Categories: All Articles, Holy Ghost, Home Teaching, Leadership, My Heart is Brim with Joy
Priesthood Leadership Conference
August 2013
One night some years ago I couldn’t sleep. To occupy my mind as I lay there in bed, I did a census. In my mind I went up and down every road and street in the town of Haines and the surrounding area. I was looking for Latter-day Saints. I did it twice. I did it as a 6-year-old, non-member of the Church, and again as a 56-year-old member.
Eight-hundred to 1,000 people lived in that area during both of my censuses. In the first census I found just five houses occupied by Latter-day Saints. It was at that time that missionaries knocked on my parents’ door. My dad let them in. They taught us three lessons before Dad told them that we really weren’t interested. I was glad when Dad told them not to come back because as they taught me as a 6–year-old, I had no idea what they were talking about. I distinctly remember them asking a question and looking directly at me for the answer. It scared me to think that they’d expect me to know anything, but I timidly answered, “Prophets?” since that was a word they’d just mentioned. They acted very pleased with my answer, since that indicated to them that their teaching was effective. In reality, though, I don’t think that any one of the five of us knew what they were talking about. We weren’t ready.
At that time there were just 5 LDS families in the whole area—the Turners, the Andersons, Alice Cantrell, the Ensmingers, and the Hayhursts. Everyone knew who the Mormons were. They still do. As I completed my second census of 50 years later, I was astounded and gratified to find that every 4th or 5th house was occupied by Latter-day Saints.
How did that happen? As I was preparing this talk I did another census—this one of the stake. I realized that the La Grande Oregon Stake almost exactly covers the 4-county area of Wallowa, Union, Baker and Grant Counties. The only exceptions are the “foot” of Baker County where Huntington is located, and the northwest corner of Grant County where Monument is. Our 4-county area has a population of 56,175 people. Included in those 56,000 people are nearly 3,800 Latter-day Saints. That’s about one out of every 15 people. Fifty years ago the odds in the Haines area were about triple that number. Currently the Haines area is closer to 1:8.
How does that happen? Guess what’s going to happen to the 4-county area over the next 50 years—if we have that long left to work at it.
Here sits the priesthood leadership of the 4-county area. Anything that happens in this area, where the Church is concerned, will be because of you brethren. Nothing can happen without the priesthood, and you’re the ones who honor, value, and use your priesthood. You’re where you ought to be when you’re supposed to be there. You’re here tonight because you were asked to be here. You’re the ones who do your home teaching, and you’re the ones who direct the auxiliaries and all of the work that’s done in this stake.
But you and I don’t really realize who we are, and we allow ourselves to get diverted from the things we’re supposed to be concentrating on.
Last month Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Council of the Twelve conducted a priesthood leadership conference in Nampa to which 14 stake presidencies were invited, plus all of those stakes’ bishops, high priest group leaders and elders quorum presidents. That would comprise about 450 men. To our area’s credit, I think they were all there.
Elder Christofferson began with a demonstration. He asked a bishop down in front to stand and to march in place for 10 steps. He then asked him to take 10 steps down the aisle. “That,” he said, “is the difference between activity and accomplishment.”
As home teachers we go home teaching; but are we just going, or are we trying to accomplish something with our families? Elder Christofferson couldn’t get close to a family he was home teaching. One day he realized that the daughter in the family was having a cross-country meet in a few minutes. He went to the meet, watched the girl, congratulated her on finishing the race, spoke for a minute with her parents, and went home. From then on the family opened up, and embraced him as a friend. He wasn’t coming home teaching out of duty. He was coming as a friend.
How do you succeed? By doing. We only fail if we do nothing. If you don’t go home teaching, the message you send is, “I’m too busy,” and “I don’t care.”
Elder Craig A. Cardon of the Seventy was also at the meeting. As a stake president he went home teaching to a man who had had a disciplinary council. Elder Cardon’s home teaching companion was his son, who was a recently ordained teacher. Elder Cardon made an appointment with the family to come home teaching. Twenty minutes before the appointment, a stake emergency arose. Elder Cardon phoned his son, and said, “You’ll have to go without me.”
“Who’ll go with me?” the son asked.
“Find somebody. Find anybody. Take your brother.”
Brother was 9 years old. The 14-year-old teacher took him. They walked over to the family’s house and knocked on the door. The father of the family opened the door and found two boys on his doorstep. The 14-year-old said, “We’re here to home teach you.”
The man smiled, invited them in, and seated them in the living room. The young man said, “Where is your family?”
“Oh, they’re scattered around the house.”
“Would you please ask them to come in so that we can home teach them?”
The man gathered his wife, his older teenage son, his college student daughter, and his young adult son and brought them all into the living room. The home teacher then said, “Do you kneel as a family every day and have family prayer?”
“Not regularly, but sometimes.”
“How do you feel about that?” the boy asked the wife. After she answered, he went around the room and asked each of the three young adults how they felt about that. When they’d each answered, he said, “I’d like to bear my testimony about family prayer,” and did so. He then turned to his 9-year-old brother, and asked him to bear his testimony about family prayer. Little brother did so.
Next he asked, “Do you read the scriptures every day as a family?”
“Not very often, but sometimes on Sundays.”
“How do you feel about that?” he asked the wife. He again went around the room as he did before, bore his testimony about the value of family scripture study, and asked his little brother to bear his testimony about it, too.
He then asked the father, “Do you hold a family home evening with your family every week?” and followed the same procedure as before. When he’d finished he said, “That’s all the home teaching we have for this evening. May we leave a prayer in your home?”
A short time later this man called President Cardon, and related what had happened. He said, “There has never been an influence like that upon my family. You don’t need to come anymore. Just send your sons.”
In preparation for our priesthood leadership meeting each person was asked to read one short page out of the handbook. It took me about one minute. There wasn’t much there, I thought. At the meeting each man was given that page as a handout. I read it again. Elders Christofferson, Cardon and Natress spent nearly 4 hours talking about the contents and the intent of that page. That page outlines the focus of the Church, and the purposes we’re to be working toward. I’ve since read, studied, taken apart, and outlined that page about 15 times.
That young home teacher did exactly what the Church expects of a home teacher. We’re to “Encourage each family member—parents and children—to study the scriptures, pray regularly, and live the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
In 1993 Elder L. Tom Perry reported that the saints in Peru were struggling. “Inflation and internal strife (were) robbing from the Peruvian people almost any hope of stability in their lives.” (The Ensign, May 1993, pg. 90). Traveling in the country was too dangerous for the brethren. They couldn’t go there regularly. They fasted and prayed about what to do for the saints of Peru. They concluded that they’d concentrate their efforts upon just two things, and prepared a letter to be delivered by the home teachers to every member family in Peru. “Fathers were encouraged specifically to lead their families in daily prayer and scripture study.” (Ibid).
The most remarkable outcome was that sacrament meeting attendance significantly increased. There was a greater sense of community, and increased interest in caring for one another. Temple attendance significantly increased, even though travel was dangerous. The number of full-time missionaries immediately began to increase. All five Peruvian missions became staffed by native Peruvians. The missionaries arrived better prepared, and that resulted in increased convert baptisms.
Family prayer and family scripture study are simple things, but this is the difference between activity and accomplishment. In another large meeting of priesthood leaders the brethren were asked how many of them held regular family prayer. Nearly every hand went up. When they were asked if their family prayers were daily, and kneeling, one-third of the hands went down. Those were the priesthood leaders.
In our meeting of priesthood leaders the brethren asked all of those to stand who had ever had a period of inactivity in their lives. One-third of those stake presidents, bishops, and presidents stood up! The point being emphasized was that marvelous things can be accomplished if we as home teachers and leaders will concentrate on simple things like family prayer and family scripture study.
Do you know what the ultimate objective of all Church efforts is? In this single sheet of paper it says four times that we’re to encourage each individual to receive the ordinances of the temple. Everything that we do in this Church is directing us toward the temple.
You 18-year-old young men are on the threshold of three huge life events. You’ll shortly be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood, go to the temple to receive your endowments, and leave on a full-time mission. Elder Christofferson pointed out that our mindset about these events is all wrong. We’re focused on the mission as being the ultimate objective and accomplishment. It’s important, but it’s not the ultimate objective. The real accomplishment is being worthy to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood, and to go to the temple to receive your endowments. That’s huge. The Melchizedek Priesthood opens the door to the temple. You can’t go there without it. The endowment opens the door to the Celestial Kingdom. You can’t get there without it. While a mission is important, it’s not necessary for exaltation.
When a young man comes to the temple for the first time he’s generally there because he’s just gotten his mission call. We as temple ordinance workers invariably ask him where he’s going, and make a big deal of his mission. Elder Christofferson says that we should instead be congratulating him on having received the Melchizedek Priesthood and for being in the temple ready to receive his endowments. We don’t minimize the mission, but we can keep all three balls up at once.
We’re living beneath our blessings, brethren. I would venture to guess that less than two dozen of those assembled here have returned to do initiatory work in the temple within the past several years. The initiatory washings and anointings are part of the endowment. That 5-minute ordinance contains dozens of very personal pronouncements, and most of you have forgotten what they are. If you haven’t done initiatory work for some time, ask to do it the next time you go to the temple, and listen very closely.
We’re to “Teach the preeminence of the home and family as the basic organizational unit of the Church.” Church programs are supplementary to the home. Women carry the heaviest load where physical birth is concerned. Men (holders of the priesthood) carry the heaviest load in spiritual rebirth. Satan tries to convince men and women that they have more important things to do, but nothing is more important than these two births and the home. Elder Natress, our area authority, stressed that prime time must be given to the family. They must not get our leftovers. They must hear us pray for our children by name.
Elder Natress said that he was in a meeting where Boyd K. Packer was speaking when President James E. Faust was wheeled in in his wheel chair. President Packer stopped speaking in mid-sentence, and asked President Faust if there was anything he’d like to say. President Faust said that he’d just come from holding his brand new great grand baby. He then began to weep. “I realized as I was holding her that she’ll never hear my testimony that I know my Redeemer lives.” President Faust began to weep again, and then he said, “But I can tell her mother, and she’ll tell her!”
Have your grandkids heard you? Have your children heard your testimony? There must be no misunderstanding. Satan tells them every day who they are not. We must tell them who they are!
And we must teach them about the Holy Ghost. We can accomplish anything if we have the Holy Ghost. As a stake president, Elder Cardon came home one day and was told by his wife that a distraught woman had called.
“Did you get her name?”
“No.”
“Do you have any clue what she wanted?”
“No, I just know that she was upset.”
President Cardon went into his office. He’d had a very hectic, busy day, and had more things he’d need to go do in a few minutes. He lay down on the floor to rest for just a few moments. He’d no sooner gotten stretched out than the name of a woman came into his head. It was the name of a woman he’d never met, but that he’d heard of. He got back up on his feet, found the woman’s phone number, and dialed it. When the woman answered, he said, “Hello, this is President Cardon.” There was a long pause, and the woman said, “How did you know?”
With the Holy Ghost as your companion, you can accomplish anything. When the Lord directs, do it!
I was asked to summarize in 15 minutes what was given in the 4-hour conference. Elder Christofferson asked us to internalize the gospel. It must penetrate our hearts, and not just be an external influence. It must be a part of our character. The problem with the ancient Israelites was that they didn’t internalize the gospel. The Law of Moses worked among the Nephites, but among the Jews the Law of Moses became the object of worship instead of Christ.
“In all of this,” Elder Christofferson said, “my main message is ‘Thank you.’ We are deeply gratified by your example. Please remember our gratitude. We love you. We pray for you. The Lord is pleased with you. He’s pleased with your desires and with your efforts to serve Him. In the authority of my office,” Elder Christofferson said, “I bless you. If you ask a witness, He will give it to you in these next weeks.
“I went into a meeting with the Quorum of the Twelve,” Elder Christofferson said. “President Packer’s chair was at one end of the semi circle, and mine was at the other end. His eyes were fixed upon me. It made me nervous, so I said, ‘Are you surprised to see me here?’ He replied, ‘This isn’t a look of surprise. This is a look of pleasure. I’m pleased to see you here.’
“I bless you,” Elder Christofferson said, “that at times you’ll feel that confirmation that the Lord is pleased with you. I bless you in your marriages, that your wives will take strength from your love and kindness, and that your union will be a source of happiness. I bless your children that they’ll be more attentive and obedient. I bless you that you’ll have power over temptation—that over time the things that are temptations now will lose their appeal. I bless you with a full measure of the Holy Ghost, and the gifts of the Spirit that you need.
“God lives. There is nothing in any of us that He can’t reach and cleanse. He is our Father. Jesus perfectly carried out His will. You are His Priesthood. Joseph’s testimony of the Savior is true. I love the Lord. I love the Father. I know them. I pronounce this blessing upon you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”