Announcements - April 21, 2013

Thanks to those who helped out at the  Stake Helping Hands project on Saturday.   The project will conclude next Saturday.  All volunteers needed and appreciated. 

Our next Enrichment Night will be at the ward on Wednesday, May 8^th: “Fitness for All Ages”.  All are invited and welcome. 

Please pick up a list of Common Interest Groups at the door.

All ward members are invited to “Take a Family Member to the Temple” by the end of the year.   See a family history consultant if you need help in finding a candidate.

Lesson Recap - April 21, 1013

Lesson 7

Pres. Lorenzo Snow

“Faithfulness in Times of Trial:

From the Shadows into the Glorious Sunshine”

By Andrea        

This is a timely lesson for us.  As a nation and as individuals we are going through trials. 

“Trials and tribulations have been the experience of the Latter-Day-Saints.  God so designed that it should be.  The Lord has determined in His heart that He will try us until He knows what He can do with us.  He will try us, and continue to try us, in order that He may place us in the highest positions in life and put upon us the most sacred responsibilities. 

There is no other way in which the Saints can make spiritual improvement and be prepared for an inheritance in the celestial kingdom than through tribulation.  It is the process by which knowledge is increased and peace will ultimately be established universally.”

We have all had trials, there is no other way.  They are designed for us individually and there will be more.  We know this.  Andrea spoke her own “year of the dark cloud”.  She asked Carol McAlpin to speak to today’s subject and to share some of her insights.

Carol taught us that we will all have trials as part of our lives here on earth.  We have them in order to become stronger.  If all were smooth we would not grow.  Looking around, we will see that we are not experiencing the worst trials. There are always others out there who are having worse trials, so some perspective is due here.  There are also blessings that come from our trials, sometimes not recognized or realized until after the trial has past.   

God has a master plan for each of us. 

The two specific trials Carol spoke of were 1) her decision to divorce her first husband and 2) the stillbirth of her son.  We are grateful to Carol for being willing to share with us the lessons she learned through those soul-wrenching experiences.

She spoke of marrying the wrong person in the right place, the temple.  Her commitment to her temple covenants made it doubly hard for her to come to the conclusion that she must leave her marriage.  She did not feel she had a direct answer  from the Lord to do so, but had to come to that conclusion on her own through much prayer and fasting.  It was a time of introspection and growth. 

On Christmas Eve of 2002, when Carol was in her 37^th week of pregnancy, she noticed that she no longer felt her baby moving. 

A hospital examination revealed that there was no longer a heartbeat.  She delivered a perfect baby boy and to this day does not know what went wrong.   

Without our trials we would not grow, stretch or reach our potential.  We would just exist.   C. S. Lewis teaches us that “Pain insists on being attended to”, and it does.  What motivates us to do something is that we feel the pain.  If we didn’t feel the pain, we wouldn’t do much.

Pres. Snow teaches us, “It has been said that if all our surroundings were peaceful and prosperous now, we would become indifferent.  It would be a condition that would be all that would be desired by a good many natures, they would not stretch out after the things of eternity.  Take it individually or take it collectively, we have suffered and we shall have to suffer again, and why?  Because the Lord requires it at our hands for our sanctification.”

It is important that we all set our expectation that we will have trials in this life.  It is required for our good.  Bad things do and will happen to good people. 

These trials made Carol a student of revelation.  About her divorce, she needed an answer that didn’t come until several years later.  She learned that sometimes the Lord pushes us to our outer limits before He comes and helps us.  That’s how we grow. 

Perhaps the full pain of trials will not go away in this life, but the pain will shrink with time and not overwhelm us anymore. 

Will your trials be stepping stones or stumbling blocks?  How we react is in our control.  We can make a conscious decision to

face our trials with a calm confidence and a settled determination to overcome.  We must look for the blessings and recognize the lessons learned.  Then, we become an expert in that trial and can help others.

“Every man and woman who serves the Lord, no matter how faithful they may be, have their dark hours, but if they have lived faithfully, light will burst upon them and relief will be furnished.  The sacrifices you have made, the hardships you have endured and the privations you have suffered will sink into insignificance, and you will rejoice that you have obtained the experiences which they have furnished.  Some things we have to learn by that which we suffer, and knowledge secured in that way, though the process may be painful, will be of great value to us in the other life.”

                                                               Pres. Snow

Lesson Recap - April 14, 2013

April 14, 2013

Relief Society

Ward Conference

FAITH

by

Stake  Relief Society leaders; 

Sister Wright, Sister Armstrong, Sister Henderson, Sister Larsen,

Sister Holley, Sister Guyman, Sister Dawson

“And now as I said concerning faith – faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.”         Alma 32:21

Sister Wright

Today’s lesson will be on one aspect of faith, that is charity, the fruits of faith.   We are not to live by fear, but by faith.   As Elder Holland taught in our last conference: do not start your quest for faith by saying how much you do not have.  That is leading with your unbelief.  That is like stuffing a turkey through the beak!  Rather be true to the faith you do have and build from there. 

One purpose of Relief Society is to increase our faith and personal righteousness.   Charity, which is the pure love of Christ, is the fruit of faith.  Reflect on your own way of putting your faith into action, which is charity.

Marilyn recounted her time spent at the R.S. headquarters in Salt Lake City as she sought confirmation about her calling as our Stake Relief Society president.  She felt the encouragement of all the former presidents as she sat alone in a room with all of their portraits.   She felt the legacy of their persecutions, their hardships, and how they rallied and dug deep to start doing charitable things in the face of all odds.  They  lifted others because of their love of the Savior.   It was because of their love for the Savior that they became charitable. 

These women, over time, instituted the first medical hospital system,  they sent women to be trained as midwives and as doctors, they developed the first large grain storage system, they began what is now known as the LDS Family Services , they started the Young Women’s program and the Primary.  All of these efforts to  lift and prepare the Saints to live more useful lives.   In more recent years, the World Humanitarian Services has grown out of the sister’s sincere desire to do what Christ would do.   All that we may feel toward each other more of what Christ feels for each of us.

Church leaders were also inspired to institute a more local program of ministering we now know as Visiting Teaching.  It was designed to help us be connected to each other, to be ambassadors of Christ by watching over and ministering to each other.  We all have need to be lifted up. 

Sister Larsen recounted the story of her great-great grandfather who invited Orson Pratt to his home in Vermont in 1832, to give a blessing to his young but dying wife.  When asked if she had faith to be healed, she replied, “I know God could make me well if He wanted to.”.  Elder Pratt then commanded her to be healed in the name of God.  She got up, got dressed and spent the evening singing and rejoicing.  The first fruits of her faith were her own healing.  Beyond that, word spread quickly in the town and soon folks were seeking out the missionaries for their own conversions.  She lived well into her 90s, far beyond  her husband, Orson Pratt and the doctor who pronounced her dying.  She has many thousand descendants today.  She turned her faith into action for others the rest of her life.

Sister Holley reflected on the trials of faith of those who suddenly had to leave Nauvoo in the middle of winter.   Rather than desperation, they left with confidence, even joy because of their faith.   They were  homeless but not hopeless.  Peace and joy does not depend on circumstance but on faith.  Faith in Christ and in His atonement is the sure foundation on which to build our lives.   Chose to live in faith, not fear. 

Sister Severson spoke of visiting teaching as truly ministering to each other.  Just as we know there are  ministering angels in heaven, so we can minister to each other.  She assessed the strengths of our  Relief Society as being 1)welcoming, loving, caring, 2) strength of testimonies and depth of spirituality and, 3) creative, dedicated helping hands. 

Sister Armstrong   asked us to consider what faith in action looks like. 

For example: her mother ministers to a 96 yr. old in her ward by being in touch with her every day and filling her needs.

One sister felt when her faith was strong, she felt comfortable with others being themselves because of her faith that God is in charge.  When her faith is weak, she wants to control others more.

Another sister related how, when assigned to her inactive neighbor as her visiting teacher, she asked what she needed.  The answer was “I need more spirituality in my life..”  That opened the gates for gospel conversations. 

We need to have integrity toward the faith that each one of us has.  Heavenly Father does not expect more of us than we are able to do.  As we do our best to put the faith we have into action, we will be blessed as we bless others.