Lesson Snippet - #3 The Plan of Salvation

Sis. Pressler taught the lesson today from the manual- #3 The plan of salvation. 

I honestly don't know when I have enjoyed a lesson on this so much. We will miss her as she now goes off to serve in Primary but we know there is where she is needed most at this time. 

The lesson had a wonderful story it that was worth sharing: 

 

A man walking along the road happens to fall into a pit so deep and dark that he cannot climb to the surface and regain his freedom. How can he save himself from his predicament? Not by any exertions on his own part, for there is no means of escape in the pit. He calls for help, and some kindly disposed soul, hearing his cries for relief, hastens to his assistance and by lowering a ladder, gives to him the means by which he may climb again to the surface of the earth. This was precisely the condition that Adam placed himself and his posterity in, when he partook of the forbidden fruit. All being together in the pit, none could gain the surface and relieve the others. The pit was banishment from the presence of the Lord and temporal death, the dissolution of the body. And all being subject to death, none could provide the means of escape.

 

The Savior comes along, not subject to that pit, and lowers the ladder. He comes down into the pit and makes it possible for us to use the ladder to escape.

In his infinite mercy, the Father heard the cries of his children and sent his Only Begotten Son, who was not subject to death nor to sin, to provide the means of escape. This he did through his infinite atonement and the everlasting gospel.

Joseph Fielding Smith

Sis Griffin gave this lesson this Sunday. Since we are learning from Joseph Fielding Smith all year from our manual she spotlighted this life. There are 32 pages at the beginning of the manual that talks about his history. She focused on his family, the people who he came from that taught and influenced who he became - especially the women in this life. 

A wonderful quote about him from the manual says this, 

"President Joseph Fielding Smith “used three great words that I can never forget,” recalled President Gordon B. Hinckley. Those words were “true and faithful.” President Hinckley said, “In his public addresses, in his private conversation, in his prayers to the Lord, he pleaded that we might be true and faithful.” President Thomas S. Monson shared a similar memory: “Even in his advanced years, [he] always prayed, ‘May we be true and faithful to the end.^"

“True and faithful.” For President Joseph Fielding Smith, this was more than an often-repeated phrase. It was a heartfelt expression of his hope for all people. It was also a description of his life, from his childhood through his service as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."