"What we're facing, brothers and sisters, is not a new situation. I don't know how you've felt as you read the Book of Mormon, but for me the language and literature of Alma has always been my favorite. But I decided after September 11 that I wanted to go back into Helaman. So I've made a study over the last 60 days of the Book of Helaman and can here assert that the events we have before us in 2001 are not new. This has happened before. You don't need to write down these scriptures, just remember the book of Helaman. Go home and study it. Particularly start out at about Chapter 11 and read through the rest of the book and see if, in fact, we don't have a very close tie to what's happening in this world in the year 2001."Go to the link and see all the similarities he sees.
"Let's talk about that scenario. We live in days of prophets. We wouldn't cast them out, would we? We wouldn't have ignored them. Let me just mention a couple of things that we might use as an indicator of how we might apply this to ourselves. Three years ago, President Hinckley talked about debt. He talked about the debt that families go into with plastic money, and some of you in this room are spending more than you should. What has the prophet said about it? Stop it. Don't get into debt. Don't spend more than you have. Save a little because you may need some savings. Our neighbor in Kaysville lost his job yesterday. He's an engineer with an MBA. Even with all that education he lost his job. He had no savings at all. They're not prepared at all the weather the storm of their father and husband being out of work. We found through our studies that three years after President Hinckley's talk, people have more debt. There is a higher level of consumer debt in Utah than there was three years ago. What has the prophet said about food storage over the years? He mentioned it briefly in this last conference. Our studies show us that less than 10 percent of active Latter-day Saints along the Wasatch Front have enough to last for 90 days. We don't stone the prophet. We don't kick him out. We just ignore him.
What does he say about the dress of young people? I don't see anyone here that falls in this category, but he's asked young women not to wear a lot of earrings, to be modest in the one pair they could wear. What about body tattoos? He's asked us not to. I spoke recently to a group of younger students and one raised his hand and said, in effect, "Wasn't that silly for President Hinckley to be worried about such a thing as a tattoo?" We don't cast out the prophets, do we? We just ignore them. I actually found a group of young men who laughed at the idea he would be concerned about young men wearing earrings. Well, we don't cast out the prophet. We just ignore him.
Now that we've gotten into this mess with our affluence and our comfort and our ease and our strong men over fighting a war and trying to root these people out of the mountains and destroy them if we can, let's go look at the rest of what Samuel said. In the rest of the chapters there's one word that summarizes what has to change among the people back home in order to quit stamping under their feet the Holy One of Israel. If you could judge that one word, what would it be? One word. It's a summary of all the rest of Helaman. The word: ingratitude.
Samuel promises the people that if they will understand and live the law of gratitude they would cease to stamp the Lord under their feet. So how do we live the law of gratitude? One way is observance of the Sabbath day. I used to think the Sabbath day was a day of rest. It's not at all; it's a day of thanksgiving. It's a day of expressing gratitude. It's not a day to lie around and do nothing, and it's not necessarily a day to do studies. It's the kind of thing that we can properly use to express gratitude to our Father in Heaven. "You'll have to read the rest of the talk to find out all the other ways Elder Brough says we are like the Nephites. But here is a cute story from Elder Brough about President Hinckley, I can really picture him saying this:
"I tell you the person that practices the law of gratitude more than anyone I know is Gordon B. Hinckley. He feels that he owes it. He has this great sense of debt to the Church and to the people. Two weeks ago, in our temple meeting he was quite emotional as he expressed his love for the people, for their faith and their goodness. He said, "I'd like to just hug everyone of them. And then I'd like to shake them up." You know what I mean. We all need a little shaking up. "
Schools and universities were erected, to which all had access; in the latter Urims were placed, for the study of the past, present and future, and for obtaining a knowledge of the heavenly bodies, and of the constructions of worlds and universes. The inherent properties of matter, its arrangements, laws, mutual relations were revealed and taught and made plain as the primer lesson of a child. The conflicting theories of geologists regarding the formation and age of the earth were settled forever. All learning was based on eternal certainty. Angels brought forth the treasures of knowledge which had lain hid in the womb of the dumb and distant past.
The appliances for making learning easy surpass all conjecture. Chemistry was rendered extremely simple, by the power which the Urims conferred on man of looking into and through the elements of every kind; a stone furnished no more obstruction to human vision than the air itself. Not only were the elements and all their changes and transformations plainly understood but the construction, operations, and laws of mind were thus rendered equally plain as those which governed the coarser elements. While looking through the Urim and Thummim I was amazed at a transformation, which even now is to me marvelous beyond description, clearly showing the manner in which particles composing the inorganic kingdom of nature are conducted upward to become a part of organic forms; another astounding revelation was a view clearly shown me of the entire circulation of the blood both in man and animals. After seeing these things and gazing once more upon the beautiful city, the following passage of Scripture sounded in my ears: �Out of Zion the perfection of beauty God shineth."
" The third category has to do with the nice-to-do things. Those are crafts and hobbies and recreational reading and movies and travel and lunches with friends. A lot of women call this “time out.” These things won’t save us. They add variety to our lives, but they won’t save us. When our priorities are on that list, and our time is devoted to those nice-to-do things, our priorities are out of order, and we lose power.
To walk with the Lord, we have to know what is essential, what is necessary, and what is nice to do. There is a lot to do, but I find that it is amazing how much I get to do on my nice-to-do list. The Lord blesses us with those mercies, but only if the other priorities are in order."
"On my necessary list, then, went some other things. I started thinking about my home and family and what was necessary to create an environment or climate where the Spirit of the Lord would be. There were some necessary things to take care of. Homemaking took on a new meaning for me. I wanted to make a home where the Spirit of the Lord was present. That meant that even mundane tasks like picking things up and cleaning, became necessary to keep a house of order. I wanted to model my house after the temple. Though that is the ideal, it has never been that perfect. We have to live there after all. A house is peopled with people. People make messes, and we can’t be little soldiers, but it made a difference to me to know that I wanted a house of order. It became a priority to make a place where the Spirit of the Lord could come.
Cooking meals for my family took on added meaning because I needed a place to teach and gather and have the Lord’s Spirit there. It was important to invest my effort in making a home.
At one time I was going through some challenges, and one of my daughters came home from school and put another item on my necessary list. I said, “I don’t feel like I’m contributing what I should or what I could,” and she said, “You could smile. Mother, you could smile.” I thought, “That is a great service.” Smiling took on added meaning for me. Being happy around my family and other people was necessary.
I learned some things from the scriptures—that it is necessary to teach my children to pray and walk uprightly before the Lord. Things like family home evening and time recreating with our family became more necessary and more important. I thought more about my husband and supporting him, and I studied Doctrine and Covenants section 25, in which the Lord tells Emma Smith to be a comfort to her husband with consoling words and a spirit of meekness.5 That took on more importance, and it was more necessary to me to be kind to my husband and to support him in his heavy responsibilities. I also learned from that section in verse 10 to “lay aside the things of [the] world, and seek for the things of a better,” to not ask him to provide things for me we couldn’t afford but value the things that were important for our family—to “seek for the things of a better” and not be tantalized by “the things of the world” that were glamorous. Becoming self-reliant became more important to me.
I have been reviewing Elder Hales’s words in his talk on provident living and self-reliance about debt.6 When we go into debt, we give away some of our precious, priceless agency and place ourselves in self-imposed servitude. As our freedom is diminished by debt, increasing hopelessness depletes us physically, depresses us mentally, burdens us spiritually. Our self-image is affected, as well as our relationships with our spouse and children, with our friends and neighbors, and ultimately with the Lord.
Becoming self-reliant temporally affects our spiritual self-reliance, and we are going to need to be more temporally self-reliant in the days to come in order to have strong spirits and help the Lord.
Loving one another goes on the necessary list and a few other things. You can make your own list of what is necessary, but there are things that are essential and things that are necessary in order for us to fulfill our responsibilities in the house of Israel and to fulfill our mission."
January 6, 2011
Sincerely,Timothy F. Geithner
".....there has to be some prioritizing. I was taught years ago that when our priorities are out of order, we lose power. If we need power and influence to carry out our mission, then our priorities have to be straight.
Years ago I began using a system that works for me, and maybe it will work for you. There was a time when I needed to prioritize, and in one of those sacred meetings between me and the Lord, He gave me three categories that I have worked from, and they have been a guide in my life. The categories are the essential things, the necessary things, and the nice-to-do things. I started writing those things down. I asked, “What has to go in the category of essential?” What things must be taken care of, and if I don’t take care of them, the blessings of eternal life won’t be mine nor will they be my family’s.
I wrote at the top of the essential list revelation. I have to be able to know the mind and will of God. Therefore, I have to do the things in my life that put me in a position to hear His voice. Reading the scriptures then became an essential for me because the scriptures contain the mind and will of God, and by reading and studying from them, I can hear His voice and receive His guidance in all aspects of my life. I came up with a simple rule that was easy for me to keep: Every day I will spend some time in the scriptures. The accumulative power and learning of that commitment has changed my life and helped me learn daily the mind and will of God.
Personal prayer took on new meaning when I knew that I needed to know the mind and will of God. I have taken a paper and pencil with me most of the time since then to my prayers. I don’t always receive an answer or instruction, but I am ready. I want to be ready to learn what the Lord would have me do in my day. Who needs my help? How can I increase my faith this day? How can I strengthen my family? What things do I need to correct in order to be worthy to receive His Spirit? He will tell me.
Taking time to ponder and fast with sincerity took on added meaning when I knew that revelation was an essential for me. Making covenants and keeping covenants is on the essential list. Going to sacrament meeting and repenting every week took on added meaning. Going to the temple and fulfilling that responsibility frequently became an essential. Sharing the gospel is something the Lord tells us is an essential, and we are charged as part of the house of Israel to share that message. I need to open my mouth and find ways to share and express my testimony. Service took on added meaning. The Lord said if you want eternal life, give all that you have and follow me.4 So those things went on my essentials list. The list wasn’t very long, but there were essential things that I could see to and make sure that they were taken care of."
"Fear shall come upon all people. But you and I know that the Lord has prepared places of safety to which He is eager to guide us. I think of that often. A few days ago, I heard two accounts of God leading His children to safety on the coast of Thailand when that monstrous tsunami wave struck.
One was of people who accepted His apparently routine invitation to a Church meeting on a Sunday. The meeting was called by ordinary men who hold the priesthood of God. The meeting place was on higher ground, away from the coast. The people who gathered with the Saints were spared from physical death, while the places on the coast where they would have been were destroyed. As they were spared physical death, they were being strengthened against spiritual temptation and the wave of eternal tragedy it will bring to those who are disobedient.
The other account I heard was related to me by a Latter-day Saint who was led to safety by the Holy Ghost. He checked into a hotel on the ocean front in Thailand the day before the wave struck. He walked out on the beach. He felt uneasy. He went back to his hotel determined to check out. The hotel staff, I think worried that he didn’t like the hotel, pressed him for a reason. They only reluctantly agreed to his leaving. He moved to another hotel, away from the beach. It was on higher ground. Because of that, he not only survived but stayed to serve the survivors.
The Lord is anxious to lead us to the safety of higher ground, away from the path of physical and spiritual danger. His upward path will require us to climb. My mother used to say to me when I complained that things were hard, “If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill.” And as the world becomes darker and more dangerous, we must keep climbing. It will be our choice whether or not to move up or to stay where we are. But the Lord will invite and guide us upward by the direction of the Holy Ghost, which He sends to His leaders and to His people who will receive it...."
"Just as pondering the scriptures invites the companionship of the Holy Ghost, so does doing the things we have been told to do and doing them promptly. We are promised that the scriptures and the Holy Ghost will tell us all things that we should do. When we go and do what we have been told and do it the best we can, we qualify for more instructions of what to do. If we do not act, we will not receive further instructions. My hero in this is the prophet Nephi, described in the book of Helaman. He is my example for “Go and do.”
And behold, now it came to pass that when the Lord had spoken these words unto Nephi, he did stop and did not go unto his own house, but did return unto the multitudes who were scattered about upon the face of the land, and began to declare unto them the word of the Lord which had been spoken unto him, concerning their destruction if they did not repent (Helaman 10:12).
His immediate obedience brought him the companionship of the Holy Ghost, just as it will for you and me. Here is the account:
The power of God was with him, and they could not take him to cast him into prison, for he was taken by the Spirit and conveyed away out of the midst of them."
"I testify to you that the Holy Ghost can speak to your heart and your mind. And you can train yourselves to know that voice in such a way that you might move away from the beach as that man did in Thailand, or might be impressed to go to a sacrament meeting when you are on vacation, as people did in Thailand. They could have easily said, “Well, we are on vacation.” But no, they went to where the Lord wanted them to go.
You will be the ones who will be able to hear the voice of the Spirit, and it will bless you in the times ahead. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
Food inflation will become America's top crisis.
Prices of goods and services do not rise equally when governments create monetary inflation. Inflation gravitates most towards the items that Americans need the most and there is nothing that Americans need more to survive than food and agriculture. As the U.S. government prints money, the first thing Americans will spend it on is food. Americans can cut back on energy use by moving into a smaller home and carpooling to work. They can cut back on entertainment, travel, and other discretionary spending. However, Americans can never stop spending money on food.
The days of cheap food in America are coming to an end. The recent unprecedented rise that we have seen in agricultural commodity prices is showing no signs of letting up. In the past few days, sugar futures reached a new 30-year high, coffee futures reached a new 13-year high, orange juice futures reached a new 3-year high, corn futures reached a new 29-month high, soybean futures reached a new 27-month high, and palm oil futures reached a new 33-month high.
We estimate that it takes as long as six months for rising agricultural commodity prices to be felt by U.S. consumers in their local supermarket. Even if food producers and retailers accept substantially lower profit margins in 2011, we are still guaranteed to see double-digit across the board U.S. food inflation in the first half of the year. That is correct, let us repeat, NIA guarantees that Americans will see double-digit food inflation in the first half of 2011.
"Old black water
keep on rolling
Mississippi moon won't you keep on shinin on me.
Gonna make ever- thang, pretty mama,
gonna make ever- thang all right"
