LDS Freedom Forum

Elder Bednar is coming to our stake on March the 18th. We have not had an apostle here since our Temple was opened in June of 1997 as far as I know.


I will post back here after the meeting with notes from his talk unless of course we are called to gather right before the cleansing of America.


Anyone else know of any special visitors to your area this year?

It's routine for The 12 to visit the stakes of Zion. Don't be alarmed.

During the priestood session on Sat. night, he will probably just have a Q&A session rather than give a talk. What question will you ask him if you have the opportunity.

7cylon7 wrote:Anyone else know of any special visitors to your area this year?

We've had exactly ONE visit from an apostle to our stake in the 23 years we've lived here (Midwestern U.S.), and zero members of the First Presidency. Every 3-4 years, we'll have a member of the Seventy at our stake conference.

Growing up in Phoenix during the 70's and 80's, we would have an apostle or member of the First Presidency visit usually every year for stake conference. These days, at least out here in my stake, it's once every 2-3 decades. Not complaining, just stating a fact.

There are a lot more stakes now, but only the same amount of apostles. I think they do their best not to favor one region over another when they visit.

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Just saw him here yesterday. You're in for a treat.

I am waiting too. :-w :-w :-w Not so patiently. I need to work on that.

Elder Bednar would be wonderful to hear and see in person.

I'd love to ask him about his Book of Mormon talk where he said :

will be blessed with eyes that can see afar off (see Moses 6:27) and with ears that can hear the sound of the trumpet (see Ezekiel 33:2–16). The spiritual discernment and inspiration you will receive from the combination of these three holy habits will enable you to stand as watchmen on the tower for your families—“watching . . . with all perseverance” (Ephesians 6:18)—to the blessing of your immediate family and your future posterity.

Maybe we should all pm 7cylon7.....ask him pretty please with a cherry on top. :YMPARTY:

---wait, maybe he got the call to Zion....

Info, do you have a report?

davedan wrote:The spiritual discernment and inspiration you will receive from the combination of these three holy habits will enable you to stand as watchmen on the tower for your families—“watching . . . with all perseverance” (Ephesians 6:18)—to the blessing of your immediate family and your future posterity.

I love that! How vitally important this is - more than words can say, really... The "holy places" wherein we may stand in these last days might be different for each of us - and how crucial it is, and will be, to be worthy and understand the inspiration and revelation we receive for ourselves and our families.

Okay here it is. I will post this quickly just to let you know I am working on it. It will be up shortly.

First off, Elder Bednar mentioned several times for people not to miss-quote him on your blogs. So I will not. I took some notes and I am just going to give what insight I received. This is my interpretation of the events as they transpired.

Saturday the Adult session was from 7 to 9 pm. Then on Sunday the session was 1- to 12 pm. The Saturday session was 100% better than the Sunday session.

No question and answer sessions for Adults yet the youth did get to have the question and answer session.

Some things he said I found interesting first.

1. If you only take notes of what the speaker said then you are wasting your time. When you take notes you need to listen to the Holy Ghost and write down what the Holy Ghost is telling you that you need to do.
2.


Saturday

A seventy named Hilary or Hillard was with Elder Bednar. But after trying to find this Hilar or Hillard I can't find him on the rolls at all. So I guess I got his name wrong.

First, We were to think about two parables: One was the Sower and the other the Ten Virgins.

They had like 5 member get up and tell their Conversion stories.

Then the seventy spoke first.

Elder XXXXXX
1. He went over the parable of the sower. Saying that many times the word was killed by the lack of good dirt and lack of nourishment. We have to nourish our own seed, ie faith.
2. Daily Scripture study is key.
3. The LORD hates idlers and greedy people. People that expect things to happen for them but they put forth no effort and greedy people that don't share. Both at each spectrum are evil.
4. He really pounded on the Fathers and Mothers, explaining that it is their duty to teach their children the gospel. (sounds like we are losing a lot of youth or that was the impression I got.)
7. had a story about his kid reading scriptures before they went to bed. His kid would yell at the top of his lungs before bed scripture time and he knew whatever he was doing he had to drop it and read the scriptures or lose that opportunity.
5. Every time you testify of truth you are basically converting yourself over to the gospel.
6. Missionary work converts yourself over the the gospel.
8. Conversion is what we are after. We must be converted. We are all on the path to full conversion but the goal is to be fully converted.

Saturday Elder Bednar.

I like Elder Bednar he is smooth and is funny and I can really relate to him.
1. Many of the Apostles are 90, 88 and have physical ailments. (He was called just to lower the age average of the apostles. lol)
2. The Lord lets the Apostles have ailments so their testimonies can be authentic. If he protected them from everything they would not be authentic testimonies. So ailments come and they must suffer them.
3. however, the Lords supports them fully so they can complete their missions. However, he supports them only after they have given 100%. sometimes we want the support of the Lord when we have only given 50% of an effort. No so. We must give 100% and then the Lord will bless with more support.

That was just his intro: The real talk is below.

Except for the character of Christ there would of been no atonement made.

1. Except for the character of Jesus there would of been no Christ. (Said throughout the talk like 15 times.)
2. What is the character of Jesus that allowed him to make the atonement?
3. Matt 4 Fasting 40 days and nights then the temptations.
4. Many people believe the temptation to turn the stone to bread was about overcoming physical temptations of the flesh... NOT SO.
It was about "IF you be the son of GOD" turn this stone to bread and eat.
5. the next temptation was that satan took Jesus up to the temple spire. NOT SO... read the JST it says that the spirit of the LORD carried him to the top of the temple spire. So the Bible records it wrong. Satan does not have that power. So all these Satan took him here or took him there is not true at all. The SPIRIT did all the taking. READ the JST for more light and knowledge.
6. So when Jesus was up on the temple spire and Satan told him to cast himself down and make the angles caught you. That was the same exact test as the first one. "IF you be the son of God" cast yourself down and have the angles caught you. That would make himself more important than others and it would be a grand spectical to view. This temptation was the same as the first. DENY that you are the CHRIST. DENY the you are the SON of GOD. All the temptation were the same one. DENY that you are a son of god and I will give you XXX.
7. Satan comes at you the exact same way. deny that you are a son of god and I will give them fame, gold and silver and power.
8. Jesus never looked inward as the natural man does but he looked outward to others in every case.
9. Example one, after the garden of Gethsemane he had just went through so much pain that he bleed from every pour. His friends could not even stay away with him for an hour. His friends would deny him and turn traitor on him that night. When the soldier got his ear cut off the Savior with all of this going on thought of the soldier and healed his ear. Bednar thought that might be the last thing on his mind, in the middle of all this the savior was turned outward and not inward.

(My own thoughts went to when the savior was on the cross and as they nailed him to the cross what did he say or soon after said, "forgive them" when he was getting nailed... once again he looked outward and not inward. There are plenty of other examples)

10. we will have the temptation to deny who we are and to deny the Christ. The building of people in Lehi's dream of people pointing and laughing at those on the path to the tree of life. Are we converted enough to withstand the scorn of those people.
11. Becoming converted will see you through.
12. testimony is not enough Testimony is about your experiences and how you came to an understanding of truth but testimony will not keep you on the path when people scorn or make fun of your beliefs in a Christ.
13. While Christ did the will of the father in all things and looked outward what is the gospel or message of Lucifer? Do what thou wilt. Do what make you feel good. Turn inward and do what thou wilt. (direct opposite of the Savior)
14. When afflicted Jesus always turned outward to others and never to himself...
15 testimony is not it.... being converted unto the Lord is different than a testimony
16. So here is the scripture in Alma 23 verse 6 he quoted.
6 And as sure as the Lord liveth, so sure as many as believed, or as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the preaching of Ammon and his brethren, according to the spirit of revelation and of prophecy, and the power of God working miracles in them—yea, I say unto you, as the Lord liveth, as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away.

The key here is that the spirit worked IN them. They were CONVERTED unto the Lord, and NEVER did fall away.

We need to have this type of conversion. To a point where we would never fall away.

17. We need to be converted unto Jesus the Christ. NOT unto the church, not unto some program, not unto our ancestors. Many people say my ancestors crossed the valley and so they rely on their testimonies for their own testimonies. We need to be converted to Jesus Christ and non else. When we are converted to Jesus in this manner we put down ALL rebellion IN us. When we have this type of conversion we have the pure love of Christ in us and it moves us to do good CONTINUALLY. We need to stop rebelling against God and become fully converted. He admitted that many of us are on a journey of conversion. We need to get to a point were we are fully converted. If we are not moving forward we are moving backward.

18. I loved this part... he said when the storm comes and the dark days arrive.... what do you mean WHEN.... the STORM is here now. The dark days are HERE now!

Lastly he ended with a story about the ten virgins.... the oil is conversion. It can not be borrowed. You can not give it to anyone else. You can not go buy this at the market. It must be earned drop by drop. He alluded to the fact that the unwise virgins had testimonies and the wise ones had been converted. @-)

He also read it to the end where the Savior shuts the door on the unwise virgins and he said it would not be enough to just have a testimony. You will falter if you only have a testimony what you need is to be converted.

Summary you have to know the character of Christ. You must know that the atonement was only possible by the character of Christ. His character is to look outward and not inward. Selfish vs unselfish. Don't deny yourself your birthright. You are a son of God. Satan will try to tempt you to deny your true self which is of God being his offspring and you have a birthright to be just as he is. You must follow Christ by being converted unto him which if so you will never fall. We must even in trials look outward and not inward as the Savior did. We must have the pure love of Christ (Charity)


Sunday

Not much here.

The stake president said for us to pray about 1 thing we should do to better become converted to the Lord. Write it down today and work on it for the next 8 months. (looks like someone in 8 months will be ask to talk about what that one thing was and how they became better converted.)

The seventy talked about the Book of Mormon and its power. It is the word of God.

Elder Bednar just said we have just heard from the presiding high priest here and we are to follow his council. This instruction has come from the Lord. If we follow this council he gave us an apostolic blessing that we would gain more power to see and understand spiritual things and become what we should be.

He did say as the darkness grows and it is growing there is a light that continues to grow as well. That light is Jesus Christ. He will preserve and protect those that love him.

He finished by saying I know where I will be exactly in two weeks. (General Conference) Talked a bit about GC and how no topics are assigned. The messages given at GC are directly from the Lord.

note: I did not take any notes on Sunday and nothing really popped out at me like the Saturday session did.

Sorry no second coming information or any hint of it in any thing he said except that Conversion is the only thing that will see us through what is coming and he said we did not have to wait as the storm was already here. There is no need to wait. The darkness is already here. I took that to mean we are in it.

If I remember anything else I will put it up as well. I will ask my elders quorum if they got anything else out of the meeting that maybe I missed.

7cylon7 wrote:A seventy named Hilary or Hillard was with Elder Bednar. But after trying to find this Hilar or Hillard I can't find him on the rolls at all. So I guess I got his name wrong.

Was it Donald L. Hallstrom, Presidency of the Seventy, by chance?

http://www.lds.org/church/leader/donald ... -hallstrom" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NIce notes 7Cylon7. I heard a couple things different than you did, but you did a nice job. I would also suggest that he at one point said, please don't put this in your blog, I want to feel free to say what I want to say. Then he proceeded to not say anymore.

His Apostolic blessings were powerful.

General Conference will be a treat.

Thanks for posting, 7cylcon7; that was wonderful!

Sounds similar to the address given at a regional conf in utah last year:

http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopi ... 14&t=19761

Thanks for posting this, cylon. It was so awesome how it all boiled down to Christ, and to being converted to Christ. (At least that's how it looks to me.)

Thank you! We are losing our youth at a very fast and high rate.

Excellent ,7Cylon7. Thanks.

Rand wrote:NIce notes 7Cylon7. I heard a couple things different than you did, but you did a nice job. I would also suggest that he at one point said, please don't put this in your blog, I want to feel free to say what I want to say. Then he proceeded to not say anymore.

His Apostolic blessings were powerful.

General Conference will be a treat.

He said please don't miss-quote me in your blog was his meaning. I think he said Can I talk freely? Please don't put this in your blog as he was afraid that he would be misquoted. So when it came to that part of his speech, I put it in my own words what the meaning was to me and I did not quote him at all. Can you agree that is what I did?

The main reason they don't want people to quote them is that often many people miss-quote and take a quote out of context. Also they don't record these talks anymore like Brigham Young did. He had a scribe record all of his speeches word for word. An today we have the discourses of Brigham Young because he did this. What was also the result was the Adam-God theory that became a problem. This has since been denounce and not taught in the church though it remains to be seen if in fact it was true. (will only know when we receive more light and knowledge. This brings me to what Joseph Smith said that if he were to give the saints more light and knowledge that they would rise up and kill him for saying so. So obviously, we don't have the full and complete truth yet. Though thankfully we are not responsible for that truth since the anointed servants of the Lord have told us we don't have to be and that is good enough for me.) So even in GC Elder Packard's talk was amended before publication because some of the member of the 12 did not fully agree with what was said. Another example, we had another issue when Mormon Doctrine came out by Bruce McKonkie. It was UN-authorized and had to be looked at and some say it had many, many incorrect doctrines contained in it. But since it was already out they let it go. But they learned their lessons. Now they have to have approval to write books. That is the main reason why talks are not recorded by the 12. To avoid any contention in the church and outside the church.

So I have honored his wish not to quote him directly in a blog about those things which he did not want to be quoted about. I think he would agree that spreading his main message about the character of Christ would be a positive one. We can give our own feelings and experiences about a talk given by our leaders and still not attribute to them quotes that will get them and the church in trouble.

If you would share your insight about things you heard differently I would appreciate hearing them.

Thank you 7cylon7- both for posting your notes, as well as your comments just above mine.

Re: the Joseph Smith quote about men would kill him if he told them certain things:
I have seen that quote used to imply/ provide support for some deep doctrine/ theory such as Adam-God, polygamy, Joseph,s an archangel, etc. May I suggest anther possibility?

What if our prophets and apostles were to openly and plainly tell us who our enemies are, and how much control they have over the world?
What if they were to tell us wher we as

What if they were to tell us where we stand with the Lord as individuals and as a church?
While some people on here say bring it on- I must ask are we ready? Some say they are, but I'm glad they are not in charge of telling the angels to cut down the wicked. God allows the rates time to allow some to choose they want to become wheat after all, andante Tate's in the church at least pay tithing, help with temple work, service, etc and so they may do less evil to others until they are pushed into declaring opposition.
I also think of a story of a GA speaking at a stake conf in Idaho 20 plus years ago.

According to the story, the GA told the congregation they were not celestial people- they had a fit. Salt lake sent him back and he told them again. They got upset. He was sent a third time and he told them they are living a Terrestrial law- not valiant in testimony, service, sharing gospel, etc.
In 1994 my roomie from Minnesota tolde the GA who spoke there recently told them they are not getting a temple for awhile because they are not doing enough missionary work. There were some seven stakes worth of good people waiting to be baptized in the Twin Cities area. So they stepped up and in 5-7 years later they got a small temple, after the Lord had Pres Hinckley get those built unplaced not likely to have large numbers soon.

We just don't know the mind of God in all things

Again sorry for typos- on friend's iPhone and can't edit