followHIM - Doctrine & Covenants 71-75 Part 2 • Dr. Rosalynde Welch • June 30 - July 6 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

Dr. Rosalynde Welch continues to examine Doctrine and Covenants 71-75 and the concepts of consecration, the sanctifying power of education and family, and the role of hospitality in building Zion.SHOW NOTES/TRANSCRIPTSEnglish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC227ENFrench: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC227FRGerman: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC227DEPortuguese: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC227PTSpanish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC227ESYOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/9VtyRW5iEbsFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookWEEKLY NEWSLETTERhttps://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletterSOCIAL MEDIAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastTIMECODE00:00 - Part 2 -  Dr. Rosalynde Welch02:45 Less warm and fuzzy parts of consecration07:31 Accountability to God not the Bishop10:07 Slowing the flow12:06 Pure in heart16:19 Many are called, but few answer18:17 Returning to translation and married to a non-believer23:43 Ordinances as teachers27:43 Becoming childish or childlike32:00 Mixed faith marriages37:03 Licenses to preach40:37 Work hard (with a good attitude)45:58 Working with the Lord changes us48:16 Pray while walking and working51:10 Missions and families56:12 Hospitality in the Old Testament58:47 A scholars thoughts on Joseph Smith’s scholarship1:03:05 Testimony of Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ1:09:39 End of Part 2 - Dr. Rosalynde WelchThanks 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 DirectorIride Gonzalez: Social Media, Graphic Design"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Welcome to part two with Dr. Rosalind Welch, Doctrine and Covenants 71-75. I love that verse in 3rd Nephi 612 that you mentioned. It's touched me personally because I have former mission companions from the Philippines who have benefited from the Perpetual Education Fund. Some of them were going back to low income, low housing, low education because of, thank you President Hinckley and the Perpetual Education Fund. Some of them were able to go back to school. Now they are paying tithing and helping the poor in a completely different way than they could before because maybe the presiding bishop's door, drew from the Perpetual Education Fund.

I've always loved that verse. There are chances for learning. There's so many that would love to learn and we're so blessed that we have chances now. What's the BYU Pathways doing? I think they're trying to make chances for learning so much more available for everybody in the world. Love that. We can be a part of that. BYU Pathways has a need for tutors virtually and over the internet who can connect with these Pathway students and share their own, what they have to consecrate to the storehouse, right? Their own experience, their own education.

Or maybe it's face-to-face, maybe there's a child in my ward. We don't need to be asked by the bishop or by the Relief Society president to consecrate. It's good to have somebody there who can sort of seize the needs and can coordinate, but we can voluntarily on our own see a need, see a form of poverty and consecrate a form of resource that we have. Maybe that looks like I can tutor this child in the afternoons or I can give piano lessons to this child who otherwise wouldn't have that opportunity. There's so many ways that we can give and that we can receive.

I wrote a book on happiness once. It sold dozens of copies, mostly to my family. But one thing I learned in the research is that money does buy happiness, but it's actually the things we give. We find much more happiness in giving than buying for ourselves. We all think this item, whatever it is, will make me so happy. It turns out it doesn't. One researcher called it the helper's high. I thought, well, that's one way to identify the Holy Ghost with the helper's high that comes when we give and serve. A lot of people can identify with the person in the giving. You're so excited

to give this gift to someone you've been excited for weeks. You're the one that's been able to take all the happiness. So it's actually very selfish to find a perfect gift for someone and be excited about it because you get most of the joy of that. The Lord is wise here. This is where you're going to find joys in the giving. There has to be someone to receive or else we can't give. Well, maybe this is a good moment to transition from the warm and fuzzy aspect of consecration. Like I said, I love the principle of consecration.

It has changed my life in so many ways. It tastes good to me. But there's another side to it that sometimes can be a little harder to understand and to receive as we've been talking about, that is accountability accountability is an intrinsic part of Consecration and let's look here at verses 3 to 5 in section 72

One of the important duties of this newly called Bishop Newell Whitney would be this It is required of the Lord at the hand of every steward to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and in eternity. For he who is faithful and wise in time is accounted worthy to inherit the mansions prepared for him of my father. Verily I say unto you, the elders of the church in this part of my vineyard shall render an account of their stewardship unto the bishop who shall be appointed of me in this part of my vineyard." Accountability is part and parcel of consecration. Just as consecration is practiced a little differently now than it was then. Those accountability opportunities are also handled

a little differently now than they were then. Back then, Joseph Smith Papers Project tells me everything I know about letters and history comes from the Joseph Smith Papers Project website, but they tell me that the elders who were called actually sent letters to Newell Whitney explaining what they had done with their time. They rendered an account of their stewardship in that way. These days we still have opportunities to render an account of our stewardship

at occasions like our tithing settlement, like our temple recommend interviews, there are other settings where we are accountable to the bishop. Those can be hard sometimes. Sometimes they can feel a little frightening. They might feel a little intrusive. It can feel intimidating. Maybe we feel fear of judgment or we feel ashamed. Maybe we worry that we'll lose some status in the eyes of the bishop or the ward if the account that we can render isn't quite what we'd want it to be. I want to

acknowledge that those can be hard moments, but it's helped me to realize that accountability is at the heart of this principle that I love so much, consecration. Understanding accountability as the other side of consecration helps me to approach those moments with a different perspective. I see it now as a moment to acknowledge to the bishop and to the Lord something that I feel so deeply, which is that God has given me my life and everything that I have and I am taking care of it for him. I love to recognize that tithing settlement or a worthiness interview is a moment for me to acknowledge that before the Lord. When I see it that us, but it's me checking in with God about my relationship with Him, about our shared project. The Lord invites us to collaborate with Him and His work of bringing

to pass the immortality and eternal life of mankind. He generously invites me to be a part of that. These accountability interviews can be places to acknowledge that. If you love consecration, but maybe the accountability side feels a little strange sometimes, remember that they come together. Fortunately, in my experience, wise bishops make that very easy to remember.

Wise bishops have always, even in those moments when I have fallen short and I haven't been able to render the account that I wish I could, I have been blessed with compassionate, wonderful bishops who have invited me to do better, who have accepted the offering that I can give, who have not judged me but instead have encouraged me, have invited me again into collaboration with the Lord in his work I wish that for all the Saints out there if there any of you who are facing an opportunity for accountability

That feels scary. You don't know if you can face it I hope that might help your bishop is there not to check up on you Your bishop is there not to check up on you, but to help you check in with the Lord and to help you remember your real relationship with him. Accountability does work. You're right. It is uncomfortable. Nobody here among the three of us has ever avoided an accountability interview. Okay, maybe one of us has avoided accountability. Brother Smith, can you come in and meet with the Elder's Quorum president talking about your ministering? Not this week. There's all sorts of reasons why I can't do it. But John, you know this quote from President Monson, when performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates. The Lord has the recipe here. The spirit of those interviews, I tried to remember Moroni chapter 6, we speak one with

another concerning the welfare of our souls. How are you doing on this? This is how we're doing on this. We're going to keep trying together. It's not you versus me, it's all of us versus Satan. We're just doing the best we can. Yeah. Well, you know, there recently was a change in our ministering practices, which you probably are aware of, it used to be that we would report the number of ministering visits that were accomplished in the ward, in an elders quorum or in a Relief Society, but that's not what we report anymore. Now what we report are the number of interviews, the number of accountability interviews that were conducted by the elders quorum

president or the Relief Society president. That might seem like a small thing, but I actually think it's a very, very consequential change because it helps us understand that accountability really isn't just about those numbers. Accountability is about relationships. It's in those accountability interviews that we have the opportunity to build relationships between a Relief Society president or an elders quorum president and the members of their quorum. I believe that over time we will see that this seemingly inconsequential shift in bookkeeping and reporting actually is very consequential for the way that we can build Zion in our wards, because

that's how Zion is built. Zion is built ward by ward. We have a global project, but it's built locally. The person who taught me that is our shared friend Melissa Inouye, who understood this better than any other person. Keeping in mind the global horizon of Zion is essential, but if we focus on the global and ignore the local, we will never get there. We build Zion by digging in where we are. Yeah, I like that. It's okay to fail. It's okay to say I have not done as I'd hoped.

It's okay. It motivates. It helps you do better. I had an experience recently. I moved into a new ward. I got assigned to administer this really awesome woman. I admired her so much. I thought she was the best mom.

She was so smart. She loved the Book of Mormon. She had great things going in her life. She bore her testimony. I could see that she had a burning testimony. I admired her and was so excited to get to know her. I had just moved. I had a new job. I was holding a full-time job for the first time in my life. It was not easy to balance the needs of my family, the needs of my new job, and it was that ministering assignment that fell by the wayside. I missed the moment and I got transferred. My assignment was shifted. I missed the moment to have that ministering relationship with this wonderful woman that I admired so much. Of course, there's no reason why I can't continue to get to know her. I have gotten to know her and our relationship has grown.

But I missed that moment. I missed that season. I was grateful for the ministering interview when my assignment was changed. I had to confess before my Relief Study President, I haven't developed with her the ministering relationship that I hoped I would. Because it helped me realize that time is fleeting. It helped me realize when I get a new assignment, jump on it. Because this is a great person and I may not have the opportunity to get to know them in this particular capacity again. So I

was grateful, although it was a difficult conversation, I did feel a little ashamed. I came away from it encouraged and determined not to make that mistake again. That's beautiful. Maybe there's just one more point that I'll touch on here in section 72. That's here at the very end, verse 24, the very end of section 72. In addition to the laws of the kingdom, respecting the members of the church, they that are appointed by the Holy Spirit to go up unto Zion, and they who are privileged to go up unto Zion, let them carry up unto the

bishop a certificate from three elders of the church or a certificate from the bishop. Otherwise he who shall go up into the land of Zion shall not be accounted as a wise steward. This is also an example, amen. This is addressing the reality that the Lord needed to carefully regulate the flow of saints to Zion. He needed to make sure that not too many were going at the same time, that those who went were on board

with the law of consecration. Because if a lot of people went, too many at the same time, and they were not on board with consecration, then the needs, the material needs, would overwhelm the ability of Bishop Partridge to administer the law of consecration. It really mattered. The risk at this point in time was too many people going up too soon. As I read that, I wonder now whether in 2025 we might have the opposite problem. I wonder now whether our problem is too few people choosing to live in Zion. Because we know that we can. We in 2025, we can go up to Zion now. We can live in a Zion way in our own wards. Now our gathering is to our wards.

We've covenanted to live the law of consecration, there is nothing holding us back from realizing a Zion community in our wards now. And I wonder whether we realize that. I wonder whether we take that seriously. As I was preparing for this podcast, I was, I love President Kimball and I love President Kimball's vision of Zion. I've made the point a couple of times that consecration is much more than just our material means, but I want to underscore that what we choose to do with our material means does really matter. I don't want to make it seem like that doesn't matter to the Lord. It does matter. Living in equality, taking care of

the poor and needy is an essential part of Zion. President Kimball understood that. If it's okay, I'd love to read something that President Kimball said in his talk, Becoming the Pure in Heart, which he gave in 1978. This is what he said, for many years we have been taught that one important end result of our labor's hopes and aspirations in this work is the building of a latter-day Zion. A Zion characterized by love harmony and peace. A Zion in which the Lord's children are as one. And then here he quotes from Mormon chapter 8. You may remember this is a very fiery chapter in which Moroni has words for us living in the latter days. He says,

For behold, ye do love money and your substance and your fine apparel and the adorning of your churches more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted. President Kimball goes on, this state of affairs stands in marked contrast to the Zion the Lord seeks to establish through his covenant people. Zion can be built up only among those who are the pure in heart, not a people torn by covetousness or greed, but a pure and selfless people. Not a people who are pure in appearance, with their wonderful fine clothing, rather a people who are pure in heart. The length of time required to accomplish all things pertaining to

Zion is strictly up to us and how we live for creating Zion commences in the heart of each person. That it would take some time to learn our lessons was seen by the prophets. In 1863, President Kimball continues, Brigham Young stated, if the people neglect their duty, turn away from the holy commandments which God has given us, seek their own individual wealth, and neglect the interests of the kingdom of God, we may expect to be here quite a time, perhaps a period that will be far longer than we anticipate. What President

Kimball and President Young are teaching us here is that how long it takes to bring to pass Zion to build this beautiful beloved community is up to us. We can go up to Zion now if we choose to live in that way We can hasten the time when Zion is prepared to receive the Lord among it It's up to us. I Always knew that Bishop Partridge one of his major problems was people coming to Zion before They were supposed to It's too many.

He's telling Joseph, don't send so money. Joseph is saying, I'm not, they're just going. Yet I've never thought of its opposite today. Where are the people coming to Zion? Where's everyone? Aren't more supposed to be coming? Remember Isaiah 16, the beautiful, beautiful poem of the children of Zion streaming home to their mother Jerusalem just at sunrise with the sun rising

behind them. People from all the corners of the world are streaming up to this beautiful city where the Lord will be there. His light radiates from its center. I wonder that too, Hank. Where are we? Are we there? Are we on our way to Zion? We could lengthen our stride a little. In the Doctrine of Covenants, Zion is sometimes addressed as a place, sometimes addressed as a cause. Now we're talking about Zion as a state of our hearts that we can be Zion here. I think that sequences what you're talking about Rosalyn is that we've got to come up to Zion Be more pure in heart. Yeah, I think of friends who have left thriving businesses and

grandchildren to go on missions Got up and left it is happening for my students I've tried to make the Abrahamic covenant as simple as possible. And I think this is about as simple as I can get is God says to Israel, the family, I'm going to give you very unique commandments. If you keep those commandments, you'll have an abundance of blessings. With those blessings, you are to bless all the families of the earth. I wonder if today, Rosalyn, we get stuck on, I'm gonna keep the commandments.

I get the abundance of blessings, stop. But I'm not turning that over to bless all the families of the earth, which is what we're talking about, consecrating. Consecration follows on the Abrahamic covenant. That's right, it's a part of that sequence. Ah, it really is hard. For me, it's easier to build Zion if everyone else around me is too. Like, yeah, I'll join in on this group momentum to build Zion. It's hard to say I'm gonna do it first. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna be the leader on this.

Yeah, exactly. Hard to not keep up with the Joneses. We have this tendency to feel like my external life, the way that I live, my house, my clothing, my cars, they should reflect the kind of solid, established person that I am. There's something in our brains that makes that equation. It can be hard not to get caught up in that race, but it really just takes a truly pure consecrator to show us that it can be done. And I have those in my life. I think of my my brother-in-law who's a bishop. It's worth mentioning, bishops not only receive accounts of consecration, but bishops are consecrators themselves. Bishops are often some of the most consecrated people that I know. My brother-in-law, Dave Sloan, being chief among them, he and my sister Naomi have shown me what consecration looks like.

I will be forever grateful to them for their example. My thoughts went right to section 121 verse 34. Many are called but few are chosen. Why are they not chosen? Or why do we not go to Zion? Or why do we not consecrate? Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world and aspire to the honors of men that they don't learn one lesson. That is the power of heaven. That is me. Their hearts are set so much on the things of this world and aspire to the honors of men. They want to be rich and famous. John is rich and famous and it hasn't done much for him. So I don't know why I am. famous and it hasn't done much for him so I don't know why I am. Speaking of possessions I just spent over a thousand bucks on our 2004 Toyota Sequoia. The

air conditioner blew up and broke the fan. I said to Andrew, well whatever you obtain you have to maintain. You may think you want more stuff, but then you have to take care of it. That is wise. My mother-in-law would say, the more you own, the more owns you. Rosalind, this has been fantastic. Also a little bit of a gut check. Good. That's what I intended. I really love the first part where I was like, wow, the Lord's kingdom is not fragile, defend your beliefs. Now you're going, and by the way, consecrate yourself to Zion. Okay, I can do that.

Look at the pattern in the Book of Mormon. Build your foundation on Christ. Then they start to prosper, sometimes material, and they get stuff, and then they change locations. Now let's relocate and build our foundation on our stuff. Somewhere else, yeah. Every time. Their hearts are set, like you just said, 121 on the riches of the world. Then the Lord has to send trials to start that cycle again of humility. Next up in our chapter block is section 73.

I think today we might move past this one pretty quickly, although it's short. It is rich though. I encourage you to chew on it deeply and see what you can pull out of it because there's a lot to be had there. But here in this section the Lord is instructing Joseph and Sidney that you've done the work I asked you to do, you fulfilled your mission for a season of preaching the gospel and expounding the mysteries out of the scriptures. Now it is time to return to the translation again. It is expedient to translate again. You can continue preaching, he says, as much as you can in the areas roundabout, but right now the priority is translation.

With that, Joseph and Zidni turn back to the Bible translation project. Our next section, section 74, is related to that Bible translation project, but maybe not as directly as we might think. Although this section, section 74, fits right in here right in the early months of 1832, in reality it was received earlier than that, probably in 1830. This has only recently been discovered by researchers at the Joseph Smith Papers project through some deep textual research. It may have been that section 74 is a comment and an explanation on a Bible verse. 1st Corinthians chapter 7 verse 14 and it's possible that Joseph might have encountered this verse as part of his Bible revision project,

but this verse in particular was not changed in the Joseph Smith translation. It's possible that as we were talking about earlier, deep reading in the biblical text spurred a question in Joseph's mind. In this case it's a question about baptism and how that should be carried out. That in response to that question, the Lord gave him section 74, which is this explanation of the Bible verse. Section 74 joins a good handful of other DNC revelations that explain or clarify passages in the Bible. We can think of section 45, which we read not too long ago, which is an expansion and clarification of Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse,

helping the saints realize that the building of Zion would itself be among the signs of the Second Coming. A lot of us know section 130, which helps us to better understand John chapter 14 verse 23, letting us know that the appearance of the Father and Son is a personal appearance, a physical and bodily appearance, not an immaterial appearance. Of course, section 76, which we'll get to next week, springs forth from a question about John chapter 5 verse 29. Section 74 joins that group of sections that help us better understand the Bible and especially help us understand how it's relevant to us now. It's a little bit of a tricky section, I'll be honest. It's a little bit hard and it took me some time of studying it to really feel like I

understood what it was getting at. But in the original base text, 1 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 14, Paul is giving advice to early Christians who were married to non-Jesus believers. So a Jesus believer married to a non-Jesus believer. He tells them that in these spiritually mixed marriages they shouldn't divorce but they should stay married if possible. He says it's possible to have a good marriage with somebody who doesn't believe as you do, because the influence of the believing spouse will have a sanctifying effect on

the non-believing spouse. The children born to that union can also be sanctified and blessed by the belief of their parent. That's what we see in verse 1 of section 74. It's just a quotation of that verse from 1st Corinthians. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else were your children unclean but now they are holy. That's what Paul wrote, but over the history of Christianity this verse became a kind of doctrinal football that various Christian denominations used

to debate the practice of infant baptism. Whether or not you should baptize an infant was an intense controversy in early America. It was also an intense controversy apparently in Book of Mormon times because you'll remember in Moroni chapter 8 where Mormon in very fiery language instructs us that it's not appropriate to baptize infants. In the American setting, Puritans generally did baptize infants as a part of their covenant theology. They saw baptism as replacing circumcision as a mark of belonging to the covenant people. They thought that Christian infants should be baptized just as Jewish baby boys were circumcised. Then there were the Baptists. The Baptists strongly rejected infant baptism. For them, they

felt that baptism should be an act of belief. Only a person who was capable of believing and professing their faith should be baptized. You had these two different views on infant baptism. The Book of Mormon and the Latter-day Saints were a bit closer to the Baptist position. We don't believe in baptizing infants. But section 74 goes a different direction. Section 74 basically suggests that it's not appropriate for this verse in 1st Corinthians to be used to justify infant baptism in modern debates. And it makes it very plain that children are holy. They are holy and sanctified

through the atonement of Christ. That the practice of infant baptism might inadvertently send a message that infants are not inherently saved in Christ. It can be dangerous to baptize infants because it might diminish our understanding of the reach of the Atonement. It might shrink our understanding of how far the Atonement can reach. Little children are intrinsically holy because they are covered by the atonement of Christ. As are all people who have not received the gospel or who are not capable of accountability to the Lord's law. We know that the atonement of Christ covers all those who have not had a real chance or a real ability to accept with fullness of heart

the commitments that come with baptism. There are some interesting things that we can glean from this section. The main idea that I take from it is that our religious practices can teach us something. Our ordinances are also teachers. This was the fear here that if you baptize infants you're inadvertently teaching something you don't intend to. You're inadvertently teaching that there's something wrong

with infants. If they die before they are baptized they will not be saved. What's so wrong with that teaching is that it minimizes the powerful effect of Christ's atonement. It causes incredible grief and sadness to parents who might lose an infant before they've been able to be baptized. It's worth noting that the truths revealed in section 74 have been the source of an immense amount

of collective relief and joy in the knowledge that infants who die, children who die young, are saved in Christ. Joseph and Emma lost their first little baby, then they lost their twins just a couple of months after the events we've been discussing today. This teaching must have brought tremendous relief to Emma as she tried to countenance the grief of those losses.

My own parents have lost two little boys, Jacob and Isaac. I know that the teachings in this section have brought them incredible joy that those little boys are saved in Christ they are holy and pure by the power of the atonement and That nothing will be lost in the resurrection They will be my parents to raise to love to have and to hold forever That's the main thing that I glean from section 74 That's the main thing that I glean from section 74. This last verse is so powerful to me.

There's so much that we can gain from it. I'd love just to read this final verse, verse 7 in section 74. Little children are holy, being sanctified through the atonement of Jesus Christ. And this is what the scriptures mean. I love children. I love to work with children. I work in the primary right now. I loved being a mother to babies. I love other people's children. Children for me are the clearest window into God's love and into the kingdom of God himself. If you remember President Holland spoke just

this past conference on children. He talked about the virtues of life's junior varsity. Do you remember that phrase? He always has the best phrases, life's junior varsity. He told the story of this young boy Easton who was a young deacon who suffered from muscular dystrophy and who with tremendous courage passed the sacrament to his father, the bishop. In that happening Elder Holland saw the kingdom of God realized, he said, the most beautiful images on earth are babies and children. They show faith, loyalty, purity, trust, love for the Father he so wishes

to please. This is what Elder Holland saw in Little Easton. This is what children can show us and what they can teach us about the kingdom of God. In a way, a child is a little bit like Zion. It's a little bit like that TARDIS. It's small on the outside. Children are weak. They're foolish. They also are a lot of work. They're noisy. They don't know how to sit still. But they are overflowing with love. They don't yet appear what they will be. The full image of God isn't revealed in them yet, but they are overflowing with love. It's meaningful that in Mosiah 3 we talked earlier about the natural man being an enemy to God.

Fortunately for us, our Savior loves his enemies. But King Benjamin goes on to say, the natural man is enemy to God unless he be unless he become as a child, humble, submissive, and full of love. Yep, as the child to the father. We might ask ourselves why it is that children are for us a model of redeemed discipleship. What is it about children that teaches us something about discipleship that nothing else can? That comparison is frequent, the Lord, in the Community Discourse, Matthew 18. That's how it begins.

Become as little children. Like you said, King Benjamin, become as little children. There's a difference, obviously, between being childish and childlike. I've watched my children be incredibly forgiving of their parents, especially the little ones. That's okay, Dad. When you think, oh, Dad, Dad messed up today. Sorry Sorry dad got a little too upset. That's okay dad Incredibly quick to forgive. It's genuine. They're ready to move on Yes, their hearts are so open. They live in the present. They don't dwell in the past They don't fixate on the future. They live in the present. They live in the moment. Yeah What about you John? I know you have

grandkids. What is it about them? Just the other night, as soon as one got interested in a toy, the other one came and took it. Then he became uninterested in it, this little sister came over and then suddenly he was interested again. You see stinginess and things like that, but the word that always comes to my mind is innocence. They're so innocent and pure. Maybe that's only possible through the atonement of Christ that we can be pronounced clean and innocent and sanctified. When I think of Bea as a little children, Bea innocent, Bea, like I said, only possible through Christ now at my age, who I need so much so that I can be innocent. Yeah. It's a really good point that children aren't perfect. They aren't without flaw or without fault.

They, like all of us, are born with a human nature that is susceptible to influence from our fallen world. The reason why children are holy, the reason why children are sanctified, is because they are covered by the atonement of Christ. Christ's own sacrifice is efficacious to protect and to hold children within its umbrella of safety. Nevertheless, there is something about children that we have to emulate. This is what Christ

taught Nicodemus. We have to become a child, be born again. That is the only way to enter into the kingdom of God. We have to somehow cultivate in our own selves the mind of a child. As you said John, their openness, their trustfulness, their innocence, their receptivity. Have you noticed that children are really good at receiving in the way that we've been talking about? This kind of full, open-hearted receiving that's about acceptance and forgiveness as well. I've noticed also how quickly children will seek for comfort, because I want to do the comforting, but how often do I go to the Lord for comfort? And yet my children, they want, I want to be comforted. Yes,

that's exactly it Hank. They are not ashamed of their own weakness. They are not ashamed of the fact that they need comfort. They need sustenance from their parents. They don't see their interdependence as a kind of limitation or fault or shortcoming like we as adults do. We want to believe that we're self-sufficient, that we have it all figured out, and that we can do it on our own. I think you've put your finger on it. It's precisely children's weakness or what the Apostle Paul might call their foolishness. They understand that they don't understand it all. They accept their weakness. They know that they need comfort and help. Of such are the kingdom of heaven. The reason why this dependence rather than self-reliance is

needed to receive God's grace is exactly what the Apostle Paul tried to teach us. Children instantiate, live into exactly the posture of discipleship that the Apostle Paul was trying to teach us. In 1st Corinthians 1, 27, he said, the Apostle Paul was trying to teach us. In 1 Corinthians 1 27 he said, God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. The foolish things of the world show forth the power of God that a strong thing can't. We know that a child needs the power of God to accomplish something remarkable. If it were a fully grown adult with status in the world and lots of property and all sorts of talents and abilities, we might think, oh, that's why that person could accomplish that thing,

because they're a person of means. We wouldn't see the power of God working through them, but when God works through the weak and the foolish, when he invites them to do their work of love, that's when we can see that it is truly God's power at work. I think this was meaningful to Joseph and the early saints. The Restoration was a young movement. The Lord referred to them as little children all the time. In section 50, he said, Ye are little children, fear not little children. Joseph was just in his 20s. As a whole, there were a few more seasoned saints who joined in, but as a whole, these were young, humble, even weak people like the early apostles, the fishermen of old. It was these little children that the Lord chose to show forth his power in the restoration in the last days. That reminds me John of when Dr. Joe Spencer came to teach us about 2nd Nephi 27 about the learned and the unlearned. He almost says to Joseph, Joseph, I chose you

so everyone will know it was me. Like it's kind of a hard thing to say, but it's true. I'm going to take the person that nobody thinks could do this. We're going to do this. Yes, I love that. Exactly. That is the principle. That's what Paul understood. That's what Joseph understood too. Just like your children, Hank, who are not ashamed to own their weakness and come to you for comfort. Joseph never denied his weaknesses. He never tried to hide the parts in the revelation where the Lord calls him to account, where the Lord calls him to repentance. In fact, he was willing to publish that to the world. He understood that this was part of the way that the Lord could show forth his power. He was childlike in precisely the ways that the Lord needed from

him. Let's canonize your mistakes for all the world to read about. I imagine a conversation of Saraiya and Lehi. What are you writing there, Lehi? Oh, what are you writing? Oh, just how our sons are this and that. What are you going to do with that, Lehi? I'm going to send it to every nation, kindred tongue and people. She's like, could I edit that first? All of our family problems going out to the world. In a way,

it helps all of us to know we're all in this together. We're all doing the best we can. We can give each other grace because we all need it. If you need a reminder of what it looks like to live in the kingdom of God, go to a nursery. Watch those babies squabbling, forgiving, making up, turning for comfort and for sustenance and for love to their loving leaders. That's what it looks like to become as a little child and to enter into the kingdom of God. I probably offend nursery leaders when I say this, but I joke with my class when people say, I don't believe in organized religion. I say, well, go to the nursery.

It's not that organized. All these hurting cats. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. One last point that's worth making here in Section 74 is returning to the original verse, verse one. Let's read that one more time. There's a point here I'd like to underscore. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else were your children unclean but now they are holy." I read this to understand that our family relationships can sanctify us and can sanctify each other. Paul is using

the word sanctify here in a special sense. Obviously he's not saying that the believing wife can save her husband in the way that Christ saves and sanctifies us, but I think what he's getting at is that the belief of one spouse can exercise a purifying and edifying influence on the members of her family. This is a really encouraging, powerful principle for those of us who live with families, spouses, children, who don't share our beliefs. Maybe they never have. Maybe they did it one time, but they don't anymore. For those of us who live in mixed faith situations, Hall is telling us this can

be a beautiful thing. You can have a beautiful relationship with each other. Your faith, the strength of your faith, can bless and can lift and can help your family members who may not share your faith. I think our faith does that and I think our love does that. My sister Gabrielle is a family therapist. I was talking to her about these verses. She says that she has observed that loving unconditionally in the way that God loves us is itself a sanctifying experience. Children make it easy to love unconditionally. Our children whom we raise from infants,

our love for them is so strong, we would do anything for them. It's a bond that can't be broken. When we experience love of that kind, that sanctifies us. Then we can exercise that purifying, uplifting influence on those family members around us who might need us. That brings me hope and encouragement as I continue to make my way, most of us these days have a family member or a dear friend,

a loved one who no longer walks in faith with us, but their relationship is precious to us. We cherish it and treasure it. It encourages me to know that my faith and my love will be of use to them, will help them, can sanctify them in some way. That's beautiful. I recently was in Nauvoo with a friend, Sue Frost from Downunda. She's from Australia. She walked out of the Sarah Granger Kimball home in tears because my friend Sue is a relief society president in Australia whose husband is not a member.

I don't think she knew that the relief society was started by a woman Sarah Granger Kimball whose husband was not a member. Yet a great man. I don't think we're talking about living with someone who's abusive and that you can be a good influence on them. That's not what we're talking about, but a non-believing good man or a non-believing good woman. Great things happen in those homes. Yes, and we can learn from them too. Any

relationship needs to be a relationship of mutuality. If you go into it thinking, oh, I'm always, as we've been talking about with consecration, I'm always the giver, they're always the receiver of my sanctifying influence. That's not likely to build that trust and that acceptance. We have to realize they have gifts they can give us as well. I can learn from them. Yes, I'm going to hold on to my faith. I'm going to hold on to my love and my relationship with the Savior. But I can also learn from my unbelieving spouse. It's that mutuality, that mutual respect, that love and that patience that is what purifies us and lifts us together. That's great. That always leaves the door open, too. You may be the first person they think of when they want to come back or have a question

because they feel your love and acceptance. I suppose the opposite of that is you're not welcoming this home or something horrible like that, but there's always the, you'll figure this out. How many times have I quoted Stephen Robinson on this show? It's not about who has your membership record. It's about who has your heart. It's beautiful. Rosalind, this has been phenomenal.

I'm sad to say we only have one section left, but we are ready. What do you want to do with section 75? All right. Section 75 is going to take us out here on a wonderful high note. We're now almost to the end of January of 1832. We've covered about two months over the span of these sections. Once again, we're at a quarterly priesthood conference. This is a priesthood conference with a lot of quorum business. You guys ever been in a sacrament meeting where the word business seems to go on and on?

And you're like, are we ever going to get to the sacrament? This was a conference with a lot of quorum business. We were told considerable business was done to advance the kingdom. Among other things, there were elders who were given their priesthood licenses. This is a practice that we don't carry on anymore, but in the early days of the church, when you were ordained to an office of the priesthood, you were licensed and you received a physical license. Elders were licensed.

Orson Pratt was appointed president of the elders. Joseph was ordained president of the high priesthood. Among these really important happenings and advancements in the Saints understanding of priesthood, there was also elders who had requested revelation for guidance in their duties. This wasn't uncommon as we've seen many times. Saints will come to Joseph and say, I request a revelation. I want to know what it is that the Lord wants of me. Joseph, I wonder if he ever got tired of doing that. I don't know, but Joseph very patiently turned to the Lord, asked for the Lord's will. In response, the Lord spoke through Joseph. Section 75 here contains two such

revelations. We receive section 75 in two parts. First verses 1 through 22 seems that this addresses elders who had previously said, I want to go preach the gospel. They had previously submitted their names and said I'm ready and willing to go preach. Here in these first 22 verses those elders are assigned companionships, are assigned certain assigned companionships, they're assigned certain areas of service, they're instructed on their missionary work. Then in the second verses 23 to 30, that second section, these might have been other elders who hadn't specifically volunteered as elders or as missionaries, as preachers, but they are also now called to labor, given

instructions on the different ways that they can serve in the kingdom. It's a wonderful section, joins many other sections full of great advice about missionary work, about preaching the gospel effectively, about how to image Christ when we testify of him out in the world. And it's so rich, we'll only be able to touch on a couple of sections. One thing that really jumps out to me from this section is the necessity of hard work. Working hard, getting up every morning and getting after it again. Maybe we could just read two verses that touch on that. There are two verses from the beginning and the end of the Revelation. Let's read verses 3 and verse 29. I wonder Hank, would you

read verse 3? And then John, would you read verse 29? Absolutely. Section 75 verse 3, Behold I say unto you that it is my will that you should go forth and not tarry, neither be idle, but labor with your might. Let every man be diligent in all things, and the idler shall not have place in the church, except he repent and mend his ways. Yeah. Be not weary in well-doing. This is what he told us in section 64. This is a great work. The work is urgent. The time is now. Zion needs to be built and to rise in her

glory. Let's get after it. You are called at this moment to give all that you have. Whether we're in 1832 or whether we are in 2025, that imperative to work hard is always with us. In fact, it's been with us from Adam and Eve, even before the fall in the garden. Adam and Eve were already given the work of dressing and keeping the Garden of Eden. Work has been part of the human condition from the very beginning. Work by the sweat of our brow. I think that's because work helps us to develop our divine nature in some way. That's what I have to conclude, is that the Lord requires us to

work, gives us opportunities to work, invites us to work with him, because he knows that in doing that it will help to bring to pass his great purpose, which is the development of our divine nature, and the eternal life and immortality of his children. But the question is why? Sometimes we can be tempted to answer that question wrongly. We might tell ourselves, I have to get up today. I have to work as hard as I can. Whether you're a missionary or whether you're a mom or whether you're a bishop or whether you're coming back to the church for the first time after years away. You wake up in the morning you say, I have got to work for all that I am worth so that the Lord will

accept my offering, so that the Lord will love me and will be pleased with my offering. That can be a trap when we start to tell ourselves that we work in order to deserve the Lord's love, in order to earn His favor, or in order to save ourselves, that we work in order to work out our own salvation. There's something deep in our minds that wants to tell us that story, that if I work harder the Lord will love me more. And it is true that the Lord invites us with urgency to work hard, but I don't think it's so that he will love us more. We know from King Benjamin that we are always unprofitable servants. We can get up, we can work

ourselves to the bone, We can work frantically and frenetically without stopping to try to earn back the debt that we're into the Savior. But that'll never happen. That'll never happen. That's not the purpose of work. Why do we work? Why shouldn't we give up and say, well, I'm going to be an unprofitable servant. I'm weak and foolish. There's really not that much I can do. Why should I actually work that hard? Why should I get up this morning and pour my soul out in the service of God? Well, your good friend Adam Miller taught us that love is a law, not a reward. We wanted to put it on t-shirts.

That is, that God invites us to take part in His work of love. Not so that we can be loved or rewarded by Him, but that the work is the reward itself, being involved. Yeah. How about you, John? What comes up for you? My mission president, Menlo F. Smith, used to say, he's 96 years old, lives in St. Louis. We talk about him a lot. I wonder if he'd mind if I impersonated him. Elder, by the way, the Lord gets his work done through his people and he gets his people done through the work. Exactly right.

I like that concept. We talked about this before, we get the children of Israel out of Egypt, now we've got to get the Egypt out of the children of Israel in the same way the work changes us, it blesses us. The Lord gets the work done through his people. Thanks, President Smith. John, I know Menlo Smith. I was in his ward. No way. I was in his ward in St. Louis for 10 years. He was my ministering brother.

No kidding. I'm so glad I brought it up. So did I sound like him, kind of? You sounded uncannily like him. That was amazing. Yes. Brother Menlo, we've been talking about consecration. He is an example of truly a consecrated heart, one who gives all that he has and is. For our listeners, he's a delightful person who was a businessman in candy. He was literally Willy Wonka. He made his living selling candy. Every time he came to visit us, he'd bring us the newest form of sweet tarts. You know how they're always coming up with chewy sweet

tarts and nerds clusters. Whatever the newest form of sweet tarts was, he brought it with us. So we loved it when our ministering brother came to visit, but he taught us so much about what a life of consecration looks like. He is closing in on 100 right now. And he is still going strong. He gets up every morning. He works hard. He understands why you both got at it. Because in working with the Lord, in doing his work of love, in joining with him, two things happen. One is that we ourselves are changed. It is through the work that the Lord can sanctify us and can change us. The second reason is that it is through this work that we come to know the Lord. That we come to know God. King Benjamin who's the one who

put the question to us so strongly. If you're always unprofitable servants then why work? He gives the answer here in Mosiah 5 verses 12 to 13 and he says, I say unto you, I would that you should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts that you are not found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, and also the name by which ye shall call you. For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served and who is a stranger unto him and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart. For me the greatest quest of my life, the project

that genuinely keeps me up at night and gets me up in the morning is to come to know God, to know who God is, to have a relationship with God, with my Savior Jesus Christ. This is telling me how I can do it. By doing His work I come to know who He is. By doing His work of love I come to understand how he loves, the shape of his love, the quality of his love. By doing his work of love, I come to be able to love in the way that God loves. That's why we work. We do the work of our Master not to save ourselves, not to prove anything to anybody else, but to come to know our Savior and to become like Him. That's powerful for me. That helps me

understand a little more something that we read in verses 9 through 11. Let's take a look at those verses here in section 75. Here he is giving instructions to all of the missionaries, but in particular he's talking to William McClellan and Luke Johnson, who's he's just paired up as a missionary companionship and commanded them to go out and teach. This is what he says to them in verse 10, call on the name of the Lord for the Comforter which shall teach them all things that are expedient for them praying always that they faint not and inasmuch as they do this I will be with them even unto the end. Here he instructs

them to pray always. Those words sound familiar they sound like an echo of the Bible because they are. Here the Lord is sort of echoing the parable of the persistent widow. There's a lot of different names for this parable in Luke 18, but you guys remember the story. There's a widow. The unjust judge. Sometimes it's called the parable of the unjust judge, but I think that's the wrong name. I think it should be called the parable of the persistent widow because she really is the protagonist. She's the one that we're to learn from. There's a judge who has ruled unjustly

in the case of this widow. She wearies that judge. She goes to him and asks unceasingly for what is right. She will not stop until the judge does what is right and just. Jesus uses that. He's finally saying, just give her what she wants so she'll go away. Exactly. And the Lord teaches us through that parable to pray always. But this is hard work what the widow did. She was going day after day to petition and to plead her case. Prayer is a part of our labor. Prayer is a kind of work. It's a part of the work that we are called to do in this section. As Latter-day Saints, we

really get the be not idle. We have internalized that as written on the fleshy tables of our hearts. We know how to get up in the morning, go to the welfare farm, work hard on the service project, come home, make the meal for our neighbors, do come follow me with our family, family prayer, and then pick up the kitchen before we go to bed. We know how to labor unceasingly. But do we remember that prayer is a part of that work? Prayer is strenuous and it is urgent, but it's a different kind of work. It's a work of contemplation. It's a work of stillness. It's a work of study. It's a kind of intellectual, spiritual, and emotional labor where we're called to exercise

different faculties, to draw forth energies from different parts of our soul. Our body needs to be stilled for a moment. But our spirit is hard at work in prayer. I love that the Lord specifies pray unceasingly, pray always. This is a part of your work. I know the missionaries who are listening out there you do this work, you do pray unceasingly. You pray in the morning, you pray before every appointment, you pray before you go out, you pray beforeceasingly. You pray in the morning. You pray before every appointment. You pray before

you go out. You pray before you come in. Pray while you're walking. You pray while you're walking. You are showing us what it means to pray unceasingly and what it means to make prayer a part of our labor and a part of our work. I love thinking about the prayers in the House of the Lord, the prayers over the names on the altars of the temple that are carried out unceasingly through the day. If you think about temples dotting the globe, then collectively as a people, we are praying unceasingly for those who need it. And that's such a central part of the work that we do in our temples. It's a central part of our spiritual work as well. Wow. We've talked about this too. Prayer changes us too. What was it? Is it in the Bible dictionary?

We're not really changing the will of the Lord necessarily, but it changes us when we pray and be in an attitude of prayer. Praying to have the Spirit, I love the definition of comfort, means together, calm and fort strong. We're stronger when we have the comforter, together strong. John has frequently used the analogy of an airplane that is off track most of the time. It's just doing corrections. Yeah. And prayer can be a form of alignment. That's right. It eventually lands on the numbers that he throw. How does it do that when it's off course most of the time? Shhh. Keeps getting corrected. A little to the right, a little too far to the left, a little too far to the right, a little too far to the left. But you're doing those little corrections. For me, prayer can be

right, a little too far to the left. But you're doing those little corrections. For me, prayer can be, you're not perfectly aligned, let's come back. Again, you're not perfectly aligned, let's come back. Maybe the goal isn't to be perfectly aligned, but stay as close as possible. Yeah, yeah. Don't give up, knock on that door again and again. It is a work, but it's a restorative work. It's a renewing work. It's a sanctifying work. Jay Golden Kimball said he doesn't walk the straight and narrow, but he crosses it as often as he can. I think that's what he meant. Back and forth, back and forth. There's another part of this section that I really love that I think can be easily overlooked. When we think about work, when we think about missionary work, what comes to mind first are of course our full-time elders and sisters. Our older adult missionaries, our

wonderful consecrated mission presidents, those of us who are giving full-time to serve the Lord and preach the gospel. I love the church's missionary program. I loved being a missionary myself. That's a crucial part of rolling forth the kingdom. But there are other ways to give. We talked about this earlier. Not everybody can serve a full-time mission. Not everybody can serve in those ways. There are other ways that we can serve and be deeply involved in this work as well. Let's look at verses 23 to 26, because this points out an unexpected way that we can be more involved than we might have thought in

the work of the Lord. An interesting way to apply that back in verse 6 is William McClellan is told, I revoke the commission which I gave unto you to go into the East countries. I give unto him a new commission. Verse 8, go to the south countries. We had such an interesting time with COVID. So many missionaries who were assigned here and then served there. My own daughter, Natalie, was assigned to serve. I love what Elder Bednar did. You're called to serve. You're assigned to labor. He made that distinction which has always been the wording of the mission call She was assigned to labor in Tahiti But spent her first nine months in Tucson just barely at a cutoff point finally did go to Tahiti

Young people have wondered why is this happen? I love to mention to young people I was one of those that was called for 24 months on my mission call, but served 18 because they shortened it in the 80s there early. I still don't know why exactly, but those young people that hear the Lord's call to serve and go, you've done what you were asked to do. I think of the angel in Alma 8 that stops Alma and says, you have kept the commandments of the Lord since you received your first message from Him. They have. Some of these missionaries were out for eight months and came home because when COVID hit, they had a health condition. But you did what you were called to do.

They had a health condition, but you did what you were called to do. Then when you were asked to come home, you were asked to come home. You served a faithful mission. My heart aches for them when they don't understand that and don't get that. I have a quote from a book that I have on my shelf about this very thing. The book is called When It Doesn't Make Sense. It says this, I've seen the countenances of young people change right before my eyes when I have told them that I served for 19 months. Perhaps they had assumed that there is only one true and living length of a mission, or

they have concluded that I was either shortchanged or unworthy. I know another missionary who served for five months because of his health conditions, but he did as he was asked. He was honorably released and I believe he has great cause to rejoice. There are countless reasons a mission may be modified, but as long as you strive to fulfill what is asked of you, you have cause to rejoice. I don't know who wrote that book when it doesn't make sense.

Let me look it up. Oh, it's John, by the way. It probably sold more than dozens of copies. When it doesn't make sense. Thanks, Mom. Yeah. Rosam, what do you think? That is so wise.

It's so comforting and reassuring to those who, for whatever reason, maybe their assignment was changed, maybe their health changed, maybe they had a health crisis or a mental health crisis, maybe they had a family situation that called them home. There are so many different ways that our service can look different than we had expected but is still valid and treasured by the Lord. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You worked in the way that I assigned you, now I've changed your assignment. You can go forth, you can continue to serve me in this new way." That's actually right in track with the spirit of section 75. As you may recall, as I said,

the first part is mission calls and companionships to those who had volunteered to serve missions, but the second part is to elders who were like, well, we'll serve in any way that we can. We see one important way that we can serve if a full-time mission isn't available to us here in verses 23 through 26, roughly. He says here, and again, thus saith the Lord unto you, O ye elders of my church, who have given your names,

that you might know his will concerning you, behold I say unto you, that it is the duty of the church to assist in supporting the families of those, and also to support the families of those who are called, and must needs be sent unto the world to proclaim the gospel unto the world. Wherefore I the Lord give unto you this commandment that ye obtain places for your families inasmuch as your brethren are willing to open their hearts. And let all such as can obtain places for their families and support of the church for them not fail to go into the world, whether to the east or to the west or to the north or to the south." What's the problem here? The

problem here is that the missionaries who are going to go out to proclaim the gospel are leaving behind families. Somebody needs to take care of the families. There's a very important work here for the Saints in Kirtland to provide hospitality, lodging, support, and love for the families of the elders who go out into the world. Look at that need is still with us. We can support the families of their mission presidents who go out, their children and grandchildren are behind, maybe their grandma and grandpa aren't there to support them, maybe there's another grandma or grandpa who can step in to help them. You can be their surrogate grandma and grandpa. We can support the families who support missionaries. There are so many ways that we can support the families of missionaries. Now with the advent of

service missionaries, sometimes we may even have the opportunity to host a service missionary in our own home. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law had a wonderful experience a couple of years ago with a young elder. His English name is Connor Green. Maybe some of our listeners have heard of Elder Green before. He has a remarkable story. He was born blind and was raised in an orphanage in China, but was adopted by a Latter-day Saint family, moved to Utah in his adolescence, then was converted to the gospel by a sister missionary on Temple Square who spoke Mandarin. She taught him in his own language, he became converted, developed a burning testimony of the

Savior and a burning desire to serve the Lord himself. But he is blind. He has a significant disability. He has so many abilities. He's an amazing musician and has the incredible ability to play the piano by ear, to hear a song, then be able to produce it on the piano flawlessly. He had so many gifts to give and desperately wanted to give them to the Saints. He was called on a service mission. As part of this, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Christina and Jeff Broberg, were blessed to be able to host Elder Green in their home for the time of his service mission. They gave him a place to live, they helped him

with his needs, they helped him with some transportation. Elder Green helped in the MTC. He served as a language teacher in the MTC where he could help those missionaries learning Mandarin. He had incredibly specialized skills there. He also served in the temple. He found meaningful ways that he could serve the Lord with his gifts and abilities even despite his disabilities. As a bonus, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law had the incredible blessing of hosting him in their home. If you ask them, they'll tell you about the amazing blessings that rained down on their family. Their own children developed a love for missionary work.

They had a son who served faithfully on his mission while Elder Green lived with them, another son who received his mission called. Recently, the spirit of missionary work came and lived in their home, blessed them in so many ways. As Saints in 2025, we still have opportunities to open our home, to be hosts, exercise this hospitality, whether it be for families of missionaries, whether it be for service missionaries, or for anybody in our midst who needs a place, who needs to be received

in a loving home for an evening or for a season. Beautiful. What is happening with service missionaries all over the earth is you can feel it. There's something stewing underneath that you know the Lord is planning on. This is gonna bloom and blossom. Bless so many lives. I agree. It's bigger on the inside. It's bigger on the inside and as more and more young people realize the joy of service and our call to these service missions, then as saints we will be called on to open our homes. These service missionaries often, though

not always, they live with a host family. It will be on us to ask ourselves, can we open our homes to make it possible for this service missionary to serve his or her mission? Now hospitality is not a surface thing. It's not the question of manners and politeness and having a beautiful home and throwing a dinner party. Hospitality is really a central moral value in the Old Testament. Do you remember that story of Abraham? It's in Genesis 18, where three strangers come to visit him. He's hospitable. He opens his home to them. They come in, he feeds them, he entertains them, he gives them a place and takes care of them. And then it turns

out, unbeknownst to him, these three strangers were angels. He had an encounter with divinity itself because he opened his home. Again and again in the Old Testament we see that opening our hearts to the sojourner, to the refugee, to those who wander, that's the duty of all of us who are covenant bound to the Lord because the covenant people themselves were wanderers. The Lord's covenant people were wanderers through the wilderness as they made their way to the Promised Land as they came out of Egypt. Now it's on us as His covenant

people to welcome those who need us, refugees, missionaries, anyone who needs our love, who needs our hospitality, who needs our provision and care. The Lord Himself is the ultimate host. He is the one who gave manna and water in the wilderness to the children of Israel. He is the one who fed them their meals. He is the one in Psalm 23 who lays a table, spreads a table before us, and entertains him. We know from the scriptures that in the last day we'll all come together in a great feast. We'll come together at the wedding banquet of the Lord together. The ways that we can serve, open our home, feed and be hospitable to each other now are four

tastes of how it will be when we're all together in Zion and the Lord himself spreads the table. Wow, so well said. I love it. Rosalind, I cannot tell you how much I have learned. Section 71 through 75, I know we've said it over and over but they are bigger on the inside than they look on the outside. Yeah, I love that. They're right in the shadow of section 76. So you might not think, oh, there's not much here. Let's get to it. Now I'm stopping going, okay, hang on. I don't want to move on so fast to 76. Thank you for preparing. Thank you for bringing all that you. Now, I have a question for you. As you were explaining something earlier, this thought

hit me. I wrote down this question. John, we invite these guests on not necessarily because they're smarter or better than any other member of the church, but people who have doctorate degrees, PhDs, they have an expertise. They've spent years on that specific expertise. Here's the question I have I'd love for you to comment on, Roslyn. I wrote this. How is it that the writings of a 25-year-old farmer in 1831 can be studied and explored in 2025 by a scholar with a PhD in literature, and she finds them not only inspiring but inexhaustible.

That seems to me to be miraculous. It's marvelous and it is a wonder. I have read a lot. I've read a lot of books from the 16th century, the 17th century, the 19th century. I love to read in contemporary fiction. I have read a lot. I have a pretty good taste for text. I have a pretty good sense for how they feel under my feet, how they feel in my hands. You know when you have a new baby you get used to how they feel. Each

day they're a little bit heavier and a little bit squishier. You get used to how they feel. I feel like I have that sense for texts. It truly is a wonder to me that these revelations from the Book of Mormon, which was Joseph Smith's first revelation, to the Doctrine and Covenants, which is this wonderful compendium of revelations over a tremendously fertile revelatory period for him, to the Pearl of Great Price, which also captures so much of Joseph's prophetic gifts. These texts never fail me. They are firm. They are resilient. They are fertile under my hands and under my eyes. I have a good sense for how much a book can tell me, whether it will be worth it to go back

to it. I have those books that I want to go back to again because I know there's going to be something more there. Then there are those that you read once and it's great, you move on from there. The Book of Mormon is a book that has never failed me. More than any other text that I have ever encountered or spent time in, the Book of Mormon gives back. It can stand up to any question that is asked of it. It will have an answer. Maybe not a contentious answer, but it will have an answer. It will respond to whatever can be brought to it. Whatever problems I bring to it in my own life, it teaches me and shows me something about myself. It changes me when I see myself in its light.

Whatever questions I bring to it about God, about Christ, about what it means to be in Christ and with Christ. And those questions are different at different times in my life. I come to the book with different wounds each time that I open its covers covers each time it ministers to me in the way that I need I Don't know how it does it. It's partly the quality of attention that I bring to it to scriptures we bring a depth of reading a depth of Investment that we don't bring to other kinds of books.

It's partly what I can bring to the Book of Mormon, but it's not only that. It's also what the book itself can do with the questions that I bring. For me that is one of my strong reasons the Book of Mormon is one of the pillars of my strong reasons, the Book of Mormon is one of the pillars of my testimony. Precisely as you said, Hank, the way that it has repaid 20 years and counting of sustained professional study. The way that I've seen even unbelieving scholars, when they come to it with an open mind, I'm not saying they're going to be convinced that it's an ancient record or that they're going to be converted to the church. When they approach it with an open mind, with real curiosity, they too see it.

That this text is living in some way. That it's doing something that transcends the 19th century horizon in which it was produced, that it reaches outside of history, that speaks to readers where they are now. It becomes new in each moment when it is read. There is a quality, a divine quality to this text that repays my reading, that is apparent to all who approach it openly, that I think is manifest. That's how Moroni put it, that the truth of these things will be manifest unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost.

The truth of the Book of Mormon seems to be more and more manifest in the world around me. It's not just in the book itself that I see its truths lived out, but I see how its truths are manifest in my experience of the world now going on 50 years. That's a pretty long time to have looked around and experienced God's creation, experienced his work in the world, and all that I see, the Book of Mormon testifies to that truth manifest in the world around me. Makes me want to give you a standing ovation.

It wouldn't be a roaring standing ovation that it deserves from a stadium full of angels. John, how did we get this? I sat down today going, I bet we're going to see some good stuff today. And then honestly, we were 10 minutes in. I was being shown light on all these texts. We've talked about receiving in a different way. We've talked about consecrating our afflictions to the bishop's storehouse basically. Our afflictions can be a blessing to others.

We can minister to them when they're going through something similar. Talked about being Zion, coming up to Zion in here. It's all been really, really beautiful and nice. I remember when Alma said, if you will plant the Word in your heart, one of the impacts, enlarge your soul. I feel like I'm bigger on the inside now, because you have enlarged my soul, to use that great phrase today. That's what he meant, enlarge my soul. Rosalyn, you said right when when we started scriptures are a place where I

can go and meet the Lord. Then you showed us how. A text of meeting here. Yeah that was a good way to describe what I've experienced today is I came to a place section 71 through 75 Rosalyn showed me how to meet the Lord here. Thank you. We're trying to gush and say thank you for your time and your effort. Thank you, Hank and John, for the opportunity. I'm so grateful for the work that you do. I know it touches so many. It truly has been a privilege to chat with you today about these beautiful verses of Scripture.

This has been a privilege all the way around. I'm sure there's many out there listening who are thinking the exact same thing. Come on to YouTube or shoot us a message from our website, followhim.co. Let us know where you're listening from. We would love to share that with Roslyn. It's fun to know where you've taught. Somewhere in the world. From Provo to Madagascar.

With that, we want to thank Dr. Roslyn Welch for being with us today. We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Sorensen, our sponsors, David and Verla Sorensen. Every episode, we remember our founder. This is something he would have loved. I can hear him saying that. That, what we just did right there, that's what it's all about. That's why we did this. Our founder, Steve Sorensen.

We hope you'll join us next week. Kind of a big section. Section 76, coming up on Follow Hip.