So I recently got called to the high council in our Stake. That means that I will get the opportunity to give more talks. I figured I will write them down and post them to the blog. This will allow me to refer to them later on when I get older and who knows, maybe someone will benefit from the along the way.
I am deeply humbled to be speaking to you in this occasion. This is a new experience for me. I just met with the high council for the first time a few weeks ago, and I am so new that I am barely learning the names of the members of the high council. I did notice though that there is a great deal of love and camaraderie between the members of the high council and the Stake presidency members. I am young, and I lack a lot of experience and wisdom. That said, I take comfort that the Lord will help me and fill the gaps needed for me to perform my duties.
I know many of the talks today have been about the great apostasy. A lot of the truths of the gospel were lost soon after Christ was crucified. There was not prophet to lead Christ's Church, the priesthood was missing. There was no revelation of gospel truths.
I want you to think for a second what it would be like to live without the gospel?
These are a few things that I enumerated, and I want to point out that there are many around us who are still not reaping the benefits from the restoration.
1. No prophet receiving revelation at the head of the Church.
2. No revelation for the church.
3. No priesthood.
Paul explained to the Ephesians why we needed leaders called of God.
11 And he a gave some, b apostles; and some, c prophets; and some, d evangelists; and some, e pastors and f teachers;
12 For the a perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the b edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the a unity of the faith, and of the b knowledge of the Son of God, unto a c perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more a children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of b doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
We can see the world around us looking for happiness, but not finding it. We see men being carried about with every wind of doctrine. Some looking for happiness in wealth alone, some others looking for happiness in entertainment, some others looking for happiness in addictive substances, some others in immorality.... and the problem is that there is no lasting happiness to be found in any of these.
I generally think people have good desires. I think most people want to be happy. Who wouldn't want to be happy? The problem is that sometimes we either don't know where to find happiness (being carried by every wind of doctrine) - or - we just forget were to find happiness.
The restoration bring us the blessings of the gospel
When I was a missionary we used to recite the standard of truth:
“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.” (History of the Church 4:540)
I loved reciting this, because it promised that nothing could stop the work of the Lord! It is our job to make sure the truth of God has sounded in every ear. It is also our job to heed to the truth of God.
We are very blessed with beautiful buildings and programs that make it easy for us to practice our beliefs. Most of us can just get in our cars and be in the church building in less than 30 minutes, or visit the Seattle Washington Temple in less than an hour drive. We even have parks were our youth can practice scouting and that serve as recreational activities, world-class welfare and humanitarian programs. We have a magnificent Seminary and Institute programs, and a very well developed family history program with comparison to none in the world. We even have a University!
I wonder what that would be like if you had been a pioneer crossing the plains, and had a vision of the growth of the Church in the latter days.
“The Prophet called on all who held the Priesthood to gather into the little log school house they had there. It was a small house, perhaps 14 feet square. But it held the whole of the Priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were then in the town of Kirtland. … When we got together the Prophet called upon the Elders of Israel with him to bear testimony of this work. … When they got through the Prophet said, ‘Brethren, I have been very much edified and instructed in your testimonies here tonight, but I want to say to you before the Lord, that you know no more concerning the destinies of this Church and kingdom than a babe upon its mother’s lap. You don’t comprehend it.’ I was rather surprised. He said, ‘It is only a little handful of Priesthood you see here tonight, but this Church will fill North and South America—it will fill the world.’”5
(Wilford Woodruff, in Conference Report, Apr. 1898, p. 57;)
It is interesting, that few people really understood what the restoration of the gospel would really mean. We are surely blessed in our day!
Are we taking the gospel for granted?
Have you ever been on a long hike just to get to a point where you can finally drink some water? I tell you that water never tastes better.
We should always be thirsty for the blessings of the gospel. In my ward, there is a principles of the gospel class that is attended by those investigating the church and by new members. I love being there! The main reason is that I see the real desire of those new members and investigators to learn! The new members have just been through a lot of trials of their faith. Some of them have had to make huge changes in their lives, and their testimony has been growing tremendously. They are the best missionaries... not because they know all the doctrine, but because they have this fire within them! They have seen their lives transformed, and want to share the good news with their neighbors.
We should really learn from our new members. Sometimes, it is easy for us to get into the routine, and just take things for granted.
When I was 16 I had the opportunity to study in a new school in Norway. This school was located in a beautiful location in the middle of the Norwegian Fjords. The only problem is that the school was in the middle of the Norwegian Fjords. That meant that the closest church building was about 3 or 4 hours away one way by bus in Bergen; the trip was too expensive for me to make the trip to Church. Even though I had permission to bless my own sacrament, I still missed going to Church and being strengthened by other's testimonies.
For winter I had the chance to go to Oslo, and I made plans to visit the church building there. Since I was not very familiar with the area and wanted to make sure I did not get lost on Sunday, I made the trip to look for the church building the Thursday before. I still remember looking for the building and finally finding it. I was so excited! I remember the snow outside the building, and I got to the door just to find out it was closed. It did not matter, I knew I was standing on a sacred house. I remember looking inside the door, and seeing some family history announcements. I was so happy to know the work of the Lord was moving forward. :-) That was a simple, but very special experience for me. Not that the building itself was that different from any other building in the city, but it represented something that was hard to find in that area of the world.
A lot of sacrifice has gone for us to benefit from the blessings of the gospel
That period of time taught me to appreciate the blessings of the gospel. I am a convert to the Church so I don't have any stories about my great-great grandparents who crossed the plains. because they did not. :-)
My wife and I had a chance to visit some historic church sites right after we got married. She was living in Alabama, so we had to drive to BYU right after getting married. That was our short honey-moon. We got to stop in Nauvoo. Nauvoo, the beautiful, is indeed a beautiful place. I can imagine that the industrious saints were just getting comfortable there. They had just drained the swamps so that they could build and work the land, and had been building the gorgeous Nauvoo temple, when they persecution made them start their trek to the Rocky Mountains. This must have been hard for them. Even harder was the trek that was waiting for them.
Many died in the exodus to the Rockies. Many, including Joseph Smith, died before that, sealing with their blood their testimony of the divinity of this work.
The church today stands thanks to the selfless work of many generation of Latter Day Saints.
Living witnesses of the gospel.
Many, also have lived and live for the gospel. I am myself the beneficiary of many acts of charity.
I am originally from Guatemala City. When I was a boy, my family listened to countless missionaries (we were active in the church for about 3yrs.) before we were baptized and confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. When I was a boy, our ward spanned some pretty poor areas of the city, that said members were loyal and willing. I often thought of the many missionaries that probably came from wealthy families in this country and had come to my country to walk among the Lamanites, and eat black beans. I was always grateful to the Elders and Sisters that taught us. Most of them never got to see the fruits of their labors, so they served selflessly to share the gospel with us.
There are many who give of themselves everyday, as living witnesses of the gospel. I am forever grateful for our bishops and their councilors. In Guatemala, when I was seminary age, our branch was not that large geographically or in the number of people in it. That meant that a few members had to serve in several capacities. Our branch president's wife was the seminary teacher. It was not very safe for the youth to be walking around the city around 5 o'clock in the morning so our young bishop would drive around picking up every one of the young men and young women that attended seminary. He was a humble servant of the Lord. I will forever be grateful to Presidente Alvarez for his humble service. He was already pretty busy with his calling, work, and raising a few children. Yet, he served us.
The gospel of good news is only good news if we do something about it
So we see the blessings of the gospel thanks to old generations, and the members of the church today.
But just like a good book, that is only good if we open it and read it -- we cannot make good use of the blessings of the gospel unless we do our part.
The words of our prophet and leaders can take a much higher level of meaning, if we prepare to listen to them. (Story about Elder Miller inviting me to listen to general conference messages)
The temple building is a beautiful monument, but it can be much more than a monument if we prepare to enter it's doors and then visit it regularly.
This church building is a comfortable building, but it can also be a place for us to learn, to share our testimonies and to strengthen Zion. It can be a place where we organize our service, it can be a place where we have spiritual experiences with our neighbors.
The scriptures when they are closed are a beautifully bound book. But when they are open, and when the pages get worn from study -- they become a channel for divine revelation and bring salvation unto our souls.
As it says in the introduction of the Book of Mormon:
"It puts forth the doctrines of the gospel,
outlines the plan of salvation, and
tells men what they must do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come."
Brothers and Sisters, this is the Church of Jesus-Christ. He leads it. We have a living prophet today. The priesthood has been restored and is at hand to serve us and others around us. I know this is true. I also know that we will only benefit from these blessings in direct relationship to how seriously we take our relationship with Heavenly Father. It is my prayer that we will be thirsty to know His Will, and follow it. It is then that we will be told how we can contribute to build up the kingdom of God on Earth, and bring light into our souls, and into those of our neighbors.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Beautiful speach. I, as Luis's father, understand very well the experiences he tells, and his feelings. Congrats!
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