Sabbath Day and Service

Ever had a fork in the road?

Today was a neat day for me. We woke up to 2-3 inches of fresh snow and the sun glimmering through the window which was beautiful...but it did take a few minutes longer to roll out of bed. I tweaked my lower back playing church basketball yesterday and have been in stiff pain for the past 24 hours. After many phone calls yesterday in search of a chiropractor who works on Saturdays I found someone who could meet and adjust me last evening around 5:30. I was thankful for the relief the treatment gave me and the stretches/exercises he gave me to get healed back to normal quicker.

OK, so today was a neat day because I had the opportunity to go to the Legacy Retirement Home here in Logan and bless and pass the sacrament and speak to a roomful of elderly people whose highlight each week is church and Utah Jazz basketball games on television.

As I prepared my thoughts to share with them, I spoke about my testimony of The Book of Mormon and the gifts that Heavenly Father has given us to endure through the challenges that arise in this mortal life by relying on the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

I shared bits and pieces of a talk given by Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the October 2010 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints titled, Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life

I also outlined the five main gifts that we are privileged to as followers of Jesus Christ and a few of my favorite scriptures. The five gifts I outlined were as follows and are essential to aid us in progressing to return and live with our Father in Heaven:

1. Gift of Agency - 27 Wherefore, men are ^afree according to the ^bflesh; and ^call things are ^dgiven them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to ^echoose ^fliberty and eternal ^glife, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be ^hmiserable like unto himself.

2. Gift of mortal body - 9 In the ^aimage of his own ^bbody, male and female, ^ccreated he them, and blessed them, and called their ^dname Adam, in the day when they were created and became living ^esouls in the land upon the ^ffootstool of God.

3. Gift of baptism/Holy Ghost -4 We believe that the first principles and ^aordinances of the Gospel are: first, ^bFaith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, ^cRepentance; third, ^dBaptism by ^eimmersion for the ^fremission of sins; fourth, Laying on of ^ghands for the ^hgift of the Holy Ghost.

4. Gift of Temple ordinances - Whenever the Lord has had a people on the earth who will obey his word, they have been commanded to build temples in which the ordinances of the gospel and other spiritual manifestations that pertain to exaltation and eternal life may be administered. In cases of extreme poverty or emergency, these ordinances may sometimes be done on a mountaintop (see D&C 124:37–55). This may be the case with Mount Sinai and the Mount of Transfiguration. The tabernacle erected by Moses was a type of portable temple, since the Israelites were traveling in the wilderness.

5. Gift of Eternal Life - 25 And this is the ^apromise that he hath promised us, even ^beternal life.

I also shared a few of my favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon and how we should build our lives upon the foundation of Christ and endure to the end. This life literally is a time to prepare to meet God.

Helaman 5:12 - Build your life upon the Rock of Salvation
2 Nephi 31:20 - Press forward and endure to the end
Alma 34:32-34 - This life is a time for man to prepare to meet God

Church was great today and I loved mingling with the older folks...and, my lower back pain caused me to be more sympathetic for those in my presence as many suggested they were in pain.

This evening I had two sick members in my ward call and ask if I could come by and administer a priesthood blessing. I agreed and it has ended my day with my heart full of much gratitude. The service has made me happy and I feel very blessed for the opportunities to learn and grow today.

~C. Poulsen

Agency

Today in church, I led our gospel principles class as the Holy Ghost taught and testified of the following truths from the holy scriptures:

• Moses 7:32

  The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;

• 2 Nephi 2:27

  Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who gives us agency to choose right from wrong and learn for ourselves. We are here upon the earth to be tested. As we are tested, we are faced with much opposition in all things. In the book of Nephi we learn that opposition is necessary to the plan of salvation.

• 2 Nephi 2:11

  For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

Each of us on earth have this gift of agency. We are the only ones who can halt our progression by allowing bad influences/choices to creep into our lives. We have been given the gift of agency to exercise faith unto repentance and to seek the Savior, Jesus Christ's path and teachings.

May you have a great week and choose the right when the choice is placed before you!

C. Poulsen ~