Sunday May 18, 2008 - Services Sullivan Hollow Second Ward

Priesthood
1 Nephi 1
1 I, NEPHI, having been ^aborn of ^bgoodly ^cparents, therefore I was ^dtaught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many ^eafflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a ^frecord of my proceedings in my days.

Elders' Quorum
Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith
Chapter 9: Gifts of the Spirit pp. 114–24

Articles of Faith 1:7: "We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth."

Gifts of the spirit are special skills.
Moroni 10 is a good place to look for information on this.
Purposes of the Gifts:
Testimony
Direction
Tongues - Speak and Interpret
Help
Teaching
Faith

"The human family are very apt to run to extremes, especially in religious matters, and hence people in general either want some miraculous display, or they will not believe in the gift of the Holy Ghost at all. If an Elder lays his hands upon a person, it is thought by many that the person must immediately rise and speak in tongues and prophesy; this idea is gathered from the circumstance of Paul laying his hands upon certain individuals who had been previously (as they stated) baptized unto John's baptism; which when he had done, they 'spake in tongues and prophesied.' [See Acts 19:1-6.] . . .

"We believe that the Holy Ghost is imparted by the laying on of hands of those in authority, and that the gift of tongues, and also the gift of prophecy are gifts of the Spirit, and are obtained through that medium; but then to say that men always prophesied and spoke in tongues when they had the imposition of hands, would be to state that which is untrue, contrary to the practice of the Apostles, and at variance with holy writ. . . .
(History of the Church, 5:26-31; punctuation and grammar modernized; paragraph divisions altered; from "Gift of the Holy Ghost," an editorial published in Times and Seasons, June 15, 1842, pp. 823-25; Joseph Smith was the editor of the periodical.)

Grand manifestations are not the foundation of a testimony.

There are manifestations going on constantly, but many are personal and many are subtle.

"The manifestations of the gift of the Holy Ghost, the ministering of angels, or the development of the power, majesty or glory of God were very seldom manifested publicly, and that generally to the people of God, as to the Israelites; but most generally when angels have come, or God has revealed Himself, it has been to individuals in private, in their chamber; in the wilderness or fields, and that generally without noise or tumult. The angel delivered Peter out of prison in the dead of night; came to Paul unobserved by the rest of the crew; appeared to Mary and Elizabeth without the knowledge of others; spoke to John the Baptist whilst the people around were ignorant of it.

"When Elisha saw the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof, it was unknown to others. When the Lord appeared to Abraham it was at his tent door; when the angels went to Lot, no person knew them but himself, which was the case probably with Abraham and his wife; when the Lord appeared to Moses, it was in the burning bush, in the tabernacle, or in the mountain top; when Elijah was taken in a chariot of fire, it was unobserved by the world; and when he was in a cleft of a rock, there was loud thunder, but the Lord was not in the thunder; there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and then there was a still small voice, which was the voice of the Lord, saying, 'What doest thou here, Elijah?' [See 1 Kings 19:11-13.]"
(More from History of the Church, 5:26-31; punctuation and grammar modernized; paragraph divisions altered; from "Gift of the Holy Ghost," an editorial published in Times and Seasons, June 15, 1842, pp. 823-25; Joseph Smith was the editor of the periodical.)

Sunday School
Book of Mormon Lesson 18: “God Himself … Shall Redeem His People” p79
Mosiah 12-17
What is it about the gospel that makes the prophets willing to risk their lives to share it?

They ask Abinidi questions about the scriptures and he fires back to them that they are the teachers of the people and they do not know those things. He tells them that they have not applied their hearts to it. We can read the scriptures and still not have our lives changed or not understand what we have read.

Abinidi testifies of Christ and it would've appeared at that time that it came to nothing. But So much of the rest of the Book of Mormon are the results of Alma hearing Abinidi's words.

He talks about the law of Moses and its purpose. He talks of the law of Moses being types of things to come pointing to Christ.

Sacrament Meeting
Youth Speaker
Based his remarks on a talk by Henry B. Eyring.
4 Categeories Characteristics of the Book of Mormon (I missed the fourth one)
Powerful missionary tool
Testifies of Christ
Brings the spirit when reading

2nd Speaker
Luke 10 - Parable of the good Samaritan
"37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."

Fast Offering
It is a free will offering. You decide how much is appropriate to pay. God does not specifically say how much to give. The guideline has been the cost of the two meals you were abstaining from, since in the early days of the church it was to actually bring the food of those meals. Now the prophets have counseled to give as much as you are able.

“It has been, and now is, the desire and the objective of the Church to obtain from fast offerings the necessary funds to meet the cash needs of the welfare program. … At the present time we are not meeting this objective. We can, we ought, and we must do better. If we will double our fast offerings, we shall increase our own prosperity, both spiritually and temporally. This the Lord has promised, and this has been the record.” (President Marion G. Romney - “Basics of Church Welfare,” talk given to the Priesthood Board, 6 Mar. 1974, p. 10.)

Mosiah 4: 26
"And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may ^awalk guiltless before God—I would that ye should ^bimpart of your substance to the ^cpoor, every man according to that which he hath, such as ^dfeeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants."

The speaker read a portion of a letter that was included as part of Victor L. Brown, “Fast Offerings: Fulfilling Our Responsibility to Others,” Ensign, May 1981, 37.

“Enclosed find a check for $1,000 for excess fast offerings from the Tongan Mission. Normally this letter would end here, but because of an experience I recently had I would like to add a little more.

“As you may or may not be aware, Tonga is one of the poorest countries financially in the world. The average wage rate is only around 12¢ per hour if you are lucky enough to have a job. …

“Recently, while visiting one of the far distant islands that is very difficult to get to, I went late in the day to the home of one of the good widow sisters there.

“When I first approached her hut the sun was still quite bright and I could not help but notice the stark poverty of her surroundings. It had been raining earlier. The mud and decay and the ever-present smell of drying fish were at first repulsive. But the warmth of meeting with a fellow Church member—especially after years of separation—together with tears of appreciation for the long-awaited visit, soon pushed the unpleasantness of the surroundings temporarily into the background.

“As we conversed in her fluid native tongue and she told of her love for and faith in the Church and of all the blessings she had received, I could not help but think about her apparently miserable circumstances. … All sorts of ideas went through my mind, and I must have let my thoughts wander as I suddenly became aware that somewhere between phrases about blessings and poverty and service she had gone to her hut and was now returning with a small knotted rag.

“Suddenly my mind seemed to fill with light, and the words ‘fast offerings’ flooded in. I was so excited with the idea that had come so suddenly and so clearly, that you can imagine my utter amazement and unpreparedness when she took a threepence (a coin worth about 3¢) from her rag and said softly, ‘Here is my fast offering … to help the poor.’

“I wanted to explain that fast offering was to help her, not for her to help others. The explanation never came, for as I looked through misty eyes, first at the threepence then back at the good sister, the whole scene changed.

“The hut was a glowing mansion and the mud was gold. … The world seemed to stand still for a moment. All of nature seemed to stop and listen as from the heavens the whole universe seemed filled with the reassuring words: ‘Blessed are the poor … for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matt. 5:3.)

“As the setting sun signaled the end of the day, so it also told of the approaching end of her beautiful life of service.

“I took the threepence, and as I write this check the whole experience once again fills my mind and I wonder, ‘How many threepences to make a thousand dollars?’ ”

3rd Speaker
Alma 50:20
20 Blessed art thou and thy children; and they shall be blessed, inasmuch as they shall keep my ^acommandments they shall prosper in the land. But remember, inasmuch as they will not keep my commandments they shall be ^bcut off from the presence of the Lord.

In science there are cause and effect relationships. If we do this then that will happen. Obedience is like that. If we are obedient we prosper.

He said that he recalled from high school French calls that the word for hope in French is Prosper or at least it and prosperity have the same root. I found the following to possibly back that up.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
prosper

c.1460, from O.Fr. prosperer (14c.), from L. prosperare "cause to succeed, render happy," from prosperus "favorable, fortunate, prosperous," perhaps lit. "agreeable to one's wishes," from Old L. pro spere "according to expectation," from pro "for" + abl. of spes "hope," from PIE base *spei- "to flourish, succeed." Prosperous is first recorded 1445, originally "tending to bring success;" in the sense of "flourishing" it is first recorded 1472.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Misunderstanding what it means to prosper can mislead us. Prospering does not always mean financial wealth.

2 Ne. 2: 25
^aAdam ^bfell that men might be; and men ^care, that they might have ^djoy.

D&C 130: 20-21
20 There is a ^alaw, irrevocably decreed in ^bheaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all ^cblessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any ^ablessing from God, it is by ^bobedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

We will continue to have trials, because that is part of the learning process of this life.

Sunday February 17, 2008 - Sunday Services Cumberland Ward

Sacrament Meeting
7th Article of Faith -
"We believe in the ^agift of ^btongues, ^cprophecy, ^drevelation, ^evisions, ^fhealing, ^ginterpretation of tongues, and so forth."

Youth Speaker
Healing
Acts 19:11 - "And God wrought special ^amiracles by the hands of Paul:"

DnC 42:48 - "And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath ^afaith in me to be ^bhealed, and is not ^cappointed unto death, shall be ^dhealed."

He shared an experience about receiving blessing and healing his finger. He jammed it while swimming and the doctor said it would take weeks for the pain to go away and a year for the swelling to go down. When he went to practice it was very painful. He and his mom called upon some brothers in the ward to come give him a blessing. He said that when he went to practice the next time he forgot that it was injured because it didn't hurt.

2nd Speaker
Many times we are given gifts in order to share them with others. Many times we are given what we need and not what we want.

1 Cor. 12: 17 - "If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?"
People have different spiritual gifts and people different callings. All callings and gifts are necessary.

Gifts are not always obvious. Speaking in tongues and healing may be obvious, but others are more subtle.

Satan can imitate the gifts of God. How do we know?
Moroni 7:12-13 -

12 Wherefore, all things which are ^agood cometh of God; and that which is ^bevil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to ^csin, and to do that which is evil continually.

13 But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do ^agood continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and ^benticeth to do ^cgood, and to love God, and to serve him, is ^dinspired of God.

Third Speaker
2 Nephi 26:22 -

One does not gain a testimony all at once. there will be things that we don't entirely understand. Eventually we will understand them.

1 Corinthians 12:1
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

What things are we doing that keep us from having the gifts of God?

Sunday School
Book of Mormon Lesson 6: “Free to Choose Liberty and Eternal Life”
2 Nephi 1-2

Past nations have been smitten and destroyed. What things are happening to us because of this nation's disobedience. Someone pointed out that there are places in the city you can not go for fear of violence. Because of the choices of those that perform the violence, but also because of the choices we as a city or as a nation have made.

Symptoms of separation from the spirit (Anger, loneliness, pity (why me?))

Lehi councils his sons (2 Nephi 1:21) "arise from the dust and be men." What does it mean to be a man? What does the world think it means to be a man?

One sister brought up that it can be easier for a man to be a man if their woman expects that of them and supports them in their responsibilities. It is also about the fathers and mothers showing examples and being available to them and making it okay for them to come to them and talk about what is going on with them as they learn about life and about things there are thinking about.

One brother noted that he heard a speaker speak at an LDS scout camp. The leader said that we are always one generation from extinction as a church. If we do not teach our youth then we are done for.

Priesthood
Joseph Smith Manual Chapter 3: Jesus Christ, the Divine Redeemer of the World 45–56
Joseph was translating John 5:29 in the Bible.
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.
A vision of the Savior was opened up to him and Sidney Rigdon. They saw and conversed with the Savior. Again witnessing that the Savior was resurrected and clarifying for the world what it means to be resurrected. The Savior has a body of flesh and bone and not just of spirit. It is a resurrected and perfected body, but it is tangible, nonetheless.

We are all children of God. We are created in his image and can grow up to be like him.

When our family members die we may see them again if we obey Heavenly Father.