Cebu City, Philippines
133rd operating temple
Dedicated: 13 June 2010
By: Thomas S. Monson
Jesus Christ, Judge
3 Nephi 27:16
And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world.
Book of Mormon/"Come Follow Me"
Review; Study:2 Nephi 26-30 "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder" - "Don't Miss This"; "Teaching with Power"
Given February 27, 1977 at a conference
in Lima, Peru.
"Deceive Me Not"
Gary E. Stevenson
"There is much we can learn from Moses's mighty response to temptation from the adversary. (see Moses 1:1-2)
I invite you to respond the same way when you feel influenced by temptation. Command the enemy of your soul by saying: 'Go away! You have no glory. Do not tempt or lie to me! For I know I am a child of God. And I will always call upon my God for His help.'"
"The Second Great Commandment"
President Russell M. Nelson
"As members of the Church, we feel a kinship to those who suffer in any way. As sons and daughters of God, we are all brothers and sisters. We heed an Old Testament admonition: 'Thou shalt open thing hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy,'"
Happy Sabbath!
We woke up to 2 inches of snow this morning. It was beautiful. I worked on my blog and then went to wake James up with tea at 6:30 because I knew he was scheduled to leave for ward council at 7 with Chuck. He said his alarm didn't go off. I went in and fixed him a bowl of grits to eat before he left. Chuck was right on time.
I finished up on my blog and went to shower and get ready to go.
The roads were filled with puddles and it was slippery. I went slow and it took me about five minutes longer than normal to get to church. I left early enough that I wasn't late. James was saving a place for me and allowed me to sit on the outside of the row which is my favorite spot.
Colter Hunsaker gave his first youth talk and did a good job. He is a good reader. He did always like to read when I was his teacher but his reading was usually slow and halting. I guess practice makes perfect. He spoke about the responsibilities of someone who holds the Aaronic priesthood. Here are some notes from Colter's talk. "Jesus said we should go the second mile. We can serve all the time." Colter quoted lots of scriptures and talked about faith and repentance. It was an excellent talk for an 11 year old who won't be 12 until the end of December. He is a sweet boy and loves to do service and has learned to work hard from his dad.
Haley Hunsaker was the next speaker. She is Colter's older sister. He talked about going to the temple with Haley to do baptisms. The theme for Haley's talk was "Go and Do." Don't be idle. We are here for a purpose. Help someone else overcome their trials. Act in faith. We need to have faith in the impossible because nothing is impossible with God. Prepare for general conference by studying the Restoration.
Chelsea MacArthur was the next speaker. Elder Bednar's recent conference address, "Watchful unto Prayer Continually" was the theme for her talk. Constant vigilance is needed to counteract complacency and casualness. We must guard and protect. She told a story about when she lived in Alaska and came home and there was a mama moose with two babies in her yard. There is nothing more dangerous than a mama moose guarding and protecting her young so she waited in the car until they were gone. She talked a little about the cheetahs and the topis, comparing the cheetahs to Satan.
We must be always on guard against Satan and his tactics. President Hinckley: "Things will work out." I would add to that, if we are obedient and faithful.
Jared MacArthur is Chelsea's husband. She comes to church every week and teaches Primary. We don't see Jared very often. He has not yet been ordained an elder. He gave a good talk. He started out by telling us that for the first time in 15 years he slept walked last night. Not sure what that had to do with his talk. Jared is a HotShot in Alaska. He jumps out of airplanes to fight fires. He is only home about half of the year. He talked about the intense training he has to go through to be a HotShot and what the risks are. He then told about the Challenger, the space shuttle that blew up 70 seconds after lift off, killing all 7 astronauts on board. He said the engineers knew there was a weakness in the housing of the fuel chamber but they decided to launch anyway, or at least some of them decided. The chief engineer said he recommended they cancel the launch but obviously he was outvoted. He says that 30 years later it still haunts him. Jared used this as an example of complacency. He said there were three things Elder Bednar counsels us to be aware of: 1) Evils disguises, 2) Stay awake and be alert, 3) Understand the intent of the enemy.
I conducted Relief Society. Kerri was in charge of our player piano and Tamara led the music. We began with announcements. Michelle Tesarek announced our upcoming Relief Society activity on March 28th. The theme is the Relief Society birthday celebration. There will be several classes offered and each sister will get to attend four classes. Afterwards we will have a corned beef luncheon and cupcakes for dessert. Some of the classes to be offered: Getting your "exit" papers in order before death, Instapot hints, tracking finances, indexing, soap making, and a couple of others that I can't remember.
After the announcements we sang the song "Abide with Me" and I called on Paula Johnson to say the opening prayer. That was a mistake because we aren't supposed to have an opening prayer. I guess the song threw me off.
Diana Curtis gave the lesson based on Sister Arburto's talk, "Thru Cloud and Sunshine, Lord, Abide with Me!" We talked about depression and mental illness and several sisters shared stories. Diana kept the lesson positive and on track so I felt that it went well.
James had a short meeting after church so he got a ride home with Chuck. I had not even had lunch yet when he arrived home. After lunch we had rest time. I finished my book, "Live Up To Our Privileges" which I loved. I started reading the book Cathi and Terry gave us for Christmas and also read from Sister Nelson's book.
I'm going to enjoy these books!
Here are some of the things I did this Sabbath afternoon:
- Texted Kathy, my neighbor, and told her I offered a special prayer for her in Relief Society that she would get well soon. Several of the sisters came up to me afterwards and wanted to know about Kathy. I told her that we were very concerned for her welfare.
- Texted Kyah who wasn't at church to see if she was ok. She said she wasn't feeling well. I asked her if she would like me to set up an appointment with Brother Peeler for both her and I so we could learn how to do web indexing. She said yes that would be great. I told her to let me know when she is feeling better. Kyah is 17.
- Texted Tanna. James and I are assigned to visit her but I have never met her. I asked if she was going to have a baby shower because if she wasn't I was going to offer to give her one. She said her baby was due on August 29th and that they (her family I suppose) was giving her a shower after they did the gender reveal. I asked her if she would let me know about the gender reveal and she said she would. She works at Persnikkity's and said I could come and visit her there. She works Monday-Friday from 11-4.
- Texted Diana and told her I was pleased with how well the lesson went.
- We FaceTimed with Charlie, Jared and Kacey. Here are some of the things we discussed.
Kacey said she found a paper Molly wrote about Jared. She said when she was four or five he left and she couldn't understand why.
She said she was afraid to come because her sisters weren't coming but when she got there everything was great. She expressed her love for him and said he was like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. After all that is happening with his other kids I am sure this made him feel good.
Tomorrow Charlie has to have shots. Kacey said the girl who gives the shots is black. Kacey just recently joined the gym and left Charlie in the nursery. The girls working in the nursery are all black or Asian. Charlie was not happy. A girl came to get Kacey and said they couldn't calm her down. When Kacey got in the room Charlie was huddled in the corner facing the well shaking and sobbing. She associates black people with the pain of getting a shot. This just broke my heart.
- Kacey has some kind of a nodule or tumor in her mouth which swells and is painful. She is having it checked out tomorrow. I told them I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow too.
- They tried to watch the Face to Face with President and Sister Oaks but Charlie keeps turning off the power strip. If they put it behind the piano, she crawls back and gets it.
- We love talking with Charlie, Kacey and Jared and look forward to their call every week. Next week we will be in the valley but we hope they call anyway.
I also found three relatives on family search that need ordinances. I tried to index but realize I need some training. James set up a meeting with Brother Peeler as he works with us in family history. Hopefully he will be willing to train us in indexing.
I began studying for this coming week's "Come Follow Me" lesson, 2 Nephi 26-30 "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder." It's about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the Restoration, and Satan's tactics. I listened to "Don't Miss This" and filled in the worksheet and then James and I listened to "Teaching with Power." Next week we will be discussing this lesson with family members.
James and I both wrote a letter to Elder Trezise. I told him the story of the woman praying in Paraguay after the floods.
This is what we woke up to. By
afternoon it was all melted.
This is what I look forward to every Sabbath day:
Sweet Charlie Mae
As a teenager Greg worked at my dad's store
Photo booth at ward party courtesy
of Candi
Autumn posted this
Woohoo!
I love Sister Hinckley
This is Winter Hoose, Christina's little girl.
Oops, I spoke too soon!
