June Spotlight

RAMONA HAMILTON RUST

   I was born in Spanish Fork, Utah, the youngest of 8.  Bill and I met in high school and married in July  of 1953. In July my Husband and I will have been married for 58 years.
   As I look back on many years. I'm like most of you moms.  I've changed many diapers, soothed many broken hearts, canned fruits, vegetables, baked bread, cookies, sewed, cooked a lot of meals, attended PTA meetings, and a million  other meetings, participated in and I'm still involved in the kids, grandchildren, great grandchildren's activities. Makes me tired!!!
 Being a secretary for 20 plus years at Nebo and Provo School Districts, and a bookkeeper for 12 or more,  I have used these tools  to the advantage of my Husband and Children as I've typed and edited university papers,and dissertations, as they have attended different universities.  My shorthand skills were in use as I took board, administrative staff and central office minutes, and in my daily journal writing. 
My 12 years as a bookkeeper at Sears and at Hamilton Electric, taught me to manage a budget.  My Husband and I being in education for many years didn't earn large sums of money, but by being thrifty were able to survive. Our motto has always been, "Money isn't worth anything, if it can't buy a memory."  Many pleasant memories our children have---not of the more expensive trips we've taken, but of tenting on the California Beaches,  at Sequoia, Hoover Dam, and boating at Lake Powell, etc.  We enjoyed traveling to pick up 5 of our 6 children, some in foreign countries, from their missions, and now we're traveling
to get our grandchildren. 
   Our mission to Florida, mission at the Senior MTC, our Ward and Stake missions have been, and are wonderful.
   We have six children--4 boys, 2 girls-- one a Lamanite.  We have 19 grandchildren, ages 2 to 32, and 10 great grandchildren, ages 1 to 5.  I like family activities, traveling, reading, attending the theater, current events, all sports, and clean cars.
   It seems one's perspective changes as one matures and grows older.  I used to wish for beautiful legs, teeth, hair, etc., now I'm just thankful for what I have.  I'm thankful Bill's life was preserved from a 1999 accident and for my renewed health.
   As we grow older, we need all the prayers we can get as we trod further down the "golden" or "rusty" path of life. I often sing this song from the "Work and the Glory," which best describes where I have been and am now in the autumn of my life.  "Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, how swiftly speed the years.  Now we see how tall grow our children, how softly fall our tears.  Life coming forth now in gladness.  Children grow like flowers in spring--running in the warm summer sunshine, how sweet the joy they bring.  Swiftly the seasons are passing.  Now deepening more each year.  Cherished are the ties that now
bind us:  how sweet the love we share.  Gray now our hair in the autumn, yet the harvest has barely begun.
Now we watch as our children's children, fill and renew our home.  Lord, how we thank thee for families, sometimes we struggled, sometimes we've rejoiced.  Dear Lord, we thank thee for granting seasons of sorrow and seasons of joy.
Thank you Ramona!  It is such a pleasure and blessing to have Sister Rust in our ward.

June Presidency Message

“Oh, that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!  Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.”   Alma 29:1,2

Repentance, as Alma says, is the most hopeful message in all the world.  He would know.  We, also, need to thoroughly understand the true doctrine of repentance and have testimonies of the joy that comes as one repents.

There is a lot of confusion regarding what repentance is.  It may be best to start a discussion on what is isn’t.  Repentance is not suffering.  Repentance is not pain.  Repentance is not shame.  President Theodore Burton wrote:

“As a General Authority, I have prepared information for the First Presidency to use in considering applications to readmit repentant transgressors into the Church and to restore priesthood and temple blessings.  Many times a bishop will write, ‘I feel he has suffered enough!’  But suffering is not repentance.  Suffering comes from lack of complete repentance.  A stake president will write, ‘I feel he has been punished enough!’  But punishment is not repentance.  Punishment follows disobedience and precedes repentance.  A husband will write, ‘My wife has confessed everything!’  But confession is not repentance.  Confession is an admission of guilt that occurs as repentance begins.  A wife will write, ‘My husband is filled with remorse!’  But remorse is not repentance.  Remorse and sorrow continue because a person has not yet fully repented.  Suffering, punishment, confession, remorse, and sorrow may sometimes accompany repentance, but they are not repentance.”

Repentance is not just for “big” sins.  We all need to access this powerful gift.  Repentance is a change of mind, heart, and spirit that comes as we turn our lives over to God.  It is a turning from evil towards that which is noble and good.  It is a process that occurs over a lifetime and beyond.

In Mosiah 3:19 we get an idea of the kind of people we must become in order to live with Heavenly Father again: submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon us.  How many of us can say that we are all of those things?  Thus, each one of us stands in need of daily repentance to help us evolve into saints through the atonement of Christ.

The blessings of repentance are many and sweet.  Through repentance we can find ourselves “more resilient and able to deny [ourselves] of ungodliness…[U]ncontrolled appetite, addiction to pornography or harmful drugs, unbridled passion, carnal desire, and unrighteous pride are diminished….Truth becomes more attractive, and things praiseworthy become more engaging.”  Russell M. Nelson

Furthermore, repentance “not only changes us, but it also blesses our families and those we love.  With our righteous repentance, in the timetable of the Lord, the lengthened-out arms of the Savior will not only encircle us but will also extend into the lives of our children and posterity.  Repentance always means that there is greater happiness ahead.”  Neil Anderson

As disciples of Christ, let us be His representatives in being examples of repentance, and crying repentance unto those around us.  Let us open our hearts and arms to those around us, no matter what stage of repentance they are in.  Let us be lights of love, tenderness, and mercy to those who have lost their way in the darkness.  Let us be kind, patient, and forgiving of our own weakness and with the faults and weakness of our brothers and sisters.