Fire is an interesting study.  Oxidation, combustion, and explosions are all the same process.  All three are simply oxygen uniting with another substance, but at different rates.  The result is that new substances are produced by the union of oxygen with the original substance.

For example, oxygen uniting with iron produces rust.  This is oxidation taking place slowly.  Little heat, and no light, are produced.  Rags soaked in oil or paint, and thrown into a corner, can oxidize.  When enough heat accumulates, spontaneous combustion can occur.

Combustion can't happen until kindling temperature is reached.  A match held against a big log will not ignite the log because there is not enough oxygen available for the log to reach kindling temperature.  A match held against a twig from the same tree, however, can readily cause combustion of the twig because the ratio of oxygen to the burnable substance is higher.  Heat and light are produced as the oxygen and wood are changed into ashes and gases that are the elemental materials of the wood.

Oxygen uniting with gasoline or gunpowder causes an explosion.  This is combustion taking place so rapidly that the gasoline or gunpowder is changed so quickly into gases that they require many hundreds of times the volume of space that the gasoline or gunpowder used to occupy.

The feelings associated with conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ are often compared to a burning in the bosom.  Enthusiastic and hard-working converts and members are frequently said to be “on fire.”  The Holy Ghost is the oxygen that unites with the inquiring soul as a new creature is produced.  That person is said to be born again.

The rate of conversion, like combustion, depends upon the substance being ignited.  Some people oxidize slowly.  Others burst into flame.  Still others are fireproof, and are seemingly immune to the influence of the Holy Ghost.

I have tried and tried to teach the principles of the gospel to several men to whom I am very close.  They are good men.  They listen closely to what I say, but for whatever reason, I have never been able to light the fires in their souls that I had hoped to ignite.  They are my father and my brothers.  They are made of the same materials as I am, so I don't comprehend the difference.

When I first opened the Book of Mormon and began reading, I felt the burning.  I didn't know what it was, but I wanted more.  Reading that book was all that I wanted to do.  I couldn't get enough of that feeling.  I was on fire, and was becoming a new person.  The old, sinful me was being changed into a new creature.  Light came pouring into my head.  I could feel it.  I imagined that I could even see it.  The light entered at the front of my mind and pushed the darkness back until it exited completely.  Heat and light and the Holy Ghost were all present as the old me was consumed and made into something new.

The transformation was huge, dramatic, and permanent.  I never looked back, and have never lost the enthusiasm and the gratitude that I felt then.  I wish everyone could experience the same combustion that consumed me, but we all have different kindling temperatures.  Perhaps I ignited as I did because my fuel was so dry and ragged.  I was as emotionally low and spiritually ignorant as anyone could possibly be.  When the spark that was the Book of Mormon fell into my dry grass, the breeze that was the Holy Ghost fanned the flames into a spiritual bonfire.

Perhaps other people aren't as low as I was, and don't have such big transformations to make as they become refined in the fire and become what the Lord intends them to become.  Perhaps they don't need to become a flame.  Perhaps they're made of materials that are meant to slowly oxidize.  Thankfully I wasn't one who became fireproofed through grievous sins that made it difficult for the little match to light the big log.  Big logs can only be set afire by being put into close proximity to other logs that are already burning.

So how does this apply to missionary work?

To light a fire, four things are needed:  some tinder, a spark, lots of oxygen, and fuel.  We also need the desire to light a fire in the first place.

If I had the desire to light a fire in my friend, I'd give him a Book of Mormon.  That's the tinder.  I'd throw the spark of my testimony into the tinder.  In that moment he'd feel something.  That would be the Holy Ghost supplying oxygen to the spark and the tinder.  If he doesn't blow out the spark, but actually opens the book and begins to read, the fire has a chance to start.  If my friend is a big, hard-to-start log, he will need to be nestled in among other logs that are already on fire.  He needs to be invited to church, to dinner, and to church activities where he can be warmed by others.

Throwing more tinder into the flames won't hurt, either.  When I was halfway through the Book of Mormon I was given a copy of Joseph Smith's testimony.  For me, that was like throwing gasoline on the fire.  I then knew that it was all true.  I began preparing for baptism in earnest.

The fire has never gone out.  I keep feeding it.  That's the other necessary ingredient if we want to keep the fire burning.  The fire needs to be fed daily.  Scripture study, fasting, prayer, the weekly taking of the sacrament, studying the talks from general conference, active service in the kingdom and in the community, and the bearing of testimony will keep the fire burning brightly.

Such fires can't be hidden.

My friend, Bobbie Larkin, told me an applicable story just last week.  He said that he had gone to Pilot Rock to visit his “auntie.”  He was a recent convert to the Church, and wanted to be able to attend church while there.  His aunt didn't know where, or if, there was a meetinghouse.

They went to Wal-Mart in Pendleton.  He told his aunt that he was going to find a member of the Church who could tell him where the meetinghouse was.

“How are you going to know who's a member of your church?” she asked.

“Oh, you can just tell,” he said.

In the parking lot as they got out of their car, Bobbie saw a woman far ahead entering the store with a little boy.  It was my daughter-in-law, Tia, with her son, Seth.  Bobbie didn't know the woman, but he said to himself, “That's a member of the Church.”

As Bobbie and his aunt went through the store, Bobbie saw two, separate men who might have been members, but wasn't able to approach them.  At the checkout, however, he found himself with Tia.

“Excuse me,” he said, “but are you a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?”

“Why, yes I am!”

“Can you tell me if there's a meetinghouse in Pilot Rock?”

“I sure can.  It's right across the street from my house,” Tia answered.

Over the years, where the gospel is concerned, I have tried to be an arsonist, going around attempting to light fires.  I suppose that I've given away hundreds of Books of Mormon.  I've found excuses to take the missionaries to most of my friends and acquaintances.  One couple told us a most interesting story.

Their names were Jack and Doris.  Jack was an official with the Oregon Wheat League, and frequently had meetings that needed to be attended out-of-town.  Doris accompanied him, and used his meeting times to indulge in what she called “her hobby.”  She would seat herself in the lobby of the hotel where they were staying, and watch people.  Her “hobby” was to identify Mormons.  When she spotted a candidate, she'd approach the person and say, “Excuse me, but don't I know you?”

The person would say, “I don't believe so.”

“Well, maybe from church,” she'd say, and then the person would respond, “Well, that might be,” and would reveal his or her church affiliation.

“I was rarely wrong,” Doris said proudly.

In the April 2022 general conference, Elder Michael T. Ringwood told this story:

“The Old Testament is packed with miracles and tender mercies that are the hallmark of Heavenly Father’s plan. In 2 Kings 4, the phrase 'it fell on a day' is used three times to emphasize to me that important events happen according to God’s timing and no detail is too small for Him.

     “My new friend Paul testifies of this truth. Paul grew up in a home that was sometimes abusive and always intolerant of religion. While attending school on a military base in Germany, he noticed two sisters who seemed to have a spiritual light. Asking why they were different brought the answer that they belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

     “Soon Paul began meeting with missionaries and was invited to church. The next Sunday, as he got off the bus, he noticed two men dressed in white shirts and ties. He asked them if they were elders of the Church. They answered yes, so Paul followed them.

     “During the service, a preacher pointed to people in the congregation and invited them to testify. At the end of each testimony, a drummer gave a drum salute and the congregation called out, “Amen.”

     “When the preacher pointed to Paul, he stood up and said, 'I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true.' There was no drum salute or amens. Paul eventually realized he had gone to the wrong church. Soon, Paul found his way to the right place and was baptized.

     “On the day of Paul’s baptism, a member he didn’t know told him, 'You saved my life.'  A few weeks earlier, this man had decided to look for another church and attended a service with drums and amens. When the man heard Paul bear his testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, he realized that God knew him, recognized his struggles, and had a plan for him. For both Paul and the man, 'it fell on a day,' indeed!

     “We too know that Heavenly Father has a personal plan of happiness for each of us. Because God sent His Beloved Son for us, the miracles we need will '[fall] on [the very] day' necessary for His plan to be fulfilled.”  (Liahona. May 2022, 89-90).

The Lord does, indeed, have a plan for each of us.  In His timing the fire will be lit that will result in the conversion and salvation of every one of His children.  That time might not come until one's eyes are opened wider in the world beyond the veil.  We'd like it to happen before then, but that's why we do family history and temple work.  Whether in this life or the next, every person that we've tried to help will eventually be grateful for our efforts.  President Wilford Woodruff said that, “There will be few if any who will not receive the ordinances of the temple when they are performed for them.”  (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, ed. G. Homer Durham, p. 158).

In the last general conference President Dallin H. Oaks told us that “The revealed doctrine of the restored Church of Jesus Christ teaches that all the children of God—with exceptions too limited to consider here—will finally wind up in a kingdom of glory.”  (Liahona, May 2022, 101).

This work is true.  There is no more important thing we can do than to spread the word.  It is critically important that we daily keep our own fires fed.  No one else can do it.  Then we each need to become fire starters.  This message is destined to eventually fill the world, and we need to be a part of the effort.