A Christmas Invitation

At this Christmas season, may we be especially worthy to be called disciples of Jesus Christ. Let us remember in thought, word and deed the Master, the Christ-child who was born in Bethlehem.

I'd like to invite each of us to take a quiet moment to consider who the Lord might have us touch during this holiday season. I know that as we place ourselves in His hands that He will make us His instruments, capable of touching the lives of others with the sweet power of friendship, and the peace and joy of the Lord. I have been the beneficiary of the kindness and love that engenders such feelings, and I can testify that it is sweet, especially when life seems to be filled with despair. There are people all around us, even in our ward and our quorum, who are filled with such feelings of doubt and despair. May we reach out to them and be a source of faith and hope to help ease their pain.

Perhaps we might begin with those to whom we are called to provide home and family service (home teaching). Let us petition the Lord to know how we might bless them and then reach out in a spirit of love and service.

Quoting the well known hymn, and Elder Porter's talk last Sunday: "Come, let us adore Him. Come, let us adore Him. Come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord." I testify of Him, that He was born in Bethlehem and died at Golgotha that we might have peace and joy in this life and a hope of salvation in the life to come! Merry Christmas!

Testimonies of Joseph Smith

Today's lesson (#43 in the JS manual) contained a list of quotes from contemporaries of Joseph Smith, sharing their thoughts and feelings about the prophet. We began by discussing how we can revere someone who did as many wonderful things as Joseph Smith did, without "worshipping" him as is the natural tendency in humans (ex: sports figures, entertainers, etc.). Some great comments were made: We should reverence the calling/office, rather than the person in it. We should always ask ourselves if the person is leading us to Christ and His righteousness (Moro 7:16-17). As we come to know a great person's faults, not just their strengths, it reminds us that even we can achieve spiritual greatness despite all of our faults.

We read and discussed the words of Joseph of Egypt as quoted by Lehi to his son, Joseph, in the Book of Mormon (2 Ne. 3:6-11). This led us to a discussion of what it means to be a "seer" (see Mosiah 8:16-18). Truly, Joseph Smith revealed many teachings and principles that would not have otherwise been revealed to the human family.

Semi-Annual Elders Quorum Meeting

We had an inspiring and uplifting meeting last Thursday. We heard from several people, including the leaders of our quorum initiative groups. Dave Sundahl began by leading us in an important discussion about the things in our lives we are hesitant to seek help for. I then spoke about magnifying our callings and how the temple can help us do that. Collin Lambourne led us in a discussion about sharing the gospel, how we do it now, and how we can do it better. Ryan Thompson spoke about strengthening our families and each other and finding ways to bless the lives of others. Finally, Dave Sundahl (filling in for Ben Wanamaker) led us in a discussion about serving in our communities. Below I have provided more detailed summaries of these presentations and discussions.

Dave Sundahl

Dave began by asking the question, What things do we not ask for help for?

The list of responses included:

(1) Marriage problems

(2) Mental illness

(3) Poverty or money issues

(4) Addictions (especially sexual)

(5) Loneliness or feeling excluded

(6) Spiritual darkness/problems with our testimonies

Dave then asked, Why?

The discussion brought out the following:

(1) A perception that everyone else has it down and is close to perfect; imperfections like these make you the odd man out. Nevertheless, experience demonstrates that this thinking is absolutely false!

(2) Talking to others about these issues is awkward. This is true!

(3) Human nature and pride get in the way.

(4) These problems are for the most part invisible unless revealed. We may have doubts about the abilities of others to relate to us and come to believe that no one will understand.

Dave told the story of Lou Frost, who has shared in public his struggles with pornography. While someone with a problem like this may think beforehand, "people will think less of me if I share my struggle publicly", Dave said that when he heard Lou tell his story, he experienced an increase in respect and love for him.

Most of these things thrive on darkness. Exposure to light kills them dead!

Dave finished with a couple of takeaway questions:

(1) Reiterating the opening question, what things would we want to talk about if we knew the environment were safe?

(2) How can we as an Elders quorum make it safe for people to share?

Jonathan Clark

The doctrine and covenants speaks of the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood (D&C 84:33):

33 For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the cmagnifying their calling, are dsanctified by the Spirit unto the erenewing of their bodies.

34 They become the asons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of cAbraham, and the church and kingdom, and the delect of God.

35 And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord;

36 For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me;

37 And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father;

38 And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him.

39 And this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood.

40 Therefore, all those who receive the apriesthood, receive this boath and covenant of my Father, which he cannot break, neither can it be moved.

President Thomas S Monson has said:

“What does it mean to magnify a calling? It means to build it up in dignity and importance, to make it honorable and commendable in the eyes of all men, to enlarge and strengthen it, to let the light of heaven shine through it to the view of other men.

“And how does one magnify a calling? Simply by performing the service that pertains to it. An elder magnifies the ordained calling of an elder by learning what his duties as an elder are and then by doing them.”

President George Albert Smith said to the brethren of the priesthood:

“It is your duty first of all to learn what the Lord wants and then by the power and strength of [your] holy Priesthood to [so] magnify your calling in the presence of your fellows … that the people will be glad to follow you.”

Finally, President Harold B Lee similarly said:

“When one becomes a holder of the priesthood, he becomes an agent of the Lord. He should think of his calling as though he were on the Lord’s errand.”

We are promised that if we do this we will be “sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of [our] bodies”. Moreover the Lord says in the 76th section of the doctrine and covenants:

5 I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.

6 Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory.

7 And to them will I reveal all mysteries, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom.

10 For by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will—yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.

Brethren, my duty tonight is to invite each of us to magnify our callings. In doing so I use the words of the apostle Paul, who said in his second epistle to Timothy:

6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou astir up the bgift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my chands.

7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord…

9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began

Brethren, I testify that we have been called with a holy calling. I testify that we have been called as agents of the Lord. Each of us is one of the few who have heeded the call to be on his errand. There is no greater joy in life than the joy that can be found as we come unto Christ and walk in his footsteps. The scriptures describe those footsteps in the book of Matthew:

"And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people...And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan."

The Savior’s life was spent teaching and strengthening those around him, inviting those not of the fold to come unto him, and healing and blessing those in need. He is the model for how we should engage in our own personal ministries and magnify our calling to the priesthood. One of the purposes of this meeting tonight is to renew the quorum initiative that was begun earlier this year. This initiative divides the quorum into three groups: one focused on strengthening our families and each other, another focused on sharing the gospel, and another focused on service in our community. It is our hope that the initiative described below will operate on two levels:

First, the individual level: We ask that each of us prayerfully consider how we can individually improve our activities in these areas. We specifically want to encourage you to stretch your capacities in these areas. Everyone's capacities are different, but I think we will know we are stretching them when we feel at least a little outside of our comfort zones. I know that as we do so and thereby exercise faith in the Lord that He will guide and bless us.

Second the quorum level: As President Henry B Eyring has said, “A quorum can give greater service than the members could give alone”. To that end, We have formed these groups. Each group is assigned a leader whose responsibility is to facilitate participation, discussion and learning within the group. I look forward to the presentations that will be given by the group leaders in these three areas. I am grateful to the brethren who have accepted this responsibility and invite you to sustain them by lightening their load and contributing the strength of your experience and testimony to your group.

Brethren, we cannot magnify our callings individually or as a quorum without the help of heaven. We need to prepare ourselves and seek earnestly to be endowed with the spirit of power and of love spoken of by Paul in 2nd Timothy.

President Boyd K Packer has said:

"On the day ground was broken for the Salt Lake Temple, President Brigham Young said, 'Very few of the Elders of Israel, now on earth…know the meaning of the word endowment. To know, they must experience; and to experience, a temple must be built.'"

This quote reminds me of the statement in 121st section of the doctrine and covenants, “That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.”

I believe there is no better way on earth for us to connect with heaven and thereby with the rights of the priesthood than to visit the Holy Temple. Elder Richard G Scott has said:

“What is there that is more important than attending and participating in the ordinances of the temple? What activity could have a greater impact and provide more joy and profound happiness…than worshipping together in the temple?

Brethren, I invite you to magnify your calling by seeking the blessings of the temple. Make temple attendance a priority in your life. If you have not received the blessings of the temple, set a goal to be worthy to do so as soon as possible. If you have received the blessings of the temple, but are not attending the temple as you should, ask yourselves, “what is it that is preventing me from attending the temple?” Elder Scott’s question is rhetorical. “What is there that is more important than attending and participating in the ordinances of the temple?” We know the answer. Go to the temple. There we will receive the spiritual strength we need and be endowed with power and love from on high.

I love the inspired Christian hymn “Come thou fount of every blessing”. I particularly like the 1st and 4th verses as sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Recently, I read the words of these verses with the temple in mind:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,

Mount of Thy redeeming love.

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

Brethren, “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths” (Isaiah 2:3)

Collin Lambourne

Collin began with a discussion of flow charts. He then asked us to engage in a little exercise. He handed each of us a piece of paper and pencil and asked that on one side of the sheet we draw a flow chart of our current personal process for sharing the gospel. On the other side, we were asked to draw our ideal process.

Underlying this exercise were the following questions posed by Collin:

(1) How do we do missionary work now?

(2) What is our objective? What is the Lord's objective? Are they aligned?

(3) How do we measure our work?

(4) How do we know when our objectives are accomplished?

Collin then handed out a page from the "Preach my Gospel" manual. The page detailed the importance of developing a ward mission plan and provided suggestions for increasing our activities with respect to sharing the gospel.

Several comments were made about how we typically think of missionary work as something separate, consisting of awkward things like spontaneously inviting someone to meet with the missionaries, or to come to church. The "Preach my Gospel" guide suggests, and we agreed, that sharing the gospel can be (and should be) a natural part of all we do in the church; part of the "natural flow" of things.

Dave Sundahl shared the experience of Clay Christensen e-mailing a colleague in the middle of the night (the e-mail turned out to be timely). The key point from the story was that Clay's e-mail simply shared his feelings about why he loves his church and how it has helped him in his life.

Colling finished with his testimony of missionary work and its importance.

Ryan Thompson

Ryan began by sharing an experience he had earlier in the day. His good freind, Patrick O'Laughlin has a 6 year old niece who had some time ago been diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer. The family sought treatment at St Jude's and Patrick had given her a blessing in which he blessed her that she would get better. She did. Unfortunately, Patrick had received information earlier on Thursday that the cancer had returned and metastasized to her brain. More treatment would be necessary. The experience of hearing this from Patrick had a profound impact on Ryan. His thoughts turned to his own children and the profound importance of strengthening our relationships with them. As he went about his day, he found himself getting emotional as he thought about the plight of this little girl and the love he has for his own children and family. He expressed how precious this topic is to him.

The group assigned the topic of strengthening our families and each other was initially led by Ryan Murphy, who guided the group in the spring. As they discussed the topic, their conclusions were that families in the ward desire deeper associations with each other. Ryan Thompson talked about how this desire is consistent with what is taught in 3rd Nephi 28:23 about being (1) converted to the Lord and (2) becoming united with the church. Ryan described how this is how he has broadly thought about the work of the church and more specifically its programs, such as home teaching.

Ryan talked about the importance of reaching out to others in our families, those we home teach and those in the quorum. He quoted President Eyring, who said: "When you meet someone, treat them as if they are in trouble, and you will be right more than half the time". With respect to our home teaching we generally do the job we've been asked to do, we're in touch with our families and we make a good faith effort to visit them. But, Ryan suggested the need to maybe "mix it up a bit", to take our home teaching activities to the next level. As an example, he told of the kind of spontaneous service his wife offers to those she visit teaches. Dave Sundahl commented on how if we seek inspiration, we can find creative ways to serve our families and do things for them that really bless their lives and fill their needs.

Ryan finished up by planting a seed, so to speak. He spoke of the recreational activities that wards in Utah often do, such as participating in a softball league, that can serve a unifying purpose in wards and quorums. He suggested that perhaps we think about doing something like that to provide opportunities to socialize and associate informally in a way that builds relationships and further binds us to the church.

Dave Sundahl (filling in for Ben Wanamaker)

Dave began by asking, How do we serve in the community now?

Responses included:

(1) Coaching kids sports teams (soccer)

(2) Work related volunteerism

(3) Meals on wheels

(4) Scouts

(5) Belmont Religious Council -- Day of service

(6) Neighbors

(7) Picking up litter on family walks or bike rides

(8) Little things for others on a daily basis

Dave spoke about our callings as ministers in our communities. Indeed, elders quorums have been organized as a standing ministry. We each have that calling. Given this calling, what's our vision for how we serve in the community?

Ben Castleton commented that it is very important for us to be reminded of our responsibilities as standing ministers and to constantly feel the burden of that calling. Ben talked about how he has seen a vision for how the choir (Ben is the new choir director) can be a platform for serving in the community. For example, singing with other congregations in the areas. He spoke of the catholic church choir that Ryan Murphy used to conduct. They have struggled recently and Ben believes there may be an important opportunity for us to support and serve them by participating in their choir.

Serving in our community is an important way for us to get outside of ourselves and to engage in Christ-like service to others.

In summary, the meeting was inspiring and uplifting. We look forward to having the initiative groups work together to move us forward in doing the important work the Lord has in store for us. Apparently (according to Ryan Thompson) the only thing missing from the meeting was food! I'll take the blame on that one and will do better next time.

Presidency lesson: first principles & ordinances

After a brief time of sharing testimonies, Jonathan led our discussion in elders quorum this afternoon on the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. While this topic is familiar to us all, we did a bit deeper of a dive on each of the four principles/ordinances outlined in the 4th article of faith. Below is a compilation of the thoughts Jonathan expressed and drew out from the group.
FAITH IN CHRIST: We must know Him, trust Him, believe Him, love Him. It's about our desires, which is something we can control. Will we focus our desires on Him and what He wants for us, or will we focus our desires on what WE want for ourselves?
REPENTANCE: A turning to Christ after we've experienced the sweetness of the fruits of faith. It's a process, not something that happens right away. It purifies our soul and increases our confidence - in ourselves, in Christ, and in the presence of God.
BAPTISM: This is where we make the covenant with God. We promise to continue to exercise faith unto repentance. We codify this covenant by complete immersion in water, which represents a death and re-birth as a child of Christ. We re-commit to keeping this covenant each week as we partake of the sacrament.
GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST: This is the blessing we receive from God for making and keeping our promises. The influence of the Holy Ghost comforts, purifies, and enables us to have power to do things we could not do within the realm of our mortal capacities.

Jonathan emphasized the importance of understanding that while this is a somewhat linear process, it is not a process that occurs just once in our lives. It should be re-occurring over and over and over again - each week or even each day. It is our path to perfection because it enables us to access the grace and power of Christ (see Moro. 10: 32-33).

TFOT: DC 121

Dave Sundahl taught Sunday's lesson on section 121 of the Doctrine & Covenants. He began by presenting the idea that the revelation is divided up into three sections:
verses 1-6: Joseph's petition to the Lord
verses 7-25: The Lord's direct response to his petition
verses 26-46: The Lord's indirect response to his petition

Much of our conversation focused on the way that the Lord responded to Joseph in this very difficult situation for the prophet. The Lord responded much as we as a parent might respond to the pleas of our children when they are unhappy with the situation they find themselves in. Joseph was told to be patient, to not worry about revenge on the enemies of the saints, and to remember that others (e.g., Job) have been through worse. The Lord beautifully gave Joseph the perspective that he desperately needed.
The indirect response is a treatise by the Lord on the eternal blessings given to those who are "chosen" of the Lord because of their faithfulness. Dave commented that he had never read this part of the section to be pertaining to Joseph himself until he was preparing for this lesson. He offered the suggestion that these passages were for all saints, including Joseph.
We were all given time to read the section at the beginning of class. The reading, in addition to the discussion, helped us see the revelation in its entirety (not just the "many are called, few are chosen" verses). What began as a desperate cry for help from the prophet truly develops into a sermon on eternal truths by the end of the section.

JS #37 - Charity

I started our discussion on charity by sharing how reading stories of everyday charitable acts of Joseph Smith has strengthened my testimony of him as a prophet just as much (if not more so) than the dramatic prophet-like events in his life. "By their fruits ye shall know them" is a powerful litmus test for judging the prophet Joseph.

We first discussed what charity is. We saw it as embodying ACTION (much like "faith"), not simply a passive concept. Several people shared experiences that demonstrated how the love we feel for others can be hard to understand, or not make sense to our mortal minds. Jesus clearly is the perfect example of charity. He taught, he served, he sacrificed - all because of this pure love He has for us.

We also discussed why having charity is important. First, if Jesus exemplified it we should make it part of our lives. Second, feeling love & compassion for others feels good. It is ennobling and brings us joy.

Throughout the discussion we talked about how to be more charitable, and the recurring theme seemed to be that we must get to know one another better - all of God's children. We must NOT, as Joseph Smith said, "be limited in [our] views with regard to [our] neighbor's virtue". As we learn to be slow to judge & quick to forgive and serve, the gift of charity is given to us in greater abundance.

JS #36 - Temple

Last week Todd led a great discussion about the temple. He began by inviting us to talk about why we have temples. We decided that (among other things), temples provide places for sacred ordinances for the living & the dead; they are places where God appears to His people; they places of refuge, preparation, and revelation; and they provide us a unique, eternal perspective.
This led us into an interesting discussion about ordinances and why we have them at all. It was pointed out that they have power through their symbolism, and that they create/solidify commitment in conjunction with the covenants that are made.
It was also mentioned that if we don't give space for something, it will get crowded out of our lives. Therefore, setting aside "protected space" for temples and temple work is critical for our spiritual well-being.