Yesterday our new Bishop & his first counselor came by.
I saw the Bishop in the hall at church previous to his visit & he mentioned that they expected lunch when they visited
( he was kidding of course)
Well, I thought about it and decided that they were probably hungry so I whipped up some bruscetta for the visit. They both raved about it & then asked me to give a talk in church and maybe mention that they like to be fed when they visit, LOL. No really they asked Angelo and I to speak in church on June 8th so.........if you are in town drop by.
This got me to thinking, I have been asked to give a few talks in the past year or so and I would really like to have them on my blog so I hope you enjoy them !
topic : priesthood
“ Oh lord my God when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made, I see the trees I hear the rolling thunder thy power throughout the universe displayed, then sings my soul my savior God to thee…”
President James E Faust said
“Priesthood is the greatest power on earth. Worlds were created by and through the priesthood”.
I am blessed to have had this power, this world creating power continually in my home since I was around 10 years old.
When I was about 10 my mother married the man whom I call Dad. I don’t remember and instant difference in the spirit of our home, however shortly after they were married we had a desperate need for the continual priesthood power that was now in our home. My mother became pregnant at 42 and had many complications which resulted in a very premature baby & sick mother. I remember countless nights and days spent in the hospital’s neonatal ICU, looking at a very small 3 pound baby. I don’t however remember having a feeling of hopelessness or terror at the sight of him. I know I had hope because I had witnessed many blessings given to my new brother and mom, in these blessings words of encouragement, words of strength had presided. I, still a child heard the words which my father said to this new little one, and the word spoken to my Mom through the priesthood and was comforted and did not fear. My mother and brother emerged whole and healthy. I do not think it is a coincidence that my brother was able to come home on father’s day.
John 15: 16
I know my father was indeed ordained and when he asked for his new wife & first child to be blessed and healthy in faith, the lord gave.
Cancer
Not long after in fact my brother was 5 and another brother had been added to our family through adoption my mother got sick again. This time cancer was the cause. I again witnessed the miraculous power of the priesthood in my home. I again saw my Mother administered to by her dear husband countless times.
James 5: 14-15
My mother’s prognosis wasn’t good; cancer was in most of her lymph nodes. After a mastectomy, chemo, and radiation treatment the doctors said now you have 10% better chance of surviving the cancer. I know her health was restored through the priesthood power. She is today still cancer free. I know that the priesthood power my father exercised has increased her survival rate.
President James E Faust said
“Caring for others is the very essence of the priesthood responsibility. It is the power to bless, to heal, & to administer the saving ordinances of the gospel”.
As women do we partake and participate in those saving ordinances?
I believe the answer is yes.
When Angelo and I were engaged I had my first opportunity to benefit from his worthiness to hold the priesthood. Once a week very early in the morning, in fact sometimes so early he had to throw things at my window to wake me up. He picked me up and we drove to the Mount Timpanogus temple to perform baptisms’ for the dead. Where I was blessed to participate in those saving ordinances through my future husbands priesthood authority as he baptized me. We did not yet share a home but we did share a purpose.
We now share a home as well a purpose. Years have strengthened my faith in his priesthood power.
I am ever in awesome wonder when I consider the pain my husband’s hands have calmed
I our short 6 ½ year marriage we have lost many babies and have been blessed with 3 beautiful living children.
My husband’s hands have been laid on my head exercising his priesthood power to comfort me after a loss, to help me prepare for a loss, and to calm my worried soul so I can prepare for a child to enter our family.
We recently found out that I am pregnant, I cannot tell you the worry that fills my soul upon discovering that I am pregnant. I am rocked to the very core with fear that I might lose the baby within. I depend on priesthood blessings from my husband and father to calm that fear. I cannot do it alone. My husband gave me a blessing this week in which the Lord told me through him that by my faith I will have comfort and be easy and my pregnancy will produce a living baby. I cannot explain the difference in my body before and after the blessing. I was given through this wonderful power a calm I cannot describe. I would not be able to function without this the worry, grief, and pain of reliving my past experiences would have completely caught me up. I am a witness to this great power; I know that it is real.
Sister Mary Ellen Smoot said
“We see sisters in this great Church who recognize the blessings of the restored priesthood. We rejoice as each baby is blessed, each child is baptized, as we partake of the sacrament and are set apart for Church callings and watch our husbands give fathers’ blessings. We are grateful for priesthood blessings that light our way and give us direction and hope. We rejoice in and support worthy priesthood holders”
I am not the only beneficiary in our family of the priesthood power. I am grateful to see my children being raised in a home where the priesthood is.
Harold B Lee said
“If his father will be frank and honest, and tell him up to the limit of his intelligence as he grows up, that father will be the one to whom the son will return for counsel in the years that follow. That father will be an anchor to that boy’s soul, as the father takes from his book of experience lessons that he can give to his son to help condition him against the possibility of falling into that fatal trap in an unguarded moment.”
I can see in my children the respect they are already developing for the priesthood. The three of them sit on the couch and look intently at my husband as conducts family home evening, kiss him as he leaves the home to bless others through home teaching, and watch as he administers to their mother.
We lived in Costa Rica from the time my oldest Jaxson was 6 months until just after his first birthday. One evening Jaxson came down with a fever that wouldn’t respond to any medication we had in our home. His fever kept climbing until he was barely with us. I remember holding his limp body as we waited in the children’s hospital of San Jose. We could feel our son was in real danger and couldn’t get any help from the staff at this hospital. My husband was prompted to take us to private hospital miles away. We arrived at the hospital and were seen immediately. With medication quickly administered the fever broke and our son was back.
I am grateful for our experiences in Costa Rica; I had to rely on my husband. I think as a wife I tend to think I know better about the children or the home because I am with them or in it. It is not a bad practice to let our husbands serve as our family’s spiritual leader.
If you look up priesthood on LDS .org
You will find
“The most important exercise of the priesthood takes place in the family. Each husband and father in the church should strive to be worthy to hold the Melchizedek Priesthood. With his wife as an equal partner, he presides in righteousness and love, serving as the family’s spiritual leader. He leads the family in regular prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. He works with his wife to teach the children and help them prepare to receive the ordinances of salvation. He gives priesthood blessings for direction, healing, and comfort.
I feel greatly honored to be able to give this talk. Today my 12 year old brother will receive the priesthood and join the great men we know who honor their priesthood.
I couldn’t have been more prepared for any other subject when Brother Thorpe told me the topic; I knew this was prompted by the lord. I know this is my opportunity to thank the men in my life, and all the men who are worthy and stay worthy of the priesthood they hold
TESTIMONY
To all the men who hold your priesthood sacred I say
How great thou art, how great thou art
topic: gospel foundation
“How firm a foundations ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word”
In this last conference we heard the words of God through those of our Brothers & Sisters appointed and called on by him to guide us. What was it they spoke of?
Gospel Basics-The Foundation-Our Foundation
Why are these same topics addressed each and every time we hear from the Lords appointed?
Elder Russell M Nelson said “the foundation of one’s individual faith, if anchored firmly to eternal truth, allows each of us to reach upward with an eternal perspective.”
We receive this guidance at every conference to anchor our faith and give us eternal perspective.
I would like to share with you a story sister Anne Pingree shared in an ensign article:
While she and her husband were serving in southeast Nigeria they would travel to some of the most remote locations in the mission to conduct temple recommend interviews. All the members lived over 3,000 miles from the nearest temple and had not even a dream of receiving an endowment. But these saints listened when Pres. Howard W Hunter said ” It would please the lord for every adult member to be worthy of and to carry a current temple recommend even if proximity to a temple does not allow immediate or frequent use of it”.
Because of the remoteness of this specific location there was no way of knowing the exact time Brother and Sister Pingree would arrive. So the saints in this area would gather in the morning on the appointed day and wait to receive an interview. When the interviews were complete and the Pingrees were returning home Sister Pingree recounts” we saw 2 sisters who had been part of the group who received temple recommends, we realized they had trekked from their village a distance of 18 miles round trip just to obtain a temple recommend they knew they would never have the privilege of using. In her hand, carefully wrapped in a clean handkerchief, each sister carried her precious temple recommend”.
Brother Thomas S Monson said mortality is a period of testing, a time to prove ourselves worthy to return to the presence of our Heavenly father in order for us to be tested we must face challenges and difficulties. These can break us and the surface of our souls may crack and crumble- that is if our foundations of faith, our testimonies of truth are not deeply embedded within us”.
What do you carry neatly in your handkerchief awaiting a day you know may never come in this life, but that you are prepared for?
My father joined the church, served a mission, and then came to Utah to study at Brigham Young University, to study and to find a wife. He graduated still single and found himself years later at 42 years old single still. He was then blessed to find my mother and they began a family when most couples their age were entering grandparenthood. I always remember my father talking about all those years before they were blessed with each other said he “I always knew my wife was out there I just didn’t know what she looked like” All those years he kept in his handkerchief the wife he wanted and as that dream was neatly tucked away he kept himself worthy to obtain the blessing of it.
How can we keep ourselves worthy of blessings we know we may never receive in this life, and Why
Constant and Steady Effort
This is why we listen to our modern day prophets innumerable promises, and the lord assures us in D&C 1:38 “ My word shall not pass away but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servant it is the same”
Each day as we decide to pray, study the scriptures, and obey the commandments we are blessed as Alma taught “by withstanding every temptation of the devil” Our faith is strengthened by these gospel basics and becomes our shield. Not only is it important to continue following and living these gospel basics for ourselves but as parents, teachers, and leaders who influence children’s lives. Sister Julie Beck gave a wonderful talk this last conference to the mothers said she” We need mothers who know”. I would like to add we need mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, teachers, friends, and neighbors WHO KNOW. We can all have eternal influence and power not only in our lives but in the lives of children we know. Our foundation in the gospel if well nourished and looked after will become instrumental in not only our lives but the lives of those around us.
When Angelo and I had been married for 5 months we found ourselves recently returned from the hospital and sitting in a doctor’s office. This doctor’s office was familiar to us because just 4 months prior to this visit we were there for a very different purpose. At that time we had been listening to the heartbeat of our first daughter who was just as new as our marriage. This visit was the contrast to that visit just several months prior. I will always remember the counsel this doctor who knew gave us after the passing of that precious little one. Take care of your marriage he said, most couples do not survive this. I know that our individual foundations in the gospel, as well as the example we had of a firmly founded marriage from my parents saved our infant marriage.
Our heartache did not go away because we knew about the plan nor did our sorrow go away because we had faith in the lord, but we were able to press on because WE KNew and we knew our parents Knew and we tucked our desires into our handkerchief and waited. The following years brought many what felt like spiritual 18 mile hikes. We prayed and kept ourselves worthy of the blessing we desired and just into our 3rd year of marriage we were able to receive that well prepared for blessing our first son Jaxson. During the months before Jaxson arrived I remember vividly one conversation with my mother. I was telling her that I thought I must be having this trial in order to prepare me for something really big. She looked at me through the caring eyes only a mother can have for a child suffering and said “Sarah this is a big trial” It is amazing to look back on your life and see all the tests you have made your way through.
Why do you think those trials sometimes feel like prep work?
Because that is what we are here to do as Thomas S Monson put it “we can fortify our foundations of faith, our testimonies of truth, so that we will not falter, we will not fail”. The guidance given us, the foundations given us in this last conference can and will fortify our testimonies and we will not fail. We cannot allow the foundations given us in this last conference to chip away we must remember so that when the winds come our foundations will be immovable.
Elder Spencer J. Condie of the seventy put it best in this last conference “But with the passage of time, we encounter 4 of the most beautiful words in holy writ “and god remembered Rachel” referring to Jacobs wife who had been barren for so many years only to be blessed with children late in her life. I add to all these witnesses my testimony that as we continue to build our solid foundations and stay true to the plain and precious truths of our gospel basics through everything we are asked to bear. We too will hear those beautiful words spoken to us
God will remember you
I would like to finish the way I began with a line from the beautiful hymn How firm a foundation
“For I am thy god and will still give thee aid, I’ll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand, Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand”.
IN the name of Jesus Christ Amen
