Japanese and Chinese folk tale

Adapted by Elisa Pearmain from a Japanese and Chinese folk tale

   Long ago there lived an old woman who had a wish. She wished more than anything to
see for herself the difference between heaven and hell. The monks in the temple agreed
to grant her request. They put a blindfold around her eyes, and said, "First you shall
see hell."

   When the blindfold was removed, the old woman was standing at the entrance to a great dining hall. The hall was full of round tables, each piled high with the most delicious foods — meats, vegetables, fruits, breads, and desserts of all kinds! The smells that reached her nose were wonderful.

   The old woman noticed that, in hell, there were people seated around those round tables. She saw that their bodies were thin, and their faces were gaunt, and creased with frustration. Each person held a spoon. The spoons must have been three feet long! They were so long that the people in hell could reach the food on those platters, but they could not get the food back to their mouths. As the old woman watched, she heard their hungry desperate cries. "I've seen enough," she cried. "Please let me see heaven." And so again the blindfold was put around her eyes, and the old woman heard, "Now
you shall see heaven."

   When the blindfold was removed, the old woman was confused. For there she stood again, at the entrance to a great dining hall, filled with round tables piled high with the same lavish feast. And again, she saw that there were people sitting just out of arm's reach of the food with those three-foot long spoons. But as the old woman looked closer, she noticed that the people in heaven were plump and had rosy, happy faces. As she watched, a joyous sound of laughter filled the air.

   The people in heaven were using those long spoons to feed each other.

   We need to be able to rely on each other. We need to serve others, and we need to be able to accept service from others. Every part of the Gospel plan revolves around this--God asks us to ask Him for help; He tells us we cannot make it without the Atonement of Christ; He tells us we cannot make it without help from those around us; He tells us we cannot make it without helping those around us. We are each given special ways to share with those around us, and we are each denied special ways so that we can ask others for help.

   Let us not forget that learning to serve others and have the capability to do so is not the only task we need in order to feast at the Heavenly Banquet. We must also be able to ask for help from others, and receive it gracefully.

-Carson

The time to be happy is now

 My sister is serving a church mission in South Korea and sent this along (how's that for a citation?:D - I have no idea where she found it/heard it/etc). Short, but truly inspired!

The time to be happy is now.

The place to be happy is here.

The way to be happy is to make someone else happy,

And have a little heaven right here.

-Lisa

 

Tucking In Grandma

          My grandma and my uncle Gordon live in a senior center nearby, and I go visit every Sunday night. Most nights I’m there, Uncle Gordon asks if I can get Grandma ready for bed. She always says that I’m probably much too tired and shouldn’t have to stay and help her. I always say I don’t mind, that I’d be happy to help. Then I help pull her out of her chair, set her hands on her walker, and guide her as she shuffles through the bedroom and into the bathroom.
          The first time Uncle Gordon asked if I would get Grandma ready, I definitely minded. I had never helped anyone get ready for bed. Or at least, no one older than five. I frantically called my mom for instructions, then tried to stay calm and do my best. It didn’t help that Grandma was sick and I had to change all her clothes. I helped her clean up and get into her silky red pajamas. I put her black wig on the mannequin head on her dresser. Then she sat on her walker and handed me her teeth. Dentures are plastic and slippery, and I nearly dropped them. But I managed to brush them in warm water and Crest and hand them back to her all minty fresh. And all the while Grandma encouraged and complimented me like I’d been doing this my whole life. That’s just who Grandma is.
          When we were done with her teeth, I helped her over to her bed. We sat on the edge, and I held her hand while I said a prayer out loud that she would feel better and would be able to sleep through the night. Then I pulled the blankets back, tucked her into bed, and kissed her goodnight. It was probably the kindest thing I’ve been able to do for my grandma, and I wanted to go home and cry.
          Helping Grandma get ready for bed has become fairly routine now. Every Sunday night, Gordon and I sing a few hymns together while I play them badly and Grandma smiles like it’s the most beautiful sound she’s ever heard. I don’t know if she can really hear any of it. Then Gordon says, “After this song, will you get Mom ready for bed?” So we play one more hymn, and then Grandma and I slowly make our way to the bathroom.
          Now, as I help her get ready for bed, we talk. I tell her about the car I just bought, she asks about gas mileage. I tell her about the guys I just went out with; she asks which one I like best. She asks about work. We talk about Grandpa. She tells me I’m amazing, and I tell her I got it from her.
          She always tells me I’m amazing. And when I help her, I begin to believe she might just be right—and that I may have inherited more from her than I’d thought.
-Lori

Mothers

Happy Mother's Day 2014!

To commemorate the wonderful women in our lives, I'd like to post a quote that I feel expresses the sentiment perfectly.  This is from a talk given at the BYU Women's conference in 2010 by Dallin H. Oaks.

"The greatest example of service, because it is so unselfish and so expressive of the will of God, is the action of a mother for her children.  In her story, 'The Invisible Woman,' Nicole Johnson likens the mother's role to that those builders made great sacrifices to build a cathedral 'they would never see finished.' Though their individual efforts were 'invisible' to the world, their actions were 'fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.' She likened this to a mother's essentially invisible work with her children.  She wrote that her own invisibility sometimes felt like an 'affliction,' but she wisely observed that this was the 'cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness.' Nicole Johnson concluded: 'As mothers, we are building great cathedrals.  We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, [but] at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women."