November 2009 Visiting Teaching

(As all of you know, the message for this month is to be taken from the October 2009 Conference talks found in this months Ensign or online at http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&vgnextoid=a6246a008952b010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD I love it when twice a year we get to select from one of the talks and share that message with the women that we Visit Teach. I was especially happy about the talk that I selected for my message that I will give today and this coming Friday to my sisters. Both sisters that I visit have some heavy burdens that have been imposed on them through the actions and choices of their children. These actions cause them heartache and grief, as well all know who have had teenagers and children who have strayed. The talk that I remembered while listening to Conference was given on the Saturday morning session by Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy, entitled "That Your Burdens May Be Light". I remember thinking about where I have been in my own experiences and where I am now as a result of them. I thought about what I learned at the time and how I can help others from my experience. My husband and I are serving as part time service missionaries in the LDS Addiction Recovery Program. We serve weekly and have for the past 2 and a half years, being the group leaders in the Addiction Recovery meetings. We have served both the English and Spanish Speaking communities and have loved every minute of it. We believe that our experiences of the past have prepared us to be teaching in this program. The Lord prepared us and we have accepted and what a great blessing this is of serving Heavenly Fathers children who have strayed in one way or another, and are trying to come back. It is a spiritual feast, ever week and we feel so very grateful to be in His service.
Back to the lesson... The lesson begins by this..."Burdens provide opportunities to practice virtues that contribute to eventual perfection. The message begins with a visual by Elder Clayton of seeing an indigenous man high up in the Andes mountains loaded up with firewood upon his back. This load must have weighed as much as the man and he was bent down and leaned forward taking deliberate steps forward to keep balanced and moving toward the marketplace that he would eventually sell the wood. He made 2 - 3 trips loaded down like that daily. Elder Clayton then says... "People struggle everyday under burdens that tax their souls. They can be emotionally or physically ponderous. They can be worrisome, oppressive and exhausting and they continue for years".

He clarified burdens that come from three sources..

1. The natural product of the conditions of the world such as Illness, physical disability, hurricanes and earthquakes come from no fault of our own.
2. Other burdens are imposed upon us by the misconduct of others such as abuse and addictions, sin, incorrect traditions, repression and crime scatter burdened victims. Even misdeeds such as gossip, and unkindness can cause genuine suffering.
3. Our own mistakes and shortcomings produce many of our problems and can place heavy burdens on our own shoulders, and the worst one is sin. We all know the remorse and pain that inevitably follow our failure to keep the commandments.

"Our unique individual experiences can help us prepare to return to him. The adversity and afflictions that are ours, however difficult to bear, last, from heavens' s prospective, for "but a small moment; and then, if [we] endure it well, God shall exalt [us] on high." (D&C 121:7-8)We must do everything we can do to bear our burdens "well" for however long our "small moment" carrying them lasts". "Burdens provide opportunities to practice virtues that contribute to eventual perfection.... Thus burdens become blessings, though often such blessings are well disguised and may require time, effort and faith to accept and understand."

Elder Clayton goes on to say that Further, bearing up under our own burdens can help us develop a reservoir of empathy for the problems others face. The Apostle Paul taught "Accordingly, our baptismal covenants require that we should be willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light; yea, and [be] willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort." (Mosiah 18:8-9) Those who offer such assistance to others stand on holy ground. In explaining this, the Savior taught: "When saw we thee and hungered, and fed the? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? "When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? "Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and and came unto thee? "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matt 25: 35 - 40)
Through it all , the Savior offers us sustaining strength and support and in His own time and way he offers deliverance. Then it goes on to talk about the Story of Alma and his followers when they had escaped from King Noach and established a community called Helam. They tilled the ground, built buildings and were prospering until the Lamanites brought them into bondage and they knew that they would not be delivered unless it came from the Lord. Their deliverance didn't come right away. The Lamanites put tasks on them and threatened them that if they prayed that they would be put to death. The Lord did deliver them though stages beginning with easing the burdens that they had "that you cannot feel them upon your backs even while you are in bondage and this I will do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions." (Mosiah 24: 14 - 16)
This story doesn't end here, it goes on to tell that the burdens of Alma and his brethren were mad light and that they were strengthened so that they could bear their burdens with ease. Because of the faith and patience of these people in bearing their burdens so well, the Lord came to them again and said, "Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage." Well we know what happened on the morrow. The Lamanites were all caused to be in a deep sleep and the people of Alma simply walked out of their bondage and the city while the Lamanites slept.

I love the next part of this story. After they were far enough away, they pitched their tents and prayed and praised the Lord. They expressed their gratitude and thanksgiving for their deliverance. How many of us who are delivered from Bondage from the Lord remember who made it possible for us? How much praise and Thanksgiving do we offer, or as time goes on, and passes, do we forget? I submit, during this season of Thanksgiving, that we bring back to remembrance, all the great and wonderful blessings that the Lord has given to us. In prayer, in our words and deeds, we can give back to Him who has blessed us so greatly.
Mercifully, the Son of God offers us deliverance from the bondage of our sins, which are amoung the heaviest of all the burdens we bear. During His Atonement He suffered "according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according the power of his deliverance." (Alma 7:13) Christ "suffered those these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent." (D & C 19:15) When we repent and keep the commandments, forgiveness and relief from our burdened conscience comes with the help that only the Savior offers, for "surely whosoever repenteth shall find mercy." (D & C 19:16)
The last paragraph of the talk says, I remember that man in Peru, hunched over and struggling to carry that enormous sack of firewood on his back. For me he is the image of all of us as we struggle with the burdens of life. I know that as we keep the commandments of God, and our covenants, He helps us with our burdens. He strengthens us. When we repent, he Forgives us and blesses us with peace of conscience and joy.

You can find the handout that I prepared to go with this lesson for the ladies that I Visit teach at this link http://visitingteachingsurprise.blogspot.com/2009/11/november-2009-visiting-teaching-handout.html