Emotional Resilience
Last week we began teaching the principles from the Emotional Resilience Self Reliance manual. Having worked in the rubber industry prior to our mission, resilience has another meaning to Elder Betteridge. As an elastomer, a functional property of rubber is that it is resilient, in other words it bounces back to its resting state when stressed (e.g. pulled or compressed). Sometimes our lives get stressed which produces an emotional response in us. Practicing principles of emotional resilience helps us to recover from the stresses of our life. This self reliance module teaches us how to cope and respond to these stresses in our lives and the emotional state that results. One of our favorite quotes this week was from our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson:
“We can feel joy even while having a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad year! My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation … and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy”.
The foundational principle of emotional resilience is exercising faith in Jesus Christ. Our ability to cope with our emotions comes from the power we can receive from the Savior's atoning sacrifice, which can only be accessed by believing in Him and what He has done for us.
What we learned Thursday morning at Freeman's Park
We will often go on a walk / run around Freeman's park adjacent Jesmond Dene by our flat. Along this path is the pond that the model boaters use. We remembered seeing several people feeding the ducks on this pond. Since we had some extra bread, we brought it along to feed the ducks. Have you ever fed ducks? --throw a couple crumbs upon the water at a few ducks and the word gets out fast and then a veritable flock descends upon you in a matter of seconds. It was truly a joyful moment to feed them these small nuggets of bread and to see their enthusiasm as they received it.
Now there are several ways you can take this story from here. Here are some thoughts... Do we receive manna from our Heavenly Father as eagerly as these feathered friends received the bread from us? Do you think that Heavenly Father has immense joy when we receive His doctrine and covenants ?
We continued on our walk and were then greeted with the most amazing view of a water fall in the garden dene below us. Receiving the living water from our Heavenly Father was the first thing that came to our minds-- it is bountiful and ever flowing to nourish and heal us. Let us receive eagerly and enthusiastically the beautiful blessings of the Savior's Atonement in our lives.
A Cousin Miracle
Two weeks ago in our blog post "Inspired Discovery", we mentioned discovering one of Elder Betteridge's third cousins that lives right here in Newcastle. Well, we finally met him in person! His name is Tony Brown, born a Coulson. Through situations in his family he was raised by a man who had married his mother (after she divorced his birth father by last name of Coulson) and his mother and he then took on the Brown name. When he was 16 years old his parents told him that he was not a Brown by birth, but really a Coulson. This inspired within him a desire to learn about his birth father and his paternal ancestors which led him to registering with FamilySearch.org, which then triggered an email to me and my reaching out to him. I had known that 3 of my great granduncles had settled in the Newcastle area and had been praying some way to connect with them. As you can see these prayers were answered!
Tony had spent a good part of his life working on oil rigs in the North Sea and has one son and two granddaughters. It was fun to have him show us pictures of his family and see the love he has for his posterity. We know not everyone has family around them but when we discover these living connections given to us by our ancestors-- it really is a joyful reunion. We agreed that we shared a resemblance. What do you think ? (Tony is 10 years older than Elder Betteridge).
Amble Group Meeting in Masonic Hall
The northern most branch of the church in England, called the Alnwick Branch (home to Harry Potter's castle) has a small group of saints living in a town called Amble. Though the Alwnick branch meeting house is only 30 minutes away by car from the saints in this town of Amble, most of them do not have cars and the public transportation does not provide practical links from Amble to Alnwick, so they do not attend the normally scheduled Alnwick branch meetings regularly. As a result, the branch president received permission to start a 'group' in Amble. They will hold a second Sacrament Meeting in Amble on the third Sunday of every month, renting the local masonic lodge for a couple hours. It was fun to meet with this small wonderful group of saints for their first group meeting today in the 1874-built Masonic lodge.
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