Mormon Life - Fast Offering tag

Pair arrested after stealing LDS fast offerings, police say

Wed, 09 May 2012 10:16:00 -0600

source: deseretnews.com

Mormon Life says: Sad! Can you believe this world? A man and a woman have been arrested after allegedly stealing from two teenage boys who were collecting LDS fast offerings.

Brent King, 27, and Hannah Huckabee, 25, drove up to two boys Sunday who were going door to door collecting fast offerings in a neighborhood near 300 East and 500 South in American Fork, said American Fork Police Sgt. Gregg Ludlow.

Young Men Lesson 4: Gathering Fast Offerings

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:03:00 -0700

source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: "The Lord’s admonition that we are stewards for those in need contains some of the strongest language in all of scripture. . . .We are accountable as stewards over earthly blessings, which the Lord has provided." -Quentin L. Cook

Discussion Questions

• What can you do to properly represent Heavenly Father and the Savior as you gather fast offerings? (see 2 Corinthians 9:7).

• Why is it important to have a good attitude about gathering fast offerings?

Excerpt from "Stewardship - A Sacred Trust" Elder Quentin L. Cook, October 2009 General Conference:

We live in perilous times when many believe we are not accountable to God and that we do not have personal responsibility or stewardship for ourselves or others. Many in the world are focused on self-gratification, put themselves first, and love pleasure more than they love righteousness. They do not believe they are their brother’s keeper. In the Church, however, we believe that these stewardships are a sacred trust.

Recently a group of highly respected Jewish leaders and rabbis visited Church facilities in the Salt Lake Valley, including Welfare Square, the Humanitarian Center, the Family History Library, and the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple open house. At the conclusion of their visit, one of the most eminent rabbis in America expressed his feelings about what he had seen and felt. 1

He cited concepts from Jewish thinkers rooted in the Talmud 2 and pointed out that there are two very different reasons people engage in acts of kindness and generosity. Some people visit the sick, assist the poor, and serve their fellowmen because they believe it is the right thing to do and others will reciprocate and do the same for them when they are in need. He explained that while this is good, builds caring communities, and should be considered a noble reason, a higher motive is when we serve our fellowmen because that is what we believe God wants us to do.

He stated that as a result of his visit, he believed the Latter-day Saints undertake welfare and humanitarian efforts and the work of salvation in our temples in order to do what we believe God wants us to do.

To read the full talk, click here.

Car stolen while Provo driver collects LDS fast offerings

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:33:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

Mormon Life says: How horrible! A Provo man learned the hard way that keys should never be left in a car — even when stopping at homes for a moment to collect donations for charity.

Dan Lafontaine volunteered to help collect fast offering donations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when other members of his ward were unable to visit all the houses Sunday. But after stopping at a few homes, Lafontaine made the mistake of leaving the key in the car while visiting a home.

Gospel Principles Lesson 32: Tithes and Offerings

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:24:00 -0600

source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: We should pay [tithes and offerings] as a personal expression of love to a generous and merciful Father in Heaven. Excerpt from "Like a Watered Garden” by Jeffrey R. Holland:

May I then suggest five reasons why all of us, rich or poor, longtime member or newest convert, should faithfully pay our tithes and offerings.

First, do so for the sake of your children and grandchildren, the rising generation, who could now, if we are not careful, grow up in the Church with absolutely no understanding as to how their temples, chapels, seminaries, and socials are provided. Teach your children that many of the blessings of the Church are available to them because you and they give tithes and offerings to the Church. Teach them that those blessings could come virtually no other way.

Then take your children to tithing settlement with you, just as President Howard W. Hunter’s grandson was taken with his father several years ago. In that experience the bishop indicated his pleasure in young Brother Hunter’s wanting to pay a full tithing. In the process of receiving the coins, he asked the lad if he thought the gospel were true. As the boy handed over his full tithing of 14 cents, this seven-year-old said he guessed the gospel was true but “it sure costs a lot of money.” 3 Well, the buildings, programs, and materials I have mentioned do have an attached cost. That is not an unimportant lesson for our children to learn in their youth.

Second, pay your tithing to rightfully claim the blessings promised those who do so. “Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” 4 After she lost her husband in the martyrdom at Nauvoo and made her way west with five fatherless children, Mary Fielding Smith continued in her poverty to pay tithing. When someone at the tithing office inappropriately suggested one day that she should not contribute a tenth of the only potatoes she had been able to raise that year, she cried out to the man, “William, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Would you deny me a blessing? If I did not pay my tithing, I should expect the Lord to withhold His blessings from me. I pay my tithing, not only because it is a law of God, but because I expect a blessing by doing it. [I need a blessing.] By keeping this and other laws, I expect to … be able to provide for my family.” 5

I can’t list all the ways that blessings will come from obedience to this principle, but I testify many will come in spiritual ways that go well beyond economics. In my life, for example, I have seen God’s promise fulfilled that He would “rebuke the devourer for [my sake].” 6 That blessing of protection against evil has been poured out upon me and on my loved ones beyond any capacity I have to adequately acknowledge. But I believe that divine safety has come, at least in part, because of our determination, individually and as a family, to pay tithing.

Third, pay your tithing as a declaration that possession of material goods and the accumulation of worldly wealth are not the uppermost goals of your existence. As one young husband and father, living on a student budget, recently told me, “Perhaps our most pivotal moments as Latter-day Saints come when we have to swim directly against the current of the culture in which we live. Tithing provides just such a moment. Living in a world that emphasizes material acquisition and cultivates distrust for anyone or anything that has designs on our money, we shed that self-absorption to give freely, trustingly, and generously. By this act, we say—indeed—we are different, that we are God’s peculiar people. In a society that tells us money is our most important asset, we declare emphatically it is not.”

*To read the full talk, click here.