Preach My Gospel and General Conference

Week #67

This week we had a fireside. Not just any fireside. This was a fireside completely organized and directed by the missionaries of the Venânio Aires Branch. Let me just say, it's a lot more work than I thought it would be.

We decided to use Elder Ballard's last conference address as our basis and went from there. We invited the Elders Quorum President and the Young Women's President of the branch to speak and then Elder Dias and I presented a more interactive lesson talking about two of the invitations Elder Ballard made this last conference, get a personal copy of Preach My Gospel and invite somebody every three months to meet the missionaries. Elder deAraujo sang "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" in Portuguese and the whole thing was a huge success.

It really is clear when people take their calling to teach seriously. Even if we are called upon to teach without preparation, we can still teach well. The difference isn't really in how much we prepare in the days before our talk. It is much more in how much we are already prepared. How much we have already born our testimony. How converted we are to those principles. How often we study and treasure up and feast upon the words of Christ. Then, when we are called upon to teach, the Spirit not only will fill our mouth with words, but will also testify of those words. That's how we recognize the true servants of the Lord.

Remember that Elder Ballard invited every member to own a copy of Preach My Gospel. Age, activity, calling, etc. don't matter. That means that a family of six people (like mine) should have six well used copies.

The Church is true. The Book of Mormon as well. There is a great difference between the swelling words  (interrupted by shouts and shows of "miracles") of pretenders and the simple truth taught by true representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. True power and authority do not need to be displayed or proven, simply declared. The Spirit is what carries that declaration into the hearts of men. The Spirit convinces and converts. 

Our calling gives us authority; fulfilling our covenants gives us power.

These things are true. I know they are and I declare them in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elder Dickson