Select Page

missionwcw4 (Bishop Waddell ** )

Bishop and Sister W. Christopher Waddell of the Presiding Bishopric

Tuesday devotional,  November 19, 2019


1/ Sister Waddell

  • We are grateful for your sacrifice.  We promise you that you have been called to the area where you can bless others to the utmost.
  • I would like to talk about two words this evening.  Those words are receive and rescue.
  • To receive means to come into the possession of.  For example, we receive our endowment in the temple.
  • In Doctrine and Covenants 109, it talks of servants going forth from the temple, armed with power, having the name of Christ, having received glory, with angels having charge over us, bearing glorious tidings.  Our temple endowments enable us to go forth with power.
  • You have the right to represent the Lord because you have received spiritual power.
  • Begin and end with the temple in mind, as President Nelson has said.
  • With every person that you teach, you should build their faith, help them repent, and make sure they are truly converted to the Gospel.
  • We build temples so that all can receive their endowments.
  • Missionary work is critical to the gathering of Israel.
  • There is a letter to all missionaries in the front of Preach My Gospel.  The First Presidency invites all missionaries to assist Heavenly Father in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.  They promise missionaries that more happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced before.
  • Considering the word ‘rescue’, it means to save, deliver, or free from danger.  We should be dedicated to turning hearts to the Savior.
  • Elder Jacob de Jager related the story of the young man who, at the peril of his own life, went out on a stormy night to save some stranded sailors.  His mother begged him not to go because she had already lost one son who had gone to sea.  It turned out that the person the son saved was his own missing brother who was stranded on the sinking vessel.

2/ Elder Waddell

  • This is a special experience for us to be here.  We loved our missionaries as we presided over a mission.  Your mission presidents already love you.
  • Many of the Quorum of the Twelve feel that they assign missionaries to mission presidents rather to missions.  Your mission president and his wife will become important people in your lives.
  • He offered some words about the Presiding Bishopric.
    • The three of them are ordained bishops.
    • They are the presidency of the Aaronic Priesthood in the Church.
    • The General Young Men presidency does not preside over the Aaronic Priesthood holders.
    • We feel that our commission is to ‘prepare the way’, just as John the Baptist, an Aaronic Priesthood holder, prepared the way for the Savior.
    • The Presiding Bishopric is to the First Presidency as the Seventy are to the Quorum of the Twelve.
    • The Presiding Bishopric deals with temporal affairs, including the construction of temples.
    • President Nelson, when first ordained as President of the Church, looked at a financial report of the Church as said, “I can build as many temples as I like!”
    • We deal with finances, investments, business matters of the Church, humanitarian issues, welfare, printed materials, the scriptures, etc.
    • There are 14 departments over which the Presiding Bishopric presides.
  • How to serve a successful mission:
    • Look for patterns in the scriptures.
    • The Book of Mormon was so important that it needed to be translated and printed before the Church was organized.
    • The return of Elijah is mentioned in all four of the Standard Works.
    • Missionaries are to gather sheaves to garners.  The garners are our temples.
    • Our missionary work should lead people not just to the waters of baptism, but ultimately to the temple.
    • There is a pattern of journeys in the scriptures:
      • Our journey back to Heavenly Father’s presence
      • The journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to the Holy Lands
      • Lehi’s journey to the land of promise
      • Jared’s journey to the land of promise
      • In each of these journeys, the Lord provided a ‘tool’:
        • For the children of Israel it was a cloud by day and a pillar of light by night
        • For the people of Lehi it was the Liahona
        • For the people of Jared it was the 16 stones
        • Our tool is the Book of Mormon
    • The greatest work on this planet is the gathering of Israel.  Without the Book of Mormon there would be no gathering.
    • Two things happened before the church was organized — the printing of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the priesthood.
    • It is significant that the last address given by President Thomas S. Monson pertained to the Book of Mormon and its importance
    • Prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon every day.  It will help you resist temptation and overcome doubt.
    • Elder Holland has stated that it is impossible to overstate the importance of the Book of Mormon, and that missionaries who fail to utilize the Book of Mormon in their work do so at the peril of serving successfully.
    • Immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon.
    • Your duty is not to convince or coerce, but to introduce friends to the Book of Mormon and encourage them to pray about it.
    • You should be your number one convert!
    • Three promises from President Russell M. Nelson concerning reading the Book of Mormon:
      • You will make better decisions day by day
      • Wisdom from heaven will come to you
      • You will be protected from the evils of the day
  • I want to remind you how to behave and act during your mission.  Keep your commitments to yourself, your family, President Nelson, and the Lord.
  • Here are perhaps the 18 most important words ever spoken:
    • “Here am I, send me.”  Those words are rich in promise and commitment.
    • “Not my will but thine be done.”  He was totally committed to His Father and to us.
    • “It is finished.”  He completed all that he promised.  He gave 100%!
    • “He is risen.”  He accomplished the greatest act of love of all time.  His Atonement was infinite and all-encompassing.
  • Now it is time for you missionaries to say the same things — send me, I will do the will of those who preside over me, I will serve faithfully to the very end, I will finish my task as a missionary.
  • I am convinced that we were aware of the Atonement as it was completed in Gethsemane and on Golgotha.

Click here to return to the General Authority speakers index
Click here to return to the MTC index page