SPEAKER_03 0:00

by Allie Ray and the name of the lesson is um come home by Elder Clark Gilbert so we'll turn the time over to her and then at the end of her remarks um start closing there thank you Melissa we've been giving you the whole hour thank you for your thoughts great um got some candy and a squishy um so Elder Gilbert is um newly called a popcorn um and I just thought I'd look up a little um bio about him that we could learn um he was born in Oakland California and he's 55 years old his birthday is in four days and he was raised um in Arizona uh he served in Japan Kobe Mission um before graduating international relations from Brigham Young University he earned a master's East Asian Studies from Stanford University and a doctorate in business at Harvard Business School he and his wife Christine Gilbert are parents of eight kids they have six daughters and two sons and they range from 29 to 12 years old. In the mid-2000s at BYU Idaho he worked online learning and what has become now the Pathway Program he also became the BYU Idaho president in 2015 and two years later in February 2017 first presidency announced BOU Pathway Worldwide and new global higher education for the church and Elder Gilbert was appointed its first president. In 2021 he was sustained as the General Authority 70 and by August began service as the commissioner of the church education system. In 2024 nearly now 75,000 students and 180 plus countries used the BYU pack away and yeah so that's a lot about him I if you guys had a chance to listen to his recent talk come home I just picked it I don't know exactly why and I hope there's a reason why maybe it will help one of you and hopefully the spirit will be present I already felt this pickup earlier in this meeting so I'm grateful for that and for that um let's see um he starts by saying today I echo um the same declaration as Elder Oak as President Oaks he said 42 years ago in 1984 I will devote my whole heart my mind and strength to the great truth placed in me specially to the responsibilities of a special witness of the name of Jesus Christ in all the world so he says I echo what President Oak said and I pledge my life to be a witness to the name of Jesus Christ. Today I specifically witness these two names one redeemer and two repairer as I focus on Christ's invitation for all of us to come home. So those two names um there's two scriptures uh the first one is 2 Nephi chapter 2 6 and 7 if someone do you want to read it?

SPEAKER_05 4:17

Wherefore redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah for he is full of grace and truth behold he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin to answer the ends of the law unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered. Okay what does that mean to you um that he is the only way that we can be saved through from our from our sins and to answer the ends of the law we fell and he's the only way.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

Yeah and we're here because we chose his plan and I'm so grateful for that. The next scripture is Isaiah 58 verse 12 and it speaks about um Christ being the repairer.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Can we read that okay and they that shall be the shall build the old waste places thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach the restorer of paths to dwell okay what where do you think about that I was just thinking about how it talks about building up the wasteplaces and the world I mean there are a lot of wasteplaces and difficult places but Christ um is the repairer he repairs all things and restores all things yeah um to mech because of his atonement sacrifice repairs the break that came from the fall of Adam and Eve because of him we can return and live with him with our father again.

SPEAKER_03 6:06

So um I feel like sometimes we can be harder on ourselves and we feel like you know but I feel like maybe not good enough or maybe we're like not perfect or not like someone else or um not the way that we have our expectations to be but I feel with Christ everything is possible and it's it's okay to fall short. It's okay all all that we've been asked to is to do our very best and I love that about um his plan. If anyone has any comment I was just thinking of the word repair and I I think so many times I feel broken and um the thought of as I turn to cry repair and he hasn't been there for me to feel that repair in the mornings when I wake up and I'm uh I feel like I can't do this and overwhelmed when I immediately turn to him this spirit just surrounds me with it's okay you can have prepare beautiful I love that we're prepared I love it too thank you Sister Thomas and I love that she turns right to him sometimes we might take a little bit longer to turn to him and that's okay too.

SPEAKER_07 7:46

I love that quote and it says because of our covenant with God he will never tire in his efforts to help us and we will never exhaust his merciful patience and and we will never exhaust his merciful patience with us and should we stray he will help us find our way back and I am not like Carol and don't remember to turn to the Savior or don't choose to turn to him every single day first thing or whatever you know but I can I am grateful for the nudgings and promptings that come and that I recognize and choose to act on when maybe it's been a little bit longer than that I've taken time to read my scriptures or and grateful that those promptings still come and that I'm still like encouraged to turn back over and over and over again and it helps me to have patience with those around me who I love who are maybe taking a little bit longer to turn back but just reminding myself that I for sure am not perfect. It's not something that I remember to often choose consistently over and over I can do I can go for a long period of time and then I'll get thrown off schedule or whatever you know but that the savior is always there and isn't like oh my goodness here we are again here we're doing this again you know and I'm just grateful for that that that he will never tire in his efforts to help us and we will never exhaust his merciful patience with us.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Yeah I know don't you sometimes feel like you don't have any more patience with your kids or your sisters or your brothers or your husband but I feel like like what you said he's never gonna say I'm done he's always there for us and I love that about that.

SPEAKER_05 9:28

I just I'm just connecting a lot of dots because I was thinking about this earlier when you were talking about the why and then we talked about repairing and I'm looking at this woman at the whale and the savior like if you know anything about that woman that's at the whale she's a mess she's she's a big old mess.

SPEAKER_03 9:51

She's been shunned by society she has no one and he told he tells her everything she's ever done and even all of those things those horrible horrible things that she's been through um he loves her and redeems her and repairs her and I was thinking about the why and the why is that it because he's asking he wants to be in a relationship with you he wants to repair you he wants you to be loyal to him so he wants us to come home to him thank you Lord um so with these two awesome names that um elder Gilbert um mentioned I started thinking a few weeks back we had a sacrament meeting where Bishop asked us to think about the names of Christ and I just wasn't thinking I was just writing them down as you guys stood up and things I felt so I'm just gonna I had to leave early but the ones I dropped down I wanted to read um Son of Man Consolation of Israel Prince of peace savior and redeemer healer good shepherd light of the world the deliverer author and finisher of our faith healer Jehovah Lord Savior and master advocate helper lord of glory my brother savior my older brother and this last one I wrote down also was mentioned before but she said good shepherd and then at the end I love what Katie Anderson said she said I love Christ and I just thought what a sweet thing to say in your testimony I just love Christ and I just I just wanted to add those awesome reminders that all those names of Christ bring us peace and joy and when we feel like it's not a still good day we can reach out to him and he will have our backs. Next Elder Gilbert talked about four things that he has seen while he ministers around the world first he speaks to those that don't belong. So I have some examples but I would love to hear your examples too so please share. And I was gonna write them down. So there's four things already here and I'm sorry for the noise um the next one is um don't measure don't measure up um those that doubt and then for the last one he said I speak to those who are trapped in tradition okay so um he gives like I said little examples to about each one of them um and we don't have to go in order but if you have something please share um let's see we will start with those that don't belong okay I I'll start so a few weeks ago for those that don't know we moved here last summer and it's been really um a kind of a big deal to move after like how long we're without 15 years and knowing everybody and um to come to a fake ward and knowing only a few but I loved and enjoyed getting to know all of you and but a few weeks ago I had this bad attitude and I went to Sacrament then I went to Sunday school and I just didn't feel like I wanted to be here and I just said to myself I just want to run to my car and just get away and not talk to anybody and I mentioned that to our society presidency and they were so good and they just listened to me and they're so sweet and one of them said maybe you know with the nicest sweetest comment she said oh maybe you should check your hormones because she was so good and loving like judging I was going crazy and I'm like she's right I'm so grateful she listened to my complaining and problems she was just had her heart open and she listened to me and sometimes when we don't feel like we are part of something or we don't feel like today's the best day and sometimes we just tell someone sometimes we don't have an answer sometimes we don't have a way to fix things but sometimes just listening is all the other person needs and I just love that about um a sister in the or she just listened and she had a loving comment to me and I really appreciate that. But um if anyone has an um example of how they help someone or how someone helped them go ahead.

SPEAKER_07 16:39

I when you wrote don't belong immediately came to mind and I haven't thought about this for a long time but when we um were we were living in Owatiki and it was when we first moved here but we'd been a couple of years into our um fertility journey and I remember walking into Release Society and going over to sit with a group of women who were closer to my age but they and they all had kids and I and one of them said oh this is the mom corner like this is the mom corner there and I remember just being so hurt in the moment and going home and like just crying to my husband and like that was so mean you know but then having the insight and just understanding that she didn't know what we were experiencing and she just was maybe thinking oh this is the loud corner you don't want to stay here you know and things like that I think that that was a um help from the spirit in helping me see and understand a different perspective and choose to go back week after week and not be heartened in that experience or in our really long journey that we had and just being able to um stay soft and open but I think that that was for sure um something from the spirit because I think I could have taken that experience and maybe not have gone and that could have been a defining moment for many many years you know and and I think in in a way it was a defining moment because I got to choose if I was going to be angry hurt by people's comments as we've traveled on you know and I've been able to kind of go back on that as our just as different life circumstances have played out you know and even like our daughter who just got married a month ago and people saying like are you so upset that she's not getting married in the temple I'm like I am so grateful that she's allowing us to be a part of this you know and just being able to recognize that there is the opportunity to look at things with different perspectives and choose to rely on the spirit again for that peace that can come when things aren't looking the way that we want or thought they would um years and years ago but recognizing that they're exactly how they need to be right now for us to all learn and grow but I think just being able to take those experiences where we don't belong and allow the spirit to be able to be a part of that answer to helping us um recognize where our place is at that moment.

SPEAKER_06 19:18

Yeah choose Christ choose to come back choose to you know strengthen our testimonies instead of being hard and it's okay to be hard just get over it later thank you for so um I tend to sorry I'm such a heart so that's why I don't make comments right now it's so fun that you so I had a friend tell me this week too that I need to check my hormones and you're way younger so you're a pack no I I was in a funk this week like I just I did not want to do anything I kept thinking oh I need to plan activities for my kids I need to plan things to like be around other adults you know like and I kept thinking like oh no I'm gonna regret planning that like I'm just gonna be home and kind of sitting here thinking it's like that's what Satan wants right because there's strength in numbers and when we're having moments of uncle not feeling like we belong perhaps maybe sometimes there is some truth in that in the sense of like someone treating us or saying something not very kind but ultimately I think Satan wants us to have those self-doubts and wants us to think that it would be better alone because there's always a little bit up fear too of like oh if I extend an invitation will people come you know but I think instead of worrying about potential offerings you don't know for sure it's like it's just better to kind of step out and have faith or trust and have take those opportunities to build relationships because it's like those strengths in numbers is helpful when you aren't really going something difficult or something that you can turn to somebody and they would be there for you even if there's not the strongest relationship. But I think Sane really wants us to feel like it's better to be alone and not like have anybody to turn to for us to see if you're in staff.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

So sorry so sorry crying thank you so much for your comment um I agree with what Arian is saying

SPEAKER_08 22:00

I think that the adversary uses that as a tool. Janet and I were just talking just before Release Society about her sweet daughter, you know, feeling like she doesn't feel part of things in young women's. And she said, it doesn't go away. We still feel that as a woman. Like it starts very young. And I don't know what age it starts, but it does start young. And all true young women, you see, like when they walk in the room, who do I sit by? Do I know anybody? Is there a friend here? And that continues as sisters. I'm 50 years old. It doesn't matter. I still feel that. I haven't really decided like, okay, where's my place? Where did I belong? I think we all feel that. And I really do feel like a large part of that is the adversary trying to make us feel less than it, trying to bring us down in any way that he can because there's such power in women. And we are, you know, in our households, there's we we change the trajectory of the home. We just do. And if he can make us feel like we don't have a place, then he wins. So we just can't do that. We just have to know there's a place for all of us. I love it. Thank you. And um, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 23:07

Sorry, I know there's been a lot of comments, but I feel like I haven't really taken opportunity in a long time to bear my testimony in any way. And I've really felt this year, just listening to this talk and reading it. And I feel like this don't belong ties in a lot to what I feel like my why has always been through my life. I've just always had a very strong testimony that this is all true. Like there's no other way. I know that there's no other way. And sometimes I get angry that that's what I know because it's like there are things that have happened in my life that I'm angry that this is the truth and I have to keep on going because there really is no other way. And with the jump along, I remember when I was a single mom to young twins, I felt like gosh, I this is really hard, not what I had planned. And I felt like I'd done everything to belong and I'd done all the right things, but I didn't, I felt very just overwhelmed because I was trying to care for them and trying to go for to church with two little kids, and it just was so overwhelming. And even though I feel like I've had a huge blessing of being able to then get married and to have more kids, I still feel they don't belong when I don't have a life and as well with me when they come to church, I am not as happy to be here and I feel just different. And I I know that that's not how God would want me to feel. And I'm so grateful that I still know that my why is I know that it's true, and the the greatest lesson that I can give any of my kids is to continue to show up and to continue to exercise faith. And for the title or the name of Christ, I have always been so powerful to me. It's the author and finisher of your faith. I always just have that image of people trying to finish races and other people grabbing them and like carrying them across the line when they're completely crashing. And I just picture my savior doing that for me when things have been super hard. And I'm just I'm just grateful to have those moments even when I've been kind of angry or frustrated or wanting instead of having strengthened, or I wanted the column to be taken away. Um I'm grateful for my testimony and for my work. Thank you again.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

Okay, so we'll move on to, we don't only have five minutes. Um let's see. Um he also talks about I talk to those that doubt. Um, as President Oaks recently taught, you live in a season in which the adversary has become so effective at disguising truth that if you don't have the Holy Ghost, you will be deceived. And this is what you sisters are sharing with us that the adversary is is real and he wants us to, you know, do the stay home and do the opposite of coming home and sharing our experiences and sharing our testimony and growing our testimony. Um of the questions was how I don't even remember, how do you um pretty much stay true and when we still have some doubts? What do you do? Um how do you continue the paths of the gospel of Christ when we don't have all the answers?

SPEAKER_04 27:05

I left a talk years ago that was um called, I believe it was a beautiful devotional, I think it's called Stand Forever, and um it was just powerful, and he talked at the end of that talk, he talked a lot about um questions and doubts. And he really just suggested turn your doubts into questions. Allow the questions to remain. There's gonna be questions always, but maybe replace the doubt with faith. So hang on to the things that you do know and allow questions to just kind of ride along the path of peace with you. So I really like that idea of he finished it saying, I have many questions, I have no doubts. And I like that idea. I feel like that's focusing on faith more than doubt and allowing questions to just walk with us on a journey.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 27:52

I love that talk, by the way, that we just talk about in that too, he talks about with any doubts that you possibly have, is to go back to relationship with our heavenly father. And once you have that strong relationship, then you can work on other things. But so I always think about that whenever we're talking to anybody that might have doubts, is first and foremost, no matter what the doubt is, to strengthen your relationship with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. You do just those two things, don't worry about anything else, just do those two things, and then it kind of helps along the road.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

So strengthen your relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Thank you. I knew you guys would come through and like I don't have all the answers, but your comments are amazing. Thank you so much. Um in conclusion, let me see what a conclusion is.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Oh, here it is. Also, I think doubts and um faith though can work together, can can go along, like you're saying, together, and we need to be accepting of people who doubt, or it's not like you have to leave the church because you have doubts. You can stay, and we all just need to accept each other where we're at, you know. Totally.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

No judging, no judging. Yeah, no judging. And I that's one sister I had in mind from my old ward. I started thinking, you know, why is she so wonderful? I was thinking through this talk, and like because she doesn't judge. She's just loving, she serves, and no one knows she's serving, she just does it, and she doesn't judge. And I just love that about her. Um, thank you for saying that. And I think once we we all realize we all don't have all the answers, then I feel like my doubts don't seem as, you know, like scary, I guess, because I'm like, I'm just gonna continue. Okay, this is what I'll end with this. Um, Elder Gilbert said, only Jesus Christ can fully restore the light and joy in your life. We all struggle. We need patience, service, and love from others. To those who are trying to help those they love, hold on to the truth. Keep your covenants. Helping others requires you to stay in the covenants. For those who are struggling to come home, know that it is your Savior who's the only one calling you back. In the end, everyone must make their own choices to come home. And I love you, sister, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 30:51

Thank you, Allie, and thank you for all the beautiful comments. What a wonderful belief society today. Um, I especially appreciate vulnerability. I think we learn a lot from each other, and it helps us to see each other in a different way that is very helpful for me. So um thank you, all of you. Um finally, Sister Brownie, you're having a baby this week. So Wednesday, you're being that right? Okay, so we sisters, if we would all remember her and your prayers. Um it's a beautiful time, it's exciting. We want all the results to be wonderful, so we will be praying for you, and we'd involve invite all of you to join with us in that. Um don't forget if you had a thought or any um impressions that came to you today during this lesson, think about sharing them with your ministering sister. It's important if you don't see them here today, or they're serving in another place. Let's send them a little message, let them know what we learned today, and maybe just share a little thought with them. And then we'll we'll close with our closing with our things, Kimmy.