serve with might

wonderful thing for Thursday, 15 Jan: Missionaries make a daily study of the manual Preach My Gospel. Right now I'm studying pivotal "doctrine of Christ" scriptures. I've always been intrigued by the account of Ammon and King Lamoni, with its subsequent account of Aaron and the father of King Lamoni (Alma 17-22). There has been an extra amount of time in the last few days to study at leisure (we were homebound again), so I've pondered how the Lord worked in their lives individually to prepare them to teach these important doctrines. I'm quite sure it wasn't just the Lord's promise to King Mosiah that his sons would be protected, that enabled Ammon to be so deadly accurate with the sling and the sword; I think it is the Lord's pattern to work with the talents that we have worked to develop. What talents have I developed that the Lord can utilize in astounding ways? Another thought: Aaron and the others in the party going up to preach the gospel to the Lamanites, went first to apostate Nephites, thinking perhaps to bring them back into the fold, and then to establish a base for preaching to the Lamanites whom they had befriended. They learned the truth that once enlightened and then having chosen to turn away, hard hearts are very difficult to soften again; and "therefore they [the apostate Nephites] did cause the Lamanites that they should harden their hearts" (Alma 21:3). Interestingly, Aaron and the others began to find much success only when they, like Ammon, took the ostensibly riskier route of offering themselves as servants to their brethren the Lamanites. fun thing: oh yeah! a skype session where we got to see the new baby!!! Why isn't there some new technology that lets you hold a new baby?