Announcements:
- Self Reliant Course is coming up- The Pinborough's are teaching it. It has some great helps on budgeting amongst other things.
- New Baby- Kara Welling had a baby boy- They are naming him Gage. They now have three girls and one boy.
- Ministering interviews were Tuesday. If you didn't make it please call and touch basis with one of the presidency.
- Please visit your ministering sisters every month as the baseline- if you can. Then add to that as you minister as their friend. Baseline is still every month at least one visit.
- Tammy Ward comment: She just visited Iceland and at a church meeting they were going over what they were doing for their ministering. Each person had 7 or 8 families and they were really going all out. Really serving the people they were over. We have three or four sisters to visit let's make sure we know them and love them.
- Family History discovery day coming up September 22.
- We are putting together Chemo Kits on Tuesday. We will also be sewing the port pillows. Be sure to come. If you are sewing bring a sewing machine with white thread and be there right at 6:00.
- Ward Choir: Christina Smith is our new ward choir director. We need new members. Please give her your name and phone number to add to her choir texting group. She will let you know when practises are. We practise most Sunday's at 10:15.
Lesson: Take the Holy Spirit as Your Guide by Elder Larry Y. Wilson (Jamie Johnson)
First Jamie read the story about Elder Blair in the talk: "During the Korean War, Ensign Frank Blair served on a troop transport ship stationed in Japan.6 The ship wasn’t large enough to have a formal chaplain, so the captain asked Brother Blair to be the ship’s informal chaplain, having observed that the young man was a person of faith and principle, highly respected by the whole crew.
Ensign Blair wrote: “Our ship was caught in a huge typhoon. The waves were about 45 feet [14 m] high. I was on watch … during which time one of our three engines stopped working and a crack in the centerline of the ship was reported. We had two remaining engines, one of which was only functioning at half power. We were in serious trouble.”
Ensign Blair finished his watch and was getting into bed when the captain knocked on his door. He asked, “Would you please pray for this ship?” Of course, Ensign Blair agreed to do so.
At that point, Ensign Blair could have simply prayed, “Heavenly Father, please bless our ship and keep us safe,” and then gone to bed. Instead, he prayed to know if there was something he could do to help ensure the safety of the ship. In response to Brother Blair’s prayer, the Holy Ghostprompted him to go to the bridge, speak with the captain, and learn more. He found that the captain was trying to determine how fast to run the ship’s remaining engines. Ensign Blair returned to his cabin to pray again.
He prayed, “What can I do to help address the problem with the engines?”
In response, the Holy Ghost whispered that he needed to walk around the ship and observe to gather more information. He again returned to the captain and asked for permission to walk around the deck. Then, with a lifeline tied around his waist, he went out into the storm.
Standing on the stern, he observed the giant propellers as they came out of the water when the ship crested a wave. Only one was working fully, and it was spinning very fast. After these observations, Ensign Blair once again prayed. The clear answer he received was that the remaining good engine was under too much strain and needed to be slowed down. So he returned to the captain and made that recommendation. The captain was surprised, telling him that the ship’s engineer had just suggested the opposite—that they increase the speed of the good engine in order to outrun the storm. Nevertheless, the captain chose to follow Ensign Blair’s suggestion and slowed the engine down. By dawn the ship was safely in calm waters.
Only two hours later, the good engine stopped working altogether. With half power in the remaining engine, the ship was able to limp into port.
The captain said to Ensign Blair, “If we had not slowed that engine when we did, we would have lost it in the middle of the storm.”
Without that engine, there would have been no way to steer. The ship would have overturned and been sunk. The captain thanked the young LDS officer and said he believed that following Ensign Blair’s spiritual impressions had saved the ship and its crew."
Question: What impressed you about this story?
- He exercised faith by asking what should I do?
- It was interesting the Captain went to him in the first place and asked a Young Ensign for advice. They must have had a spiritual connection before this happened.
- This is a great formula- a pattern on what to pray about. Ask "What we can do?"
- This was not the first time he prayed for guidance. He knew what to do.
- He also went back to prayer multiple times- he was physically, and visually prompted.
- Good inspiration comes from good information. He was given pieces at a time. Not the whole puzzle at once.
- He was worthy and obedient to be able to hear the Spirit.
- He was calm. He could hear the Spirit. He knew how to listen even when things were in a panic.
Question: How have you learned how to listen to the Spirit in your life"
- Tammy Ward: It is how we got here to Fielding. We saw a home we really wanted it was our dream home. We had started packing to move to this new home. As we were packing my husband and I stopped and looked at each other and asked if we had prayed about this move. Neither of us had. So we committed to each other that we would go and pray about it and tell each other what we thought at the end of the day. After praying Tammy felt like the Lord was scolding her all day long because she was not supposed to move into that house. Her husband felt the same. She didn't dare look at any other houses for about a year when she felt prompted to enter into the realty website exactly what she wanted in a house and this house close by Fielding came up. It was more than they thought they could spend so they kept looking. They went with a realtor to see a different house when the realtor showed them this exact house she had seen on line but discounted. The house had gone down in price and they knew it was the one they wanted and where God wanted them to be so that is why they moved here.
- The hardest part for me is not doubting. Satan likes to tell me it was just my thoughts. 'Doubt not thy Confidence" Is what I think of when I doubt and then I move forward.
- Merlynn Kent: We have to be spiritually self reliant. Music can play a big part. Answers come to me as I'm listening to music. Peace will come to me and I will know I need to call someone. We need to teach ourselves to listen.
- Jamie Johnson: Properly tuning our receivers to hearing God's word. We need to really pay attention to the feelings you feel as you are listening to good music or reading your scriptures.
- Norene Rawlings: When we wanted to move back to Utah Don couldn't get a job. I had a good job but we felt like we needed to move to Utah. Then things started falling in place; Don found a good job in Utah, and my job opened up a good severance package. But I really did not want to leave that job it was a great job. One night I woke up and felt like I needed to write a negative - positive chart right away. As I did this it was evident to me that we needed to move. I got to work that day and the people who had lived in our house before said they wanted to buy it back. But even with everything falling in place I worried about quitting my job. And I would pray about it. Every Time I prayed about it I received that sweet spirit that it was the right thing to do.
- Lana Coombs: We can get answers to tiny things also. When I was in Peru deciding what to put in my hiking pack. I felt the Spirit whisper "put in an ace wrap". So I put in an ace wrap. Up the trail a man came limping into our camp saying he needed an ace wrap. I had one because I had listened to the Spirit.
- Jamie Johnson: God can be there for the little things and the big things. In the Doctrine and Covenants it says that it is not meet that I should command you in all things. In the past I felt like this meant that I shouldn't pray over every little thing. But in Conference Elder Wilson took it a different way. He said the back ground of this scripture was Joseph Smith telling these men that they needed to receive their own revelation and not ask Joseph to receive the revelation they should be getting from God themselves. The Lord is eager to give us revelation. It is so different now; I feel the Lord is guiding me everyday because I am asking. The Lord really want to answer our questions if we will ask.
- Glori Alsop: A man had an operation, he was not a religious man. During the surgery he got a feeling of panic. He wasn't unconscious but he couldn't feel anything. During his panic a calm, peaceful feeling came through him. He felt Jesus talking to him with peace and calm and he felt enveloped in God's love for him. The voice said, "You have done so many things in your life but you have not asked for help. I am here to help you if you will but ask."
- Bonnie Ashby: I was in Guatemala doing humanitarian things. It was time for us to go home but I got really sick. I was in the bathroom all the time. It was a long ride down the mountain on the bus to get home. I asked for a blessing to be able to get on the bus and make it down the mountain with out being sick. I was able to get off the mountain without getting sick. But after I got off the mountain I was sick again. I asked why I was sick again and my son said I got exactly what I had asked for to be well enough to get off the mountain. I probably should have asked for more than that.
- Jamie Johnson: God wants to help us and answer us.
- Jamie Garn: When I ask - Sometimes it is okay either way. I had to learn to accept that sometimes either way will be okay.
- Jamie Johnson: Sometimes there isn't a right or a wrong.
- Terri Garn: Years ago after we had baby number 6 we were wondering if we were done having children or if we needed to have more. After four months of praying and getting no answer a friend told me that I needed to make a decision and then ask God if it was right. We made the decision then asked God- We felt at peace - so we knew 6 kids was enough for us.
- Jamie Johnson: The more we listen the clearer the answers come. I know what Gods promptings feel like. We can ask God. He is so excited to answer us and glad we asked. Some things we pray for just don't happen. Some answers don't come till Heaven. They are in God's time table. God Loves You!
Tammy Jensen: We are going to change a few things with our ministering people we see. We are hoping to get you sisters to edify and uplift. If we need to make changes let us know so we can learn to work as one.
Closing Prayer
