DAY 85 -- Remembering

In Alma 5, Alma repeatedly asks the question if we have retained in our mind sufficiently, or have we remembered...  As we tackle different things in our quest for being missionaries, I pause to consider what remembering would do, how it would help, how it would make a difference in our journey.  Or would it?

Remembering infers that we recall to our conscious mind lessons, events, experiences, and even revelations.  Since I am even older than dirt, I have a wealth of memories and experiences to remember.  Let me pause and select an event and recall it to my mind and see what happens.

As I dust off the cobwebs in my mind, I "remember" a few experiences I had as a missionary.  (Appropriate since that is where this blog, this dream, and this goal is taking Bonnie and me.) The first I fondly recall, I was sitting with a group of missionaries in the LTM.  (That means Language Training Mission, for us older than dirt people.)  We had just been told that a fellow missionary just received word that his dad was found after being a prisoner of war in Viet Nam.  The feeling was electric.  As the prayer was offered I had a very special experience with my Father in Heaven.  As I pause to remember that, I "almost" re-experience it again.  I can remember those feelings and the concepts and truths I was taught.

Another time when I was in Villahermosa, this experience also involved prayer.  I was asking Father the why's and when's of my mission. It was in my first city with a "lazy" missionary.  Again, as I recall those memories to my mind, I "relive" the lessons I  learned and that whole experience while praying. 

Both of these short experiences bore witness to me of Father's love for me and my circumstances at that time.  As I "remember" experiencing those two memories, bringing them to my mind once again, as well as many others, it gives me strength.  It reminds me of lessons learned.  It gives me the commitment that I can continue onward on this journey, no matter the speed bumps or Lamanites that attack.

Remembering helps us "FEEL" testimony and recommit to the truths we know.  I can see why there are hundreds of times this word is used in the Book of Mormon.  In Alma 5, I can understand why he keeps asking if we have remember sufficiently certain things.  I can accept the importance of remembering.  Perhaps I should take time every day to pause and "REMEMBER."  I guess it is a form of bearing testimony of the things we know and hold so dear.

NOTE:  Today, we are both going to the physician to see if the flesh is capable to let the spirit do what we want to do, serve a mission.