Stake Presidents and Bishops - tremendous volunteers

We had temple recommend interviews today with the Stake President. He looks like he's around 45 and was a nice man. I'm pretty impressed with him and all Stake Presidents. He was spending another hour or two today doing temple recommend interviews. He's a Senior Vice President over the mobile division for Nvidia, a computer graphics company worth around $11B. He's certainly busy and successful, and he spends many, many hours every week with church members just because he's been asked to. I think it's so important to remember that our church leaders are just volunteers doing the best they can.

His advice for me was to serve. He said that's the best thing Melchizedek Priesthood holders can do and that it's important for children to see their fathers serve and to be involved in that service as early as possible. I appreciated the suggestion, especially as it's not easy to carve out time to serve, but it's very worthwhile. Kids will learn from our examples. President Monson has said he learned the gospel from his parents and that it was through the service they performed that he learned it. I felt that this advice was inspired for me.

I appreciate the service those men give. They're very good men in my experience and certainly they have other things they may want to be doing with their time.

Here's a link to a general conference message about stake presidents by Gordon Hinckley.

http://lds.org/general-conference/2000/04/the-stake-president?lang=eng

He mentions the first time he called a Stake President as a General Authority and how he was inspired to call the right person. Also, he mentions the confidence the Brethren have in the Stake Presidents (as well as a quick fact - temple recommends were signed by the president of the church until Pres. Woodruff's time when that duty became too much of a burden - the church continues to change as time goes on, and those changes occur in an inspired way).

Here's one paragraph I enjoyed:

I have total confidence in the men who fill this office. Their duties are numerous, their responsibilities great. They recognize their own inadequacy, and I know that they pray for guidance and help. I know they study the scriptures to find answers. I know they place this work first in their lives. Because we have such confidence in them, we urge local members that they not seek out General Authorities to counsel with and bless them. Their stake presidents have been called under the same inspiration under which the General Authorities were called.

Have a great week.

LaDon

Inspiration

One of the things that became more clear to me yesterday is how clearly revelation and inspiration can come, in particular for things that revolve around the Priesthood. For instance, I do not have thoughts that "just come" about work things very often. However, when I was listening to priesthood session I had many thoughts about things to do, prioritize, change, etc.

Also, we're speaking on Sunday. Last night Jamie told me her talk and a bunch of ideas came to me as I heard her thoughts. It's an interesting process that just doesn't happen when thinking about too many subjects. It can happen in work things as well, but it happens more often and more clearly and more consistently in spiritual matters.

So here's the main points I want to get out in the talk, although it needs to be flushed out better.

1) Explain why it's necessary to put on the "whole armor of God" and not parts of the armor of God.

a) I have clearly seen in the lives of numerous people that having only parts of the armor of God is not acceptable. For instance, I know someone who is a very good person in many ways. I remember him giving a talk in which he said he thought it wasn't wise to listen to some of his 80s rock music in the car with youth he was driving. The music he was talking about wasn't that bad, but he wanted to be an excellent example. This same guy has had some other at first minor issues however that led to major problems. He's a good guy, but he only had part of the armor of God on. I can think of numerous life examples. There's also some scriptural examples (like David). The Savior also warns in the Sermon on the Mount to avoid a lot of sins. I also have a story or two from my own life about this.

A few other people who had chinks in the armor: many early Saints. The 3 Witnesses had a sure testimony of only the Book of Mormon but not of a lot of other things. Clear holes in the armor. Also, Sidney Rigdon - the Lord even warns Sidney in D.C. 35 that the leader of the church is the one with the keys - 25And ^aIsrael shall be ^bsaved in mine own due time; and by the^ckeys which I have given shall they be led, and no more be confounded at all. Sidney should have known not to try to lead the church. We all are guided to know what our weaknesses are.

2) Potentially include this: it's important to care about everyone in the church having the full armor of God. I remember in Guatemala one time we had a priesthood class that discussed D.C. 58:54-57.

54And your ^aminds in times past have been ^bdarkened because of^cunbelief, and because you have treated ^dlightly the things you have received—

55Which ^avanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.

56And this condemnation resteth upon the children of ^aZion, even all.

57And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new ^acovenant, even the ^bBook of Mormon and the ^cformer commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to ^ddo according to that which I have written—

One member said that as long as his family was reading scriptures as they should then it didn't matter how anyone else was doing with their scripture reading, his family wouldn't be under condemnation. Essentially, he didn't care what other people were doing; it just mattered that he was doing well. This sounds harsh, but I wanted to yell at him for a considerable while. We are all affected by everyone else. For example, if everyone in the entire ward is strong spiritually, the ward will continue to grow. It's likely that youth will join the church with their families and my son or daughter may end up dating or even marrying people who joined the church simply because of how strong the entire ward was. Our lives are greatly affected by those who are in the church and we have to be extremely invested in how they're doing. I was shocked that a man who had been a member for so long didn't understand that. Elder Choi talks about this idea in his conference talk here: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-1117-18,00.html

Enoch and the city of Zion was lifted up because everyone was of one heart and one mind and dwelt in righteousness. It's important to me that my family is spiritually strong and that every family in the ward is as well. "No man is an island." :)

3) Why I want the full armor of God? Because it's a better way to live. I really like the Elder Maxwell quote about living well. Something like, "it's important for youth to have more examples and fewer critics, not just so that they know that walking the path and holding onto the iron rod is possible, but also so that they know it is worth doing." - admittedly, this section may get cut and needs more thought.

4) Why it's worth it? Because you'll get to partake in the Sacrament meeting with the Savior and all the great prophets and faithful Saints that will be held at Adam-ondi-Ahman if you do have the full armor of God. That's why D.C. 27 contains the armor of God and a description of that great Sacrament meeting. Pretty cool.

What convinces me that meeting will be so great?

a) Elder Shumway spoke to us about taking the Sacrament with the Prophet and what an amazing experience it is (when I was a missionary). I can only imagine how much better it would be with the Savior there.

b) My own experiences with the Savior and with some of his servants (listening to Pres. Eyring, talking with a temple president, briefly meeting an area seventy, briefly meeting elder Hales, a few others that I'm not thinking of right now :) convince me that being at that meeting alone would be one of the most choice experiences we could ever have. It's so worth it to put on the armor of God in this life to end up there. Great ROI.

Still a lot to do, but this is coming along.

Have a great day

Should we respond to those who are being negative about the church?

So, sometimes there's groups that are quite negative about the church. In these times, it may be difficult to know if the church should respond (or we should respond in a more local or individual way) or not. I think the answer is, it depends.

See this from D.C. 71:

7Wherefore, ^aconfound your ^benemies; call upon them to ^cmeetyou both in public and in private; and inasmuch as ye are faithful their ^dshame shall be made manifest.

8Wherefore, let them bring forth their ^astrong reasons against the Lord.

9Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you—there is no ^aweapon that is formed against you shall prosper;

10And if any man lift his voice against you he shall be ^aconfoundedin mine own due time.

In this instance, the answer was for Joseph and Sidney to stop their work translating and respond to the negative press by preaching the gospel but also speaking directly to the topics the enemies were mentioning.

I think it makes a lot of sense to preach the gospel in most instances when there's opposition. In other words, give our message without responding to their message. However, clearly there's times when it's important to respond. When are those times? I'm not exactly sure. It must be when the church's progress will be slowed (which likely means too many people are negatively affected and will slow the church's ability to reach out to them) so as to make it important to respond. How often is that? Tough to know. It probably requires revelation/inspiration to know when to respond and when not to.

Have a good week.

Everyone that speaks the Lord's message is given the Lord's words

D.C. 68 is given to four apostles, but the Lord is careful to specifically mention that his promise here applies to everyone.

2And, behold, and lo, this is an ensample unto all those who were ordained unto this priesthood, whose mission is appointed unto them to go forth—

3And this is the ^aensample unto them, that they shall ^bspeak as they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost.

4And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the^aHoly Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the ^bpower of God unto salvation.

5Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants.

6Wherefore, be of good ^acheer, and do not ^bfear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I ^cwas, that I am, and that I am to come.

There are so many times we may not know what to say, but if we're appointed to preach the gospel (which all members are), we'll be blessed with the Holy Ghost to tell us what to say, it will be the Lord's words, and it will have power to move people to salvation.

I have seen this happen. I remember we had a lesson once in which we taught a lady with some members. After we asked her to be baptized, she said No because she'd already been baptized and probably also said, "because God should not be played with" - Dios es no jugete. Then one of the members said, "but did you get the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands?" "No" was the response. Then the sister said, "Elders, tell her what she was missing." So I explained about the need to have the laying on of hands according to D.C. 35 and Acts 19:

1And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper ^acoasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

2He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

3And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto ^aJohn’s baptism.

4Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of^arepentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

5When they heard this, they were ^abaptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

6And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with ^atongues, and prophesied.

Focus on verse 6.

So, after the explanation she said, "yes, I'll be baptized." Lest you think this was some false promise, we set a date for 5 weeks from then, and she was baptized that day. 6 months later she was in the Relief Society presidency. A year and a half later she was on a mission in Panama. The church is better because she's in it, and for some reason, there was great power in what we said that day. And great job by the members. I wouldn't have been as aggressive but they were tremendous. I love them.

We're lucky to get to do some of the work of the Lord. He blesses us as we do with his words and also with his presence. That's a large promise indeed.