Category: 2026 Essay

January 21, 2006
In the Saturday Evening Session
of Stake Conference for the
Oak Hills Stake of Provo, Utah

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Sister Riddle and I are glad to be home and to make our continuing contribution to the work of the Savior here.

What is the work of the Savior? It is to sanctify His people, his sons and daughters, so that He can bring them into His presence and introduce them to Father. This Sanctification is necessary, because the Fall of Adam has made the nature of all human beings evil continually. Each of us will remain in that condition as natural men unless we take the advice of King Benjamin: “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” (Mosiah 3:19)

A saint is one who is sanctified. To be sanctified is a dual process. It is both to be forgiven of our sins and to change our nature, our character, so that we no longer sin. Our Savior suffered for us so that we could be forgiven of our sins, but we ourselves must also suffer to overcome the natural man in us that caused us to sin in the first place. Nephi described this process as going through the mists of darkness, which are the temptations of Satan, hand-over-hand along the iron rod, which is the word of God, until we have overcome our temptations and arrive at the tree of life. If our travel through the mists has been truly full of faith in Christ, we will have repented of our character flaws, we will have been forgiven of our sins, and will partake of the fruit of the tree of life, which is to receive the full love from God into our lives.

The message of God to man in all ages is the same as that He gave to ancient Israel, through Moses, after they came out of Egypt: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5–6) Again he said: “For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:45)

Let us note that the words “holy” and “sanctified” have essentially the same meaning. “Holy” is the Anglo Saxon translation of the Latin sanctus. Sanctus has the same root as saint, one who has become holy, and the word “sanctified” signifies the process of having become holy or pure. The Anglo Saxon “holy” is a variation of the word “wholly,” which means complete or fully given to something. When our Savior said: “Be ye therefore perfect” he was saying, “Be ye therefore holy,” which is essentially the same as saying “Sanctify yourselves.”

So our task is to sanctify ourselves. This is another way of saying that we should come unto Christ and be perfected in Him, which is the theme of this stake conference. The question is: How is this to be done? How can we who are getting older do it before we all leave this mortal sphere? With a bit of temerity I offer a suggestion of the four steps each of us can take to sanctify ourselves, to become pure before the Lord and be able to endure His presence.

Step 1. Go back to the basics. Do what the Savior did with the children of Israel in the wilderness when they rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave them the Ten Commandments.

To build upon the Ten Commandments is to build one’s house upon the Rock of Christ. He it is that gave the Ten Commandments, and without them, no attempt to live a higher law can succeed.

Let us now review those commandments (Exodus 20:3–17):

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. This is the preparation for having an eye single to the glory of God.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. This commandment is the preparation for serving God in spirit and in truth.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain. Not taking the name of the Lord in vain is the preparation for using His name with correct authority as in priesthood ordinances and in receiving His name in the temple endowment.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. This commandment is the beginning of consecration, wherein we give all to the Lord, not just one day.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother. Honoring father and mother is the foundation for the great work of Elijah of binding up the generations of mankind back to Adam through the sealing power of the Holy Priesthood.
6. Thou shalt not kill. This is the preparation for seeing all life as God-given, therefore very precious, and the basis for the celestial activity of filling the earth with posterity.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. This commandment is the recognition of the sacredness of sexual relations with our spouse, and an absolutely necessary antecedent to receiving a continuation of the seed forever.
8. Thou shalt not steal. This commandment is the basis for the celestial recognition that all things belong to God, including our own bodies, a necessary preparation for celestial stewardship.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. This commandment is the basis for the celestial injunction to avoid every idle word, to say only what the Lord would have us say.
10. Thou shalt not covet. This commandment enables us to remember to be content with what God has given us, a necessary preliminary for receiving all that the Father has and to use all we have in doing good for others under His direction.

As Paul so clearly says, the law of Moses was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that through Him and His sacrifice, we might add our own new sacrifice and obtain the greater blessings.

Step 2. The context for the new sacrifice was the New and Everlasting Covenant, beginning with the baptism as offered by John the Baptist, adding the bestowal of the Gift of the Holy Ghost which our Savior brought through His own priesthood, and going on to the exalting requirements of the Sermon on the Mount. Using the more clear and complete account of that sermon as found in the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 12), we read: “¹ Blessed are ye if ye shall give heed unto the words of these twelve whom I have chosen from among you to minister unto you, and to be your servants; and unto them I have given power that they may baptize you with water; and after that ye are baptized with water, behold, I will baptize you with fire and with the Holy Ghost; therefore blessed are ye if ye shall believe in me and be baptized, after that ye have seen me and know that I am.” Baptism of water and of fire brings to each of us the blessing of the great and last sacrifice of Jesus Christ: His atonement. If we have the broken heart and the contrite spirit, our own new sacrifice, we avail ourselves of His sacrifice and attain a true forgiveness of our sins, not just a symbolic forgiveness as under the Law of Moses. Being truly forgiven, we now have the power to progress, change, and learn under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, being able to make actual changes in our character and nature with the Lord’s divine assistance.

“³ Yea, blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Those who find themselves lacking the Holy Spirit will become rich in that spirit if they will come unto Christ and be born again.

“⁴ And again, blessed are all they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Blessed will be all who are sorry for their past sins, brokenhearted about them, who come unto Him in baptism, for they shall receive that greatest of all comforts, the Comforter Himself, to be their constant companion.

“⁵ And blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The meek are those who truly have a contrite spirit, who are willing to listen to and obey the whisperings of the Holy Spirit.

“⁶ And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.” Our Savior here gives us the great key to salvation: we must want it, as strongly as we want food and drink when we are starving. If we realize our fallen nature, admit that evil besets us continually, and desperately want to do good in place of evil, we make the best preparation possible for treasuring the Holy Spirit when it comes to us.

“⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” One of the indispensable marks of a true servant of Jesus Christ is that he or she forgives all others their trespasses. If we know that we are absolutely beholden to our Savior for forgiveness of our trespasses, and we understand that He cannot and will not forgive us until we forgive others, we will readily forgive others, and be merciful to them, so that we can obtain that merciful forgiveness for ourselves. Only in that state of forgiveness can we grow rapidly in the nurture of Christ to become like Him in heart, might, mind and strength.

“⁸ Blessed are all the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” This tells us that great, hopeful truth that when we have changed our character under the influence of the Holy Ghost and have become as much like our Savior as we can, He will then give us a new, pure heart. We then will no longer have any disposition to do evil, and the temptations of Satan will be as ineffective on us as they were on our Savior during His mortal ministry. In that state of purity we can then stand that greatest of all blessings, to be redeemed back into the presence of God and see Him, knowing Him even as he knows us. This is eternal life, to know our Savior, and to have Him introduce us to the Father. This is the highest possible culmination of human effort, and the reason for which each of us was born into mortality: to overcome the flesh and the world and to be brought back into the presence of those who love us most.

We need to go through the Sermon on the Mount as we would a checklist, pondering each statement of the Master to discern clearly what are the next steps we must take in our repentance, so that the temptations of the adversary might be as ineffective on us as they are on Him.

Let us turn now to the third thing we can do to come to Christ and be perfected in Him.

Step 3. Step three is to receive the full benefit of the blessings of the temple. As we begin the endowment, we first receive our washings and anointings, which part to me is the heart of the endowment. In this initial step, we receive all of the background blessings requisite to serve as kings and priests, queens and priestesses to the Most High. Each promise is precious and literally out of this world. Like the gift of the Holy Ghost given at the time of our confirmation, this ordinance does not literally give us the blessings, but rather the right to claim the blessings. We claim these blessings by our faith, repentance, and humble asking for each blessing, then treasuring and using each blessing so that we can retain them.

Next we need to fix in our minds and hearts an absolute determination to obey the instructions and commandments of God to us in every detail. We must be so firm in our minds, and our hearts must be so set on pleasing Father and His righteousness, that nothing can successfully tempt us to disobey Him. After their transgression, Adam and Eve did learn to obey God in all things. They came unto Christ, and were perfected in Him, and were redeemed from the Fall even in their mortal state. And we can be redeemed also if we will follow them and become completely obedient to God, in our repentance, even as they were.

And with Adam and Eve, we must also learn to sacrifice. To sacrifice is to give up or go without something of value. To sacrifice to obey God lets Him know where our values are, where our hearts are taking us and will take us. When we keep the sabbath day holy, we attend our church meetings and do the work of the kingdom, and we give up going to the movies, or shopping, or attending athletic events, or hunting or fishing. We give up the things that would please us in other circumstances in order to please God and to show Him that we really do hunger and thirst after His righteousness.

When we are dedicated and delivered to obedience and sacrifice, we are then ready to fully live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then and only then can we offer true faith in Jesus Christ, profound repentance that changes our hearts, minds and actions, and can fully receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands of those who have the true authority to bestow it. The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ can become the rule and the law of our lives only when firmly embedded in a context of humility that enables full obedience, and suffering that enables sufficient sacrifice. How precious and powerful is the Gospel law when toyed with by one who has not laid the foundation upon which to build the sturdy house. Whatever house we build, sturdy or flimsy, it will be the house we dwell in for eternity. For that house is our character, our own habits of doing good or of doing evil, or of some mixture. Those who are committed to full obedience and the sacrifice of everything of this world, perhaps even their own lives, are prepared through fully living the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ to build that character which will house the work of pure love and service to all eternity.

With the firmness of heart and mind that enables us to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we must pay special attention to the gifts which God has given us, particularly to the gift of a physical body which has the power of procreation. It is tempting to look at the plants and animals of the earth which procreate so faithfully and to take procreation as something entirely common, natural, and casual. But procreation and the personal relations which enable it in human beings must never be taken as common, natural and casual for those who are made in the image of God Himself. You and I are literal children of God, gods in embryo, potential heirs of all that is good and godly in the universe. You and I were begotten in the spirit by parents who recognized their procreation as a task most holy, of the essence of their holy work to bless others, to share in all of their powers and blessings. God will have a people who are sexually pure, who accept and love Him, and who will not sell their birthright for that mess of pottage which is illicit physical pleasure. He does not ask us to give up the opportunity of sexual relations, but he pleads with us to have our pleasure only within bounds, only with the one He has appointed unto each of us through holy matrimony to cooperate with in procreation. Is this too much to ask of those with whom He is trying to share all His powers for eternity? Certainly not. And this requirement turns out to be one of the great keys to the possession of all things.

Those who will be and are sexually pure are then ready to give all things to God for His use in blessing His other children. Giving all things to Him is another key to the possession of all things. If we are willing to give all things we hand our power over to God for His use. He will be willing to give all things in His power for our use to do the work of righteousness for eternity. This is the great opportunity of consecration. To consecrate is to set something aside as holy, to dedicate it to the work of Christ, to bless His children in the time present in this world, and to continue that consecration to all eternity. We consecrate all that we possess or control to that same end.

A Latter-day Saint armed with demonstrated obedience, willingness to sacrifice all things of this world, living the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, sexually pure and fully consecrated, is ready to receive the greatest blessings eternity has to offer: the blessings of celestial marriage in the holy temple wrought be the power of God Himself. This calling to the patriarchal order of eternity is the preparation for living in eternity in family kingdoms, exactly as does our Father in Heaven. If a couple have laid an adequate, secure foundation for this step in keeping the ten commandments, profiting from the Sermon on the Mount, enjoying faithfulness to the blessings and promises of the endowment, they stand on path to exaltation. That path leads them to learn to be a good husband and wife, good father and mother, even as they have learned hitherto to be good children to a perfect Father in Heaven and to an imperfect mortal father and mother.

I need to say a word to all of you who are single at this point. Being single is not of itself a barrier to exaltation and the great blessings Father is trying to give to all of us through Jesus Christ. Being single is also an opportunity to benefit from the blessings of the Ten Commandments, The Sermon on the Mount and the Temple Endowment. If you live each day in obedience to all that you know and understand of the ways of Christ, role acting with Him as if He were your spouse, striving in all things to become pure, selfless, full of love for all, abounding in good works, the time you spend single is also efficacious for you in coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him. If you will use each day of mortality as a delightful challenge and opportunity to prove your faith in Christ and your willingness to be a good spouse: cooperative, humble, prayerful, cheerful and full of love, you will also gain the character which will enable you to live with a divinely appointed spouse in the due time of the Lord. Remember that the greatest weapon of Satan on the faithful is despair. If you will count your blessings instead of your trials and frustrations, you will not be stopped from growing in the nurture of the Lord and becoming ready to receive all your promised blessings at Hi hand. God is good, He is fair. He will not shorten anyone’s blessings in eternity because of the circumstances of time over which they had no control. Trust in Him, grow in Him, come unto Christ and be perfected in Him and you will find that your eventual blessings will surpass your fondest hopes.

Now we come to Step 4, the capstone and polishing of our coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him. I commend to you Moroni Chapter 7, which is the great sermon of Mormon on faith, hope and charity. If we will carefully review chapter 7 frequently, and are able to assure ourselves as we do this that we are acting with all of our being in true faith in Jesus Christ, in true hope in Jesus Christ, and in the pure love of Jesus Christ, then indeed have we put it all together and have come unto Christ.

If we think we have true faith, hope and charity, there is a proof in the pudding. If we have those things we will love God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength, and will love our neighbor as ourselves. Having fulfilled the two great commandments, there is a reward. Our Savior will give us a new heart, which is pure. And when we have a pure heart, he will reveal Himself to us, and we will be redeemed from the Fall. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Why would anyone want a pure heart and to be redeemed from the Fall? Because then our efforts to do good will have no impediment. If there is anything that will perfect our marriage, draw our children close to us and to the Lord, enable us to succeed in our church callings, and to confront every challenge the world offers us, it is having a pure heart and a pure love, to do what our Savior would do if He were in our place. This is coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him.

It is my prayer that each of us will take our God-given opportunity of coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him to our hearts, and do it, that we will have no regret when this mortal life is over. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

24 April 2004 – Oak Hills Stake

My Brethren: I count it a great blessing to have the opportunity to speak to you about missionary work. I wish to ask and answer four questions:

1. What is a mission?
2. Why serve a mission?
3. What kind of mission?
4. How to prepare for a mission?

Number 1. A mission is being sent to serve. In this church, we do not call ourselves on missions. Rather, we are sent by priesthood authority, which means that our call comes from the Lord Himself through His appointed servants. The nice thing about this arrangement is that when the Lord calls someone, He also makes it possible for them to succeed on their mission: according to our faith, He endows us with the blessings we need to be successful.

A mission is always a sending to someone, some human being or group of human beings. Yes, we serve the Lord on a mission, but our specific call is to serve His children. We need to have exactly in mind who it is that we are sent to. A father and mother are missionaries, called and set apart in their temple sealing, sent to serve their children. A husband is sent to serve his wife. A wife is sent to serve her husband. A temple worker is sent to serve the patrons of the temple. The patrons of the temple are sent to serve those who have passed on to the spirit world. Proselyting missionaries are sent specifically to the honest in heart in the area in which they serve. Since they don’t know at first who is honest in heart, they must treat all persons they meet as if they were honest in heart and let the persons decide for themselves if they are honest or not. A missionary on any mission is the Lord’s hand reaching out to someone to offer them the spiritual riches of eternity through Jesus Christ.

Number 2. Why serve a mission? Perhaps you have also noticed what the authorities of the Church are saying: The world is getting more worldly, that is to say, more Satanic, and it will get worse before it gets better. What can you or I do about the rising tide of selfishness, of lying, of pornography, or licentiousness, of wickedness in high places, of political chicanery, of endemic disease, of the terrible treatment of women in many cultures, etc. There are many things any of us can do to try to fight against these evils, and the good people of this world are doing many of them. But there is one best thing to do in any culture, in any circumstance: Invite people to come to Christ and be perfected in Him. To be sent on a mission, at home or abroad, to extend this invitation is what the world and all of its problems need most.

When the Savior was on earth the crushing power of the Roman empire was keenly felt by the Jews, and the corruptness of the Jewish leaders was keenly felt by the common people. The Savior did not directly try to change either of these things. His solution was to reach out to individuals, with love, to get them to repent so that He could bless them in their individual misery through their faith in him.

The world has little changed since the time of the Savior on earth. Evil still has great sway over every people on earth. Their salvation is not in economic reform, political savvy, equal opportunity, more education, welfare plans, miracle cures or better looks. The answer is the same as it has been since Adam: Because of the Fall, men are carnal, sensual and devilish and will be forever unless they come unto Christ and be renewed in Him unto the likeness of our Savior himself. This is true salvation. Remember: Every nation on earth will fail before Christ comes, including our own. Every work of man will crumble and be brought to naught. The only thing that will survive is a soul purified in Christ through receiving and living by the ordinances of the Restored Gospel. So if you want to help anyone, or be of help in this dying world, be on the team whose work will survive the fire. We go on missions to have an eternal impact on the problems of this world by saving the people of this world from the worldliness of this world, even as our Master did.

Number 3. What kind of mission can we serve? It is important to remember that every calling in the church is a mission. We are sent by authority to someone to bring them to Christ and to be perfected in Him, be it as a bishop, a ministering brother, a quorum president, a Sunday School teacher, a volunteer at Deseret Industries, or a full-time missionary. But there are special blessings and opportunities that accrue to a full-time missionary, for they have special suasion with the Lord. Worried about your family? Serve a full-time mission. A sister I know in this stake was serving a full-time mission with her husband when serious trouble came to their family. She prayed earnestly for help. The Lord gave her a specific reply: “You take care of my children, and I will take care of yours.” She stopped worrying about her own family and concentrated on the work of her mission and the problems at home were taken care of.

What kinds of full-time missions are there? We could probably name ten or twenty kinds in just thinking about it. Some are foreign missions, some are done from home. My sister-in-law could not leave home because of medical problems, but she and our brother-in-law served a very effective and useful full-time mission without ever leaving home. If the desire is there, a way can be found to serve for most people.

Number 4. How to prepare for a full-time mission? The preparation is what everyone should be doing all of the time: Be ready, be prepared. There are four things which might happen to any one of us and they all require exactly the same preparation: 1) The Savior could come in the Second Coming. 2) We could die and go on to eternity. 3) We could become totally incapacitated. 4) We could be sent on a full-time mission. The preparation for each of these is to repent of our sins, set our house in order, make sure we have borne our testimony to those to whom we have been sent, and be ready to serve the Lord with all of our heart, might, mind and strength.

How long does it take to repent? Some of us try to stretch it out over a lifetime or more. That is not the true spirit of repentance. True repentance is always in a hurry. When we figure out that our sins always inflict injury on those whom we love, we become anxious to repent as fast as possible. Alma the younger did it in three days. Of course, he was unconscious and thus could give it his full attention. Each of us needs to ask ourselves: What can I do to want to repent badly enough to get the job done now?

How do we set our house in order? We get our debts paid, we unclutter, we set our estate in order so that our survivors will have a simple task of handling our estate, we simplify and strengthen everything necessary in our lives. This is not just the way to go on a mission, but the way to live. One thing difficult sometimes is to set our health in order. If we are keeping the commandments and are eating for nutrition and not for pleasure, the Lord will solve our health problems through priesthood blessings if he wants us to serve a mission for him.

How do we bear our testimony to those of our family, our stewardship? Mostly by trying. My wife and I tried very hard to teach all of our children the Gospel as they were growing up. Everyone should do that, and that is part of bearing our testimony to our children. But in my old age I now see that there are some important messages I did not teach with sufficient pointedness. I now need to repent of that before we go on our mission to Mexico City. May I mention three things I now see that I missed on:

I want my children to know that our Savior is the center of their lives, whether they realize it or not, or want it or not. In Him we live, move, breathe, think and have the power to act. If we do a good thing, it will be because we have gotten our errand from Him and using His power, we act. If we do an evil thing it will be because we have taken counsel from Satan, but still act by the power of Jesus Christ, who has given us our agency. If they are beautiful, or rich, or smart, or talented, each of these things is a gift from Christ and we must be most humble about being the recipient of such. Since we live and act in the power of Christ, the only intelligent thing we can do is to come unto Him and be perfected in Him so that we will not be sorrowful when He asks us at the bar of judgment what we did with His gifts.

Secondly, I want my children to know that they are daily at war with Satan. They cannot feel, think, or act without Satan tempting them to deny Christ and break His commandments. All they have to do to let Satan win is to relax and “do what comes naturally.” For the natural man is an enemy to God, and always will be, unless he comes to Christ as a little child and repents of ever giving in to Satan. No one can get away from Satan’s influence in this world. The only thing we can do is to face up to that influence and stare it down by heeding only the voice of the Holy Spirit, which is the voice of Christ. I taught my children about Satan, but I did not emphasize sufficiently the black-and-whiteness of the situation nor the tremendous loss it is to give in to selfishness in any degree, at any time, in any situation.

Thirdly, I would teach my sons better about the holiness of the opportunity to have women in their lives and that they should and must treat every woman with great, I emphasize, Great respect. As a man, each of them has a mission to be deferential to all women, those that keep the commandments of God and those that don’t. One of the greatest evils of this world is the almost universal bad treatment of women by men in almost every culture. This fact is just another testimony to the great power of Satan in this world. When they marry, they must do everything in their power to lead their wife to Christ, and with her to be perfected in Him. If they will treat their wife with this great respect in Christ-like love, they will do for their children the greatest thing they can do.

Brethren, enjoy your mission from the Lord. He is the greatest, and you will be great and do great work if you will only love him instead of yourself and do his work in power and the glory of the Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Oak Hills 2nd Ward
23 February 2003

The most important choice we can make if to decide to have faith in Jesus Christ.

I would like to share some things with you that I have learned about faith in the big part of a century that I have been in this mortality.

1. Faith in Jesus Christ is not something one has, though we speak that way. Strictly speaking, faith is what we are. It is like honesty. Honesty is not something one has; only knee-jerk honesty is real honesty. If we have to stop and decide each time we speak if it is worthwhile for us to tell the truth, we are not honest. Likewise, if we are faithful, we do not stop to think if it is worthwhile to keep the commandments of God; we just act faithfully because we have acquired the characteristic of faithfulness. It is what we are.
2. Everyone has faith, and there is no shortage of faith in this world. But the only faith that saves anyone’s soul is faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ is to obey His commandments. Specifically, it is to obey all of the commandments He gives to us as an individual, as we promise to do when we partake of the sacrament. We receive instruction from the Savior through the scriptures, through His living prophets and others who preside over us in the Holy Priesthood, and we receive it directly through the gift of the Holy Ghost. Without faith, that is to say, without being obedient to the instruction He gives us, it is impossible to please Him or to do any good thing. All good comes from Christ. If we do not obey Christ, we of necessity are doing evil, for there are only two choices in any situation. There is no middle ground. Either we do good through faith in Christ, or we do evil. Evil covers the whole range of things that are not as good as they could and should be. If we have faith in Christ, we do His will, and then our acts are as good as they could and should be. In sum of point No. 2: Either we act in faith in Christ and do good by doing what He directs us to do, or we do evil because our faith is in something or someone else.
3. Why we do what we do in responding to the instructions of Christ is as important as what we do. Our Savior has commanded us to attend Sacrament Meeting. If I attend because I love Him and want to do His good, my obedience will be accepted. But if I attend for some other reason, it is not counted as faith. Cain learned this when he performed sacrifices unto the Lord. He had been commanded to offer sacrifices, but did so only because Satan prompted him to do so. He did the right what but had the wrong why, so his offering was rejected.
4. How we do what we do in acting in faith in Christ is as important as what we do and as why we do it. It is not enough to do what we are asked to do, even if we do what we do out of love. We must also do what we do correctly. Oliver Cowdery learned this lesson when he tried to translate the inscriptions on the plates from which our Book of Mormon came. He wanted to do a good thing and probably had a good motive for doing it. But he did not inquire of the Lord how to translate. He proceeded by the means he thought appropriate. But that is not faith in Jesus Christ. Had he inquired of the Lord and tried to figure out what the inscriptions meant with the help of the Lord, he probably would have succeeded. I have made this same mistake in disciplining my children. In trying to teach them the way of Christ, and out of love for them and for the Lord, I nevertheless sometimes have disciplined them in wrong ways, which wrong ways did not work. Had I gone to the Lord for specific instructions as to how to do what he wanted me to do, the result would have been far different.
5. When we do what we do in acting in faith in Jesus Christ is equally as important as what we do, as why we do it, and as how we do it. The Lord has His own timing, and if we are on His errand, we must act when He says to act, not at our own convenience. If we receive an instruction from the Lord and say in our hearts, “That is a good thing to do. Someday I will do it”, we are rejecting Christ as our master and do not have faith in Him. To have true faith in Jesus Christ we must receive His instruction and do exactly what He says to do, for the right reason, how He says to do it, and exactly when He says to do it. There is no other way to true faith in Christ.
6. Faith cannot become strong without hope. As our faith grows, we begin to have confidence in our relationship with our Savior, and that confidence waxes stronger as our faith grows. It becomes a bastion of power against the opposition to faith that enables us to endure to the end.
7. The end to which we and our faith and hope must endure to have full faith is charity, the pure love of Christ. This love is the ability to reflect the love that comes from Christ back to Him and also to all others we encounter in our daily walk of faith in Christ. When we have this love, there will be no obstacle, no barrier, no task, no opportunity that our faith cannot overcome. We will then be just men made perfect through Jesus Christ.
8. There is a tremendous opposition to this true faith in Jesus Christ in this world. The principal opposition might be said to be worldliness, or taking our cues and instruction from the people around us in the world. But to say it that way simply masks the real truth: the principal opposition to Christ in this world is within each one of us. It is our temptation to be selfish, to do things our own way, according to our own desires. The world affects us only because we individually want it to do so. We are agents. We can choose. But our choice is limited to doing our own will, which always produces evil of some degree, or to have this true faith in Christ which we have been describing, and do good. So the opposition to faith in Christ boils down to our own selfishness.
9. It is difficult to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Our Savior said: Straight is the gate, and narrow the way and few there be that find it. Any human being can find it once they know the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, for the purpose of preaching and teaching the gospel to every soul is to set every soul free to choose between Christ and selfishness. If we choose Christ, we have but entered the gate; we must then press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ and endure to the end, which is to be a person of pure faith in Christ, which is also eternal life. Anyone can do it, but few do, because only a few want to. Motivation is hugely important. If you wanted to become a skilled violin player, you would have to practice many hours a day for years to attain your goal. And not everyone has the innate ability to succeed at that task. But the Savior makes it possible for every human soul to develop pure and full faith in Him. This is more difficult to do than to become a skilled violinist. But we are given 24 hours a day to practice for a lifetime, and that is enough to become faithful.

Let us remember King Benjamin’s insight: The natural man is an enemy to God and has been since the fall of Adam and ever will be [selfish] unless he putteth off the natural man through the atonement of Christ and becomes as a little child: meek, submissive, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things the Lord sees fit to inflict upon him. (Mosiah 2:19) We will do this by doing as Mormon enjoins: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.” (Moroni 7:48)

The Lord’s curriculum is unerring. Anyone who wants to love God with all of his heart, might, mind and strength will, through prayer and repentance, learn to overcome by faith and to enter into the rest of the Lord Jesus Christ for all eternity.

Let us summarize: The most important thing any of us will do in our eternity is to practice until we become a person of full faith in Jesus Christ so that we do what He instructs us to do, for the right reason, in the right way, at the right time, in full hope in Christ and in the pure love of Christ. There is no other way. I pray that each of us may accept the love of Jesus Christ and come unto Him through praying with all the energy of our hearts to be full of faith, hope, charity in Jesus Christ. Amen.

28 July 2002

I have been assigned to speak to the topic: “Now is the time to prepare to meet God.” May I refer you to an excellent discourse on this topic given by President Thomas S. Monson in the October general conference of 2001. It is found in the November Ensign on page 59. Would you please review that article and find out why “Seagull” is important.

This title comes from the Book of Mormon in a speech by Amulek to the people of Ammonihah: “This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God: yea, behold the day of his life is the day for men to perform their labors. … Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed. Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this. …” (Alma 34:32–34)

Now we all know that the way to prepare to meet God is to have faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, and to keep the commandments. Our consciences amply supply us with things to do better. If we would follow our consciences, things would go better with each of us. But today, I have a bit of a different message. Instead of talking about what to do to have faith in our Savior, I am going to give you a formula as to how to exercise your faith. I believe this is a sure-fire formula. Anyone who will do the four things I will mention, will come to full faith in Jesus Christ and be well prepared to meet God when they pass from this life. In addition to helping us to prepare to meet God, this formula also has the added benefit of making each passing day most enjoyable. And it is a good practice for the way we will live in eternity. So how could we go wrong with such a formula? Now to the formula.

How to No. 1: Be happy. I say be happy, because being happy is something each of us controls entirely. We are not made happy or unhappy by what we own or don’t own, by what others do or don’t do to us and for us, nor even by what we do. Happiness comes from within. It is not something that happens to us. Rather it is an attitude of ours. If we insist on being happy, we will be happy, no matter what is going on around us or to us. And, if we insist on being unhappy, we will be unhappy, no matter what.

Why be happy? Because we are children of our Heavenly Father, children of Jesus Christ, and blessed beyond our desserts. Any live human being can write down all of the pluses in his or her life, then all of the minuses, and the pluses will far outweigh the minuses. Just being children of God and potential heirs to all that they have and are should be enough to make us happy. To make a long story short, to be unhappy is to be ungrateful for our blessings. Anyone who really understands what is going on in this world will insist on being happy. Being happy is the beginning of love of God and of our neighbor.

It took me a long time in this mortality to figure out that I am responsible for my own happiness. Most of the time I have been apprehensive, worried, burdened down with cares and responsibilities. Yet when I look back, I see how incredibly blessed I have been. I should have been happy all of the time. So I insist on not being unhappy or depressed. I like this quotation from the Prophet Joseph: “I should never get discouraged, whatever difficulties should surround me. If I was sunk in the lowest pit of Nova Scotia and all of the Rocky Mountains piled on top of me, I ought not to be discouraged but hang on, exercise faith and keep up good courage and I should come out on top of the heap.” (Citation lost)

So please be happy.

How to No. 2: Live by prayer. Nephi counseled us: “But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform anything unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.” (2 Nephi 32:9)

Amulek also counsels us on this matter: “Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you; yea, cry unto him for mercy, for he is mighty to save. Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him. Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks. Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening. Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies. Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness. Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them. Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase. But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.” (Alma 34:17–27)

Indeed, prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, his native air. Prayer is the key to feeling right, planning correctly and executing our work well. I cannot tell you how much better genealogy work goes with constant prayer. It is marvelous to see the difference between praying and just doggedly slogging along. If we wake up praying, the Lord will help us plan the day that we labor not in vain. If we consult Him all during the day, he will see that we are alerted to what we need to do and watch out for. As we lie down unto Him at night, we rest secure in His love.

How to No. 3: Live for others. To live outside ourselves in love is the purpose of a Christian life. If we cast our bread upon the waters, our needs will be taken care of as we concern ourselves about meeting the needs of another. To give service to others is the occupation of the child of Christ, service to friends and enemies, service to the deserving and the undeserving. It is our business to drop into bed exhausted each night, having spent our day improving everything we affect or lay our hands on. Our path through this work should be one of overcoming the second law of thermodynamics: While the world around us tends to disorder, decay and evil, everything we do should tend to order, improvement, good, and kindness. What a difference one good person can make in this world.

The consecrated life is a life of purpose, and the servant of Christ makes that a priesthood purpose. Many years ago the Aaronic Priesthood handbook had a wonderful message. Make sure that every activity for the young people of the Church has a priesthood purpose. I came to see that this applies to all of us. If we bear the Lord’s power and authority, everything we do should be an act of priesthood service, directed by Him, to make this world a heaven.

Every time we forebear doing things for our own will and pleasure, and instead seek the will and pleasure of him who sent us in service to others, we are helping to reduce the quantity of evil in the world and preparing for the coming of our Savior. And service is a great backbone for happiness.

How to No. 4: Fear nothing. Our Lord has counted fear as one of the great sins, classing fear with lying, whoremongering and sorcery (D&C 63:17). those who pretend to be servants of Christ and yet are in fear are contradicting themselves. For the work of Christ is to see that all things work together for the good of those who love and serve Him. If all things work for our good, what is there to be afraid of? Illness? It will be the hand of the Lord to bless us. Afraid of poverty? It will come only because it is needed. Afraid of failing? Failing is the great way to learn to succeed. Afraid of not getting something your heart is set upon? If it is right, God will give it to you, and if it is not right for you, he will spare you the misery of getting an unrighteous desire fulfilled. Afraid of pain? Know you not that pain is the great purifier of souls, and that to always deaden or mask pain is to miss one of the great blessings of life. Afraid of dying? We are born to die, and dying is the only way we can progress to our eternal blessings. Afraid of not finishing a task? If it is your errand and mission to do this task, the Lord will see fit that you can do it, and if it is not your errand and mission, it doesn’t matter whether you finish it or not.

Fear is the enemy of faith and love. Let us not be fearful, but rather let us bask in the love of Jesus Christ, in the arms of His mercy, in the richness of His blessings. Anything else would be rank ingratitude.

May I now review the four things that help us to maximize each mortal day, that help us prepare to meet God, that prepare us to live in eternity: 1. Be happy. 2. Live by prayer. 3. Live to serve others. 4. Fear nothing.

I pray that our faith in Christ may be fulfilled by our being wise servants unto Him, that when He appears, we will have no regrets. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

22 June 2002—Provo Utah Oak Hills Stake
Priesthood Leadership Meeting 6:00 p.m.

Setting Apart

Review of Melchizedek Priesthood Handbook material.

Three things to keep in mind when setting someone apart:

1.   Be prepared: Be ye Holy.

• Lightmindness, loud laughter.
• Over eating.
• Pornography, worldly entertainment.

2.   Bless the person with what they need:

• Health
• Family
• Occupation
• Understanding
• Charity
• Physical contact
• Lay on hands and, not “to”

3.   Follow up:

• Commend, congratulate them
• Advise (lightly), teach
• Let them know that you care.

Exo. 19:6 “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”

Lev. 11:44 “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves: and ye shall be holy:”

D&C 43:16 “Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power, that ye may give even as I have spoken.”

Alma 31:36 “Now it came to pass that when Alma had said these words, that he clapped his hands upon all them that were with him. And behold, as he clapped his hands upon them, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Sacrament Meeting Talk-26 May 2002-Oak Hills 5^th Ward

1960’s bomb shelter. We must prepare spiritually against the power of Satan.

Checklist for the family: You do the following with fasting, prayer and scripture study.

1.   Husband and wife: Unified in the Lord.

Test: Whatever problem arises, agree on a solution that works. And never get angry with one another.

2.   Family: Lead your children to Jesus Christ through regular family home evening, family prayer, family work and play activities.

3.   Testimony: Unshakable knowledge that the Restored Gospel and Church are true and that the General Authorities, your stake president, and your bishop are appointed of Jesus Christ.

Test: You move with the church as the dispensation unfolds.

4.   Building the Kingdom: Make a significant contribution toward the establishment of Zion each week in your callings. You are concerned about the poor.

Test: Someone else is more faithful and more blessed because of your labors.

5.   You are a missionary: You bear testimony of Christ wherever, whenever the Holy Spirit prompts you.

Test: You distribute Books of Mormon and your testimony regularly.

6.   You are a genealogist: Your four generations have been submitted, and you are working on ancestral lines.

Test: You are doing family names in the temple for someone connected to you.

7.   You are financially responsible:

Test: You pay a generous tithing and offerings, and spend less than you take in.

8.   You care for your physical tabernacle:

Test: You have a regular exercise routine and eat for health, not just for taste.

9.   You are ready to be reassigned to the next world.

Test: You are properly insured and have an air-tight estate plan. And you have repented.

10. You have a pure mind and heart:

Test: You do not countenance pornography, evil influences, or light-mindedness, but garnish your thoughts with virtue. You systematically root out all selfishness from your soul.

11. Your house and belongings are in physical order. You own only what you need, and all is neat, clean, and functional.

Test: You can find and use whatever you need quickly.

12. You are civically responsible.

Test: You take an active interest in bettering your community, state, nation, by getting good people into office.

If you do these things, you will be very close to loving the Lord with all of your heart, might, mind and strength, and you will have power in the priesthood.

This is the way to Christ: it is strait and narrow, a few there be that find it. But those that find it inherit everything.

19 May 2002

Being overwhelmed by circumstances recently, I have found that the best way out of my situation is to prioritize, then work with vigor on the Number One Problem until it is sufficiently resolved that it is no longer Number One, then move on to the new Number One Problem. The problems are mowed down, and suffering seems to be minimized by this strategy.

Finding this success in temporal things, it occurred to me to apply this same strategy to spiritual matters. In so doing, I found it easy to see that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ has to be my Number One Priority; I take this to mean that I must look to Him in every thought and circumstance and try to do His will above all else. I also understand that the first fruits of faith in Jesus Christ is repentance; I take this to mean that I must be about the business of changing every sin and bad habit into an act of faith in Jesus Christ. But what would be priority Number Three?

It occurs to me that the first step of repentance is to forgive others their trespasses against me. I remember that the Lord says in the Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 63:8–11, the following: “My disciples in days of old, sought occasion against one another and forgave not one another in their hearts; and for this evil they were afflicted and sorely chastened. Wherefore I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.”

The Lord also says in 3 Nephi 13:14–15: “For, if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you; But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.”

Understanding that forgiveness of sins and the companionship of the Holy Ghost are inextricably linked together, and that I cannot enjoy the guidance of the Holy Ghost to repent and have faith if I am not forgiven of my sins, I see that my first task of repentance is to forgive all others their trespasses against me. Then I can be forgiven, then I can enjoy the companionship of the Holy Ghost, then I can effectively work on the next steps of repentance under the expert guidance of the Holy Spirit.

It is plain to me that forgiveness of others is a clear priority in my life, my key to repentance and to faith in Jesus Christ, and thus my key to spiritual progress.

OH 6th Ward, 23 September 2001

The sure formula for success in this life and eternal life in the world to come:

1.   Increase faith in Jesus Christ:

• Always remember Him, and do it with love and gratitude.
• Pray mightily in His name.
• Plan each day under the guidance of His spirit.
• Listen to conscience, which is the voice of His spirit.
• Study the scriptures daily to learn of Him.

2.   Love and serve those around us:

• Have a smile and cheery greeting for everyone we meet.
• Care about others: go out of your way to help them.
• Give service: be found doing good things.

3.   Set our stewardship in order:

• Order our hearts, that our priorities are correct.
• Order our minds, that we fill them with holiness, not worldliness.
• Order our bodies, nourishing and caring for them properly, that we will have the health to carry out our assignments.
• Order our might: Be out of debt, be frugal, pay tithing, save money, be a good employee, have our home and properties in order so that we are ready for the coming of the Master.

4.   Move the work of the Kingdom: Use our priesthood power and other abilities to:

• Do missionary work when we can.
• Be engaged in saving our kindred dead.
• Be faithful in our tasks of perfecting the saints.

Our first priority should be to purify ourselves.

Our second priority should be to strengthen our own family.

Our third priority should be to strengthen the Church.

Our fourth priority should be to strengthen our community.

Our fifth priority should be to strengthen our nation.

To be on the strait and narrow path is to live for others, not for our own gratification. Living for others under the direction of our Savior is the only sure way to happiness. Then there will be no later regrets.

6 May 2001

Brethren, I commend you for being here this afternoon. It is only the faithful who come to a Stake Priesthood Meeting at 3:00 p.m. on a spring Sunday.

My assignment is to speak to all of us about the character pattern of a man of God, a worthy bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood. I approach this topic by breaking it down into four segments, each of which will be treated separately. The four segments are:

1. the essential characteristics of a worthy son of Jesus Christ.
2. The essential characteristics or a worthy bearer of the Aaronic Priesthood.
3. The essential characteristics of a worthy bearer of the patriarchal priesthood.
4. The essential characteristics of a worthy bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood.

I hope to paint a word picture of a godly character, and invite each of you to paint you own word picture, hopefully stimulated for the good by what I present. Do not take what I say as final word on the subject. But do think about what I say and improve upon it as you can.

Before treating the four segments, it is important to say a word about the overall process of achieving a godly character. First, our character is our habits. Habits are built by making consistent deliberate choices. It sometimes takes fifty to a hundred unbroken choosings of a good action to make it a habit, so that we do what we have previously consciously chosen as a matter of habit, without having to re-choose. But since it only takes one deliberate contrary choice to shatter a habit, so what we have to make the fifty or a hundred good choices again until the habit is re-fixed.

Acquiring a good character is simply a matter of fixing many necessary good habits. Since we are agents, no one but ourselves can fix our own habits. This no one but ourselves can save us from ourselves, that is to say, from our bad habits.

Bad habits come with being mortal. We are in a fallen world, and every one of us partakes of bad habits to some degree at some time. Our challenge is to come out of the fallen world and take upon ourselves the habits, the character, of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to rise to the stature of His character, to the fulness of the perfection that He is. His grace makes it possible for us to become as He is, and thus we are saved by grace. But it is our own hard work to control our thoughts, feelings, words and actions that actually saves us from ourselves. His grace alone will not and cannot save us from ourselves.

The essence of the Christ-like character is not to be selfish, to state the goal negatively. To say it positively is to say that we must come in the end to attain and habitually manifest the pure love of Christ. This means that in any situation in life we do not consider what will best feather our own nest; but being a child of Christ, our only concern in any situation will be to do what is right, which is to say, to do the action which will most help and bless everyone around us. Our goal is thus to overcome selfishness by taking upon ourselves the habits and attributes of Jesus Christ until we do everything we do in that perfect love that comes only from Christ. The indispensable means to overcoming selfishness and growing to the full stature of the pure love of Christ is to be humble. If we go before our Heavenly Father, humbling ourselves as a little child all of our days and doing it in the name of Jesus Christ, we open the doors of grace that it may come down and bless us with the wherewith that we then can make the changes in ourselves which need to be made.

Armed with humility, seeing the opposition as selfishness, and having as our goal attaining the pure love of Christ, or charity, we are ready to set out on our quest for salvation.

The first step in salvation from ourselves is to be baptized, to be born again as a son of Jesus Christ, and make covenant with him. If we make the baptismal covenant, we set out in pursuit of four special character traits to fix them so permanently in our nature that we can never be shaken from them. The four are to be honest, true, chaste and benevolent.

To be honest is to admit it whenever God speaks to us. To ignore the spiritual promptings to do good which come from God is the essence of worldliness, which is selfishness. Thus our missionaries can only help the honest in heart, because when they pray and receive answers from God, they are humble before Him and are willing to admit that He has spoken to their souls. Knee-jerk honesty is always found in those who love Jesus Christ and serve Him.

To be true means that we keep our word, our promises. If we say we will do something, our word becomes our bond, and we do it, even if it is not convenient. A knife edge is true when it is straight; a person is true when their actions line up perfectly with what they have said they will do. The most important promises we ever make are the promises of baptism: That we will be willing to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, that we will keep all of the commandments He gives us, and that we will remember Him always. There is no salvation nor spiritual progress toward salvation without making and being true to those three promises. That is why baptism is our most important covenant, and partaking of the sacrament to renew that covenant is a great key to the life of a Latter-day Saint.

To be chaste means to recognize that our bodies are fashioned in the image of God Himself, and that these mortal tabernacles are not ours to do with as we selfishly please, but these bodies are “loaners,” temporary gifts from God to see what kind of a body we will be worthy of in the resurrection. The most important power these mortal bodies have is the power of procreation, one of God’s great gifts to man. But God is very jealous of His gift and wants it used only as He directs, which is to say, using our power of procreation only in marriage. This is chastity; to guard jealously the gift of God and use it only as we are given permission to do so. The world teaches us selfishness, to use this precious gift as we please, to pleasure ourselves according to our own desires. But that is not the way of Christ.

To be benevolent means to have good will toward all men. It means that we seek peace, not strife; we seek to help others, not to take advantage of them. In a world where might often is the only right people recognize, the servant of Christ can be counted on to do what is right and fair; he will not seek to improve his own lot at the expense of another. Whatever benefit the Saint is willing to receive, it is because others benefit also and everyone is better off. The Saint does not think of feathering just his own nest. He continually ponders how to feather everyone’s nest, that all around him might be better off. He works tirelessly to see that others enjoy the advantages he has, that all might be blessed.

To summarize the character of the child of Christ: He is honest, true, chaste and benevolent, which is to say, he will not lie, he will not break his promises, he will not commit fornication or adultery, and he will not allow harm to his neighbor to be the means of getting any benefit.

We turn now to the character traits of a worthy bearer of the Aaronic Priesthood. The principal concern of the Aaronic Priesthood is with temporal things. The Aaronic order is the power and discipline by which we who are servants of Christ subdue the earth, earn a livelihood, and recreate the Garden of Eden on earth. My suggestions as to the essential character traits of a Son of Jesus Christ who has received the Aaronic Priesthood are as follows: He is responsible, productive, well-organized, and skillful in what he does.

To be responsible means to be able to be given a task to perform, to complete the task well, and to report back to the giver of the task that the work has been accomplished. This trait of being responsible is the backbone of all priesthood functioning, at any level. The Savior pointed out that he had little use for a servant who accepted a command but who then did not do what he was told. To be responsible is to be trustworthy. President McKay said that it is more important to be trusted than to be loved. And it is indeed. The essence of being a worthy priesthood holder is to be trustworthy.

To be productive means to be a hard worker. The lazy person cannot be a profitable servant unto Christ. The profitable servant works and wears away his life and strength in doing the tasks the master has set, even when he seems to be making no progress, even when the odds or opposition seem to be overwhelming. The productive servant of Christ throws all he has into the fray, not fearing for his life, for his health, for the feathers in his nest. He only seeks to do the will of the Lord because he knows that whatever his Lord commands is right. So he works hard to produce all that he reasonably can, be he seeking a harvest of grain in the field or souls in the mission field.

To be well-organized means that the servant of Christ is orderly. He keeps his possessions in order. He keeps his tools repaired and sharpened. He can lay his hands on the possession he needs in the dark, because he is so well organized that everything is in its place. With this order goes cleanliness, for dirt and mess are forms of disorder which destroy the worthiness of his stewardship and of himself as a steward. He strives to order his mind, his heart, his body with the best food and exercise, his words with the best things to say, his actions with the works of a disciple of Christ.

And the worthy bearer of the Aaronic Priesthood is skillful. He sees who does things well and learns from them. If no human source of help is available, he goes to his Father in Heaven and boldly seeks instruction from angels, if necessary. His is so anxious to do his work well that he is willing to do it over and over until he gets it right. Be he translating or tracting, planting or harvesting, reading or writing, singing or dancing, he wants to do each act the very best that it can be done, and he is willing to sacrifice both to learn and then to perform well.

To summarize the worthy Aaronic Priesthood steward over temporal things: he is responsible, trustworthy; he is a hard worker; he is orderly and well-organized in all things; and he does what he does very well, skillfully. He will not tolerate an undischarged command. He will never be lazy and unproductive. He will never deliberately have or leave things in a mess. And he will never be slothful or careless in his performance. Because the light of Christ is in him, he seeks excellence in all things.

We turn now to the Patriarchal Priesthood. The Prophet Joseph Smith pointed out to us that there are three orders of priesthood: The Melchizedek, the Patriarchal, and the Aaronic (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Deseret Book, 1976, p. 323). We do not often discuss the Patriarchal Priesthood, but this seems to be a good time to say some obvious things about it.

When a man and woman are sealed in the Holy Temple of God, they receive the Patriarchal Priesthood to preside over their family, which priesthood is a branch of the Melchizedek Priesthood. The character traits a person needs to learn to be a worthy family patriarch are to be understanding, to be tender, to be inspiring, and to be exemplary. These traits focus on how we relate to other people, specifically those in our own family.

To be understanding is to seek the spiritual gift of discernment, to be able to observe another person and sense when they are hurting and what their needs are. To be a husband and father in a family is to be one who administers to needs, first of his wife, and then of his children. The more pure (unselfish) his own heart is, the more the Holy Spirit can help the father to minister to the needs of his family. This may not come naturally; he may need to pray, fast and ponder long and hard to understand the persons in his family.

The father needs to be tender as he ministers to the needs of his family members. Sometimes the person in his family who needs the most help is the most resistive. Whatever help he gives must be done in long-suffering, with love unfeigned, in all humility, to be effective. Helping someone often hurts them, as when we go in with a needle to extract a deep splinter of wood, or when we find someone in a fault and gently try to reason with them about it. Brute power and force are seldom the answer to minister to the needs of the ailing soul, so sympathetic tenderness is necessary for every father.

The father is a leader, and as such, he needs to be inspiring. He will best be inspiring if he is inspired himself. As he humbles himself before the Lord, knows the path his family should go, then leads them on to where the Lord would have them go, he will be inspiring. The power of the Holy Ghost in him will inspire his wife and children to follow him, to make the sacrifices necessary to spiritual progress, and to progress toward being a celestial family.

And finally, the father needs to be an example of a servant of Christ unto all of his family. He needs to lead our in scripture study and family prayer, in church attendance and participation and in family meeting, in fulfillment of callings and sustaining those in authority, of supporting his wife and other family members in their church callings, in being a good neighbor, in being a faithful ministering brother and a warm receiver of ministering brothers, of being politically responsible, of being a good provider, of instructing and organizing his home so that there is order, cleanliness, and many happy occasions. He cannot set this example without the help, cooperation and example of his wife. But he will see to it that both he and she are converted to the ways of the Lord and that they then set the pattern for all of their children and grandchildren.

The worthy bearer of the Patriarchal Priesthood thus is a concerned family man. He tries to relate to each person in his family as he should, to entice them to come to Christ. He knows that the most important relationship he has is with his wife, and does everything he can to forge a strong bond of love and commitment with his wife, knowing that only then can they maximally help their children. He will not be a tyrant, he will not ride rough-shod over feelings, he will not lead by force, and he will not give aid to the enemy by setting a bad example.

Now we turn to the character traits of a bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood, one who serves in the Kingdom of God, the Church of Jesus Christ, to bring souls to Christ. A true servant of Christ is cooperative, he is a leader, he is visionary, and he is powerful. Let us enlarge on each of these.

A worthy bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood is cooperative because he knows that the ultimate purpose of all priesthood action is to bring all who bear the priesthood into a oneness with Christ and the Father. Thus he is anxious to cooperate, to bear part of the burden, to help see that the work succeeds, to be a part of the success of his quorum, presidency, or committee. He is a student of the manuals of the Church, striving to bring all into conformity with the desires of those who preside, who represent our Savior. He cooperates as a follower and as a leader, striving to make the body of Christ, the Church, sound, whole, and productive at every turn.

He is a leader, and when it is his turn to lead, he leads by the Holy Spirit, seeking counsel of those who are his counselors and those who preside over him. He leads with kindness and love unfeigned, with pure knowledge, not asking blind obedience but giving informed direction. He is constant, commendatory, quick to praise and slow to reprove, ready to instruct and encourage. He knows that the enemy is not flesh and blood but is a spiritual force, and he counters with all of the power of God to lead away from the ways of the enemy into the ways of godliness.

As a leader, he must be visionary, even as Father Lehi. Father Lehi had a vision of the work of Christ and of the promised land which his children would inherit. Lehi’s “visionariness” was a trial to his unfaithful children, but a blessing to them nevertheless. And it was a great inspiration to his faithful children, leading them to Christ also.

Finally, the worthy bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood must be powerful in the Holy Spirit. He leads not for gain or glory, but for the sake of the cause of Christ. Because he is humble before Christ, Christ fill him with power, and using that power he inspires, guides and blesses all who are in his stewardship. He fears no obstacle, knows no defeat, and is not discouraged, in spite of the raging of mobs or the powers of hell. For he knows whom he serves and that the cause of Christ will prevail over all in this world and will reach into heaven and to the expanses of eternity.

So, in addition to all of the other characteristics gained being a son of God, a bearer of the Aaronic Priesthood, and a bearer of the Patriarchal Priesthood, the worthy bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood is priesthood “broke”: he knows how to follow, obey and to lead in the Church of Jesus Christ, and he leads with vision and power unto establishing the Kingdom of Christ on the earth that it will be worthy of being joined by the Kingdom of Heaven when our Savior comes in the Second Coming. He does not criticize those who preside, he does not shirk leading out when so called, he does not substitute his own ideas for the visions of God, and he never seeks the evil gift or to accomplish the purposes of God.

Brethren, I testify that this work in which we are engaged is the true work of Jesus Christ, that his power and authority are in the priesthood of this church, and that the most intelligent thing we can do is to learn both our priesthood duty and our priesthood opportunity, and to be found being a faithful servant in all things. For “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. 2:9) the blessings the Lord has in store for those who love Him and serve Him with all of their heart, might, mind and strength. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Oak Hills Stake—18 April 2001

(Note: This talk hearkens back to the olden days before the High Priests and Elders were united into one group.)

I rejoice at this opportunity to speak to you. In the last ten days I have had a personal conversation with every bishop, every high priest group leader, and every leader of a stake program concerned with the changes we are making in this stake. In these interviews I have been impressed with the spiritual strength which you possess as a group. That bodes well for the future of this stake and its work.

The work of this stake is the salvation of souls. The Church breaks its work into three parts: teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every soul on earth, perfecting the saints, and redeeming the dead. These three can be considered as one: our work is to prepare the world and the Church for the personal presence of Jesus Christ again on the earth. The salvation of souls is to prepare them to enjoy standing in the personal presence of our Savior when He comes.

So we call upon our high priest group leaders to be saviors on Mount Zion. It is your calling and opportunity to invite and enable every soul in your stewardship to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. This involves missionary work to see that all really understand. There is as important a missionary field within the Church as there is outside the Church. If we could convert every member to actually put his or her faith in Jesus Christ and in nothing else, our task within the Church would be complete. The perfecting of the saints is actually missionary work; taking each soul from limited faith to full faith in Christ. And of course no one can have full faith in Christ without laboring mightily to find the records of his or her deceased relatives and doing the work for them in the temple.

So our priesthood goal is simple. It is to invite, entice, persuade and enable every soul to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. As we do our work well, we will establish the Lord’s pavilion so that all will be in readiness for Him. He will have a dwelling place for Him to come to, Zion, and the world will have been made ready for His judgments and blessings. Our Savior will come as a thief in the night; he will not make an appointment to see us. “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of; And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 24:44–51) Let us then be good stewards, giving meat in due season.

The high priest group leader is the leader and advocate of all persons assigned to the high priest group. His task is to prepare each person to be worthy to receive the full blessings of Jesus Christ. As a priesthood program manager, he sees that the Gospel is taught, he makes callings and programs available to all in his stewardship, he conducts personal priesthood interviews to ascertain progress and readiness, he entices each person to serve with sacrifice, that each might become worthy of the full blessings. If he does his job well, he will be able to recommend every soul to the bishop for a temple recommend, and the bishop will question the person by the Holy Spirit and see that the high priest leader has done his work well.

There are three keys to this work: 1. Accomplishment, 2. Flexibility, and 3. Accountability.

1. We are to use the programs of the Church to accomplish the task of bringing every soul to Christ. We do not just plan and talk: we get the job done.
2. We are flexible as to how to delegate the work. It may be done in a hundred different ways. For instance, the high priest group leader himself may focus on missionary work, one of his assistants may have charge of family history and temple work, and the other assistant may be in charge of extraction for the ward. Or the committee chairman for missionary work might be the ward mission leader. Or all of the persons called to be family history consultants in the ward may be members of the high priest temple committee.
3. But however the work is delegated, the responsibility cannot be delegated: The high priest group leader remains responsible for manning and assuring the success of each program in his stewardship. He will discharge that accountability by having personal priesthood interviews and other personal contacts with every person who reports to him, and he will in turn report that success to the bishop as he meets with the bishop.

And in all this he will work closely with the Elders Quorum President. Remember that the Elders President is also a high priest group leader in training. The work of the elders and the high priests is very similar, and must be correlated in every way.

It is possible to do all this and do it well. We remember the saying of the apostles of Christ when he explained how narrow the way, how strait the gate. They said, “Who then can be saved?” Our Savior answered, “With men [by the power of men] this is impossible. But with God [by the power of God] all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:25–26)

We are children of Jesus Christ, and all of His power is available to us to bring this great work off triumphant. I pray that we will do so with due haste, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.