Revelation + Action = Blessings

This last month I have been reminded of the power of personal revelation and the blessings I receive as I follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. In preparing for my lesson this coming Sunday I found several articles in the June 2012 Ensign as well as various past Church magazines that teach us about the Holy Ghost. I found one article in particular that I encourage you to read before Relief Society: "Eight Ways God Can Speak to You" (click HERE) by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. This article is based on a devotional talk that Elder Oaks gave at BYU in 1981. To read the original talk, click HERE. 

I would like for us to focus not only on how we receive and "hear" the personal revelation, but what we do with it after we receive it. We are going to the temple as a Relief Society at the end of this month. Hopefully we will attend prayerfully and seek answers to prayers. If so, we will feel the Spirit in the House of the Lord, and then what? How will we apply it in our lives, to solve our problems, to comfort our worries, and to bring us to action?

Looking for more to read on this topic?

Talk by Elder Robert D. Hales

Part of an ETERNAL Circle

We have several sisters in our Relief Society who are moving and making temporal changes in their details (Rainey Martin, Quay Mercer, and Karen Tutor). This kind of change is always stressful and lots of support is needed.
We have several sisters in our Relief Society who will be going to the temple this week - for the first time (Cindy Johnson and Angelina Athian). They, too, will be making lots of changes. They, too, will need our support.
We are all part of each others' ETERNAL PATTERN. The beauty of this Gospel (whose crowning doctrine is held in the Temple) and this inspired women's organization is that the Lord has a "built-in" support for all changes. We have served with each other or been the Visiting Teacher or they have been our Visiting Teacher. We have taught their children or they have taught our children. There is a natural caring because we are interconnected through service in His church.
We are all part of an Eternal Circle! And I, for one, am so grateful for the possibility to get to serve with you for an ETERNITY.

We Have the Stake Canner!

Cathy Meyer has procured the Stake Canner from Saturday, May 26 through Thursday, June 7.  Anyone interested in canning their own food may contact her for an appointment by phone or email sncmeyer7@sbcglobal.net.  She will have day and evening appointments available at her home.  Each sister will need, in addition to her own food, the canning supplies (i.e.: cans, lids, oxygen packets, boxes) which you can get at the Bishop's Storehouse on Tuesdays or Thursdays ONLY from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.  The order form can be found online at www.providentliving.org and gives the cost of each item.  If anyone needs help calculating how many supplies you will need, please contact her.


Also, if you want to go to the Bishop's Storehouse to can items that they supply, you may do this ONLY on WEDNESDAYS.  They have two shifts from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  No appointment is necessary.  We cannot go as a large group anymore but feel free to take a friend with you .  Trainers are there to assist you.   

TEMPLE READY NAMES? DON'T JUST LOOK BACK!

We are preparing for our Relief Society Temple Day on Tuesday June 26th - There are a number of ways to do genealogy and temple work, and certainly  those of us who prepare to go to the temple, find the experience is always sweeter, when we can take our own family "temple ready" names.  The stake genealogy library at the Bowser Bldg  is available with people waiting to help.  We just have to round up what information we already know about our family, and then take the time and  initiative to find out when the library is open, and then go and discover.

I am a fifth generation Latter-day Saint,and three of my four lines, came to America to join this great latter day movement in furthering the Gospel of  Jesus Christ throughout the world.

There have been some ambitious and faithful genealogists in my family, and a great deal of the temple work has already been done.  In 2006, I decided I wanted to take my very own family name to the temple.  I made  it my New Year's Resolution, I told my Heavenly Father that it was a great goal I had.  I made it a matter of daily prayer,  I called and talked with so many relatives  to see if anyone was working on some lines not showing up in Family Search, and then I began to work.  I went to  the library here, and spoke with several great genealogist in the area, to help me pinpoint my search.   I went to visit family in Salt Lake, and we took several trips to  the large library  the church maintains.  I talked with several great genealogy "detectives", who work full time there.  In the end, my lines were still stopping with various problems, where they had before I began.  In essence, I found that there was a " very good" reason, each  line stopped where it did. 

 One night,  nearly the end of July,   I was pouring out my heart to the Lord in prayer.  I felt frustrated, I had really tried, where should I go next, what should I do.  Later that night, as I was brushing my teeth. I had the distinct impression to "LOOK AROUND AND GO FORWARD'  I  thought about it, and dismissed it. because I didn't understand my prompting -  all my ancestors are backward not forward.

Three days later, my Dad called, and said "You know I have been worrying about Aunt Marion's  (his sister) work.  She was baptized, but never endowed or sealed, and she has been dead nearly two years." I immediately felt one of those little electrical shocks, that I have been pricked wth over my lifetime.  Exactly - I had never thought of anyone I knew, someone who was contemporarily here on the earth with me.  Not only was there my Aunt Marion, but my Uncles Bob and Paul, and three cousins (all younger than me) who have predeceased me without the gospel.  Actually, my Dad and I did 7 family names in all at the St. George Temple.  My Aunt Ruth died about 14 months ago, and my daughter  Rebecca is taking her name through the temple this month.

So when you are working on Temple names, look back of course, but also look around and look forward .   Also, remember to look and reach up to our Heavenly Father, who is waiting to help us do this work.

"Oh, have we come all this way for that?"

In studying for our lesson on Sunday, "Waiting Upon the Lord" by Elder Hales, I came across a great BYU Devotional given by a former General Relief Society President, Elaine Jack. She rehearses a story from the journals of Ruth May who crossed the plains as a teenager in the 1850's. Ruth writes of the excitement and vigor of her testimony and journey from England to the Salt Lake Valley. They made many sacrifices along the way but nothing could dampen their desire to reach "Zion" and live with the Saints.
Yet, after all the hard work and tribulation to get there and when they crested the ridge to enter the Valley, Ruth looked down at the brown desert expanse and exclaimed "Oh, have we come all this way for that?"
How often do we feel this way? The lesson this Sunday is a great reminder that life is what we are doing while we learn and gain experience (and perspective AND patience!).