Intro: Pour Forth Love

Welcome to Inklings. I am Emily Bell Freeman and I'm so excited to welcome you to a space where you and I get to experience a hint of something more together. This is a community where we lean into discussions that will help us obtain a bedrock understanding of the doctrines of Christ. Not overnight, but every day better. Strength gathered over time. There is a place for you here. Looking forward to spending the semester with you as we embark on a journey focused on becoming His. Good morning everyone. Happy Thursday. Welcome to Inklings. So many good things happening around here right now. I wish you could see the week after conference. What happens in life around here because we're just immediately after that Sunday afternoon session. You have this group that just goes to work and starts pulling all of these things together and it's actually so fun to see all of it coming together. But this morning I woke up and everyone was don't forget this and don't forget this and remember this and don't forget this and we have so much to talk about which I'm so excited about because here we go again and I love the beginning of things. I love as we enter into what this next six months is going to look like. I have to tell you this because it's kind of fun when I was younger in my 20s and my 30s I had a friend who lived across the street from me and we would Monday morning we reserved for the day after conference to have an hour and a half phone call while we did our laundry and we talked about all of our favorite parts by talk which one we loved what felt the most important and when I moved we continued it for a little while but you know how it is when you move and your kids get older and and life cycles change and then we stopped doing that and I can remember the first time we ever did inklings thinking to myself oh I'm so glad for this group of friends that just wants to get together and talk about conference talks for an hour and how at the end of the semester we are so much better for what we're learning together so today is the day of getting ready that's what happens at inklings today is we're just in the getting ready ramping up what are the things that we need to know for this next semester and I'm going to talk all about that today and the theme and and where are we going and kind of the hopes for the next six months so first of all the the first thing that you'll want to know is for those of you who are doing small groups or if you've never done a small group before and you've always wanted to my cute daughter Meg wanted to start a small group and she's kind of been working on what does that look like and she's my one daughter that is so organized so as she has started putting together her plan and what she's going to do and how she's going to do it I thought there might be more than just Meg who's interested in that plan so Hugh Meg has agreed for the next six months to lead us through how small groups are going to work and what that is going to look like is a newsletter it's so cute she sent it to me yesterday you guys are going to die over the newsletter that will come once a month and from Meg and it will have all the instructions that you need to pull together a little small group with ideas as you go along and maybe you wonder what a small group is so let's just talk about that for a minute before we dive in one of the things that I have learned is wherever I go I will meet people and they'll talk to me about these little groups of women that have gathered together their inklings groups to study general conference together and they're all different kinds of groups like some are moms and daughters that live all across the united states and they do it by Marco Polo and some are on zoom because they're also spread all apart and some are just in neighborhoods and some are the people that they work with which help it is that because then they're just talking about it all day as well as the day they have their inklings group it's just all different people however you feel inclined but I love when people will walk up to me with their group and say we this is our group this is our inklings group and we want to get a picture and so if that sounds fun to you what usually happens is this under this live a lot of times people will put their name and where they what city they live in and then other people will be looking also in that same city and sometimes people just find new friends on inklings that works and we can do that here for you can just put in put in when you type it'll say what your name is and then you'll type this is the city I'm in and then someone who feels like being a gatherer will go through and just pull all of those names and see if you can get that group together and we all know we love each other already because we're already friends because we meet here on thursdays so that is one way to do it I just put up a post from Meg that explains to you how you can sign up for the newsletter so that will be on a separate post go look at all the instructions for that plus she gathered all of your emails that other day when we came up with this great idea so and don't put them in the comments right now because they won't show up these comments get lost so when I'm done when we push end right after that this will go up on instagram permanently and you can comment under the video once it's posted those comments stay forever so say all of these that you want to start a group save and put them in the comments that last forever which will be after we're all done with this okay so that is I think everything you need to know about small groups now let's just talk about this for those of you who don't have a small group and you just love to show up on thursday mornings this is my small group this thursday mornings is my small group and that may be all that is perfect for you and if so you just join up here and this is our small group and then how people do that just so you know some people meet weekly and some people meet monthly and I have been to a couple of the monthly groups because I just wanted to know how those worked I get how weekly works and the monthly groups that I've been to have been awesome because what they do is they assign one talk to four different people and they each get 15 minutes and they are in charge of leading the discussion for that night and they just do 15 minutes 15 minutes 15 15 and then you could do a whole month in one night which was also awesome okay so next let's talk about what happened at conference and I would love to just think about what themes did you hear and what what was a standout to you as we listened to general conference this weekend I loved that the talks were a little bit shorter I don't know if anyone else loved that but I loved that it just felt like conference was moving and I don't know why but it felt like more goodness that you could gather together in each session because there there were so many people that were going I love you're pulling out the same things that I saw ministering so many talks on ministering so many talks use that word abide I was so intrigued by that word three talks did the road to Emmaus which I love and that's where that word abide kind of comes from at family again was there so all of these things that you kind of pulled in as we went through and I loved as we listened to the prophet and I'm always inclined to be watching for an invitation from the prophet I think we've kind of been tutored that way over the last decade and so as we just sat how many of you were like on the edge of your seats of like what is he going to teach us what is it that he feels what's on his heart what's his impression that he's thinking about and how will that help us as we move forward and I was so intrigued as I looked at his or as I listened to his talk there were several things that that were just standouts to me that I was like oh this actually does feel important to me one of the words that was a standout for me at conference and this was kind of a quieter one and I want to go back this is one that I want to just ponder on and think about but it was the word all did any of notice how many times we heard them talking about all or every one that that there was this idea of like everybody's welcome bring everyone we want to be with everyone here and I love that he talked a little bit about that that just like bringing in people and it makes me think of that one scripture in Isaiah and then it's in the Doctrine and Covenants also that talks about in the last days they will be saying widen the tent and get stronger stakes and lengthen the cords and there there's going to be this feeling of just this can we make more room idea and I love that I felt like we heard that as we listened to conference this time I one of the opportunities that I have is to watch what's happening in Africa right now and that country right now is having the welcoming in that's what's happening right now in Africa it is that widen the tent and and getting these stronger stakes and you just see the Lord is hastening his work there and I love that we felt that in conference you just felt that like bring in as many as we can that come home and all and every one we felt that and I feel like President Oaks was talking a little bit about that bringing people with us and I love that he he wanted to show us in so many different ways how that would happen first of all with the Good Samaritan and so also did you notice this so much about one by one so you you felt that one by one that he gave us those little experiences of what that might look like but then I loved that towards the end of his talk he went through and started giving so many examples and we're going to study this in great detail next week this that will be our first talk that we do but I love that he started giving like it could look like this it could look like this it could look like this it could look like this and he just was like expanding our vision of what this might look like and I loved when he said that phrase and right when he said it it reminded me of one of my very favorite Old Testament scriptures but when he said that phrase poor forth love and right when I heard it I was like oh this sums up conference for me this is like um this this feels like what we've been tutored in from the very beginning this ministering and and all of these talks that we've heard is just this thought of like what do we need to be doing right now in this time and it was poor forth love that's what we need to do and so here's what I thought we would do this morning I want to go into the Old Testament because I love when we get into scripture and we have the opportunity to learn together so I think we'll do that first I want to talk about the promises of what President Oaks promised us at the end of conference and then I will go into the details of how do we put our study workbooks together and what that's going to look like and how you get all the materials and for everyone who's here and who's new when you study with us everything is free everything just comes to you and we just will get everything ready and then you'll just assemble your books however you want and then you come here every week and we'll whatever we can do to help gather women that's what we want to do but what we're going to do first is we are going to go into second kings and there is a story in second kings that is a favorite of mine when you get to our workbook you'll see this story I wrote this story in the welcome letter because I love it and I love what we're going to be taught right now and what it might look like for each of us so we're in second kings chapter four that's where you want to go and as we're in second kings four it starts out in verse one now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha and I I have marked in mind I just love that it starts out there cried because how many of us have had that day how many of us have been in that situation um and and we start finding out that as if losing her husband wasn't enough the creditors were going to come and take her sons to work as bondsmen to pay off all of their debt and so can you imagine being this mom who loses her husband and you're about to lose both your boys at the same time and I think about her in that moment and um what and as you as you put yourself into that story to think about the overwhelm right how do I how do I take care of things right now without my husband and the discouragement there's no way out of this for me like this now this just is my story there's no way out I'm about to lose everything and I can't help but wonder if there was a little bit of the wondering where is God in this because my husband worked with the prophets and so why why is a hard thing happening to us I just I imagine that struggle going on and um I love in that moment of all the places where she could have turned that she turned to the prophet that's where she just she just went to the prophet she was like what should I do now what should I do and Elijah when she comes says to her in verse two of we're in 2 Kings 4 verse 2 what can I do for you and then his second question is so interesting what do you have in your house and I think don't you think that's interesting that he's like okay let's work with what you already have let's let's figure this out with the details of your story your particular circumstances let's see what we can do with what you have it kind of reminds you of the loaves and the fishes when Jesus is like how are we going to feed everyone and the apostles are like we don't even have enough money to buy bread for all of these people and then Jesus is like well what do we have and it is this like five loaves and two fish principle that we're going to learn in the Old Testament when the prophet says okay what what do you have that we can work with and they she has only a pot of oil that's it and so he says to her okay go to your neighbors and borrow every empty pot every empty vessel that they have and I love when he says to her borrow not a few like we're anticipating the windows of heaven opening we're anticipating a flood that's that we are going to prepare for abundance to come in this moment and there are two things that I think about this the first is do we expect miracles of that magnitude in our life do do we expect that we would see God working in our life like that one but number two at least for me and I don't know if this is true for any of you but do you the thought of going to your neighbors and telling them you need their empty pots is so vulnerable it's this it's just this moment of like we we don't have anything and so can we have your empty pot and now all the neighbors know the story they know what is going on here and he tells her then when you come in you're going to shut the door upon you and upon your sons and shout pour out into all those vessels and then set aside the ones that are full and you'll keep doing it over and over again and don't you want to just imagine this woman's home and also what did the boys say were the boys like this is not going to work but then they were like just do it and so I love that they bring and it tells us she went from him and then she shut the door upon her and upon her sons who brought the vessels to her and she poured out okay let's just think about that for a minute I want you to think about your life and your story your situation what's going on in your particular circumstance and have there been days when you think to yourself I'm empty I actually don't have any more to give I look at my life and the overwhelm and the discouragement and the what is happening right now and in that empty moment I think it is so interesting that what the prophet told her to do was to pour out that's what was going to heal the situation that's what was going to fix the problem is she had to pour out and in that pouring out then the healing was going to come and I love the idea of that for us because what happens is she she just keeps pouring out and they fill all the vessels and then when they finish the oil in the one pot is still there right what she had is still there she didn't lose she didn't deplete herself she didn't deplete her reserve but she was able to fill everything else and then she goes to the prophet and he says okay sell as much of that as you need to pay your debt and there should be enough to live on the rest and I love that principle I love that she didn't go out into the world and do some big grand thing she went in her own house under her own roof with her own family and she just poured out in that space and that is how the healing came and when I heard the prophet say okay he he laid out so many things for us he first of all explained what the world looks like do you remember at the beginning when he was like this is actually going to be hard because we're going to need the strength and the perspective to endure and we're going to need courage this is how the prophet begins his talk he talked about what the world looks like that it's toxic and there's contempt and hostility like he he laid out for us what should overwhelm us and what should discourage us and his very first story is about those who actively oppose us our enemies right I love that he starts out and he's like let me just put you in a really dire situation because there is a great work to be done here and and what is that work going to look like okay our job in our circle of influence is to pour forth love that's what we're going to do and so what is that going to look like and then he just sent a million ways we could do that but if that wasn't enough so many talks in conference were about how we could be pouring forth love how we could elevate ministering I left with that thought in my mind from conference of okay ministering changed all those years ago and if you were to look back all those years ago do you do you see a positive change in your ward or in your faith community and I think about it and and this is my immediate thought after hearing the prophet's call is I can't really fix that but I can fix me I can become a really good minister and I feel like I was tutored in how to become a good minister from conference and so if at the end of the six months what what our community has become is a community who ministers really well then I think we will have learned what the prophet was hoping we would learn and I love that part of what he did was to echo back to what president Nelson said and I see him doing that often where where he's almost becoming a prophetic echo of what we just heard he's carrying that with him into what will happen under his mantle and and so he told us part of what we're doing is learning the language and methods of peacemakers and that's what's going to enable us to be able to pour forth love in the way that he's looking for and so I love that we are we are going to become these peacemakers we are going to become women who are really good and intentional about ministering sometimes I feel like we heard that that ministering invitation and we relaxed and I feel like what the prophet just told us is wait this wasn't a relax this wasn't to make visiting teaching easier this was a call to live higher and holier to to not just love the ones that we're assigned to but to also have the eyes of a minister and so that we're seeing where we might pour forth love everywhere in every situation that we're in and what does that actually look like and so as we prepare for next week it might be really interesting to read president Nelson's talk on peacemakers next to president oak's talk from this conference and begin there what do we learn and and what is this prophetic echo that we're we're experiencing right now and how can it help us to rise up and be the ministers the lord actually needs us to be right now so I want to be thinking about that I also want to be thinking about this promise that he gave at the very end I was so excited when president oak stood up at the end of conference again where you was anyone else as excited as me because I was like oh I just love when we get to hear one last call from the prophet and um he his whole talk is a promise his whole talk it's not long it's it's just this and this will be in the front of the workbooks which I'm going to tell you about in just a minute but who wanted to talk about the good stuff first to me this whole last talk is a promise from him and I want to think through some of the words of this promise and this will be right at the very beginning of our workbook so we can go back to it over and over again and think about it because he was tutoring us as he gave this promise so think about these things he gave us a couple of invitations of like preparing for the promise which I love he first said and they came in threes so he first said this the spirit of the lord has inspired all of us and now here he's he tells us this to concentrate our worship focus our learning and unite our testimonies on the teachings of on the teachings of the lord jesus christ and his father's plan for our increase and joy okay so we he first is going to lay out okay to prepare for this promise we need to concentrate our worship we need to focus our learning and we need to unite our testimonies okay that's how we begin then he says this truly jesus christ is the way to peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come he knows and loves each of us perfectly and invites us okay now here comes the second part of this invitation to walk with him abide in him and follow his example of ministering to others one by one in charity and love okay i love when we did that little exercise and said what were the words you heard what were the words you heard if you had to say what the theme of conference was and before we look at this again I want you to think about this nobody gave anyone an assignment and I love what he just taught us there because everyone who spoke the spirit was preparing for that moment and when he says um he knows and loves each of us perfectly and invites us now he's gonna say the three themes that all of you picked out he's gonna say that at the end of conference and I love when he points it back to this isn't what we ask people to speak on he points it back to this is what the lord put on everyone's hearts this conference and how many of these are the words we just said we felt like we're the theme of conference to walk with him abide in him and follow his example of ministering to others one by one isn't that so interesting that that was the next invitation so now let's let's keep track of the invitations because what he's doing is preparing us for a promise so we're going to concentrate our worship we're going to focus our learning and we're going to unite our testimonies we're going to walk with christ abide in christ and follow his example of ministering to others one by one then he says this may we all demonstrate the pure love of christ in our families in our communities and in all of our interactions with god's children right we're going to pour for love and then he says this this always when people say this i i can't help but think about our inklings community in moments like this because he says this as the messages from this conference are published that's happening today we invite all to study and ponder them prayerfully and to act in faith on the principles they explain the lord has promised this is our promise everyone for the semester i'm so excited about this unto him that receive it i will give more as we treasure up and act upon the teachings of this conference the lord will continue to teach and inspire us with personal revelation and guidance i promise this to each of us as we follow the directions of the servants of the lord and look to god and live what a powerful promise is that amazing that if we will gather together and we will study and ponder these words from each of these individual servants then the promise to us is unto him that receive it i will give more and that more will come through personal revelation and guidance in our life so we're going to be clinging to this blessing all of it every part of this every week as we go through what conference looks like one of the things that i want to focus on as we go through conference this time are the promises and the invitations and a favorite quote from conference so for the for the next six months as we go through each talk we will do the promises the invitations and a favorite quote or line from that talk that just felt important to that message and we'll also have our word because you know i can't resist just having a word that i'm thinking about for an entire week and if you have so now let's talk about business let's get into the business everyone what does this look like what does today look like for me how are you preparing to engage and enter into this study so the first thing would be invite any friends that you think want to participate this is the perfect week to be for us to be doing our gathering in who needs this right now who who wants this experience who needs this promise in their life right now and whether you do that through a small group or whether you just invite them to join us on thursday mornings that is where we begin and then second what we're going to do is i like to take my conference notes what i wrote down and i rip them all out and i three hole punch them because that's going to become part of my conference study i should have brought my binder over and i didn't but i get a three ring binder and i'll rip out all of my what was in my notes i'm going to rip those all out and then as i put in my wide margin in my binder after every talk i will put my conference what the notes that i took here's why i do this when we start getting to the talks in in two or three months from now i'm going to forget the promptings that i had when i listened or the things that were a standout like i'll put lines down that i'm like don't go back and find this go back and find this so when we get to that talk that week to study i can just go back now to my notes before i even begin my study i'm like what was my standout what were the impressions that came what felt really important about this talk and then i go into my wide margin so we have we will do that and within there i have a paper in mind that just talks about what are the promises the invitations and then the favorite quote that was the standout we'll be doing that every every talk as we go through this semester the wide margin is almost done we're doing a last edit five eyes on everything because when you do things as fast as we're doing them it is hard to to get all the things right but we're so happy look we're really close um so today that should be done and i see a bunch of you are saying places where you can go you can print it out at home so first of all just remember you can print it out at home and free whole punch it and put it in a binder at your own house if you want to um there are also people who are just friends all over the valley here in utah that help do this so like pioneer party in lehigh soon as our this is done we'll shoot it to them and anyone else who calls and asks for it and they will just start running their printers full time and they have a little system and i don't actually even know what it is but i think you call in an order and then their printers will just be going and going and going until everyone who wants one there can get one so number one pull your notes out and see if you can figure out how to attach them to your study second you're gonna want to get a binder and and put all of this in there um pioneer copying will also give you a coil bound one if that's what you want instead you can buy that um i just love to marry my talks with my um my new and my old i love them married together so i'm a three ring binder type of gal you'll get all of that put together it sounds like pioneer party maybe has a website so everyone that will help you um quality quick print in north augustin people are saying in the comments um we'll be doing that um and then so just you'll just look and see um but you can do that i'm just trying to see if there's any other but um okay so you'll you'll have this and then you're gonna have the schedule and then next week um we do we'll start with president oaks alive in christ um that's the one that you might want to read president melton peacemakers um i don't think we're too late and i'm so tempted i might ask rio if she can stick that one in i don't know but maybe we'll put those back to back so we just have them for this whole six months and then they'll be such a good resource for us um then if you're me you're just going to print them out at home and three whole punch punch um but if you'd like the convenience of the other you're going to go find them you get all your stuff ready and then next week we will dive into our first study and we will be off and running and it will be so good so i think that is everything that you need to know does are there any oh rio says yes everyone rio said she'll do it ah i'm so happy so we'll have the um president elson and then this prophetic echo of uh president oaks right behind it um where we can have both of those back to back so those will be ready sometime today what we'll what i'll do is i'll just put something up in the stories as soon as they are there and then um you're you are good to go just on your own printing them as soon as they're there it will go up you you go in and click on the thing it emails you everything you need and you are just ready to begin um and then um or if you want to go somewhere and grab it also good whatever you need to do um any other questions that i didn't answer i i hope i was really smart rio helped me think if i forgot anything but it's a little crazy town over here as we're getting ready but i'm not gonna lie it gives me so much joy and anticipation for what is about to come okay stories everyone who is new if you look right up there and you see that little crown in the corner when you get on instagram up at the top you're gonna see a whole bunch of circles right here and anytime you see the circle with the crown if you click on it something will appear on your thing and you can click you can like we can put links up there and you can click on it and then that works oh should i give an update on greg great idea everyone i didn't even think about that um the um and let's see let me try and remember we can put up the last semester sprinklings you're asking for that i'll put that in stories let me just make notes of everything we want so i'll put the sprinklings up the link for the workbooks will be up um and then um the small group stuff i'll put up there too so you can just be doing inklings however you want to do it and then here is the update on greg everyone this is what's going on so um like i can't even remember how long but let's pretend a month ago right before general conference um so it's probably been five weeks greg did his pet scan and they found five lymph nodes that lit up so we went in and did three different like exploring what was happening where and the good news was that the cancer biopsy only came back positive in one of those spots so that was really really good news and felt miraculous to us and then um we uh once we had figured that out and the where the lymph node is is where the cancer was before 18 months ago and so the we went and met with the oncologists and then we were debating between radiation and radiation and chemo and as all the doctors talked together they felt like this might be left over from 18 months ago and if so that radiation would hopefully just be able to take care of it and if not we could wait a month redo a scan and then decide if we needed chemo so that's what we decided to do we did radiation and i don't know how many of you have had radiation or someone who's had radiation but what happens is um the the they do it they every day that you just go in once you start you just start and you go through and so he did that and while you're doing that you actually don't have any side effects and so that was really nice because he just was going to work and then the side effects come like two to three weeks later and um so then what happened is we just had not slept for three weeks um because the where everything was has caused this really funny cough that should eventually go away but it is just non-stop and so both of us are just up all night long and it doesn't matter where we've tried to sleep on the couch downstairs we've tried to sleep in our bedroom we've tried to sleep in the couch in the living room we're just have that cough now so i feel like we have a newborn that's what it feels like at our house right now but we're hoping that and the just tiredness will slowly start getting better now and then we'll go back in for another scan in a month and those of you who have been um um been in this process you know that leading up to that scan there is so much anxiety of just hoping it is going to come back clean so that is what we're praying for but the good news is his oncologist and the radiation doctor i don't know what those people are called radiologists i don't know um they're they're probably oncology radiologists i don't know what their name is but both of them are feeling really positive um about where where we are um they've given us reason to hope and so we just are we're just hoping why not hope um so we're feeling really hopeful and a little bit of anxiety as we get ready to go back again and just see where we are but we're just um continue to pray for a miracle because remember everyone we live in a realm of miracles so that's what we're hoping for and then as we get um more information um when i when we know the date of the pet scan i will tell you and we will all be praying um and uh but that's that is what's happening so we're feeling good we're feeling tired but we're feeling good when i went in to get my makeup done for conference they always do a little makeup check for you which is so nice because how do you know but the lady was like you kind you kind of were having bags under your eyes i was like i know welcome to my life right now one day we're gonna sleep again but it's just not today so this is what is happening and someone asked if i had to rewrite my talk and um the this the other thing that was just such a blessing is Heavenly Father was so good at just helping to lay out that talk with the spirit in such a way that it was really easy to go in and um it was interesting because the talk just felt unfinished and unfinished and unfinished and then we got that diagnosis and then that consumed us for weeks and then it got the time right before you're supposed to turn your talk in and i was like i better read through this again and as i read through it i was like oh i should um i should change the beginning and then the end um and it just was um you could you could feel the intention in the message and and how the events were going and that was a sweet moment for me because it just it was a talk that felt like okay i just need the reminder of this and then i was glad that so many other people it felt like needed the reminder too so so many um so many good things from conference and we just love this group i just i thought to myself i'm so happy i have so many friends who want to study conference with me it's it has been a favorite tradition of mine since i was 19 and now look there's all of us and and we just are listening to a prophet and we're sitting at the feet of the apostles of Jesus Christ and we are better for it i just i just think you know one hour every thursday and we're better for it so what a blessing thank you for coming um and then um we'll all be back here next week and we will dive in and that is going to be so fun so happy thursday watch watch up here watch at the top of here because we'll start telling you everything is ready and all the links will come and you can just we'll all be getting our binders ready and and getting ready to go and um and everything you need will just start appearing so love to all of you see you next week thanks for joining me this podcast is taken from our thursday inklings discussions which happen live on instagram at inklings.institute if you loved being here i'd love to invite you to go even deeper with me get reminders and enjoy first access to all our events and gatherings by going to emilybellfreeman.com backslash inklings