Newest lesson is at my blog: http://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2019/02/come-follow-me-matthew-6-7.html

Amulek’s sermon on procrastination[ref]Alma 34[/ref] was mentioned in a letter from a missionary this past week. This made me curious about the use of the term “procrastination” in scripture.

This week’s study in Come, Follow Me also mentions perfection, with helpful exploration of the Greek etymology from then-Elder Nelson. Specifically, the word used in Greek that we translate “be ye therefore perfect” is not speaking of freedom from error, but arrival at a distant goal.

Procrastinating the Day of Our Repentance

There are three times where this wording arises in the Book of Mormon.

1. Alma preaches to the people of Ammonihah (Alma 13):
   27 And now, my brethren, I ^awish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great ^banxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not ^cprocrastinate the day of your repentance;
2. Amulek (of Ammonihah fame) preaches to the Zoramites (Alma 34):
   35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become ^asubjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth ^bseal you his…; 
3. Samuel the Lamanite preaching to the wicked Nephites (Helaman 13) saying:
   38 But behold, your ^adays of probation are past; ye have ^bprocrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure…;

It is noteworthy that each of these pronouncements is to a people who are considered “ripe in iniquity” in the period immediately before disaster. This is not procrastinating on some personal goal such as weight loss or completing a homework assignment.

The people of Ammonihah were sufficiently depraved that the government conducted a mass immolation of a religious group which included women and children. Following this, the Lamanites (entirely unaware of the immolation) attacked Ammonihah and destroyed it.

LDS.org is featuring an inspiring video message from Elder Ucbtdorf, likening the great migrations of earths species to the human yearning for heaven.

My husband came in towards the end, as I was wiping tears from my eyes. Now, my husband is a lovely and faithful individual who likes to see the world through the eyes of those who might disagree. In this case, he commented that this message would bother him if he were an atheist. His hypothetical atheist would comment that the migrations of great species must be based on a genetic code that has been selected because of some survival factor. Thus a yearning for heaven could be seen as simply a random bit of genetic code.

To this, I responded, “What <synonym for narcissistic pedant> would assume that their modern conjecture invalidates the value of such a yearning for the good of humanity? If this yearning is common to so many, why trivialize it?”

To this the husband nodded and said, “Good point.”

I am also pleased to see that it is becoming easier to share and embed Church videos. As a blogger, I have not liked that it has been hard to do this in the past. So aside from giving you a slice of morning banter at the Stout home, I wanted to celebrate the new way Church videos are being made more shareable.

My blog post on this week’s Come Follow Me

https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2019/02/come-follow-me-matthew-5-luke-6.html

We spent a few hours at the Philadelphia Temple yesterday, where a friend and I participated in proxy sealings. Brother Young, a sealer, spoke of his mission in Germany, where his daughter had also served decades later.

The Wall

It so happened that Brother Young had served in Berlin in 1961, as the Berlin Wall was built. His daughter had served in Berlin in 1989, as the Berlin Wall was torn down. Brother Young spoke of a picture they had, of the two of them standing together with other Germans on a fallen segment of the wall.

Yet the presence of the wall, hated as it was by so many, caused one of the miracles of the gospel in Europe.

As I recall being recounted by then-apostle Monson during a DC-area conference, the German Saints were gathered in Berlin on the eve of the planned ban on travel between the Communist-controlled portion of Germany and the Allied-controlled portion of Germany. Those Saints who lived in the Communist-controlled portion of the city and country knew that they would experience severe religious oppression.