Temporal and Spiritual Self-reliance

While our stalwart Sunday School teacher, Colin, was at home perfecting his Darth Vader impersonations, we Rosny YSA gathered in our regular and regularly cold room for a bit of class discussion. After the announcements by Bek and the "YSA presidency," and hearing about everyone's week, the amateur Maz attempted a bit of class discussion, beginning with the Missionary Experience of the Week. It turns out that waiting a long, long time for a taxi late at night in Sydney can become a blessing when you discover the driver is one of the long-lost sheep of the fold, originally taught by two sister missionaries when he first came to Australia, baptised, but now with little knowledge or the church or where to find it. Luckily the Good Shepherd knows all his sheep and will always lead them back to the fold. Eric expressed earnest interest in being taught the gospel again by the missionaries and now he is able because the Good Shepherd led him to two Hobart Stake young single adults of the fold who could help him find it again. Now his wife and son, who were not around to hear the gospel when he was taught, will also have the opportunity to hear it.

The discussion then focussed on the only 2 pages of the reading that Maz had managed to do, about the welfare program of the church, which was also aided by Brother Eastwood's talk in sacrament meeting, about self-reliance. The ideas for temporal self-reliance which came from discussion by members of the class included working where possible, keeping a vegetable patch, living within our means and choosing wisely how to spend our money. Spiritual reliance was also discussed with great similarities, such as being accountable for our own spiritual learning and making the effort to fill and re-fill our own spiritual reservoirs instead of relying on leaders and programs of the church to fill it up for us. We are counselled in Philippians 2:12 to work out our own salvation, which implies a personal responsibility to seek learning and understanding and apply the principles of the gospel in our lives.

Mountain of the Lord

This week in YSA Sunday school we continued watching The Mountain of the Lord, a DVD about the construction and purpose of the Salt Lake Temple. We continued from the point where upon having uncovered the foundations again, which were buried to protect the temple from a visit by government troops, it was discovered that the sandstone foundations had cracks in them. This was about 10 years after the saints had begun building the temple, and the Prophet at the time, Brigham Young, was in a bit of despair! After thinking about it he decided it was necessary for the cracked foundations to be removed and instead the granite blocks to be cut to precise measurements to insure a strong foundation. While this event seems somewhat tragic, imagine if the foundations were not buried and the construction of the temple to have gone ahead to completion. Surely the weight of the granite and the continual beating of the elements would have cracked the foundations with time. But as Brigham Young said, he wanted to build a temple to last through the millennium and by burying the foundations this problem was discovered early and at a time when it could still be fixed. While the Tabernacle recently underwent renovations a few years ago to protect it against earthquakes and other disasters, the Salt Lake Temple needed no such renovations as it was already build to withstand such things.

Another interesting part to the story of the construction of the temple was when the prophet asked that all construction of the temple be stopped to instead labour to complete the transcontinental railroad which was being build. While this request was a little strange to some, in hindsight it was pure inspiration, as when it was completed and extentions were built between Little Cottonwood Canyon and Salt Lake City, the 4 day trip to bring granite to the temple sight by oxen was exchanged for a 1 hour trip on the railroad to bring much more granite. Even with this development the temple took 40 years to complete - image how long it would have taken had the prophet's counsel not been heeded!

Towards the end of the film President Wilford Woodruff, who dedicated the Salt Lake Temple, explained by personal experience why the temples are so important to Latter-day Saints. Some years earlier his wife Phoebe had passed away, but due to their having been sealed for time and all eternity prior to this he had the firm knowledge that he would in fact see her again, to dwell with her forever in peace. Indeed this is why we build so many temples today, and even perform these ordinances vicariously for those who have died without receiving them.

Thank you Colin for sharing the DVD with us.

Colin: is he just full of hot air?

My other hot air (Stirling) engine in action!

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_air_engine .

Your Essay Topic assignment for Sunday: "It has been argued that the indiscriminate use of the hypothetical Carnot cycle in many standard books on engineering thermodynamics has done a disservice to the study of Stirling engines in general." Discuss.

1000 words. On my desk at the BEGINNING of class. Marks deducted if you have obviously worked on it during Sacrament Meeting.

And those who weren't in class last Sunday, and are going "huh?" Those who WERE in class can gain extra credit by blogging here a recap of the lesson!

:)

Bollywood Beauties

Being blessed with our very culturally diverse half-indian, half-chinese YSA from Malaysia, we could not pass up the opportunity to learn a few bollywood-style moves from Denisha! (pictured above centre). The evening began with some pizza and watching selections from Bride and Prejudice, followed by a display of Denisha's jewellery.

Followed by getting out the moisturiser to get a few bangles off Maz's wrist, followed by the accidental breakage of a bangle by one anonymous Rebekah from the ward.

Once we were ready to get the dancing underway, Denisha began to teach the new bollywood beauties the moves of her personally choreographed dance. We were a little unsure of our abilities at first, but soon got the hang of it and found it pretty fun.

In about an hour we had the whole thing down pat so we performed it to the Prebble family! Scotty, who was the only guy brave enough to come, did an excellent job as photographer and finally enjoyed a rest in his director's chair.

Then came my favourite part, trying on Denisha's beautiful sari! Pictured below are the new Indian Princesses: Fi, Bek, Maz, Jess and Rachel. Thanks Denisha for sharing your culture and talents with us =D

Murder on the Dance Floor

What seemed to be an innocent night of dancing soon turned into a crime-scene investigation, as one small, egg-shaped body was found injured right under the basketball hoop. The apparent victim of a violent crime was surrounded by scattered lollies when police happened upon the scene. Though called quickly, much of the evidence had disappeared by the time authorities arrived. The victim has now be positively identified as a Mr Dumpty.

Lucky the Rosny ward was there to keep the party going! There was an outstanding array of costumes, firstly there was the beautiful Emily as the King of Spain's daughter, Erin with THE coolest hair, as Mother Goose (pay particular attention to the shoes), Fashionable Fiona with her amazing SELF-MADE costume as the Queen of Hearts, Beautiful Bek as the Farmer's Wife, and "Razzle Dazzle" as a twinkling little star!! Well done guys! Sadly the crime-scene photographer didn't do a good job of getting ALL the evidence of Rosny ward's attendance...sorry Bek and Fi, my bad! Luckily she knows how to redeem herself by poaching photos off facebook! Ha-HA!

The faith the move mountains

With the sad absence of our Sunday School teacher due to shingles, the Rosny ward YSA gathered in the somewhat drafty Sunday School room, mainly to acknowledge the presence of Lewis, the newest Stake rep who was gracing us with his presence. In light of this cause, Maz decided to teach her first impromptu lesson. The topic? Sharing the gospel, of course!

After discussing that the very purpose of sharing the gospel comes back to the atonement of the Saviour and the plan of salvation and God's purpose for his children, we talked about some ways we can share the gospel. FiFi made the excellent suggestion of starting by being an example, and Scotty then high-lighted the importance of speaking up about our beliefs and its role in our lives. Libby commented that people often just don't get why she doesn't drink, like it's some kind of bizarre concept. We discussed that its usually more powerful or memorable to give the reason that it's part of our beliefs, more so than just being good for our health or wellbeing. There was plenty of input throughout the class by those present, especially Anthony. Maz shared her experience of not speaking up to a very new aquaintance in Estonia and her repentance that followed thereafter, and her hope that this young man will be led to find out some other way she doesn't drink because she's a Mormon! The last thought discussed was that of faith - having the faith that miracles can happen and that the people that we know and wish could have the blessings of the gospel may just desire to learn and accept the gospel, if we are brave enough to open our mouths. So let us go forth, for the field is white already to harvest, and we would like some YSA baptisms in Rosny!

The signicance of 2 lots of 3, plus 5 and 4

Today in Sunday School there was a good turnout, and the stake ysa reps also decided to grace Rosny ward with their presence ;) Maz even wore a new shirt for the occasion! Alex had the blessing of becoming acquainted with all the Rad Rosny-ites there; to refresh his memory there were Emma, Libby, Jason, Anthony, Scott, Leah, Bek, Emily, Denisha and Trevor...I mean, Fiona. Oh and Colin, our awesome teacher, who gave an awesome lesson. The restoration of the priesthood was the topic of the lesson. We got to watch a dvd of the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood and then Melchizekek Priesthood. There was debate (thanks to Alex) as to whether John, who was promised he would not taste of death, but be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the Saviour's second coming, was really dressed like an angel like the other two, resurrected beings, as he's supposed to be ministering among men...hmm. And Maz learnt something new about the Salt Lake Temple! You're shocked I know, coz she knows EVERYTHING about it, right? :P The amazing fact is this: On the west facade of the temple, which has the three spires representing the Aaronic Priesthood, there are 4 windows...on the east side of the temple, which has the three spires representing the Melchizedek Priesthood, there are 5 windows. These represent the offices in each of the priesthoods: Deacon, Teacher, Priest and Bishop for the Aaronic, and Elder, High Priest, Patriarch, Seventy and Apostle for the Melchizedek. Cool huh! Next week's lesson (correct me if I'm wrong, Colin) is on lesson 9 - "The Only True and Living Church."

What's with all the bowties?

On the Eve of Valentine's Day, YSA turned up (eventually) to the cultural hall of the Stake Centre to discover it was decorated beautifully with pink cut-out hearts and...er...bowties? Due to a lack of advertising, perhaps, some were scratching their heads. Little did they know that President Menzie, the Stake Bowtie Connoisseur, was opening his personal bowtie collection for public wear at this exclusive event. Elegantly arrayed along the tables the bowties laid waiting to create a little magic for the evening, each with its own special story and personal significance. I think all agree it added a little extra something to the evening! Livening up the party from Rosny were Lady Lauren - Keeper of Moves, Emily the Enchanted, Elegant Erin - Dancemaster Guru, Lady Leah - making her Dance Debut and Maid Mari-Anna - Progressing Socialite.

The necessity of PR to choose your EC to get to the CK

Today's Sunday-School lesson was presented in anagrams. There was a good turnout, with Marvellous Maz, Divine Denisha, Scotty (pronounced in Star Trek fashion), Lovely Leah, Ever-Friendly Emma, Loving Libby, Captain Colin (a confessed regular contributor to False-Doctrine 101's weekly magazine), our two (married!!!) visitors, the brother of Nathan, and yours truly... a girl who will be OLD tomorrow. After viewing artists' impressions of Moses, Samuel, the brother of Jared and Joseph Smith receiving revelation, we discussed how everyone is entitled to revelation, particularly Personal Revelation (PR), and how PR is necessary if we wish to lead a "successful life" and eventually achieve exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom (CK). Important life choices that were suggested as ones which should be made with the guidance of PR included employment changes, choosing to serve a mission, and choosing an Eternal Companion (EC). Thanks to Colin for another wonderful lesson. (~And thanks to Emily for this wonderful post!~)

Now presenting, the mysterious book with the missing title-page!

In the very unfortunate absence of Colin from Sunday school today, Stalwart Scott was there steadily behind the reins of the lesson. After shocking us by being first in the class room instead of the last (due to the weekly battle of fighting his way through the crowds outside the ward library) he showed us the second half the video, about the young Italian priest who found the nameless book without a title page. I'll admit it was a while before I could remember the first half of the video though... This second half showed what happened as this man read the account of the Saviour's visit to the Americas, as he prayed about it and received a testimony of it. He began using this book in his sermons to the congregation at church, and soon fell into trouble with the higher church leaders, who wanted him to burn this strange book. But because of his testimony of the truthfulness of this book he refused to burn it, saying in doing so he would offend God. He continued to study and share this book with anyone who would listen, and after many years was able to find the origin of this book and the church it was published by, and much later finally be baptised as an old (well grey, at least) man into the true church by one holding the authority of God. This man is definately an example to us all of standing firm in his faith and enduring to the end. We can also learn from this that Heavenly knows his children and will lead the earnest seeker to the truth, and the power of the Book of Mormon to those who read it and pray with a sincere heart and real intent. Thanks Scott for organising this uplifting lesson for us.

Dancing clowns, shiatsu massage and the life-cycle of the African dung-beetle...

The heat has finally hit (or gently bumped) Hobart and it's time for a bit of summer fun! So here's your chance to exercise some major creativity and originality...

If you could do anything, absolutely ANYTHING, for a ysa activity, realistic or purely imaginative, what would it be? It could involve unicorns, vikings, the Tardis, albino mountain goats or even a ukelele. It could be set in Hobart, the West Indies, Siberia, the Amazon rainforests, Antarctica or the outer orbit of Jupitor. It could be with the ward, the stake, the world, or the inhabitants of Kolob.

Get those creative juices flowing and post your ideas in the comments below. Prizes for the most inventive post and the best realistic idea. You can post as many ideas as you like!

RADelaide 2008

The journey over sea and land was a small price to pay (ok so it actually cost a bit) for Rosny-ites Fi, Bek and Maz to attend the 2008/09 Adelaide YSA convention! With a good sized bunch from the Great Island State, the Tasmanians were a much noticed presence. Though apparently not enough to compete in the tug-of-war. Next time, next time... Some of the fun times packed into the intense and sleep-deprived 6 days include lots of dances, including a ball at the HILTON HOTEL!! Mmm they had good food there too. Beach day...spent mostly at a park near the beach because the sun took forever to come out. Explore Adelaide day, workshops, testimony meeting, service projects such as attending the temple or giving blood (I much prefer the first one!), fancy dress New Years dance, and talent show. Definately lots of fun and worth going to! For those who attended, what was your favourite part, or some funny stories that happened?

Cornerstones, Keystones and Capstones

A new year, a new Sunday School topic, the possibilities are endless! This year we will be studying the Doctrine and Covenants and began the year with a bit of an intro. We were going to watch a video that Colin brought, but after several seconds of staring at the box decided to wait until next week when we can have the video player. Instead we watched the circle of Zarahemla (which will be needing a new name this year) transformed into the capstone of the Salt Lake temple upon which the statue of the angel Moroni stands (nice link between BoM and D&C don't you think?). The church and gospel of Christ have been likened to architectural features. For example, in Ephesians we read that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, or the first stone laid. We have had Joseph Smith declare that the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, or the stone which supports the structure. But another one I hadn't heard before, was the Doctrine and Covenants being likened to the capstone. The capstone of the Salt Lake temple was ceremoniously laid as the last stone of the building structure to be put in place. Likewise, in this dispensation the revelations now recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants gave the final pieces needed to fully restore Christ's church upon the earth. We look forward to an exciting year of learning more about these revelations.