TheGathering

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Sister HollandWhile working on his Ph.D. at Yale University, my husband (Elder Holland) got to know well

one of the senior reference librarians who had given him valuable help researching for his dissertation.

On a whim one day, he said, "Ilene, I need to know how many books we have in either the Sterling Memorial or Beinike Rare Book Libraries that claim to have been delivered by an angel."

The librarian gave him a peculiar look (but my husband has always received peculiar looks) and said, "I don't know of any books that have been delivered by angels. Swords maybe. Or chariots. But I don't know of any books."

"Well, just run a check for me would you? It may take a little doing, but I really would like to know. It would help me with some religious writing I am doing." (Now, please understand that Yale has the fourth-largest library in the nation, with nearly 9,000,000 volumes in its collection.)

Ilene dutifully did some checking. For several days she had nothing to report, but then one day was all smiles as my husband strolled by to his carrel.

"Mr. Holland, yoo hoo," she said, very unlibrarianlike. "I have a book for you. I found one book which, it is claimed, was delivered by an angel. But it's one from your people," she said. (She always spoke of Latter-day Saints as my husband's people, which probably meant she had him confused with Wilford Woodruff.)

"But it's one from your people," she said, and she held up a paperback copy of the Book of Mormon. "I'm told you can get them for a dollar."

"My word," she continued. "An angel's book for a dollar. You would think angels would charge more, but then again, where would they spend it?" (BYU Devotional, Sept 86)

The House of Windsor

House of Kings and Queens

Title:

Defender of the Faith

Heirs

Linage in the Windsor family

The House of Israel

Son and Daughters of Christ

Covenants with Abraham

Genesis 17 JST And thou shalt observe to keep all my covenants

wherein I covenanted with thy fathers; and thou shalt keep the commandments which I have given thee with mine own mouth, and I will be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee.

And I will give unto thee and thy seed after thee, a land wherein thou art a stranger; all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

The Abrahamic Covenant with Israel

1. Be ministers of the Gospel to the world (the nations of the earth blessed)

2. Have Eternal increase

3. Inherit a promised land

4. Have the right to hold the Holy Priesthood

5. Become heirs of all God has

Question

Is the Covenant unfair to everyone not “of the covenant”?

Melvin J. Ballard

"Israel is a group of souls tested, tried, and proven before they were born into

the world. . . . Through this lineage were to come the true

and tried souls that had demonstrated their righteousness in the spirit world before they came here.

President Harold B. Lee"Those born to the lineage of Jacob, who was later

to be called Israel, and his posterity, who were known as the children of Israel, were born

into the most illustrious

lineage of any of those who came upon the earth as mortal beings.

All these rewards were seemingly promised, or

foreordained before the world was.

However- 3 Nephi 16

10 At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, … and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them.

11 And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of

Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them.

Question:

What still needs to be done, in order to “redeem Zion”?

D&C 105

"Behold, I say unto you, were it not for the transgressions of my people, speaking concerning the church and not individuals, they might have been redeemed even now.

But behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which I required at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil, and do not:

1) impart of their substance, as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them;

2) And are not united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom;

And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself. Therefore it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season, for the redemption of Zion." 

Neal A. Maxwell

The subtle and wondrous efficiency of righteous unity is found in the manner in which it moves each man to do more than he ever imagined, or even wanted, to do himself.

Seeing others pass a supposed breaking point without breaking, going a second mile with a burden they are only required to carry one mile, witnessing those falsely accused persist in sweet patience--there is a clear contagion in such things. . . .

One is simply inspired to do more, and his performance is sanctified for the welfare of his soul.

Of One Heart: Look Back at Sodom (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1990), p. 28]