Provo City Center, Utah
150th operating temple
Dedicated: 20 Mar 2016
By: Dallin H. Oaks
Book of Mormon Reading
Ether 8:1-17
Book of Mormon 100 Favorites
#92 2 Nephi 1:23
Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust.
Come Follow Me
Review of Revelation 1-5
October General Conference
"The Power of Jesus Christ in Our Lives Everyday" by Elder Joaquin E. Costa
I got up at 4 a.m. this morning to finish preparing for my lesson. I went through my Inklings studies and wrote down what we studied each semester. There have been nine studies since starting in October 2019.
In October 2019 we studied about Women and the Priesthood. Not only did we listen to conference talks and read from the Doctrine and Covenants, we read three books on the priesthood and women: one by Sheri Dew, Barbara Morgan Gardner, and Wendy Ulrich. I learned alot from this study and came to realize although women don't have ordained priesthood authority, we do have priesthood power.
In April 2020 we did a study of The Restoration Proclamation that President Nelson read in conference. We studied one line a week from the proclamation.
October 2020 was a study on Promises to Covenant Israel.
April 2021 Our study was on how to increase our faith. We used President Nelson's conference address, "Faith in Him Will Move Mountains" as the basis for our study.
October 2021 we did a study on temple worship. Our study was based on President Nelson's talk, "The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation."
April 2022 was a study on the power of spiritual momentum again based on President Nelson's talk of the same name.
October 2022 The name of our study was "Become This." President Nelson's talk was "Overcome the World and Find Rest."
April 2023 we used President Nelson's talk "Peacemakers Needed" as a basis for our study of charity.
October 2023 we are doing a study on Thinking Celestial.
I wanted to go through my studies because I thought I might share them with the sisters in Relief Society.
I prepared two handouts for the sisters. I ran off enough so I could hand them out to the sisters in Primary and Young Women. Sister Gassaway was so appreciative. She is the Primary president. I gave the ones for Young Women leaders to Sandra Wilhelm.
I finished the outline for my lesson and when I was finished it was time to get ready for Church. It is cold today but at least there is no wind.
James helped me setup my classroom. I keep forgetting to take a picture. I even had pictures of Emily on her scooter hiking the Jesus Trail and one of her nephew pulling her.
We sat by Sue Hubble and her granddaughters Kaylynn and Sky during sacrament meeting. Kaylynn made sure James and I each had a hymn book and that we knew the opening song was on page 209.
Johnny Wilhelm bore his testimony about the power of prayer. He said he lost his mini-bike and the Lord showed him where it was. When his dad John spoke he said Johnny road on his bike right to where the mini-bike was in spite of it being a mile away from the house.
Sandra Wilhelm spoke on Sister Freeman's conference address. I wonder who schedules these talks and if they check on what is being taught in Relief Society and Elder's Quorum. She basically gave my lesson.
After Sandra spoke there was a special musical number by a non-member who attends our ward. Her name is Debbie Schwarz and she is the sweetest sister. Her husband played "Mary Did You Know" on a recording device and Debbie did sign language to the song. It was beautiful and quite touching. I looked over at James and he was wiping his eyes. Kaylynn was trying to duplicate Debbie's actions. It was cute. I don't know if there is some kind of rule about using a recording device in sacrament meeting but I can tell you that this was a good thing for our ward to see. Debbie always comes to Relief Society and participates by making comments. Today was no different. James said her husband made comments in Elders Quorum too and they were good comments.
John Wilhelm was the final speaker. He spoke about our baptismal covenant of taking upon us the name of Jesus Christ.
Look in the mirror, do you see Christ's image in your countenance?
What does He see in us? What do we see in those around us. Do we look for the positive. Ed Miller has been an example in my life of someone who looks for the good in others. Christ saw the good in others. Am I willing to take upon me Jesus Christ's name? If I take His name upon me, HIs light will shine through me.
At the end of sacrament meeting Brother Allen admitted he had forgotten to get someone to say the closing prayer. Ty Applegate was standing in the back with a friend. Ty just returned from his mission in Florida on Friday. Brother Allen called on him but Ty declined because he didn't want to leave his friend who was a visitor standing alone. Ty's dad Jimmy gave the closing prayer.
Relief Society went well considering the sisters already heard Sister Freeman's talk in sacrament meeting. Mikki Gilbert shared some stories and made some meaningful comments as did Tina Allen and several other sisters. Debbie Schwarz came up afterwards and told me how much she enjoyed the lesson and that she was grateful for the handouts. I told her how much I enjoyed her presentation in sacrament meeting.
I decided that one of the ways I can improve my lessons is to really focus on asking meaningful questions. That's something I will work towards for next month.
Our Relief Society President, Cheryl Sedig, is very thoughtful. She had an ornament and a bag of cookies for each one of the sisters at the end of Relief Society. You could even choose sugar free cookies if you wanted. Here is a picture of the ornament I chose:
After lunch and a nap James and I found ourselves on the recliner in the family room. I turned on the Church's YouTube channel and we watched Elder Kearon speaking at BYU-Hawaii the day after he was ordained an apostle. We watched he and his wife speak and heard a history of how they met and a little bit of their background. They lost a baby boy when he was 19 days old. They have three girls. As we watched Elder Kearon I felt the Spirit testify to me that he was indeed an Apostle of Jesus Christ. James felt the same way. It was a heart-warming, spiritual experience.
Since we missed the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last week we watched it tonight. It was so good! I loved Sister Browning's talk about remembering.
As I listened to Elder Costa's conference address today I had two takeaways: 1) Before looking at his phone he reads a scripture and says his prayers. I am going to make a conscious effort to do this too, as my natural tendency when I get up is to first grab my phone.
2) This quote:
"Our covenants are not only transactional, they can be transformational."
I got a text from one of my grandchildren this evening. I thought it was Addy but it turned out to be Alex. I told him I was getting old and senile. He wants to come up the weekend of January 13th with Shayna, their dog, and their friend Nick and his dog Bruce. He also said that Michael and Joe might come up that weekend too. I told him everyone was welcome, including the big dog Bruce who doesn't chase cats.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland rededicated the St. George temple where 5 generations of his family received ordinances.
Elder Holland talking to his son Matthew Holland.
Charlie's busy weekend
Gingerbread Houses
Dallin and SamiAdam and Brian keeping busyEvan's house
Alex said this was James and I infront of our beach house.
Ben and CayliKim and Brian
Joshua and Alayna
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