Training

http://lds.org/general-conference/2000/10/sanctify-yourselves?lang=eng&query=sanctify+yourselves

http://lds.org/pages/mormon-messages-gallery?lang=eng&cid=facebook-shared#sanctify-yourselves

These two links are to the talk and video referred to in this entry.

Last Thursday, I went to a regional training for Young Woman's Leaders.  It was given by the General Board of the Young Women, led by Sister Elaine Dalton.  We also had a member of the 70 as a presiding priesthood leader.  It was broadcast from Bountiful to various chapels.  I attended with my presidency in Roy.  It was an amazing experience.

The part that I wanted to try to record, happened at the end of the meeting, when the presiding priesthood holder, Elder Summerhaze, spoke for just a few moments.  He introduced himself as a happy nobody who was holding borrowed keys.  He explained that when he was ordained as a 70 he was given apostolic keys.  That he, for a time, was assigned to assist the 12 apostles and was given the same keys.  So, he explained, it was with these "borrowed" apostolic keys that he wished to give us a blessing.  The blessing that he gave us was, "That everything would be alright."  We had just watched the video with Elder Holland where a boy is healed after being struck by lightning.  An 18 year old newly ordained Elder in this video gives a blessing to a 12 year old deacon on a football practice field after the boy was struck by lightning and went into cardiac arrest. So while two of his coaches were giving him CPR, this young elder held the boy's head and gave him a blessing, promising the boy that he would "be ok".  Immediately following this blessing the boy began breathing again, on his own.  As as an echo of the blessing we had just seen in the video, Elder Summerhaze also blessed us.  He said that as leaders in our callings that we were doing the Lord's work, and that because we were doing the best we could, everything in our lives would be alright.  He told us we were "good girls" He affirmed Sister Dalton's testimony that despite our feelings of inadequacy that the Lord would enable us; that He knew us; that he would  bless us and our families because we were trying to do his work. The quote I wrote down was:

"Everything will be alright.
He will be with you."

During this blessing I felt the spirit so strongly.  It felt as if hands were on my head and I was literally receiving a priesthood blessing.

Other quotes I jotted down include:

"Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us."

"Serve the Lord, He will enable you."

"Create an atmosphere in your home where the spirit can dwell.  That atmosphere will be reflected in all that you do."

"This is a gospel of joy and happiness.  Fill your soul with joy."

"I knew they loved me." (YW's "take away" from 6 years of attending YWs)

"You cannot lead unless you are out in front."

"How can we build unshakable faith in Jesus Christ?"

Things to do everyday:
Pray--at least twice
Read scriptures--at least 5 minutes
Smile
Obey commandments

Do the things we are asking them to do

This was the musical number from the meeting, it was sung by a chorus of YW from Roy
.http://lds.org/media-library/video/strength-of-youth-media?lang=eng&query=guardians+virtue#2010-12-15-guardians-of-virtue

http://lds.org/media-library/video/general-conference-april-2011?lang=eng&query=guardians+virtue#2011-03-0002-guardians-of-virtue

Closing Song: How Firm a Foundation.  The verse that stood out to me was verse two.  It struck me that I had been involved in each of these conditions, and that I had been succored in each condition according to the demands of that time.  The spirit then bore witness to me that God was mindful of me, and as we sang verse 7 I knew that as long as I leaned on the Savior, He would never forsake me.  Again, I don't recall ever feeling a more powerful witness of the spirit during a meeting than I felt during this one.

1. How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
Who unto the Savior, who unto the Savior,
Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?

2. In ev’ry condition–in sickness, in health,
In poverty’s vale or abounding in wealth,
At home or abroad, on the land or the sea–
As thy days may demand, as thy days may demand,
As thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be.

3. Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,
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, upheld by my righteous,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

4. When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o’erflow,
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee, and sanctify to thee,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

5. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, thy dross to consume,
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

6. E’en down to old age, all my people shall prove
My sov’reign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And then, when gray hair shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs shall they still, like lambs shall they still,
Like lambs shall they still in my bosom be borne.

7. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, I’ll never, no never,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!

Insights gained from my glimpse of the past

Woman Praying

Woman and Her Talents

partnership and milestones

play

Raising sons

and daughters

Passing on traditions and heritage

A witness sealed with blood

Sacrifice and dedication 

Light emitting from darkness-- Joseph recording revelations received at Liberty Jail

And everywhere the beauty of God's good earth and the evidence of his love.

I received some insight into what it means to be me, and into what the work is, that is being done through the establishment of The Church of Jesus Christ on the earth, as a result of my trip to Missouri and Illinois this past August.  One of the missionaries in Nauvoo mentioned, at one point, that each time the Saints completed a temple in an area, that mob violence increased against the church at that place, to the point that the members of the church had to move on.  Thinking back about the locations we had visited up to that point, I recalled how at each location where the Saints had established a settlement, that the cornerstones of a temple were immediately set, and that the city was established around it.  Not all of those temple sites became actual temples, but on the other hand, they each remain, to this day, dedicated land, with nothing on it but temple cornerstones.  Even in the case of the Nauvoo Temple, which was built and then defiled by mobs and fire and finished off by lightning, the land upon which it stood was considered sacred by another church, and nothing was built thereon until The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was able to return and re-build the Nauvoo temple on that spot, as it was intended to stand.  Even after the Saints had left the boundries of the United States and had settled in the Salt Lake Valley, they were threatened by an army at one point, and had to bury the temple foundation.  Satan, I concluded, was very determined to destroy this small body of Saints before they could establish themselves, and especially before they could establish a temple.

Why, I asked myself,  is the existence of temples so upsetting to Satan?  The answer is, of course, that they have the power to undo all, or at least much, of his devilry.  They are the key to Christ's plan to save mankind.  They hold within them the power to unlock the gates of the spirit prison and set free the souls of mankind through Christ's atonement and the ordinances that are attached to it--saving ordinances and sealing ordinances.

It is easy to underestimate the importance of who you are, and of your place in the world, when you grow up in a small town.  It is doubly so when your entire state is seen by many as a place that is backward and odd by the rest of the society in which you live, including, at times members of your own faith.  However, while visiting church history sights, I pondered upon the type of people that made up the early founders of this church.  They were sometimes educated, sometimes not.  They were often poor, but sometimes not.  They had one thing in common however, they were willing to submit in all things to the will of the Lord, as revealed to them by a prophet, and confirmed to them by the spirit of the Holy Ghost which they received.  They were determined, united by a common cause, and tested through trial.  The heritage which they earned and handed down to us, their posterity, was not based on great worldly prestige, or wealth, or honor.  Instead, they gave up what they had acquired of these things.  What they had of worldly wealth, they dedicated, to the building up of the Church and Kingdom of God on the earth.  They passed to us, their posterity, instead of riches and worldly aclaim, the mission of building up a kingdom of God on the earth that could be received by Christ upon His return.  This was their great desire--Their great obsession. They learned obedience and faith in God's mercy through the things that they suffered.  They did not welcome Christ to the earth, as they may have expected to do, but instead, they established for their posterity a place of sanctuary, a place where a people could become established; where a theology could become ingrained; where precious temples could be built; and where prophets could live to advanced years beloved by their people, and accomplish great things.  This church was not destined to be a small rock in a desert place apart from the world.  It was meant to fill the earth.  Through my growing understanding of these things, I  began to realize and to become much more keenly aware of the importance of my place in the world, and of the value of my inheritance as a member of Christ's church, and a descendant of these valiant pioneers who fulfilled their earthly missions with honor, and passed to us the blessings of the gospel, and the saving ordinances of the temple.

keys and callings

Looking forward in faith

We are as the armies of Helaman.  We have been taught in our youth.  And we will be the Lord's missionaries, to bring the world his truth.