I'm really not a slacker

I have to clear any doubt from all my hundreds of followers that I haven't been slacking on my scripture studies all this time that I haven't been posting. There. Now don't you all feel better?

I got called to teach the teacher development class. Yes I know the Church discontinued that official class and now the presidencies of each organization are supposed to use the manual to teach their own teachers. But in our Ward everything is done differently. I wonder if other Mexican or other-than-English-speaking Wards don't have similar problems where almost all the members are new converts and so didn't attend primary or YM/YW and also have never attended any kind of teacher development class before and have rarely ever seen a class taught the way it should be. They really need teacher development, and I'm not just talking about the newly called teachers. The Presidencies are pretty much the same. How can they teach if they've never been taught?

So I've been called and I'm supposed to teach all the teachers from all the organizations. Problem is, Primary teachers can't come during Sunday School because they are teaching. So I teach a class on Sunday for the Relief Society and Priesthood teachers and another one on Thursday for the Primary teachers. I like it that way except for having to have another night of the week taken up. Teaching in Primary is so different, that they really need their own class anyway.

So I prepare one class for the Sunday group. It takes me many, many hours, and an almost entirely different lesson for the Thursday group. That takes me many, many hours, too. I'm not trying to brag, but I have to say I am a pretty experienced teacher, and usually I can prepare a class within an hour or so, but these classes are taking way more time because I really have to consider where the teachers are, progression-wise, and I'm extremely adapting the lessons from the manual.

Adding to that, I got asked to teach a lesson for the RS birthday night program, and I'm spending a whole lot of hours on the computer preparing lessons. Everything takes me way longer in Spanish. If I find a good talk, I then have to find it in Spanish. If it didn't come out in Spanish, I have to translate it; a very laborious task.

I'm not whining. I'm not complaining. I like to study and I love teaching and I love being to hopefully make a difference in the level and effectiveness of teaching in our Ward. I just had to explain why I haven't been comparing scriptures lately.

I do have one posting, tho. I found a place where in English we are blessed that our lips can speak without guile. In Spanish, the word used instead of guile is deceit. I had to think about that one. Is guile a form of deceit? It certainly is. Speaking of someone with guile is very dishonest.

Deceit is defined as: the act or practice of deceiving; concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity.

Guile is defined as:

insidious cunning in attaining a goal; crafty or artful deception; duplicity.

—Synonyms: trickery, fraud, craft. See deceit.

So guile is a form of deceit. How interesting. I love how using 2 languages can help open up our understanding.

Multiply and replenish

Many things have been said about what it means to multiply and replenish the earth. What exactly is our command? The scripture is:

Gen. 1: 28

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be ^afruitful, and ^bmultiply, and ^creplenish the ^dearth,

First of all the word fruitful means:

1.	producing good results; beneficial; profitable.

2.	abounding in fruit, as trees or other plants; bearing fruit abundantly.

3.	producing an abundant growth, as of fruit: fruitful soil; fruitful rain.

Synonyms: productive.

So first of all, we are to to produce good, beneficial results which are abundant and be productive.

Second, we are to multiply and replenish.

Multiply is: –verb (used with object)
to make many or manifold; increase the number, quantity, etc., of
to propagate (plants)
to breed (animals)
to increase by procreation.
we need to increase and propagate. We know how to do that. We need to have children. We are not meant to be barren. Sometimes it isn't a choice, but when it is, we are to be unselfish and give children the chance to come into this world. But I think we are also supposed to multiply the things of the earth. It occurs to me that this scripture might not only be talking about having children. I think we are to multiply, propagate, breed and increase the things of the earth.

And the next word in English is replenish which means:
–verb (used with object)

1.	to make full or complete again, as by supplying what is lacking, used up, etc.: to replenish one's stock of food.

2.	to supply (a fire, stove, etc.) with fresh fuel.

3.	to fill again or anew.

However, in Spanish the word used instead of replenish is hinchar which means to make it swell. Like when you cook beans or macaroni or spaghetti, they swell to many times their original size. It isn't an exact measurement, it is growth, or increase in size.

Our command isn't just to replace ourselves; we are to make the population or the supplies of the earth bigger, larger, increased in size. I get the feeling when reading it, that it isn't just talking about how many children we should have but how we treat the earth. We are to help multiply the things of the earth, not deplete it. We are to care for and make it full or complete again, each of us through generations should be caring for the earth and helping it to be filled and anew.

Many generations have been self-serving and self-centered, not thinking about what the earth needs. We need to change our focus from what we need to what we can do to care for and increase the earth through our love of our families and our love for God, whose earth it is and whose children we bear.