Samuel: Tender Mercies Happen

Oi Família,
I was reading 1 Nephi 1:20 today and was pondering by what it meant by the tender mercies of the Lord. I thought of when I was young and of the memories that I have of the Lord blessing my life. I remember most vividly the times when Dad would on the spur of the moment start to sing REJOICE THE LORD IS KING or REDEEMER OF ISRAEL. I would join him and we would sing all of the verses with the strong, deep voice of Dad singing REJOOOIIICCCCEEEE!!!!! That to me was a tender mercy of the Lord then and now. I thought, the tender mercies of the Lord are individual blessings in our lives-things that touch our hearts in the right place and at the right time. I then read the verse again the part that talks about how the Lord chooses and it is according to their faith. I thought of the scripture that is in Doctrine and Covenants section 121 and verses 34-37. Many are called but few are chosen and why is it that they are not chosen...because they put the things of the world higher than the things of God...because of pride. When we have pride what are we doing--we think that we can do it ourselves and we don´t put God in our lives, rather we take him out and trust in ourselves more than him. After that thought, I had the impression to study the talk that Elder Bednar gave in May of 2005 about the tender mercies of God. I would advise all of you to do the same. It starts on page 99. The key to the tender mercies of the Lord is Obedience. When we are obediente the Lord will bless us and we will receive those special individualized blessings in our lives. In Moses 1:39 it says that the work of the Lord is to bring imortality and eternal life to man. That is his work but what is our work? In D&C 11:20 it says that our work is to obey the commandments with all of our might. Interesting, if we will do our work the Lord will do his. It is all predicated on our obedience. It all takes faith to do that but when we put our trust in the Lord (not have pride) and obey or do his will, we will arrive there at the pearly gates and the Savior will welcome us home. I am so grateful for that special revelation that I received this morning. It was a special motivator for me. I know that God loves me and through obeying him I can bring the tender mercies into the lives of those whom I am teaching the lives of my family and my own life. I love you all.

Elder Thompson

Mom--I did get the card from Kevin on January 4. I need a few things though--I have my Line of Authority in my folder file (where all of my other papers are) if you could make a copy and send it to me as well as a four-generation pedigree chart that is filled out. Thanks- I don´t know what I would do without my mom. She does so much for me and That is the truth.