Season’s Greetings
This is our first year with children away for the holidays. Mindy and Joey are both serving missions for the LDS Church.
Mindy left in January and is in Washington, D.C. at the Visitor’s Center of the LDS Temple. She has enjoyed the members and friends of the D.C. area, and has had the opportunity to meet many U.S. and international dignitaries as they tour the temple grounds. She will serve until August before coming home. Her weekly letters are at mindysmission.blogspot.com.
Joey spent the last three months studying Japanese at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. Earlier this month, he traveled to Hiroshima Japan where he will serve until September 2009. His letters are logged at joeysmission.blogspot.com.
Sarah lives close by in Elk Grove with her husband Aaron and 13-month-old Mari. Pictures and updates are at clifthouse.blogspot.com.
Hilary, Spencer, and Bradford are still at home and, no, they don’t have their own blogs.
Hilly continues to sing, anywhere and everywhere. She enjoyed performing in D.C., New York, and the Caribbean and doing some studio recording this year.
Spence is tearing it up in school (that’s good), and he does a bit of singing now and then. Baseball is his sport.
Willie (Bradford) insists that he does not sing because he is a basketball player. He is on his elementary school team. And he still loves math.
Jeff is serving in the stake presidency at church after several years of serving in the mission presidency. His book, a biography of Norton Parker Chipman, is scheduled to be published by McFarland and Company in 2008. And Jeff is keeping his day job.
Kim is savoring the grandmother role. And Mari loves visiting. Kim is the center of the universe for the rest of her family, holding it all together.
During this holiday season, we are grateful to the Lord for family, friends, and the blessings of life.
Merry Christmas from the Hogge’s.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Joseph Smith's Education on the Atonement
During my senior year at BYU, I did a research project and wrote a paper entitled, “Metalinguistic Abilities in Children.” My professor liked it enough that he suggested that I submit it to a society that was holding a symposium at BYU. My paper was accepted by the society and I was scheduled to present this paper to professional linguists, professors, and students. I felt the burden of this assignment and wished for a way out. I arrived the day of the symposium and found that the symposium participants had the option of attending one of two sessions for each time slot. I was scheduled for the same time slot as Truman Madsen, whom some of you know as a prominent LDS philosopher. I was relieved to find that, except for my professor and a few lost students who did not know who Truman Madsen was, all of the symposium participants went to hear Brother Madsen. The Lord had seen fit to take away the burden from me.
Today, I see that the Lord has not taken away my burden. And I assume Truman Madsen is not speaking in the other chapel.
My topic today is the education the Lord gave to Joseph Smith on the Atonement.
Joseph Loses the Manuscript
During the summer of 1828, Joseph Smith suffered through a dark and difficult period. The Urim and Thummin, through which he had been translating the Golden Plates, was taken from him. He paced the floor, weeping and grieving that all was lost. The Spirit withdrew, and he feared that his prophetic calling had been forfeited. He suffered, in his words, “much affliction of soul.”
What was the cause of this extreme despair?
It was a combination of sadness from personal tragedy and from sin. In June of 1828, Joseph and Emma’s first child was born, a son named
At the same time, Joseph had finished translating 116 pages of manuscript from the plates. Martin Harris had acted as scribe for some of this effort and now begged Joseph to allow him take the manuscript and show it to his wife to assuage her desire to see the work and to calm her suspicion that Martin was being defrauded by Joseph. The prophet inquired of the Lord through the Urim and Thummin, and the answer from the Lord was no. Martin persisted, so Joseph renewed the request. Again, the Lord said no. A third time, Joseph went to the Lord, seeking approval. This time the Lord allowed that Joseph could choose, but with the responsibility that Joseph would be held accountable for the safety of the manuscript.
Martin Harris took the manuscript from
Over time, Joseph, still grieving the loss of his child and worried about Emma’s welfare, realized that Martin had not returned with the manuscript. Emma encouraged him to go to
When he finally came into the house, the Smiths sat him down to the much delayed breakfast. He took up his knife and fork, but immediately dropped them. He pressed his hands against his temples and exclaimed, “Oh, I have lost my soul. I have lost my soul.”
Joseph sprang to his feet and demanded to know about the manuscript. “Have you broken your oath, and brought down condemnation upon my head, as well as your own?”
Martin confirmed that he had lost the manuscript.
Joseph sobbed and groaned. All day long he paced the floor. His mother observed that the “heavens seemed clothed in blackness, and the earth shrouded with gloom.” It wasn’t until sunset that Joseph, having suffered through an all-night journey, a day and a night and a day without sleep, and intense sorrow, finally consented to eat.
Joseph’s spiritual isolation lasted for about one month. Finally, the angel returned the Urim and Thummin to Joseph, through which he received a severe but rehabilitating rebuke. That revelation is found in the Doctrine and Covenants section 3. And it is the first revelation written down by the prophet, not the first received but the first written down.
Verses 3 through 7 of section 3:
Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men;
For although a man may have many revelations, and have power to do many mighty works, yet if he boasts in his own strength, and sets at naught the counsels of God, and follows after the dictates of his own will and carnal desires, he must fall and incur the vengeance of a just God upon him.
Behold, you have been entrusted with these things, but how strict were your commandments; and remember also the promises which were made to you, if you did not transgress them.
And behold, how oft you have transgressed the commandments and the laws of God, and have gone on in the persuasions of men.
For, behold, you should not have feared man more than God.
A Joseph Smith biographer observes that with this revelation, the man we now call the prophet found his prophetic voice at the age of 22. May I add that he was then prepared to be taught the doctrine of the Atonement, the reality of sin, the hope of remission, the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The loss of the manuscript and the repentance process through which Joseph was required to pass proved to be an important turning point in the life of the prophet. He matured. He took hold of the mission the Lord had sent him to fulfill on earth. He began to understand, line upon line, some of the eternal truths that he would pass on to us. He began to know, precept by precept, of God’s plan.
God’s Punishment
Joseph Smith’s education concerning the Atonement included an explanation of what punishment for sin entails.
Doctrine and Covenants section 19, verses 4 through 12
And surely every man must repent or suffer, for I, God, am endless.
Wherefore, I revoke not the judgments which I shall pass, but woes shall go forth, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, yea, to those who are found on my left hand.
Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment.
Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my name’s glory.
Wherefore, I will explain unto you this mystery, for it is meet unto you to know even as mine apostles.
I speak unto you that are chosen in this thing, even as one, that you may enter into my rest.
For, behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is it! For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore—
Eternal punishment is God’s punishment.
Endless punishment is God’s punishment.
Thus, endless or eternal punishment, which we must suffer if we do not repent, is a matter of quality not duration. Joseph Smith could not learn this from the religious creeds of his day. Endless and eternal refer to the quality of the punishment. This is important to know because, if punishment for sin were endless in duration, then Jesus Christ could not pay for our sins in a finite period in the
Verses 15 through 19 of section 19 teach the concept of vicarious suffering and the basic concept of the Atonement:
Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.
For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.
The Lord related his lesson on the Atonement back to the anguish and sorrow Joseph and Martin felt when they lost the manuscript pages.
Doctrine and Covenants section 19, verse 20:
Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit.
What Joseph and Martin felt after they lost the manuscript pages and the Lord withdrew his Spirit was just a “taste,” “in the least degree,” of what Jesus Christ suffered in the meridian of time. Though it may be a limited duration, the suffering we must feel if we do not repent of our sins is more than we can now fathom.
Enduring to the End
Through revelation, and not through the teachings of man, Joseph Smith was educated on the Atonement in those early days before the Church was organized. But his education was not finished. As it is with all of us, there was an element of enduring to the end in Joseph Smith’s spiritual education. In 1839, he was imprisoned with five others on trumped up charges in Liberty Jail. The men were caged in a small room with an earthen floor, left to sleep on dirty straw. The food was so filthy that they did not eat it until they were finally driven to it by severe hunger. For four months Joseph and the others were jailed under these circumstances. And Joseph cried out to the Lord for relief. In response came more instruction.
Doctrine and Covenants section 122, verses 5 through 8:
If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea;
If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb;
And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
Although Joseph escaped the miseries of Liberty Jail, persecution continued until, in June 1844, he was martyred at Carthage Jail -- his mortal education on the Atonement complete. The Fall brought sin and suffering. The Atonement offers an antidote. But the choice to take the antidote is ours. As for sin, repent or suffer. One or the other. For God is endless and his words will be fulfilled. As for those sufferings that come simply from living in a telestial world, look to the Lord for relief. He descended below them all.
That we may repent and endure to the end in our own education concerning the Atonement of Jesus Christ is my prayer.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Come and See
Talk given in the Saturday evening session of Sacramento Stake conference on 17 February 2007:
Thank you, President Lemon. It is a pleasure to be with you today. I bring you the greetings and love of President and Sister Huff. President Huff is probably standing at a pulpit in the Cordova Stake right now. And since he hasn’t mastered the art of being in two places at once, you have me.
It has been a day filled with spiritual experiences. Being here has been wonderful, to hear a returned missionary and new converts to the church, to feel of their spirit, to hear of the conviction in their hearts of the truthfulness of the gospel.
I started out the day, this morning, with a funeral. One of our missionaries passed away this week. Elder Jad Harris started his mission almost three years ago, called to the Japan Nagoya Mission. He served there for almost a year before he got sick. Because of the medical attention he needed, he was sent home to Miami, Florida. His parents moved from Chile to Miami shortly before he left on his mission. And so he went home to Miami and he got better. The doctors gave him a clean bill of health, and his stake president resubmitted his papers and the brethren approved his call to come here and serve in the California Sacramento Mission.
After a few months in Sacramento, Elder Harris got sick again. He had to go home again to Miami, and actually went to BYU for a block while he got better. Again, the doctors gave him a clean bill of health, and the stake president submitted his papers. It is very unusual for the brethren to approve a missionary to go out a third time after he has had medical difficulties in the mission. But the medical reports were so clean and glowing that the brethren approved it, and he came here to the Sacramento mission again. He had been serving a few months when, a couple of weeks ago, he became ill. He was having a hard time breathing, and he was taken to the hospital. Before he went to the hospital, he wrote a letter home saying, “Mom, I wish I could find a way to extend my mission.”
Elder Harris was admitted to the hospital. The doctors never did figure out the cause of his difficulties, although they knew he had pulmonary embolisms. He passed away this week. His parents came out here and, because he did not have ties to Miami, his parents wanted him to be buried here where he served so faithfully and honorably.
In Doctrine and Covenants section 138 is the vision that President Joseph F. Smith had of the spirit world. Toward the end of that vision, in verse 57, he says: “I beheld that the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they departed from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead.”
Elder Harris’ great family came out here and testified that Elder Harris found a way to extend his calling as a missionary. And I testify to you that that is where we go after this life and that we have opportunities to serve there. It is not a passive thing; it is an active thing in the spirit world.
In Elder Harris’ coffin today, as I had a chance to see him for the last time, his scriptures were opened. They were all marked up, and there was a little bookmark sitting on his scriptures. This is the quote that the bookmark had on it. It is from a talk of Elder M. Russell Ballard last year at conference. He said: “Today I invite you to relax and set aside your concerns and focus instead on your love for the Lord, your testimony of His eternal reality, and your gratitude for all He has done for you. If you are truly motivated by love and testimony and gratitude, you will quite naturally do all that you can to assist the Lord in ‘[bringing] to pass the immortality and eternal life" (Moses 1:39) of our Father's children. In fact, it would be impossible to keep you from doing it.”
In that same talk that Elder Ballard gave, he said this about missionary work. Elder Ballard is a great man who loves the missionary work of the Church and has been fully engaged in leading that work for the Church. He said: “From every indicator we have, there is nothing more effective that any of us can do for our friends than to say “come and see” by joining with us in sacrament meeting.”
And that is what I want to talk to you about for just a few minutes -- that invitation we give others to “come and see.”
I love the first chapter of John. It talks about the beginning of Christ’s ministry here on the earth. It also talks about John the Baptist. He was preaching and baptizing in the wilderness near the river Jordan. He had disciples who were following him. John told these disciples that there would come after him one “whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose,” that there was one greater than him coming, the Son of God. We know that Jesus Christ went to John the Baptist and was baptized by John.
The very next day, Jesus was passing by. John was with two of his disciples -- John and Andrew -- and John said, “Behold the Lamb of God.” These two disciples got it. There were other disciples who didn’t get it. They didn’t understand that now was the time to follow Jesus Christ. But these two disciples understood. And so they physically began to follow Jesus Christ. He saw them following, and he turned around and asked, “What seek ye?”
Sometimes, we get asked questions and we don’t know what the answers are. In fact, we want the person asking to give us that very answer. A few years back, I was asked to meet with about 10 or 15 other bishops to meet with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Council of the Twelve. He was sent out by the Twelve to meet with bishops and find out what some of their challenges were and find out what the brethren could do to help the bishops and make them more effective and to lift some of their burden. We sat down with Elder Holland and he said, “Okay brethren, I want you to tell me about being a bishop.” All of these other bishops were very good at telling him the difficulties of being a bishop, pouring out their hearts about some of the challenges and obstacles in their calling. But I just couldn’t do it, because there I was sitting with an apostle of the Lord and I wanted him to give me the questions and the answers. I had a very hard time speaking up, even though that is what he wanted me to do. And I have a feeling that maybe John and Andrew, when Jesus turned around and said, “What seek ye?” that is probably what they wanted to know from him.
John and Andrew asked, “Rabbi, where dwellest thou?” which is simple enough. They were saying, we want to follow you. And Jesus said to them, “Come and see.” That was the beginning of the ministry of two of the great men in the New Testament.
The next day, Jesus said to Philip, “Follow me.” And Philip understood, and he went to his friend, Nathaniel, and said, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” When he said, “[the prophet] of whom Moses [taught],” Nathaniel knew Philip was referring to the Messiah. Nathaniel’s answer to him is classic, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
Have you ever had that response when you tried to share the gospel? Can any good thing come out of the Mormon Church? Are we here to prove that good things can come out of the Mormon Church? Are we here to convert people? No, we are not. We can’t do that. The Holy Ghost converts people. We can only invite. And so Philip said to Nathaniel, “Come and see.”
About 40 years ago, here in this stake, a young mother who was disappointed by a failed marriage came to Sacramento to be around her family. She knew she needed to get a job, so she started to look. She found one quickly, a good job. But then she realized she needed a babysitter for her little daughter. That was a scary thing for her because her daughter had never been watched by anyone other than family.
She didn’t know who to ask, so she looked in the newspaper for daycare. Her eyes were drawn to an ad in the classified section for “good wholesome daycare.” She recognized the address as being near to where she was living. There was a phone number, which she called. The parents were not home. It was a house full of girls, and they said, “Our parents will be home soon and you can come and meet them.” This young mother went over and met the family. She was so impressed. She found these girls to be delightful. She found Mrs. Davis to be trustworthy and kind. She decided this would be her daycare.
This was Saturday night. On Monday, the young mother brought little Kimmy over and dropped her off, and she went to work. It was a very hard thing for her, but she knew it was what she needed to do to provide. This went on for awhile; it was difficult. One day, Mrs. Davis said to the mother, “We have a program for children at the church on Tuesdays. It is called Primary. Can little Kimmy come with us?” The mother said, “That sounds like fun. Why don’t you go ahead and take her?” She didn’t even think to ask what church it was. She trusted Mrs. Davis.
Little Kimmy started going to Primary every week. And pretty soon she was coming home singing, “Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam” and, perhaps more importantly, “The golden plates lay hidden . . . .” Her mother began to wonder, what are these golden plates hidden in the mountainside? In fact, she had been very interested in archeology, so this was something that piqued her interest. She went to Mrs. Davis and said, “Kimmy has been singing these songs. Can you tell me about them?” Mrs. Davis sat her down and said, “Listen, these are very important things. These are things that our Heavenly Father wants you to know. And I have a couple of friends who I would like to send over and have explain them to you.
One evening, not too many days later, a knock came at her door and she answered it. There were two missionaries. One was a full-time missionary and one was a middle-aged stake missionary, as we used to call them back then. And I know this story because that middle-aged stake missionary was my grandfather.
He had the opportunity to go in and to start teaching the gospel to this young mother. And she quickly caught on, especially to the part about the Book of Mormon. She had the opportunity to hold it in her hands. She had the opportunity to learn about it from the missionaries. And then, she wanted to do it the same way that Joseph Smith did. She read in James 1:5: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.” She knelt down and prayed, and then she opened up the Book of Mormon and read. And the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon was opened up to her understanding.
Within just a few weeks, she was baptized a member of the Church. And when little Kimmy grew up and was eight years old, she was baptized. I know this because my father was the bishop who interviewed her for baptism. They remained faithful to the Lord. And when little Kimmy was 19 years old, she went to the temple and knelt there at the altar and was married for time and all eternity to a husband. And I know because I was the lucky fellow who knelt across from her at that altar.
“Come and see” is a powerful way for us to invite our friends, neighbors, and family members to find out for themselves the truthfulness of the gospel. When we pray to have these experiences, we will have them, but we must pray with faith and real intent. Faith I think we understand. We pray with faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. But what does it mean to pray with real intent? That means, very simply, that when we pray we intend to do whatever the Lord instructs us to do. How many times do we pray then say, “But Lord, you take care of it”? It seems easier, but it doesn’t happen that way. We need to pray with the conviction and determination that we need to go out and do what the Lord wants us to do.
I promise that, if you will pray with faith, with real intent, the Lord will give you those opportunities, and you will be an instrument in his hands. I bear you my testimony that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we are here with the responsibility to share this gospel with others, so that we can fill the kingdom of God with those who faithfully come unto him, so that we can bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of our fellow beings here on earth.
And I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Thank you, President Lemon. It is a pleasure to be with you today. I bring you the greetings and love of President and Sister Huff. President Huff is probably standing at a pulpit in the Cordova Stake right now. And since he hasn’t mastered the art of being in two places at once, you have me.
It has been a day filled with spiritual experiences. Being here has been wonderful, to hear a returned missionary and new converts to the church, to feel of their spirit, to hear of the conviction in their hearts of the truthfulness of the gospel.
I started out the day, this morning, with a funeral. One of our missionaries passed away this week. Elder Jad Harris started his mission almost three years ago, called to the Japan Nagoya Mission. He served there for almost a year before he got sick. Because of the medical attention he needed, he was sent home to Miami, Florida. His parents moved from Chile to Miami shortly before he left on his mission. And so he went home to Miami and he got better. The doctors gave him a clean bill of health, and his stake president resubmitted his papers and the brethren approved his call to come here and serve in the California Sacramento Mission.
After a few months in Sacramento, Elder Harris got sick again. He had to go home again to Miami, and actually went to BYU for a block while he got better. Again, the doctors gave him a clean bill of health, and the stake president submitted his papers. It is very unusual for the brethren to approve a missionary to go out a third time after he has had medical difficulties in the mission. But the medical reports were so clean and glowing that the brethren approved it, and he came here to the Sacramento mission again. He had been serving a few months when, a couple of weeks ago, he became ill. He was having a hard time breathing, and he was taken to the hospital. Before he went to the hospital, he wrote a letter home saying, “Mom, I wish I could find a way to extend my mission.”
Elder Harris was admitted to the hospital. The doctors never did figure out the cause of his difficulties, although they knew he had pulmonary embolisms. He passed away this week. His parents came out here and, because he did not have ties to Miami, his parents wanted him to be buried here where he served so faithfully and honorably.
In Doctrine and Covenants section 138 is the vision that President Joseph F. Smith had of the spirit world. Toward the end of that vision, in verse 57, he says: “I beheld that the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they departed from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead.”
Elder Harris’ great family came out here and testified that Elder Harris found a way to extend his calling as a missionary. And I testify to you that that is where we go after this life and that we have opportunities to serve there. It is not a passive thing; it is an active thing in the spirit world.
In Elder Harris’ coffin today, as I had a chance to see him for the last time, his scriptures were opened. They were all marked up, and there was a little bookmark sitting on his scriptures. This is the quote that the bookmark had on it. It is from a talk of Elder M. Russell Ballard last year at conference. He said: “Today I invite you to relax and set aside your concerns and focus instead on your love for the Lord, your testimony of His eternal reality, and your gratitude for all He has done for you. If you are truly motivated by love and testimony and gratitude, you will quite naturally do all that you can to assist the Lord in ‘[bringing] to pass the immortality and eternal life" (Moses 1:39) of our Father's children. In fact, it would be impossible to keep you from doing it.”
In that same talk that Elder Ballard gave, he said this about missionary work. Elder Ballard is a great man who loves the missionary work of the Church and has been fully engaged in leading that work for the Church. He said: “From every indicator we have, there is nothing more effective that any of us can do for our friends than to say “come and see” by joining with us in sacrament meeting.”
And that is what I want to talk to you about for just a few minutes -- that invitation we give others to “come and see.”
I love the first chapter of John. It talks about the beginning of Christ’s ministry here on the earth. It also talks about John the Baptist. He was preaching and baptizing in the wilderness near the river Jordan. He had disciples who were following him. John told these disciples that there would come after him one “whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose,” that there was one greater than him coming, the Son of God. We know that Jesus Christ went to John the Baptist and was baptized by John.
The very next day, Jesus was passing by. John was with two of his disciples -- John and Andrew -- and John said, “Behold the Lamb of God.” These two disciples got it. There were other disciples who didn’t get it. They didn’t understand that now was the time to follow Jesus Christ. But these two disciples understood. And so they physically began to follow Jesus Christ. He saw them following, and he turned around and asked, “What seek ye?”
Sometimes, we get asked questions and we don’t know what the answers are. In fact, we want the person asking to give us that very answer. A few years back, I was asked to meet with about 10 or 15 other bishops to meet with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Council of the Twelve. He was sent out by the Twelve to meet with bishops and find out what some of their challenges were and find out what the brethren could do to help the bishops and make them more effective and to lift some of their burden. We sat down with Elder Holland and he said, “Okay brethren, I want you to tell me about being a bishop.” All of these other bishops were very good at telling him the difficulties of being a bishop, pouring out their hearts about some of the challenges and obstacles in their calling. But I just couldn’t do it, because there I was sitting with an apostle of the Lord and I wanted him to give me the questions and the answers. I had a very hard time speaking up, even though that is what he wanted me to do. And I have a feeling that maybe John and Andrew, when Jesus turned around and said, “What seek ye?” that is probably what they wanted to know from him.
John and Andrew asked, “Rabbi, where dwellest thou?” which is simple enough. They were saying, we want to follow you. And Jesus said to them, “Come and see.” That was the beginning of the ministry of two of the great men in the New Testament.
The next day, Jesus said to Philip, “Follow me.” And Philip understood, and he went to his friend, Nathaniel, and said, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” When he said, “[the prophet] of whom Moses [taught],” Nathaniel knew Philip was referring to the Messiah. Nathaniel’s answer to him is classic, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
Have you ever had that response when you tried to share the gospel? Can any good thing come out of the Mormon Church? Are we here to prove that good things can come out of the Mormon Church? Are we here to convert people? No, we are not. We can’t do that. The Holy Ghost converts people. We can only invite. And so Philip said to Nathaniel, “Come and see.”
About 40 years ago, here in this stake, a young mother who was disappointed by a failed marriage came to Sacramento to be around her family. She knew she needed to get a job, so she started to look. She found one quickly, a good job. But then she realized she needed a babysitter for her little daughter. That was a scary thing for her because her daughter had never been watched by anyone other than family.
She didn’t know who to ask, so she looked in the newspaper for daycare. Her eyes were drawn to an ad in the classified section for “good wholesome daycare.” She recognized the address as being near to where she was living. There was a phone number, which she called. The parents were not home. It was a house full of girls, and they said, “Our parents will be home soon and you can come and meet them.” This young mother went over and met the family. She was so impressed. She found these girls to be delightful. She found Mrs. Davis to be trustworthy and kind. She decided this would be her daycare.
This was Saturday night. On Monday, the young mother brought little Kimmy over and dropped her off, and she went to work. It was a very hard thing for her, but she knew it was what she needed to do to provide. This went on for awhile; it was difficult. One day, Mrs. Davis said to the mother, “We have a program for children at the church on Tuesdays. It is called Primary. Can little Kimmy come with us?” The mother said, “That sounds like fun. Why don’t you go ahead and take her?” She didn’t even think to ask what church it was. She trusted Mrs. Davis.
Little Kimmy started going to Primary every week. And pretty soon she was coming home singing, “Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam” and, perhaps more importantly, “The golden plates lay hidden . . . .” Her mother began to wonder, what are these golden plates hidden in the mountainside? In fact, she had been very interested in archeology, so this was something that piqued her interest. She went to Mrs. Davis and said, “Kimmy has been singing these songs. Can you tell me about them?” Mrs. Davis sat her down and said, “Listen, these are very important things. These are things that our Heavenly Father wants you to know. And I have a couple of friends who I would like to send over and have explain them to you.
One evening, not too many days later, a knock came at her door and she answered it. There were two missionaries. One was a full-time missionary and one was a middle-aged stake missionary, as we used to call them back then. And I know this story because that middle-aged stake missionary was my grandfather.
He had the opportunity to go in and to start teaching the gospel to this young mother. And she quickly caught on, especially to the part about the Book of Mormon. She had the opportunity to hold it in her hands. She had the opportunity to learn about it from the missionaries. And then, she wanted to do it the same way that Joseph Smith did. She read in James 1:5: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.” She knelt down and prayed, and then she opened up the Book of Mormon and read. And the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon was opened up to her understanding.
Within just a few weeks, she was baptized a member of the Church. And when little Kimmy grew up and was eight years old, she was baptized. I know this because my father was the bishop who interviewed her for baptism. They remained faithful to the Lord. And when little Kimmy was 19 years old, she went to the temple and knelt there at the altar and was married for time and all eternity to a husband. And I know because I was the lucky fellow who knelt across from her at that altar.
“Come and see” is a powerful way for us to invite our friends, neighbors, and family members to find out for themselves the truthfulness of the gospel. When we pray to have these experiences, we will have them, but we must pray with faith and real intent. Faith I think we understand. We pray with faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. But what does it mean to pray with real intent? That means, very simply, that when we pray we intend to do whatever the Lord instructs us to do. How many times do we pray then say, “But Lord, you take care of it”? It seems easier, but it doesn’t happen that way. We need to pray with the conviction and determination that we need to go out and do what the Lord wants us to do.
I promise that, if you will pray with faith, with real intent, the Lord will give you those opportunities, and you will be an instrument in his hands. I bear you my testimony that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we are here with the responsibility to share this gospel with others, so that we can fill the kingdom of God with those who faithfully come unto him, so that we can bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of our fellow beings here on earth.
And I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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