Institute Visitors-- October 24

Slightly out of order, but I didn't want to forget when Pro, and Sister Martin from the Ft. Smith Ward were our guest speakers at Institute.  They are parents to a couple of our YA members.  Bro. Martin had been the stake president for 10 years until about 3 years ago, so he is well know and beloved throughout the stake.  His wife is a choir teacher at a local junior high and both of them are great singers.  We invited them to share about their love of sacred music and how it has impacted them throughout their lives.  Bro. Martin was able to sing in the recent temple dedication and I also asked him to share about that experience.

Both of them did a great job in their presentation. 

Sister Martin shared that when she was a teenager, she heard the advice by Boyd Packer to use memorize hymns to help control your thoughts.  She said she felt like her thoughts weren't good, so she decided to memorize several hymns.  She would prop up the hymnal on the window sill as she washed dishes at night and that way, she memorized many hymns and she found it to be so helpful to controlling her thoughts as a teenager.  However, those songs have blessed her life as an adult in so many ways.  She encouraged us all to memorize some hymns.

Bro. Martin wrote an outline for his remarks on the chalkboard which you can see below.

Two highlights:

In talking about singing in the temple dedication (the bottom part of the outline), he indicated that he had even more powerful experiences learning and memorizing the hymns in his bedroom at home than even singing in the temple.  Both were hugely powerful, but his point was that our private experiences with the hymns is something that we can all have.  We don't need to wait to sing in some special event.

Second, he shared the following about the power of hymns in his life.  He stated--"They....

a. Lifts my spirit

b. Makes me happy

c. Strengthens my faith

d. Connects me with heaven."

Amen to all of that.  That is the very message we are repeating over and over while we studied these precious hymns.

Don't you wish that you came to our Institute class each Tuesday night!

(Thursday's are great, too, in different ways. :) )