Trying to Abide (Part 6)

The initial feeling I had when I started this focused side-trip that the Prophet asked us to do...check out Sections 25, 84 and 107 & gain insight and some personal revelation on how it applies to us...was one of gratitude.  I started with a huge sense of gratitude.  Gratitude for a living Prophet and gratitude for my conviction, my testimony, that he is the Prophet at this very moment in time.

I am always a blessing seeker!  and this quest was a search to figure things out.

I began with gratitude and I end with gratitude!

I am so thankful, so grateful, for opportunities to serve in callings.  I have memories of callings that were just so amazing to experience and so soul-satisfying that even remembering them brings back those feelings of that very moment!

Those experiences were in another time...another place...another Era.  My Church callings were varied and it was essential that I had faith and received personal revelation in order to carry them out.  All those years and all those experiences strengthened me.  My faith grew and my ability to access God through prayer grew.

That era of my life was before today's technology of...smart phones & Pinterest & blogs & asking does anyone have a good idea on how to teach a lesson on such and such?  and on and on. and on!  There was a reliance on the Holy Ghost.  Especially for me because I had no special training in areas that I received callings in.  My most personal spiritual experiences came to me through those varied and many callings.  I LOVED them!

If I had lived anywhere but Alaska in those years???...Stateside? - I believe I would have never had those opportunities.  There are so many talented and skilled and trained and educated people available...I would have not made the cut.  That's how I feel and I'm just so thankful for so many fantastic experiences.  I was called by revelation and then managed through personal revelation to fulfill the callings.

There were callings that I was so overwhelmed but they always ended up just fine.  There were a couple that were so out of my league that I did not see any way that I could possibly do them and yet I did and again, they turned out fine.

At this time of my life...it's a time for reminiscing...for remembering...for being nostalgic...for reliving great memories.  The reality is- I've lived here for many years and I do have some great shared memories locally but the majority of my shared memories happened in another time and another place and that part of me is not known or shared here.

I've found that the memories I have, those joyous ones, are equally felt by those I served with, no matter the location!  We can laugh together or be especially tender about an event.  Much like family reunions...talking about remember the time that so and so did such and such?  

I've enjoyed this several weeks of reading and thinking and praying and pondering as President Nelson requested.  I have a better understanding and a greater faith in promised blessings to me, as a woman, of blessings of the power of the Priesthood.

Yesterday I listened to a talk by Susan Easton Black with her husband George Durrant.  they have such strong testimonies.  She said that they hear from people saying...I'm leaving the Church because I have questions.  She shared...We are staying because we found answers!

That is how I feel.  I have found answers.

 I'm doing the best I can, and it's not perfect, but I'm trying and I know you are too.

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Take time and read these marvelous quotes/statements/scriptures-they are a great summation of  
84:20-28 and 107:18-19, 91-92   be sure to look up all of the footnotes.

“The higher Priesthood after the order of the Son of God, we are told, in a modern revelation [D&C 107:18–19], … holds not only the power of the ministration of holy angels to be seen personally, but also the power of beholding the face of God the Father, that through the power and manifestations of the spirit of God and of his angels we may be prepared to enter into the presence of God the Father in the world to come, and enjoy continual communion with him, and be crowned with the glory of the celestial kingdom, to stand in our place and calling to all eternity, in connection with all those who hold the Priesthood in the eternal worlds.” (Orson Pratt, in Journal of Discourses, 18:363; see also D&C 76:50–70; 84:19–22; Hebrews 12:22–24.)

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D&C 107:91–92. The Saints Must Follow the President of the Church, Who Holds All the Gifts of God for His People

Notes and Commentary for Doctrine and Covenants 21:4–7 and Enrichment F discuss the importance of the living prophet.

Elder Ezra Taft Benson said: “If we are living the gospel, we will feel in our hearts that the First Presidency of the Church not only have the right, but are also duty bound under heaven to give counsel on any subject which affects the temporal or spiritual welfare of the Latter-day Saints” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1950, p. 148).

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(below is from an institute manual)

This inspired counsel comes to members of the Church in at least two ways. First, every six months a general conference is held during which inspired counsel is given by the Lord’s servants. The Lord warns those who do not heed this instruction that they “shall be cut off from among the people” (D&C 1:14). Second, the Saints should read what the prophets have written (see D&C 52:9, 36), including not only the scriptures but such things as conference talks, the message of the First Presidency in the Ensign, and special bulletins that are mailed to priesthood leaders to be read to the Saints in the stakes of the Church.

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I really need to go back and have this post be Part 1  Section 25.... here