Talk given at stake conference, 13 October 2024

Doctrine and Covenants, section 89, promises that those who keep the Word of Wisdom and walk in obedience to the commandments "shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures."  (D&C 89:18-19)

You are all trying to walk in obedience to the commandments.  What hidden treasures have you found?  If you will think about it, you who have spent your lifetimes being disciples of Jesus Christ will realize that you have found dozens of hidden treasures of knowledge.  These are hidden treasures that are available to everyone, but are only found through faithfully keeping the commandments and through seeking those treasures.

In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus gave us dozens of commandments, every one of which will yield a treasure, if followed.  In my Book of Mormon, I put a one-word description beside each of the admonitions that He gave in the Sermon on the Mount.  I found 37, and every one conceals a treasure.

I'll give you some examples:

The Savior told us to be kind, and to treat others as we would like to be treated.

Many years ago I visited an early-morning seminary class.  I got there early.  A young man also arrived early, and slouched down in the first desk of a row.  A minute later a young woman arrived, stopped at that row, and asked the young man if she could get by.  He growled, "Crawl over, or go around!"

I was amazed.  Why would anyone be that rude?  Contrast that with this:

I shortly thereafter went to general conference and was standing in line waiting to be admitted to the Tabernacle.  I was visiting with a man who was a stake president in Idaho.  He told me a story.

His son was a student at Brigham Young University.  He was seated in the Sunday School class waiting for it to begin.  The room was full.  A young woman entered.  Being the gentleman that he was, he rose, offered her his seat, and spent the class time standing at the back of the room.

The girl asked who that young man was, and let it be known that she would welcome a date with him.

The girl was none other than the then-reigning Miss America, Sharlene Wells.  When the young man was told that she would welcome a date with him, he thought, "What the heck?  I'll never again get a chance to date Miss America."

The end result was that they got married.

The rest of the story is that Sharlene Wells spent three years in Argentina while her father served as a mission president.  She saw hundreds of young missionaries circulate through the mission home, and observed that the best ones were farm boys from Idaho.  She made up her mind that she was going to marry a returned missionary farm boy from Idaho.

When that young man asked Sharlene for a date his prospects were greatly improved because he was a returned missionary farm boy from Idaho.

Because of his automatic act of kindness, Sharlene got what she wanted, and he got to marry Miss America.  The rewards for being kind are always huge.

The Savior also taught that we aren't to be judgmental.

My mother went to a car dealership to buy a new pickup.  She had the cash in her purse to pay for it.  She stood for some time in the showroom waiting for a salesman to wait on her.  They couldn't see her.  She was just a nondescript old woman, and not worth their time.  She walked out, went to another dealership, and bought her pickup.  It pays to not be judgmental.

Contrast that story with the young sales clerk in a big department store in Pennsylvania who observed another old woman walking aimlessly up and down the aisles of merchandise.  When he asked if he could help her, she replied, "No, I'm just biding my time until the rain stops so that I can go home."

"Very well," he said, "then may I bring you a chair to sit in while you wait?"

Without waiting for an answer he brought her a chair.  When the rain stopped, he escorted her to the door.  She asked for his card.

Some time later the store manager received a request that that young man be sent to Scotland to take an order to furnish a castle.  The manager responded that the young man didn't work in the furnishings department, but that he would send a more knowledgeable salesman.

He got an immediate response.  The store would either send that young man, or no one at all.  The castle that was to be furnished belonged to Andrew Carnegie, and the old woman was his mother.  That trip to Scotland began that young man's meteoric rise in the company.

It always pays to be kind, to be non-judgmental, and to practice Jesus' teachings throughout your life.  This is where joy is to be found:  In the gospel of Jesus Christ is where joy is to be found.

The Savior taught us to go the extra mile.  At the time He gave that commandment, the Jews were ruled by Rome.  The law was that a Roman soldier could compel a Jewish citizen to carry his gear for a mile.  During that mile, the soldier was in charge.  But during the second mile, the citizen was in charge because he was doing it willingly.  He was doing more than was required.

That's what the Savior asks us to do:  Do more than what's required.

My son befriended an old man.  At the old man's funeral, he learned something about his friend that he hadn't known.  The man had applied for a job.  At the job interview he was asked what he could do.  He replied, "I can either be the best custodian you've ever had, or the best manager."

He was hired as a custodian.  That job only lasted two weeks, because he was notified that he was being promoted to manager, a job he held for the rest of his life.

I was in the navy on a dry-docked ship in Japan.  We ate all of our meals at the base mess hall.  My ship had to provide one man per month to work in the mess hall.  That's not desirable duty.

My turn came.  The mess hall was filthy, and my work mates were worse.  At break times they sat around a table smoking, swearing, and being disgusting.  Rather than join them, during our break times, I cleaned that mess hall.  I cleaned the accumulated grease from behind the stoves where it had never before been cleaned.  By the time my month was up, I had that mess hall shining.

A big, black man was in charge of the mess hall.

"Where you from boy?" he asked.

"Oregon."

"You must have good folks.  Why don't you become a cook?"

"Thanks, but I'm happy with my regular assignment."

I returned to my ship.  Early one morning a few days later a notice went out for "all hands on deck."  We stood at attention in ranks as the captain announced, "From time to time we are asked to send men for duty on shore.  It brings great honor to the U.S.S. Banner when word comes back about the great service that our men render.  We have received a letter of commendation for the work done by Petty Officer 3rd Class James E. Kerns in the base mess hall.  Would he please come forward so that I can present it to him?"

I was both honored and embarrassed.  Who else has ever received a letter of commendation for service in a mess hall?

Men are that they might have joy.  (2 Nephi 2:23).  That's the whole purpose of the Lord's great plan of happiness.  Joy is the stratospheric level above happiness.  That's what the Lord wants us to have.

I maintain that true joy can only be found in two places.  One is in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The other is in joy in one's posterity, but that's another talk.

If you want to experience joy you must strive to be a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ.  Joy then becomes a guarantee.

Jesus said that we are to be a light to the world.  Beside that verse in my scriptures, I wrote, "A disciple of Christ is a good example."

When I first went aboard that ship in Japan, I was met at the top of the gangplank by the sailor on duty.  The greeting he gave me was, "Are you the Mormon?"

I was handed off to another sailor who asked, "Are you the guy from Oregon who doesn't drink?"

The first four men that I met had similar greetings.  I decided later that my medical record must have preceded me to the ship, and that the medic on board had put out the word that a "Mormon" was coming.

A man immediately befriended me, and told me that he would take me to Yokohama "to see the sights" on my first day off.  Being new, and needing friends, I said, "Sure."

Three days later we were on the bullet train, and headed to Yokohama.  He took me straight to the bar district.  I saw things that I didn't want to see, and I refused to enter any bar.  We wandered around for a while, and then he took me back to the ship.  He never offered to be my friend again, which was just fine with me.

One year later, as I was going down the gangplank for the last time, on my way home to be married, a man named Armstrong came up to me and put out his hand.  He said, "Kerns, I want to thank you!"

"What for?"

"When you came aboard the ship, there was a bet that you could be taken to Yokohama and brought back drunk.  I won the bet!"

After all this time, I wish that I'd had the presence of mind to ask what he won.  It was apparently a general bet involving a lot of people.  He must have won big because he was very happy.  But I wasn't the one that he should have been thanking.  He should have been thanking the other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that he had previously known.  They set an example, so he knew that he would be safe making the bet if the Mormon coming aboard was a good member, too.

President Ezra Taft Benson and Jeffrey R. Holland, then president of BYU, went to Jerusalem in 1988 to negotiate for permission to build the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.  A lease was granted on the condition that the Church would not proselyte in Israel.  After the lease was signed, the mayor of Jerusalem, who had been around BYU students who were studying in Israel, said, "Oh, we know that you are not going to proselyte, but what are you going to do about the light that is in their eyes?"

Disciples of Christ, who are living the gospel, truly do have a light about them.

Jesus taught, "Seek and ye shall find ... "  I think that the rest of that sentence should be "Seek and ye shall find hidden treasures."

My good friend, Don Baxter, of the Union Ward, landed his dream job following his graduation from high school.  His job was with the U.S. Forest Service manning the lookout on top of Mule Peak in the Wallowa Mountains.  He had a 50-mile panoramic view in every direction.  He was on top of the world.  All he had to do was to watch for, and to report, smoke that he saw in the forests below him.  He was going to be all alone, with no one to talk to, and with nothing else to do.  It was going to be boring.  He filled his backpack with books.  He read them all until he was down to the last book.  He hadn't wanted to read it, but it was the last one, so he picked it up and began.  Reading that book changed the rest of his life.  There are dozens of people present here today who owe their very existence to the fact that Don read the Book of Mormon, and obtained a testimony of its truthfulness and value.  He found a great hidden treasure of knowledge.

I hope that none of you have such an unopened treasure at your house.

The rest of the story is that Don's and Joyce's kids sent them on a trip back to Denmark in 2000.  At church in Denmark a man stopped them in the hallway and told them not to move until he returned.  He came back with a large group of people.  He told them:  "I want you to know that this is the man who is responsible for all of our memberships in the Church!"

There were tears all around.  One of the three people that Don and his companion baptized on their mission had been a young girl.  She, in turn, taught her friend, who was also baptized.  The man who introduced his family to Don had married that second girl.

The ripples from Don's mission are still spreading.  Many in that group served missions.  How many lives have been changed because of Don's experience with the Book of Mormon on top of Mule Peak?

Don planted the seed.  Joyce says that meeting that group in Denmark "is when the bloom happened."  She's wrong.  The bloom is just starting.  More and more flowers are continuing to open, and they're already countless, all because of the treasure that Don found on top of Mule Peak.

Chance is my grandson.  When he was small, his father purchased an old safe at an auction for $10.  It was apparently empty.  Many hours were spent by several people trying to discover its combination, but to no avail.  The safe sat in the shop for years.  Chance became a teenager.  He became intrigued with the old safe.  As he studied it, he decided that he could open the safe by attacking its hinges.  With the aid of punches and a grinder, he was successful.  Inside that empty safe that couldn't be opened he found one thousand five-dollar bills.  $5,000.  It was impossible to know who had put that money there, so it all belonged to Chance, except for $10 which his dad demanded as reimbursement for the purchase price.  That hidden treasure made a really nice addition to Chance's missionary savings account.

Chance experienced a surge of euphoria when he discovered the money, but that feeling is gone now.  I doubt that he even thinks much about that experience any more.  The hidden treasure that Don Baxter discovered, though, is something he rejoiced in for the rest of his life.  He kept going back to his treasure every day, and his feelings of joy were augmented every time.

Don't let that hidden treasure sit around your house unopened.

A disciple of Jesus Christ is kind.

A disciple of Jesus Christ is not judgmental.

A disciple of Jesus Christ goes the extra mile.

A disciple of Jesus Christ is a good example.

A disciple of Jesus Christ is a student of the scriptures.

A disciple of Jesus Christ is, also, prompt.

We have a 93-year-old friend who, as a girl, lived a couple of miles above Homestead, on the Snake River.  As a 6-year-old girl she and her two older brothers were playing in the little creek that was in the gulch above their house.  She went back to the house for something.  Her father came in and asked, "Where are the boys?"

"They're playing in the creek up the gulch."

"Tell them to get back to the house, now!"

(This talk is about finding joy, and appropriately, that's the name of that little girl).  Joy ran back up the gulch and told her brothers that dad said to get home right now, "and he sounds mad."

If those had been my boys, they would have said, "In a minute."  But to those kids' credit, they immediately ran home.  It's important to learn to be immediately obedient.  Two minutes later a flash flood came roaring down that canyon.  Their father had seen the clouds, and knew they were capable of causing just such an event.  There was a 3-foot-wide culvert in the road below their house.  The culvert couldn't handle that flush of water.  It washed the road out on both sides of the culvert, leaving it high and dry.

One night my boys invented a new game.  One would lie down on his back at the far side of the living room, and raise his feet into the air.  Another boy would sit down on his uplifted feet, and the boy on the floor would launch his brother into the air.  Flying across the living room was great fun, but dad spoiled it by saying, "Stop that.  Someone is going to get hurt."

"Just one more time," one of the boys said.  Danny was launched into the air.  He landed with a loud  "snap."

"Did you just break something?" he was asked.

"No, if I had, I'd be crying."  He then went to the couch, laid down, and began crying.

It pays to be immediately obedient.  The very best example in the scriptures of being immediately obedient, was Joseph, the husband of Mary.  Every time the angel told him to do something, he did it immediately.

In the night the angel said to Joseph, "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife ... Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him ..."  (Matthew 1:19-25).

After the wise men departed, the angel said to Joseph, "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt ... for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him ... (and) he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt."  (Matthew 2:13-14).  He didn't say, "In a minute."  He didn't even wait for morning.  He just packed up and left.  No wonder Joseph was chosen to be the guardian of the baby.  What better man could have been chosen?

If we want to be chosen, we must learn to be promptly obedient.  Those who are habitually late for their meetings are not only being rude, but are going to miss out on hidden treasures that the Lord would like them to have.

I would like to suggest the adoption of a motto for living one's life:

If not me, who?

If not now, when?

Now, and always, is the time to be kind, to be non-judgmental, to go the extra mile, to be a good example, to be studying the scriptures, and to be prompt.  Now is the time to become a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ.  By doing those things that Jesus has asked us to do, we will not only find great treasures of hidden knowledge, but also unimaginable joy.