3 May 2020

Marjorie and I are thoroughly enjoying our home church meetings.  In my phone conversation with Eli yesterday, I mentioned that if things were normal, it should be fast Sunday, so I had started a fast.  He pointed out that our meeting should be a testimony meeting then.  That hadn't occurred to me.  Accordingly, after the opening hymn, prayer, sacrament hymn, and blessing of the sacrament, I bore my testimony.

It was a testimony of gratitude.  I'm grateful for the tremendously beautiful place in which I live.  I'm grateful for a wife who I love above all else.  I'm grateful for a righteous family.  I'm grateful that I was able to find the gospel while I was still young so that I could be properly married in the temple and could raise my children in the gospel.  I'm grateful for my testimony.  I'm grateful to be able to hold the Priesthood.  I'm grateful for the callings that I've had which have enabled me to serve.  I am grateful for my Savior whose Atonement made my happiness, joy, and future what they are.  I have enjoyed my life, and I owe it all to Him.

Marjorie bore her testimony.  She said that she had been thinking about what effect the restoration of the gospel has had upon her.  She said that because of the Restoration she knows how to receive direction from God.  She knows the purpose of life.  She knows how to receive forgiveness.  She knows what is expected of her.  She knows how to find happiness.  She knows how to change.  She knows how to recognize the promptings of the Spirit, its directions, and the truth that it imparts  She knows how to learn with joy instead of sorrow.  She's grateful that she doesn't have to make all of the mistakes to know that some things are wrong to do.  She is grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We closed our meeting with prayer, and then I read to her from I Have No Greater Joy.  I mentioned in my testimony that any abilities that I have are because of the gospel.  Because of the Church I am able to express myself in writing.  Because of the Church I'm no longer afraid to speak in public.  Because of the Church I have developed the talents that I have.  Because of the Church I have common sense, something that Marjorie says the rest of the world is lacking.

I would rather read my own writings than anything else.  They're hugely inspiring to me.  I've forgotten most of the articles and the thoughts that inspired them.  I'm so grateful that I took the time to write them down, and that I have the ability to express them.  I hope that my family appreciates them, too, because my family is why I wrote them.

Several of my children have expressed the thought that since they're enjoying their home church meetings so much, that their kids are going to have a hard time going back to church.  We're tasting heaven.  I doubt that there will be ward meetings in heaven.  Meetings there, I believe, will be patriarchal, family affairs.