Billings Montana Temple

Worth braving a blizzard...

A hearty storm blew in for the March 1998 groundbreaking of the Billings Montana Temple, taking Church members and visiting dignitaries by surprise.  The 4,800 people in attendance, including guests from 12 states and two Canadian provinces, braved freezing temperatures, fog, and snow to be there for the occasion.  Teeth chattered as a 700-member youth choir sang... 

"Now Let Us Rejoice."  

The spring snowstorm had caught the majority of attendees off guard, and, lacking a sufficient number of shovels, many used inverted music stands to push away the snow and ice.

The weather worsened as each hour passed.  One loyal sister in her 60's had arrived two hours early to ensure she would have a front-row seat.  Swathed in a blanket under an umbrella, she sat on a lawn chair for more than four hours.  When she rose, the perfectly dry ground beneath her chair was ringed by snow five inches deep!!

Later, Church members learned that a large anti-Mormon organization from northern Wyoming had planned to disrupt the groundbreaking ceremonies.  Not one protester was able to reach the temple site because of the hazardous weather and traveling conditions.

Thought for the day...

Activity this Wednesday!!! April 20th--Friendly Feud

You are not going to want to miss this one!!  We are going to play Friendly Feud.  If you don't want to play, you don't have to.  If you do, you can.  We have surveyed each auxiliary in our ward with different questions and we will have the top 5 answers on the board!!!

We will be eating fruit and dip and laughing a lot!!

Please come...

7:00 p.m.

At the Church!

But it's Friendly....

Taking the gospel to all the world!!

We had such a great lesson on Sunday.  Lisa Jones brought a chocolate chip cookie for each one of us and explained that she is a huge chocolate lover!!  She loves it so much that she wanted to share it with us.  Great analogy for the importance of us loving the gospel so much that we can't wait to share it with others!!!

We had a great discussion on how we can spread the gospel to our neighbors, friends, and loved ones.  Strangers too.  

Being good mom's and teaching your children the principles and teachings of the gospel is one way you can be successful in spreading the gospel.  They need to have firm testimonies so they can grow and have families of their own.  That's how the chain stays connected.  No generation gaps.  

I thought this comment from the lesson was amazing:

"I fully believe that in the near future we will see some of the greatest advancements in spreading the gospel to all nations that have ever taken place in this dispensation or any previous dispensation.  I am sure that we will be able to look back in retrospect...and record as Luke did, 'And the word of God increased'"  

Howard W. Hunter, 1979

I'm sure he had no idea what is taking place today with technology.  But the Lord did!!

Another quote:  Based upon ancient and modern revelation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gladly teaches and declares the Christian doctrine that all en and women are brothers and sisters, not only by blood relationship from common mortal progenitors but also as literal spirit children of an Eternal Father...

We are all brothers and sisters!!! 

We must love all people!!

Imagine a father with many sons, each having different temperaments, aptitudes, and spiritual traits.  Does he love one son less than another?  Perhaps the son who is least spiritually inclined has the father's attention, prayers, and pleadings more than the others.  Does that mean he loves the others less?  Do you imagine our Heavenly Father loving one nationality of his offspring more exclusively than others? 

We are in the work of saving souls, of inviting people to come unto Christ!!

President Hunter brings up such a great point...

We can overcome all obstacles to share the gospel!!

As the walls in Eastern Europe and many other parts of the world come tumbling down, the corresponding need for more missionaries to fulfill the divine commission to take the gospel to all the earth will certainly go up!!  Are we ready to meet that contingency?

Perhaps some of us need to take stock to determine whether "wall" that we have built in our own minds need to come down.

How about the "comfort wall" that seems to prevent many couples and singles from going on a mission?  

How about the "financial wall" of debt?

How about the "grandchildren wall", or the "health wall," 

or the "lack of self-confidence wall," or the "self-satisfied wall," or the "transgressions wall."

or the walls of fear, doubt, or complacency?

Does anyone really doubt for a minute that with the help of the Lord he or she could bring those walls crashing down?

There is NO GREATER CALLING in this life!!

Heavenly Father can and will reassures us that we can overcome all obstacles if we will but ask!!!

GREAT LESSON!!!

SHARE THE GOSPEL!!!

Thanks Lisa...

Cleaning the Building...Yea!!

Us as Relief Sisters get the opportunity to clean the building on May 7th.  8:00 a.m. is the time!!  And if lots show up we can be out of there in no time.  Please come support your fellow sisters and know that you are being of great service to the Lord too.  Please come!!!  We need our service hours, ladies!!!  And we can count these!!

Thought for the day...

Hee, hee!!!

The temple that would sail the world...

One proposal for a temple was unprecedented, both geographically and architecturally.  In early 1967, President David O. McKay charged Mark Garff, chairman of the Church's building committee, to find a solution that would accommodate Church members who wished to attend a temple but lived too far away to get to one easily.
After visiting with members throughout the Pacific, Brother Garff made an unusual proposal to President McKay.  He said, I am proposing to you now, that the Church obtain or build a ship sufficient tin size to run the oceans and we equip this ship as a temple ship; that we take the ship into the parts and harbors where our people live.  We could do this around the entire continent of South American, Europe, along the coasts of China, Japan, Australia, and even Africa."  The ship was planned to make a "continuous tour of where there are people needing the blessing of the temple and the holy endowment."
The ship would have been designed to successfully sail the high seas and the large rivers, including the Mississippi and Missouri.  Although President McKay responded favorably to the idea, full support was never achieved and the project was never finalized.

I would have definitely volunteered for this assignment!!