Lesson Summary: February 24, 2013

Teachings for our Times:
Where Is the Pavilion?
BY PRESIDENT HENRY B. EYRING
First Counselor in the First Presidency
Taught by Talia Deccio

"The pavilion that seems to intercept divine aid does not cover God but occasionally covers us. God is never hidden, yet sometimes we are."


-Don't complicate faith, a child's faith is most pure
When Pres Eyring's granddaughter attended the Brigham City Temple open house with her family she asked “'Mommy, where is Jesus?' Her mother explained that she would not see Jesus in the temple,but she would be able to feel His influence in her heart. Eliza carefully considered her mother’s response and then seemed satisfied and said,'Oh, Jesus is gone helping someone,' she concluded."

President Eyring, in the early days of his career, had obtained a comfortable position with tenure and close to family. "But I was given by the Church the chance to leave California and go to Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. My lifetime professional objectives might have been a pavilion dividing me from a loving Father who knew better than I did what my future could hold. But I was blessed to know that whatever success I had in my career and family life to that point was a gift from God. And so, like a child, I knelt in prayer to ask what I should do. I was able to hear a quiet voice in my mind that said, “It’s my school.” There was no pavilion shielding me from God. In faith and humility, I submitted my will to His and felt His care and closeness."
5 years later a promissing offer came and tempted him to go elsewhere, he even went to the first presidency for advice. "My wife... had a strong impression that we were not to leave Ricks College. I said, “That’s good enough for me.” But she insisted,wisely, that I must get my own revelation. And so I prayed again. This time I did receive direction, in the form of a voice in my mind that said,“I’ll let you stay at Ricks College a little longer.” My personal ambitions might have clouded my view of reality and made it hard for me to receive revelation."
President Eyring was needed still at Ricks college.

-We need to become as a child
Sometimes the answer aren't what you want
Pick up and move to a foreign land, way out of your comfort zone
Can be really, really hard to do and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost
Entitled to receive confirmation of revelations (spousal, prophetic), but we have to ask and be ready to do
Obtaining revelation is our own responsibility
-In the Lord's time
-Become more like Him

Matt 25:40- And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have  done it unto one of the  least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

-Fear God not man

Don't compare yourself to others

"If we serve with faith, humility, and a desire to do God’s will, I testify that the judgment bar of the great Jehovah will be pleasing. We will see our loving Father and His Son as They see us now—with perfect clarity and with perfect love."

Lesson Summary: February 17, 2013

Chapter 4: Strengthened by the Power of the Holy Ghost

Taught by: Barbara Neuenswander

“Make up your minds to live humbly and in such a way that you will always have the Spirit of the Lord to be your friend.”

In 1864 in a mission to the Hawaiian Islands, a boat he was on capsized.  When they found him "his body was stiff, and life apparently extinct."  The two other missionaries with him administered to him on the way to the shore.  They tried all known efforts to revive him.

“After working over him for some time, without any indications of returning life, the by-standers said that nothing more could be done for him. But we did not feel like giving him up, and still prayed and worked over him, with an assurance that the Lord would hear and answer our prayers.

“Finally we were impressed to place our mouth over his and make an effort to inflate his lungs, alternately blowing in and drawing out the air, imitating, as far as possible, the natural process of breathing. This we persevered in until we succeeded in inflating his lungs. After a little, we perceived very faint indications of returning life. A slight wink of the eye, which, until then, had been open and death-like, and a very faint rattle in the throat, were the first symptoms of returning vitality. These grew more and more distinct, until consciousness was fully restored.”

“We did not only what was customary in such cases, but also what the Spirit seemed to whisper to us.”²

The Holy Ghost can help us perform more than we are able, and can be our constant guide and companion.

Sometimes the spirit speaks to us through ideas.

Sometimes it's a uneasy feeling that something is not right.

The Holy Ghost won't give us the answers unless we've studied first, or studied it out in our hearts.

The Holy Ghost can bring us happiness and peace of mind.

Message from President Zollinger-

  Women bring unmatched gifts and talents into this world and are severely unappreciated.  God was not done with creation till woman was made.  The nurturing and caring of women makes sister missionaries very effective tools and makes us perfect for motherhood.   Your husbands need your loving and caring encouragement, often repeatedly.  Women make the world a friendlier place.

Lesson Summary: February 10, 2013

Chapter 3: Lifelong Conversion: Continuing to Advance in the Principles of Truth
Taught by Aimee Roylance

“Our religion should be incorporated within ourselves, a part of our being that cannot be laid off.”

President Lorenzo snow joined the church as "a matter of reason. I was perfectly satisfied that I had done what was wisdom for me to do under the circumstances." He later yearned for a manifestation of the Holy Ghost and relates the following. " I had been accustomed, at the close of the day, to retire for secret prayer to a grove, a short distance from my lodgings, but at this time I felt no inclination to do so." He decide to anyways and received a powerful manifestation "O, the joy and happiness I felt! No language can describe the instantaneous transition from a dense cloud of mental and spiritual darkness into a refulgence of light and knowledge, as it was at that time imparted to my understanding. I then received a perfect knowledge that God lives, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and of the restoration of the Holy Priesthood, and the fulness of the gospel."

"Every man has got to learn to stand upon his own knowledge; he cannot depend upon his neighbor; every man must be independent; he must depend upon his God for himself entirely. It depends upon himself to see if he will stem the tide of trouble and overcome the impediments that are strewn in the pathway of life to prevent his progress. A man can get information by the operations of the Holy Spirit, and he approaches to God and increases in his faith in proportion as he is diligent.11"

When we are young sometimes we lean on our parents testimony. Their faith and goodness and our faith in them can be a great starting point, but we must eventually stand alone in our testimony.

"There is a danger of our being satisfied with a superficial advancement,with merely advancing on the surface. We talk of walking in the light of the Spirit and of feeling it upon us, but do we do these things? We ought to dig deep into the things of God, lay our foundation upon the rock, until we come to that water which shall be in us an everlasting fountain of eternal life.14"
Sometimes we really need to dig deep, in those times of trial and struggle, are we sufficiently anchored. When the storm comes it's too late to pour the foundation it needs to hold fast.
Each of us needs a unique foundation for our circumstances, but we each need to be anchored securely to the Savior and his teachings.

It takes time to be converted to the Lord, just as it takes time to pickle a cucumber.
"I will [present a] figure in regard to bringing about and getting this spirit in us, and digging deep that we in the time of storm, may not be driven off. Place a cucumber in a barrel of vinegar and there is but little effect produced upon it the first hour, nor in the first 12 hours. Examine it and you will find that the effect produced is merely upon the rind, for it requires a longer time to pickle it. A person’s being baptized into this church has an effect upon him, but not the effect to pickle him immediately. It does not establish the law of right and of duty in him during the first 12 or 24 hours; he must remain in the church, like the cucumber in the vinegar, until he becomes saturated with the right spirit,until he becomes pickled in ‘Mormonism,’ in the law of God; we have got to have those things incorporated in our systems."

February 2013 Newsletter

The lovely newsletter for February is ready:
February 2013 Newsletter

Please send me comments on the newsletter if you have them, I've gotten some very beneficial critics, and want to know how to make it better, or what you like best.