11/02/14 Review

Important Dates

• Nov 9: Visiting Teach Conference
• Nov 15: Stake Single Adults Activity
• Nov 15: Youth Tri-Stake Dance
• Nov 16: Priesthood Review
• Nov 18: Young Women in Excellence
• Nov 21: Laurel/Priest activity
• Nov 27: Thanksgiving

Nov 2014 Lesson Schedule

• Nov 2: Chapter 21: Proclaiming the Gospel to the World 
• Nov 9: Visiting Teaching Conference
• Nov 16: Chapter 22: Prayer--a Commandment and a Blessing
• Nov 23: Chapter 23: Individual Responsibility
• Nov 30: Conference Talk: TBA

11/2/14 – Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, Joseph Fielding Smith

Chapter 21 – Proclaiming the Gospel to the World

Question to ponder:  Have you ever had the opportunity to share the gospel in an unexpected place? 

While serving a two year mission in England, President Joseph Fielding Smith did not “…make one convert, did not have opportunity to perform one baptism….”  Unable to see many results of his labors, he found comfort in knowing that he was doing the Lord’s will and that he was helping prepare people who might receive the gospel later in their lives.  He did however, have the opportunity to share the gospel with nurses and others while he and four other missionaries were confined and quarantined in a hospital because they had been exposed to smallpox.  He reported that they at least made an impression on those at the hospital for good.  Seventy years later, President Smith returned to England and was able to see that the seeds he and others had planted had sprouted and flourished.

Questions to ponder:  How might President Smith’s example influence your service in the Church?  In what ways can our words and actions communicate the plainness and simplicity of the gospel?

President Smith said reminds us of the proclamation of the prophet Nephi that the time would come that the Savior shall “…manifest himself unto all nations….” (1 Ne. 13:41-42)  Of that proclamation, President Smith said, “That promised day is now dawning.  This is the appointed time for the preaching of the gospel in all the world and for the building up of the Lord’s kingdom in every nation.  There are good and upright people in all nations who will respond to the truth; who will come into the church; and who will become lights to guide their own people….”

President Smith also reminds us that we are all missionaries.  “We are all set apart, not by the laying on of hands; we have not had a special calling; we have not been singled out to do missionary labor, but as members of the Church, having pledged ourselves to the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ we become missionaries.  That is part of the responsibility of every member of the Church.”

President Smith states that, “There is no cure for the ills of the world except the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our hope for peace, for temporal and spiritual prosperity, and for an eventual inheritance in the kingdom of God is found only in and through the restored gospel.  There is no work that any of us can engage in that is as important as preaching the gospel and building up of the Church and kingdom of God on earth.”

Question to ponder:  How can we be better member missionaries?