Welcome to Closer to Christ through General Conference where two friends who love Jesus Christ share our own approach to studying the most recent General Conference talks.
This is Abbey and Avery. Let's jump into it.
Today we get to discuss the talk called God Loves All of His Children. This was done by Elder, I feel bad if I say this terrible, but it's Gregorio Icassias.
Does that sound okay? Love it. I know that double L is definitely not rolling off my tongue, but he did such a great job on this talk and I think I'll open it for us today. Is that okay?
Go for it.
And invite you guys all to join us as we dive right into this. He said,
That one of the greatest reasons your Heavenly Father sent you here at this time is so that you can realize your full potential.
Preach my gospel teaches us that as disciples of Christ, we should avoid comparing ourselves to one another. Your spiritual abilities are unique, personal, and innate, and your Heavenly Father wants to help you develop them.
Abbey, this is something so near to my heart. I've heard spiritual gifts spoken of and used to compare and my heart just feels so sad when I hear this. First of all, I'm not a competitive person, so competing in spiritual gifts sounds foreign to me anyway.
The way I see it, we're all members of the body of Christ or in a very simplistic way. I really like this way of looking at it. We as the body of Christ are asked to bake cookies where we each bring our spiritual gift to the table and then we each add that as the ingredient.
What would cookies be without flour of some sort? How good would they be without sugar or a sweetener? What about vanilla extract?
I don't even want to see that.
That's what I'm going to say. I don't want to eat cookies without butter. A touch of salt adds that beloved kick and we need soda and powder to help them rise. An egg holds it all together.
We are all needed. We all add value. What if the sugar cried because it wasn't smooth as the butter and decided not to be part of the cookies? We definitely miss the sugar and it goes for every single ingredient that's in the cookies, right?
That's why it's a recipe. You can't leave something out.
I made cookies at like seven o'clock the other morning because Maddie comes to me at 1130 on Wednesday or Thursday night. She's like, Mom, can I make cookies? I'm like, it's literally way past you going to bed.
And I was thinking, we're all leaving at seven, so if I get up really early, I can make her up some cookies before we go.
And so I was kind of nice. I usually not that rush when I'm making cookies, but it was dang early in the morning and I wanted to do that, like to show my love to her. And I don't know what she was doing with them. I forgot some butter and those cookies.
And I was just thinking in your analogy, it's like two different things. What if you feel like you have to be all of the ingredients? That is not really sustainable. It is so much more awesome to think of like eight or nine different people being able to bring their particular spiritual gift to and do something to calm them down.
To bring something together and do something. Yes. And number two, the other thought that swings too is if we're considering that like a community effort and everybody kind of brings their bits and parts and pieces, what if we're so insecure about the gift that we have to offer that we don't even want to come and share it?
So what was missing in this? I do half Crisco and half butter. It makes a cookie like I like. I know some people are like, oh, you are killing people with that Crisco. But anyway, I got the Crisco. Yeah. And it was the this was what was tricky. I was halving a half recipe.
That is so tricky. That's what I had in my head. And I know and so I was doing whatever and I was just like in a rush. And so anyway, I was like, these are not my normal cookies. They're fine, but they're not like the best. And so I'm thinking this is that person that we needed in our equation.
We needed them part of this committee that we were going to execute this thing. We needed their gift. We're missing their gift. So I was thinking sometimes it's good to make a crappy batch of cookies because then you can sit and reflect on what was missing.
And and and I think forevermore, I'll always love those cookies for the fact that they're coming in right now for this podcast. We all have our bits and pieces. And as soon as I opened this talk, I looked right over at you because I'm like, you're definitely the one that's taken on this topic of spiritual gifts because there has been nobody that has helped me understand that more than you have about spiritual gifts.
Thank you. Being able to list out a multitude of gifts that exist. Like sometimes we try to pigeonhole it into like one of like five or six things. Yeah. And you're like, dang, I don't have any. There's a multitude of those. And oftentimes if you're like jotting a note like da da da, thank you for using your spiritual gift of blah, blah blah blah.
For your birthday. Yeah. Well, like you've done it more than one time for me. And so I'm like, oh, that that could be a gift. You've told me that I have the gift of gathering. I'm like, you do.
Well, like before myself, I just think my thing would be just like, well, I'm going to have a party and my husband like, oh, you're having a party. And I'm like, well, if it's just me wanting to have a party, then that's one thing. But if it's me gathering people, it sounds so much better.
Amen. Much better reason to do things. And clearly your husband doesn't have the gift of gathering. He's an introvert. He has other gifts. And that's why you guys work so well together.
Okay. So I loved how you said, Abby, you know, sometimes we can be on either end of the spectrum. Number one could be we feel like we have to be everything and do everything, which is not the Lord's way. The other one is we might not feel confident in our offering. And that's another, you know, on the other side of the spectrum.
I love when you're saying, you know, that you learned a lot about spiritual gifts for me. I feel like the number one person I've learned about spiritual gifts is from President Nelson.
I love that you're pointing it to the I adore. I adore his teaching style. I adore his simplicity and his clarity. He says this, and this changed my life.
I urge you with all the purpose of my heart, sorry, with all the hope of my heart to pray to understand your spiritual gifts to cultivate, use and expand them even more than you ever have.
You will change the world as you do so.
Now this was a call of action to the women in the church and I believe it applies to all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Abby, when he said that, I believe him. I believe we can change the world as we pray to cultivate, use and expand our spiritual gifts. Not only do I believe in, but I feel it is a direct call to action for each of us.
I have put it to the test these past six years and I have grown.
And I have seen growth and much needed experience in my own life. Like it has changed my life. I used to truly, I would sit down. I remember thinking back in 2016, I need to write a list of my spiritual gifts.
I even had like dedicated a journal to it. I didn't even, I didn't even fill the first part of one page. I didn't know what to do with it.
As he, I feel like gave us more steps and more invitations and urgings, I was able to see, oh, I need to pray about it, expand it, cultivate it. Wow, this is a big deal.
This isn't just like a sit down once a year and write down maybe what one or two spiritual gifts I might have.
This is an everyday thing. Like he helped me to see that it's part of my everyday life and that I'm continually praying and saying, Heavenly Father, is this a spiritual gift of mine?
Heavenly Father, will you help me to expand this? What does it look like to expand this spiritual gift in my life?
And my, one of them has been this podcast. I was not a person who would number one, speak my mind, number two, think in the, Abby Wood.
And that's why she got me to do this podcast because she invited me to, when she invited me to, the Spirit said, this would be great for you. And I went, oh shoot.
You know what is funny? I don't want to derail your train of thought if you can hold on to it, but in the podcast, he knows that I have no problem speaking my mind, but you cannot, I cannot count the number of times that he's, he's challenged me to be like, reign me in.
Love that.
You can have your opinion. Some of that is for yourself and some of it you can share over, you know, over the radio waves.
I love that, Abby. So both of us.
Yeah, he's taken both of those things and, and grown us in those spiritual gifts. You, you to maybe magnify your voice and your testimony of him a little bit louder and me to like, lack it off.
Hey, I love that you just did that. She just did something with her hands, meaning like on one end and on the other end of the spectrum.
I've actually just been in this study course that I did that was 21 days. And as far as where your throat is and where we speak truth and where we use our voice to speak, you can have it be underactive.
You can have it be healthy and you could have it un overactive, which I was like, Oh, thank you for showing me that clearly. I've been over. Sorry. I've been underactive my whole life.
And there are times when I'm overactive, but I, I seek for health and balance and, you know, being right in the middle.
Yeah. So I just love that the heavenly father's like, he knows where we all are and he wants to bring us to be whole and healthy.
Okay. So we all know this, but it bears repeating as we ask the Lord to help us identify and grow our spiritual gifts, be prepared to follow through with things that may feel out of your comfort zone and ask for strength and understanding as you follow through with the impressions you receive.
Awesome. And Erica Cias reminded us in this talk that one of the most crucial missions throughout our life is to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and to follow the impressions of the spirit.
Love that. And so, um, he promises that as we do this, God will bless our life. He will bless our current and our future families and he'll bless the lives of his children who are able to encounter you.
And Abby, have you seen the blessings of this call, um, in your own life over the past six years?
Absolutely. A few different things are coming to mind, but let me just maybe speak the one that's coming top of mind is that, um,
that these spiritual gifts come from our heavenly parents. They're exemplified in our savior Jesus Christ. As we choose to develop spiritual gifts, we're becoming more like our savior.
Love that.
We're learning more about our heavenly parents. And, um, I guess because the, the, the topic of love, you know, God loves all of his children, um,
is on top of my mind. I'm thinking what a shame it would be is if all that we do is we look at other people's gifts and wonder why we don't have that particular gift.
That's a good point.
Versus going to the analogy of the cookie making that each of us has, you know, gifts that we need to navigate this life. And something I've learned from you is that sometimes we don't need that gift because he's put the right person in our life that holds that gift.
Love that.
And so they're able to bring it in your time of need. And sometimes those gifts have taken years of challenges and experience and, um,
Cultivating.
Yeah, cultivating, but from gifts of experience, like they've been through that. They've developed that gift. They can come to you with that gift already established. It's a gift that if you recognize, you put a name to it, you can cultivate it, but you might need it more immediately.
So sometimes he has to send somebody that already possesses that gift.
Love that.
And so you choose to look at that situation, be like, why, you know, why do they have that? I need that gift. Well, they probably needed it too. And it took some years and some time to develop.
So they're coming to present the offering.
So I guess it's a, it's a way of approaching the spiritual gift as, um, are you looking at other people and angry that you don't have one or could you rephrase it and just say, I recognize that gift in them.
I love that gift in them. I'm so happy for them that they have that gift. It's something that I want for myself.
And if it is something that you need in your life, you, you will be blessed with that gift.
I love that.
Through this experience.
That's a really good point.
So, um, I guess that's my, my long and short answer to it. How have I seen it bless my life? Because you alerted me to the idea of these spiritual gifts. I've been thinking of them more.
I've been better at recognizing what gifts other people have and not in a jealous type of a way. It's like, oh, wow, they've got that gift that they've got that gift going for them.
And if it's something that I want for myself, then I like through mimicry, like maybe do some of the things that they're doing in an effort to try to get that gift.
Or if I'm presented with a challenge in my life, then I would say what gifts would come in handy that I already have or who can I, you know, who can I reach out to?
There are things that are way outside of my scope when I'm dealing with health issues for my children. It's maybe kind of one of the biggest things for me.
For sure. Because they, they go to multiple doctors.
Yep.
There's a lot to play there. Yes. And I always consider like if I make a decision for them now, how is that going to play out way far into the future?
My anxious personality is like always second questioning and guessing that.
So there may be things that I'm very comfortable doing for myself, making my own health decisions, but I get kind of a stumbling block when I consider those things for my children.
So because I have their, you don't, well, this is, this is how I'll show you that this is true.
When I have questions, when I, I know what I know what I want for my children. I know where I'm trying to get with their health.
I've asked Gail for specific things for their health that I knew was outside of my thinking ability.
I don't have the same gifts that Gail has. So I go to Gail and I say, are you comfortable helping me with this thing?
She's like, she'll like maybe pray on it or think on it. And she'd be like, yeah, I do have something that I can help you with.
Because Gail works with, you know, Heavenly Father in the thing that she does.
And so do you.
Well, yeah, but all he has to do is say go to Gail.
Yeah, exactly.
So then I go and do that. And then I have asked you for a myriad of things on the health, on the health spectrum things.
I've, I've brought something that's on my mind.
You have helped me with my children and tell I'm comfortable with that skill on my own.
The most tragic one was when Lily burned her feet off, like the most excruciating thing in the world.
And I was like, I didn't even know where to start with that. But I was led to you and Kathy in that one.
Like so much. It was it wasn't panic, but it was like, I don't I don't have this skill set. I've never dealt with burns.
You dealt with burns before. Luckily, you crossed my path within short time and you offered to teach me about wound dressing.
And on the foot, which is very specific.
It was specific, but you got me the right equipment and you you taught us how to like use Heavenly Father to know like what you know what was needed to be done in that moment.
And that changed from day to day. It changed.
We did two dressings a day and and then my daughter was able to see that process and she was able to kind of be play a huge part into her.
Within a week she had like new skin.
She was beautiful. I saved that in a file on my phone to say like to to remind myself that through tragedy, we learned a myriad of talents that we didn't have before.
So and again, point back to you in that one. You put put me in the right direction.
So I guess that's what I'm saying. We can be angry about it or we can use it as a jumping off point for gathering tools and getting gifts that maybe we didn't have before.
And just to remind you, as I'm mumbling, what I was saying is that I don't always have the answers from like my kids in their health direction, but I do know the people that can point me in the right direction.
And I would say like Gail's gift, like that's still not something I could do on my own.
But but I know where Gail is. I know how to reach her pretty quickly.
And and you certainly have played that part. And then I kind of use that same thing when it's out of my abilities.
Then I will definitely ask for discernment to know like which medical professional for sure step in and help.
There are so many different right. Yes. And you could go either way.
Literally, because of where we live, you could go to different states and you need to know which direction to go.
Right. I will say to Abby, as you were talking and saying, you know, like when the spirit comes to your mind and says, you know, ask this person or ask this person, I will say that when we are.
I should say this. Have you guys ever heard the short little story about the people who had just like, what is it?
They had long arms or a spoon with a long handle. This is a cute story. It's a Chinese proverb.
OK, that's what it is. They've got all those bounteous food in front of them. But you couldn't like yourself.
You have to have these long spoons. How do you do it? And it's the other person has to feed you.
So my point in that that was a very long way to get about it. But sometimes when it comes to our own.
It's been a guess. No limitations and things like like you were saying with your kids and the health.
You've gone through a lot of trauma with that from day one when they were diagnosed with their with their illnesses.
And so there's a little bit of something that comes with that. And so I love when Heavenly Father reminds us to look outside yourself,
because that person that you're asking does not have the trauma that was associated with it.
They have fresh eyes. They have just the spirit with them. And there's not all the baggage that comes up with it.
Like I felt the same thing like I'll reach out and ask for help or whatever.
And I'm always so grateful that I have a fresh set of eyes and another very faithful praying friend who can help me get through this.
Sure. And then the things that they say back to me, it's not always like, oh, that's gospel. I'm doing that thing.
I take their advice and then I'm totally able to pray about that thing. Like, yeah, that's the right direction.
One hundred percent. But because we're having this conversation about spiritual gifts,
what I thought you were going to go with this this Chinese proverb is we may have spiritual gifts that we are blessed with.
The choice whether that we're going to magnify those like sometimes I'll be lined out.
If you go to your patriarchal blessing, you kind of know which ones are going to come your way.
But sometimes experience is going to dictate the ones that you need if you know whether to ask for them or ask for somebody with that gift to come to your aid.
Love that. But I wanted to say the best way to develop a spiritual gift is in the service of others.
One hundred percent. What's the point of a spiritual gift if it's just for your own gratification?
I love that. That's a question I would ask this to. I mean, I would interject this to as far as family history goes.
That's another reason I love family history so much.
And reading the stories of my people is because I've read them before and I've asked, you know, having just the lens of spiritual gifts,
I said, Heavenly Father, please help me as I read this story, help me to know what this specific, you know, this great, great grandma,
what is her spiritual gift or what is a spiritual gift? And then when there is a and then he helps me to see it.
Then when there is a time of need where I'm like where you said you need that friend right then,
sometimes there's not a friend around physically that you have.
But Heavenly Father has promised us that as we do our family history and as we turn our hearts to our fathers and mothers,
their hearts will turn to ours and we can reach out. Sister Wendy Watson Nelson has taught us this.
We can ask Heavenly Father to dispatch our ancestors on our behalf.
And wouldn't that be so fantastic to have the grandfather that had whatever it was used heavy machinery in in farming?
And I am doing something brand new and whatever. And maybe that's the exact thing I need.
That was a very random way to say it. But it's not random at all.
Spiritual gifts are many and spiritual gifts run in families.
They can come from familial.
They can. Elder Renlund taught us about that. And so that's what I would love to share.
I think it's totally awesome to think like when you need tutored in a spiritual gift to call on your ancestors to do that tutoring.
I've definitely seen that be an amazing thing. So that was not a roundabout way.
Last thing I will say, as you were talking, what if what if we're of that mindset that we look at others
and we begrudge the spiritual gifts that they have, the talents that they have?
I would say no, I'm well, I'm finishing with that. This is this is I'm showing you like where my brain is going with it.
When and when and it's a high possibility that that beautiful gift came from their ancestor.
What I'm guessing to say is what if we what if we always worked under that premise that the gift that they have is such a beautiful thing?
If if we if we're inclined to be angry that we don't possess that thing, if we can maybe step back and think, man, for the generations,
we knew we were going to need that gift in that person. And so they came through this family line.
They've been tutored and cultivated through the centuries.
I just think it's another way to just to see the beauty in the spiritual gifts.
We have the ones that we need. We can we can acquire the ones not earn.
It's not an earning thing, but we can acquire the ones that we need in time.
We can be surrounded by people that possess the gifts that we need.
We can learn from them as they demonstrate those gifts.
If it's something we want to cultivate that really wasn't in our wheelhouse of even being necessary.
And then it may become necessary later. It's like, well, you asked for that gift and you got it.
So now you get to use it. Amen. This opportunity. Yeah.
And then we can change the world as we do. So, oh, my gosh, that tells us that they really are an integral part.
OK, so happy jumping to the next point is we live in a time of great opportunity, although we may face, although we face many difficulties.
I know they are in there in part to allow us to help others feel the love of our Heavenly Father.
This is a quote from from Elder Casillas.
President Nelson taught in coming days, we will see. Oh, gosh. OK.
I love this so much. We've heard this quote before.
In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior's power that the world has ever seen.
We have the privilege. And then he says this.
We have the privilege to watch over people who need a helping hand and embrace a feeling of comfort or for us simply to be with them in silence.
If we can help lighten their burdens, even if only for a moment, then we will be able to see the great manifestations of the Savior's power in their lives.
OK, I kind of watched a light bulb kind of like blow in your mind.
You've heard that before. I used to think of it a certain way.
And then something's changed and you're seeing it completely differently. Tell me, tell me what's going on in your brain.
OK, so this has been one of my favorite quotes for a while where he says in the coming days,
we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior's power the world has ever seen.
In my mind, I was like, oh, my gosh, the Savior is so amazing.
And like in my mind, I see him, you know, the second coming picture where he's coming through the clouds.
You're like, I'm just like stadium seating, stadium seating, watching this happen and just be like, wow, I'm in reverence.
I'm in awe and I'm in great anticipation.
And then Elder Cassius just blows the ceiling off of this and all of a sudden he invites us to ascend up to Christ
because he says then we'll be able to if we serve our fellow men, if we honor that great second commandment,
then we will be able to see the great manifestation. Sorry. Yeah.
See the great manifestations of the Savior's power in their lives.
So all of a sudden we are invited to rise up with Christ and to actually bring about the greatest things that will ever happen.
We're not sitting in a movie theater eating popcorn, watching the sunscreen.
We're the lead actor in the film. I love that.
And then like, Abby, the part that like just gets me going is like, number one, I was completely surprised
because I was just ready to sit back and watch our Savior do everything.
And I was like, so in awe. But how much of a heavenly pattern is it for him to actually invite us to be part of that?
Yeah. And what is it going to take to be part of it?
Maybe this is you accepting a calling when you already feel like you're drowning or you know,
what if you've been praying for some growth in something and it happens to be that calling that he wants to offer you to develop that spiritual gift that you want?
There's a myriad of ways that this can play out.
But I think if you're asking the right questions, the next right step is going to be presented to you
so that we can have what we need to to be in the middle of that story, to be the one that's bringing these,
lighten other people's load, their burdens. And even if just for a moment getting to, you know,
getting to help magnify the Savior's power in our life, in their lives.
Okay. When you said that, this thought just came to mind. I help you. Wait, I think it's you help me and I help thee and we ascend together.
That's what comes to my mind. That was like an old saying.
Okay, so we're just going to touch on this just briefly. But Elder Cassius talked about, he said, okay, so who ministers to me?
You know, he said, essentially, when we serve, we collect testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ. These testimonies will revitalize us to try again in our own lives.
The Holy Spirit will revive us and renew our testimonies to continue with our own difficulties and trials.
He said, whenever we seek to bless the lives of others, the Lord takes mercy upon us even more.
He strengthens us and helps us in our lives. It kind of sounds like the divine economy or losing yourself to find yourself.
So I will just quickly touch on this. We've had conversations, Abby, about, you know, what is, what is self-care?
Knowing where you are, knowing when you're able to say yes to a calling.
Sometimes we really do need to step back and assess what we're allowing into our lives.
Maybe the thing that we're taking a lot of time isn't as necessary to our eternal growth and progression than we thought it was.
And maybe we can say yes to a calling, but there might need to be some changes that happen first.
Also, anytime I receive a call, one of two things will happen. While the person is extending the calling to me,
either the Holy Ghost will confirm to my heart that this is indeed for me and I will immediately say, I feel this is the calling for me and I accept now.
Or maybe it's something I'm a little bit woe taken back by and I will say thank you for extending the calling.
Can I please take some time to pray and think on it and I'll call you tomorrow morning.
And in the meantime, I ask Heavenly Father to please instill in my heart, is this something that's for me?
I don't say yes just because I'm taken off guard and I don't know what else to say.
Or that you think that's the only answer is yes.
I opt in with my agency. I step forward and say yes, I am accepting this calling.
So, you know, I just maybe one of the action items would be, you know, see where you are in this process.
Be aware of how you work with this so that next time you do receive a calling, you'll know how to best proceed.
And maybe you can almost use it as a bartering tool because if you get asked to do a calling,
I really appreciate callings that I have no clue what I'm going to do in that calling.
Things are all mine.
No, well, that's mostly mine too. I've done a lot with like primary with like music and stuff.
I'm like, at this point, if he asked me again, it's like, you know, yes, I love the children.
I love music and I such a good way to testify.
But there's not like a ton of growth in that calling.
So probably that one's going to be on the shelf for a hot second.
There are every other calling, every other calling is not something that I'm naturally like inclined to be good at.
I love callings that fit into that category because for me, what that means is tons of opportunity for growth.
And when I said it's a bartering tool that it's like he knows I'm going to say yes.
Your suggestion just a moment ago was that if we're inclined to say no,
then it's a chance to look back at our life and be like, what is going on in my life that is so overwhelming
that I don't feel like I have more to give because he's giving us a chance to assess.
There's got to be some a few things in there that are, like you said, of least importance that we can shove off the docket.
Totally. All of a sudden it become less important.
And I want to testify for a fact I've taken callings that I didn't have time for.
And he's magnified the time with the other things to be able to do them better.
They're still on the plate. You just got them done more efficiently.
That's what he does. So what I was going to say about barting tool is A, that he makes more.
He's in God's economy. He makes more time for things. Somehow that works.
He magnifies time. He magnifies time.
And what I wanted to testify of is that that's when he has grown my spiritual gifts the most in callings that I feel no preparedness,
no like not like you get called. You're like, hey, we like you to be the ever life study president.
You're like, oh, I'm perfect for that calling. I've got this. I know exactly what to do.
I'm just a primary teacher, particularly 10 year olds activity days. I'm just saying any calling.
You could list just about any calling. Most of us kind of crawl in our skin like I don't even know what I'm going to do in this calling.
This is going to be challenging. What I'm saying is all of those are opportunities to grow spiritual gifts that probably have an inclining.
And when you opt in and you say, yep, I'll do it, that's a chance for him to run with it and grow you in ways that you couldn't have otherwise done.
Yes, you're opting into God's economy.
So I'm not trying to make people feel guilty that are saying no to calling. I said no to calling once. We'll never do it again.
I learned my lesson. Well, that's awesome. Yeah. So I'm here to testify. There's always a reason to say yes.
You know, I'm not even going to go into that. I was in my college years, but I'm like, what a funny thing.
I'm going to mention to you the calling was to be the ward prayer coordinator. And I was like, you would have been so great.
Well, I'm fine. But like I was 17 years old and I was like, I'm going to go and explore the other options because I feel like everybody was like already graduated where my particular living situation was.
I felt like a family ward. No, this was a, this was a, okay. I was a single adult ward. But like I thought 17 was so different than 27 at that age.
Like that was a disconnect to me. And now at my age, I'm like, we were the same age, you know, I've grown up since, but I was like, no, I'm going to go and explore.
I'm going to find a better word for me than the boundaries of the word that I'm living in. And guess what? He taught me after I hopped for a while.
I was exactly where I was supposed to be. And then I was like, man, I wish I could take back that.
I said no, because what Heavenly Father was trying to do is trying to teach me before I did all of the hopping that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
But you wouldn't know unless now I know. So now I'm going to testify to the world that even if it's as silly as a calling that you may think it's silly as that.
I do. I think God is forgiving and I'm sure he's given me other callings that have grown me in whatever that particular calling was going to be.
But I'll tell you why this matters is because I have been asked to be early society president.
And I don't know that that will ever happen again, but some ministering assignments have been overwhelming for me.
My worst fear in the world would be to teach gospel doctrine. And I've put that onto the universe.
And then my friend Chase is like, hey, I'm like had so much on my plate and he's like, could you teach gospel doctrine?
And I had done something. I can't remember what I had done recently. And I was like, man, that was the scariest thing in the world. So gospel doctrine didn't look that scary.
Isn't that interesting perspective is everything. I wish I oh, I can't remember what it was. I remember to recall what that thing was.
But anyway, timing was right. And I kind of did that thing only did it once.
But I was like, OK, that isn't the worst thing in the world because he gave me what I needed at the time because I opted in.
I said, yes. So I guess that's that's my appeal to people. That's my action item. It's like what be prepared to say yes. Love that.
Be prepared to make some changes in your life to sort out the things that would make it difficult to say yes.
Yeah. And if you have a hard time doing it in real time, then maybe take the opportunity right now.
Look at things and ask Heavenly Father, you know, where could I give before the time comes up before you're sitting across from the bishop and being on a phone call.
So, yeah, I just assess your life where you are. Where do you want to be as far as serving the Lord's children and also opting in with your own agency to have a call to live this second great commandment, which is to serve our fellow men.
It's perfect. Do you feel like that closes up or do you have one final thought?
I do. You know what? Final thought is actually words from Elder Cassius. And I love it.
He said, Please remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior and understands you personally. He knows that it what it is to have to fulfill a calling and leave things behind to help the children of God.
He has the power to bless you and everything if you believe in him and do not doubt. And I leave my testimony with that.
Thank you so much for being here with us. We love having these conversations with you, Abby. Thanks for being here.
We'll catch you guys next time.