It's Up to Us, New York, New York

 For the first time in I don't know how many years, January 25th came and went without our hosting a Burns' Supper. For the uninitiated, Robert Burns, the poet laureate of Scotland, was born January 25, 1759. He is celebrated anywhere a group of Scots can gather, but especially in Scotland. It is a day-long celebration now, and ends with a Burns' Supper where Scottish fare is served, toasts to the laddies and lassies, and a recitation of Burns' poem "Address to a Haggis" is mandatory prior to consuming the meal. I have quoted it enough over the past 45+ years to have it down by heart. No such celebration this year. Except that, we told the elders in our district about it, so Olivia made trifle and we took it with us to our district council meeting. We arrived a little early, so they could enjoy it as dessert for their lunch. I wore my Harris Tweed jacket and Anderson tartan tie and, with a kitchen knife, cut it as if it were the haggis, while reciting the famo...

 From Elder D. Todd Christopherson's last General Conference talk:  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its early beginnings was made up largely of white North American and northern European Saints with a relative handful of Native Americans, African Americans, and Pacific Islanders. Now, eight years away from the 200th anniversary of its founding, the Church has greatly increased in numbers and diversity in North America and even more so in the rest of the world. As the long-prophesied latter-day gathering of the Lord’s covenant people gains momentum, the Church will truly be composed of members from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. 1  This is not a calculated or forced diversity but a naturally occurring phenomenon that we would expect, recognizing that the gospel net gathers from every nation and every people. This was certainly obvious on Sunday when we were invited to speak in Sacrament Meeting and Ward Council in the Jamaica 1st Ward. The Re...

 I have observed almost since arriving in New York, that this place is a fulfillment of the Lord's injunction to go to all nations, teaching and baptizing. This week we saw more evidence of that. I will discuss the context for the meetings we were in later, but these are so fascinating, I put them in first. We were invited to participate and assist in an employment workshop in Brooklyn. As we entered the church, we were greeted by several people. One of them was a man who was quite hard to understand, but said his name was George.  Sister Austin, one of the stake Self Reliance specialists, helping George George was anxious to show us his temple recommend. He was baptized less than a month ago and had been to the temple for the first time. Olivia sat with him for a few minutes and got his conversion story. George is from Pakistan where he was a college professor. Of course, here he has no credentials, so he came for help in his job search. Because his English is not good, when ...