Three Sacred Places: Our Homes – Our Chapels – Our Temples .. "we perfect ourselves starting in our own homes growing by serving each other and our families, by faithful service in callings within our home wards and branches serving each other and other families, by becoming worthy to obtain a temple recommend and attending therein for ourselves to be endowed and sealed as families eternally and not just ‘till death do we part’. Thus the home and church lead to the temple and the temple leads us as a church back to our eternal home in one great circle, one ‘eternal round’."
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“Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.” (Alma 37:6-7) Sitting in our testimony meeting last week I was thinking on just what it meant to bear and to have a testimony. While I would have liked to be one of those standing to bear a testimony, I didn't really have anything very extraordinary to say, time was short with many others already speaking, and many other perfectly appropriate excuses came to my mind. I have a testimony. I know that God exists, that this is His church. He directs the leaders of this Church to our benefit, that living and following His teachings will bring us closer to Him. We are blessed when we follow him.
This month we attended the Magrath 1st Ward ward conference. I was assigned to provide some training for the EQ/HP in their Priesthood meeting. Our assigned high council topic for Jan 2015 was on developing faith in Jesus Christ 'in our homes'. President Dudley also asked me to discuss Priesthood Keys. Many of the thoughts below were used in the lesson given.
Over the years I heard this story from time to time, about how my Mom and her brothers received awards for 100% attendance over several years at church meetings (and at school as well). Uncle Lloyd mentioned a picture submitted to the Improvement Era to that effect. I never came close to any such attendance record, but I do have some talent in wasting time finding stuff on the internet, so .. it took a little time reading some very interesting back issues, but eventually found this .. In the Oct 1954 issue of the Improvement Era page 768 it reads, "A Trio of Winners. Elizabeth Spencer with her brothers (l. to r.) Campbell and Lloyd. All who know them are very proud of this family and the record they have established. This letter is a copy given to me in Sep 2014 by Rulon Taylor. His father (Paul Taylor) and my grandfather (then Bishop Clyde C Spencer) were next door neighbours and served together in Magrath Ward Bishopric for many years. I had seen this letter before, but now have a copy to transcribe .. "A Faith Promoting Incident in my life. This incident has been one of the outstanding faith promoting experiences of my life, because it taught me that the Lord speaks through the priesthood and that we must not allow our feelings to influence us. |
Roger DaviesMy mom (and my grandkids) couldn't be at all my public speaking assignments, so I post them here for them/her and you to read .. Archives
May 2023
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