United as Honey Bees

Honeybees are driven to pollinate, gather nectar, and condense the nectar into honey. It is their magnificent obsession imprinted into their genetic makeup by our Creator. It is estimated that to produce just one pound (0.45 kg) of honey, the average hive of 20,000 to 60,000 bees must collectively visit millions of flowers and travel the equivalent of two times around the world. Over its short lifetime of just a few weeks to four months, a single honeybee’s contribution of honey to its hive is a mere one-twelfth of one teaspoon.

Though seemingly insignificant when compared to the total, each bee’s one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey is vital to the life of the hive. The bees depend on each other. Work that would be overwhelming for a few bees to do becomes lighter because all of the bees faithfully do their part.

- M. Russell Ballard

Heavenly Father has created this earth for us to live in.  It is part of His grand plan for us to become like Him.  Our time here is a test.  Sometimes as we strive to live the gospel and do the many things that we have been asked to do in order to return to our Heavenly Father, we can get overwhelmed.  

A few months ago my mother decided to move here to Idaho Falls from Oregon.  All of my siblings decided to take time to go to Oregon and help our mom pack up the home that we had all grown up in.  We worked hard, taking apart beds, packing boxes and filling the moving truck.  When the job was complete the time came to say goodbye to our home.  It seemed appropriate to kneel in prayer for the last time in our childhood home and thank our Heavenly Father for the memories that we created there.  It was a bittersweet moment.  But as we knelt in our childhood home in a circle, we all felt a bond.  As a family, we had accomplished so much.  We had grown up together there in that home, stayed close as siblings once we moved away, and now had completed the task of moving my mother to another state.  We not only were united as siblings at that moment, but we each felt united in purpose as well.  

As sisters in an army, we need to unite together like the bees in a hive.  We need to work together to complete the work we have been placed here to do.  We can help each other.  By doing our part while all striving for the same goal, our task becomes less daunting and our burden becomes lighter.

- Sister Landers