New Beginnings

June is a month of new beginnings for a lot of people. I have several graduation announcements from friends who children are graduating from high school, I have a couple of wedding announcements, several of my co-workers retired, many students from the student ward where I served as bishop graduated and are now beginning new chapters in their lives, and I just attended a memorial service for an aunt. It is a time of new beginnings for my wife and I as well. If you noticed in the previous sentence that I said, “served as bishop”, past tense. I was released not long ago and we are now attending our home ward for the first time in almost seven years. Changes in our lives can be a challenge and sometimes a scary thing.

It can be a stressful time for those going through the changes. For the high school graduate decisions about going on to college, serving a mission, or finding full-time work can be a stressful. College graduates now having spent their entire lives in school now need to move on and become contributing citizens and employees. Newly married couples now need to figure out how two individuals become one. This time of change can also be a challenge to the parents whose children are graduating, getting married, or for themselves if they are retiring. Uncertainty is the biggest cause of stress in our lives when we experience change. Change is part of life and tests our character and helps refine us.

One of the best things we can do when faced with change is have faith – faith in Jesus Christ. We must trust that the Lord is with us and knows what is best for us and our family. The Plan of Salvation is also called the “plan of happiness” for a reason. We are to experience joy and happiness in this life. The scriptures tell us “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25). We need to remember to find joy in all that we do, including when we experience change in our lives. Another scripture teaches: “all these things (the things we experience in our lives) shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater that he?” (Doctrine and Covenants 122:7-8)

The changes for my wife and I mean that we will never see members of our student ward that we have grown to love as much as our children. It means that we will have the opportunity to have new callings in the ward where we live. We look forward to serving where ever the Lord asks. Having been the one that was extending callings to members, I can testify that it is the Lord that is calling us to serve not the person who is extending the call. The person extending the call represents the Lord and how we respond reflects on our testimony and our willingness to sustain our leaders.

Being able to attend our home ward also gives us the opportunity to have two of our grandsons come with us. Because of our daughter’s work, she is not able to attend church on Sunday’s very often and her boys have missed out. Now, like we did when we were parents with young children, we now have a 4-year-old and a twelve-year-old sitting with us in church. We are once again learning to be patient with siblings that struggle to be reverent and quite in church while we try to feel the spirit of those speaking and teaching us. We are excited to have this opportunity again and it has reminded us to have patience for families that are experiencing the same thing with their children. We know that some Sunday’s will be better than others, but we would not want to have these precious youth anywhere else than by our sides in church. There is one other place and that would be with their mother in their own ward, but for now this is as good as it can be.

Another year and I will have one of the biggest changes in my life since graduating from college and getting married; I will be retiring. For my wife and I this will be an opportunity for us to spend more time with each other, our children and grandchildren but it will be an opportunity to serve a mission together. This has been a goal of ours for almost 42 years. We are excited about the opportunity to spend time together and look forward to strengthening our love for each other discovering new and exciting things together.

Mortality is a time of change and growth. It does not matter what you are faced with, graduation, marriage, job changes, retirement, sickness and even death; if we have faith in our Savior Jesus Christ we will get through it. For now, we look forward to the new beginnings that are ahead. We have faith that the Lord will direct our lives for good and He will use us and our talents in continuing to build his kingdom here on earth and we will serve with joy and gladness.

Your comments and questions are welcome.

Today was the last Sunday many of the members of the student ward that i serve as Bishop will be in our meetings. This next week is graduation and over the next couple of months about half our ward will be moving and going on to graduate school, getting jobs and beginning their lives all around the world. I spoke in sacrament meeting and would like to share the talk I gave. I hope you can learn from it as well. I invite your comments and questions.

Preparing for the Final Final

About half of our ward will be moving from the ward during the next month or more. Many of you are graduating and now will be looking for employment and an opportunity to really begin your lives together somewhere in the world. This is something you have been looking forward to for you entire lives and it is finally here. Next week are your finals all of the cramming for those exams is about done. If you have been diligent in attending your classes, taking notes and fulfilling all the class requirements you will do well because you are prepared. The Lord said: “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear” (D&C 38:30). There maybe some test that you do not feel prepared for and you do fear; however, in almost every case you will be ok. You will complete your classes and graduate. You will eventually, be accepted to the graduate program or find the job that you want and will be able to provide for your families.

Our mortal lives are similar to your time here at USU. You know what your goal is and what you need to do to succeed. Everyone here will eventually die and stand before the judgment bar to be judged of our works here in this life - the final final. While here at the university, most of you knew when you would be finished and graduate; however, none of us know when we be called home and face that ultimate final exam so we must live prepared to stand before the Savior at any time. When you take a class here at the university, you are given a syllabus and are told what you need to do to pass the class. Throughout the semester you have a teacher, teacher’s aides, study groups and a text to help you learn everything you need to succeed in the class. Our lives are similar. The scriptures are the syllabus and the church leaders are our teachers that guide us through this mortal class. Some of the teachers include the Prophets and Apostles, the Stake Presidency, the Bishop, Quorum or Relief Society President, Home & Visiting Teachers and Instructors. Each of these individual have special callings to help us understand how to live and what we need to do to be prepared for that final exam.

I would like to suggest four things that will help us prepare for that judgment day and at the same time provide you and your family a rich and abundant life.

1.              Understanding and following “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”

2.              Loyalty to the brethren

3.              Making and keeping temple covenants

4.              Personalizing the Atonement of Jesus Christ

First – Understanding and following “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”. Every time I read this inspired document it increases my testimony that we have living prophets here to show us the way and warn us when we stray off the gospel path. When President Hinckley presented that document to the Relief Society in 1995, the family was still regarded as an important part of a successful society. Now governments, the philosophies of men, and society, are threatening the family in general. The world is trying to teach women that they are worthless unless they have a career, that men are not important or even needed, that children are a burden that is no longer valued and that traditional marriage is not important or even necessary. Satan is using everything he can to destroy the family because that is the way he intends to destroy us and make us as miserable as he is.

As members of The Church we must understand and live the principles taught in that proclamation. We must defend it in our legislatures, in congress and in the courts. We must not allow these sacred principles to be defeated and we will be held accountable at that final final for the way we have honored God’s pattern for marriage and the family.

Second – Loyalty to the Brethren. We must be loyal towards the leaders of the church, from our quorum presidents, auxiliary presidents, bishops, stake leaders and general authorities. We should not speak out against the brethren either in public or in private conversations. I am not suggesting that we blindly follow our leaders and never question things. Questioning is good if it is for the intent of gaining a testimony of something or trying to understand what they are teaching. Asking the right questions and seeking to understand is the very foundation of the restoration of the gospel in this dispensation.

When we question we should not do it in a way that criticizes or disrespects the Lord’s anointed. When we seek answers to our questions we should always turn to the scriptures and the writing of the brethren and not to the groups that are trying to tear down the church or turn us away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We must be careful when posting comments on social media that in any way disagrees with established doctrines and church policies. Keep your comments to yourself. Be careful not to align yourselves with any person or group that is in opposition to the brethren and the church. The first step on the road to apostasy is criticizing our leaders.

I want to make sure you understand what I am saying. There is nothing wrong with questioning what our leaders are asking us to do. But you need to go to the scriptures, the writings of the brethren and to the Lord. If you ask with real intent the Lord will tell you what the brethren are doing is right. He will never tell you to go against them. He has called them and they are his representatives here on the earth.

The third principle is to make and keep temple covenants. Before we can go to the temple and make the covenants there we must be worthy. To be worthy of a temple recommend we must keep God’s commandments to pay a full tithe, and keep ourselves pure and clean. We must sustain the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, the other general authorities and our local leaders. Those individuals that opposed the sustaining of the general authorities this past general conference (April 2015) are no longer worthy of a temple recommend and have broken the covenants that they have made in the temple if they have made them.

Once we have made those temple covenants, we must live each day to be worthy of entering the temple. We must be totally faithful to our spouse and never put ourselves in any situation that would compromise those sacred covenants. Brethren you must be constantly on guard against the temptations of the world and Satan to enslave you with pornography or any thing else that would have you break those covenants and destroy your family. This is a daily choice that we need to make and it will always come down to the choices in what we watch on TV, the Internet and the movies we go to. It will be in the choices we make in our music and other entertainment. It will determine the character that will govern our lives each day.

I encourage you to make attending the temple as often as you can a priority in your lives. Attending the temple at least once a month is the minimum and more often is the goal that we should all strive for. Where ever you live, especially in the U.S., you should be close enough to a temple to go once a month. The more you go to the temple the better chance you have of keeping those covenants and living a life that will always qualify you for a temple recommend and you will have peace and harmony in your home. As your children see the value of the temple in your lives, they will want to live lives that would qualify them to go and receive the covenants for themselves.

The fourth principle is to personalize the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is not a group thing, but is done by developing a one on one relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ. We will never live lives that are perfect so that we do not need the atonement. We all sin and we do it many times. Simply acknowledging our need or dependence on the Savior does not save us, nor are we saved by working our way into heaven. The scriptures teach that “it is by grace that we are save, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25 23).

What does this scripture mean? To be saved by grace means that there is nothing that we can personally do that will save us. We can keep the commandments the best we can all our lives; we can serve in every calling, do our home and visiting teaching, and even attend the temple every day and yet this would not be enough to overcome our sins.  We must individually go before the Savior and acknowledge our weakness and inability to overcome our sins without him. Like Alma the Younger, we must cry out “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.” (Alma 36:18) Once we do that we will be “harrowed up by the memory of our sins no more” and we will be filled with the marvelous light of forgiveness. (Alma 36:19-20). Jesus Christ has already paid the price for anything and everything that we could possibly do to commit sin that is the grace of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Once we feel that exquisite joy of forgiveness, we live our lives according to the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We keep the commandments, not because it elevates us to a higher degree of righteousness, but because we love God and choose to keep his commandments. We want to live our lives so that we will be worthy of the Kingdom of God here on earth and in heaven and feel comfortable to live among others that are striving for the same thing. We set ourselves apart from the world while living in the world. We are clean from the blood and sins of this generation.

As we adopt these four principles and do the best we can to follow them, we will live “after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 5:27) that Nephi described. Our children will see the joy the gospel brings and want to be followers of righteousness (Abraham 1:2) and have the blessings of the fathers in their lives as well. I am not saying life will be easy, it is not intended to be. You will have difficulties and challenges that will test you to your limits. I can testify that if you keep the commandments and your temple covenants you can get through anything that Satan will throw at you.

Sisters remember there is no nobler calling that you will ever have than that of a mother. I encourage you to talk to your husbands about when you should have children and when they come where possible stay home and nurture and teach them to love the Lord and his prophets. There is no day care or other family member that can do what you have to offer them. Get as much education as you can so that you can teach your children in all things. There maybe situations that do not allow mothers to stay home with your children, but that should be the exception. Brethren provide for your families and live so that your wives are able to be home with your children. I am not talking about times where your wives may need to work while you are finishing your degree, but when you are finished make sure you talk about these things and find a way for your wife to be home. When you should have children is between you and the Lord, but we have heard our prophets and apostles talk about the blessings of having children even while still in school. I encourage you to make this a matter of prayer and do all things in faith.

I testify that these things are true, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the restore Church, that Joseph Smith did see God the Father and Jesus Christ, he did translate the Book of Mormon, Thomas S. Monson is the Lord’s prophet on the earth today. God is our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ is our Savior and God and Christ live today. I leave you my blessing that if you follow these principles you will be blessed and if you will strive to do all the Lord asks of you, you will prosper and be blessed with everything you need to provide a comfortable living for your families.

I ask that Heavenly Father will bless you all, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Graduation & New Beginnings

This week has been a week of graduation for my extended family and friends from high school and college. Individuals all over are graduating from High School and College and are attending their graduation ceremonies. Two thirds of the student ward that I serve in are graduating and moving from our ward for new careers and to attend graduate schools across the country. Though it is hard to say good-bye to the members of our ward I realize that is what they are supposed to be doing. They come here for a short time and then move on in their lives. Family and friends that are graduating from high school are finally finished with this part of their lives and they will be joining the ranks of the college students somewhere for graduate degrees, other will be looking for a career and becoming active productive members of society; others will be serving missions for the LDS church. An important part of life is graduating and moving on.

The scriptures teach, “the glory of God is intelligence” (D&C 93:36). Our educational pursuit should never end; we must always strive to learn new things. Part of that education needs to be spiritual knowledge. Elder Craig A. Cardon of the First Quorum of 70 speaking at the 2014 BYU Commencement had this to say about continuing our education:

“As you leave this university and as your education continues, you will come to know more fully, as I have come to know, the essential place of spiritual elements in learning and teaching. Mormon expressed the principle well. Even with all of his preparation in abridging the Book of Mormon, with all of his reading, conferring, and writing, he wanted to be sure that we know what he knows above everything else:

“And now I, Mormon, proceed to finish out my record . . . ; and I make it according to the knowledge and the understanding which God has given me.⁴²

“As you continue your education, make sure you continue to develop an essential spiritual capacity, as the prophets have done, to see as the Source of all knowledge sees and thereby know and understand as He knows and understands. In these continuing efforts, may the unique Book of Mormon phrase “and thus we see” typify and be a reminder to you of the spiritual capacity you are developing.

“No matter what challenges or uncertainties you face, I pray that you will always faithfully employ this essential spiritual element in your learning. I promise that as you enthusiastically embrace this spiritual element, you and your families will receive everlasting blessings.” (“And Thus We See”, Craig A. Cardon, 2014 BYU Commencement Address)

Victor L. Brown spoke of a graduation ceremony he attended at the Utah State Prison. Some of the inmates there had attended LDS Institute classes and were graduating. He told of two individuals that were hardened criminals and had not learned to live in society without breaking the law and thus they ended up in prison. There they were introduced to the LDS Church and started taking Institute classes. They were able to turn their lives around and after being released were able to live productive lives. Elder Brown said:

‘There are many who find themselves in circumstances similar to those of Jim and Ed-not necessarily confined to a correctional institution, but nevertheless in prison, a prison from which legal authorities cannot release them, a prison of personal habits such as alcohol, drugs, immorality, selfishness, dishonesty, laziness, aimlessness; yes, these can be more confining and damning than any state prison. Yet there is a way to escape to a freedom that surpasses anything designed by man—the kind of freedom Jim and Ed have found.

“This freedom can only be found by accepting the divine plan and keeping the commandments of him who gave his life for each of us that we might find eternal life—even Jesus Christ. For did he not say: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”? (John 8:32.) (“I Was in Prison, and Ye Came Unto Me”, Victor L. Brown, General Conference, October 1971)

We must be wise and have wisdom in learning to use the educational experiences we have to be honest in all our dealings with those we work with, live with and worship with. We must always strive to serve those in need and help others that need our help and support. True freedom comes from using our God given talents to bless others around us.

Elder Dean L. Larsen speaking of graduations and life afterwards said:

‘Young men, remember who you are. Remember the purpose for which you have come to the earth—the service you have been chosen to give.

‘Stay true to the divine trust that our Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, have placed upon you. You can contribute as much to the spiritual environment of your homes as any member of your family, and you have an obligation to do so. Study the scriptures and encourage the other members of your family to do so. Say your prayers and do all you can to influence other members of your family to pray. Pay your tithes. Obey the Word of Wisdom. Be chaste. You may have a greater influence than you have thought possible, if you will do your own part.

‘Remember these words of Edward W. Bok: “Once we are convinced … that we are put here for a purpose: that the seed of divine energy has been given us and that it is for us to cultivate it to its fullest bloom, the way will be shown us. It is our part to make the effort and to put the fullest force and integrity into that effort. It is the young man of little faith who says, ‘I am nothing.’ It is the young man of true conception who says, ‘I am everything,’ and then goes out to prove it.”

‘Young men, let us prove by the way we live and serve that we are everything the Lord expects us to be.” (“A Royal Generation”, Dean L. Larsen, General Conference, April 1983)

So whether you are graduation from high school or college; whether you are continuing on to graduate school or going to work in your first careen; please remember that your education is not done. Learning is a life long pursuit and never ends. Remember that your spiritual education must continue as well. Continue the habit of daily scripture study and prayer to understand the things in the scriptures. Use the knowledge you have gained to not only provide for you and your family but to bless the lives of others. Service to others was the Savior’s challenged to us all. When a young man came to Jesus and asked what he needed to do to have eternal life. Christ told him the keep the commandments. When the young man said he did that and asked what else he lacked, Jesus said:

Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. (Matthew 19:21)

Service is a perfecting principle. It is through service that we learn to give freely of all the Lord has blessed us with and to love the Lord more than material things. The Savior told his disciples:

“He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:39)

We must be willing to share the knowledge and intelligence we gain with others and help them find the joy and peace that come from following the Savior Jesus Christ.

I hope that all graduates are successful in wherever their lives take them and that they find joy in all they do.

Your questions and comments are welcome.