It was a Nathaniel morning

Yesterday was Stake Conference and the meeting was awesome.  Brother Johnson from the Seventies of the Church came to speak and visit our Stake on Saturday. I had the privilege of singing in a choir with Virgina Walker and feeling my heart lift with  many others in a song about Christ.  OK so if that wasn't great enough I'm in the choir seats on Sunday morning having just sung "Be Still my Soul" (Nate missionary farewell song) I'm thinking about him when Brother Bevan announces that Fabiola Lopez will be speaking!  I couldn't help but think of Nathaniel as a junior high student without close friends and a teacher who calls up and asks if he can be in her choir - where he meets some really great guys and future friends and develops a talent that he uses for years. And I've just sung with her.  In high school I remember him going to different churches to be with his friends and also meeting with friends and the missionaries.  He had a determination to find and be with his friends after his mission.  Faby gave a wonderful talk about her wonderful family and conversion and I heard her perspective - which was fantastic except I'm in the middle of the choir crying with no place to hide.  I'm thinking about the tender mercies of the Lord and how really wonderful it is to be singing these fantastic hymns and listening to Faby talking about Nate and her good friend in high school who joined the church (and by the way she is sealed in the temple of the Lord with 2 children) and really life can't be any greater at that moment.

The learning process

Reading the Book of Mormon to Rachel has enhanced my life as I think about the stories and concepts I've been pondering as I read.  As her Young Women's president (Pam Hosking) was meeting with her last night she asked Rachel to read the Book of Mormon on her own when we were finished.  Today Jeffrey and I were talking about the fact that many missionaries don't know how to teach when they first get out to the field and it takes awhile for them to get used to meeting and sharing ideas in an acceptable fashion with others.
 So today as Rachel was finishing the dishes, I read her two chapters in Helaman, I was far away in a Nephite place when I looked up and realized Rachel was in an entirely different place in her mind.  So I'm gaining something from our time together and she is mentally somewhere else. Whatever our children learn is what they experience and learn on their own.  We can provide a circumstance and references but they will gain, reject, experience, and learn what they decide.  So if Rachel is going to learn and grow from the stories, concepts, and principals taught in this wonderful book she'll need to read it herself - or maybe to someone else.