Elder Lynn G. Robbins

[person0]

Elder Lynn G. Robbins came to my ward today and taught us for nearly the full two hours following sacrament meeting.  Here are the notes I took from what he taught.  Feel free to ask for clarification if/where needed.  I know I didn't miss a single core principle from what he taught.

• Be like Jesus Christ.  Be leads to do, do leads to be.
• Be is the weightier of the two verbs.
• You can't count be, you can only count do.  Church statistics measure Do, even though Be is the weightier in importance
• Do is the evidence of be.  In the world we have to do lists but not to be lists, because be can't be counted.
• We all ought to have a to be list.  Make a to be list and place items on our to do list that match.
• Savior is called Rabbi over 90 times in the New testament. Effective teaching is the essence of all callings, Bishop, primary, stake president, etc.
• No success can compensate for failure in the home. David o McKay.
• The greatest work you will ever do is in your home.  Harold b Lee.
• The Book of Mormon begins by recognizing the value of the home.  Nephi was raised of goodly parents and as a result he was taught.
• "We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion."  Change the word men to parents.
• The scriptures show the way the Perfect Parent raises his children, us.
• The Perfect Parent never forces His children, he teaches them, exports them, etc, etc, but He doesn't force them, they maintain their agency.
• The Holy Ghost will bother our children more than we will.  We need to trust it.  By trying to force our children to be good, we plant the seeds of rebellion.
• Story:  Kid doesn't want to go to church for x reason, father says to give his excuse to God since it's God's church, kid ponders and gets ready without further prompting.
• Doctrine answers why.  Principles answer what.  Rules are rare, because a slothful servant has to be compelled in all things.
• The world is opposite.  Tax code is between 4 and 5000 pages and is always growing now possibly up to 100,000 pages.  How many pages has the Lord given for tithing?  Less than 1, it is the true principle, then we govern ourselves.
• If a person does not understand the principle, they need to be taught the doctrine.
• When a person understands why, they begin to change themselves.
• If you ask the prophet if you can drink Coke he will not write you back.  We make these decisions on our own.
• It is better to teach a man to fish than to give a fish.  Teach your children to make wise decisions.  Teach them to recognize the holy ghost.
• We must teach our children to be spiritually self reliant.  Even let them fail every once in a while.
• Story:  There is no rule on TV watching on Sunday, but when Elder Robbins 10 year old daughter asks to watch Jaws he let her make the decision.  She didn't want to make the decision because she wanted to not have the guilt.  Eventually she decided to watch it.  She later felt bad about the decision and learned to distinguish right from wrong.
• If he could go back he would have taught her the doctrine right at the crossroads of the decision.
• Alma 31:5 - And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.
• Preaching changes from inside out, sword changes from outside in.  Spanking is the sword, discipline is from disciple, we need to teach.
• Anger is a decision.  People don't make you mad, you don't 'lose' your temper.  If we believe someone made us mad, we are being acted upon rather than acting.  We can choose not to get angry.
• Story:  Before his son became more rebellious as his father became angry, endless cycle.  He apologized to his (wayward and rebellious) son and promised to never get angry ever again (Elder Robbins kept his promise).  His son eventually repented and kept commandments and served a full mission and is still faithful and active today.
• "As often as my people do repent, I will forgive them."  Consider as: 'as often as my people sincerely partake of the sacrament, I will forgive them.
• Can priest bless sacrament if wearing an earing? If there church made rules for everything there would be thousands and thousands of pages.'
• Jews had so many rules for the Sabbath day.  Savior heals people on Sabbath.  Doctrine: can you do good on the Sabbath?
• Too many rules destroy spiritual capacity to develop.
• May a Priest bless the sacrament wearing an earring, sandals, and not a white shirt? Yes. Change question from can he to should he?  Teach the young man the doctrine to help him change on his own.
• We will prove them now herewith to see if they will be obedient. . .  Sometimes God's commands are difficult even for the most valiant.
• Sometimes obedience is the most important why.  1 cup of coffee will not keep you out of heaven, but disobedience will.
• You can make your kids bed better than they can, but you love them and are patient as they learn.
• We can teach negative consequences of poor decisions with firmness, not requiring anger.
• Story:  Missionaries parents told him he would have to get job to pay his own way home if wanted to go home early. . . decided to stay.
• Story:  Mother told son if he is mature enough to make the decision to come home early from mission, he is mature enough to live on his own without parental assistance. . . decided to stay.
• Once you choose the road, you have already chosen the destination.  As a result you will become your own judge, because you know the choice you made.  Sometimes it's painful.
• Agency is so important God allowed 1/3 of the host of heaven to rebel and lose their first estate.
• J.S. taught about how the sealing power is powerful and has a way to bring back wayward children in this life or the next.
• We can discipline but we never withdraw love, we should never make our children fearful of us.
• HF is the one perfect parent, we will have more success as we follow his methods.

[Sunday21]

Thank you very much indeed for posting this! A treasure!

[zil]

@person0, you're quite the note taker!  Someone should buy you a fountain pen.

[person0]

1 hour ago, zil said:

@person0, you're quite the note taker!  Someone should buy you a fountain pen.

Unfortunately, my handwriting is pretty terrible with nearly any instrument.  It would take some serious practice to be able to use a fountain pen well.  This was actually the first time that I took all my notes digitally on my phone.  I was surprised at how many notes I ended up with, and especially surprised that I was able to keep up throughout the lesson.  I suppose I've developed my thumbs well enough.  Not sure if that's good or bad though.  

[zil]

Just now, person0 said:

Unfortunately, my handwriting is pretty terrible with nearly any instrument.

Irrelevant.  Lots of FP users have hideous handwriting.  No more practice would be required than using any other pen - they're just pens (we're not talking about calligraphy here).  The difference is that you don't have to hold it in a death grip, and you don't have to push down on the paper to get it to write.  (It writes under its own weight.)

2 minutes ago, person0 said:

I suppose I've developed my thumbs well enough.

What!?  What!?  Thumb-typing!? Research shows you learn better when taking notes by hand.  FYI.

[Just_A_Guy]

Were the examples of the missionaries who wanted to return home, posited as examples of good parenting or bad parenting?

[person0]

1 hour ago, Just_A_Guy said:

Were the examples of the missionaries who wanted to return home, posited as examples of good parenting or bad parenting?

Good.  They were examples of teaching with firmness, but not with anger.

[Just_A_Guy]

35 minutes ago, person0 said:

Good.  They were examples of teaching with firmness, but not with anger.

I like Elder Robbins a lot (his "Agency and Love in Marriage" article from the Ensign should be required reading for anyone of dating age).  But I think in this instance Brigham Young might have offered a counterpoint (see this link and scroll down to Story 3).

[person0]

16 hours ago, Just_A_Guy said:

I like Elder Robbins a lot (his "Agency and Love in Marriage" article from the Ensign should be required reading for anyone of dating age).  But I think in this instance Brigham Young might have offered a counterpoint (see this link and scroll down to Story 3).

I really like that story about Brigham Young.  In all fairness to Elder Robbins, he also discussed the legitimate needs, both medical and otherwise to come home.  Although he didn't say for sure, the missionaries in his stories sounded as if they were simply very homesick.  He even told another story of an Elder who went to his mission president and said he wanted to go home, the mission president said, "No you don't.  You just need a cheeseburger and some watermelon."  He took the missionary out to eat, and the missionary felt better and decided to stay.  Yet another story was of a missionary who wanted to go home and his mission president, his mother, father, girlfriend, siblings, all tried to no avail to convince him to stay.  Then finally the Elder's grandmother called and said, "Out of 9 generations in this family we've never had a missionary return home early and we're not going to start now."  She then promptly hung up the phone, the missionary stayed and completed his mission.  As far as I know, in the cases Elder Robbins presented there were no lack of faith issues, or medical issues applicable, just regular 'trunkiness'.  Also, sorry those other two stories weren't in the notes, I didn't catch every detail as I was initially typing it up. 

[seashmore]

Ah, so this is what I came here for tonight. Thank you for sharing.

Side note, of the two young men who passed the sacrament to my row last week, one was wearing a blue dress shirt and the other sandals (with white shirt, black pants). They happen to be two of the most spiritually dedicated young men I've seen.

[anatess2]

On 8/6/2017 at 6:01 PM, person0 said:

• Anger is a decision.  People don't make you mad, you don't 'lose' your temper.  If we believe someone made us mad, we are being acted upon rather than acting.  We can choose not to get angry.

I hear this.  A lot.  Makes it difficult for me to get understood.   But yes, it is true for those without the condition.  And no, this is not an excuse for me to not need to do my very best to control myself.  Just want to let you know, there are people like me out there.

Edited August 8, 2017 by anatess2

[seashmore]

5 hours ago, anatess2 said:

I hear this.  A lot.  Makes it difficult for me to get understood.   But yes, it is true for those without the condition.  And no, this is not an excuse for me to not need to do my very best to control myself.  Just want to let you know, there are people like me out there.

My sister is easily provoked, and has even blacked out while angry. I tell her, "it's okay to get mad if you need to, but don't stay mad." As she's gotten older and better about keeping the WoW, she's not as physically violent when she's angry as she used to be.

[anatess2]

4 minutes ago, seashmore said:

My sister is easily provoked, and has even blacked out while angry. I tell her, "it's okay to get mad if you need to, but don't stay mad." As she's gotten older and better about keeping the WoW, she's not as physically violent when she's angry as she used to be.

That might be a different thing.  IED is getting angry when there's no reason to be or not get angry when there's every reason to be.  Or the amount of anger does not match the triggering stimuli.  It's very unpredictable.  Sometimes you get super angry to the point of uncontrollable rage because you can't find the salt shaker.  Sometimes you can't get the energy to be angry that somebody shot your beloved cat in the head with his .45 right there infront of you.  Crazy huh?

Edited August 9, 2017 by anatess2

[Anddenex]

On 8/6/2017 at 4:01 PM, person0 said:

Do is the evidence of be.  In the world we have to do lists but not to be lists, because be can't be counted.
We all ought to have a to be list.  Make a to be list and place items on our to do list that match.
 

Thank you. These two options have been on my mind for the past two weeks. This would be a second witness.

[mordorbund]

If I may be a stick in the mud.

Quote

21.1.39

Statements Attributed to Church Leaders

Any notes made when General Authorities, Area Seventies, or other general Church officers speak at stake conferences or other meetings should not be distributed without the consent of the speaker. Personal notes are for individual use only.

I think there is wisdom in this course which I can elaborate if desired.