Sunday, November 26, 2006

Sunday November 26, 2006

Sacrament Meeting
Perseverance
Thomas Edison was deaf by the time he was a teenager. He was self taught from the time he was a young age. Einstein had education, but Edison persevered to get his knowledge. He invented the phonograph in spite of being deaf.

Patience
In England Solitaire is called Patience. Buddhism has patience as one of the six things needed to attain. As time went on, the scriptures has more references per author on patience. Do we have more problems with impatience in our day?

Patience is not indifference.

Impatience may indicate that out timetable is more important than the Lord's.

Sunday School
Whenever a temple is dedicated we do a hosanna shout. It is because it is a grand spiritual event when a new temple is operating on the earth.

Ezekiel says that the lord walks in his temples.

Ezekiel 47 - The water is the Gospel. It is the truths that come out of the temple. Truth will heal that war torn land.

Priesthood
M Russel Ballard's talk from last conference on being wise.

Jacob, brother of Nephi - wants to know if his people are going to reject the words like the Lamanites did. He tells them, "Oh be wise. What can I say more?"

Focus on people not the programs.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Sunday November 19, 2006

Sacrament Meeting
As the speaker spoke today about gratitude and the fact that the topic was inspired by it being the week of Thanksgiving, I thought about the excitement of the holidays and even gathering with friends that I have lost over the years. Holidays have become just time off of work. Gatherings with friends use to feel like I was going to miss something if I was not there. Now gatherings with friends feel mostly like work.

One speaker took parts of his talk from an article written by President Faust. It talked of how he grew up during the Great Depression. He said that they had homemade soap made from ashes. He said that they bathed once a week, so they were cleaner than when they got in the bath, but smelled worse and the soap was gritty and uncomfortable to use. Because of that he appreciates the soft soaps we have today that smell good. I don't ever want to go through something like the depression, but I do want to appreciate what we have more and not have an appetite for "better" things.

The speaker went on to talk about miracles that are around us every day. He talked of counting the miracles we see every day and giving thanks for them. There are a lot of things we don't pay attention to as miracles.

Sunday School
Ezekiel
We talked of good shepherds and bad shepherds. Bad shepherds are self serving and do not have the welfare of the sheep in their minds and hearts. The difference between the good and the bad is is loving the sheep and just being there for the money. It came to my mind about our employment. Are we just there for the money or do we honestly do our best. This scripture is about teaching God's people, but it brought out other interesting thoughts to me.

Priesthood
Lesson 22 in the Teachings of Wilford Woodruff manual.
President Woodruff taught that those who labor with their education should also find ways to work manually. He said that we should not look down at manual work as being beneath us.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Sunday November 12, 2006

Sacrament Meeting
We have two young men leaving on missions this week and they spoke today.

One of the them related a survey of returned missionaries about what they felt they should've done before leaving on their missions that would've better prepared them. Many of them said they would've studied more and become more familiar with the scriptures.

It was stated that missionaries should focus less on prepared lessons and more on teaching by the spirit. That does not mean to go in blind and not prepare, but to not focus on getting through a lesson plan.

One of the speakers talked of having gone to the temple for the first time recently. I believe he said that he went through a couple the last week or so. He testified of the sacredness of the temple and that all should become worthy and attend often.

Our new stake high councilor spoke. He introcduced himself. He said that he and his family are new to the area. He said that his wife is an actress and has been in several, now syndicated, television shows.

In his talk he said that in the scriptures the Lord does not use the word mission. Instead he uses the phrase to gather. He also expressed tht the measure of a successful missionary is the degree to which they obey the mission rules. A successful life could be measure in much the same way.

Sunday School
I was mistaken. We did not get through all of Jeremiah last week.

We talked about the miracles Israel had seen and yet built a golden calf. Turn that around and what if they saw our day and how foolish would we seem to them with foolish things we do with all the miracles that are done around us?

Do we fish for men as seriously and passionately as fishermen and hunters do for game?

Priesthood
Chapter 21 Wilford Woodruff
Why does God allow suffering?
1. Sometimes it is caused by others or ourselves and we and they have our agency. God will not remove that.
2. Also our purpose here is to be tried. We are to prove that we will be faithful. God knows what we will do, so we are mostly proving it to ourselves.
3. We are strengthen by doing. We learn by overcoming. Learning is another of our purposes.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Sunday November 5, 2006

Fast and Testimony Meeting
We have had a lot of trouble with irreverence in the chapel. Our new bishop has implemented some things to try to help with that. He has had the elders' quorum set up ushers to make sure the overflow curtain stays closed until a few minutes before the meeting starts, so that the chapel fills up more before going to the overflow. The ushers are also supposed to keep people who come late from entering the chapel during sacrament meeting.

We have also had trouble with testimony meeting running over every month. People would not only run long with their testimonies, but they would also get up when the meeting was already supposed to be over to sit in line on the stand. They announced today that they would like people to respect that they want the meeting to wrap up by five till the hour.

Sunday School
We did the entire book of Jeremiah today.
It was pointed out that different prophets have different missions. Each of us also have different missions. We should not be jealous of the callings that other people get. Jeremiah and Mormon were called to give an apostate people one last change, but not succeed in getting them to repent. Others have been called to be successful. Some prophets prosper. Some live in poverty. Some are tortured. Some are killed.

Priesthood
The lesson was based on a April 1996 conference talk given by Thomas S. Monson. The talk was titled Duty Calls.

Where does the path of duty lie? First is the duty to prepare. Second is the duty to serve. You must know your duty and learn what it is. Then you must do it.