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.

Grandma adventures

Being a Grandma is wonderful. I love spending time with my little granddaughters and their parents. I love them all so much. Last weekend I went to AZ and spent three lovely days with the girls. We mostly stayed at home and just enjoyed being together. We built forts, read stories, played princesses, made cookies, watched Mary Poppins and just played and played. It was great to see my niece Kylee and her husband Brody and check out their new apartment. The clip of Salomon is for you Lee! Here is a peek at what we did for fun.

Isn't there a lesson in there somewhere?

This video makes me laugh every time I watch it (and it has been around a long time.)

Big brother is bitten by little brother Charlie accidentally.
Big brother puts his other finger in Charlie's mouth on purpose.
Charlie bites his finger. Hard. Big brother screams and cries.
Big brother scolds Charlie for biting his finger.
Charlie laughs.
Charlie looks to bite something else.
Brother acts indignant and surprised that Charlie bit him when he is the one who went courting danger.
(Love the accent! These darling little boys even have their own blog now.)

Divide and Conquer

I went one way (AZ) and ...





Rick went another (TX) ....and we both had a great time with our children watching BYU football! Go Cougars!!!! Ranked 9th in the nation following the win against Oklahoma!!!

Expectations

I'm going to assume that everyone has them. Expectations of some sort or another, that is.
What expectations do you have for yourself? What expectations do you have for your family, your children, your spouse, your friends, your employer? What expectations do you have for your career, your future and your happiness? What are you doing to fulfill your own expectations? Do you discuss your expectations with other people, especially those from whom you expect results?
Expectations can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

the act or state of looking forward or anticipating

something expected; a thing looked forward to

a prospect of future good or profit

the degree of probability that something will occur

I have a theory that our expectations often dictate the way we talk about and treat one another. Expectations set the stage for who makes the money and who makes the compromises and who makes the dinner. It's a state of mind. It's the way we live, always meeting or not meeting expectations. Unhappiness could be defined as knowing that there is a difference between our talents and abilities and the results in maximizing those talents and in not meeting our own expectations and our own potential.
Here are some thoughts I've had on different kinds of expectations, such as:
Cultural expectations - such at Get up. Show up. Shut up. (Rick and his friend David C. swear by this cultural expectation.) Those who do it generally succeed in life, those who don't usually fail. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Turn the other cheek. Treat everyone how you would like to be treated. Leave your campsite cleaner than you found it. Take out what you brought in.

Low expectations - wherein we don't think people will amount to much (and they usually don't surprise us)

Clear expectations - defining a desired result (do we actually do this or do we expect people to read our minds or just intuitively know what we expect?)

Expectations of other people (what we hope they will do and not do to meet our expectations)

Expectations in your marriage (what we each envision as success, together and individually)

Great expectations (achieve a lofty goal, do something incredible, make a difference in your sphere of influence, leave a place better than you find it)

Expectations of your children (get good grades, make good friends, don't be foolish, go to church, go on a mission, get an education, be a good person, make a difference, make a plan for your life and work towards it, don't just glide along, the choices you make today determine the type of life you will live tomorrow, etc. Are these expectations vocalized and reviewed often?)

Employment expectations for the type of work or job you do for the company (performance evaluations, bottom line, in box - out box, exceeding expectations)

• Treat a man as he is, he will remain so. Treat a man the way he can be and ought to be, and he will become as he can be and should be.

• If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.

• A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though awakens your own expectations.

• If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.

• I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

I've found that I generally expect a lot of people and of myself. I may actually have too high of expectations in some regards. Since I'm willing to put out, to produce, to support, to friendship and to love then I assume that others are too. I've been horribly disappointed on a few occasions. I believe that we are on earth to accomplish something, not just take up space. I've had crushed expectations and other times I've experienced such joy in meeting or watching someone else meet their own expectations. It's the human experience I guess. I think it's a good exercise to review goals and expectations and to make sure that we are taking more steps forward than backward. I become very frustrated with people who have no plan for themselves or their families and who have no direction. I can't understand it.