10-18-10 "wiki, wiki, WISDOM"

I have been thinking since Wednesday what I was going to say in this e-mail, trying to come up with the perfect way to share the news, but then I got the box from Mom on Saturday and since then I haven't had to wonder how to tell y'all since you already know, apparently. But, yes, it's official. I will be home in December 1st. I loved the descriptions of various reactions to the news. I hope people in Rexburg can still hear. And I hope Eli can contain just a little bit of his excitement so I can see some of it, too. But shame on you for your bad textiquette. I have a reputation to uphold as an English major. Actually, when I found out myself, it quite frankly caused me some severe insomnia for two nights in a row, I was so anxious to tell you, but you probably found out the same day I did, so I lost sleep for nothing. I've caught up, however, so no worries in that department.

Now, other than that we had a pretty good week followed by a fabulous session of stake conference on Sunday. That is the third stake conference I've been to in six months, and while I don't want to say it was the best, it probably was. The visiting general authority was Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Both he and his wife shared lovely and inspiring talks. Hers was about not judging others. She told this story. Their house is up in the hills or the mountains somewhere, not just in a regular neighborhood. They had a neighbor who moved in and started playing music very loudly and put his horses in his front yard behind an unsightly fence and always had not the best looking kinds of characters coming over. Every time she would drive past the house, she would comment to her kids about how disgraceful/shameful/sad/etc. it was to have that in the neighborhood. Eventually, she was called to go visit this man because, unbeknownst to her, he was a less-active member of the church and a quadrapalegic. She had to go visit him because he'd been without food or care for over a day and she was the closest member of the Relief Society presidency to his house. She made up a plate of food and went to help him. He told her that she probably didn't like how loud he played his music, but it was one of the few things he could enjoy from his wheelchair. And he also loves horses, but he can't see them when they are in his backyard, so he had to put them in the front. Plus, it's hard to find good help so he had to take what he could get. I thought it was a beautiful story with an important lesson. She also used an analogy she got from Elder Maxwell. Life is like watching the Olympic diving competition. To the untrained eye, they all look good, but we don't know the degree of difficulty of certain dives, so we shouldn't think we are capable of judging others by their choices and experiences. Only Christ will be the judge because only He understands all the factors, the degree of difficulty of each life. That was such a comforting truth to learn. Often because of my pride I think Heavenly Father will condemn me for not being as strong or as good or as righteous as others, or I think that my life circumstances and experiences make it unfair for me to be judged by the same standards a others, but I guess I need to believe more strongly that Christ really is totally just and merciful. He knows the degree of difficulty of each of our lives and will bless and reward us accordingly.

Elder Jensen's talk was equally good. He shared three ways that we can come to know things--scripturally based ways of having knowledge. We can judge things by their fruits to know if they are good. This is the method of observation. We can experiment upon the word, come to know by doing. Or we can have truth revealed to us by the power of the Holy Ghost. As an example for the last point, he told about being a young missionary in Germany. He had a bold companion, but he himself didn't feel he knew the language at all or had a super strong testimony of the gospel. After working in one town for several months, the local Lutheran minister advertised a meeting about "the Mormons," which his companion decided they should attend. The minister stated that the Mormons have a book other than the Bible and Joseph Smith instead of Martin Luther, so no one needed to bother with them. They are just nice American boys. He then asked if anyone else had anything to say about the Mormons, so the companion got up and said, "Yes, we have the Book of Mormon, but we also love the Bible. Yes, we have Joseph Smith but we also believe Martin Luther to be inspired. What he started Joseph Smith finished." And then he invited Elder Jensen to speak. He said up to that point, he'd tried to be cautious and not say "I know/Ich weiss" about things he didn't really feel like he knew. But in this moment he had to say something so he "ventured into the dark," as he put it, and said, "I know" about the Church and the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and the Savior--all of it. And in that moment, the Holy Ghost told him, and he DID know. It was so powerful. He said, "I've staked my life on it." Such a pure, powerful testimony.

That got me thinking about knowledge and wisdom. What is the difference betwee the two? I spent my whole personal study this morning pondering it. So far it feels like I've learned that knowledge is something you learn after the fact, after the experience. Your conclusions or truths or observations you draw from whatever it was. But wisdom is the application of that knowledge before the experience. Knowledge means putting on your hindsight and reflecting on what happened, but wisdom means having clear foresight that you use while you are learning and experiencing and experimenting. Sometimes you don't even have to experience things to have wisdom; Heavenly Father can just reveal it to you. All the commandments are that way. Heavenly Father tells you how to act so you can avoid having to put on your hindsight knowledge goggles for things that He would rather you just avoid altogether. Think about it: the word of wisdom tells us how to act and what to avoid to keep our bodies and minds healthy and receptive to the Spirit. And He gave that wisdom through His prophet before anyone learned it by experimentation and observation. Or Joseph Smith's experience. "If any of you lack wisdom (or the knowledge of how to act, say, what church to join), let him ask of God." And the great thing about revealed wisdom, is that we can still experiment upon it so that it becomes both knowledge and wisdom to us, but after a while of doing this, our faith that God's wisdom is pure wisdom will become stronger and stronger, so we will be more and more willing to venture into the dark because we KNOW that the marvelous light of God will be there eventually, no matter what happens during the experimenting phase. After all, He "giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not."

Phew. I just really liked those insights and wanted to share them with someone, maybe selfishly so they will remain with me more strongly. Anyway, we also went to the temple this week, and got transfer calls on Saturday night. We are both staying in the area, so Sister Schlauder will be my last companion and this will be my final area. Weird to finally know that for certain. I can really feel the loose ends starting to tie themselves up, but I'm glad I still have these next six weeks to work and be a full-time servant of the Lord. I suppose I'm starting to put on my hindsight knowledge goggles a little, pondering the lessons I've gleaned along the way so that I will have faith and wisdom for the future. I'll keep you posted on what I come up with.

It sounds like everyone is having a great Idaho autumn. Eli's birthday party sounds really fun, and I can't tell if Cassidy has purple hair in that picture or not. As long as it's not an honor code violation at BYU-Idaho, I bet it looks fabulous. As for the other picture, it cracks me up, but I'm not 100% sure the thought occurred to them that if they really were farming pot, that would be illegal, so they shouldn't advertise it. Maybe it's affiliated with the Psychadelicatessen, which is modeled after the Partridge family bus, featuring one of TV's favorite moms, Shirley Jones, but not TV's favorite mom, June Cleaver, who I am glad you told me passed away but also slightly sad to hear. Who'll keep the Beaver in line now? And who will listen to Eddie Haskell's smooth talking lies? I'm sure someone will take the opportunity, but who?

Love and Shining,

Sister Whitney Sorensen