Mission farewell

                            

We it's finally here. Mikah is leaving on a mission.  G & G Chapman, cousin Ben Williams and his son, Julian, Uncle Steven and Aunt Silvia with their three children, Nicholas, Alex and Leslie came from out of town.  The Kuikens, Bonnie and Nate Hart, Carmen French, Camille McCashland, Alan Evans and Melanie Polcock came from outside the ward.  Aunt Connie Williams and cousin Cheryl Leithead called and checked in.

He did really well on his talk.  I hounded him for a few days.  Here's a copy.

President Monson said during this last General conference, “The purpose of mortality is to learn and to grow to be more like our Father.”

We are instructed not only to learn in schools and training programs, but also to increase our knowledge of the gospel through study and prayer.

During a training conference, President Boyd K Packer said, “I learned early on that there is great value in listening to experience in older people. I had a stake president once who said, "I always tried to be in the presence of great people." He was in a little town in Idaho, but he said, "If there was a lecturer coming or something special, I would always try to be there, because I could learn."

Which I think goes quite well with Proverbs 1:5, which says “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels”

In the topical guide under learning, it says to also see Mission of the Holy Ghost and Value of Scriptures. The holy ghost helps us to learn by witnessing of the truth of all things and bringing them to our remembrance.  The scriptures are an invaluable resource to learn the principles of the gospel needed to return to our Heavenly Father. The Savior says in D&C 19:23, “Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.”

In the Feburary 2010 Ensign, Elder Bednar said, “The Atonement of Jesus Christ and the agency afforded to all of the Father’s children through the Redeemer’s infinite and eternal sacrifice are divinely designed to facilitate our learning.”  Without our free agency, we would have no ability to choose what or where to learn.  We have the freedom to learn whatsoever we desire and where we may learn it.

Now, it isn’t necessary (or even practical) to try to learn everything.  Some information is useful to have and put to use.  However, we should give priority to gospel principles which are essential to understand and live if we are to become more like our Heavenly Father.  A scripture mastery from the New Testament shows examples this in our time; in 2 Timothy 3 it says;

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof...

7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

We are here on earth to prepare for eternity; to learn things that are important in our lives and essential gospel principles, and to help others to learn and to come unto the gospel of Christ.

President Brigham Young only had 11 days of formal schooling, yet he knew that he had to learn the teachings of the gospel and the ways of the world. During his life, He was a furniture maker, a missionary, a colonizer, a governor, and a prophet.

President Young made the following statements to emphasize that our purpose in mortality is to learn:

1        “The religion embraced by the Latter-day Saints, if only slightly understood, prompts them to search diligently after knowledge. There is no other people in existence more eager to see, hear, learn, and understand truth.”

2        “Put forth your ability to learn as fast as you can, and gather all the strength of mind and principle of faith you possibly can, and then distribute your knowledge to the people.”

3        “We are in the school [of mortality] and keep learning, and we do not expect to cease learning while we live on earth; and when we pass through the veil, we expect still to continue to learn and increase our fund of information. That may appear a strange idea to some; but it is for the plain and simple reason that we are not capacitated to receive all knowledge at once. We must therefore receive a little here and a little there.”

⁴              “We might ask, when shall we cease to learn? I will give you my opinion about it: never, never.”

Elder Bednar proposed a test to determine our ability to learn and how willing we are to do so; “When you and I do not know what to do or how to proceed to achieve a particular outcome—when we are confronted with a problem that has no clear answer and no prescribed pattern for resolution—how do we learn what to do?”

In answer to Elder Bednar’s test, we should be like Nephi- after roaming in the wilderness for eight years and arriving at the land Bountiful, he was commanded by the Lord to build a ship to carry his family across the ocean to the Americas.  Having grown up in Jerusalem-an inland city- it was very likely that he had never seen a ship before.  It was unlikely that he knew how the ship should have been built to keep from sinking.  Undeterred, he asked the Lord where to find ore to make tools.  He was directed by the Lord as to how to build the ship.  He did not know how to sail a ship, but he knew that through prayer the Lord would teach him.

We may not have our knowledge base or ability to learn challenged quite as much as Nephi was, but our ability to learn will be tested continually in this life- especially in this time which we live in where technology is advancing very rapidly.

Our ability to learn is fantastic when we are effectively taught, but is severely hindered if we do not put it into action and have the desire to learn.  My junior year of high school, I took an online history course.  My parents and several of my teachers can tell you that I am not very good at actually studying and doing homework.  In most of my classes, I was able to get by because the course content was discussed in class.  In my history class, however, there was no classroom, and no real scheduled class time.  And honestly, I didn’t have much interest in that history class. If I find something that is more interesting or more suited to my skill set than classwork, it usually got done before homework.  And with my interests in computers, those projects almost always took longer than I planned.  These caused me problems; I finished the class with a B in the first semester and a C in the second semester.  I really don’t remember anything from that class either.

My parents will also tell you B’s and C’s are below my abilities, and they’re right.  In other classes, when I applied myself and wanted to do well, my grades were much better.  My classwork and learning in high school could be related to Laman and Lemuel’s learning of gospel principles.  They were content with the things of the world and were disinterested in anything pertaining to the gospel.  Several times, they lost sight of the gospel and murmured against their brothers and father.  When they were chastised, they returned to the straight and narrow, only to wander away again.

If we have a true desire to learn the principles of the gospel, then our understanding will be greater and we will be in a better position to receive blessings.  We cannot just sit in a class and let learning “happen” to us.  It is not a passive activity- we must be engaged in the process.  Not only must we be ready to understand what we are being taught, we must be willing to let the Holy Ghost testify to us of the truth.  We should also ask questions.  Asking questions is an important part of learning, because we then want to find the answers to those questions.  Many of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants was written in response to a question the prophet or brethren asked of the Lord.

Elder Bednar said, “We perhaps might be inclined to rely primarily upon our individual and collective capacity to reason, to innovate, to plan, and to execute. Certainly we must use our God-given abilities to the fullest, employ our best efforts, and exercise appropriate judgment as we encounter the opportunities of life. But our mortal best is never enough.”

We do not need to worry about our best being insufficient.  Heavenly Father will not leave us alone when we feel the most need for him. President Young said, “My knowledge is, if you will follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament, every man and woman will be put in possession of the Holy Ghost. … They will know things that are, that will be, and that have been. They will understand things in heaven, things on the earth, and things under the earth, things of time, and things of eternity, according to their several callings and capacities.”

It is the Lord’s intention that we learn while we are here in this mortal state, and he has provided so many ways for that to be accomplished.  If we take upon ourselves the task of learning to learn, we will be better prepared for this life and the life to come.  I know that as we more fully learn the principles of the gospel, we will be blessed.