FS Moment - Resurrection

I had an FS moment last week with my neighbor's dad about the religion and death came up. Our conversation went something like this.

Neighbor's Dad, John: "You know my sister got mad at me awhile back when I mentioned that I want to be cremated. See, she believes in life after death."

Me: "So do I."

John: "Really?"

Me: "I sure do. You read the bible right?"

John: "Yes."

Me: "Well it talks about the resurrection."

John: "Ya, but it's only the spirit."

Me: "No, see the resurrection is when the body and the spirit reunite. How can your spirit reunite with your body if there is none?"

John: "But your body is gone."

Me: "Not entirely. Your body will become whole again so that the spirit can come back to it."

John: "Really? I didn't know that. That's really neat to think of it that way."

I'm so grateful for my knowledge of the gospel and the resurrection that it gives me comfort to know that I can someday partake of that opportunity when the time comes.

The Restoration

I wanted to share this while it was still pretty fresh in my mind. Last night for family home evening we watched the The Restoration video as a continuation of last weeks lesson. This time 2 of my nephews joined us and it was a really nice evening. Throughout the video we would pause to discuss the scene we had just seen and it was neat to hear my older nephew's response to what he just saw. I can see his testimony budding and it warms my heart. It also helps that my husband was his primary teacher last year and they connect with each well as teacher and student. :)

I LOVE the story of the restoration and of Joseph Smith. I'm always in awe at the fact that a teenage boy of 14 sought out the Lord to see which church to join and had a miraculous experience for doing so.

I wanted to post the video but it doesn't look like I can so go here to watch the video and read more about the restoration and Joseph Smith.

There is a hymn that beautifully describes Joseph's experience that I wanted to share, and it is also one of my favorite hymns.

Joseph Smith's First Prayer

Oh, how lovely was the morning!
Radiant beamed the sun above.
Bees were humming, sweet birds singing,
Music ringing thru the grove,
When within the shady woodland
Joseph sought the God of love. …

Humbly kneeling, sweet appealing—
’Twas the boy’s first uttered prayer—
When the pow’rs of sin assailing
Filled his soul with deep despair;
But undaunted still he trusted
In his Heav’nly Father’s care. …

Suddenly a light descended,
Brighter far than noonday sun,
And a shining glorious pillar
O’er him fell, around him shone,
While appeared two heav’nly beings,
God the Father and the Son. …

“Joseph, this is my Beloved;
Hear him!” Oh, how sweet the word!
Joseph’s humble prayer was answered,
And he listened to the Lord.
Oh, what rapture filled his bosom,
For he saw the living God.

~ Hymn #26

F.S.

I seem to have neglected this blog, life gets busy and we forget. The title of this post is F.S. What is F.S. you ask? Well I will share that with you.

Our dear stake Primary Presidency has challanged us be open to Feeling the Spirit, aka F.S., more in our daily lives. In order to do so they made each and everyone us teachers a little notebook to record a feeling that we had in which we recogonized the spirit. I thought that I would take it one step further and also record a few of them on this blog to share. Obviously the more personal ones I won't, but if it is general thought or feeling then I will share it because who knows someone may need to read it.

I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I know who I am, I know God's plan,

I'll follow him in faith.

I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ.

I'll honor his name.

I'll do what is right; I'll follow his light,

His truth I will proclaim.

On Sat, 9/25/10, I had the opportunity to attend two special baptisms, one for my niece and the other for my younger brother. I'm very proud of both of them for choosing to be baptized and become confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They both looked happy and excited all dressed in white.

For those of you who don't, as members of the church when we reach the age of 8, we have reached the age of accountabilty and are given the choice to be baptized. We are baptized by a priesthood holder, mainly our fathers perform this. We are then submerged competely under the water and our sins are washed away. After the baptism, then we are blessed with the gift of the Holy Ghost. Again this is performed by worthy priesthood holders, usually by grandfathers, uncles, brother, cousins, the bishop, anyone that has been invited. They then gather in a circle around the person that been baptized and blessing is given that pertains to receiving this special gift.

Watching my neice and brother receive the gift of the Holy Ghost really touched me. Even though they are young the understand the importance of this gift. They now have the contstant companion to help them determine right from wrong and can feel when something is good or bad.

Agency

As I'm preparing our Family Home Evening lesson for tomorrow I thought that I would teach it on Agency.

What is Agency?
- (here is my definition of agency) It is the right to act for ourselves, to make a choice between good and bad.

In the scriptures I found a verse that correlates to my definition.
2 Nephi 2:16 - Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

So we have are given the choice to choose good or bad. Sometimes we don't always make the right choice and have to suffer the consequences of that decision, but that is how we learn.

Bro. D Todd Christofferson said, "Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because it is right, even when it is hard."

Making the right choice is hard, but it can also be rewarding.

Now, what happens if we make a bad choice? Should we try to put the blame on someone else? No! We need to take responsiblity for our own actions.

In Helman 14:30 it says, And now remember, remember, my brethern, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself . . .

We should always make a conscience decision to choice the right, no matter how hard it may be. We shouldn't be blaming someone for what we've done, take responsibilty for that bad choice and ask for forgivness.

Service

"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." - Mosiah 2:17

How many times have you walked by someone that was in need but didn't stop to help or thought should I help them? I know I have and have regretted that decision later, thinking to myself, why didn't I stop? Most of the time it's out of fear on our part or not sure how that person will react to your help.

I'm bringing this up as I prepare our Family Home Evening lesson. With the new school year in full swing I feel that my son is now old even to understand the importance of service. So here are some of my notes from my lesson that I wanted to share.

- Why should we serve?
It's a commandment, Love Thy Neighbor

The Savior is the perfect example of service, that we can draw from

Not only is it a commandment, but we are blessed when we serve. Our love for our neighbors grows. We shouldn't just serve our neighbors but also our family. I've learned this principle in marriage. There were times when I was not happy with my marriage, and it was because I was to focused on me and not serving my husband. When I learned to put him first I found a greater deeper love for him than I could ever imagine!

I found a talk from President Monson in where he gives 3 simple steps to serve.

1. Decide to serve
2. Reach out
3. Look to the Savior

We should all strive to be like the Good Samaritan in the Luke. He didn't care that the man laying on the side of road was of a different race, belief or color. All he saw was someone that needed to be taken care of. We shouldn't care of what other will think, only what the Lord will think.

After mentioning that story the Hymn Have I Done Any Good comes to mind.

Have I done any good in the world today? Have I helped anyone in need?

Have I cheered up the sad or made someone feel glad? If not I have failed indeed.

Has anyone's burden been lighter today because I was willing to share?

Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?

When they needed my help was I there?

Then wake up and do something more than dream of your mansion above

Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure

A blessing of duty and love.

So I challenge each of you to find that someone to serve and I promise you feel the love of the Savior in your life.

Temples

Yesterday our Home Teachers came over to visit and share a message with us. For those of you who don't know, Home Teachers are a pair of priesthood holders assigned to a family to make sure the family is doing well and share the monthly message from the Ensign. This months message is about Temple Blessings. I had the opportunity to read this message a few days prior to their visit and was touched by the simpleness of it.

President Uchtdorf says "For those who cannot attend the temple now for whatever reason, I encourage you to do everything in your power to hold a current temple recommend. The temple recommend is a symbol of our faithfulness and determination to serve the Lord. It is a symbol of our love for the Lord. . . "

I just love this because we are all busy with our life. My husband and I try hard to attend the temple as often as we can. Just a couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the Temple with my parents to do some family sealings. It was such a neat experience to seal the parents to the their children, you could feel their presence as if they were saying finally we are an eternal family!

Back in May my husband and I took advantage of the open house for The Gila Valley temple and took our 6 year old son to see it. What an great family experience it was for us, to be able to share it with our son and show him the special rooms of the temple and to simply explain to him what each room represents. I don't know if he will remember what he saw on the inside but I know for a fact that he remembers what it looked like on the outside.

I'm so grateful for the Temples and what they represent. I'm especially thankful that my husband and I made the decision to be married in one 7 years ago so that we can have an eternal family and receive the blessings that come from it.