Stake Conferencce Part Three

The next speakers, last night's session: Brother and Sister Hart (young couple with kids) spoke about morning scripture study in their family.

As our calendars get filled (not my personal situation at this time), have we remembered to put first things first?  What are our priorities?   Where do prayer and family scripture study fit in?  

The church's "new" guide, Come, Follow Me, and the adoption of the program in your own family can lead to blessings, the Hart couple explained.  They chose to get up a half hour earlier in the mornings to meet with their family members.  

Because they have been working to put the Lord first in their home, they feel that their "burdens" haven't necessarily become lighter, but that they have been strengthened significantly to bear those burdens.  (Mosiah 24);  Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the ^aburdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as ^bwitnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their ^cafflictions.

Suggestions from the Hart family:  Invite the Spirit to visit and abide with family members.  

Review D&C 88:124:  Cease to be ^aidle; cease to be ^bunclean; cease to ^cfind fault one with another; cease to ^dsleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be ^einvigorated.

Cultivate a desire for [spiritual] knowledge.  Direction via the whispering of the Holy Ghost will come as pray for guidance. 

 

Stake Conference Part Two!

Brother Anderson also talked of his granddaughter and the struggles that she had experienced.  She was blessed to receive support from a certain group or organization in Utah, which incidentally, was comprised of many Tongan ladies.  Fortunately, his granddaughter received assistance from this organization and progressed to the point that she felt well enough to put in her papers to serve a mission.  

She was advised that as a result of her past history in mental health challenges that she might not be invited to fill a regular full-time mission.  Another individual told her not to worry about that because the Lord would call her where he needed her.  

The response, the "call" came and Brother Anderson and all the family gathered around the computer, as his granddaughter was going to announce the results on Facebook Live.  Each person was invited to put in a guess as to where the granddaughter had been called.  Friends and relatives (over 100), filled her living room in Utah and others were watching on the Internet.  

Brother Anderson's guess was Oakland California mission, because he had been reared in that area and he knew that at that location, his granddaughter would find many of the Polynesian Saints and have the opportunity to "give back", in part, to those members, what she had received, in spirit, if not in kind.  See population of islanders in California.

I'm sure that you can guess where his granddaughter was called to fill a mission.  She would be serving a full-time, English speaking mission in Oakland California!  

Attention to Conference

I took quick and incomplete notes at the recent (yesterday) Stake Conference.  I had failed to eat properly during the day and arrived at the conference feeling humble and a little weak!  

However, I was looking forward to enjoying a spiritual feast and was not disappointed.  Besides that, I shortly learned that one of the major themes of the conference was "Family History"!  This is topic I love so dearly and I engage in almost on a daily basis.  

The first talk was given by Joe Anderson, a counselor in the Stake Presidency of the Fort Walton Stake.  He must have fasted before the meeting because his attitude and talk was totally a spiritual experience!  He talked about Toothpicks!  The whole thing about synergy.   

A recent (2016) talk at the Women's Conference, illustrates and alludes to this eternal principle... [Actually, the talk was about "Agape"].  Elder and Sister Renlund presented this talk.  
 
 “One in charity” can be used as an exhortation—encouraging individuals to be unified and to join with others, such as the newly introduced “I Was a Stranger” initiative. When we think about this phrase as an exhortation, we, as individuals, are strongly encouraged to voluntarily join together to help those in need. Our desire is to be charitable, but we want to do so in a unified effort. It builds on the concept of synergy, that many can do more than the sum of individuals. For example, 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 8. Now, I’m no mathematician, but 8 is clearly more than the sum of the individual parts."

So, Brother Anderson/or President Anderson, if you prefer, was telling about when he was instructed (in school science class?) to create a device made wholly by toothpicks and seeing how much weight that device could hold.  I'm not describing this accurately, but you get the idea, right?!!


Elder Renlund: Synergy occurs because the capacity of the five grows as they work together and because they qualify for heaven’s help. As we work together, our capacity grows, and we are able to accomplish even greater tasks in the future.

Brother Anderson's other point was that together we prop each other and "others" up in the worthy goal of helping mankind.  Luke 10:2: The ^aharvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

In another book of scripture: Exodus 17: 9-12 of the Old Testament, there is the story of Moses and Joshua and Amalek...when Moses held up his hand, Joshua prevailed in the fight with Amalek.  When Moses' s hand got tired and lowered, Joshua would not prevail.  

 9 And Moses said unto ^aJoshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the ^brod of God in mine hand.

10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

12 But Moses’ hands ^awere heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur ^bstayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

The members of the church should support one another in doing the Lord's work. We are called to the work by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.