Church Services This Week at Ridge Crest Ward Northridge Stake Layton Utah 24 May 2015

Sacrament Service

One of the youth spoke about honoring your parents.

Mosiah 17 -  Alma the younger.

Had Alma honored his parents, he would not have had to go through such a hard thing.  Likely both of his parents were very concerned about his behavior.

Someone spoke about his wife, his mother and grandmother.

Sunday School

My teaching partner’s lesson on How Do I Improve My Scripture Study.

The scriptures can help us recognize the hand of God in our lives. When we read our scriptures we can read experiences of others that remind us of things that we have experienced personally that we may have missed.

Elders Quorum

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson Chapter 10

Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon

“I realized that I could give every individual on my street the opportunity to receive a copy of the Book of Mormon.

“But there was a problem—they knew me. They knew about my dog that barked too often—and too early in the morning. They knew that my yard was not the garden spot of the neighborhood. They knew my shortcomings as a neighbor; they would probably turn me away.

“I determined to have faith and go ahead anyway. I would offer them the book—even if they might throw it away, or let it collect dust on their shelves for years. Yet I found myself thinking negatively; I had almost convinced myself that nothing could come of my efforts.

“Then I remembered that I knew my neighbors at least as well as they knew me. A few had told questionable jokes at the last community development meeting, and a few had drunk too much at the last neighborhood barbecue. Some seemed to have little purpose in their lives. I wondered what I would have been like if I weren’t a member of the Church, or if I’d never heard of the Book of Mormon. Clearly, this book could help those who would give it a chance.

“So I contacted everyone on my street and offered them a copy of the Book of Mormon—and they all thanked me! It went so well that I went to the next street, completed my subdivision, and then went on to the next subdivision. When I was through, I had visited 104 houses and placed forty books.” (Howard J. McOmber II, in “Finding Truth in the Book of Mormon,” Ensign, Jan. 1996, 10–11.)

“While the Bible helped me know about what Jesus did for people in the Holy Land, the Book of Mormon gave me a deeper understanding of what He has done for me.”

Church Services This Week at Sullivan Hollow Second Ward Weber Heights Stake Ogden Utah 9-7-08

My Son's Primary Talk

We learn from the scriptures to forgive others. Matthew 5:44 tells us to love our enemies. The Lord's prayer in Matthew 6:12 asks God to forgive us as we forgive others. Mark 11:25 tells us that when we pray we should forgive and God will forgive us.

Joint Priesthood/Relief Society/Priests/Laurels Meeting

The bishop spoke to us. Below are some of the points I captured that he covered.

Even if we are not sinning in a major way we have need to constantly repent. We should ponder ways that we are not helping God's work move forward. We should repent and ask Him how we can do more or do it better.

2 Nephi 31:20 - We should feast upon the words of Christ. Is it a feast if we just go to church once a week and that is the extent of our exposure to God's word? Or even if we just read a few verses everyday without pondering the meaning?

Taking notes helps us to articulate and understand what we are feeling. He noted that it is difficult for him when he receives revelation in the shower since he has no place to write it down.

The weight of the Church is carried by the individual members.

You were born to succeed not born to fail.

Handout from the Bishop's Lesson

Being a Wise and Fruitful Servant

Sullivan Hollow 2nd Bishopric
Introduction
Heavenly Father gives us "Principles, Processes, Promises and Power (due to obedience)." Please look for them in this presentation adn materials. Please make this a matter of personal study, reflection, goal setting and action planning. Do better things in better ways because of this material. Please discuss this as a family in Family Home Evening (FHE).

The literal promise from the Lord is that your lives will be more fulfilling, the Lord will bless you in ways that He has been unable to but now can, revelation will be more frequent and in a more abundant way will be yours, your abilities to do things will be enhanced, the trials of life will be easier to handle, and so forth. With such immeasurable gifts, could we not humbly search through and decide to do just a bit better each day in our lives to have such great blessings.

A. Doctrine and Principles

1. Read Moses 1:39. For what purpose does Heavenly Father live?
   


2. Why are we so involved in this same purpose? (To become like He is, we must practice and do what He is Doing. This is acheived as we study, learn, do, fail/succeed/grow, and do more and more with consistently and exactness. This is achieved as we strive to DO what THEY do -- line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.)
   


3. How do we understand and fully gain the abilities He wishes us to acquire
   a. Study, pray, serve
   
   b. Do His will
   
   c. Constantly repent, change, and grow
   
   d. D&C 58:26 -- "For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is commanded in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward."
   
   e. Alma 37:6, 7 -
   6 Now ye may suppose that this is afoolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by bsmall and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
   7 And the Lord God doth work by ameans to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very bsmall means the Lord doth cconfound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.
   
   f. 2 Nephi 31:20 -
   20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a asteadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of bhope, and a clove of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and dendure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eeternal life.
   
   g. Mosiah 2:41 -
   41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and ahappy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are bblessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out cfaithful to the end they are received into dheaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
   


4. The Lord measures success - your interview with Jesus on Judgement Day. This is a quote from President David O. McKay, former President and Prophet of the Church.
   
   a. What did you do with the talents that I gave to you?
   b. How have you treated your spouse?
   c. Tell me how you treated your children, name by name.
   d. What callings you had in the Church are immaterial; tell me about how you fulfilled your Church assignments, especially that of a home teacher?
   e. Tell me about your contributions to the communities in which you lived.

B. Processes

1. Elder Oaks brief history
   "Life has some strange turns. When I was a young man I thought I would serve a mission. I graduated from high school in June 1950. Thousands of miles away, one week after high school graduation, a North Korean army crossed the 38th parallel, and our country was a twar. I was 17 years old, but as a member of the Utah National Guard I was soon under orders to prepare for mobilization and active service. Suddenly, for me and for many other young men of my generation, the full-time mission we had planned was not to be.
   
   "Another example: After I served as president of Brigham Young University for nine years, I was released. A few months later the govenor of the state of Utah appointed me to a 10-year term on the supreme court of the state. I was then 48 years old. My wife June and I tried to plan the rest of our lives. We served 20 years on the state supreme court. Then, at the end of two ten year terms, when I would be nearly 69 years old, I would retire from the supreme court, and we would submit our missionary papers and serve a mission as a couple.
   
   "Four years after we made that plan I was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles--something we never dreamed would happen. Realizing then that the Lord had different plans and different timing than we had assumed, I resigned as a justice of the supreme court. But this was not the end of the important differences. When I was 66, my wife June died of cancer. Two years later I married Kristen McMain, the eternal companion who now stands at my side.
   
   How fundamentally different my life is than I had sought to plan! My professional life has changed. My personal life has changed. But the commitment I made to the Lord--to put Him first in my life and to be ready for whatever He would have me do--has carried me through these changes of eternal importance."
   


2. Choosing the Lord as Priority #1
   Wise are those who make this commitment: I will put the Lord first in my life and I will keep Him commandments. The performance of that commitment is within everyone's control. We can fulfill that commitment without regard to what others decide to do, and that commitment will anchor us no matter what timing the Lord directs for the most important events in our lives.
   
   Commit yourself to put the Lord first in your life, keep His commandments, and do what the Lord's servants ask you to do. Then your feet are on the pathway to eternal life. You do not know what will happen. Do your best on what is fundamental and personal and then trust in the Lord and His timing.
   


3. How Do These Principles Apply to ME as a Child of God?
   

C. How Do I Put the Lord First

1. Since the Lord reveals to us line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, NONE of us knows when He is going to reveal matters to us. WHEN we present ourselves continuously as ready and willing vessels, the Lord will reveal His will and blessings to us MORE FREQUENTLY and in LARGER MEASURES.


2. How do we present ourselves as ready and willing vessles to the Lord?
   a. prayer, scripture study
   b. service to others
   c. repentance and forgiving others
   d. being actively and continuously engaged as a student of God by asking questions like "what am I to learn from this scripture, this situation, this discussion, etc.?"
   e. being actively engaged as a student of God by taking notes during personal prayer, scripture study, meetings, etc. No mind is sharper than the dullest pencil. He will give us more as we record His messages. Who/what is more important? A shopping list or what your Heavenly Father has to share? Why do we not constantly seek to take notes in HIS settings?
   f. other ways:
   ________________________________________________________________
   
   ________________________________________________________________
   
   g. For leaders--plan, do, (evaluate, adjust), delegate, coach, and ask for follow-up
   
   Elder Ballard in "O Be Wise", stated "...divide the work and delegate responsibility. There is a difference between being responsible for getting the work done and doing the work yourself. For example, gone should be the days when the elders quorum president feels he needs to personally finish the home teaching visits that others have missed. The same is true for Relief Society presidents with respect to visiting teaching. Not only is this unwise; it isn't home or visiting teaching. Home teaching isn't about numbers or reporting visits to a home; visits and numbers are just a measuring stick. Home teaching is about love of people and service to and watchcare over our Heavenly Father's children.
   
   "Assignments should be made, responsibilities should be delegated, and members should be allowed to fulfill their stewardship as best they can. Counsel, advise, persuade, motivate—but don't do the work for them."
   
   Elder Dallin H. Oaks stated in his talk, "Good, Better, Best", "To our hundreds of thousands of home teachers and visiting teachers, I suggest that it is good to visit our assigned families; it is better to have a brief visit in which we teach doctrine and principle; and it is best of all to make a difference in the lives of some of those we visit. That same challenge applies to the many meetings we hold—good to hold a meeting, better to teach a principle, but best to actually improve lives as a result of the meeting."
   
   h. Elder Ballard in "O Be Wise", also stated "...we need to thoughtfully allocate our resources of time, income, and energy.
   
   "The key, it seems to me, is to know and understand your own capabilities and limitations and then to pace yourself, allocating and prioritizing your time, your attention, and your resources to wisely help others, including your family, in their quest for eternal life. "
   
   i. Elder Dallin H. Oaks stated in his talk, "Good, Better, Best", the following, "We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.
   
   "We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it."
   
   j. EXAMPLE of Planning, Priorities, and Progress
   
   Rocks, Pebbles, Sand and Water
   
   For "Planning, priorities, progress, and promises" to work, this takes CONSTANT VIGILANCE for most people until it becomes a HABIT. Then, will still applying the habit consistently, we become unconsciously competent.
   
   k. Elder Dallin H. Oaks stated in his talk, "Good, Better, Best" he continued: "I ask you men, particularly, to pause and take stock of yourselves as husbands and fathers and heads of households. Pray for guidance, for help, for direction, and then follow the whisperings of the Spirit to guide you in the most serious of all responsibilities, for the consequences of your leadership in your home will be eternal and everlasting."
   
   HOW?
   (1) By being a more active and seeking learner and participant.
   
   (2) By planning monthly, weekly, daily, even hourly.
   
   (3) By focusing on eternally significant priorities first PLUG IN PRIORITIES BEFORE ALL ELSE.
   

Sunday School

Book of Mormon - Lesson 34: “How Could You Have Forgotten Your God?” p150
The Book of Mormon has patterns. One of those patterns is the Pride Cycle. Righteousness and prosperity => Pride and Wickedness => Destruction and Suffering => Humility and Repentance

When you have more money you often buy nicer things which can lead to forgetting that less nice things were useful and many time adequate. This can lead to being prideful about what we have.

Repenting frequently keeps us righteous and prospering.

Many stay prideful and suffering and spiral in destruction.

Handout from Sunday School:
NEPHITES LAMANITES
Dwindled in unblief (verse 34). Grew in the knowledge of God (verse 34).

Grew in wickedness and sin (verse 34). Walked in truth and righteousness before God (verse 34).

Lost the guidance of the Spirit Received the Spirit

Built up and supported the Gadianton robbers (verse 38). Preached the word of God to the Gadianton robbers (version 37).

Testimony Meeting

From the bulletin:
"Foyers are built into our chapels for the greet and chatting that are typical of people who love one another. However, when we step into the chapel, we must - each of us must - wath ourselves lest we be guilty of intruding when someone is struggling to feel delicate spiritual communications."
Elder Boyd K. Packer, Reverence Invites Revelation Ensign November 1991.

"Knowledge encourages obedience, and obedience enhances knowledge.

"A testimony of the gospel is a personal witness borne to our souls by the Holy Ghost that certain facts of eternal significance are true and that we know them to be true. Such facts include the nature of the Godhead and our relationship to its three members, the effectiveness of the Atonement, and the reality of the Restoration.

"A testimony of the gospel is not a travelogue, a health log, or an expression of love for family members. It is not a sermon. President Kimball taught that the moment we begin preaching to others, our testimony is ended."
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Testimony, Ensign May 2008, 26, 29

Sunday October 7, 2007 - Morning Session of General Conference

Sunday Morning Session of the 177th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

President Eyring - First Counselor in the First Presidency

O Remember, Remember (Text, Audio, Video)

He started off hos talk saying a few words about President Faust. He said, "I always felt that when I grew up, I wanted to be like President Faust. There may still be time."

He talked of how he had started, when his children were young, to stop at the end of each day and ponder on where he had seen the hand of God blessing his family. He would then jot down a few lines. He ended up giving a copy of that journal to his children. "...find ways to recognize and remember God’s kindness."

He quoted a line from the hymn Count Your Blessing “Count your many blessings; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

He also quoted Helaman 12:1-2,5 -

1 And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and ^aprosper those who put their ^btrust in him.

2 Yea, and we may see at the very ^atime when he doth ^bprosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of ^cprecious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do ^dharden their hearts, and do ^eforget the Lord their God, and do ^ftrample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.
5 Yea, how quick to be lifted up in ^apride; yea, how quick to ^bboast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to ^cwalk in wisdom’s paths!

Elder Quentin L. Cook - Apostle

Live by Faith and Not by Fear (Text, Audio, Video)
He shared some thoughts about being called as an apostle and how inadequate he felt. He said that when he had been called as a general authority in 1996. Elder Neal A. Maxwell told him "the most important qualification for all of us serving in the kingdom is to be comfortable in bearing witness of the divinity of the Savior."

Claudio R.M. Costa - Member of the Presidency of the Seventy
Don't Leave for Tomorrow What You Can Do Today(Text, Audio, Video)

He quoted from The Family: A Proclamation to the World - "Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children." He gave a list of 3 things we can do to protect and strengthen our families that President Faust listed in a talk he gave at a Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting in January of 2004.

1. Family prayer. Parents must teach their children that they are God's children and therefore need to pray to Him daily.
2. Family home evening. As President Faust taught us, family home evening is for all of us no matter what stage of life we are in. We must have Monday nights free of all other activities that might keep us from gathering as a family.
3. Personal and family scripture study. We need to help our children strengthen their faith and testimony through this basic habit

The Proclamation states that fathers "are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."

Julie B. Beck - Relief Society General President
Mothers Who Know (Text, Audio, Video)
She spoke about mothers who know who they are.
Here are the topic points of her talk:
There is eternal influence and power in motherhood.
Mothers Who Know Bear Children.
Mothers Who Know Honor Sacred Ordinances and Covenants.
Mothers Who Know Are Nurturers.
Mothers Who Know Are Leaders.
Mothers Who Know Are Teachers.
Mothers Who Know Do Less.
Mothers Who Know Stand Strong and Immovable.

Elder Christoffel Golden Jr. - Seventy
Small and Simple Things (Text, Audio, Video)

His talk focused on the power we can receive from obedience to the things the Lord has asked us to like prayer, scripture study, and attending church. As we obey these things our strength and obedience increases and so on and so on as we progress.

David A. Bednar - Apostle
Clean Hand and a Pure Heart(Text, Audio, Video)

"Our spiritual purpose is to overcome both sin and the desire to sin, both the taint and the tyranny of sin."

He talked of the Savior's visit to America after he was resurrected. There the Savior taught the same basic principles that he taught the people at Jerusalem.

Elder Bednar talked of baptism and of striving to live that the Holy Ghost can always be with us. "

Prophets throughout the ages have emphasized the dual requirements of (1) avoiding and overcoming bad and (2) doing good and becoming better. Consider the penetrating questions posed by the Psalmist:

“Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?

“He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully” (Psalm 24:3–4)."

He talked of how some feel that the goal of obeying all of God's commandments is not possible in this life. He testified "that the Savior will strengthen and assist us to make sustained, paced progress."

President Gordon B. Hinckley - Prophet
The Stone Cut Out of the Mountain(Text, Audio, Video)
He spoke of the remarkable growth of the Church.

He was the second person to talk about the Nicean Creed and subsequent creeds and the errors that they have lead to in Christianity. Many of the doctrines contained within are not supported by the Bible.