9/28/14 Review

Important Dates

• Sat & Sun, Oct 4 &5: October General Conference
• Thur. Oct 9: Relief Society Meeting, 7pm at the Thomasville Rd Building
• "Whooooo's Whoooo?" Get to know the sisters in our ward! 
• Babysitting and light refreshments will be provided
• Sat. Oct 11: Family History Class from 1-4pm
• Learn how to use familysearch.org and invite friends to do the same! The missionaries will teach the class at the Northeast Branch Library Conference room (5513 Thomasville Rd)
• Wed Oct 15: Walton Feed Group orders due to Marilou Woolstenhume
• Please contact Sis. Woolstenhume or a member of the RS Presidency for additional information
• Sat. Oct 25: Ward Trunk-or-Treat, 10am at the Thomasville Rd Building!
• Wear costumes (no masks) and get ready for a fun time! Cake walk, games and trunk-or-treating for the kids! 
• Nov 1: Adult Temple Trip--seats still available for bus, see Bro or Sis Kent for details

Oct 2014 Lesson Schedule

• Oct 5: General Conference
• Oct 12: Chapter 19: In the World by Not of the World
• Oct 19: Chapter 20: Love and Concern for All Our Father's Children
• Oct 26: Conference Talk: TBA

Lesson Review

• Sept 28: Roots and Branches by Elder Quentin L. Cook

Elder Quentin L. Cook said, “In this life we laugh, we cry, we work, we play, we live, and then we die.  Job asks the succinct question, ‘If a man die, shall he live again?’ The answer is a resounding yes because of the atoning sacrifice of the Savior.  Part of Job’s diverse preamble to the question is interesting:  ‘Man that is born of a woman is of few days….He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down….There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease…and bring forth boughs like a plant’”

Elder Cook goes on to say, “Our Father’s plan is about families.  Several of our most poignant scriptures use the concept of the tree with its roots and branches as an analogy….In the closing chapter of the Old Testament, Malachi, in describing the Second Coming of the Savior, vividly uses this analogy.  Speaking of the proud and wicket, he notes that they shall be burned as stubble and ‘that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.’ Malachi closes this chapter with the Lord’s reassuring promise:  ‘Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.’”

Point to ponder:  In reference to Elder Cook’s talk, consider the symbols of the tree and the root.  What do they symbolize?  The roots are our heritage/ancestry, and the branches are our posterity.

We know from revelation that how we live eternally is the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are promised that if we accept the gospel, perform our saving ordinances, live righteously, follow the commandments, we will be able to have eternal life and live with our family – our roots and our branches.  But what about those who have passed on without having a chance to hear and accept the gospel?

Elijah the prophet did return and appear to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple on August 3, 1836 to fulfill Malachi’s promise.  Elder Cook explains that he “committed the priesthood keys for sealing families in this dispensation.  Elijah’s mission is facilitated by what is sometimes called the spirit of Elijah, which…is a manifestation of the Holy Ghost bearing witness of the divine nature of the family.”  The priesthood keys that were restored enable us to perform, by proxy, those same saving ordinances for our dead.  We perform these proxy ordinances in temples.  We currently have 142 operating temples on earth, with nearly 30 more under various stages of completion.  It is here that this work can be done. 

Elder Cook quotes President Wilford Woodruff as saying, “There is hardly any principle the Lord has revealed that I have rejoiced more in than in the redemption of our dead; that we will have our fathers, our mothers, our wives and our children with us in the family organization, in the morning of the first resurrection and in the Celestial Kingdom.  These are grand principles. They are worth every sacrifice.”

We read in the 128^th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants: “Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison, for the prisoners shall go free.”

Elder Cook said, “We finally have the doctrine, the temples, and the technology for families to accomplish this glorious work of salvation.”  He goes on to say that “Jesus Christ gave His life as a vicarious atonement. He resolved the ultimate question raised by Job. He overcame death for all mankind, which we could not do for ourselves. We can, however, perform vicarious ordinances and truly become saviors on Mount Zion. For our own families in order that we, with them, might be exalted as well as saved.”