World Wide Leadership Training 2013

The Lord needs us to do His work and he will put all of His power behind it.  D&C 84:88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.  President Eyring testified of the importance of this training.

“The power that is with us is infinitely greater than the forces that attack true happiness.  Our safety and our success require only that we align our intents and our hearts with God’s wishes and so with His power.  This training is a guide and an encouragement to make that alignment and to take others with us.  I bear you my witness that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live.  They love you and your family.  They are perfectly aware of you; your needs, your wants, and your potential.  The blessings of the priesthood and its keys are available to you and to every member of your family everywhere in the world.  You can be sure of that even in the dark times.  Our families can be strong and at peace.”

President Eyring further said, “This training is designed to help us learn, through the power of the Holy Ghost, how Heavenly Father would have us minister, particularly in families.”

Your ward should have been given a DVD of this training but it is also available online. https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013?lang=eng    It is easily downloadable or can be watched via streaming.  We have been encouraged to use it in Stake and Ward Councils as well as in families and in our callings.  Each video segment has a PDF discussion guide that can help facilitate discussion in families and in council meetings.

This is a valuable resource for the sisters in your wards to use to strengthen their families through family home evening lessons, personal gospel study, and family gospel study.  It is also a valuable resource to help sisters who do not live in a home where a priesthood holder resides understand that they also have access to priesthood power in their homes.

This training encourages us to counsel together and to draw more fully on the power of the priesthood in our callings.  Barbara W. Winder, a former General Relief Society President said,  “unity is ‘not simply a matter of the sisters working together, but that we are partners with the priesthood bretheren.  We are companions in the work.’” (pp. 141)  We are equally responsible as brothers and sisters to move this work forward.

Elder Oaks said, “The prophet Joseph Smith told the early sisters that he had something better for them than a written constitution.  Being organized under priesthood authority they were to reject worldly concepts of power and seek the power that flows down from heaven for those functions and to those individuals who are using their time and talents in the Lord’s way.”

When teaching about the World Wide Leadership Training 2013, the General Relief Society Training 2013 beautifully taught how we have access to priesthood power

·         When we access priesthood ordinances

·         When we make and keep sacred covenants

·         When we participate in all aspects of temple work (remembering covenants and promised blessings)

·         When we renew covenants through the sacrament

·         When we receive delegated authority when we are set apart in our callings

·         When we work in unity in priesthood councils, in ward councils, in stake councils, in family councils and when we are counseling together in our presidencies

·         When we receive priesthood blessings

·         “Through delegated authority and personal righteousness ward and stake Relief Society presidents can act with priesthood power.  We can receive inspiration, have access to all the gifts of the sprit, have the sustaining blessing of the Lord’s power in our callings, and have confidence that the Lord will direct our work.  Through covenant making and righteous covenant keeping all sisters can have access to priesthood power in calling down the blessing of heaven for themselves, for their families, and in their callings.”

This training bears powerful testimony of the need for us to continue on the covenant path and for us to help the sisters within our stewardship to make and keep all of the sacred covenants available to us through the priesthood of God.

President Eyring said “Never waste an opportunity to teach and exemplify the love of God extended through the priesthood.”

Please encourage your sisters to use this training in their homes.  The Holy Ghost will testify of the truth contained therein and their homes will be strengthened and protected by an increased faith in the power of the priesthood.