Battling roaches- January 26, 2015

For those of you who know me well, you know that I consider roaches to be the lowest form of life.  In my career, I required people to get rid of roaches in their homes.  So, to come to Atlanta and find that I would be fighting roaches in my own home has been an eye-opener.  We have fought them since the day we moved in.  This is what our home looks like:

Certainly not what I would expect a home to look like with roaches.  We keep all of our crackers, cereal, pasta, flour, etc. in plastic bins.  We have had the apartment sprayed nearly every month.  We have used traps.  After the last treatment, we didn't see a single dead roach, but we saw about 12 live ones.  We decided that we would have to kill them and keep them in a bag or the roach terminator would think we were crazy.  He appreciated the effort and said that he had one lady who videotaped the roach walking over the top of the terminator's traps.  Apparently, the roaches are now smart enough to avoid the bait.  Now, we are going to have an expert do a "vacuum treatment", to try to find out where they are living and get rid of them for good.

Perhaps it is a bit like our lives.  We have those "roaches" in our lives we struggle to get rid of.   We may not appear to be someone who is dealing with any issues.  Sometimes we think we have eliminated them, only to see them come back.  The only way to get rid of them is by turning to the expert, our Heavenly Father.  He can provide the help.  But once we have gotten rid of the sins, doubts, roaches, whatever. . . we must be vigilant.  They never stop and we cannot either.

We had a great fireside last night.  We did not get good support from the Brazilian community, but those of our Branch who came found answers to issues and questions they have regarding immigration.  I am very grateful for President Kuck and his willingness to come.  He is a world-renowned immigration attorney and the President of one of the Spanish Branches.  He was terrific, and indicated that he is willing to do it again.  We may just have to take him up on that.

I have the privilege of teaching Young Women in the Branch.  These are really fine Young Women.  They are fighting the good fight.  Our lesson was on President Uchtdorf's talk "Your Happily Ever After". I love the message.  He covered so many things that are important to Young Women today.  I put some key points in a little booklet (I got the idea from the internet).  I included this promise from President Uchtdorf:

As an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I leave you my blessing and give you a promise that as you accept and live the values and principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, “[you] will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.” ¹⁰ And the day will come when you turn the final pages of your own glorious story; there you will read and experience the fulfillment of those blessed and wonderful words: “And they lived happily ever after.” Of this I testify in the holy name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope that all of us realize the impact of an apostolic blessing.