**This is a transcription of the recording of his talk in church**
Sister Shields was right it's a lot better to speak first than last. I have never had to speak last in all of my talks before now. I guess I'll have to cope with it. I'd like to warn you, I am allergic to public speaking. My hands get shaky, my voice gets shaky, my knees get shaky, and I have been known to leak from my eyes. All right. So, good morning, brothers and sisters, I've been asked to speak today for a few reasons. Mainly, because I haven't had a speaking assignment for a few months but, like it has been said, I'm also beginning my mission. I will report on Wednesday to the Provo MTC, stay there for eight weeks, get shipped down into Santa Fe, Argentina, and spend my next two years there, and serve the Lord. So with it being my farewell talk, I was given the choice of what to speak on. And I thought of a few subjects and I finally picked, or landed, on the Restoration. And I've spent some time going over the Restoration in my Preach My Gospel booklet, preparing for my mission, so I thought it would be pretty easy, but we'll see how I get through it.
Sister Shields was right it's a lot better to speak first than last. I have never had to speak last in all of my talks before now. I guess I'll have to cope with it. I'd like to warn you, I am allergic to public speaking. My hands get shaky, my voice gets shaky, my knees get shaky, and I have been known to leak from my eyes. All right. So, good morning, brothers and sisters, I've been asked to speak today for a few reasons. Mainly, because I haven't had a speaking assignment for a few months but, like it has been said, I'm also beginning my mission. I will report on Wednesday to the Provo MTC, stay there for eight weeks, get shipped down into Santa Fe, Argentina, and spend my next two years there, and serve the Lord. So with it being my farewell talk, I was given the choice of what to speak on. And I thought of a few subjects and I finally picked, or landed, on the Restoration. And I've spent some time going over the Restoration in my Preach My Gospel booklet, preparing for my mission, so I thought it would be pretty easy, but we'll see how I get through it.
But before
I get into the Restoration I'd like to say a few thank yous. I'm already crying.
First, my parents, thank you. Thank you for raising me in this wonderful
gospel. Thank you for always being examples of faithful disciples of Christ.
Thank you for loving me and being patient through my mistakes, because we know
there's been plenty. Second, to my brothers and sister, thank you for teaching
me patience. I know I haven't been the best oldest brother but I look back at
family memories and they're almost always of laughing and having fun. And thank
you for forgiving me for not being a not so nice brother. Lastly, thank you to
all my church leaders, teachers and friends. As I think about my church
leaders, I have been blessed to have been taught by so many wonderful people.
As I look back to my young men's years, I have wonderful leaders in Brother
Dutton, Brother Smuin, Brother Hunsaker, Brother McClellan, Brother Campos, and
Brother Talbot. There have been plenty others but those are the ones that I
could remember. For those that are here I'd just want to say thank you. For
those that aren't here, I'd like to pray that they feel my love for them. And
that through my years in seminary, that has prepared me for my mission, I'd
like to thank Brother Hill, Sister McClellan, Brother Siler, Sister Anderson
and Sister Higginson for helping me prepare and teaching me. Again, I pray that
those that aren't here will feel my love.
So now on to the Restoration. The
Restoration all starts with a knowledge of God. God is our literal Heavenly
Father. We are his literal children. He created us in His image and that makes
us His literal children. Our Heavenly Father has a body of flesh and bones. But
most importantly God loves us. And because God loves us, he wants us to live
with Him in heaven for eternity. But God knew that in order to do so, we had to
come to Earth and gain a physical body and go through trials and learn because
He couldn't force us to live with Him. It was up to us if we wanted to. So
before we came to Earth, we lived as spirits in heaven and dwelt in Heavenly
Father's presence. Although we don't remember this, God does because of this
God knows us personally. He knows our names. He knows our deepest fears. He
knows our greatest desires. God gave us this experience on Earth to help us
learn and grow. By choosing to obey God and His commandments, we show our love
for Him. But sometimes we make mistakes and we slip up and we sin. By sinning,
we become unclean and move away from Him. But God has given us a way to become
clean again, and to be worthy of entering into His presence. This is known as
the Atonement of Jesus Christ and is essential to God's plan for us. We will
learn more about Jesus Christ's atonement in a little bit, but first, let's
talk about families.
Now, because God loves us and wants us
to return with Him, to live with Him, He gave us different tools to help us do
so, and one of the most important is family. God has given us families to help
us grow and learn. A home established on strong gospel principles will be a
place of learning. The home can be a refuge and a place of safety. Families are
designed by God to help teach and learn basic principles in a loving
atmosphere. As we learn, in the home, the spirit of the Lord may be present.
The Spirit will bless the family with peace, joy, and happiness. Although
families may teach us many hard principles, families cannot teach us
everything. God knows this, and in order to help us even more, He has given us
prophets. So when you hear prophets, you probably think of Moses, Abraham, Noah,
the prophets of the Bible. God provides His children with prophets in order to
tell them what He would have them do. Prophets are a sort of spokesman for the
children of God. So if we needed prophets back in the time of the Bible, why
not now? And so God has given us prophets today. Our current prophet we know is
Thomas S. Monson and another prophet that we've all heard of or at least I hope
we have, is Joseph Smith and I'll talk more about him later. God speaks to
prophets and tells them what He wants His children to know and do. The prophets
then speak to the people and share with them what commandments they should
obey. They taught the people about God, who He is and what He would have them
do. Most importantly prophets teach us that God loves us and that He wants us
to return to live with Him.
Now, can you think of anyone that was kind of like
a prophet, lived in the Bible time, and taught the children of God and
performed miracles? Of course I'm talking about Jesus Christ. Through the
Bible, we know that Jesus Christ taught through his ministry. He taught the
people of Jerusalem and surrounding areas while He lived and performed
miracles. But the whole reason that Christ came to Earth was not just to
perform miracles, although that was good and it was right for Him to do that.
But He came to fulfill the Atonement. We know that Jesus suffered for us and
took upon Him the sins and transgressions of all mankind. And by His sacrifice,
or actually, through His sufferings and death on the cross, our Savior made an
infinite atoning sacrifice. By His sacrifice, we may receive forgiveness of our
sins, and eventually live in God's presence. We also know that while the Savior
was on Earth, He called 12 men to become his apostles and gave them the proper
priesthood authority to do so. This priesthood is the same priesthood held-- or
that Jesus held and used to perform miracles. Christ organized his church, and
before His death, He gave his apostles authority to teach His gospel, perform
ordinances of salvation and establish His church. But after Christ died, a
wicked and confused people persecuted and killed the apostles. When the
apostles died the priesthood authority that they held was lost and longer on
the earth. Without the apostles, priesthood authority, leadership, doctrines
were corrupted and changed. When such a thing happens, it is called an
apostasy, so the fullness of the Gospel was not on the earth any more. There
have been many apostasies throughout time, and we can read about them in the
Bible and also in the Book of Mormon. But the apostasy that we're talking about
is known as the Great Apostasy because of its link and significance. The Great
Apostasy lasted from the time of the apostles' death all the way to the early
1820s. So in the Americas in the 1820s, religion was starting to become a very
important topic. People were becoming much more curious about who God was and
what they should do to live with God again. This time is now known as a
religious awakening.
During this time, there was a young boy named, Joseph
Smith. Joseph and his family lived in New York. The people of that area were
very religious, and Joseph and his family were no exception. They went to
church every Sunday and often read from the Bible as a family. As they would
attend the different church meetings, Joseph became confused. When they went to
these different meetings, there were different pastors and teachers, and the
different pastors and teachers were saying different things and they had
different opinions on the Bible, but they all had the same opinion that only
they were true. And so because of this, Joseph became confused about which
church was the one true church and which he should go to. And so one night, as
Joseph was reading the Bible, he came to James, chapter one in the New
Testament, and the verses he read were five and six. I'll read them real quick,
it says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. That giveth to
all man liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. Let him ask in
faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven
with the wind and tossed." So Joseph thought that if anyone lacked wisdom
it was him. So he decided to take James' counsel and to ask God in faith. And
we know that the only way to do this is through prayer. He found a secluded and
isolated area in the nearby forest to kneel down and pray.
As he prayed, Joseph was visited by two
personages. He recounts his experience by saying, "I saw a pillar of light
exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually
until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I beheld two personages,
whose brightness and glory defied 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.'"
We know these two personages to be God
and His Son, Jesus Christ. They visited Joseph Smith personally to answer his prayer.
During this appearance to Joseph, Christ set Joseph apart as a prophet and
would later give him directions through heavenly messengers or angels as to how
to restore His church, Jesus Christ's church on the earth again. And these
directions included receiving proper priesthood authority to perform
ordinances. With this recent authority, Joseph was directed to restore the
church of Jesus Christ again on the earth. We are now living in what Bible
prophets call the Last Days, the Latter Days or the dispensation of the
fullness of times. This is why the church that we belong to is called The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
