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  • My heart filled with the Spirit as I listened to these families

  • teach that sacred truth: the family is of God.

  • Inspiring music is just one of the many ways

  • we can feel the Spirit whisper to us, filling us

  • with light and truth.

  • The concept of being filled with light and truth

  • became particularly important to me because of an experience

  • I had many years ago.

  • I attended a meeting where members of the Young Women

  • general board taught about creating spiritually

  • strong families and homes.

  • To visually demonstrate this, a Young Women leader

  • held up two soda cans.

  • In one hand she held a can that was empty,

  • and in the other hand a can that was unopened and full of soda.

  • First she squeezed the empty can.

  • It began to bend and then collapsed under the pressure.

  • Next, with her other hand, she squeezed the unopened can.

  • It held firm.

  • It didn't bend or collapse like the empty can--because it was

  • filled.

  • We likened this demonstration to our individual lives

  • and to our homes and families.

  • When filled with the Spirit and with gospel truth,

  • we have the power to withstand the outside forces

  • of the world that surround and push against us.

  • However, if we are not filled spiritually,

  • we don't have the inner strength to resist the outside pressures

  • and can collapse when forces push against us.

  • Satan knows that in order for us and our families

  • to withstand the pressures of the world,

  • we must be filled with light and gospel truth.

  • So he does everything in his power

  • to dilute, distort, and destroy the truth of the gospel

  • and to keep us separated from that truth.

  • Many of us have been baptized and have

  • received the gift of the Holy Ghost, whose role it

  • is to reveal and teach the truth of all things.

  • With the privilege of that gift comes the responsibility

  • to seek truth, to live the truth we know,

  • and to share and defend the truth.

  • One place where we best seek to be filled with light and truth

  • is in our own homes.

  • The words in the chorus of the song we heard remind us,

  • "God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be."

  • Families are the Lord's workshop on earth

  • to help us learn and live the gospel.

  • We come into our families with a sacred duty

  • to help strengthen each other spiritually.

  • Strong, eternal families and Spirit-filled homes

  • do not just happen.

  • They take great effort, they take time,

  • and they take each member of the family doing his or her part.

  • Every home is different, but every home

  • where even one individual seeks for truth

  • can make a difference.

  • We are continually counseled to increase

  • our spiritual knowledge through prayer and through studying

  • and pondering the scriptures and the words of the living

  • prophets.

  • In his general conference talk about receiving a testimony

  • of light and truth, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said,

  • "The Everlasting and Almighty God ...

  • will speak to those who approach Him with a sincere heart

  • and real intent.

  • He will speak to them in dreams, visions, thoughts,

  • and feelings."

  • President Uchtdorf continues:

  • "God cares about you.

  • He will listen, and He will answer your personal questions.

  • The answers to your prayers will come in His own way

  • and in His own time, and therefore, you

  • need to learn to listen to His voice" (end quote).

  • A short family history story illustrates this counsel.

  • Several months ago I read the testimony

  • of my great-grandfather's sister Elizabeth Staheli Walker.

  • As a child, Elizabeth immigrated to America from Switzerland

  • with her family.

  • After Elizabeth married, she and her husband and children

  • lived near the Nevada border, where they ran a mail station.

  • Their home was a stopping place for travelers.

  • All day and all night they had to be ready to cook and serve

  • meals for travelers.

  • It was hard, exhausting work, and they had little rest.

  • But the greatest thing that concerned Elizabeth

  • was the conversation of the people they associated with.

  • Elizabeth said that up to this time

  • she had always taken for granted that the Book of Mormon

  • was true, that the Prophet Joseph Smith had been

  • authorized of God to do what he did,

  • and that his message was the plan of life and salvation.

  • But the life she was experiencing was anything

  • but what would strengthen such a belief.

  • Some of the travelers who stopped

  • were well-read, educated, smart men,

  • and always the talk around her table

  • was that Joseph Smith was "a sly fraud" who

  • had written the Book of Mormon himself

  • and then distributed it to make money.

  • They acted as if to think anything else

  • was absurd, claiming "that Mormonism was bunk."

  • All this talk made Elizabeth feel isolated and alone.

  • There was no one to talk to, no time to even say her prayers,

  • although she did pray as she worked.

  • She was too frightened to say anything to those

  • who ridiculed her religion.

  • She said she didn't know but what

  • they were telling the truth, and she

  • felt she could not have defended her belief if she had tried.

  • Later, Elizabeth and her family moved.

  • Elizabeth said she had more time to think

  • and was not so distracted all the time.

  • She often went down to the cellar

  • and prayed to Heavenly Father about what

  • was troubling her, about the stories those seemingly

  • smart men had told about the gospel being bunk

  • and about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

  • One night Elizabeth had a dream.

  • She said: "It seemed I was standing by a narrow wagon

  • road, which led around by the foot of a low rolling hill;

  • halfway up the hill I saw a man looking down and speaking,

  • or seemed to be speaking, to a young man

  • who was kneeling and leaning over a hole in the earth.

  • His arms were stretched out, and it

  • looked as if he was reaching for something in the hole.

  • I could see the lid of stone that

  • seemed to have been taken off from the hole over which

  • the boy was bending.

  • On the road were many people, but none of them

  • seemed to be at all interested in the two men on the hillside.

  • There was something that came along with the dream that

  • impressed me so strangely that I woke right up; ...

  • I could not tell my dream to anyone,

  • but I seemed to be satisfied that it meant the angel Moroni

  • [instructed] the boy Joseph at the time he got the plates."

  • In the spring of 1893, Elizabeth went to Salt Lake City

  • to the dedication of the temple.

  • She described her experience: "In there I

  • saw the same picture [that] I had seen in my dream;

  • I think it was [a] colored-glass window.

  • I feel satisfied that if I saw the Hill Cumorah itself,

  • it would not look more real.

  • I feel satisfied that I was shown in a dream

  • a picture of the angel Moroni giving Joseph

  • Smith the [gold] plates."

  • Many years after having this dream and several months

  • before she died at nearly age 88,

  • Elizabeth received a powerful impression.

  • She said, "The thought came to me as plain ...

  • as if someone had said to me, ...

  • 'Do not bury your testimony in the ground.'" Generations

  • later, Elizabeth's posterity continues to draw strength from

  • her testimony.

  • Like Elizabeth, we live in a world of many doubters

  • and critics who ridicule and oppose the truths we hold dear.

  • We may hear confusing stories and conflicting messages.

  • Also like Elizabeth, we will have

  • to do our best to hold on to whatever light and truth

  • we currently have, especially in difficult circumstances.

  • The answers to our prayers may not come dramatically,

  • but we must find quiet moments to seek

  • greater light and truth.

  • And when we receive it, it is our responsibility to live it,

  • to share it, and to defend it.

  • I leave you with my testimony that I

  • know as we fill our hearts and homes with the Savior's light

  • and truth, we will have the inner strength

  • to withstand in every circumstance.

  • In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

  • Amen.

My heart filled with the Spirit as I listened to these families

Subtitles and vocabulary

B1 US elizabeth truth filled gospel testimony joseph smith

Filling Our Homes with Light and Truth

  • 40 1
    吳欣安 posted on 2015/05/31
Video vocabulary

Keywords

strength

US /strɛŋkθ, strɛŋθ, strɛnθ/

UK /streŋθ/

  • noun
  • Condition of being strong
  • Power or effectiveness gained by a large group of people or things.
  • The number of people in an organization or group.
  • The number of people in a group or organization.
  • A good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person or thing.
  • other
  • The degree or intensity of something.
  • The degree to which something is effective or likely to succeed legally.
  • The ability of a material to withstand force or pressure.
  • The ability to withstand pressure or force; power to resist.
  • The quality of being morally strong.
  • The quality or state of being physically strong.
  • A good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person or thing.
  • The ability of a material to withstand force or pressure.
hold

US /hold/

UK /həʊld/

  • verb
  • To agree to keep something for someone
  • To have the capacity to support/contain something
  • To control an area and protect it from attack
  • To not allow someone to leave a place
  • To cause an event to happen at a place or time
  • To use hands or arms to carry or keep something
  • To have a specific quality or property
  • To keep an image, belief or feeling in your mind
  • To have or own something
  • To wait before being able to talk on the phone
  • To limit the movement of someone in a sport
  • noun
  • Section of a ship or plane used for storing things
  • Influence or power held over someone
  • Place of support for hands or feet when climbing
light

US /laɪt/

UK /laɪt/

  • other
  • The natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible.
  • adjective
  • Not burdensome or demanding; easy.
  • Pale in color; not dark.
  • Being bright making it easy to see; not dark
  • Being pale and lacking darkness of color
  • Not heavy; weighing only a little
  • noun
  • An expression in the eyes indicating a particular emotion.
  • A source of energy that makes a room or area bright
  • A person who is a source of inspiration or guidance.
  • A lamp, bulb, or similar device used to provide illumination.
  • A traffic signal.
  • Knowledge or understanding.
  • Way in which something or someone is understood
  • other
  • To ignite or set fire to something.
  • To provide with light; illuminate.
  • verb
  • To cause something to burn; put a burning match to
  • To provide a way to see ahead
  • adverb
  • Carrying few bags when traveling
squeeze

US /skwiz/

UK /skwi:z/

  • noun
  • Amount of liquid from firmly pressing e.g. orange
  • Act of putting pressure on, as to get liquid out
  • When there is not enough space for things/people
  • Act of firmly pressing on two or more sides
  • verb
  • To force or threaten someone to give you something
  • To strongly compress something to get liquid out
  • To be pressed together or crowded into an area
  • To press together the opposite sides of something
  • To reduce the amount of something
empty

US /ˈɛmpti/

UK /'emptɪ/

  • other
  • To become empty.
  • adjective
  • Having no people present; evacuated.
  • Lacking substance or meaning; hollow.
  • Containing nothing; with no contents
  • Containing nothing; not filled or occupied.
  • Without emotions, feelings, meaning or force
  • Without real value or sincerity.
  • other
  • To remove all the contents of (a container or space).
  • noun
  • Item, e.g. a bottle, whose contents have been used
  • verb
  • To remove the contents from something
seek

US /sik/

UK /si:k/

  • verb
  • To ask someone for help
  • To ask for (something) from someone.
  • To search for; try to find or do; look for
  • To attempt to find (something).
  • To try to achieve something
spirit

US /ˈspɪrɪt/

UK /'spɪrɪt/

  • noun
  • Person's strong determination or attitude
  • Unique qualities of person, place, or time
  • Part of a person thought to be moved by religion
  • Appearance or sense of a dead person
  • verb
  • To take someone away as if by magic
fill

US /fɪl/

UK /fɪl/

  • noun
  • Act of filling; amount used to make something full
  • verb
  • To make something full
  • To move into all parts of an area
  • To repair a surface by adding a substance to it
  • To use (time); to do something during
  • other
  • To make full.
dream

US /drim/

UK /dri:m/

  • noun
  • A wish or hope for something to happen
  • Imagination or image of something you want
  • Images, thoughts, feelings experienced when asleep
  • verb
  • To wish for something to happen
  • To experience thoughts, images while asleep
family

US /ˈfæmli/

UK /'fæməlɪ/

  • noun
  • Close group of people or organizations
  • A group of people who are related through blood
  • Group of related plants or animals

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