About

Kevin Pfleger is a lifelong member of the church residing in Boise, Idaho, with his wife and three kids. He has served in the bishopric of a student ward and in an Elders Quorum presidency. But his favorite callings by far, have been working with the young men of his ward. He served a full-time mission in the Arizona Phoenix Mission, Spanish- speaking. He enjoys playing soccer, running and making Christmas candy! Enter Kevin… In December I am busy making Christmas candy at home. With three children home all day doing virtual school, I have been making a LOT of Christmas candy- multiple batches of fudge, divinity and toffee. These candies are unique in that they are all made with a base of sugar syrup, heated to varying degrees depending on the recipe. For the uninitiated, cooking with sugar syrup involves heating sugar and other ingredients on the stovetop until a desired temperature is achieved. Sugar syrup behaves in different ways depending on the temperature. If you heat the syrup to 235 degrees, “soft ball” stage, you can make fudge. Continued heating of the syrup, to 250 degrees, will take the syrup to “hard ball” stage, required for making divinity. And if you heat the syrup even longer to 300 degrees, you get to “hard crack” stage, necessary to make toffee. Mortal Heating and Testing Our lives are a crucible wherein we are heated and tested and proved. The pressure and heat of our testing is most apparent in our service. Whether it is the difficulty in our labors as a bishop or as the leader of our family, the men and women of this Church give all and are sometimes bowed by the difficulty of the task. It is common for the families of a bishop to give much and sacrifice much, as well as the families of Elders Quorum presidents, Relief Society presidents, and anyone else who has a calling that requires a large time commitment. For the families of full-time missionaries, who may not all be active members of the church, the sacrifice of being without their young son or daughter for two years might say it is too much to ask of them. Remarkably, that is how it has always been, service in the kingdom often means: Service when it is not convenient Service when we are already tired Service when we have already given so much Service when the cost is high There are times when the life changing temperature is already high and rising. Sometimes as the heat is increased, like the bubbling sugar syrup on the stovetop, the temperature inches upward as we become something different than we were before. We become new. That is how it has always been. Service on Fire I think of the Savior who provided us with the best example of service under fire, or service on the fire. Our lives, and the service we provide as mothers and fathers, plus the formal callings we receive at church, makes us into new creatures. My vivid imagination conjures up images of our Father, bustling away in a heavenly kitchen, apron and all, monitoring the temperature while knowing exactly what the recipe demands. His recipes require much because He is making something great, much greater than fudge or divinity. This candy He is cooking will more appropriately reach Divinity as the spark within us grows, changes, and becomes. Christ did the same in his mortal crucible-serving even as He suffered. Some specific examples of His divine and difficult service remind us of the cost- the ingredients and heat required for God’s most special recipes. The Price of Service After the dark and lonely night of agony in Gethsemane, Christ is confronted with the most bitter betrayal. His three closest disciples, Peter, James and John, could not keep watch with him through the difficult hours of the night. Thus, he suffered alone through the dark. By morning, His strength is flagging, He is tired, His robes are stained with expiatory blood, that oozed from His body as he suffered seemingly endless pain,