- Live the gospel of Jesus Christ
- Care for those in need
- Invite all to receive the gospel
- Unite families for eternity
To receive eternal life, we must “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.” As we come unto Christ and help others do the same, we participate in God’s work of salvation and exaltation, which focuses on divinely appointed responsibilities. These divine responsibilities align themselves with priesthood keys restored by Moses, Elias, and Elijah, as recorded in the 110th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, and the second great commandment given to us by Jesus Christ to love our neighbor as ourselves. They are found on the first two pages of the updated General Handbook, available to all members.
- Living the gospel of Jesus Christ
- Caring for those in need
- Inviting all to receive the gospel
- Uniting families for eternity
The 4 responsibilities are listed in the handbook in this order.
It has been said that the gospel of Jesus Christ is “simply beautiful and beautifully simple.” The world is not. It is complicated, complex, and filled with turmoil and strife. We are blessed as we exercise care not to allow complexity, so common in the world, to enter into the way we receive and practice the gospel.
First, living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jens of Denmark prays daily to live the gospel and notice promptings from the Holy Ghost. He has learned to act quickly when he feels directed by the Spirit.…
“On this night with the most beautiful Danish summer weather imaginable, doors and windows were open, and everything breathed peace and quiet. Due to our gloriously bright and long summer nights, I had not been in a hurry to replace a burned-out light bulb in our utility room.
“Suddenly, I got a strong feeling that I had to replace it immediately!…I felt a strong urge to leave immediately.
“The grocery store was only on the other side of the pond. We usually walked, but today I grabbed my bike. While riding past the pond, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a small boy, about two years old, walking alone near the edge of the pond, very close to the water—suddenly he fell in! One minute he was there—and the next he was gone!
“No one had seen this happen but me. I threw my bike on the ground, ran, and jumped into the waist-high pond. The surface of the water immediately closed with duckweed, making it impossible to see through the water.…I put my arm in the water, got hold of a T-shirt, and pulled the little boy up.”
I love this example of the importance of being sensitive to promptings. The example of caring for those in need was less impressive because it was a case that was so obvious that you’d have to be dead not to recognize the desperate need and it was targeted at the most vulnerable members within their congregation although it was a reminder that there are desperate cases close to home. It would be more impactful if the example was one of a less obvious need and/or if it was a case of helping someone in need who was not within their existing circle of the ward. It was a good example of engaging the Ward Council to address the complete need rather than giving a perfunctory service.
I think you will enjoy this example of inviting all to receive the gospel. Seventeen-year-old Cleiton of Cape Verde had no idea what would happen as a result of walking into his ward’s seminary class one day. But his life and the lives of others would be forever changed because he did.
Cleiton, along with his mother and older brother, had been baptized into the Church some time earlier, and yet the family stopped attending. His single act of attending seminary would prove to be a hinge point for the family.
The other youth in the seminary class were warm and welcoming. They made Cleiton feel at home and encouraged him to attend another activity. He did so and soon began attending his other Church meetings. A wise bishop saw spiritual potential in Cleiton and invited him to be his assistant. “From that moment on,” says Bishop Cruz, “Cleiton became an example and an influence to other young people.”
The first person Cleiton invited back to church was his mother, then his older brother. He then widened his circle to friends. One of those friends was a young man his own age, Wilson. Upon his very first meeting with the missionaries, Wilson expressed his desire to be baptized. The missionaries were impressed and amazed at how much Cleiton had already shared with Wilson.
This is an example of how Cleiton invited others to receive the gospel but also an example of how the members of his seminary class did so.
Finally, let me share a beautiful example of uniting families for eternity. Lydia from Kharkiv, Ukraine, first learned about the temple from the missionaries. Immediately, Lydia felt a fervent desire to attend the temple, and after her baptism, she began preparation to receive a temple recommend.
Lydia attended the Freiberg Germany Temple to receive her endowment and then spent several days doing proxy work there. Following the dedication of the Kyiv Ukraine Temple, Lydia attended the temple more frequently. She and her husband, Anatoly, were eternally sealed there and later called to serve as temple missionaries. Together they have found more than 15,000 names of ancestors and have worked to provide temple ordinances for them.
Leave a Reply