Good afternoon sisters. Looks like winter is back. Have a good rest of the Sabbath.
THOUGHT: Now I do not think that many members of the Church consciously urge the persuasions of men or their own counsel instead of heeding the Lord's. However, when we do not keep ourselves advised as to what the counsel of the Lord is, we are prone to substitute our own counsel for His. As a matter of fact, there is nothing else we can do but follow our own counsel when we do not know the Lord's instructions.”
Marion G. Romney (“Seek Not to Counsel the Lord, “)
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- Relief Society Birthday Dinner “Circled in Something Extraordinary”, Tuesday, March 29th at 6:30 pm at the Manila Chapel ( by the blue silos). Come and enjoy a delicious dinner and listen to our guest speaker while we enjoy each others' company.
- General Conference – March 31st and April 1st.
- Tuesday, April 3rd at 12:30 pm will be a RS Temple Initiatory Activity.
- Thursday, April 12th 7 pm we will have “Circled in Sewing” at Kay Johnson's home. We will be sewing blankets, making wonder ovens, and doing humanitarian work; or, bring a project you are working on.
- Saturday, April 21st, will be the Stake Woman's Conference. More details to come.
- Get ready to enjoy the first “Guilt-Free Celebration of Motherhood” on Thursday, May 10th at 7 pm, created by Amy Waldron.
- SISTERS, please e-mail your information to Julie Glenn for the spotlight portion of our Relief Society. New sisters need to know about the existing sisters as well as we need to know about the new sisters. jcglenn@live.com You can include, places where you have lived, information about your family, mission, where meet spouse, hobbies, favorite scripture and how it has helped you in your life.
BIRTHDAYS: Today, March 18th, Gisele Miller and Kristy Attaway. March 22nd, Micheale Cluff. Happy Birthday sisters. Enjoy your day.
UP -DATE ON SHARON: We want to thank each of you for your prayers, food, visits to the Backman family. Sharon has now been able to see all of her children which has been her desire. Continue to keep the family in your prayers. We will continue to keep you inform as things change.
We are now enjoying a most beautiful centerpiece for our RS tables given to us with lots of love from our sweet sister Janet Thwaits whom we miss so very much. She wanted us to remember her as if we could ever forget her. She was a piece of sunshine for us. Thank you Janet.
Our lesson today is from the Teachings of Presidents of the Church – George Albert Smith, lesson 36: “Sustaining Those Whom the Lord Sustains” presented by Amy Waldron.
This lesson is a marvelous one. It is in the order of Pat and Neal Maxwell to feast upon the words of Christ. We will be dinning with delight. It is a beautiful doctrine to have, that of priesthood leaders who are called and sustained by the faith, prayers and confidence of the people. The leaders have learned humility. It is a great test of Priesthood leaders whom we have been privileged to sustain.
I thought about Janet as I prepared this lesson. What Janet taught me was that we as Relief Society sisters need to know that we can share ourselves with other people. That it is ok if we are not doing all that we should. A Relief Society class can be so OK. Some classes are so that no one share everything that's real. The gospel knows how to address issues but not the true feelings. Janet was somebody that kept us from the just stay on the OK. She told her husband that in this new ward she was going to lay low. She is a valiant soul. I hope her new ward can see through her. She taught us good lessons.
I have put on the board four things: Principles, Careful, Callings, Promises.
We will start with principles
D&C 21:4-5 “Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give heed unto all His words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth the, walking in all holiness before me.
“For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.”
Lupe: That they speak for him.
Yes, they literally speak the words of God.
Robby: Wow, that must have been such a beautiful thing for them to hear at that time.
Sharon H: The pope before this admitted that he was not a prophet.
Gayla: Quote
“The man who presides over us today is not presiding because of his own native ability. He is not presiding because he is the son of some great potentate, but he is in the position he occupies because our Father in Heaven knows the integrity of his soul.”
What is he saying here? What types of organizations is he referring to? Say a king dies, who is next in line? His son and so on. Do we have a leader because of his natural abilities? Is that necessarily how God chooses his leaders? Do we sometimes expect our leaders to have this natural abilities? Some do have natural abilities. Bishop Edman has. I have teenagers, and he is not afraid of teenagers. He works with them and he enjoys them. That is a natural ability.
So how does God choose?
Pat H: The prophet is the spokesman for the whole world. When President Kimball was called to be the prophet, his question was 'how can I speak for God when I have no voice', due to cancer of the throat. Well, they figured out a way for him to do so. He had this little mike close to his mouth and all could hear him.
Integrity of our soul. To be able to see through lack of family connections that someone becomes a leader.
Mary T: In my age, bishops do not necessarily have natural leadership tendencies. The Lord qualifies them. He gives them authority and ability.
Jami: Calling a Bishop is a process. The Stake President actually sends the name to Church headquarters. They even interview the wife. There may be times when people may not thing a Bishop is qualified, but he is called of God When the next Bishop is called, he will have been called of God. The Stake President does not call him.
Alisa: Quote
“He will not permit the men who preside over his Church to lead the people unto error.”
Pat H: The word man and men. The Lord will not allow a prophet to lead his people into error. Some people may think that all the men in the Church are perfect.
Yes, Satan has a way to use a true principle and twist I around to have it mean another thing. We can listen and hear something else.
President Smith: How grateful we ought to be to know that this work is not the work of man, but it is the work of the Lord; that this Church, that hears the name of Jesus Christ, is directed by him, and he will permit no man or group of men to destroy it. He will not permit the men who preside over his Church to lead the people into error, but he will sustain them with his almighty power. He will magnify them in the eyes of good and great men and women. He will bless their ministry ad it will be fraught with success. Those who oppose and find fault will not find joy in their opposition. Those who criticize and seek to destroy the influence of the leaders of the Church will suffer the result of their wrong-doing.”
Robby: When I was new in the Church, I thought that the Bishop would never do anything wrong. One day I had an interview with my Bishop and he called me to be the Jr. Sunday School Coordinator. I was a new member and thought he had mistaken me for another Sister Anderson. A few weeks later we were talking, just chatting really and he looked at me and said, “Don't look at life in rose colored glasses.” I will never forget that because a few weeks later he was excommunicated. I was mortified, and asked myself, how could he do that, he is the Bishop. I didn't expect him to have struggles like that. It a good thing I had a testimony of the gospel. I struggles with that for a long time.
We all know someone who has done something we never thought they would do. Not at any level in the Church.
Lynette: Trudie would say that she would never say the Church is true. She would say the gospel is true.
That is very interesting. I feel comfortable saying that the Church is true, but that it is run by us, who are imperfect people. I am so grateful that God called people.
Robby: It is run by imperfect people. I know that the world thinks that we say that we are going to be 'gods' and that we think because we believe that that we think we are perfect. All of us are striving to be like God, but we are not perfect.
If we could communicate that to our friends, our non-members it would be so helpful. If we could clarify that concept.
Kristy A: I have a brother who is a return missionary, and is now divorced and he questions things. A true testimony is to be able to see the whole picture. To be able to see past somethings.
How we can help someone is to get them past the fact that they had interaction with someone in the Church that let them down. It is an act of faith. They need more faith. Focus on things that will built more faith, like the scriptures, prayers. There are things that need to be worked through.
Shanel: We all have times when we need to go to the basics again and again. It's a continual process. We can get lost without the basics, faith in God, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the prophets.
Megan: We need to be careful how we say things. Contention never leads to good. We just need to bear testimony of what is true.
Holly: I had an experience in my life when I was floundering through the infertility issues. My Relief Society president said some things that were offensive to me. This lesson taught me to be humble. I disagreed with things regarding visiting teaching, but I humbly listen to her and did it. It changed my entire feelings.. It was an act of humility.
That is an important comment It takes work to have the heart to do it. It is building our faith, testimony and humility.
Sharon H: My dad was excommunicated, and the Stake President wouldn't let him be in the Church. It was so disheartening. But he knew the Church was true and his family stood by him. I am so grateful the Church is true and we have a prophet. He has a new Stake President and he is now back in the Church.
Pat H: It is interesting how members of the Church still take the same basic principle of forgiveness. Some people are in a fence. They are offended by people and then find reasons to not come back to Church. People use it to justify themselves. We have to be so careful.
I wanted to do this activity, but we do not have time. On the back of the handout I want you to write down every calling you have ever had in chronological order. I did mine and it's like my whole life is here. I put down Beehive Counselor, Mia Maid Counselor. I prayed so hard that I wouldn't be called to be Mia Maid President because presidents have to take notes at BYC and I was not a good note taker. I was visiting teaching supervisor 12 times. I was a Family Home Evening 'mom' in college and I was the Activity committee person where I was given the whole budget. That was so that I made sure that everyone in the ward was married at the end of the semester. At one point in my church callings, I was called to be Homemaking leader. There was some laughter during the sustaining and even some gasp. Afterward people asked me, does this mean we will never have do crafts ever again. I was in law school and they knew I was not into crafts. It so happened that a few weeks later, Sister Sherry Dew told us that the direction of homemaking had taken a different turn. When I moved here, I was called into scouts. Three months and then I got this calling.
After you list your callings, go back and put a star on the callings that you felt you had no qualification, that maybe it was a mistake.
Circle the callings that you feel you learned some important things about yourself, about God and about your fellow beings.
I will end by reading D&C 21:5-6
“For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.
“For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name's glory.”
What a dinner to have with your children. To feast upon his words. I promise that this is true.
Next week is Teachings for Our Time: “A Witness”, by President Henry B. Eyring.
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