The Lord has said, “I will hasten my work in its time.”  (D&C 88:73).

My own 89-year-old non-member cousin has observed that “the clock is in high gear.”  And, boy, is it ever.  It's interesting that even he can see it.

Time is valuable.  Time is a gift.  Time is a limited commodity.  Time is rapidly passing.  Time for each of us is going to run out.  Are we using our time wisely?

When I began doing family history work in the 1970s I got up early every morning with a goal that I was to accomplish before I could go to work.  I had to write five letters requesting family information and birth, death, and marriage certificates.  With many of the requests I had to enclose a check for ten dollars to pay for the certificates.

Just look at how things have sped up.  I now go to my computer and all of that information and much more is immediately available to me for free.

In the 1970s it took weeks to get my grandparents' vital statistics in order and properly documented before I could submit their names to the temple department for approval to do their temple ordinances.  After submitting my request I had to wait some more weeks for approval to be granted so that I could go to the temple and do the work.

Now I sit down at my computer and in a few minutes' time I can get the vital statistics of multiple people all straightened out and approved, and could take all of their names to the temple that very day if I wanted to do so.

Do you know why the computer was invented?  It was to enable us to do family history.  The adversary has adopted the computer to his own uses, but family history is still its  the top use.

Are you using it?  It's easy, and hugely rewarding.  Are you in diversion and using your valuable time for less important things?

There were just 13 temples in the world when I joined the Church in 1967.  Suddenly there are 265 operating or announced.  I can't figure out how all of this has happened.  Family history and temple work have sped up dramatically.

As a temple ordinance worker I kept track for a while, and discovered that over 80% of the work being done in the Meridian Temple was for names being brought by the patrons to be done for their own families.  That's heart-warming.  People are listening.  People are working.  It made it hard for me, though.  Patrons at the temple take precedence over temple workers, and I could rarely do work for my own names.  Now that we're no longer ordinance workers we've discovered that we can make appointments to do an endowment, and then go upstairs and ask if we can do sealings.  One Friday in January we completed 40 ordinances!  The next Friday we did 44!

In 1967 the missionaries spent their days going door to door looking for just one person they could teach.  Fifty-five years ago this very month (January 1967) I turned the tables, and knocked on their door, and invited them to come teach me.  I was extremely eager to talk about the Book of Mormon which I had just finished.

Their memorized flannel board discussions never did get around to talking about the Book of Mormon.  I didn't learn one thing from those discussions, but they qualified me to be baptized.

The prophecy is that the day is coming when missionaries will no longer go door to door.  Missionaries' time will all be spent in teaching.  Those memorized flannel board discussions have evolved into teaching by the Spirit.  Technology is enabling the missionaries to connect with interested people all over the world.

As the world plunges ever deeper into chaos and confusion, right-minded people the world over will take more and more notice of the peace, safety, light, stability, and confidence that surrounds the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in the last general conference that “Christians who are not among our membership will welcome our role and our sure witness of Christ.  Even those Christians who have viewed us with skepticism will embrace us as friends.”  It will be because we are “a shining light on the hill as the somber shades of disbelief in Jesus Christ darken the world.”  (Liahona November 201, 117).

People will literally line up to be taught.

My grandson is currently serving in Monrovia, Liberia in Africa.  He and his companion were expecting seven investigators to show up for sacrament meeting.  Instead of seven showing up, there were 21!  How in the world could two missionaries be expected to give individual attention to 21 people?

That's where members come in.

In Vanuatu, the South Seas island nation where we served our mission a few years ago, I got a call one night from Elder Ross.  Elder Ross was a farm boy from the tri-cities area in Washington.  “Elder Kerns, we're up at Narango village and can't get back home.  A truck is stuck in the road and we can't get around it.  Do you suppose you could come get us?”

I answered that I had no idea where Narango village was, and that if I was to go driving around in the bush in the dark I'd be lost in no time.  I told Elder Ross that they'd just have to spend the night in their pickup.  My wife laid awake all night worrying about those two stranded missionaries,   but I didn't.  Elder Ross was a hardy farm boy, and his companion was an island boy, so they'd be fine.

I later asked Elder Ross how they had come to be at Narango.  He said that they'd “gone exploring.”  They drove up the mountain and found two villages, Narango and Jarisland.  They came away with appointments to teach 14 families.  When they returned they found that the number had grown to 30.  They taught a group discussion on the Plan of Salvation to the newcomers.  The people were highly pleased.  The missionaries had the people repeat back what they'd learned, and they were able to do it.

After that the missionaries just sat in one place and taught the original 14 families one by one.

“How did this come about?” I asked Elder Ross.

He told me that it was because of a legend in the area that had its origin in the 1940s.  A chief from a neighboring area had told the people that the Christian churches that were coming to the islands were good, but that the true Church would come from America.  It would come later.  The people would be able to recognize it because it would be brought by two men in white shirts and ties, and the men would bring a new book.

Narango and Jarisland became one of my favorite places to go.  If you've ever driven your four-wheel-drive vehicle up Rock Creek or up the north fork of the Powder River, you'll know what the road to these villages is like.  You very slowly pick and choose your way between, around, and over large rocks.

       That was what the road to Narango was like.  Some of my very favorite people lived up there.  Dack lived there.  We outfitted him and sent that island boy on his mission to Paris, France where he became a district leader.  His cousin, Greg, went to Brisbane, Australia, and is currently the first-ever student from Vanuatu to attend Brigham Young University-Hawaii.

Dack and Greg and the 30 other young adults that we sent off on missions are the hope and the future of the Church in Vanuatu.  They come back from their missions knowledgeable and articulate.  They know how to teach and to lead.  They know how to manage money, which they'd never had before.  They have learned how the Church works, and they're immediately called to lead.  Vanuatu got its first stake the month after we left to go home, and all of the new stake and ward leaders were returned missionaries.

Elder Ross and his companion baptized people from Narango and Jairisland every Saturday.  Once they baptized 24 in one day.  One was the chief of Jairisland Village.  He spoke no English, but he and I became fast friends.  I saved his life.

Every few months the chief on the island of Pentecost came to our island and begged for the Church to send missionaries to his island.  He said, “I have 5,000 people ready for them to teach.”  Each time he made the request we reported it to the mission president.  The president's answer was always the same:  “Not yet.  Maybe in 25 years.  We can't spread ourselves that thin.  We have to build up centers of strength first.”

I felt badly about that, but he was right.  We had plenty to do, and plenty of problems to overcome as we tried to mold these new members into viable and functioning branches.

But that's how the Church is growing.  People in third world areas are hungry for the gospel and for the prosperity and direction that the gospel brings.  As the developed western nations descend further into chaos, even those prideful and self-sufficient Westerners will increasingly open their eyes to the need for a relationship with and understanding of the Savior and His plan.

We are here in our promised land with time, technology, and comforts that our ancestors and people in these other areas never had.  Are we using our time and resources to accomplish what we were sent here to do, or are we in diversion?

President Nelson plead with us four times in his short closing address at the last conference to do something.  We were all waiting to see where he'd announce the construction of new temples, and we largely missed what he was pleading for us to do.  He said, “I plead with you today to counter the lure of the world by making time for the Lord in your life—each and every day.”

“My brothers and sisters, I plead with you to make time for the Lord.”

“Please make time for the Lord in His holy house.”

“He will lead and guide you in your personal life if you will make time for Him in your life—each and every day.”

How are you going to do it?  The prophet is asking for—pleading for—some changes in our lives so that the Holy Ghost can speak to us individually.

Thirty minutes before President Nelson's pleadings we heard this from Elder Meredith:  “The devil is the great distractor.”

“As the saying goes, 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,' or at least to waste their time on things that will distract them from their lofty purposes and goals.”

Elder Meredith points out that even “some things that are healthy diversions in moderation can become unhealthy distractions without discipline.  The adversary understands that distractions do not have to be bad or immoral to be effective.”  (Alvin F. Meredith III, Liahona, November 2021, 115).

Are you distracted?  Am I distracted?  Am I using my time wisely?  How could I use certain blocks of my time better?

We live in a day of technology that has provided us with a great variety of toys.  Some of them can be quite expensive.  There is probably nothing inherently sinful in them, but they can be gigantic sources of distraction.  We'd best be very careful in the way we use our toys.  Elder Neal A. Maxwell pointed out that “we may not be in transgression, but in diversion.”

The adversary is the great distractor.  He attempts to whisper to us all the time.  If you stop and think about it, you'll know if you're listening.

You can know that you're in diversion if you're looking at your smart phone while you're in a setting where the Holy Ghost has a chance to be speaking to you.  If your smart phone is in your hand during the sacrament, you can know that you're in diversion.  The same thing applies to your Sunday School class if you're looking at anything other than the lesson material.

And what about the kid who skips early morning seminary or habitually comes late?  A daily opportunity is being provided for him to be touched by the Holy Ghost but he's diverted.  The adversary smiles.

You can know that you're in diversion when you're at home and habitually choose to do something other than interact with your family.

Scott Frewing grew up in La Grande 25 years ago.  As a young priest he was asked to speak in stake priesthood meeting.  In preparation for his talk, he asked the seminary students in La Grande to respond to a survey.  He asked three questions.  He got 100 responses.  He asked, “What do you like about your father?”  “What don't you like about your father?”  “If you could, what would you change about your father?”  He noticed that not one young person mentioned Dad's car or Dad's house or Dad's money or wished that Dad would provide something better.  The responses were all about the time that Dad spent or didn't spend with his family.  Scott kept these responses in a shoe box for the next quarter century, and says that they changed the whole course of his life.  He is now the father of six, with just three left at home.  They all have testimonies, they're all happy, and they're all thriving.  A big reason for that is because of what he learned from the survey about using time, and not being diverted.

You can know that you're in diversion if you have an addiction of any sort.  Is there something that you just can't do without?  It might be an addictive substance, or it might be texting, or it might be a snowmobile, or a boat, or consuming sports, or the TV, or video games, or possibly even the national news or politics.  If you wonder if any of those things are an addiction, try doing without that thing for 10 days.  See if you can do it, and see if it makes a difference in your life.  See if you can shut off the adversary's smiles.

What might you accomplish if you replaced your distractions with other things?

Elder William R. Bradford, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy back in 1979 observed that many church members had developed “extensive television habits … (that) reached twenty hours or more a week.”  (Ensign, November 1979, 37).

He pointedly said, “Even if television were not filled with foolishness, violence, immorality, and filth, its entertainment value would still not justify the time drain.  You are here to work to govern the Lord's affairs, not to be entertained.”

Now hold that 1979 twenty-hour-per-week TV habit up to whatever your distraction is, be it texting, video games, 4-wheeling, or sports (none of which are inherently evil) and see what you might accomplish if you used your valuable time more wisely.

The average person can read twenty pages or more per hour.  Elder Bradford said that “if you have a twenty-hour-a-week television habit and would repent and convert it into a gospel-study habit, in one year you could read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and the entire Bible.  In addition, you could read Jesus the Christ, The Articles of Faith, Gospel Principles, the basic priesthood manual, the basic women's manual, the basic children's manual, all three volumes of Doctrines of Salvation, The Miracle of Forgiveness, The Promised Messiah, and Essentials in Church History, and could then reread the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price.  This would still leave time to read the Ensign, the New Era, and the Friend each month and the Church News each week … If you are average, this leaves you with ten hours a week to govern yourself in other kingdom-building activities, such as keeping a personal journal, genealogy and temple work, improved home teaching, welfare services … and much more.”

Brothers and sisters, are you and I distracted?  Are we in diversion?  We can all do better.  We all need to do something to respond to President Nelson's plea and make time for the Lord in our lives—each and every day.  Time is a great gift.  We need to do something with it and not waste it on frivolous things.