “…Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

In whatever circumstances we may have been entombed, we each can have the opportunity to give. If we are rich we can give more from our abundance. If we are living in poverty we can give of our time and service. Even in our own physical and financial handicaps we each can give a generous offering to the Lord. We need not ask what would we give if Jesus visits our homes on Christmas, for however simple and scanty the gift when given out of charity, it will always be acceptable to Him.

May we all remember that, “The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem of Judea is preface. The three-year ministry of the Master is prologue. The magnificent substance of the story is His sacrifice, the totally selfless act of dying in pain on the cross of Calvary to atone for the sins of all of us.

“The epilogue is the miracle of the Resurrection, bringing the assurance that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22).

“There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter. The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection” (Gordon B. Hinckley).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

PREMORTAL ORDINATION AND MORTAL MISSION

By: Norberto Betita

In the premortal council God stood among those that were spirits and said, “These will I make my rulers.” Then He told Abraham, “thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born” (Abraham 3:23).

The Lord also told Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).

“And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such” (Alma 13:3).

However, such premortal ordination was never an assurance that we will be free from trials after we have proven our faithfulness and obedience during our first estate. Our premortal ordination is our mortal mission to again prove whether we are still willing to abide by the principles of truth and righteousness while in mortality---our second estate. Our foreordination in premortality does not even guarantee that we will be called to certain specific callings until and unless we exercise our moral agency in righteousness the same way that we were ordained in the premortal life.

Thus, each one of us who ever lived in this mortal world has had our foreordination in the premortal sphere with a duty to perform in accordance with faith and righteousness and each of us is never exempted from passing through the tests and trials of mortality.

My long time missionary friend which I met in the Philippines in 1986 and which I had the privilege of having continued communications during the last 31 years, understood that all the difficult and sanctifying experiences she has undergone in her mortal life, including that of her being born during the worst and most difficult times of the world---the great depression---are kind of her premortal assignment.

She was born in December 14, 1937 when the great depression---the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world which started after the stock market crash of October 1929---was still at its worst. It is historically recorded as ‘a period of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, lost opportunities of economic growth and personal advancement which reportedly was ended in 1939.’ But even after 1939, economic recession in America was still felt. Such was the economic environment when her mortal journey was started.

Early struggles

She recalls that even though she was still young, she still remembers when they have government stamps for sugar and gas. Her father was a truck farmer, one who grows and produces and peddled garden produce from home to home. While her father was peddling during the day, she and her siblings and their grandfather were charged to pick raspberries and other above ground fruits for the trip the next day. Her mother was involved with the house hold upkeep, child bearing and caring for the vegetables when they were brought in. She washed with a ringer washing machine and hung the clothes on a clothes line. One of her young jobs was to learn to fold clothes.

After peddling, her father would dig the potatoes and pick corn and clean them to be included in his next day’s peddling. She remembers that wash tubs were placed around the rhubarb plants to hold the leaves up out of the ditches so water could go through but became a place to play hide and seek at times.

The family owned a horse to plow the ground and a large barn where they milked their cow and stored their hay. While the family worked together, she did not feel the depression crisis as she was yet very young and she thought it was just the common daily routine of people. She and her siblings enjoyed life on the farm not knowing that there had been so much of a crisis in the world, because their parents were industrious as to be able to provide them with the necessities of life and even give them the opportunity to work and enjoy life in childhood.

The first six years of her life were spent in her grandfather’s house not far from town and the walk to the bus stop was an eighth of a mile. But when she started her second year of school the family had moved 14 miles from town and to catch the bus meant walking the 2 mile country road to the bus stop in all kinds of weather. Once in a while their mother had to go with them in the winter to break a trail for them to safely get through the snow drifts. They were always glad when the road dropped down along the river as it was warmer and broke the wind. Yet there were times when they would cry because of too much cold despite their overshoes. Their parents tried to impress upon them the value of education in their lives as a means to provide for themselves when they grew up.

They planted gardens and fruit trees and raised animals, but when cloudburst and rainstorm went over, water came rushing down the mountain and out over their fields sweeping everything with it into the river. Sometimes baby chicks were lost in the cloudbursts. Most of the ditches in the garden and field had to be cleaned out to once again carry water. They had no electricity and cooked on a wood burning stove and heated the house with wood. They harvested their fire wood from the cottonwood trees that were in the country. One of her worst experience was when, “One day we were cutting wood with what was called a buzz saw and I was taking the pieces of wood from the saw and throwing it in a pile behind her. I turned to talk to my father and got too close to the saw and it caught my glove and cut my middle finger into the end of my little finger. Everything shut down and my parents put a splint on it and wrapped it and hurried me to the Doctor. He stitched it back together and I have had full use of it, including being able to milk a cow or goat,” she related.

As a child growing up to the age of ten she experienced so much of hard work including watering their fields with a water wheel built by her father. Many rocks were carried into the stream to divert the water toward the wheel race. Willows were cut to line the rocks so as to save even more water to reach the waterwheel. From such assignment, her sister was floating an armload of willows to her father and lost her footing causing the water to catch the willows and was sweeping her toward the water wheel. Her father was quick to catch her before she got to the wheel. She also cherished those experiences dealing with a lot of rattle snakes and lizards, porcupines, skunks, ground hogs and squirrels that would eat their fruits.

Youthful challenges

Her earlier trainings as a child and her hardest of experiences working in the fields and the continued motivation from her parents about the value of education inspired and encouraged her to finish her high school education until her senior year, by herself, picking apples to pay for her school clothes, shoes and school supplies. She understood then that education will open the bolted doors of opportunities towards self-reliance for her. As a young woman she had done even men’s kind of work, milking cows and feeding rabbits for her parents; as a tractor driver for farmers during haying; picking fruit in the season; driving a Caterpillar that pulled the big hop machine.

She eventually lived in Houston Texas and worked as a messenger to be able to provide for herself and live independently. But she did not like the hot climate and returned back to Colorado and worked picking sour cherries, sleeping in her car. She suffered destitution; barely able to buy gas for her car, lunch meat and bread.

She thought of a school friend whose mother was a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) at the local hospital. She helped her got a job as an aide that allowed her to rent a motel room to live in. She worked there for two and a half years and then transferred to Grand Junction where she eventually became an LPN herself. Her work provided her only with $1.40 an hour. She also worked as Assistant Instructor for the Aide Class at St. Mary’s Hospital, then was asked to work in the ICU of the same hospital and stayed in such work for 12 years. Then she moved to Spokane Washington and worked in a nursing home in 1964. While on her way to Yakima with her cousins a car hit her as a pedestrian and her life started all over again. As she was on crutches and could not walk the hospital halls, she went to work at a nursery repotting plants from those planted in trays. At this time she was able to buy a trailer house for $3,000 through the help of a sister in the ward.

Church and community service

In the midst of her relentless efforts of conquering and persevering through the stretched hours of days and dismal nights, she remained as always faithful and active member in the church. She sings in the ward and stake choirs and was MIA Secretary. She tried to be as faithful as she could be with the full understanding that all the tests that she had passed through were all part of her premortal assignment to prove worthy of her second estate.

After recuperation and healing from accidental injury, she went to work for a boat company making their wiring harnesses for their boats and putting instruments in the panels. She did that for 6 years and moved to Orem, Utah. Utah Valley Hospital hired her and she worked on the Medical/Surgical floor. She took the Pharmacology course so she could pass medicine to her patients.

However, during all those several shifting of career, her heart drew her back to her childhood interest in the farm. She met a couple in the hospital that lived in the Uintah Basin. She moved her trailer from Spokane to Orem, from Orem to the Basin and set it up by herself each time. In the Basin she went to work at the County Hospital while growing up a herd of sheep, goat and cows plus three sows and chickens.

At this time of the prime of her career life, she was eventually called to serve a mission in the Philippines. She sold some of her animals and worked a full hospital 3-11 shift to spare her morning hours for another extra earnings changing the wheel lines of her branch president every morning earning enough to pay for her whole mission.

After a year in the mission she turned her life back to her medical career and the farm. She returned to her trailer house and gathered her remaining animals and started all over again. That was her home until the trailer burned down while she was at work. In 1990 she had a total hip replacement and became the Discharge Planner for the hospital for the next 12 years retiring in 2004.

From that time forth she focused her time in farming and serving in the church. She proudly labeled herself as a farmerette. Through all those years and with gut-wrenching determination she had put in fences, laid water line to her trailer house two times, owned 10 hives of bees and extracted the honey, delivered piglets, kids and calves, Hauled animals to pasture in different places, sheared sheep, trimmed hooves on goats and sheep, picked up hay from her fields that she had baled and stacked them 6 high, always had a garden, learned to maintain wheel lines and buy other pieces of land that provided her with a collateral to purchase her present home.

In the church she served as Librarian for 20 years and did the Bullletin. She has always been a Visiting Teacher and regularly works in the Temple. Apart from her full-time mission, she had been a Branch missionary twice and a Stake Missionary. She has always had a calling in one way or another in the auxiliary organizations of the church in their area.

With immeasurable faith and courage dredged from her remaining strength in old age and failing health, she performed her visiting teaching assignment faithfully even on a crutch. She serves regularly in the temple as savior of Mount Zion so far for 14 years. She was the special nurse on call of her missionary companion during her trying moments of sufferings from debilitating afflictions until her last days.

In the community she served as the President of their Culinary Water Company for 5 years, maintenance and meter reader for two years.

Generous disposition

In all that she did, she admits it was never easy, but she believes that all those harrowing encounters that she has undergone in life and the services she has done and are still doing in the church and to other people even at this time of her old age are all part of her premortal ordination and mortal mission.

She once had a boyfriend early in life which she dumped for obvious reasons. Always her hope was to find someone that would take better care of her than she could of herself. As time and opportunity for her to find her mate passed, she left all her chances of being married to God and asked Him instead for her to be a farmer. And it was granted of her, at which time she would raise her animals for the purpose of helping a person in need. She selflessly shared meat, vegetables and money from out of her hard labors, to the willing needy recipients.

When she was hurt in a car accident in 2015, her hospital bill came in and she thought she would have to start payments to clear the bill. When she went to the hospital she was informed that there was no bill. So in expression of gratitude the money which she was supposed to pay for her own bill and which she should have saved, was instead paid to the hospital in the amount of $2,000.00, to cover the bill, at the discretion of the management, of some patients who might not be able to pay their hospital charges. She admits, “Blessings have been coming my way ever since. I did not look back.”

Her enduring faith during those years of immense struggles in extremely unpleasant circumstances paints for her a portrait of an exemplary life of a single woman. Those who had been so closely associated with her could attest of the noble character that radiates from the inner chamber of her heart. I and my family have our hearts brimming with joy for having her as a friend despite the fact that we have never again met since those short days and months of her assignment as a missionary in our place, where I was then the branch president. Her love and friendship knows no bounds. She treated us even as her own family. The story of her life inspires us to move forward amidst great adversities.

Her generosity and love for people who are in distress defies not only barriers of oceans and continents but even cultural boundaries. In her own benevolent way, she had been extending her little abundance not only to people in her neighborhood, but also to some people in the far distant place of her mission---Surigao City, Philippines. She heard of the devastating earthquake early this year 2017 in our place where she served her full-time mission, and her first reaction was how she can help. From a timeworn wallet were drawn the old farmerette’s mite and sent to a foreign land to help build temporary shelters and materials for repairs to benefit some earthquake victims. She does not have much of the worldly goods and riches, but her heart overflows with boundless love for the destitute.

At this time of her 80th birthday when her own feet are already hard to steady and her hands need someone’s grasp, she still wanted to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down and strengthen the feeble knees” (Doctrine & Covenants 81:5), sharing her hard earned resources to Light the World at Christmas time with compassion and mercy to people she did not even know in a foreign land. Like President Harold B. Lee, “[she] understood those who suffered…because of [her] own poor and simple beginnings” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf).

She always acknowledged the fact that throughout her mortal mission God has been so good to her. In grateful acknowledgement of the great love of Heavenly Father she testified: “He has been so kind as to let me wear myself out and still serve Him. I know He knows us personally and grants our righteous desires. He knows whether we will learn the lessons we need to, doing what we want to do, or if we need a calling to help us grow.”

She believes as did the Apostle Paul that, “God hath from the beginning chosen [her] to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (Ephesians 2:13), and “be holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4). As such, she consecrated her whole life to fulfill her premortal ordination and mortal mission and endure well no matter the required sacrifices and refining tests all along the path to eternity.

A TIME TO BE SINGLE

By: Norberto Betita

While the skies may have been darkened by thick clouds of a coming rainy day this early morning of November 23, 2017, still the poetic words of Parley P. Pratt (1807-1857) rings ever anew:

The morning breaks, the shadows flee;
The dawning of a brighter day,
Majestic rises on the world.
(Hymn No. 1)

The dawns of life come in glitters of unending sequence while her mortal journey is yet in its forward trail. As the new day and the new year of her existence shine brighter, the shadows of the past fade and a brilliant hope of tomorrow is majestically flashed in immaculate panorama of a new and broadened horizon.

While new challenges may arise and some hard times frustrate; the stifling power gained from the seasoned past may well administer and disperse such barriers for her to move forward to a glorious day and satisfying moments of a contented life. 

Once she posted, “Betita forever.” She might have been dismayed for not being married soon enough as to enjoy the blessings of motherhood. But God will never in anyway deprive His daughters of that opportunity. The blessings of eternal happiness with God, in which sphere, “neither is the man without a woman, neither the woman without the man” (1 Corinthians 11:11), is promised to all the faithful, “whether in life or in death” (D&C 58:2).

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:3). A time to be single and happy and a time to be married and attend to the greatest responsibility of being a “mother,” magnificently described as, “…she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take” (Cardinal Mermillod). The timetable, however, is well written in God’s calendar. While such wished-for event remained on hold, she may for the moment, enjoy her youthful eternal summer, which will never fade no matter the refining tests of life, nor lose its hold on the beauty she owns, not even when she grows to a ripened age. So thus Shakespeare wrote:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
(Sonnet 18)

As the 365 days circle of life opens anew and the stadium and showground of life’s race is cleared of past failures, frustrations and impediments for a fresh start, it is our best wishes and hope that the gifts of the Spirit which she had been so abundantly blessed may ever contribute best and influence further her quest for personal growth and development.

She is now 27; the last of the best age to be married in so far as preparing for motherhood is concerned. For her this is yet a time to be single. Marriage can wait until the man of her choice and of whom he can trust appears in God’s appointed time.

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR LAST BORN---THE BEAUTIFUL SHAUNA MEGAN! May you enjoy the wonders of a single life, while ever looking forward to the day when you will have been given an eternal partner. May it be so, is our prayer!

TO BE AS A CHILD

By: Norberto Betita

My 2-year-old granddaughter Rohan Ashlei

Sunday, November 12, 2017 was an exciting day for us in the family. Five of our grandchildren---ages eleven, seven, six, four and two---are participating in the Sacrament meeting presentation of the Primary Organization in our branch. All five have already memorized their parts. Saturday before practice I asked the youngest of them all---Rohan Ashlei--- to recite her piece. She stood high on the arms of two linked Narra chairs in the living room and excitedly recited, “Good morning brothers and sisters. I am a child of God.” I appreciated her and encouraged her to speak in the pulpit.

The presentation day came. The weather was very good and we went early to church. Perhaps fearful of the almost packed chapel, the two youngest of our grandchildren and another two among the primary children never made it to the pulpit. Yet the wonderful experience of witnessing those primary children performed their parts, declaring words to live by and singing songs of praise touched my heart. The performance may not have been that splendid, but the message that the presence of those twenty six primary children brought into such a simple Sacrament meeting presentation was one of reverence and admiration; a reflection of their willingness and humility to follow the Lord’s teachings; a reminder of the Lord’s admonition for us to be as a child in order to gain eternal life. In them I saw in contemplative imagination the meaning of the label on Greg Olsen’s painting---The Dandelion---posted on the artists Facebook account which reads: “The flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today.”

The Sacrament meeting presentation was then concluded with a message from my son, our district President. He stood with already misty eyes. After a brief introduction about his experiences as a child in his primary years in the church and how he had grown spiritually since those formative years, in a voice choked with emotion he quoted a scriptural block in Matthew 19: 13-15: “Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.”

What dumbfounding and staggering such statements might have been to the disciples who first rebuked the children purportedly for reason that they do not want the Lord disturbed by those little ones, only to be taught of an underlying core principle and truth about the need to develop childlike character and humility if they are to be a part of the Kingdom of God. In the account of Luke the Lord added: “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein” (Luke 18:17). Such was a touching account which stirred the heart and brought tears into the eyes of our District President whose mandate it is to minister and guide his small flock into developing qualities that is required “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). His wish must have been that the sheep of his fold might be able to grasp the wonderful message of humility and submissiveness that the passage portrays and shun the dirty appearance of pride, arrogance and pomposity which are prevalent in our present society. Those performing little children brought into our Sacrament Meeting a sunbeam which light reminds us of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ and His submissiveness to the Father.

Our District President then related of an event during the visit of Jesus Christ to the Nephites in ancient America, where after healing the sick and afflicted with love and compassion upon them, the Lord also exhibited his deepest love and concern for the Nephites children. He quoted verses from 3 Nephi 17 thus:

“And it came to pass that he commanded that their little children should be brought.

“So they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, and Jesus stood in the midst; and the multitude gave way till they had all been brought unto him.

“And it came to pass that when they had all been brought, and Jesus stood in the midst, he commanded the multitude that they should kneel down upon the ground.

“And it came to pass that when they had knelt upon the ground, Jesus groaned within himself, and said: Father, I am troubled because of the wickedness of the people of the house of Israel.

“And when he had said these words, he himself also knelt upon the earth; and behold he prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written, and the multitude did bear record who heard him.

“And after this manner do they bear record: The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father;

“And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father.

“And it came to pass that when Jesus had made an end of praying unto the Father, he arose; but so great was the joy of the multitude that they were overcome.

“And it came to pass that Jesus spake unto them, and bade them arise.

“And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.

“And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.

“And when he had done this he wept again;

“And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones.

“And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them.

“And the multitude did see and hear and bear record; and they know that their record is true for they all of them did see and hear, every man for himself; and they were in number about two thousand and five hundred souls; and they did consist of men, women, and children” (3 Nephi 17:11-25).

The Lord has always been deeply compassionate and loving to those who suffered misery and woe as consequences of sin. In His prayer, He expressed to the Father His sincere concern for the wickedness of the house of Israel. He groaned and knelt in pleadings for them. The expressions of those present listening and witnessing the Lord’s earnest petition to the Father were awe-inspiring. What makes the account even more sentimental was that after the Lord had prayed, “he wept.” His intense and passionate prayers and supplications for the Nephites’ relief brought tears into His eyes. His weeping was not only about his concern for the sufferings of the sinners, but those were also silent tears of joy for the faithfulness of the Nephites people.

The Lord Jesus Christ is no stranger to weeping. He has been described by Isaiah as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Accordingly, in His ministry crying must have always been a part. He “wept over” (Luke 19:41) Jerusalem because of her rejection of Him. “He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto” the Father who “save him from death” (see Hebrews 5:7). Showing His sympathy and compassion to the grieving sisters and friends, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35) at the death of Lazarus.

In that Nephite visit account, after the Lord blessed the children one by one, he wept again. And the event of the angels coming from heaven as it were in the midst of fire, ministering to the children, showed us a glimpse of how Heavenly Father through His only Bogotten Son---Jesus Christ--- loves His children and how he feels of their afflictions, anguish and pain as to send heavenly ministers to comfort them. He provided us a quick clear look and an aura of the eternal possibilities of living in the celestial mansions in His heavenly kingdom in joy and glory, surrounded by ministering angels.

In one earlier account of Matthew, Jesus’ disciples asked Him the question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” His response must have startled His listeners as He “called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them,” at which instance He then said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Then He declared in no uncertain terms and without reservation, this most profound admonition and assurance: “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:1-4).

We are in the times when the world is ripened in inequity; when worldliness and abomination has impregnated the substance of our moral caricature and pervaded the air of vice and evil; when hate has become a common language and “pride,the great vice” (Ezra Taft Benson)commonplace. His unequivocal declaration for each of us to be as a child in order to be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven should leave for us no room for doubt. He is simply teaching us that to be humble is to develop the attributes of a child as enumerated by King Benjamin in his sermon: “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father”( Mosiah 3:19).

Becoming as a child is a process of ongoing spiritual growth and development in which the ultimate goal is to acquire childlike qualities and other higher virtues of spiritual submissiveness such as, but not limited to, gratitude, reverence and service to others, and willing submission to the will of our Heavenly Father.

A PECULIAR CHURCH, A PECULIAR PEOPLE

By: Norberto Betita

April 2017 General Conference

The Lord instructed Moses while they were encamped in the wilderness of Sinai to “tell the children of Israel” thus, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people… And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:3, 5-6).

Such intentions of the Lord for the House of Israel was echoed by the apostle Peter to the saints in New Testament times: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (1 Pet. 2:9.)

Of these President Russel M. Nelson explained: “In the Old Testament, the Hebrew term from which peculiar was translated is segullah, which means valued property or treasure. In the New Testament, the term from which peculiar was translated is peripoiesis, which means possession or an obtaining. Thus we see that the scriptural term peculiar signifies valued treasure made or selected by God. For us to be identified by servants of the Lord as his peculiar people is complement of the highest order” (Introduction – Deuteronomy, LDS Media Library, lds.org).

The fundamental and basic tenet of being peculiar is that of being different and unique from that of the worldly norms and social patterns. “A peculiar people is one whose relationship to God is out of the ordinary, who partake of his divine nature in a very special way. Jehovah said not only that Israel would be distinct from all other nations, but also that that distinction would lie in their moral and spiritual superiority. In other words, they would be a peculiar people because they were a holy people” (Rodney Turner, The Quest for A Peculiar People, Ensign, May 1972, lds.org).

This peculiar identity has also become evident among the members of the Church---the modern Israel. Although the effort to be distinctive is a personal quest of each member it becomes a part of the whole---The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints---as such it has been known as a peculiar church, a peculiar people. This peculiarity of the church and its people has now been recognized by the world as the members continue to live moral and spiritual ascendancy. While the Lord’s objective to make us peculiar is more on our spiritual makeup, yet the moral values and righteous principles that we each attach into our daily living are recognized with respect in the temporal modern world, whether it be in business, politics and other religious organizations. The goodness that we share to others as a church and as a people and the religious faithfulness that we demonstrate speaks well of our uniqueness and admirability.

John A. Widtsoe, a member of the Council of the Twelve from 1921 until his death in 1952, enumerated five reasons why Latter-Day Saints are a peculiar people in which he described the fifth reason thus: “most astonishing of all, the most peculiar thing about the Latter-day Saints—so it seems to our weak generation—is that its members have the courage to live up to their beliefs in the face of adverse practices. The Latter-day Saint rejoices in his larger and more complete knowledge and in the privilege of using this knowledge for his good. In a social gathering he refuses the cocktail with a smile and a “thank you.” Among companions who smoke, he keeps his mouth and lungs clean and sweet. When others make Sunday a boisterous holiday, he spends part of it attending to his church duties. Amid immorality, he keeps himself clean and goes to his wife as pure as he expects her to be, and continues so throughout life. He tries to follow the admonition of the Savior—to be in the world, but not of the world.

“The world marvels at such daring, but admires it. Men who love truth above all else, who are guided in their lives by the principles of truth and who dare to conform to them, despite temptation or scoffing companions, are the truly honored ones in the minds of saints and sinners. They are the ones the world is hoping and praying for to lead humanity into peace and happiness. But such courage makes of us a peculiar people.

“We should indeed be proud to exchange error for truth, to seek urgently for all truth, and to build truth every day and everywhere into our lives. By that path we shall reach individual and collective happiness and power and become able to serve better our confused and unhappy world. If these be peculiarities, let us thank the Lord for them.

“The Latter-day Saints are a peculiar people. So were the former-day Saints” ( Why are the Latter-day Saints a peculiar people?, Originally published in the Improvement Era,Sept. 1942, pp. 577, 607, lds.org).

“We are a peculiar people. There is a wholesomeness about you that is beautiful and wonderful. We don’t smoke, we don’t drink, we don’t even take tea or coffee. That is strange for a lot of people. We do vicarious work for the dead. We teach that marriage in the house of the Lord is for time and for all eternity, that families can actually be forever. We are a peculiar people, and thank heavens we are. If the world continues to go in the direction it is going, families breaking up, pornography everywhere, drugs and things of that kind, we will become an even more peculiar people. God has blessed us generously and kindly and greatly. How thankful we ought to be.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, Fireside, Sydney, Australia, 14 May 1997, lds.org).

Not only are we noted for being peculiar by the way we live our lives, but the church is just as peculiar for the kindness and generosity that it extends to those who desire to come to our meetinghouses and enjoy the wonderful spirit that it provides. In a recent article by Karen Kimball for the Deseret News, published October 19, 2017 is a story entitled “Mormons Lend Meetinghouse to Jewish Congregation for One Year.” I quote:

“Imagine,” he said, “what it’s like when a rabbi goes knocking on a door of the Mormon Church asking to move into their house for a whole year.” He said they “opened the door with love and kindness.” The members who came to host would help clean up, prepare classrooms and even join in the services. It was as if “the call of duty knows no bounds,” Rabbi Steinberg said.

“The rabbi expressed appreciation for the commitment of Church members to put aside their basic tenet to share the gospel while his congregation was in the building. “Not one person would even ‘missionize’ to us,” he said. Through the year, he had gained a greater understanding of why Mormons want to share the truths they believe. Yet, he saw how they refrained from proselytizing “in order to achieve a higher religious value.”

“As an expression of gratitude, Rabbi Steinberg wanted to give three things to the members of the Church. All the Mormons in attendance were asked to come up to the rostrum where the Rabbi pronounced a blessing upon them. He then presented a certificate to President Eyre, indicating SHM would dedicate a space in its new synagogue in honor of the Church as a reminder that the Church’s “graciousness, hospitality and kindness are a model for all religions.” All the Mormons were invited to attend the grand opening of the new synagogue. The Rabbi expressed a hope that, “the world around would see the friendship between these two communities as a model.” (https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865691338/Mormons-lend-meetinghouse-to-Jewish-congregation-for-one-year.html).

Yes, people appreciate our willingness to open the doors of the church to accommodate evacuees in times of calamities, when others are closed. They enjoyed guided tours in our family history centers and meetinghouses. They welcome our invitations to come and witness our church activities and Sunday services. They willingly abide by the high standards of the church and acknowledge with deep gratitude the generosity and benevolence to allow the occasional use of church meetinghouses for some private and public activities.

I was three times privileged to be the resource speaker of the annual spiritual enhancement program of different districts in the Department of Education in Surigao City headed by a member of the church, conducted at the church meetinghouse upon her request. Such were an audience of between 130 to 150 learned teachers, school heads and principals. I voluntarily obliged to do such rare opportunities as a duty to share the truth to people in the academe. Although there was no proselytizing involved, yet the gospel principles and doctrines I taught and discussed were all taken from church materials---videos and quotes from apostles and prophets. While I tried to discuss commonality of beliefs, yet questions of deeper gospel truths and uncommon doctrines were asked and answers appreciated. At least during those events, we had been able to introduce some of the principles of the restored gospel. What was in the mind of this member---schools district supervisor---was to open the doors for more people to know about the church, especially that these learned men and women were impressed of her own peculiarity, asking from her many questions about her beliefs.

Another member who owns a small elementary school near the church meetinghouse has the same thoughts about opening the doors of the church to more families and people. In more recent years she has requested to conduct the rehearsals of school activities at church which were readily approved by the local leadership. Final program presentations are always performed in larger commercial rented facilities.

During each of these events, these groups of learned men and women in the Department of Education, and parents and guardians, teachers, and pupils of the elementary school were properly apprised of church standards of cleanliness and some principles to live by---such as the words of wisdom---while in the premises, which they willingly, dutifully and most respectfully abided. Of such we have offered them a simple trial and expirement of obedience to principles.

Yet sometimes these peculiarities are obscured from the eyes and misunderstood by members and non-members when wisdom and inspiration of key leaders, as a result of the constant renewal of leadership, changed.

Most recently the opening of the doors to these groups of people and for members to invite non-member groups to come to church and conduct activities in accord with church standards was already restricted. While the local leadership does not in any way question the wisdom and inspiration of higher key leadership and the physical facilities department in our area, they felt it a missed opportunity for the church to have more people feel its “graciousness, hospitality and kindness [as] a model for all religions” the same way as did Rabbi Steinberg and his Jewish congregation, and other groups, felt with expressions of gratitude. The local leaders felt the church will be missing the prospects and opportunity for more of these people to open the doors of their homes and hearts for the gospel of Jesus Christ as they recollect and reciprocate those times when once we “opened the door with love and kindness” for them to enter. However, they sustained the policy changes in accordance with the law of common consent as best understood (see D&C 26:2).

Art by Brent Borup

Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles observed, “One complaint we often receive from those who are interested in the Church is that they build up the courage to stop by one of our buildings only to find it locked and empty. So we have also decided to open our meetinghouses for guided tours. The missionaries will be at meetinghouses to greet interested individuals and guide them through our houses of worship, where they can be taught and invited in a place that rests under the strong influence of the Spirit” (Missionary Work in the Digital Age, lds.org).” To the affected local leaders this statement appears paradoxical in relation to the new local directions. But they believe that “church officers are selected by the spirit of revelation in those appointed to choose them (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine).” Consequently, they are bound by the same law of common consent to sustain and abide and not put their ultimate salvation in God’s Kingdom at stake.

As an ordinary member I kind of take the personal courage to accept the possible ignominy and disrepute that maybe thrown against me for writing my stand against this ironical change as above explained, in behalf of the members and local leaders. I am not in any way against the wisdom and inspired decision of the local key leaders, nor do I diminish my sustaining support to the church leadership in our locality in accordance with the law of common consent. But I wanted to be clarified of the seemingly conflicting applications of principles and policies which may redound to the church being labeled as “double standard.” I am encouraged and motivated to raise my opinion by the apostolic statement of Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in his recent commencement address at BYU-Hawaii on February 25, 2017, entitled “Push Back Against the World” where he said, “…this counsel to love, to avoid contention, and to be examples of civility is not meant to discourage us from participating in discussions, debates, and even taking adversarial positions against what we believe to be wrong or inadvisable. Within the limits of our own resources of time and influence we should take a position, make it known, and in a respectful way attempt to persuade others of its merit, at least for us. Positive action is essential to our responsibility to push back against the world.”

My memory echoes an experience during the Stake organization of the Butuan Philippines Stake in 1989 attended by then Area President George I. Cannon, Elder Richard G. Scott, and one Area Seventy, during which time I was sustained as counselor in the Stake Presidency. While President Cannon was being ushered by all the leaders in the Butuan Philippines District upon his arrival at the parking area of the District Center along Montilla Blvd., Butuan City, he observed that the basketball goals were without rings. He then asked the agent branch president why they detached the rings. The branch president explained that it was all because many non-members in the neighborhood usually clambered up the fences to play basketball inside the church premises. In that informal setting when almost all of us Branch Presidents were present, he asked the question “Was the church built only for the members?” Then he taught us the lesson that all those people in the neighborhood and in Butuan City for that matter, are children of our Heavenly Father, and therefore all meetinghouses are built purposely for all. Such information and related instructions had since been the basis for stake and branch leaders to approve of requests in accordance with the framework of church policies on the use of meetinghouses, until this unexpected change.

We are a peculiar church, a peculiar people and this peculiarity of opening the church’s door in graciousness, hospitality, love and kindness for those who knock, is not just permitted and effected in selected areas or in some favored countries where the church is located. There is no double standard in the church. The Lord’s call to “knock” and His divine assurance that “it shall be opened unto” (see D&C 4:7) is not just to a few but to all of Heavenly Father’s children.

It is our hope and prayer that the obscured view and misunderstood peculiarity of the church in our local area in the Philippines may soon dissipate, and the clouds of doubt bordering the minds of members and non-members dispel, as the issue is clarified and resolved in the same spirit of inspiration, revelation and divine guidance, until the same peculiarity shines back into its pristine majesty to the delight of our local community and people.

SERVING WITH REAL INTENT

By: Norberto Betita

When youthful vigor wears out into the shadows of aging in the same manner as the brilliant light of day in sunset fades, one common question comes into the mind, “Could have I done better?”

As sure as the range of sunset imperceptibly snatch the light of day and swallow the remaining rays into the night’s darkness; so old age renders the feet hard to steady and engenders the hands to weaken its grasp and the old and weary soul sits in a couch of exhaustion reflecting and ever wanting to know how satisfying the journey in mortality has been before being swallowed up beyond the veil of tears. In daily serious moments of spiritual meditation and personal evaluation the lyrics of a hymn echo: “Have I done any good in the world today? (Hymn No. 223).”

Such questions were often raised to me by my beloved Letty, perhaps out of real concern how she had performed her role---as a daughter, a wife, a mother, women leader and gospel teacher---in the pageant played in this immense stage of mortality. She wanted to make sure before she finally leaves this frail existence that her performance qualify her for an eternal inheritance. She’s kind of asking, “How do I know if I’m doing all that I can as a requisite for God’s grace, as we are told that ‘it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do’ (2 Nephi 25:23)?” 

While we both know that only God can judge the measure and adequacy of our performance, I have to reassure her that in the many roles she had been foreordained to undertake in this great drama of life, she had been always serving with real intent, performing with superior enthusiasm and portraying with outstanding dedication, resulting to some significant moments of spiritual transcendence.

Despite her many different roles, she had patiently cared for her ailing mother---whose Parkinson’s disease caused her mental deterioration---until she breathed her last.

Being a wife, she had been to me a miracle. As in the movie The Bodyguard, “Our love story is a difficult one. It’s impossible to convey it in a few words.” Therefore about her role as a wife I have written much and have personally expressed each day my deepest love and appreciation for her total devotion to our marital vows and eternal covenants and her dedication to her spousal duties. 

I could justifiably describe her motherhood as angelic. Her commitment and tenacity in the performance of her maternal duties are obviously unmissable. During troubling times when days seemed blue and nights darkened by anxieties and deep concern over a child in a hassle, and when sobbing in the wee hours of the night robs the needed restful sleep, she would lovingly lean on my shoulders and longingly yearn for an answer to the same question the rich young man once asked Jesus, “What lack I yet? (Matthew 10:20).” Only her understanding of the truth that perfection is not of this life and the fact that there are limitations to what we can do in mortality, provide comfort. She knows that motherly perseverance needs to endure a lifetime.

While happiness in our family life satisfies our parental yearnings and fills the void of worldly vanities and human wishes, still she extends some of her generous time spaces in service to God and His children. In her heart always rings the words of Elder. D. Todd Christofferson, “The greatest service we can provide to others in this life, beginning with those of our own family, is to bring them to Christ.” It is of this service to others and the church that I wanted to pay tribute of her on this her 68th birthday.

Through the years she had voluntarily served as called upon in an attitude of “charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned” (1Timothy 1:5). A service motivation that came from inside-out; an attitude of ‘what can she best give for others’ and the people with whom she was called to serve.

While most in the world “the prevailing concern seems to be, “What can I get; what’s in it for me?” as observed by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, her voluntary service is one of selflessness and love. Throughout our membership in the Church, she had an almost unbroken service calls in the Relief Society and other auxiliaries, whether it be in the presidency or as gospel teacher. Even until recently when limbs are already weakened and knees feebled, she had been called and had been serving for some time as Institute teacher, tutoring young adults some of whom were more secularly educated than she was. For such reason, she diligently prepared her lessons in such a way that she will not be so much at variance with her student’s capabilities. She studied her lessons from the very night immediately following the end of her Saturday evening classes, and daily thereafter, apart from her study of our Sunday school and Relief Society lessons. Throughout those spaces of her precious times she had offered and is offering in service to God’s children without expecting for any reward in return. Her dedication goes down deep into the marrow of her bones.

She lives by the principle that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17). She is always and ever true to her commitment to serve. I found her motive to serve as a typical characterization of the admonition of Nehpi to “…follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ...” (2 Nephi 31:13).

Her unrelenting service prompts her to adopt Jacob’s “boldness of speech” (Jacob 2:7) as she taught Relief Society and Institute students about living the gospel. She wanted to impress upon them the need to mature in the gospel and to understand the import of what she teaches about the obvious imbalance between worldly pleasures and the eternal, joyful consequences of living God’s eternal plan for His children. Some might have been offended of her boldness at times, yet many more loved her for being forthright and loving in her expressions and testimony of the truth.

Through the years she had been loved and respected by the Relief Society Sisters. At times she is surprised by hugs, in public square, from dear old sisters who had been long lost in the church to inactivity---a sign that she had always been remembered.

In times of death of a sister, she is always the first in local Relief Society leader’s thoughts to assist in dressing the endowed deceased, even offering her temple clothing to be used by those who died unprepared---it matters not whether a replacement is promised or never at all.

At 68 she is still actively and diligently serving her children and grandchildren she loves so dearly and the people of whom she was called to serve. While career retirement is a right and privilege, she believes that service to family and others of God’s children is an imperative lifetime duty of Christ’s disciples. Her love and concern for me as her covenant partner for time and all eternity grow even stronger as the dawn of life is drawn slowly to its sunset. She is not chasing happiness like an elusive butterfly. She knows and believes that as she “turn [her] attention to other [people]” beyond herself, “it will come and sit softly on [her] shoulder” (Henry David Thoreau).

Yet in some reflective moments she would again ask, “Have I really done good enough?” The words of the legendary Sophocles remind: “We must wait till evening to know how pleasant the day has been.” And when the night came down and while our eyes are still evading the need for a good night sleep, we come to the sad realization that not anyone of us can tell how fulfilling our lifetime of service has been until our final hour on earth. Her serving with real intent and with full purpose of heart, however, reassures her that she had acted well her part and her performance in the immense stage of the mortal play can be acceptable to the eminent Divine Director.

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the best thing that ever happened to me; the echoes of my eternity; the beauty that wrinkles never dared to diminish; the miracle of my life; the indomitable queen of my family kingdom; my precious everdearest Letty! I hope these expressions best substitute the daily magic phrase that I most sincerely convey to your ever hearing ears each morning. I wish to God that you will be blessed with more time spaces to serve Him and His children to satisfy the earnest longings of your heart for exaltation, as it is indeed, "by grace that we are saved after all we can do."

DRINKING THE CUP OF HER PERSONAL GETHSEMANE

By: Norberto G. Betita

At home with her daughter

While I was preparing to attend the funeral of my first cousin’s wife, I took time to view the rebroadcast of the Priesthood Session of the General Conference in the church. Right after the conclusion of the session, my foster daughter immediately informed me that they received a call that my elder sister Senecia, our eldest sibling, passed away early in the morning of the same day---October 7, 2017.

She is 82 years old. She is survived by her husband; seven children; twenty four grandchildren and twenty six great-grandchildren. She gave birth to eight but one had already gone beyond the veil . She raised her eight children as a fish vendor while her husband was a fisherman and later a janitor in a government office. Life was very hard for them, but they survived. She was a tough woman. For years she had been patiently drinking the cup of her personal gethsemane and had borne her cross to her personal Calvary and Golgotha.

About two months ago she drank the last and most bitter cup and bore the heaviest cross. She was left bedridden after she slid inside the bathroom. She refused to be hospitalized no matter the efforts of her children to convince her. She just bravely fought the pain and distress until her final hour. Surprisingly though, she had not been showing any feelings of discomfort despite her condition. She ate and conversed with her children and visitors. She must have somehow developed such a simple faith as to qualify her for the needed divine miracle and intervention that allowed her to endure her debilitating ordeal. Until last Thursday, she requested for the presence of our sister Virginia at her home. They had been having an enjoyable conversation. On Friday night, in the presence of our sister she ate with gusto her supper which was to be her last, for in the following morning she peacefully submitted to the will of her Maker and leave this frail existence towards her final repose.

Her last hour was convincingly one of peaceful communion with God for she did not even bother to call for help and assistance; not even to awaken her husband beside her as she breathed her last to her final rest. 

With husband and daughters

My best memory of my sister Senecia was her being one of the popular fishmongers in the Surigao City public market during her time because of her expertise and skills to cut and butcher large fishes evenly including the fish bones and backbone so that each half have a share of the bones, especially that during those times they were not using weighing scales but sold their fishes by cuts or bundles.

Once, her husband Anacorito, a fisherman was caught in a tropical depression in the midst of the sea aboard a very small motorized fishing boat. As they recognized the oncoming storm they immediately started the engine, but it did not work. While other fishermen where already ashore in the mid of night, our family was very worried about my brother-in-law. The waves become even stronger until the morning. We were losing hope. My sister was crying throughout the night feeling despaired and hopeless. In her thoughts was advanced the feelings of possible pain of losing a marital partner and husband. While impossibility of her husband’s survival was creeping into her mind amidst the heavy rains and raging storm and heaving waves too large and violent, the Almighty’s hands were extended still. With faith and courage and determination her husband and his fishing partner slowly followed their way far back home and eventually berthed in safety. 

With five of her children

On another occasion, while again in a deep sea fishing, one of her husband’s best friends joined with him and his regular fishing buddy. Suddenly an unexpected thunderstorm with flashes of lightning struck their motorized pump boat by a thunderbolt and his best friend sitting on the engine cover just disappeared, believed to have been hit by the thunderbolt as evidenced by the burning marks on the engine cover where he was seated. All efforts and attempts to find the lost body were futile. The accountability for the loss of life was placed before her husband; threatening him for imprisonment. My sister was so worried, but again her husband was spared of the accountability.

She finally decided to have her husband end his fishing career and have him work as a lowly janitor in a government office. Together they struggled to raise and rear their children from their very meagre income. They did not surrender their fight despite all the odds of life, until their children were grown up and have their own families.

At times we see our struggles in life as a vast and dark tempestuous sea and our boat too small to cross. Many tend to withdraw from the voyage or stay afloat, afraid of being drowned by the roaring waves into the depths. To withdraw is never to reach our destination and to stay afloat is to wait until our only boat of hope is submerged into the greatest depths of despair in the oceans of life. My elder sister was an example of one who bravely crossed the turbulent seas of life with faith and courage aboard her small boat, never minding the raging storms and heaving waves until she finally found mooring in a safe jetty with the help of her children. 

With siblings during a reunion

Yet even then the quivers of life continue to disrupt and annoy. During the last devastating earthquake her family’s haven was totally damaged and eventually demolished. However, in her sufferings from the devastations of nature’s fury God’s love and kindness and mercy through her angel daughter once more found for her a better anchorage. She felt a little more comfortable, until when the last roller coating of paint was finished and she left in peace.

She may not have been a perfect wife, but she remained true to her husband even in her last hour upholding their vows to love and to hold, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, till death do they part. She may not have been a perfect mother, yet she was able to create and design a strong foundation that holds her family’s building blocks of love, unity, peace and harmony together. Throughout her challenging years and adverse circumstances she had been apt at drinking the bitter cup of her personal Gethsemane; carrying her cross towards her personal Calvary’s hill and Golgotha even to her final peaceful rest.

To us her siblings, her husband, her sons and daughters, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she exemplified that whatever storms we encounter in our journey in the immense oceans of life there can always be a brightness of hope and God’s assurance that our small boat of faith and courage will survive the voyage and find a safe harbour in the blissful shore.

We will miss her, yet we are grateful that she had finally found peace with God in her last hours as she paid her last communion with Him. She is now in reunion with our parents and ancestors and her son who had gone before. There are certain ordinances that are yet to be done, but I am confident, she will eventually have the promise of “a state of happiness, a state of rest, a state of peace, where [she] shall rest from all [her] troubles and from all care and sorrow.” We love you mana Sening. We love you!

I HAVE LIVED LONG ENOUGH AT 65

By: Norberto Betita

I should not have gone this far perhaps if my grandfather never had the personal confidence to converse with the inanimate imaginary disease carriers at the bank of Anao-aon River requesting them to depart to save me from a very serious ailment in infancy. He was known to be a Spiritual healer and an expert in herbal medicines. My being saved from the brink of death may have been attributable to both of his expertise.

Again as an infant, I was saved from starvation through a surrogate breast feeder---my aunt Elvira---when my mother was hospitalized for a very serious disease which almost cost her life.

During my third year in high school, I was afflicted with an unknown disease, unknown in the sense that I have not been diagnosed having had no opportunity to visit a physician, but a woman quack doctor. For two months I laid in bed bearing the burdens of continued fever and head breaking pains, without the benefit of modern medicines but a drinking water filled with herbs and paper and weekly rubbing rituals of iron bars around my joints purportedly to restore strength. I thought it was my last days. Once while alone at home, I managed to crawl into our dining room and urinate on the side of the wall. Then I was left unconscious; for how much time I did not know. Awakened, I found myself lying on our dining table. I felt kind of being resurrected. As I regained consciousness and a little strength, I walked limping back towards our bedroom. It was later known that my affliction was that of an acute typhoid fever. Providentially, however, I was relieved and was accepted back to school. I was then 15 years old.

From that time since, my physical health turned normal and had sustained me through all the winds of adversity along the path to my most challenging journey.

However, in the main thoroughfare towards my most cherished dreams for growth and development for my family, at age 35, I found myself again afflicted by a disease which until now the exact cause and origin has not been determined and known. It is a chronic disease of the immune system, the sad part of which is that it may be associated with arthritis, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

The first time I held a handful of plaques and almost daily thereafter, I felt devastated. I thought it was skin cancer, until I later knew that it was psoriasis. It was first diagnosed by a dermatologist from a community hospital in Cebu City. I was informed that it is an incurable genetic skin disorder and was prescribed coal tar for plaques and itch control. As the disease continued to get worse, I went to a renowned doctor at Chong Hua hospital in Cebu city. I was assured it is not a killer disease and not contagious and was again prescribed coal tar and a white ointment, with instruction to have a daily exposure of my whole bare skin to direct sunlight between the hours of 10 AM to 2 PM for an hour or two as an ultra violet treatment.

As a bank employee, I only have time during my noon breaks to expose my skin at our terrace for at least 30 minutes. During Saturdays and holidays, I have to go to the beach and find a place where I can lay bare my whole body to the blistering heat of summer. Each time I did such I felt as if my lung is bursting that I could hardly breathe. My heart seemed to pump even swiftly as to cause severe abdominal discomfort. But I have to do it if only to be relieved. It indeed provided temporary and short-lived relief.

Fear struck me when during one of our family week celebration in the church I participated in a family tug of war. As I pulled hard together with the rest of the participants my forearm skin was suddenly cut by the pressure. The two lacerations were long and blood was oozing. Since then I have had many small cuts and injuries as the epidermis of my skin seemed to have thinned as to easily react to pressures. Even ordinary hard contact on my skin caused me pain and even immediate and unwanted injuries. Scars remained printed on my body for a memory of those trying moments. Even the air pressure applied on the sphygmomanometer to measure my blood pressure was very painful. This may have been the result of my regular exposure to direct sunlight and the daily application of ointments. During each of these painful encounters, I sometimes felt I am a ‘dead man walking’.

Once I was treated from several abrasions having fallen into a concrete canal by a doctor who himself was psoriatic. He assured me that it will not be long and there will be a sure cure to the disease. But he did not live long enough to see the fulfillment of his expectations and perhaps even me. Research still continues.

Very generous benefactors assisted me through the church by surprise with a round trip plane tickets and an all-expenses paid medical checkup in Manila of which I was truly grateful. But nothing better resulted. I personally have a medical checkup with the best dermatologist at St. Luke Hospital in Manila. Despite long years of steroidal and pain reliever medications my laboratory results were all normal. Yet notwithstanding new and more expensive medications and modern ultraviolet treatment, still there was no improvement in my psoriasis.

Many times I was crippled by the attendant psoriatic arthritis which often strikes on the knees. Hence, I have to live by steroids and pain relievers to be able to regularly attend to my work in the bank. Many apprised me of the dangers of steroids and pain relievers, but I have to defy all medical warnings if only to live normally and continue to provide for the needs of my family.

I am grateful though that its link to diabetes did not surface. My blood sugar remained always at normal level.

Then the consequent cardiovascular disease associated with psoriasis dawned upon me as I suffered regular pains on my left breast. I consulted with a cardiologist and he suspected that my heart was enlarged. I underwent an echocardiogram, but the result was unclear. During one of my consultation with an internist, I also underwent and electrocardiogram and the results were normal.

Throughout those long years and weary battle with afflictions I find solace as I contemplate on the Lord’s invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28–30).

Then I would plead as did the poet Edward Hopper (1818-1888):

“Jesus, Savior, Pilot me
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treacherous shoal.
Chart and compass came from thee;
Jesus, Savior, Pilot me.” (Hymn No. 104).

I am deeply grateful that despite these lingering afflictions, I still was able to attain my life’s simple dreams. I retired at age 56, just a year after attaining my career goal and with only two years remaining for my fifth and last-born daughter to finish college. During this period of retirement, I confronted the worst of psoriatic flare-up when almost 80% of my body turned red and most of my skin cracked. No amount of ointment application was able to provide relief. My wife had to wrap my body with food cling-wrap. I hate going back to doctors. One day I sat in front of my computer and was inspired to ask Google as to why it happened. I applied the suggested remedy and it worked. Since then I continued to use the medications and miraculously my skin seemed to have restored its strength. I still have my psoriasis, but its associated arthritis now seldom occurs and my skin can now cope with hard pressures. .

It’s been 30 years since when I first spotted those red spots on my skin; 30 years of lingering disease and constant medications. Throughout those years I have witnessed relatives, friends and neighbors and contemporaries in the prime of life being marched to their final moments on graveyards’ lane and their bodies laid in ‘the cold and silent grave’. I have written and spoken several eulogies in funerals and dedicated graves.

Today in my deepest and soul-searching retrospection since those accounts of near death experiences and enduring battle with afflictions, I thought that indeed, I have lived long enough at 65. I acknowledge with deep and profound gratitude God’s infinite love as to bless me of not having stayed even a day in a hospital bed during those long and weary days and years of failing health.

I always asked for extensions of my years in mortality in my prayers of total submission to Heavenly Father’s will. While I will have to wait for the Lord’s appointed time, as death is a certainty in life, I pray that I may be worthy to be “…received into a state of happiness…,a state of rest, a state of peace, where [I] shall rest from all [my] troubles and from all care and sorrow” (Alma 40:12). Where “God shall wipe away all tears from [my] eyes; and there shall be no more death; neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:4).

As the dawn unveils the door of darkness to give way for the marvelous light of a glorious sunrise on this my 65th year in mortality, and as the sun follows its destined orbit and sets at the close of the day consistent with life’s eternal sequence, I wish to God that I will still be able to enjoy the beauty of life and the grandeur of mortal existence amidst the daunting consequences of failing health and the physical realities attendant to seniority.

LOOKING FOR JOY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF DESPAIR

By: Norberto Betita

Rache Arpilleda Reyna Alinsunod

Some say that August is the birth of legends not only because Augustus Caesar, the first Emperor after the death of Julius Caesar named it after him, but because many of the popular legends, such as Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Mother Theresa, Warren Buffet, Sean Connery, Neil Armstrong and hundreds of others were born in August. However, that has nothing to do with the birth of Rachel Arpilleda Reyna-Alinsunod on August 13, 1952. She was simply born to be the third of the seven siblings in a middle class family of that time---a teacher mother and a lumber contracting and supplying father.

Her mother was a true disciplinarian. As a teacher herself, she was bent on pushing her children to acquire the highest education they could attain no matter the cost, believing that it is the key to the doors of better opportunities. While the popular principle says, ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’, she spared the rod and loved her children, but made sure that there was an equivalent punishment in consequence of a wrong doing in order not to spoil them. She is very exacting in so far as their schooling is concerned. She wanted them to make their quest for education and learning a preeminent priority. She trained her children to be more responsible in whatever things they do in life.

With daughter Karen Myl, son-in-law Josh and granddaughter
Kora Rachel in Slat Lake City, Utah, USA 

In contrast her father was a man of sobriety, so that every time she received the pinch of discipline from her mother she would go to her father and complain. And, repeatedly his counsel would be for her not to be dismayed nor be offended, but to look far into the future and imagine the joy of a glorious attainment if she followed the path where such code of behavior is aligned. Such recurrent paternal admonition developed in her a positive attitude of looking for joy on the other side of despair, while yet a young woman. For so long she had learned and was motivated to move forward no matter the challenges. Her first victory was graduating from high school at San Nicolas College in 1969.

The same year, with ever willing parental support, she enrolled at the Velez College in Cebu City for a course leading to a degree in Nursing. Unfortunately, however, on her third year in college she was afflicted with a serious illness which prompted her to temporarily stop schooling and return home. It had been in the Filipino culture then that elder children should finish college to help in the schooling of younger siblings. This had always been the subject of her mother’s demanding stimulation for her to go back to college especially that she only had a year and a half more to complete her course. But she believed otherwise. She wanted the tradition to stop, not out of selfishness towards her younger siblings, but by the fact that it is not proper. A son or a daughter will soon have to become a father or mother which will bear the burdens of providing and supporting a family. While a sibling may help support the education of a brother or sister, his or her paramount priority is his or her family. As a result, she decided to marry young and made it as a getaway from her mother’s pressures. 

With daughter karen Myl's family with Thorvaldsen's
Christus as backdrop. 

However, her marriage and even of her having already a son did never become a deterrent for her mother to push her back to college. She still wanted to finance her college education for good. Looking far into the future of her son and the possibility of having a larger family, she therefore determined and committed to carry on. With her son tightly clutched on her arms she left Surigao City and went back to college enrolling at the Southwestern University in Cebu City. She eventually graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Foods and Nutrition in 1978. She acknowledged with gratitude for such an achievement which should not have been attained without her mother’s perseverance and unyielding faith and enthusiasm combined with strict discipline and the caring and affectionate counsels he received from her father, which had since become complementary.

After a short respite, she applied at the Pacific Cement Company in 1980 and was employed as Guesthouse Service Officer. She resigned in 1984 to focus on her motherhood and spousal duties. In the wake of family financial crisis resulting from lose of employment and increasing family challenges, she was encouraged by her mother to shift career and take a course in teaching. She did as her way of challenging her feelings of despair. She eventually graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and became a professional teacher. Her faith and courage sustained her all along her tremendous responsibility of fostering and nurturing her children, while at the same time trying hard to mend a broken heart and strengthening the foundation and the building blocks of home and family. In patience she gained serenity; in humility she found God’s favor; in prayers she was blessed with resolves. The shattering energy and force of the devil did never prosper as she held on to the shield of faith and hope for greater family happiness if not in this world then beyond the veil. Her knowledge of the gospel has been her continued anchor and lighthouse along the treacherous channels of her life’s journey.

While thus in such a pressured parental undertaking, she started her teaching career at the Children’s Garden Learning Center from 1988 to 1990. In 1992 she was permanently employed as a public school teacher in the Department of Education. In all her struggles she took shelter in her father’s memorable counsel to look for joy on the other side of despair.

The family

Her faith and hope for a better tomorrow for her growing children brightened the clouded path and magnified her vision as to clearly view greater joy and gladness while in the grasp of her children’s love as she most seriously engage herself in providing, rearing and nurturing them in righteousness.

While thus trying to envision the future needs of her young and growing children, she ventured to advance her educational attainment and took Master of Arts in Teaching at the Bukidnon State College. Once at church, she expressed to me her apprehension of not finishing the course. As his Branch President then, I counseled her to move on and finish the educational race which she had started. She graduated and was later promoted to the position of School Principal. Her advanced teaching career helped her support and led her children into the paths of educational success.

She remained to be just as true to her covenants to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as a member of the church. However, the fortifying element in the family seemed to have lost its power as to draw away her two sons to inactivity. But such did not diminish her greatest love for them. She knew that someday in their lives the “tentacles of Divine Providence” which God promised to the faithful parents will eventually come upon them to tug them back into the fold. If they repent and “keepeth [the] commandments, whether in life or in death” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:2), they will be blessed in God’s Kingdom. She also finds comfort and happiness in her daughter Karen Myl’s exemplary faithfulness, that despite her being diagnosed for a possible illness that should have deprived her to serve, she eventually went on a full-time mission in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and returned with honor. And after years of patiently waiting was eventually married in the Temple.

With mother and siblings

All her three children---Benjamin, Eric and Karen Myl---completed their college education and were already gainfully employed when another despairing and mournful tragedy occurred. His eldest son Benjamin died in the prime of his life. The tragedy was truly one of sadness and sorrow; of loneliness and grief. But she stayed calm and confronted the heartbreak with serenity and meditative tranquility. When she was asked by her associates about her composure while in the midst of a sorrowful misfortune for the passing of his eldest son, she told them, “I know I will meet him again in a grand reunion beyond the veil.” She knew that ‘death is only a passing episode in an eternal journey,’ a graduation day for life. With Benjamin’s passing, her desire for them to be sealed together for time and eternity was amplified. Together with her daughter Karen Myl, they tried to work on such a noble plan. But time seemed not as yet ready to undertake its due. However, with greater faith she hopes for such noble goal to eventually find fulfillment. She felt like Spencer W. Kimball who said: “There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, give me this mountain, give me these challenges.” Consequently, she invests her ‘heart, might, mind and strength’ in the service of God and his fellowmen. She had served in different capacities in the auxiliary organizations of the church the latest of which is Sunday School Gospel Doctrine teacher and District Supervisor of the Seminary and Institute Program. She believes that “the best medicine for despair is service” (Gordon B. Hinckley). 

With husband and living children

Along the path to career advancement there sometimes rest the dark shadows of prejudices as are common in public service. Once she was asked by her younger brother who is a lawyer and Priesthood holder, as to which was important to her, promotion and salary increase or relationships. The words of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf flashed: “Satan’s purpose is to temp us to exchange the priceless pearls of true happiness for a fake plastic trinket that is merely a counterfeit of happiness and joy.” Thus, in her quest for career advancement and growth she just humbly waited for her chances in life’s rides, for her to finally see the brighter light at the end of the tunnel, while relishing the priceless pearls of true happiness found in relationships. She was more happy and respected by her colleagues in the DepEd and was soon also promoted to the position of District Supervisor in May of 2015, which will be her position towards retirement in August 2017.

While she doesn’t in anyway believes in Zodiac signs, yet her attributes of positive outlook towards life, enthusiasm and determination to achieve, and being a good friend and loyal to her relationships, exactly correspond to the description of those born under the sign of Leo. In all these developments of a noble character she always prided during some of our classes in Sunday School, she being our teacher, that all stems from her mother’s loving discipline and her father’s sincere admonition for her to always look for joy on the other side of despair. 

Reunion with high school classmates in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

She is still hoping and ardently praying for their family sealing to be fulfilled soon. At times frustrations occupy a resting mind and tears forced open the windows of the eyes. Nevertheless, the words of the Psalmist she learned from teaching the Old Testament ever echo: “…Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). She has faith that the break of the dawning day will one day majestically rise to drive the dark night shadows away. She now savors the joy of visiting her granddaughter Kora Rachel at Wyoming and takes pleasure in visiting historical places in America with her son-in-law Josh and daughter Karen Myl. She appreciates very much meeting in a reunion in Las Vegas with high school friends and classmates and meeting new friends.

As she comes home to file her retirement she carries with her the words of President Thomas S. Monson: “To live greatly, we must develop the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and triumph with humility.” Triumphantly she will soon march out from the humdrums of a secular career. She will now reserve her remaining energy revitalizing and rejuvenating her responsibilities which are of eternal consequences---spousal duties, motherhood and church callings---where retirement is never an entitlement. She knows that mortality is so short a time when equated with God’s promised eternity.