Sunday, Sep 8th -attended Queensburg Ward to see why membership is down

This Sunday we went to Queensburg Ward. This is the ward that is in trouble, because of a lack of members. We attended once before and this time there is even less people in attendance that the previous time. When we were visiting with the Stake President last Sunday, we asked him if there was a particular ward he would like us to attend and he mentioned the struggles of this ward and how he assigned Brother and Sister Rieckhoff from the Pinetown ward to attend this ward and help them keep things going, so we got the impression this was where he would like us to attend. One of the women, Sister Creak, on our Hillcrest PA Council attends this ward with Brother Creak and they are very nice people. She is the primary president and he is in the bishopric. They are solid, humble people who are making a difference to those who do attend.

We sang my favorite songs in sacrament meeting, "I am a Child of God" and "I Stand All Amazed," so I knew this was going to be a good meeting! The first speaker, Brother Creak, said that the speaker could not be there today, so he found out an hour ago that he needed to fill in. He talked about when he attended Boy's Camp it rained most of the time and their vehicle got stuck in the mud. All the boys piled out of the vehicle and were told to push. It was hard and they almost stopped, but they had faith that if they tried hard enough, Heavenly Father would help them move it. Just when they thought they could push no more, it moved and was out of the muddy trap. He said it reminded him of the song, "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel." The words, "The World Has Need of Willing Men." That is how it starts, with us being willing to do as he asks through the mouth of his prophet.

Even though you have fear that you can't do a good job or don't know enough to teach or do the job you've been called to do, put your faith in Him and He will help you. In Moses 6, Enos was called to preach the Gospel, but he was slow in speech and not at all the kind of person that he thought would be good at teaching others to repent. But, when Enos did what the Lord asked him to do, he had the Spirit in him and spoke eloquently through that Spirit. When we serve wherever the Lord wants us to serve, pray about our lesson and prepare as best we can, the Lord will guide us and put the words in our mouth that we learned through our preparation. Serve with all your have. A lot of prayer goes into who is called to a certain calling. This means that the Lord does the choosing.

One year, Brother Creak said he taught the Merrie Miss class in primary, where he was supposed to teach the girls to become young women. This really surprised me, because I have never heard of a man teaching that class. I taught it myself and I had to chuckle when he said that. He is this very large man who doesn't seem all that sure of himself and admitted that he used to be very afraid to get up and speak in church. This calling surprised him as well, but he was asked to do it and so he did. He had 16 girls in this class. He told us that if he could do that, which was the hardest calling he ever had, then members of the ward could accept and do their callings as well.

Brother Creak then reminded everyone that Elder Bednar is coming in October. He told us to prepare to have the Spirit when he comes. He suggested reading all we could about Elder Bednar to help us feel the Spirit of him and his calling as an Apostle. He said that recently they called someone to serve as Young Men's President that had only been in the Church 5 weeks. He knew the boys knew more than he did and was frightened, but he believed he was called of God and did his best to serve those boys and the Lord blessed him with the gift of the Spirit in his teaching and in his relationships with those boys.

The next speaker was a fairly new member as well. He quoted many scriptures without once reading his Bible. He said that on earth we are racing with God against Satan. In this race, everyone wants to be number one. When the race starts, we have to make sure we win. In this race, no one is expecting to be #2 or to come in last...We are all expecting to be #1. We live our life like we run this race, never giving up...continuing to strive to be #1 until we reach the finish line. Think of the long-suffering of Jesus. He died for everyone, so when they falter in the race, he can pick them up and nudge them forward again. If God said, you have to pay me back everything I gave you," what would you say? Jesus already paid back everyone's debt. We are only asked to pray to Him and to follow Him and His commandments. While you do this Jesus is beside you, your personal cheerleader jumping for joy while you do as is asked. In Matthew 9:21, a woman touches Jesus' garment and is healed. We need to have that kind of faith. We need to always stay close to Him.

If the missionaries want to come to your home, do not think of excuses why that is a bother and you cannot do it; You must be prepared as half of the ten virgins were prepared...prepared to say, "Yes." emember, the Devil used to be an angel of God. The devil knows your weaknesses and exploits them, but God will never let you down, because he loves you. Learn to sacrifice; learn to say 'Thank you" instead of "I can't do that!" Nephi 4:14 says that as much as they keep the commandments, they will prosper in the land. How can you win the race, if you are not running? Fight to beat the devil to the finish line by keeping the commandments until you come in number one.

Sunday School was taught by Brother Rieckhoff. He talked about how the prophet was killed and his foes thought that would be the end of the church, but they did not realize that Joseph was not at the head of the Church, but Jesus Christ is and because of that, the Church survived. Brigham Young was not a popular choice for some people. He wasn't even sure he could do it himself, but he was the one the Lord and Joseph Smith chose to be the Prophet. If the Church was not led by Jesus Christ, it would never have survived all the years of struggle to come. He then talked about how when Jesus knew he was going to die, he spent a lot of time making sure the Apostles knew what to do and had the authority to do it when he was gone. Joseph Smith did the same thing before he died. He spent several days giving his Apostles instructions, making sure they had their temple endowments and instructing them in what to do if something happened to him. They all had the authority and were capable to instantly take over. The question was, "Who?" There was a lot of arguing about who should be the  successor to Joseph Smith. It took about six months and when Brigham Young was chosen instead of their choice, many members fell away from the church; however, when Brigham Young accepted this calling and rose to speak to the congregation, those in attendance said that his voice sounded just like Joseph Smith and that if they closed their eyes, they actually thought it was him. This helped the testimony of all those who heard him speak, because they knew that was a sign that he was supposed to be the next prophet. Brigham Young prophecyed that those who did not follow the 12 apostles would not succeed. This prophecy came true for those who chose not to follow Brigham Young and the Apostles.

He then talked about the saints having to leave Navoo in the winter and pull these handcarts. He told of an experience his ward had trying to do a pioneer trek. They got handcarts made, clothing, food and all the things they could to make it seem like the real thing. The person who built the handcarts put the pieces that could easily be fit together at the spot where they would be leaving for their trek. Unfortunately, it rained that night and wood being prone to expand when wet made it difficult to get the wheels on the cards. Also since they were individually made, he marked with chalk which wheels went into which holes, but in the rain the chalk washed off...

He said they could not make it work without shaving off some of the wood and spending hours trying to fit on the wheels. Some they broke while trying, but eventually they had enough together to get them loaded. Since it had rained the night before, it was very difficult to pull the handcarts through the mud. He said his wife and he pushed until their legs buckled and muscles would not work any more. Plus he had to keep hitting the wheel with a hammer to get it straight so it would turn properly. Then it squeaked terribly. They didn't know what to do, so his wife suggested Vaseline. Of course, this meant taking all the wheels back off, which they finally did. He said the cart was really hard to push or pull. Finally the wheel started to rub against the wood cart and finally created enough friction to cause it to burn, so they stopped, took the wheels off again and cute plastic pieces from jugs to make washers that would keep it from burning. They soon also realized that they should have brought straps to hold the stuff in their carts, because when it tipped, the stuff fell out. They tried to makeshift ties to hold it in, but it was not packed tightly so everything kept moving around and eventually would spill out when you had to let the cart down to rest or change the wheels. When it came time to set up their tents they had a similar experience, where there were many items they needed that they did not have.

It made him think about the pioneers and the fact that they didn't know any more about traveling this way than he did. They all came from back east or England and most were not in shape for the arduous trip any more than he was. He said that on the mock pioneer trip when they got to rocky areas, they had to carry the cart across, because they weren't strong enough to push it over the rocks, Plus they did not have to deal with women who were having children along the way, lack of food, illness and cold weather.


He said they gained a real appreciation for the difficulties the pioneers had crossing the plains. It made them sure that they were not in good enough physical shape to do it. He then talked about being prepared for things like this to happen. We need to keep fit and healthy, because we never know what we will be asked to do. When the time comes, we want to be able to say to the Lord, "I'll go, send me," and then be prepared physically and spiritually to do it.