BYU Education Week Notes Monday -- Part 2

KNOW THEM THAT LABOR AMONG YOU: THE PRESENT-DAY QUORUM OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES--ELDER NEIL L. ANDERSEN AND ELDER D. TODD CHRISTOFFERSON (MARK D. OGLETREE): We all need heroes to honor and admire; we need people after whom we can pattern our lives.  For us, Christ is the chiefest of these.  Christ is our pattern, our guide, our prototype.  But the apostles to a lesser degree can be our heroes. Those who reject the prophets will be punished.  Who was left to meet the Savior in 3 Nephi!  Those who followed the prophets and stoned them not.  How do we stone prophets today?  If we haven't heard what they've said recently, that's a way of stoning them. We need to know what the modern apostles have said.  These men are in touch with the issues.  They work hard, live humbly.  They are focused on one on one ministry.  We'll start our class talking about Elder Andersen.  He's a businessman, husband, father.  He's the youngest in seniority of our apostles.  He was born August 9, 1951, in Logan, Utah.  Raised on a dairy farm in Pocatello, Idaho.  He served a mission is France in 1970-1972.  He married in 1975, age 23.  Graduated from BYU, 1975, age 23.  Graduated from Harvard, MBA, 177, age 25.  He serves as a mission president, age 38, stake president age 40.  Called to the First Quorum of the Seventy, age 41.  Elder Andersen grew up in a rock solid family that put the Lord first in their life.  He remembers driving 90 miles to church (one way).  Apostles would visit his stake and his family would go up and shake their hands.  He was 5 years old when his family moved to Idaho.  There was hard work from morning until night, often 5:00 AM until 10 PM.  When he was 16 years old he'd only been asleep for an hour when his father woke him up and said a steer had been hit by a truck and they'd need to work quickly to save the meat.  It was 3:00 AM before he went back into the house, showered, and went back to bed.  It felt so good to be clean.  He ran cross country in high school and was involved in school government.  He went to a student government gathering back east and was asked all kinds of questions about the church.  He felt the power of the Lord guiding him as he shared his deep convictions.  He gained respect for his beliefs.  When it came time to serve a mission he wondered how he could serve, but the Lord told him, "You don't know everything, but you know enough."  He worked as a custodian at BYU.  He met his wife Kathy at BYU.  The apostles and prophets shaped his life.  President Hinckley came to BYU to speak at a devotional and told the story of the Asian naval officer that gave up his family and all his opportunities to join the church.  When asked about his sacrifices, he said, "It's true, isn't it?  Then what else matters?"  That story helped Elder Andersen so much.  He knew he needed to be more serious with his studies, his employment, and about getting married.  He says his wife Kathy brought his standards up.  He wanted to be good to be married to her.  After school they moved to Tampa, where his wife was from.  He was called to be a mission president in France, where he'd served as a missionary as a young man.  As busy as he was with his professional work and church work, he made time to be a good father.  He took his children out to breakfast for one on one time.  He played basketball with his sons and listened to his daughters.  They had faithful family home evenings, prayers, and scripture study. Even when mom and dad weren't around, the kids did these activities themselves.  That is a mark of an incredible family.  Sister Andersen says he has deep faith and love for the Savior.  He shows loving kindness and respect.  Elder Andersen says he's spent much of his life trying to become the man his wife always thought he was.  Elder Andersen speaks French, Portuguese, and Spanish.  He paid the price to learn these languages.  To get answers to difficult challenges, he's spent many times praying all night long.  One time he was at a hospital giving someone a blessing and met a lady who had just had cancer surgery, age 26.  He talked to her and became her friend and gave her a blessing.  His wife told about how she made enough copies of the conference talks so that each of their children would have one.  It cost $50 to make all these copies.  She felt sick at the cost but then realized the worth of having these words of the prophets for their family.  If you were to look at the pictures of the apostles, could you name them?  How well do you know them?  Do we follow their counsel?  Elder Andersen has done that in his life.  Do you have general conference marked on your calendar?  How are you preparing for it?  There are great blessings from following the prophets.  Then he started talking about Elder D. Todd Christofferson.  He says some people are incredible from the time they were born.  This is Elder Christofferson.  He was good from day one.  He was born January 24, 1945, in American Fork, Utah.  He earned his bachelor's degree from BYU, Juris Doctorate from Duke University.  He served a mission in Argentina from 1964-1966.  He married Katherine in the Salt Lake Temple in 1968.  He served in the US Army.  When Elder Christofferson was a child, his father was in W.W.II and his grandparents had a big impact on his life. He was obedient and happy and was a great influence on his younger siblings.  When he was 13, his mother underwent cancer surgery.  He gathered his siblings around to pray for their Mom.  Elder Christofferson recounted the story of how after the surgery his mother had a lot of pain using her right arm.  After ironing she would go into her room to cry from pain.  Then his father bought her an ironing machine that worked with a foot pedal which would make ironing easier for her.  He was able to pay cash for this machine because he'd sacrificed eating lunch for a year and had saved up the money.  That was a man!  When Todd was 15 years old, his father took a job in New Jersey and his father got called as a bishop there.  When he was 16 years old he was part of the cast in the Hill Cummorah Pageant.  While in the Sacred Grove, he prayed to receive a testimony.  Nothing happened.  He wondered what was wrong.  A month later he was reading the Book of Mormon and THEN the witness came as a powerful confirmation that left no doubt.  We can't dictate to God when, where or how He will speak to us.  It comes according to His will.  You don't have to make a pilgrimage to Palmyra to get a testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet and you don't have to travel to Jerusalem to gain a testimony that Jesus is the Christ.  Elder Christofferson was a law clerk for the prosecuting attorney at the Watergate hearings.  He had five children, which he took with him wherever he went.  He took children with him home teaching.  One time he was purchasing a home and the buyer made an error in the paperwork which would have allowed him to legally get the property for less money than it was worth, but he chose not to take advantage of the situation.  Even those these man are special witnesses for the Savior, they are still ordinary people like us and have things they struggle with.  Elder Christofferson faced an economic challenge which threatened his family with financial ruin.  He sought the Lord's help, but prayed "Thy will be done."  The Lord gave him peace and reassurance.  He opened the way for him at just the right time.  He's glad there was not a quick solution for his problem, but this situation taught him how to have faith in God and seek help on a daily basis.  He learned to trust the Lord with all his heart.  This happened when he was a stake president.  Sacredness and reverence can be a lost art today.  We need to treat the counsel of prophets with reverence.  We need to dress modestly and treat the body with respect.  When attending church, we need to dress in our Sunday best. Elder Christofferson teaches us how to treat things as sacred to come closer to our Savior and have the Spirit with us. 

THE HUMANITARIAN WORK OF THE CHURCH:  SAVING S AND BUILDING HOPE (GLEN T. EVANS):  He's originally from Kentucky but has lived in Utah and worked for the church for five years. He showed a video of a boy named Zack, 6 years old.  He helped raise funds for a wheelchair for someone in a poor country through a lemonade stand with homemade cookies.  He called it "Zack's Shack."  He earned the $86 to buy the wheelchair and felt GREAT!  The church wheelchair is a wonderful program.  Zack's school raised enough for 12 wheelchairs.  He did another lemonade stand this year and raised enough for ten wheelchairs by himself, helping to advertise it through Facebook.  He came into church headquarters to present his check.  People who heard about Zack donated more money for more wheelchairs.  Zack learned that he could give and make a difference.  Instead of waiting to do a big legacy gift at the end of our lives, we need to do something now.  If a little child can do it, so can we.  As disciples of Jesus Christ, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints need to have Christlike charity and be willing to give.  He showed another video showing church welfare farms and growing crops to help the needy.  It showed scenes from a church cattle ranch in Utah, corn being grown in Utah, potatoes grown in Idaho, grapes in California. We are so blessed and are accountable as stewards over earthly blessings.  Some people spend all their days just trying to find sufficient food and water to survive.  Perhaps they need to learn to wait on the Lord.  We all have stewardships, both the poor and the wealthy.  We come to the earth in different places--of need and of abundance.  The average cost of food for a week in Germany is $500, but only $1.21 in Chad.  The Church has major humanitarian projects that they're working on.  Wheelchairs, clean water, neonatal resuscitation, food production.  Joseph Smith said we should feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, clothe the naked, provide for the widow. He said this during a period of great economic hardship.  Japan tsunami and earthquake update: Priesthood organized under direction of Japan Area Presidency.  YSA used Internet and social media to locate members.  Local members used motor scooters to get through to people in need.  Purchased 10,000 liters of fuel.  Provided 150 tons of food, water, clothing, fuel, and blankets. Sisters missionaries helped in a school. They fasted and prayed and felt peace.   60,000 volunteer hours from 7,000 members.  1,800 members assembled 30,000 hygiene kits and 5,000 cleaning kits.  The church has been doing humanitarian aid for 25 years.  $1.3 billion, 170 countries, partner with more than 1,000 organizations, 100% of all donations go to project, none to overhead. Other current projects are in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, refugee camps. He showed a video on the Sierra Leone Water Project.  Unclean water causes much disease and suffering.  Showed them digging wells and bringing cool, clean water into the villages.  This saves many lives.  One man thanked the church from coming to their aid, saving lives and giving people employment.  More than one billion people lack access to clean water.  The Church helps one million people per year gain access to clean water. The church is just finishing up their largest project for clean water in the DR Congo.  People in one village had been praying for water.  The lines are so long to get water that sometimes the women go very early in the morning and then they are victimized.  One village found a spring 19 miles away and a missionary couple helped engineer getting the water to the village. They dug trenches for three years, 19 miles long through the jungle.  What a different this will make!  This is an answer to prayer.  The Lord has always cared about the poor and He provides ways to help them.  God will not forsake the poor.  Elder Eyeing said "Those pleas have reached Him since He placed men and women on the earth." We need to join with Him in serving others. The church is growing by leaps and bounds in Africa.  There are many faithful members.  One young sells bananas to save money so he can serve a mission. He knows how to work and is willing to sacrifice.  It took him four years of selling bananas before he could afford to go on a mission, at age 20.  A sister from Peru arrived in the MTC in Provo.  She was 6 feet tall.  She always looked down and was very quiet.  They helped her get outfitted in appropriate clothing for missionary work and she lit up and said it was the first time she felt like a woman.  This sister started looking up and knew that she was a daughter of God.  We are not competing with other agencies that do good, but we help to lift others wherever we can.  What can I do to help?  Volunteer at welfare farm or cannery, discover ways to serve your neighbors, volunteer at the Humanitarian Center. You can make a difference!  Get involved in doing something good on a regular basis.  Form a group, start your own projects.  One lady has made 5,000 dresses out of T-shirts.  She says if she promises the Lord she'll do something, she does it.  Spread the word.  We should thank the Lord for the opportunity to help the poor and needy. Marion G. Romney said "There is an interdependence between those who have and those who have not.  The process of giving exalts the poor and humbles the rich, and in the process both are sanctified."  If we make ourselves available to the Lord, He will show us what we can do. Bishop Burton said "We need to be fully invested in caring for each other while we are here on earth."  How many times has your heart been touched as you have witnessed the need of another.  How often have we intended to help them but day to day living interferes? If we see someone carrying a heavy burden, we need to pray for the Spirit to give us eyes to see and then we need to lift up the hands that hang down.  Prayer is not enough.  We need to act!  Charity is the pure love of Christ and it endures forever. 

THE LIFE OF CS LEWIS (SHERRIE MILLS JOHNSON): His father had a temper and complained that he was going to the poor house.  His mother was educated and talented.  She went straight for happiness like experienced travelers go for the best seat in the train.  This was in contrast to the pessimism of his father.  Lewis had a nickname for everyone.  He had a brother who never married and they were very close.  His brother was an alcoholic.  He would be sober for about a year and then go on a drunken binge and go into a coma.  Nuns call Lewis and he'd have to take care of him.  He wrote 7 volumes on the French history.  One of the defining features of Lewis' life was his search for joy.  He later married a woman named Joy.  He actually wrote about his pursuit of Joy before he met his wife Joy.  What joy was to him was a yearning for ecstasy. The center of his life was seeking joy.  He was into Norse mythology.  Little tastes of heaven keep us moving here on earth.  Defining joy he said it was more desirable than any other satisfaction.  He had a greedy impatience to snare this joy.  But it was fleeting and you couldn't hold onto it and force it.  You have to enjoy the moments when they occur and savor them while they last.  He wrote a book "Surprised by Joy."  Lewis loved to read and loved books.  His childhood home was filled with books.  When he was 9, disaster came when his mother died of cancer.  She had surgery in their home and he heard her screams.  All that was tranquil in his life disappeared.  Her death also devastated his father.  His father's father and brother also died within a short period of time.  He didn't know what to do so he shipped his two boys off to boarding school.  This was difficult for Lewis and he never seemed to forgive his father for that. At the boarding school he had to stay with a very cruel man who was later proclaimed as insane.  He whipped and beat the students.  They were not given adequate food or care.  He had prayed fervently to have his mother healed and it never happened so he lost his faith and became an Atheist.  He was big for his age and very clumsy.  He hated sports and thought they were a waste of time.  Participating in athletic games was required but he didn't go.  That made him a target for people making fun of him and caused a great deal of turmoil. More and more he felt like there could not possibly be a God out there.  He became a friend with Arthur Grieves and they corresponded with each other, filling 500 pages of a book.  Lewis wrote his father continually asking him to "get me out of here" because he hated his school.  His father sent him to the same tutor he'd had when he was a boy, Kirkpatrick.  He was a logical man.  As Kirk picked him up at the train station, he said it was a nice country, and Kirk asked him what was so nice about it.  He learned that he had to defend everything he said to Kirk.  Kirk was also a died in the wool Atheist and this increased Lewis' Atheism.  He said all religions were inventions of men.  However, some things began to happen in his life that started to wear down his Atheistic feelings.  One day while waiting for a train he saw a book called "A Fairy Romance."  He read it and was touched by it.  He felt a new quality--holiness.  Joy illuminated all around him.  His feelings begin to change.  He tried to tell the author how his writings had changed his life.  His new life began.  This was the beginning of his trek toward a belief in God.  It was not quick, it was a long journey.  He was accepted at Oxford in 1917.  He had trouble with math and failed the entrance exam.  W.W.I broke out at that time and he enlisted in an officer training program.  When he was released from the army, the requirements of the test were waived.  Otherwise, he would not have gotten into Oxford.  He met the mother of his friend and she became a second mother to him.  He lived with them and he took care of her after his friend (her son) was killed.  Lewis' brother detested this woman and was baffled by their relationship.  At the end of her life she was a miserable, self centered woman but Lewis took care of her and never complained.  During W.W.I he got Trench Fever and then was wounded.  This allowed him to go home and probably what saved his life.  All his close friends were killed in the war.  He wrote a lot of poetry.  After the war, he went back to college at Oxford.  He kept a detailed diary and won scholarship honors.  He was hired as a lecturer.  Then his father got cancer.  In 1929 he returns to Ireland and nurses his father through his last sickness.  He is haunted by how he treated his father for years.  Lewis came to the point where he believes in God but still was not a Christian.  However, he later went on to become converted to Jesus Christ.  He had a hang up about mythology being false, and considered the story of a dying God being revived just a myth. But finally accepted that Christianity was true and the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened.  He finally finds joy.  Now that he's established and teaching at Oxford, he bought a home with his friend's mother.  It was a haven.  His brother moved in there also.  His friend's mother is distressed by his conversion to Christianity and is very unhappy about it.  She didn't like him attending church.  W.W.II came and Lewis felt that Britain needed to come back to Christianity.  He broadcast on the radio, giving the basics of Christianity.  His broadcasts brought him fame even across the ocean in the United States.  His writings were very influential.  He only had 15 minutes to speak in these broadcasts so he had to speak very quickly with no pauses.  He was making a lot of money during this time.  But with all of his royalties, he put 2/3 of his income into the Agape Fund, which supported charitable causes.  He had problems with math so he got into trouble with paying his taxes, but he got a lawyer to help him out.  He met Joy, who was an Atheist and a leader in the Communist Party. She wrote him well written letters and they became pen pals.  After becoming aquatinted through the mail she decided she wanted to meet him so she sailed from America to England.  Lewis was attracted to Joy and invited him to spend Christmas with him.  She was married to an unfaithful husband.  While she was in England, her husband asked for a divorce.  So she flew back to America, divorced her husband, and then came back to England with her two sons.  Cambridge created a position for him and he commuted there.  Joy was told she could no longer stay in England.  Lewis offers to marry her so she can stay in the country.  Then it was discovered that she has cancer.  She went through three surgeries in a month.  He realizes how much he loves her.  He took her home from the hospital to die, but he prayed fervently that she would be healed.  Joy's pain leaves and for several years they have a beautiful, happy marriage.  It is a miracle!  They don't take anything for granted.  They found each other so late in life and really appreciated each other.  After several years, the cancer returned.  They took one last trip to Greece for two weeks.  They came home and Joy died three months later.  Lewis still cares for Joy's two sons.  Lewis went through a deep despair.  He doesn't question God but questions the fairness of God.  He wrote about what we go through when we lose a loved one.  Lewis developed heart problems and cancer and he died in November 1963, the same day and same hour that John F. Kennedy died.  He was a great man, a man who can fuel our discipleship.  He's helped people the world over to be better Christians.