In order to know the importance of becoming true followers of Jesus Christ, we must first come to know Him and to know our Savior is to know our Heavenly Father. This begins with desire, desire to know Him and to plant seeds deep within our souls that teach us to become Christ-like in character and in our behavior. When we plant and nurture seeds of the gospel, we become true followers of Jesus Christ.
Today, I'd like to share with you five of these seeds which are principles of His gospel:
1. Trust in the Lord
Tyrell my Son is a 6th generation member of the Church, he was born into a family with a rich heritage of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Tyrell graduated high school in june 2015. He felt he wasn't ready to leave on a mission right away and had to prepare himself. At the beginning of 2016 he decided to put in his papers to serve a mission. Tyrell didn’t leave on his Mission until March 2017. As you may notice, it shouldn’t take over a year to get your mission call. My son had briefly mentioned in a sacrament talk about the struggles he had to go through before he left. We wanted our son to serve because he had the desire to go and not because he feels forced from his parents. But he really did in his heart want go. Because of that desire to go he learned to be humble and sought help from his Bishop, he learned faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, and trust in the Lord’s timing. As I look back on this preparation period, feelings of frustration may have crept in many times but in the end a feeling of gratitude to our Heavenly Father prevailed. One important change we saw in him was that he began to sincerely communicate with his Heavenly Father. He learned he must pray always, a principle which has and continues to make an eternal impact on his life. I noticed the difference in his prayers when we knelt as a family in prayer. A change to express more than just repetition and the lack of being robotic in his feelings went away. Talking with our Heavenly Father - Sincerely talking with him telling him your troubles, expressing your true feelings can bring you closer to him. He loves to hear from us - his children, just like we love to hear from our own.
Here is one of his latest letters:
I would say this has been my favorite week so far. Things are starting to pick up we are finding solid people to work with and they are actually progressing. Our prayers are being answered, hard work is paying off, and the spirit has definitely been working with us this week. We haven't been able to meet up with Hayley at all this week but we send her a daily scripture in the morning and check up on her every night. These past two days she's smoked 0! We did teach her some lessons over the phone, so she is still on track to be baptized on June 17.
We set an appointment with Cinnamon and brought a member to the lesson. It was such a good lesson. This time her mom was present, and Cinnamon was so excited for her mom to hear the First Vision. She was just as astonished the first time we shared it with her. We taught them out of their own bible, which is the way to do it down here in the South. So many people down here know some truth, the Catholics, the Baptists, the Methodists they all have/teach some truth and they are all such good people. But a lot of times they feel they're missing something, and it makes me sad. We've run into a lot of people this week who told us they will never see their children again after this life, or there wife, or there mom, and that's how they were raised, some won't accept the fact that we will be able to, because they were taught that all their life by preachers. When we taught Cinnamon from her bible, Matthew 16:19, because the priesthood has been restored on the Earth again today, marriages can be for time and all Eternity, Families can be together forever, by the authority of God not only is it bound on Earth but in Heaven also will it be bound, she wanted that more than anything. She longed for that all her life.
Another similar experience we had this week, we were teaching a family. Samantha and Jay, and three little children 9 being the oldest. We tracted into Samantha quite a while ago and she committed to come to church on June 11 because she has some kickball thing every Sunday, but we taught her the Restoration. She was raised Catholic, but stopped going because she felt like something was missing. When we shared the First Vision with her she was at tears and could not speak. She managed to say she longs for what we have. We just sat in silence and just let the spirit take over, bore our testimonies, and concluded with a prayer.
Anyways, I know that true happiness comes by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I've got to be in Shalotte now, we are about to go fish.
Hope yall have a great week!
2. Search the Scriptures Daily
I will forever remember when I was a teenager I would sleepover at my friends home and every time i did we were awaken by her father at 6am in the morning he would knock and enter saying ‘early to bed early to rise makes man healthy, wealthy and wise’ and then we knew we had to get up and have scripture study with the rest of the family.
Also in highschool I had a couple of Penpals, one of these penpals was serving a mission in Macon, Georgia. I remember in one of his letters from him he encourages me if I hadn’t already to read the Book of Mormon. I was about 16 and hadn’t so I did because of his encouragement. When I was seventeen I visited that pen pal and his family here in Utah, and while here he suggested we also have daily scripture reading together. You could say that that was one of the reasons why I fell in love with him. And we are married today. Reading the scriptures, consistently, is not an easy thing for me. But for my husband it is. He is a great example of daily scripture reading which he usually does in the morning before I’m awake. He encourages us to also have our daily family scripture reading as well. For me and my children to have his example of dedicated scripture study I know it blesses our home and family and will bless my children’s homes as well if they follow in his example.
For 40 days and nights, the mortal Messiah fasted and prayed in the Judean Wilderness. When tempted here by Satan, He quoted passages found in Deuteronomy. For each of the temptations that Satan proposed Jesus responded with scriptural passages. The lesson for us is clear: We should never underestimate the power of the scriptures to counter the adversary.
Alma 32:27-28: "But behold, if you will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of Faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
"Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out in your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold it will begin to swell within your breasts and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves---It must be a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."
3. Be Faithful and Obedient
As I mentioned before, Tyrell my son is a 6th generation member and I hope one day he will recognize, if not already, the examples of faithful and obedient fathers that came before him.
- His 3rd great grandfather, Pere Wihongi joined the church in 1898. He had been an ordained minister of the Church of England. After he heard about the church it was 7 years before someone came who could teach him the gospel in Maori.
- His son Henare Pere Wihongi served 3 missions by walking or on horseback all around the North Island of New Zealand. He left his wife and small children at home and still went even after losing part of one leg after stepping on a rusty nail. He made an artificial leg and fastened it in his boot and carried on. His favorite joke was to get people to help him take his boot off and when they pulled off his artificial leg he yelled “You pulled my leg off!” One of his companions was Matthew Cowley who later became an apostle.
- His son Hono Wiremu Te Raka Wihongi, Tyrell’s great grandfather, was a faithful member and a bishop at one point. He wrote to Mum (Barbara) one time these words. “As long as we live the principles of the gospel of Christ and fall in line with the instruction of the prophet and authorities, everything will fit in it's place.” I know that statement to be true as we have seen time and again things that always fit in it’s place when we try to be faithful.
- His son, Barney Wihongi, Jason’s father was only 42 when he passed but left a lasting legacy of faithful obedience for his posterity in that short time. At the time of his passing he had been the principal of the Church College of NZ for 8 years. He had just been called as a Bishop before his sickness put him in hospital. He was also the Area Director of church education for the south pacific. He also had been a counselor in a mission presidency. These important callings at times had him hosting prophets and general authorities in his school and home. As a child this all seemed very unlikely to happen. He came from a family of very humble circumstances. As a baby Barney was blessed by his grandfather Henare Pere in a small maori village named Awarua. He said that one day this baby would become an educational leader among his people. Some who heard laughed because they were in a home with a dirt floor. It seemed so unlikely. But of all his callings his favorite was father. His influence and spirit affected many. When Jason visited NZ this past February, he still received the lovingest of hugs and kisses when introduced as Barney’s son.
- His son is Jason, I already talked about him, we already know he’s totally awesome. (He added this in lol)
4. Be worthy to have the Companionship of the Holy Ghost
In 3 Nephi chapter 12, the Savior calls and commissions the 12 Apostles. He taught them the Beatitudes. Let me quote 3 Nephi 12:6: "And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost."
I asked my Dad to email me a memorable experience of him feeling the holy ghost and this is what he says:
I sat here and this is how I felt -
During my life I have been fortune enough to have had the Holy Ghost watch over and bless me in many different ways. I am a Vietnam Veteran and because of this I have lost many of my friends who like me were Vietnam Veterans. Throughout the 80’s, 90’s the early 2000’s I attended funerals of my favorite Uncle, two very very close friends, and many other friends who passed away because of our experience in Vietnam and of course the effects of what we now know as Agent Orange. I have been fortunate because I have never really experienced a fear of losing my life because of this. A couple of years ago I retired and planned on taking my wife away on a trip to Europe. However a little over a week before we were supposed to leave I was concerned about a problem I had in my throat, so I visited my Doctor who treated me and suggested that it would probably settle and come right. However a couple of days before we were going to leave I was again prompted to see the Doctor who took an x-ray and advised me that they would contact me with the result in a few days. The next day I was called to report to the hospital and on arrival other tests were made and I was eventually admitted because of a cancer I had in my chest and throat. Of course much of what was planned changed but there has never been a fear. I have been fortunate enough to have always felt comfort and a feeling of someone watching over me in my life time. There have been promptings to read certain scriptures, to visit certain people, to say special things without even a thought in my mind about the outcomes. And of course I am so pleased to hear of outcomes that are always a blessing.
As individuals we are so blessed to have the Lord, Our Savior and the Holy Ghost watch over and be with us during our lifetime.
I do pray also that you all are enjoying the Lords blessings Dad
The Holy Ghost works in perfect unity with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, fulfilling several roles to help us live righteously and receive the blessings of the gospel. As we strive to stay on the path that leads to eternal life, the Holy Ghost can guide us in our decisions and protect us from physical and spiritual danger. In D&C 88:67 the Lord proclaims His promises: "And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole body shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you, and that body which is filled with light, comprehendeth all things."
5. To be Charitable which is the Pure Love of Christ
In Moroni 7:45 and 47 we read: "And Charity suffereth long and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. But Charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."
So I needed a story of a father being charitable, and i asked my husband for advice and he wasn’t answering me and then he started to jokingly say something about him being charitable but I cut him off by saying that I can’t use him again in my talk because that would be overboard and people would think i’m obsessed with him. And so I was stuck and i kept pressuring him to give me another example and he finally said, “There is none, that’s why we have wives!” Which i thought was cute!
Well we just had yw camp this week, and on the first day it was raining and cold. Mina and I drove up to the mtg point and saw our neighbor on his truck loading it with stuff. Mina was surprised and seemed happy to see him and we were wondering if he was coming with us to girls camp. So I get out and ask him what are you doing here are you coming with us, and he had a smile on his face and shook his head up and down and I said, “Whaaat how’d that happen”? And he said to me, “My wife made me!” and then i remembered my husband's cute comment!
Well just that day my neighbor helped us transport the girls to where we were going, he waited in his truck while we did temple baptisms in the Ogden Temple, and then I was able to follow my neighbor to Heber which is a huge deal for me just took stress away from me having to know where to go. And at the cabin my neighbor got the pellet fire going to warm up the cabin because it was cold. And even unclogged the toilet. He did all these things without being asked, without his wife having to make him. And not only his example but his wife’s too, I see that their children are learning to be just as charitable as they are.
If I think of the Fathers here in this ward who I’ve known since we’ve lived here and that’s about 15yrs now. There are so many charitable fathers in this very room and who have passed on. So many acts of kindness that I have witnessed and heard of, those who have taught, disciplined, praised or encouraged my children and others, have helped with projects in our home and with the widows in our ward, who’ve shared their talents, time, and knowledge, given blessings and fasted and prayed for us, whether your wives have made you do it or not! I’m truly grateful, my family is grateful for the love you have shown towards us.
Matthew 22: 37-39 says, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
The love of God and our Savior Jesus Christ is the most desirable above all things. To have the pure love of Christ means that we trust in him, we pray fervently to our Heavenly Father, we study the scriptures daily to draw near to Christ, we are faithful and obedient to God's commandments, we invite the Holy Ghost by living the gospel and being receptive to its promptings. I know as we do these things they will become our character and we will become true disciples of Jesus Christ, and I say this in his Holy name Amen!
