Elder & Sister David A. Bednar, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Tuesday devotional, August 20, 2019
Tuesday devotional, Elder and Sister David A. Bednar, Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Sister Bednar:
- You are called to serve by prophets and apostles.
- Our three sons served missions. It was always an exciting time when the call was actually opened. One of our sons opened his call and said “I am going to a country that starts with ‘F’! I called out, “The Philippines”! Well, Philippines doesn’t start with an F and he was called to Finland. Enjoy the excitement of your call.
- The temple is glorious. You are endowed with power and righteousness.
- The Missionary Training Center is a sacred and ‘set-apart’ place. You are marching with the 2000 Stripling warriors here at the training center.
- The gift of tongues is real. It is said that only Finnish babies and Mormon missionaries can learn the Finnish language.
- 2 Nephi 32 talks about speaking with the tongues of angels. That describes all of you!
- Doctrine and Covenants 84 talks about going forth to reprove the world, and the Lord will be on your right hand and on your left, and the Lord’s angels will be round about you. He will NEVER forsake you!
Elder Bednar:
- I bring you the greetings and love of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve.
- I am not going to try to capture your attention. I shouldn’t have to capture it. I want you to simply pay attention!
- I want to talk to you about you. I want you to learn things that you really can’t learn just by my talking and your listening. I want to tell you things that are in my SOUL! I want to talk to you about this great missionary work.
- I want to tell you about two experiences that will set the stage for what I want to share:
- Experience # 1 — I was given the assignment to interview a potential mission president, and there was great urgency in holding this interview. I told my secretary that I needed to meet with the couple within the next few days. They lived some distance from Salt Lake City. Within a few minutes, my secretary reported that the couple would be in my office within the hour. It just so happened that they were on their way to the Salt Lake area for other reasons, and stated that they would be happy to come to church headquarters. They were properly dressed and happy to meet with me.
- Experience # 2 — I was on a Florida beach with my family for a week long vacation. Our early morning routine was to jog to a distant pier and back each morning. On a given morning I headed out early and alone. I could tell that a storm was approaching. I reached the pier and none of my family had yet come into view. As I started to jog back, several members of my family ran past me on their way to the pier. Under any other circumstance, I would have turned around and gone with them to the pier. For unknown reasons, I continued jogging back to the hotel. Just then, I was aware of a devastating lightening strike that struck the beach and some power poles just in front of me. I then saw two of my granddaughters huddled under an awning, frightened and disoriented. I was able to quickly go to their aid.
- Do you think the chain of events in either of these experiences was coincidental? Most often, we are not aware that we are being led and inspired by the Spirit.
- How can I know when I am being guided? The experience of Nephi and obtaining the brass plates is instructive. Three attempts were made to obtain the plates. With the third attempt, Nephi didn’t spend much time pondering. He simply moved forward with faith in the Lord. 1 Nephi 4:7 contains the important words, “Nevertheless, I went forth…”.
- Don’t sit and worry. Move forward with confidence. As long as you are being good boys and good girls, you will not go astray.
- Do your best. Read Doctrine and Covenants section 80. Stephen Burnett was told that he could go north, or south, or east, or west, and that it didn’t really matter which way he went. He was told that he could not go amiss.
- It is the Lord’s work, not ours. Just move, move your feet and open your mouths.
- In the Quorum of the Twelve, all we do is seek to hear the voice of the Lord!
- Repent if necessary. You don’t have to be perfect, just a little better tomorrow than you were today.
- The promise is that we can have His spirit to be with us, but that doesn’t mean that every second of every day we will be aware of that presence. We are all natural men and women and we have many other things to think about. But we can always be guided.
- How can you recognize the spirit when it comes? Are you expecting something rare, magnificent or unusual. That rarely happens. You will usually be unaware that the spirit is guiding you. You will, however, have thoughts in your minds and feelings in your heart.
- Don’t expect earth-shaking events. Don’t require miracles. Don’t feel that you are in poor standing with God if you are not receiving miracles. Just be faithfully obedient to common commandments. God will feed you line upon line.
- Don’t be routine or mundane in your teaching of the First Vision. I promise you that if you are dutiful and excited when you teach the First Vision, you will learn something new spiritually every time you relate that beautiful story. You will be delivering essentially the same message, but it will never be the same to those you teach nor to yourself.
- Don’t let your teaching become monotonous. Moroni delivered essentially the same message to Joseph Smith FOUR times, but each time was just a little different, and the differences were significant.
- Your messages should be taught to meet very unique circumstances. Nothing should be routine.
- Get out of the way and let the Spirit deliver the spiritual promptings and feelings.
- In a world of darkness, find joy in being good. God trusts us — we must trust Him.
- Don’t focus on yourself.
- Jesus lives! He is resurrected! The Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith.
- As you serve, you will come to understand. Strive to be good, not perfect. Press forward, even when you do not know what lies ahead. In pressing forward, you will find your greatest joy.
Click here to return to the General Authority speakers index
Click here to return to the MTC index page