Announcements - May 26

The next weekday meeting will be held on June 11 at 6:30 p.m. It will be a Garden Social at the home of Sue Severson. We are combining it with a service project—collecting food for the Contra Costa/Solano Food Bank. There is a special need for protein items for children’s lunches during the summer when they do not receive free lunches at school. A list is available.

Lesson Recap - May 26

“Marriage: Watch and Learn”

Conference Address by Elder L. Whitney Clayton

Taught by Rebecca

Rebecca began by telling us of her parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary party where each grandchild submitted a question about the marriage. The responses were sweet, informative, and sometimes humorous. Rebecca’s father attributed the success of the marriage to patience, love and humor. Rebecca pointed out that the same factors which contribute to a happy marriage can be applied to many of our interpersonal relationships.

She referred to a statement made by Elder James E. Faust who wondered marriages which began with happiness and high hopes became so fragile. He listed selfishness, immaturity, and unfaithfulness as 3 major contributing factors.

Elder Clayton’s first point was that no other relationship can produce such personal refinement. Rebecca then introduced Melanie to discuss this process. Melanie provided a diagram, a new paradigm, from Meeting upward to Romantic Love, then downward through Reality to Power Struggle. From there the relationship may progress linearly to physical divorce or emotional divorce. The latter may also be called a parallel marriage because the couple remains married but finds fulfillment in outside activities (exercise, committees, shopping, work, etc. etc. Melanie called these psychological exits.) There is, however, a preferred alternative: that the relationship again moves upward to Awakening, up again to Transformation, and from there even higher to Real Love and Oneness.

In order to progress to Real Love, we need to develop as persons, to put the pressure on changing ourselves, not our partners. Both partners have to agree that they are in this for the long haul. It is all in what you decide to do. No one gets to Real Love without pain, but a good marriage is the ultimate refining instrument.

Elder Clayton next made the point that faith in Jesus Christ is the foundation of a spiritual bond. We need to remind ourselves that we were brought together for a reason and to remember that because He suffered the Atonement, Christ knows how we feel. We must, as He does, look for the good.

His third point was that repentance and humility build happy relationships. Humility reminds us that we can only change ourselves and leads to repentance. Blaming the other will not make us feel better. Ruth Graham (wife of Billy Graham) said we should ask ourselves, “Might I be in the wrong?” and added, “A happy marriage is a union of two great forgivers.”

Elder Clayton’s next made a strong statement about the importance of transparency, equality and respect in marriage. He recommended that all decisions, including financial ones, be made together. He stressed the importance of loyalty and pointed to the current practice of telling too much on social media. He urged us to celebrate our differences, to use them to balance the relationship.

Elder Clayton’s last suggestion was that marriage partners love each other with complete devotion. Both Melanie and Rebecca emphasized the importance of growing in interpersonal relationship skills, and pointed out resources which we can use. Rebecca urged us to be grateful for the personal growth and challenges that can come in marriage and summarized with a quote from Marvin J. Ashton: “True love is a process that requires personal action.”

Announcements - May 19

Our next Weekday Meeting will be on Tuesday, June 11^th at 6:30 in the evening at Sue Severson’s home.  It will be dinner, garden talk and a social occasion.  Please plan to attend.

Please join the ward for a temple endowment session next   Friday, May 24^th at 7:00 P.M.  If enough attend regularly, we can have our own ward session at 7:30 on the 4^th Friday of each month.   Come help us qualify for that!

Jana Rains will host a spiritual discussion on the last Tuesday morning of each month at her home starting on May 28^th at 10:00.   This month’s subject will be ”Beautiful Morning”, the conference talk by Bruce Porter.  All are welcome.

Sadly, our dear Vera Janke passed away in Salt Lake City.  Her funeral will be held in our chapel next Thursday, May 23^rd.

Lesson Recap - May 19

 Lesson #10

President Lorenzo Snow

“Come Into the Temples”

taught by

Michelle

Michelle started by sharing the very tender experience of  when she and Rob had their son sealed to them in the Los Angeles Temple.   At length they waited for John to be brought to the sealing room from the nursery.   There was a long delay while the temple workers tried to get him to stop crying.  Finally, they brought him anyway and the minute he saw his parents, his countenance changed to pure joy, as if he knew he was in a sacred place with them. 

“The prospects that God has opened up to our view are wonderful and grand, the imagination cannot conceive of them.  Come into the temples and we will show you.”

                                                                        L. Snow

Since the restoration of the gospel, God has once again commanded us to build temples – to build places where the Lord can dwell, places where sacred ordinances can bless the faithful.  The temple experience gives us a glimpse of what is to be and reminds us that an eternal reward awaits.  The instructions there teach us how to endure to the end.

In December of 1832 the Lord commanded the members of the Church to build a temple in Kirtland, Ohio.   They were to “establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God”.  (D&C 88:119)  

The Saints were very poor so they did not start to build the temple right away.  Six months later, they had not yet begun the task and so in June 1833, the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith His great displeasure at the delay, citing it a “grievous sin”. (D&C 95:3)    The Saints repented and four days later, they began the construction which required great amounts of time, talent, physical and financial sacrifice.   The plans for the temple were shown to the First Presidency of the Church:  Joseph Smith and his counselors, Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams in a vision so they would know how to proceed.

Emma Smith supervised the women of Kirtland in sewing clothing for the workmen, making carpets and curtains of white canvas for the interior of the temple.   The children collected broken dishes and glass to be put in the plaster so the temple would be more beautiful when the sun shone upon it.

At completion, all were greatly edified by the marvelous outpouring of the Spirit at the dedication ceremonies.   To their great joy, the Lord had accepted the efforts of His Saints. 

After coming west across the plains, the Salt Lake temple required 40 years of arduous effort to complete.

On April 6, 1892, President Wilford Woodruff stepped to the front of a platform and spoke: “Attention, all ye house of Israel, and all ye nations of the earth!  We will now lay the top stone of the Temple of our God, the foundation of which was laid and dedicated by the Prophet, Seer and Revelator, Brigham Young.”  

President Woodruff then pressed an electric button, and the Temple capstone moved securely into its position.

Then, Lorenzo  Snow, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve, stood before the crowd of 40,000 on Temple Square, with another 10,000 looking on from nearby rooftops, as he lead the Saints in the Hosanna Shout.

Right up to today, temples are built with the most careful craftsmanship and care available.  Though mortal hands may never see or feel a defect, the  Lord knows the level of our efforts and whether we have done our very best. 

The same is true of our own personal efforts to live a life worthy of the blessings of the temple.  The Lord has counseled: “And inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it;.” 

(D&C 97:15)

We are each made of the finest materials, and we are the miraculous result of divine craftsmanship.  However, as we move past the age of accountability and step onto the battlefield of sin and temptation, our own temple can become in need of renovation and repair work.  Perhaps there are walls within us that are gritty and need buffing or windows of our soul that need replacement in order that we can stand in holy places.  Gratefully, the temple standard that we are asked to meet is not that of perfection, although we are striving for it, but rather that we are keeping the commandments and doing our best to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. 

May we all endeavor to live a life worthy of the blessings of the temple by doing our best, by making the necessary improvements and eliminating flaws and imperfections so that the Spirit of God may always dwell in us.

Announcements - May 12, 2013

• Relief Society Weekday Meeting, Tuesday, June 11 at 6:30 p.m.  Spring Garden Social at the home of Ralph & Sue Severson, 67 Martha Rd, Orinda.

• Camille Cook is coordinating women’s sports nights here at the chapel most Wednesday nights.  Contact Camille for more information.