¡El final de febrero!

Hello my lovely friends.
Today was a great day, wasn't it?

Here are the announcements for the week and a look at upcoming events:
1. Tomorrow night FHE will be a ward FHE in the sacrament room (C215 ESC) at 7pm.
2. Wednesday is Institute at 7pm in B092 JFSB.
3. Sunday, March 16th is Stake Conference. Get excited!
4. Saturday, March 22nd is a stake service project.
5. Saturday, March 29th is the General Women's meeting from 6-8pm.
6. If you need something posted in the bulletin, please contact Porter Irmston or Kristin Hunsaker before Wednesday evenings.

The lovely Rachel McCracken taught us a beautiful lesson today. She reviewed Elder Bednar's latest conference address with us. Please read over it if you haven't lately. She did a wonderful job, and there is still so much the Spirit has to teach each of us individually.

The Windows of Heaven by Elder Bednar
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/the-windows-of-heaven?lang=eng

Rachel: I know how important the law of tithing is and I’m so grateful for it in my life.
To start off I want to share an experience. Every year we have to sit with the Bishop and declare whether or not we’ve paid a full and honest tithe. One year I told him, “I don’t know if I necessarily have a testimony of the law of tithing, but I follow it and see the blessings.” I do have a testimony of it now and I’m grateful for it.

Oftentimes we read in the scriptures, “if you do this… then this.” So what are the if and then in this scripture?
Malachi 3:10

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

What is the if? What are we supposed to do?
Abby: Pay tithing!
Rachel: Yeah. Bring all your tithes to the storehouse. So what’s the then?
Asia: We’ll get blessings.
Rachel: It will happen. He says “prove me now herewith.” Here’s all these blessings. You won’t have room to receive them.
Ryan: That's always been such an interesting idea for me. Especially dealing with monetary things, money doesn’t abound as a college student. Sometimes it can be easy to think that you’re grateful for what you do have, but there could be more. Elder Bednar talks about how it’s not always the monetary things that we’re blessed with. It may be that my car keeps running and I don’t have to spend thousands of dollars fixing it.
Rachel: We’re going to get a lot more to that.
Brittany: Sometimes we may feel like we do have more room to receive things, but if you think about where your tithing goes, like temples and ward buildings. When we go to the temple we are receiving more spiritual blessings.
Rachel: Looking at the scripture some more, what does it mean that he will open up the windows of heaven?
Kiersten: When I was younger I thought about literally opening windows and things being thrown to me. Windows go two ways. I can see things now that maybe I wouldn't understand if I didn’t have the eternal perspective.
Rachel: I like that you said you can see things.
Sarah: When I think of windows I think of light. When we pay our tithing, not only will we have the things we need but we’ll understand things better, our scripture study will be better and our prayers.
Jo: I just looked at the little letter at the side in the scripture and it says blessings of Israel. I’ve never felt like I wasn’t blessed for paying tithing. I live in a place where like after high school I lived on my own. It was really hard relying on the Lord to take care of you. I know that tithing is the reason that I have the basic needs of life. I know without a doubt that if you pay tithing, whether or not you’re a member of the church, that you will be blessed for it.
Rachel: I feel like I’m learning a lot from you guys. I love what Elder Bednar has to say about it. Malachi uses this imagery of this window. It’s the same kind of perspective that as we are being taken care of by the Lord. What a powerful thing that is - the powers of heaven.
Elder Bednar says, “Often as we teach and testify about the law of tithing, we emphasize the immediate, dramatic, and readily recognizable temporal blessings that we receive. And surely such blessings do occur. Yet some of the diverse blessings we obtain as we are obedient to this commandment are significant but subtle. Such blessings can be discerned only if we are both spiritually attentive and observant (see 1 Corinthians 2:14).”
What are your thoughts on that?
Ashley: I really like this talk because it hits on blessings we receive for other commandments. Something I’ve thought about a lot lately is that it’s interesting that when we keep a commandment we’re blessed in two ways. The blessing and seeing it as the Lord’s hand. If we don’t see it as the Lord’s hand, we’re only getting half of it.
Rachel: The Lord is always giving us blessings and I think we need to be open to it. Please turn to Ether 12:19.

And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad.

Looking at this scripture, what was helping them see these things?
 An eye of faith. I love that. Here they’r able to see and recognize all these things. Before Christ even came they were able to see these things and recognize the blessings they have.
Megan: That verse made me think of a book I read called “Drawing on the Powers of Heaven” and how seeing with an eye of faith means envisioning the things you believe in. Then to do that to the point where you control your thoughts and have no more desire to do evil. I think it’s also just about the covenant we made at baptism to always remember Christ. That doesn’t mean just going to church every week. I really like how it said in that verse that by doing that is what led them to not be kept from within the veil. You will eventually see those things and see them come to pass if you’re constantly working to make those things your focus.
Rachel: I love that you said it’s part of our baptismal covenant. Elder Bednar refers back to this phrase throughout his talk. What other ways do you think we can have eyes of faith in our lives?
Ryan: Because money is such a big part of our lives, paying our tithing is part of showing our willingness to consecrate our things to heavenly father. It’s more about me having faith in what heavenly father asks. It build the desire to go forth and build heavenly father’s kingdom.
Ashley: I was just thinking about gratitude a lot. If we look for the blessings, we’ll see them. You think of Nephi and his brothers. They were blessed with many of the same things. Laman and Lemuel were in some pretty hard times. Nephi saw the blessings all the time and I think that’s because he was always grateful for it.
Rachel: Gratitude is definitely something that can open our eyes of faith. Thinking about this I think there are many things we can do to open our eyes of faith, and I think a lot of times we ourselves can be like, “ok Lord, I’m doing all these things, this is the blessing that I want.”
Some of you know that a couple months ago I broke my foot. I remember each month writing out my tithing, saying “here’s this money I don’t really have because my pay check has been cut down.” As I was preparing this lesson I thought about the blessings I received during that time and the lessons I was able to learn. Sometimes the blessings come in ways that we don’t even ask.
A perfect example of this is the stripling warriors. They’re having a really hard time. They don’t have food and here they are in Alma 58:10.

Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, yea, and also give us strength that we might retain our cities, and our lands, and our possessions, for the support of our people.
Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him.
And we did take courage with our small force which we had received, and were fixed with a determination to conquer our enemies, and to maintain our lands, and our possessions, and our wives, and our children, and the cause of our liberty.

Here they are asking to be delivered. The Lord doesn’t really give it to them. The things they’re given are assurance and peace. Those are the things they needed to get through those trials.
Back to the talk, "often we ask for things but the blessings don’t come that way.
We may need and pray for help to find suitable employment. Eyes and ears of faith (see Ether 12:19) are needed, however, to recognize the spiritual gift of enhanced discernment that can empower us to identify job opportunities that many other people might overlook-"
So there’s one thing. Here’s the eyes and faith to identify what other people might overlook.
"or the blessing of greater personal determination to search harder and longer for a position than other people may be able or willing to do."

This touched home for me. My dad was laid off his job. We had just moved. Looking at it, my parents were so strong through all of that. As I look at them and their determination and faith, I see all these blessings my dad received. Even through that experience we were all able to learn something. Each of us were working through highs school. I learned a lot about my responsibilities. Paying their tithing even though it was so tough. We’re able to still see those blessings. Maybe it wasn’t because of the money, but the little blessings we were able to see. He goes on to say maybe you’re asking for that paycheck. Sometimes it’s a matter of learning to do more with less. Some of you are in college, some are working, learning to do more with less can be a wonderful lesson and blessing.
There’s so many things we can learn from this talk. I wish I could keep going. The other half of his talk is about what the church does with those funds. The church follows the same principles they teach us to do. Living within our means and setting aside a little bit each month.
I want to close with my testimony. I have a testimony of tithing. It wasn’t there, but how grateful I am for it now. That I can recognize the blessings both spiritually and temporally. The Lord is there for us in our need. I can promise you that when you pay your tithing and open your eyes you will see those blessings and will be strengthened.