The arborary world

The world is what we grow it to be. We have all been born into the vineyard where ever we started. Maybe you feel like the tree that you are watching over has had all the branches cut off and new ones grafted on. No matter what shape the tree is in right now, or how many times we are told to move to a different part of the garden and watch another tree, we always have a choice to help or to hurt the tree. 

Sometimes in our lives we see people going around swinging axes without a thought into other people's trees and maybe even their own tree. But as we tend to the branches that we have been given we can always bring about good fruit.

Sometimes we are the trees and sometimes we are the servants. Have faith in the Lord of the garden. He is not lead by ways that will lead to nothing.

We met a family from Tanzania that let us right in. We taught the 17 year old son named Anaklet and his older brother Ragabo. They don't speak much English but luckily we had some spare Swahili pamphlets that we gave them on Wednesday when we went back Anaklet is sooo cool. People from Africa are always super happy and smiley. Hopefully he is able to come to church this Sunday. We ordered several more books of Mormon in Swahili for him and his family but for now he got the app and is reading it. He read the first line of 1 Nefi 1 and told us he likes the book already :-O

I shared a poem in a talk in church so I figured I would share it with all you

GROWTH BEFORE CONSTRUCTION

What would a seed mean to you

If you had never seen a tree
What if you knew
That a small little rock
Could sprout into so much green

Many people carry bricks of sin
Looking to build a house
But home is something
that you find within
Not something you drag about

Along my way
I've picked up bricks
And carried them on my back
Thinking that I
would build a house
And thus gain what I have lacked

I did not know
I had the answer
It was just hidden within
A home doesn't come
From all the weight
Of doubt, of sorrow and sin

I've learned that home takes time
To not only plant but grow
We have to care
And nurture our seeds
Before you can reap you must sow

Then you can build your own cabin
With the bonds your seeds have made
And lay down the logs
Of the faith you have grown
On the foundation that your bricks have made

I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving