Heather presented the following talk as her farewell address at the sacrament meeting of the Chaffey Ward in the Rancho Cucamonga, California Stake on February 27, 2011.
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Today I have been asked to answer the question “How can we all do our part to spread the Gospel?”
The process of spreading the Gospel across the globe has been foretold. Isaiah wrote of watchmen “that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, [and] that publisheth salvation.” In Section 65 of the Doctrine and Covenants we learn “The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth.” Christ instructed the original Twelve Apostles to preach the Gospel “to every creature.”
In an address to a group of newly called mission presidents, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said this on the importance of spreading the Gospel:
The purpose of our missionary work is to help the children of God fulfill a condition prescribed by our Savior and Redeemer. We preach and teach in order to baptize the children of God so that they can be saved in the celestial kingdom instead of being limited to a lesser kingdom…
As the prophets of this dispensation have told us, the missionaries’ purpose … is to save souls, to baptize converts, which is to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God.
Note that Elder Oaks does not say that the purpose of spreading the Gospel through missionary work is “to save the souls of those that are not yet members of the Church;” it is not “to open the doors of the Celestial Kingdom to the sons and daughters of God that have not yet been baptized.” We are all sons and daughters of God, and so the purpose of spreading the Gospel is all-inclusive. With this understanding we can see the first way in which we can do our part to spread the Gospel: we can strengthen our own testimonies.
One develops a testimony by learning about the Gospel, and so it makes sense that one would strengthen their testimony by that same process. We learn when we read the scriptures; we learn when we pray; we learn when we attend Church meetings, seek the blessings of the Priesthood, keep the commandments, or take account of the blessings the Lord has given us.
We must also act upon our testimony. In his same address, Elder Oaks continued:
The restored gospel consists of doctrines and ordinances. We proclaim that baptism is necessary in order to redeem us from sins according to the conditions prescribed by the Redeemer and that only priesthood holders of this Church have the God-given authority that transforms the act of immersion in water into an ordinance of the everlasting gospel. Our preaching and teaching is unto baptism.
Baptism is the gateway to the straight and narrow path that leads us to eternal life, but it is not the only ordinance we must take part of if we are to be “saved in the Celestial kingdom.” Temple ordinances are vital to our personal exaltation, and as such every aspect of the true and restored Gospel points us towards the Lord’s house. If we are truly seeking to spread the Gospel by strengthening Zion and her inhabitants, we will strive to enter the temple, we will strive to honor the temple ordinances, and we will strive to bring the saving ordinances of the temple to all members of the Church.
There are, of course, many people throughout the globe that do not have knowledge of the doctrines and ordinances of the restored Gospel. Thus, we can see the second way in which we can do our part to spread the Gospel: we can preach the Gospel.
The most visually obvious way to preach the Gospel is to serve a full-time mission.
During his Saturday Morning Address of the our most recent General Conference, President Thomas S. Monson reminded us of the following:
First, to young men of the Aaronic Priesthood …every worthy, able young man should prepare to serve a mission. Missionary service is a priesthood duty—an obligation the Lord expects of us who have been given so very much…To you young sisters: while you do not have the same priesthood responsibility as do the young men to serve as full-time missionaries…we welcome your service. And… to you mature brothers and sisters: we need many, many more senior couples.
From this quote and others like it, it is readily obvious, in my opinion, that whether or not it is the Lord’s will for a woman to serve a full-time mission is not as easily determinable as whether or not a man should. It took me a lot of effort to determine the Lord’s will for me and even more effort to align my will with His. Because of various circumstances in my life, I have developed a very strong testimony of the longevity of the relationships we formed in the premortal life, and so I would like to now share a story with you that helped me make my decision by helping me see the importance of doing the Lord’s will when it comes to full-time mission service.
One day a young man had a particularly unique dream. In his dream, he was sitting in a large, white waiting room with one of his friends. A messenger, dressed in white robes came into the room and handed him a letter. The letter read: You have been called to go down to Earth at this time. You will be born in a country that will be very prosperous, and that will enjoy many of the Lord’s blessings. The country you will be born into will be called the United States of America. You will be born into the true Church of Christ. The young man and his friend rejoiced at this news. The messenger returned, this time with a letter for his friend. His friend’s letter read: You have been called to go down to Earth at this time. You will be born into a country that will be burdened with poverty, pestilence and civil unrest. The country you will be born into will be called Puerto Rico. You will not be born into the true Church of Christ. Now the young man and his friend sorrowed. The young man’s friend turned to him and plead, earnestly: Please, my friend, will you come find me? Will you bring my family and me the Gospel? The young man promised he would, and then the dream ended.
Several weeks later, the young man received his mission call. He was called to serve a full-time mission in Puerto Rico. The young man related his dream to his ward at his farewell and pronounced boldly, “I know that I have been called to Puerto Rico to fulfill that promise that I made during premortality.”
A few months later, the bishop of the ward received a letter from the missionary. The letter simply said: I have found my friend. The missionary had indeed found the friend he had promised to share the Gospel with. The friend, his wife and children were all baptized shortly thereafter.
The Lord knows our needs individually, and He often asks us to serve one another to fill those needs. The Lord knew of the needs of this Puerto Rican family, and He knew this young man could fill those needs.
Even though this elder may have found his friend while wearing a black nametag, and even though I may have gleaned from this story confirmation that I need to serve a mission, this does not mean that we can only preach the Gospel if we are full-time missionaries. Preaching the Gospel as a friend is a very rewarding and often very successful way to spread the Gospel. Growing up, I was close friends with very many non-members and I was able to share the Gospel with the majority of them because of the strong foundation our friendship provided. The basis of our relationship helped me be more receptive to the Spirit’s promptings of what specifically I should say to them so that I could cater my message to their personal circumstances. Because my friends knew I valued our relationship, they knew that I shared my beliefs with them out of love for them, and they knew that I shared my beliefs with them with complete respect for theirs. This meant that they always listened to me with an equal level of respect, and opened the door for a dialogue about the Gospel, rather than a mere sermon.
Of course, there are other ways to share the Gospel with those both within and without of the Church even before a firm foundation of friendship is in tact. Thus, we can see the third way in which we can do our part to spread the Gospel: we can care for each other.
Worldwide, the Church is known for its charitable and humanitarian services. Church members are often stereotyped as being honest and helpful. Every level of the Church’s organization features networks of people that help one another to achieve worthwhile and righteous goals. When we live like this, we become exemplars of everything the Gospel stands for. We fulfill the Lord’s commandment that we love our neighbors as ourselves—whether our neighbor is a member of the Church or if he is not makes no difference.
As with most of the Lord’s commandments, we can look to the scriptures to see examples of how we can love one another. In the Book of Alma of the Book of Mormon, we can read of Ammon on his mission to the Lamanites. First his is bound and brought before King Lamoni, and the king offers Ammon one of his daughters as a wife. Ammon declines, and instead asks to become a servant in the king’s household. By doing so, Ammon distinctly sets himself at a lower social status than the king—he is not what we might call the king’s “friend.” However, Ammon does everything in his power to be a good servant to Lamoni, even to the point of defending Lamoni’s flocks in a violent, potentially life-threatening manner. Other servants of the king go to Lamoni and tell him of Ammon’s bravery, but Ammon himself refrains from seeking praise or attention, and attends to the next task at hand. From his actions, we can see that Ammon purposefully acted to serve the king’s needs. He may have been a servant, and perhaps we could say he was thereby compelled to serve the king, but the capacity to which Ammon served the king was obviously beyond the “norm” that was set by the king’s other servants.
As Ammon’s story progresses, he is able to share the Gospel with the king and King Lamoni and his people accept the Gospel into their lives. However, Ammon did not serve the king with a guarantee that the king would listen to his message. Instead, Ammon saw that the King had a need, he saw that the Lord had put him into a position to fill that need, and Ammon did so. Simply by living the commandment to love his neighbor Ammon was able to bless the lives of those around him and thus spread the Gospel by spreading the light and love of the Savior. So it should be with us.
By doing these three things—by strengthening our own testimonies, by preaching the Gospel, and by genuinely caring for one another—we will be able to effectively spread the Gospel as the Lord would have us do. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, they are not things that can be done individually, sequentially or even completely. There will always be more for us to learn; there will always be more people to teach; there will always be someone else who needs our aid. It is not a hopeless cause, however. The Lord loves us very much, and would never willfully set us up to fail at the very thing He asks us to do. When we all band together and collectively work towards spreading the Gospel in all of these way simultaneously we will find that what the Lord commands is indeed possible.
Success comes by following the Lord’s will. Success depends upon our faith. Success will come through a joint effort between individuals, groups of faithful members and the Lord. I know that it is the Lord’s will for me at this time that I serve a full-time mission in Everett Washington. I have a responsibility to do this because I decided when I entered the waters of baptism that I would always strive to do the Lord’s will. Because it is His will, and because I have faith and because I will put forth what effort I must, I know that eighteen months from now I will be able to say that I have served a successful mission.
I would like to now bear my testimony that I know this Church is the true Church. I know that Christ Atoned for the sins of the world and that through His Atonement we can return to live with Heavenly Father and our Lord again. I know that the true Gospel has been restored to the Earth today and that it exists here, fully functioning under the Lord’s direction and by the Lord’s power through his living Prophet, Thomas S. Monson. I know that the apostles are true witnesses of Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith, a true and living prophet, translated it by the power of God. I know that the Priesthood is truly the power of God. I know that through the ordinances of the temple families can be sealed together and can live together for eternity.
I pray that all of you will also come to know these things for yourself, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
