April 11th-17th

April 11th: Fed missionaries breakfast. Elder Sadler went bowling with the Elders & had a lot of fun! I went to Daucet Trails with Sister Creech & Sister Archer. They loved it, especially feeding the turtles & fish!

April 12th: Went to the doctor for a follow up visit concerning the nodule. They told me to have it checked every six months.
We visited with Ann Owens & answered questions. We sure hope that she will get baptized before we leave! The Elders came by & we visited with them for a little while.

April 13th: we had an appointment to teach Tammy but she was called in to work last night so she was sleeping. We visited Sister Hosea & her roommate Geraldine & with Sister Cox in the nursing home. We always enjoy visiting with them & take them a bag of Werthers candy.
We went to visit with the Dotson's & took them a book about the sacrament. We took a birthday candy bar to Melanie Jones--she wants her name removed😢

April 14th: we had a district meeting & interviews with President & Sister Foote.  We are always impressed at the presentations that the district & zone leaders give! And it is always great to talk to President & Sister Foote. They are the best!  Delivered food to the Cockram's from the Wicklund's & went to the Book of Mormon class. Our attendance has really slipped unfortunately.

I was impressed with this talk during my personal study. It was in the Dec. 2006 Ensign and was from a devotional talk given at BYU on May 10, 2005.

Notes from a talk by Elder David A. Bednar called “Quick to Observe”

Another seemingly simple and perhaps under appreciated gift—the capacity of being “quick to observe” (Mormon 1:2)—is vitally important for you and for me in the world in which we do now and will yet live.

Thus when we are quick to observe, we promptly look or notice and obey. Both of these fundamental elements—LOOKING and OBEYING—are essential to being quick to observe. And the prophet Mormon is an impressive example of this gift in action.

In this talk he quotes Stephan L. Richards: “First I mention the gift of discernment, embodying the power to discriminate…between right and wrong. I BELIEVE THAT THIS GIFT WHEN HIGHLY DEVELOPED ARISES LARGELY OUT OF AN ACUTE SENSITIVITY TO IMPRESSIONS—SPIRITUAL IMPRESSIONS, IF YOU WILL—to read under the surface, as it were, to detect hidden evil and more importantly to find the good that may be concealed.”

Simply stated being quick to observe is an antecedent to and is linked with the spiritual gift of discernment. And for you and for me, discernment is a light of protection and direction in a world that grows increasingly dark. …So being quick to observe is a preparation for the gift of discernment.

…Discernment is a light of protection and direction in a world that grows increasingly dark. You and I can press forward safely and successfully through the mist of darkness and have a clear sense of spiritual direction. Discernment is so much more than recognizing right from wrong. It helps us distinguish the relevant from the irrelevant, the important from the unimportant and the necessary from that which is merely nice.

The gift of discernment opens to us vistas that stretch far beyond what can be seen with natural eyes or heard with natural ears. Discerning is seeing with spiritual eyes and feeling with the heart—seeing and feeling the falsehood of an idea or the goodness in another person. Discerning is hearing with spiritual ears and feeling with the heart—hearing and feeling the unspoken concern in a statement or the truthfulness of a testimony or doctrine. 

Observing and discerning also enables us to assist others who are seeking to obtain the path and who desire to press forward with steadfastness in Christ. Blessed with these spiritual gifts, we will not lose our way, we will not wander off, we will not be lost. And we can hope to obtain the supernal gift of discernment and it’s light of protection and direction only if we are quick to observe. As Alma taught his son Helaman, “see that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live” (Alma 37:47).

April 15th: the Garmin broke & let's just say it was a pretty miserable day driving around in the Atlanta traffic doing apartment inspections but we made it through it. Went to a Walmart to get another Garmin but it had the wrong plug & checked the only other one they had & it had the wrong plug too!
We did go by & had a very nice visit with Uncle Billy & Aunt Betty & on the way home we stopped at another Walmart & bought a new Garmin.

April 16th: watered Sister Kirkland's flowers & visited with Ann Owens.

April 17th: went to hospital in Atlanta & visited with Sister France (she had a heart attack). We went to a "Why I Believe" fireside & it was awesome. All of the speakers were very good. One of the speakers was Luis Gomez who played professional baseball for the Toronto bluejays.

In closing I wanted to share this quote from Elder Renlund: "The sacrament truly helps us know our Savior. It also reminds us of His innocent suffering. If life were truly fair, you & I would never be resurrected; you & I would never be able to stand clean before God. In this respect I am grateful that life is not fair. At the same time, I can emphatically state that because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, ultimately, in the eternal scheme of things, there will be no unfairness. All that is unfair about life can be made right."