3 Aug 2025, Sunday

 3 Aug 2025, Sunday

Prioritized Daily Task

10:30 am - Church services

5 PM - Dinner, Jody, Shelby, Bradley, Libby, Kylie, Ethan, John Taft Benson, Betty Martin from Texas, and Crew Allen from Temecula, CA.  His dad and Brett Hobbs, Ethan's dad were best friends growing up.

Debbie and I had prayer, showered,  and got ready for church.  I studied scriptures, and we listened to the Tabernacle Choir and Spoken Word before driving to church.  Ethan Hobbs and John Taft Benson met us.  Today is Fast Sunday and Testimony Meeting.  Debbie and I shared our testimonies, and John B., Ethan's friend, and Ethan shared their testimonies.  I learned that John is a great-grandson of President Ezra Taft Benson.  Mykalyn, "Mikie" Mendenhall Hill's husband, blessed their new baby before the sacrament.  Debbie taught Mikie and two of her brothers, Linden and Noah, in kindergarten at American Heritage School.  Mikie invited us to meet the Mendenhalls at the Park in Lehi, where the old carriage is after church.  After Sunday School, Ethan and John B. followed us.  We met Linden and his fiancée and parents, siblings, and grandbaby.  Noah is on a mission to Kazakhstan in the Russia Yekaterinburg Mission.  He was speech-impaired throughout his school years.  Everyone was surprised when he was called on a mission where he would be learning Russian.  There are only 6 missionaries in his mission, and they cannot actively proselyte.  The mission president is a Russian and does not speak English.  It is a relatively new mission.  There have only been about 20 missionaries to have served in that mission.  The mission president finds the investigators and brings them to the missionaries to teach.  Noah is learning Russian and is not hampered by a speech impairment that he has had all his life, speaking English.  The mission president played soccer and now coaches their soccer team, which is doing well.  They are getting noticed.  The missionaries are having success baptizing.  Ethan and John B. went back to Provo, and Debbie and I came home.  Ethan texted and asked if he could bring two extra friends to dinner.  I changed clothes, and Debbie is cooking a nice meal.  We had 12 here and broke our fast.  Debbie made brownies, and we had ice cream for dessert.  Ethan and his friend left after dinner.  Jody and the girls took Bradley home.  They are spending the night.  Debbie and I had prayer before going to bed.

Note:  Ezra Taft Benson served as the Secretary of Ezra Taft Benson, as Secretary of Agriculture under President Eisenhower, and introduced the practice of starting cabinet meetings with prayer. It was at his suggestion that President Eisenhower devoted several minutes at Friday morning cabinet meetings to silent prayer. Furthermore, Benson also opened Thursday staff meetings at the Department of Agriculture with prayer, from 1953 to 1961.