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Family Activities for the Sabbath
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"Care Packages" |
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 As a family, create care packages for the missionaries and military servicemen in your family and ward. Write letters thanking them for their dutiful service and encourage them to continue to serve. Inform them of current events and news in the family/ward, including people who got married, had another child, or moved away. Send treats with the letters and wrap everything in brightly-colored packages. You can continue this activity as you receive replies from them throughout their service.
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Gospel Doctrine
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New Testament
Lesson 3 |
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"Unto You Is Born... A Saviour"
Some years ago, Sister Kimball and I were in the Holy Land with Elder and Sister Howard W. Hunter, and on Christmas Eve we were mingling with thousands of religionists and curious from around the world. We bent over to get through the small aperture into the Church of the Nativity and inched our way in turn to the crypt where some churches claim are the sacred spots of the manger and the birth of the Savior.
As we stood looking at the metal star in the concrete floor, it seemed to fade and we seemed to see a crude manger in a cave and sitting by it a lovely lady with a beautiful face and sweet spirit watching a little infant wrapped like other Hebrew babes in swaddling clothes. He had likely already been washed and rubbed with salt and laid on a square cloth, his little head on one corner and his tiny feet on the corner diagonally opposite. The cloth had been folded over his sides and up over his feet and the swaddling bands tied around the precious little bundle. His hands would be fastened to his sides, but he would be loosened occasionally and rubbed with olive oil and possibly dusted with powdered myrtle leaves. If still in swaddling bands, he could be handled easily on the trip to Egypt, and he could even be strapped to his mother's back.
How grateful we are that the baby Jesus was born, but do we place more emphasis on his birth than upon other phases of his experiences? Is birth the major event in any of our lives? We might ask to what are we born? For what purpose is our birth?
We remember that billions have been born.
Cain was born, but terminated his life in shrouds of obscurity. What of his life?
Nero was born, but his life seemed to justify it little or not at all. His persecution of the true believers caused them to be martyred, burned at the stake, ravished by wild animals to satisfy his own sadistic cravings. What of his life?
Adolph Hitler was born. What of his life? Millions starved and died in Dachau and in other torture chambers.
Yes, men die--all men die. Millions have died unheard, unsung, unknown. The question is, when they die have they fulfilled the measure of their mortal creation? Certainly it is not so much that men die, or when they die, but that they do not die in their sins. Many antediluvians died ignominiously in their sins in the flood. Those of Sodom and Gomorrah went into eternity in their transgressions with their garments stained and their souls polluted. But look at others. Abel died knowing his offering was accepted of the Lord. Abinadi died at the stake a martyr, upholding truth, bearing testimony. His is a reward of exaltation.
Read more here >
To view the Gospel Doctrine Lessons from Ted L. Gibbons go here >
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Priesthood/Relief Society
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Spencer W. Kimball
Lesson 2 |
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"Tragedy or Destiny?"
Some time ago I received an anonymous letter from a heartbroken mother expressing her suffering and pain for a son who had committed grievous transgressions, badly hurting innocent loved ones.
Since her anonymous letter to me, and feeling her despair, I have had a great desire to express my love to her and others in similar circumstances in an attempt to give some comfort and hope to those who are anonymously and privately carrying heavy burdens, often known only to them and a loving Father in Heaven.
I know, Sister Anonymous, that what I say will only be a reminder, but still another testimony to what you already know.
Read more here >
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Other Links You're Sure to Enjoy!
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