Lupes Notes - Nov 6, 2011

Well, this may be a little late, but here it is.

THOUGHT: “Relief Society sisters of all ages continue to uphold and defend truths that strengthen homes and families....Whenever a woman strengthens the faith of a child, she contributes to the strength of a family—now and in the future.” (Daughters in My Kingdom, p. 159)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. As a relief society presidency, we are working together on making some changes to the visiting teaching assignments within our ward to include the new sisters. Thank you for your patience.

You will be getting your new assignments very soon and as you receive the assignments, it will take effect immediately. “In visiting teaching, we reach out to each other. Hands often speak as voices can't. A warm embrace conveys volumes. A laugh together unites us. A moment of sharing refreshes our souls We cannot always lift the burden of one who is troubled, but we can lift her so she can bear it well.” (Daughters in My Kingdom, p. 119)

2. Thank you to all the sisters who helped with the High Priest Social. We appreciate you.
3. Single Adult (31+) Family Home Evening on Monday November 14^th at 7:00 pm at the Blair Buswell Studio (318 South, 671 West in Pleasant Grove. “This will be a great evening to learn how Blair developed his talent, learn about some of the famous pieces he has created and see some of his work. Refreshments will be served.

BIRTHDAYS: November 10^th McKenna McCracken. Happy birthday to you.

The message for this Sabbath Day was presented by Lupe Lee.

I'm glad I only do this once a year. I do pray for the spirit to help me say the things that he feels I need to say.

One of the talks that I really enjoyed at General Conference was Elder Packard's talk and I think the reason that I enjoyed it was because, it confirmed to me that the subject matter of the message that I will give you today is what the Lord wants me to present. There is somebody, someone somewhere in this ward who needs to hear it, to give them comfort.

Ephesians 6:12 says “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principles, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Boyd K Packard: “We know from the Scriptures that there was a war in heaven and that Lucifer rebelled and with his followers, “was cast out into the earth.” He is determined to disrupt our Heavenly Father's plan and seeks to control the minds and actions of all. This influence is spiritual and he is abroad in the land.”


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Russell M Nelson: “...The war in heaven was not a war of bloodshed. It was a war of conflicting ideas—the beginning of contention.”

M Russell Ballard: “...Satan will seek to tempt us at times and in ways that exploit our greatest weaknesses or destroy our strength.”...The battle for your souls is increasingly fierce. The adversary is strong and cunning.”

Elder Packard in this last conference told the youth that they were being raised in enemy territory. So if they are, then we too are in enemy territory.

Neal A Maxwell explained that parents can only give what they themselves already have.

Julie Beck: “The responsibility mothers have today has never required more vigilance. More than at any time in the history of the world, we need mothers who know...when mothers know who they are and who God is and have made covenants with them, they will have great power and influence for good on their children.”

The purposes of Relief Society are:

1. Increase faith and personal righteousness

2. Strengthen families and homes

3. Seek out and help those in need

So how do we strengthen ourselves so that in turn we can strengthen our families and homes? We have to know the enemy and how he attacks. We know why but the how is not always so obvious.

I want to share this song with you. I never heard it before, but my friend told me about it.

The Snake

On her way to work one morning

Down the path along side the lake

A tender hearted woman saw a poor half frozen snake

His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew

“Oh well,” she cried, “I'll take you in and I'll take care of you”

“Take me in, oh tender woman

Take me in, for heaven's sake

Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake

She wrapped him up all cozy in a curvature of silk

And then laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk

Now she hurried home from work that night as soon as she arrived

She found that pretty snake she'd taken in had been revived

Now she clutched him to her bosom, “You're so beautiful,” she cried

“But if I hadn't brought you in by now you might have died”

Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight

But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite

“I saved you,: cried that woman

“And you've bit me even, shy?

You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm going to die”

“Oh [hush] up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin

“You knew well I was a snake before you took me in

So that is how Satan works. I believe that in the gospel of Jesus Christ, in the church we have black and we have white, but within that black and white, there is that little gray things the he uses to create problems for us.

While reading the Book of Mormon I was reading how Captain Moroni, how he armed his men, how he put the armor on them and got them ready for war. But then what he did was send one of his men to the prophet Alma and asked him to pray to the Lord that we may know where it is that we should go to fight the battle. And I believe that is how he works with us today. The Armour that we need to put on is not an Armour of metal or whatever, because our war is a spiritual war.

So President Harold B. Lee in 1954 gave a talk entitled: “Feet Shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace.” And he said there are four parts of the body that are most vital to us and that's the ones that Satan attacks and that's where we are the most vulnerable. One is the loins typifying virtue, chastity. The heart typifying our conduct. Our feet, our goals or objectives in life and finally our head, our thoughts.”

He tells us how we can protect those parts of the body. The first is that we should have our loins girt about with truth. And what is truth and how do we know where truth is? We know that truth is things as they were, things as they are and things that will be.” Truth doesn't change. In science and whatever, you have ideas, and then they change, but in the Lord's timetable, the Lord's way, truth never changes. There in no new morality. Morality still is the way the Lord intended it to be in the beginning. But Satan has the way, even now he continues to use the philosophy of man mingled with scripture. I'll give you an example of how he works and we need to be aware of even the words that he uses. We have this thing about pro-life and pro-choice. As latter-day saints, when we think of the word choice, we think about agency. So we say OK, we fought a war in Heaven for people to have agency and so I think that's where a lot of people go wrong, especially with people in the world. They think that agency means you have the right to do whatever you want to do. But if you think about it very carefully, the person who is trying to do the abortion or whatever already has made her choice. Generally speaking, except in certain cases where the Church knows what those cases are, the choice is made when the person decides to be immoral. The consequence is the pregnancy. The abortion is 'trying to get rid of the consequence'. Think about it. The choice is already made. The choice comes with consequences and that's how Satan is. The truth will protect our loins; loins refers to our seed, descendents, family. The truth of that is in “The Family: a Proclamation to the World. That is gospel, that is truth. There is no challenge, there is no nothing that can go against that. And that is what can help us.

And then “We shall have over our heart a breastplate of righteousness which means our conduct. Conduct? I think of behavior, actions or whatever we do. What does that have to do with the heart? And then it says the Helmet of Salvation. And I'm going to talk about those two together. You can't have one without the other.

Elder L Tom Perry: “a disciple of Christ is one who is learning to be like Christ—learning to think, feel, and act as he does.” Nothing that we do, nothing that we say, nothing happens before it first becomes a thought. Thoughts, the Book of Mormon talks a lot about it. We're going to be judged by our thoughts, it say watch and pray continually, you know the thought get in your heart. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” That's because the thoughts start here. (in your mind)

Elder Packard says that the mind is like a stage. “During every waking moment the curtain is up. There is always some act being performed on that stage. It may be a comedy, a tragedy interesting or dull, good or bad, but always there is some act playing on the stage of your mind.

El” And he says they even try to sneak in through the sides of the curtain. So from the minute that we wake up, we are dealing with thoughts. The stage is never empty. There is always something going on . Thoughts are always there, sad or whatever. An example: let's say that we feel somebody wronged us, so it's in our mind and we think about it; how that person treated us bad, how they hurt us, and the more we think about it, the bigger it gets, and eventually we begin to feel it in our heart, because we have let it become emotional in our heart and once it takes root in our heart, we own it. It is ours and we're going to act it out.

Now, we had a lesson on TO BE and TO DO; Elder Lynn G Robbins: “Because BE begats DO and is the motive behind DO, teaching BE will improve behavior more effectively than focusing on DO will improve behavior.” So instead of trying to get our children to behave a certain way, we teach them shy they have to behave a certain way. So then it'll take root here (in the heart) and then it'll happen.

Joseph Smith said, “We teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves”. He wasn't talking about just giving out information, he was talking about being converted and conversion is about our emotions.

The President Lee talks about our feet, what's going to protect our feet. Your feet should be shod, with the preparation of the gospel of peace” We need to know where we are going, and I know that we get so caught up with everyday life, that we hardly ever think about the celestial kingdom or exaltation. It's not even here in my mind sometimes. But if that's where we want to go, then we need to consider how we're going to get there.

Elder Packer: “The gospel plan is “the great plan of happiness”. The family is the center of that plan.” So it's all tied up with the loins and everything kind of works together. The plan of salvation. My son and his wife teach Seminary in Nashville at 5:30 am and he says that for the most part, all the kids are there at 5:30 everyday. If you ask your seminary child what lesson was taught first, they'll tell you it was the lesson on the plan of salvation. My son says the first 3 days was spend on the plan of salvation. Why? So they can know why they're there at 5:30 every day, and then they refer back to that plan of salvation lesson through out the semester to remind them of the why of the gospel.

President Uchtdorf: “My dear sisters, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not an obligation; it is a pathway, marked by our loving Father in Heaven, leading to happiness and peace in this life and glory and inexpressible fulfillment in the life to come. The gospel is a light that penetrates mortality and illuminates the way before us.”

And again: “...we sometimes see the gospel as a long list of tasks that we must add to our already impossible long-to-do list, as a block of time that we must somehow fit into our busy schedules. We focus on what the Lord wants us to do and how we might do it, but we sometimes forget why.”

And I think that's a big key. We need to ask ourselves, why? Why do we go visiting teaching, why do we come to church, why do we do those things that the Lord wants us to do. We ask ourselves why and we come up with our answer, our feelings, our need as to why, then it's not going to feel as if it's somebody's idea. Sometimes the gospel, if we're not in it for ourselves, if somebody is expecting us to do it, it becomes a burden. We don't want the gospel to be a burden, we want it to be a blessing.

And then the Shield of faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So here we have this protection, this armor that protects us. So do we just stand there with all this armor and do nothing? No, the one offense, the weapon, the only way that we can attack the adversary is the sword, the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.

President Benson: “However diligent we may be in other areas, certain blessings are to be found only in the scriptures, only in the coming to the Word of the Lord, and holding fast to it as we make our way through the mist of darkness to the tree of life.” So we can do anything, but if we're not getting ourselves into the scriptures, we're missing blessings. Some blessings only come through the scriptures. Just like Amy Waldron said in her testimony. And answers come through the scriptures. Sometimes the Lord won't give us answers any other way except through the scriptures.

So why do we need the spirit? We need the spirit because we need personal revelation, because what works for somebody else, may not work for me. We need the spirit because we need to help our children.

You know, when you're in an airplane and they start telling all that stuff of what to do if there's a crash, or whatever and nobody listens to it. I listen to it. And they say if you're a mother of young children, you put your mask on first and then you take care of your children. Same thing, we arm ourselves first and then we can arm our children. We need the spirit because; I really believe all mothers...you will know in your heart, your gut feelings, when one of your children needs help. You may not know what the problem is, but will know that the child needs you. And you will need the spirit to help you know how to approach that child and how to talk to him. It doesn't matter how old they are. The spirit will tell you what to say to them. And I do that. One thing I have learned, sisters, is when I approach my children and if I say' the spirit has told me, they can't fight you. Because it's not you bugging them, it's the Lord thru the spirit. They may not like it, but that's your weapon. That's how the spirit will help you help your children.

So I want to share with you a personal experience. Some of the attacks in my life have not been so open;lie a word of wisdom problem, or this or that. That has not been my case. But in looking back in my life, I see how he has attacked me. So, a lot of times our behaviors are motivated by our needs. You can have a child who wants to have power or control or one who needs to be accepted or have praise; one who all he needs is to have peace, leave me alone. You can have a child that his whole goal in life is to have fun and not have any responsibility.

So my need as I look back, is I wanted to have peace in my life. I grew up in a Spanish speaking home, I attended a Spanish speaking branch and I loved the Church. The Church took care of my social life, my spiritual need, it took care of everything and I loved it, but it was Spanish speaking. I went to school, I learned English and we spoke Spanish all the time except in class when we had to speak to the teacher. I went to a Spanish speaking Mission. I came home, went to BYU for a semester, took 19 credit hours as a freshman. It was crazy, but I found that to even read my books, I had to have a dictionary because my vocabulary was so limited. I ran out of money, moved to California and I roomed with two Hispanic girls and their mother, who spoke only Spanish, we spoke only Spanish in the home. I attended Spanish speaking branches in California. I had fun, my life was full, I had friends, I had a social life. Life was wonderful.

One night my roommate Raquel and I went to a Single's Dance (M-Men and Gleaners) whatever, and so I went to the dance and I met Artie. Going home that night I said to Raquel, 'he's the one' and three months later we were married in the Los Angeles Temple.

When I married, I don't know if it was a conscious or unconscious decision, but I felt like, it wasn't like he was marrying into my culture. I was marrying into his. So I gave up my music, my language, my culture and pretty much my family because they were far away. So we started going to an English speaking ward. I remember going to Sacrament Meeting and hiding behind Artie. I didn't want to speak to anyone; didn't want to interact with anybody. And then we moved to Dallas and it was wonderful. It was a big ward and there were lots of young couples. I had no problem being accepted.

In the 60s when I got married, there was a lot of prejudice in the Church about Anglos marrying Mexicans, and there was also—I remember when we were dating and got married, I don't know if any of you remember, “Fascinating Womanhood” that came up. They even gave classes on Saturdays on how to be this fascinating woman, fantastic wife and all that garbage. (Sister Backman: “and I was one of the teachers”) And then around that time there was this idea of being perfect. So we moved to Dallas, had my children and I was accepted, had no problem.

(Sister Backman: “your husband spoke Spanish?) No, my husband knew nothing about my culture. He was raised in a small town in New Mexico, near the Navajo Reservation. And because my English was so limited, I felt I needed to improve in that area, so I embraced his culture. We came to BYU with three kids and I struggled. I struggled as to who I was. I went to counseling, we talked and my counselor said, 'you need to find out why, again the why, why you do the things you do in the Church; but in finding out why, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

We moved to Houston after graduation and I started this quest and I read books and books and books about self improvement, self help books and I read and I read and I read. One thing I have always had in my life, was a firm testimony of the gospel and I knew what was right and if I read something contrary to gospel, I discarded it. Oh my gosh, I have to tell you that in trying to find yourself, it's like peeling an onion. You remove a layer and you cry, you remove another and you cry. So I read all these books. I'd read a book and I would say OK, this is the answer and for a while I would feel good, but not for long. So that went on for a long time.

So, one year the Activity Committee Chairman came and asked me to help a sister with her part in the activity. This sister had moved into the ward, but she worked in the Stake, so we hardly saw her. So, I met her, she was from El Paso and she was Hispanic. She'd been married, was divorced, had no children and we hit it off, and to this day we're great friends.

I remember one day asking her—how was it when you married into that culture? Was it hard, did things change for you? And she said, I remember that first Christmas with his family and his children. The child would open his package and I would clap and go yea and I looked around and everyone else was quiet, so I said, “OK, and kept quiet also.”

After my children were gone from home, one Summer, for our Anniversary I said to Artie, “I want to go to San Antonio for our Anniversary. I had never been. So we went to see the Alamo downtown and as we left the Alamo, we could hear music. So we walked toward the Plaza, a park and on the stage were “Mariaches”, and as I stood there listening to that music, something happened to me inside, in my soul; it was like I had come home. It was like I had been in the desert and I was having a drink of water. It did something to me. I guess it must have been really obvious because Artie noticed it. He noticed it and so from that point on, things changed. He took an interest in my culture; he even begin to enjoy the music. Up until that point, when we would go visit my family, he would feel like an outsider, so it was hard for me to really visit, because he felt like I was neglecting him. But things changed and I felt better.

When we moved here, I started reading the Book of Mormon. I started with the big family Book of Mormon with the information on the bottom, but a year ago April; I can't believe it's only been a year. I was asked to help at the BYU Women's Conference. I have learned that there are no coincidences when it has to do with spiritual matters. We would work one day and the other day, you could go to classes free. I had asked to work on Thursday and have Friday free, but they gave me Friday to work and have Thursday free. So I went to the Assembly and Sister Beck spoke on the 'essential, the necessary and the nice-to-do” And she said, “buy a cheapo Book of Mormon, one you can write in. Write inside the page “Who am I? What are my responsibilities in the House of Israel? How do I fulfill my responsibilities?” I started doing that, I got this little book and I have to tell you, there's nothing like having a book you can touch and write in it. And then my wonderful visiting teach, one day, gave me this Book of Mormon Student Manual, the new and improved one- 2010 edition. So what I do, I read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and then I read what corresponds with that chapter. First thing in the morning, my husband and I read. I read the Book of Mormon, I finish it, I start it again, I finish it and I start it again. Since her talk, the book has more meaning. And this book has become my friend. This is my friend. It answers—It's true when the prophets say if you rad the Book of Mormon, it will improve your life, it will improve your home and it will improve your children's life. It is true. It does have power in here.

Another thing that I now read along with it, is this book (Daughters in My Kingdom); I'm on my second reading of it because what it has done for me. It has bonded me with the sisters in the Church, the Pioneer sisters, the sisters throughout the world. It is an incredible book. You will find great joy in reading this book. I have fund that there's where the power comes, that's how I can fight my enemy, it' through the spirit. The spirit comes through the Word of God, that's how the Spirit comes. I also have found, you know in the Doctrine and Covenants, where it says in Section 109 that when you go to the Temple, you will come out endowed with power from on high. And I think, how, how? One morning as I laid in bed, and it came to me, how it works for me. Think, sisters, of what happens when you are in the Temple, in the endowment. Think! Think of what you put on that satisfies all the parts. When you go and do initiatories. Think of what parts of the body are blessed. There is no way, but how you can come out endowed with power from on high. I want to testify to you about that.

Elder Packard: “This great circle of sisters will be a protection for each of you and for your families. The Relief Society might be likened to a refuge—the place of safety and protection—the sanctuary of ancient times. You will be safe within it. It encircles each sister like a protecting wall.”

I just want to tell you that finally I realize that when I was reading all those books, I was relying on the arm of flesh, my own and others. I now rely on the Lord and the Spirit and it has made a big difference.

So who am I? I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father who loves me ( and I know that now) and I love Him. I will stand as a witness of Him, at all times, in all things and in all places, because I have Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; because I now know my Divine Nature; because I now know that I have Individual Worth; because He has blessed me with Knowledge through the words of the prophets and the scriptures; because I have the blessing of having Choice and Accountability; because I can do Good Works; because I have Integrity and because of the Scriptures, I can fill my mind and my heart with Virtue. I have made sacred covenants which blesses the lives of my family and I know I will enjoy the blessings of Exaltation. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Next week's lesson will be Chapter 44: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Posted in: Lupe's Notes