I hope everyone had a delightful break! I know some are still trying to make it back, and our prayers are with you. In addition, I would like to welcome Kimberly T., Jo, Joy, Abbi, Kim B., and Christine to our RS. We're excited to have you and get to know you! Also, Mackenzie S. and Mariah L. were sealed last month, so unfortunately we won't be seeing them at Church anymore, but they're just fine with their new eternal companions. That leads to the latest happy news: Megan B. is now engaged to be married! She'll be sticking around for just a few more months.
Here are some announcements to note for the week and near future:
1. Tomorrow night @ 7pm will be a ward FHE @ 3223 WSC (Wilkinson Student Center). It's an upstairs room. It's really big. It will be fun. Please come. We need you. We love you. :D
2. Wednesday, the 8th @ 7pm is Institute in B092 JFSB. It's awesome! Make friends with people and scriptures! Sometimes (if not always) eat food! What's better than that?
3. Sunday, the 12th, Second Sunday Supper right after Church! Asia and her crew make the day delicioso! Don't forget about choir practice right after that!
4. Also Sunday, the 12th, CES Fireside with Elder Tad R. Callister @ the Marriott Center @ 6pm.
5. Thursday, the 23rd, Ward Temple Trip with our Stake Patriarch, Patriarch Mourik! @ 6:30pm. That will be very exciting! Our family history and temple prep committee is working hard to help everyone have a name to take to the temple! We will be doing lots of baptisms and Patriarch Mourik (who is also a Temple Sealer) will take endowed ward members up to do some sealings. What a treat! President Ashton (Temple President) will speak to us beforehand. Save the date! Mark your calendars! Get the time off work!
All right, that's probably a little more enthusiastic than y'all cared for today, but I'm happy, so you get to share in my joy. Sundays just make me happy. Here's the lesson recap, again with my disclaimer that I can't copy down everything everyone says perfectly, and the hyperlink tab doesn't work for me, so you need to copy and paste the links if you want to see the page where I've provided a link.
Ky and Megan taught our lesson quite beautifully today from Elder Holland's "Come Unto Me."
Elder Holland: Come unto me. http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=734
Megan: “Some of you know what you want to be and where you want to go with your lives. … but whoever you are, I offer to you tonight the way and the life. I ask you to come unto him….”
We all feel like that at some point in our lives, but the first step is to come to Christ.
Ky: How is your spiritual health? On 1-10 are you fanning the flames of your faith? Your testimony is like a fire. You have to continually feed it. It’s there initially, but if you let it die, that fire goes out. So we need to be thinking every day what we can do to strengthen it.
It’s time to fill your cups and strengthen your relationship.
Matt 25:1-13 Parable of the 10 virgins. http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/matt/25.1-13?lang=eng#primary
Megan: A few months ago my fiancee’s dad was telling us about Jewish culture, and when a bride and groom get engaged, the groom builds a house. They announce to all their friends and family the approximate time the house will be done. When the house is done, that’s when they get married and they move in. I though of that as we were reading this because I think it gives a little more light to the foolishness of the 5 virgins. They knew approximately when the house would be done, but they were still unprepared. Verse 12 of this parable has a cross-reference to JST that says “ye never knew me.” Of course Christ knows us, we need to know him. They all knew the approximate time the house would be done. They all had the opportunity to get to know the bridegroom so they could be ready for the wedding. The 5 wise virgins took the time to get to know the bridegroom and were ready. The 5 foolish virgins were waiting through the last minute.
I helped a good friend plan her wedding last year. I know her better than any of my other friends who are married. What that took was service and getting to know her. That’s what it takes to get to know Christ. To serve our brother’s and sisters. Even though we can’t be with him physically, we can be with him spiritually.
We have an increasing number who have been convinced, through the Book of Mormon, that Jesus is the Christ. Now we need an increasing number who will use the Book of Mormon to become committed to Christ. We need to be convinced and Committed.-Ezra Taft Benson
Rachel: We can be convinced and converted, but thats all about being converted. We need to convert ourselves and bring ourselves closer to Christ. That’s when we’ll truly be a tool in our Heavenly Father’s hands. We might struggle with the Gospel at some times, but as we become converted to the Gospel and seek outside of ourselves to help others, that’s when we can discover what HF wants for us.
Ryan: Elder Holland shared a story about someone that at Judgement Day it won’t be us pleading to get in, but Christ will be pleading with us that we will come in, but we won’t if we don’t feel comfortable. If you don’t choose to live it you can’t be with Him.
Ky: we need to read the book of Mormon and we need to be committed to Christ. How many of us think about using our faith to be committed and convinced. Are you really convinced and committed to theses things that are taught to you each week? And what are you doing to strengthen that commitment?
Strengthening our core: reading scriptures, praying, communicating with HF, fortifying our testimonies, cleaving to our covenants.
Megan: As we were reading the parable of the 10 virgins, it kept striking me how simple it is to be one of the wise. I think sometimes we overwhelm ourselves. It really is these things we’re talking about right now that put oil in your lamps and strengthen your cores. There’s not a big secret the prophets and apostles are keeping from us.
Ryan: It’s so important to build yourself first, because you can’t help others gain a testimony if you don’t have one. You can compare the virgins to people in our day, and how cool would it be to have your lamp so full, that you could share.
Ky: Sometimes we get to a point in our lives where we don’t care. We get on plateaus. I have to want a testimony. Then I can ask for the help to be motivated.
Jo: It’s funny how what will get you back on that path is when you want it. Then when we get it sometimes we go back to slacking off. We rely so much on Heavenly Father, but we don’t always respect the answers he gives us.
Ky: Cleaving to our covenants- baptism, holy ghost, temple endowment, sealing ordinance. Those are our covenants, and they should mean something. They continue to help us be converted to Christ.
The Living Christ is a testimony that is very close to my heart. I had a really hard semester a few years ago and I was in a place where I felt really small and insignificant. Even when I was praying, I felt that it didn’t matter. I had walked so far from HF that it took me a while to hear Him. A good friend of mine had just come home from his mission and was way pumped up and full of faith. We went to a fireside and were challenged to memorize The Living Christ.
Megan: A few years ago, I was basically inactive, and I was really struggling, with my testimony. It was a visiting teacher that reached out to me and helped me to step out of the darkness and start following Christ’s light. I think one of the things that kept me from going to Church for a while was that I was afraid I wasn’t able to be forgive, and that I wasn’t good enough. I was afraid of what people would think of me for not having been there for a while. “The church isn’t a monastery for the isolation of perfect people. It is more like a hospital provided for those who wish to get well... ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you…. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’ I submit to you that may be one of the Savior’s commandments that is, even in the hearts of otherwise faithful Latter-day Saints, almost universally disobeyed” (Elder Holland). As we were talking about complacency, I think that’s a big part of why we don’t come to Christ, but also fear. I never thought about it before, but it is a commandment to let him give you that peace.
Abby: I just got back from my mission in Russia a few months ago. Soon after I was trained, I opened a new area and was training. When I would lay down to go to sleep, I would imagine myself going through the temple.That helped me a lot to remember what my covenants are and the blessings I receive from them.
“Whoever we are, and whatever our problems, his response is always the same, forever: ‘Come unto me’.”
Ky: When I was talking to Megan about this lesson, I was thinking about Elder Holland’s talk the First Great Commandment. Christ comes to them and asks three times “Peter, do you love me?” Peter gets more uncomfortable because he does love Christ. Christ needs disciples and he needs them forever. To be a disciple forever, you need to be converted and continue to strengthen your testimonies to stay converted forever.
That's truly where we want to go. Heavenly Father is waiting for us. I invite you to be ready for Christ when he comes. He wants you to be with him and be with your family in the Celestial Kingdom.
Megan: I know that it really is more simple than we make it. There is always a way back. He has made it simple on purpose so that as many people as possible can let him into their lives. It’s a relationship. We talk to him. We let him in. We serve him. That’s how we will come to know him and be like him.
Ky: I want to issue a challenge that if you are struggling to find a relationship with Christ, read over The Living Christ. Memorize it. It is a testimony form our Prophet and apostles. There is no more powerful testimony than that of those who are with him all the time.
The Living Christ, The Testimony of the Apostles
"As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice. None other has had so profound an influence upon all who have lived and will yet live upon the earth.
“He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah of the New. Under the direction of His Father, He was the creator of the earth. ‘All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made’ (John 1:3). Though sinless, He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. He ‘went about doing good’ (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it. His gospel was a message of peace and goodwill. He entreated all to follow His example. He walked the roads of Palestine, healing the sick, causing the blind to , and raising the dead. He taught the truths of eternity, the reality of our premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come.
“He instituted the sacrament as a reminder of His great atoning sacrifice. He was arrested and condemned on spurious charges, convicted to satisfy a mob, and sentenced to die on Calvary’s cross. He gave His life to atone for the sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth.
“We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world.
“He rose from the grave to ‘become the firstfruits of them that slept’ (1 Corinthians 15:20). As Risen Lord, He visited among those He had loved in life. He also ministered among his ‘other sheep’ (John 10:16) in ancient America. In the modern world, He and His Father appeared to the boy Joseph Smith, ushering in the long-promised ‘dispensation of the fulness of times’ (Ephesians 1:10).
“Of the Living Christ, the Prophet Joseph wrote: ‘His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying:
“‘I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father’ (D&C 110:3–4).
“Of Him the Prophet also declared: ‘And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!
“‘For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—
“‘That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God’ (D&C 76:22–24).
“We declare in words of solemnity that His priesthood and His Church have been restored upon the earth—‘built upon the foundation of … apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone’ (Ephesians 2:20).
“We testify that He will someday return to earth. ‘And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall it together’ (Isaiah 40:5). He will rule as King of Kings and reign as Lord of Lords, and every knee shall bend and every tongue shall speak in worship before Him. Each of us will stand to be judged of Him according to our works and the desires of our hearts.
“We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son” (Ensign,Apr. 2000, 2–3).
http://jesuschrist.lds.org/SonOfGod/eng/testimonies-of-him/articles/the-living-christ-the-testimony-of-the-apostles-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints
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