Good afternoon sisters. What a marvelous
Sacrament Meeting.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- We have a cannery
assignment.
We will be doing peaches in September. Contact Brother Moon if you are
interested and haven't had the opportunity to sign up yet.
- REMINDER: September 13th
is our Preparedness Night. Husbands are invited.
- Amy Rigby will be doing
a cannery class in September.
- FREE: Robby has veggies from
her garden that you can have, tomatoes, beans and some cuks. Stop by her
house and get some.
- Brother Charles Larsen
is in the hospital in Provo, he has pneumonia. Please keep him and his
wife Vera in your prayers.
- Brother Moon wants to
thank everyone for all your kind service to him and to Karen. Karen is now
home and is doing well.
BIRTHDAYS: Aug 22nd – Judy G., 25th
– Anne J., and Cheryl N. Happy Birthday to you.
Megan: I missed you while I was on vacation visiting
my parents. Thanks for all the ministering that you do. For the watch care that
you provide. Please continue in your efforts to connect with the sisters you
visit teach and become friends. I love each one of you.
Our lesson today was presented by Amy Waldron
from the George Albert Smith manual. Lesson # 16 “Offer Up Thy Sacraments
upon my Holy Day”
Amy wrote on the board the following:
- Protection against Evil
- Unspotted from the world
- You will delight in the
Lord
- Fullness of the earth is
yours
My prayer to Heavenly Father, even before I look
at the lesson goes like this: Help me to know, not to get distracted, to focus
on what is needed and helpful; more specifically encouraging to the sister. We
all need encouragement. I was talking to my husband about the joy that the
gospel brings to us. When I opened the manual to the lesson and realized that
it was about the Sabbath Day, I said 'YES'. I have a great testimony of the joy
of keeping the Sabbath Day brings.
When I was 11 years old, my teacher talked about
the activities that were appropriate for the Sabbath Day and of the blessings
that come from obeying. As a youth, my sister and I, mother and father, he
wasn't a member of the church, I felt that watching sport with him on Sunday
was good for us. I decided to test it, what my teacher had said, about keeping
the day holy and the blessings that came with it. I can testify today, as I did
at 12, 13, and the years in between, of the blessings promised for obedience,
desire and the effort in our best possible way can bring all the blessings that
the Lord promised and more even.
I thought of a Stake Conference talk that
President Richard gave that was centered on D&C 130:20-21.
“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in
heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are
predicated--
And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is
by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”
In fact, the whole purpose of the lesson is in
keeping with that scripture. President Smith states “Keeping the Sabbath
day holy and worthily partaking of the sacrament bring us increased spiritual
strength.”
As Paul and I were driving from Arizona, I told
him that I wasn't not having a handout. So he asked, do you have an outline? To
me, the focus and joy will be to get the spiritual strength that comes from
keeping the Sabbath Day.
We will talk about the practical aspect,
especially because we don't live alone, we have a family who may have different
thoughts and feelings about it. So the challenge is to worthily partake of the
sacrament. I am reminded of Emily Thompson who is in the nursery, one Sunday
alone with her boys, and a child scattered her 'gold fish' by throwing it about
and who then left in tears. For her this was not a day of rest that one would
envision.
Don't panic. We're talking of the blessings
here, not of 'I'm in the trenches right now.”
On the board I have written the specific
blessings that are attached to obedience. Delight in the Lord is a little
general, especially when we are feeling overwhelmed, are being weary in good
works. When I do keep the day holy I do delight in the Lord. It taste good to
me.
Section 59 in the D&C gives specific
blessings. It's good stuff. The title of the lesson is taken from Section 59.
D&C 59:9-13 “ “And that thou mayest
more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of
prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;
For verily this is a day appointed unto you to
rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High;
Nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in
righteousness on all days and at all times;
But remember that on this, the Lord's day, thou
shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing
thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord.
And on this day thou shalt do none other thing,
only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be
perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy may be full.
The promises goes on and on until verse 23. I
encourage you to read them. You might want to read them this afternoon and even
have a Family Home Evening on it. You'll be amazed.
Then Isaiah 58:13-14. “If thou turn away
thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the
sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not
doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own
words;
Then shall thou delight thyself in the Lord; and
I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with
the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
It's a beautiful thing. Now more is up to us.
Lynette: At Regional Conference, Henry B. Eyring said
that he had prepared something to speak to us about, but that during the drive
here, the Lord made it clear to him of what he should talk about. And that was
about the Sabbath.
Now the warnings. President Smith gives us
specific warnings.
“He wants us to be happy and has told us
how we may earn that happiness.”
“Unless the world repents of its
carelessness and indifference. It's fair to say that he world is
careless and indifferent. “unless we the Latter-Day Saints, in many
cases, repent of our attitude of indifference toward the holy day o four
Heavenly Father, there will not come to us all the joy and happiness we desire
to enjoy here, and it will not be with us in eternity.
We really don't want to think of LDS in general.
Think of yourself. I have a strong testimony of the glory of the day. I am
always strengthened. I can do it. It's safe to say that each of us has some
repentance to do in regard to the Sabbath Day.
Some people appear to think that if they have
attended religious meetings or performed some portion of the service required
of them on Sunday, they are then at liberty to pursue pleasures and engage in
activities incompatible with the spirit of the Sabbath and still continue to
enjoy the favor of our Father. I say to you that if the members of the Church,
knowing better, persist in desecrating the Sabbath day in the pursuit of
worldly pleasures, they will lose their faith; and the Spirit of our Heavenly
Father will withdraw from them.”
This is very powerful. That is a fact. We are
not making a list, but it is heavy duty stuff.
Let's review some areas that are challenging. We
may not feel very spiritual at the end of the day. We may not been strengthened
and renewed if we have a primary calling. That may really be difficult.
Savannah Dalton was saying that she now has a primary calling and she will be
missing Relief Society. It is a challenge. It took a lot of energy.
Robby: When I was a young mother, because my husband
was not a member, I felt like a single mom. I had well behaved kids, but
sometimes I would go home thinking, why did I bother. I felt drained.
Let's hear some advise for moms on how
personally can you gain strength from the Sabbath day and not feel drained.
Melissa B: If I can get one thing out of the three hours,
I feel an accomplishment that I can take one thing for myself.
I like that. Have low expectation.
Rosemary: One goal that we have is to a spiritual one. I
had 5 children close together in age, my husband was in the Bishopric. Now that
I don't have little children , I watch other moms. Most of us go to partake of
the sacrament to promise to be more like the Savior. We sit to listen to the
Holy Ghost. I see moms reading to a child as they teach them in their ears.
They are doing it, they are living it. They are put in a position to do as the
Savior would do. The other thing is that I spent a lot of time in the nursing
mother's room. Instead of talking about what we would fix for dinner, we talked
about spiritual things. It gave us a feeling of uplifting, we could feel the
spirit in the nursing mother's room.
Pat H: In the gospel, we take upon us certain
covenants, one is the covenant of obedience, one of sacrifice. Being that you
may not get a whole lot from the meeting, but the fact that you have your
children there, that is a sacrifice. You are obeying that law. As to keeping
the covenant of obedience; we may not feel that we are getting something, but
we are keeping that covenant of being there and with that comes the blessing.
We are in process of obeying and keeping covenants.
We have Sister Smart and Sister Heaton and I
will add my own mother. She did the very thing. Her husband was not a member of
the church and when we lived in Bangkok, Thailand, there was one branch across
the city. She never missed one meeting. Daddy would tell her to leave the
babies at home with him, but she refused. He would attend so he could help her
wit the babies, my sister and me. She continued that practice. There was only
one time that she missed and it was the day after her mom passed away. We had
no Family Home Evenings, no scripture study, but we were in that place on
Sundays. Our Primary, Young Women, Sunday School teachers, the power and
community of the church as a whole, we got taught. She came to Church. Like
Sister Smart, as my husband was in Afghanistan, I would try to make it through
Sacrament before I had to leave. Janet S.'s children sit there while she plays
the organ. But usually when you get up, yo have this trail of kids following
you. I had Nancy who would be running from me. One Sunday, I had my two oldest
ones, and was large with child and Paul was not there. I didn't even make it
through the opening hymn, even though I was there on time. I was sitting on the
sofa and this dear sister walked in, late, and made mentioned that I was
already out here, how was I going to be able to do it with a third baby. I
managed not to cry. I thought of these things, but I knew the power of being in
Church because my mom had brought me all my life.
Laurie A: Now that I am an old woman and my kids are
grown, I've been through it all. There are two things I can say. Don't forget
that your children are send for a reason, so they can share with you what they
learned in primary. As they sing a song on the way home that they learned.
And two: Try to extend the good feeling of
Sunday by listening to music. That has helped me. All our kids are there for
us. They get it. I leaned to app0reciate the Sabbath.
You are all wonderful. Find encouragement and
strength in the Sabbath Day. The Lord is anxious to bless us.
Next week's lesson is from General Conference
address: “The Power of Deliverance' by Elder L. Tom Perry.
Have a great day.
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