followHIM - Doctrine & Covenants 63 : Dr. Lynne Hilton Wilson Part II

Episode Date: June 6, 2021

What does it mean, “This is a day of warning and not a day of many words?” How do we learn from the early Saints and choose the Kingdom of God? We continue with Dr. Wilson and learn how spiritual 72-hour kits are more critical than temporal ones to prepare the world for the Second Coming. Join us for Part II of Section 63 of the Doctrine and Covenants.Show notes: https://followhim.co/episodesYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcast

We now continue with part two of Doctrine and Covenants section 63 with Dr. Lynn Wilson. Verse 31. I counted up dozens of times where the Lord commands his people, I do not want you to kill. If you're shedding blood, that is Satan's plan. And that is not my way. In fact, in section 98, there were 10 times the Lord says, I don't want you to fight. I want you to proclaim peace. And then in section 103, we are a people of peace.

In section 105, in section 57, and here it is beautifully in verse 31 of section 63, you are forbidden to shed blood. The gift of life is the Lord's to give and to the Lord's to take away. And let us never interfere with either of those. I feel like the Lord has already set them up. If they would have followed his counsel, when you talked about the land of Zion, do you remember back up in verse 24? He says, don't come too fast. You know, I don't want any confusion.

I don't want any pestilence. And we don't want to overwhelm the locals. you know, just do this in an orderly fashion. If we would have followed that one thing, it might have helped, you know, and we meaning the bodies of the church. I don't know. And then, of course, as he comes down here, he's saying, when you're working with your neighbors, don't be angry with them. And these poor saints are so excited to get there. They're saying things like, oh, we're going to take over this whole area. This is going to be a new Jerusalem. We're getting rid of all of your houses of ill repute. We're getting rid of all your money-making. You know, the Lord's going to change this. You know, we're taking over. That just didn't, didn't bite too well, let alone the differences on their religious feelings. And, you know, but economically they, they really made some enemies. And their political feelings. I mean, everything is opposite. You mentioned there about the shedding of blood and you, and you made a statement about

don't, you know, that's the Lord's territory. That's interesting because just what a few verses earlier, he had talked about adultery, which is giving life, which is also the Lord's territory, right? I remember Elder Holland talking about that. Surely, what does he say, John? You probably know better than me. Surely the things God cares about the most are how one gets into this world and how one leaves. Okay. So when I was on my mission and we had to memorize word for word our discussions, one of them about the commandments, I can still remember how we

started that. God has many powers and among the powers he values most is the power to give and to take life. He's forbidden us the power to take life, but has shared with us the power to create life by allowing us to bring spirits into the world. And I remember that same idea, the kind of the mileposts along the plan of salvation, the way you are born, the way you die, and that those are important to him. And so I like that Hank you're for the bringing life into the world without his authorization or taking life without his authorization. And it's, God is the same, isn't he? He is, he's told for how long, thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Right. It's just a consistent message.

And that's what I said there. There's five of the 10 commandments in this section. And if you go a section before and a section after you get all 10, you And if you go a section before and a section after, you get all 10. You know, you get a few before and a few after. You get all 10. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. I was going to mention, just because I thought it was kind of interesting. The Lord's, here's the Lord telling him to buy land. Well, doesn't the earth belong to you? And he says in verse 25, I, the Lord, hold it in mine own hands. Nevertheless, I, the Lord, render mine, but let's do this as not to overwhelm the locals. Like you said, I thought that was interesting. And in the same section, a few verses later, he's talking to our dear Newell K. Whitney, and he talks about his store.

And then he says, I mean, the store, you know, it's not your store. You know, the stewardship is the Lord has given you a responsibility. It's not your store. It's not your land. It's the Lord's land. You know, I read right past that and didn't get the insight, His store, or in other words, the store. The store. That's in verse 42. Well, I just feel like the law of consecration is so important.

And we can, I feel like I'm living it every day of my life as long as I'm remembering the gifts that God has given me are stewardships to build his kingdom. And whether that is going to work or whatever I'm doing in school or with my family or my neighborhood or my community, whatever I'm doing, you know, you have to have that mentality. I am a servant of God here trying to build his kingdom with his gifts. We are just stewards. We are not owners of anything.

Absolutely. Let's go to verse 34. I'm curious. Yeah, there is a second coming right there. There you go. The saints also shall hardly escape. So, he is warning them, this is not going to come easily. I, the Lord, am with them and I will come down from heaven and consume the wicked with unquenchable fire. But then in the next verse is the one I was referring to before, where he says, but not yet. Don't think the second coming is in 1831.

But not yet, by and by, as you mentioned before. But he goes on in even verse 37. I love this. Every man should take righteousness in his hands and faithfulness upon his loins and warning voice. I just want to mention one little thing about the fact that we self-correct in King James or biblical language whenever it says him.

But I found this wonderful passage by Joseph. Do you remember the letter he writes in Liberty Jail that becomes section 121, 122, 133? So not the whole letter is canonized, but there is a portion of that letter where he says, now, brethren. And he says, by the way, when I say brethren, I mean men, women, and children. I mean disciples of Jesus Christ. Wow. Yeah, yeah. See, Joseph is our first feminist. You know, I feel like he really

is on board to help the sisters more than their culture did at that time. I'm glad you mentioned that. So that's in just a part that's not in the Doctrine and Covenants, part of the letter that he wrote out of Liberty Jail. And you can find it in Joseph Smith Papers project.org. Joseph Smith Papers.org. Awesome. I'm going to get that. I love also in this little section, when he starts talking in verse 40, I want you to give as much money as you can to Zion.

And these people were were on poverty row. They were already giving away property and trying to get ready for other things. I'm so in awe at the generosity of these fast offerings, of the way they were trying to live the law of consecration. Who's Titus Billings? Do we know much about him? You know, the thing that I remember is it was Morley's farm and he was called to go down to Missouri. And it says in one record that he didn't want to be tempted by too much materialism. And so he said, I'll just give it to Titus Billings. And then Titus is the one who oversees this land. But then Titus doesn't keep it. After a few months, the Lord says, okay,

you need to sell this property now. Actually, if this is August 30th, the property is already being sold by September. Joseph leaves in September and Sidney leave to go down to the Johnson's farm. So, you know, even though Titus has the property for a short period of time, he doesn't keep it. It's, it's, it's the Lord's calling him to use, to consecrate this land, to go to Zion. Lynn, you're so great. You can take a section like this that I was like, Oh, what are we going to talk about? And you're, Oh, well, to me, it is just so powerful that it's such a great section on preparing for the millennium, because I feel like we are 200 years closer than of the earth short if we would start following these commandments here in section 63 on how to establish a Zion people, how to prepare a Zion land, and how to become ready for our Savior's return. 49 is another one that he's still talking about this. Blessed are those that die in the Lord.

And of course, in that day and age, you know, you lose 50% of your kids before they're three years old. And, you know, death is so much more common. You're constantly in pain, whether it's a toothache or a corn on your foot. You just don't know how to deal with things the same way, let alone strep throat and cholera. You know, I just feel like they're constantly dealing with death, you know, you know, as Susan Eason Black always jokes that the best paid person in Nauvoo is the person who builds the coffins and takes care of the mortician, you know. So in verse 49, this is actually the 20th time in this section that he's been talking about the millennium. And he continues on from verse 49, this is actually the 20th time in this section that he's been talking about the millennium.

And he continues on from verse 49, clear down to verse 54, where he starts talking about how old things will become new, that the Lord will come. And if we die in the Lord, we will be able to join him as well and inherit the holy city. And here's another verse where he uses the dual message of the holy city now on earth and the holy city there. It's just beautiful because I feel like with our prophet emphasizing the need to have our homes, temples, and our sacred spaces are all around us that we don't necessarily, and also even going back to President Kimball, you know, make Zion wherever you are, don't necessarily have to come to a different country. But we see that counsel right here in verse 49 of section 63. But this is where we get the twinkling. This is the section where we talk about you get twinkled at the age of 72. You know, I just love this.

The thing you hear about when you're a kid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is verse 51. You get twinkled. And verse 53 is the verse I was looking for before speaking after the manner of the Lord. So don't get your hopes up if you think it's tomorrow, you know, but the 10 virgins is the next verse. It's verse 54. That's where we get it. And it's just a short little clip on it, but he's already taught us that the oil is the spirit. Um, if you go back and look at the previous, um, you know, section 45 verse 36 and, um, section 33 verse 17 and 18, he's already taught us a lot about how to interpret this scripture. And do you remember when Joseph Smith said, the way you understand a parable is by going back and looking at the question? What drew it out? Yeah. So I went back and looked at the virgins and the 10 virgins. And

the question actually is in Matthew 24. And it's, tell us about the signs of your second coming. And so it fits in beautifully to this people who are trying to build Zion and you want to know how to become a Zion people. And they're so eager to learn, but of course we're human, we're mortals. They've been baptized almost a year. We have a long ways to go. We're still working on it. But here's that beautiful verse. And I think the thing that is sweet about in verse 54, about this parable that we can learn more about than we learn otherwise is that I will send mine angels to pluck them out. So the Lord has his mighty forces, his hosts of the heavens working the entire separation of the righteous and the wicked is a process. But I just have to tell you, as a child, I was so offended by this parable.

Weren't you offended? Why don't they share their oil? Why can't they share? Yeah. I was very grateful for President Kimball. We were taught to share, right? Yeah, exactly. So I was very grateful for President Kimball's talk.

You can't share a tithing slip. How do you share a testimony that you have become the gift of charity that you've worked on your whole life? But I really feel like the saints are filling day by day, drop by drop. We are becoming more Christ-like. Our leaders are taking us there. Our scriptures are taking us there. But I feel Come Follow Me is a giant step in helping us become. You used the word become three times just now. And when I try to teach that parable to my students, I say, I remember President Oaks has taught the challenge to become. And it's kind of, I can't share, and you can't share what you've become. I can't say, I need 30 years of your honesty. Could you give that to me, please? And that's why I love that ever since hearing that

parable as a child and not getting why they don't share, things like President Kimball and Elder Oaks saying, it's what you've become, that it's not shareable. I can't give you that. So thank you for using that word. I love that President Oaks talked about, it's not just what we know, and it's not even just what we do. It's what we've become. When I teach Matthew 25 in the parable of the ten virgins, there's a point that we skip over that I really like. It's in Matthew 25, verse 4. It says, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

So I've often related this to, and I don't know if the Savior meant it this way, obviously, but we've got our lamp in our oil. That's kind of seen by everybody else. And then we've got oil in our vessel, which is kind of private, right? No one else sees that. And so I think you've got to have your public spirituality, right? That's important as being an example, let your light so shine, but you also need this private relationship with the Spirit. It cannot all just be a public relationship with God. Because Lynn, I think you'd absolutely agree. 99.5% of what we experience with the divine is private.

To me, I want to have oil in the vessel that nobody knows about, right? And the Lord really, really, really, really, really wanted these saints to know this parable. Seven times in the Doctrine and Covenants. Evidently, we have a lot to learn from this. And even if I just look at the practices in the new Testament of what was required for a marriage ceremony and what they did, you know, the, the background gives you light to, you know, you're, you're coming in a happy festive, joyous experience to come to the bridegroom. And as we prepare for the savior's coming,

I really appreciate the elder Hinckley's reminder that it is a great and dreadful day of the Lord. Savior's coming, I really appreciate Elder Hinckley's reminder that it is a great and dreadful day of the Lord. And let us, I go back to what my brother said in my blessing for my eyes, rejoice, you will see the hand of the Lord in your life. Don't emphasize the sad. Be of good cheer in your hardest times, you know? Yeah. I remember, um, one of my absolute favorite talks of general conference ever was a 2005, uh, elder Bednar

said, I gave a talk first talk in general conference for him was the tender mercies of the Lord. Uh, and that talk to me, it changed everything. Um, For me, when it comes to you can have peace, right? Knowing that you and the Lord are on the same page, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And in this difficult, difficult world that we face, you need that peace to know that the Lord is pleased with you. That phrase has become part of our conversations. We talk about tender mercies now all the time ever since that talk. And it's always been a scriptural term.

But yeah, he brought that to our awareness kind of. Okay, this is an intriguing story. Sidney Rigdon is supposed to write a description, right, of Zion. It doesn't go very well. The part I've underlined, his writing is not acceptable because I've had that kind of comment from Deseret Book a few times. Okay, that's just a joke. It's not a joke for me. I was listening to that. I was like, wait, what did you say?

I'm wondering, do we have his first draft of his description? Oh, wouldn't that be a fun thing to read? Just to see why wasn't it very good? So the Lord gives him another chance, right? I do not know if we have that draft. I have no idea. Many people are scared for the second coming. And it's this guy almost says as a, maybe a youth or as a parent, you're going, you know, this gives me anxiety. How would you, what would you say to someone who has a lot of anxiety over the second coming? I mean, we did talk about being a great and dreadful day of the Lord. Anything else that you might add?

When my little Peter was three years old, he was learning how to do mathematics. And he thought it was so amazing that he could multiply anything times infinity and get infinity. Mommy, I know what 572 times infinity is. He was just so cute. And that's the way I feel about preparing for the second coming. If we are joining with the Savior, it doesn't matter. It's going to be tremendous. He is infinity. Anything we can give, anything we can do, if we are working on His team, if we are, as our prophet calls, on His battalion, you know, if we are serving God, if we are part of that, going to Harry Potter, I just feel like the seventh book of Harry Potter, you

know, we are fighting the dark arts, but if we are on Christ's team, our burdens will be made light. And the things that we suffer will be put in perspective. And we have the perspective of infinity. We, anything that we do will be made okay by God. I like that. I, and to let people know that, hey, we're kind of in the middle of it and you're doing good, right? Like it's not like it's still out there. We're well on the way. We're well on the way. Yeah. I have a statement from Elder Holland that I've always shown to students who say, what will happen when the second coming is here, right? And I'll say BYU speeches of September 12, 2004, the promised second coming of the Savior began with the first vision of the prophet Joseph Smith in 1820.

He was back, right? And we're in the middle of it right now. And we're doing great. We're doing great. Yeah, I've actually heard it referred to as second comings because there will be so many. And the first vision was maybe the first in. But how many more and how many more were shared visions? I love that, that how that helps me to know that Joseph Smith was not the only one.

There were others that shared visions of his other comings. Well, and even his mother saw the Lord way before Joseph was born, and hundreds and hundreds of other people saw the Lord before Joseph was born. So, it was Joseph's first vision, but the heavens had not been closed to many great people throughout the history of the world. The Lord has answered his disciples' prayers, regardless of which dispensation, or if they are between dispensations, the Lord still, I feel, knows his children by name. You know, Joseph Sr. had his seven dreams. And Asel, as well as Lucy Mack's dad, he doesn't become converted to the Savior until later in his life. But both of them felt like the Lord had come to them and spoke to them and given them great comfort and hope that they not only were part of his elect, is how they described it in those days, but that they would have posterity that would also change and bless the world. But you're referring to Asel's statement about Joseph or about his posterity, his posterity.

His posterity. He didn't know it was Joseph, but yeah. I feel like those two records, Asel's short, short, short message to his children, a few dozen pages, and the little tea pamphlet by Brother Mack are just beautiful examples of the religious enthusiasm of the age and the sincerity of these disciples of Christ that filled New England at that time. Let's look at this verse 57. This is one that I noticed. He said, Verily I say unto you that those who desire in their hearts in meekness to warn sinners to repentance, let them be ordained unto this power. When I looked at that, I thought, you know, there

is a side of us that wants to kind of lash out and say, repent, right, or suffer. But what do you think the word, when he says, those who desire to in their hearts in meekness to warn sinners to repentance, how do you walk that line, do you think, of, yes, I want to be truthful, I want to help, but meekness seems, John, what did you call meekness? Great? Great power under complete control. One of our, S. Michael Wilcox gave an article about the Beatitudes and he phrased it that way, or he heard it phrased that way.

I love the way Joseph combines the idea of power and meekness. Well, the Lord taught Joseph in Liberty Jail, no power or authority can or ought to be maintained except by meekness, long-suffering patients. So if we want to facilitate God's power, and I'm using this very broad term of God's priesthood power here, because Joseph has just said a few paragraphs in that letter difference. When I say brethren, I mean men and women and children. So if we want to access God's power in our life, which is God's priesthood, then we have got to do it through gentleness, meekness, and love unfeigned. So I feel like God's power can only be accessed if we're going to do it with his key and his key is meekness. Yeah.

What did Joseph, let's see if I can get this quote, right. You guys will help me. Uh, he says, uh, when purse, when persons manifest the least kindness and love to me, Oh, what great power it has over my heart. While the opposite course has a tendency to hurl up harsh feelings and depress the human mind. I mean, that's just absolutely beautiful. And I've been on, I've done both. I've done the loving side. I've done, I've gone too harsh. Uh, and he's exactly right. It's, uh, our general conference, um, elder Stevenson talked about kindness with the rabbits, you know? Yeah. And then after that elder Gong talked about kindness as well. And I've heard the phrase a million times, and I think in missionary work, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Maybe this is part of that, warning and meekness. And also, Hank, you've talked about, we've all talked about repentance. And Elder Holland saying it's the

most hopeful and encouraging word in the whole Christian vocabulary. And when I've talked by students, I say, if I say repent, put in the chat window, the first word that comes to your mind, it's usually not hope, encouragement, you know. Anyway. My daughter says repentance is self-lovelove she was in high school and she said repentance is self-love oh i love that yeah yeah repentance is self-love we have a commandment to improve that's not a bad commandment right no no yeah verse 58 this is a day of warning and not a day of many words second time he's repeated that in this section. Is he saying, hey, be quick about it because you don't have a lot of time?

Well, I'm convinced that if it is a day of warning and the gospel has been restored, and if we are servants of God, when we are baptized, we put on his jersey and we work for on his team. And sometimes my prayers, I forget that. And I say, Hey, could you help me? And can you do this and this and this, but it's actually, Oh, I'm your servant. What should I be doing today? You know, I mean, I just feel like, so it's a day of warning. That means that's our job. Yeah, absolutely. And I remember one of my favorite quotes about the second coming. And it just, it always comes back to me when I think of it, is the second coming is not a day of choosing. It is a day you find out what you have chosen, right? This is before, all this takes place before.

And I like that. I think that fits. It's not a day of choosing. The second coming is, you know, when it's right in front of you, that's not, the choosing's over. What would President Monson say? When the time for decision has come, the time for preparation is past. Yeah. Yeah. Um, this is from, it's called preparation for the second coming, uh, president Oaks, um, in April of 2004. And he says, and I use, I would, I sometimes use this in

my class. What if the day of his coming were tomorrow? If we knew we would meet the Lord tomorrow, you knew it tomorrow through our premature death or through his unexpected coming, what would we do today? What confessions would we make? What practices would we discontinue? What accounts would we settle? What forgiveness would we extend? What testimonies would we bear? And then you sit on that for a minute. If it was really true, if I knew for a fact the Lord is coming tomorrow, what would I do today? And then he says this.

If we would do all those things, then why not now? Why not seek peace while peace can be obtained if our lamps of preparation going back to the parable of 10 virgins are drawn down let us draw start immediately to replenish them and you can do that at any time you can start immediately to replenish your lamp you don't have to you don't have to wait you don't have to go you know see the bishop before you you can just fall down on your knees or you can open the scriptures and start replenishing that lamp. He says, yes, we need to make both temporal and spiritual preparation for the events of the prophesied second coming. He says this, a 72 hour kit of temporal supplies may prove valuable for earthly challenges, but as the foolish versions learn to their sorrow, a 24 hour kit of spiritual

preparation is of greater and more enduring value. So to me, when I read this section, Lynn, one thing I'm hearing is act now. Act now. Do the things that you know you should be doing now. That's beautiful. Start making confessions and discontinuing practices and subtle accounts and offer forgiveness, bear testimony. Let's get started today. I love the way he combines this. It's one of the 10 commandments, not to use the Lord's name in vain in verse 60 to 63 or so, but I feel like it's also

a sin of commission and a sin of omission. And the way he says in verse 62, those who use the name of the Lord and use it in vain, having not authority. I think of the way I close my prayers. using his name in an honorary and humble and meek fashion of referring to the Savior who has redeemed us. I love the idea that if I am a baptized member of the church, even if I'm not serving as a full-time missionary, am I using his name in vain because I have taken his name upon me. And if I am using my time inappropriately, or if I'm using my thoughts in a negative way, or if I'm allowing other priorities to come into my life, whether it's worldliness or just sloth, whatever you want to choose, Am I using the name of the Lord in vain? I just think it has such a beautiful, broad application beyond just perhaps are ever addressing our Lord or representing our Lord, is it from the heart? Thank you. I look at verse 64 in that same spirit. Remember, that which cometh from above is sacred and must be spoken with care. And Hank and I love to laugh and we joke a lot when we're with one

another. And, and I, I hope though that we're appropriate when it comes to things like this, because, uh, cause of that commandment. So I'm, I'm thankful. I heard Truman Madsen once say, there's a difference between being light-minded and light-hearted. Um, so I hope, I hope we're getting that right. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I, I walk that line. I try to walk that line, uh, pretty well. I've had moments where the spirit has said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, too, too much. Uh, but I, you know, cause we, what does the Lord say? Be, you know, rejoice, be happy, right? We're, we're going to be rejoicing, be edified together. Um, so I, I like that like that. They're sacred, must be spoken with care.

You know, it's not just using the name of the Lord, although I do think perhaps the most important part of our prayer is the closing phrase that we use bidding powerful way to open up access to the Spirit is when we do not use the Lord in vain. That when we address Him and when we think of Him, it is with great sincerity, then we are not using His name. So when we finish our statements, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen, we could do that in vain if we're not using so when we finish our statements in the name of jesus christ amen we could do that in vain if we're not careful i think so yeah yeah i see yeah i i feel like i have i have not been as careful as i could have been sometimes me too or as respectful i um i remember one student um left me a voicemail and finished the voicemail that way. And then she said, I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was saying.

And then she just hung up. So it always made me laugh. You must be a scary teacher. Yeah. Also, I would say when we take the Lord's name upon us in our covenants, we can also do that in vain. We can take the Lord's name upon us in our covenants, we can also do that in vain. We can take the Lord's name in vain. I think you talked about having that Jersey on and let's not do that in vain. Right.

Without meaning it. Yeah. Well, I think the backdrop of all of this is really helpful for the section to see what's going on there. They want to know everything they can about Zion, but they're not perfect. And the Lord has some reminders for them,

in some places sounding gentle, in other places not very gentle. Yeah. Right? And then all of this millennium stuff, which is great. And the parables. Yeah. Inheritance before the Lord And the parables. Yeah.

Inheritance before the Lord in the holy city. So if you die, you can still live in the holy city, maybe, as you said, on another level. I want to bring up one last topic before we close this section, Lynn. And that is, he just says this in verse 66, but I think it can be just an important and peaceful and wonderful principle. These things remain to overcome through patience that such may receive a more exceedingly and eternal weight of glory, otherwise a greater condemnation. So overcome through patience. I don't know about either of you, but patience has been one of the most difficult Christ-like attributes for me to make progress on. Right?

I feel like I've got it. I've got it. And then I'm, oh, right. Something happens and it all blows up. And then I feel like, oh, I've got it. I'm really becoming more and more patient. And something happens. How have, Lynn, can you make me patient like you?

No, no, no. And I don't know if I want to pray for patience, right? Because that might end up with. Well, for me, it's more of a matter of trusting God's, I feel like. Timing. No, no, a little bit different than that. Because I feel like sometimes God's timing is my preparation. So I have got timing is my preparation.

So I have got to accelerate my learning, not say when I think of waiting on the Lord, I like to think of a I lived in Paris. I like to think of a server waiting there for me. You know, I'm there to take notes on exactly everything you want. I'm waiting on the Lord. I'm ready to serve you. But the Lord's timing is so often my preparation. So if I can just step back and say, what do you want me to learn? Then I could be more patient because then I can do something about it.

If I don't have any ability to move forward, then I feel like the early Puritans where you're just paralyzed into saying, okay, am I chosen or not? You know, am I one of the elect or not? You know, but God wants us to act and not be acted upon. So for me, patience is easier when I say, what can I learn? How can I, I want to be able to grow my seed while I am waiting.

If you're waiting on me to blossom, I've got to add some miracle grow here. You know, help me increase my faith or whatever. So I feel like I can increase my patience easier when I just trust God. It's going to be just fine. Just trust God. It's a matter of faith and hope. And, and, um, I, I totally can trust God and then I can wait as long as I I'm actively learning. I don't mind being patient. Now, a red light is a different story, but yeah. Yeah.

Lynn, thank you for saying what you did about just trusting God, because I think there was, in 1995, Elder Richard G. Scott gave this talk about how our questions change. And instead of asking, why is this happening? Or why is God doing this to me? Or what have I done to deserve this? When we really trust God, our questions become, and you said it, what am I supposed to learn? Who can I help? How can I keep my faith in this time? And I love what you said. It gives us,

it's proactive. It gives us something to do. I'm in the midst of a trial. I'm going to try to be patient, but what can I learn during this time? And I saw the word patience there too. And I thought of section four of the Doctrine and Covenants that the missionary section, we often call it, you know, that speaks of patience. And Hank, I'm with you sometimes. I'm, well, wait a minute. I thought we're supposed to have a sense of urgency. And then other times, oh, and be patient. And which one is it? You know, don't use many words, but be patient in meekness.

I guess that's one of those where, thankfully, we have the gift of the Holy Ghost that can apply to individual circumstances, I suppose. Absolutely. For me, patience, I remember there was another another there's a talk from elder uchtdorf on patience there's another talk from a uh a general authority robert he was the military do you guys remember he was robert there was another talk by robert c oaks on patience and i listened to those over and over and over trying to just like soak it in, like help me become more patient. And you know what, looking back over a long period of time, I can see that I've made that improvement. It's those, you know, day to day, week to week, like, oh, why am I not

making improvements? I remember elder or yeah, it was elder Oaks, but this was Robert Oaks, who he said that his his one of his friends owned a motorcycle shop do you guys remember this story and one of his sons they had lined up brand new shiny motorcycles and one of his sons thought he'd jump on the first one and start it up so he did and then pushed his luck too far and decided to turn it off and he jumped off the motorcycle and knocked it into the next one which knocked it in the next one the next one next one denting all of them denting all of them with the paint and you know the chrome and he looked over at his dad right and his dad's kind of looked over the his desk like

and he said well we better fix one up and sell it so we can pay to fix the rest of them. And that was about it. That was about it. And I thought, okay, I've got to get that down. I've got to get that down, right? Overcome through patience. Let me know when you do that and then come and give me lessons, okay? I will. I just quit the motorcycle business altogether.

Oh, goodness. But I love those examples of Christlike patience. All right. Lynn, anything else in the section before we, anything we didn't cover that you're like, oh, Hank, we got to hit this or? I am just amazed as I think about how applicable each verse of this section is to those saints in 1831. And yet, as I read it on my own, in conjunction with Come Follow Me, each verse was very applicable to me. You know, the scripture has this wonderful transporting ability. If you want to hear God's voice, take a quiet, sacred hour and spend it in the scriptures and you will find messages just for you.

Yeah. Yeah. That's beautiful. Thank you. Lynn, what, what, what keeps you on the covenant path? What is this restoration and gospel done for, for you personally? You know, I believe because of a witness of the spirit that I first started feeling when I was seven years old, when I asked, and again, every other time that I have asked and sought in humility,

but the thing that keeps me with my toes deep in the sand and my roots growing down deeper is I really like comparing what is different about the Book of Mormon's message on patience rather than the biblical message on patience. And what do I believe this compared to our other Christian friends or colleagues or the Judaic or the Islamic faith traditions? And I am blown away at the truth and validity of not only the doctrines, but the principles and the way that is carried out in our church. I believe, as Eugene England said, the church is as true as the gospel. So I believe from a witness of the Spirit, but my taproot comes from studying the scriptures and comparing them.

Yeah, that is wonderful. John, another episode of Follow Him has come and gone. And isn't it wonderful that we get to be here? What did Peter say? It is good for us. It is good for us to be here. Understatement of all time. Uh, but I, I love that he, that he would say that because, and I think for our young people,

they'll, I love to tell, have you ever had the opposite? I shouldn't be here. Well, you know what to do. Stand in holy places. I mean, get out of there. But for Peter to say that, and I feel like that every week. And thank you, Lynn. I am so excited to go to Book of Mormon Central and Doctrine and Covenants Central and listen to more of your enthusiasm and excitement for this. Well, I'm just honored to have been here with you. It's been a sheer joy. Anytime we can testify of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's a good day. It's a good day. It is. Thank you. And you know what I love too about you, Lynn, is you have gone to not church schools to get all of your degrees. I get that right? All of them. Yeah. And added

that perspective to it. And I just, I love that. I think it adds some depth to our guests and to what they've said, what they've shared. So thank you for your preparation and for being here. Wonderful. God bless you both. Thank you for this invitation. We want to thank Dr. Lynn Wilson for joining us today. We want to thank all of you for listening and taking your time to be with us. We're grateful for your support. We really are.

Thank you to our executive producers, Steve and Shannon Sorenson, our production crew, David Perry, Lisa Spice, Jamie Nielsen, Kyle Nelson, Will Stoughton, and Maria Hilton. And we hope you'll join us next time on follow him