Monday, December 27, 2010
The Upward Reach
President Monson, "The Upward Reach" Ensign Nov. 1993
On occasion...I have been asked the question, “Brother Monson, is there one thing I can do to help me pattern my life and live up to my full potential?” As I have searched memory’s corridors for an answer to such a question, I have recalled an experience of a few years ago. A group of friends were trail riding on strong Morgan horses when we came to a clearing which opened on a lush grass meadow with a small, clear stream meandering through it. No mule deer could wish for a better home. However, there was a danger lurking. The wily deer can detect the slightest movement in the surrounding bush; he can hear the crack of a twig and discern the scent of man. He is vulnerable from but one direction—overhead. In a mature tree, hunters had erected a platform high above the enticing spot. Though in many places this is illegal, the hunter can take his prey as it comes to eat and to drink. No twig would break, no movement disturb, no scent reveal the hunter’s whereabouts. Why? The magnificent buck deer, with its highly developed senses to warn of impending danger, does not have the capacity to look directly upward and thus detect his enemy. Man is not so restricted. His greatest safety is found in his ability and his desire to “look to God and live.”
(Alma 37:47)
(Harry Kemp, “God the Architect,” The World’s Great Religious Poetry, ed. Caroline Miles Hill, (New York: Macmillan, 1954), p. 211.)
On occasion...I have been asked the question, “Brother Monson, is there one thing I can do to help me pattern my life and live up to my full potential?” As I have searched memory’s corridors for an answer to such a question, I have recalled an experience of a few years ago. A group of friends were trail riding on strong Morgan horses when we came to a clearing which opened on a lush grass meadow with a small, clear stream meandering through it. No mule deer could wish for a better home. However, there was a danger lurking. The wily deer can detect the slightest movement in the surrounding bush; he can hear the crack of a twig and discern the scent of man. He is vulnerable from but one direction—overhead. In a mature tree, hunters had erected a platform high above the enticing spot. Though in many places this is illegal, the hunter can take his prey as it comes to eat and to drink. No twig would break, no movement disturb, no scent reveal the hunter’s whereabouts. Why? The magnificent buck deer, with its highly developed senses to warn of impending danger, does not have the capacity to look directly upward and thus detect his enemy. Man is not so restricted. His greatest safety is found in his ability and his desire to “look to God and live.”
(Alma 37:47)
But chief of all Thy wondrous works,
Supreme of all Thy plan,
Thou hast put an upward reach
Into the heart of man.
Talk given 12/2010 member missionary work
President Gordon B. Hinckley said:
“So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the members of the Church. Whenever there is a member who introduces an investigator, there is an immediate support system. The member bears testimony of the truth of the work. He is anxious for the happiness of his investigator friend. He becomes excited as that friend makes progress in learning the gospel.”
This was the experience of my parents as they learned about our Church.
My dad grew up on a farm in Iowa with 11 brothers and sisters. He was anxious to get off the farm so in the late 50‘s when he turned 18 he enlisted in the Navy and hitch hiked to California to begin his service. While serving in the Navy, he was always anxious to get off the base when he could so when a friend invited him to attend church with him off the base--he was excited to go. My dad enjoys singing and he joined the choir in the ward he attended. I think his original motivation for attending the Mormon church was because he enjoyed singing, it was off the base, and he liked his friend, Al Sorenson. (there are always good things surrounded with the name Sorenson.)
My dad also says that he just had a good feeling when he attended the Mormon church. And he was eventually baptized.
My mom was a college student in Colorado when she was first introduced to the church. One winter break a friend who was LDS drove her to Salt Lake so she could catch a flight home to Portland. While in Salt Lake--Temple Square was brand new and so my mom’s friend took her there for a tour. My mom said she felt the Spirit, though she didn’t know at the time that is what was touching her heart. She went back to Colorado in January and toward the very beginning of the semester missionaries had a display set up on campus. My mom inquired about it. They began teaching her lessons in the student union but it was hard to in such a busy area so they had the rest of the lessons in a member’s home. Those members were the Peerson Family. This family played a significant role in fellowshipping my mom as she investigated the church and after her baptism.
President Hinckley goes on to say “The full-time missionaries may do the actual teaching, but the member, wherever possible, will back up that teaching with the offering of his home to carry on this missionary service. He will bear sincere testimony of the divinity of the work. He will be there to answer questions when the missionaries are not around. He will be a friend to the convert who is making a big and often difficult change...The process of bringing new people into the Church is not the responsibility alone of the missionaries.”
My first year in college I attended Ricks College in Idaho. I had 5 roommates in my apartment. One of my roommates, Kristin, was not a member of our church. She followed her best friend to Ricks-who was a member of our church. Kristin began registering for classes. At Ricks it was required to take religion classes. Kristin was not sure what to take so she innocently signed up for a Book of Mormon class for returned missionaries. Her first day of class, after listening to some discussion, she raised her hand and asked “Who is Nephi and Lehi?” If you can imagine all those recently returned missionaries just surrounded her and we had the Sister missionaries knocking on our apartment door the next day. After about a year, Kristin joined the church. Now she is still active, married in the temple, and has three beautiful children.
When I was living at home preparing to leave on my mission, the missionaries came to our home and invited us to participate in the set a date program. Not knowing what that was, they explained that we would choose a date and pray about having a first discussion in our home on that date. I chose my date and prayed about it. I decided that I wanted to share a first discussion with my neighbor across the street so I began praying for opportunities to share the gospel with her. She invited me over one evening to talk about my plans. I told her about my mission call and she asked what I would be doing on a mission. I told her I would be teaching people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I told her that missionaries would be at my home next week and invited her to come listen to what I would be sharing with people in Singapore on my mission.
She said “I don’t know, I am very busy right now. We will see.” As I left I was really disappointed that my invitation wasn’t answered with an energetic “Yes, I would love to come!” I told the missionaries that I didn’t think my neighbor was going to come. They invited me to fast about it. I fasted that week. On the day of the discussion, the missionaries were sitting in my living room and I really didn’t think my neighbor would come over, but there was a knock at my door, and Linda had come. I was so excited! She listened to a first discussion, but she was not interested in reading the Book of Mormon or attending a church. After she walked home, I was still so excited about my experience. I felt so close to my heavenly Father. I felt that he heard and answered my fast and knew me on such an individual level. Sometimes sharing the gospel with others will not lead to baptism or even further interest, but I have a testimony that as we do our best, we will feel the love of our Heavenly Father in our lives and our personal relationship with Him will strengthen.
When I first moved here to Rapid City I was called as the Enrichment leader in Relief Society. We were in the 2nd ward, before the ward boundaries were re aligned. Bishop Scrub’s focus that year was missionary work. He wanted the Relief Society to put together a community fair and host it at our church building. I was put in charge of that. At the first meeting with the enrichment committee I still remember sitting there trying to keep up with all the different organizations that were being discussed, and feeling very overwhelmed. I felt so new to the area and didn’t even know how to get from my home to the post office--let alone where places like Habitat for Humanity or the Red Cross were located. I really didn’t even want to think about this assignment because it only created stress in my mind. But I had to do it, so a month before this community fair was supposed to happen I started praying about it. My prayers sounded something like Heavenly Father--this is what I have been asked to do. I don’t know what to do. I am feeling very overwhelmed. I really don’t want to do it and I am not sure where to go from here. What should I do?
After my prayer I would feel some direction--like make a list or call this person or look up something on the internet. When I began to feel overwhelmed again, I would take my frustrations to my Heavenly Father, and receive more small manageable steps to complete this assignment. The community fair turned out being successful. I am not sure if anyone from the community who was not a member of our church attended, but there were six people representing organizations in our community who were there who were not members of our church. They each met members of our church, spent time in our church building, and received a copy of the articles of faith. One received a copy of the Book of Mormon. Later, the director of the Red Cross needed help packaging food so he called our church asking for assistance. We had a great turn out of our members coming out to help and afterwards the director told me that they had never had such a positive experience working with another large group of people than with our church members.
Sometimes being asked or expected to be a member missionary can feel very overwhelming. When these feelings come into our life, I have learned that it is okay to kneel in prayer and say “Heavenly Father this is hard! I don’t know what to do.I don’t want to do what I have been asked to do. I need help.”
I have a testimony that he will guide you and help you one step at a time so the task feels manageable--and even exciting and you will feel blessings that come from your efforts to do the Lord’s will.
Next I want to touch on the gathering of Israel and how that relates to being a member missionary.
“The doctrine of the gathering stands at the very heart of the restored gospel.
We do not understand who we really are as a people, the covenants that God has made with us or the destiny that is ours until we gain a meaningful understanding of this doctrine.” Joseph Smith
An exerpt of the dedication of the Kirkland temple reads: May all the scattered remnants of Israel who have been driven to the ends of the earth come to a knowledge of the truth. Believe in the messiah and be redeemed from oppression and rejoice before thee. May they return to the holy temple of the Lord and the sacred covenants found there in.
“The gathering of Israel consists in believing and accepting and living in harmony will all that the Lord once offered his ancient chosen people. It consists of having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, of repenting, of being baptized, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and of keeping the commandments of God. It consists of believing the gospel, joining the church, and coming into the Kingdom.
It consists of receiving the Holy Priesthood, being endowed in holy places with power from on high. And receiving all the blessings of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob through the ordinance of celestial marriage. And it may also consist of assembling to an appointed place or land of worship.” Bruce R. McConkie
As I am learning more about what the gathering of Israel means I am realizing that assisting in helping people learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ and being baptized is only half of it. The next important step is making temple covenants--including being sealed to family. Is that part of being a member missionary? Yes it does.
Growing up my dad never held a calling, that I can remember. But he was always a home teacher. He went every month. I have memories of every Christmas our dining room table was filled with red poinsettias that he would give his home teaching families through out the season. One family he home taught were not yet sealed in the temple. They had 6 young children. My dad would always bring me with him when he home taught so I could play with their girls. My dad felt they were good friends. Eventually this family was sealed in the temple. And I remember the father of this family getting up in fast and testimony meeting to share his testimony about his family’s experience being sealed and feeling so proud of my dad and relationship he had with this family--a relationship founded by a desire to love them and to just want to be their friend.
I want to go back to my friend Kristin and her experience being sealed in the temple. When Kristin was baptized, her parents were not happy. When she told them she was going to be sealed in the temple, they did not view her sealing as an actual marriage and refused to participate in any of the festivities surrounding her marriage. She was sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on the day that a tornado hit Salt Lake. My roommates were in a car together driving to the Salt Lake Temple when traffic suddenly stopped and it got extremely stormy. Suddenly all of the windows in the car shattered and then the roof of the car was making a horrible noise--it sounded like it was going to rip off any second, but quickly the storm passed and police were trying to get people out of their cars and into a safe building. My friends were telling this officer that they needed to get to the temple for a sealing, but this officer wouldn’t hear of it. So as soon as he turn away from them, they ran toward the temple and got there in time for the sealing--which was still occurring because those who were in the temple had no idea of the storm happening outside.
These friends loved Kristin so much that they would be willing to run through dangerous weather to be with her because they wanted her to feel supported in this decision she was making. I am not asking any of us to endanger our lives, but to look at who we know, who we have relationships with, who we home teach or visit teach--have they been to the temple to make important covenants with Heavenly Father? Can Heavenly Father use me to help assist in these people receiving those covenants? If we don’t have answers to these questions, then pray about them. Joseph Smith said “After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel”. Surely Heavenly Father will answer our prayers as we desire to help him in this great work of gathering israel.
The greatest gift that I have received in my entire life is the gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the privilege of being sealed to my family. This gift was not given without sacrifice and endurance through trials. But how grateful I am for those people who blessed my life with their examples and testimony. One of my very favorite quotes was given by President Hunter at a Christmas devotional in 1994. He said
Christmas is a time for giving. Someone once said he couldn’t think of what to give for Christmas. The next day in the mail he received an anonymous list which read:
Give to your enemy forgiveness,
To your opponent tolerance,
To your friend your heart,
To all men charity, for the hands that help
are holier than lips that pray,
To every child a good example,
and to yourself—respect.
All of us need to follow the example of the Savior in giving these kinds of gifts. From Christina Rossetti we read: UAdd a Note
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would give Him a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man,
I would do my part,—
But what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.1
This Christmas, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again.
Christmas is a celebration, and there is no celebration that compares with the realization of its true meaning—with the sudden stirring of the heart that has extended itself unselfishly in the things that matter most.2
It is my prayer that this Christmas season we will think about what matters most and how we can include missionary work in those goals and desires that are deep within our hearts--that make up who we are.
“So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the members of the Church. Whenever there is a member who introduces an investigator, there is an immediate support system. The member bears testimony of the truth of the work. He is anxious for the happiness of his investigator friend. He becomes excited as that friend makes progress in learning the gospel.”
This was the experience of my parents as they learned about our Church.
My dad grew up on a farm in Iowa with 11 brothers and sisters. He was anxious to get off the farm so in the late 50‘s when he turned 18 he enlisted in the Navy and hitch hiked to California to begin his service. While serving in the Navy, he was always anxious to get off the base when he could so when a friend invited him to attend church with him off the base--he was excited to go. My dad enjoys singing and he joined the choir in the ward he attended. I think his original motivation for attending the Mormon church was because he enjoyed singing, it was off the base, and he liked his friend, Al Sorenson. (there are always good things surrounded with the name Sorenson.)
My dad also says that he just had a good feeling when he attended the Mormon church. And he was eventually baptized.
My mom was a college student in Colorado when she was first introduced to the church. One winter break a friend who was LDS drove her to Salt Lake so she could catch a flight home to Portland. While in Salt Lake--Temple Square was brand new and so my mom’s friend took her there for a tour. My mom said she felt the Spirit, though she didn’t know at the time that is what was touching her heart. She went back to Colorado in January and toward the very beginning of the semester missionaries had a display set up on campus. My mom inquired about it. They began teaching her lessons in the student union but it was hard to in such a busy area so they had the rest of the lessons in a member’s home. Those members were the Peerson Family. This family played a significant role in fellowshipping my mom as she investigated the church and after her baptism.
President Hinckley goes on to say “The full-time missionaries may do the actual teaching, but the member, wherever possible, will back up that teaching with the offering of his home to carry on this missionary service. He will bear sincere testimony of the divinity of the work. He will be there to answer questions when the missionaries are not around. He will be a friend to the convert who is making a big and often difficult change...The process of bringing new people into the Church is not the responsibility alone of the missionaries.”
My first year in college I attended Ricks College in Idaho. I had 5 roommates in my apartment. One of my roommates, Kristin, was not a member of our church. She followed her best friend to Ricks-who was a member of our church. Kristin began registering for classes. At Ricks it was required to take religion classes. Kristin was not sure what to take so she innocently signed up for a Book of Mormon class for returned missionaries. Her first day of class, after listening to some discussion, she raised her hand and asked “Who is Nephi and Lehi?” If you can imagine all those recently returned missionaries just surrounded her and we had the Sister missionaries knocking on our apartment door the next day. After about a year, Kristin joined the church. Now she is still active, married in the temple, and has three beautiful children.
When I was living at home preparing to leave on my mission, the missionaries came to our home and invited us to participate in the set a date program. Not knowing what that was, they explained that we would choose a date and pray about having a first discussion in our home on that date. I chose my date and prayed about it. I decided that I wanted to share a first discussion with my neighbor across the street so I began praying for opportunities to share the gospel with her. She invited me over one evening to talk about my plans. I told her about my mission call and she asked what I would be doing on a mission. I told her I would be teaching people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I told her that missionaries would be at my home next week and invited her to come listen to what I would be sharing with people in Singapore on my mission.
She said “I don’t know, I am very busy right now. We will see.” As I left I was really disappointed that my invitation wasn’t answered with an energetic “Yes, I would love to come!” I told the missionaries that I didn’t think my neighbor was going to come. They invited me to fast about it. I fasted that week. On the day of the discussion, the missionaries were sitting in my living room and I really didn’t think my neighbor would come over, but there was a knock at my door, and Linda had come. I was so excited! She listened to a first discussion, but she was not interested in reading the Book of Mormon or attending a church. After she walked home, I was still so excited about my experience. I felt so close to my heavenly Father. I felt that he heard and answered my fast and knew me on such an individual level. Sometimes sharing the gospel with others will not lead to baptism or even further interest, but I have a testimony that as we do our best, we will feel the love of our Heavenly Father in our lives and our personal relationship with Him will strengthen.
When I first moved here to Rapid City I was called as the Enrichment leader in Relief Society. We were in the 2nd ward, before the ward boundaries were re aligned. Bishop Scrub’s focus that year was missionary work. He wanted the Relief Society to put together a community fair and host it at our church building. I was put in charge of that. At the first meeting with the enrichment committee I still remember sitting there trying to keep up with all the different organizations that were being discussed, and feeling very overwhelmed. I felt so new to the area and didn’t even know how to get from my home to the post office--let alone where places like Habitat for Humanity or the Red Cross were located. I really didn’t even want to think about this assignment because it only created stress in my mind. But I had to do it, so a month before this community fair was supposed to happen I started praying about it. My prayers sounded something like Heavenly Father--this is what I have been asked to do. I don’t know what to do. I am feeling very overwhelmed. I really don’t want to do it and I am not sure where to go from here. What should I do?
After my prayer I would feel some direction--like make a list or call this person or look up something on the internet. When I began to feel overwhelmed again, I would take my frustrations to my Heavenly Father, and receive more small manageable steps to complete this assignment. The community fair turned out being successful. I am not sure if anyone from the community who was not a member of our church attended, but there were six people representing organizations in our community who were there who were not members of our church. They each met members of our church, spent time in our church building, and received a copy of the articles of faith. One received a copy of the Book of Mormon. Later, the director of the Red Cross needed help packaging food so he called our church asking for assistance. We had a great turn out of our members coming out to help and afterwards the director told me that they had never had such a positive experience working with another large group of people than with our church members.
Sometimes being asked or expected to be a member missionary can feel very overwhelming. When these feelings come into our life, I have learned that it is okay to kneel in prayer and say “Heavenly Father this is hard! I don’t know what to do.I don’t want to do what I have been asked to do. I need help.”
I have a testimony that he will guide you and help you one step at a time so the task feels manageable--and even exciting and you will feel blessings that come from your efforts to do the Lord’s will.
Next I want to touch on the gathering of Israel and how that relates to being a member missionary.
“The doctrine of the gathering stands at the very heart of the restored gospel.
We do not understand who we really are as a people, the covenants that God has made with us or the destiny that is ours until we gain a meaningful understanding of this doctrine.” Joseph Smith
An exerpt of the dedication of the Kirkland temple reads: May all the scattered remnants of Israel who have been driven to the ends of the earth come to a knowledge of the truth. Believe in the messiah and be redeemed from oppression and rejoice before thee. May they return to the holy temple of the Lord and the sacred covenants found there in.
“The gathering of Israel consists in believing and accepting and living in harmony will all that the Lord once offered his ancient chosen people. It consists of having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, of repenting, of being baptized, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and of keeping the commandments of God. It consists of believing the gospel, joining the church, and coming into the Kingdom.
It consists of receiving the Holy Priesthood, being endowed in holy places with power from on high. And receiving all the blessings of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob through the ordinance of celestial marriage. And it may also consist of assembling to an appointed place or land of worship.” Bruce R. McConkie
As I am learning more about what the gathering of Israel means I am realizing that assisting in helping people learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ and being baptized is only half of it. The next important step is making temple covenants--including being sealed to family. Is that part of being a member missionary? Yes it does.
Growing up my dad never held a calling, that I can remember. But he was always a home teacher. He went every month. I have memories of every Christmas our dining room table was filled with red poinsettias that he would give his home teaching families through out the season. One family he home taught were not yet sealed in the temple. They had 6 young children. My dad would always bring me with him when he home taught so I could play with their girls. My dad felt they were good friends. Eventually this family was sealed in the temple. And I remember the father of this family getting up in fast and testimony meeting to share his testimony about his family’s experience being sealed and feeling so proud of my dad and relationship he had with this family--a relationship founded by a desire to love them and to just want to be their friend.
I want to go back to my friend Kristin and her experience being sealed in the temple. When Kristin was baptized, her parents were not happy. When she told them she was going to be sealed in the temple, they did not view her sealing as an actual marriage and refused to participate in any of the festivities surrounding her marriage. She was sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on the day that a tornado hit Salt Lake. My roommates were in a car together driving to the Salt Lake Temple when traffic suddenly stopped and it got extremely stormy. Suddenly all of the windows in the car shattered and then the roof of the car was making a horrible noise--it sounded like it was going to rip off any second, but quickly the storm passed and police were trying to get people out of their cars and into a safe building. My friends were telling this officer that they needed to get to the temple for a sealing, but this officer wouldn’t hear of it. So as soon as he turn away from them, they ran toward the temple and got there in time for the sealing--which was still occurring because those who were in the temple had no idea of the storm happening outside.
These friends loved Kristin so much that they would be willing to run through dangerous weather to be with her because they wanted her to feel supported in this decision she was making. I am not asking any of us to endanger our lives, but to look at who we know, who we have relationships with, who we home teach or visit teach--have they been to the temple to make important covenants with Heavenly Father? Can Heavenly Father use me to help assist in these people receiving those covenants? If we don’t have answers to these questions, then pray about them. Joseph Smith said “After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel”. Surely Heavenly Father will answer our prayers as we desire to help him in this great work of gathering israel.
The greatest gift that I have received in my entire life is the gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the privilege of being sealed to my family. This gift was not given without sacrifice and endurance through trials. But how grateful I am for those people who blessed my life with their examples and testimony. One of my very favorite quotes was given by President Hunter at a Christmas devotional in 1994. He said
Christmas is a time for giving. Someone once said he couldn’t think of what to give for Christmas. The next day in the mail he received an anonymous list which read:
Give to your enemy forgiveness,
To your opponent tolerance,
To your friend your heart,
To all men charity, for the hands that help
are holier than lips that pray,
To every child a good example,
and to yourself—respect.
All of us need to follow the example of the Savior in giving these kinds of gifts. From Christina Rossetti we read: UAdd a Note
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would give Him a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man,
I would do my part,—
But what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.1
This Christmas, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again.
Christmas is a celebration, and there is no celebration that compares with the realization of its true meaning—with the sudden stirring of the heart that has extended itself unselfishly in the things that matter most.2
It is my prayer that this Christmas season we will think about what matters most and how we can include missionary work in those goals and desires that are deep within our hearts--that make up who we are.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Incorruptible Men and Women
"Integrity is realized by doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason--at any cost. "The U.S. Military Academy has a code that declares, 'A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do.' It is an external code imposed by the institution, and those who violate it are subject to harsh discipline.
"But men and women of honor have an internalized code of conduct that informs their decisions which is far more demanding that anything this academy can impose. If that internal code is built on the right principles, a soldier will do the right thing in any given situation, even if doing it is at great personal cost."
Aderence to such an internalized code makes a man or woman incorruptible, and the world needs incorruptible men and women today as desperately as it ever has in it's history."
Joan of Arc believed some things are worse than dying, even worse than dying young. One of those things worse than dying is to live without integrity to a cause you believe to be more sacred that life itself."
Elder Holland at an address shared with cadets and others on May 7, 2010. This address was given for the National Day of Prayer Breakfast at the US Military Academy at West Point. This was the first time a Latter-day Saint had spoken in the prayer breakfast series.
Church News. Week Ending May 15, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Clinging to the Doctrine
"I've often thought, and I've said to my own children, that those parents who kept going past Chimney Rock and Martin's Cove (and some didn't get farther than that) and those little graves that are dotted all across the historic landscape of this church--they didn't do that for a program, they didn't do it for a social, they did it because the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ was in their soul, it was in the marrow of their bones. That's the only way those mothers could bury that baby in a breadbox and move on and say 'The promised land is out there somewhere. We're going to make it to the valley.'
"Well thats because of covenants and doctrine and faith and revelation and spirit. If we can keep that in our families and in the Church, maybe a lot of other things start to take care of themselves. Maybe a lot of other things sort of fall off the wagon. I'm told those handcarts could only take so much. They had to choose what they took. And maybe the 21st century will drive us to decide, 'what can we put in this handcart?' It's the substance of our soul; it's the stuff right down in the marrow of our bones. We'll have blessed family and church if we can cling to the revelations."
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Angels Among Us
"And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed.
"Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
"And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him."
St. Luke 22: 41-43
Luke records that on the night of Atonement, following the Last Supper, Jesus bowed in awful alienation and grief in the Garden of Gethsemane beneath the load of the world’s sins. He uttered his soul-cry: “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
“And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” (Luke 22:42–43.) An angel sent from the courts of glory. An angel sent to assist, to support, to sustain the sinless Son of Man in the depths of his greatest agony. “The angelic ministrant is not named,” Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote. “If we might indulge in speculation, we would suggest that the angel who came into this second Eden was the same person who dwelt in the first Eden. At least Adam, who is Michael, the archangel—the head of the whole heavenly hierarchy of angelic ministrants—seems the logical one to give aid and comfort to his Lord on such a solemn occasion. Adam fell, and Christ redeemed men from the fall; theirs was a joint enterprise, both parts of which were essential for the salvation of the Father’s children.” "The Man Adam"
"In a Sunday school class there was sharp criticism of the ill fated Martin and Willie handcart companies, which met with tragedy because of their late start on their trek to the Salt Lake Valley. An elderly man arose and said 'I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts.... give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife...too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died because of exposure and starvation, but we became acquainted with God in our extremities. I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand, and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I had looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there. Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then or any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart company.'"
"My dear young sisters--you who stand for truth and righteousness, you who seek goodness, you who have entered the waters of baptism and walk in the ways of the Lord--our Father in heaven has promised that you will 'mount up with wings as eagles [you] shall run, and not be weary; and [you] shall walk, and not faint'. You 'shall not be deceived'. God will bless and prosper you . 'The gates of hell shall not prevail against you;... and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name's glory.'" President Uchtdorf, "Your Happily Ever After" Ensign May 2010
"I had a woman who came to me who was an incest victim--the victim of a terrible family.She had been abused in about every way there was to be abused. She was not a member of the Church at that time, although this happens to members of the Church also. In high school she met a young man who was a Latter-day Saint and who started taking her to church. with him. Eventually they married. He was gentle and kind and patient...and loved her. They raised boys. Despite this, she had recurring bouts of depression and very negative feelings about herself because she had been taught by the people most important in her early life what a rotten person she was. It was hard for her to overcome that self-image. I worked with her to try to build her self-image. One day she said to me 'Your a stake president; you explain the justice of it....When I see little girls being hugged and kissed and taken to church and appropriately loved by their fathers and mothers, I just have to get up and leave. I say 'Heavenly Father, what was so terrible about me that, when I was that age, I didn't get any of that? What did that little girl do in the pre mortal existence that I didn't do so she is loved, so she is safe? Her daddy gives her priesthood blessings when she's sick. Her mother loves her and supports her and teacher her. What did I do? Can you tell me that God is just if he sends that little girl to that family and me to my family?'
"I would not have known how to answer her in my own capacity because that is manifestly unjust. Where, here or in eternity, is the justice of an innocent child's suffering in that way? But the Lord inspired me to tell her, and I believe with all my heart that it applies to many in the kingdom, that she was a valiant Christlike spirit who volunteered (with, I told her, perhaps too much spiritual pride) to come to earth and suffer innocently to purify a lineage. She volunteered to absorb the poisoning of sin, anger, anguish, and violence, to take it into herself and not to pass it on; to purify a lineage so that downstream from her it ran pure and clean, full of love and the Spirit of the Lord and self-worth. I believe truly that her calling was to be a savior on Mount Zion; that is, to be Savior-like, like the Savior to suffer innocently that others might not suffer. She voluntarily took such a task with the promise she would not be left alone and abandoned, but he would send one to take her by the hand and be her companion out in to the light.
"I think we do not understand the nature of ourselves. I think we do not understand who we are. Some people call the temple ordinances the 'mysteries' of the kingdom. When I went to the temple, I thought I was going to learn which star was Kolob, where the Ten Tribes were, and other such information. But those aren't the mysteries of the kingdom....The uses of adversity are the uses they put us to. May they hone us, and purify us, and teach us, and not destroy us, because of who we are, who God is, and what our relationship to him is. [because those are the mysteries of the kingdom]" "The Uses of Adversity" Carlfred Broderick. exerpt from his book, My Parents Married on a Dare
We have experiences where a heavenly being or guardian angel can come to assist and help us. We also have relationships with people who may be angels in our lives. People who have experienced challenges and made changes in their life so we may be protected from those challenges. People who choose to teach us truths and who choose to love us amidst our weaknesses. People who help us understand "who we are, who God is, and what our relationship to him is."
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