What were you born to do?

Wendy Watson Nelson

"My dear brothers and sisters, it's time to stop comparing ourselves with others. It's time to put away those erroneous views of ourselves and others. The truth is that we are not as hopelessly flawed as we may think, and others are not are perfect as they may appear- all except, of course, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The only think that really matters is that you and I are doing exactly what we committed- even covenanted- premortally with our Heavenly Father we would do while we are here on earth. 

So, let me ask you are question: What were you born to do?"

Behold the Man!

By Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Those who find a way to truly behold the Man find the doorway to life’s greatest joys and the balm to life’s most demanding despairs.

So, when you are encompassed by sorrows and grief, behold the Man.

When you feel lost or forgotten, behold the Man.

When you are despairing, deserted, doubting, damaged, or defeated, behold the Man.

He will comfort you.

He will heal you and give meaning to your journey. He will pour out His Spirit and fill your heart with exceeding joy....

As you accept His sacrifice, become His disciple, and finally reach the end of your earthly journey, what will become of the sorrows you have endured in this life?

They will be gone.

The disappointments, betrayals, persecutions you have faced?

Gone.

The suffering, heartache, guilt, shame, and anguish you have passed through?

Gone.

Forgotten.

Change Hearts and Minds on the Importance of Children

• MARCH 2018
• WHEN EVIL APPEARS GOOD AND GOOD APPEARS EVIL

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When Evil Appears Good and Good Appears Evil

By Elder Quentin L. Cook

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

From a devotional address, “A Banquet of Consequences: The Cumulative Result of All Choices,” given at Brigham Young University on February 7, 2017. For the full address, visit speeches.byu.edu.

Nevertheless, Lucifer has supported abortion and in a horrific paradigm shift has convinced many people that children represent lost opportunity and misery instead of joy and happiness.

As Latter-day Saints, we must be at the forefront of changing hearts and minds on the importance of children. The attacks on the family I just described ultimately result in grief and misery.

Fashionable, Sophisticated, and Fun? Nope

The statistics today with respect to cigarette smoking are not in dispute. Smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to develop heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer. Smoking is estimated to increase the risk of lung cancer by 25 times.6

So what the adversary portrayed as fashionable, sophisticated, and fun has in fact resulted in misery and untimely death for millions of people.

Alcohol is another example. Over many years I have followed a research project that commenced in the 1940s. Initially, 268 men attending Harvard University were periodically studied over their entire lives. Later, others, including women, became part of the study. The goal of the original study was to find out about success and happiness.

This study contains three significant insights. First, adult happiness has a high correlation with childhood familyhappiness, especially love and affection from parents.7Second is the importance of a healthy, stable marriage to lifelong happiness.8 Third is the negative effect of alcohol on marital and lifetime success and happiness. Alcohol abuse touches one-third of families in the United States and is involved in one-fourth of hospital admissions. It plays a major role in death, bad health, and diminished accomplishment.9

A recent Washington Post front-page article based on U.S. federal health data reported that “women in America are drinking far more, and far more frequently, than their mothers or grandmothers did, and alcohol consumption is killing them in record numbers.” The article concluded that “the current and emerging science does not support the purported benefits of moderate drinking” and that “the risk of death from cancer appears to go up with any level of alcohol consumption.”

• MARCH 2018
• WHEN EVIL APPEARS GOOD AND GOOD APPEARS EVIL

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When Evil Appears Good and Good Appears Evil

By Elder Quentin L. Cook

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

From a devotional address, “A Banquet of Consequences: The Cumulative Result of All Choices,” given at Brigham Young University on February 7, 2017. For the full address, visit speeches.byu.edu.

Council with Those You Minister To

• SEPTEMBER 2018
• COUNSEL ABOUT THEIR NEEDS

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MINISTERING PRINCIPLES

Counsel about Their Needs

• Find out how and when they prefer to be contacted.
• Learn about their interests and backgrounds.
• Come with suggestions for how you could help, and ask for their suggestions.

• What are the challenges they face?
• What are their family or individual goals? For example, do they want to be better at holding regular family home evening or be more self-reliant?
• How can we help them with their goals and challenges?
• What gospel ordinances are coming up in their lives? How can we help them prepare?

God Walk With Us

“God walks with us along the covenant path as we seek Him through prayerful pleadings, scriptural searchings, and obedient strivings.”

Elder Brian K. Taylor of the Seventy, “Am I a Child of God?” Ensign, May 2018, 14.

Ponder This...

Ponder This …

“What will I teach, or what am I teaching, my children by my acts and attitudes of obedience?”

Devin G. Durrant, First Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency, “Teaching in the Home—a Joyful and Sacred Responsibility,” Ensign, May 2018, 44.

White Shoes After Labor Day

• SEPTEMBER 2018
• I THINK I’LL BE MYSELF

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AT THE PULPIT

I Think I’ll Be Myself

By Jutta Baum Busche

I could have benefited at this time from the story of a six-year-old who, when asked by a relative, “What do you want to be?” replied, “I think I’ll just be myself. I have tried to be like someone else. I have failed each time!” Like this child, after repeated failure to be someone else, I finally learned that I should be myself. That is often not easy, however, because our desires to fit in, to compete and impress, or even simply to be approved of lead us to imitate others and devalue our own backgrounds, our own talents, and our own burdens and challenges. … I had to learn to overcome my anxious feeling that if I didn’t conform, I simply did not measure up.