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Welcome to Closer to Christ, the General Conference, where two friends who love Jesus share our

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own approach to studying the most recent General Conference talks.

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This is Abbey and Amy.

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Let's jump into it.

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Today, we're excited to talk with you about Youth of the Noble Birthright done by Bradley

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R. Wilcox, first counselor at Young Men General Presidency.

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I was telling my husband, he was definitely built for this job.

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He resonates with the youth.

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He resonates with me.

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He's often done talks that I'm like, he's just explained it in a way that just really

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resonates and it can really take it home.

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Let's jump in now.

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Dr. Wilcox starts this talk by speaking to the rising generation and I loved the title

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of this talk, how it reflects that.

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This talk also is for those of us who are helping train up the youth, working with youth

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in any capacity or those who seek a covenant relationship with God.

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Though it does seem youth-centric, pretty much he put us all in that umbrella.

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He poses the question that he's heard time and time again, the question being, why must

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Latter-day Saints live so differently from others?

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I know it's hard to be different, especially when you're young and want so badly for people

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to like you.

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Everyone wants to fit in and that desire is magnified by unhealthy proportions in today's

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digital world filled with social media and cyber bullying.

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So Amy, let's start there.

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Let's start with the question, why do Latter-day Saints have to live so differently from others

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or why do we?

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You know, I love his answer.

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He said, there are many good answers because you're a child of God, because you've been

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saved for the last days, because you're a disciple of Christ.

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But then he says this, those answers don't always set you apart.

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Everyone is a child of God.

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Everyone on earth right now was sent here in these latter days.

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And yet, not everyone lives the word of wisdom or law of chastity the way you strive to.

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There are many valiant disciples of Christ who are not members of this church, but they

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do not serve missions and perform ordinances in houses of the Lord on behalf of ancestors

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like you do.

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So it's all about covenants, making covenants with God.

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Did you hear that so much today in sacrament?

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We went to the temple on Thursday.

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Our conversation was so centered around that.

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It's just...

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Paramount.

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Yes, it is the thing to talk about.

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It is where our minds and hearts need to be focused on.

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It's true, Abby.

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He says, when we use our moral agency to make and keep covenants with God, we become heirs

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of the everlasting covenant God has made with our forebears in every dispensation.

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Said another way, we become children of the covenant.

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That sets us apart.

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That is what gives us access to the same blessings our forefathers and foremothers received,

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including a birthright.

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Birthright.

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That's a curious word.

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You may have heard that word in a few places.

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There's a piece of it in a hymn that we sing, Oh, youth of the noble birthright, carry on,

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carry on, carry on.

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It's a compelling word.

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What does it mean, one might ask?

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Well, in Old Testament times, if a father passed away, his birthright son was responsible

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for the care of his mother and sisters, and then his brothers received their inheritance

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and left to make their own way in the world.

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But the birthright son did not go anywhere.

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He would marry and have his own family, but he would stay until the end of his days to

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govern the affairs of his father's state.

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Because of this added responsibility, he was given an added measure of inheritance.

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Makes sense.

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That's fair.

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Was leading and caring for others too much to ask of this oldest son?

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Not when you consider the additional inheritance he was going to be given.

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So we might ask the question, how was a birthright today different from Old Testament times?

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That's so good, Abby.

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So today, we're not talking about your birth order in earthly families or the Old Testament

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gender roles like we just talked about.

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We're talking about the inheritance we receive as a joint heir with Christ because of the

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covenant relationship that we've chosen to enter with him in our Father in Heaven.

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And then Brother Wilcox asked this, just like he did before, is it too much for God to expect

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you to live differently than his other children so you can better lead and serve them, not

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when you consider the blessings, both temporal and spiritual, that you've been given?

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I do appreciate the way he breaks down our relationship with God and Jesus Christ, Abby.

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He outlines well that this is a relationship different from all the world.

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Brother Wilcox then goes on to explain birthright in terms of humility and service rather than

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power and domination because sometimes when you hear that, you might think, oh, we're

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better than or whatever.

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That is not the case.

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He says, does your birthright mean you are better than others?

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No, but it does mean you are expected to help others be better.

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Does your birthright mean you are chosen?

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Yes, but not chosen to rule over others.

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You are chosen to serve them.

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Is your birthright evidence of God's love?

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Yes, but more important, it is evidence of his trust.

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Evidence of his trust and to go on with the way that he phrased it, it's evidence of the

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love that he has and trust for his children that wouldn't just automatically be born into

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the birthright.

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We're given an extra measure and a portion so that we have more to share.

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Love that.

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A lot of us have patriarchal blessings and some of our lineages, like they're specific

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to missionary work.

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That is because we were born in a place where we were able to freely have the gospel, religious

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freedoms.

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You live in a place where you don't really get those choices or a time when you don't

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get those choices, it would be really hard to fulfill the covenants that you made with

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him to fulfill that.

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Good point.

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Yes, I love that he really articulated that.

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Well, you're not better than or more special than what you are.

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You're special as special as his other children and it is your opportunity to take this abundance

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of blessings that you have and see who you can share it with.

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I love that.

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Let's dive a little deeper into the concept.

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When we consider the strength of youth, what does it talk about as far as God's trust?

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This is directly from the strength of youth.

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Your Father in heaven trusts you.

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He has given you great blessings, including the fullness of the gospel and sacred ordinances

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and covenants that bind you to him and bring his power into your life.

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With those blessings comes added responsibility.

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He knows you can make a difference in the world and that requires in many cases being

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different from the world.

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Abby, right here, I would add that Heavenly Father trusts us because he has built a plan

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around our agency.

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He wants us to develop agency here.

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He wants us to make a ton of choices and learn from our experiences of what it feels like

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to choose his ways and then what it feels like to choose anything other than his ways.

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So essentially, I'm thinking he trusts the plan and at the center of his plan is his

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son Jesus Christ who performed his atonement for each of us in this world.

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And those who have made and keep covenants have access to Heavenly Father and Jesus'

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divine assistance and endowment of strength and enabling power.

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So let's say we mess up.

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Let's say we try to quote help others and in an effort to live up to our, you know,

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in an effort to live up to our responsibilities and maybe we do it in a way that isn't exactly

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actually helpful to the person.

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In essence, we have, you know, maybe damaged a relationship not on purpose and there is

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maybe room for repentance or repair.

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We can turn to God through our covenants and ask that we learn and see where we can better

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serve this particular person.

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And then this came, we can ask for redemption through our deemer.

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Just like Elder Hale's talk in this same conference, he says, God shall consecrate thine afflictions

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for thy gain because of the righteousness of thy redeemer.

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So we can ask that the person that we quote helped be redeemed from this situation and

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then ask how best to move forward.

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Abby, have you ever had a situation where maybe things didn't go as planned?

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Always.

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When you're helping or trying.

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I'm living this life.

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So it's easy to say, you know, and it's difficult when we try to put our best effort in and

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it doesn't go quite as planned, especially when our effort is, you know, trying to help

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somebody along the covenant path, not just helping them in like a worldly situation,

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but we're trying to invite them, you know, to draw closer to Jesus Christ.

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Live as heirs.

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Yeah.

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Join us on the covenant path.

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And I think it's good to remember for youth, for adults, that we're going to have setback

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and that doesn't surprise Heavenly Father.

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That doesn't disrupt his plan.

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He's counting on that.

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He's created, you know, contingency in our Savior to make up for all of those, what we

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perceive as setbacks.

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If you're feeling frustrated that your efforts to reach out or help somebody didn't work,

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because that I think is where Satan wants to play the biggest role, that something goes

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wrong.

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Heavenly Father was totally expecting that.

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There's a contingency for all of those, but Satan wants to interject right into there

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and make you feel frustrated, make you want to stop putting out the efforts because, you

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know, our minds have a, I'm going to do A and the results going to be B. Like we're

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very like, this is going to be the natural course of events, but it doesn't always go

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that way.

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For sure.

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And you're right.

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Satan would want us to stop.

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Like, that's the end.

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Tried that, been there.

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It was horrible.

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I think it's critical at this point to move forward in hope.

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Like you said, Abbey, our Father in heaven isn't surprised or derailed when we make a

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mistake or our efforts don't land perfectly.

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Some great advice comes from the scriptures.

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I love this scripture.

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Wherefore, you must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of

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hope and a love of God and of all men.

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Like you said, we're doing these things because of our love of God and our love of

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men.

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Wherefore, if you shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ and endure to the

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end, behold, thus saith the Father, you shall have eternal life.

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So as we keep our eyes on Jesus and ask for His help, in 2 Nephi 2.6, we read, wherefore,

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redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah, so He can redeem anything of our

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weaknesses, for He is full of grace and truth.

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And then, I love this.

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This is what Brother Wilcox said.

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Because He is full of truth, He sees you as you really are, your flaws, your weaknesses,

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your regrets and all.

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And then because He is full of grace, He sees you as you really can be.

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He meets you where you are and helps you repent and improve, overcome and become.

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When we fulfill our end of this covenant, we are promised never to be left alone and

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are given strength through the grace of Christ.

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I feel like this is very similar to the talk we just talked about, as far as covenants

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doing our best.

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Definitely a common theme, definitely well-intentioned.

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They were placed like right back there.

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Yeah, just back to back.

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I love it, because you're like, that was great, and then we're just going to just jump deeper

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into that.

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It never hurts to just really knock this message about covenants home, because there's so much

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power that comes in with these covenants.

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And I think that's where the beautiful thing is, as we covenant through baptism and then

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further covenants that we make in the temple, as we link and bind ourselves more with Jesus

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Christ, it softens the blows when things don't go like we imagine in our mind that they're

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going to go.

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He fills that portion, he makes up the difference for it.

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I'm finding comfort and peace, and when things don't go the way that I expect them to go,

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I'm trying to get better at just being like, but how do they go instead?

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And how has that been made better?

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How has that made me better?

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How has that improved and grown me?

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How has that stretched me?

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How has that brought me to be more like him?

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If things go right all the time, exactly like we imagined that they should go, how often

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do I stop and think like, man, what did I learn from that?

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Typically, there's not a lesson in there.

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And it's just real life to not have things always go as planned.

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I do love that, I think as going back to when I was a youth, if someone said, these are

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the things that are kind of expected of you as you, let's say your birthright responsibilities,

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and there will be some hiccups along the way, and that's great because you learn iteratively,

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right?

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You keep going, you keep going, and that's where the power is.

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I think that would be something that I would have loved to have heard as a youth, and I

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appreciate that it's talked about more now, that there will be mistakes.

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And it's already been planned for.

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I love it.

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You know what, there was one other thing.

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Did you recognize how he talked about being on a cruise ship?

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I love that.

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It's just a really, really great way to explain it, right?

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Because he does that.

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He does.

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We were talking, Adam and I were talking about, when he was talking about grace and he was

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talking about piano lessons, like the mom pays for the piano lesson, just because she

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paid for the piano lesson, it doesn't mean that you have a natural piano player.

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You still have to put the effort in practicing.

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So I always think of that when I'm like, how do you explain to imbalance between, yes,

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Jesus Christ did cover all of our sins, but there's an opt-in, we shall gratitude for

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that gift by practicing it, putting it into action, whatever.

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I love that.

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So then of course, naturally, yes, he brings up the cruise ship idea.

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Life is a smorgasbord of opportunities.

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I love that too.

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I think he's really, really good, Abby, like you just said, at creating a story around

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the relationship, because it's like the relationship between you and Christ and covenants.

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This one, I loved you talked about how, you know, those that are on a cruise ship, those

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that are guests and that are on the ship there for, you know, adventure and fun, and there's

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a different relationship from those that are there as the staff who are helping them, right?

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So he sort of said, you know, youth, we're more like the staff.

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We have added responsibilities.

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We have pay where the other ones are paying to come.

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And so it is a different relationship.

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So I like that too, if you're looking for something that illustrates that point in a

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great way for your youth, that's a really, really good one to go.

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Another layer to that awesome story is cruising is super fun.

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But the great thing about it is you're seeing new places and you're experiencing life like

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you're traveling in a fun way.

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But just doing that, like day after day, even a cruise could become a little bit boring.

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But the thought of being in like the service of others and helping them have a more pleasurable

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experience on their journey, there is an added layer of joy that comes with that.

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And it's easy to see like that's what this life's about.

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You can have a great experience for yourself.

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You can be autonomous.

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You can just live your life in this little bubble and start and finish life.

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But really the impact that you can have on others in service and helping them enjoy their

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path a little bit more, even if we don't do it perfectly, but we put our best effort in

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to do it.

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Yeah, that's a great point.

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It is great.

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And I was thinking about that cruise ship thing, I was also thinking, this wasn't Brad

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Wilcox story, but there's this man and he goes on this cruise ship and he'd saved forever

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for it.

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And then he like packs a suitcase full of food.

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And he had spent so much money to get there.

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I might be messing it up.

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But the gist of it is that he pretty much spent his entire time in the cabin and he

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was like heating his own food or whatever, not realizing that he could have, he'd already

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paid the events were already paid for on the cruise ship.

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Once he'd made it onto the ship.

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All inclusive.

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But yeah, all of the fancy meals and all of the extra entertainment and stuff were his

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to behold and to have.

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And so, just on that same line with brother Wilcox, this life, there's no levels of superiority

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on the cruise ship.

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We're all going to the same destination and the things that we experience in this life

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and the joy that we can experience, it's equal opportunity.

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It's eventually just because that's part of the plan.

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It's true.

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I'm not saying it's easy for everybody to get there, but the added help can be there

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whatever level or degree we need.

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And eventually everyone will have the opportunity.

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Right?

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We have a thousand years, we have a really long time to be able to spread the gospel

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and to do all of these birthright responsibilities.

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This gives me the most hope.

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Totally.

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It's given us the time that we're going to get it right.

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Any last thoughts?

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In closing, I'm going to end with his words.

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He says, as you fulfill your birthright responsibilities, you're never alone.

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The Lord of the vineyard labors with you.

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You are working hand in hand with Jesus Christ with each new covenant.

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And as your relationship with him deepens, you hold each other tighter and tighter until

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you are firmly clasped together.

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All right, youth of noble birthright, carry on.

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Carry on.

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Thank you.