SOME PEOPLE!!

I just DON'T understand some people! Sean, is a district leader, and he tries SO hard to motivate his quorum to do their home teaching. Our bishop has said that we have the LOWEST percentage in the Church. OUR WARD! How pathetic huh! Hardly anyone does their home teaching. Well Sunday night he sent out, what i thought to be an extremely motivating and inspiring email to the brethren in his quorum and the ones that actually replied were OFFENDED! I just don't understand people who can be offended by truth and scripture. LIKE REALLY! I couldn't find ONE thing wrong with his email and felt like he was motivating and uplifting. I'm just really annoyed right now. My husband (i felt) was very careful to not direct it any any one person (considering the whole ward has low numbers) i guess if you are guilty...but then again... it would have motivated me! like, i got warm fuzzies... and it wasn't even directed at me. Anyways, this is what he wrote, and a reminder, he is their district leader, he is supposed to motivate them, anyways. let me know. do you think he went over the line?


"Brethren I write to you with all the love I have. Not as one who holds keys in directing the priesthood, but as a brother. Jesus commands us to visit His sheep and feed them. He commands us to "visit the house of each member, and exhort them to pray vocally and in secret and attend to all family duties... to watch over the church always, and be with and strengthen them; and see that there is no iniquity in the church, neither hardness with each other, neither lying, backbiting, nor evil speaking" (D&C 20) I love each of you brethren individually and as a whole quorum. There is power in our quorum, a power that lays foundations of worlds, heals the broken hearted, gives sight to the blind and all manner of miracles seen fit to be for the blessing of Israel. I say this to you brethren and to myself. If we do not do our home teaching, we will be ashamed at the bar. I am guilty of not doing my home teaching in the past, though I am not a hypocrite. I have faith in you brethren. I know life is busy, but I know this to be just as true. That is if we put the Lord's work first and we ask Him to help us accomplish our work after we do His, being a righteous desire He will bless us that our work may be accomplished too. This is true, this is not my doctrine, but a witness I have received and I bear it to you. Do the Lord's work first and He will sustain you in your tasks. Know this also brethren "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." (D&C 82) "For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world." (D&C 132) I don't have authority to invoke a blessing upon you, but I have authority to petition the Lord on your behalf. I ask that the Lord bless you that you will remember to do your hometeaching and an opportunity be given you to accomplish that duty. I ask that when you have accomplished your duty He speak peace to your heart and tell you "well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, and I will make you a ruler of many things." (Matthew 25) I want to share a brief story with you before I end this email. My wife is getting ready to have her 3rd major surgery since we have been married. Thanks to home teaching I will be able to call my home teacher on Wednesday or Thursday and he will be able to assist me in giving my wife a blessing. Brethren life is fragile, our days are truly numbered, and I for one have no idea those numbers. I have faith that the Lord's will is best, but to have the opportunity and the privilege to partake of the priesthood is the greatest blessing I will ever receive in this life. I know you will do what is right. I know you will bless our brothers and sisters and "strengthen... the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees." (Isaiah 35) I thank you brethren for being priesthood holders in your homes and being worthy to build up Zion. Zion will be built brethren, and I firmly feel that Zion the city will actually be built in my lifetime. But it will be built upon our backs, the greatest generation yet to live on this world. Be proud of that. Father has called us in this day, where the wiles of Lucifer, our fallen brother, to put on the armor of God and fight the good fight. I won't let you fall brethren, I pray that I will sustain you in your duties. The stripling warriors all lived, though they were wounded severely, they all lived. I desire this for us too brethren, in the spiritual sense. Let us stand as Provo 2nd Ward. When I was in the military I was looking into finding out how to get into BUDS training. That is the training the Navy SEALS do in San Diego. The SEALS never leave a man behind. NEVER! We are the special forces of God. We don't leave a man behind. Why? Because we're honorable, we have integrity, we stay when all others leave, we stand when all others have fallen, we have respect for ourselves, we love our God above all. Picture you are on the front lines my brothers. There is one brother I know of in our "platoon" that has been severely wounded. He just lost his house, he's a single father, his hometeachers DO NOT visit him. All exalted people home taught, but not all home teachers are exalted. What would you do, what would you think if you were in his shoes. "Nobody cares about me, nobody knows what is going on in my life." What other thoughts might he be having. Do you care? Are you too worried about yourself and the home that you actually have? Brethren I know that most of you if not all of you, didn't even know there was a brother of ours wounded in such a way. How many of us are wounded? How many of us are worried about staying alive ourselves? I completely agree with the Savior and think these words are the most beautifully quoted words ever spoken, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15) Let us live as if we knew we had 30 days to live and then we had to stand before our Christ. We do not know when we be called to the other side, age is irrelevant. We will stand at Christ's feet one day as our Father asks for our accounting. The obedient will stand confidently, while the disobedient will be ashamed desiring to leave His presence. The gospel requires that we do hometeaching. In order to be exalted we must live the law of consecration, in order to live the law of consecration we must desire to live it."