Welcome to Closer to Christ through General Conference
where two friends who love Jesus share our own
approach to studying the most recent General
Conference talks. This is Abby and Amy. Let's
jump into it. Today we get to talk about the
power of ministering to the One. This was done
by Elder Peter M. Johnson of the Seventy. Elder
Johnson started out his conference address with
gentleness and love. He said, sisters and brothers,
thank you for your faithful devotion in coming
unto Jesus Christ during these challenging times.
He then reminded us who we are and whose we are.
You are wonderful. You are beautiful. You are
each a child of God. And then invited us each
to seek the Holy Ghost as we come unto Christ
together. It's my prayer that we will recognize
the influence of the Holy Ghost as we become
and help one another become truly devoted disciples
of Jesus Christ and fill His joy as we worship
in the house of the Lord. I think it's a beautiful
beginning and sets the stage for each of us to
learn together and to be taught. Thanks, Abby.
I feel like a main point of his talk is based
on an invitation from President Nelson. He goes
right into it. Now is the time for you and me
to prepare for the second coming of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now is the time for
us to make our discipleship our highest priority.
And then he poses this question, President Nelson
does, in a world filled with dizzying distractions,
how can we do this? Well, lucky for us, he also
gives us the answer, and he told us that what
would help us the most was regular worship in
the temple, and goes on to explain a little deeper
the blessings the temple will bring each of us
into our lives. In the house of the Lord, we
focus on Jesus Christ. We come to know him. Every
sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find him
in his temples. I love that quote. I feel like
every time I hear that, it pricks my ears. And
when I remember this promise, I want to be at
the temple more often. Like on my list of things
that bring me closer to Christ. When I replace
the phrase, just as simple as temple attendance,
with finding Jesus Christ at the temple, it makes
it more personal and it causes me to pause and
ponder, if I found Christ at the temple when
I go today, what would I bring to him? So, how
do we become and help one another become devoted
disciples of Jesus Christ? You can't force anything
upon others, but I know that our ministering
efforts are a big part of that in the process.
Does it feel like we've already covered this
topic? I think it does, because these talks,
they're so beautifully ordered and they've built
on each other in such a way to get us to this
point. Elder Johnson's teaching us ministering.
in this way. Ministering in the Savior's way
involves compassion and kindness, patience, and
love without judgment. And as we minister to
the One, we invite the One to come unto Christ
and to worship in the house of the Lord, and
we invite the One to receive His redeeming power.
That's awesome. And like you said, yes, we've
talked about this a few times, right? It's repetition
helps us to remember. We remember the woman at
the well. She was a Samaritan. She wasn't living
a chaste life at the time that Jesus found her,
and she may have felt like she didn't belong.
However, the Savior saw her as a daughter of
God. He taught her and invited her to walk with
him, and she was ultimately one of the first
to declare that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus
Christ taught this woman that through him, It's
like such a nice promise. The part I love about
that story is that the Savior showed us what
love can do. It transformed this woman's life.
Being a woman of Samaria, she was able to fill
the Savior's love. She received a witness through
the Spirit that he was the Messiah. And obviously,
we know it was just them at the well. This is
such a one -on -one personal invitation. And
not to be too judgy, but she'd had multiple husbands,
right? And I think she was living with somebody
currently. But the fact is, like, she wasn't
filling her best to receive a Savior figure in
her life. But her encounter, this one -on -one
encounter with Him, allowed her to be a witness.
She returns to the city and invites others to
come and see. And because of her invitation,
because of her testimony that she had, because
of that one -on -one experience, many were indeed
able to believe in Jesus Christ, that He was
the Savior of the world. So, there's an overreaching
principle to ministering that we learn from Christ.
As He invites them to come unto Him, He ministers
to the one with love. As a result, others ...
then became His devoted disciples. I love that.
And yeah, that is true. She was probably feeling
not like she belonged and maybe forgotten and
just not part of that. And Jesus Christ, you
know, invited her in and she came. The next principle
that He discusses is compassion. We learn ministering
with compassion from Peter and John. Christ's
Apostles, a certain man, lame from birth, lay
daily at the gate of the temple asking for money.
This man may have felt unimportant, alone, discouraged,
and unseen, and he may have felt like he didn't
belong. The scriptures say, then Peter said,
silver and gold have I none, but such as I have,
I give unto thee. In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Peter took the
man by his right hand and he lifted him up, and
the man was made whole. Immediately the miracle
or immediately following this miracle, the man
entered into the temple with Peter and John and
he was walking and leaping and praising God.
I love that last part too. It's not just the
part that he was healed. but that he used that
energy and that healing to. So joyful. Like you're
probably thinking of you're like little lambs
or whatever. I love it. Really like they just
learn how to walk and they're like, so happy,
jumping for joy about it. Elder Johnson shared
a personal experience at this point and speaks
to anyone who ever felt similar feelings of not
belonging in some ways. He says, my friends,
there have been moments in my life when I too
have felt unimportant, alone, discouraged and
unseen. I have felt as if I did not belong. I
was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints when I
was 19. One year later, accepted a call to serve
a full -time mission, but there was much I had
not learned about Church history." Then he tells
us, um, early in my missionary service, he says,
I learned that there was a period when those
of Black African descent were not allowed to
enjoy all the blessings of worshiping in the
house of the Lord. Learning this for the first
time brought feelings of anger, confusion, doubt,
and fear. These feelings were so intense that
my ability to recognize the Holy Ghost was lost
for a season. on the mission while we need every
ounce of that to get through day to day. My heart
went out to him when I heard this, and also just
sharing such a very personal and raw experience.
I also thought how courageous he is to address
this, as so many of our brothers and sisters
have felt, I would guess, very similar feelings
when they learn this. I have a few questions
for Jesus when I see him again, and this is among
them. And one thing I did love about this, entire
talk was that Elder Johnson led us through his
own challenge with hard questions, and then he
modeled or showed us how he turned to the Lord
and how his mission companion also ministered
to him in this time. Yes, that was great. He
said, fortunately, had a wonderful companion.
His name was Kevin Vick, who ministered to me
with love, patience, and kindness each night.
As he witnessed my feelings of doubt and uncertainty,
he would simply say to the younger Elder Johnson,
I love you. After about two weeks, I allowed
myself to feel Kevin's love. I gained the courage
to pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus
Christ, and as I prayed, I was drawn to a section
six of the Doctrine and Covenants, verses 21
to 23. Let's read those for the audience. What
greater witness can you have than from God? Oh,
isn't that so touching? Like you said, when they
bring in personal experience to educate us on
a gospel truth that they know for themselves,
this is a big one, this is a deep one. Each of
us gets to choose the way that we go about our
own struggles, because He was serving a mission
and He had a companion to show brotherly love
to Him. And, you know, the Scriptures were ...
Right there at his fingertips, he'd had experiences
with the Holy Ghost to witness to him truth and
remembrance of the roots of his testimony that
he had just received, you know, a year previous.
He says that he did turn to the scriptures and
as he read he remembered the day that I fasted
and prayed to know that the Book of Mormon is
the Word of God and that Joseph Smith is the
prophet of the restoration. I remembered covenants
made in the house of the Lord that connect me
to Jesus Christ in such a personal and intimate
way. I felt the Savior's love, his mercy, his
assurance that the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter -day Saints is his kingdom upon the earth
and is necessary to prepare us for his second
coming because I remembered I again was able
to recognize the Holy Ghost and to understand
more fully that Jesus is the Christ and I am
his disciple." So again, does he have all of
the understanding that it takes to understand
that piece of church history? No. Instead, he's
centered himself on the foundations of the restored
gospel of Jesus Christ. And in there, I heard
such a huge one is the covenants. Yeah, right?
Right. I love that. And I love that it's like,
After he read this he realized through the spirit
of course that he knew enough He knew enough
to have peace. He knew enough about Jesus Christ.
And to have that block for that time, that period
of time that he was separated from the Holy Ghost
and just doubting and questioning everything,
now he has that to contrast and say, do I want
to sit and ruminate on these feelings or do I
want to get back to that peace that I feel because
of these truths that I do understand and I do
know for myself? And I would say I haven't had
to deal with that huge issue. Necessarily for
myself, but you know, there's other things that
come up and and I've I've said it on here before
too When it doesn't set well with me all it it
doesn't mean hey throw away everything, you know
to be true It lets me know. Hey, you need to
you need to address that like why why did it
make you react that way internally and so I don't
sit and focus on that I focus on all the things
that I do know until I can kind of bring it into
harmony to say You know who spoke that was a
prophet if I'm unsettled by it I found time and
time again that I'm able to just loop that into
the fact that I know that God sends a prophet
and the prophet of our day is, right now, it's
President Oaks, you know? That I might not know
everything, I might not have all the resolve,
but I know enough to know that He's never let
me wrong with His prophets. And so it's a start,
and then it lets me know, hey, a prayer in my
heart as things are shared that will help me.
understand where that fits into my testimony
of things or to help me feel more resolved about
it. Let me pick up on those things. But in the
meantime, it's not just like right in front of
your face like bugging you and preventing everything
else from penetrating your heart. Right. I love
that. That's a really good way to put it. I know
that one day we will understand. I don't know
the whys either. And like you said, I do know
that I trust God, I know his character, and I
know that he loves every one of his children.
And here, again, I respect the way the elder
Johnson went about his quest for understanding
and personal peace, because there is going to
be a time, it may not be with this specific point
of doctrine, or it may be, but each one of us
will have a season where we have something similar
and we're just, it's hard, you know, we have
to struggle and we got to... stand up on our
own two feet and decide and choose how we are
going to deal with this. Absolutely, that's so
true. And then after he came to his place of
personal peace and personal conviction, then
he was even more determined to love the gospel
of Jesus Christ. He quoted Elder Renlund in this
talk, said, who reminded us that the Savior's
job is to heal and make us whole. Our job is
to love, to love and to minister in such a way
that others are drawn to Jesus Christ. This is
one way we live the gospel of Jesus Christ through
acts of love and service. I'll say, because this
talks about ministering, you know, sometimes
people just open their doors and they want you
and they want you to minister. And sometimes
our ministering assignments will have us encountering
people that do have deep -seated anger or grief
or trauma or whatever that they associate with
the church. And I guess what I would say is that
it's not our job to try to fix the questions
that they have. They really have to go on their
journey of exploration on it, but I do see in
that quote or in those thoughts, some of who
we totally do have control over is loving that
person and ministering in Jesus Christ's way.
Yeah, not not thinking I'm gonna go and they're
all they were offended by such -and -such or
they don't like this point of doctrine That that
is not my that is not my thing to solve. Mm -hmm
It's never gonna it's never gonna resonate the
same with them if they don't Study that out and
come to that realization on their own with their
own study But what I can do is point them to
the source of peace and happiness and healing
in healing Yeah, well it helped them get Jesus
Christ more fully embedded in their life and
and try our hardest to Have them have experiences
with the Holy Ghost and maybe it's been a minute
since they have and that's where the bigger part
of the block has come from so I like I like knowing
what I do have control over and That is something
that I can have control over just absolute love
for whoever I minister to whatever baggage that
they come with whatever Things are holding them
back. I can love So good Our ability to live
the doctrine of Jesus Christ will be enhanced
by daily study in the Book of Mormon and weekly
partaking of the sacrament. We come to know Jesus
Christ through our study of the Book of Mormon,
and then when we prayerfully take the sacrament,
we also come to know him. And by doing both,
Elder Johnson says for him, it minimizes feelings
of discouragement, escalates my determination
to minister to the one in the Savior's way, and
helps make discipleship my highest priority.
I love that. Okay. In closing, I'm just going
to close with some of the things that, with his
closing testimony, and I absolutely echo it.
He says, my friends, I promise that as we live
the doctrine of Christ and minister to the one
in ways that lead to the house of the Lord, we
will press forward with faith in Jesus Christ,
even amid unanswered questions and feelings of
being unimportant, alone, discouraged, and unseen.
We will invite the one to come unto Jesus Christ
and to worship in the house of the Lord to receive
of his redeeming power and love. In the house
of the Lord, we will feel the Savior's mercy.
We will find answers to our most vexing questions,
and we will better comprehend the joy of his
gospel. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.