- July 12 7am Priesthood Meeting at Sullivan Hollow meeting house.
The bishop encouraged us to work on the Family Search Indexing project.
This meeting was to plan block parties to have with our neighbors.
At the close of the meeting someone read an excerpt from Elder Ucktdorf's conference talk
We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down.
Does what we are doing matter most?
Sunday School
Lesson 24: “Be Not Deceived, but Continue in Steadfastness” 134
We should recognize the deceptions of Satan that can lead us into apostasy.
- Not recognizing the prophet as the source of revelation for the Church
- Pride
- Being critical of leaders’ imperfections
- Being offended
- Rationalizing disobedience
- Accepting the false teachings of the world
- We can know clearly whom the Lord has called to lead the Church
- We should study the scriptures and the doctrines of the Church
- We should recognize that the things of God will always edify us
- We should apply the Lord’s pattern for protecting ourselves from being deceived
"After 19 years of darkness and bitterness, Thomas B. Marsh painfully made his way to the Salt Lake Valley and asked Brigham Young to forgive him and permit his rebaptism into the Church. He wrote to Heber C. Kimball, First Counselor in the First Presidency: 'I began to awake to a sense of my situation; … I know that I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight.' He then described the lesson he had learned: 'The Lord could get along very well without me and He has lost nothing by my falling out of the ranks; But O what have I lost?! Riches, greater riches than all this world or many planets like this could afford'” (quoted by James E. Faust, in Conference Report, Apr. 1996, 6; or Ensign, May 1996, 7).
Sacrament Service
4th Article of Faith
We believe that the first principles and aordinances of the Gospel are: first, bFaith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, cRepentance; third, dBaptism by eimmersion for the fremission of sins; fourth, Laying on of ghands for the hgift of the Holy Ghost.
These are the first things we need to do and then endure to the end.
Concrete is made up of so much water, so much gravel, so much sand, so much cement, and so forth. If you have more or less of any of them it does not work. Much the same is true for our lives. We have things we need to do to come out right. We need prayer, study, recreation, service, and so forth, but if things are not in the right balance in our lives it doesn't work.
The Salt Lake Temple took 40 years to build. So it is with our lives. Little by little.
Num. 27: 18, 22-23
18 ¶ And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee aJoshua the son of bNun, a man in whom is the cspirit, and dlay thine hand upon him;
• • •
22 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him: and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation:
23 And he alaid his bhands upon him, and gave him a ccharge, as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses.
Deut. 34: 9
9 ¶ And Joshua the son of aNun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had blaid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel chearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses.
Often members sustain our leaders with our hand while the rest of our body is doing something else like correcting a kid or sleeping. Our hands go up quickly and come down just as quickly.
"In my judgment, one of the most important acts performed at the conferences of the Church is that in which we hold up our hands before the Lord to sustain the authorities of the Church and the organization thereof as it exists. But it is one of the important things that we do which rests with little weight upon some people. In other words, some people go away after holding up their hands to sustain the authorities of the Church and think no more about it, and act in many respects as though they had merely gone through a form to which they did not attach any importance whatever. I conceive this to be a wrong principle. … Those who covenant to keep the commandments of the Lord, and then violate that covenant by failing to observe those commandments, do no more than they do who raise their hands in token of a covenant to uphold and sustain the authorities of the Church and then fail to do it. The principle is the same in both cases: it is a violation of the covenant we make." (Joseph F. Smith, Deseret News: Semi-Weekly, 14 May 1895, 1)
Sustaining our leaders does not end when our hands come down.
From the Bulletin
"I encourage you to reach out to those you serve and to love them. When you really love those you serve, they will not find themselves in that dreaded "Never, Never Land" — never the object of concern, never the recipient of needed aid. It may not be your privilege to open gates of cities or doors of palaces, but true happiness and lasting joy will come to you and to each one you serve as you take a hand and reach a heart. Should you become discouraged in your efforts, remember that sometimes the Lord's timetable does not coincide with ours.
Often members sustain our leaders with our hand while the rest of our body is doing something else like correcting a kid or sleeping. Our hands go up quickly and come down just as quickly.
"In my judgment, one of the most important acts performed at the conferences of the Church is that in which we hold up our hands before the Lord to sustain the authorities of the Church and the organization thereof as it exists. But it is one of the important things that we do which rests with little weight upon some people. In other words, some people go away after holding up their hands to sustain the authorities of the Church and think no more about it, and act in many respects as though they had merely gone through a form to which they did not attach any importance whatever. I conceive this to be a wrong principle. … Those who covenant to keep the commandments of the Lord, and then violate that covenant by failing to observe those commandments, do no more than they do who raise their hands in token of a covenant to uphold and sustain the authorities of the Church and then fail to do it. The principle is the same in both cases: it is a violation of the covenant we make." (Joseph F. Smith, Deseret News: Semi-Weekly, 14 May 1895, 1)
Sustaining our leaders does not end when our hands come down.
From the Bulletin
"I encourage you to reach out to those you serve and to love them. When you really love those you serve, they will not find themselves in that dreaded "Never, Never Land" — never the object of concern, never the recipient of needed aid. It may not be your privilege to open gates of cities or doors of palaces, but true happiness and lasting joy will come to you and to each one you serve as you take a hand and reach a heart. Should you become discouraged in your efforts, remember that sometimes the Lord's timetable does not coincide with ours.
As we succeed, as we bring a woman or man, a girl or boy back into activity, we will be answering a wife's or sister's or mother's fervent prayer, helping fulfill a husband's or brother's or father's greatest desire. We will be honoring a loving Father's direction and following an obedient Son's example (see John 12:26; D&C 59:5). And our names will forever be honored by those whom we reach." President Thomas S. Monson, Sugar Beets and the Worth of a Soul, Ensign, July 2009, 6 -7 .
