Sacred Grove

Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi was the visiting General Authority at our Stake Conference on Feb 16-17. What a wonderful man! What a wonderful representative of the Lord Jesus Christ! I was so impressed with his teachings. I was able to listen to him in four separate meetings and it was, well, wonderful! :)

In two of the meetings, the Priesthood Leadership meeting and the General Session, he spoke of creating our own Sacred Grove - a designated place we can come each morning to pray and study - a quiet, calm and peaceful place somewhere in our home. He suggested we get up earlier than we usually do so that we have time to pray and study. He suggested that we comb our hair, brush our teeth, shave, etc., and get ready for the day prior to presenting ourselves to our Heavenly Father in prayer, rather than pajamas and messy hair. He promised us that doing this each morning would change our lives for the better. I have done this the last two mornings and plan to continue. I needed this counsel. We discussed it in our Family Council and all are going to try to do this.

He quoted a couple of scriptures that left an impression upon me:

Doctrine & Covenants 88

63 ^aDraw ^bnear unto me and I will draw near unto you; ^cseek me diligently and ye shall ^dfind me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

64 Whatsoever ye ^aask the Father in my name it shall be given unto you, that is ^bexpedient for you;

The Lord promises to draw near unto us as we draw near unto Him.

Doctrine & Covenants 50

28 But no man is possessor of ^aall things except he be ^bpurified and ^ccleansed from all sin.

29 And if ye are ^apurified and cleansed from all ^bsin, ye shall ^cask whatsoever you will in the name of Jesus and it shall be done.

If we are purified from sin, whatever we shall ask in the name of Jesus shall be done.