Good afternoon sisters, I hope you enjoy your
day and this week as we celebrate the birthday of this wonderful nation and the
freedom it allows us.
THOUGHT: “The purpose of temples is to provide a place
where holy ordinances are performed for the living and for the dead.” George Albert Smith
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- Please remember the Rob Fisher family
in your prayers in the coming weeks. We know that when we unite our faith,
great miracles happen.
- Our sympathy to Petra and her sister
in the loss of their mother.
- Thanks to all who participated
in the Birthday Brunch yesterday.
- A big thanks to our Young Women
leaders for all their work to make Girls Camp a wonderful experience. We
realize how much they help strengthen the youth.
- Stake Blood Drive on Saturday July 21st.
You can still sign up next week.
- Mommy Mingle on Tuesday, July 10th
at 11:00 am at the Highland Splash Pool.
- Sister Ardeth Kapp will speak at a
fireside on Sunday, July 15th at 7:00 pm at the Cedar Hills
Stake Center (corner of Cedar Hills Dr and Canyon Rd) This is for all
women and young women ages 12 and up.
- Manila 12th
Ward “Super Summer Sensational Supper” (Saturday July 14th
at 6 pm @ Val Vista Park (behind Montagnoli's) Enjoy Savory Food,
Socializing & Super Games...it will be So Fun!
Our lesson today was presented by Sarah Heiner.
“The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn”
I have felt Heavenly Father's hand in the
preparation of this lesson. I am so excited to present this to you. I am more
excited because it is very personal to me. It has affected my life for the good
and I appreciate the opportunity to present it to you.
Last October Elder David Bednar gave a
talk on Family History and he gave it in a way that I had never heard before.
He explained how we should be doing it, and especially getting the youth
involved.
“Behold, I will reveal unto you the
Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord. “...And he shall plant in the hearts of the
children the promises made to the fathers, and the heats of the children shall
turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly
wasted at his coming”
As I heart this, I thought in my mind two
questions? The first is, we think to ourselves, do I have time for this, there
are different stages in our lives. The second is, I'm pretty sure that all of
my ancestors work has been done. We tend to justify why it is difficult to our
Family History.
Prior to six years ago I felt the same way. In
fact I thought it would be very boring. I have displayed here a picture of my
own family and a picture of my grandfather, Maddie's Family History in fan
shape and a Golf ball. This ball has a name on it 'Will' and on the back is a
bear with a fish in his mouth and the word Alaska. Brady had gone golfing and
an 18 year old boy who was working cleaning up the balls looked at it and say
to Brady. You need a ball? Brady says no thanks, but then he notices that it
said Will. My brother Will was a fisherman in Alaska for ten years. He had died
three months prior. I realized that my brother wanted me to have his work done.
He had left the church when he was 17 years old. This was a start for me. I ask
myself how things like this happen. This is very tangible. It was not a dream
or an impression.
My brother was interested in seeking our
ancestors even though he was not active. He had started an investigation on our
family line. He had discovered that grandpa was 49 years old and grandma was 18
when they married. We did not know much of our family history but for me it was
very personal when his interest started.
Question? Have any of you had similar experience, dreams
or impression?
Martha: Once when I was in the Washington D C temple I
got this overwhelming impression – I felt the spirit of Cliff's grandmother in
my mind, it felt like the sweetest feeling. It was as if she was saying, 'Thank
you taking care of my son (Cliff's dad who has been with us for 11 years).
Please take time to do our work. I started thinking of all the Italian people
who are waiting. As you were setting up, I felt Heavenly Father's spirit to pay
attention to these things. They need us to do something.
As I prepared this lesson, I can't always relate
to ancestors reaching up to us, but children have a way to make us think more
deeply. When Maddie was a child, she would always run off at the stores. She
would usually hide in the carpet rolls at Home Depot and since we were building
our home, I would go there often. It would scare me and I would think that she was
gone. One day she did that and I thought, I can pray, but someone needs to help
me. So I went and asked the people if they would call her name over the
intercom. They also send a team out to look for her. The person who found her
and brought her to me felt like an angel. This we can relate to. We have
ancestors who are on the other side who are together but not sealed as families
by the power of Elijah. We are the hands to bring them back to us.
Look under your chairs; I have put six quotes
there. On the other side of the quotes are pictures. When I ask for the quotes,
please come up and read them. Will quotes 1, 2, and 3 please come up.
Quote 1 – Shanel: D&C 18:10
Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of god.
Quote 2 – Andrea: D&C 18:15 And
if it so be that you should labor all your days...and bring, save it be one
soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!
Quote 3 – Amy S: D&C 18:16
And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me
into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring
many souls unto me!
Now start piecing the pictures together. Arrange
them so they will be a together family, so that the family members are next to
each other.
Heavenly Father place so much emphasis in this
that he sent Elijah the prophet. Who is Elijah, a modern prophet?
Quote 4 – Robby: Elijah was an
Old Testament prophet through whom mighty miracles were performed. “We learn
from latter-day revelation that Elijah held the sealing power of the
Melchizedek Priesthood and was the last prophet to do so before the time of
Jesus Christ” (Bible Dictionary, “Elijah”). The Prophet Joseph Smith explained,
“The spirit, power, and calling of Elijah is, that ye have power to hold the
key of the ...fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood ..; and to … obtain... all
the ordinances belonging to the kingdom of God” This sacred sealing authority
is essential for priesthood ordinances to be valid and binding both on earth
and in heaven.
The more we learn about genealogy, the more we
can bring families together. AS we learn who Elijah was, we learn about the
amazing miracles he did and we learn that he was translated.
Next question. What is the Spirit of Elijah?
Quote 5 - Holly: Elder Russel M.
Nelson has taught that the Spirit of Elijah is “a manifestation of the Holy
Ghost bearing witness of the divine nature of the family”. This distinctive
influence of the Holy Ghost draws people to identify, document, and cherish
their ancestors and family members – both past and present.
We ask ourselves, what is our greatest
responsibility?
Quote 6 – Shanae: The Prophet
Joseph Smith declared: The greatest responsibility in this world that God has
laid upon us is to seek after our dead. ...For it is necessary that the sealing
power should be in our hands to seal our children and our dead for the fullness
of the dispensation of times—a dispensation to meet the promises made by Jesus
Christ before the foundation of the world for the salvation of man. ...Hence,
God said, 'I will send you Elijah the prophet'”
This is a trick question. Is the spirit of
Elijah only given to members of the church? No. It is open to everyone. So why
is our role so important?
Robby: Only members can do the work for them.
Lynette: The church has the biggest resource.
I found that once I broke through the first
generation, it became easier to move on to the next one. My parents were
converts so I didn't have lots of information. It was hard to break through, but
then I realized that people were submitting information but the work was not
being done. The hard part was already done, but my obligation was to get the
families seal. It is so important to do this work.
Amy W: Three years ago we went to a family reunion.
My dad's family is non LDS; they are from the South. So they had this big
family reunion, my dad was 86 years old then. My kid had not met a lot of his
family and even though we really did not have money to go to the reunion we
felt we had to do this. I struggled as a teenager because I had pioneer
ancestry on my mother's side and Southern Baptist on my dad's side. My mother
would take us to church, but my dad was not there. I felt sad. My Patriarchal
blessing refers to my father. So here I am sitting in this Holiday Inn in
Arkansas and I saw cousins go out for a smoke break, etc. They were a jolly
group. But I had this feeling of love for these people. My father had the
Spirit of Elijah. My mom and he had worked on his family and we have 10,000
names of dad's ancestors. I thought, my sister and I who are active have nine
children. We're the only ones needed to take care of all these people. I
thought I would have volunteered for this. God has had a big plan and we're all
part of it. I volunteered to take care of this people. We all have some sort of
connection to this work.
So beautiful Amy. It is the perfect transition.
I think we need to ask ourselves 'is this really for me? It is interesting how
Brady told me that. Our parents, etch had told us or tell us the work is
already done. I have been told that too, but I am the type of person who has to
clarify everything. To find truth is very important for me. Grandfather Charles
Heiner is such a case. We found out that he has a son named William Heiner, that
we didn't know about. We found out that Charles had been married about 3 years,
his wife died and he had a baby no one knew what happened to him. It's a good
example of how wrong people can be if they just accept what others say. It's
easy to justify ourselves, but like Amy, we're the only person in the family to
make that connection and save families. We're that person.
Last summer in July, I took Jami to the dentist
and drop her off. I thought I should go to D I. I was looking for a desk for
Maddie. I had found one at a store but it was very expensive. I walked around
DI but couldn't find anything that was small enough. I walked around again and
in the corner where they have the tables I saw this old, ugly but in bad shape
desk. I measured it and it was a perfect size. It was well built, so I put it
in my car along with a chair. What to do? As I drove home I passed by Tara's
house and saw her in her garage painting. She restores furniture. So I asked
her how to go about fixing up this desk. She gave me step by step instructions.
When I got home, I pulled out this small drawer. There was stuff in the drawer
and as I pulled out the papers about 50 ordinance cards felled out. The work
had never been done and once they are printed, they cannot be touched by anyone
else so the work hadn't been done. I had the name and address of the person who
had printed them. I tried to find the person, even went to the address but no
luck. So that same week, our family members sealed those family together. When
the spirit of Elijah is there, things will fall in place. People will
communicate with us.
Rachelle F: Our family does family history and my sister,
etc was sealing families and she had this feeling that there was a daughter
missing. So she did some digging and found this daughter.
The spirit will guide you to that child. They
will help you; we have angels with us. This is the work that will guard and
protect our families, our children.
Karen M: My Patriarchal Blessing tells me I have many
ancestors that I was to do work for them. I searched and search and would find
some but it was very hard and couldn't find all of them. I would ask the Lord,
but the answers would not come. I would even get mad that the Lord was not
helping me. With Family Search I was able to find them and when I got them
done, I had this feeling that it was finished. Sometimes we have to wait a long
time.
If you will look at the board, you will see that
someone is missing. I will direct someone to find the baby of this family. Luone,
will you please come up here and look for the baby around a place that makes
music. She found the baby. The family can all be seal together now.
You have a handout that gives you detailed
instruction on how to get started. I feel that this program that the Church has
created was designed for the Millennium because it was created with God's help
and with the spirit of Elijah.
I am thankful for this work and the spirit in
our home. Rochelle S, five months ago attended one of my genealogy classes and
did the steps and has now sealed grandparents, aunts. She was a beginner and
did it.
Megan: Sarah has outlined something for each month.
Look for that in the months to come on the blog. Http://manila12thwardrs.blogspot.com
Next week the lesson will be from the manual.
Lesson #13 “Doing Our Part to Share the Gospel”
Have a great week and a safe July 4th.
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