This is section three, and the last of my notes of the Stake fireside three weeks ago. Any misinformation or inaccurate information is the fault of the note taker.

Other signs of the 11^th Hour continued:

• 2nd Nephi 28: Nephi warns of evil actions and evil attitudes. Verse 14: discusses stiff necks and high heads.
• Dc 45: 26-29: wars and rumors of wars. (End of earth means at the end or the last of the 1000 years or the end of the dispensation. Christ comes at the end of the earth.
• The temptation is to become caught up in academic learning and not follow church leaders is something to work for.
• 45:34: not put trust in arm of flesh. There is a temptation to look at church leaders as men. We thank God for a prophet until they say something we don’t agree with. Some may disagree with brethren because they are not politically correct. Precepts of man is when people put their trust in people over God.
• Nibley: never put our trust in temporary words of man rather than the eternal word of god.
• Look at the parable of the 10 virgins, think about it, we can’t share our spiritual development. We don’t do a spiritual marathon. We do gradual growth and development. Drop by drop of oil, we fill the lamp. We can’t do it without the oil. “Those who are wise (virgins) shall not be horn down; but, shall abide the day.
• Joseph Smith’s Matthew, states: who treasures up my word shall not be deceived.
• The gospel shall be shared to all the nations. There is already an increase of full time missionaries. Members are responsible for doing the missionary work and the missionary are responsible for teaching them the gospel. When praying for missionaries we do it wrong. We should pray for ourselves that we become better missionaries. So missionaries can teach them.
• Rev 5:9-10 elder McCombie said blessing of the temple becomes available for saints to access. We have to reach the point where people accept the gospel and become worthy to go to the temple to be ordained Kings and priests/Queens and priestesses etc.
• General suggestions: on reading the signs of the times. It is impossible to create a perfect chronological order of the signs of the times. The scriptures contain divine ambiguity. God does it intentionally.
• Bruce r McCombie: millennial messiah: There is not in a known timeline. Before the final appearance, there are some preliminary Christ appearances. (They are private appearances).
• Millet suggests we spend more of our times in the scriptures provided by the restoration, not the book of Ezekiel or Revelations but modern scriptures such as the BofM and DC and modern prophets.
• Miliot told one lady who was spending too much of the contemplating issues of the Book of Revelations such as trying to interpret the horn of the beast, or the mark of the beast. He suggested she burn Book of Revelation and read the book of Mormon. He humorously told the woman that maybe she was spending too much time on trying to understand Revelation.
• Each dispensation has adequate records for our desperations. The Gospel is revealed that is complete for that dispensation. It also is sufficient to teach us the gospel. Comment by President Romney.
• Last days has a great deal of info in Book of Mormon and doctrine of convenient.
• We also need to look to modern church leaders. Dc 68: Revelations are given to 4 men. Unto you will be shown signs of the times. Verse 11.
• March 1996, m Russel Ballard gave a talk titled: “when these things shall be” at BYU. If we don’t know when Christ will come no man knows. Be extremely worried who claims to be an exception to divine decree.
• 1 Thessalonians, Paul says “of the times and seasons … lord cometh as a thief in the night. Like a very pregnant woman. When people ask the prospective mother when baby come? She answers “Soon!” She does not know the hour. How know = sign of the times. Verse 5.
• Dc 106:4 to warren calbery. Modern prophets will have an idea of times.
• Build a strong doctrinal foundation.
• Maxwell: it amazes me how gullible the Saints are. Our lack of doctrinal knowledge makes us easy prey.
• We need to know the doctrines are. We need to pay attention how leaders provide helpful commentary on scriptures. See how they interpret a parable. Discuss the doctrine of grace.
• Try this exercise this next conference. Have a piece of paper in half. On the left write what is said. On the right have what does the spirt say to me.
• You could also do a paper divided into thirds. What is said, what does the sprit say and then how does that speaker relate the scriptures in their interpretation.
• We need to stay in the main stream of the church. Any deviation to the left or right will be hazardless.
• Allen oaks: we can accelerate our preparation. We ask ourselves, what if he came tomorrow? What would we do today? What testimonies would we bare, what account would we settle?
• When we miss reading the scriptures we feel guilty for missing reading them. But the better emotion would be that we missed the opportunity to learn what we could have learned from the scriptures that day.

Do you have observations of what you learned? Feel free to share in the comment section of this blog.