One thing that creates heartbreak in my soul is when I hear a variant of, “I did the church stuff, and it really didn’t do much for me.” By small and simple things, great things are brought to pass (Alma 37:6). Life-changing religious experiences and intimate miracles are based on 1000s of small, intentional interactions. This is what makes church service significant and joyful.

Patient application of the gospel to serve God’s children always increases love. Today, I rode on an airplane with a woman who gave up a technology career to expand her service for the Red Cross. She had peace in her countenance. I felt her greatest joy came from serving herself and seeing so many others spontaneously come together to help alleviate suffering of others in times of need. John wrote, “God is love.” We cannot know God without loving others. He is the father of our spirits, and without choosing to know Him again, our joy can never be full.

Passive Discipleship

I hope the phrase, “passive discipleship” creates cognitive dissonance because it is a contradiction in terms.  Elder David Bednar recently stressed that “discipleship is ministering and ministering is discipleship.” One cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ without emulating what we can. This is key to attaining his promise, “…it doth not yet appear what we shall be… we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him…“ (1 John 3:3)

Have you ever struggled to stay awake in a meeting where you didn’t have an active role? An unengaged human mind tends to shut down. Gospel service is the same. If we primarily come to church to observe and listen, but not to contribute and interact, we may spiritually fall asleep.

Active Discipleship

Too often I have been guilty of not looking for opportunities to lift others who are silently struggling. When I heighten that awareness and pray for ways to serve, the sweetest life experiences come.

Two days ago, I was serving in a sacred temple where I noticed a young temple worker sitting alone. He wasn’t clean-shaven because he had been forbidden to shave by a doctor responsible for surgical grafts in his mouth. I think the disappointment and discomfort had allowed doubts to enter his mind as to whether his service mattered or if it was simply distracting because of a mild stutter. As I sat with him and told him what an honor it had been to train him, and how I felt the light of my Savior through him, healing tears began to flow freely. As we left, he gave me a brotherly embrace, and I felt, “The Lord has given me another gem in a string of unbroken miracles.”

Today, two other interactions warmed my soul, and one was brought on simply because of an inspired smile in an airport.

The beauty of serving is that love flows both ways, like when the children I teach singing to put 100 encouraging hearts on my door.

A Dear Friend, Jodi Nelson

Jodi Nelson is friend of John Butrick and I. She passed away in 2025. I first became acquainted when I was asked to administer the sacrament to her in her home in December 2024. In that visit, I found a vibrant spirit locked in a rapidly failing body.

From my journal:

Before the Christmas holiday, our young men were temporarily relieved of duties to take the sacrament to shut-in members so they could attend a special singing practice after church for 3-weeks for our ward Christmas sacrament meeting. I was asked to go to a Sister Nelson’s home for those three weeks to administer the sacrament in their place with other brothers. In retrospect, it’s a bit humorous that they asked me because I was the one leading the youth in the singing practice and therefore had to go to her home late.

Those were very sacred weeks. Sister Nelson has stage 4 kidney failure and numerous other health issues that put her in such a precarious state that she is not a candidate for surgery. She has an amputated leg because of a previous bone infection and a wound in her remaining foot that won’t heal, also with a bone infection. She has a spark of feisty words for the unsavory things in the world, but is clearly and fully converted to the Lord and resigned that she will likely die.

I told John Butrick, my ministering companion, about her, and bless his heart, he took to prayer yesterday and had a strong impression that we were to go administer a blessing to her, and tonight, that is what we did. He and I ministered to her by mostly listening to her express her convictions and concerns and basking in the light of her testimony before offering the blessing, which was gratefully received.

When we arrived, she told me that as she watched our sacrament meeting service from her apartment, one of my two temple brothers bore his testimony of the importance of the temple ordinances. She said she had a strong impression that I was to assist as a proxy so her father could be sealed to his parents which touched me deeply. She is preparing to die. She was a lifelong seamstress and just gave away her sewing machine and about 100 bolts of cloth, hoping to do good for someone else since she can’t anymore.

John and I continued to minister over the next few months and she asked me to sing, “I Can Only Imagine” at her funeral. It was heartbreaking to receive the call from her friend that she had passed away a few minutes before our orchestra played a song that featured a young semi-professional dance couple. As they danced and we played (La La Land), I felt I was watching her life as a dance, and I felt a deep consoling joy that the Lord had given me another gem in a string of miracles. Singing her song at her funeral was a beautiful honor.

Living, breathing active discipleship changes hearts and will change the world.

I have wept in the night

For the shortness of sight

That to somebody’s need made me blind;

But I never have yet

Felt a tinge of regret

For being a little too kind.

C. R. Gibson

I have elected to rewrite this very challenging entry that I published nearly a year ago. I previously identified a controversy that is still reinforced, to detrimental effect, among many seeking some kind of logical proof as to whether some tenets conform to truth better than others.

Let me speak of grace in terms of my deepest love for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that He loves me. It is the same love he has for all of Father’s children. I deserve no blessing, and yet every time I make choices to become better or do better, I feel that love, which was always there, burst forth in my heart. This freely flowing love from my Savior is my saving grace.

Even in very dark hours of my life, I have felt the Saviors kind pull as soon as I reach out to Him in sincere prayer. Prayers invite what is often imperceptible change. The gift of grace turns desires expressed in prayer into a kind of enabling control system that begins making subtle adjustments that may not immediately appear to effect a change in direction, but begin to gently nudge needed course change on a path to eternal life.

Men will stand before God to be judged according to their works, for so it is written. But whatever else the scriptures say, I feel that if the day comes where I have the privilege of kneeling before my Savior and kissing his loving hands and bathing his feet with my tears, it will only have been through His grace that has blessed me every day of my life.

Grace is a deep topic to me, and one that I cannot yet understand or appreciate fully. I look forward to the day when grace has fully rooted evil out of my heart and created within me a new heart that “when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” 1 John 3

Our works matter, for it is written (Revelation 14:13), “Blessed are they that die in the Lord… and their works do follow them.” Our love matters. Our time and talents invested in blessing others matters. But it only truly matters because of the transforming gift of grace through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our family was planning a move from California back to my home state of Utah. It was getting close to Christmas and, having some business to take care of in Utah, I decided to drive there with a van load of critical items. I was driving alone, and as I neared Las Vegas, I thought, “There is nothing real or wholesome for me in this city. I will not stop, except to get gas on the uncongested northernmost tip of the metropolis where the city fades back into desert.”

I did so and resumed my drive North, climbing the hill to where the city begins to disappear from view. There I saw a man hitchhiking, hopefully raising his hand. I immediately thought, “I don’t stop for hitchhikers…” but simultaneously I also felt a strong impression, “Stop and pick him up…” I drove by him as I considered the impression and recalled the scripture that we are all beggars before God (Mosiah 4:19 BofM ). I went to the nearest exit, doubled back and approached him again.

This time, he didn’t even look back as I drove up behind him. He didn’t raise his hand. His shoulders were slumped and he appeared dejected. I passed him again while dropping speed to stop on the shoulder of the highway, and when he saw it, he began a hopeful, hobbled run.

He climbed gratefully into the van and told me that his name was Dick and that he had to leave the city or die there. His feet were bleeding and he was clearly dehydrated. He explained that he just wanted to get back to Denver where he had been working as a cook at Denny’s and was hopeful they would take him back. He asked if I would just drive him to the junction North of St. George where he could hitchhike further, but I ended up taking him further, to Salt Lake, and helped him on a bus to Denver.

He had left his job in Denver to enjoy some time in Vegas and possibly find work there. In so doing, he had gone to a house of ill-repute where they stole his wallet. Shortly after that, his car was impounded just as he had started work with a detail of men, but without a car, he couldn’t continue and he soon found himself unemployed, with no money, and homeless.

The casinos were quick to remove homeless people from their premises, so he took the full brunt of the heat of that summer outside. He begged for any money people would give and would save that money for a weekly discount day when hamburgers were half of the normal cost. The desperate strait he found himself in culminated in his walk into the desert, with grim resolution to attempt the journey on foot or die trying.

The time driving Dick to Salt Lake is a dear memory. It was pleasant to have his company on the road, and I was very touched when he said, “I’ve lived my whole life with no one showing me kindness like you have, and this from a total stranger.” Truthfully, that stung my heart somewhat because I thought of all the judgmental times when I have looked away from the homeless.

This story came back to me this month as 10 of us in a brass ensemble put on a mini-Christmas concert at the Ogden Homeless Shelter. It was a special memory. One older woman was particularly touching to watch. Her gratitude was reflected in her excited banter with others. She got so excited to hear what we were going to play next, and during many pieces we could tell her heart was being touched as she closed her eyes to hold back her tears. She came up and shook each of our hands and hugged the woman in our group. We were all grateful to her. There was hardship in the eyes of many there. It was sacred ground for me and a blessing to be there.

I remember a near and dear relative giving over $100 of very limited funds and sacrificing their own Christmas to give to needy families. This is the true Spirit of Christ reflected in the words of James.

Let us be grateful for every child of God we associate with. And in doing so, may our hearts be filled with giving!

Related Posts: Reaching out to Others

Step 11: Personal Revelation

Friendship and Redemption

I was recently gently challenged by a very important question, “What do you believe about grace?” This caused me deep reflection and difficulty as I have attempted to condense down my very personal answer to this excellent question because I love the gift of grace. When I think of grace, I think of the atonement of Jesus Christ, when he suffered and died to redeem each of us. This gift is freely given with perfect love and it inspires me to want to be more like Christ in every way.

Within this question lies a fundamental principle that often spurs contention within the Christian community. At the core of the debate is a sound scriptural assertion, “If Christ has truly paid for our sins, we can no longer believe it is our works that will save us. It is only in and through the merit of the Son of God that salvation comes.” I know that I merit nothing of myself. I need this gift and I can never earn it.

But something is missing. While His perfect gift is freely given, fully receiving the gift of grace to me means fully giving our imperfect hearts to Christ. His grace is sufficient to perfect our offering, softening and healing our hearts until the perfect day when we have no more desire or disposition to do evil. If we are reborn in Christ, how can we not honor His gentle command, “Come, Follow Me,” and do what He would do? Our works become a reflection of His perfect works, not to earn the gift of grace but because of who we have become.

Our works do matter and are of eternal significance. We were meant to help one another through this mortal experience to both enrich our lives, to bless others and to become the woman or man who Christ would have us become.

Please note that all biblical scriptures quoted herein are from the King James version of the bible.

Grace Enables Us to Become

The best gifts in life require work because they are not trinkets to put on a shelf, but they are enablers to become something.

Let us explore a skiing analogy. We could be given the finest ski equipment, complete with warm clothing, season passes, provisions and transportation, but we would never become an expert skier unless we used the gifts and risked the falls to explore and expand our capability.

One day, a co-worker of mine in Japan spoke of how she was going skiing for her first time. She told of how she had purchased a book on skiing and was studying it hard.

It made me smile to think of how this contrasted culturally with my first time on the slopes, where experienced skiers talked me through the basics of snow plowing and how to fall safely even as they adjusted my equipment and helped me bind my boots to the skis. Their advice was extremely important and memorable as it was very ‘hands on’ and in short order we were on the hill putting the principles into practice.

I’m sure the book was helpful for my co-worker, and would have been for me, but I am equally sure she learned far more when she actually went skiing. One thing for certain, if she had never gone, she would never have become a skier. Becoming something requires us to act on gifts and opportunities we are given.

The gift of grace enables us to become like our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ. It is the gift that ensures that we can someday fulfill the Lord’s commandment to “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

The gift of grace reconciles our fundamentally divine nature as sons and daughters of God with the fallen state we inherit by electing to be born into a mortal body subject to temptation and infirmity.

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Romans 8:16-17

Because of our fallen mortal state, we are in a position to choose to nurture the divine potential in us and come to a rebirth in Christ and eternal life or we can choose carnal and selfish paths and risk losing sight of our divine nature, even becoming like our adversary…

God has given us this agency. Only we can choose to use our gift to become like Him.

Who we become is the great test of our mortality.

Showing Appreciating by Using our Gift

How we use our gift of grace is very important.

Imagine being given a new sports car, engineered for fast acceleration, speed and style. 

We would surely be grateful for the gift, but if we merely bragged about the car without using it, it would have no real utility and would surely not please the giver of the gift.

We could use the car to seek carnal pleasure, becoming self-important and prideful, or we could choose to use this car to provide rides to those in need, both strangers and friends, conveying people to destinations they could never reach on their own.

The use of the gift is where the true value lies and is how we show our true appreciation. If we never make the effort to use the gift, then we have faith without works. The Lord may as well have given the car to the fowls of the field, and dubbed the car, a chicken coupe.

I can’t imagine my Savior, in his mortal ministry, passing by the spiritual beggars around him and not doing for them what he did, for he “went about doing good,” healing and blessing and teaching others, and His counsel to “go and do likewise” surely applies to us in our more limited capacity.

Surely, Jesus did these works because of the divine, loving nature of who he was and not to keep a mental tally to calculate blessings he had earned. As we partake of the divine nature of Christ through the gift of His grace, it will be the same for us. May the Lord’s angels write volumes of our works in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that our works become his works. Perhaps this is why John was inspired to say, that if all the works of Christ were written, the world itself could not contain them (John 21:25).

The Gift of Eternal Life

I consider grace the common thread that weaves together all other gifts of God, culminating in eternal life and exaltation which is the greatest of all God’s gifts.

In His great intercessory prayer that Christ offered just before he died for us, he said:

3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.  (John 17:3)

A critical part of knowing God and Jesus Christ is to serve them. The Book of Mormon teaches, “For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?” (Mosiah 5:13).

Where our treasure is, there will our heart be also. In short, we come to know and love those we serve. God and the people we serve become the treasure of our hearts, and in the heavens, surely these relationships and our capacity to love will be our greatest treasure. We can never truly love others without increasing our love of God.

7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (John 1:4)

Our capacity to love is tied to our eternal state. My friend, John Butrick (refer to article), in his out-of-body experience was shown three spheres or worlds that were differentiated by the amount of love he felt in each sphere. As he described it to me, I was reminded of Paul’s description of the 3 degrees of glory in 1 Corinthians 15:40-42, where all those resurrected are in a saved state with an immortal body, but some receive glory only as a distant star appears. Others received glory as that of the moon but for some the glory was even as the sun.

God’s gift of grace enables us to love more fully, to become righteous and to bridle all our passions that we may be filled with love. I must love and serve others, for Christ, “went about doing good.” And he asked us to be like Him. In doing so, I’m not earning the gift of grace. I am using the gift of grace to become someone who will be comfortable in the presence of God.

Conclusion

The gift of grace, to me, is all about letting Christ change us.

Ezra Taft Benson, in a powerfully moving conference talk said, “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature. (Born of God, Conference Report, Oct. 1985)

Given this beautiful work of our Savior, the common argument that, “We are saved by grace or by works. You can’t have it both ways”, sounds tinny and beside the point. The Lord does reward us for our good works, but we are saved by grace. That being said, I must work because I love the Lord and I want to become like Him.

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

(Moroni 10:32-33, Book of Mormon)

As we walk by faith, things will occur in our lives we don’t understand. We all relate to painful trials, but I hope we have also felt the comfort of life-changing tender mercies. I often ponder, “why?” but this is a question that only a divine source can accurately answer, and the “why?” is often delayed while we build our faith. My friend John Butrick has a truly inspiring personal story of waiting on the Lord in both trials and tender mercies which he has encouraged me to share.

John lost his father during an operation when he was only 5-years-old, and then his mother was diagnosed with cancer a few years later. They were living in Michigan, but moved to Washington so she could get treatment. However, 3-years after the diagnosis, the cancer took her and she died at 47, and so he became an orphan when just 13-years old. At that time his brother came to pick him up and took him to Iowa, where he could help out on a dairy farm.

While there, a relative suggested they join the air force to avoid being drafted into the army for the Viet Nam conflict and he did so. There was a large group of them that were told they would be security forces. He ended up in the conflict and was tasked with keeping their base perimeter secure while the Navy and other forces made a withdrawal. At the time, they were losing about 3-people a day from attacks.

At one point during his service, a rocket entered the hooch where they were sleeping. It bounced off a metal cabinet and threw John against a wall and went into the next hooch. The resulting explosion killed the people in the neighboring hooch and knocked him unconscious.  Later he was serving on a tower about 35’ up. He was climbing down when a rocket struck the tower, knocking him unconscious again. This time, his legs fell through the rungs, leaving him hanging upside down. The NVA (North Vietnamese Army) came through that night, but must have assumed he was dead because they just left him there. He came to, just as reinforcements arrived to retake the position. They were amazed he was still alive and assisted him down.

When he returned from the service, he arrived in a town where he saw an ad asking for someone to help on a nearby dairy farm because the father was injured. He took the job and one night, he came in about 10 at night, took off his boots and set them next to his bed and lay down on the bed exhausted with his clothes on. He woke up to find he was in a sitting position on the bed but his body was rigid and he couldn’t move, except for his eyes. Strangely, he felt no fear. Glancing around, he saw the minute hand on the clock and heard the neighboring room’s gas stove turning on and off. The he felt something inside of his chest pulling him upward toward the ceiling and the wall. For some 10-minutes, the pull grew stronger, like a powerful vacuum and he felt something within his body pressing inside. He felt something was approaching and when it arrived, he said, “It’s here” and his spirit left his body. He describes the feeling as being “shot out” and he saw the earth. At that point he heard a voice that was so loud he felt Earth and Heaven could all hear it and saw a great trumpet.

He felt a powerful love associated with what he saw next. “I saw a great light out there that was controlling all of the galaxies, all revolving around this central light. I exclaimed, ‘God, this is how you made this planet! It is so amazing!’ My soul was so happy, I just wanted to be there forever. Then a second wave of love hit me that was so much greater than the first love I felt. It was associated with a planet or place, but I saw no planet.” He then related that he was elevated to a third sphere whose love and beauty were so far beyond his ability to comprehend that it left him without capacity to describe. It filled his soul such that he just felt desire to praise God forever. He returned to his body to find he was still in the sitting position and suddenly fell back on his pillow. The clock showed 10-minutes had passed. He was wide awake and immediately jumped up and proceeded outside to look up at a beautiful star-filled sky and ponder what had just happened.

After that, he drove into the small city, and seeing a cafe, stopped to get refreshment and inquire where there might be a church. There was an empty seat at the end of the barstools and he sat down and ordered a cup of coffee and asked the man next to him about churches in the area. The man said, “There is a church nearby. I teach there in the basement about Jesus Christ but the congregation doesn’t know I’m there.” Assuming he was a preacher, John told him what had happened and asked him what he thought the spiritual manifestation meant. The man stood and said, “John, it means that God has a plan for you.”  The man then excused himself and John observed him enter the nearby bathroom. He waited, but after 15 minutes, he hadn’t returned, so John asked the waitress if there was another door to the bathroom, to which she curtly responded, “That is the only door.” He went in to find there was no one there and no other way out. John chose not to pursue looking for the nearby church, because, in his words, “He was an angel, and I had my answer.”

At one point, John was working in Georgia and began praying to find a wife. During this time his brother came to him and said, “Mom came to me in a dream and told me to come and get you.”  John related, “We went a few weeks later to Lake Cavenaugh and a woman named Gail came in the room where we were and a warm feeling ran down my spine. Two-weeks later, we were dating and soon after that we were married. After first offering those prayers to find my wife, it took 2-years and God taking me some 2500 miles to finally meet Gail.”

Regarding his spiritual manifestation, which he only told to his wife, she would tell him, “Someday you will understand why.” They lived happily together but then, in their later years, his wife got dementia. John cared for her, but as the dementia progressed, he sought for help and his daughter, living in Utah, offered to have them join her family. While in Utah, he was introduced to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ missionaries and he began studying the “Mormon Bible.” He began praying to know if it was a true book. Then, he started reading the section where Lehi and then Nephi see the vision of the Tree of Life. He came to where it described the fruit of the tree as being the ‘Love of God’ and the same powerful love that he had felt in his spiritual experience came over him. He put the book down and with tears in his eyes, he exclaimed, “Now I know that Joseph Smith is the prophet for the whole world and the Book of Mormon is a true book.” This was further confirmed when the missionaries taught him about the three degrees of glory each with successively greater capacity to feel and communicate love.

At the age of 72, John became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I first met him on the evening of his baptism. When the service was over, I couldn’t return home. The Spirit constrained me to go to visit John at his home instead, and in the hour I spent there getting to know him, we began to share some very spiritual experiences and John felt inspired that he could tell me his very sacred and personal story. John and I minister together now to others in the area and are dear friends. I wouldn’t have recorded his story here, but I had a dream where I had a special opportunity to hear John Butrick sing. It was beautiful and carried an undeniable Spirit of truth and humble power. In my dream I wanted very much to record his song. And when I woke, I felt powerfully impressed that I needed to write his story. When I told him, he responded, “I was praying and the Spirit told me you are to write my story.”

John feels his mission is to guide both his family and others he can touch. He is now a temple worker, assisting God’s work on both sides of the veil. Bless you John, and all who read this who also pondering God’s work.

Another Friend who overcame addiction to bless 1000s: My friend TR

I recently had a beautiful experience leading 36 or so of our youth in a composition of “Fear Not” (link below) for our stake conference. The song is both a prayer for protection and a pledge to help each other stand on a firm foundation, a reminder that the difficult conditions in our world spiritually and physically can be overcome through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our last practice was Saturday evening, and we would be performing the following morning, but being a busy night for youth, only a quarter of our group came. Our stake president and his counselors were preparing to leave the church building, having just finished an evening adult session of the stake conference, but the president, noticing the practice and seeing we were light on numbers, waved his counselors over and all three of them joined in to bolster our youth.  What a blessing this was!

I had been pondering what final thought I could leave with our youthful chorus members, and seeing our stake presidency there, I recalled opening my journal the day before and reading a remarkably similar story of a dear friend, surrounded by his stake presidency as he re-established his spiritual foundation.

My friend related that he had stopped coming to church for many years. This all changed one day when he turned on the TV and flipped through some channels, pausing on one just in time to see President Monson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints looking him in the eye, and saying, in essence, “We need you. This church and it’s mission will simply not be the same without you. If you have left your church activity, we ask you to come back.”  The sincerity of the prophet’s eyes and the timing of the message touched him deeply. He realized the Lord was calling him back.

He made needed adjustments in his life and got a temple recommend but could not bring himself to go back to the temple until one day, he had a day off work. He received a strong impression to be back in the temple that day. His wife asked him if he was sure, and he assured her of the need he felt to go, but he reached a chapel in the temple feeling unprepared and inadequate after having been absent from the House of the Lord for nearly 20-years. As he sat there, his stake president unexpectedly arrived and sat next to him, and then the stake president’s counselors arrived as well. He turned to his stake president and said, ‘I just don’t think I can do this!’  His stake president assured him that he could, and after pondering, he added, “And you need to be an ordinance worker.”

This faithful man became a dear friend when I met him in his very early days of service as a temple worker. Recent years have left my friend with a condition that compromises his physical balance, but he comes, determined to lift others while he has capacity to do so. At a very sacred place in the temple, after assisting our temple guests, he unexpectedly beckoned to me and as I stood by him, he took me by the arm to steady himself. It was a privilege and honor to walk together arm-in-arm through the temple until we got to a place where he could securely rest.

To my youth chorus, I continued, “My friend is full of love and is determined to help anyone shaken from their foundation and so he reaches out and blesses others. I know he has saved others. I see the love our stake presidents have for each of you to come and be with you now. They also serve with the desire to firm the foundations of the hearts of those around them. And the beautiful thing is, I see that same love emanating from each of you. Consider in ‘Fear Not’ where it quotes my favorite verse from ‘How Firm a Foundation’:

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose

I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I’ll never, no never, I’ll never, no never,

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!

How Firm a Foundation, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint Hymn 85

To our youth, I continued, “It has been a great privilege and honor to serve you! The light you carry has strengthened my foundation. You are a blessing to me.”

It is a privilege and honor to serve those who read these words. I plead with you with words another dear temple worker friend of mine shared with me just a few days ago. He is 91 and looks forward to the day he will be reunited with his wife who departed this life 4-years ago. He told me he thinks of words from his friend, Bruce R. McConkie, when he turned to him, called him by name and said, “We need to get on the path, and stay there.” There are too many blessings to gain from getting on and staying on the path and too many casualties if we abandon our posts.

May the Lord bless each of us as we determine to stand on and help others acquire a firm foundation!

Fear Not!

Recently, at a ‘get to know you’ activity at work, we were each asked to give a favorite hobby.  I felt impressed to mention singing, but the person next to me really impressed me as he said, in front of our large group, “I like to read the bible, every day.”

I was inspired by his answer and during a break in the activity, I asked him about this hobby. I found that his love for the scriptures was inspired by a group that had loved him into the gospel. I told him I was grateful for his courage. Later, he mentioned that he was grateful we were sitting together when he shared his hobby. He said that he didn’t know where that courage came from but from his words, I’m sure it was out of his appreciation for what God had done for him. He has other hobbies, but indicated that no other hobby gave him as much joy as reading the bible.

During our break, I told him that my hobby, my love of singing, was because I love to vocalize gospel songs about our Savior, like the ones our Interfaith Choir and Orchestra performs at Christmas and Easter. I happened to have the words to the song “Gethsemane” in my work binder because I was learning the words in order to teach them to our primary children that coming Sunday. It was a special moment to share back to my friend my love for the Savior through this sacred song, as he was obviously was learning to love Him more deeply as well.

On Friday of the following week, I was at work but felt a strong need to write to my new friend, so I ‘clocked out’ and took some time to write to him about these latter days where the signs of our Savior’s coming are increasingly being fulfilled. I told to him we should expect some of the Lord’s greatest miracles in our day and I felt a strong need to testify that in our day, God had called a prophet once again to lead and prepare a people to meet the Lord at His coming and that this prophet would be speaking in a General Conference the following two days. I knew my friend might be uncomfortable with this, so I sent it with a prayer.

After completing my critical tasks that day, I got a strong impression, “You need to go to the temple – now.” And so, I found myself at the Bountiful Temple where I serve. I entered a session room where the blessings of the priesthood are secured through our making and keeping of sacred covenants to follow our Lord and Savior. There, on the second to the last row, I saw our dear temple president. I lovingly tapped him on the shoulder and gave him a caring smile as I passed. However, as I took a seat nearby I realized the temple president wasn’t alone. He was there escorting our prophet, Russell M. Nelson.

I felt a powerful outpouring of love both for this man and from him. This man, filled with the love of our Savior, was in His holy house, quietly seeking revelation so he could have the inspiration of Heaven to know the mind and will of the Lord prior to his addressing the millions of God’s children who would hear. It was a sacred time for me. We had a special prayer in that room where the Spirit powerfully confirmed to my heart that this man, who I had just testified of, is a true prophet and a man of God.

Will we hear our Savior? Will we listen to the Savior’s words that tell us that we can know a true prophet by their fruit?

I told my friend that President Nelson’s ‘fruit,’ his works, were 98-years of service to others, including a career as a famous heart surgeon and mentor in his field until he was called as an apostle, and then, as the fishermen of old, he laid down his career and followed our Savior, only picking up his scalpel one more time to save a famous Chinese opera singer because of a special request. This wasn’t looking back to his career. It was saving one more heart! How fitting that a prophet is one who heals hearts!

That Sunday, President Nelson gave a powerful and moving talk on “Peacemakers.” Considering the state of our world, I couldn’t think of a more timely or important message. If we are to hear our Savior, we need to hear his chosen servants, for “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7

I love my Savior. I feel His love deeply, and I am grateful to be led by men that share that love.

Gethsemane

I once worked with equipment that would melt metal solder using only light energy transferred from a powerful industrial light bulb. The bulb’s rays were captured and focused down onto the end of a fiber optic cable that could flexibly channel the light to a circuit board where heat generated from the light would liquify the solder in a process used to affix electronic parts to the board.

With proper eye protection, it was fascinating to see the light at work melting this soft metal. I was once asked, “How hot is the light beam?” And my answer was, “The light isn’t hot at all if you are a lens or a mirror. The light only creates heat when it is absorbed by something dark.

This, by the way, posed a notable problem for using our light beam because on a typical circuit board the outer surface of the board is coated with a dark green coating called a resist layer. This layer protects traces and prevents solder from running where it isn’t wanted. We had to ask our “soft beam” equipment customers to remove the dark resist from areas where the light would shine because if the light beam even momentarily illuminated the resist, it could cause burn damage to the board and tarnished the metallic surface where solder needed to flow

Principle: If you don’t want to take heat when exposed to light, be pure

Another difficulty was that of preventing the light bulb from destroying itself. To protect people from the blindingly bright bulb, it was enclosed in a metal housing. The problem was that light reflected back to the bulb from the metal enclosure’s walls could cause the bulb to overheat. A simple fix to this was to paint the enclosure walls black so they were non-reflective. This benefitted the bulb and lowered its operating temperature, but after several months of operation, the black pigments in the paint would gradually and totally bleach out until the surface once again became almost as if the dark paint had never been applied, and then it would have to be painted again.

Principle: If we continually stand the presence of intense light, we will eventually be purged of all that is dark and loathsome.

One simply cannot remain in the presence of intense light without being purged. It is no wonder then that it is written that Moses had to be transfigured to endure the presence of God or he would have perished.

That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day. D&C 50:24

The Brightest Light

D&C 88:7

… This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made.

Yesterday, I was in a beautiful room in our local temple that is always full of light, but on this morning, the Sun had crested the nearby mountain, and its invisible rays were streaming into the room from windows high up on the walls. In the center of the room hangs an elegant chandelier from which hang hundreds of pieces of crystal glass, large and small, in artistic beauty. On the opposite walls I counted over a hundred small rainbows accenting that beautiful room in vivid colors.

It struck me that these clear crystals receiving and transforming this largely invisible light into a beautiful spectrum of rich and pleasing colors were doing so with no awareness of their role. They were pure, and so they simply made that glorious light energy visible to all who would see.

Principle: Let us be like crystal, so pure that the Holy Ghost will work miracles through us without our even realizing the work being accomplished

The Spirit needn’t announce to us with the voice of a trumpet that it is about to move us. As we purify ourselves, the Spirit’s light that illuminates our minds and hearts eventually will become such an integral and natural part of our souls that there will be no resistance from second-guessing whether revelation is from the Spirit. The Spirit will increasingly work in and through our purified hearts, transforming both us and those we are with. That is the prayer of my heart.

D&C 88:67-68

67 And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.
68 Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.

At our company, we had been working on ideas for a quarter-million-Watt (250kW) wireless vehicle charger for nearly two years. That is the average power consumption for approximately 200 homes, and we would be putting all of that energy wirelessly through a 7” air gap.

We were now in the final stages of bringing the system up with all but the last of our power stages verified and that stage’s completion only minutes away. I managed the team and had personally written much of the control software and engineered many of the circuit boards for the project. Our entire team had a lot of effort invested in this project, but there was one problem. I had to leave. It was time for me to fill a promise I had made to a friend.

From my journal:

Some were feeling sorry that I would be out as it looked like they would now be able to power up our entire system for 250 kW (quarter million Watts) for the first time. My company president also said, “You of all people should be here. Will it be okay without you? Don’t you want to be here?” I told him, “I am confident our team will be fine. Of course, I want to be here, but don’t slow down on my account! If I come in tomorrow morning and you tell me you were able to transfer the power, I’ll just smile!”

Then, I left for the temple without letting people know where I was going. They only knew I had taken a half day off to help a friend. My friend was my temple co-worker who needed me to cover his shift.

That night in the temple, one of my assignments was to simply be where I could guide and assist temple patrons. While standing in a hallway doing this simple task, I caught myself not looking very happy. I love being in the temple, but was truthfully a bit disappointed to be missing our long-anticipated work milestone. I let this disappointment go from my mind as I quietly greeted and guided the sweet brothers and sisters who had come there. It was while I was doing this that the Lord did something very special for me. He opened my eyes for a moment and gave me a glimpse of who these, His noble sons and daughters, truly were. It was so beautiful that I have no words with which I can describe it. And with this, I felt an overwhelming outpouring of love for the Lord’s children and for my Father in Heaven. The real transfer of power was happening here in the temple, and the quarter million watts paled in significance.

Can there be any greater work than that of assisting the Lord in bringing to pass “the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39).  Only His work prepares our hearts to receive the endowment of our Savior’s priesthood power that purifies and redeems us through saving ordinances that both seal us up against the power of the Adversary and has the binding power and authority of Heaven to seal us to our loved ones forever.

1 Nephi 14:14 “…I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.”

My prayer is that we will develop hearts to perceive the power and great glory that the Lord provides, but that the world cannot see nor understand.

I had a dear temple associate that was my trainer when I first began serving in the Bountiful Temple. He passed away a week ago, but even while suffering from terminal cancer and in hospice care, he asked not to be released as a temple worker so he could possibly continue his service. He wanted to be in the Lord’s House, even in this difficult personal trial. He was always like that, skipping breaks so he would be available to offer up even a little more support.

Recently, two older brothers I have served with came and talked to me separately. One, after 20+ years of service in the temple, realized he was no longer able to accurately administer the sacred words needed for the men and women coming there. He decided that coming to the temple to be administered to was just as important, and that was how he would continue contributing to the redemption of the Lord’s children. He was giving everything, but the way he gave had to change.

The other brother had become increasingly immobile and he informed me that he had made the difficult decision to discontinue his service as well. I could see it troubled him. He didn’t want to give up just because it was hard. I assured him that the Lord knew his situation and had inspired him to make this transition. I will miss seeing him there, but for all three of these men, along with the heartbreak, there was also a heart-warming peace because each of them was giving all they had. For each of them, they were primarily concerned that they were doing the Lord’s will.

As I have given a full measure to Him, I have seen that everything changes. A consecrated life is not one of fanatic over-reach. Indeed, going beyond what the Spirit prompts us can be just as damaging as being paralyzed by fear and lack of faith. Giving everything means living our lives by the words of the Lord’s prophets, and bringing our lives in perfect alignment with the spiritual promptings that will surely come as we are faithful. This is our lifelong challenge.

Giving a Full Measure: Sister Longbotham:

There was a special sister named Janet Longbotham that was an example of this faithfulness. I met her just one day while she was serving her 4^th mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She had a life plagued with Grand Maul seizures and had never married, but the Lord, ever compensatory for challenges, had given her an extraordinary portion of his Spirit and had given her visions and blessings and discernment as a mortal reward for her living a life that was dedicated to the Lord. That one conversation changed my life and clarified my life’s mission. I was on a general mailing list she used to share insights with, and there I learned that she passed away in October of 2021, leaving her testimony which was read at her funeral.

For those of you who think I am dead, I am alive in Christ and shall be for eternity, as all of you will be. I close my remarks with the inspired words of Hugh B. Brown who said, “Death is not extinguishing the light, but is turning out the lamp because the dawn has come.”  Goodbye. We will all see each other in the millennium.

Janet Longbotham, Sept 18, 2021

Oh, the beauty and strength we draw from those who no longer pursue the trivialities of our day because they are fully devoted to the Lord. May we each live to give a full measure, so that when we pass the veil, we will savor that glorious dawn with the Lord and our loved ones.