Goodbye to friends

Our friends are leaving, they are off to Chicago. They have only been with the ward for 8 months, but it feels like much longer. He lost his local job, and found a new one out there, so we gave them a farewell dinner tonight... The Spirit of our ward is something that all those who visit feel right away. Despite their short stay in our area, I know we will remain friends.

It is amazing for me to review the time I have been with the Church. Throughout, I have always been a member of the same ward. Now we are heading towards a zoning change, which may mean that our wonderful, warm, "feels like a family" ward may be disbanded... We will know more next week. If they did decide to make my town part of a different ward, I hope I can get called again to teach Gospel Doctrine. I have enjoyed it so much, it would be a shame to stop.

Lessons in Love: Let the spirit guide you through patience.

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My first step towards endowment

Got my initial Temple recommend from the Bishop yesterday. It was a big deal! I am very excited to be on my way to the temple. I know I still need to get the stake presidency to approve it, but I believe it will be OK.
I have been waiting for this for a long time, so now that it's here I am very happy.

The lesson I gave on Sunday was very challenging, but I still managed to get through it reasonably well. My PPT was going while I was trying to figure out how to connect each slide to the next... I did find some interesting things in the book of Hosea, specifically 2:16, with the play on the various ways to say "husband" in Hebrew: Ishi (אישי) = "my man", vs. Baali (בעלי) = "my master / owner". To me this implied a certain raising of the level of the woman depicted in the scripture, as well as the symbolism to the ability to raise even the unfaithful Israel...

I will be posting the entire lesson on my GD website: www.tudtuu.info.

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Amazing Book: A true life changer!

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge

From Publishers Weekly

For years the doctrine of neuroscientists has been that the brain is a machine: break a part and you lose that function permanently. But more and more evidence is turning up to show that the brain can rewire itself, even in the face of catastrophic trauma: essentially, the functions of the brain can be strengthened just like a weak muscle. Scientists have taught a woman with damaged inner ears, who for five years had had "a sense of perpetual falling," to regain her sense of balance with a sensor on her tongue, and a stroke victim to recover the ability to walk although 97% of the nerves from the cerebral cortex to the spine were destroyed. With detailed case studies reminiscent of Oliver Sachs, combined with extensive interviews with lead researchers, Doidge, a research psychiatrist and psychoanalyst at Columbia and the University of Toronto, slowly turns everything we thought we knew about the brain upside down. He is, perhaps, overenthusiastic about the possibilities, believing that this new science can fix every neurological problem, from learning disabilities to blindness. But Doidge writes interestingly and engagingly about some of the least understood marvels of the brain. (Mar. 19)

Joke

Three old ladies are walking down the road.

The first one says, holding on to her hat: "My, it's windy... "

The second one answers : "No, it's Thursday... "

To this the third one responds: "Yes, so am I. Let's go get a drink. "

[brought to you by OPL ]

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