3 families came to our first meetings at the Tacloban 1st ward this morning. Took up two whole rows. What a way to start a Sunday! They stayed for all three meetings, it was awesome. Of course again I wheeled Rudy up hill and down dale and down the highway to get him there in his wheelchair with horns honking behind me lol. Then after those 3 meetings we were off to Marabut which is about 1 1/2 hours away over bumpy roads and pot holes. We take this drive each Sunday. I was the main speaker and decided to give my talk on Either 12:27 in the Book of Mormon and my Mission President Douglas T Snarr from Alaska and his story. I did a condensed version but it is a great an inspiring story. Perhaps I will post the talk after this. While at Marabut I blessed the sacrament in English while the person next to me did it in Tagalog, because I had made some sacrament prayer cards laminated and I made one set in English and the other in Tagalog. They were excited to get the new laminated cards. Then we drove back an 1 1/2 hour drive bringing the missionaries to Tacloban so they could be at the 6pm Area conference broadcast, then we will go immediately after to a meeting with the mission President that usually last about 4 hours, so we should get out about 11pm LOL. Sometimes this kind of schedule can get to be overwhelming,but it wasnt. Know why? Because our investigators showed up and for me at least. That made all the difference. :) I will post my talk now. Some of it is not word for word but just notes,then some of it is exactly how I read it or told it. January 11, 2015 Talk in Marabut Special Sacrament Meeting, I want to tell you a Story about Douglas T Snarr This young man was never able to speak ( he talked like this) He stuttered so badly he could not say his name. Parents took him to doctor after doctor He prayed and prayed. He remembered one summer night when he went up to his girlfriend’s house. Her father came to the door and said, “What do you want, young man?” Douglas explained how he felt at the time: He said“I tried to say what I wanted, but I couldn’t. The words wouldn’t come. The sweat started pouring off my face, and I wanted to say something, but I still couldn’t, so I just stood there. All of a sudden Carol came down the spiral staircase in a beautiful dress and said, ‘Well, Daddy, that’s Douglas Snarr. He’s come to take me out tonight.’ And with those words she took all the pressure off and for that moment the problem was over.” He was so relieved because he didn’t have to speak. On an other occasion Douglas was in a class at a church school and The professor went down the whole list and said, “We’d like to have Douglas Snarr come up and give the opening prayer.”Doug said, “I made my way down, and I stood in front with my head bowed. I wanted to pray, but the words wouldn’t come. I’d have given anything, but they still wouldn’t come. Then the pressure got more intense. The perspiration ran down my face. I could feel it under my arms. The pressure was absolutely intense. Finally the professor got up, came over and stood by me, put his arm around me, and said, ‘I will give the prayer.’ And he gave the prayer. As I made my way back to my seat, no one wanted to look at me because they didn’t want to embarrass me. But it was irresistible; they had to look. He said I felt like a freak. I promise you that I’ll never call on you again.’ The teacher’s comment was worse because it made me feel like a loser. Douglas decided he would try to find a speech correction school. He finally found one, and after he had taken tests, the speech therapist told him, “ You have a severe case of stammering and stuttering.” I guess the teacher didn’t have to be a genius to tell him that!!!!!!!!! The man who conducted the tests said to him, “We really don’t know all that much about stammering and stuttering when the case is as severe as yours. We don’t know what we can really do for you, Doug, but I will tell you this: we can teach you how to live with the problem.” Doug described his reaction: “Something welled up inside of me that made me so mad I could hardly stand it. I didn’t want to live with the problem! I turned to the man and said, ‘You’re no good!’ Then I turned and left. I was heartsick. “I went through school that year, and then one day when I was sitting in a barber chair, I saw a little advertisement in the paper about a man back in Chicago who would guarantee speech correction in a course costing one thousand dollars. (that is about 48 thousand pesos). Some other people told him that the teacher was a fake and that he really couldn’t do anything, and that the course was just a waste of money. He decided he would pay for the course anyway. “When he went back East, I found the school, went in, and was met by a seventy-four-year-old, white-haired man. He said, ‘Your name is Douglas Snarr. When I was your age I had a problem very similar to yours. You can overcome the problem and someday you’ll speak as I am speaking.’He said” I started to cry because somebody had told me I didn’t have to live with the problem I had.” “For the first ten days of that course, we could not say one word. We didn’t say anything for ten days At the end of the ten days, they taught me to move my arm back and forth slowly while saying, “My name is Doug Snarr.’ I want to tell you that I was to be able to speak! I didn’t mind moving my arm because I was finally speaking I was saying something, and it was coming out! We started speaking slowly, but then we picked up pace. I used to go out and sit in the park with a newspaper. There would be drunks and others lying on benches out in the park, but I’d go out and put the newspaper over my arm while reading or talking to myself, with my arm moving back and forth under the paper with every syllable—practicing! “Then, one Sunday about nine weeks later, I had a regression. I didn’t know what to do, so I knelt down. I have prayed most of my life, but this day I really prayed: ‘Dear God, help me to know what to do.’ Then the message came, so I got up, called a taxi, and went down to the LDS chapel. It was too late; church was out; the building was all locked up. In a little note on the front door, the branch president had left his name and address. I went back to the taxi and told the driver to take me to that address. When I arrived, I rang the doorbell, and a man came to the door with his little girl right behind him. Then I said, ‘My-name-is-Doug-Snarr. I’ve-prayed-and-God-has-sent-me-to-you.’ “The little girl went running to her mother and said, ‘Mother, come quick. There’s a crazy man at the door talking to our father.’ (I was eighteen at the time.) You can imagine how I felt. Anyway, the branch president invited me in, we talked for a while, and he said, ‘Go out and send the taxi away. We will take you home tonight. Tomorrow, you pack your things and come and live with us the whole time you are in Chicago.’ “A short time later, this family took me on a trip down to southern Illinois. I was talking to one of the members of the Church down there, waving my arm but carrying on a regular conversation. The woman I was talking to said, ‘You know, Doug, you’ve got a great story to tell. I think you ought to tell it at church.’ Although I said I didn’t think I could do it, she continued, ‘Do it, Douglas. You come and speak to our people. They need to hear it.’” Charity is the pure love of Christ, when you don’t mind being embarrassed, when all you can think about is the good of the people. And so this sweet fellow said, “All right, I’ll speak at your sacrament meeting.” The whole night before his talk, Doug hardly slept at all. Then at the meeting he was just as nervous as he could possibly be until they finally called on him to speak. He stood up, put his arm out, and then he put it down. He gave the whole talk without moving his arm. His problem was solved. If you could hear Douglas Snarr talk today, He has an exciting way of speaking, without the slightest trace of a problem. Miracles do happen. And they can happen in your life. What are your imperfections? What do you need God to help you with? What are two of the things Douglas did? He tried as hard as he could. He never quit which shows faith, And he Prayed. What do the scriptures say about this? Turn to your Book of Mormons Either 12:27 quote Come unto God and he will show you your weaknesses How do you come unto God? You pray. He gives you weaknesses that you may be humble If you humble yourselves and have faith in him, he will make those weak things strong. How do you know if you have faith? If you have faith you will try. Just like Douglas tried. Just like how you are here today, you are showing your faith by trying and the Lord will bless you. Douglas T Snarr became my Mission President in Alaska where I served from 1979 to 1981. I remember him saying to me my name is Douglas T Snarr and T stands for Terrific . So ever y once in a while when I would find my self esteem low I would say My name is Mark F Anderson and F stands for Fantastic lol. He became a professional speaker and toured around the world talking to people. He became a professional speaker. He created an outdoor advertising business. Big signs you see on the road. He took the US government to court because they hurt his company and he spoke in court for himself he represented himself and he won millions in a law suit by defending himself. Humble yourselves and ask him to help make your weaknesses your strengths! You will also feel the hand of the Lord in your life strengthening you and this will bring you closer to him than anything else. Just like Douglas Snarr you do not know yet what you can really do, if you will just have faith, pray and trust in the Lord to help you. What dreams do you have of becoming? Make God a part of those dreams. With God all things are possible. So look at what you feel weakest at. You might find a gift or a treasure so great that could only be found with Gods help. I know that these things are true. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 09:48:35 +0000
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