Kaneohe 1st Ward church today 3/24/13

Sacrament Meeting

• Presiding: Bishop Bert Oshiro
• Conducting:  Tommy Friel, Bishopric 2nd Counselor
• Opening hymn:  #241 "Count Your Blessings" (chorister Van Wai Sr, organist Isabella Lesa)
• Invocation: Brother Dayle Turner
• Ward business:   Sustained--Nicole Gonsalves (Ward Missionary); Nachelle Wai (Relief Soceity Meeting Coordinator).
• Sacrament hymn:  #180 "Father in Heaven, We Do Believe"
• Sacrament administration by Priesthood
• Youth Speakers:
• Ku'uli'i Hanohano spoke about the Plan of Salvation and how it can bring happiness. (Alma 40:11-12)
• Eric Yugawa spoke about magnifying callings (D&C 88:40).

• Adult Speakers
• Brother and Sister Davis from Logan, Utah (and formerly of New Mexico) are serving a mission here.

  

  Sister Davis

    One of "64 retired military couples serving as senior missionaries at U.S. military bases around the world" The Davises "assist local church leaders in serving and encouraging LDS service men and women" [source].  Sister Davis spoke about "enduring to the end" and the things we can do to endure as well as what we can do to help others, especially new church members, tto endure.  She quoted President Gordon B. Hinckley, who said "There is no point in doing missionary work unless we hold onto the fruits of that effort. Converts must be nurtured." 

  

  Elder Davis

  Elder Davis made reference to a talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who spoke about the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and "they can definitely help us to avoid future regrets."
  
  

• Closing Hymn: #252 "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel"
• Benediction: Brother Mark Stride

Sunday School

• Gospel doctrine:  Lesson 12 -- "The Gathering of My People"
• Gospel Principles: see manual

Elders Quorum

• Announcements/quorum business: 
• Redeem the Dead:  
• Worldwide Indexing Challenge.  Details of the challenge TBA.
  
• Perfect the Saints:  
• Family Fireside.  Friday April 12 at Parkway Rec Center.  5 p.m. to 8 p.m.  Potluck.
• Wednesday evening team-ups with the missionaries.  Brothers Piena and Turner will be going out this week. 
•  Proclaim the Gospel:
• "Will you?" challenges from the Hawaii Mission President:  Will you pray for the success of missionary work in our stake? Will you identify and invite someone to be taught by the missionaries? 
• Home teaching.  District Leaders (Turner, Sellers, Tamashiro) will be contacting home teachers for reports on home teaching assignments for March.  Goal is 100%

• The lesson in the quorum today was presented by Brother Dayle Turner and was based on the talk "The Atonement" from the October 2012 General Conference by Elder Boyd K Packer.  Elder Packer said,
• In mortality we [will] fall short of being perfect. It [is] not expected that we [will] live without transgressing one law or another (see Mosiah 3:19).
• From the Pearl of Great Price, we understand that “no unclean thing can dwell [in the kingdom of God],”³ and so a way was provided for all who sin to repent and become worthy of the presence of our Father in Heaven once more.
• A Mediator, a Redeemer, was chosen, one who would live His life perfectly, commit no sin, and offer “himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.”⁴
•  Concerning the importance of the Atonement, in Alma we learn, “For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; … or else all mankind must unavoidably perish.”⁵
• ^{If you have made no mistakes, then you do not need the Atonement. If you have made mistakes, and all of us have, whether minor or serious, then you have an enormous need to find out how they can be erased so that you are no longer in darkness.}