Critical Thinking Skills

            Parents and teachers can strengthen families, communities, and nations by teaching critical thinking skills to the rising generation. There are evil combinations in the world who are indoctrinating children, youth, and young adults in socialism and other evils. They are doing this by dumbing down education and replacing important skills and knowledge. They prefer that no one thinks critically about what they are teaching but merely do as they are told.

            It is important that all people use critical thinking skills to protect their agency and freedoms. I tend to believe whatever I am told – or at least I once did – and have been learning to think more critically. Therefore, I was quite interested when I saw a chart with the following information on it. I do not know the original author, but it may be Global Digital Citizen Foundation. You can obtain a copy of it at this site. 

The Ultimate Cheatsheet for Critical Thinking

Do you want to exercise critical thinking skills?

Ask these questions whenever you discover or discuss new information.

These are broad and versatile questions that have limitless application.

WHO              …benefits from this?                                          …have you also heard discuss this?

                                …is this harmful to?                                           …would be the best person to consult?

                                …makes decisions about this?                         …will be the key people in this?

                                …is most directly affected?                              …deserves recognition for this?

WHAT           …are the strengths/weaknesses?                      …is the best/worst case scenario?

                                …is another perspective?                                   …is most/least important?

                                …is another aftermath?                                     ...can we do to make a positive change?

                                …would be a counter-argument?                     …is getting in the way of our action?

WHERE         …would we see this in the real world?          …can we get more information?

                        …are there similar concepts/situations?         …do we go for help with this?

                                …is there the most need for this?                     …will this idea take us?

                                …in the world would this be a problem?         …are the areas for improvement?

WHEN           ...is this acceptable/unacceptable?                   …will we know we’ve succeeded?

                                …would this benefit our society?                     …has this played a part in our history?

                                …would this cause a problem?                         …can we expect this to change?

                                …is the best time to take action?                     …should we ask for help with this?

WHY                  …is this a problem/challenge?                          …should people know about this?

                                …is it relevant to me/others?                            …has it been this way for so long?

                                …is this the best/worst scenario?                      …have we allowed this to happen?

                                …are people influenced by this?                      …is there a need for this today?

HOW                  …is this similar to____?                                     …does this benefit us/others?

                                …does this disrupt things?                                 …does this harm us/others?

                                …do we know the truth about this?                 …do we see this in the future?

                                …will we approach this safely?                        …can we change this for our good?

            These are all good questions that we should be asking whenever faced with a question, problem, or situation. By teaching critical thinking skills, we can strengthen families, communities, and nations.

Illegal Immigrants and Religious Freedom

            The liberty principle for today concerns illegal immigrants and freedom of religion. Although the two topics do not seem to go together, they are some of the subjects that will be discussed at a gathering of religious leaders and government officials in Washington, D.C. this week.

            There seems to be people who believe that Christians in the United States are not living their religion if they are opposed to illegal immigration. They believe that Christians are to be obedient to the commandment to “Love thy neighbor as thy self.” Representative Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) spoke at a prayer service for Christians in the Middle East on Monday. “As we recognize our responsibility to protect Christians around the world, I hope we will look at opportunities to protect Christians in our bordering countries.” 

            Somehow, I missed the information that protecting the sovereignty of our nation prohibited Christians from practicing their religion. As far as I know, the United States is not telling anyone how to live or not live their religion. We are merely telling them to recognize and obey the laws of our nation.

            Even though Jews, Catholics, and other religious groups are protesting conditions at the border, U.S. government officials are not likely to approach the question of whether tougher immigration laws are counterproductive to the nation’s efforts to focus on conflict overseas that are related to religion. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that he is trying to help people to stay in their own countries.

Our approach for Christians in the Middle East and for other people who are being religiously persecuted around the world… is to try to create the conditions inside their own countries so that they can have that religious freedom.

            The Trump administration’s new asylum policies make it tougher for people to claim asylum in the United States. These policies, plus a reduction in the number of refugees accepted, means that the United States does not intend to accept all people who wants or needs to come to America.

            I believe that it is far past time for the United States to stop taking people in every time that there is a problem in their home country. Even though we are a Christian nation, we cannot save the entire world. We do not have room within the boundaries of the United States to welcome all people who want to come here. We need to find ways to help them to prosper in their own nations.

Thoughts Are Either Positive or Negative Energy

            Several times in the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ talks about how “many of the rising generation” fall away from the Church because “they did not believe in the traditions of their fathers” (Mosiah 26:1). Too many of the young people who grew up with my children have also left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or have become inactive in it.

            I have often wondered what makes the difference. Why do some of the rising generation fall away and others do not? The reasons for the falling away may be as numerous as the young people who have fallen away, but it is not a new problem as confirmed by the scriptures. Young people have been falling away from the truth from the time that Cain killed Abel and continued throughout the Bible and Book of Mormon and into our day.

            The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognized the problem more than one hundred years ago. In 1915 The First Presidency [while Joseph F. Smith was the prophet] first began encouraging parents in the Church to hold a “Family Home Evening.” Families were encouraged to spend time together with prayer, music, and instruction in the gospel.

            In 1970 President Joseph Fielding Smith, son of Joseph F. Smith, asked families to set aside every Monday evening as the preferred time to hold Family Home Evening. He also asked local units of the Church to keep Monday evenings clear of other Church-related activities.

            In the October 2002 General Conference President Gordon B. Hinckley asked school officials and other people in the community to keep Monday evening free of activities in order that members could more easily hold Family Home Evening. The Church policy continues to be that Monday evenings are set apart as family time. However, the Church recognizes that more needs to done to keep the rising generation close.

            In 2019 the Church instituted the “Come, Follow Me” program for individuals and families to use in studying the gospel. In 2020 it will institute a new program called Children and Youth that will replace the Personal Progress Program for young women and Boy Scouts for young men. It recognizes that gospel instruction must be centered in the home with support from the Church leaders and teachers.

            I realized that something had to be done and recognized that the Church was changing policies and programs in order to support the family. However, I still had a difficult time understanding how people could grow up as active members of the Church and then just drop Church activity by the wayside. Today I read an article that helps me to better understand how they could reach that point.

            The article by Bill Turnbull is titled “Insights from a Renowned Psychologist That Could Transform YourRelationship with the Church.” He teaches about the “Gottman Ratio” and uses it to compare members of the Church to spouses in a marriage. 

            John Gottman, a famous psychologist, and his team completed some long-term studies during the 1980s and 1990s with thousands of couples. They found some interesting happenings.

In healthy, happy relationships there was a pattern of at least five positive interactions to each negative interaction. Interactions can include everything from conversations to simple remarks and gestures. This 5:1 ratio came to be known as the “Magic Ratio.”

Relationships in which the Gottman Ratio fell below 1:1 had become toxic and usually ended in divorce.

            Turnbull says that many of us enter marriage with false ideas about our spouse-to-be. We fall in love with an idea rather than a real person. We start to see the real person after we are married, and they fall far short of our expectations. They insist on being themselves rather than what we expected. We stop saying all the nice things that we once said and start nit-picking at them. We do not recognize that it was our expectations that were wrong rather than our partner. We can see only the faults of our spouse, and we might start keeping lists as proof of how bad they are. Turnbull connects the Gottman Ratio to people who are leaving the Church.

I know more than a few people who have fallen out of love with the church. In one way or another, it somehow fell short of their ideals and their expectations. There turned out to be lots of problems. It was hard. Over time, it started feeling like a bad relationship, [and] some of them have even made lists (actual or mental) of these problems. When they think of the church, their minds don’t naturally go to its positive aspects, but instead seemingly always go to that “list” – the stuff that needs fixing before they can give their heart to it.

            I recognized immediately what Turnbull was saying about thoughts. A few years ago I went through a personal improvement project, and I recognized that I was doing a lot of “murmuring” against my husband. The more that I murmured, the angrier I became. It seemed that I was always angry with my husband and that he could do nothing right. Gradually over a period of about three months, I was able to recognize when I was starting to murmur and was able to stop it quickly. I would tell myself, “You are murmuring again!” As I murmured less, I felt angry less often and was able to treat my husband more lovingly. I know that our thoughts have power! Turnbull continues by explaining that the same thing can happen in our relationship with the Church.

At some point in the lives of my disaffected friends, “the church” became something to be examined and critiqued. At some point it ceased to feel like a relationship that needed to be nourished. At some point they had been hurt or disappointed (or just plain bored) and decided it wasn’t worth investing in the relationship anymore….

The important thing to remember is that we are responsible for the “energy” that we bring to our relationships – including our relationship to the church. We need to realize that thoughts are energy. When we think a thought, we are quite literally creating new energy in the world. Thoughts are real things and have real effects. Think how the energy of a thought (positive or negative) can rapidly cascade through the systems of the body. That same energy can be transmitted to others. In that sense, our communications (words and gestures) are also forms of new energy that ripple out and have real effects in the world….

So it’s well worth asking: What is our Gottman Ratio with the church – both with the larger institution and with our local ward community? What is the ratio of generous and hopeful thoughts and comments vs. critical or cynical thoughts and comments?

If that ratio is at least 5:1, the “magic ratio,” Gottman says we are cultivating a healthy relationship and there is great happiness and growth to be found. If it dips toward 1:1 or below, we are in the toxic zone. The relationship is in trouble and both parties in the relationship will be the worse for it.

            This does not mean that we ignore problems and live in denial of them. It simply means that we need to look for the positive in our spouse or the Church and stop seeking out the negative. There is no perfect spouse, and there is no perfect member of the Church. We all have our weaknesses and strengths, and we all need each other to become the best that we can be.

            Parents and other adults can feed negative or positive “energy” to the rising generation. If children and youth live with parents who are finding fault with the Brethren, local priesthood leaders, teachers, or policies, they are putting toxic thoughts into the heads of the rising generation. On the other hand, children and youth can be taught to love and support Church leaders and policies and to become truly converted to the Lord and His Church. We can help them by making sure that our Gottman Ratio with the Church is 5:1. We must remember that “thoughts are energy” and bring only positive thoughts and energy into our homes, classes, and Church community. We may be able to hold onto more members of the rising generation by teaching and training them with positive thoughts and energy.

Trump and the Squad

            President Donald Trump is in trouble with the Leftists again, and they are condemning him. However, his Republican support has increased mildly. The President tweeted the following on Sunday, July 14, 2019. 

So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at) now loudly…

…and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most power Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how….

…it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements.

            Democrats are loudly proclaiming that Trump is a racist for his tweets, but I do not see any mention of race in any of the tweets. I cannot see anything wrong with what he said – other than the fact that some of the squad members were born in the United States. However, Trump was not finished.

So sad to see the Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country and who, in addition, hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion. Whenever confronted, they call their adversaries, including Nancy Pelosi, “RACIST.” Their disgusting language….

… and the many terrible things they say about the United States must not be allowed to go unchallenged. If the Democrat Party wants to continue to condone such disgraceful behavior, then we look even more forward to seeing you at the ballot box in 2020!

            The Democrats took Trump’s tweets and tried to destroy him with them, but they seem to be destroying themselves. Do you think that this is Trump’s plan? The Democrats are certainly looking silly in their attempt to take Trump down, but the Democrat-majority House does have a lot of power.

            On Tuesday July 16, 2019, Democrat members of the House fell all over themselves in an attempt to pass a resolution condemning Trump’s controversial comments aimed at the four freshman congressman. The resolution passed, but Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made a real fool of herself when she began breaking House rules to get it passed. 

            Later Representative Al Green introduced Articles of Impeachment against President Trump. He hopes to force a vote on it later this week. He introduced impeachment articles because Trump “brought the high office of the President of the United States contempt, ridicule, disgrace and disrepute; has sown seeds of discord among the people of the United States.” 

            We are sure to hear more from the likes of crazy Maxine Waters and members of the squad – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashid Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar. However, they all might have to explain how bringing “contempt, ridicule, disgrace and disrepute” to Office of the President can meet the requirements set forth in the Constitution for impeachment.

            Article 2 Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution clearly states the reasons for impeachment: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” 

            A simple majority vote in the U.S. House of Representatives is all that is needed to impeach, so it is possible for the Democrats there to vote to impeach Donald Trump. However, they will have to answer to why they think he has committed “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

The charge of high crimes and misdemeanors covers allegations of misconduct by officials, such as perjury of oath, abuse of authority, bribery, intimidation, misuse of assets, failure to supervise, dereliction of duty, unbecoming conduct, refusal to obey a lawful order, chronic intoxication, and tax evasion. 

            I guess that Democrats could claim that Trump behaved badly, but I believe it would be a stretch to do so. I hope that American citizens would see through their efforts and reward them by voting them out of office. A vote for impeachment does not remove a President from office. Bill Clinton was impeached by the House for lying under oath, but he was not removed from office. It takes a super majority of two-thirds votes in the Senate to remove a President from office. No one in their right mind thinks that the Republican-majority Senate will remove Trump for office.

            So the question goes back to Trump’s purpose for the tweets. Was he just trolling when he suggested that anyone that hates the United States could go back to where they come from? Was he trying to stir up more Trump mania to show how truly foolish the Democrats are? So far Trump has been running circles around the Democrats and keeping them off balance. What will happen now?

Jennifer Zeng

            My VIP for this week is Jennifer Zeng who grew up in Communist China. She admired the Communist Party and adhered to its strict rules until she embraced religion and join Falun Gong. She was arrested four different times as a young adult and was a prisoner in a labor camp. There she learned the horrors of the socialist state. She was brutally tortured but managed to escape China. Today she shares her knowledge about the evils of socialism and communism.

            Chris Wright is helping Zeng to share her message about the horrors of communism. They were recently interviewed by Rob Bluey at The Daily Signal. The message is especially important today because so many Americans are embracing the teachings of Karl Marx, known today as democratic socialism. To begin the interview, Wright explained the connection between socialism and communism.

Marx saw stages of history, inevitable stages of history, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. Socialism is the stage before the final stage. Socialism is characterized by the common ownership of the means of production.

Communism is when the state withers away because there’s no more dominant class, no more private property. You don’t need a state because there’s no more economic exploitation, and so that’s a great fantasy, but it’s never happened anywhere.

            After interviewing Wright for a few minutes, Bluey turned his attention to Zeng. He asked her to share her experience of being held as a prisoner in a labor camp and how she was able to escape from the camp and leave China.

I was arrested … four times and sent to the Beijing Female Labor Camp for practicing a spiritual practice called Falun Gong. It is a spiritual practice based on truth, compassion, forbearance, and plus five sets of gentle exercises, including meditation. Because it’s very obvious health benefit, within seven years, there were more Falun Gong practitioners in China than Communist Party members. At that stage, in 1999, the party decided to crack down on it. So, I ended up in the Beijing Female Labor Camp.

The first day was feeling like going directly into the hell.

For the first moment, we were forced to squat under the baking sun for 15 hours, and whenever someone couldn’t endure it and fainted away, they were shocked by electric batons so that they could wake up.

Every day, in the camp, it was a battle between life and death.

On June 17, I was in London at the Independent China Tribunal. They handed out their final judgment about this organ harvest and transplant, and they gave the verdict that the Communist Party is guilty of ant-humanity crime.

I only realized that I had a very narrow escape from being a victim of this organ harvesting because I had Hepatitis C.

While I was in the camp, apart from torture every day, apart from hard, forced labor, we were also given repeated physical checkups so that if anyone need[ed] an organ we could be killed on demand if we were a match.

Fortunately, I told the doctor I had Hepatitis C before I practiced Falun Gong. I was able to be exempted from becoming a victim of organ harvesting.

            Bluey asked Zeng to share some of her experiences or the things that she saw regarding brainwashing, mental torture, physical torture, sexual assault, and rape. It is not a pretty story, so if you are squeamish, you might want to stop here.

I saw a female Falun Gong practitioner tied to a chair, and she was shocked by four or five male police guards on her head and on her private part until she lost control of her bowel movement. As a result, she couldn’t walk for several months.

They also would tie four toothbrushes together and with the sharp end outside and push this inside the vagina of female Falun Gong practitioners and twist it, twist it until they saw blood came out.

The police would also throw females into the male prisoners’ cells to have them repeatedly gang-raped. So, this kind of thing happened in the camp.

I think the worst part for me in the camp is the brainwashing part. Because the police made it very clear, the only purpose for you to be sent there is to get you reformed, which means to change our minds toward Falun Gong.

So, we were forced not only to give up our beliefs in truth, compassion, and tolerance, but also to help the police to torture our fellow Falun Gong practitioners in order to prove that we were transformed.

            After being in the camp for six months, Zeng developed a sudden and strong desire to expose all that was happening there by writing a book. She knew that they had happened in Nazi concentration camps, but she could not believe that such things could happen in the 21^st century. She knew that she would have to be released in order to write a book, and she also knew that the only way that she would be released was to convince the police that she had transformed. She said that she struggled every day in her mind about whether to transform or not to transform. She was forced to prove to the police that she was transforming.

Little by little, I feel like becoming empty in a human shell. Actually, it was my very essence of a human being being taken away like your thoughts, your soul, your free will, and your human dignity. I feel like a non-human being and doing whatever they force us to do.

That was a very, very disgraceful process. Worst deal, after I was released, they still expected me to go to the brainwashing centers to be used as example of reform and to continue to help them to do their reform job. So, I had to escape from my own family only five days after I was released.

I think in this regard I was luckier than many of my fellow practitioners. I had a very good education. I graduated from Peking University with a master of science degree. I spoke good English.

I met an Australian couple who went to China to teach English. I told them how terrible my situation was and how terribly I needed to leave China. They were able to help me to get out of China, so I sought asylum in Australia and was granted refugee status.

            Zeng did write her book about her experience in the labor camps. It is called Witnessing History: One Woman’s Fight for Freedom and Falun Gong. It is available in English in the United States (Amazon) and Chinese (Amazon). An Australian version is available on her publisher’s website, Allen & Unwin. Her story is also told in a documentary called “Free China” available on the front page of freechinamovie.com. She thinks that her book is the only available one in English to tell the story of Falun Gong practitioners inside the labor camp twenty years ago.

The scale of the persecution is so huge, 100 million Falun Gong practitioners, plus their families. Now, we are hearing about millions of Uighurs also be detained in Xinjiang camps.

Because, I think, the world failed to stop the persecution of Falun Gong, now the party has the ability to expand that to other minority groups and to the entire nation. The entire nation is under very strict monitoring of the party.

            Zeng believes that her book will have a significant impact because it is a “firsthand account of what’s really happening inside the camp. It is current, and it is helping the world to know what’s really happened.

            So, here is another report of how socialism and communism fails the citizens of any nation that embraces them. We should learn from watching what is happening in Venezuela. If anyone still believes that socialism and communism are good, they should read Zeng’s books about her experiences in the Chinese labor camps.

Judges Matter

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is the simple fact that judges matter -- at least their politics matter – because there is no such thing as a truly non-partisan judge. Even judges, who try very hard to keep politics out of their decisions, are partisan to a degree because it is part of who they are.

            From the time that Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States, liberal judges have been working against him. It seems that there is a judge somewhere in the United States that is willing to stop every move that the President makes. Here are just a few of the times when judges have ruled against Trump.

·         On May 22, 2019, Reuters reported, “U. S. President Donald Trump, three of his children and the Trump Organization on Wednesday lost their bid to block Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp from providing financial records to Democratic lawmakers.” 

·         On November 30, 2018, The Daily Beast reported, “A federal judge ruled against the Department of Justice Friday, prohibiting the agency from suspending federal money to six states and New York City because they are ‘sanctuary cities.” 

·         On June 29, 2019, CNN reported, “A federal judge on Friday night blocked President Donald Trump from tapping into Defense Department funds to build parts of his US-Mexico border wall.” 

·         On July 6, 2019, Reason.com reported, “On Wednesday, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision upholding a trial court ruling blocking President Donald Trump from diverting military funds to build his border wall.” 

·         On March 16, 2019, The Legal Aid Society reported, “A federal judge ruled late Friday that the Trump administration broke the law by denying a path to a green card for abused, abandoned and neglected young illegal immigrants in New York [S]tate.” 

            With this type of record over the past two and a half years, any success in the courts is cheered by conservatives. Is it any wonder that the Justice Department and millions of Americans are pleased with a recent decision?  The Washington Examiner reported the following on July 13, 2019. 

A federal appeals court ruled in favor of President Trump’s administration in a case involving federal dollars being withheld from cities based in part on their “sanctuary city” status.

The 2-1 opinion from a panel on the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge, who sided [with] the city of Los Angeles in its lawsuit over Community Oriented Policing Services grants, which are determined by a point system that takes into account whether the city applying is a sanctuary city.

The Trump administration found Los Angeles did not qualify for the grant because it failed to receive enough points under 2017 rules put in place by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which gave cities extra points for cooperating with the federal immigration officials with illegal immigrants who have been detained in city jails.

“Cooperation relating to enforcement of federal immigration law is in pursuit of the general welfare, and meets the low bar of being germane to the federal interest in providing the funding to ‘address crime and disorder problems, and otherwise … enhance public safety,” Sandra Ikuta, one of the two judges in the majority, wrote. “DOJ has reasonably determined that cooperation on illegal immigration matters furthers the purposes of the Act.”

            The U.S. Constitution says that the three branches of the federal government – Executive, Legislative, and Judicial – are equal in power and are to serve as checks and balances against each other. Congress has the duty to create the law, the President has the duty to uphold the law, and the judges have the duty to make sure that all laws are constitutional. However, Congress has neglected over time to fulfill their responsibility to write clear and concise laws, and Presidents have been usurping legislative power by writing executive orders. Then judges rule on whether the orders are constitutional.

            The U.S. Supreme Court and many of the lower courts leaned left until Trump began appointing more conservative judges. The confirmations of the two new Trump-appointed Justices on the Supreme Court – Neal Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – are examples of the effects of having more conservative judges. They have each voted with the left-leaning Justices on occasions, but they have also caused the Court to move right in its decisions. Trump may have the opportunity to appoint another Justice or more during his time as President.

            As Trump appoints more and more judges on all levels of the federal system, the courts tend to move right. In fact, I believe that one of the reasons why Trump was elected President was he published the list of people that he would consider for positions on the Supreme Court. People understood the importance of judges, and they approved of the people on Trump’s list. I personally voted for Trump because I did not want Hillary Clinton appointing any justices or judges. I figured that Trump’s choices would be better for the nation, and I believe that many other people had the same idea. This is the reason why I believe that judges matter and why we need to re-elect Trump in order to give him more opportunity to appoint more judges with a conservative ideology.

Special Witnesses of Jesus Christ

            Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a mandate to be special witnesses of the Lord, Jesus Christ. The duties of the Apostles have remained since they were first called in the early days of the Church.

            Jesus Christ commanded the Apostles of His day to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). They traveled throughout their world teaching, preaching, and strengthening. The living Apostles today have the same charge. They travel throughout the world to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to strengthen members of the Church. The Apostles living on the earth today have about the same duties as the Apostles who directed the Church after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

            All twelve Apostles were recently interviewed for an article in the July 2019 Ensign, “We Are Witnesses: The Twelve Apostles Today.” The article includes quotes from all of them, but just a few of them will be included in this post. This quote from President M. Russell Ballard, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, sets the stage for the following ones. “This is the Lord’s Church, and our major challenge is to be sure we are in tune with how He would want us to carry out His kingdom here on earth.”

            Elder David A. Bednar explains that the commission of the Apostles has not changed. “First and foremost, all the time, we are witnesses of the living reality of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not administrators; we are ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland explains that the Apostles have a commission to be traveling witnesses and to go all over the world professing the name of Jesus Christ. “We want even the most distant unit of this Church, geographically speaking, to feel that there is a very close link between them and the prophet of the Lord. It is often said, ‘The Church makes a very small world of it.’ In the case of Apostolic contact, we hope that this is always so.”

            Elder Quentin L. Cook explains that one of the Apostles meets with every stake and ward, district and branch, at least once every four years. “Leadership conferences have allowed us to fulfill our doctrinal mandate to ‘[build] up the church and [regulate] all the affairs of the same in all nations’ [Doctrine and Covenants 107:34] under the direction of the First Presidency.”

            Elder David A. Bednar points out that the Apostles come from a variety of backgrounds -- some are doctors, some are lawyers, and some are businessmen – and they bring a rich variety of experiences with them when they are ordained as Special Witnesses. Collectively, they have much knowledge and wisdom to use when counseling members of the Church. Elder Gerrit W. Gong says, “As we go different places, we feel the goodness of the members. We hear the experiences and we learn things that help us to understand as we counsel together as a quorum about what is happening in the different parts of the world and in different groups within the Church.”

            There are many other statements by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, but I think that my readers can come to understand the kind of men who are called as Special Witnesses. I hope that you will go to the Ensign article and read the rest of the statements. I know that you will feel of their spirit as well as the Spirit of the Lord.