Blessings of the restoration

Rick and I speak once a month in sacrament meeting to our missionaries (about 70) in the Missionary Training Center. Today I gave a talk on the blessings of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I thought I'd post a few excerpts from my talk.

Why does this message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ carry such power? Try and imagine if you heard it for the first time. Try and put yourself in the shoes of a new investigator. How would you react? Would you recognize and feel the spirit of the truth? Would you do your part to follow through on assignments and commitments to come to know the truths for yourself?

Here are the simple truths that have been restored that are taught in the fist lesson. The main points are these:

God is our loving Heavenly Father

The gospel blesses families

Heavenly Father reveals his gospel in every dispensation

The Savior’s Earthly Ministry and Atonement

The great apostasy

The restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith

The Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ

Pray to know the truth trough the Holy Ghost.

Now again, imagine if you were an investigator checking into the claims that the truth has been restored. What would these truths mean to you? How would they change your life? How would they give you hope and help you live for something more? Here are some of the concrete ways the message that the truth has been restored has blessed my life and can bless the lives of those you teach. You will probably have similar feelings of gratitude for the blessings of living in this day and age when the truth has been restored:

I know that I am a child of God. I know where I came from, why I am here and where I am going. I know I have divine worth and that I have potential to become like Him. Through Jesus Christ, we can live with God again. The restored gospel teaches us the importance of families in God’s eternal plan. It teaches us that the people we call families have eternal significance to us and that we can live together as families if we follow the guidelines and keep the commandments we have been given. Families can be sealed together for ever and they are the most important social unit in time and eternity. The heavens are not closed. God is in communication with his prophets in our dispensation. He tells his prophets his will and direction for our time. We have opportunities to sit and listen to a prophet’s voice at least twice a year. I am grateful for President Thomas S. Monson who leads and directs this church today. He is a man of God and I sustain him as such without reservation. Jesus Christ, the son of God, taught the gospel in its pure essence. He called apostles and gave them authority to preach the gospel and perform saving ordinances through the priesthood. The priesthood is the power of God given to man to act in his name on earth today. I have been blessed many times through this priesthood power and testify that it is real. The great apostasy was a time without revelation through a prophet and people fell into spiritual darkness. The gospel needed to be restored in it’s fullness with priesthood power to act in God’s name. Through Joseph Smith, the prophet of this last dispensation, the fullness of the gospel was restored. The Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God and it contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of this I have no doubt. The Book of Mormon testifies to me that Jesus is the Christ. I learned that if we are to follow Christ that we must be baptized and take upon us his name. Through the waters of baptism we are washed clean and we show our faith by following him. We are given the gift of the Holy Ghost which will help us, guide us, give us peace, give us comfort and help us to know what to do.

Many of you have prepared your whole life to share this message. You have dreamed, you have prepared, you have worked, you have studied, you have saved money and now YOUR time has arrived. You are living the dream. When you are out there in extreme weather, when it is hot and humid, when there are bugs crawling in your apartments, when your food is not as good as your Mom makes, when you are so tired that you don’t think you can take another step, remember, you are living the dream you have had since you were a little boy or girl, singing, I hope they call me on a mission. Now it is your turn to let people know that the truth has been restored. Some of you have come from a long line of missionaries who have rendered faithful missionary service. Some of you are the first in your families. No matter what your circumstance is, you are living the dream of taking the message of the restored gospel to people who are searching for more and who are looking for the truth. And you have the truth! You get to tell them that the truth has been restored! It will change their lives. It will change your life and make you even better than you are right now because you sacrificed and shared the most important message of all time.