Greetings Folks!
Long time no see? Sorry about that. I got distracted by Thanksgiving and life. Anyways, we will start off, as always, with our little Five List of Gratitude:
1. Cell Phone
(I am grateful that I can access the scriptures and the Proclamation of the Family on my phone and that I can enlarge the text so that it is easily readable for me).
2. Mini-Heater
(I am glad for my tiny space heater, the warmth it provides to my little bedroom. I know, I have said this before, but it is still true, especially on these cold winter days).
3. Rain
(I am grateful that the unceasing rain we have had has been rain and not snow. Rain will typically not prevent me from getting to a Gathering, and I fear snow will be a barrier to that, because of where I live, so far out from the meeting place).
4. Google Docs!
(I am grateful that I can write with Aimee in 'real time' and that we can apply and strengthen our craft on an almost daily basis!)
5. Nilla Wafers and Good Music
(I am glad to be able to indulge my tastebuds with a treat I recall fondly from childhood and I am happy for the opportunity to listen to lively and fun music, with my husband, as we travel home from the Gathering each Thursday).
Moving on to the events of the last few days, I got to attend the Gathering this past Thursday ... and boy did I miss those people! Not having a class to attend in person last week was very sad. I asked my husband to read the scriptures with me for the Directed Study assignment last week because the thought of doing it alone was hard to wrap my mind around. I, at least, wanted someone to bounce my ideas and answers off of. This week, the tone of the class was more somber because at least ten of the members were missing. We had a couple from Akron join us but we were down by almost half our numbers. Because of this, the laughter of previous classes was significantly lessened and the tone was more calm than jovial. (I prefer jovial but I can recognize the importance of both types of environments).
This week, we were taught by Katie (again!). Apparently, she was an emergency fill-in for whomever was supposed to teach but she only got the call on Sunday (and then prepared the lesson for the Life Skills class, only to learn that she was being asked to teach the Religion class ... I felt bad for her frustration because I know what it is like to pour hours upon hours of your effort into something, only to not have it be utilized, in the end). Anyway, she did an amazing job with teaching and leading us and she used a lot of print-outs, which I, with my vision issues, truly appreciated.
First, we talked about the previous lesson, from Thanksgiving week. We talked about the conversion of Alma, how he was Abinadai's only convert and that may have lead the man to believe his preaching was a failure, but that Alma was on fire with his own testimony and he went and established the church and taught and converted a great many of the people. Like a stone thrown into a pond, that one stone of Abinadai changed Alma's life and Alma then shared his testimony and the ripples extended outwards into numerous far reaching ways. Brother Graham brought up the talk by Dallin H. Oaks where it talked about having a change of heart and overcoming the desire to sin. Then we moved on to the introduction of the study skill . We have gone through all of the study skills, so this week we
did a review of the study skill of Principles and Doctrine. Sister Swank
handed out a printout that detailed the definition of Principles,
indicating they are concentrated truths, packaged for application to a
variety of circumstances. They are portable, unchanging truths, eternal
laws, and fundamental beliefs. To illustrate the concept, we were broken
into groups. My group was given Option 1, which consisted of three sets
of scripture verses (Mosiah 27:22-23, Alma 5:46, D&C 121:36-37). We
read them as a group and wrote down the principles we found there.
These three scriptures deal with fasting and prayer and the fact that
the Lord answers the prayers of the righteous. (Mosiah was about the
priests assembling together and fasting for Alma the Younger, Alma was
about the Holy Spirit confirming gospel truths, and D&C focused on
the importance of the Priesthood and how one needs to stay righteous to
remain worthy of it and keep their connection to the powers of Heaven).
We finished the following statements: Thus We See: the importance of
faith, prayers, and fasting, in righteously using the Priesthood, to
gain answers to our prayers. Eternal Truth: of fasting and prayer, that
they are powerful and that the Lord uses the Holy Ghost to testify of
the truth to us. I Can Learn and Apply This To Myself: by fasting and
praying for answers to important questions, respecting the Priesthood
and helping my husband stay a worthy Priesthood holder, and being worthy
to have the Holy Ghost with me and let the Holy Ghost teach and confirm
gospel truths to me. The Moral Is: to be righteous and worthy of the
blessings of the Priesthood and to fast and pray for what we stand in
need of. Also, that we need to be worthy of the Holy Ghost, living lives
that let the Holy Ghost dwell with us and guide us. So What: we learn
from these verses is that fasting augments prayer and the Lord answers
righteous desires. We also learn that we need to be worthy of the
Priesthood and of having the presence of the Holy Ghost to bring about
those answers.
For the Directed Study, we were broken into groups, again, and my
group was given Option 1: Mosiah 28:1-9. We read about the Sons of
Mosiah and how they wished to teach the gospel to the Lamanites. We
learned that their father tried to dissuade them from going and that he
feared for them to go among their enemies. However, the Lord assured
Mosiah that his sons would be alright, that their desires were
righteous, and they would convert many people and bring them to the
truth. We answered three questions as a group. First, the reasons why
the sons of Mosiah and their companions wanted to preach the gospel to
the Lamanites were several. They wanted to cure them of their hatred and
stop the fighting among their two peoples. They wanted them to come to a
knowledge of the Lord and to rejoice in Him and all He had done for
them, to correct the things that the Lamanites were falsely taught by
their fathers. They wanted to establish friendship and banish
contention. The most important reason was that the sons of Mosiah could
not bear that ANY human soul should perish. (That is an amazingly strong
statement!) The second question dealt with the contrast between the
Sons of Mosiah and their mission and the missionaries that we know
today. The Sons of Mosiah wanted to go on their missions, they chose to
go; whereas, it is more of a requirement and an expectations for young
Mormon men to serve missions. They had no social pressure asking them to
go, it was a true and pure desire of their heart. Unlike modern
missionaries, the Sons of Mosiah got to choose where they were going on
their mission, they were not assigned a location. The upside, is that
today, our missionaries are less likely to face death threats and
torture; whereas the Sons of Mosiah were going into extremely hostile
territory. (We do our best to keep our missionaries out of harms way or
keep them from serving in areas that are deemed as life threatening). I
would say that, overall, the Sons of Mosiah were more dedicated than
modern missionaries because they had this pure desire that no soul
should be lost and, while I think some missionaries gain that insight on
their mission, not all of them do. I think the hearts of Mosiah's
children were in the right place and they set out with a deep rooted
intent to look to the welfare of their enemies and bring them to the
truth of the gospel (which they had forgotten). And they were in the
best position to see that contrast, as they themselves had sinned and
led many people astray, and had also found the light and turned their
lives around by giving them over to God and by utilizing the cleansing
power of the Atonement. The third question pertained to the promises the
Lord gave to Mosiah regarding his sons. He promised that many would
believe on their words and be converted to the truth and he promised
that they would be delivered out of the hands of the Lamanites. As he
was a loving father, I am sure that promise meant a lot and did a lot to
console Mosiah's worried heart.
One of my favorite things that was said was that 'we need to pray for the gifts that we want' ... As we talked a great deal about the power of prayer and fasting, this idea of praying for spiritual gifts was a good one. I know we pray for Heavenly Father to help us change but praying for specific spiritual gifts is a concept I would like to try out. (Previously, I may have thought it pretentious but I'm not of that opinion any longer). This truly was an amazing Gathering and I look forward to the next few weeks (and I will miss everyone immensely over the holidays!)
