3 June 2018

Two very good broadcasts from church headquarters in SLC, Utah this past week. On Friday, we enjoyed watching the celebration of the priesthood restoration in 1978. We remember well what seems like ancient history to Millennials. We were in the Marine Corps living at Camp Lejeune, NC at the time. The broadcast starkly contrasted the unity and love that exists through the gospel of Jesus Christ and our world of conflict and prejudice. The world tries to force equality by taking away agency and human rights. It forces gender and racial equality in ways that take away human rights and demean, confuse, and destroy sacred identities and values. It is Satan's way of forcing equality and acceptance. In stark contrast, the true gospel of Jesus Christ teaches that all lives matter. It fills men and women's souls with godlike charity, meekness, and brotherly/sisterly kindness, and they accept and love each other without force and without confusing or diminishing the sacred roles of men and women, the family, and marriage. As President Nelson said, all cultural and gender and social issues melt into a harmonious blend through Jesus Christ and a true knowledge of the Plan of Happiness.
      The broadcast to the youth of the church - messages given by Sister and President Nelson - were wonderful. What a great challenge to the youth to gather Zion and sacrifice the things of the world to enlist and serve in the Lord's army and this great work!
       We had a change of bishopric in our YSA ward yesterday. We have loved serving with the out-going bishopric. They and their wives have been stalwarts in serving the young people. We look forward to serving with this new bishopric. We sense their love and support for these young people.
       We are implementing a new initiative into our ministering - family history and temple. We are sharing with the LDS families and YSA a message about searching after their ancestors and going to the temple for sacred ordinances. We already had one great visit with a young couple. The wife is a new member - just a year in the church - and the husband is also a member. They have been a little less-active, but we gave them a My Family booklet and encouraged them to begin to fill it out. We invited them to prepare to go to the temple for her own endowments and to be sealed as a couple in the temple. She was very excited about this. We gave them a small picture of the SL temple to put on their refrigerator to remind them of their goal.
       We have a little shelf in the chaplain's office where we keep LDS materials, pamphlets, Books of Mormon and such that explain our beliefs. The chaplains have been so kind and good to work with. On Memorial Day, we went over to Naval Post-graduate School and listened to the concert, saw beautiful parrots and exotic birds, and enjoyed the music. Along with a few other YSA, we marked 130 veteran graves in the Monterey cemetery with small U.S. flags. We also take walks along the beautiful shoreline when we have time. Memorial Day was beautiful weather and the small beach enclaves were packed with sunbathers. Reminded me of the mother seals stacked up on the beaches at Point Lobos giving birth to young. We also visited the historic Presidio museum and learned much history about early Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. colonization at Monterey. Father Serra was the first Catholic priest to establish a mission here. The Presidio has interesting military history. I've included photos of these things.