Sunday March 30, 2008 - Services South Ogden Sixth Ward

Joint Relief Society/Priesthood Meeting
The pews in this chapel were huge. Even the pews on the sides were full sized pews. Every ward I have been in that I can recall had little pews on the side that would barely hold a small family. Generally smaller families would sit in them or single people.

1st Speaker
To help us be one Christ organized His Church.

To help us be one Christ set up authority. Matt. 16: 19 - And I will ^agive unto thee the ^bkeys of the ^ckingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt ^dbind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

The people went to Peter to get a "ruling" on circumcision.

The apostles died and the rulers of Rome took over the Church. Through the reformation people tried to bring back the

D&C 132: 8 - Behold, mine house is a house of ^aorder, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.

2nd Speaker
-Heber J. Grant set up the Church's welfare plan.

The speaker talked a bit of prayer and cited some scriptures.

Matt. 6: 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy ^acloset, and when thou hast ^bshut thy door, ^cpray to thy Father which is in ^dsecret; and thy Father which ^eseeth in secret shall ^freward thee openly.

D&C 109: 8, 16

8 Organize yourselves; ^aprepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a ^bhouse of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of ^corder, a ^dhouse of God;

• • •

16 And that this house may be a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of glory and of God, even thy house;

He also quoted some from Mark Twain's Huck Finn, "It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray and see if I couldn’t try to quit being the kind of boy I was and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn’t come. Why wouldn’t they? It weren’t no use to try and hide it from Him … I knowed very well why they wouldn’t come. It was because my heart warn’t right; it was because I weren’t square: it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing. But deep down in me, I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. YOU CAN’T PRAY A LIE … I found that out."

The bishop was the last speaker.
He talked about the challenges we have in our homes. One he mentioned was self control. He stated that as we keep our covenants we will find peace and joy.

"The opposite of fear is faith."

Sunday School
As we looked for the Gospel Doctrine class we were told they had two of them since the class was so big. That was something I had never seen in a ward. One was in the Relief Society room and one was in one of the seminary class rooms. Both of these were interesting to me.

Let's start with the seminary class rooms. Where I am from seminary is held early in the morning before school. I knew they has seminary as a part of school generally in Utah, but I hadn't expected that there was enough students in one building that they would need two class rooms. Ours are also either held in the teachers home or in a small classroom in the church with folding tables that they take down at the end of class. These classrooms were large rooms and they had actual school desks that stayed set up all the time.

The Relief Society room was the size of a small cultural hall. It had three doors and a folding divider in the middle. My experience with Relief Society rooms are that they are generally a small corner of the building, just a little bit bigger than a large classroom. Our RS room is not big enough for our gospel doctrine class. Their classes combined appeared to be twice the size of ours.

All right enough tourist commentary. Let's get to the lesson notes.

Book of Mormon Lesson 12: “Seek Ye for the Kingdom of God” p51

D&C 107: 99 - Wherefore, now let every man learn his ^aduty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all ^bdiligence.

D&C 58: 27 - Verily I say, men should be ^aanxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

Thoughts precede actions. One will more often give into temptations that they have been thinking about than temptations that we do impulsively. One's mind is a buffet and we are what we eat.

Thoughts that could affect us adversely could be negative self thoughts as well as temptations.

Sacrament Meeting
It was very loud in the meeting. It could've just been kids, but I'm not sure. Just seem a lot louder than my ward in Indiana.

The bishop announced a baptism that was coming up. It sounded like the missionaries would be bringing more than one person. It sounded like perhaps they would be bringing anyone who was ready by that date and it was not because there was one person that was ready for baptism. It kind of makes more sense about the way we were taught in the Missionary Training Center (MTC). The instructors always said, in giving us examples on how to invite someone to be baptized, "We are holding a baptism on ____..." Back home and even in my mission I only ever saw baptisms help for just one person or a family. Where their are more children being baptised you probably just schedule a baptism service for a certain day during the month and everyone just goes that day. Although when my oldest son was baptized there was talk that we might have to double up with another child's baptism if they were going to be baptized in the same month.

1st Speaker
She talked about preparing ourselves for conference and being ready to receive message for our lives and not just endure it. She said that when she was a kid they called it pajama church, since they got up, had breakfast, and turned on the TV and sat around and watched conference in their pajamas. Now more commentary on this from a "tourists" perspective. The day is usually well on its way by the time conference comes on in Indiana and when I was a kid you had to go to church to watch. Fortunately in the last few years the Church has had it on the internet. Generally all we have been able to get is audio, but the video stream gets more reliable each time.

She pointed out that God speaks to our leaders to teach them how to lead the entire church. We can listen to them to learn how to hear God to lead our own lives.

She said that we should not just say, "That was a great talk." We should apply each talk to our lives. Don't just turn on the TV and watch, but prepare in advance. Think during the week about your challenges and pray that you might be strengthened and inspired. Perhaps go to conference with a specific question you need answered. She talked about a couple that had ben raised differently. In the husband's home as a child the mother took care of the dishes. If the wife's home both had pitched in to get it done. They joked that they would take th question to conference. One of the speakers stated that men needed to help their wives around the house.

She quoted President Hinckley, "I will be a better man if I listen and apply these things to my life."

She recommended that we get to know our new prophet.

She noted that people, like her, that live in Utah should be grateful that they can turn ont heir TVs and watch conference. She said that not everyone in the world has that opportunity.

She said something about having gone to a marrieds ward. That was new to me. I have heard of singles wards and we have those in Indiana. I even saw as I was preparing to travel to Utah that there was a retireds ward. I guess I kind of understand the singles ward thing as it is important for singles to interact with other single people of their faith, but the retireds and marrieds wards concept is a little bit harder for me to get my head around why that would be important. Those groups do have unique needs and maybe it makes the congregation stronger having that commonality together.

After she spoke a lady played the chelo for us.

2nd Speaker
He said that he pondered what made up a good talk. He said that generally talks started either with a joke or a lie. He said, "I couldn't think of a joke, so I'm glad to speak to you today."

He talked about serving his mission in Norway. He said it is eight hours ahead of Salt Lake City, so the 12:00pm session of conference came at 8pm for him out there.

I was a little bit surprised at all the talk of how the rest of the world has things different than Utah. I guess some folks there notice the differences as they went other places as much as what I was noticing in coming to Utah.

He said that he likes snowmobiling and he just recovered from an accident where a guy in front of him had set off an avalanche and he got stuck in it. We have a lot of snowmobiling in Indiana, even though I have never done it, but one thing we never here about is an accident that was caused by someone setting off an avalanche.

The speaker noted that he wants to do better at forgiving.

Matt. 6: 14-15

14 For if ye ^aforgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

15 But if ye ^aforgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Moroni 10:32-33

32 Yea, ^acome unto Christ, and be ^bperfected in him, and ^cdeny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and ^dlove God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be ^eperfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye ^asanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the ^bblood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your ^csins, that ye become ^dholy, without spot.

He said that he has a testimony of paying tithing. He said that money has been tigh now that he has a wife, but they have continued to pay their tithing. He said that he has been surprised at how money has come in from places he would've never thought of.

Sunday March 23, 2008 - Easter Services Cumberland Ward

Sacrament Meeting
A young man leaving on a mission to the Dominican Republic gave a bunch of thank yous and his testimony.

First Speaker
The speaker said that the Nicean Creed set the date of Easter to please the various groups that had it on different day. She said that she read that the name Easter comes from the name of the goddess of spring and fertility. We celebrate the resurrection of Christ during that time.

Resurrection is the reuniting of the body and the spirit in a state that does not die. Resurrected bodies are quickened by spirit and not by blood.

Resurrection is a free gift to all righteous and unrighteous.

Alma 40 - This chapter is Alma talking to his son talking to Corianton and explaining some things about death and the resurrection.

Doctrine and Covenants 138 - President Joseph F Smith had this revelation while pondering Some of the words of Peter. He learned more about what the savior did between death and resurrection. He set up a missionary program in the spirit world.
1 Pet. 3: 18-20

18 For Christ also hath once ^asuffered for sins, the just for the ^bunjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to ^cdeath in the flesh, but quickened by the ^dSpirit:

19 By which also he went and ^apreached unto the ^bspirits in ^cprison;

20 ^aWhich sometime were ^bdisobedient, when once the ^clongsuffering of God waited in the days of ^dNoah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were ^esaved by ^fwater.

1 Pet. 4: 6

6 ^aFor for this cause was the ^bgospel ^cpreached also to them that are ^ddead, that they might be ^ejudged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

Doctrine and Covenants 138:30-31

30 But behold, from among the righteous, he ^aorganized his forces and appointed ^bmessengers, ^cclothed with power and authority, and ^dcommissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in ^edarkness, even to ^fall the spirits of men; and thus was the gospel preached to the dead.

31 And the chosen messengers went forth to declare the ^aacceptable day of the Lord and proclaim ^bliberty to the captives who were bound, even unto all who would ^crepent of their sins and receive the gospel.

1 Corinthians 15:40-42 - Speaks of the different inheritances that people will get after the resurrection.

40 ^aThere are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the ^bcelestial is one, and the glory of the ^cterrestrial is another.

41 There is one glory of the ^asun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the ^bstars: for one star ^cdiffereth from another star in ^dglory.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in ^acorruption; it is raised in incorruption:

Moroni 10:34 talks of Moroni soon going to paradise to wait for the judgment and resurrection. 34 And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to ^arest in the ^bparadise of God, until my ^cspirit and body shall again ^dreunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the ^eair, to meet you before the ^fpleasing bar of the great ^gJehovah, the Eternal ^hJudge of both quick and dead. Amen.

Second Speaker
1 Councilor in Bishopric
John 3:16
16 ¶ For ^aGod so ^bloved the ^cworld, that he ^dgave his ^eonly begotten ^fSon, that whosoever ^gbelieveth in him should not perish, but have ^heverlasting ⁱlife.

Isa 53:3-5

3 He is ^adespised and rejected of men; a man of ^bsorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we ^cesteemed him not.

4 ¶ Surely he hath ^aborne our ^bgriefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was ^awounded for our ^btransgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his ^cstripes we are ^dhealed.

3rd Article of Faith
3 We believe that through the ^aAtonement of Christ, all ^bmankind may be ^csaved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

John 15:4
4 ^aAbide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

Sunday School
Book of Mormon Lesson 11: “Press Forward with a Steadfastness in Christ”
2 Nephi 31-33

2 Nephi 31:5-13,17 - If Jesus needs to be baptized then how much more do we need to be baptized.

5 And now, if the Lamb of God, he being ^aholy, should have need to be ^bbaptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be ^cbaptized, yea, even by water!

6 And now, I would ask of you, my beloved brethren, wherein the Lamb of God did fulfil all righteousness in being baptized by water?

7 Know ye not that he was holy? But notwithstanding he being holy, he showeth unto the children of men that, according to the flesh he humbleth himself before the Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that he would be ^aobedient unto him in keeping his commandments.

8 Wherefore, after he was baptized with water the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the ^aform of a ^bdove.

9 And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the ^agate, by which they should enter, he having set the ^bexample before them.

10 And he said unto the children of men: ^aFollow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we ^bfollow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?

11 And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son.

12 And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father ^agive the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, ^bfollow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do.

13 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall ^afollow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no ^bhypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real ^cintent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are ^dwilling to take upon you the ^ename of Christ, by ^fbaptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the ^gbaptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the ^htongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.
17 Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and ^abaptism by water; and then cometh a ^bremission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.

2 Nephi 31:19-21 - Endure to the end. Baptism is the gate, but we must walk the path.

19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow ^apath, I would ask if all is ^bdone? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken ^cfaith in him, ^drelying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to ^esave.

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.

21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the ^away; and there is ^bnone other way nor ^cname given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the ^ddoctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the ^eFather, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is ^fone God, without end. Amen.

Priesthood
The Atonement of Jesus Christ by Jeffery R Holland
At One Ment
I have heard people break the word up like this before. Elder Holland said, "The literal meaning of the English word Atonement is self-evident: at-one-ment, the bringing together of things that have been separated or estranged."

John 5:28–29 - everyone receives resurrection

28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the ^agraves shall ^bhear his voice,

29 And shall ^acome forth; they that have done good, unto the ^bresurrection of life; and they that have done ^cevil, unto the resurrection of ^ddamnation.

Doctrine and Covenants 76:72-75

72 Behold, these are they who died ^awithout ^blaw;

73 And also they who are the ^aspirits of men kept in ^bprison, whom the Son visited, and ^cpreached the ^dgospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh;

74 Who ^areceived not the ^btestimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it.

75 These are they who are ^ahonorable men of the earth, who were ^bblinded by the craftiness of men.

Sunday March 16, 2008 - Sunday Services Cumberland Ward

Sacrament Meeting
The bishop read a letter from the first presidency. The letter stated that they were concerned about the financial situation of the members of the church. It stated that we should avoid debt, especially consumer debt, and also risky financial investments. It stated that all investments are risky, but that risk can be mitigated to some degree by adhering to proven financial principles, avoiding debt, and being wise.

1st Speaker
She took points of her talk from a talk give by Elder John B. Dickson of the Seventy at the April 2007 General Conference.

We are here for a purpose. God has given us the plan of salvation and we need to be working for our purpose and not get distracted by the other things of the world or the things that our society presents to us. We should commit ourselves to the Lord's pattern. Psalm 37:5 - "^aCommit thy ^bway unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. "

Elder Dickinson related that there was one who had already committed to not drink alcohol , so every time he was offered in a business setting he did not have to think about it what he should do.

2nd Speaker
1st speaker had stated that she was nervous. The 2nd speaker stating that he was not nervous because he is a high school teacher and he knows no one is listening to him.

Matt 11:28 - "28 ¶ ^aCome unto me, all ye that ^blabour and are heavy laden, and I will give you ^crest."

He quoted the second verse of Master, the Tempest Is Raging (Hymns 105)
"Master, with anguish of spirit
I bow in my grief today.
The depths of my sad heart are troubled.
Oh, waken and save, I pray!
Torrents of sin and of anguish
Sweep o’er my sinking soul,
And I perish! I perish! dear Master.
Oh, hasten and take control!"

Luke 9:6 - "And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the ^agospel, and healing every where." Although healing is limited to the Savior's will.

Mosiah 24:14-15 -

" 14 And I will also ease the ^aburdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as ^bwitnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their ^cafflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did ^astrengthen them that they could bear up their ^bburdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with ^cpatience to all the will of the Lord."

Sunday School
Book of Mormon - Lesson 10
2 Ne 26-30
The Pride Cycle and Priestcraft

I had a little trouble gathering my thoughts, so for Sunday school I just wrote what notes I gathered from the teacher and class discussion.

It is good to be proud of what your family has done or what not, but it is more correct to be happy and thankful.

You do not enter the kingdom of God except you are as a little child.

It is good to be proud to be a member of the church. It is wrong when that moves to feeling you are better than others that are not members of the church.

The Lord never forgets those that are unrighteous, but his attention is keenly focused on those that are righteous.

Paul was passionate that what he was doing was correct even though he was on the wrong path. The Lord appeared to him to correct his perspective. Paul then changed and was just as passionate, if not more, in the truly correct path.

A dimension of Priestcraft is that they teach that we need no further revelation and we have everything we need from God to guide our lives.

Our guilt will come to us in the end because of the things that we rationalize that have kept us from becoming like Jesus.

If you say that you are not coming back to church while so and so is there, who does that hurt? The person you have a problem with or you?

When one is pulled in because of the flash of a church rather than whether it can bring them to Christ robs the poor in spirit. One loses their guidance from God in order to be entertained.

There are charities to help the poor where the leaders of the charities draw huge salaries.

All is not well in Zion when half of us don't come to church.

We get comfortable and we don't pay attention to the things dragging us away and then things get hard and we have to be humbled. This is the pattern of man or the pride cycle. Eventually if we don't learn from that it can lead to destruction.

It is not enough to come on Sunday and do nothing with it the rest of the week.

Priesthood
Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith
Chapter 5: Repentance
I had to leave early so I did not get any notes from class.

Primary
My one son gave a scripture in primary. Enos 1:4 - "And my soul ^ahungered; and I ^bkneeled down before my Maker, and I ^ccried unto him in mighty ^dprayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens. "

My other son gave a talk in primary. He read the summary from picture 240 of the Gospel Art Picture Kit - Jesus the Christ. - "The gospel of Jesus Christ can bring us peace. As we follow the example of Jesus and do what He has taught us to do, we are blessed with the influence of the Holy Spirit. During times of trouble or when we feel afraid, the Holy Ghost will be with us, and we can feel this peace in our hearts. The Holy Ghost helps us remember Jesus and obey His teachings."

Sunday March 9, 2008 - Sunday Services Cumberland Ward

Sacrament Meeting
First Speaker
A missionary that just returned from a mission to Germany spoke. He talked about while on his mission he found that people understood the same scripture differently, even people who belonged to the same church.

Second Speaker
A high councilman, who is also the father of the returned missionary who spoke, also spoke to us. He said that previously Europe was a hard place to be called on a mission to gain converts. He stated that before his son left on his mission Elder Uchtdorf spoke and made the statement that shortly the work was going to begin moving forward at a good rate in Germany. This mission found this to be true.

He talked about some of the problems that occurred with bringing forth what we have today as the Bible. He gave a bit of the history that prepared the Earth for the restoration of the church.
It was a lot like a tape that I had at one time that described those events as well. The tape talked about why the restoration was needed and why 1820 was the time to do it. I thought the guy who gave it was named Hyrum Smith. Doing a Google search on Hyrum Smith and restoration is not very effective for finding a talk. I did finally find it. The talk was titled "Why 1820" and was given by Hyrum W. Smith at Rick's college on September 27, 1988. I think when listening to this talk as a young adult it was the first time I had thought about John chapter 6:66-69

66 ¶ From that time many of his ^adisciples went back, and ^bwalked no more with him.

67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the ^awords of eternal life.

69 And ^awe believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the ^bSon of the living God.

Some of the things he listed for preparation for the restoration were:

• The printing press needed to be made to make the Bible widely accessible.
• The printing press also had the effect of raising the literacy rate, so that more people could actually read the Bible for themselves.
  
• There needed to be those raised up that were discontent with national religion who would protest it.
  
• A free land had to be established where there was no national religion.
  
• The bible needed to be translating into English since that is the language that was going to be spoke in the free land that he was going to establish.

I also found this talk by Elder Robert D. Hales talking about very similar things.

Sunday School
Book of Mormon Lesson 9
“My Soul Delighteth in the Words of Isaiah”
Here are some points from the lesson manual

WHY NEPHI QUOTED ISAIAH
1 Nephi 19:23	To “more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord”
2 Nephi 11:2–4	To provide another witness of Jesus Christ
2 Nephi 11:5–6, 8	To help us (his readers) rejoice
2 Nephi 25:3	To reveal God’s judgments

The lesson listed five keys that can help us understand Isaiah.
Key 1: “Liken all scriptures unto us” (1 Nephi 19:23; see also 2 Nephi 11:2, 2 Nephi 11:8).
Key 2: “Know … concerning the manner of prophesying among the Jews” (2 Nephi 25:1).
Key 3: “Know the judgments of God” (2 Nephi 25:3; see also verse 2 Nephi 25:6).
Key 4: “Know concerning the regions round about [Jerusalem]” (2 Nephi 25:6).
Key 5: Be “filled with the spirit of prophecy” (2 Nephi 25:4).

Going into the mountain means to go to our spiritual place, wherever we can have spiritual. The temple is referred to as the mountain of the Lord. Our spiritual places are not always the temple, but it is good imagery.

Priesthood
Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith
Chapter 4: The Book of Mormon: Keystone of Our Religion p. 57–68
We reviewed the title page of the Book of Mormon which I have included most of it below with some of my own highlights

"Wherefore, it is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites—Written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile—Written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of prophecy and of revelation—Written and sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed—To come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof—Sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in due time by way of the Gentile—The interpretation thereof by the gift of God.

"An abridgment taken from the Book of Ether also, which is a record of the people of Jared, who were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, when they were building a tower to get to heaven—Which is to show unto the remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations—And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ."

We talked about prayer. We must think for ourselves and also ask God when we want inspiration. Sometimes the Lord has said "no" and we continue to walk in our ways and try to make Him change his mind.

Moroni 10:3-5 -

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how ^amerciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ^bponder it in your ^chearts.

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ^aask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not ^btrue; and if ye shall ask with a ^csincere heart, with ^dreal intent, having ^efaith in Christ, he will ^fmanifest the ^gtruth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may ^aknow the ^btruth of all things.

Sunday March 2, 2008 - Sunday Services Cumberland Ward

Sunday School
Book of Mormon Lesson 8
“O How Great the Goodness of Our God”
2 Nephi 9 and 10
Jacob is the one now writing.

It was expressed by a class member that the atonement is a natural law just like gravity.

Another expressed that everything that comes before us is a choice and that if we do not look at it that way then we may be wasting our probation. We need to learn to make correct choices. Many more things than we think about is a choice that matters. Perhaps not the choice itself, but maybe the process of considering the choice. 2 Nephi 9:27 - "But wo unto him that has the law given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state!" also talks about wasting our probation."

2 Nephi 9:5-7 -

" 5 Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him.

6 For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.

7 Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more."

No matter how they lived their life everyone will be resurrected because of the atonement. Many look at death as a horrible, permanent separation from our loved ones.

Death is physical death. Hell is spiritual death or the separation from God permanently.

Priesthood
Cleanliness
If we are not clean it makes us ill. It can draw bugs. Bugs lay eggs and they can be transmitted on people. Those bugs can be then transferred to other people's homes or the church.

It was talked about that uncleanliness can impede the spirit. It can also take up time trying to deal with the clutter that many times accompanies or causes uncleanliness.

At the end of class the missionaries followed up on the message they gave a few weeks ago on doing missionary work.

Doctrine and Covenants 11: 3-4, 27 -

3 Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.

4 Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is called of God.

27 Behold, I speak unto all who have good desires, and have thrust in their sickle to reap.

Rev. 14: 6 - "And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe."