Elder Ryan Montierth
Missionary Serving in the Washington Utah Stake
August 23rd 9:00 Sacrament Meeting
Good morning brothers and sisters! It is such a privilege to speak to you today. Thank you Bishop Keeler for that welcome. It’s certainly been a little bit since we were able to speak. This is a pretty good turn-out today! And it’s just so great to be able to see so many of the members again, especially going through this whole Covid thing. Like Bishop Keeler said, something we have been doing is meeting with people online and at church. I think we have met a few of you. We helped the Franks move in a couple weeks ago so we know them, and we know Brother Claseman (he helped us move a washer and a dryer up the stairs, so once you do that with someone you don’t usually forget them for a while). So to introduce myself a little bit, I’m Elder Montierth. I’m from Michigan. I have been in St. George for a few months now, and I was serving in Africa before that. Throughout this whole experience it’s been great to see the faithfulness of the members and the truth of the gospel no matter where you are in the world.
Today I’ve been asked to speak on the eternal perspective of the gospel. I think this is something that is probably especially applicable right now when things are a lot different than normal, but I think when we apply that eternal perspective it can help us get through a lot of the trials and difficulties of these times. But it also applies to our whole life I think. We all go through trials, some of us more than others, but it is especially applicable to us right now. So I am very grateful to be able to speak about this at this time.
One part of having an eternal perspective is that when we have an eternal perspective it changes the way we look at things. Something that we see throughout the Book of Mormon is missionary work. And something that the missionaries do (whether it be Alma, or Ammon, or the Sons of Mosiah) is that they don’t just teach the people the commandments, although that’s definitely something that’s important; they also teach them about the plan of salvation.
So I’m actually going to read a couple verses from when Aaron teaches King Laman in the Book of Mormon. And King Laman, he’s really faithful. But the first thing that Aaron teaches him, he helps him to understand that eternal perspective:
“And it came to pass that when Aaron saw that the king would believe his words, he began from the creation of Adam, areading the scriptures unto the king—how God bcreated man after his own image, and that God gave him commandments, and that because of transgression, man had fallen.
And Aaron did expound unto him the scriptures from the acreation of Adam, laying the fall of man before him, and their carnal state and also the bplan of credemption, which was prepared dfrom the foundation of the world, through Christ, for all whosoever would believe on his name.”
So we see here that the first thing that Aaron does is not to say he needs to change in certain ways, but rather he explains that there is a plan; that God has a plan for us as eternal beings. This is an essential thing for us to understand. Not just for King Laman, but for us today. And after he teaches him the plan of salvation, he teaches the commandments:
“But Aaron said unto him: If thou desirest this thing, if thou wilt abow down before God, yea, if thou wilt repent of all thy sins, and will bow down before God, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the bhope which thou desirest.”
So it’s pretty interesting that today as missionaries we use this same pattern. Some of you may have heard of Preach my Gospel. In the past they used flipcharts and other methods which I’m not sure how they worked entirely. But at least for today, we teach five lessons. Generally we start with the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The commandments are actually some of the last things that we teach. This is the same way that Aaron teaches in the Book of Mormon. He first taught the plan of salvation and then he taught him the commandments. So what is the significance of that? Why do we teach the Plan of Salvation first and then the commandments? Because the commandments are probably easier to understand right? Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not do this; pretty straightforward. But we start with the plan of salvation. And the reason for that is when one has an eternal perspective it completely changes the way we look at commandments. And I have an example to illustrate this.
In my family, I’m the oldest. I have three younger siblings; two younger brothers and a younger sister. When we were younger something our parents wanted us to do especially was to brush our teeth. Hopefully they could get us to do it twice a day. If they could get us to do it once a day that was still pretty good. And I remember for us, it was pretty painful. I remember every night my mom would ask us if we brushed our teeth and then we would get dragged out of bed and have to brush our teeth. And our Dad would try to motivate us to brush our teeth by telling us “You may not care about brushing your teeth now, but when you get older and start dating, going up to a girl and asking ‘Hi how are you?’ with your smelly breath might not work out too well”. So yeah he tried to put that into perspective for us. I’m not sure if that was a super effective strategy, but I think I brushed my teeth at least a few times between the ages of five and ten.
I think what he was trying to do is that same pattern that we see in the gospel. For a five year old, dragging themselves out of bed when they are super tired to go brush their teeth is probably not something that is super high on their priority list. But when you think about it with the whole perspective, that if you don’t brush your teeth you’re going to have cavities and not be able to get married apparently, maybe that’s something that motivates you a little more.
So with the gospel it’s kind of the same thing. It’s easy a lot of the time to get focused on the temporary things that are going on in the moment. But when we remember that we are eternal beings with potential to become like our father in heaven, we approach the commandments with a very different perspective. Following the commandments doesn’t become a burden, but it becomes a blessing to help us reach our full potential.
Another part of having an eternal perspective is that it can help us get through trials. When we have an eternal perspective it can help us get through those difficult times of life. I’m not sure I’d call brushing your teeth a trial (maybe to some kids it is a pretty big trial), but certainly as we get older and go through life we will probably encounter bigger trials. There are a lot of hard things in this life. Spencer W. Kimball gave a quote you might be familiar with:
“If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective.”7
When we look at a lot of the ministries of prophets such as Joseph Smith or at the lives of a lot of our early pioneers, we see that they lived very righteous lives. However, a lot of them died pretty early. For Joseph Smith, he had to look at the eternal perspective. He had a lot of suffering in his life. Between his suffering at Liberty Jail, the deaths of some of his children, and other things, Joseph certainly did not seem to have a very happy life from a temporary perspective. I’m sure he had to look at the eternal perspective of things throughout these trials.
Our master Jesus Christ also went through a lot of suffering throughout his life. If you look at his life from a temporal perspective, his life doesn’t seem very happy. He was rejected by many, his life was short, and his suffering for us during His Atonement put him through infinite pain. But it’s not the truth that this life is all we have. We know that there is more than just this short flicker of life. And I think that’s what he held on to in the darkness of Gethsemane. I think that’s what he held on to throughout his ministry.
To wrap up, I’d like to bear my testimony that we can find greater peace and greater joy through this gospel and the eternal perspective it offers than through any temporary band-aid that may be offered us in this life. I can promise you that as you go throughout your life, the more you focus on the eternal perspective of things the more you will be able to focus on the Saviour, the easier it will be to follow the commandments, and the more you will be able to be in touch with your true nature as a son or daughter of our Heavenly Father. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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