2008 High Council Talk

It's a new year, and that means I have to write a new High Council talk. We've been writing only one talk a year and then giving the same talk in each ward in the stake. This year we have two topics, one for January through June and the other July through December. Rather than working on my January-June talk, I thought I'd waste a little time and read through last year's talk one last time. If you're interested, here it is.

The Restoration in Our Lives

Definition of “Restoration”
Automobile collectors often search far and pay a high price for an old rusted vehicle abandoned in a field. Then they spend many hours and great expense rebuilding the car to its original form. When we lived in Santaquin, Utah, which is on the southern tip of Utah County, one of my neighbors, Blaine Smith, who happened to be a member of the bishopric, was a garage restorer. He had a full-time job at the Geneva rock quarry, but he also enjoyed restoring automobiles for other people in his garage. I sat in his garage one day and visited while he worked on an old Ford; I think it was a Model A. I was amazed at the amount of work and care that went into a restoration. First he had to conduct research to find out how the original car was built. He had to completely disassemble the car, grind away all the rust, and determine what parts he could use as is or repair and what parts he needed to buy. Then he had to locate the parts. A steering wheel, for example, can be purchased today on the Internet for $135. I was surprised to discover the car had wooden roof supports, and there are companies that specialize in building these parts true to their originals.

In the end, Blaine’s goal was to restore the car so it would be true to the way Henry Ford’s company originally built it in the late 1920s.

The Great Apostasy
When Christ was on the earth, he established his church with apostles at its foundation, both in the old world and in the western hemisphere, and maybe in other locations (3 Ne 15:17 …other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice…). In Jerusalem he called Peter; James, the son of Zebedee; his brother John; Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thadaeus; Simon; and Judas Escariot. In the Western Hemisphere, he called Nephi, Timothy, Jonas, Mathoni, Mathoniha, Kumen, Kumenonhi, Jeremiah, Shemnon, Jonas, Zedekiah, and Isaiah.

These were the foundations of Christ’s church on earth at that time. But there were many warnings that the church would crumble and be taken from the earth. Paul the apostle instructed the Thessalonians:

(2 Thessalonians 2: 2–3) That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. [He is speaking of the Second Coming]. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there be a falling away first…

Paul warned in his letter to Timothy

(2 Timothy 3: 1–2, 5) This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves… Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof…

Paul was martyred in Rome in about 65 A.D. Other than John, who was allowed to tarry on this earth until the Second Coming (John 21: 20–23; 3 Ne 28: 6-7; D&C 7), most or all of the foundational apostles were killed. It is believed that Peter was martyred in Rome about 64 or 65 A.D. James was beheaded by Herod (Acts 12:2).

When nearly all the apostles had been killed, John the Revelator was banished to the island of Patmos. He had a vision where he saw that only seven branches of the church remained, represented by seven golden candlesticks, with seven stars representing the seven presiding officers. He wrote the church at Ephesus, saying

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil; and thou has tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and found them liars.

This was the great apostasy of the early Christian church. Under persecution of the Romans and the later abuses within the church, what had been Christ’s church built upon apostles and prophets had become no more than a vague likeness of its former self, like the Model A rusting away in the field. By about 420 A.D. Christ’s church had also been taken away from the Western Hemisphere.

The time of the Dark Ages followed. Other than through the works of the Three Nephites and the apostle John, the word of God was absent from the earth, and the earth went through a very barbarous, painful period.

The Restoration
As Nephi said to his father, “…the Lord giveth no commandments…save he shall prepare a way…,” Just as John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for the Savior, I believe the Lord spent many years preparing a way for the restoration of His Gospel.

Elder Alvin R. Dyer said
While the Reformation and surge for freedom were gaining momentum in Europe and England, events were transpiring that led to the rediscovery of the land of America, for God touched the heart of a mariner by the name of Christopher Columbus, who eventually pioneered a passageway to the promised land in 1492.

This discovery of the New World was just the early paving stones for the restoration of the Church. Soon England grew to control most of what was then occupied North America through the Virginia Company. And the Church of England was the only accepted religion.

When we visited old Williamsburg, which used to be the British capital of Virginia, we attended a mock trial, where a man was being prosecuted for not attending his church meetings and another was accused of being a Catholic, which could have resulted in jail or death. About this time, another group of religious zealots was also sailing from the Netherlands, to which they had emigrated from England, to practice their own Puritan religious beliefs. Accidentally or by design, the ship, called the Mayflower, veered off course and landed at Plymouth, near Boston, which was not under Virginian law and its rules of worship. Neither in the Virginias nor even in Boston was religious worship free at that time. In fact the English clergyman Roger Williams and a small band of followers left the religiously repressive Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636 and established what is now Providence, Rhode Island, because he believed people should be free to practice whatever religion they chose. He was also against slavery.

By 1776, the winds of freedom had been stirred by such rabble rousers as Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Paine. The Lord touched the hearts of men like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and the other members of the Continental Congress to come together and draft the Declaration of Independence. The Lord’s hand was clearly there again, as the untrained Continental Army under the command of the inexperienced George Washington defeated the British in the Revolutionary War. In the early days of the war, General Washington’s ragged army—the soldiers were at times so ragged that a man who met a soldier on the street didn’t even recognize him as his own brother—biggest successes were just to safely retreat from the well-trained British soldiers and the mercenary Hessians or Germans.

In late July and early August of 1776 Washington’s men had escaped from Boston to New York, where they watched as a swarm of 45 British ships carrying 3,000 troops sailed toward Staten Island. Then 21 more ships were counted on the horizon. Soon the narrows were filled with a hundred ships. The British armada reached 400 ships with 32,000 troops landing on Staten Island. The British gave the Continental Army a terrible beating in New York on August 27. On the night of August 29, a northeast wind was keeping the British fleet from sailing up the East River to again battle the beleaguered American troops. The wind was also preventing Washington’s men from further retreating across the river. Then, as the popular historian David McCullough wrote,

It was about eleven o’clock when, as if by design, the northeast wind died down.

And Washington’s troops were able to make a quiet retreat, eventually ending up in Bristol, Pennsylvania, across the Delaware River and downstream from Trenton, New Jersey. By December Washington’s army was in a very sorry state, and he was receiving little support from the Continental Congress. Two- to three-thousand well-trained and well-equipped Hessian mercenaries were occupying Trenton. George Washington, whom I believe was an inspired man, planned a Christmas-night crossing of the Delaware and an attack on Trenton at daybreak. Unfortunately, and unknown to him, two of his regimens were unable to cross the ice-laden river, and the 2,400 ragged men under his direct command—two men froze to death during the night—were hours behind schedule, requiring them to march up the river without the protection of darkness, but they were in driving snow.

Just after 8 a.m. the Americans attacked. The very surprised Hessians put up a vigilant fight, but within 45 minutes the Americans had overpowered them with their cannons and bayonets, as their muskets were too wet to fire, and the Hessians surrendered. Only four Americans had been wounded, and none was killed.
This was a small real victory, but it proved to be a major turning point in the Revolution. After this more men were willing to join the revolution, the Continental Congress became more supportive, and other countries, especially France, contributed to the cause.

By 1820, freedoms, especially religious freedoms, had been well established in this country. In fact, as Joseph Smith wrote:

(Joseph Smith History v5) …there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in that region of the country…great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people, some crying, “Lo here!” and others “Lo, there!”

Joseph Smith was deeply touched by the Epistle of James 1:5, which says,

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…” Joseph retired to a grove of trees and prayed.

(JS History 17–20) …When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!

My object of going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join…I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong…
Later, in 1823, during the night of September 21–22, Joseph Smith had been praying for forgiveness for his light-mindedness:

(JS History 1: 30, 33) While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside…

He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God…and that his name was Moroni; that God had work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and toungues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken among all people.

Joseph received the commandment and the means to translate the Gold Plates of Mormon, and he worked at it diligently. Oliver Cowdery gained a testimony of the work Joseph was undertaking and joined him as scribe,

(Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, pp 7–8) As Joseph and Oliver worked on the translation…they read the account of the Savior’s visit to the ancient Nephites. As a result, they decided to seek guidance from the Lord about baptism. On May 15, 1829, they went to the banks of the Susquehanna River, near Joseph’s home in Harmony, PA, to pray. To their amazement, a heavenly being visited them, announcing himself as John the Baptist. He conferred upon them the Aaronic Priesthood and instructed them to baptize and ordain each other. Later, as promised by John the Baptist, the ancient Apostles Peter, James, and John also appeared to Joseph and Oliver and bestowed upon them the Melchizedek Priesthood and ordained them Apostles.

Fourteen hundred years after Christ’s Church was last established on the earth, almost 340 years after the Lord touched the heart of Christopher Columbus, 54 years after our founding fathers declared that independence that made restoring His church possible, and 10 years after Joseph Smith knelt in the grove, on April 6, 1830, about 60 people gathered in the humble home of Peter Whitmer in Fayette, New York, and Joseph Smith formally organized, or restored, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

What Is a True Church?
Today we often say that we belong to or have a testimony that this is the True church. What do we mean by “true”? Do we mean it’s not false? Maybe, but there is much more than that. The Savior told Joseph Smith that the churches of his time were wrong. In what were they wrong?

President Hinckley said in October conference:

Knowing the importance of the true nature of God, men had struggled to find a way to define Him. Learned clerics argued with one another. When Constantine became a Christian in the fourth century he called together a great convocation of learned men with the hope that they could reach a conclusion of understanding concerning the true nature of Deity. All they reached was a compromise of various points of view. The result was the Nicene Creed of A.D. 325. This and subsequent creeds have become the declaration of doctrine concerning the nature of Deity for most of Christianity ever since.

I have read them all a number of times. I cannot understand them. I think others cannot understand them.

If my neighbor in Santaquin restored the Model A using parts from a Chevrolet, the man who commissioned him to restore the car would say it was wrong. To restore the Model A to its true beginnings he had to use identical parts. The Savior’s Church today is true to his Church of 2000 years ago. Today His Church has the same foundation with identical apostles and a living prophet—Presidents Thomas S. Monson, Henry B. Eyring, and Dieter F. Uchtdorf, with Elders Boyd K. Packer, L. Tom Perry, Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, M. Russell Ballard, Joseph B. Wirthlin, Richard G. Scott, Robert D. Hales, Jeffrey R. Holland, David A. Bednar, Quentin L. Cook, and D. Todd Chistofferson. They communicate and receive guidance from our Heavenly Father. The same Priesthoods that powered His Church then are his authority today, restored by John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. This is His true Church.

Other churches teach many of His truths, as revealed in the Bible, but does teaching truths make them true? If you have a bicycle, you know that occasionally you have to take the wheels in to have them trued. The technician will spin the wheels on a machine and adjust the spokes until the wheels are exactly round. When a ship’s captain ensures his course is true, he is making sure the ship is on exactly the prescribed course. There is an exactness to being true, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only church that is exactly Christ’s church. It is the only one that has the exacting Priesthoods, the true order of things, and the fullness of the Gospel as it has been given by Christ Himself.

What the Restoration of the Gospel Means to Me—Restoration in Our Lives (Testimony and Repentance)
President Hinckley said in October conference:

One is led to wonder why it was so important that both the Father and the Son appear (to Joseph Smith). I think it was because They were ushering in the dispensation of the fullness of times, the last and final dispensation of the gospel, when there would be gathered together in one the elements of all previous dispensations. This was to be the final chapter in the long chronicle of God’s dealing with men and women on earth.

On April 6, 1830, there were six members of the church and a few more believers. Today more than 13 million people claim membership. The stakes of Zion are in every state in the United Sates and province in Canada, in every state in Mexico, and in every country in Central and South America. The church is established throughout the British Isles and Europe, into the nations of the former Soviet Union, across Russia, into Mongolia and across much of Asia, including India and Indonesia, and the islands of the Pacific, throughout Australia and New Zealand, and saints are flocking to the church in many nations in Africa.

This church is rolling forward like a stone cut from the mountain. But there is still much work to do. Even with the walls of ward houses bulging with members, ward and stake buildings and temples being built in record numbers to accommodate the swelling of the membership of the church, there are still only 13 million members in a world of more than 6.6 billion people. Do you know the population of the United States, where church membership is about 6 million, is about 300 million people, and China has a billion more people than that? And the church isn’t proselytizing there yet. Will we be ready when the walls in areas like this come down, maybe as quickly and unexpectedly as the Berlin Wall? How quickly the church has spread into countries of the former Soviet Union.

I suggest that we should be preparing at home. Or rather, in the home and within ourselves first by strengthening our testimony. President Hinckley said:

To you, this day, I affirm my witness of the calling of the Prophet Joseph, of his works, of the sealing of his testimony with his blood as a martyr to the eternal truth. Each of you can bear witness of the same thing. You and I are faced with the stark question of accepting the truth of the First Vision and that which followed it. On the question of its reality lies the very validity of this Church. If it is the truth, and I testify that it is, then the work in which we are engaged is the most important work on the earth.

Brothers and sisters, this is a unique year. In priesthood and relief society meetings we are studying the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. In Sunday School we are studying the Book of Mormon. Isn’t this an excellent opportunity to grow and strengthen our testimonies in each.

We will know of the truth of the man by better knowing the man. We will know the truth of the book by knowing and better understanding the book.

It is time for us to strengthen our testimonies and repent of the last of our sins. We should follow the example of Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah.

(Mosiah 27: 8) Now the sons of Mosiah were numbered among the unbelievers; and also one of the sons of Alma was numbered among them, he being called Alma, after his father; nevertheless, he became a very wicked and idolatrous man. And he as a man of many words, and did speak much flattery to the people; therefore he led many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities.

But Alma senior and the church members prayed for these men, and an angel appeared to them and testified to them. Alma the younger was struck dumb and weak so that he fell to the earth. His father was thankful for what the Lord had done for his son. He then asked the people to fast and pray for his son. And his son was restored.

(Mosiah 27: 24) …I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; and behold I am born of the Spirit.

I’d like to suggest that now is the time for each of us to be restored, to repent of our sins and be forgiven and to be redeemed of the Lord.

Sharing the Good News with Others
And what did Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah do next? They went out and preached the gospel.
The population of the world is 6.6 billion. The population of China is 1.3 billion. The population of the United States is 300 million. I can’t even comprehend these numbers. The population of Murray City is about 50,000. That I can start to comprehend. How many live within our stake boundaries? I don’t know the exact number, but I bet most of us can count that high. How many of those are enjoying the true gospel of Jesus Christ? I would guess about half, if that many. The opportunity to share the gospel on our own streets is amazing.

And we don’t have to be obnoxious. When my wife and I lived in California for a couple years we were in an area where the church population was shrinking. Children were growing up, getting married, and moving to areas with more affordable housing. Couples were retiring, selling their homes, and moving to Utah. New-member conversions couldn’t begin to keep up. Thus the theme at stake conference was always missionary work. Our stake president, President Gingery, was also an officer in the district court. He rode a Harley Davidson and carried a gun, even to stake conference. So we felt a little pressure to follow his admonitions to do missionary work.

Our home teacher also happened to be the ward mission leader. If he had a companion, I don’t know who he was. I think it might have been whichever full-time missionary was available that night. So most of our home teaching visits comprised their sitting down and asking us if we knew anyone the missionaries could teach. We lived in an apartment complex where hardly anyone spoke to anyone else. We frequently saw the same two or three people in the complex’s exercise room or at the pool, but we didn’t even know what the people in the apartment next to us looked like.

Then the missionaries gave us a challenge. They said, “Can you just pray for three specific families? And here’s a form to write their names on, and tape it to your refrigerator so you’ll remember.” I’m really a rather shy person, and I’m not good at approaching acquaintances with invitations to attend cottage meetings are have dinner with us and the missionaries. But I can pray. So we accepted this challenge. We prayed about whom we should pray about. Then we selected three families, all people I knew from work. And we prayed for them to have an interest in the gospel.

We moved back to Utah before we had real success, but we were making progress. We felt good about the people we were praying for. One couple I had only met briefly at work, but they lived nearby. We went to dinner with them one evening and started forming a good relationship. We went to dinner often with another couple, and they started asking us gospel-related questions.

I would like to suggest that we can do missionary work. We don’t need to start by handing out pamphlets at the mall, but we can start praying for people to be interested in the gospel. We can be more friendly with and helpful to our neighbors. We can hold block parties. Together with our efforts and our prayers, the Lord will provide the opportunities. And at those times we just need to be in tune.

Testimony
I testify to you that Christ established His church on the earth with a foundation of apostles and prophets. His church was later lost from the earth, and people lived through the Dark Ages. But He didn’t leave His church or us rusting in a field. He began to prepare a way for its restoration. And in 1830, through his servant Joseph Smith, His original church was restored in true form. This is His true church. Now is our opportunity to restore ourselves and to share the gospel with our neighbors and friends. And I testify to this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.