by F. Enzio Busche, who was a member of the First Quorum
of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
when this devotional address was given at
Brigham Young University on May 14, 1996
**********************************************************
I want to share with you a vehicle, an instrument, which I have developed some time ago for myself and for my family. It can assist us to reach our focus as we read the suggested vision of true discipleship as a Latter-day Saint. It helps when we from time to time, ponder and seek identification with the following thoughts:
* Embrace this day with an enthusiastic welcome, no matter how it looks. The covenant with God to which you are true, enables you to become enlightened by him, and nothing is impossible for you.
* When you are physically sick, tired, or in despair, steer your thoughts away from yourself and direct them, in gratitude and love, towards God.
* In your life, there have to be challenges. They will either bring you closer to God and therefore make you stronger, or they can destroy you. But you make the decision of which road you take.
* First and foremost, you are a spirit child of God. If you neglect to feed your spirit, you will reap unhappiness. Don't permit anything to detract you from this awareness.
* You cannot communicate with God unless you have first sacrificed your self-oriented natural man, and have brought yourself into the lower levels of meekness, to become acceptable for the Light of Christ.
* Put all frustrations, hurt feelings, and grumblings into the perspective of your eternal hope. Light will flow into your soul.
* Pause to ponder the suffering Christ felt in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the awareness of the depth of gratitude for him, you appreciate every opportunity to show your love for him by diligently serving in his Church.
* God knows that you are not perfect. As you suffer about your imperfections, he will give you comfort and suggestions of where to improve.
* God knows better than you what you need. He always attempts to speak to you. Listen, and follow the uncomfortable suggestions that he makes to us and everything will fall into its place.
* Avoid any fear like your worst enemy, but magnify your fear about the consequences of sin.
* When you cannot love someone, look into that person's eyes long enough to find the hidden rudiments of the child of God in him.
* Never judge anyone. When you accept this, you will be freed. In the case of your own children or subordinates, where you have the responsibility to judge, help them to become their own judges.
* If someone hurts you so much that your feelings seem to choke you, forgive, and you will be free again.
* Avoid at all cost any pessimistic, negative, or criticizing thoughts. If you cannot cut them out, they will do you harm. On the road toward salvation, let questions arise but never doubts. If something is wrong, God will give you clarity but never doubts.
* Avoid rush and haste and uncontrolled words. Divine light develops in places of peace and quiet. Be aware of that as you enter places of worship.
* Be not so much concerned about what you do, but what you do, do with all your heart, might, and strength. In thoroughness is satisfaction.
* You want to be good and to do good. That is commendable. But the greatest achievement that can be reached in our lives is to be under the complete influence of the Holy Ghost. Then he will teach us what is really good and necessary to do.
* The pain of sacrifice lasts only one moment. It is the fear of the pain of sacrifice that makes you hesitate to do it.
* Be grateful for every opportunity to serve. It helps you more than those you serve.
* And finally, when you are compelled to give up something or when things that are dear to you are withdrawn from you, know that this is your lesson to be learned right now. But know also that, as you are learning this lesson, God wants to give you something better.
I think at this time it seems appropriate to ask the question "Do I really think it's possible for us, as human beings, to be always, in a complete way, under the influence of the Holy Spirit?" My answer is without hesitation, "No, it is not." It is not given to us to live in this world and to be without sin. Created by God in a spiritual body, but living with a body of flesh and bone in this un-exalted and fallen state, we become polluted. We will not always be able to understand and comprehend the sinister plans of the adversary in his fight to destroy us and to make us as miserable as he is. But when we are constantly aware of this fight and we let the Light of Christ help us stand in our responsibilities, we may be able to stay on this narrow path where we will see, with clarity, that we are lost without the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although it is not possible to be perfect as long as we are in this earthly state, we still have to be perfect in keeping the commandments of our covenants. We are assisted in this situation by our living prophets, who suggest to us to have, at least once a year, an interview with our bishop. During this interview we can establish that we are in harmony with the covenants we have made with the living God. When we are in such a way perfected and are eligible to go in his holy house, the temple, we have the promise that Jesus Christ will take upon him the rest and we can rejoice in being cleansed through his redeeming blood every day of our lives. Our soul will sing to the praise of his name, and our hearts will be so full that we cannot be quiet but will share and testify of the reality of this work and the power in it.
Thus, we prepare all the days of our lives, and, as we grow, death loses its sting, hell loses its power, and we look forward to that day with anticipation and joy when he will come in his glory.
Hermanas: Torres and Jensen
Buenos Aires Temple
Rocio and Ayelen (center)
Sept 16 Tenny sent me a dearelder letter and likened the time of a mission to how many Fast Sundays I have left. I liked it--I think I have 13! It is so weird to think of the mission in that way...like how many more; trips to the temple, transfers, interviews with the president, areas, companions... and of course, baptisms. Speaking of BAPTISMS... Rocio and Ayelen were baptized and confirmed this past weekend and it was a really great experience.
The transfer ends on the 28th and there is talk that I might get a mini missionary companion-- which means a 20 year old Argentine woman who would serve with me, but not as a real missionary. In case you were wondering, that prospect scares me to death. Ím so not ready to be senior companion and definitely not ready to more or less train. Holy Cow, Ím hoping for an American senior companion so that I can enjoy 6 blessed weeks of being understood, there is just nothing like being able to default to your native language when you need to resolve something important like who is going to confirm somebody, in what ward, and who is going to fill out all the paper work and to whom they have to be turned in to and stuff like that.
I have the hardest time navigating in this country because there are no mountains. I would give anything to have, like this perfect inner compass that would direct me like the Liahona-- not only to where our appointments are, but to the elect at the same time!
Ím grinning because Air Supply, "Ím all our of love" is playing in the Locutorio here and it reminds me of being in Monticello belting Air Supply with Shauna. I miss her, but I got a letter from her this week!
The people here dońt know what gravy is. But my companion got a packet in a care package from one of her earlier American companions and today we are going to have mashed potatoes and gravy! She is excited to taste it, but I wouldńt be one bit surprised if she doesńt like it... hehe, more for me...
I eat lots of mandarinas (I guess that would be mandarin oranges) and theýre dirt cheap here. I can get about four and a half pounds of mandarinas for a little over a U.S. dollar. Can you believe that?
Ziploc bags are super hard to find here and so expensive! Daddy - VAMOS PUMAS! (Go Cougs!) I cannot even explain how proud I am that we shut out the Bruins (or whatever, my sports lingo is slipping... much to my chagrin) I would have given my Coco Alfajor to have seen that game. I cańt believe that this is the same team that I drove all the was to CA to watch the Cougars lose to last summer. But what matters is that this time we got it done. 59- zip... MAN! That is my team!
We can only listen to hymns, primary songs, and the mission cds. The mission has 3 cds now with EFY (Especially for Youth) songs that have been approved and Motab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir). So about 8 of the 35 albums I have on my ipod are kosher, but it is way better than nothing!
This is funny: when we stop by to teach people instead of saying they have company they say "estoy con gente" which translates to "Ím with people" it just makes me laugh because it sounds so brazen to me, but to them it's nothing. But every time I hear them say this I almost laugh.
We have a new investigator, but this time hés for real! He reminds me of Grandpa Olson and I think he's great. His name is Raul. He looks and talks just like him. He has read the entire Book of Mormon and said that this is the last religion he had to investigate. We contacted him in his yard and he tried to reject us, but my companion persisted and before you know it we were teaching the restoration, we came back two days later, taught again, committed him to come to church the next day, he showed up in a suit with a tie and stayed for all 3 hours and commented in classes. I almost cried during Sacrament. We taught him again the next day and committed him to be baptized on the 18th of October. His wife is depressed and kind of bed-ridden, but wére going back tomorrow and hopefully we will teach her too. He was so ready, he said he knew we were going to ask him to be baptized and he said "yeah, therés no problem with that" meaning getting baptized! Can you believe that? Finally... I can see the vision. I came to find these people. Where are all the Rauls in the world? Ím here to find them! He is so awesome, for our last appointment he was waiting for us in his front yard with the dogs already locked up, the keys in his hand, and the chairs placed in the living room for us! He is incredible and I cannot wait to watch him progress week by week until he is baptized and then continue progressing. He is a doctrinal connoisseur... and reminds me so much of my dear Grandpa Olson. I just know that they will be friends in the eternities! Íll introduce them!
Gotta go, I cańt believe how quickly an hour of internet flies by. Pray for me to always have the Spirit, it is what I want more than anything!
Hermana Jensen
=========
Sept 23, 2008
I was almost run over by a colectivo today… literally, not hit, run over. I was standing in the street right next to the curb because we were going to cross, but then we didn´t. Suddenly my comp said “careful!” and I stepped back up onto the curb and continued backing up onto the sidewalk as I watched a giant colectivo whose back tires jumped the curb and turned right and drove exactly over the place I had just been standing! Wow…
We have transfer meeting next Monday, so you´ll find out in the next email who my new comp is and all that jazz. Please pray for me to accept whatever comes. I sure am!
Raul is amazing! We gave him a March Ensign… the one with Christ and the velum cover and he read the entire thing in 24 hours and even looked up the scripture references! He´s so excited to get his triplet that we already bought him and he´s just going to love the D&C (Doctrine and Covenants), also he was progressing so much that we moved his baptismal date forward a week, so now he´s getting baptized the 11th of October. The Mission President changed the rule about assistance for baptism and now it´s 3 times minimum for everybody (before it was 4 times for individuals and 2 times for families) I´m way happy and hope that we can bring more people to baptism!
I love you and miss you and pray for you every day. Ím glad you all are studying within your companionships every day and I promise you that you will be blessed for doing so!
I love you tons!
Hermana Jensen
