Our lesson today is Chapter 4 Teachings of George Albert Smith, The Prophet Joseph Smith, God's Instrument in Restoring the Truth by Amy Waldron.
Good afternoon sisters. What a blessing it is to be members of the Lord's Church. What a marvelous Sacrament Meeting where we heard the Ellis family speak to us and the McRae family share their singing talents with us.
THOUGHT: “I believe when we determine within our hearts that by and with the blessings of God our Heavenly Father we will accomplish a certain labor, God gives the ability to accomplish that labor; but when we lay down, when we become discouraged, when we look at the top of the mountain and say it is impossible to climb to the summit, while we never make an effort it will never be accomplished.”
Heber J. Grant
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- Relief Society Activity this Thursday Feb. 23rd at 7pm. Photo Shop Class at Melissa Brady's home. Bring your lap top. If you didn't have an opportunity to sign up yet, contact Melissa Brady.
- Put on your March Calendar,
Ward Temple Night on Tuesday, Mar 6th. Be an the Temple chapel by 7:45 where a member of the Temple Presidency will speak to us and then we'll do an 8:15 session. - Put on your March Calendar,
Thursday, March 29th at 6:30 pm at the Manila building by the blue silos. Relief Society Birthday Celebration and dinner.
- Sister Sharon Backman fell down her stairs attempting to vacuum the stairs. She didn't break any bones and is doing better. She is bruised and sore. Please keep her in your prayers.
- The Chou family wants you to know how grateful they are for your help in watching children, transporting children and the meals that have been taken in while Petra is in Hong Kong with her ill mother.
BIRTHDAY: Feb 20th: Gayla Muhlestein and Feb. 21st Janet Schetselaar. Have a great birthday.
We wish to excuse both Amy and Martha this morning.
Our lesson today is Chapter 4 Teachings of George Albert Smith, The Prophet Joseph Smith, God's Instrument in Restoring the Truth by Amy Waldron.
You will have an attachment you can look at while reading the newsletter.
I will start with a story. It's a cautionary tale. It involves my own Temple Recommend Interview with President Goodsell. I have never spoken to him, but have heard him speak and therefore I felt that I knew him and he me. That was not the case. When I got there in the waiting room, there was no one else there. I went in. Brother Jensen had signed my Temple Recommend. President Goodsell came in and he seem very kind. He said to me, Sister Amy, looking at the card, “so what does your ward have you doing?' I told him that I was the 3rd Sunday teacher in Relief Society. Marvelous, lovely. I said, “It not just a good calling. It's the best calling. Then I said, “no, not just a fine things, it's the best calling in all the church. All I have to do is have two questions to answer, I usually only have two behavior issues and I only have to go once a month. His face changed as he looked at my recommend probably wondering who had actually signed the card.
I said to him, “It was only a joke, I didn't know what he was thinking, so I try to figure out what else I could said to him to let him know that I was a good active member of the Church. In my mind I thought, I have all of the Articles of Faith memorized, can I enter that in our conversation. My kids also have them memorized. I wanted to spend time chatting with him. I wanted to extend my conversation with him. In the end he told me something I should tell the sisters. Tell you. Because I'm an obedient person, I will tell you. By the time we came out of his office, there were 20 people waiting, so I have no idea how long I was in there.
The lesson is about the Prophet Joseph Smith and our testimony about him. When I read the lesson, I thought: we all know the story of Jose Smith. What is the purpose of the lesson? To review the story? The impression I had was that it was about our testimony.
Amy R. Are you going to tell us what President Goodsell said?
I will at the end.
When we teach our children about what a testimony is, I have four basic things:
- Testify about God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ (who the Savior is) and the Atonement.
- Testify about Joseph Smith and that he restored the fullness of the gospel that we have today.
- Testify about the Book of Mormon. Elder Ballard that that the Book of Mormon is the evidence that our testimony is true.
- Testify that we have a living prophet today.
How many of these four things have to do with Joseph Smith directly?
Nicole L: When I was at the MTC, we were told that if we didn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith, that just by testifying, the Spirit would testify. When we testify of the truth, the Holy Ghost bears witness not just to others, but also to you.
Keep in mind, if you have not consider, or ponder it, that the testimony will not be there. Think individually, if having a testimony of the prophet Joseph, how your daily life is different because of him.
If during the lesson, you would like to share your testimony of Joseph Smith, feel free to do so.
Let's look at the back of the handout. I thought about a few challenges that I have, how I have persistently been praying for five years on something that has not yet been resolved. Five years. When God ask us to be patient, is He patient? Yes
At the top, the Savior is born, is baptized and is crucified. That takes place in a short period of time. In c100AD we have the “Death” of John and there is no more interaction with the heavens. Fifty years later we have this guy Tertullian, a “Christian Apologist”, who develops ideas such as the Trinity, Original Sin, and celibacy as the highest state of righteousness. So we have God looking at all this.
The people today who are Christian does not consider these things to be non-Christian because these ideas happened so early after the Apostles that how can it not be true.
By 1302AD, the Papal Bull asserts that spiritual authority has supremacy over temporal authority (ie, Pope has power to depose an emperor). The French emperor disagrees. He says I can depose the french emperor.
There were many things that needed to happen. The Lord was waiting for the right moment.
Then in 1517AD, Martin Luther posts Ninety-Five Theses on church door in Wittenburg, Germany, most notably decrying the sale of indulgences (forgiveness) by priest, sanctioned by the Pope to raise funds for refurbishing St. Peter's Basilica. Luther said, you can't sell forgiveness, only God can forgive.
Then in c.1730-1755, we have the “First Great Awakening” in America influences young (future) Foundling Fathers. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, etc.
Do you think that Heavenly Father had a hand in this?
The “Second Great Awakening” comes in c.1790-1840AD. This generates increased religious activity; western New Yo4rk particularly known as the “Burned-Over District”.
In 1805 Joseph Smith Jr. is born. He wonders what church he should join.
After all of that, (the history that we have looked at), God waits and then we have this.
Sharon H read Quote 1
“”Our Heavenly Father knew what was coming when in this latter day he restored the gospel in its purity. He knew of the apostasy in the world among his children, and that they had departed from the plain truth, and in his great mercy, he revealed this latter-day work. From the country he chose a boy from among the people, and inspired him to begin the work that was destined to revolutionize the religious world. He knew that the world was groping in darkness, and in mercy restored the light. There is no other way that happiness may be enjoyed by the children of men but by lives of righteousness, and people cannot live righteous lives and be out of harmony with truth.”
Sharon H: Brother Backman told about Joseph in Egypt saying he, Joseph Smith, would come.
Amy R. mom: He chose a boy from among the people to inspire,a boy 14 years of age. Can you image a youth saying what the Lord told him. He had to be young and inexperienced. I thought of Oliver Cowdry and his pride. But Joseph, he would avoid pride.
Darla C: He was totally dependent on the Lord.
We are all dependent on the Lord. How often do we think that we have to do more here, how difficult it is to move forward and be more proactive. We have the brain to realize the truth.
Kristi A: If we start the day with saying “I” have to do this or that. I have to help, I have to solve,; when we start to think we have the sole responsibility, that can be a slap in the face. We get to participate in helping others.
Yes, my 17 year old daughter who will be graduating from high school this year is already feeling swamped. My struggle is to help her; the pain and anguish is all self imposed. I feel it's something I have to do that is so crucial.
Nicole L: It talks about his great mercy, choosing a boy who was curious, and teaching him line upon live. He schooled him, tutored him.
When He commanded us to be like children, that was Joseph. He was a special soul that God was waiting for. We cannot have faith (lectures on Faith) in God, Joseph Said, if we do not have an understanding of who God is, what God is. If something is not true, that it can't help you.
Melissa B: Quote 2:
“In the year 1830, when this Church was organized, there was not upon the earth a church organization that would announce that they believed that God would revel himself to the children of men. The teachings of the churches were all contrary to that, and our Father saw the futility of trying to save his sons and daughters until they could be inspired to come to him with the belief that he would hear and answer their prayers. When the boy prophet, in the woods of Palmyra, saw the Father and the Son, and realized that they were indeed personages, that they could hear and reply to what he said, it began a new era in this world, and laid a foundation for the faith of the children of me. They could now pray to our Father in heaven and realize that he could hear and answer their prayers, that there was a connection between the heavens and the earth.”
So in your daily life, does this quote by George Albert Smith have any effect on your daily life?
Cheryl: It makes each one of us responsible. Because it is directly between us and the Lord. Prior to Joseph Smith there was not one church named after the Savior. There was no talking about their conversations with deity.
Martin Luther. His basis was about the selling of indulgences. The church was required to be the intermediary between you and God. Now the church is not necessary. Whatever you and God decide is right. There is not one true church. You just need to be good. Elder Oaks gave a great talk in Conference a few conferences ago on what the church represents and our own responsibility.
Cheryl: During Joseph Smith's time, people believed they couldn't talk directly to God.
They believed the heavens were sealed. Generations and generations of our ancestors who were taught they could not do that. Joseph Smith gives us that hope. They could now pray to Heavenly Father and realize he could answer prayers. The Heavens are not sealed.
Quote: “This youth was so sure of the revelation that he had received, and was so anxious that his Father's children, all of them, would know of the truth, that from the time he received the plates of the Book of Mormon from the angel Moroni he devoted his entire life to the organization of the Church and disseminating the truth. There was burning in his soul a knowledge...that our Heavenly Father was at the helm, that it was his work that was upon the earth, that it was his power that would eventually control, that this life was but a part of eternity.”
Youth and inexperience. We have our own perceived inability or lack of skill. Joseph carried on. We can learn from him. What an amazing example.
President Good sell wanted me to share with a quote from Wilford Woodruff.
In a talk given on October 19, 1896, Brother Woodruff said:
“Joseph Smith continued visiting myself and others up to a certain time, and then it stopped. The last time I saw him was in heaven. In the night vision I saw him at the door of the temple in heaven. He came to me and spoke to me. He said he could not stop to talk with me because he was in a hurry...I met half a dozen brethren who had held positions on earth, and none of them could stop to talk with me because they were in a hurry. I was mulch astonished. By and by I saw the Prophet again and I got the privilege of asking him a question.”
Now,' I said, 'I want to know why you are in a hurry. I have been in a hurry all my life; but I expected my hurry would be over when I got into the kingdom of heaven, if I ever did.'
“Joseph said, 'I will tell you, Brother Woodruff. Every dispensation that has had the priesthood on the earth and has gone to the celestial kingdom has had a certain amount of work to do to prepare to go to the earth with Savior when he goes to reign on the earth. Each dispensation has had ample time to do this work. We have not. We are the last dispensation, and so much work has to be done, and we need to be in a hurry in order to accomplish it.” (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, pp. 288-89)
We learn from that that prophets of the latter-day have much to do.
From George Albert Smith:
“I say to all men and women everywhere, examine the teachings of the Gospel of our Lord as receled to the Prophet Joseph Smith, search them prayerfully, and you shall find the panacea for the ills of this world, and it will be discovered in no other way.”
'Panacea' means healing.
My testimony is that I know Joseph Smith to be a prophet of God and that he received revelation from the Lord, the fullness of the Gospel. I have examine carefully the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and I know it comes from God and it allows me then to teach my children, to bring peace and comfort to us. It was given to us to be saved at the last day, so that the atonement may be real to us. My blessing is to share with you and recognize your testimonies as they are bore silently. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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