"What Are the Blessings of a Mission? Can Ye Tell?"
Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone
- Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
An elder struggled financially during his mission, and President Featherstone was able to provide him with financial help from a generous donor.
Another elder entered the mission just after I arrived in San Antonio. He came from a large family. The father found that he needed to pick up a part-time job to help support his son. This was not quite enough, and so the sweet mother went to work in the school lunch program so that she could be home when her children were home. Even with this additional money, the elder fell a little further behind each month. A choice friend occasionally gives me several $100 bills to share where they are need ... (continued)
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"What Are the Blessings of a Mission? Can Ye Tell?"
Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone
- Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Elder Daniel Gifford's patriarchal blessing promised he would serve closely with a General Authority, which was fulfilled when he served with President Featherstone in Texas.
Elder Daniel Gifford was promised in his patriarchal blessing that he would serve closely with a General Authority while he was on his mission. He wondered how this would be when he received his mission call to Texas, where the mission president had only served two or three months. While he was in the Missionary Training Center listening to the final session of October general conference, he heard President Tanner announce that the next speaker would be Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone, a member of ... (continued)
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"What Are the Blessings of a Mission? Can Ye Tell?"
Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone
- Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
An elder who wanted to go home was encouraged by President Featherstone to complete his mission, which he did successfully, setting a good example for others.
One elder who was transferred from another mission wanted to go home. He knew his parents and bishop wanted him to stay and complete his mission. In one of the many interviews we had, he said that five previous elders in his ward had abandoned their missions and had returned home early. I thought what a great disservice the first elder did to the other young men who followed his poor example. I made a solemn vow that this elder would not go home until his mission was completed successfully. Ever ... (continued)
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"What Are the Blessings of a Mission? Can Ye Tell?"
Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone
- Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Elder Sheffield, despite having undergone numerous surgeries, refused to spend a day in the hospital during his mission, fulfilling a promise to the Lord.
Elder Sheffield has been under the knife eleven times in major surgery and many more times in surgery lasting less than an hour. The greatest desire of his life was that the surgery would make him acceptable for a mission. A year before he entered the mission field, he had his final operation. Since he has been on his mission, he has averaged seventy to eighty hours a week in proselyting. He is greatly loved by all. He has been a great blessing to missionaries who thought they had problems. In o ... (continued)
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"What Are the Blessings of a Mission? Can Ye Tell?"
Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone
- Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Brother and Sister William Keith Clark, despite their advanced age, expressed their love for teaching the gospel and shared their joy in serving missions.
Maybe Brother and Sister William Keith Clark can. 'Dear President Featherstone,' they wrote, 'we were happy to receive your letter. I’m sure we love you already.' (Bless them, they didn’t even know me, and yet they could love me.) They continued: 'We are not too young anymore. William Keith Clark is eighty-one years old. He has been a bishop’s counselor, a bishop, and a patriarch for thirty-one years. I, Ellen Clark, am seventy-six years of age. I have been a music director ... (continued)
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"What Hath God Wrought through His Servant Joseph!"
Elder Gordon B. Hinckley
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Joseph Smith testified of the risen Christ through his vision, the Book of Mormon, the organization of the Church, his prophetic words, and ultimately by sealing his testimony with his martyrdom.
To a world plagued with doubt over the actuality of that resurrection, Joseph Smith testified unequivocally of the risen, living Christ. That testimony was spoken in many ways and under many circumstances.
First, he spoke out of the experience of his incomparable vision of the Father and the Son, whom he both saw and heard. They were individual personages of form and substance, of body and voice. They spoke with him as one man speaketh with another (seeEx. 33:11
Secondly, as the instrumentality ... (continued)
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"What Hath God Wrought through His Servant Joseph!"
Elder Gordon B. Hinckley
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
The early members of the Church faced persecution and were forced to move from New York to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Missouri, and finally to Illinois, with Joseph Smith being imprisoned during the Missouri persecutions.
Following the organization of the Church, persecution soon raised its ugly head. A decision was made to move to Kirtland, Ohio.
Here they built their beautiful temple, and in its prayer of dedication the young prophet invoked the powers of heaven that the Church "may come forth out of the wilderness of darkness, and shine forth fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners"D&C 109:73
But the fulfillment of that prayer would not come quickly. The peace of Kirtland was ... (continued)
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"What Hath God Wrought through His Servant Joseph!"
Elder Gordon B. Hinckley
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Joseph Smith's prophetic vision foresaw the growth of the Church from a small gathering in rural New York to a worldwide organization, and he died as a martyr without seeing the full extent of the Church's expansion.
As we are assembled at the place of the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ, I picture in imagination that April 6 of 1830. The few who believed in Joseph"™s mission gathered on that day, which was designated by divine revelation as "being one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh"D&C 20:1
One wonders whether any of that group, other than Joseph Smith who saw with prophetic vision, had any idea of the greatness of the ... (continued)
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"What Is Man"”" He Still Stands as God Made Him
President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
- Second Counselor in the First Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker reflects on the divine responsibility parents have when they invite spirits from the other world into their homes, emphasizing the importance of guiding these pure spirits according to God's plan.
We are blessed that there come to us, we invite them to our homes, spirits from the other world. As they thus come at our invitation they impose upon us an obligation which, in one sense, a true sense, is divine. So entrusted to our care is a spirit created by the Father who comes here pursuant to the great plan which was devised before the foundations of the world were laid. Bound up in that plan is not alone the past before we came, but the present, while we are here, and the future, the ete ... (continued)
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"What Is Man"”" He Still Stands as God Made Him
President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
- Second Counselor in the First Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker discusses the continuity of truth throughout history, suggesting that even in the darkest times, people had access to some form of truth, which was sometimes distorted but never completely lost.
It is my faith, and I believe history will bear me out, that there never has been a time in the history of the world, in the darkest hours of paganism when men did not have in their possession so much of the truth, and more, as they were able to live. Sometimes that truth was besmirched, sometimes it was dimmed, sometimes it was distorted, but down underneath it all always were some elemental truths, because men had in their minds at least the traditions of the gospel preached from the beginnin ... (continued)
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"What Is Man"”" He Still Stands as God Made Him
President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
- Second Counselor in the First Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker sees in the distorted human sacrifices of the Lamanites a perverted echo of the true sacrifice that God made through His Only Begotten Son for the redemption of mankind.
You know, I can see underneath the sacrifices that were offered, the human sacrifices, in the country to the south of us among the Lamanites, sacrifices that finally led to cannibalism, the eating of a part of the sacrifice"”I see a clear suggestion of the sacrifice distorted almost beyond recognition, which God was to make and made through his Only Begotten Son for our redemption.
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"What Is Man"”" He Still Stands as God Made Him
President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
- Second Counselor in the First Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker asserts that despite technological advancements, the fundamental nature of man and the need for spiritual truths remain unchanged.
But it is wholly fantastic, as I see it, for us to think that man himself is 'outmoded,' or his moral and spiritual past. We still have the five senses, all we learn and know and experience comes through those five senses. Man has not been given another sense by these great discoveries. Man still thinks as he has always thought, more poignantly, perhaps, more deeply in certain lines than heretofore, but he still thinks, he still speaks, he is still guided by the same great passions of love, h ... (continued)
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"What Is Man"”" He Still Stands as God Made Him
President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
- Second Counselor in the First Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker testifies to the unchanging nature of eternal truths, the reality of the First Vision, the prophethood of Joseph Smith, and the current President's possession of all necessary keys and powers.
My brothers and sisters, I leave with you my testimony that God lives, that the eternal truths are today as they have always been, no change, that God expects us to keep his commandments. I give you my testimony that this is the Restored Gospel, that Joseph is a Prophet, that the First Vision was a reality, that the man who now stands as the President of the Church possesses all the keys and powers that were possessed by the Prophet Joseph, that God expects us, as has been said here today, to ke ... (continued)
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"What Is Man, That Thou Art Mindful of Him?"
Bishop Robert L. Simpson
- Of the Presiding Bishopric
📅 0
📖 general conference
A schoolteacher asks her third-grade class to name something important that wasn't present ten years ago, and an eight-year-old boy confidently answers 'me.'
Not too long ago a schoolteacher, anxious to extract some participation from her class of third graders on the subject of modern-day progress, asked her little ones a simple question: "Can anyone here name one important thing in this world that was not here ten years ago?" After a few moments of thinking, an eager and confident eight-year-old boy near the back raised his hand. His answer: "Yes"”me." As humorous as this incident might sound on the surface, I am certain that Heavenly Father smil ... (continued)
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"What Is Man, That Thou Art Mindful of Him?"
Bishop Robert L. Simpson
- Of the Presiding Bishopric
📅 0
📖 general conference
A father shares a story about his three-year-old son's bedtime prayer, where the child prays silently, indicating that he was talking to Heavenly Father, not to his earthly father.
It was thrilling to listen to a father relate this story about his three-year-old youngster recently, as they knelt by the crib in the usual manner for the little fellow to say his simple bedtime prayer. Eyes closed"”heads bowed"”seconds passed, and there were no words spoken by the child. Just about the time Dad was going to open his eyes to check the lengthy delay, little Tommy was on his feet and climbing into bed. "How about your prayers?" asked Dad. "I said my prayers," came the reply. ... (continued)
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"What Is Truth?"
Elder John H. Vandenberg
- Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Pilate questions Jesus about being the King of the Jews and Jesus responds about His kingdom not being of this world, leading to Pilate's philosophical question 'What is truth?' without waiting for an answer.
In reviewing and pondering that miracle, my thoughts have been drawn to the episode after the Jews had bound Jesus and led Him to the judgment hall. It is recorded in the scripture: 'Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall "¦ and called Jesus, and said to him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou don ... (continued)
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"What Is Truth?"
Elder John H. Vandenberg
- Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Jesus organizes His church, chooses His apostles, and upon Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ, He declares that upon this rock of revelation He will build His church.
During the Savior"™s ministry on earth, He organized His church, choosing humble but sincere men to be His apostles; He lived with them; He made journeys with them; He taught them; He performed miracles before them; He ordained them, granting authority and power"”all preparatory to sending them into the world to declare His gospel. On a certain occasion as He journeyed with them, "Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, [and] he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I th ... (continued)
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"What Is Truth?"
Elder John H. Vandenberg
- Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Joseph Smith, seeking truth, is inspired by James 1:5 and prays for wisdom, leading to the First Vision where he is told by God that none of the existing churches are true.
Early in the nineteenth century a sincere young man whose name was Joseph Smith, a seeker after truth, found in the Epistle of James (which was written to the "twelve tribes which are scattered abroad" James 1:1) these powerful words: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let no ... (continued)
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"What Is Truth?"
Elder John H. Vandenberg
- Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Through modern revelation, the Book of Mormon is brought forth, revealing that the gospel was known to ancient inhabitants of the Americas and that Jesus visited them after His ascension.
Through modern revelation the Book of Mormon was brought forth through the Prophet Joseph Smith. It stands as a new witness of Jesus Christ and discloses that His gospel was known to the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and that He visited the Americas after His ascension. These inhabitants were known to Him as "other sheep of my fold" (see John 10:16 3 Ne. 15:21) for they carried in their veins the blood of Israel.
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"What Is Truth?"
Elder John H. Vandenberg
- Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Additional modern revelations provide more knowledge about Adam, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, revealing their interactions with God and their roles in the gospel plan.
Through modern revelation we now know that Adam received the gospel. It has been revealed that "Adam and Eve, his wife, called upon the name of the Lord, and they heard the voice of the Lord "¦ speaking unto them, and they saw him not; for they were shut out of his presence. And he gave unto them commandments, that they should worship the Lord their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord. And Adam was obedient unto the commandments of the Lord. And a ... (continued)
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