A Special Devotional

Today Elder Andersen and Elder Soares spoke to the area office's devotional.  It's not often we get to hear from a modern day Apostle of Jesus Christ and shake his hand.

First we heard from Elder Soares who explained how at one time he was too employed by the Church. He was the DTA in Brazil for many years, went to be the Mission President to Portugal, came back to the United States and was working in Salt Lake when he was called to be a General Authority 12 years ago. He taught us five things
#1 we should think about serving our Heavenly Father
#2 Align our destiny according to the principles of the gospel
#3 Be Followers of Jesus Christ
#4 Increase your testimony as you labor in this work. This is the Lord's work.
#5 Be teachable D&C 120:10

Elder Andersen touched on three  topics:
He asked, what did he spoke last time he came two years ago?
Temple marriage:
He challenge us to encourage our single young adults to marry in the temple. he showed a graph where there has been some improvement in this regard.
He said that the Philippines has more chapels per active member than any other place in the world. Self Reliance: He told us to be thinking about being self reliant. The dollar is strong and has been able to support other areas of the world but that could change and now each area needs to be self reliant. He showed examples of savings with utilities and sharing copy machines. We make sacrifices. D&C 97:8 We need to know it.
Tithing: He asked each employee to be a full time payer not just because it is a requirement to work for the Church but because it comes from our hearts. Be generous in your fast offerings. Find someone young in your ward who has no family support and help them feel of your love. Think of someone and become interested in their well being.

There is a fellow from Uganda who was by himself, no father, and his mother had sent him to be with his father's side of the family but he was not wanted so he ended up on the streets where the missionaries found him. His mother later on also passed away so he was truly and orphan. He became a member and his life change forever. Went on a mission, and is getting married in the temple for life and eternity. He is able to do that through the temple patron fund design for people like him who can't afford to go to the temple. Please adopt a young person and keep being your friend. Think of someone and make an effort to be interested in what their life is producing.

What a treat this was for those of who attended this special devotional.

Con amor,
Vero