This entry will be a little similar to the entry from last week, because this topic has been on my mind a lot in the last few weeks.
I have always been really intrigued by the parable of the Good Samaritan. The scripture is found in Luke 10:30-37. A man was traveling, and was robbed along the path. He was stripped and beaten and left to die along the path. Two men (a priest and a Levite) saw the wounded man, but passed by. At this point in the narrative, I wonder, what kind of cruel person would do that? Why would they just leave that man to die? Then I think to myself, how many times have I seen someone truly in need on a busy sidewalk and passed by. Or how many times have I had someone who just really needed to talk or be listened to and passed by, leaving them to struggle by the wayside. How many times have I let good friends make bad choices, and not said or done anything about it. I feel so often like I fit the mold of these men who passed by.
Sometimes, however, we are like the Good Samaritan. He was probably a busy man, traveling along the road for some purpose. He had places to go and things to take care of, but he noticed a man struggling on the side of the road. He was not repelled by the man's dismal state; rather, he was compelled to help. As the scripture says, "he bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him" (v. 34). What was compelling this man to chalk on an extra day onto his already long journey to help a stranger? What did he get in return? Did he ever see this man again to receive his thanks?
At this point in the story I say, well, things like that happen all the time. But then I think about the endless need versus the personal action. Everyone, no matter who we are or how well we're doing, needs a Good Samaritan on a daily basis. We all need a person to talk to, to cry with, to explain a difficult problem in our homework, to discuss spiritual matters, to give us a ride somewhere. Some of our problems are bigger. Sometimes we need money and don't know who to turn to. Sometimes we need groceries. Sometimes we need a place to stay for a night or two. A Good Samaritan understands the second great commandment, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
When I was in Ghana last semester I realized that the people there don't really hold the same time standards as we do in America. They base their days off of their interactions with people. They take time to greet everyone, even if it means being late. They will ask how their health is, how their family is doing. The majority of them realize that the well-being of their neighbor is priority. I saw daily examples of ordinary people lending their neighbor a significant amount of money when the neighbor was in need. They offer food, shelter and help to perfect strangers. Although in our world today, these kinds of things can be dangerous, I think with a change of attitude, theft would be almost non-existent.
I think about the priest in the story Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The main character, Jean Valjean was caught stealing gold and silver from a kindly priest who offered him food and shelter. Instead of reacting in anger, the priest pretended like he had given the items to Jean Valjean so that the police would not throw Valjean back in prison. By this simple act of forgiveness and love, the priest inspired Valjean to change his life and dedicate himself to service.
The Savior, likewise, saw the best in people. He went among the lepers, the sick, the downtrodden. As is often said in my New Testament class, his mission was to the least, the last and the lost. I am grateful that he continues to look for me when I am one of the least, the last and the lost.

This week I read the conference address titled, "Slow To Anger" by Gordon B. Hinckley from September 2007. It was the last Priesthood session address he ever gave, and I believe one of his greatest and most applicable talks.
In the address he quotes the hymn, "School Thy Feelings," a hymn that I have not often heard sung in church meetings, but who's meaning is significant. One of the lines that really struck me was this, "School thy feelings; there is powerIn the cool, collected mind. Passion shatters reason’s tower, Makes the clearest vision blind. . . ." ("School Thy Feelings", Hymns No. 336). This is one of the hardest principles that most people deal with during mortal life. I wrote earlier about weakness and temptation, and noted that we learn that even Christ was tempted.
I remember times on my mission where it was incredibly hard to "school my feelings" because of anger that I felt. There were times where my deepest and most sacred convictions were mocked and ridiculed, and I had to learn to deal with those experiences while maintaining the spirit. It was really difficult, and required constant and specific prayers.
Having these thoughts in mind, it is interesting to read about the account of the oft-cited example of the interaction of Jesus with the moneychangers in the temple. In Matthew 21:12-13 it reads, "And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." It's surprising to see why he reacted the way that he did, because he is known as the Prince of Peace. He was the one who taught that instead of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" we should turn the other cheek. Why did he lash out as he did? Maybe there are certain times when, in order for righteous purposes to be accomplished, anger is the only resort to make people change. These moneychangers may have been so stubborn, and their actions so grievous, that acting in anger was the only way for Christ to get the point across.
Soon after this experience in the temple, however, Christ was on the Mount of Olives, having just taken upon him the suffering, pains and sins of all humanity. He knew every individual better than they knew themselves. When he was taken captive by the Roman guards soon thereafter, Peter reacted in anger, and cut off the man's ear with his sword. Christ, knowing what awaited him and knowing the pain that would be inflicted upon him at the hands of these men reacted in love and reached out to heal the man's ear.
Incredible examples of tolerance, love and overcoming the temptation of anger are evident throughout history, but I'm grateful for the ultimate example, Jesus Christ.

Yesterday I sat in the testing center staring at my physics test racking my brain, trying to figure out how far a car would skid after slamming on its brakes if it had an initial velocity of 54 m/s. I really didn't care how far it slid. How is this really going to improve my life? Why was I spending nearly 5 hours on a physics test? This kind of question has come to my mind over an over again in the last few weeks. Why do I care about what a Lewis Dot Structure of a Nitrate ion looks like? Why do I care what the electron probability of a d-type orbital looks like? These tedious tasks seem like endless hurdles on my way to medical school. I find myself getting very bogged down by these things and lose sight of my real end goal.
This Sunday these thoughts were still in my mind as I was in church. The Stake President was visiting our ward this Sunday and opened the last 10 minutes of Priesthood Meeting to questions. Someone asked a question about how they could better organize their life. He mentioned several things, but one thing in particular he mentioned was that we could serve more. Thinking about the opportunities I've had to serve in my life so far, I realize that the times my life is the most organized, meaningful, exciting and happy have been when I've been able to serve in some way.
In my reading of the New Testament this week I read the passage in Matthew 25:35-45 where Christ is talking about how important service is and how we can show our commitment to him through our service to others. "For I was an hungered and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in: Naked and ye clothed me: I was sick and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me..." I tend to get really into what I'm doing and don't think a lot about others nearly as much as I should.
Last night, I found my friend JJ in the library studying. When I got there he had already made friends with the girl across from him. He knows how to make friends fast, and not only can he make friends, but his friends know that he genuinely cares about them and that he wants to see them happy. As we went to eat some dinner and through the course of our conversations, I wondered how he does it. I think he is just trying to follow Christ's example and notice those who are a little downtrodden. He takes time to get to know people and gets to know what makes them happy. I know several people in my life that do this, and I think they embody this scripture very well.

Reading through the scriptures I like to notice the peculiar and special relationships of certain figures. The relationships between Moses and Aaron, Abraham and Issac, Jacob and Joseph, Peter, James and John, Nephi and Sam, Mormon and Moroni, Joseph and Hyrum Smith and many others show the human interactions of prophets with particular people, often a family member. I often wonder what the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ was like. In Luke chapter 1 we see an interesting account of the first "earthly" interaction of these remarkable cousins. When Mary comes to visit her cousin Elisabeth both women were pregnant. As Mary saluted Elisabeth the account reads, "...that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost." John knew who Jesus was before even entering the world, and he was filled with joy that the Savior was coming.
Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, later prophesied at the birth of John concerning the newborn's ministry and mission. "And thou child [speaking of John], shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unt his people by the remission of their sins...To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." And then, the last verse of chapter 1 reads, "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel."
I wonder if Jesus and John ever met before the account of Jesus' baptism. John knew what his mission in life was to be, and from what we have in the account, dedicated his entire life to the preparing of the way for the Lord. He had a testimony that his cousin, someone who was relatively close to his own age, was the literal Son of God and Savior of the world.
In Luke 3:10-18 John teaches principles that I believe were very different from what people were used to. He was preparing the ground for the radical changes that Jesus was to shortly bring about.
Unfortunately, none of the accounts give much detail on the interactions between Jesus and John the Baptist, except for the brief account of Jesus' baptism in the river Jordan. Although not selected as an Apostle, and although he was shut up in prison for an extended period of time until his execution, John was never envious or bitter about his circumstances. Of John, Jesus remarked, "But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea I say unto you, and more than a prophet...Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:9-11). The two must have been remarkably close and it is certain that the bond they shared was special, different than any other relationship Christ had with anyone.