July 24

The D&C lesson was on the Kirtland Temple Dedication.  I love Church History.  To expedite the historical portion of the lesson, I made a power point presentation.  I found one on the S&I website, but it was not quite want I wanted, so I borrowed some of the ideas there, found my own pictures, and created ten slides to tell the history of the Kirtland Temple.  It was fun to do, and it successfully gave the historical background in a succinct manner.  I, frankly, was surprised how much I remembered about making power point slides, and how easily the whole project was done.  I love technology--especially when it works for me.

We, of course, read the 110 section of the D&C and parts of the 109 section.  We looked for blessings asked for in the dedicatory prayer after which I gave the YSAs a copy of the dedicatory prayer for the Fiji Temple and we looked for blessings asked especially for Fiji.

It is interesting to note that Fiji was in the middle of a coup when the temple was dedicated on 18 June 2000.  Because of the coup there was no open house and, of course, no cultural celebration.  No large gatherings were permitted at that time.  If I remember correctly, President Hinckley was assured by the government that he could come and would be safe.  He was whisked into Suva, dedicated the temple in one very small session, and then whisked out.  One of the students mentioned that just like the Nauvoo Temple, the Fiji Temple was dedicated under a state of civil unrest.  True.  One of the blessing asked for in the dedicatory prayer was that Fiji would always have religious freedom.

Right now in Fiji there is a movement to limit religious freedom.  The movement wants to limit government recognized religions to Christian religions.  It does seem significant that 37.6% of the citizens of Fiji are Indian some of whom are Christian, but many are not.

Taught the Doctrine of the Gospel lesson tonight on prayer.  The entire lesson was just open ended questions.  We had the best discussion and it was very spiritual.