Written by Carter

The area medical advisor in Australia is going home the end of July. His replacement is from the US and can’t get into the country until who knows when. He will cover as much as he can via phone and email from the US. He and I went through the MTC and medical training together before we went to Peru (he went to South Africa)…so we know each other! Our wives and we got to be very good friends during that short time. I look forward to working with him!

I participated in a video call originating from Salt Lake City with several mission presidents going to our area and the Philippines. I look forward to working with these new couples.

On Thursday, we flew to Queenstown, a beautiful city among the mountains on the South Island of New Zealand. Faye and I will celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary on August 4…so this trip is an early celebration. I’m grateful to be married to my best friend!    On Saturday, we went on a guided tour of Milford Sound, including a boat cruise where the bow touched a waterfall. We also went on a helicopter ride that landed on a glacier! As we drank in the beauty of the day, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for my Creator! What amazing and beautiful handiworks He has made! Words don’t do it justice! Pictures don’t, either, but that’s the best we can do.

New Zealand has the only high-mountain parrot, a kea. We saw several on our trip. It supposedly has the largest brain-to-body weight ratio of any bird. Our guide said it has the intelligence of a 4-year-old human. I thought I was clever when I asked, “Is that a boy or a girl 4-year-old?” I’m pretty sure there is a difference!

We attended the branch meetings here in Queenstown in the morning. It’s wonderful to have “family” wherever we go in the world…having the same lessons with the same doctrine, taught by the same Holy Ghost.

I’m reading a book written by the father of an 18-year-old boy who died of an unexpected illness. This quote rings true for me: “Sorrow shared is sorrow halved.” I don’t know why, but I have found that to be true for me. The person I’m sharing with doesn’t need to “fix” me or have “just the right thing” to say; just listening with love is enough. More than enough.

I gained some profound insights as I listened to this week’s Come Follow Me lesson on the Talking Scripture podcast (Episode 61):

1. Comparing my testimony to a growing tree, I have fed it over my lifetime…with prayer, scripture study, repentance, forgiving, serving…and now my testimony is feeding me! I love that thought!
2. A quote from C.S. Lewis’s “A Grief Observed,” “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it?… Bridge-players tell me that there must be some money on the game ‘or else people won’t take it seriously.’ Apparently it’s like that. Your bid – for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity – will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high, until you find that you are playing not for counters or for sixpences but for every penny you have in the world. Nothing less will shake a man – or at any rate a man like me – out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself.” From that, I’m reminded to feel gratitude for the trials of life that have forced me to examine and challenge my beliefs, sending my roots deep into the foundation of Christ. Only in Him can I have a foundation that I can trust in all things and in all times and places. Always.

Some may find it hard to believe that I sometimes struggle with my weight…but I do. I don’t have a lot of “science” to back this up, but something I’ve tried lately is to weigh myself every morning. If I’m over my target weight, I postpone breakfast until noon…trying to fit a “reasonable” amount of calories between noon and 6 pm. I’ve started asking myself when I have the munchies in the evening, “Will this taste better now than breakfast will taste in the morning?” Sometimes that helps me forego that evening treat…because I really like breakfast!

I’ve become interested in the stories of my ancestors who were the first ones to join the Church in their families. Last week I read of Grandpa Esker’s conversion from an interview with Grandma Amy by Jamie Sue Richey. It was entered on FamilySearch by Ester Daley in 2013. It was wonderful to read those memories. I’m grateful for the faithfulness of my ancestors, who have helped me enjoy the blessings I have today.

For some reason, I was thinking this week about the blessings that have come to my life because of my decision to serve a mission as a young man. I’m grateful for parents who helped instill the importance of missions early…and they “walked the talk” by serving a mission themselves. I thought of the two years of schooling that was postponed because of my mission. However, I was a so much better student after my mission than I was before. I was so much more mature (more than just two years of chronological age “more mature”). I was so much more focused, driven and dedicated. Making that decision to serve others (instead of just thinking about myself) opened so many doors and options for me. So many of the blessings and opportunities I enjoy even now I can trace back to my decision to serve a mission as a young man. Choosing to serve a mission was definitely the best decision I could have made for my life. The other hingepoint decision for me was choosing to marry Faye in the temple. It’s a reminder that I can never get ahead of the Lord: He blesses me while I’m serving Him…AND He blesses me for serving Him!

In the vision where God, the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith, Joseph learned that, following the death of the original apostles, Christ’s New Testament church was lost from the earth. Joseph would be instrumental in its return. I’m grateful to know that the same Church that existed during Christ’s lifetime exists on the earth today, as well: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.