Lesson for December 28, 2014

Lesson for December 28, 2014 Our lesson today was given by Kristine Hanson on a talk by Elder Richard G. Scott, “Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority.” Elder Scott speaks of the peace that comes from faith. He gives four tools to increase our faith: prayer, scripture study, Family Home Evening, and temple attendance. These things will help us increase our faith and help us through adversity. He describes prayer as a conversation we have with our Heavenly Father, who is interested in every aspect of our lives. Elder Scott says we should pray often to have that influence with us always. Sister Heather Cantrell said that when her daughter Kristen became so ill in the first of November, every member of the family felt like she would die, but they also felt peace because of the gospel. They shared with everyone they knew the need for prayers for their daughter and sister. Heather said her patriarchal blessing says for her to pray and her prayers would be answered, so she did. The doctor also told her to pray, because he did not have much hope for Kristen. She feels that her prayers have been answered and that the faith of their family has been strengthened. Besides personal prayer, the power of family prayer is necessary to help strengthen every member of the family against all the evil surrounding us as we go out into the world. Kristine said her family had nine children and that the family prayers in her family were rather hit and miss. The older children had many problems with the gospel. She said her younger sister told her that the parents instituted family prayer and the results were that the four youngest were all married in the temple. Even though they have had problems, the gospel has been a blessing in their lives. Sister Jill Judd said she knew of a family who had a baby of about two months old, but they had already started having family prayer with the baby. It is a good start for their family. We may not always think that family prayer is doing any good. Elder Bednar said that each family prayer is a brushstroke on the canvas of faith. Another sisters said that her parents were consistent about having family prayer in their family. She remembers doing it every day and how it influenced her through their consistent efforts. Vira Bahr said in her family they use their electronic devices to say prayer together and to study their scriptures while driving together, even if they are not all home together. Elder Scott said that reading scriptures is more important than sleep, school, work, TV, video games, or social media. Ruth Hendriksen said the scripture stories from Ruth, Esther, and Nephi in the Book of Mormon have strengthened her, because they showed her that praying and thanking God would strengthen people. She remembers Job and all the things we are promised and how scripture study gives us a foundation to trust God. She has a scripture study journal where she writes down thoughts she has during her scripture study. Once, when her daughter Tamara left home to go out on her own, Ruth felt broken up over the loss and she found a scripture during her study that says broken hearts will be mended and that comforted her. Elder Scott also has several endnotes at the end of his talk about the experiences of several General Authorities and their own scripture study. About Family Home Evening, he says it is more important than employment demands, sports, extracurricular activities, homework, or anything else. Jenni Harker said that when her two oldest children were 2 and 3 years old, she thought that if she parented perfectly, her children would be perfect, but that is not always the case. She and her husband Brent decided to have Family Home Evening regularly and since they started it while the children were young, they have never had a problem with it. In their family, they have lessons about 2/3 of the time and activities the other times. She feels it is important for children to have friends in the family and the activities help them be friends. It is especially important because children have so many outside influences. She asked her children why they liked FHE and they said that it was a neutral time. If one person had a problem with someone, the lesson about that problem was for everyone and didn’t single any one person out. Another son said it was how he stopped using bad language, because it gave him the desire to stop. He had his mother put out a swearing jar where he had to put money in if he swore, especially at games. The first time he came back from a game, he had to put in a dollar, but after three to four weeks he felt like he had the bad habit licked. Jenni said that treats are really important. She said that while everyone sits around eating sugar and relaxing they learn amazing things about each other. One of her boys, Jim, said that because they had FHE so regularly as a child, it was easier for him to start it up with his own family. Elder Scott went on to discuss temple attendance. He said don’t let anything get in the way of temple attendance. Sandi Green said the temple helped her family several times. For example, when her daughter Joy came home from her mission, she was followed home by a young man who wanted to marry her. This young man did not like her family and pulled her away. Sandi said that as Joy became consumed by the relationship, Sandi and Steve started putting her name in the temple. Sandi said she went often. Then one of Joy’s missionary companions came to visit in Utah Valley and wanted to take Joy with her to visit the companion’s parents in Idaho. The young man wanted to go, too, but ended up not going. Joy and her companion visited and even went to the temple in Idaho and when she came back, she told the young man to leave and that she would not marry him. Later in Joy’s life, she suffered from breast cancer. Sandi and Steve asked for our ward to pray for her and go to the temple for her. Joy said she could feel the support from those prayers and temple attendance and was eventually cured. Kristine said that these four tools will help us call down the blessings of heaven, especially if they become habits.

Lesson for December 14, 2014

Today our lesson was given by Megan Miller. She started out with scriptures from D&C 45:22-33, Matthew 24:14, and 3rd Nephi 25:5-6 about signs of the Second Coming of Christ. Some of the signs in these scriptures are the light of the Gospel being restored, the gathering of Israel, commotion in the Earth, wars and rumors of wars, iniquity abounding, desolating sickness and sickness in general, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, missionary work and rejection of missionary work, disciples standing in holy places, the hearts of the children shall turn to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children. Megan asked if we are prepared for all of that. President Smith said that most people have the wrong idea by what is meant by the end of the world. When Christ comes, there will be an end to the world. Instead, people will obey and God’s kingdom will come. Megan said we are often scared by the idea of all the things we will face, but if we have the right idea, we can look forward to the end of the world and not be afraid. If we look at the things that will happen, we can see that many have already happened or are happening. So many of the positive things are happening, from missionary work and the Restoration, the boom in family history, the gathering of Israel, etc. Megan went on in the lesson where President Smith said the Lord is not going to wait until we are righteous. When He is ready, He is ready and if we aren’t ready, it will be just too bad. So what can we do to prepare? Don’t panic and don’t worry, if we are living righteously. The Second Coming will happen to all of us no matter if we are on earth or in heaven. We should not worry about offending someone and be glad we are members of the Church. Everybody needs somebody and it might just be the right one who makes a difference. Take every opportunity to serve and grow. Every day, if we are working on improving, we should be prepared. Put oil in our lamps so we can be prepared. In Matthew 24:14 it states that the gospel will be preached in all nations. How have we seen this begin in our lifetime? There are many different kinds of missions now—even from our own homes and on the internet. When the age limit was lowered, so many people were energized to leave. Wasn’t it amazing that their parents had prepared and prepared their children enough to support that kind of mass exodus? So many young people want to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. Now so many people have access to Church materials through the media. The Church has a great ad campaign about Share the Gift that Jesus Christ is the gift to the world. There is even a huge ad on Times Square in New York. We can share the Church magazines with each other, as well. Megan turned to the lesson where President Smith said the Latter-day Saints may be considered strange and peculiar that they are the ones to spread this message, but we have confidence that we are the ones and that when the Lord comes again, we will have preached the gospel to everyone. Megan’s brother has been sharing something every night with things he shows his family about the Savior. He does it on Facebook and many people have been touched. In 3rd Nephi 25:5-6 Family History work is mentioned. How is it preparing you? The youth in our ward are so excited to do family history. It is so easy to get on the Internet. Many times the temple is full and there is a good reason why we have so many new ones. The spirit of Elijah is also working on non-members and they are getting excited, too. Even the Vue had Ancestry.com on their television show. It’s great that we see that for what it is and that the Lord has a hand in it. Even the youth who are so tied to their cell phones are trained to do family history. The stories are important, so look for the stories. Only a small portion of the things we have are not digitized. We need to get the stories and pictures digitized. Now up to fifteen minutes of an audio recording can be uploaded to Family Search. Megan showed the video about the 10 virgins where only 5 were wise and 5 were foolish. The foolish ones wanted some of the wise virgins’ oil and were told to go buy some for themselves, but there was none to buy and by the time they got back, the door was closed. We need to be prepared and if we are not, we need to make ourselves be prepared.

Lesson for December 14, 2014

Lesson for December 7, 2014

Today our lesson was given by Maggie Kopp about Chapter 25 of the Joseph Fielding Smith book, “Good Tidings of Great Joy.” Maggie talked about the exhibits she is making in the BYU Library for Christmas and some of the things President Smith did with his family, especially the significance of the Wise Men who visited Jesus Christ bringing gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We don’t really know that there were three or that they were kings. Matthew was trying to show that Christ was the Savior for everyone, not just the Jews. They did bring the gifts, which have significance. Myrrh is used to embalm dead bodies, which may seem sad for a baby, but Christ died and rose again. Gold is something given to a king. Joseph and Mary were poor, so such a gift was precious. Frankincense is an herb that priests in the temple burn to send the smoke and the prayers heavenward, often in conjunction with burnt sacrifices. So it could symbolize the holy nature of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. Joseph Fielding Smith said that although Christ was divine, He had to learn line upon line as we do. Maggie asked about how it makes us feel to know that Jesus is our King. Jesus is the most loving, kind king we could have. He is our priest and Redeemer. Mosiah states that there is no other way or name given whereby we can be saved. We celebrate Christmas for this reason and to save all men from spiritual and temporal death. President Smith said that sometimes we commercialize Christmas too much and forget His reason for coming to earth. He volunteered to come in the Meridian of Time to save us. He was willing to do that for us. Maggie asked what symbols stand out in the Christmas story. The star provided guidance, helped the shepherds, and symbolizes the Light of Christ. The Christmas tree has branches that point up to heaven and is an evergreen to symbolize life. The music is a huge part of Christmas. Sometimes the music touches our souls and reminds us about the good part of life and the gospel, sometimes in places we would not expect it to be. The shepherds were the first to know. They took care of their sheep. The manger is a humble place to be born. Have accepted the gift and symbolism of this great event? Do we have faith that the Atonement can be for us. Sometimes the spirit of Christmas can be brought about by family traditions. Shanacy Critchfield said her family has a separate tree that is for gifts her children work on all year. Another sister said her book had a book that had spiritual stories in it. If we would embrace others in need, such as the homeless, would we see them for who they are? Maybe we can celebrate Christmas in April or July. People make such a huge thing about Christmas because it is the tiniest step for people to come closer to being like Christ. What kinds of gifts can we give the Savior? We can give him service or help out at the Bishop’s Storehouse or the temple—time and service. We can forgive others and forget—Christmas is for giving and for getting. We can be good examples of being obedient. That is truly a gift to our Heavenly Father. We can use the gifts Heavenly Father has given us, such as patience, and talents. We can find those in need. Maggie ended her lesson with the picture she had from the exhibit of the wise men going to and coming from and she was reminded of the way people who saw the Christ child were affected. She wants us to think of what we can give.

Relief Society dinner Dec. 16

Come and join the sisters for a dinner and a fun white elephant gift exchange (that means no thoughtful or useful gifts).