Urgh.

I know I just posted yesterday, but I've got something to say again.

I think Parking Tickets are the dumbest thing anyone has ever come up with, and that's including all those dumb inventions in those Strange Japanese Inventions books.

So annoyed.

But in happier news, we had an awesome lesson in institute today. :) I'm in the class "Parables of Jesus" taught by Scott Forsythe and I am LOVIN it to death. Anyway, the parable we talked about today was Matt. 20, where the Lord of the Vineyard hires people throughout the day and in the end pays them all the same, even though some of them have struggled the entire day while others have worked for just an hour. Mostly we talked about those who worked through the "heat" of the day. We talked about what that means to us-- what is our "heat"?

We decided that our "heat" was opposition. Especially right now with the whole Prop 8 controversy, the church needs to be strong in it's beliefs. We talked about a talk that Neal A. Maxwell gave in 1979 called "A More Determined Discipleship" I was going to pick out bits and pieces, but it's all good, so I'm going to put the whole thing on here.

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presdiency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional, or political life.' This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly cital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ... Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted... This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simple because those opinions grow out of religious convictions. Resistance to abortions will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened... Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face or prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy,on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees pit forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh'. Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

I think the reason I loved this so much was that he gave us warnings. It's frightening to know of all the things that will undoubtedly come. But at the end he gives us some incentive to go to work. He tells us that we are the hope of the world. We need to bring in our fellow men (and women) out of the heat and into the refuge of the Savior. :)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy that as much as I did. Have a wonderful day/week/month!