Kevin here –Sunday, Pueblo Colorado. Thinking about how to approach a fireside presentation for this evening has occupied a lot of thinking time this past week. You don’t really know the audience, their background, their expectations. Oh, you know ‘some’ aspects, but not nearly enough. Plus, I feel obligated to not share the same presentation, time after time. The important key stories are worth repeating, but when in Pueblo, one expects the locals would want to hear specific stories about Pueblo and the people and events there in 1846-47.
Such concerns weigh heavily upon my mind. 3 AM is NOT when I want to wake up thinking about what to say – but, alas, the brain does what it does. (sigh) The body has to follow. Mulling things over in the deark, I decided to dump what I had come up with in favor of speaking more to the condition of being on the frontier of the LDS Church. Not everywhere is like Salt Lake City. There are wards and branches (smaller congregations) who are VERY busy with lots of expectations of them and their leaders.
Such ‘out of the way’ congregations rarely get visited by ‘outsiders’ coming to tell them about their history – which, of course, they know far better than anyone from outside their area. So, at 3 AM, my direction changed.
Sister Mead had asked if we had any suggestions for what songs to sing for the program. “I’ll go where You want me to go” (LDS Hymn 270) is one that particularly seems to fit with the Mormon Battalion story very well. The verses hit the themes of ‘Going, ‘Saying’, and ‘Being’ what God wants of us. It’s about having the humility to put aside our personal preferences in favor of seeking God’s will in our lives, then doing His will despite the cost of our time, talents and anything the Lord has blessed us with. It’s about placing our all upon the altar of obedience to God’s will.
Having grown up in fairly small congregations in Florida where the Church wasn’t strong back in the 1960’s, it was easy to empathize with these ‘frontier’ stalwarts. Men, women and youth who are so involved in Church worship and activities that their congregation really does become an extended family. The ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ greetings are more than superficial. Outside the family, my best friends in life are my Church family. Heaven won’t be much of a heaven unless they are there and we have a grand reunion.
Concluding the talk focused on the themes of ‘Going’, ‘Saying’, and ‘Being.’ The examples of those men and women of 175+ years ago continue to inspire and motivate me – and others – to ‘Be’ the best we can be. That by ‘Going’, ‘Saying’ and ‘Doing’ we not only begin to ‘think Celestial’, but we begin to ‘Act Celestial’ and THAT is what will fit us for His Kingdom.
Adios – Kevin
