What do we see as we go through our lives? Do we go through life with our eyes cast down seeing only a few steps ahead or do we let our eyes take in all that is around us and record in our memories the beauties of the world and especially the beauties of life. When I came to the realization that I was losing my sight I began to see and value this most wonderful sense of sight. I thank our Heavenly Father for the wonderful memories that my eyes have recorded in my memory and in my heart during the 80 years of my life.

Sometimes recently my wife has asked wonderingly, "Can't you see"? I have reflected in my mind, can I see, can I really see the important things of life? What do I see? What do we see in each other? What do we see in the world around us? What do our eyes record in our minds and in our hearts?

The other night as we sat in the ball games for the Stake, a little boy was passing by and I spoke to him, "Hello Rooster how are you tonight". He stopped and turned and solemnly looked at me taking in the details of my old face. I saw a beautiful little boy with blonde curling hair and big blue eyes seriously giving me the once over. I thought at the time, what can he see? Then he seriously confided, "When you get old you have bumps".

After a good laugh I thought to myself how little he knows of the bumps that I have had in my life. I don't really know what bumps he was referring to or what bumps he was seeing but it caused me to reflect on the things that I see and the things that I should see.

The Savior in his teachings tells us: "The light of the body is the eye; If therefore, thine eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light". He goes on to explain that the way we see things will affect our whole bodies and especially our minds and hearts. For my purpose I will paraphrase his famous quote. "Lay up not for yourselves MEMORIES of the sordid and evil things of this world but, lay up for yourselves MEMORIES of the beauties and the joyful things for eternity." It is not what we see that affects us but how we see it and how we take it that affects our minds and hearts. We each see things differently, and they become part of us as we see them, and as they are for us at that moment.

This whole sermon of the Master Teacher was to help us, learn to see his teachings as the only way to joy and happiness and the only way to return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father. If we accept Him and His teachings then all that we see will be for our good. " Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns; Yet your Father in Heaven feedeth them, Are ye not much better than they"? I would like to take this out of context and depart from the usual interpretation.

As I walk out into our yard these beautiful spring days I beheld the fowls of the air. How busy they are working in all diligence to fulfill the measure of their creation. I see two beautiful Mourning Doves busily carrying sticks to build their little flat nest in the heart of the Prickly Pear Cactus in the yard. As they search for sticks they pick up any seed or grain and tiny peaces of gravel to fill there craw and ease their hunger. When they go to drink they emerge their dainty bills in the water clear up to their eyes and fill their craws with large gulps of water. Soon the nest is finished and they make love quietly kissing each other with their dainty bills. While the mother is laying and incubating the eggs the father early in the morning sings his love song to his lady love from a tree near by.

While this is going on not fifty yards away two Mocking Birds are going through the same process and building their more complicated nest hidden among the thorns and branches of the Paracantha tree next to our bedroom window. They are living in a different world than the Mourning doves. Theirs is a world of searching for insects, Caterpillars and fruit. The father marks his territory with his song and defends it fiercely from intruders. The Mourning doves are not of his world so they sing and live in peace side by side. While the mother incubates her eggs the father sings his many calls and trills, mocking the calls of hundreds of the songsters of the bird world. At this time he sings most all of the time hardly stopping to eat, changing from Tree to tree or even singing from the chimney, but always where he can be heard by his sweetheart sitting faithfully on the nest. Generally he sings through the night especially if the romantic moon is shining.

Nearby in the world of watered lawns, Angle Worms and Water Bugs, a pair of Boat Tailed Grackles are starting to feed their tiny chicks. This entails much work and searching in the water, and grassy places for unwary worms and anything that will provide sustenance for their hungry family. This family can consist of four or even five chicks all opening wide their gaping mouths to receive their portion of the food brought to them. Their Long Tailed Black Bird Parents fly constantly from day light to dark from their nest high in the Italian spruce tree to where ever the lawns of the town are being irrigated. This year is the fourth year for these parents to use the same nest which was made very substantially with mud reinforced with roots and grass to form a good base and lined on the inside with cotton and soft feathers. The father is much larger than the mother and has shiny black feathers that have a shiny purple hue that gives them the name also of Purple Grackle. When two males confront each other at times they stand straight with their beaks pointing straight into the air with their bright yellow eyes searching the sky and carefully watching each other. I have never seen them fight each other only measure each other carefully.

In the midst of these three families, live a pair of House Finches that like to build their nest as near the house as possible. Even inside the garage if they are permitted to. This little sparrow like bird is distinguished by his rose hued head and breast and his clear little song. They too are performing their work and fulfilling the measure of their creation. Paying no attention to the contentious Mocking Bird or the noisy Black Bird. .

The Black Birds, the Mocking Birds the Mourning doves and the house finches all live and nest here in our yard but seem to be in different worlds as far as competition goes. I see that the Lord has provided a place for them to be fed without having to fight each other for their food. But they have to work for it constantly searching and busily providing for the young.

The little Mourning doves grew rapidly and were well fed. One day we went out to see them and found their mother trying to cover them with her fluffed out feathers to protect them from the sun. They were so big that they were poking out on each side of her. She sat quietly and we could tell that she was very proud of her two baby chicks. The next day I asked Naoma to come a0nd see them how big they had grown but when we got out there the nest was empty. We were worried and thought maybe a cat had found their nest but hoping they had left of their own free will. We were happy to find that the Parents were still feeding them while they were learning to fly. They had been hiding under the big spiny cactus leaves in security.

Our Heavenly Father has provided a way to feed us in this wonderful world. If we obey his commandments then he will take care of us just as he takes care of the fowls of the air. We are his children and he loves us and has given us all things in the world for our use. Some things are to please the eye and gladden the heart. Others are to provide food, clothing and shelter. He has sent us here to gain earthly experience and teach and train our minds and bodies to help them grow to the stature of our spirits.

Here I am talking about the Lord feeding us. He has given us the commandment to earn our bread by the sweat of our brow. Also he has said, "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." The rest is up to us. We must choose what we will work at and we also can choose to have joy in our work and in all that we do. He has indicated that if we seek first the kingdom of heaven then all of these things will be added unto us.

The fowls of the air are so caught up in living and providing for their young and enjoying life that I am sure they take no thought for the morrow and don't worry about their security. They simply trust in the lord. This is over simplifying but we can learn a lesson from the Lord's teaching.

Isn't it wonderful that we all see things differently yet we are trying to become one in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is essentially a very involved process because of our differences in experience, feelings and how we see things and how they are envisioned in our minds.

Our concept of any one thing is our total experience with that particular thing and that includes what we hear of it and how we see it.

I wish to illustrate by this little picture from the past.

Don Trinidad De La Cruz came to work for us on the farm out on the flat. He was a vigorous 60 some odd years old and had spent his life farming and gardening down in the State of Aguas Calientes. He urged me to plant Chile as that is what he knew and what he was very good at. He made the hot beds just as he knew how and grew the beautiful plants and set them out. He cultivated them and watered them raised a very good chile crop. When the time came to harvest he wanted to make the drying sheds. We hauled from out near the foot hills big loads of the tough three cornered grass for the roofs of the sheds. He cut poles for the frame work and ingeniously tied little bundles of the grass and laid them together for a very substantial roof. I was awed by his knowledge and experience in all of his work. When all was done and the Chile was drying he said that he was ready to help with the other farm work. We had some plowing to do so I suggested that he learn to drive the tractor to help with the plowing. He agreed and we got out the big John Deere Model D tractor and placed it on the road pointing toward the field we wanted to plow. We got Don Trino up on the tractor seat and explained how to put it in gear and how to push the clutch lever forward to start to go and to pull it back to stop the tractor. After explaining everything that I thought he should know to operate the tractor I stepped down and told him to go ahead and that I would follow to help him get started.

He reached down and engaged the clutch. The big tractor lunged forward and turned sharply to the left and went right through a new four wire barbed wire fence and lurched through an irrigation ditch making deep ruts and letting the water flood out on both sides. Don Trino sat like a bronze statue his dark Indian face was a mask without expression. His hands gripped the steering wheel firmly but with out moving. The powerful tractor turned in a circle and came back through the ditch and the new fence scattering all of the shocked observers. I jumped up onto the tractor beside Don Trino and pulled back on the clutch lever and stopped the tractor. Don Trino climbed down from the tractor and walked stolidly to the house. After he had gone we could not hold back the laughter and we had to run for the shovels to repair the ditch to save the precious water. What was a funny incident for us was a very traumatic experience for him. We never discussed it with him and we realized that driving a tractor was a totally foreign experience to him. I can imagine his concept of tractors from then on.

Shortly after that I decided that I could no longer keep our pet wolf here at the house with so many little children around. We had come home from church one day and heard the chickens squawking and making a lot of noise. Our loving and friendly pet wolf was playing with the chickens. He would playfully run and grab one and crunch with his powerful jaws and then run and catch another one. By the time I got there dead chickens were littering the floor of the coop. I grabbed the broom and in anger began to beat him with it. The wolf whined and crouched down receiving his punishment until he finally decided that he had enough. He growled and jumped at me. I caught him in midair and knocked him back with the broom. He quickly turned and ran out the door. After a few minutes I went out and petted him in apology and he was his old friendly loving self again.

After consulting with Naoma she suggested that I take the wolf out to the farm on the flat and tie him with a chain on a long wire. We tied him in the shade near the ditch so that he could have plenty of water and left Don Trino the food to feed him with. As I was leaving he gave a long lonesome howl that nearly melted me but the decision had been made. The next morning Don Trino came in to tell me that the wolf had gotten loose in the night and had started to come home but on the way he had stopped to play with one of Joe Beecroft's cows and had mangled one hind leg, her ears and neck by the time Don Trino found him to take him back.

How was I to tell Joe about my playful wolf stopping on the way home to play with one of his cows and leaving her near death. I was sure that he would see things by a different light. I got my Pistol and went out and did what I had to do. I shot our playful friendly wolf and brought the collar and chain home for future use on a dog that might see things differently.

Each phrase or word can evoke very different pictures in each of our minds. Just as an example take the word Turkey. For me it brings pleasant pictures into my mind such as seeing a big beautiful Turkey Gobbler strutting into a clearing in the early dawn light and hearing a booming gobble that resounds on the cold morning air. Then my mouth begins to water as I picture the slices of Turkey Breast sizzling on the grill.

Yes. We all see things just a little differently but may we all thank our Heavenly Father for the gift of sight and ask for his help to see the things that will bring everlasting joy and satisfaction. May we always see each other as He sees us when he looks upon our hearts.