Lesson for April 27, 2014 Our lesson today was given by Kristine Hanson. From Elder Bednar’s talk “Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease.” We sang an Easter/Sacrament song because Kristine feels we should celebrate Easter all month. Elder Bednar’s talk began with the story of the man who wanted a truck, took it up in the mountains to cut wood. He got stuck and decided to fill up his truck with the wood he had come for. It was the load of wood that provided the traction to get the truck out of the mud. When he got stuck, he did not sit and wait, he went to work, unlike Bill Card, who had a broken ankle and had to sit and wait for God to answer his prayers. Elder Bednar said we each carry a load made up of opportunities, responsibilities, privileges, and constraints. We need to ask ourselves if our load is the type to lead us back to God. So, children, family, church callings, talents, duties around home, are all privileges, blessings, duties, and loads that can lead us back to God. There are problems that are also loads and these can be constraints. We do want to have enough, but not to excess. We all carry a load. Often our blessings create responsibilities that are loads. Sometimes we may mistakenly believe that the absence of a load is a blessing, but this is not how we are supposed to live. Although there are some things we don’t have to carry, such as guilt, worry, comparing ourselves to others, unreal expectations, carrying grudges, fear instead of faith, remaining offended, judging others, remorse and sorrow, clutter, too many obligations and commitments. We need to have just the right weight to give us the traction we need. The Savior’s Atonement will help us carry our loads. Christ said for us to give Him our burdens and he will help us. His burden is light and easy. We often feel like we have a yoke on us, but the Savior’s yoke is easy to bear. The story of Alma and his followers and Amulon who placed great burdens on them in Mosiah 24:10-15. The people poured out their hearts to God and were answered that their burdens would be lightened and then taken away so they would know that the Lord can ease burdens and is their God and because of the covenant they had made with God. We need to be yoked with the Lord by our covenants and together we can pull much more than we might expect. Emily Campbell told us about how her covenants have helped her. She said that being yoked, we are side-by-side partners with the Lord. She said the talk related to her situation with three children with a terminal illness. The younger two are getting somewhat better, but the oldest just wants to die. The heavy load they carry helps them to know God, to know that certain things are true and to know real joy. The pain and trials have given them joy and an increased capacity beyond their normal strength. The ways you stretch and grow stay with you so you are stronger and better than you were before. It removes your focus from the world and gives you the assurance that her covenants made in the temple mean something—that she gets to keep her children. Kristine asked how covenants have helped us. Bonnie said her husband has many health problems and her oldest son has cancer. She has received a witness that these things don’t matter as long as she and her family keeps the covenants. Cyrstelle Boyadjin said she is not a humble person and can hold a grudge forever. Her parents are divorced and her stepfather was abusive. When she found the gospel, she had to get over the hate she felt for that man. After she saw him again years later and saw how sick he was from being an alcoholic, she felt free of the hate and she felt sorry for him. She felt like she was finally able to understand the covenants she had made with the Lord and the bondage she had been under. She said pride is a bondage, but we need to remember our covenants and be humble and we will be rich in blessings. She is grateful that the Lord freed her. Heather Cantrell realizes that because her son died as a drug addict, she must live the best she can and make it so she can be with her son again, who must experience the refiner’s fire. Most of us know that when we must repent, we can come clean through the Atonement, but we must also acknowledge that the Atonement is for all of us.