Paisley: Hi everybody, Paisley imperfect here again, with
another message this one word. This time we're going to talk
about elder oaks talk from the October 2016 general conference
called sharing the restored gospel. This, I decided, or I
mean, I got a little bit ahead of my plan for this week, I also
really love the story of King Lamoni's conversion, it's one of
my favorites. And so I got ahead of my plan and decided that I
would listen to some of the some of the conference talks that
were also linked in, come follow me. And this one really stuck
out to me and I loved it, because elder oaks, then elder
oaks gives us some really practical advice. And some
things that we can do to share the gospel, whether we have
before or not.
He starts with three things, or he gives us three things to
start with, rather, the first thing, if you don't want to,
then you should probably pray for the desire to share the
gospel. So that was actually step number one, pray for the
desire to help in this vital part of the work of salvation. I
have also heard it said that if you don't have if you don't want
the desire, then pray for the desire to have the desire, pray
for the want to have the want. And I mean, frankly, I've had to
start there before
Sharing the gospel is it's, it's kind of it's strange for me,
because it's so much a part of who I am. But it seems like it
should be easy. But for some reason, I always, I feel like I
always struggle. As I went through this, though, maybe I
don't as much as I thought. Let's see if we can get you
there too.
So step number one was to pray for the desire to help in this
vital part of the work of salvation. So pray for the
desire to share the gospel,
then the second one was to keep the commandments ourselves. And
he talks about how us keeping the commandments, that's what is
going to draw people to us.
And then number three is pray again, more specifically pray
for inspiration on what we can do in our individual
circumstances to share the gospel with others, he starts
off his talk. So a little bit before he gives these three
things to get us started. He starts off his talk by saying
that there are hundreds of ways for individuals to share the
gospel in within their own circumstances, and everybody's
circumstance is different. So put yourself in his shoes for
just a second and think about if you were one of the 12. And you
wanted to give some practical advice on how a worldwide
organization, how 16 million people, 17 18 million people,
whatever we're up to now can share the gospel. You want to
give some practical advice to 18 million very unique different
people on how to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, what
would you say?
Which I think we'll get to here in a second. I would love to
come back to that point. The second thing so that was number
one. Remember that people will learn when they're ready to
learn not when we are ready to teach them.
Number two, remember that an invitation to learn more about
Jesus Christ and His gospel is preferable to An invitation to
learn more about our church. I had not, for some reason, put
those words together the way that he just did. We're just did
in 2016. Remember that an invitation to learn more about
Jesus Christ. So our invitation is to bring people to Jesus
Christ, not to bring them to the church. The church will help
them get to Jesus Christ. But that's the invitation is to
learn more about him. Please come with me to church on Sunday
to learn more about Jesus Christ. Rather than please come
to church with me to learn more about the church. And when you
think about it on Sundays are lessons they're not about the
church. They are about the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the
invitation is to come and learn more about him. I just, I
thought that was really interesting and kind of a duh.
moment for me.
Number three, I'm just gonna read directly I I've was trying
to paraphrase these. But number three, I, I can't say it the way
that he does. He says, quote, when we seek to introduce people
to the restored gospel, we should do so in ways that are
authentic and unloving concern for the individual. This happens
when we are trying to help others with problems they have,
they have identified, or when we are working with them in
community service activities, such as relieving suffering,
caring for the poor, and needy, or enhancing the quality of life
of others.
So be authentic about it, it does not need to be forced, nor
should it be forced, it should be authentic, in the moment,
follow the spirit.
Number four, don't limit our efforts to our own circles of
friends and acquaintances, we should be opening our mouths to
anyone and everyone that the Spirit tells us to open our
mouths to the example that he gives, in this part of his talk
is about a taxi driver in real during the Olympics, this tax
taxi driver had the Book of Mormon in six or seven
languages, I'm sorry, I don't remember the exact number. But
he had a copy of the Book of Mormon and like six or seven
different languages, and he was using his taxi and the
opportunity that he had to talk to hundreds of people that he
was driving around all day, he used that as an opportunity to
share the gospel. How incredible is that? Why can't I do that?
Well, I need to pray for the desire.
Number five, we could plan a special sacrament meeting. This
one I thought was really cool. And my bishop doesn't know it
yet, because they have young men's camp this week. My Bishop
doesn't know it yet. But I may share the idea with him. But
think about this for just a second. And he goes he gives.
Maybe I should just read what he says. It's number five, he says
Ward bishoprics can plan a special sacrament meeting to to
which members are urged to bring interested persons. So what if
we had a sacrament meeting? Let's see we are in July right
now. And so schools going to start in August. And then we
start getting into like piano or piano primary the primary
program like fourth quarter, but we've got like these great
Sundays in September and October when most people are in town.
They haven't started their holiday travel yet. We don't
have spring break to compete with none of that. So we've got
these great Sundays in September, October. What if we
had a sacrament meeting a specific day that was set aside
to just talk about? Maybe it's the plan of salvation, how
families can be together can be together forever? How our
Heavenly Father has a plan for us where we came from, where
we're going, like, what if we had a sacrament meeting that had
short talks, and each one of these people talked about
different parts of the plan of salvation?
And a couple of months in advance, we started announcing,
hey, on this Sunday in September or October, or I don't know,
maybe we push it until April or May I don't know. I'm not the
bishop and my bishop might say no, and that's totally fine. But
like, think about that for a second Ward bishoprics can plan
a special sacrament meeting to which members are urged to bring
interested person so on this particular Sunday in October
we're going to do this sacrament meeting that is going to be
specifically for people who have people who don't know that much
about the plan of salvation.
Interested friends, right. Okay. He says word members will be
less hesitant to bring their acquaintance, acquaintances to
such a meeting because they will be more assured that the content
of the meeting will be well planned to enlist interest and
represent the church. Well. It is a sacrament meeting
specifically set aside for us to bring our friends to. I don't
know why that thought had never crossed my mind before. But I
thought that was super cool. And I mean, frankly, we may have
already done this. I keep thinking like October 2016.
That's the month I was nine months pregnant with my first
kid. And everything is a little bit of a blur. I don't remember
this talk. Does anybody remember every single? Well, I guess some
people do they have those kinds of memories. Anyway, I don't
remember any of this. So this was a very cool idea for me for
the first time.
Okay, number six, let's keep going. Stay in touch with people
of all backgrounds, not just your church friends. So when
somebody moves away, and you've become friends with them, stay
in touch with them. I am horrible at staying in touch
with people. Once they move or once I move I am just I am I
have been horrible at keeping in touch with people. I am trying
to change that. I've had a lot of friends move recently. I live
in Southern California and it is very expensive. And people are
moving to Idaho, Texas, Utah, Virginia, you name it. They're
going all over the place North Carolina. And so I am I have I'm
trying so much harder to stay in touch with my people who are
leaving. But not just church friends, make friends with other
people. Who are you? How are you going to share the gospel with
your church friends? That's what ministering is for, right?
That's what the ministering program is for not ministering
itself. Should you be careful with that?
Number seven, this one is specific to the youth. He kept
this one pretty specific to them by the use of social media
channels. Use them use your social media channels to uplift
others and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn't need
to be a hey, look at me, look how awesome I am. I'm keeping
the commandments. Share an uplifting message.
I mean, I create quote things for you, you could share him if
you want to do on Instagram or on Facebook. You could share the
little quote thing, put it in your story, put it on your
Facebook page, I don't care. Whatever we can do to help
uplift people, make them feel better about themselves, and
help them become closer to their savior, Jesus Christ. Whatever
we can do. Let's just do it.
That's a hard one for me. Plan a special sacrament meeting,
perhaps stay in touch with people of all backgrounds, your
friends who are moving who you became close with, but aren't
members of the Church. Social media has to be good for
something right. And then use that social media. You can use
it to stay in touch, and you can use it to help uplift others and
bring them to their Savior.
So now we have seven plus three, we have 10 things that we can do
to get started seven ideas, three ways for us to get the
ball rolling. And then he gives us resources. He's like, Okay,
so here's what you need to do. And here are the resources that
you have.
He gave us six resources, number one television How many of you
are going to use television to share the gospel and this is not
I do not mean this as a slight to elder oaks. I do not mean
this as a slight to elder oaks. Because I also know that he is
talking about the church in general as well. Right. And the
church in general. They are spending more on a heavier media
presence on television, which is fantastic, in my opinion. How
many of us are going to use TV, YouTube TV? It's becoming more
accessible to people like you and me. Number two is the
internet. Again, number two and number three, the internet and
social media. Write your blog posts.
Write your write your article, write your testimony, send it to
the Leona, you can do that. And then you take a copy and you're
like, hey, look, I got published. And you show your
friends this article that you wrote that got published in a
magazine that has worldwide distribution. How cool is that?
Number four, increased number of missionaries. This is a resource
to us, we have an increased number of missionaries, we just
got a set of sister missionaries in our ward, we've had elders
for a while. Now we have elders and sisters, we have an
increased number of missionaries out there. Let's use them. We
have valuable messages to share. The church is constantly putting
out valuable messaging, constantly putting it out almost
every day, I think it might actually be every day, they
update their homepage with a new message.
I'm going I'm looking right now just to double check. There's
been one at the top for a while. The one at the top says, oh,
it's got president and right now it has President Nelson's 100th
birthday invitation reached out to the one, how long has that
been going on. And there's a ton of great content out there
people that are sharing their stories, the 99 Plus One you may
have seen like it's got the little 99 plus one in the bottom
corner. People are sharing their stories all over the place about
the about being the one that somebody came to find, or a time
when they helped the one. There are there's tons there are so
many resources on the church's website, opportunities for us to
just hit, share, and send it to somebody. And then number six is
interesting, a prominence we've never had before. Meaning that
more people have actually heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints now than ever before.
If you grew up in the 80s, and 90s, like I did every single
time, I said what church I was a member of who what? I've never
heard of it before, what would what does that mean? And then
we'd go through either the articles of faith or you know,
whatever. Now, more and more people have heard of the church.
Because we do campaigns like like the world around Christmas,
or the I can't remember what the Easter one is called now. We've
got ads in Times Square, we have things on television, it's all
over the internet, there are more people like us who are
sharing our testimony and sharing our own stories out
there there are we have a prominence now that we've never
had before. And we can use that as a resource. I had never
thought about that. How can you use these resources?
Okay, so also, I know that there are a lot of people out there
who are really good at sharing the gospel. They are really good
at bringing people in. I know some of these people and they
like, it's like they have somebody new every month. And
they're always bringing friends with them to church and these
friends get baptized. And like it's, I always just sit there
and think, how do they do that? I do not consider myself one of
those people. I've always felt like, I've always felt like one
of the 99. Right, one of the 99. Who is there trying to hold the
other 98 together while somebody else goes after the one. I've
never felt like the person to go after the one. That's somebody
else's good at that. They're going to do that. And I'm going
to hold the note I'm going to I'm going to help hold the 98
together. Well, that person's after the one. I actually my
calling right now is in young women's and the other person,
the other leader with my class. She is one of those people
that's really good at talking about she's a convert. We're all
converts in her own right. She's a more recent convert than I am.
She is really good at talking to people and just sharing the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we were kind of joking one time
she's and she's like, well, I'll bring him you keep them. I'm
really good at bringing him in. You go ahead and keep them here.
And it just we kind of laughed about it. But that's that's kind
of how I've always felt like it. Somebody else is really good at
getting them here. Once they get them here. I can help keep them
here.
But I cannot figure out how to go get them and bring them. I am
trying to do better. And now with a renewed sense of energy
from elder oaks and those three steps, pray, keep the
commandments, pray some more. I can I feel like I can start
again to try and find and help bring people to their Savior.
So I'm sure that there are other people that feel like that too.
But here, there's also something else that I frequently forget.
Simply being friends with somebody who is not a member of
the church is doing missionary work. If you are being an
authentic friend, if you are being yourself.
There is a bit of a caveat. Like, we don't get to just say,
I have friends who aren't members of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints. So all right, cool. missionary work
check. That's It's not like that. You have to be that friend
that lifts them up and helps them out. You have to be the
friend who keeps the commandments, no matter what the
circumstances are, who keeps their temple covenants, no
matter what the circumstances are, even an especially when
they seem inconvenient.
So for just a second, I want to look at the baptismal covenants
that we make the ones that are listed in Mosiah 18. So in verse
eight, one of the, the covenant in verse eight, excuse me, we're
willing to bear one another's burdens that they may be liked.
Notice that it doesn't say that we are willing to bear the
burdens of our church friends, that may be late. It's
everybody.
Verse nine, we're willing to mourn with those that mourn,
comfort those that stand in need of comfort. And it's not just
mourning with those of our faith. It's not just comforting
the sisters in our ward. It's everyone.
Also, in verse nine, stand as a witness of God at all times, and
in all things and in all places, all things all times, all
places, not just bearing your testimony at church. There's
nothing wrong with bury your testimony at church, there is
nothing inherently wrong with doing any of these things just
at church. There's nothing wrong with that. If we want to use
these as opportunities to help bring others to our Savior, we
need to step outside and bring other people in verse 10, serve
the Lord and keep His commandments. It's not just that
it doesn't just say do your calling. And that's it. It says
serve the Lord and keep His commandments. So serve the Lord.
King Benjamin said, when you're in the service of your fellow
beings, you're only in the service of your God, fellow
beings, not ward members. When we are serving anyone around us,
we are serving our Lord, we are serving our Heavenly Father. And
as we keep his commandments, even in the inconvenient,
difficult situations, we are drawing people closer to our
Savior.
Verse 21, have our hearts knit together in unity and love.
doesn't say anything about just a church.
And verse 27, importing of our substance, doesn't just say at
church, sharing with those who need and giving what we can to
help to help others.
Now again, so when I yeah, when I say it that way, like when we
when we think about it, mourn with those that mourn, but not
just those in our ward, like our neighbors and stuff. It seems
ridiculous, right? But I think sometimes, myself included,
that's where we get caught up in these things. Like we have this
calling and we're, we're gonna go, we're going to do our
calling. And we're going to mourn with our friends. And it's
our service projects and our our friendships, they're more,
they're easier at church, because it's often the thing,
because we share that we share that faith with those who are in
our ward or at church, right? And that faith is often what
makes us feel the most vulnerable.
And when we're around others who share it, we feel a little less
judged and a little less weird. A little less different. We feel
like we feel done somewhere. But remember, you know, maybe that's
just me. But I, I do feel more comfortable, more comfortable
around people who have the same faith that I do. Just simply
because it is such a, it's such a huge part of who I am. And I
don't have to worry about whether I'm going to say the
wrong thing, or if I'm going to come off a little weird or I
don't have to worry about that. But again, but remember,
presidents Kimball and Nelson told us that it will be through
the relationships that we build with others, that the real
growth will happen in the church. So those relationships
that we are building with people who are outside of our faith,
those are the that's what's really going to draw more and
more people to our Savior. That's what brings in the one.
So I'm going to close this episode with a quote from elder
oaks. He quotes elder Bednar or Ballard sorry, he quotes elder
Ballard in this so I'm kind of cheating two quotes elder oaks
and elder Ballard. But elder oaks says sharing the gospel is
not a burden, but a joy. What we call member missionary work is
not a program, but an attitude of love and outreach to help
those around us now think about ministering for a second sorry,
tangent moment. Think about ministering for a seconds, the
visiting teaching or home teaching program was changed to
ministering for a very inspired reason. It's an attitude of love
and outreach to help those around us. We're not going over
to share a message. Maybe we will when we get there. But it's
not. It's not an assigned message. It's whatever message
that person needs. And the same thing. He's talking about member
missionary work as though it's ministering member missionary
work is not a program, but an attitude of love and outreach to
help those around us. It is also an opportunity to witness how we
feel about the restored gospel of our Savior. That is
ministering to other people.
Then he quotes elder Ballard a most significant evidence of our
conversion and of how we feel about the gospel in our own
lives, is our willingness to share it with others. It's time
for me to pray, keep the commandments and pray some more.
Remember to keep it natural and authentic. And maybe a little
weird. I don't know. I probably will keep it weird, because
that's how I roll. I hope that we can all I know. I know we all
have different experiences with missionary work. And I hope that
we can all just try. That's all just try to step outside of our
comfort zone a little bit and help somebody else. Either start
a relationship, maybe we just introduce them and just
introduce them to their Savior and His love for them. And we do
that by loving them.
It sounds oversimplified, but I don't think it is. I think
that's just it. It's an attitude of love and outreach to help
those around us all of those around us, not just our church
friends. You guys, thank you so much for being here. I really
appreciate your time. I hope that you are learning something
right along with me. I am learning a lot. And thank you
for having fun with me on this. Have a great week you guys