On Saturday October 3rd in the Saturday Afternoon session of the 185th Semi-Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints history was made.
Three new apostles (#NewApostles) were called - Donald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevenson, and Dale G. Renlund, the 98th, 99th, and 100th Apostles in the Last Dispensation.
In some respects things went as expected, while at the same time things did not go as expected. What this shows is that the expected is never what you get. Common man is not at the helm of the church. These calls were purely by revelation, not by voting, political pressure, best guess, political correctness, or the like.
In each case these men that have been selected to fill the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have been prepared for some time. Each has a unique though extensive period of Church service. In all cases unique service as full missionaries, members of the 1st quorum of Seventy, and more......
Over time we will find that this prior service will be of a blessing to the worldwide church. Just because they all grew up in Utah does not mean they do not have global experience, or experience.
For example Elder Steveson served a mission in Japan. Latter he served again a as a mission president. Then as a general authority the president of the Asia North area. Has this brother been prepared for some time as of yet unfulfilled activity in Asia?
It is these type of experiences that will ultimately help as they fulfill their callings as members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
As always someone had to ask why these guys were called and not someone from say South America or another area. Why not some that does not fit the 80% norm of Utah Caucasians with a different skin tone. To get that answer you'll need to ask the source.... Yes, even if you agree with the recent changes you should get your own personal confirmation that this was indeed a call from the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
For if we believe this to be the true and living church we must accept the fact there is continuing revelation and that the person that can receive that revelation is Thomas S. Monson.
To see more information on why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true and living church please see my blog post on the subject.
Within the last 6 months 3 members of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints passed away. All basically passed away from complications of old Age.
So that leaves 3 vacancies in the Council of the Twelve.
The last time this type of situation occurred was in 1906. Two members resigned and one had died.
Generally, with one vacancy you have it filled at the next conference. Three, who knows.
Here are some comments on the process and protocol of choosing a new apostle.
"Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
says the selection and calling of new Apostles is the prerogative of the
president of the Church.
“[President Monson’s] practice has been to ask each of his counselors
and the members of the Quorum of the Twelve to give him names they
would recommend for his consideration, not to discuss with each other
but just individually, to give him whatever name or names they feel
impressed he ought to look at," he says.
“What process he goes through exactly, I'm not sure. That’s, again,
something private he pursues. He then brings back, when he’s reached his
decision and had the inspiration he needs, the name or names to the
council that we have of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles to sustain it. That goes forward to general conference”
(in Tadd Walsh, "Elder Christofferson Talks about How President Monson Calls a New Apostle, Reflects on Elder Scott,” Deseret News, Sept. 24, 2015)." Calling an Apostle of God
"President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles, teaches: “All leaders in the Lord’s Church are called by
proper authority. No prophet or any other leader in this Church, for
that matter, has ever called himself or herself. No prophet has ever
been elected. The Lord made that clear when He said, ‘Ye have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you’ (John 15:16). You and I do not ‘vote’ on Church leaders at any level. We do, though, have the privilege of sustaining them” (“Sustaining the Prophets,” Oct. 2014 general conference)." Calling an Apostle of God
In as much as the prophet selects the new Apostles(s) after careful consideration and pray he may delay the call or other circumstance may come into play.
“There have been conferences where a vacancy has not been filled,” he
explained. “President Heber J. Grant had announced to the Twelve that
‘so and so’ would be called, but it didn’t happen. Members of the Twelve
asked him when the conference was over why he didn’t fill the vacancy.
He replied that the man he said would be called wasn’t ready yet.” President Nelson Reflects on Being an Apostle of the Lord
"President Nelson’s call to the Twelve filled a vacancy that had lasted
for more than a year. Elder LeGrand Richards died on January 11, 1983.
No new Apostle was sustained during the April or the October general
conferences of that year. Russell M. Nelson, a world-renowned heart
surgeon, was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve on April
7, 1984. During the same session, Dallin H. Oaks, a lawyer and a justice
of the Utah Supreme Court, was called to fill the vacancy created by
the death of Elder Mark E. Petersen on January 11, 1984." President Nelson Reflects on Being an Apostle of the Lord
So what can we guarantee will happen during conference starting Saturday October 3rd?
That the Prophet of God and head of the Living church on earth has been in communication with Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as to whom they want to fill the vacancies in the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. We also know that if one or more Apostles are called it will be the right person for the assignment at the right time. We should not attempt to second guess or speculate as to who it will be. Many times it is not as we expected but, exactly who we needed.
Take for instance Elder Neil L. Andersen. He served as a mission president in France, and later as a general authority in Brazil, Europe, and Central America. So he has the international flavor, language skills and experience necessary to help the church as it grows in places like Latin America.
So many might have though a non-US person would be called like Elder Dieter F Uchtdoft was in the past. It really was not necessary since a person had been prepared for many years that would work perfectly with the ever growing international part of the church.
There are many great candidates. Many would do fine. Each with special unique skills and attributes. Does it have to be a Non-US person? Not necessarily.... though as mentioned before there are curtain advantages to each person.
I do know the person or persons called will be just the right person at just the right time.....
As of this posting likely that have already had a chance to receive their call from a member of the First Presidency.
I only use that title due to the fact that it is so well known and what was used in the recent Bloomberg BusinessWeek article that has caused such a stir. You can read the article in full at the following link - How the Mormons Make Money.
I guess one of the reason there is such a stir is the fact that they continually try and highlight the for-profit businesses that are owned by the Mormon Church (Official name - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
As is pointed out in the article and other commentary about the article is that it is very, very hard to talk about and quantify the finances of a religious organization. In the United States and many other countries around the world a religious organization is tax exempt and the contributions make to said organization are also usable as tax deductions depending on how you figure out your taxes. Now there are the typical Religious organization we all know like the Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics, etc. Then you get into the slew of smaller lesser know church and group that in some cases end up in court because they are not deemed to be religious or one reason or another. The majority if not almost all of these entities live off of donations. These can be physical donations of clothing and the like to group like Salvation Army, and monetary donations in the form of Tithing to the more traditional. In some cases you may have a combination of the two which can be fairly standard for those in the LDS Church.
One would assume that most religious groups are not in the business of making money and thus should be given the above mentioned tax break. However, there are some that do appear to be in it for the money or do have some for-profit enterprises and that brings up a whole new animal. Should the for-profit business be taxed and the other parts be exempt? I'd imagine that many would think so until they find out that their church has a for-profit business.
Most churches are a money consuming affair when you look at the face of it. They have a meeting house and need to pay the electrical and water etc to keep things running. They will also eventually replace the roof or other parts of the building. Then you have things like office supplies and church material (Scriptures, manuals, hymnals, publications, etc) that have to be covered as well. You may also have a paid clergy. All this takes money. The property and building don't just magically appear. Nor do the books, and other items that are put into use. This is where tithing comes into play. The members of a religion or church will offer up monies for the sustaining of the church. In a smaller group everything is handled locally. In larger organizations like the LDS Church or Roman Catholics there is a very prominent central church headquarters.
So for the smaller groups you can easily see where the tithing might be utilized - salary, utilities, building maintenance, etc. It is not so easy to see this when dealing with larger religions. Since you also find that many of them run addiction recover and other social outreach programs, seminaries or various schools, as well as having meeting houses spread all over the place and the associated infrastructure to handle these things. It can get quite large depending on the scope and size the church.
Let me mention just a few of the ways that the LDS Church receives funds from local members. Tithing by faithful members, Fast Offerings, and other monetary donations to specific purposes like Temple, Missionary, and/or Perpetual Education Fund.
Now what do I know these funds are being used for?
Tithing the backbone of funds is used mainly for buildings (maintenance, construction, etc) and the running of the unit (i.e manuals, sacrament materials, auxiliary reimbursements, etc.).
Fast offerings are used to handle welfare cases. These funds may be directly allocated to help pay the rent, or utilities for someone that has lost a job. It can also be used as part of the Bishop's Store House which provides food stuff and other basics again to people in need.
If you donate to the missionary fund you be either helping to pay the way for a missionary in the field, printing of Book of Mormons or other literature the church gives away. It might also help to maintain the Missionary training centers around the world as well.
Things like the Perpetual Education fund are special in that they to have a very specific purpose. In this case it is to help make small loans for those in underprivileged areas so they can go to school. Under normal circumstances they would not normally qualify to get a loan for school, or none are available like the system that exists in the US.
Same with Humanitarian donations. These are bundled together and help send aid to those areas that have been hit by natural disaster or other unrest. Per the article the amount of monetary funds just for this area since the mid 1980's is well over 1 billion. That fails to include to amount of human service hours that are provided in many of these areas by local members in places like Joplin Missouri. Great article on this In the Aftermath of the Tornado
Now I know that the LDS Church handles finances a little differently then many others. We do not pass around a plate or collection basket during services. We also don't have a donation box located near the front doors. Our donations are placed in an envelop and include a slip that designated what we are donating to and how much. We retain a carbon copy of the receipt for our records. These envelops can only be handed to 3 individuals in a unit; The Bishop or one of his two counselors. Not even a Stake President can take these monies. The monies are entered into the system (Recorded) by a specially called finance clerk together with a member of the Bishopric. Again, controls are in place with regards to the finances. Both these individuals will take the money down for deposit at the bank. Warning messages are provided when no deposit(s) have been made for over a week. Go to many and you'll get a special visit from Church headquarters.
On a quarterly basis a person comes to audit the finances. This checks to make sure outstanding checks have been resolved and that expenditures and donations have been recorded properly.
Quickest way to get thrown out of the church is to miss appropriate funds.
At the end of the year each family will meet with the Bishop in what is called Tithing Settlement. Here you have the the chance to declare if you are a full tithe payer and also to review the records of what you donated. At that time you can bring up any errors. Once again a checks and balances system. For those of the church you might wonder how someone would know if you really did give 10% of your income. They don't. They take your word for it as you never supply pay stubs or financial reports.
The church works off the principle of the widows mite. It's a huge sacrifice to donate and thus the money must be used wisely.
Also I've heard that if they are going to build a new meeting house they will have all the money lined up upfront before construction. Can confirm or deny this but, it makes sense. This can help keep cost over runs and other issues to a minimum. They also use standardized designs that require only slight modifications to better bit a site. In the past the local unit was required to raise a portion of the funds to build the new meeting house. That was the case of the one where I currently meet. Also back then each family had to pay a portion of the unit's budget. Back in the mid 90's they moved to a standardized budgeting system. No longer would there be an assessment to each family. It is mentioned either in the article or other commentary from desert news (church owned) that they are dedicating a new meeting house some where in the world weekly.
Let's just use a simple example and show how much of the monies received in tithing might be expended on a building.
Let us say we have a typical ward meeting house that will house 2 units. Let us also say for argument sake that the building will run 3 million dollars to build. The property is say going to be 1.5 million since it is expensive here in California. So a rough estimate will be in the neighborhood of 5 million dollars to build and outfit a new meeting house. Think of how much tithing you have to collect just to be able to build that building.
If a typical unit has 400-500 members or about 150 families and a portion of those will be inactive. You say drawing on tithing from about 100 people. If on average these individuals are giving $4,000 annually you come up with in the neighborhood of $800,000 in annual tithing. If that unit or units were in need of that building and you wanted to wait till they had all the money in place you be looking at a good 6-7 years time. Thus the up front costs of building is far greater then the monies being received in a given area. However, with the funds being pooled on a worldwide basis you can then construct new buildings and relive the burden from the local members.
I served in Brazil on my mission and in many areas they had buildings and very few members since was very new there. They would have had to wait years if not decades to get a building if it had to come solely from local funds. They had buildings albeit smaller with new ones or expansions being built as circumstances changed. Also the overall income is far different for members living in Mozambique or Fiji compared to Los Angeles, or a well developed country in Europe. Yes, the cost of living in those areas are also going to be different. You'll spend less on utilities, and other things but, overall things end up being similar.
And that does not include all the buildings being used for religious instruction, or the Temples, and welfare related offices.
So you see there are load of expenses that the church has. There is a large amount of outlay just to keep things functioning.
Let alone the need to building new meeting houses and the continued construction of Temples world wide. Check out the churches list of statistics.
But, outside the use of tithing the bone of contention seems to be with the for-profit businesses the church runs. This was highlighted with the recent completion of the City Creek Shopping Complex in March of 2012. The estimated price tag for this redevelopment was 2 billion. That would be a ton of tithing money to spend if that is what they had done. They say all the money for the project came from non-tithing funds. And the article points out why they even decided to do a project like this. They mention urban blight as the main purpose. The number of jobs created were/are 1,700 for construction and 2,000 permanent per city creek's web site.
Take a week economy and the area around the famed Salt Lake Temple Square going to pot and you see why they would do a project like this. It might make some money but, mainly it was kind of a grand welfare project. They pumped 2 billion into the Utah economy. Sure beats having to fill food orders down the road. Win win in my opinion.
And think why would the church not want to run it own insurance company? There could be many advantages. Any profit would be rolled back into the operation and they could even offer it to other entities.
You have to see the reasoning behind some of the ventures. You have to see the logic, the need, and then you can see why they are in some businesses and not others.
Take the Polynesia Culture Center in Hawaii also mentioned in the article. It is run in conjunction with BYU Hawaii and the students that attend there. Many of the people employed at the center are student from the various areas of Polynesia. They work there to help pay for their schooling. Yes they charge for admission but, if there is any kind of profit it just allows them to improve things at the center or employ more people in the over all operation. Thus more members and in some cases non-members can gain employment and allow them to attend school and become able to be productive in their home cultures/countries when they return home. Another win win over all.
So in the end I'll stay pay my tithing as I need the spiritual blessing and other things that come from being obedient. Also I will not sweat the little things and what is exactly being done in the for-profit businesses of the Church. They provide way more things then one can imagine.
Because they are being wise stewards of the monies received we do the major portion of cleaning a building. However, we learn more respect for said building when we have to clean up that spill we just made.
I'd like to revisit my previous posts on baptismal programs.
Baptismal Program - revisited Baptismal Program
One of the reasons I want to do this is an article my wife found. This article talks about using videos while the people who were involved in the baptism are changing out of their wet clothes.
This article talks in some detail about selection of the videos and some ideas on getting programs to help you compile them.
The reality is that there are some really good ones out there to use. Many by Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf and others by President Monson.
;
Create - Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf
Have I Done Any Good - President Thomas S Monson
The Mormon Messages put out by the church are recommended but, each is generally only a bit more then 1 minute and at the maximum about 3 minutes. You'd have to have a fair number of these to make up the 10-20 minutes needed in most cases. so a mix of slightly longer videos and Mormon message commercial style clips works best. You do have to be careful to not use to many non-official church clips. They can become awkward if you have not viewed them fully and in many cases they can be just a handful of pictures and the like with music. Basically, a power point presentation moved into the video realm.
As I have specified in the previous posts the program is generally fairly simple. There are not a whole lot things to resolve that are variable like. You'll will always have an opening prayer and song. There will also be a closing prayer and song. The middle flexes a bit depending on whether you decide to have a separate person speak on the Holy Ghost and Baptism. I've seen it done both ways and either works. It's all a matter of preference and deciding what will work for the types of people present. If you have a lot of people unfamiliar with the process and that are not members you will definitely want to have them split up. If it is a bunch of relatives that are all members you will likely combine since it becomes a little like a review for the baptisee and others present.
The big thing that can break the spirit of the meeting is what happens will the people are changing their clothes.
Many things have been utilized to a varying degree of success. Again it depends on those attending and what you might want to achieve. For a convert baptism the missionaries generally will take a few minutes to invite those attending who are not members to find out more and bear their testimonies. Unfortunately, even for a great missionary it can be hard to accordion his comments to match that of the time needed.
Other times people will simply sing some hymn or primary songs. This works great to bring or maintain the spirit. Bearing of testimonies is also a good one but, lets be realistic. How many times have you sat in fast and testimony meeting and witnessed the long dead spaces of time when no one goes up to the pulpit?
So we decided on using some church videos but, felt at a loss original as to which to use. Then after determining the longer ones would not work we considered the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. This also proved problematic since they have mostly Christmas related material available. And then it hit us. Use the videos from Mormon messages and the like found on the Internet.
I'm going to include a few here for your viewing pleasure. You'll find they are all very excellent and depending on the audience can be used to great advantage.
You Matter to God - Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf
Lessons Learned as Boy - President Gordon B Hinckley
Happily Ever After - Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf
So if you know someone that will be putting on a baptismal program in the near future, or even a 'Great to Be 8' presentation why not let them in on this new trend. Videos during the interlude might just be what they have been looking for to fill the time appropriately.
Please leave your comments on what you have done and which videos you are using.
Buaidh - NO - Bas
If you feel impressed to find out more after viewing some of these video clips you can request a missionary, Copy of the Book of Mormon or even a church video by clicking here
This last Sunday in our Elders Quorum we were afforded the opportunity to go over the Ordinances and blessings we perform as priesthood holders. One thing that came up is the distinction between power and authority. Many of us there were present are authorized to perform the ordinances but we may not have the power vested in us. This is due to circumstances occurring in our lives etc.
So this brings up several interesting points. First we must acquire the authority (i.e. receive the Priesthood) then learn our duty and at the same time do all in our ability to be vested with the power of the Priesthood as we go about doing our duty through our righteous living.
Many may not bring into this discussion much the area of Duty. Some times it seems they are talked about separately. Duty and power of the Priesthood.
The duties of the Priesthood vary as do the offices which are held within the Priesthood. A Deacon will have very different duties to that of a Bishop. Can one say that the duties of the Bishop are greater then those of Lowly Teacher? Yes, they can but, it is no more important to fulfill your duty as a Teacher then it is those of a Bishop. The Bishop has no more opportunity to obtain the highest levels in the Celestial Kingdom then does the Deacon if they fulfill their duties to the fullest. A very interesting concept, right.
We discussed a situation were a missionary had hurt himself badly in a sporting accident. He was pending surgery and the possibility that he may have to return home early. At the time Elder Holland of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles was in the area and the missionary felt impressed to ask him for a blessing. His chance slipped away due to circumstance beyond his control. Eventual, his mission president asked if he'd like a blessing as he was looking a bit depressed. They all came to the realization that the power and authority of the Priesthood vested in that mission president was the same at the member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. Great results came from that blessing and a grand lesson was learned. You will not be further blessed simply because a general authority gives you the blessing. We might think so since they seem to have more faith and possess what seems like more power via their righteous living. The Young worthy 12 year old Deacon has just as much right, Power and authority to call down angels to assist him as a Seventy in an area presidency does. As long as it is the will of the Lord it can be done. If it will help accomplish his aims he will let it happen.
At times we may feel overwhelmed. We may feel inadequate etc. That is natural since we to often are not properly instructed. Too often those of us that have the Priesthood do not understand our duty or let alone the power the Lord has vested in us. Remember this is not something we go seeking after. Not something we proposition the congregation for. Thus because all of us as leaders and followers are mere mortals we have our faults and short comings. We strive to progress and become better. We begin to see the grand picture and not just that which is in front of us or comprehensible by our small minds. The Lord can see the begin and the end. His wisdom and knowledge is thus far greater then our own.
"At times the wisdom of God appears as being foolish or just too
difficult, but one of the greatest and most valuable lessons we can
learn in mortality is that when God speaks and a man obeys, that man
will always be right." Willing and Worthy to Serve Thomas S. Monson
Hopefully we are instructed just as well as Elder Uchtdorf was as a young Deacon.
"Instead, he spent time with me and helped me understand not only the what of my assignment and new responsibility but, much more important, the why."
No wonder he did not take his duty and assignment lightly. He had been instructed in what his duty really was. What power and authority he really had received. He as given the WHY.
When you have the WHY you will want to do your best, and not some half masted job. My grandfather always did his home teaching on the first Sunday of the month. He had the vision, and it helped he was living in a small town of a couple hundred. But, irregardless of circumstances he was blessed just as much as the brother living in a metropolitan city of millions doing his duty to the fullest. Same blessings and responsibilities, different circumstances.
This is well summed up by George Albert Smith.
“I have not wanted this position. I have not felt equal to it. But it
has come to me, and I will fill it to the best of my ability. I want you
all to know that, whatever you are doing in the church, from [home]
teaching to presiding over a stake, if you do it to the best of your
ability, your position is just as important as mine.” The Life and Ministry of George Albert Smith
But, we are not alone in figuring out what our duty is and how to be vested with true Priesthood power. The scriptures are full of examples and information. Section 107 of the doctrine and Covenants is full of information on our duties and responsibilities.
Conference talks are also a great place to learn more of our duties and become more endowed with the power god has given us.
As we become more aware of our duties and have that increased desire to help our fellow man we will begin to full espouse the true power of the Priesthood. For in true reality the Priesthood is given to help others. For we do not place our own hands upon our head and pronounce a blessing. We must ask for another to do that.
The Lord has a vision for each and everyone of us. He wants us to succeed, though he know it will not be easy. And thus he provided his authority so that we on earth may be blessed. And what a blessing it is to have the Priesthood. Hard as it may seem to understand it fully.
The following are several good ways to live our lives. They come from George Albert Smith and if society would lives by these 11 statements it sure would be a better place.
"When
he was 34 years old, George Albert Smith made a list of resolutions
that he called his “personal creed”—11 ideals that he committed to live
by:
“I would be a friend to the friendless and find joy in ministering to the needs of the poor.
“I would visit the sick and afflicted and inspire in them a desire for faith to be healed.
“I would teach the truth to the understanding and blessing of all mankind.
“I would seek out the erring one and try to win him back to a righteous and a happy life.
“I would not seek to force people to live up to my ideals but rather love them into doing the thing that is right.
“I would live with the masses and help to solve their problems that their earth life may be happy.
“I would avoid the publicity of high positions and discourage the flattery of thoughtless friends.
“I
would not knowingly wound the feelings of any, not even one who may
have wronged me, but would seek to do him good and make him my friend.
“I
would overcome the tendency to selfishness and jealousy and rejoice in
the successes of all the children of my Heavenly Father.
“I would not be an enemy to any living soul.
“Knowing
that the Redeemer of mankind has offered to the world the only plan
that will fully develop us and make us really happy here and hereafter, I
feel it not only a duty but also a blessed privilege to disseminate
this truth" Chapter 1: Living What We Believe
Are you curious to find out more the Priesthood? Do you have questions on who can be ordained? Then you might just need to talk with the missionaries. They'll come and visit you no strings attached.
Well we began to do some more research on what types of videos we want to use for the Baptismal program.
Original we had thought to use something from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir but, knew there would be limitations as we wanted to avoid any of their Christmas presentations.
See the original post on the topic.
So as we research more we found the number of options for the Mormon Tabernacle choir to be a bit limited. You have a historic Nauvoo presentation and some type of oratorio piece and a DVD chronicling their summer tour in the mid west. So the options were limited to say the least. As we checked out some of the video clips from YouTube.com we began to see that most if not all of these would not work very well. The idea was good but, it would not work very well. Who really wants to see the choir singing. Not enough scenes of other stuff. So we had to go back to the drawing board.
That is when my wife remembered something by Elder Uchtdorf that is entitled "Happily Ever After". In this talk he presented at a young women's conference recently he talks about having our own happily ever after.
Turns out there are two version of the talk. One is a shorter clip with only part of his talk and a lot of extra images etc, and the other is basically his whole discourse with a minor amount of additional footage.
Shorter Version
Longer Version
The Longer version is wonderful and would fill the time as we need it but, it can be a bit dry for some of the non-members and less actives we will have present. The shorter version is excellent but, being shorter would require that we Include some other clips as we project to have a good 15 minutes of time we need to fill. We'll have multiple people changing cloths and since my daughter wears a brace she will take longer to get ready. Extra consideration has to be made so a longer video is needed or several shorter ones with someone willing to start each up.
Some other ones we found while hunting around are - create (a cutie clip to inspire women), True identity (utilizing the Hans Christian Andersen story of the ugly duckling), and You Matter to God ( including clips about the universe and how we are know personally to God the Father).
I think with all these various clips will provide us with enough material to fill in the time needed. Also the messages are all very uplifting and will maintain the spirit that should be present at a baptismal program.
I'm including the other video clips for your viewing pleasure.
Now I just have to make sure we can get the clips into a format that will work on a standard DVD machine. There is a great program called YouTube video down loader. You can acquire it for free off of Download.com
I also found a tutorial that indicates a program called DVD Flick (also available at download.com) can be used to package up various video clips and make them usable in a DVD player. I acquired the free program and soon will be sure if it will work. If it does not work I'll have to go back to the drawing board or have a laptop present to show the movies.
Create
True Identity
You Matter to God
We thoroughly enjoy the talks by Elder Uchtdorf. His messages are so timely and they can work in many situations with member and non-member alike. I even saw a comment that someone used a clip with Elder Uchtdorf during Sunday school at an Evangelical church. That shows how powerful they are.
This Saturday March 31th and Sunday the 1st of April is the semi-annual general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
This annual meeting consists of various sessions with 3 on Saturday (one being the priesthood session broadcast only via satellite to local meeting houses) and two more on Sunday. The general authorities and other leaders of the church are chosen to speak. You get to hear from each of the apostles and many member of one of the quorums of seventies, along with an occasional member of the presidency of the Primary, Young Women's or Relief Society. The First presidency generally each speak more then once.
This is a great time to get an idea of what the leaders are concerned about for the whole church. In as much as no one is given a topic to speak on you will find a general theme that develops. It moves from year to year but, it is interesting to see what things the leaders are wanting to focus on. And the music is an added plus - Who can beat the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing some of the most beautiful religious hymns available.
Another thing that is quite amazing is the number of languages that conference is translated into. There are a good 80+ languages including all the major ones like Portuguese, German, Russian, Italian, French, Spanish, and the like. And some rather obscure ones as well. There are members there so they translate to those languages. Every month the church's magazine is published in these same languages. It's just amazing. Really amazing.
Sometimes you will get some type of announcement from the Prophet regarding a new Temple or other special item such as when they announced the conference center back in the day.
October 2009 was a wonderful time for my family as that was when they announced the Fortaleza, Brazil temple. They have now broken ground and begun construction of this most recent House of the Lord in Brazil. (See the whole announcement here)
Or you might just get a most powerful of testimonies and witnesses from one of the apostles. Just before he died Elder Bruce R McConkie gave this most stir of statements at the end of his April 1985 conference.
"I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.
But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way."
We were visiting in another unit in the north San Diego area and they had decided to read the Book of Mormon in 100 days. They even printed up booklets that include the chapters to read every day, a verse or two to mark and a quote(s) from a general authority on the part you read. There is even a thought question so you don't just feel like your are reading blindly to fill the requirement. There are make up days mixed throughout the booklet. A very doable plan even young children can tackle.
This program looks very doable. And at 100 days we can get it done in time for general conference in April.
So we have decided to tackle the challenge. It should make things more spiritual at home and will get our daughter more inspired as her birthday and baptismal date come closer. And it will give us something to do instead of watching mindless TV so many nights of the week.
So if you need a new year's resolution that will really change your world - Take the 100 days Book of Mormon challenge. You'll be glad you did.
