Skip to main content

Leadership Meeting

I was lucky to be able to attend a leadership meeting yesterday (December 2, 2023) Flagstaff with Elder Steven D. Shumway, Elder Michael A. Dunn, and Elder D. Todd Christofferson. Life has been pretty darn hard this year. I have felt very low this week. The hour and a half drive was worth it if I could get even a small moment of peace. Of course, I heard so much that I needed to hear. Things I needed to be reminded, and things that I needed to learn. 

This list of things that stood out to me probably wouldn't help anyone else. I know that I learn best when I can write what I have learned and get a better understanding from it. I am very forgetful and have a hard time reiterating what others have said. I understand things in my mind, but when I express that understanding to someone else, I have a hard time knowing what words to use. So this is my way of trying to get through it.

Ok, so Elder D. Todd Christofferson talked about how the Atonement of Jesus Christ is what makes the whole plan perfect. It would be a horrible plan without the ability to repent and return to Heavenly Father, with a body. He mentioned Alma 12:32. He emphasized that "God gave them commandments, after having made known until them the plan of redemption..." God knew from the beginning that his sons and daughters needed to hear the plan first in order for them to understand why there are commandments. We should talk and teach more about the plan of salvation. We need to align ourselves to God's plan and think celestial.

Elder Steven D. Shumway talked about covenants and the garment. He said we should embrace the covenant. Keeping covenants gives us access to Godly power. 

 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Realization

A little seed was planted in my heart when I was a teenager going to seminary. I decided during the year we were learning about the Book of Mormon that I wanted to know for myself if it was true. When I prayed about it, nothing spectacular happened, but I felt a unique feeling of peace that I hadn't felt before. Now that it's been over 20 years later, I can say that every time I've read the Book of Mormon, that belief that it is true has become stronger and stronger. This year I decided to get a special Book of Mormon that has space to write on each page. I set a goal to take the time to ponder what I have read and write down what I understand, or what the Spirit tells me. I have read this book many times and have learned a lot already, but this time has felt so different. I have been able to understand so much more. There are days when I want to hurry and read the next chapter to catch up and not take the extra time to ponder and write, but I have made myself do it anyways...

War - Force or Freedom

I have been looking at war in a different way lately. This quote from Spencer W. Kimball struck me when I heard it today and I wanted to share it here ( June 1976 First Presidency Message ): "In spite of our delight in defining ourselves as modern, and our tendency to think we possess a sophistication that no people in the past ever had—in spite of these things, we are, on the whole, an idolatrous people—a condition most repugnant to the Lord. "We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel—ships, planes, missiles, fortifications—and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become antienemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior’s teaching: "'Lov...

In The Arms of Safety

  16  And thus a mercy can satisfy the demands of b justice , and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of c justice ; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal d plan of e redemption . The key phrase in this scripture that I love is "in the arms of safety."  I have been given the path to feel safe in Jesus Christ's arms. I am very grateful for the physical safety I enjoy every day, but I am also grateful for the spiritual safety I can enjoy when I follow Jesus Christ. When I'm following his footsteps as best as i can, I feel that safety. It is a gift that He has given me and everyone. Of course, it isn't easy and it requires faith in the atonement and Jesus Christ, but the joy you can feel doing it is worth it.