Given Sunday, Sept 24, 2003
General Session of Stake Conference
Preface:
I want to take just a minute and thank everyone for all your incredible
service this month. As part of Utah State Constitution and Founding
Fathers month, we had a marvelous patriotic program. We were able to join
together and enjoy each other’s company while participating in a solemn moment
together as we retired an American Flag. Thanks to those that
participated in the program and in providing the desserts that we
enjoyed. Thanks also to all those that prepared remarks for a special
Sacrament meeting where we remembered the founding fathers, the constitution and
our Lord’s hand in the establishment of this country.
We also had an opportunity to commemorate the tragedy of Sept 11 by
offering service to the community. As you know, we conducted a drive to
collect hygiene kit items for the children in our elementary schools.
Elder Huntsman, our Area Authority, asked Pres Francom if he would spearhead a
project for our area. We reached out to the other stakes in our area to
see if they would like to participate and the Granger East Stake wanted to join
with us. We formed a committee to brainstorm ideas and came up with the
hygiene kit drive as the project we thought would benefit the community
best. We had a drop off location at the West Valley Fitness Center, at
our churches, and also the library the day of the project. We received a
lot of donations at each location. We started at the Granger Library in
the morning and started to assemble kits from the donations we had already
received while still receiving more. While at the Granger library we were
blessed with a visit from Elder Kevin Pearson, the Utah Area President, and
Elder Pepper Murray, the Area Authority over the 9/11 day of service. It
was a pleasure to meet them, and they were pleased with the efforts taking
place.
We then moved to the Hunter Library and continued to take donations and
assemble kits. In the end we were able to help five different elementary
schools in West Valley. We assembled about 325 complete kits and about
200 partial kits that were only missing an item or two. In addition to
that we made five boxes of extra items, one for each school. In addition
to the hygiene kits, we wanted to collect socks since so many children at our
schools don’t even have socks to wear. We collected and distributed about
650 pairs of socks.
I want to thank all those from our stake that served on the
committee. They did an incredible job. And I want to thank all of
you who donated items and donated your time to help us to assemble everything
and get it ready to distribute. Thank you to everyone for everything done
this month.
Obedience
One of the simple beautiful truths
we learn from childhood is that we are children of Heavenly parents. That we existed in a pre-mortal world where
we made choices. One of the choices we
were faced with was to follow the Savior Jesus Christ in carrying out the
Father’s plan for us or to follow Lucifer.
Ironically, the great eternal truth of agency that allowed us to make
that decision would be eliminated if we followed Lucifer. We know that everyone here on Earth chose to
follow our Savior and we continue to enjoy the eternal blessing of agency.
The Book of Mormon prophet Jacob
defined agency like this, Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity
and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil;1
The way that we choose liberty and
eternal life is by choosing to be obedient to the commandments of God. Exercising our agency in being obedient
brings so many benefits with it. In my
study, I identified four benefits of being obedient.
1.
Obedience
helps us to develop love and is a symbol of our love.
2.
Obedience
brings blessings.
3.
Obedience is
liberating.
4.
Obedience
brings us truth and knowledge.
1. Obedience helps us to develop love and is a symbol of our
love.
The Lord has said, “If ye love me,
keep my commandments. Simply put,
obedience is an expression of love to Heavenly Father and Jesus. Our love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus is
an extension of our love for others. If
we don’t feel the love for others that we would like, obedience will lead to
developing that love. Obedience helps us
to see others as God sees them which is with perfect love. Getting a glimpse of that perfect love will
help our love to grow within us.
2. Obedience
brings blessings.
In the Doctrine and Covenants the
Lord says” “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the
foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—and when we
obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is
predicated”2
There are many analogies in the
scriptures that describe what the Lord has in store for us if we are
obedient. One of my favorites says that
the windows of heaven will open and pour out a blessing that there shall not be
room enough to receive it.3
I envision receiving blessings in
such abundance that we have never before considered all that they might
be. This is probably one of the
opportunities in life; to try to identify all the blessings that the Lord has
given us. As we consider them, more and
more becomes apparent to us. It is a
very humbling experience.
Lanta and I recently had a very
difficult decision to make in our lives.
My parents are in their mid-80s, and my mother needs fairly constant
care. My father can do most things, but
it is exhausting for him both physically and emotionally. My mom needs care, and my dad needs help
caring for her. Lanta has been blessed
with a good job that is helping us a lot to recover from past financial
blunders and prepare for retirement where we want to use our time to serve
missions and other sorts of good things. But it seemed to us that maybe it was time for
Lanta to quit working and help care for my parents. We spent a lot of time talking about it
together, then with my siblings, and with my parents. After much prayer we felt that leaving work
and helping my parents was the best thing we could do. We considered the good, better, best. We knew anything we decided was good, but we
felt this decision was the best.
However, informing the people at
her work, and wrapping up everything that needed to be done was quite
daunting. One evening she asked me for a
priesthood blessing to help her. One of
the things the Lord said through that blessing was that she would receive many
blessings for the decision she had made and that many of them were blessings
she had not even considered. In just a
few short weeks, we have seen that come true.
She has realized blessings in her life that she had not even
considered. It has been an amazing and
humbling experience for both of us.
3. Obedience
is liberating.
President Nelson has promised us
that through obedience we will have greater strength to resist temptation, more
peace of mind, freedom from fear, and greater unity in your families.4
We see so much unrest, fear, and
contention in the world today. We want
to have peace of mind. We want to be
free from the fear that is all around us.
We want to have peace and contentment in our life despite the fiery
darts of the adversary. Simply choosing
to follow the commands of God when a choice comes before us will do so much to
temper the uncertainty that surrounds us.
One of the Ten Commandments is to
honor our father and mother. What does
it mean to honor? I think a big aspect
of honor is obedience. Youth and Primary
children, do you honor or obey your mother and father. Doing so will bring greater unity to your
families. It will bring more peace and
contentment to your home.
Also speaking to young people
President Nelson said, “You are a child of God.
God gives us commandments to bless us and bring us joy. Sometimes people pick which commandments they
will keep and which ones they won’t.
Trying to obey all of God’s commandments will bless you with
light and joy and protect your body and spirit.
Here are a few things that
President Nelson said would help keep you safe and strong.
·
Listen to the
Holy Ghost
·
Repent when
you make a mistake
·
Don’t swear
or use crude words
·
Listen to
good music
·
Watch good
things
·
Dress
modestly
·
Treat people
kindly
·
Be honest
·
Use the names
of Heavenly Father and Jesus reverently5
4. Obedience
brings us truth and knowledge.
Raising questions is a natural
part of life. We always want to know
what is truth and how to gain knowledge.
The pursuit of knowledge is a life-long quest that I hold dear. About truth and knowledge, President Thomas
S. Monson said the following: In a
revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith at Kirtland, Ohio, in May of
1833, the Lord declared:
“Truth is knowledge of things as
they are, and as they were, and as they are to come. …
“The Spirit of truth is of God. …
“And no man receiveth a fulness
unless he keepeth his commandments.
“He that keepeth [God’s]
commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and
knoweth all things.”
What a glorious promise! “He that
keepeth [God’s] commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified
in truth and knoweth all things.”
There is no need for you or for
me, in this enlightened age when the fulness of the gospel has been restored,
to sail uncharted seas or to travel unmarked roads in search of truth. A loving
Heavenly Father has plotted our course and provided an unfailing guide—even
obedience. A knowledge of truth and the answers to our greatest questions come
to us as we are obedient to the commandments of God.6
If you really want to know what is
true, be obedient to God. And always
remember, the will of God is communicated to us through prophets. If we wonder why we need to attend church to
partake of the sacrament every week, the path to gaining that knowledge and
understanding is by obeying the command to attend church and partake of the
sacrament. If we wonder why we need to
pay tithing when we can barely make ends meet, the path to gaining that
knowledge is by paying tithing. If there
are certain elements to the temple that we don’t understand, the path to
gaining that knowledge and understanding is by attending the temple! Through our obedience God will bless us with
truth, knowledge, and understanding.
I testify that obedience will
bring more to your life than you can even comprehend. I testify that through the Atonement of our
Savior, Jesus Christ, all things are possible, and all things will be made
right.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
- 2 Nephi 2:27
- D&C 130:20-21
- Malachi 3:10
- Nelson, President Russell M, “The Power of Spiritual Momentum”, April 2022, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/04/47nelson?lang=eng
- Nelson, President Russell M, “Happiness and Obedience”, Friend August 2020
- Monson, President Thomas S, “Obedience Brings Blessings”, April 2013, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/04/obedience-brings-blessings?lang=eng
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