A lot of the times at church (Sunday meetings) I am really occupied with tending to our kids and getting things ready for my calling. I don't have a whole lot of time to focus on the spiritual. It is a sad commentary on today's church. We're so busy that we often don't make time to listen to the Spirit at church.
But other times, like today, I "get" a few things out of the meetings.
Missionary Marathon
The first one was from a sister's testimony. She ran a marathon last month. Despite being on Sunday, the marathon proved to a be a spiritual experience for her as well as a missionary opportunity. She said that she didn't know anyone at the race and it was at mile 7 before she talked to anyone. This other lady jogged up next to the sister and they started talking. By mile 21, they had had a somewhat deep conversation about religion. The sister was able to tell this other lady about the LDS church. The other lady was so impressed that she decided to check out LDS.org when she got home that day. It was a really neat testimony and I learned that no matter what you're doing or where you are, there are missionary opportunities to be had.
Service
The second significant event happened in Priesthood. Sunday School was good too, but since I was teaching and was so nervous, I don't remember a whole lot. But in Priesthood meeting, we were discussing a talk given by President Faust. His talk was entitled "Spiritual Nutrients." One of the nutrients is service. The teacher gave this example of when he was a teenager about how they gathered a bunch of food and gifts and then took them to an orphanage south of Tiajuana, Mexico. As soon as he mentioned that, I remembered the time I went to TJ.
It was my first Christmas home from my mission. I served in Central America and learned to speak Spanish. I was in San Diego for Christmas with my brother and his family. One day we rounded up a ton of gifts and then drove to TJ to an orphanage. I remember crossing the border and then seeing all the Latin buildings ... it was like I was back in Central America. We arrived at the orphanage and distributed the gifts and then sat around and played with and talked to the kids. I remember holding a few younger kids and reading them some books in Spanish. My brother and his wife speak Spanish too, so it was really neat for all of us to speak freely with those orphans and nuns who ran it.
But that memory lit a small fire in my heart. I remembered how much fun it was to serve others and to see the smiles on their faces. That memory gave me more desires to find opportunities to serve.
Today was a good day at Church.
