At the beginning of this year (possibly end of 2017), a new prophet was called when President Monson died. President Russell M. Nelson, at the young age of 93, was called to be the new president of our church. As a church, we should have known that he was going to shake things up when he didn't leave Presdient Uchtdorf in as a counselor, but instead called Dallin H. Oaks as his counselor (along with Henry B. Eyring). A lot of people in the church worried for President Uchtdorf--how would he feel about the "demotion"--and a lot of people didn't want to see him go as a member of the first presidency.
At the first General Conference where President Nelson presided, (April, 2018) several key systems in the church were changed. Home and visiting teaching were replaced by "ministering". The High Priest Group as a large organization was dissolved, and all men are now working under the Elder's Quorum.
At first, no one quite knew what to think about the "ministering" idea, but I must admit that it wasn't a difficult for me. I've always felt more comfortable using other methods (going out to lunch, inviting a sister to a concert of event) than just showing up a house for a thirty minute visit. Some sisters have reciprocated that kind of attention as well, and I always remember them as being the "best" visiting teachers. However, ministering kind of overflowed into the rest of my life, even moving into scheduled dates at the temple with friends. I started feeling a lot of worry for a lot of people who were not on my "list". John, and I think men in general, however, found the ministering idea a bit more difficult. I mean, how do you reach out casually to an entire family? It's not like a ministering brother can take an eight-year-old kid out to lunch and talk to her about her life.
So with General Conference this past weekend, I assumed we were in the clear for new announcements. President Nelson had definitely asked a lot of us already, and surely we could just sit back and listen to some good old doctrinal talks.
However, just like President Uchtdorf was a bit of "out with the old, in with the new", so was this conference as well. President Nelson announced that church meetings would be reduced to two hours on Sunday so that the Church of Jesus Christ can be a home-centered church with church meetings as support versus a meeting-centered church with home lessons as support. I knew immediately that this change was inspired, because I have seen so many blessings in our family that came from the time that I taught seminary to the girls. The lessons would leach out into the family via Faminary and just phone discussions, and I believed it brought our family closer together. In fact, I remember saying several times that I thought seminary should be a family-based program. The new program announced yesterday is the same idea--gospel lessons being taught in the home among family members. It's brilliant.
And with that, I knew once again that if the prophet asked me to leave my house in Nauvoo and travel across the country via wagon to establish Zion somewhere else, I would do it. I've frequently wondered if I would have a harder time with the Law of Consecration (in its fullness), but thankfully I haven't been asked to divide my assets yet.
However, an announcement had been made a couple of months ago (again from President Nelson) about using the correct name of the church. We are frequently referred to as "Mormons" or we state that we are "LDS", but in all things, the prophet wanted us to drop those titles and use the full name of the church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (don't even get me started on how wrong that lower-case "d" looks...). I honestly thought it was a bit ridiculous. After all, I listen to and read my scriptures on lds.org, and I find phone numbers to members of the ward on LDS Tools. And what about The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Even when I got my hair done by a new person a couple of months ago, our discussion led to religion and when he asked what religion I am, I replied "I'm Mormon" because I knew he wouldn't recognize the name of our actual church.
And taking on the murmuring of Laman and Lemuel, I criticized President Nelson as being "a semantics man". While an apostle, he cautioned us against using the term "the Priesthood" to refer to the men of the church (I was totally on board with that reprimand), and he said that we should no longer say just "the Atonement" without some reference to Jesus Christ. I didn't really understand that one, because whenever I use that term, I specifically think about Jesus. Maybe some people weren't?
So, I wasn't fully on board with only using the name of the church.
And then President Nelson gave the concluding talk during conference, and he called us to repentance in criticizing the idea and actually explained that he had been inspired, by Jesus Christ himself, to tell us to do it. For all intents and purposes, he could have been starting straight into my eyes when he said it. I wanted to reply back, "But President Nelson, you don't understand. It's going to take so much explaining, and gosh darn it, the name of our church is so LONG. This is why the military has so many acronyms!"
So much for leaving Nauvoo without murmuring, eh?
Plus, at this conference, President Nelson put so much on the women of the church. He asked us to attend the temple regularly (thank goodness I already have THAT one in the bag), take a ten day social media fast (not too difficult for me), participate fully in Relief Society (okay), and read the entire Book of Mormon between now and the end of the year.
Oh my gosh, really?
Ministering and going to the temple already take up so much time, and I already read my scriptures daily. And I have book club, and Dracula is a really long book this month. But reading seven pages a day from the Book of Mormon?
Oh goodness.
So, this morning, while trying to paint the miles of trim in my family room, I started over with the Book of Mormon (see you in 2019, Helaman), and there is the father of all fathers, Lehi, trying to tell the people of Jerusalem to listen to him. And nobody wants to listen, including his two sons.
Knowing what we know now, we know that Lehi literally saved his family from destruction when Jerusalem was taken down by some foreign enemies shortly after the family left. But Laman and Lemuel, while they went with the family, did not like leaving their comfortable lives. They didn't like being asked to do more. They were already busy enough and didn't want to be pushed even further.
But in the end we see that Lehi was right. He knew what was going to happen. Like a sentry tower on a castle, he could see the advancing danger in the distance. And so can our prophet today.
I would never have thought 25 years ago that the Proclamation on the Family would be such a lighthouse in the storm for our time now. It was such a "duh, of course" kind of proclamation when it was given. And yet what prophetic counsel for President Hinckley and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to release it then so that when the winds of change present themselves and pressure us to think differently about families, we have a sure foundation.
I don't know why we need to call our church by the full name, and I don't know why there's such a rush to read the Book of Mormon as women, but I am on the ground, surrounded by trees, unable to see much more than a few spiritual feet in front of me. I will leave my home and go to Zion. I will do what I am asked. I will believe.
At the first General Conference where President Nelson presided, (April, 2018) several key systems in the church were changed. Home and visiting teaching were replaced by "ministering". The High Priest Group as a large organization was dissolved, and all men are now working under the Elder's Quorum.
At first, no one quite knew what to think about the "ministering" idea, but I must admit that it wasn't a difficult for me. I've always felt more comfortable using other methods (going out to lunch, inviting a sister to a concert of event) than just showing up a house for a thirty minute visit. Some sisters have reciprocated that kind of attention as well, and I always remember them as being the "best" visiting teachers. However, ministering kind of overflowed into the rest of my life, even moving into scheduled dates at the temple with friends. I started feeling a lot of worry for a lot of people who were not on my "list". John, and I think men in general, however, found the ministering idea a bit more difficult. I mean, how do you reach out casually to an entire family? It's not like a ministering brother can take an eight-year-old kid out to lunch and talk to her about her life.
So with General Conference this past weekend, I assumed we were in the clear for new announcements. President Nelson had definitely asked a lot of us already, and surely we could just sit back and listen to some good old doctrinal talks.
However, just like President Uchtdorf was a bit of "out with the old, in with the new", so was this conference as well. President Nelson announced that church meetings would be reduced to two hours on Sunday so that the Church of Jesus Christ can be a home-centered church with church meetings as support versus a meeting-centered church with home lessons as support. I knew immediately that this change was inspired, because I have seen so many blessings in our family that came from the time that I taught seminary to the girls. The lessons would leach out into the family via Faminary and just phone discussions, and I believed it brought our family closer together. In fact, I remember saying several times that I thought seminary should be a family-based program. The new program announced yesterday is the same idea--gospel lessons being taught in the home among family members. It's brilliant.
And with that, I knew once again that if the prophet asked me to leave my house in Nauvoo and travel across the country via wagon to establish Zion somewhere else, I would do it. I've frequently wondered if I would have a harder time with the Law of Consecration (in its fullness), but thankfully I haven't been asked to divide my assets yet.
However, an announcement had been made a couple of months ago (again from President Nelson) about using the correct name of the church. We are frequently referred to as "Mormons" or we state that we are "LDS", but in all things, the prophet wanted us to drop those titles and use the full name of the church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (don't even get me started on how wrong that lower-case "d" looks...). I honestly thought it was a bit ridiculous. After all, I listen to and read my scriptures on lds.org, and I find phone numbers to members of the ward on LDS Tools. And what about The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Even when I got my hair done by a new person a couple of months ago, our discussion led to religion and when he asked what religion I am, I replied "I'm Mormon" because I knew he wouldn't recognize the name of our actual church.
And taking on the murmuring of Laman and Lemuel, I criticized President Nelson as being "a semantics man". While an apostle, he cautioned us against using the term "the Priesthood" to refer to the men of the church (I was totally on board with that reprimand), and he said that we should no longer say just "the Atonement" without some reference to Jesus Christ. I didn't really understand that one, because whenever I use that term, I specifically think about Jesus. Maybe some people weren't?
So, I wasn't fully on board with only using the name of the church.
And then President Nelson gave the concluding talk during conference, and he called us to repentance in criticizing the idea and actually explained that he had been inspired, by Jesus Christ himself, to tell us to do it. For all intents and purposes, he could have been starting straight into my eyes when he said it. I wanted to reply back, "But President Nelson, you don't understand. It's going to take so much explaining, and gosh darn it, the name of our church is so LONG. This is why the military has so many acronyms!"
So much for leaving Nauvoo without murmuring, eh?
Plus, at this conference, President Nelson put so much on the women of the church. He asked us to attend the temple regularly (thank goodness I already have THAT one in the bag), take a ten day social media fast (not too difficult for me), participate fully in Relief Society (okay), and read the entire Book of Mormon between now and the end of the year.
Oh my gosh, really?
Ministering and going to the temple already take up so much time, and I already read my scriptures daily. And I have book club, and Dracula is a really long book this month. But reading seven pages a day from the Book of Mormon?
Oh goodness.
So, this morning, while trying to paint the miles of trim in my family room, I started over with the Book of Mormon (see you in 2019, Helaman), and there is the father of all fathers, Lehi, trying to tell the people of Jerusalem to listen to him. And nobody wants to listen, including his two sons.
Knowing what we know now, we know that Lehi literally saved his family from destruction when Jerusalem was taken down by some foreign enemies shortly after the family left. But Laman and Lemuel, while they went with the family, did not like leaving their comfortable lives. They didn't like being asked to do more. They were already busy enough and didn't want to be pushed even further.
But in the end we see that Lehi was right. He knew what was going to happen. Like a sentry tower on a castle, he could see the advancing danger in the distance. And so can our prophet today.
I would never have thought 25 years ago that the Proclamation on the Family would be such a lighthouse in the storm for our time now. It was such a "duh, of course" kind of proclamation when it was given. And yet what prophetic counsel for President Hinckley and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to release it then so that when the winds of change present themselves and pressure us to think differently about families, we have a sure foundation.
I don't know why we need to call our church by the full name, and I don't know why there's such a rush to read the Book of Mormon as women, but I am on the ground, surrounded by trees, unable to see much more than a few spiritual feet in front of me. I will leave my home and go to Zion. I will do what I am asked. I will believe.
I too have been thinking about why President Nelson would specifically ask the women to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I think it is connected to the change the Church is making towards being more home-based. I think women are often the driving force of gospel learning in the home. Like FHE-I've learned if FHE is going to happen, more times than not, I have to be the driving force. The time, dedication, and just greater gospel understanding that we will get from reading the entire BoM in such a short period of time seems like a great way to prepare us to spend more time teaching the gospel in the home starting in January.
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