Going to Church - Being in a Stake

I like this verse in D.C. 115:

6And that the ^agathering together upon the land of ^bZion, and upon her ^cstakes, may be for a defense, and for a ^drefuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be ^epoured out without mixture upon the whole earth.

There is a lot of power in gathering with other church members every week in a ward, which is also a unit of a stake. I really appreciate the people I get to know, the lessons they teach, and the Spirit I feel in those meetings. I usually learn something every week and really appreciate the inspiration others give to help me live better.

A great blessing of church is having good examples to follow. I see good families and want to be like them. I also see people who I know are going through tough times but nevertheless are still at church. That is very inspirational.

I appreciate the chance to "gather to Zion and her stakes" on a weekly basis. I hope my posts on Sunday generally reflect how much those meetings mean to me.

Have a great day.

Impact of living a good life - harmon killebrew

I am a Mormon who believes that it's absolutely vital to live a good life, but a lot of times we don't also talk about the church and invite people to church. How is someone going to know that they're invited to church if no one invites them.

In fact, when I was in my last ward, I taught a combined Sunday lesson and mentioned that Elder Ballard said in a conference talk that many non-members don't know that they're invited to our Sunday meetings. There were two recent converts in the meeting and both of them said that they didn't think they were invited to the meetings until someone specifically invited them.

That's very understandable when you remember that non-members and members who aren't living all of the standards are not allowed into the temple (though we want them all to enter in as they become ready). It's not a stretch that most people just assume that they can't come to any Mormon meetings.

So, please talk to people and invite them to meetings.

However, I also wanted to mention that living a great life can have a profound impact on people. Harmon Killebrew was a Mormon and many people have been quoted recently saying that he was the best person they ever knew. This story explains how Charlie Manuel, the manager for the 2009 World Series champion Phillies was convinced to speak at a mostly LDS university in his hometown in Virginia. It was because of the example of Harmon Killebrew, a teammate of his when they played for the Minnesota Twins.

Enjoy the story and remember to be a good person:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700137076/How-Harmon-Killebrew-Charlie-Manuel-blessed-a-small-Virginia-Mormon-community.html