February 2, 2009
Guten Morgen alle,
Mom and I have worked more than a week now on a power point presentation that we are doing for a "Gymnasium" class in a nearby city. Gymnasium is like a college prep school, sort of an advanced highs school and the youth, about 20 of them, will be 17 and 18 years old and most will have studied english at least 6 years. They asked us to speak about the United States and the development of the Church and its trek to Utah. They gave us 2 hours for the presentation.
At first I was a bit apprehensive. What do you say to a group of smart young Germans who probably know as much about the US (scholastically) as most American High School students. Nevertheless we agreed to do it and decided we would try to make it fun and have mom lead some folk songs on the guitar and maybe prepare some American food, such as chocolate chip cookies, for them to eat. The theme I developed was "The Great American Experiment". What makes America unique or is it? We jump right in to geography and culture and technology and biz and economics with fun pictures of these types of things, such as surfing in Hawaii, but we end up talking about the founding fathers and the principles of government and freedom they established in 1776 and 1787. I wanted to talk about those principles because Freedom of Religion emerged from those troubled times as one of the crown jewels of the constitution based on the notion that "all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights." James Madison took it a step further when he stated "We've staked the whole future of all our American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We've staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity...to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
So based on that very foundation of religious freedom Joseph Smith is called as a Prophet so that the peoples of the world, not just Americans, can came unto Christ. How? As the Book of Mormon states: "We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. (2 Nephi 25: 26)"
So my witness to these students, and to you my children, will be that America was founded not by chance but for a divine purpose. That all may come unto Christ through personal revelation, faith, baptism by those endowed with Power from above, and by remaining faithful to the end. Now go out and have a great week.
Opa
Guten Morgen alle,
Mom and I have worked more than a week now on a power point presentation that we are doing for a "Gymnasium" class in a nearby city. Gymnasium is like a college prep school, sort of an advanced highs school and the youth, about 20 of them, will be 17 and 18 years old and most will have studied english at least 6 years. They asked us to speak about the United States and the development of the Church and its trek to Utah. They gave us 2 hours for the presentation.
At first I was a bit apprehensive. What do you say to a group of smart young Germans who probably know as much about the US (scholastically) as most American High School students. Nevertheless we agreed to do it and decided we would try to make it fun and have mom lead some folk songs on the guitar and maybe prepare some American food, such as chocolate chip cookies, for them to eat. The theme I developed was "The Great American Experiment". What makes America unique or is it? We jump right in to geography and culture and technology and biz and economics with fun pictures of these types of things, such as surfing in Hawaii, but we end up talking about the founding fathers and the principles of government and freedom they established in 1776 and 1787. I wanted to talk about those principles because Freedom of Religion emerged from those troubled times as one of the crown jewels of the constitution based on the notion that "all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights." James Madison took it a step further when he stated "We've staked the whole future of all our American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We've staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity...to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
So based on that very foundation of religious freedom Joseph Smith is called as a Prophet so that the peoples of the world, not just Americans, can came unto Christ. How? As the Book of Mormon states: "We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. (2 Nephi 25: 26)"
So my witness to these students, and to you my children, will be that America was founded not by chance but for a divine purpose. That all may come unto Christ through personal revelation, faith, baptism by those endowed with Power from above, and by remaining faithful to the end. Now go out and have a great week.
Opa
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