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Had a couple great experiences at church today. 1. A young man about to serve a mission was asked to give testimony in Sacrament meeting.
He stood up and said “I’ve been asked to bear my testimony….it’s been a while [looks backwards toward the Bishop from the pulpit and says, perhaps jokingly, perhaps seriously]
“How does it go again??????”
Then he gave a standard “I know the church is true” testimony with a torrent of generalities such as “it has helped me through some tough things” etcetera. I had the distinct feeling he didn’t have a testimony as he stammered through it and provided no personal fabric to his answer..
Although not necessarily uplifting, I didn’t feel so alone…and reflected on the countless times I said things because the culture demanded it. That young man is probably on his way to authenticity after reflection and experience.
2. A member of the SP spoke and made some comments:
a) Women should go to school and prepare for a career.
b) If they don’t get married, they will then have career.
c) If they do get married, they can contribute to the economic prosperity of the family.
d) Women have equal opportunity in this world.
He appeared to be quoting a church leader.
I did NOT hear “the woman’s place is in the home” or other statements that are
I have been teaching my daughter similar things for over a year now. I was VERY happy to hear him say what I’ve been teaching my daughter, and the path my wife took.
The Gospel Doctrine lesson was also pretty good with a knowledgeable university professor teaching about the Saints leaving Nauvoo. it wasn’t all spirituality and roses — it was about the practical reasons for the saints leaving, the irony and practical benefits of the Mormon Battalion later, etcetera.
I even participated in the lesson times and made only one goosegg statement by accident, but it was not unorthodox.
I more-than-encouraged my daughter to get a degree in which she could get a job for those same reasons. She’s a bit of a feminist anyway, so it wasn’t really a problem, although her first choice initially had been archeology. She is 22, graduated from BYU, and does have a job she likes in her field. Frankly if it wasn’t for my wife being a nurse, we wouldn’t have survived. As for the missionary – he’ll come back with a testimony. When I served, there were lots of Utah boys there, most of which didn’t really have a testimony. Of course, the testimonies they got may be of non-doctrine (I’m still trying to find a word for that stuff that so many TBMs “know” that isn’t really doctrine), but a testimony nonetheless.
SD – I am so happy for you. I love those unexpected days. Where I live it rains 10 months out of the year, but an unexpected sunny day, changes everything for the better. It even gives you a boost to get through the next stretch of grey that will be arriving in 24 hours. I had a fantastic week last week. I don’t even want to effect it’s greatness by saying much about it – only to say – that for me last Sunday was the perfect church day. I’ve never had one that good – and I like many days for various reasons. But suffice it to say it was a day of Pure Religion or Pure Mormonism, and it was perfect.
Again – I am so happy for you.
That’s wonderful to read, SD. Sometimes the simplest things are the most important. We had three talks in Sacrament Meeting today about “commandments” – and all three were excellent. The youth speaker included some of the stuff from our Sunday School lesson last week; the new couple spoke about personal experiences and how important it is to know WHY we do what we do; they focused on prayer bringing us closer to God, on how love is the foundation of all commandments, how it’s important to value other people’s attempts to follow their own commandments, even when those commandments aren’t the same ones we believe. (The husband is in the Army and talked about how much he came to love so many Muslims while he served in Iraq).
I love teaching Sunday School, and our Priesthood lesson was on being united. It was a wonderful discussion that focused on how much more important it is to love and serve people than to think exactly alike. We talked about being a “ward” in the sense of a hospital ward – how very few fights break out in a hospital no matter how different the people are, because everyone is focused on supporting and healing people who are sick – how our wards ought to be the same way, and how we ought to do a better job of reaching out to and serving the people who make us the most uncomfortable. (The last part was from a former Bishop – a really good man.)
My Bishop told me today that multiple people in the ward had talked with him about my job being eliminated this week and offered to help make sure my daughter’s mission funds were covered until I find another job.
Yeah, I had a great day at church, also.
Glad you had such a wonderful day at church, SD. Mine wasn’t bad either, primarily because we fell asleep while watching a morning movie as a family and missed sacrament meeting. The kids said they didn’t want to go to primary today, so I went to RS by myself to fulfill my calling as piano player. The lesson was on the priesthood and focused on what men need to do to keep themselves continuously worthy and ready to use their priesthood and what we, as women, should be doing to make sure the men are continuously worthy and ready to use their priesthood, complete with a video about teenage boys temporarily losing their priesthood power for being unkind or stealing and then gaining it back when they apologized and set things right. I tuned it out and did my reading for my theory class on my tablet.
Then I came home and enjoyed another nice, long nap. Now I’m cooking dinner and looking forward to playing games with my kids afterwards. A good Sunday for me indeed.
🙂 MayB wrote:… complete with a video about teenage boys temporarily losing their priesthood power for being unkind or stealing and then gaining it back when they apologized and set things right.
I don’t want to highjack the thread, but seriously, there’s a video like that?Admin Note:Let’s not derail this thread by talking about the video here. I copied the description of the video and started a new thread about it.
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