Following Christ

As we have studied the New Testament again this year, it has been interesting to read again about how Christ called each of his disciples. He called Matthew as he passed by the tax office where Matthew worked. The Lord called Phillip and Phillip brought Nathanael, who believed when Christ told him about a private moment he had under a fig tree. Andrew believed the preaching of John the Baptist and brought his brother, Simon Peter, to meet the Messiah. The Lord later called Andrew, Peter, James, and John, from their fishing boats after performing a miracle to fill their nets with fish.

Though each of these men would eventually be ordained as apostles, they were first called to be disciples. Others were called too: Mary called Magdalene, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward, Susanna, Salome, and many others recognized the Savior and accepted the call to follow him (Luke 8:2-3).

So what was it these disciples were called to do?

To the fishermen, Andrew, Peter, James, and John, the Lord called, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:18). To Matthew, son of Alpheas, as with Phillip, Nathanael, and others, the Lord said simply, “follow me.” To the rich young ruler, the Lord called, “Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me” (Luke 18:22). Indeed, “if any man will come after me,” the Lord taught, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16).

Following Christ is more than just believing in him. It is doing the things that he did during his life and that he would do again if he were here with us today. Alma taught that the members of Christ’s church follow him when they “are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death” and enter into covenants to serve him and keep his commandments (Mosiah 18:8-10).

Each of us is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ who has accepted the call to follow him and covenanted through baptism and temple ordinances to serve him and keep his commandments. So what do you think it is that he has called you and I to do? That is, what would Christ do if he were to come to our community today?

I believe he would minister to us like he did to the people he visited in 3 Nephi. He would command “that none of you should go away, but rather… that ye should come unto me, that ye might feel and see” (3 Nephi 18:25). He would administer the sacrament and minister especially to our children and youth. He would teach us and perform miracles. He would invite the Holy Spirit to change our hearts and admonish us to put an end to all contention, to love one another, and to hold up our light, which is Christ, that it may shine unto the world (3 Nephi 18:24).

The invitation to us is to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and come and follow Christ. Come and do the things that he would do if he were here. Set aside the cares of the world and come learn the word of God. Let go of criticism, cynicism, and doubt and come, minister to one another with love, especially for our children and youth. Come partake of the sacrament each week and invite the spirit into your life to change your heart. Come perform miracles. Come hold up your light and witness of Christ at all times and in all things and in all places.

After they had received the priesthood, Christ sent his disciples on assignments to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. He admonished them to preach as they went and charged them to, “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, [and] cast out devils” (Matthew 10:6-8). They returned rejoicing and astonished at the miracles they had performed in the name of Christ (Luke 9:10, 10:17).

Yet, on another occasion, a “certain man” approached the Savior and begged on his knees: “Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him” (Matthew 17:15-16).

After the Lord had rebuked the devil and cured the child, the disciples asked why they had not been successful. “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:18-21).

We can pray and fast for direction and courage to share the gospel. Surely Christ would be anxiously engaged in this work if he were in our community; and He is just as anxious to teach us what to do and guide us to those He has prepared. Just as a tiny mustard seed grows into a large seed, at least some of our fasting and prayer today must be for the faith to believe that, as we follow Christ and do the things he would do, our ward can grow into something greater than it is.

President Ballard once related the following story in General Conference:

“Some years ago a faithful convert, Brother George McLaughlin, was called to preside over a small branch of 20 members in Farmingdale, Maine. He was a humble man, driving a milk delivery truck for a living. Through his fasting and earnest prayer, the Spirit taught him what he and the members of his branch needed to do to help the Church grow in their area. Through his great faith, constant prayer, and powerful example, he taught his members how to share the gospel.

“It’s a marvelous story, one of the great missionary stories of this dispensation. In just one year there were 450 convert baptisms in the branch. The next year there were an additional 200 converts. … Just five years later, the Augusta Maine Stake was organized. Much of the leadership of that new stake came from those converts in the Farmingdale Branch.

“Now we might ask why there was such great success in those days, and the answer may be because of the urgent need to strengthen the Church. Let me assure you that that same urgency in all units of the Church is every bit as critical today as it was then” (April 2003).

President Nelson has promised that “as [we] choose to let God prevail in [our] lives, [we] will experience for [ourselves] that our God is ‘a God of miracles’ (Mormon 9:11” (Let God Prevail, October 2020). He taught on another occasion: “the Lord will bless you with miracles if you believe in Him, ‘doubting nothing’. Do the spiritual work to seek miracles. Prayerfully ask God to help you exercise that kind of faith. I promise that you can experience for yourself that Jesus Christ ‘giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he ‘increaseth strength’.”

The Lord has called each of us to follow Him and do the things He would do if He were in our community. He is the Good Shepherd and He wants us to find his lost sheep of the house of Israel. Some of those lost sheep are members of our families, others are members of our ward, and still more are in our community looking for the truth, but they know not where to find it.

Elder Stevenson has taught us how to follow Christ and reach out to these lost sheep:

“The first thing we can do is love as Christ loved… By demonstrating Christ’s love to others, we may cause those who see our good works to ‘glorify [our] Father which is in heaven’. We do this expecting nothing in return.

“Our hope, of course, is they will accept our love and our message, though how they react is not within our control… Through Christlike love for others, we preach the glorious, life-transforming properties of Christ’s gospel, and we participate significantly in the fulfilling of His great commission.

“The second thing we can do is share… We all share things with others. We do it often. We share what movies and food we like, funny things we see, places we visit, art we appreciate, quotes we’re inspired by…

“Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf explained: ‘If someone asks about your weekend, don’t hesitate to talk about what you experienced at church. Tell about the little children who stood in front of a congregation and sang with eagerness how they are trying to be like Jesus. Talk about the group of youth who spent time helping the elderly in rest homes to compile personal histories’.

“Sharing isn’t about ‘selling’ the gospel. You don’t have to write a sermon or correct someone’s incorrect perceptions. When it comes to missionary work, God doesn’t need you to be His sheriff; He does, however, ask that you be His sharer.”

“The third thing you can do is invite… There are hundreds of invitations we can extend to others. We can invite others to ‘come and see’ a sacrament service, a ward activity, an online video that explains the gospel of Jesus Christ. ‘Come and see’ can be an invitation to read the Book of Mormon or visit a new temple during its open house… Sometimes the invitation is something we extend inward—an invitation to ourselves, giving us awareness and vision of opportunities surrounding us to act upon.

“In our digital age, members often share messages through social media. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of uplifting things you might find worthy of sharing. This content offers invitations to ‘come and see.’ ‘come and serve,’ and ‘come and belong.’”

As we each deny ourselves, take up our cross, and strive to follow Christ and share his gospel, we will experience miracles in our lives and in our communities.

Gathered to a Good Meal

"In Remembrance of Me" by Walter Rane

Nothing brings people together quite like good food. Food is a highlight of many of our activities, our holidays and our culture. We celebrate each other with birthday cake. Families come together to reflect on shared blessings over turkey and mashed potatoes. Church events are rarely held without homemade brownies or an ice cream sandwich. At professional conferences, much of the networking and business is conducted over a meal, drinks and hors d’oeuvres, or some hotel’s idea of cheesecake.

When we are sharing a meal with others, we cannot help but tap into a deeper source of connection. We all need food to live. Our bodies are made of the cells created from and nourished by the food we eat. Sharing our food is sharing our vulnerable humanity. It implies an equality, trust and cooperation that helps us feel closer to our families, our associates, or even those we may not have known when the meal began. Breaking bread with one other can soften our hearts and remind us of all we have in common. Oscar Wilde quipped that “after a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relatives.”

The gathering of Israel is like a good meal. The Lord taught in a parable that “wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together; so likewise shall mine elect be gathered from the four quarters of the earth” (JS-M 1:27).

The elect of Israel will be gathered to the body of the church for the same reason as eagles gather for a meal: because there is meat for nourishment.

Speaking in 1938, President J. Reuben Clark, a counselor in the First Presidency at the time, spoke to Church educators about teaching the youth of the Church. His comments have many insights for parents and teachers, but the principles he taught apply to each of us and all of the elect of Israel. In that context of the broader elect the Lord has called us to gather, he said:

“The [elect] are hungry for things of the Spirit; they are eager to learn the gospel, and they want it straight, undiluted.

They want to know about the fundamentals [of the gospel]—about our beliefs; they want to gain testimonies of their truth…

[The elect] crave the faith their [friends or coworkers or family members] have; they want it in its simplicity and purity…

[The elect] already know that they must be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and do good to all men… They should be encouraged in all proper ways to do these things which they know to be true…

[The elect] fully sense the hollowness of teaching which would make the gospel plan a mere system of ethics; they know that Christ’s teachings are in the highest degree ethical, but they also know they are more than this… They know that the gospel teachings touch not only this life but the life that is to come, with its salvation and exaltation as the final goal.

[The elect] hunger and thirst… for a testimony of the things of the Spirit and of the hereafter, and knowing that you cannot rationalize eternity, they seek faith and the knowledge which follows faith…

[They are] working on toward a maturity which they will… reach if you but feed them the right food” (James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. (1965-75), 6:44-58).

We live in a “wheat and tares” world. We are called to gather the elect into the barn—not for the barn’s sake, but rather so we may be “made perfect in one” and meet again at the Lord’s family dinner table. There it will not matter if one was a republican or a democrat; rich or poor; American, African or Asian; a sports fan or an artist or wrangler or a nerd. There we will be unified by our common, vulnerable humanity and grateful faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The elect will be gathered to the Church and its covenants, like we are gathered to a good meal, as we love those around us and share the meat of the pure and undiluted gospel with them. Jesus Christ is our Savior, our Creator, the Great Gatherer, and the gracious host of our great gospel feast.

Gathering the Wheat from the Tares

As official opposition to Jesus Christ's ministry grew, he taught for a time using only parables (Mark 4:34). Through simple stories of everyday objects and situations, the Master Teacher openly shared divine truths that went undetected by his oppressors (Bible Dictionary, "Parables").

Many of Christ's parables teach about the kingdom of heaven. This is, in itself, a masked reference to his church. The kingdom of heaven, Christ said, is like a mustard seed, leaven, a treasure hidden in a field, a pearl of great price and a fishing net. Each analogy subtly prophesies of the growth of the church from a seed to a great tree, from kneaded dough to a risen loaf, from an empty net to one that "gathered of every kind" (Matthew 13:47).

Christ also understood that growth would not come without opposition. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, he prophesies about the spreading of falsehood and wickedness, apostasy, and the eventual gathering of the elect prior to Christ's return in the latter days. He taught:

The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

He said unto them, An enemy hath done this.

The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:24-30).

Most people in ancient Israel would have been very familiar with the process of growing and harvesting wheat. It is, in a way, a purifying process as cut wheat is bound in bundles and left to dry in the field, pounded and threshed to separate the seed heads from the stems, and then winnowed or dropped on a breezy day to separate the heavier grain from the useless chaff. When the wheat is harvested, the field is burned to eliminate weeds, discard leftover straw, control pest populations, and prepare for a new crop.

Despite their familiarity with harvesting wheat, Christ's disciples struggled to understand the gospel principles in the parable. When the crowds and Pharisees were gone, they asked the Lord for an interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tares.

The Lord explained that the field represented the world. Christ and his servants, the apostles, would sow good seeds as they taught the gospel throughout the nations of the world. After the seed was planted, "as men slept," there would be a great apostasy that would introduce tares in the field.

Tares are a weed that looks like wheat until it matures. They have a bitter taste and cause dizziness and vomiting if eaten separately or when mixed with bread (McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:296). The tares represent evil doctrines and those who spread them.

In the latter days, at the time of the harvest, the wheat, or the righteous, will be separated from the tares. The Lord explained to the Prophet Joseph Smith:

Behold, in the last days, even now while the Lord is beginning to bring forth the word, and the blade is springing up and is yet tender-- Behold, verily I say unto you, the angels are crying unto the Lord day and night, who are ready and waiting to be sent forth to reap down the fields; But the Lord saith unto them, pluck not up the tares while the blade is yet tender (for verily your faith is weak), lest you destroy the wheat also. Therefore, let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest is fully ripe; then ye shall first gather out the wheat from among the tares, and after the gathering of the wheat, behold and lo, the tares are bound in bundles, and the field remaineth to be burned (D&C 86:4-7).

As the Lord prophesied, we live in a time when wheat and tares are growing together in every corner of the world. In "a wheat and tares world," Elder Neal A. Maxwell once noted, "lust openly parades as love, license cleverly poses as liberty, and raucous sounds mockingly masquerade as music" (April 1993). Rather than talking with our neighbors, we watch talk shows and use social media in solitude. Legislation and violence are used against women and children to protect personal profit and convenience rather than to defend women and children. Many people turn to drugs and alcohol to "tune out" the world rather than striving with faith to overcome it. It can be especially difficult to tell the difference between a wide variety of religious teachings and beliefs that often cite the same scriptures.

With eyes to see and ears to hear, there are many gospel principles we can learn from the parable of the wheat and the tares. We can learn about waiting on the Lord's timing and the urgency of growing our faith. There are lessons about judgement, obedience, patience, and living with others in our church congregations. Perhaps most important is the work of gathering, assigned to the Lord's latter-day apostles, in which we are allowed to participate.

As wheat is gathered out of the field, so Christ prayed in gratitude that our Heavenly Father had given the Holy Ghost to those chosen "out of the world... because of their belief in [Christ]" (3 Nephi 19:20). He continued, "Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou has given me out of the world, because of their faith, that they may be purified in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one, that I may be glorified in them" (3 Nephi 19:29).

Christ offered a similar prayer for his disciples in Jerusalem. He repeated and clarified in that prayer that he prayed "not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil" (John 17:15). He prayed for unity, joy and sanctification through the word of God "that they may be made perfect in one" and "be with me where I am" (John 17:6-24).

Gathering the righteous out of the world is clearly more than baptizing them into any particular church. President Joseph Fielding Smith taught that "even in the Church the tares are to be found. It is the tares which are to be gathered up and burned from all over the world, but those in the Church will also be gathered out and find their place in the fire. The Savior also bore witness of [this. When] speaking to the Nephites he said: 'For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at that day whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I cut off from my people, O house of Israel' (3 Nephi 21:20)" (Church History and Modern Revelation, 1:354.).

Wheat is not gathered into the barn for the barn's sake, but for its own preservation and the glory of the owner of the farm-- the householder. Paul taught that God "might gather together in one all things in Christ" (Ephesians 1:10). We are gathered as we believe in Christ, repent of our sin, covenant through baptism for the remission of sins, and are sanctified by the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is the way we may be "made perfect in one" and with the Lord where he is. 

The ancient American prophet Moroni admonished: "Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ... And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot" (Moroni 10:32-33).

In the multi-step process of harvesting the faithful, temple ordinances further separate the righteous from the world. Through additional covenants to live the laws of obedience, sacrifice, the gospel, chastity and consecration, our hearts and minds are instructed to greater unity, joy and sanctification. We are encouraged to discard the chaff in our lives that we may be among the Lord's chosen-- clearly distinguishable from the tares of the field and gathered up before the field is burned.

Christ taught these doctrines in a simple parable about harvesting wheat. He invited his disciples to help plant good seeds and he invites us to join in the harvest.

"Therefore," he declared, "if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work; For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul" (D&C 4:3-4).

No Unhallowed Hand

Joseph Smith once declared that "no unhallowed hand can stop [God's] work from progressing". While that hasn't stopped some people from trying, it is instructive to note that opposing efforts often contribute more to the progress of God's work than they ever detract from it.

A classic example can be found in the people of Amulon. Amulon and his followers had lived lavish, idolatrous lives as priests supported by the burdensome taxes imposed by King Noah. When their country was invaded, they abandoned their families to preserve their own lives and then later kidnapped some women from a rival nation to be their new wives. Given the opportunity to oversee a righteous people, Amulon  and his followers oppressed the righteous severely and forbid prayer and religious worship. It is easy to think that nothing good could have come from Amulon.

Yet, we read that the righteous oppressed by Amulon actually grew in faith until they were eventually delivered from Amulon's rule altogether (Mosiah 24:12-16). Meanwhile, Amulon and his followers taught the language of the Nephites in every land of the Lamanites, paving the way for Ammon and his brothers to have missionary successes only a few years later (Mosiah 24:4).

When Joseph Smith knelt to pray, he was "siezed upon by some power which entirely overcame [him], and had such an astonishing influence over [him] as to bind [his] tongue so that [he] could not speak." Yet, this attack only led Joseph to exert all his energy to calling upon God and led to not only his deliverance, but his calling as a prophet and the beginning of the restoration of Christ's church and gospel (Joseph Smith-History 1:15-20).

Subsequent offenses from apostates, politicians and mobs had similar results, leading Brigham Young to declare, "Every time you kick [the Church] you kick it upstairs; you never kick it downstairs. The Lord Almighty so orders it" (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A Widtsoe, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1941, p. 351).

The greatest opposition was reserved for the Savior himself. Though he "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38), he was hated by the leaders that claimed to be seeking him and betrayed by one of his own disciples. The people sought to kill him on several occasions and by several means, even setting traps to facilitate his demise, and finally delivered him to the Romans to be crucified. Though the governor could find no fault with him, Christ was nailed to a cross and left to die.

If any act could be perceived to hinder the work of God, killing His chosen son would seem to be it. Yet, even this advanced, rather than hindered, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Isaiah prophesied of Christ:

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised with our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:3-5).

Through the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ, we can be forgiven of our sins, redeemed from death and empowered to act in faith beyond our own ability. As the Lord taught Joseph Smith in the Liberty Jail, no matter the obstacle or the odds, "if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good" (D&C 122:7).

Perhaps some of that experience was reflected in Joseph Smith's letter to Mr. John Wentworth, editor and proprietor of the Chicago Democrat, written three years after his inhumane treatment in Liberty. Declared the prophet:

The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear; till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

Lost and Found

"Black Sheep" by Julie Rogers

In the fifteenth chapter of Luke, as elsewhere in the New Testament, orthodox Pharisees murmured about Jesus Christ's interactions with sinners. They disapproved of his willingness to receive and share a dinner table with those they considered unclean and lost souls.

Christ responded to the Pharisees' criticism in this instance with three parables. In the first, a shepherd leaves his flock of 99 sheep to find one that had wandered off. The second parable is about a woman who lit a candle and cleaned her house to find a coin that she had lost. Finally, the Parable of the Prodigal Son tells of a son who wastes his inheritance with riotous living but is received with joy when he returns to his father's house.

Each of these parables is really about lost souls. It is instructive to note that the sheep, the coin and the prodigal son were each lost in a different way. The sheep wandered from its flock, perhaps not even noticing it was drifting from the others until it couldn't easily find the way back. The coin was lost because of the neglect or insufficient caution of someone else, not unlike the effect a wayward parent may have on their children. The Prodigal Son rejected his father's counsel and became lost through his own rebellion.

The parables illustrate how the sheep, the coin and the prodigal son were also found in different ways. The sheep that wandered into the wilderness was in the stewardship of a shepherd. "Wilderness" in the scriptures is often symbolic for "the world". The Joseph Smith translation of these verses clarifies that the shepherd left his flock of sheep in a safe place (not in the wilderness) and then went into the wilderness to search for the lost sheep. In a similar way, we may have opportunities to minister to those in our stewardship who have drifted away from gospel activity. Our efforts will be to bring those who are lost in worldly living back into the relative safety of the church. With this story, Christ is directly admonishing the Pharisees, who had a direct ecclesiastical responsibility for the lost souls they so disdained.

In the second story, the woman who lost a coin put nine other coins in a safe place before searching for her missing piece of silver. In this case, the woman was directly responsible for losing one of the coins and finding it required more light and a cleansing process. If we lead others away from Christ, we must repent and do all we can to restore their faith and standing before him. As we seek the Savior's influence in our lives he can provide direction and inspiration that will help us find those we have lost. This story was also an invitation to the Pharisees to search within themselves and fill their lives with light so they could find truth.

Finally, the Prodigal Son had to search within himself until he "came to himself" and desired to return to his father. He had known what was right and chose to waste his inheritance living contrary to that knowledge. It also had to be his choice to humbly return to the home of his father.

In every case, there is rejoicing when what was lost is found. "Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth," the Lord taught as a lesson of the lost sheep's return to the flock. When the woman finds the lost coin, she rejoices with her neighbors and the Savior says that the angels of heaven rejoice as well. Those angels exult because of their devotion to the Savior, but also because they are our friends and family, our parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. Of course they rejoice, just as the Father rejoices at the return of the prodigal son and hosts a celebration in his honor.

In the end, the sheep, the coin and the prodigal son are all restored to the place where they had been before they were lost. Unlike the sheep and the coin however, the father of the prodigal son explains to a more faithful posterity that the prodigal's inheritance cannot be restored. This cautionary note seems to say that though we may repent in the spirit world after death, our inheritance cannot be restored at that point. We may live with God again, a fact worth great rejoicing, but we cannot inherit eternal life nor inhabit the highest degree of His Celestial Kingdom. In the parable, the son who had been faithful and kept his inheritance is told that he will inherit "all that [the Father]" has.

The Lord taught Abraham, "And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads forever and ever" (Abraham 3:26). In the context of this verse, our mortal lives are our second estate. We can waste them with a Vegas lifestyle or addicted to various things, like the prodigal; but life can also slip away into distraction and passivity, indecision and apathy. It isn't enough to not be bad-- we must be good, like the faithful son who worked for his father all of his life.

The three parables about the lost speak to each of us as both sinners and rescuers. At times, all of us begin to wander from what we know is right. Perhaps we do not pray or study our scriptures for a time. We rely too heavily on ourselves and what we want to do. We are offended by someone at church or choose to do things we know are wrong because they seem fun or pleasurable or impressive to others. We are all charged of God with seeking for those who are lost.

This is true socially and within ourselves. In the depths of our hearts, we sometimes find that individual elements of our testimonies of the gospel may be lost for a time. If we do not fast or pray, we may lose our testimonies of the power of fasting and prayer. Sometimes elements of our testimonies may drift almost undetected. At other times, we may consciously battle with difficult questions about church history, gospel doctrine, life challenges or current events. It is in these times that we most need to light a candle in our lives, repenting and inviting Christ's presence to shine more brightly within us so we can see clearly to find what we have lost.

The Lord calls all of us to watch after those in our stewardship. Whether sharing the gospel with those wandering without a knowledge of the truth or finding those who have wandered, great joy is in store for those who do the Lord's work.

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;" the Savior said. "Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people. And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" (D&C 18:10, 14-16).

Christ invited the Pharisees to seek after the lost so that one day they could rejoice together at the Lord's table. He invites us to continue his work so that we can join Him and his angels when they kill the fatted calf for a great celebration of our return into His presence.

Return with Honor

When I was in high school, I often went over to my friend Devon's house. We were there most days for lunch, after school and whenever else we were looking for something to do. Above the front door in his house was a sign that read, "Return with Honor."

It was a simple sign with a simple message: don't screw up. Don't go places you shouldn't go, do things you shouldn't do or be someone you shouldn't be. I thought it was just another way of reminding their family, and all others that have used the slogan, to be good.

There is value in reminding ourselves to be good. That is, theoretically at least, why most LDS 8-year-olds don fresh CTR rings, at least for a few weeks, as they try to remember to Choose The Right. In an oversimplified way, we wear temple garments and attend church every week and put pictures of Christ in our homes so we can remember the promises we have made with God to be good.

Returning with honor is much more than that, however. Many of us have known people who were "good" and did what they were "supposed" to do but were without honor. They are the missionaries who served but didn't work; the temple-married couple who make others uncomfortable with how unkind they are to each other; and the church attendee who rejects all invitations to serve in a calling. These individuals, and others like them, go through the motions but seldom garner much esteem or respect because of the hollow selfishness of their efforts.

Honor is aligned with patience, kindness, contentment, joy for others, sacrifice, humility, modesty, self-discipline, hard work, virtue, hope, faith and love. We honor those who give their lives for our freedom, who give years of study and research to develop vaccines or send people to the moon, who teach us what they know, and who inspire us to be better. There is no honor in selfishness; but that doesn't mean that we don't have a role.

To understand how we can return with honor, we first must recognize that the subject of this sentence is implied. It is you. You are being admonished to return [yourself] with honor. How do you get that honor?

The next part of the statement requires the acknowledgement that to return, we first need to go. There are dozens of scriptural decrees to go a step or two into uncertainty, to go without sin, to go after what was lost, to go show yourself to the priest, to go on the Lord's errand, or go teach the gospel. In order to return, we first have to get up and go.

Finally, the added value to this phrase comes with a deeper understanding of honor. There are many sources of honor. We may receive worldly honors from universities, news media, community service groups or professional organizations. We can receive honors from our peers, our twitter followers or our bosses. Some of these can be good, but they cannot be what we treasure in our hearts. Like Captain Moroni, we are to, "seek not for honor of the world, but for the glory of [our] God, and the freedom and welfare of [our] country" (Alma 60:36).

In one of his recent conference addresses, President Uchtdorf shared an experience he had as a new General Authority. One day he was driving with President Faust to a stake conference. Among the important principles they discussed, Elder Faust explained how gracious the members of the Church are to General Authorities. He said, "They will treat you very kindly. They will say nice things about you." Then with a chuckle he said, "Dieter, be thankful for this. But don't you ever inhale it" (Pride and the Priesthood, October 2010).

While we can be grateful for our health, wealth, possessions, or positions, as President Uchtdorf went on to explain, when we begin to inhale our own importance or power or reputation they will begin to corrupt the honor we think we have. In his pre-mortal rebellion against God, Lucifer, the Son of the Morning and a person of some influence, demanded, "Give me thine honor, which is my power" (D&C 29:36).

Honor, like love or respect, cannot be demanded or taken upon ourselves. None of us can award ourselves a Nobel Peace Prize or an honorary doctorate degree from a prestigious university. Though we may inspire fear, we cannot control another's admiration. We are even less able to require the respect and esteem of a perfect being who knows all things and has all power.

Yet, God is anxious to give us honor. He promises, "if ye are faithful ye shall be laden with many sheaves, and crowned with honor, and glory, and immortality, and eternal life" (D&C 75:5). "For thus saith the Lord--I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end" (D&C 76:5).

Honor is the highest esteem or respect we can receive from another person. We cannot take it for ourselves, but we can give it and are commanded to honor those who honor God, including our parents, our spouses, and the laws of the land where we live. We are also commanded to honor the Lord.

My friend's mom could have put up a sign that said, "Be Good". Instead she put up a sign admonishing her family to act in such a way that others would willingly give their respect and esteem. She wanted her family to be anxiously engaged in good causes, to know what it was to sacrifice a meal so another could eat, to experience the reward of working hard to bless someone else's life, and to love so deeply that life's ambitions could be replaced by a desire to make others happy. Most of all, her sign directed her family to be the kind of people that an all-knowing, all-powerful God would delight to have on his side and to recognize for his or her faithfulness. She wanted them to not only be good, but to be courageous, fiercely righteous and persisting in patient faithfulness in the course God placed before them.

That was too long of a sign to fit over the door, so she summed it up: Return with Honor. I wonder if our heavenly mother has one just like it.

The Spiritual Value of Work

On a cold Winter day in Wiesbaden, Germany, two missionaries knocked on the door of a dear sister. The frozen world around them lie in perfect stillness for several long seconds and it seemed as though the cold had frozen time itself. Finally, they heard the rattling sound of the door being unlocked and a slow creak as the aging woman opened it wide. Joyful greetings ensued and the sister welcomed them into her home.

The missionaries and a member of the local congregation took their normal places on the far couch and the woman brought in the same fruit tea and cookies that had become customary for their visits. She'd been meeting with the missionaries for several weeks now, often multiple times each week, and felt the spirit of God as they visited.

She had similar feelings when she had attended church with them and as she read assigned passages from the Book of Mormon, so there was no need to hesitate during today's visit when the missionaries asked if she knew the Book of Mormon was true. "Yes," she told them. She knew it was. She knew her prayers had been answered. She knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the true and living church of God on the earth. She knew it; and she told them so.

"If you know these things are true," one of the young missionaries asked, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized for the remission of your sins, as a covenant that you will follow the Savior, and for membership in Christ's church?"

It was quiet for a moment as the woman pondered her response. The second missionary reassured her and testified of the blessings she would receive from living the commandments of God that she had had been taught over the last several weeks. Though warm inside the small apartment, time again seemed to freeze for several moments. Finally came the reply.

"No," the woman said, "I cannot. It is too hard."

The missionaries did their best to respond, to encourage, to support, and to inspire. The woman agreed with all they said, but returned again, firmer this time, "It's too hard." More visits, more church meetings and more fellowship were ultimately pushed aside by an unwillingness to overcome, to grow, and ultimately, to work.

Willingness to work had been in abundance decades earlier when economic disaster left one in four workers in the United States and Europe unemployed. It wasn't just the economy that went through a Great Depression in these days. With the lack of work came abandoned families, plummeting birthrates and suicide rates that spiked by more than 50 percent in 1929 and remained high for over a decade.

Conditions declined rapidly around the country. Farmers that couldn't afford to harvest their crops saw them rotting on the vine. Governments scrambled to find resources to combat starvation. Homelessness grew increasingly common as cardboard-box "Hoovervilles" sprang up across the nation's cities. Desperate women contributed to a rise in prostitution and desperate men led to increased theft and alcoholism.

American morale was perhaps the lowest it has ever been when Franklin Roosevelt became the nation's president on March 4, 1933. Less than three full weeks into his term, Roosevelt announced the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to be "used in simple work". The CCC would plant nearly 3 billion trees and build more than 800 parks across the nation, but more important than the material gains of that work, according to Roosevelt, was "the moral and spiritual value of such work". Though the depression would continue for seven more years and be followed by four long years at war, Americans at work saw lower suicide rates, lower crime rates, and higher fertility rates. Americans at work beat back depression with the glowing fire of hope.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught that, "Work is always a spiritual necessity even if, for some, work is not an economic necessity." Elder D. Todd Christofferson expounded:

By work we sustain and enrich life. It enables us to survive the disappointments and tragedies of the moral experience. Hard-earned achievement brings a sense of self-worth. Work builds and refines character, creates beauty, and is the instrument of our service to one another and to God. A consecrated life is filled with work, sometimes repetitive, sometimes menial, sometimes unappreciated but always work that improves, orders, sustains, lifts, ministers, aspires.



Work is a gift from our Heavenly Father. He describes His plan for the happiness and salvation of His children as "my work and my glory-- to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39, emphasis added). All that he does so lovingly and redemptively is, nevertheless, work; and he takes joy in the accomplishment of his work.

Likewise, God has given unto us that we should act for ourselves (2 Nephi 2:16). When Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden, the ground was cursed for his sake, and ours as well, that by work we may know the joy of achievement and that our character may become more like that of our Father in Heaven (Moses 4:23).

Our work and our glory will be as average or as extraordinary as we make it. Many of the things we want but do not have in life remain outside our grasp because we have not yet done the work to receive them. Like a great athlete, most of the points, rebounds, assists, tackles, goals and home runs of our lives will be the result of long hours of painstaking practice and hard work. The bulk of that practice will always be on our own, away from the coach. Victory comes through personal diligence and commitment. The view of a champion, and the victory that surrounds him  or her, must never be overshadowed by the long process of becoming one. There is a time of preparation and a time of victory. The second mile of hard work is what makes the difference between the exhilaration of achievement and the acceptance of mediocrity (Elder F. David Stanley, April 1993).

Of necessity then, we must realize that there are different kinds of work and that all work is not equally valuable. Each of us has a different mix of professional work, school work, church work, family work, work on service projects and other kinds of work for our individual circumstance and season in life. Each form can stretch our talents, but Elder Maxwell cautions that blessing of work includes the challenge of orchestrating and appropriate balance of our work so that some forms, like professional work that may keep us late at the office, do not dominate the others. "Whatever the mix of work," he counsels, "the hardest work you and I will ever do is to put off our selfishness. It is heavy lifting!"

Work is honorable. It is good therapy for most problems. It is the antidote for worry. It is the equalizer for deficiency of native endowment. Work makes it possible for the average to approach genius. What we may lack in aptitude, we can make up for in performance (Elder J. Richard Clark, April 1982). Each of us is capable of extraordinary things if we are willing to work "with all [our] heart, might, mind and strength" (D&C 4:2).

Building Bridges

After more than a full year of preparing, including building customized boats and taking crash courses in botany, Captain Meriweather Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark led their Corps of Discovery out of Saint Charles, Missouri, in May of 1804. Their round-trip journey to the Pacific Ocean was two-and-a-half years and 8,000 miles of backbreaking work, including crossing several deep gorges and frequently being forced to carry supply-laden boats overland for a dozen miles or more to find the next river or stream.

One of the most difficult challenges for the expedition came at the Great Falls Portage of Montana in June 1805. Here all equipment and supplies, including canoes, had to be carried or pushed in makeshift wagons across 18 miles of rough terrain to avoid a dangerous stretch of falls and rapids. Many in the company had been sick with an unknown illness for over a week when they arrived at Great Falls and the crude wagons required almost constant repair. Prickly pear cactus tore through the men's moccasins and the company encountered several aggressive animals, including a grizzly bear, a wolverine, and three bull buffalo in one eventful day. Clark wrote in his journal that the dog, Seaman, was 'in a constant state of alarm with these bear and keeps barking all night', making it difficult for the men to sleep. Lewis summarized the condition of his men this way:

They are obliged to halt and rest frequently for a few minute. At every halt these poor fellow tumble down and are so much fortiegued that many of them are asleep in an instant. In short, their fatiegues are incredible; some are limping from the soreness of their feet, others faint and [are] unable to stand for a few minutes, with heat and fatiegue, yet no one complains.

The 18-mile detour took 32 days for the Corps of Discovery to complete. It included near-drownings, a violent hailstorm, a sunken boat, and five days making two replacement canoes from Cottonwood trees.

When learning about the hardships of this expedition, it is easy to find yourself musing, as President Monson once did, 'If only there were modern bridges to span the gorges of the raging waters'! Modern bridges bring incredible benefits to those they serve. A bridge over Great Falls Portage would have allowed Lewis and Clark to cross in just a minute or two, possibly leading to an easier route that would have spared a month of hardship and hastening their arrival at the Oregon Coast. Such benefits would be unlikely to come without a cost, however. With all the benefits that bridges bring to those who come behind, very often they require incredible sacrifices from their builders.

As the Corps of Discovery was making its way back to Missouri in the summer of 1806, just such a bridge builder was born in faraway Prussia (modern-day Germany). His name was Johann Augustus Roebling. He would leave everything he had behind and move to the United States in his mid-twenties to become a failure of a farmer and then a modestly successful engineer. In 1867, he began working on the designs for the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.

Just before construction on the bridge began, Roebling stood on a nearby dock completing the finishing touches on his designs. He wanted the bridge to be perfectly located and positioned to connect Brooklyn and Manhattan. While on the dock, an arriving ferry crushed his foot, requiring several toes to be amputated immediately. The surgeries were insufficient, and he died from tetanus 24 days later. His son, Washington Roebling, would take over the project and start construction on January 3, 1870.

Within a very short time of working in the caissons to build the foundation, Washington Roebling and many of the workers contracted decompression sickness. The illness left the younger Roebling paralyzed and forced him to direct the entire construction from his apartment, where he had a view of the bridge. For the next thirteen years until the bridge's completion, his wife, Emily Warren Roebling, learned engineering and served as the critical link between her husband, the architect, and the engineers on site. The bridge was opened on May 24, 1883.

The cost to build the Brooklyn Bridge was officially $15.1 million, but that is only counting dollars. Forty four people died building the bridge-- men and women-- and the number of injuries was not counted. Emily Roebling, among others, gave up nearly all of her time for 13 years, learned a new trade, cared for a paralyzed spouse, and abandoned much of what had occupied her time before to focus on the massive construction project.

Within 15 years of the bridge's completion, the population of Brooklyn doubled from 580,000 to over a million people. Brooklyn would become a borough of New York City and New York City would become a major commercial hub, something most historians argue would not have been possible in a more confined city without the Brooklyn Bridge. Still one of the largest and busiest bridges in the world today, the Brooklyn Bridge serves more than 137,000 cars and 2,700 pedestrians every day.

Just as the Brooklyn Bridge has helped New York City to thrive more than it otherwise could have, there are bridges to be built in each of our lives if we are to reach our full potential and allow our children and grandchildren to do the same. There are people with whom we need to connect or reconnect, obstacles we need to avoid, destinations we need to reach and paths we need to make easier for those coming behind us.

Few bridges rise without sacrifice. In constructing bridges to the hearts of men, we will undoubtedly be called upon to give up our prejudices in order to find common ground upon which to build. The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have shown us the way as they have formed a foundation of friendship with faiths that disagree or have even historically fought against the Church, erected a public policy that works across political party lines to emphasize unity and humanity, and continue to reach out to those who may not be familiar with the Church or no longer feel connected.

President Uchtdorf has explained how this is done. 'As you accept the responsibility to seek after truth with an open mind and a humble heart,' he taught, 'you will become more tolerant of others, more open to listen, more prepared to understand, more inclined to build up instead of tearing down, and you will be more willing to go where God wants you to go.'

A bridge does not connect the same place with itself, but rather links together two places or things that may be very different. As Brooklyn and Manhattan thrive separately but interdependently, so our greatest happiness lies in building bridges that unify us with others despite differences through tolerance, active listening, optimism, respect, and cooperation. Grounded by our faith in Christ, without exaggerating virtue, building bridges to the hearts of our family members, those we serve, those we live or work near, and perhaps especially those with whom we don't seem to have anything in common will enrich our lives and improve our charity.

If we are to build bridges over the waters of mediocrity and connect our present to our greatest potential, we will also very likely be asked to sacrifice our fears. The Lord himself asked us to, 'fear not even unto death' (D&C 101:36). Referencing General Stonewall Jackson's famous quote to, 'never take counsel from our fears', Elder Bednar recently taught:

To not take counsel from our fears simply means that we do not permit fear and uncertainty to determine our course in life, to affect negatively our attitudes and behavior, to influence improperly our important decisions, or to divert or distract us from all in this world that is virtuous, lovely, or of good report.

To not take counsel from our fears means that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ overrules our fears and that we can press forward with a steadfastness in Him. To not take counsel from our fears means that we trust in God's guidance, assurance, and timing in our lives.

Reaching our full potential or avoiding a particular rocky patch in our lives may require some tough decisions while we are yet a long way off and unable to see the path ahead. It may mean a change of careers or moving to a new place. It might mean proposing marriage, having another child, or facing life with something we see as a disadvantage. It might not make sense at the time, but we will build bridges that pass over unnecessary hardships as we listen and obey to the Lord and his prophets when they ask us to put aside our fears and move forward in faith. Elder Ballard has provided another example of how we build bridges when we put away our fears:

The growing prominence of the Church and the increasing inquiries from others present us with great opportunities to build bridges, make friends, and pass on accurate information... You as members can help this to happen by reaching out and sharing with others the basic information found in the Articles of Faith, along with such things as the facts, faith, families, and fruits of the gospel.

No doubt, there are bridges for each of us to be building today. There are relationships to be forged, goals to be reached, and people coming behind that will be able to go farther if we'll just prepare the way. Each bridge we set out to build will require a dedication of our time and most will only be successful if we are willing to sacrifice our pride and human frailty to trust in God and press forward with a steadfast faith in Christ.

Unlike the workers on the Brooklyn Bridge, we can speak directly to the Grand Architect of our individual bridges as we pray to our Heavenly Father with a broken heart and contrite spirit. He knows the blueprints for our bridges and can see the glorious potential of our effort. He also knows of our sacrifices-- of the metaphorical falls and rapids, sicknesses and storms, fatigues and wild animals that bar the way. He is cheering for our success and wants us all to progress along the path that leads to eternal life. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to build the bridges along that path that were impossible for us so that we can cross the wide chasms of sin and death and return to live with Him again.

As we make our way through the untamed wilderness of life in search of the truths of His kingdom, He asks only that we follow His example and drop a few planks across a brooklet or a stream, build a few bridges of love with people different from ourselves, achieve a few things greater than ourselves, and help pave the rest of the path so we, with our descendants, can reach the safety and prosperity of His presence.

This Is Your Work

The work of God is glorious. Joseph Smith famously told John Wentworth of the Chicago Democrat that "the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

It is natural for a believing heart to want to be a part of this great work. Without a doubt, all of us have opportunities to share the gospel, sometimes on a daily basis. Yet, at times, we may wonder why we aren't asked to take on what we see as a greater work-- to be something significant in our wards, branches, stakes, or districts-- with a call to be the ward mission leader or the relief society president or the bishop. Are we not faithful enough? Missionaries may similarly wonder why, despite their faithfulness, they are not called to be trainers, district leaders, zone leaders, etc.

In the earliest days of the Church, there was a great need for the faithful to bring about the work of the Restoration. Hyrum Smith, brother to the prophet Joseph, was among those yearning to participate. Though he was among the first to learn about and believe in the Restoration of the gospel, the early work of the Church was carried out in large part by other, newer converts: Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, Emma Hale Smith and the Whitmer family all appear to have more 'prestigious' or 'significant' roles in the work of God on earth.

To Hyrum Smith, the Lord said: "Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength." He was further admonished to study the scriptures, seek the Spirit and have good desires.

Hyrum Smith obeyed the Lord. His humble willingness to follow the Lord's counsel-- to participate in the Lord's work the Lord's way-- allowed him to build a testimony that was strong and sure. As troubled times came and even the friends and many early witnesses of the Restoration fell away for a time, Hyrum remained faithful to the very end. He died a martyr for the faith along with his brother Joseph in the Carthage jail.

Sometimes the Lord asks us to do things that seem significant; more often, he asks us to work salvation among ourselves and our families by keeping the commandments with all our hearts, might, mind and strength. This necessary work precedes our ability to effectively teach others; as with Hyrum, the Lord asks us to, "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed."

We do not know what is ahead, but the Lord knows and is eager to prepare us for the struggles ahead. If we will put away our aspirations and humbly seek to do the Lord's work in the Lord's way, he will fortify us against the temptations and trials that will come. And then, when the time is right, our righteous desires to serve will be granted:

Seek the kingdom of God, and all things shall be added according to that which is just... Therefore, treasure up in your heart until the time which is in my wisdom that you shall go forth. Behold, I speak unto all who have good desires, and have thrust in their sickle to reap... As many as receive me, to them will I give power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on my name (D&C 11:23, 26, 30).

Choosing to Hearken and Receive

In Alma we read one of the greatest missionary stories of all time as the sons of Mosiah, princes among Nephites, forsake wealth and power to teach the enemy Lamanites about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their extraordinary success is matched by extraordinary trials as they overcome imprisonment, starvation, disbelief and persecution to teach the gospel. In a moment of joy as they realized together their incredible missionary success, the oldest of these sons, Ammon, declares, "our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold...thousands of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold of God" (Alma 26: 3-4).

Four hundred years later, the prophet Mormon walked among the descendants of Ammon and his brethren, their converts and their once-righteous Nephite nation. Christ had visited the people and they had enjoyed the presence, teachings and miracles of Christ's authorized disciples for nearly three hundred years. Now a wicked people, Mormon writes that he tried to preach to them, "but my mouth was shut, and I was forbidden that I should preach unto them; for behold they had wilfully rebelled against their God" (Mormon 1:16).

In these two examples we see two wicked peoples, with identical family histories, yield two very different responses from the Lord. Ammon and his brethren rejoiced that they had, "been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work" (Alma 26:3). And when "our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back," Ammon records, "behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success" (Alma 26:27). Yet Mormon, "was forbidden to preach unto them, because of the hardness of their hearts; and because of the hardness of their hearts the land was cursed for their sake" (Mormon 1:17).

If God loves all of His children, we may wonder why He would bless one people with faith and conversion and curse another and forbid the prophets to preach to them. It may seem unfair or like His love is conditional. Yet the difference between these two societies is not the way they were treated by a God who loves them both, but the way they used their agency to respond to that love.

Both of these peoples had been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. The wickedness of the Lamanites taught by Ammon was the result of generations of false teachings and disbelief on the part of their ancestors. They were taught the gospel and responded with conversion so pure and so true they were willing to die in a massacre to hold true to their covenants and to their God. The Nephites of Mormon's day were raised in the gospel; their ancestors had beheld Christ with their very own eyes, yet they chose abandon their family legacies for the pleasures of greed, immorality, self-indulgence and rebellion.

So we see the wisdom of God as He teaches us the principles of eternity: "And the mysteries of the kingdom ye shall keep within yourselves; for it is not meet to give that which is holy unto the dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet. For the world cannot receive that which ye, yourselves, are not able to bear; wherefore ye shall not give your pearls unto them, lest they turn again and rend you" (JST Matthew 7:10-11).

And again, "he that receiveth my gospel receiveth me; and he that receiveth not my gospel receiveth not me. And this is my gospel-- repentance and baptism by water, and then cometh the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost... The days of thy deliverance are come, if thou wilt hearken to my voice, which saith unto thee: Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on my name, and you shall receive my Spirit, and a blessing so great as you have never known" (D&C 39:5-10).

Fourth Century Nephites had already trampled sacred covenants to become the wicked people they were. They were taught the gospel in their homes and they chose to not to receive it, but to discard it and regard it as slop for the pigs. Not many years from the time of Mormon's writing, they even turned against the Church to tear it into pieces and destroy it.

The people of Ammon's time, the self-declared Anti-Nephi-Lehis, hearkened unto the voice of the Lord and were baptized. They wanted nothing more than to be free of their sins and diligent in their faith.

Like the Ammonites and the Nephites of Mormon's time, each of us must decide each day whether we will receive Christ. We must decide whether we will build the foundations of our testimonies on the rock of Jesus Christ and his gospel, or whether we will be overrun and washed away by the world and her philosophies like the wicked Nephites. We must decide if we will be true to our family's legacy of faith, however long or short, or if we will abandon our opportunity and advantage for the excitement of popularity or the world's esteem. We must decide who we will serve: God or mammon.

The decisions the move us closer to Christ or the slippery slope of apostasy come by the dozen every day. The movies we watch, the conversations we have, the offenses we choose, the love we give and the way we use our time are just a few of the daily, if not constant, decisions that pull us one way or the other. If we expect ourselves and our families to be like the people of Ammon, we must learn to hearken to the voice of the Lord as the Ammonites did. As we do so, we will arise to the level of the covenants we have made, our sins will be washed away, we will call upon the name of the Lord, and we shall receive the Spirit of God and blessing so great as we have never known.

Therefore, blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved. Helaman 12:23

An Observation for Missionaries

Missionaries and their Mission Presidents around the globe have often wondered why they may not be getting the thousands of conversions-- or in some cases, dozens or even any-- that we read about in the Book of Mormon and in Church history. On my own mission I certainly pondered that question. I did all I could to be faithful, and I was certainly willing, but I wondered how I could bring more souls to Christ and why it wasn't easier. It was the true gospel of Jesus Christ and the restoration of His priesthood authority and organization that we were preaching, after all.

Some understanding came from Alma 26:22, where the Lord teaches through Ammon that bringing souls to repentance is a gift. Rather than a formula, demanding repentance, faith, good works and continual prayers in exchange for the conversion miracle, I realized that while all of those things are required, the blessing that I sought was a gift from God that would come in His own time and in His own way.

An excellent example of this principle can be found in 3 Nephi 7. In this chapter, a people that had repented in the aftermath of their preservation from terrorists had returned from righteousness to wickedness. The prophet Nephi went among the people "with power and with great authority" and "began to testify, boldly, repentance and remission of sins through faith on the Lord Jesus Christ" (3 Nephi 7:16-17).

Because of his great faith, the scriptures record that "it were not possible that [the people] could disbelieve" the words of Nephi. Yet, a full year passed and "there were but few who were converted unto the Lord". Those were converted also began to testify, but a second year passed without significant change. Nephi and those who were converted had extreme faith, repented in the face of much opposition and were continually going about doing good and even performing miracles-- if anyone has ever qualified to bring souls to Christ it was this group of missionaries.

Qualification is not enough, however. Unable to earn such a blessing, each of us relies on the grace of God to grant us the blessings of heaven according to the timing, mercy and love of our Father in Heaven.

For Nephi, the beginning of the third year was the time appointed of the Lord for him to baptize. His teaching did not change-- he stilll "did preach unto them repentance and remission of sins" as he had before (3 Nephi 7:23). Yet, "there were many in the commencement of this year that were baptized unto repentance; and thus the more part of the year did pass away" (3 Nephi 7:26).

When we qualify ourselves and seek to do the will of the Lord with all patience and with all diligence, the Lord will bless us in His own time and in His own way. Such blessings are a gift from God, neither earned nor deserved, but come because He loves us and He wants His children to return to Him. Let us all press forward, then, in diligence and patience, to qualify ourselves for the gifts of God that when the time is right we may be ready for the blessings of heaven.

Prayer