Each year I am assigned to speak in all of the units of the La Grande Oregon Stake.  I was surprised to learn that all stake patriarchs aren't given that same assignment.  I am grateful that I have the privilege.  I actually enjoy doing it.

I asked President Hutchins if he had any opinions or suggestions about the topic I should address this year.  He replied that he'd been thinking about “Stand Ye in Holy Places.”  That is an admonition the Lord uses three times in the Doctrine and Covenants, most significantly in D&C 45:32.  It is used in that verse just after the prophecy about a “desolating sickness (that) shall cover the land,” and just before the prophecy about “earthquakes in divers places,” hardened hearts, and wars.  The Lord says, “Be not troubled,” for a “light shall begin to break forth.”  That light is the Book of Mormon, and the restoration of the gospel.

I thought, OK, I could speak on that, but I don't care for the image it puts in my mind.  I see someone firmly planted in a holy spot, standing there with his hands in his pockets, while the world rushes by.

That image bothers me.  I'd like to amend that phrase.  Rather than “stand ye in holy places,” I think we should “be anxiously engaged in holy places.”

What holy places are we talking about?

The holiest place in which I can be anxiously engaged is the temple.

The second holiest place is the home.

The third holiest place is the Church.

And then, of course, I should be anxiously engaged while I'm out in the world being an example.

The Doctrine and Covenants tells us over and over to open our mouths.  We should be vocal about our beliefs and standards, but we can also be examples even silently.

I think of Mereoni Vasu.   Sister Vasu was a girl from Fiji who served as a missionary with us in Vanuatu in the South Pacific.  Mereoni was working as an accountant at a resort in Fiji.  Everyone who came to the resort ended up at the bar and got drunk.  One day, however, a group of young single adults showed up at the resort for an activity.  They were different.  Mereoni was drawn to them.  “I'd never seen such happy people in my life!” she said.  The young people were LDS, and became her friends.  She thought, “These people are happy, and they don't even drink.”

That was in 2010.  In 2012 she was baptized.  Her mother was furious.  Her mother was the head of the women's ministry of the Assemblies of God Church for all of Fiji.  Without telling her mother, Mereoni submitted her missionary application.  When the mission call arrived, she told her mother,”I have gotten a call from the president of the Church telling me that I need to leave everything and go on a mission.”

While on her mission she wrote letters home.  Soon her mother began taking the missionary discussions.  She “felt something different,” and was soon baptized.  The baptisms of Mereoni and her mother were the result of LDS young people just being happy, being examples, and being different in good ways.

In the military I was a sailor on an Air Force base in Texas going to security school.  Every day the instructor started his class with a dirty joke.  I felt trapped and helpless.  Whenever he started his joke I found other things to do, and found other things to look at, doing my best to tune him out.  After a couple of weeks the jokes stopped.  I was relieved.  Two weeks later a classmate said to me, “Do you know why Garrett doesn't tell jokes anymore?”  “No, why?”  “It's because you won't laugh!”  I thought, “Wow, there's even power in silence.”

Prior to my being a sailor on an Air Force base in Texas, I was a sailor on an Army base in California at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey.  One night I was sleeping soundly in my bunk when someone shook me awake.  It was my friend, Terry.  He was a soldier, and he was drunk.  Terry wanted to talk.  I let him talk.  When he'd talked himself out I received one of the best compliments I've ever received.  He said, “Kerns, you're the most amazing person I've ever known.  I expected you to be mad if I woke you up, but you never get mad, and you never say anything bad about anybody!”  I was amazed, because that's just what I'd been working on for the past months, and he'd noticed.  Terry went to church with me after that, but I don't know what eventually became of him.  Hopefully when the missionaries later knocked on his door, he remembered the LDS sailor he'd known.

We can be anxiously engaged out in the world just by keeping the commandments, and by letting our light shine.

We need to be anxiously engaged as we stand in the holy place that is the Church.  That means magnifying our callings.  That means neither seeking nor declining callings.

I had a good friend who had held every leadership position in the Church.  His wife was a good, gentle person.  They were at church every Sunday with their numerous little children.  I was mystified as the children left home, and all but one became totally inactive in the Church.  How could that be?  What had happened?  Why had this good couple not been able to hold onto their children?

One day it struck me.  The woman could never be induced to accept a calling in the Church.  She had been offered many callings by her bishop, but he finally quit asking.  She didn't feel capable.  She never taught a lesson, never bore her testimony, and never joined in class discussions.  She was not anxiously engaged.  At home her children never saw her reading the scriptures.  They never saw her on her knees praying.  She didn't actively teach them.

If these things weren't important to her, why should they be important to them?  I think it safe to say that whatever the parents do in moderation, the children will do in excess.

Callings come to us for two reasons.  One, is so that we can be of service and help others.  Two, is to teach us, and to develop our capacities and abilities.

I'll tell you about the scariest calling I ever received.  One day the bishop asked me to come into his office.  It was obvious that he was going to give me a new calling.  Rather unworthily I said, “Bishop, you can't give me a calling that I haven't already had.”

He smiled broadly, and proceeded to call me to be ward chorister.

Ward chorister!?!  Me!?  I didn't even know how to lead music.  I'd look like a fool standing in front of a congregation waving my arms.  The only thing I had going for me was that I could carry a tune.  What on earth was the bishop thinking?

I actually had one other thing going for me.  I had a wife who knew all about music.  I spent the next two weeks sitting beside her on the piano bench as she played piano, and I lead music.

The bishop probably held his breath the first time I stood to lead the opening hymn.  I did it.  I survived.  I even started a ward choir.  Everyone knew that I wasn't a choir director, but bless their hearts, they all came.  They wanted me to succeed.  That first choir song was beautiful.  I still remember its name.

I doubt that I particularly blessed anyone's life as I served those nine months in that calling, but what a blessing it became in mine!  I later found myself in meetings with the stake presidencies of the area.  The general authorities conducting the meetings would ask for a volunteer to lead the opening hymn.  No one's hand would go up but mine.  And guess who got to lead the music at the beginning of every temple shift when we served there?  Marjorie played the organ, and I lead the music.  What a blessing it was to be able to do that in that sacred, holy place without a bit of nervousness.

What if I'd said, “Bishop, I can't do that.  I don't know how, and I'd look like a fool.”  Every other calling has been a piece of cake in comparison to that one.

Then there's the matter of being anxiously engaged in that second-holiest place, the home.  We do that by being intentional parents.

Intentional parents teach their children every day.  They pray with them, read to them, counsel with them, spend time with them, play with them, and put limits on their activities and media involvement.  They provide learning opportunities.  They take them to church, read scriptures together, and hold Family Home Evenings.

Possibly the most important thing that ever happened to my family was a meeting that I attended with the leadership of the stake.  It was presided over by Elder Gene R. Cook, a member of the Seventy.  His talk was mesmerizing.  I was distressed when he said “Amen” after speaking for what I thought was only 15 minutes.  I jerked my head around to look at the clock and was astonished to find that he'd spoken for over an hour!

He told about their family's daily devotional.  He and his wife got their children up early and had a 15-minute devotional every morning.  My wife and I supposed that a general authority might get away with that, but it could never work in a home like ours.  But we decided to give it a try.

There was a bit of resistance at first, but soon all the kids were on board with the program.  We mostly read inspirational stories from general conference and other places, had family prayer, sent the kids off to have their own prayers and to get dressed, and then had breakfast.

In April 2022 I realized my lifetime goal.  We were in the temple with all 10 of our children as our youngest was sealed with his wife.  I attribute that to those daily family devotionals, to intentional parenting, and to my children's stay-at-home, intentional mother.

We must be actively engaged in that holy place that is the home.

I know several families that daily read the Book of Mormon.  They're scrupulous with their goal.  One family hasn't missed a day in five years.  What are the chances that the children in that family will fall away?

Practically zero.

President Nelson has said that in coming days it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the constant, guiding influence of the Holy Ghost.

What are the chances that you'll fall away if you're faithfully spending time in the Book of Mormon each day?

Practically zero.

There is safety in reading the Book of Mormon.  There is peace.  There is light.  There is guidance, inspiration, and answers to life's problems.  I love the Book of Mormon.  I use it every day.  It is the reason that I'm a member of the Church.  It brought me to Christ, and keeps me close to Him.

We must also be actively engaged in that holy place that is the temple.

I read where it was said that if one member of the ward leadership is actively engaged in family history and temple work, then 4% of the ward membership will also be doing it.  If two members of the ward leadership are doing family history work, then 8% of the ward will be similarly involved.  The involvement of three members of the ward leadership increases the ward involvement to 12 %.  If a member of the stake leadership is also doing family history work, ward involvement jumps to 15%.

It dawned upon me that I am part of the stake leadership.  Therefore, I'd like you to know that I'm actively doing family history work, and that we try to go to the temple every week.

I love my grandchildren more than anything.  It occurred to me that my grandparents of every generation feel the same.  We all want our grandchildren to have every opportunity and blessing possible.  People on the other side of the veil are desperate to have their temple blessings.  I've made sure that my grandparents as far back as I can find them have their temple blessings, but what about their grandchildren?

I set out to find all of the descendants of the eight sets of my second great grandparents, and to see to their temple ordinances.  I did it.  Then I expanded that goal to include all of the descendants of the 16 sets of my third great grandparents.  I'm currently working on the 11^th set.  I find the children, get their vital statistics correctly entered in FamilySearch, do the same for their spouses and their children, and clear the names for temple ordinances.  It's easy to do.  The information is all right there in my computer.  I just have to take the time to do it.  We then take the names to the temple.  It's hugely satisfying, and I'm making thousands of people supremely happy.

My wife and I go to the temple and each do an endowment.  Then we do a sealing session or an initiatory session.  We might get a dozen or two dozen ordinances accomplished in just one temple visit.  One day we did 40.  The next week we got a sealing session all to ourselves and did 44.

In December 2023 we were in a sealing session with a woman.  The sealer worked through all of our names and all of hers.  I asked her, “How many ordinances did you get done today?  I was pleased because we'd accomplished two endowments, six couple sealings, and three sealings of children to their parents.  Not a bad day's work.

I was astonished and humbled at the answer the woman gave to my question.  She said, “Well, I've attended four sealing sessions today.  I don't know how many names I brought, but I suppose it was over 100.”

Think of that!  There's danger in doing such work.  Joseph Smith said that when we get to the other side, those people will “embrace our knees.”  That poor woman should prepare to be tackled.

Wilford Woodruff said that “There will be few, if any, who reject this work that's being done for them in the temple.”  They're anxious for it to be done, and are praying for their descendants who are in a position to see that they have their temple work done.

Brothers and sisters, there is nothing more important than being anxiously engaged in the holy places that are our temples, our homes, our callings, and when we're out in the world.  What we are doing is gathering Israel.  President Nelson has said that gathering Israel is the greatest and most important work taking place on the earth today.

Our first responsibility is to gather ourselves.  We will accomplish that through daily time spent in the Book of Mormon.  Our next responsibility is our family, living and dead.  As a patriarch I can't tell you how thrilling it is to have these shining, worthy youth come to me for their blessings.  I am supremely proud of the young people in the Church.  I'm also proud of the adult saints.  We've been attending the Meridian, Columbia River, and Boise Temples this past year, and they're all busy!  The sessions are full.  You have to make appointments, or you might not get in.  And nearly everyone is coming with their own family names to be done.  It's thrilling.

This is going to result in the necessity for the Church to build another temple closer to us.

Thank you brothers and sisters for being shining examples of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  You stand out from everyone else.  You're happy.  You're lights to the world.  It's a pleasure to know you and to work with you.