Elders Quorum today 9/25/11

Announcements

• Activities:  Upcoming activities: Filipino Food Fest @ Thelma's Restaurant in Waipahu on October 8 Saturday.  We will meet at 10:15 a.m. on Mokulele Drive by the Parkway Rec Center and then carpool from there. Makapu'u Lighthouse See-the-Sun-Rise Family Hike on October 29 Saturday.  Meeting time is 5:15 4:45 a.m. at the Makapu'u Lighthouse parking area along Kalanianaole Hwy.  We will eat breakfast at the top and watch the sun rise.
• Service projects:  We have committed to four clean-up per year in the Adopt-a-Highway program (trash pick-up) for the section of Kahekili Highway from Haiku Road to Kaneohe Bay Drive. The date of our first service outing will be 11/12 Saturday announced but likely will be a Saturday in November.  Other projects we may do include Kawa'ewa'e Heiau (brush clean-up), Ho'omaluhia Gardens (adopt-a-park). and help-our-neighbors yard cleanup.
• Home visits via Splits with Missionaries (Wednesday evenings, ongoing).  Next split date will be 9/28 Wed.  (Dayle Turner and Destinn Labatte).
• Home Teaching: Remember to love thy neighbors by visiting your assigned home teaching families.   See updated Home Teaching Assignment List. Remember to complete your HT assignment and report to your district leader by the end of the month.  Mahalo!
• General Conference on 10/1 Saturday and 10/2 Sunday.  Broadcasts will be @ 6am and 10am on both days.  On 10/1 Saturday, the General Priesthood Meeting broadcast will be aired at 6pm @ the Stake Center.  All priesthood holders in the stake are expected to attend.
• Seminary Security:  priesthood brethren are needed to serve as security for Stake seminary.  Those interested in volunteering can contact Brother Carlile of the Bishopric.

Lesson today:  was taught by Brother Bill Sellers and was based on the talk "The Atonement Covers All Pain" by Elder Kent F. Richards of the Seventy.  Key points:

• None of us is immune from experiencing pain and people cope with it very differently. Some turn away from God in anger, and others allow their suffering to bring them closer to God.
• Pain is a gauge of the healing process.. and it often teaches us patience. Perhaps that is why we use the term patient in referring to the sick.
• Our great personal challenge in mortality is to become “a saint through the atonement of Christ”²²  with the pain we experience being where this process is most measured.  
• In extremity, we can become as children in our hearts, humble ourselves, and “pray and work and wait”²³ patiently for the healing of our bodies and our souls. 
• As Job, after being refined through our trials, we “shall come forth as gold.”²⁴