Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Doctrine & Covenants 133-134 Part 1 • Bro. Alvin Jackson • November 17-23 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

What does D&C 133-134 teach about leaving Babylon, honoring law, and gearing up for the Lord’s return? Brother Alvin Johnson examines the latter-day gathering of Israel, America’s inspired foundations, and how to build Zion now.SHOW NOTES/TRANSCRIPTS English: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC247EN French: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC247FR German: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC247DE Portuguese: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC247PT Spanish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC247ESYOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/-RH3zlsoeEwALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIM.co2021 Episode Doctrine & Covenants 133-134 Part 1https://youtu.be/peCmvX25quMFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookBook of Mormon: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastBMBook  WEEKLY NEWSLETTER https://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletter  SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastTIMECODE:00:00 Part 1 - Brother Alvin Jackson02:31 Episode teaser04:24 Alvin Jackson’s bio07:41 Come, Follow Me Manual09:09 Opening of Section 13312:12 Suddenly vs. quickly14:35 The importance of gathering18:29 Solemn assemblies20:30 Metaphor of the Bridegroom23:16 Give up that summer cottage26:28 The call to repentance29:12 Establishing Zion at home, ward, and stake32:31 Information about Moroni35:08 Preparing the way before a king39:36 What does 144,000 mean?42:04 You decide which side you are on45:46 Zion and Jerusalem48:23 Freedom and agency51:57 “An aspirational document”54:14 The Lord’s activities are never addictive57:07 The Red Sea, part II1:00:49 Satan rules through division1:04:05 We are all on the same team1:06:32 Lost tribes1:10:07 End of Part 1 - Brother Alvin JacksonThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsAmelia Kabwika: Portuguese TranscriptsHeather Barlow: Communications DirectorSydney Smith: Social Media, Graphic Design "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Coming up in this episode on Follow Him. Before I joined the church in 1994, I used to think that the establishment of this country wasn't for us. I used to have the attitude, why am I celebrating Independence Day when my ancestors were in bondage at the formation of this country? And then when I joined the church, my eyes were open as I'm reading Doctrine and Covenants 98 and Section 101, where the Lord specifically highlights that he raise up these wise men for specific purpose and that our founding documents are inspired. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Follow Him.

My name is Hank Smith. I am your host. I'm here with my co-host, John, by the way, a pool of living water on parched ground. John, that is you. never been called that i'm sure many of our listeners have sat in their car or had their children in the car and listened to a john by the way talk and i would describe it that way living water on parched ground hey john we are very honored to have brother alvin jackson with us brother jackson thank you for being here thank you for coming on and follow him so happy to be here i love your

podcast i love both of you i was telling john before we got on that he went on a lot of road trips with my family because instead of listening to music or watching movies, back in those days, it was put a movie in and get the kids quiet, but no, my wife's like, no, we're listening to these hours and hours and hours of John, by the way, and love the story of Lahontai and Amalekite coming down. Don't come down from your mountain. Don't come down. That's exactly right.

And so we still talk about that to this day. And when I told the kids that I was going to be in this podcast, they thought way cool. John is as humble as you'd ever hope, but he has blessed a lot of lives. And he just says, well, you know, we do what we can. Right back at you. Hey, John, sections 133 and 134, not super well-known sections. They're not when you automatically think of, and they come out of order. I know you've taught these before.

What are we looking at? What are you looking forward to? 133 was going to be an appendix an ending to the Book of Commandment. That's interesting to think of where it was and how we're going to take the gospel to the world. But 134 is a really interesting section because it speaks of how we're going to work with governments and laws in general. America was new at the time and still trying to live up to what, it was designed to be. Looking forward to all of that. Yeah, I'm learning from an expert. John, the date of Section 1st, 1831. The date of Section 133 is November 1st, 1831. So apparently

just one day happened between those two, and we've been studying all of that all this year. Brother Jackson, as you've looked at these sections, what are we going to do today? I know you've worked in the aerospace industry, so give us a 30,000 foot view. It's interesting. to note that it was written just one day after Section 1, and it just kept getting moved back to its rightful place. You think about the Book of Mormon. It starts with a question, just like most of Doctrine and Covenants. It starts with the question, and it has to do with the gathering, and what do the elders need to be doing to be involved in the gathering? And then the Lord, in his magnificent wisdom, lays out for them, the reason you all need to get engaged is because

I'm coming back sooner than most people think and I'm coming back in a big way. So it's your job to go out and prepare the people for this magnificent return that I'm planning right now. Then 134, it tells us how we live in government. So we've got the preparation for the Lord's second coming, how we live in a republic and how we adhere to the laws and the magistrates of the land. Yeah, one of the Articles of Faith, honoring, obeying, and sustaining the law. John, I need to tell you that I first heard about Brother Jackson from a member of our team, Annabelle Chamberlain. Annabelle is very complimentary of many people, but this was more than that. Annabelle told me that this is someone who absolutely needs to be on our show.

We take Annabelle's opinion very seriously here. She is the delightful young lady. She is, and she does a lot for us. here on our show. John, tell me what we know about Brother Jackson. I know you and he get along famously because of the common love of airplanes. He received a bachelor's degree in aviation business management from Embry-Riddle, which the airplane people will know, oh, that's a big aviation university. And an MBA from Johns Hopkins University, he is in a business now where he's committed to creating awareness and excitement and understanding about America's true history. Hank, I have to

hand it to you again. You got the right guy for today, especially for Section 134. He moved to Utah. He'd been a lobbyist for about 16 years with names like McDonald-Douglas Boeing and Northrop Grumman, which caught my ear because those are all aviation companies, actually served in the Utah State Senate for a long time, moved his family here to Utah for 16 years. They have seven children Where are you living now, Brother Jackson? We live in Chevy Chase, Maryland. We do have a place here in Salt Lake City, so we spend a lot of time out here because my wife's from here. I've got a boy that goes to the University of Utah.

He's playing basketball there. He is following in the footsteps of his older brother, Frank, who went to Long Peak High School here, McDonald's All-American, went to Duke for a year, and then played in the NBA for five years. He's currently here, and he's going to go to China in November to play some more basketball. No kidding. That's where we are. But we live about 20 minutes from the White House. We love lived in D.C. because of the history.

Now, Brother Jackson, you told us to call you Brother Jackson, but tell us how you're currently serving in the church. You have a different title than Brother, don't you? Yes, yes. I'm currently serving as a state president in the Washington, D.C. Young Singlet Doe North State. We have eight units. I was a bishop in the YSA ward before I was called the state president. So we've been working with young people for the last nine to ten years, New Annabelle when she was a single lady and Austin, her husband, Chamberlain.

My wife and I, it's so funny, we didn't know we were that dumb until we started working with young single adults. They're the smartest people in the room. I teach at BYU, and I often have to. Somehow disguised my face from going, wow, you just really taught me something I've never known. They do that all the time. They are very smart, super intelligent. It's clear.

All of them were held and reserved to come to the earth now when the world's at its worst because of their valiancy. They are well positioned to turn their light on and really make a difference in the world. And they are. We love serving with them. It's a difficult world for them, but they are up for it. They are up for the challenge. They were born for this. Let's get started.

I'm going to read from the Come Follow Me Manual. Then really, we want to turn the time over to you, Brother Jackson, guide us through this lesson. This is how it begins. In 1833, mobs attacked and destroyed the church's printing press. Among the print jobs in progress at the time was the Book of Commandments, the church's first attempt to compile God's latter day revelations into one volume. The mob scattered the unbound pages, and although courageous, saints preserve some of them, only a few incomplete copies of the Book of Commandments are known

to have survived. What we now know as Section 133 of the Doctrine Covenants was meant to be the appendix to the Book of Commandments, like an exclamation point at the end of the Lord's published revelation. It warns of a coming day of judgment and repeats the call found throughout modern revelation, flee worldliness as symbolized by Babylon, build Zion, prepare for the second coming and spread this message unto every nation and kindred and tongue and people. The original plans for the Book of Commandments were not fulfilled, but this revelation is a reminder and a witness that the Lord's work will go forward, for he shall make bear his holy arm and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of their God. Beautiful.

Okay, Brother Jackson, we are ready to learn. Great. Thank you so much. You go back and read the opening part of Section 133. It says at this time, there were many things which the elders desire to know relative to preaching the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth and concerning the gathering and in order to walk by the true light and be instructed from on high on the 3rd of November 1831. And this is Joseph Smith writing, I inquired to the Lord and receive the following important revelation. And we've already discussed how it was originally written as an appendix, but kept moving back over time. The answer that the Lord gives comes in an interesting

order as the Lord proceeds to talk about his pending second coming, highlighting the reason why the elders need to be involved in the gathering. That's one thing that I just love about the church that was so attractive to me when I started taking the discussions. We're very good at teaching the why behind things. The Lord says, I'm going to answer your question, but I'm going to tell you why first growing up in a baptist faith it was in a home where my parents old school you do as i say no questions no if answer buts there was no why it was you either do this or i'm going to knock you out when i started taking the discussions in the church i love the why the scriptures here is so illusionary jesus will be coming back and

a very dramatic fashion. And there's a lot of references to John the Revelator in the book of Revelations, particularly Revelations chapters 12 and 14, which we will reference. The message is clear. There's no time to waste. The Revelation's urgent tone emphasizes that Christ soon will come back to judge an apostate world, which we refer to as Babylon. Any thoughts to that point? John, I've said this before, but my great-grandfather wrote a hymn in which he said, Come to Zion, come to Zion. Babylon, the Great is falling. Your great-grandfather wrote that?

Yeah, yeah. Wow, that's cool. A lot of it comes from this section. Go ye out from Babylon or the world. Get away from there. You mentioned the Book of Revelation, Brother Jackson. And there's a great verse in Revelation where the Lord is speaking to the people in the great and spacious building. It's in Revelation 18.4.

I've read the book of Mormon where it says the great and spacious building falls and great was the fall thereof. Part of me is like, yeah, that's what you deserve. But in Revelation 184, the Lord says, come out of her, my people, that you receive not of her sins or her plagues. there's a tone of I love you get out of there I got to write that down I like what Brother Jackson said about the urgency of it in verse 2 the Lord who shall suddenly come to his temple

we have all heard throughout the doctrine of covenants a phrase like I come quickly sometimes I jokingly say you keep on using South Word I don't think it means what you think it means because they've been saying quickly for 200 years some of the commentators I've read like Elder McConkey says quickly means suddenly in a time you think not quickly can mean without warning

so when I see suddenly I think it's time to be prepared now yeah that's right in references if you look down the footnotes you look at Malachi chapter 3 verse 1 where it says behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, sayeth the Lord of hosts. The question I have for you all is, who is the messenger? He says, behold, I will send my messenger,

and he shall prepare the way before me. Who is he referring to there? Because I was reading that and wondering, is he referring to Joseph Smith, Malachi 3, verse 1, which is footnoted to the messenger of the covenant. Yeah, I love this. There is, an answer from D. Kelly Ogden, he's a retired religious education professor, and Andy Skinner that we've had on the podcast before. So I'm looking at page 456 in verse by verse, the Old Testament. This is what he says, as we have seen a prophet's name or title often has something to do with his message. Just as Malachi in Hebrew means literally my messenger, the Lord would send into the world a messenger or a covenant, a standard, an ensign to prepare the way before him.

We may see a composite fulfillment of this great prophecy in the coming of John the Baptist, Elijah, and others in the ministry of Joseph Smith, and in the gospel itself. Orson, Pratt, and Sidney Rigdon, for example, were told in these latter days that they were preparing the way of the Lord, just as John had done. Jesus Christ, of course, was the messenger of the covenant

spoken of my Malachi in whom we certainly delight. answer. The section begins with a warning to prepare for the second coming of the Lord. In verse four, prepare ye, prepare ye, sanctify yourselves, gather together. And of course, we love the word gather because in our late prophet, President Nelson, whom we are going to miss dearly, he says, the gathering is the most important work taking place on the earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude. Nothing else compares in importance. We are the Lord's missionaries, as disciples. We are engaged in the greatest challenge, the greatest cause, the greatest work on earth today. And we see throughout the scriptures, the Lord continually challenges us to

gather, gather, gather. When you look at verse five, he admonishes us to separate yourself from the ungodliness of the world. You just can't have one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. unsustainable. The gray areas are quickly dissipating. You're either in or you're out. There's no squishiness. We are seeing a separation of the wheat and the tears, and the Lord is it admonishing us in verse 5 to separate yourself from the ungodliness of the world and come over to his side. President Nelson brought into our, we knew about gathering, but just brought it into our conversations so much more. I'm deeply grateful for one of his first talk. in 2018 that you already mentioned of talking about the greatest thing you can do, because I think

it affected some of my kids. And my daughter who served a mission, she thought, oh, I might, I might not. But I think President Nelson's message of gathering had a big impact on her thought process and decided, I think I will survive. I was so grateful for that. When I see the scriptures, what do you think? Hank, you see a series of scatterings and gatherings, don't you? But here's a big one at the end, a big gathering.

Right. President Nelson has brought this to the forefront of our minds. It's something that I think I had some ideas on before he became the president of the church and then he put it into focus. It all became very clear that the Lord made a promise, especially through the prophet Isaiah, that you will be scattered, but I haven't forgotten you. One day, I will bring you back. One day, right? And it was millennia later when he called on a farm boy and said, it's time. Time to keep a promise. That's so powerful because the prophet also, President Nelson, talked a lot about the Lord is hastening his work as he did two conferences ago. And he's hastening his work on both sides of the veil, which happens to be the theme and vision that we want to convey to our young single adults as we are anxiously involved in missionary work and then getting folks to the

temple, which leads us into, well, verse five, it says, go ye out from Babylon, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. So come out of Babylon and get yourself clean, get yourself right, get yourself sanctified through the gift of the Holy Ghost. And then in verse six, call your solemn assemblies and speak often one to another and let every man call upon the name of the Lord. Can your weekly attend to a church serve as a solemn assembly in your opinion, gentlemen? It's certainly a solemn event to contemplate what Jesus did for us and take the sacrament. I don't know if that meets the formal definition of a solemn assembly. That seems to have a specific purpose. But what do you think, Hank? Yeah, I think that there are capital S solemn assemblies

and there's lowercase solemn assemblies. When we get together, we can have these solemn assemblies. But we do have meetings, such as when we get a new president of the church called solemn assemblies. Can we go to Doctrine and Covenant Section 88, verse 117? I'm just fascinated by this notion of solemn assemblies. So come out of Babylon, clean yourself, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord, and then call your solemn assemblies and speak often one to another. And so you go to 8817, it says, call your solemn assembly as I have commanded you. And in verse 118, and as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another,

words of wisdom. Ye seek ye seek ye out of the best books, words of wisdom, seek learning, even by study and faith, organize yourselves, prepare every needful thing and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, house of God. So come out of Babylon, hold your soul. solemn assemblies, be involved in the Lord admonishes us what we need to be about. And that's being in a house of order and a house of God, the temple. I love it. Let's go down to verse 8 here. And

we now get to the answer of the original question. The first seven verses, the Lord highlights that he's coming back, he's coming to his temple quickly, come out of Babylon, and then in verse eight, he tells us, send forth the elders of my church unto the nations, which are afar off, unto the islands of the sea, send forth unto foreign lands, call upon all nations, first upon the Gentiles, and then upon the Jews, which is very interesting to me, because when you look at the New Testament, it was, let's take the gospel to the Jews first, then on to the Gentiles. Here we are reversed. Any thoughts about that? How many times do we hear in the scriptures, the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.

We're going to take the gospel to the Jews, then the Gentiles, and then in the last days, it's going to go from Gentiles to Jews. Verse 9, go ye forth into the land of Zion, further instruction, and the borders of my people may be enlarged, and that her stakes may be strengthened, and that Zion may go forth unto the regions about establishing Zion. And in verse 10, this is an interesting statement here, the Lord makes here, awake and arise and go forth to meet the bridegroom. Prepare yourself for the great day of the Lord. There's that analogy to the bridegroom, which was talked about quite a bit in the last general conference that hold the parable

of the bridegroom. Fair in verse 11, watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour, but be prepared. From the conference talk in October 24th, President Nelson says, the Lord Jesus Christ will come again. It was really a hopeful message, not a day to be feared. He says, brothers and sisters, now is the time for you and me to prepare for the second coming of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority in a world filled with dizzying distractions. How can we do this? And he goes on and talks about regular worship in the temple that will help us to be able to do that. Any thoughts, gentlemen? There's a few metaphors, I think, for the second coming.

One is a thief in the night. You have no idea. One is a woman in travail where you've got a pretty good idea because you can tell that there are signs. This one, too, the bridegroom, you see the footnote there to Matthew 25, this parable of the wise and foolish virgins. They know a wedding's coming. They know it's close. But they're just not quite ready. that's a great one to add to that list of different metaphors

won't take us by surprise. We'll know it's coming and, as President Nelson said, be prepared. Adding to that, John, when the prophet tells us, we are the people that need to prepare the world for the second coming. The world is wicked enough, in my opinion, for the Savior to come back. I mean, we're pretty darn close. But I don't think the world is prepared yet. That's why we're being admonished to be part.

of that. Come out of Babylon, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord so I can use you, gather together with other like-minded people, Latter-day Saints, other Christians, link arms, and go out into the world and proclaim my gospel first to the Gentiles and then to the Jews. Lays it out beautifully for it. This is our roadmap. This is our playbook, our blueprint for getting prepared and helping the world be prepared for the Lord. Lord's second coming. I'm interested in the juxtaposition or the spectrum of Babylon and Zion. You can't have both. I'm sure you remember Elder Maxwell saying, let us once and for all establish our residence in Zion and give up the summer cottage in Babylon.

Yes, I have both feet in Zion, but occasionally I go to Babylon to be entertained, right? I go to Babylon to see a show. I go to Babylon to embrace what's over there just for a little while. I have found that Babylon today can be, I live in Zion, but occasionally I go into social media and spark contention and fight and comment back and forth. And then I come back and I live in Zion in my home and on Sundays. That can be a temptation to go over to Babylon and fight over whatever. Babylon is choosing to fight about today, John, what do you say? What are we going to be outraged about

today? Let's go over there and find out. And you're behind a screen name. People don't know he are, so it's tempting for some of those social media entities to go and say things you would never say if you were with a group of people. Yeah, I think it's now rage cells. Outrage. Yeah, that is interesting. I find myself wanting to respond to people. and they're only just, they're just words. Right. We get so offended and so hurt by just words. And, you know, nobody's entitled to go through life protected from insult, from hurt feelings.

That's just the occupational hazard of being in society. We've allowed ourselves to let words really govern us. And I love the messages that we hear in conference and from the prophet, be a peacekeeper. don't go down to individual's levels, stay above the fray, and approach everything with love and charity. That's hard to do. That is so hard to do. You go on social media and people love to refer to us as Mormons and that we're not Christians

and the tendency is to want to fight back. Our tree is known by its fruit. The best thing that you can do to counter the rhetoric is results. Live your life in a way that bears fruit. and wear Jesus Christ on your sleeves. I love it. Sometimes we think, I can't go to bed. There's someone wrong online.

You're not going to change any minds. I like what you said there. Your daily interactions are going to matter more than your online opinions. Yeah. Well put. I love what you said. Just being above the freight. When I see how our church leaders are responsible,

I think, I need to be more like that. They're always like that, above the fray, and we're focusing on Christ, and we're telling everyone to focus on Christ, that's a good way to respond. Yeah, you're not going to change minds and persuade people by telling them off. You're really not. What did Lincoln say, an ounce of honey will catch more flies than a pound of gall? Let's go down to verse 14 here. It admonishes us again to go ye out from among the nations,

even from Babylon, from the midst of wickedness, which is spiritual Babylon. Down in verse 16, listen ye elders of my church together and hear the voice of the Lord, for he calls upon all men, and he commandeth all men everywhere to repent. We were to go out and, in the kindest way possible, call people to repentance. Have you all thought about what that looks like for you personally? That just thought just came to me as I just read that. calling people to repentance. How do we do that in the world that considers the truth in some regard hate speech or unsafe? But at the same time, you want to help people see the air of their

ways or come to the light and from the darkness. How do you do that in this world? Where folks are so sensitive about believers and non-believers and so forth. What are your thoughts, gentlemen? My first thought, Hank and Al, went to the Bible Dictionary. I love its definition of repent. It's a new view about oneself, about God, and about the world. The word repents, it almost implies you're shaking a finger at somebody. When you see repentance as, let me show you a new way to view yourself, to view the world, and to view God. That's a very happy, hopeful, kind of exciting thought to repent, if you put it that way.

What do you think, Hank? Yeah, I think so. Some of the times that I've been personally called to repentance are when I'm around someone who is behaving in a way that I want to be more like them. For example, I've traveled with John before, and I've seen him the way he interacts with people. I've seen the way he talks to his wife and his children. And I think to myself, as I'm just watching that, I need to do better. Here's October 2008, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, this talk is linked in the manual, Come to Zion. Listen to what he says. Zion is Zion because of the character, attributes, and faithfulness of her citizens. He quotes Moses 7, the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind and dwelt in righteousness. There was no poor among them. And then this

statement. As I read it, he's not calling me to repentance, but this statement sure does. If we would establish Zion in our homes, branches, wards, and stakes, we must rise to this standard. It will be necessary to, one, become unified in one heart and one mind, two, to become individually and collectively a holy people, and three, to care for the poor and needy with such effectiveness that we eliminate poverty. Those three acts, he's pointing out. He's not calling me to repentance directly, but he is. And then he finishes this way. We cannot wait until Zion comes for these things to happen. Zion will only come as they happen. I need to be more unified with the saints. I need to be more holy. And I need to do more to care for the poor and needy.

in my own sphere of influence. You just highlighted some of the messaging that we've been getting from the brethren regarding, particularly I'm thinking about Elder Stevenson's talk regarding the four divinely appointed responsibilities. First, live in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Second, proclaiming the gospel, which is missionary work. Third, uniting families for eternity and then four caring for the poor and needy. If our focus as that Zionist community, if we can focus on the four areas, we can make a real difference in the world.

Just our behavior, I think, can call people to repentance, not in a mean, shameful way, but when you see someone behaving in a way that is inspiring, I am compelled to be more like them. One of the things that is so motivating to me, I've tried to use it when I have a chance to, give a talk or something is talk about someone like that and then you don't have to say you should be like this person you just tell the story of the person and with your audience go wow the spirit supplies the i need to do that the spirit supplies that i need to be better about that when you talk about someone who is a great example to you we all know what we're not living up to and so i like that idea hank i do too thank you for your comments those are great Let's go down to verse 17.

I'm going to say something here that I think will be interesting for our listeners. It says here in verse 17, for behold, the Lord God has sent forth the angel crying through the midst of heaven saying, prepare ye the way to the Lord and make his path straight for the hour of his coming is nigh. The first thought is, well, who is this angel? And I look down and I see in 17A, doctrine and covenants, 27.5. The Lord highlights who that angel is. And it says here in verse 27-5, Behold, this is wisdom in me, wherefore, marvel not for the hour cometh

that I will drink of the fruit of the vine and with you on the earth and with Moronai, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the book of Mormon, containing the fullness of my everlasting gospel to whom I have committed the keys of the record of the stick of Ephraim. the Lord there is referring to Moronai. So then I did a little bit of research on Moronai, because we all know about him and Joseph Smith and the plates.

And then I stumbled across a speech from 1854, the July 4th celebration. People think I'm nuts here. I'm reading back to speeches from 1854. And there was a celebration in Salt Lake City, and Orson Hyde gives this speech. it is found in the volume 6 of the Journal of Discourses. He says this, quote,

in those early and perilous times, and this goes back John to my love for American history, our men were few and our resources limited. He's referring to the Revolutionary War. Poverty was among the most potent enemies we had to encounter, yet our arms were successful, and it may not be amiss to ask here by whose power victory so often perched on our banner.

It was by the agency of that same angel of God that appeared under Joseph Smith and revealed to him the history of the early inhabitants of this country. This same angel presides over the destinies of America and feels a lively interest in all our doings. He goes on to say, he was in the camp of Washington, and by an invisible hand led our fathers to conquest and victory, and this to open and prepare the way for the church and the kingdom of God to be established in the Western Hemisphere for the redemption of Israel and the salvation of the world. This same angel was with Columbus and gave him deep impressions by dreams and by visions respecting this new world. Under the guardianship of the same angel or prince of America,

having the United States grown, increased and flourished like the sturdy oak by the rivers of water. That's who Maroni is, according to Orson, hide. Thoughts, gentlemen. Am I nuts here? What do you think? When I see the language in verse 17, an angel crying through the midst of heaven, that's one of the last verses in the book of Revelation.

I saw another angel flying in the mist of heaven, having the everlasting gospel. I'm always reminded, and this will hit home of the Washington, D.C. temple, where you've got Maroni with the trumpet in his right hand, And some angel Maronis have their left hand empty, but this angel Maronai has the plates in his left hand in the Washington, D.C. temple. And I think could that be that meaning of having the everlasting gospel, having it in his arms right there? What do you think? That's great. Joseph Smith definitely saw that angel from the Book of Revelation as Maronai.

If the original Navu Temple had Maronai, horizontal, right, flying through. the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel. I'll mention one thing here from verse 17, but I really like what you're saying here, Brother Jackson, about Maroni in the history of America, and him saying, well, not only am I going to bring this gospel forth, this church forth, but I'm going to bring this government forth that can sustain this church, which the soil this church can be built in. The reference of verse 17, prepare you the way of the Lord and make his pass straight, is an Isaiah reference that is used for John the Baptist.

From what I understand, in Jesus' day, if a king was going to make a journey, he needed to send out a road crew in front of him. Here in Utah, we have UDOT. My friend Jeff Lewis works for UDOT. They make sure the roads are smooth. But in Jesus' day, there is no Israel dot. There is no Holy Land dot to go and fix all their roads. roads. He has to send out a road crew in front of him to make sure that the road isn't washed out

or the rocks are made smooth. John the Baptist is this road crew. You can both correct me here, but I believe that when Jesus shows up on the scene, John the Baptist already has a number of followers. Jesus doesn't have to do the grassroots. John just says, I've got your people, here they are. Take them. You must increase, I must decrease. I've never thought of this, but I can see the Book of Mormon and Moronai being that John the Baptist figure the second time, that when the Lord comes again, there's already a people prepared for him by Moronai and the Book of Mormon. I like it. The idea of a forerunner is going before the king, and we often call John the Baptist a forerunner. My wife and I, when I were first married, had a Toyota forerunner, and we wanted to get the license plate that said Elias,

Elias was a forerunner. We thought that would be so funny, but somebody already had it. But I like the way of preparing the way of the Lord. It sounds like we're being called upon to do that again. Yeah, he won't be born in a manger this time. He's going to come a little differently this next time. We have to prepare for that. When you get to verse 18, it's similar the Revelations chapter 14, verse 1. I'll read 18. It says, when the lamb shalt stand upon Mount Zion and with him a hundred and forty four thousand having his father's name written on their foreheads and Revelation 141 it says and I looked in low a lamb stood on the Mount Sin on with an S and with him and 144,000 having his father's name written in their foreheads

and that 144,000 are also referenced in Revelation 7,4. As part of the vision recorded in the book of Revelation, John witnessed many important events that would occur prior to the Savior's second coming, and he saw the 144,000 faithful high priests from all the tribes of Israel being ordained to administer the gospel and bring people to the church. 144,000. If you take the 12 tribes and you divide it into 144, you get 12,000 from each tribe. Is that what the Lord is referencing here?

I had a conversation with one of our institute teachers, CES. His name's Michael Coddle. Hank, I think you know him, then. He just adores you. Oh, Brother Cottle and I are fast friends. I love Mike Cottle. He is great. He sent me this text because we were talking about this. And he says, as of December 31st, 2024, the church has 3,608 stakes. Each stake has three presidency members. average the number of wards to be eight in the stake, they would have 24 bishopric members who are all high priests, one patriarch and 12 members of the High Council, that comes to 144,320 high priests. Isn't that fascinating? That's a fun text to get. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Book of Revelation, it's a tough read for me because it used such illusionary language and beautiful language,

and it's hard to understand sometimes, what do you all's thoughts about the 144,000? And who are they? I think they're elders of Israel or maybe high priests, but I don't think we have to limit that number and say there's only going to be this many. Or I think it's a symbolic number. There's going to be probably more than that, like you just said in your number, of high priests that have the Lord's name written in their foreheads. But it's symbolic of this is going to happen. Yeah, this is going to happen. I love that. I'm with you, John. I think the number is a symbol that this is the saved community. These are those who believe in Jesus. That idea of having the father's name written on your forehead. In the book of Revelation, you take one or the other. Either you get the mark of the beast or you have the father's name written in your forehead.

the idea there is an ancient idea of ownership that the beast will brand you as a slave but the father or god in the book of revelation seals you in your forehead a much more kingly idea so you can be branded a slave by babylon or anointed a king by god so it seems that these are those who have come out of babylon and are part of this community of Zion, I would say. I appreciate that. And going on to what you said there, you look at verse 19, and there's the reference again to the bridegroom. It's those who are with, and I think you're right, the 144,000 is symbolic of those who are going to be standing on the Lord's side.

Because we know in this world of contention and chaos and good versus evil, we know we've read the book, in the end the Lord's going to win. Well, the question for us individually is, what side do you want to be on? Do you want to be on the winning side or the pending losing side? So we have a choice with regard to using our agency to strive to be the best that we can, to be good and to do good so that when the Savior comes back,

we can look forward to his return with anticipation and a positive direction that we're on your right hand. We are here. We're out of Babylon. And that's where you want to be. your statement you decide which side's going to win we need to decide which side is going to win and be on that side reminds me of an experience i had i kept hearing that elder geoffrey r holland had said something like that that the history of the world's already been written and that the final victory has been posted or something like that and i couldn't find it anywhere and i used every research tool i could think of and i just couldn't find it Hank, I did something I had never done before. I'm not recommending this especially, but I picked up the church's phone number of the main switchboard, and I didn't know what would happen. And I just said, hi, can you connect me to Elder Holland's office? To my surprise, I was shocked and amazed at when they said, yeah, just a minute.

Wait, what? A wonderful person secretary answered, and I said, hi, I'm looking for the statement, something about the history. the world's been written and final score has been posted. I can't find it anywhere. She said, huh, I'm not familiar with that. Let me get your email address. So I gave her my email address and thought, well, we'll see what happens. And I get this email. And it says, Dear John, which is kind of the story of my life, but that's another talk. Dear John, oddly enough, that is something I said, probably at a mission conference or somewhere where it wasn't recorded. it. Would you like me to restate it and authorize its use, Jeff?

Wow. I emailed back like, oh, man, I'm so sorry to bother you. I didn't mean to. Thank you. That'd be great, but I'm sorry to bother you. And please forget my name and please forget me. Yeah, I know, no, no. I was exactly. I was at the galley proof stage. I couldn't wait any longer and it hadn't come yet. two days before I had to turn it in, I got this email from Elder Holland with this beautiful quotation. Do you want to hear it, guys? Yes, please. Okay, quote, the future of this world has long

been declared. The final outcome between good and evil is already known. There's absolutely no question as to who wins because the victory has already been posted on the scoreboard. The only really strange thing in all of this is that we are still down here on the trying to decide which team's jersey we want to wear. That's so good. Isn't that good? I got to have that quote. That is an incredible quote.

The fun part is that when I gave this to Deserta book, they said, what's your source? And I said, well, it's Elder Holland. So the editor had to put, I love this, Hank. There's the only time it's ever been in one of my books. Personal correspondence from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Of course. between John, by the way, and Jeffrey R. Holland. Hank, you cannot believe how many seminaries to teachers over the years.

Hey, where did you get that? And I have to tell them, well, the only printed source I know of is my book. Right. John, if I remember right, that book is called When Times Are Tough by John, by the way. That's right. With my personal correspondence from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. That's pretty cool. Some people are just lucky.

Oh, man, that was so fun. How gracious of him to do that. It was even better than I thought. The idea that we are trying to determine which team's jersey we want to wear, how absurd that would be since we know that the Lord will prevail and will be victorious. That's why I loved it so much. Brother Jackson, you said something earlier I'd like to go back to. Throughout this section, we hear flee to Jerusalem and flee to Zion. get away from Babylon, go to Jerusalem, go to Zion. We can talk about Jerusalem next year, John, Old Testament, the following year, New Testament. This is a good chance for us to talk about Zion and the land on which it's built, the country, the United States. You've done some homework on the history of this country. I think we'd love to just learn from you. What do you see in the United States and its founding that would be a,

an ideal place for Zion to be built. Wow, it starts with being built on the premise of freedom. That whole wonderful gift that the Lord gives us the gift of agency and how it ties to the atonement, that the Lord very much cares about what kind of government we live under because he wants us to live in a government where there's maximum freedom so we can choose for ourselves and we can choose the worship for ourselves. before I joined the church in 1994, I used to think that the establishment of this country wasn't

for us. I used to have the attitude, why am I celebrating Independence Day when my ancestors were in bondage at the formation of this country? And then when I joined the church, my eyes were open as I'm reading Doctrine in Covenants 98 and Section 101, where the Lord specifically highlights that he raise up these wise men for a specific purpose and that our founding documents are inspired. I struggle with that because I'm thinking, well, I was taught that these men were flawed. I mean, really, really flawed.

They owner their individuals. There's so many stories that are out there that I've come to find out now were not true because if you can't attack the doctrine, then you go after the personalities of these men or you make up stories about them. as I started doing my own research I have to give credit to my mother she would always say go do your own research I would encourage others to do that don't just take someone's word for it actually studied out for yourself

so as I became a voracious learner and reading about these men and reading in the doctrine and covenants and then there's specific scriptures in first and second nephi that talks about the special nature of this country It all ties to the atonement, Hank and John. If we're free to choose, we're held accountable for our own lives. This whole notion of self-government, which is at the foundation of living in a republic and a free society, we're then accountable for our own sins. And we can't blame others who we're in bondage to. Or if we've got an unrighteous king like King Noah that's forcing us to do these things,

no, the Lord wants us to be able to make decisions for ourselves so that we can choose for him. And that's why America is such a special place. Not only provided the environment for the restoration of the gospel because we have freedom of religion, but it also protects that beautiful gift that the Lord gave us an agency, moral agency to choose for ourselves, to choose him or choose the other God. A long-winded answer to your question, Hank, but that's my story. The more I've learned about the gospel, the more I've seen the Lord honors agency. If you're going to choose to become like him, it has to be freely chosen. Because if it's not, you're not actually like him because he freely chooses his life.

That's right. I think the gospel of freedom goes hand in hand with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't think you can have one without the other. We are a global church, but it all started in. emanated right here in America. Just to look at the Revolutionary War, we weren't supposed to win that war. There's no way. And here you got George Washington and this rag-tag team of a collection of individuals from all walks of life, including black Americans who fought on the Revolutionary War. That's another thing. What was it for them that encouraged them to get

involved in something that most of their friends and relatives and so forth were in bondage? But they still fought. They also fought in the Civil War. So if America's good enough for them, Hank and John is good enough for me. I love this idea of agency. Before we pushed play, Brother Jackson, we were talking about Lehigh, kind of dividing everything into two, kind of a dichotomy of God created things to act and things to be acted upon. We have power to act. And Hank, what you said, it reminded me of Daniel Peterson, who was talking about, world religion that wouldn't let their youth mix because somebody might break the law chastity. Daniel Peterson said it so beautifully. He said, yeah, if you allow the different sexes to mix,

there may be some immorality, but he said there could be another result. Freely chosen virtue, which is a very good thing. And I love that the way he put that. There are people who will freely choose virtue, but they have to have that choice. What did Elder Renlan say, God doesn't want us to keep the commandments. He wants us to choose to keep the commandments. That idea of having a choice is an American idea that you're talking about. It's empowering. Isn't that empowering? Don't you feel powerful that you've got control over your destiny? That the door is locked from the inside, as C.S. Lewis said, and we just have to turn the handle and walk through because we control that destiny.

We talked about this before we hit record that those ideals and principles found in our founding documents, even though these men were flawed, those are the ideals that we aspire to. Those are the standards that we aspire to. We're still a work in progress. You used a word just now that I think Martin Luther King called the Constitution an aspirational document.

It's like these principles are perfect. We're not there. but they are principles to aspire to. It took us a while to get there and we're still getting there in some things. But the document is talked about in the Doctrine of Covenants as being inspired, which is inspiring to think about that, yeah, we've got work to do to live up to what this document spells out for us. Yeah. Brother Jackson, you hit something that hurts my heart occasionally when I'm in a lesson and I hear someone say,

Satan wanted to save everyone. I think, why are you believing him? Believe what the Lord said about him. This is Moses chapter 4, verse 3. Satan rebelled against me. He didn't want to save everyone. He sought to destroy the agency of man. That's what he wanted.

He wanted agency destroyed. I don't know why we believe him. He says one thing and his motive is completely different. Completely different. A counterfeit. You think about the war in heaven, which was over agency. It continues today on the earth. It's still a fight over agency. I love that quote that you highlighted from Elder Holland about, we're still trying to decide what jersey we want to wear when we know. It should be obvious. Yeah. We know the end. Have you both noticed that almost everything the adversary pushes anyone towards results in a loss of it. agency. Addiction, prison. It's like addiction and agency on different sides of a continuum. Satan doesn't play fair. He'll tell you, this is no big deal. Everybody does it. You'll like it.

Then as soon as you listen to him, he'll say, you horrible person. How dare you are the worst. Because like you said, Hank he speaks out of two sides of his mouth. You got to know that. Those tactics. Do you feel like he has turned up the temperature because he realizes that his rain is coming to an end and that he is just unleashing havoc on the world today? Yeah, absolutely. I've also noticed that nothing the Lord asked me to do is very addictive. I sometimes wish it was, but I have to choose it every time. I'm not addicted to paying my tithing. I'm not addicted to fasting.

I'm not addicted to go into the temple. I have to freely choose it every single time. What did you say? The war continues. The war on agency. We just changed locations. Yep. Yeah, that's right.

That's why we're doing this podcast so we can help people. I mean, this is another tool to go along with the scriptures, the temple, the conference talks, which I fall in love with again because I read them as I walk on the treadmill because I don't have John, by the way,'s metabolism. So I've got my treadmill on the highest level. I'm walking uphill. And before you know it, I've been 35, 40 minutes on the treadmill because I dove right back into the conference talks. Loving those conference talks. Yeah. You can lose track of times because sometimes I'll listen.

I'll miss my exit. Suddenly I'm in Idaho going, wait, I was supposed to turn off of Farmington. How did I get here? Right. I've loved studying this. Let's go to verse 20. For behold, he shall stand upon the Mount of Olivet and upon the mighty ocean, even the great deep, and upon the islands of the sea, and upon the land of Zion.

So metaphorically, the Savior will be standing across the different continents. A reference we'll discuss later as it relates to the actual surface of the earth. So if you switch over to Zechariah, chapter 14, verses 2 to 4 at his second coming, the Lord will fight for Israel. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle and the city shall be taken and the houses

rifled and the women ravished and half of the city shall go forth into captivity and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Verse 3, then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as he fought

in the days of battle and his feet in verse 4 shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west. There shall be a very great valley, and half the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south. There is that illusionary language, that imaginary language of the Savior in his second coming. And then you jump down to verse 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth in that day.

Shall there be one Lord and his name one. The beauty of Zechariah here is that everything is going wrong. We've got our backs against the wall. We're going to lose. Then, like the Red Sea, the mountain splits. There's a way out. So it does seem to be a reenact. The Red Sea Part 2.

Oh, I like that, yeah. Which is our way out. Going back to the sports analogy of what team we want to be on, Jesus Christ is our best player. And oftentimes he's sitting on the bench waiting for us to put him in the game. The best player shows up when things are quite bleak. And then in verse 21, and he shall utter his voice out of Zion, and he shall speak from Jerusalem, and his voice shall be heard among all people,

and it shall be a voice as a voice of many waters. Here we heard that reference before, and as the voice of a great thunder which shall break down the mountains, and the valley shall not be found. That great and dreadful day, this focuses on these two verses, the great part. Awesome. He's coming back in glory and power. Verse 23 and 24th,

We're going to talk a little bit about America here, 23 and 24. He shall command the Great Deep, and it shall be driven back into the north countries, and the island shall become one land, and the land of Jerusalem, and the land of Zion shall be turned back into their own place, and the earth shall be like it was, as in the days before it was divided. Interesting. As I did some research on that, that's an interesting notion for me, because about 100 years, likely 125-ish, per the lineage that's laid out in Genesis

10, after Noah and his family come off the ark, the one landmass was divided, noted in Genesis 1025, Palaig means division. And the scripture reads, and unto Iber were born two sons. the name of one was Pelegg, for his days the earth was divided. According to Scripture, Pelegg was the great-great-grandson of Shem, who was a son of Noah, who was on the Ark. And there's an article that I found from President Holland that he wrote in 1976 in commemoration of the Bicentennial.

He says, quote, Holy Scripture records that after the waters had receded off the face of this land, became a choice land of the Lord, wherefore the Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof, which is a reference to Ether, chapter 13, verse 2. Such a special place needed now to be kept apart from other regions, free from the indiscriminate traveler as well as the soldier of fortune. To guarantee such sanctification, the very surface of the earth was rent. In response to God's decree, the Great Continent separate,

and the ocean rushed in to surround them. The promised place was set apart. Without habitation, it waited for the fulfillment of God's special purposes. This is Jeffrey R. Holland, a promised land, which he wrote in June, 1976, Ensign article on page 23. That quote comes directly from that, which highlights that notion there that the days before it was divided at the end of verse 24th. I am one who reads the scripture's figurative first, literal second.

So when I see this division take place early just after Adam and Eve, I think of the fall, that there was unity on the earth. Then there's this dramatic fall. It's just division. Satan rules by division. The Lord is begging his people to be one. I feel like here he comes. he's coming back to his people, he's coming back to the earth, unity is a result of that, that everyone is turned back and the earth is like it was before the fall, that the lion and the lamb lie down together. I like that perspective a lot. Thank you, Hane.

And I like that idea of, it sure does take the Holy Ghost to read some things, doesn't it? When you're doing that approach, is this figurative or literal? I feel like lame and a lemmy asked Nephi about that too. And sometimes Nephi said, well, actually, it's both. But yeah, I love the idea of division and unity there, the way you explained that, Hank. That's the one I would prefer. I'm anxious to see what really happens. All right.

Now, if it's literal, I'm excited to see it. That's going to be something, yeah. To follow up on that, because I do, I hear you. I read it figuratively and literally because of my study of America and it being the promised land in terms of a place where the restoration could come about, the Lord had to separate it from the land mass. And if you look at 2nd Nephi chapter 1 versus 6 to 8, the key verse is in number 8. It says, And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations. for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance. That connects to these verses that we've just read here.

When the Lord comes again, he's going to bring it all back together. How he does that, who knows? But you look in 2nd Nephi chapter 1, verses 6 and 7, where Lehi talks about, Wherefore I Lehi prophesy, according to the workings of the Spirit, which is in me that there shall be none come into this land, save there shall be bought by the hand of the Lord. So when you think about the pilgrims, we are taught in school that they came here for religious freedom.

They were already experiencing that in Holland because they had left England to go to Holland and they were already exercising their right to worship as they please. But as they thought about it further, they were admonished by the Lord through prayer to come to America. So if you read further in verse 6 there from 2nd Nephi chapter 1, verse 6 and 7, wherefore this land is consecrated unto him who he shall bring, and if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments. That's the gospel according to Al Jackson.

We'll take it. That's what we want today. Great. Thank you. And then you look here in verse 25, and the Lord, even the Savior, shall stand in the midst of his people, and shall reign over one flesh. Which is so beautiful. I mean, that goes back to what we talked about before, that we all become part of the same team. We just want to get to the ballpark early. That's beautiful. The more I read Section 133, the more I'm seeing, how well do you know your Bible? almost every verse has a reference to either Zechariah or the Book of Revelation so far and other places we're going, oh, wait, there's the parable of the Ten Virgins right there. Oh, wait, there's Zechariah.

Oh, there's the Book of Revelation over and over. That's a commercial for reading scriptures every day, isn't it? Right? The Lord speaks scripture, doesn't he? I wish I was more consistent at reading every day as I tell all my young single adults. but when you do, your mind's just enlightened. And what I love about what the church does, these footnotes are gold, gold in terms of being able to cross-reference.

And that takes time. It takes time to do that. Most people don't have the kind of time that is required. We just got to make it a priority to give the Lord some time, as Elder Razban instructed us in the last general conference. We hop over to verse 26. this goes back to what you said before, Hank, about the division and bringing us together under the Savior, where there's noites. You look at verse 26, they who are in the North

Country shall come in remembrance before the Lord, and their prophets shall hear his voice and shall no longer stay in themselves. That North Country reference really refers to where the enemies of Jerusalem would occupy a geographical region to the north of Israel and Judah, which is primarily associated with Babylon and the Assyrian empires. These empires emerged from the north, invaded the land, destroyed Jerusalem, and then took the Israelites into exile. So that term also appears in prophecies of the restoration with a promise of the return of the exiles from the north to the land of Israel. I think it's symbolic of those who were scattered, forgotten, or lost. That the Lord remembers them in compassion.

and brings them all together under his tent, that Zion tent. Yes, that idea of look at it symbolically first. The North Countries is where the tribes were initially scattered. And by the time we get to Nephi, he's saying, oh, they're in the four quarters of the earth, they're all over. But we still can refer to the North Countries as those that are lost or hidden or concealed and that they're going to be gathered. We can call it the North Countries, but that symbolically means wherever they are.

Am I right on that, Hank? Oh, I think so. Article of Faith 10. You can always remember it because it's about the ten tribes. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and the restoration of the ten tribes. The ten tribes is the northern kingdom. The Lord has not forgotten them. There's a beautiful reference in the end of First Nephi where the Lord says, I can't forget you. Can a mother forget her newborn? I have engraven you on the palms of my hands. For the northern country, The restoration is 2,500 years after they are scattered. Seems the rest of the world has long forgotten about scattered Israel, even through the apostasy. There's no one talking about scattered Israel until Maroni appears to Joseph Smith in 1823 and says, God made a promise 2,500 years ago, and you're the kid that's going to bring it that's going to help him keep his promise. And when they do come back, what we look as as desert is going to have to produce some water to take care of all these people's needs.

Am I correct? And so then we get to the John by the way scripture, which is a perfect description of him. It says, and in the barren deserts, there shall come forth pools of living water, and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land. How do you all read that? Brother Jackson, you told me that one of the things you loved when you were investigating the church was the knowledge you could get. That seems to be verse 29. I am thirsty for this knowledge and the church is offering this to me. Would you say that's what happened? Absolutely. I just would go to gospel essentials when we had that class. I'll never forget my teacher. Kathleen Flake

taught that class. It was like manna from heaven. Because growing up Baptist, you show up at church my mom was very faithful in taking us she got me prepared so when i heard the fullness of the gospel that i would gravitate towards and it accepted it was just that i'm just drinking from a fire hose and i'm enjoying it as i'm reading the book of mormon understanding the doctrine and covenants the pearl of great price latter day revelations through the prophets through our general conference talks it was exciting for me and it's still a is. It still is, as I'm learning every day. What does Christ tell us? He's the living water. Right. What a beautiful metaphor. I think it's why Latter-day Saints look forward to general

conference. It feels like parched ground and I'm getting a drink of pure water. We've got probes on Mars as we speak. What are they looking for? Water. Because if there's water, there could be life. Then if there's water, we could go there perhaps and survive. Mankind could go there. Jesus used the best metaphors. He never said, I'm like gold or I'm like diamonds, but he did say, I'm like light, I'm like bread, I'm like water, profound. And it seems that there's an apostasy, a lack of knowledge of God, of ordinances, of priested authority.

The highway opens up. Here comes the church, and it brings all of this living water to a parched ground. This is beautiful language. It is beautiful. Coming up in part two. Our two parents, the grandparents, during the civil rights movement, grew up in the deep, deep south, and lived difficulties. And they tell us the best way to honor that sacrifice we made is to get good grades in school. is to go out and get the best education you can because we sacrifice so that you all can have

what you enjoy. Don't flitter it away. We don't need sob stories or you don't get empathy for injuries you didn't endure. We endured them. So move forward.