SPEAKER_07 0:00

Thank you, Brother Driscoll. I uh I I do ask for your prayers, uh, as Brother Discall alluded to. Just any prayers. I I like more than anything, I I'm sure you most of you have been teachers before. You just want to have a positive impact, and I you're not sure if a lesson that you're preparing is gonna land, and I don't know, you know. Um I really want it badly to work, and I want it you guys to get something out of this. I don't want to weigh you to waste your time. And I if you would just pray for me and pray for yourself that we'll have the spirit. If we have the spirit here, then we're good. And if I can get sometimes out of my own way, we're good. Uh so if we can pray that we can do that. Um I actually woke up uh after a pretty vivid dream. You know those dreams where you just aren't sure at first if it was real or not? What was happening is I was teaching this lesson and I had forgotten my supplies in the car, and it was literally at this moment, and I'm like, hold on, let me go get it. And I go out to my car and I realize I had left my key in my car, and someone stole the car. And so I remember being in the asphalt out there, like, this isn't good. I'm like, what do I do with this? And I thought, okay, I'll deal with the car later. I just don't have my stuff. I'm gonna go in and start going in the library and gathering stuff while people are waiting for me, right? So the anxiety is increasing. Have you ever like rushed in your dream and your legs turned into like like molasses? I started like running like this awkward speedwalk down the church hall, and my leg is going like this. And I'm like, are you this is what we're doing right now? I've got a lesson. And it didn't dawn on me, it was a dream. This was real stuff. I had the molasses leg thing. Tell me I'm not the only one that does that. Okay. So um I get back here and no one's here, and I have to find you guys everywhere. And it became like this hide and go seek. It was this sick joke. So, anyway, that's how I started the morning, in case you were wondering. Um, we're gonna do a couple of things today. What's that? Yes, that's right. Yeah. Well, I'll get you, Pat. I'll find you. Um we're gonna be in Deuteronomy today. And we're gonna end with this thought, but I want to plant this scripture in your mind because I want to pull some experiences from you towards the end of class. Um, the context of the book of Deuteronomy. Can anyone tell me where they're at and what's about to happen as they're approaching the book of Deuteronomy? We're gonna just touch on this briefly. And I'm gonna derail and then we're gonna come back to this. What's the context of the book of Deuteronomy? What are they doing? Does anybody know what the book is about and why we have it? Sarah?

unknown 2:56

The law.

SPEAKER_07 2:59

Exactly. Yeah, so you've got Moses, he's gathered all of the children of Israel with him, and they're about to enter the promised land. The problem is, is uh not everybody there has been there for the whole thing. They've got a rising generation, they don't know everything. They heard that their fathers had passed to the Red Sea, and he's kind of revisiting in the book of Deuteronomy, kind of, hey, this is what's happened. And here's the commitments you guys have made because we're about to enter the promised land, and things are gonna get a little bit hot here, and you have to remember your covenants. Okay, so Deuteronomy is like a, you started saying you're you're almost like reciting the events and the law and the covenant. That's what Deuteronomy is about, and so he's rehearsing with them. Jeff, would you be willing to read this? So the question I want to place in your mind that I'm gonna draw from later is this you're gonna have experiences in your life, covenants you've made, spiritual experiences that you've had, where you have some measure of certainty that God exists, and it's somewhat unique to your family or unique to you, and you may ask yourself, how can I pass on this faith to the next generation? Whether you have children or not, or perhaps we're talking grandchildren, what are you doing? Sometimes what the children of Israel were doing is they would place monuments down so that as you were passing by, they would kind of catch the eye of that monument, or sorry, but you get what I'm saying. Their eye would catch the monument and they would say, What was that? What happened here? Do you and your families have some way in which your legacy of faith is being transferred down to the next generation? I'm gonna come back to that. I want you to think about that. That's gonna be the lesson, okay? Because that's in part, not entirely, what Moses is trying to do. He's trying to prepare this next generation and those that follow. Okay? As we do that, I'm gonna make you roll your eyes for a moment. I think we need to tie a little bow off of the tabernacle because it's so serious and so central to what they're doing, and then I promise I won't keep doing it. I won't beat the dead horse. But there's uh a bit of a recap I would like to do with you because it is an opportunity in the scriptures for you to know your own temple worship and how you plug into that today, and I want you to see the Savior in it, because you're gonna go back to the temple and do the same thing. Okay? So I'm gonna get out my artistic skills for a moment, and I'm gonna draw the tabernacle. Okay? We've got the outer curtain, and I promise we're gonna go right through this. Okay, so this is the tabernacle, the temple. As you remember, it had stakes, that's where we get our stake word from. The stake would kind of hold up the outer tent, the outer temp tabernacle, the outer curtains. Okay then we had what are a couple of relics in the outer court? Does anybody know? Want to help me out? What are a couple of things that would happen in the outer outside the tent in the courtyard? Good, thank you. So we got the altar of sacrifice. We'll just okay, what else? Yeah, we got a labor. Okay, good. And then we we've got the door of the tabernacle of the congregation right here. Okay? Got it so far? Here we've got a split in two sides. This is the holy place. This was the holy of holies. What was in the holy place from our general recollection? I heard something. Okay, so we got the ark over here. That represented the throne of God and the presence of the Lord and his nature. We had to be really careful going into that place. So this is the ark. Oh. This is the laver of water. So there's the menorah, good? So that's menorah. You can tell. Shoe bread? Gosh, I have no. So there's loaves of bread on here. This is a table of shoe bread. Okay? There's one more relic that we're missing in here at least. Yes, perfect. There's an altar right here of incense, and there was a veil right here. Okay? So, altar of incense, veil, ark of the covenant. Okay? We talked about very briefly last time that in some ways this kind of symbolically represented the journey of Israel through the Exodus, right? Because as was suggested, and here's the quote by Paul, Paul saw it. He said, guys, don't you see what was happening? He says, When the children of Israel left Egypt and offered the Passover sacrifice, they came through the Red Sea. And we were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud in the sea in verse 2 of Corinthians. And they came through here, and they were guided by a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day, and they had manna in the wilderness, and they were fed from heaven. And Moses brought them to Sinai. So this almost acted like the presence of the Lord through Sinai, and the symbols continue. And Moses acted as a mediator because that altar of incense represented the prayers of the saints in this mediating prayer that happens. Okay? So Moses would go from the top of Sinai, talk to Israel, and return back. Okay? The goal was to get them into the presence of the Lord. That was the ultimate goal, and they wouldn't have it. Okay, so we're following that so far. Then we said, okay, this, we should be able to see the Savior in this. So we got some pictures. Okay? And I stole my wife's methods from primary. So Christ, his goal is to show us the way. He is the temple, he's everything. He condescends from being Jehovah, the very God who's talking to Moses on the mountain. He is that God. That's him. He condescends as a baby, doesn't know who he is, and is at, he has all the vulnerabilities that if he doesn't get out of Jerusalem to Egypt when he's a baby, he could be killed. He doesn't know his mission. He doesn't know who he is as an infant. He has to learn this stuff. He goes through the same process we are to go through. And Nephi says in the vision of the tree of life that there was one that came before him, John the Baptist, that baptized the Lamb of God. Okay? And as he did that, the Holy Ghost descended on him as a form of a dove. And then Nephi says in chapter 11 of 1 Nephi that he went forward in power, testifying of the things of who he was, his mission, and he healed the sick, and he raised the dead and he caused the lame to walk and all these things. This is a transitionary point. And then this area is the private mortal ministry of the Savior. He has been dutifully and obediently following his father's examples. And this is the territory where he personifies the light of the world and the bread of life. Okay? He does only those things which he sees the Father do. He is living a consecrated life. At this juncture, the adversary says, Oh, don't do that. Why don't you worship yourself and take advantage of everything the world can offer? He doesn't do that. He's willing to sacrifice everything to do the Father's will. This territory is the Father's will. He becomes so consecrated that it leads him to this prayer. Hopefully we're following. And this is a very high level. There's other pictures we could put in here.

SPEAKER_06 11:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 11:24

There's a prayer corresponding with the altar of incense. At that prayer, he's acting as an intercessor, as a mediator on behalf of all of Israel, and he is so consecrated that it leads him to the cross. And he suffers, right? And three days later, where did he go? I know he was here a second ago. He did. He resurrected, then he hid. Oh, I see the symbolism of this. Okay, so, and then the resurrection here. I don't know where that picture jumped off to. It's hiding somewhere. You should see the Savior throughout the temple. This is a very general, high-level view of it. There is a pivot point right here. Christ shows that he enters through the gate, and Nephi says, now pay attention. You need to do the same thing. You've got to follow the example of the Son of God. So you might be led to say, but I already did. So I'm good. So let's move on. Not necessarily. This is a submission of will and of ego and the natural man. It is a suggestion that I'm willing to put everything on the altar, my own personal gain, my own professional life, anything that I need to do to hear the voice of the Lord and to do the Father's will. And so we do, and we watch him carefully. In here, rather than us being the light of the world, we're more of a conduit of his light. We're trying to receive bread on a regular basis because we need to retain the remission of sins that happens at this door. This is a function of retaining a remission of your sins in here. It is symbolic of clothing yourself in robes, priesthood robes. It is like putting on a garment. Because when the reception of the Holy Ghost comes, there is cleansing. There is grace because you need the grace because of the private ministry you're about to undertake. You following? This is the realm of private ministry, of sanctification. Nephi calls it, he uses different language, a straight and narrow path. You hold on to a rod of iron, which is the word of God. You are sanctified here and clothed so that you can remember you've taken upon yourself the name of Christ, and you are magnified to have ears to hear, eyes to see, shoulders that can bear the burdens that will come to you. Because there will come burdens upon your shoulders. Okay? Until ultimately you do as the will of the Father, and you're led to prayers like Christ, until you come into the presence of the Father. Okay? So let's go to what the heck does this prayer look like? Let's go to Ether chapter 3. Verse 2 through 3. We'll take a look at this. Ether 3, 2 through 3. Anybody have that? Okay. Um, before we get into this, I want you to notice the pronouns used in these verses. Okay? What's going on here is we've talked about in the past. Let's see, where are we? There we go. The high priest, he has stones on his shoulders and stones on his chest representing the children of Israel that he's heaving on his shoulders and he's got close to his heart. Hey, this is a high priestly prayer, is what you're about to see. This is this territory, literally. This is the live action view of what the symbolism is all about. Okay? Watch what he's doing. He is praying not for himself. Watch the pronouns. Can you read verse oh, is it two? Perfect. Okay. What were the pronouns that he kept saying? Did you catch that? This is a high priestly prayer. This is one who has, through the atonement of Jesus Christ, been changed, like Enos, had his own wrestle with God. He started caring about other people, and he started heaping people on his shoulders and was carrying them. So his prayers look different. What was he saying in his prayers? Was it all about him? It was about us. Pronouns, we, us. This wasn't about him anymore. And so you have a mediator just like Moses and just like Christ, who they can't help it. That's who they've become. They want to put all the burdens of those around them on their shoulders if they would just be allowed to do so. And then in verse six, let's go there. What happens as a result? Joe, do you have that by chance?

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Right here.

SPEAKER_07 17:43

Well, the veil's lifted, and what did he end up seeing? Yes, yes. And so he ends up learning, and the content of what he begins to learn here is more about the nature of God. Who is he? Because the goal of eternal life is to understand your God better. That's part of the aspect. But this, in a nutshell, is what the Book of Mormon is trying to teach, is trying to bear witness of this temple experience, right? Um, one more last item, and then we're gonna move on to Deuteronomy. I'm gonna share this video. Oh, you did not just turn off. Hold on. Okay, let's see. You guys can see it okay?

SPEAKER_01 19:05

As he again opened his heart to God, Joseph was visited by a heavenly messenger. Joseph.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

I am your fellow servant. Moses. He said his name was Moroni, and that God had a work for me to do. He told me an angel written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this conduct. The writing on the gold plates was unknown to me. I was told the plates contained a fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_07 19:51

Okay, we're gonna pause on that. What was in the box? Okay. Yeah, in section 17, when the three witnesses later saw some of the things, sword of Laban was among the relics later. Urim and Thummim, okay, what else? The breastplate, good. And then the gold plates. So, what was it? Sword of Laban? Yeah, okay, so I'm just gonna bear testimony about something really quick. This Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate is slightly different compared to the ancient high priest. This is looking a lot like a restoration of a high priest here. You've got a sword that's very symbolic, an compass. The Urim and Thummim, in the high priest's clothing, they placed a Urim and Thummim in the pouch of the breastplate. You essentially have the restoration of the high priestly role in the latter days. It's through Joseph Smith that the temple today has been restored. The same concepts, the priesthood, all of it get restored. I was pondering over this one day, and I this might be a stretch. I'm just gonna share it and see if it has validity. I find it interesting that he gets the gold plates, and did you know that these relics here in the holy place in the holy holies, did you know what their material was made out of? It was made out of gold. Did you know what the material was made out of over here? It was brass or bronze. It makes me wonder if there's a connection of plates. Those are plates if you couldn't tell. Brass plates and gold plates, and I thought, I wonder if there's a connection here of the teachings and the laws and ordinances and these things with the temple. I thought, yeah, but what about this veil? Is there something about the gold plates that separates some of the content that's very sacred? Yeah, there's a sealed portion in the gold plates. That was interesting. And there's a sealed portion there. And every time, like the brother of Jared, where you cross the veil and you start talking this content, it says, Oh, we can't write that, it's in the sealed portion in a manner of speaking. Here's the point. Of the matter. You can ignore this. It's just an interesting potential parallel. But what I would suggest is this the Book of Mormon is a wonderful companion to the temple. This is their temple that they knew. They show examples of high priests just like the brother of Jared or Lehi and many others. They show what they look like, they show how they act, and they show the process on how they become who they are. The goal is to come back into the presence of God. So as you go to the temple through the prophet Joseph Smith, and this comes from the um uh this comes from uh our Liahona and other books, we also have various symbols like a baptismal font for washing. Oops. This is a lot harder in front of people than I thought. I know, I know, I'll pick them up. Uh you've got endowment sessions complete with a veil and an altar right before the veil where prayers are being offered, very similar in nature and in sacredness as this Old Testament temple. You have a concept like being in the presence of God with our celestial rooms. We have this kind of the revisiting of the chiasmus when Adam and Eve started in the garden and they were placed as husband and wife before the presence of God. You have ceiling rooms now, which will kind of lock that back in. Every key, every teaching, all of it is right in front of us today. You are clothed in high priestly, the garments of the Holy Priesthood, just like the ancient priests. And I testify that these things are true. We quabble sometimes over the silly stuff, like, how did Joseph Smith translate this thing? Well, try this. Focus on this. See if these signs and other things don't come about. I bear testimony that these things are true, that Joseph Smith saw God the Father in Jesus Christ, that he was a high priest and restored this order to the earth again. Um I uh let me share this point because this is so critical. I want to share a personal experience. I think I've shared this before to some, but I want to share it in the context of what we're talking about. Um I just need a helper. Darren, I'm gonna call on you in a second if that's okay. It was on my mission, and I forgive, forgive me for a mission story, but I'm purposely using a mission story to prove a point. Um I was in a position where I had just gone through an experience where I wanted nothing more than to have the Holy Ghost in my life. I asked for a remission of my sins, I pled for it nightly. It took, I don't know why, but it took me months. I think I'm stubborn. Okay? I witnessed that the Holy Ghost came to me. I witnessed that my heart changed, and I began to see the Book of Mormon differently. I began to have a testimony of Joseph Smith in the Book of Mormon. Okay. I was asked at a really early time in my mission to be a zone leader, and we were supposed to train other missionaries. And I was told that certain missionaries were struggling, and so I was gonna go and train them, but I didn't know what training them looked like. I still felt very um inadequate. And so I uh I tried to push it off as long as I could until finally someone's like, you really need to go over and help them. The night before I had a prayer. I'm gonna compare it to a prayer here because it seems like there's a prayer here just like Enos, and there's a prayer here just like the brother of Jared, okay? I'm talking about this transition point because I want you to feel that this is tangible. I knelt down and I said, Heavenly Father, I'm about to go out with these missionaries and I don't know what I'm doing, but I need your help. And I ended up having this prayer for a good five to ten minutes. And you know, have you ever had a prayer that felt like it was going nowhere besides bouncing off the walls and off the ceiling and it wasn't hitting heaven? That was that moment. And I think because of the anxiety of what I was dealing with, I was starting to get more stressed and more concerned, and the urgency was going up because I felt like I was about to go the next day to help these missionaries with no help. I started to wonder if he even cared. And I said, Heavenly Father, don't you care about this? I need help. I don't know what I'm doing. And I got really frustrated, and I finally said something like, What is your problem? And then I got this very distinct impression come back to me. This isn't about the missionaries and you loving the missionaries, this is all about you. You just wanted to look good. You were concerned about if you were gonna fail, and you kept comparing yourself to what zone leaders actually look like. And it dawned on me, yeah, you're right. I did not realize, and if you picked up on the brother of Jared's prayer, he starts his prayer by saying, Lord, I know that we are our natures are fallen. He acknowledges his fallen nature. I am outwardly on a mission. I look like I'm consecrated. I had already been baptized, I had hands laid on my head to receive the Holy Ghost, and yet here I am governed by the natural man. In an environment of consecration. But what wasn't consecrated is I wasn't yet willing to sacrifice my entire ego. That wasn't on the altar yet. And so once I realized that that was my issue, I began to pivot my heart. And I said, Heavenly Father, I'm willing to look dumb, I'm willing to do anything, help me to love these guys. And then a feeling that was external to myself rested on me. It was the Holy Ghost. It filled me with hope, with faith, and with love that I didn't possess by myself. And a remission of sins and the attributes of it is what I was just experiencing. I had to do an internal pivot. This type of stuff is so important here because what happens here is the gifts of the Spirit play out because it's not about you anymore, and the Lord knows it, so He gives you magnification and grace, and you're able to extend grace to others. So we go out the next day, okay? And um let's see, how can I do this? Darren, can you come up with me? Darren's the other missionary, and I'm gonna be brief. Here's what plays out. We're just chatting as we go along, and what happens is we stumble upon a home that has two doors on it, okay? And I I might have shared this with some of you. I'm gonna erase part of this, okay? It had two doors, so Darren, if you could come over here. We end up as we're approaching the door, I knock on one door, and as we're chatting, nobody comes to the door, so I tell my companion, go ahead and knock on the other door. So he does. And does anybody know what happened? Both doors opened. So I didn't know what I was doing because I was new, but as a side note, although I'm very awkward, the Lord was with me. Okay, this opens, that opens. I said, Hey, you talk to him and I'll talk to him and let's just see where this goes. Okay. So as we do, this neighbor starts letting in my companion. And he's looking over his shoulder, like, what do I do? And I'm supposed to be the senior companion. I'm like, I don't know. I know I can't leave his side. So I asked this guy, his name's Mike. I said, Mike, I said, Do you know your neighbor? He says, No. I said, Do you love him? He says, sure. So I grab his arm and I essentially put him in the next room. That was the first thing that came to my mind. Okay. So now we're in the next room. Let's come over here so we've got more room. And then the neighbors that we came into, they're just watching the TV. So we asked them, is it okay if you turn off the TV so we can have a message? And they said, uh, no, go ahead. This is our favorite TV show, but you're free to just teach. Like, okay. So we're teaching, and the coolest thing happens when talking about truth, is that the spirit comes and it'll give you a heads up if someone in the room is feeling the spirit. Loved it. And that's exactly what started to happen as we bore testimony of Joseph Smith. Look and scan the room as we're bearing testimony. The neighbors are still sitting on the couch and they're locked on to the TV. Mike, who we stole, is with us, and he's locked dead in, and his eyes are glazed over with tears. So we focused on Mike for a moment. We said, Mike, how are you feeling? He says, I feel so good right now. We said, Mike, where do you think those feelings are coming from, Heavenly Father? And then I was trained at the time to pray right then. I don't know why. So we said, Mike, let's pray and to know that these things are true. So we did, and we knelt down in prayer. And we got in a circle and I prayed and my companion prayed and Mike prayed. We get down with our prayer and we asked him to pray that Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon's true. And Mike is feeling it. And we said, Mike, how are you feeling now? He says, I feel so good. And we went through those same questions. Right then, my companion who was struggling starts bearing testimony. I testify that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. And the Book of Mormon's true. Mike, how do you feel about these things? He says they're true. And it's like his first testimony, right? So we said the golden question, Mike, now that you know that these things are true, who else would you feel like would benefit from knowing these things? He says, Well, my wife next door, who he just pulled me away from. I said, okay, let's go back over there. So we went back over there. And you're probably thinking, what's the point of that? Because we didn't have to steal him. We should have just stayed in his room. What was the Lord doing? So, Darren, if you can move over here. So we move from this room back over here. I don't know that the family over here even knew we left. They were still watching their TV show. And I don't know when at what point they realized it. We come back over here, and I still remember we come into the door, and over here, right where President Welch is, the wife is on a chair on a corded phone, and she's literally putting the phone down right as we walk in. And she says the words, Are you missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints? Yes, we are. She says, Do you have a copy of the Book of Mormon? I said, Yes, we do. And I had one of those navy blue ones in my hand. She says, You wouldn't believe what just happened. She says, two things happen at the same time. You knocked on the door, I think, and my father called me from Florida. We're in Arkansas, by the way. And my father said, I've been hesitant to tell you this whole time, but I have been baptized today into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I wasn't going to tell anyone, I wasn't sure how you guys were going to respond. But I felt the strongest impression after they laid my hands on my head that I needed to give you a call and tell you to get a copy of the Book of Mormon. And he goes, Will you call them and will you get a copy of the Book of Mormon? She says, Sure. She says, I literally put the phone down and there you are. She goes, How does this happen? Mike, who we just pulled out of the next room, he says, Honey, she goes, You should pray about this. This is good stuff. I feel great. We're like, Mike, not there yet. We haven't shared anything. So we get with the rest of the family, and Mike is with us as the new convert, so to speak. And he's testifying with us of the Book of Mormon and of the Holy Ghost and how these things feel. And she's just soaking it up and asking questions. And Mike's like, is it now time to pray? I said, Yes, Mike, it's now time to pray. So we all kneel down in prayer together. I said a prayer, my companion, just to show them the model of what it looks like to pray specifically. Mike says a prayer, he gets an answer again. I don't like, what the heck was that about? Why didn't why wasn't it that easy for me? And then she does and she gets her own answer. We literally walk out of this door, and I say to myself as we walk out, what happened? How did that happen? I was so awkward and nervous about this. And I had my ego all tied in knots in this whole concept. And now, how does he magnify and set the table so perfectly? And now this missionary I went out with that was struggling, he's got this whole experience and this witness. Here's what could happen and I'm sorry, you can sit. Here's what needed to happen at this point. If I later that night ended up just going and watching TV, desperate housewifes or whatever, and said, I'm good, that was a cool experience, and stopped retaining a remission of my sins, ego comes back, I promised you, and you start following a different path. On the other hand, if you follow the Savior and serve and listen for the next one, but report back and say, that was awesome. You magnified me, you gave me grace, and I received a remission of my sins, and I felt I had love. I want to keep it, and I'm willing to do anything to keep that feeling. And the garments we wear are a symbol of that, of staying consistent. The next day, what will happen is more impressions come, or that evening, and you act on them, and you find you're in the right place at the right time. You see how that works? Until finally, as things continue, you desire to consecrate yourself just naturally because your heart wants it so badly and organically, that you pray like the brother of Jared. Here's the last point, and then I did exactly what I knew I would do. Um, what is the greatest gift that you can give to your children? This transition point for yourself. There is the absolute ability, once you have received the Holy Ghost, to pull people through. And the same over here. That's what Moses was doing, that's what Macedic was doing, that's what Enoch was doing. They had power in the priesthood, and you were seeing it's like, it's almost like in the Book of Mormon, as a commentary to this, it's like the prophet Mormon was essentially saying, okay, Emma, do the arms chop thing. Okay, now let's show them what the power of godliness is. We're just gonna keep bringing up. Is he a god? No, he's not a god. But are you sure you're not a god? You just did this. No, I'm sure I'm not a god. And it's almost like Mormon's like, you got the power of godliness through the ordinances of the priesthood? Okay, let's move on. I testify that these things are real. When you go to the temple, get your temple recommend, put your garments on. And then take on yourself the symbolism in a spiritual way. Take the protection. You've got enough problems and enough temptation. Get the protection over you. And what are you waiting for? And I ask myself that question all the time. Why don't I just consecrate just a little more? I can always trust that. Um, okay, so let's pivot as I said we should have, and I'm sure I missed a lot of things. I want to listen to Elder Iron really quick.

SPEAKER_03 36:32

When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day. Let me tell you how that got started. I came home late from a church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us, surprised me as I walked for the front door of my house. He was carrying a load of pipes over his shoulder, walking very dressed in his work clothes. I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream below us up to our property. He smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with his work. I took a few steps towards the house, thinking of what he was doing for us. And just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind, not in my own voice, these words. I'm not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down. I went in.

SPEAKER_07 37:34

Did you guys catch that? He has an experience, it's just a very subtle one, but the spirit whispered to him, and this was a very profound comment. What did it say at the end? Can you help me summarize this for everybody? What did he say? I'm not giving you these experiences to what? Okay, what's it for? Yeah. So you will have experiences going back to the book of Deuteronomy. You'll have experiences where you will create a legacy of faith and testimony. You will have hardship. And you will have children, or you will know children or grandchildren, and you will want to pass the torch. How do you best do that? How do you light that fire in somebody else, especially the next generation? Write them down? Excellent. Is is that what you do? I love that. Thank you. One of the things I'm growing in appreciation for is why why even sacrifice, right? When you get to a like, um, how do I say this? When it you start seeing how your own sacrifices give you the type of insight and priesthood power that it can. And therefore it's then not about yourself, it's all of the people around you you could potentially benefit or bless, of which could be your own children. Then I can start getting an understanding, and I think it was the book of Hebrews where it talks about these saints that they were sawn asunder. They were willing to suffer all manner of afflictions. And I would scratch my head, why? Why are you doing that? I get we need to return to the presence. And then when I had my kids, I'm like, I'll I'll do anything. I'll do anything if I can just have a greater portion of the spirit. And it gives vision. That's what eternal life is about. It's a family relationship thing. And it's not about you anymore. Um, anybody else? And the two doors. The doors are in the back of the ark. So it's not lost on me, and I'm going to segue this into just sharing a final thought so we can wrap as I'm seeing the time. It's not lost on me that you're sitting in between two very good people, your parents. I know your dad well enough to know that a lot of this stuff rubs off spiritually. And I don't mean that in a, I mean that in this context. I had, and I'm just going to end with this. I had the benefit, and okay, this is a fish. My grandfather and grandmother were converts. My grandmother was, she lived in Manchester, so I don't know if that's apostate or if that's okay. So they were brought into the church by missionaries in upstate New York. Okay, and that's where I grew up all my life growing up there. I am so grateful that the people that put their arms around my grandparents at the time and became their home teacher, they were of this caliber. And I know what I'm saying when I say that. They had very sacred experiences. They kind of adopted that family under their wings. And they would share sacred priesthood experiences, personal visitations, and other things with my grandparents. It caused my grandfather to say, oh, this is what I'm handling now. This is the priesthood. As a result, my grandfather would come to my house and my grandmother, they would come to my house one Sunday a month and have dinner. And I would remember as a kid, I wanted to gravitate near that dinner table after we were done eating because my grandfather was sharing personal experiences. And I was just on fire inside with what I was hearing. And it was what a kid needed to hear at my age. And this fish is interesting. And let me be quick. Some context. When my uncle and my mom were just little kids, right after they got they joined the church, my uncle had a wonderful cat that was the family cat. And uh it got hit by a car, and he was just completely devastated. He brought the cat into the home, and it had got to the point, not to be so descriptive, but you need to know this, it was at Rigamortis. It was stiff, it was gone. And he just begged grandpa, my grandpa, his dad, says, You have the priest to bring it back. And they looked at each other like, I can't do that. But you know what? They had people who were influencing them in a very positive way, and they just did what a father would do to his child, and he says, Okay, I'll bless the cat. The cat got up and walked out and was there with the rest of the family for two or three more years. Okay. Hopefully that's not blasphemous. You'll have to bring it up with the Lord as to why he would answer that prayer. It comes to this fish. This fish was in my grandfather's office for a number of years. It's called a Jack Dempsey after the famous boxer. It's very territorial, but it's highly intelligent. In the office where my grandfather was doing his business, the Jack Dempsey would hit this metal bubbler that would go down to aerate, and it would hit it, this metal thing against the glass in order to get his attention. Get his attention, and he just wanted to interact, and sometimes he wanted the Cheerios that were nearby. He'd put the Cheerios over the top of the tank, the thing would jump up and grab it, and then it go back down. But there was this relationship they built, and he would tell us about this. Very clever fish. Um, they were moving from one house in Schenectady, New York to another, and in the act, he had the fish tank in the back of the truck, and the fish got out of the tank and fried in the sun, it was dead. And he just sobbed, holding his friend in his hand. And he had a thought about that cat and an awkward as an awkward new convert, and he's telling me as I'm just listening in upstate New York at the dinner table as he pled with the Lord to bring that fish back. And sure enough, the Lord heard. He placed it back in the tank, and the fish lived for a number of years thereafter. Now, the reason I say that is because they had to go back and forth between New York and Florida for various reasons. I took over the fish. I didn't ask. But it was in my bedroom, and I did the same thing, he got my attention in the same way. I would put a Cheerio over the top of the water, but it was a symbol to me. It was a symbol of priesthood. And I don't know if my grandfather did that intentionally, but every day I would walk in with all the temptations of a teenager, and I had to look at that fish. And later, uh, as a business thing, I don't know why, my brother and I in Georgia decided to start an animal clinic. And we hired a couple of doctors to do surgeries. We are so stupid. And um we uh we had this great idea, we were gonna uh have this concept where these animal rescues would bring us the animals and we would do it for uh cheap. And uh so the the largest animal rescue of the Southeast decided to lock arms with us. She brought us her own dog for us to do a routine surgery, and the doctor flopped, and the dog had a reaction and died on the surgery table. And so the the doctor was swearing up a storm embarrassed, leaves. My father and my brother were there, and we're like, what do we do? This is gonna wreck us. And my father said, go talk to the doctor and have her leave. We know what grandpa would do here. So they administered to the dog, and the dog walked out, and everything was fine. And there's four other animals that, for whatever reason, continue to live. No, sorry, one that's still alive, that has been a beneficiary of grandpa in his example. I'm not trying to tell you this to go bring your animals back to the life. That's really not the point. And I know I have to be really careful in how I talk about this. My point is the imagery of generational conversations about spiritual things. My grandmother would tell me and sit down with me as a teenager when I was asked to clean the forest. I would come in for lunch and she would say, you know, sometimes, she says, when I pray for something, I know that God knows past, present, and future. So I pray over the past, and I know he can influence the past for the present. And I'd be like, okay, grandma, you're on your game. You need to have conversations like this with your children and your grandchildren. They need to know it, otherwise, where are they going to get it? Pass on these faith-filled experiences. I testify that these things are true. I apologize for keeping you over, and I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Um, can someone give a closing prayer? Thank you so much.