We had a lovely Sunday School experience.
The Aimans shared personal experiences related to Elder Bednar’s April 2024 talk, “Be Still, and Know that I am God.” When they were tour guides for the Red Rock Temple Open House, Sister Aiman was able to serve in the Celestial Room as tours came through on their silent tour. She recalled how people would gasp as they walked into the Celestial Room, how you could sense God’s presence, and how the little children would run their hands on the carpet to feel it as if they were tangibly feeling the Spirit. Br. Aiman noted that “Be still” is a command form (Br. Hancock suggested thinking of it as an 11th commandment). “Be still” is a recipe for us to be able to know God, to seek a relationship with God through the Holy Ghost.
The Smiths shared a prompting to begin family scripture study when their children were little, and they began the very next day at the kids’ bedtime. The kids learned to read and count with the Book of Mormon. They consistently read every night, sometimes on the phone. The consistency put them in the place (in the scriptures) where they needed to be. For example, they read Ether 2 one night, up until about verse 20, and stopped for some reason with only a few verses left. The next day was the day Rexburg received the isolated flooding from a huge rainstorm. Their house was one of those that flooded. That night as they gathered for scriptures and looking for comfort, they finished Ether 2: 24-25:
“…for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth. And behold, I prepared you against these things…” As they had consistently read, they were put in the right place for the comfort they needed at the right time.
They also shared how they study Come, Follow Me as a couple. They read the lesson individually on Sunday for the coming week, highlighting things that stick out to them, and then share that with each other. Using the Gospel Library app, they can read through the lesson and link scriptures to part of the lesson, then as they read the verses throughout the week, they are linked back to the Come, Follow Me lessons - to relevant questions or insights. They testified of the tender mercies that come through regular scripture study, citing Helaman 3:29-30,
“Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which i quick and power, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across the everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked - And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.”
The Hanks talked about using music in our homes to teach the gospel and invite the Spirit. Sister Hank's mom played church music and/or scripture stories each night as the kids settled in for bed. They listened to church music on their long drive to and from church each Sunday. Sister Hanks noted that in D&C 25, we are reminded about hymns being equated with putting prayers upon our heads. She and the class talked about the various blessings that we receive as we turn to good music or make it a part of our lives: stillness, developing talents, witness of the Spirit, reverence, remembering, love, and that answers can come to us through the truths of the hymns. Sister Hans shared the story of Sister Neill F. Marriot first feeling God’s love through music, and then years later as she searched for that same love, she found it in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Br. Hanks shared the testimony of President Hinckley singing, “Praise to the Man” at the age of 12, and receiving an undeniable testimony of Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling.