Mary's Dream

I was complaining to my sister with a recent ward and stake boundary change. I asked my sister how she handled it because it was so hard losing so many of my primary kids from  singing time. My sister Mary told me about a dream. It was during a challenging time for her. Her son, Thomas was in and out of hospitals and would eventually pass away at 10 months of age. Her ward was split and they were moved form a strong ward to a needy ward. She was disheartened. She had a dream where she was hiking in the mountains. She was following the Savior. Whenever there was a turn on the trail, he would turn back and ask her, "Will you follow me here." She took it as a message that she deciding if she would follow the Savior in all difficulties. 

We made promises that we would build the kingdom wherever He asks.

Bloom where you're planted.

Christ did things He didn't want to do. "Father, let this cup pass from me."

We need to be the strong ones.

Institute Notes 9/14/2023 2 Corinthians 1-7

 2 Corinthians 1:4-5 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 

We learn how to comfort others by emulating how God comforts us when we are going through troubles. 

Trials are the very things that that help us become who the Lord wants us to become.

"...make use of adversity. Our trials help us discover and prepare for the work Heavenly Father has for us. Alma explained, 'after much tribulation, the Lord make me an instrument in his hands'. Paul also instructed (God) comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God. "Like the Savior, whose atoning sacrifice enables Him to succor us, we can use knowledge gained from difficult experiences to lift, strengthen, and bless others." -Elder John C. Ringree jr. 

Critique of artwork. I correct you because it's worth correction. Working at bank. I correct you because you're worth it. 

Brother of Jared was chastised for three hours for not praying. 

Joseph Smith was chastised in prison.

God corrects those he loves. 

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 Going through trials captivate but the Spirit brings freedom.We become new creatures in Christ.

How do we take correction? If the critique is designed to help us improve, we should take it. Become childlike. Be movable and be teachable. 

"Trials are vitally important to the process of putting on divine nature. If we handle these afflictions properly, they will be consecrated for our gain... Being good is not enough. We want to become like the Savior, who learned as He suffered pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind. Elder Paul V. Johnson

"Exercising agency in a setting that someone includes opposition and hardship is what makes life more than a simple multiple choice test. God is raising children to be like Him. God is interested in what we are becoming as a result of our choices. He's not satisfied if our exercise of moral agency is simply a robotic effort at keeping some rules. Our Savior wants us to become something, not just do something. " D. Todd Chirstofferson

"He was a foot solider for Christ." He had been sanctified in Christ. Change can hurt. He had become a new creature in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5: 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Corrections: Savior asking the people in 3rd Nephi to write a record of how Samuel prophesied that many would raise from the dead. 

"The work of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is ultimately concerned with preparing the children of God for the Celestial Kingdom, and most particularly for it's highest glory, exaltation or eternal life... Abiding by God's laws will keep you safe as you progress toward eventual exaltation-

That is, become like God, with the exalted life and divine potential of our Heavenly Parents. That is the destiny we desire for all we love, because of that love, we cannot let our love supersede the commandments and the plan and the work of God, which we know will bring those we love the greatest blessings." Elder Oaks

"Our commission as apostles is to teach nothing but truth. That commission does not give apostles the authority to modify divine law." -President Nelson

"A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things does not have the power to get you to heaven." Joseph Smith

If we can sacrifice all, He will give us all.

To generate faith

Hugh Nibly: The reason we are asked to love the widow and the fatherless is because He loves them. We are in the business of becoming like God.

Spiritual Thoughts

Spiritual Reminders– Brother Matthews story – airplane, Sundays, raised up to do this work? Yes, Brother Millet interview on Follow Him

 

We stand as a witness on His behalf now. Later, He stands as a witness on our behalf.

 

What am I willing to sacrifice on the alter?

 

If He keeps His promises about that, He’ll keep His promises to me, that covenant connection.

 

Joseph Smith- "I could have translated the word turn to bind or seal." Hearts of the children turning to their fathers. 

Story of Amanda Smith by President James E. Faust: The Shield of Faith

 Faith intensifies and magnifies our gifts and abilities. There is no greater source of knowledge than the inspiration that comes from the Godhead, who have all understanding and knowledge of that which has been, is now, and will be in the future.

At Haun’s Mill, a heroic pioneer woman, Amanda Smith, learned by faith how to do something beyond her abilities and the scientific knowledge of her time. On that terrible day in 1838, as the firing ceased and the mobsters left, she returned to the mill and saw her eldest son, Willard, carrying his seven-year-old brother, Alma. She cried, “Oh! my Alma is dead!”

“No, mother,” he said, “I think Alma is not dead. But father and brother Sardius are [dead]!” But there was no time for tears now. Alma’s entire hipbone was shot away. Amanda later recalled:

“Flesh, hip bone, joint and all had been ploughed out. … We laid little Alma on a bed in our tent and I examined the wound. It was a ghastly sight. I knew not what to do. … Yet was I there, all that long, dreadful night, with my dead and my wounded, and none but God as our physician and help. ‘Oh my Heavenly Father,’ I cried, ‘what shall I do? Thou seest my poor wounded boy and knowest my inexperience. Oh, Heavenly Father, direct me what to do!’ And then I was directed as by a voice speaking to me.

“… Our fire was still smouldering. … I was directed to take … ashes and make a lye and put a cloth saturated with it right into the wound. … Again and again I saturated the cloth and put it into the hole … , and each time mashed flesh and splinters of bone came away with the cloth; and the wound became as white as chicken’s flesh.

“Having done as directed I again prayed to the Lord and was again instructed as distinctly as though a physician had been standing by speaking to me. Near by was a slippery-elm tree. From this I was told to make a … poultice and fill the wound with it. … The poultice was made, and the wound, which took fully a quarter of a yard of linen to cover, … was properly dressed. …

“I removed the wounded boy to a house … and dressed his hip; the Lord directing me as before. I was reminded that in my husband’s trunk there was a bottle of balsam. This I poured into the wound, greatly soothing Alma’s pain.

“‘Alma my child,’ I said, ‘you believe that the Lord made your hip?’

“‘Yes, mother.’

“‘Well, the Lord can make something there in the place of your hip, don’t you believe he can, Alma?’

“‘Do you think that the Lord can, mother?’ inquired the child, in his simplicity.

“‘Yes, my son,’ I replied, ‘he has showed it all to me in a vision.’

“Then I laid him comfortably on his face, and said: ‘Now you lay like that, and don’t move, and the Lord will make you another hip.’

“So Alma laid on his face for five weeks, until he was entirely recovered—a flexible gristle having grown in place of the missing joint and socket, which remains to this day a marvel to physicians. …

“It is now nearly forty years ago, but Alma has never been the least crippled during his life, and he has traveled quite a long period of the time as a missionary of the gospel and [is] a living miracle of the power of God.”¹²

The Beauty of Holiness

 

A Few Favorite J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes

 "I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

Courage is found in unlikely places.

Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.

There is good in the world, and it's worth fighting for.

No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.

And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.

Institute Notes Genesis 18-23

 Institute Notes 2-17-22

Genesis 18-23 Sacrifice Brings Forth the Blessings of Heaven

How can I liken the scriptures to me?

Abraham and Sarah- The Lord cares about individuals

Abraham: hospital, faithfulness, patience, seeker, obedience, pattern of making God a priority in his life.

Sarah: beautiful, charitable, compassionate

 

Blessings of Abraham: Becoming a Zion People by E. Douglas Clark

 

One in marriage and home, strong character. Their hearts were right.

 

Abraham taught the gospel while they ate.

 

Sometimes we deny or justify. Instead we should absolutely believe and obey. God knew she had laughed. He knows the thoughts and intents of my heart.

 

Despite being circumcised that day. Cutting is a symbol of covenant-animal sacrifice, “It doesn’t cut it phrase”. I am asked to sacrifice a broken heart and contrite spirit. Broken could be interpreted as cut. I need to give up my own desires and instead let God give me a new heart. 

 

Abraham went out to greet his guest and was so welcoming and hospitable, God is also aware of my comings and goings and I can be that way with others. Think of entering and leaving the temple. Entering and leaving this earth life. There is usually some anxiety involved.

 

Abraham bargained to save people in city. Abraham felt stewardship to protect the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. I should also strive to be a righteous steward over what the Lord has entrusted to me. Also, I need to allow others to do their job in the church. Let them be stewards over what God has entrusted to them. For example, Sister Wilson letting me choose the songs I want to teach and sing to the children.

 

Sarah and Abram having a child. “The Lord uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible”

 

Lot wasn’t all in. Faithfulness today gives faith for the future. He did what was expedient rather than morally accurate. 

 

Report to the Lord the doings of each day.

 

True worship requires sacrifice. This makes sense since emulation is a form of worship.

 

Similar to Violet Kimball. Heber being tested.

Penelope’s son going to boarding school. 7 day hike, carrying canoes, taught him he was capable in a way she wouldn’t have been able to.

 

Story of man in car accident. If I would have died that night, would I have been able to tell the Lord, He was the priority of my life? Since then, His words, His scriptures became his top priority. He became his big rock to put in first. Put the Lord first and fast. Her invitation was to take unprecedented steps to live like Abraham. 

 

Truman G. Madsen: Once I was in the valley known as Hebron, now beautifully fruitful and where tradition has it, there is a tomb to father Abraham. As I approached the place with Elder Hugh B. Brown, I asked, “What are the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?” Elder Brown thought a moment and answered in one word, “Posterity.” Then I almost burst out, “Why, then was Abraham commanded to go to Mount Moriah and offer his only hope of posterity?” It was clear that this man, nearly ninety, had thought and prayed and wept over that question before. He finally said, “Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham.”

You are aware that the record speaks of the incredible promise that Abraham after years of barrenness-which in some ways to the Israelites was the greatest curse of life-would sire a son who would in turn sire sons and become the father of nations. This came about after Abraham had left a culture where human sacrifice was performed. Abraham was then counseled, and if that is too weak a word, he was commanded to take this miracle son up to the mount.

We often identify with Abraham; we sometimes think less about what that meant to Sarah, the mother, and to Isaac, the son. If we can trust the Apocrypha, there are three details that the present narrative omits. First, Isaac was not a mere boy. He was a youth, a stripling youth on the verge of manhood. Second, Abraham did not keep from him, finally, the commandment or the source of the commandment. But having made the heavy journey, how heavy! He counseled with his son. Third, Isaac said in effect, “My father, if you alone had asked me to give my life for you, I would have been honored and would have given it. That both you and Jehovah ask only doubles my willingness.” It was at Isaac’s request that his arms were bound lest involuntarily, but spontaneously, he should resist the sinking of the knife. Only in the Book of Mormon, though many have assumed this, has a prophet said that this was in “similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son” (Jacob 4:5).

As we later ascended the mount traditionally known as Mount Moriah-it is just inside the east wall of Jerusalem-we remembered a statement of Brother Ellis Rasmussen of BYU: one can believe that it was to that same mount that another Son ascended. And this time there was no ram in the thicket.

. But those who are Abraham’s descendants must also bear the responsibility of Abraham (See D&C 132:30-32).

We live in a time when everybody is willing to talk about rights, but it is rare to hear the words duty and responsibility. There never was a right, I submit, that did not have a corresponding duty. There never was a duty that did not also eventually entail a right.

We talk often as if the priesthood is solely a privilege. It is also a burden and many who have lived long in this Church know there are times, sometimes lengthy times, when the priesthood is much duty and very little right.

This leads to a statement allegedly made by the quotable J. Golden Kimball. Someone asked him how he accounted for the call of a certain brother to a certain position. He is supposed to have replied, “The Lord must have called him; no one else would have thought of him.”

Power from Abrahamic Tests

 https://latterdaysaintmag.com/article-1-405/