Birthday Celebration

Wow, I can't believe it.  It's another year and another birthday.  This time for some reason I feel old or at least older!  The big 65!  My big day, April 2, started with Peggy making me french toast breakfast.  Tasted sooo good.

At the Institute, Arihanny Muniz, John Lopez, Oscar Amparo, Ronald Leonardo and Peggy surprised me with a yummy chocolate cake with a large "torch-like" burning candle in the middle.  (I think Peggy leaked the info.)  Inside the Institute office, they decorated the room with red and blue balloons, pictures of Superman (Super Park) and provided me with a special silver-sparkled top hat,  Many students watched through the office window and they all clapped their hands while singing the Dominican favorite, "Celebro tu Cumpleanos" (Celebrate Your Birthday).  It was so much fun.

Later in the afternoon at our Funval class, the two directors Basilio and Isidro, provided a large white cake and soft drinks and the Funval guys wished me well.  John Lopez posted my picture blowing out candles on Facebook.  The guys at Funval read Facebook and decided to keep the birthday celebration going with a surprise party of their own. We all laughed together as they sang me both Celebro tu Cumpleanos and Happy Birthday to You in English and cut the cake in 24 pieces.  I received a lot of "congrats" from all the students in the Institute and Funval.  The best part of the day was receiving Skype calls and text messages of Happy Birthday and well wishes from my children, grandchildren and friends. It was a good day, one that I will remember for a long time.   Thanks to everyone, especially Peggy for making my day very special and memorable.  My Dominican friend Daniel taught me this phrase which I have adopted, "I love you all for free."

Recognizing gifts and opportunities

Our friend, Elder Ron Gardiner spoke in Sacrament meeting a few weeks ago. The Gardiners live in our building and he is one of the "Area Legal Counsel". He is also deaf and blind.  Jan and Ron are part of our "family home evening group" but also "part of our family" here in the DR. They left for home March 23rd.
We miss them very much.

Ron spoke about burdens. He said burdens are given to us so we can grow. What do we do with these burdens that are placed upon us? Jesus says come to me, I'll lift your burdens.  The Lord doesn't take burdens away. He teaches us, through our burdens, to be strong and able to carry them ourselves. Sometimes we have to suffer with patience. In October three new apostles were sustained. One of them, Gary Stevenson said he was tormented knowing what a great responsibility he had been called to do. Then he had a distinct impression, "Don't think about what you can't do, but what you can do." We need to focus on what we have, not what we don't have. Elder Devin Durrant said some of the greatest rewards in his life are the result of being asked to do something difficult. 

This picture reminds me of
how the Savior must have been
 with the little children

In John, Chapter 9, Jesus meets a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, "Who sinned? he or his parents?" Jesus answered, "Neither he nor his parents, but that the works of God should be manifest in him". If there was no blind or sick, how could He have manifested His power. Jesus spat on the ground, made mud, anointed the eyes of blind man and sent him to the pool to wash. Why? He made the earth, He made the mountains, He created all things, but chose to anoint with mud, and send the blind man to wash in what was probably a dirty pool. When he returned he could see. He only had to demonstrate his faith. Maybe the man needed help to find the pool. Others perhaps helped him, so he could wash and be healed. Who then, is strengthened? Both the blind man and the server.  Elder David Bednar has said that the Savior suffered not only for sins, but for our afflictions, anguishes, physical pain, fears, disillusions, discouragement, our desperation and the injustices against us. Each of us falls into one of these categories at one time or another.  

It is my belief that we grow as we suffer. Usually, if life is going along very quietly and easily, we are content and we aren't becoming like our Savior. It's when we have challenges, and we strive to conquer them, that we grow the most. Everything that is difficult and we overcome or conquer, helps us to be better, more tolerant, more humble, more like our Savior. Sure, we may be blind like my friend Ron, or paralyzed like another friend of mine. We may not be healed in this life, but we can overcome our disabilities by strengthening our faith in our Savior and learning to do new things and whatever we can to become like Him. Just like all of us have to do. I believe those disabilities can become strengths, like my friends' disabilities have. We all have disabilities. They're just not always physical. Overcoming them is what we are here for. If we have faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and strive everyday to overcome our weaknesses and disabilities, we will be made like Him. I love my Savior and I love my friends that teach me to walk in the light of Jesus Christ through their example.