Lupe's Notes - Jan 20, 2013

Good afternoon sisters. Hope you are having a great day.

THOUGHT: “This . . . was the Gospel order in the days of the apostles, belief on Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost. When this order was understood and properly attended to, power, gifts, blessings, and glorious privileges followed immediately.”

President Lorenzo Snow

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. Donna L. would love to have visitors. She enjoys the outdoors, but due to the weather, she has to stay in. Also, the family is looking to hire someone part-time to be with Donna in the evenings. If you know of anyone, please contact Megan.
2. Charles L. is in the hospital, but is expected to go home this week. Please keep him and Vera in your prayers.
3. Stake Women's Basketball: on Thursdays 8:30 – 10 pm at the Mahogany Building.
4. Relief Society mini class: WE ARE MAKING BREAD: IT IS ALIVE: IT IS MAGIC. Feb. 7 at 7 pm. Milt and Karen M. will be demonstrating how to make wheat bread and cottage cheese white bread.
5. In March we will be celebrating the 6^th Birthday of our Ward by participating in a special Temple session on Tuesday, the 5^th of March. It will be an 8:15 pm session.
6. This week my notes will only be on the blog, but thereafter they will be on both the Blog and email

BIRTHDAYS: January 26^th – Dana P.   Happy Birthday to you.

Our lesson was presented by Pat H. from the Lorenzo Snow manual.

Sisters, our lesson today is 'Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost' I hope you will have a chance to read this lesson because I will not go into all the paragraphs. As I prayed and thought about this lesson, I thought that you know a lot about baptism and the Holy Ghost. So we will talk about what covenants mean to us in our lives. I will use addresses of both President Uchtdorf and Elder Cook Conference addresses in relation to the covenants we make in our life.

President Uchtdorf told of a letter he received from a friend and I was curious then as I am now as to who it was. “A friend of mine recently wrote to me, confiding that he was having a difficult time keeping his testimony strong and vibrant. He asked for counsel.

I wrote back to him and lovingly suggested a few specific things he could do that would align his life more closely with the teachings of the restored gospel. To my surprise, I heard back from him only a week later. The essence of his letter was this: “ tried what you suggested. It didn't work. What else have you got?”

I have thought about this a lot. This is the frame of mind some people are in. They want quick answers, quick solutions. I am reminded that everybody wants to know the purpose of life. Why are we here? Some people are willing to capitalize on this need to know. And people are willing to find answers. There are lectures, self help groups, ointments to help us feel better, CD's, seminars, by people who want to help. Although there may be help, all of these solutions, remedies are from mankind and may leave us feeling hollow after a while. Then people seek more lasting solutions.

This draws us back to a lasting solution, remedy, to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It comes from God and his son, the creators who are all knowing. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the ultimate formula for happiness.

How true these things are and how few people in the world know and understand it. It is not a secret. We want to share it with the entire world. This is why we have missionaries.

As I thought about it, if ever we had a wonderful example of sharing, it's Lorenzo Snow.
There are certain things each prophet has that we love. For me, it is David O. McKay and Lorenzo Snow. These are two men who seem to get more handsome as they got older. As we get into the lesson, I will share with you something about Lorenzo Snow.

When my daughter was a senior in High School, she was very much impressed by a young man who was very intelligent and focused. He had goals, one of which was to attend Stanford University. There was an element of spirituality and so she invited him to meet with the missionaries. He took the missionary lessons and had a brilliant mind. After each lesson, we could feel the spirit very strongly. We knew he was feeling the truth of the gospel. At the conclusion of the lessons, he said, “I know and feel something to this that I have heard, but I already have made plans, aspirations. If I join the Church, I know I will have to go on a mission and I don't have time to do a mission. It is intriguing that he was rejected by Stanford. I don't know what happened with him, but I will see if I can find him. I would like to know if he ever joined the Church. He didn't realize that a mission was the spring board controlled by the Lord that would help him for the rest of his life.
I have thought of this story in relationship to Lorenzo Snow as a young man. He had aspirations to become a military commander. To become extremely educated.

“When 21-year-old Lorenzo Snow rode his horse away from his parents' home one day in 1835, he set his course for Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. He did not know that on this short trip, he would have an experience that would change the course of his life.

Riding down the road in his hometown of Mantua, Ohio, he met a man who was also on horseback. This man, named David W. Patten, had recently been ordained an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was returning to the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, after having served a mission. The two men traveled together for about 30 miles. Lorenzo Snow later recounted:

“Our conversation fell upon religion and philosophy, and being young and having enjoyed some scholastic advantages, I was at first disposed to treat is opinions lightly, especially so as they were not always clothed in grammatical language; but as he proceeded in his earnest and humble way to open up before my mind the plan of salvation, I seemed unable to resist the knowledge that he was a man of God and that his testimony was true.”

Lorenzo Snow was not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he mt Elder Patten, but he was familiar with some of the Church's teachings. In fact, the Prophet Joseph Smith had visited the home of the Snow family, and Lorenzo's mother and sisters Leonora and Eliza had been baptized and confirmed members of the Church. However, Lorenzo had been, as he said, “busy in other directions” at the time, and such things had “passed measurably out of [his] mind.” That began to change when he talked with Elder Patten. Referring to the experience, he said, “This was the turning point in my life.” He described how he felt during the conversation:

“I felt pricked in my heart. This he evidently perceived, for almost the last thing he said to me after bearing his testimony, was that I should go to the Lord before retiring at night and ask him for myself. This I did with the result that from the day I met this great Apostle, all my aspirations have been enlarged and heightened immeasurably.”

It was not an easy decision for him. He had to humble himself, to give up the worldly aspirations. “Even after receiving a witness that Joseph Smith was a prophet, Lorenzo Snow wrestled with the decision to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He knew that if he became a member of the Church, he would have to abandon some of his worldly aspirations. But following an experience that he called his “fircest struggle of heart and soul,” he agreed to be baptized. He recounted: “Through the help of the Lord—for I feel certain He must have helped me—I laid my pride, worldly ambition and aspirations upon the altar, and humble as a child, went to the waters of baptism, and received the ordinances of the gospel. . . . I received baptism and the ordinance of laying on of hands by one who professed to have divine authority.”

This is the basis of the entire lesson. Having a change of heart. This is the process of becoming a member of God's Kingdom in one paragraph.

He makes another point of this principle, an extremely important gospel principle for us to understand.

THE OUTWARD ORDINANCES OF BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION ARE INSEPARABLY CONNECTED WITH THE INWARD WORKS OF FAITH AND REPENTANCE.

Some don't believe ordinances are important. Many cannot understand why they are important. Even if a person was able to live a perfect life, he won't be exalted without ordinances. You have to show how you feel inside by the outward ordinances.

“Some vainly imagine that under the Gospel dispensation, gifts and blessings were obtained not by external observances, or external works, but merely through faith and repentance, through mental operations, independent of physical. But, laying aside the traditions, superstitions, and creeds of men, we will look to the word of God, where we shall discover that external works, or outward ordinances, under the Gospel dispensation, were inseparably connected with inward works, with faith and repentance. In proof of this, I introduce the following observation--

“The Saviour said, “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Again; he says, “He that heareth my words, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a man that built his house upon a rock.” And, “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved.” Likewise, he says, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” These sayings of our Saviour require men to perform external works in order to receive their salvation.”

Same if you go through all the ordinances but if the faith, the inward is not there. Need to be righteous and have the covenants to be exalted.

Elder Cook asked a question in relationship to this subject. We need to do deep thinking to help us understand covenants.

“In one of the most profound verses in all of scripture, Alma proclaims, “If ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?”

In order to qualify for baptism, we have to experience a change of heart. This is something we don't comprehend as a child, but something we do throughout our life. We all have been through a change of heart. Can ye feel so now?

That is the question Elder Cook asked us. Would like an answer. Think deeply.. If ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love (refers to the Atonement, the Lord's love for us), can ye feel so now? Do you feel it in your life, in relationship to covenant of Baptism and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Do you feel his redeeming love? In your lives right now?

Holly M: How we need the outward ordinances. How tight together baptism and the Sacrament are – so I can feel so now.

I always think that among LDS women, there is a lot depression. In Utah in regards to prescription drug usage among women, it is high. I can see why the Apostle Cook would say, 'can ye feel so now?. Are we feeling the beauty of the Atonement? Is our life showing outwardly what is really inside of us?

Alisa: In Sacrament meeting he talked about how we can become like God. When I was on my mission, I would hear everyday from people that we can't become like God. That was blasphemy. Day in and day out, I would hear the same thing. But the Holy Ghost told me we can become like God. In the Church of Jesus Christ, we can feel the happiness of the truth. One day they'll understand that too. I feel thankful I can feel that joy. That we do have ordinances. It sustains me through my whole life.

The High councilman gave us the quote “As man now is, God once was: as God is, man may become.”

Elder Cook: “It is not surprising that some in the Church believe they can't answer Alma's question with a resounding yes. They do not “feel so now.” They feel they are in a spiritual drought. Others are angry, hurt, or disillusioned. If these descriptions apply to you, it is important to evaluate why you cannot “feel so now.”

We are reminded how important it is that we understand the principle that we can attain what the Father has. Be in the world, but not of the world. We live in this world. Why?

Katy: To gain experience. The City of Enoch came to be in the most wicked part of the land. We have to live in the world. We are in the world, but not of it (in relationship to baptism and the Holy Ghost).

Karen M: It struck me, the inward. We have to have constant faith in our Savior. We have to deal with it., the things of the world. They are there to remind us that He has redeemed us already. We just have to repent and then faith in Him will bring redeeming love.

You used the word exercise faith in Jesus Christ to feel his redeeming love. We have to be involved. One of my best friends left the Church many ears ago. She did it all, Seminary teacher, YW president, Sunday School teacher, etc. She does not believe in the importance of ordinances. Jesus Christ is the center of her life and the universe. Somewhere along the way, she came to deny the important of ordinances.

Ramona: When we are baptized, we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost. We do not always honor it. We need the Holy Ghost to make changes. The world lives in a telestial world We live on a higher level of life. We need the natural ground between good and evil. When we enter God's kingdom on the earth, we covenant to serve only God.

Receive the Holy Ghost. We bring to ourselves the Holy Ghost. We exercise faith and obey Jesus Christ, and then are able to live in the world but not be part of it because the Holy Ghost will help us to not be on the path of the world. The ordinance of the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost allows us to have the Holy Ghost help us stay on the true path.

Through covenants: as taught in the temple of the different laws. One of the laws is obedience. We covenant two things. (1). That we will take upon us the name of Christ and (2.) The law of Obedience. Remember the connection between these things.

In living in the world but not be of the world, there is a separation process from the world of Satan, but not an isolation. We are a missionary Church. We want to spread the good news of the gospel with the world. We need to separate ourselves from Satan's world.

President Brigham Young: “All Latter-day Saints enter the new and everlasting covenant when they enter this Church. They covenant to cease sustaining, upholding and cherishing the kingdom of the Devil and the kingdoms of this world. They enter the new and everlasting covenant to sustain the Kingdom of God and no other kingdom. They take a vow of the most solemn kind, before the heavens and earth,... that they will sustain truth and righteousness instead of wickedness and falsehood, and build up the Kingdom of God, instead of the kingdom of this world.”.

Next week's lesson is “Protect the Children” by Elder Oaks.

Have a nice week.