Today we continued our discussion of President and Sister Nelson’s devotional address “Hope of Israel.” These notes are a compilation and summary of the comments made during our Council Meeting. It is not meant to be a complete transcript.
These notes are long, but we feel there were many good things discussed today and don’t want to cut anything out. Thank you sisters for your faith and love.
If you will read, listen to, or watch the devotional, for the first time or again, the Lord will prompt you according to your current circumstances and perspective.
President Nelson has given the youth, and us, a call to action:
I promise you that if you will sincerely and persistently do the spiritual work needed to develop the crucial, spiritual skill of learning how to hear the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, you will have all the direction you will ever need in your life.
How can we do what the Prophet has asked?
- Take time to pray and listen, as taught by President Ezra Taft Benson: “Do you take time to listen to the promptings of the Spirit? Answers to prayer come most often by a still voice and are discerned by our deepest, innermost I tell you that you can know the will of God concerning yourselves if you will take the time to pray and to listen.”
- President Nelson asked the youth to have a seven-day social media fast. But if you do that and then go right back to your previous habits you haven’t really followed what President Nelson asked. He said, “See if you notice any difference in how you feel and what you think, and even howyou think, during those seven days. After seven days, notice if there are some things you want to stop doing and some things you now want to start doing.”
- Ask yourself, “Can I recognize the hand of the Lord in my life today?” The more you look for it, the more you will see it.
- It takes patience to step back and let the Lord work miracles.
- Our effort will be reflected in the outcome. We cannot simply stop eating and drinking for 24 hours and call it fasting. It requires our faith and prayers. It is the same with listening to the Holy Ghost, praying and studying the scriptures. When you put in daily effort you see daily blessings.
President Nelson promised as we learn to listen to the Hold Ghost, “You will be given answers to your questions in the Lord’s own way and in His own time.” Do you want answers to your questions? How does the Lord give us answers?
- Sometimes we don’t actually want answers; maybe we aren’t sincere in our prayers or our seeking. We have to ask ourselves if we are willing to accept the Lord’s will and if we are asking the right questions.
- We can find answers through prayer and in the scriptures.
- We must be patient with the Lord’s timing and accept that he may not answer exactly how we want.
- We need to receive personal revelation.
Sister Nelson asked, “What were you born to do?”
- We can and should ask this question often, all through life; even if you think you’ve already done what the Lord needs you to do, even if you think you’ve fulfilled your earthly mission. You might wonder why you are still on earth.
- Maybe we should also ask ourselves “Who need me?” We might not know everything the Lord has sent us to earth to do, the people we can help, the people who need us.
Sister Nelson said,
“How I wish you could watch a 10-minute video of your premortal life…. for a moment, imagine the effect on your life right now if you were permitted to watch 10 minutes of your premortal life.
… I believe that every one of you would have the increased power, increased commitment, and eternal perspective to help you overcome any and all of your confusion, doubts, struggles, and problems. All of them!”
How might knowledge of our premortal life help us now?
- We may not remember, but those choices and the knowledge we had can still influence us here. Asking “why me” in a helpless or bitter way isn’t good but acknowledging that we knew what we would be facing in this life and we choose to come to earth can give us strength. We can ask the Lord “What is your plan for me?” then we can understand what the Lord wants us to learn and do with our experiences here.
- Each of us individually can do so much good in our homes and in our community. You don’t have to be famous to have an important mission in this life. There is no limit to the good we can do, especially when we know who we are and whose side we are on.
- We can rely on our patriarchal blessings In them we learn who we are, where we came from.
- Each time we read our patriarchal blessings we can learn different things. Maybe the specific wording in your blessing will not make sense until later in your life. The Lord knows what we need, but we have to go it and read it.
- Several sisters shared experiences and specific things from their patriarchal blessings. They testified of the guidance and comfort that can come through these words.
The Gathering of Israel is going to happen. Do I want to be part of it? We need to be honest and serious in our introspection: What does the Lord need me to do?
- I feel a great sense of urgency. I want to grab my family and bring them along with me.
- Today we have the technology to do so much work for our ancestors, in less time than it’s ever taken. The work the youth do can bless us too: they can find family history information that we have not been able to find.
President Nelson used these words to describe the Gathering of Israel and our role in this work: majestic, challenge, sacrifice, change, time and effort.
Are you willing to enlist in the Lord’s Battalion for the Gathering of Israel, to work alongside our youth, who have been challenged and called by the Prophet?
Once you decide, yes, you are willing, ask yourself, “What am I going to do to help gather Israel?”
Our September First Sunday Council Meeting will continue this discussion.
We will follow up on the questions and goals from this month. We will also focus on learning about the Gathering of Israel: what is it and what is our role?
