Just a little about myself. We moved into this area in 1988 and since we don't have any family in the area we have considered our congregation as family and have come to count on each of you during good times and bad. We have raised our family in this area and are now enjoying our grandchildren.
I have the opportunity today to speak on a passage of scripture that means a great deal to me, Doctrine and Covenants 109:15. Joseph prayed that all the temple worshippers would be endowed with God's power and “that they may grow up in thee, and receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost, and be organized according to thy laws, and be prepared to obtain every needful thing” It is spelled out here in this verse that in order to grow up in the gospel and in our testimony we need the gift of the Holy Ghost. We need to work to be worthy to continually receive the gift of this companionship so we can be prepared to obtain every needful thing. Not to be given every needful thing but to be prepared to receive. This is the pattern we have been given so we can grow closer to our Heavenly Father.
In verse 21 it reads, "And when thy people transgress, any of them, they may speedily repent and return unto thee, and find favor in thy sight, and be restored to the blessings which thou hast ordained to be poured out upon those who shall reverence thee in thy house." We will make mistakes in life but we need to quickly repent. That is not an 'if' we transgress but a 'when' we transgress. Our Heavenly Father acknowledges that and because he loves us gives us a path back to Him. A number of Heavenly Father's attributes are listed as honor, power, majesty, might, dominion, justice, mercy, and an infinity of fulness. We too want to have an infinity of fulness as well don't we? As life goes along we face things and just like Alma in the Book of Mormon who is rejected from the people he is trying to teach and is in need of a friend. He meets an angel who tells him to lift up his head and rejoice because he has kept the commandments he will be blessed. After he received this message he went back again to teach those who cast him out and was then successful. We have this same power to be administered by angels too and be helped to 'enter another way' and find success in our efforts.