Alma King Lamoni and his Father

Alma 20  Have your ever been denied you from associating with someone? If so, why?  Let’s read (remember to look for principles for application) Alma 19:2  Alma 20:8-10  Alma 20:13-16  Alma 20:17-18

“A man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”(Joseph Smith) What precepts (principles) do you see in this story?

Alma 20 What do you do to not get angry?  Parents?  Teachers?  Law Enforcement?  Seminary calls home?  Bishop?  Who can testify of the blessing of not becoming angry?

Agency and Anger (Elder Lynn G. Robbins)

“May I suggest that you watch your temper now, in these formative years of your life.... This is the season to develop the power and capacity to discipline yourselves. You may think it is the macho thing to flare up in anger and swear. It is not the macho thing. It is an indication of weakness. Anger is not an expression of strength. It is an indication of one’s inability to control his thoughts, words, his emotions. Of course it is easy to get angry. When the weakness of anger takes over, the strength of reason leaves. Cultivate within yourselves the mighty power of self ‑ discipline.” (President Hinckley, Oct. 1991, 71)

“To be angry is to yield to the influence of Satan. No one can make us angry. It is our choice. If we desire to have a proper spirit with us at all times, we must choose to refrain from becoming angry.” (President Monson, Oct. 2009)

I believe most of us are familiar with the sad account of Thomas B. Marsh and his wife, Elizabeth. Brother Marsh was one of the first modern-day Apostles called after the Church was restored to the earth. He eventually became President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. While the Saints were in Far West, Missouri, Elizabeth Marsh, Thomas’s wife, and her friend Sister Harris decided they would exchange milk in order to make more cheese than they otherwise could. To be certain all was done fairly, they agreed that they should not save what were called the strippings, but that the milk and strippings should all go together. Strippings came at the end of the milking and were richer in cream. (President Monson, Oct. 2009)

Sister Harris was faithful to the agreement, but Sister Marsh, desiring to make some especially delicious cheese, saved a pint of strippings from each cow and sent Sister Harris the milk without the strippings. This caused the two women to quarrel. When they could not settle their differences, the matter was referred to the home teachers to settle. They found Elizabeth Marsh guilty of failure to keep her agreement. She and her husband were upset with the decision, and the matter was then referred to the bishop for a Church trial. The bishop’s court decided that the strippings were wrongfully saved and that Sister Marsh had violated her covenant with Sister Harris. (President Monson, Oct. 2009)

Thomas Marsh appealed to the high council, and the men comprising this council confirmed the bishop’s decision. He then appealed to the First Presidency of the Church. Joseph Smith and his counselors considered the case and upheld the decision of the high council. Elder Thomas B. Marsh became angrier with each successive decision—so angry, in fact, that he went before a magistrate and swore that the Mormons were hostile toward the state of Missouri. His affidavit led to—or at least was a factor in—Governor Lilburn Boggs’s cruel extermination order, which resulted in over 15,000 Saints being driven from their homes. All of this occurred because of a disagreement over the exchange of milk and cream. (President Monson, Oct. 2009)

After 19 years of rancor and loss, Thomas B. Marsh made his way to the Salt Lake Valley and asked President Brigham Young for forgiveness. Brother Marsh also wrote to Heber C. Kimball, First Counselor in the First Presidency, of the lesson he had learned. Said Brother Marsh: “The Lord could get along very well without me and He … lost nothing by my falling out of the ranks; But O what have I lost?! Riches, greater riches than all this world or many planets like this could afford.” (President Monson, Oct. 2009)

“May we make a conscious decision to refrain from anger and to leave unsaid the harsh and hurtful things we may be tempted to say.” (President Monson, Oct. 2009)

Alma 20 Alma 20: You could have anything right now, what would it be? Alma 20:22-27

Calculate how many hours a missionary is on his mission. Now calculate the average number of converts each missionary gets. Now calculate the average hours spent per convert to the church. Most of your mission will be spent being rejected! Alma 21:4-5, Where did they go wrong?

Alma 21 Effective communication skills  Effective nonverbal communication  Less effective nonverbal communication  Other communication skills? Alma 21:13-14 Awkward reunion 101

“I am like a huge, rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else,... knocking off a corner here and a corner there. Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 304).  What “polishing” missionary experiences have your siblings/parent had?  What have you experienced that has polished you?

Good Timber by Douglas Malloch The tree that never had to fight For sun and sky and air and light, But stood out in the open plain And always got its share of rain, Never became a forest king But lived and died a scrubby thing. The man who never had to toil To gain and farm his patch of soil, Who never had to win his share Of sun and sky and light and air, Never became a manly man But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease: The stronger wind, the stronger trees; The further sky, the greater length; The more the storm, the more the strength. By sun and cold, by rain and snow, In trees and men good timbers grow. Where thickest lies the forest growth, We find the patriarchs of both. And they hold counsel with the stars Whose broken branches show the scars Of many winds and much of strife. This is the common law of life.

Alma King Lamoni and his Father