Come Home - Elder Gilbert

 

Come Home

By Elder Clark G. Gilbert

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

The Savior loves all of us and is tenderly calling for you and for me to come home.

In Elder Patrick Kearon’s remarks of the inadequacies we feel in a new calling, perhaps it was significant that he made reference to a “small Clark.”

As Christine and I He includes his wife in his calling have felt the overwhelming weight of this calling, what would he say contributes to this weight we have been grateful to know that Christ’s grace makes up the difference in our lives. This is the mercy of Christ We have been grateful for the prayers and sustaining support Another example that shows "sustaining" consists of prayers for the person of so many. We have also been strengthened by President Dallin H. Oaks’s first message as an Apostle, given nearly 42 years ago. In 1984 he declared, “I will devote my whole heart, might, mind, and strength to the great trusts placed in me, especially to the responsibilities of a special witness of the name of Jesus Christ in all the world.” When we sustain them, we do place trust in them.

Today I echo that same declaration. I pledge my life to be a witness to the name of Jesus Christ. Today, I will specifically witness to the names of Redeemer and Repairer, as I focus on Christ’s invitation for all of us to come home. This makes the point that since Christ has many names, to be a special withness of his name is actually a responsibility to obtain and proclaim a witness of ALL His names. THAT is truly weighty and overwhelming. 

William Shakespeare’s famous words pronounce that missed opportunities can bind our future:

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

Choices do have consequences, but we know in the gospel of Jesus Christ that when we lose our way spiritually, the Savior still allows us to change. As President Russell M. Nelson taught:

“Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us.”

And “should [we] stray, He will help [us] find [our] way back.” This seems to make the point that our choices do affect us and may change the experiences we could have had; but even with that, we can always change our course and have future consequences and experiences be better than the course we are on. We need to have faith, with all that know who are struggling to stay in the church, that He never gives up on them and we shouldn't either. 

God Is Calling Us Home

After our first son was born, Christine and I struggled to have more children. We found hope in Minerva Teichert’s painting of a pioneer mother entering the valley with her little family, beckoning others to follow behind her. Like that young mother, we were pleading for our future children to gather with our family. Eventually they did come, but our years of hoping and praying, for us, were difficult. We should make peace with this reality. 

In my weekend assignments as a General Authority, I have repeatedly witnessed people finding their way home. It may not always have come quickly, but it happened—over and over again. Let me take you on just a few of those ministering visits.

I will first speak to those who feel they don’t belong.

Sister Anglesey had left her home and her faith 30 years earlier. She had long known something was missing in her life but felt overwhelmed just to walk back into church. She eventually mustered the courage to attend a temple open house. As beautiful as that visit was, Tammy later confided to me, “All I could see was an experience I would never have. No sealing, and no [endowment].” Still, prompted by that visit, she dressed for church one Sunday, only to park her car and watch others walk into the building. Overcome with anxiety, she simply drove home, changed her clothes, and wept alone. An inspired bishop later sent her a note inviting her back to church. I met Tammy on a ministering visit just after her temple endowment. She had been away from the Church for 30 years! She had spent Sundays sitting alone in a church parking lot. But the Lord brought her home and restored her to His light, love, and joy. This person had desire, but just didn't feel hope. She just needed support.

Next, I speak to those who feel they don’t measure up.

On a ministering visit in San Antonio, Texas, I went to the San Antonio Temple, where we met with the missionaries and the Vargas family. Andrea was then serving as a Primary president in the Church. Her husband, Luis, though not a member, did attend church. The mission president had called me and shared with me that Brother Vargas felt like he wasn’t good enough to be baptized—that he couldn’t measure up to the other people he saw at church. On the steps of the San Antonio Temple, I said, “Brother Vargas, you don’t have to be perfect to be in this Church. You just have to do your best, and Christ will make up the difference.” At the end of the tour, Brother Vargas turned to his wife and said, “Honey, I think it’s time I join this Church so I can become a better father and a better husband.” He was baptized a month later, and their beautiful family was eventually sealed in that same temple. The Church should be a place where we are supported in being better. 

To those who doubt.

Justin and Kenna Valdez moved away from family so it would be easier for them to walk away from their faith. But the hero of this story was their eight-year-old son, who still wanted to be baptized. Sensing an opening door, a wise stake president scheduled a ministering visit for us to go to their home. I still remember Kenna’s squinty look as she stared at me as I walked into the room. But she eventually confided she still had faith in the Savior and even a testimony of the Book of Mormon. But she faced a few triggering issues what were these? tthat kept her from coming back to church. We promised them that as they anchored in the things they did believe, the Lord would help with the things they didn’t. Overcoming their concerns was not an issue of resolving every faith question but of helping them recognize the Holy Ghost. As President Oaks recently taught, “You live in a season in which the adversary has become so effective at disguising truth that if you don’t have the Holy Ghost, you will be deceived.” Justin and Kenna began to make the changes necessary to come back. Six months after our visit, Kenna texted me, “Hi Elder Gilbert! We are ready to be sealed as a family.” This is a photo from the day that they were sealed in the Pocatello Idaho Temple. Focus on the Holy Ghost. Anchor yourself in what you know, not what you don't. Let the Spirit lead you in the paths of further truth. 

I speak next to those who are trapped in traditions.

When I met John Raass, he was not yet a member of the Church. His wife, Kailani, had catered a dinner for the stake presidency, and we invited them to join us. John appeared weary of entering a spiritual discussion, but I assured him we would become fast friends. You see, John was a former BYU football star, and I grew up cheering for him. We eventually asked John why he had never joined the Church. He cited the need to honor the faith traditions of his now deceased parents. We helped him realize that they now understood the Church and they would honor his decision. John then chose to meet with the missionaries. Two months later he was baptized. And a year later his family was sealed in the temple.

Conclusion

Feeling we don’t belong, struggling with doubts, or being limited by traditions are just a few of the reasons we don’t immediately answer the call to come home. But even as societal pressures pull people away from their faith, life’s deeper questions do not go away. This is the "but where would I go..." problem. People are quick to tear down your faith, but they don't offer you any answers.  As President Nelson taught, “The truth is that it is much more exhausting to seek happiness where you can never find it!” President Oaks declared that the journey home starts by reanchoring on the Savior. Only Jesus Christ can fully restore that light and joy into your life. We all struggle. We need patience, service, and love from others. To those who are trying to help those they love, hold on to the truth. Keep your covenants. Helping others requires you to stay in your covenants. To those who are struggling to come home, know that it is your Savior who’s the one calling you back. In the end, everyone must make their own choices to come home.Remember we are no one's Savior. They have to choose Him. We all struggle. Meet people in that truth. Give them patience, service and love. 

In President Dallin H. Oaks’s recent historic address at BYU, the Marriott Center initially looked completely full. But if you looked closely, there were still hundreds of unfilled seats, and the ushers struggled to find space for those who still wanted to join the devotional. Then something remarkable happened. Students who had already found their seats began to turn their phone flashlights on to signal to the late-arriving students that there was still space. It was as if they were holding up a light to say, “Please come sit with me; we saved a seat just for you.”

I conclude with a hymn that to me feels like the very voice of the Lord calling us home:

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling—

Calling for you and for me.

Patiently Jesus is waiting and watching—

Watching for you and for me!

Come home! Come home! Ye who are weary, come home!

Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling—

Calling, O sinner, come home!

I witness that Christ is our Redeemer. When we fall short, He repairs the breaches in our lives. What are the "breaches" in our life? These "gaps" allow us to be attached by the adversary. The Savior loves all of us and is tenderly calling for you and for me to come home. Come home. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Ministering-"That Ye Love One Another; as I Have Love You" - Sister Yee

 

Ministering—“That Ye Love One Another; as I Have Loved You”

By Sister Kristin M. Yee

Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency

Ministering is truly loving and caring for others as the Savior would. It is a way of being; it is the way of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In my first general conference message, I briefly shared how the transformative power of the Savior’s Atonement changed my father.Should we not all be able to say that we have "experienced a mighty change"? Can you testify that the Savior's Atonement has "changed" you?

Today I would like to tell you a little more about how that change began. My father hit a very low point in his life when two ministering brothers began to visit him. Change often begins when we are at our lowest. Discerning members will be aware of this and seek to minister at this pivitol point. One of them invited my father to come with him and his wife to the temple. There were 2 assigned. 1 extended the invitation to do more than just visit. He accepted the invitation. Each week they picked him up and drove to the next city to worship and serve in the house of the Lord. It is easy to see how we serve in the temple, but what does worship look like?This continued for three years. Notice no one gave up during the 3 years. They attended each week. "The Lord love effort" (RMN). Then my dad decided to become a temple worker. Something was happening during the 3 years of weekly visits.

I remember seeing changes in my father during that time. He became aware and attentive to the needs of others. This is significant! Just as the ministering brothers had become aware and attentive to his needs, he began to do so with others. He took better care of his health. This suggests a change in his view of his mortal body. He began to care about His relationship with God and subsequently all the relationships in his life. One affects the other. Which one comes first?  The change was real. He now had the Spirit with him, and I felt it. It should be discernable to others that we have the Spirit with us. We act different. We care differently. 

Bless this ministering couple for helping my dad. They didn’t judge him for where he was in his life. They walked with him and helped him to develop his relationship with God. They are still my father’s closest and dearest friends. This is the hardest part of ministering. Becoming close and dear friends. 

Because these humble and devoted disciples of the Savior quietly ministered to a seemingly lost and dejected man, my family and I have been eternally blessed.

When we choose to minister in our inspired assignments Do I see my "assignment" as "inspired"? and our daily interactions, We can minister outside of our "assignment" we are helping to bless someone’s father, someone’s sister, someone’s son. When we minister, we are helping to answer each other’s prayers. We are the Savior’s hands. Oh, how I am grateful for all those who have blessed families like mine by ministering with compassion. When we feel there is nothing we can do to influence our loved ones, we can pray for the Lord to bring others into their lives that will minister to them. We need to try to be the answer to someone else's prayers too.

I know the Lord is aware of you and your struggles as you strive to keep your covenants and minister to others. He has promised blessings and divine help for you and your family as you exercise your faith to serve Him. Sometimes we think we can't serve because we have too many struggles of our own. But if we exercise our faith to serve the Lord by serving others, there are promised blessings and divine help for our our problems.

We may not be able to fix difficult or heartbreaking circumstances as we hope; some changes are not ours to make. But we can choose to love and minister as the Savior would.Love and minister independent of results.

Ministering by the Spirit invites the Savior’s healing into our lives and the lives of those we minister to. I often find peace, clarity, healing, and purpose when I minister. I find the Savior when I minister. This is by divine design. This goes back to the "Lord's Economy". No sacrifice goes unblessed. You will always receive more than you give. Your prayers will be answered as you answer other's prayers.

Ministering is truly loving and caring for others as the Savior would. It is a way of being; it is the way of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is not a program or a checklist; ministering is the essence of who God is and who we can become as we follow Him. This was and is the goal "ministering" vs "Home/Visiting Teaching". There's not "monthly" required/expected visit to report. We don't "do" it because we are "supposed to". We do it because it's who we are. That requires a lot of introspection and humility and prayer and faith. 

We are not called to or released from ministering. It is part of fulfilling the covenants we made at baptism and in the temple. We covenanted to take upon us the Savior’s name—becoming as He is as we sacrifice and consecrate our lives to Him. He sacrificed His life and comfort to minister to us/others. When we minister as He would, we begin to think, feel, and love as He would. This is starting to look like being 'born again'. We have been blessed with the gift of charity and begin to love as the Savior because we have experienced that love and been given that love.

Our Father in Heaven carries out His eternal work by ministering to the individual needs of His children one by one. The Savior showed us this pattern often during His mortal ministry as He compassionately blessed, healed, and cared for “the one.” He invites us to do likewise—to minister in individual and personal ways, ways that help us to feel the love of God.Interesting that she doesn't say ministering helps them feel the love of God, but helps us feel the love of God.  When we feel loved and seen by Him, it changes everything. And when we bless the one, we bless the whole.

The Savior shows us the ultimate individuality of God’s love through His atoning sacrifice and the divine capacity He has to heal and minister to you and me on an intimate level. This, again, sounds like the 'new birth' that we are to each individually experience. It heals us and ministers to us intimately. 

Jesus Christ chose to suffer for our sins and to atone in indescribable agony that we might be saved and receive divine succor. This is redemption. Being saved and receiving Divine succor. All this He did without the assurance that we would love Him in return. We too must love without any assurance of results or being loved in return.  “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

This is the kind of love He has for you and me. And this is the kind of love He desires us to have for each other: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you.” We can demonstrate our love for Him by keeping His commandments and ministering to others while they and we are yet imperfect.

We’ve been sent here to learn to love God and each other as the Savior did—to love in sacrificial and transformational ways, ways that will bring our greatest happiness.Sacrificial love transforms! If we are not seeing that, perhaps we are not loving as He did... Through the Savior’s Atonement we can come to love in ways that may feel impossible. Elder Quentin L. Cook taught, “Our love of God and our fellow man is the ultimate test of the condition of our spirit.” These are two important sentences. Loving in ways that feel impossible is evidence of transformation that only comes from being born again. If we lack this condition it will be evident in how we show love to God and others. He has said we show love to Him by keeping His commandments to love and serve others. 

Choosing to minister isn’t always convenient or comfortable. It requires sacrifice, faith, vulnerability, and trusting things will work out as we let God prevail. When we pause and choose to care for someone over something, His Spirit and love can enter in and we can receive the peace and perspective that we really need. Incovenient - we have to make time. Not confortable - we have to overcome fear and judgement. We need to be willing to sacrifice time, money, comfort, ego; we must exercise our faith in God's power and love; we must trust and let God prevail...even if there seems to be no fruit. Take time to ask where your treasure is. God can give peace in the place of fear and perspective in the place of our mortal desires and judgments. 

A young sister sharned that she often feels nervous about ministering because she doesn’t know how others will respond. I asked how she works through that. She smiled and said, “I go—and it usually turns out much better than I thought.” She exercises faith, and the Lord helps her. This is a common fear. We truly don't know how others will respond. It takes faith to act anyway and take the risk. The Lord loves effort. Trust He will help you. 

As we minister in faith, we do not go alone. The Lord will be with us. He will “provide [the] means whereby [we] can accomplish the thing which he has commanded”—including the blessing of God’s priesthood power as we keep our covenants and His priesthood authority to represent Him through our assignment.Do you see yourself ministering in priesthood authority? The Lord knows the hearts of those we minister to. He loves them and He loves you. He will help you to bless them in the ways they need. Trust Him.

Think of the significance of our ministering assignments. Relief Society and elders quorum presidencies receive revelation from the Lord to extend inspired assignments to you and me—assignments to represent Him and labor with Him in caring for God’s children. This is both a charge to those leaders to actually labor in the spirit to make inspired assignmnets and a challenge to us to see our assignments as coming from Him. He is our true "partner". As President Jeffrey R. Holland taught, we are invited to give “the God and Father of us all a helping hand with His staggering task of answering prayers, … drying tears, and strengthening feeble knees.”

If you want to feel grounded, gain a sense of divine belonging, and make a real difference in the world, I invite you to follow the Savior and minister in His name. Never was the need greater than now for souls to be lifted, strengthened, and healed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. “So many of us desperately need to feel of His love.” As His disciples, you and I have the covenant blessing and responsibility to bring the Savior’s love and relief to all of God’s children. When we offer His love and belonging to others, we will find it ourselves. The Savior promised, “Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” He is the promised blessing from ministering in the Lord's way. What you give, you will receive. 

The Savior did not limit His ministering to His family and close associations. He ministered to all and invites us to do the same. Sometimes we think our only obligation is to our family and that they take all of our time. But can reach out to others as well. We receive ministering assignments to grow our capacity to love others and to ensure no one is forgotten. We pray for them, care for their needs, and strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ.  God can help us "grow" our capacity to love more and better. 

I believe our Father in Heaven wants you to be happy. He loves you. His work, including ministering, is designed to bring you and me the greatest joy we can experience.

I testify that ministering not only “brings forth the blessings of heaven,” it is the way of heaven. Minister is the way of heaven! Ponder that! I testify that Jesus Christ lives. As we emulate His sacrifice by loving and ministering as He would, we will be blessed to find our own joy, healing, and relief in Him. We will become even as He is. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.