Learning of the Lord

Mission Tour was a unique opportunity to ask questions of Elder and Sister Clayton and Elder and Sister Koelliker. I learned much.

1. A young man with serious cancer asked Elder Bednar for a blessing. Elder Bednar asked: “Do you have the faith NOT to be healed?” After thinking about it, the young man said, “Yes. That means I know the Savior CAN heal me. So if he does, or if he does not it’s okay. It happens because that the Lord knows is best for me.”

2. Sometimes we focus too much on behavior. The goal is to focus on conversion. If we are converted, our minds and hearts change. Then the behavior will take care of itself.

3. How does the husband “preside” in the home when the husband and wife are equal partners? He serves. He is responsible for the family. However he is not the boss. The Broadbents have a saying: “Happy wife, happy life.”

4. Reverence is the key to revelation. Reverence is being. It’s not only an action, it’s who we are. The heart and mind are receptive to the spirit.

5. Don’t feel you have to be perfect today. Keep working on it. Life is a process and it takes time. Moses 7:21 “In the process of time” the City of Enoch was taken up into heaven.

6. There is a preciseness in the Lord’s pattern and he wants us to move closer to that perfection. However, it takes time to learn in new wards and branches. Lift the leaders. Support them. Don’t criticize.

7. What are the prophet and apostles like? They are like you and I in that they eat. They sleep. They wash their clothes and shop and do dishes like everyone else. What sets them apart is that everything they do, they do with great love and purity of heart. They do things for lofty reasons. They see the Lord in everything.

[I made it my goal to act more in love. The Savior says “no” many, many times. And he does it in a spirit of Love. I should be able to love all—the unkind, the hateful and hurtful and those that just want something from me. I can love them and still set boundaries and say no. Clearly it CAN be done. I just need to figure out how to do it.]

8. He gave the story of a man who purchased a pearl of great value. He hired a master craftsman to make a box to showcase it. People came to see it… but many went away discussing the beautiful box. The Gospel is the pearl. The church organization is the box. Don’t get so caught up in how the box is doing. Don’t struggle with the wrong details. What matters is who you are. Be as good as you can be. Conversion will change hearts and minds which will change behavior. The Gospel of Jesus Christ will create a Zion on earth. Eventually the church here will look like established churches in Utah.

9. The Savior has rectified everything that is fallen about this earth.