Happy Birthday, Wyatt

Dear Wyatt,

Happy Fourteenth Birthday!!   You will be ordained a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood.  You are still a Big Man on Campus.  Everyone wants to be your friend.   You might get to drive in …4 or 5 years!?!     Incredible!!

We would like to have seen you play in your soccer matches this season – both school and league.

Fútbol of course is big in Chile…. Our Church parking/soccer/basketball court is always busy with members and neighborhood boys.

Field by our apartment is always busy...

Report of the game of the Under 17 Chile team and the USA:
FIFA U17:  Chile grabbed a come-from-behind 4-1 victory in Viña Del Mar [near our mission office] against USA, but the win was not enough to secure second place in Group A due to Croatia's own heroics against Nigeria. After Brandon Vazquez had put the USA ahead, Marcelo Allende's first half strike levelled matters before Gabriel Mazuela, Gonzalo Jara and Camilo Moya's second half efforts saw the hosts to their first win of the finals. USA finish fourth, and head home.  With tension rising, and with both sides exchanging attacks, Gonzalo Jara raised the roof off the Estadio Sausalito with a wonderful effort. The No7 cut inside on to his left foot on the edge of the USA penalty area and curled past Will Pulisic in the USA goal. Moya's late goal rubbed salt in the wounds for the USA, and left Richie Williams' side to pack their bags.  For the Chileans, a breathtaking a capella version of the Himno Nacional de Chile rang out in the stadium.

Look at yourself and think of Mormon.  In Mormon 1:2 Mormon at age ten was instructed by Ammaron about the plates.  Then at age eleven the family moved (southward) to the land of Zarahemla (verse 6).

13 But wickedness did prevail upon the face of the whole land, insomuch that the Lord did take away his beloved disciples, and the work of miracles and of healing did cease because of the iniquity of the people.

14 And there were no gifts from the Lord, and the Holy Ghost did not come upon any, because of their wickedness and unbelief.

15 And I, being fifteen years of age and being somewhat of a sober mind, therefore I was visited of the Lord, and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus.

WOW!

Just like Mormon, “thou art a sober child, and art quick to observe” ….

so we share a quote from Neal A. Maxwell.  He was a Seventy then and spoke at a BYU Devotional (Dallin H. Oaks was at the time the President of  BYU).  Ezra Taft Benson was our President and his counselors were Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson.  

                                      We love every one of these Twelve.                                                                                       They were beloved disciples.

Howard W. Hunter, Boyd K. Packer, Marvin J. Ashton, L. Tom Perry, 

David B. Haight, James E. Faust, Neal A. Maxwell, Russell M. Nelson, 

Dallin H. Oaks, M. Russell Ballard, Joseph Wirthlin, Richard G. Scott

Neal A. Maxwell speaking at a BYU Devotional:

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency.  Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. (See 1 Kgs. 18:21.)  

This is a hard doctrine, but it is a particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked.  In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ!

We are now entering a time of incredible ironies.  Let us cite but one of these ironies which is yet in its subtle stages: We will see a maximum, if indirect, effort made to establish irreligion as the state religion.  It is actually a new form of paganism which uses the carefully preserved and cultivated freedoms of western civilization to shrink freedom, even as it rejects the value essence of our rich Judeo-Christian heritage.”

“Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted.  M.J. Sobran also said, ‘A religious conviction is now a second-class conviction, expected to step deferentially to the back of the secular bus, and not to get uppity about it’ (Human Life Review, Summer 1978, pp. 58–59).  This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.  Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive.  Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened.”

“Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost.  Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel.  

There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do.  We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself.  

Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, ‘summer is nigh’ (Matt. 24:32).  Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat!”
“Meeting the Challenges of Today” - BYU Speeches, Neal A. Maxwell Oct 10, 1978
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neal-a-maxwell_meeting-challenges-today/

Witnesses to the World today

John 15:16  ...I have chosen you.

Interesting times you live in….