Latest / Scripture Central / Alma 53–63 | Scripture Study Insights with Tyler Griffin | A Come Follow Me Resource

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Alma 53–63 | Scripture Study Insights with Tyler Griffin | A Come Follow Me Resource · Scripture Central

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  Hello there. I'm Tyler Griffin.
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  And I'm Alvin Meredith. And this is scripture study
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  insights by Scripture Central today Alma chapters 53 through
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  63 and you are in for an absolute treat to to be able to
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  have President Elder Meredith with us.
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  He's he's the current president of BYU Idaho in Rexburg.
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  Many of you or your children or relatives have probably either
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  attended BYU Idaho or, or you know, people who have an amazing
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  school. And so this is this is a unique
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  opportunity where we can cover these chapters of the scripture
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  Alma 53 through 63. Some pretty, pretty difficult
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  setting for these Nephites at that time, but to be able to
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  pull some principles off the page and apply them not just to
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  our life, but to see how the Lord is guiding you to apply
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  true gospel principles as you lead this incredible university
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  in Rexburg as part of the building up of his Kingdom in
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  these the last days. There's some worldwide and some
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  amazing initiatives that you're working on up there, so we're
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  excited to dive in. Thank you.
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  Can I just make one note? When I was studying this
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  scripture block, I was struck by how few footnotes there were.
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  Like if you go to if you look at second Nephi Chapter 9, almost a
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  third of the page of each of the pages is taken up by footnotes.
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  But there's a scarcity of footnotes here, which seems to
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  imply that there's something in the stories that we should
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  learn. So I'm, I'm excited to dive into
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  the stories with you today, Tyler.
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  I appreciate you pointing that out because in reality, when you
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  come to a section like this that is so heavy in the story, there
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  aren't a lot of doctrinal speeches.
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  There aren't a lot of conversations where somebody's
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  expounding principles and ordinances of the gospel.
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  It means you and I need to perhaps take off our Greek
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  literal lenses and put on our Hebrew symbolic lenses and start
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  looking for principles that are buried in these narratives, in
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  in these stories, in these lives of people, and find ways to to
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  then connect those principles to our own lives today.
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  So great point. It's a, it's a great reminder.
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  So as a lifelong learning overlay that that we're going to
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  kind of use as we go through these chapters.
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  It's this idea that if you look at the land of Zarahemlah
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  through these symbolic lenses. And again, when when we get into
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  this Hebrew symbolism realm, it doesn't mean this is the only
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  possible symbolic way to interpret that.
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  No, there are dozens. This is just one.
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  And if it doesn't work for you, throw it away.
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  Find one that works for you. The scriptures are deep enough
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  they can take it. If you look at the land of
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  Zarahemlah as a symbol for you, I'll label it me so you can
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  personalize this. Then you see all of these
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  efforts of the adversary to try to get in and to destroy the
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  peace of these people, or in this case of us.
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  So what we got in Chapters 43 through 51 was Captain Moroni
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  effectively building all of these defenses to keep evil out
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  of the land. But then in Chapter 51, remember
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  Amalekaya comes in and takes over Moroni, then Lehi, then
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  Moriant, and then Omner, then Gid, then Muluk.
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  And we find out later that he also took over Mantis, Yazrim,
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  Qmani, and Anti Para. We've lost massive land.
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  And So what you now get is from 51 through 63, this beautiful
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  symbolic handbook of what do I do when I've lost ground?
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  What do I do when I feel like, oh, no sin has taken root in in
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  my soul. It it's now become a part of me.
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  What do I do? Which will happen to all of us
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  at some point. Absolutely no, but there's only
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  one who's ever lived who didn't experience this.
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  And gratefully these chapters we see that the Savior is going to
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  guide them. So if you or a loved one is
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  struggling instead of getting overwhelmed with what you've
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  lost, instead of defining yourself by the bad.
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  I love this because here's another lens you can you can put
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  on look, look for their identity and how they approach these
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  problems through this lens, their history.
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  Who are we as a people? Who am I as an individual?
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  What is the challenge facing me right now and what is my hope
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  for the future? And if you keep those focused on
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  Christ in all three categories, past, present and future, it
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  empowers you to take back that which you have lost because
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  you're defining yourself in those eternal, you're thinking
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  celestial. That's right.
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  So as we as we begin before we even open up chapter 53, a
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  question for you in this context.
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  How many students do you have at BYU Idaho?
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  34,000. 34,000 students and they've all got this going on to
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  some degree or another question being what is what do you sense
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  the Lord Jesus Christ guiding you as the president of these
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  34,000 students? And we're not even talking about
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  the faculty and staff who also have this going.
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  On. What do you feel the Lord's
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  doing moving forward? Is he, is he creating anxiety
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  for you? Or do you feel like you want to
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  wring your hand and say, Oh no, everything's terrible?
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  Not at all. I, by the way, I'll answer the
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  question with a we instead of I, when I say we, my, my wife
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  Jennifer is very much a part of everything that we're doing on
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  campus and she's a, a wonderful companion.
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  We've been there a year. So we're just finishing, We're
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  finishing our freshman season. We're about to be sophomores
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  there. There are three strong
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  impressions that we've had and my wife has done a a great job
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  of articulating these three strong impressions that we felt
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  that this rising generation needs.
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  The 1st is to connect them to the Savior and the power of his
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  Atonement. And when we say power of the
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  atonement, it's not just the cleansing power of the
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  Atonement, but it, but it's that enabling power of the Atonement
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  that gives them the strength to do hard things and to be a
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  little bit better tomorrow than they are today.
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  The second impression that we've had is the importance of
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  encourage them to follow the counsel of living prophets and
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  apostles. And we're going to read about
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  that and, and these scriptures here.
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  It's interesting when the, the stripling warriors, when they
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  were to pick a leader, they didn't pick a military leader.
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  They would, they went to, they went to Heelman, they picked a
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  prophet, they picked a prophet. And then the third impression
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  that we've had is just to is to teach and a model that living
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  the gospel of Jesus Christ is a source of great joy.
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  If we don't get joy with this rising generation, we're going
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  to lose them. And living the gospel of Jesus
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  Christ, obedience and sacrifice and all those other things that
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  are entailed in that bring us bring us great joy.
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  And so we often say, teach joy and when necessary use words.
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  And so I think modeling the joy for the rising generation is
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  particularly important for us. But if you ever if you ever
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  wonder or doubt about this rising generation, come up to
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  Rexburg, spending a little bit of time on that campus will give
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  you great hope for the future of the church.
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  The Lord has sent those students to this earth and then to your
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  university for a reason. And, and it's beautiful to see
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  the hope that comes from heaven through that rising generation,
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  as we're going to see in these chapters, especially with the
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  stripling warriors at a time when things are not looking good
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  until the stripling warriors step up and and assist.
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  So let's dive in. We start in Chapter 53 and keep
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  in mind we're we're skipping from the last week's chapter
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  where 51 was where we lost all of these cities.
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  And it was up here where Tiankum kills Amalekaya by night on that
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  New Year's Eve, the Nephite New Year's Eve, back in chapter
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  5051. So now in chapter 52, that's not
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  part of this week's chapters. Captain Moroni focused on one
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  objective. How do we get Mulik back?
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  And he did it. He switches it so that now it
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  becomes what will change colors. It becomes Nephite again.
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  And he doesn't. He doesn't throw his arms in the
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  air and say, I give up, look at all these other cities.
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  He simply then turns his attention to how do we take back
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  GID? And in the meantime, we shift
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  the focus in chapter 53 down here to the story that's going
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  to take place between these two cities, Milek and Judea, with
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  the capital city of Zarahemla being here.
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  This is where the Stripling Warriors families live and we
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  see this struggle with that group of people watching the war
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  take place and these these men and these families saying we we
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  can't watch this destruction anymore.
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  We're going to break the oath that we made years ago, 13 plus
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  years ago down in Ishmael where we buried those weapons of war.
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  And that's when Heelman steps forward and says an oath is an
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  oath which our world today doesn't always value.
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  Those covenants that we make with the Lord that they're
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  willing to break them. Can I go back and ask you a
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  question about the story? What?
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  What can and should we learn from the fact that he focused on
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  one, then the next one, then the next one, as opposed to
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  everything at once? It's a really good, really good
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  question, and I'm not the one to give the ultimate answer.
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  I can give a principle that that I've noticed in my own life that
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  when I look at my weakness, when I look at my struggles and I try
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  to focus on all of them at the same time, it gets overwhelming
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  and it's more difficult. But when I say, you know what,
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  today I'm going to do that. All the others, they're still
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  there. I, I'm going to have to deal
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  with them later. It becomes more doable and less
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  anxiety inducing for me. I I feel I feel more empowered.
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  I feel more hope. How would you answer?
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  This question probably the same way I Elder Michael Dunn in
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  General Conference a few years ago gave this great message.
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  And one of the key takeaways was just focus on getting 1% better.
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  And I think the Lord is much more concerned about the
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  direction that we're headed than where we are.
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  And if we're just a little bit better tomorrow than we are
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  today, then I think he's pleased.
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  And this, this toxic perfectionism is something that
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  we need to be mindful of. And so I do think that's one
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  thing that we can pull from the story here to apply to us in our
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  personal lives is just take it line upon line, precept upon
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  precept, step by step and the little be pleased with that
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  progress. Patience, I love it.
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  Elder Dunn's talk with the Wasn't it the British Cycling?
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  Team, yes, yeah. And a similar concept taught by
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  Elder Clark Gilbert with his why intercept and slope.
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  It's more important the direction you're facing than
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  where you began. And I think if the the families
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  of the Stripling warriors were here, they would say Amen to
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  that. Just move forward the best you
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  can. So as we jump into the the story
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  of the Stripling warriors, let's pick it up In chapter 53, verse
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  16, he says, behold, it came to pass that they had many sons who
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  had not entered into a covenant, that they would not take their
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  weapons of war to defend themselves against their
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  enemies. Therefore, they did assemble
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  themselves together at this time, as many as were able to
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  take up arms and they called themselves Nephites, brothers
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  and sisters. This is important that these
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  young men keep in mind that the covenant was made about 13 years
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  ago. So I don't, I don't know how old
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  that they don't give us the time range or the age range of the
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  people who made the covenant. But I, I would guess it would be
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  people who were able to bear a sword, maybe 12/13/14, fifteen
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  years old on up, maybe older, I don't know.
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  But now you add 13 years, which means this group isn't, isn't
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  old. These are young men and they're
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  now saying our previous identity was as Lamanites that have now
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  become children of Ammon, as they sometimes refer to
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  themselves or antinephile heights.
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  But at this moment they make a new covenant and they take upon
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  themselves a new name. And it said there, and they
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  called themselves Nephites. There's something beautiful
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  about that willingness to enter into a covenant and allow your
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  identity to be changed by the Lord Jesus Christ as you move
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  forward on a covenant path, which they're demonstrating in a
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  very different way than we do it today with the covenant path.
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  But this willingness to take upon themselves a new name is
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  fascinating. And I think that comes from the
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  covenant. President Nelson has taught us
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  repeatedly, and it's been echoed by other apostles, the power
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  that comes into our lives through making covenants.
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  And it's interesting just just on this one page, if you just
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  went through and highlighted each time the word covenant is
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  used, it seems seems like there's a lesson from that.
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  But you know, one of the things that we could look for as we
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  read these, as we read this account of the stripling
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  warriors is what are the evidences of covenants that
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  they've made that we also make in the temple?
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  Now we won't have time to go through that, but if you think
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  about the five covenants that are part of the endowment,
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  there's four I think are really evident in the story here.
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  There's the covenant of obedience.
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  We'll read that some of their strength comes because of that,
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  the covenant of sacrifice, not only that they make, but their
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  parents made to let them go out and fight their battles, The law
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  of the Gospel and then the law of consecration, the the, the
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  willingness to put everything on the altar.
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  And so as we think about the covenants here, I do think
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  there's a parallel to the covenants that we've made when
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  we've entered into the temple. You know, I've read this story
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  1000 times, I've taught it a lot and I've never made that
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  connection to those actual covenants that we make in the
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  temple. That's a beautiful insight
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  that's worth pondering. I'm going to, I'm going to go
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  back and reread this and make some more notes, make some more
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  connections, which by the way, isn't that one of the most
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  amazing things about God's goodness as it is manifest in
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  his scriptures, in the words of the prophets, that it's they're
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  so deep and they're so broad. They just keep on giving.
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  There's more to be discovered. You never say, oh, Chapter 50, I
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  got it. I figured it all out.
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  Well to be honest, a decade ago I don't think that learning
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  would have been as a parent. But when you take the words of
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  living prophets and apostles and overlay them on ancient
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  scripture then then you get new meaning if.
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  You didn't know any better. You'd think the Lord was
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  building His Kingdom line upon line in an ongoing restoration,
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  wouldn't you? I love it.
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  It's beautiful. So let's look more detailed at
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  that covenant in verse 17 tied into what you just said,
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  President Meredith. They entered into a covenant to
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  fight for the liberty of the Nephites.
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  Yeah, to protect the land unto the laying down of their lives.
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  Yeah, even they covenanted that they never would give up their
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  liberty, but that they would fight in all cases to protect
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  the Nephites and themselves from bondage.
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  That sounds a little bit like a a variation on a pre mortal
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  theme of the war in heaven. The things that we were willing
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  to fight for up there to defend God's plan and to follow Jesus
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  Christ even there. And it tells us that they were
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  two thousand of those young men. And then then this other
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  description here, verse 19. Behold, as they never had
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  hitherto been a disadvantage of the Nephites, they became now at
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  this period of time also a great support, for they took their
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  weapons of war, and they would that healmans should be their
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  leader. And they were all young men, and
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  they were exceedingly valiant for courage and also for
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  strength and activity. And then this part that you
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  mentioned, they were true at all times in whatsoever thing they
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  were entrusted question for you as the president of that many
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  students, that many young people, it would be really easy
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  for you to set up rules and regulations and enforcement
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  policies for those rules and regulations and and force
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  conformance to to behavior, which would kind of fly in the
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  face of what it looks like is happening here.
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  So how? How does that work in in?
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  Practice. Yeah.
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  Well, we we teach correct principles.
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  Actually, I heard El Kristofferson say one time that
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  Joseph Smith often gets misquoted.
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  You know, there's the quote of teach correct principles and let
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  them govern themselves. He said what he actually said
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  was teach them correct principles, teach correct
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  principles, teach correct principles, teach correct
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  principles and then let them go to govern themselves.
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  And so we, we teach those principles.
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  And as you know, in the youth program, as well as with
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  missionaries and even in the church education system, there's
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  been a move away from, I'll use the word Pharisaic, but but
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  which might be a little strong of of, you know, dotting every I
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  and crossing every T to principle based approach to
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  living standards and abiding by the honor code.
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  One of the things that we've really leaned into is is
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  teaching the importance of integrity.
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  So there was a new Preach My Gospel that was introduced just
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  last year. Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel is
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  the chapter that talks about Christ like attributes and there
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  was one change to that chapter. The the, the characteristic of
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  integrity was introduced in this most recent Preach My Gospel.
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  And that's one of those editions where you look at that and you
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  look back and go that probably should have been.
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  There all. Along but I think I think the
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  the approach of principle based teaching, emphasizing the
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  importance of integrity at the same time and then letting
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  people govern themselves and then loving and reteaching.
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  I think that's an important approach with the rising
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  generation. I love that.
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  And one thing I, I would just point out here is there's more
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  going on than just what the stripling warriors are doing
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  there. There are relationships being
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  forged here between Heelman and those stripling warriors,
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  between the stripling warriors and the stripling warriors,
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  between those young men and their families, their
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  relationships that are being. Forged and and and made much,
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  much stronger because of their willingness to sacrifice and
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  enter into these covenants. Something very unique in today's
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  academic world is what you're doing in Idaho and your your
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  laser locked focus, your your 100, your entire bullseye is, is
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  one thing. And what is that?
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  Our mission is to develop disciples of Jesus Christ who
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  are leaders in their homes, the church, and their communities.
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  And that that is deep in the DNA, not only the students, but
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  the faculty and all the employees on campus.
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  And that's one of the things that makes not just BYU Idaho,
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  but the entire church education system such a special place.
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  And that focus on discipleship, particularly in higher education
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  today is, is really important. I mean, there's, there's a
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  mismatch and, and lots of segments of higher education
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  with the morals and values of people and what's being taught
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  on campus. If you go back to what Paul
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  taught, he, he prophesied, you know, the perilous times that he
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  prophesied of. One of the elements of those of
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  those perilous times was it would be a time that people
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  would be ever learning, but never able to come to the truth.
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  And you think about the information world in which we
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  live it. It emphasizes the importance of
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  a spiritual based education that you get in the church education
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  system. Yeah.
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  So even if a student is taking a chemistry class or a math class
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  or a business class, the intent of that class isn't just to
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  teach them chemistry or math or business principles.
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  It's to help them build their discipleship.
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  And in the process, the other, the other amazing thing about
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  the the BYU Idaho model is they have deep relationships with
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  their teachers. Their teachers actually know the
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  students. They're not just a big number.
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  Yeah, well, we're, we're very teaching focused.
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  Our our teachers do not they, they don't do research and
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  research is important. But at BWU Idaho, teaching is
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  more important than than anything else.
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  And what they teach and how they teach is really important.
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  We have really small class sizes.
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  The average class size at BWU Idaho is 27.
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  But I think more important than that is, is what happens in the
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  classroom. And, and we'll get it.
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  You know, when I when I read the story of the stripping warriors
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  and I read about the things that their mothers taught them, I
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  wish I could sit at their feet and listen to what it is they
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  teach. And I'm confident that our
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  teachers are teaching similar things.
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  I interview every full time campus faculty hire and I ask
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  them three questions. The first question I asked them
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  is how are they going to teach the gospel and build faith while
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  they teach their secular topic? One of the one of the one of our
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  prospective teachers answer that question with Will Felder.
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  Felder Uttdorf can do with airplanes.
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  I can do it in my classroom. The second thing I ask is, are
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  they perfectly aligned with the teachings of living prophets and
• 23:37
  apostles? And then third is how are they
• 23:40
  going to contribute to that mission to build disciples who
• 23:43
  are leaders? That's powerful that identity it
• 23:48
  it's just it's oozing in the DNA up there in Rexburg and the
• 23:52
  students feel. So if if, if you're watching and
• 23:55
  you have children or grandchildren or you are are
• 23:58
  trying to consider places to to attend school.
• 24:03
  If if you want a really rich environment of 100% focus on
• 24:10
  learning and a great relationship with teachers, not
• 24:13
  just when they're seniors, but when they're freshmen all the
• 24:16
  way to their senior year. Great opportunity to consider
• 24:21
  Rexburg. So now we jump into to Chapter
• 24:27
  54 and Ameron, the brother of Malachiah, who took over for
• 24:31
  him, exchanges some letters with Captain Moroni about the
• 24:38
  exchange of prisoners. And and you can study this.
• 24:43
  To me, this is more than just a fascinating study in human
• 24:47
  nature and and relationship dynamics that can take place
• 24:51
  when somebody like Ameron has stepped into this role as as a
• 24:57
  former Nephite whose brother killed the king of the Lamanites
• 25:01
  and took over the ruling of the people.
• 25:02
  And now he stepped into that, but how quickly his perception
• 25:07
  can shift to feel like he's in the right and these Nephites are
• 25:11
  in the wrong. And we're, I'm on a good mission
• 25:13
  here and you did a bad thing in killing my brother.
• 25:16
  It's fascinating to see that. And and you can, you can find
• 25:20
  those principles in this exchange.
• 25:22
  But more importantly, I think is if you consider a 30,000 foot
• 25:27
  overview to say you can picture similar kinds of sentiments from
• 25:35
  the devil and how would the Lord Jesus Christ respond?
• 25:39
  You see Captain Moroni's response this I'm not going to
• 25:42
  negotiate. I I'm going to, I know what I
• 25:45
  need to do and I'm going to do it.
• 25:46
  I'm not going to negotiate. So in chapter 55 we go and we
• 25:53
  use a different strategy. And before you know it, Captain
• 25:58
  Moroni has now taken back the city of Gid.
• 26:02
  So President Meredith in, in all of those experiences in 5455, is
• 26:07
  there anything that stands out to you that would be relevant
• 26:10
  for us today? You just taught us a little bit
• 26:12
  about the importance of of how we identify ourselves.
• 26:15
  It's interesting at the end of chapter 54, Ameron defines
• 26:20
  himself, his identity, not not as related to the Saints of God
• 26:25
  or a child of God, but as a bold Lamanite.
• 26:28
  And it's it seems like this concept of identity keeps
• 26:31
  popping up on both sides. Absolutely, which then drives
• 26:36
  your attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and how you treat
• 26:40
  people and how you live your life.
• 26:43
  It's, it's amazing. So now you get into chapter 56.
• 26:49
  Heelman sends this epistle to Captain Roni to update him on
• 26:54
  what's going on down here on the southern battlefront.
• 26:59
  And it tells, tells us that the Stripling warriors have left
• 27:04
  Milek and they're now positioned in Judea to help defend the
• 27:08
  entry points into Zarahemla, the capital city from these four
• 27:13
  cities that the Lamanites have have taken over.
• 27:16
  And we get the list of those in verse 14.
• 27:19
  The land of Manti or the city of Manti, the city of Zezrum, the
• 27:23
  city of Qumani and the city of Antipara.
• 27:26
  So here we are on the South. Here's the problem.
• 27:30
  The Stripling warriors are there with Antipas and his soldiers,
• 27:34
  and we're in Judea, but we're watching this influx of the
• 27:41
  Lamanites bringing more people and more provisions constantly
• 27:46
  into these cities. And we don't we're not getting
• 27:49
  an an increase if we're not careful.
• 27:53
  We'll do the same thing today. We'll look at the world around
• 27:56
  us, especially because of social media and because of the, the,
• 28:01
  the nature of people able to share their perspectives or to
• 28:04
  be an expert on any topic. And if we're not careful, we can
• 28:09
  start to feel as if, Oh no, everything's terrible.
• 28:14
  We're going to lose. And it can increase our
• 28:16
  spiritual anxiety, It can increase, it can decrease our
• 28:19
  hope. But it's fascinating to me.
• 28:23
  I I don't remember a single general conference where I've
• 28:27
  watched or attended or participated and walked away
• 28:30
  thinking, Oh no, we're all gonna die.
• 28:33
  It's all terrible. Look at all the bad things
• 28:34
  happening in the world's What? What's your?
• 28:36
  Perspective we are led by optimist and and there's lots of
• 28:43
  things to be optimistic about, particularly if you if you look
• 28:45
  at the rising generation, the number of missionaries in the
• 28:48
  world is increasing. The number of baptisms is
• 28:50
  increasing the number of youth participating in temple
• 28:52
  ordinances is increasing the number of youth participating or
• 28:58
  attending schools in the church education system is increasing.
• 29:01
  There's this false narrative out there that the sky is falling
• 29:05
  and it's not. And if we listen to the words
• 29:07
  of, of, of President Nelson and look at all the wonderful things
• 29:13
  that are happening, then we can have great hope.
• 29:15
  And I would also say that if you, if you think about the
• 29:18
  things that the Saviour often gave counsel to his followers
• 29:25
  about, he often said be of good cheer.
• 29:29
  And this, it goes back to this concept of joy that there's lots
• 29:33
  of things to be hopeful for. And it's really important,
• 29:36
  particularly as we work with the rising generation, to be
• 29:39
  optimistic and hopeful and convey the joy of living the
• 29:43
  gospel of Jesus Christ. I love that perspective now.
• 29:46
  Now, one other thing that I I failed to mention earlier, and I
• 29:48
  apologize for that is the president, Meredith isn't just
• 29:52
  the president of BYU Idaho. He's also currently a member of
• 29:55
  the Quorum of the 70. And so you get to sit in council
• 30:00
  with with many of these leaders of the church today in different
• 30:04
  settings and even behind the closed doors, even not in the
• 30:08
  big public facing settings. My hunch is that they're not
• 30:13
  spreading doom and gloom when they're training or when they're
• 30:16
  helping work with the the Quorums of the 70.
• 30:20
  Just the opposite. There's no E or there's no woe
• 30:23
  is me. There's so many things to be
• 30:26
  happy about. And, and, and President Holland
• 30:30
  and Elder Kieran in particular have really encouraged us as
• 30:33
  leaders to make sure that we convey the joy of the gospel.
• 30:37
  And sometimes that's hard. I remember as a young Bishop
• 30:40
  coming off the stand after a sacrament meeting and my wife
• 30:43
  met me at the foot of the stairs with a stern look and a
• 30:47
  question. She said, are you happy?
• 30:49
  And I said, well, yes, I'm happy.
• 30:50
  And she said, well, when you're seated on the stand in front of
• 30:53
  the Saints, remind your face. And that's, it's that, that's a
• 30:57
  great reminder to me to make sure that when we're with the
• 31:01
  Saints, in fact, President Holland would say we have a duty
• 31:05
  and an obligation to lift and encourage the Saints,
• 31:09
  particularly when they're in their time of need.
• 31:11
  This, this is an amazing concept that's very applicable to all of
• 31:15
  us in any setting, in any calling that we find ourselves
• 31:19
  as disciples of Christ, as covenant members of this
• 31:21
  community. This idea that if you're not
• 31:24
  careful, you'll spend more time looking at this from a
• 31:29
  horizontal level at what the what the devil's doing or what
• 31:32
  he's claiming to do, and it will feel overwhelming.
• 31:35
  It will feel discouraging. Versus if you use this to point
• 31:40
  towards prophets, seers, and revelators.
• 31:42
  If I spend more time on Gospel library than I do in social
• 31:46
  media, then I'm more prone to see all of the amazing things
• 31:52
  that the Lord is bringing to the earth, all of the resources and
• 31:56
  the power and this growth that you're describing.
• 31:59
  Temples, missions, youth engage FSY What what an amazing thing.
• 32:05
  Students going to BYU, Idaho, BYU, Provo, BYU pathway that is
• 32:10
  growing astronomically that if we if we turn heavenward and
• 32:18
  turn towards the prophets and tune our ears that direction,
• 32:22
  then we will see like these stripling warriors.
• 32:25
  Yeah, these people are getting reinforcements, but the
• 32:29
  reinforcement they're getting isn't like the reinforcement
• 32:32
  we're getting. It.
• 32:33
  It reminds me of the They that be with us are more than they
• 32:36
  that be with them story of Elijah.
• 32:39
  Paul, when he's talking to the Corinthians, he's explaining why
• 32:42
  he's there and why he's teaching to them, and he uses this phrase
• 32:46
  that he wants to be helpers of their joy, which I think is a
• 32:50
  great description for what we should be as leaders in the
• 32:53
  church. We should be helpers of the joy
• 32:56
  and then I'm, I'm not talking about the fun joy that you find
• 32:58
  in the world, but the joy that's uniquely found in the gospel of
• 33:02
  Jesus Christ. In those in those covenant
• 33:04
  relationships, absolutely. So by the way, we we have, we
• 33:08
  kind of touched on it, but we didn't really emphasize it yet.
• 33:12
  But I think it's worth emphasizing.
• 33:15
  Can you imagine, Can you imagine that day when those families
• 33:24
  gathered and gave those final hugs of farewell?
• 33:29
  And as those young men, again, I don't know their ages
• 33:33
  111213141516 somewhere they're young men as they then turn to
• 33:38
  walk away, gathered with their group following Helaman.
• 33:44
  We always talk about the faith of the young men.
• 33:46
  What about the faith of the mothers and the fathers who who
• 33:50
  hadn't been killed before? Many of these young men would
• 33:54
  have probably been raised in a single parent home by a mother
• 33:57
  because many of the men had been killed 13 years ago.
• 34:00
  But the amount of faith that's going with them, the and and
• 34:04
  these young men have never fought.
• 34:06
  They're not experts in in swordplay or in bow and arrow
• 34:10
  accuracy. They probably didn't do a lot of
• 34:13
  practicing with dads who didn't want to touch a sword if if they
• 34:19
  had survived. And so it's important as we, as
• 34:24
  we continue to move forward, to recognize these young men are
• 34:27
  not an island. And for those of you who have
• 34:30
  dropped a child off at the airport or at the MTC, you know
• 34:36
  that feeling that goes with them and the prayers and the faith
• 34:40
  that goes with them. We are not alone in this battle.
• 34:43
  You get the sense that they must have drawn upon the power of the
• 34:47
  covenants that they'd made, going back to these promises
• 34:50
  that President Nelson makes about making covenants.
• 34:52
  And the faith that they had, I don't know that their their
• 34:55
  faith was that their sons were going to come back, come back
• 35:01
  unharmed, or even come back at all.
• 35:04
  But I think their faith was the faith of the promise that comes
• 35:08
  because of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
• 35:10
  And, and I think when we have that end in perspective, it
• 35:14
  helps us make some of those sacrifices and some of those
• 35:17
  difficult in those difficult times.
• 35:19
  I was at a state conference a little while ago and I was
• 35:23
  getting acquainted with the state presidency.
• 35:25
  And the second counselor confessed that he had this
• 35:28
  passion for baseball and he's just this rabid Los Angeles
• 35:32
  Dodgers fan. He records every single game and
• 35:36
  then he doesn't watch it live. He records it once the game's
• 35:39
  over. He checks the score and if the
• 35:42
  Dodgers win, he watches the game and if they lose, he deletes it.
• 35:49
  And then so he says to me. So if the Dodgers give up a
• 35:53
  three run home run in the fourth inning, I don't fret because I
• 35:57
  know who wins in the end. The Dodgers win every game that
• 36:02
  I watch. And I thought that there was a
• 36:04
  there's a parallel to that as well.
• 36:06
  If we understand that those who strive to become disciples of
• 36:11
  Christ, whether in this life or the next, all will be made
• 36:15
  right, all will be made fair. Elder Rinland gave a great
• 36:19
  message in conference on that exact same, on that exact same
• 36:23
  topic. So when we talk about the faith
• 36:25
  that the mothers had and the fathers as well, I think it was
• 36:28
  a faith that in the end, on the other side, all will be well.
• 36:34
  Absolutely. That is such a a powerful
• 36:37
  concept for those of you who maybe have loved ones who were
• 36:42
  out away from you where where you can't have direct
• 36:45
  interaction with them or can you?
• 36:48
  Can you? The power of of the family's
• 36:51
  faith in those rooted covenants actually benefit your loved ones
• 36:57
  that that maybe are off to college or out on a mission or
• 37:00
  serving in the military or away unemployment opportunities
• 37:04
  somewhere else in the world. It's it's this beautiful
• 37:08
  connecting promise that again, even those bad things might
• 37:13
  happen along the way. We do know the end of this end
• 37:16
  of the game. That's a that's a beautiful
• 37:18
  analogy. The The Dodgers win every game.
• 37:22
  That he won, that he watches. That's powerful.
• 37:26
  So I want to dive in on on one particular story here and and
• 37:32
  we'll use the map because it's it's easier to follow if you can
• 37:35
  visualize roughly the orientation of what what's
• 37:39
  happening. So remember that the stripling
• 37:42
  warriors are here in Judea and they are now putting their focus
• 37:46
  on this city of anti Para, which has the biggest group of the
• 37:50
  Lamanites. So again, it's similar to this
• 37:53
  idea of take, take on one. And in this case, they said
• 37:57
  we're going to attack that that most powerful army, let's go
• 38:01
  there first. But they're in fortifications
• 38:05
  that the Nephites themselves had built.
• 38:07
  They're not going to come out and fight.
• 38:10
  So the Stripling warriors with Heleman, they come up with a
• 38:13
  plan. They recognize the Lamanites are
• 38:15
  a little bit skittish every time any kind of provision comes in.
• 38:20
  So they say, we don't know the name of this city.
• 38:23
  That's why I've just labeled it City by the Sea.
• 38:26
  They said, let me change the color here.
• 38:29
  We will take the stripling warriors, these young men, and
• 38:33
  we're going to March by the city of Antapara as if we're headed
• 38:38
  out to take some provisions to the city by the seashore.
• 38:42
  At which point this group of Lamanites is going to see the
• 38:45
  the neighboring stakes young men walking by thinking, hey, we can
• 38:49
  take them, Let's go. At which point they're going to
• 38:53
  empty out of the city and chase us to destroy us.
• 38:57
  And then Antipus can come from behind and take over the city of
• 39:02
  Antipart. It's a pretty simple strategy,
• 39:04
  which by the way, it makes you wonder, doesn't it, if Heelmann
• 39:09
  had been reading his scriptures, because that exact strategy
• 39:13
  shows up in the Old Testament in in the book of of Joshua and
• 39:17
  Judges. You see this, this kind of a
• 39:21
  strategy happening. So makes you wonder.
• 39:25
  It wouldn't surprise me if if Healon was simply applying
• 39:28
  scriptures for his his day and age.
• 39:31
  So notice this, this chain of events.
• 39:34
  Now this is day one. They came out and the Lamanites
• 39:40
  follow them and we then turn northward and it says they go
• 39:44
  northward. So there are the the Nephites
• 39:47
  and then you get the Lamanites chasing them and then you get
• 39:53
  Antapara taking over the city and then chasing them.
• 39:56
  So there you go. That's day one.
• 39:58
  Then they all camp day two. It's just a track meet.
• 40:03
  They're all advancing and moving forward and then they camp that
• 40:08
  night. All three groups, the third day
• 40:13
  they run again. Now keep in mind it took Alma
• 40:17
  the missionary 3 days journey from Milek to get to Amaniah.
• 40:24
  Well if these people are now running, you can guess that in
• 40:29
  the beginning part of that third day we're probably getting
• 40:31
  fairly close to Amaniah. We don't know for sure, but
• 40:34
  we're, we're assuming here the last time a Lamanite army went
• 40:37
  to Amaniah and Noah, it was the worst battle in the history of
• 40:41
  the Book of Mormon. Over 1000 Lamanite deaths, 0
• 40:44
  Nephite deaths. So you can picture the Lamanites
• 40:47
  saying no, we're not going there.
• 40:51
  And they start fighting against Antipas.
• 40:54
  So now there's this big battle going on and the Stripling
• 40:59
  warriors are up ahead with nobody following them, and they
• 41:04
  have this beautiful, beautiful interaction.
• 41:07
  Brothers and sisters, as we read these scripture stories, for me,
• 41:11
  one of the one of the tools that I like using is to find the
• 41:17
  critical moment of decision and then slow down, ask a lot more
• 41:22
  questions, look at it from every angle possible and try to really
• 41:26
  make sense of it. Because it's usually in those
• 41:27
  moments of decision that we can find principles that help us
• 41:32
  when our life is in moments of decision where, oh, this is,
• 41:37
  this is difficult. What are we going to do?
• 41:40
  How are we going to respond? How can we increase faith here?
• 41:44
  So here's that critical decision point.
• 41:48
  Healman turns to his group of 2000 young men.
• 41:50
  Remember, none of them have ever fought before.
• 41:52
  And he says, therefore, what say ye, my sons?
• 41:57
  Which I just love that Healman, this Nephite prophet talking to
• 42:02
  these formerly Lamanite young men and he says, my sons, that
• 42:08
  kind of a familial relationship with him.
• 42:11
  I I just love that he says, will you go against them to battle?
• 42:16
  You have a decision made. I'm not going to force you.
• 42:18
  What? What do you want to do?
• 42:19
  And this is when their when their faith is tested.
• 42:22
  I mean, faith is not just a feeling.
• 42:24
  Faith is a principle of action. And if we look back to Alma 53,
• 42:28
  when it describes what these stripping warriors were like, it
• 42:31
  says they were exceedingly valiant for three things, for
• 42:35
  courage, for strength. But the third one is that they
• 42:39
  were valiant for activity. In other words, they were
• 42:42
  willing to act. And that was that was the
• 42:46
  display of their faith, if you will, that they were willing,
• 42:50
  not knowing what would lie before them, but they were
• 42:53
  willing to go back to find out why they weren't being followed
• 42:57
  anymore. That's, that's so powerful and
• 42:59
  so applicable in, in any setting that you and I might find
• 43:03
  ourselves today in our battles of today, those three things,
• 43:08
  valiant for strength, for courage and for activity.
• 43:11
  That it's not just this, oh, I'm a member of the church and it
• 43:14
  makes me feel joy or I feel all of these things.
• 43:17
  No, it translates into I'm going to, I'm going to act in faith.
• 43:22
  I'm going to do things that maybe I've never done before.
• 43:25
  These young men have never done this, but I'm I'm going to move
• 43:29
  forward knowing who's errand I'm on and who's whose strength I'm
• 43:33
  relying on to do this. It's it's not, I don't think any
• 43:36
  of these young men are looking at each other going we are, we
• 43:39
  got this. I if they're young, the word
• 43:43
  stripling means not fully developed.
• 43:46
  That they're, they're still growing.
• 43:50
  And now they're going to go fight professional soldiers who
• 43:52
  have done nothing but learn the art of war their whole life.
• 43:57
  The odds are stacked against. Them and by the way, when you
• 43:59
  read verse 47, it doesn't say that they were willing to act
• 44:02
  because they thought they could win.
• 44:05
  It says they were willing to act because they didn't fear death.
• 44:09
  And it goes back to this, this eternal perspective that they
• 44:13
  had that I think comes from covenants, from most covenant
• 44:17
  homes that they grew up in and even covenants that they took
• 44:20
  upon themselves, that they had No Fear and were willing to act
• 44:24
  because of that. And.
• 44:25
  When you watch President Nelson or President Oaks or President
• 44:29
  Irene or any, any of the, the first Presidency in the Formula
• 44:32
  12, you, you sense No Fear. You, you sense that faith, that
• 44:38
  hope. And it's probably because
• 44:42
  they've seen the end score. They, they, they, they know we
• 44:45
  might give up a few home runs along the way, but it's OK.
• 44:48
  We, we know where this is going to end.
• 44:51
  In fact, look at the I I think it's fascinating verse, but if
• 44:55
  we go back one verse to verse 46 at the way these young men talk
• 44:59
  about what they're about to act on when it says for as I had
• 45:04
  ever called them my sons for they were all of them very
• 45:07
  young. Now he adds that qualifying word
• 45:09
  very Even so they said unto me, father, so that beautiful
• 45:16
  familial relationship is reciprocated.
• 45:19
  Father, behold, our God is with us and he will not suffer that
• 45:26
  we should fall. That's pretty bold.
• 45:29
  That's a that's a statement of faith.
• 45:31
  He will not suffer that we should fall.
• 45:33
  Then let us go forth. We would not slay our brethren
• 45:38
  if they would let us alone. That kind of faith, that better
• 45:43
  off faith to say our God is going to deliver us and we are
• 45:48
  going to go and overcome. We are going to win this battle.
• 45:52
  Let's go. You and I were angels up in the
• 45:56
  pre mortal realm when this story was taking place.
• 45:59
  I don't know about you, but it if the Lord allowed us to watch
• 46:03
  any of these events take place in our pre mortal realm.
• 46:06
  I don't know if that was the case, but if it was, I can
• 46:09
  picture my pre mortal self leaning over the railings of
• 46:13
  heaven watching this story and watching these young men and
• 46:17
  thinking to myself, wow, I want to be like them when it's my
• 46:22
  turn in the vineyard. When when it's my turn to go
• 46:26
  down and help carry forth the Kingdom.
• 46:29
  I want their kind of faith in the face of of that kind of
• 46:33
  adversity and opposition. It reminds me a little bit of
• 46:35
  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednegob from Old Testament times.
• 46:38
  You remember they were they were the king wanted to throw them in
• 46:42
  the fire and and they responded by saying, if it be so, our God
• 46:46
  whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery
• 46:51
  furnace. But then they go on to say, but
• 46:55
  if not, and there was a great general conference message given
• 46:59
  by, I believe by Elder Simmons years, eight years ago called.
• 47:02
  But if not, and I sense that was the faith that they that they
• 47:05
  had, that they were going to do all that they could and God
• 47:09
  would deliver them. But if not, then it goes back to
• 47:12
  that verse that we just read. They have No Fear of death.
• 47:15
  But if not, it's fine. It's fine.
• 47:18
  I'm still going to go and do this.
• 47:20
  Which, by the way, is such a beautiful perspective that we
• 47:24
  put our faith in the Lord, not in an exact outcome like
• 47:29
  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were.
• 47:31
  Here with these tripling warriors, we're not going to
• 47:33
  demand that God do things the way we want them to to turn out.
• 47:38
  The reality is is we swallow our will up in His will because
• 47:42
  Jesus Christ taught us how to do that.
• 47:45
  That's a thing that President Nelson has been teaching for
• 47:47
  decades. So when he was called to be an
• 47:50
  apostle, his first message at BYU was titled begin with the
• 47:56
  end in mind. By the way, this was years
• 47:58
  before 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
• 48:01
  And, and his first, his first message as prophet, he
• 48:05
  encouraged us to begin with the end in mind.
• 48:07
  And that's evolved into this concept of thinking celestial.
• 48:11
  But President Nelson has been teaching for years to have that
• 48:16
  eternal perspective that that that end in mind.
• 48:20
  It's powerful if you look at every talk he's given from the
• 48:23
  time he was an apostle, but especially from the time that
• 48:26
  he's been the prophet from April 2018 to today.
• 48:29
  How, How all of them keep elevating our sights.
• 48:35
  Help us focus on the Lord. Help us make and keep those
• 48:39
  covenants in progress. Spiritual momentum, Revelation
• 48:42
  for the church, revelation for our lives.
• 48:44
  Choices for eternity that they're the think celestial
• 48:48
  peacemakers needed all of his focus is getting us to come into
• 48:54
  more of this level of faith in God and in his timing and in his
• 48:59
  will and it's beautiful. I guess we should just sum it up
• 49:03
  by saying we thank thee O God for a prophet to guide us in
• 49:08
  these latter days. What a what a blessing it is
• 49:10
  Amen. So verse 47, they, they invoke
• 49:14
  their, their families who by the way, if the battles taking place
• 49:19
  over here, we're through the wilderness from Milek.
• 49:24
  There's never a battle in the Book Mormon that takes place in
• 49:27
  Milek, which was the perfect place for Captain Moroni to put
• 49:29
  these, these people who've made a covenant never to fight.
• 49:34
  That's the perfect place to put them.
• 49:36
  But they're through the wilderness.
• 49:37
  They're not far away from where these these boys are engaging in
• 49:41
  this battle this morning. And I don't know about you, but
• 49:44
  I can picture moms in Milek that morning somehow, someway, just
• 49:52
  knowing my boy needs, needs help.
• 49:59
  Because mothers just know. And I can picture a lot of
• 50:02
  prayers going heavenward out of Milek that morning in behalf of
• 50:07
  those boys. Because what we see next is, is
• 50:12
  beyond an explanation the world could give.
• 50:15
  It's miraculous. In other words, the strength of
• 50:19
  those boys, the skill of those boys alone is not going to
• 50:22
  accomplish what's going to happen here in these last few
• 50:25
  chapters. And in my mind, it once again
• 50:28
  brings us back to they that be with us, or more than they that
• 50:30
  be with them. I have to think that they had
• 50:32
  all kinds of help from the unseen world in that battle,
• 50:36
  guiding and strengthening and protecting them as they move
• 50:40
  forward, which is a good reminder for you and for me.
• 50:45
  In our colleagues, in our families, in our, in our
• 50:48
  careers, in our relationships, to not trust in our own
• 50:54
  individual capacities, our own individual training alone, but
• 50:59
  to rely on him. And in, in your role.
• 51:04
  We'll, we'll, we'll just focus on your role as president of
• 51:07
  BYU. When you got called, was your
• 51:10
  first thought, oh, it's about time.
• 51:12
  I am so ready for this. I, I have this completely
• 51:16
  figured out. Was that your first?
• 51:18
  No, not, not at all. The the feelings of inadequacy
• 51:21
  were just washed over me. And but you know, when, when you
• 51:26
  remember that this is the Lord's work and that He'll labor with
• 51:29
  us, then you can take great courage in that.
• 51:32
  The the prior presidents of BYU Idaho and Rick's College were
• 51:37
  kind enough to spend some time with me before we began this
• 51:41
  assignment. And they, they had a common
• 51:45
  message. They all use different words,
• 51:48
  but one of one of the one of the pieces of counsel was BYU.
• 51:51
  Idaho is a special place, so don't mess it up.
• 51:55
  That was one. The second was from from
• 52:00
  President Irene. You'll remember he was president
• 52:02
  when it was Rick's college years ago And and Rexburg.
• 52:07
  That is a sacred place to him. He talks about it frequently.
• 52:12
  He when I asked him for counsel, he said, and you can you can
• 52:17
  imagine him doing this. He pointed upwards and he said,
• 52:22
  you find out what the Lord wants you to do, and then you do that.
• 52:27
  And that's what I take great comfort in, because if I compare
• 52:30
  myself to Henry J Irene or Clark Gilbert or Kim Clark or David
• 52:35
  Bednar or Henry B Irene, I get to a bad place really quickly.
• 52:40
  What's, what's the, what's the same comparison as the thief of
• 52:43
  Joy? But when I think that the Lord
• 52:46
  cares a lot about what happens on this campus and if I'll just
• 52:49
  listen to him, he'll give, he'll give me direction.
• 52:53
  He'll give my wife and I direction, our leadership team
• 52:55
  direction. Then I press forward with
• 52:58
  courage. I love that.
• 53:00
  I love that perspective. You don't have to be the
• 53:02
  president of university to apply that exact same set of
• 53:06
  principles. It doesn't matter what your
• 53:08
  calling is or what your family situation is, you can turn
• 53:13
  heavenward and find out what God wants you to do in that setting.
• 53:17
  And then you move forward and you do it.
• 53:19
  And often it will be taking you out of a comfort zone and
• 53:22
  putting you in a setting that maybe you feel out of your
• 53:25
  league or unqualified or or under prepared for.
• 53:31
  But as long as you're you're with the Lord that there's no
• 53:36
  question about what the outcome is going to be.
• 53:39
  And we see that with this group here.
• 53:42
  So when these stripling warriors come into this battle and start
• 53:45
  engaging with those Lamanites who have been fighting against
• 53:50
  Antipas, killed Antipas, by the way, and his soldiers are
• 53:53
  starting to feel very weak. This was the infusion.
• 53:58
  This was the the support that they needed to overcome and win
• 54:04
  that battle. And it's it's beautiful for our
• 54:09
  our life today. Now the the grand miracle comes
• 54:13
  in verse 56. But behold to my great joy,
• 54:19
  there had not one soul soul of them fallen to the earth.
• 54:22
  Yeah. And they had fought as if with
• 54:25
  the strength of God. That's a very interesting as if
• 54:29
  I think it's safe to say they fought with the strength of God,
• 54:33
  with with help from the unseen world.
• 54:36
  Yeah. Never were men known to have
• 54:37
  fought with such miraculous strength and with such mighty
• 54:41
  power. Did they fall upon the Lamanites
• 54:44
  that they did frighten them. And for this cause, did the
• 54:47
  Lamanites deliver themselves up as prisoners of war.
• 54:49
  Can I just say that if you think about the Church of Jesus Christ
• 54:53
  of Latter Day Saints in a global perspective there, as you
• 54:57
  mentioned earlier, President, there, there are a lot of people
• 55:00
  who have this narrative of, wow, the churches is decreasing and
• 55:06
  people are leaving and things are falling apart.
• 55:08
  That's kind of what the world's message is, but it's not true.
• 55:13
  The reality is, is if we step forward with the kind of faith
• 55:19
  we're talking about here, you'll start seeing what's really
• 55:22
  happening, which is we're doing this work with the strength of
• 55:29
  God and God is building up the Kingdom so that it will fill the
• 55:33
  whole earth and and preparing the world for his second coming.
• 55:38
  So we might ask ourselves, so how can I get some of that
• 55:41
  strength and power in my life for the things that I'm facing?
• 55:44
  President Nelson said this. He said we increase the Savior's
• 55:48
  power in our lives when we make sacred covenants and keep those
• 55:53
  covenants with precision. And when I think about these
• 55:58
  strippin warriors, that word precision, boy, that certainly
• 56:02
  resonates. That's a great description of
• 56:04
  the way that they were obedient, valiant in all things, and they
• 56:10
  kept their covenants with precision.
• 56:11
  And that's where that power came from.
• 56:13
  Yeah, so, so that comes beautifully off of the page.
• 56:17
  If you turn, turn over to chapter 57 verse 21 when he
• 56:21
  says, yeah, they did obey and observed to perform every word
• 56:25
  of command with exactness. Yeah.
• 56:29
  Now if you could get every student BA Idaho to apply that I
• 56:33
  think I think the university would be translated and wouldn't
• 56:37
  exist anymore. Well, I'm still working on it
• 56:39
  for myself. You know, I remember President
• 56:42
  Dave Benson, who was the prophet of my youth.
• 56:44
  He he would say the day doing the right thing became a quest
• 56:50
  and not an irritation was the day that I received my power.
• 56:54
  And we we see that exemplified in the lives of these stripping
• 56:58
  warriors, that they obeyed with exactness and precision.
• 57:04
  So stop and think about that for a minute.
• 57:06
  What if, what if one of those 2000 or, or a small handful of
• 57:11
  them could be here team teaching with us?
• 57:14
  What what might they say to us in the latter days?
• 57:17
  Because we're, we're not fighting Lamanites, We're not,
• 57:21
  we're not trying to take back physical lands.
• 57:24
  We're not living in the land of Zarahemla here like, like
• 57:27
  they're doing. So what might they say to us
• 57:30
  today? And I think what you've, what
• 57:33
  you've been sharing with us is exactly what they would say is,
• 57:37
  you know what? It's not about us.
• 57:40
  It's about Him connecting with Him in a covenant and to defend
• 57:46
  the liberty and to increase the power of God all around us,
• 57:51
  which is what we fought for in the pre mortal realm.
• 57:54
  Look at what they say here in verse 27.
• 57:56
  Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken.
• 57:59
  They are young and their minds are firm and they do put their
• 58:04
  trust in God continually. Correct me if I'm wrong, but
• 58:08
  couldn't you say that about your students?
• 58:11
  In Rexburg. Young minds are firm.
• 58:16
  They're not perfect, and they'll be the first to acknowledge
• 58:18
  they're not perfect, but they put their trust in God
• 58:20
  continually. Yeah, yeah.
• 58:22
  And I would add one other thing. It's not called out in verse 21,
• 58:26
  but let's ask ourselves this question.
• 58:28
  Who is their field general? Healing.
• 58:32
  And who is healing? He's the prophet.
• 58:34
  The prophet. And so it goes back to this,
• 58:37
  this I think if we were to ask if they were here and we were to
• 58:40
  ask them, boy, what did you learn from your life experience?
• 58:43
  I think it would be that they relied on God and on Christ and
• 58:48
  his atonement, that they followed the prophet with
• 58:52
  exactness and precision. And by the way, when you do
• 58:56
  those two things, then you have great joy and even protection in
• 59:00
  your life. So as we turn over to Chapter
• 59:02
  58, you see that back in in 57 they added sixty younger
• 59:08
  brothers to the group. So now it's 2060.
• 59:11
  So they've, they started in Judea, they've taken Antapara
• 59:16
  and then the rest of these chapters you watch as they take
• 59:20
  over Qmani, Zezaram and Manti. But before they're able to do
• 59:25
  that, we saw this moment, another moment where you would
• 59:32
  think, wait, after this incredible success up here, now
• 59:38
  they're, they're going to be superheroes, unstoppable.
• 59:41
  Life is just going to flow smoothly for them because
• 59:44
  they've experienced this incredible miracle.
• 59:47
  Has that been your experience, that just because you have a
• 59:49
  mountain peak of revelation or an incredible spiritual
• 59:53
  outpouring, that all of a sudden from that point on everything
• 59:56
  just flows smoothly, no opposition?
• 59:58
  No, the rain falls on the jest and the unjust.
• 1:00:02
  Yeah. And as we see here, they're able
• 1:00:06
  to drop on the past miracles to strengthen them with greater
• 1:00:11
  assurance in the Lord as they experience more struggles, more
• 1:00:16
  challenges. And in this case, in chapter 58,
• 1:00:18
  verse 10, it says that they are struggling because the Lamanites
• 1:00:24
  continue to be reinforced once again, and they're not getting
• 1:00:27
  the same kind of help from Zaheemla.
• 1:00:29
  And they realize, Oh no, the the Lamanites aren't going to fall
• 1:00:34
  for the same tricks we've used before, the strategies.
• 1:00:38
  So what do we do? And it says, therefore we did
• 1:00:41
  pour our out our souls in prayer to God.
• 1:00:47
  They turned heavenward. They didn't turn outward because
• 1:00:49
  they've tried turning outward and it didn't work.
• 1:00:51
  They didn't get the reinforcements they needed.
• 1:00:53
  They're in trouble. And so they turned to God that
• 1:00:56
  he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of
• 1:00:59
  our enemies. Yeah.
• 1:01:00
  And also give us great strength. The Lord doesn't get tired of
• 1:01:03
  you asking for the same things over and over and over again.
• 1:01:08
  It's us who get tired of asking. I think, yeah, they had a choice
• 1:01:12
  to make here and they made the right choice, but not everyone
• 1:01:16
  does. Sometimes when when the sledding
• 1:01:18
  gets tough, we have the choice to turn the God or the choice to
• 1:01:23
  turn away. And I think in the in the Come
• 1:01:25
  Follow Me manual for this, I think it uses the example of an
• 1:01:29
  egg and a potato. If you put both of them in
• 1:01:32
  boiling water, one becomes more firm and one becomes more soft.
• 1:01:37
  And so in the face of those trials and tribulations, that's
• 1:01:41
  often when our faith has tried, and that's when we need to be
• 1:01:45
  very intent on turning heavenward.
• 1:01:48
  I love that and it says verse 11.
• 1:01:50
  It came to pass that Lord our God did visit us with assurances
• 1:01:54
  that He would deliver us. But you'll notice He didn't tell
• 1:01:57
  him how nor when, and so much that he did speak peace to our
• 1:02:02
  souls and did grant us great faith and did cause us that we
• 1:02:06
  should hope for our deliverance in him.
• 1:02:10
  So there are many of you watching who are probably
• 1:02:12
  feeling as if you've been holding on with the fingernails
• 1:02:16
  of faith to that that rope of hope for so long.
• 1:02:21
  And you're saying I can't do it anymore.
• 1:02:24
  And I think the Lord's saying, yes, you can.
• 1:02:27
  You've got this. Keep going.
• 1:02:29
  Those fingernails, fingernails of faith will hold on.
• 1:02:32
  And it says we did take courage with our small force, which we
• 1:02:36
  had received. So once again, as they get that
• 1:02:40
  reassurance, they get that that courage that can only come from
• 1:02:45
  above. And they say, OK, he's going to
• 1:02:47
  deliver us, let's do it. And they go into that battle.
• 1:02:49
  You think, OK, so the battles like it did here, nobody's going
• 1:02:54
  to die. But there is there is a reality
• 1:02:59
  that comes up a little bit later in the.
• 1:03:00
  Chapter Yeah, we read that in verse 40.
• 1:03:02
  It says, but behold, they have received many wounds.
• 1:03:07
  Elder Anderson gave a great message in General Conference
• 1:03:09
  titled Wounded and we will all be.
• 1:03:12
  By the way, we love the story of the stripling warriors when they
• 1:03:17
  fight that first battle and no one is injured, no one's ever,
• 1:03:20
  everyone comes out unscathed. But I wonder if the writers of
• 1:03:23
  Scripture thought that might be too Pollyannish.
• 1:03:27
  We should probably remind them that life often looks more like
• 1:03:31
  the next battle where everyone was wounded.
• 1:03:34
  But here in verse 40, it says they've received many, many
• 1:03:37
  wounds. Nevertheless, they stand fast.
• 1:03:41
  And it goes on to say, and they are strict to remember the Lord
• 1:03:45
  their God from day-to-day. And I would say parenthetically,
• 1:03:48
  in spite of being wounded, they restrict remember the Lord their
• 1:03:53
  God. And they do observe to keep His
• 1:03:55
  statutes, and his judgments and commandments, and their faith is
• 1:03:59
  strong, and the prophecies concerning that which is to
• 1:04:03
  come. That's that's powerful.
• 1:04:06
  And and he follows it up in verse 41 with with a petition to
• 1:04:11
  God and to to Moroni, to whom he's writing this letter.
• 1:04:15
  Captain Moroni, he says, and now my beloved brother Moroni, may
• 1:04:18
  the Lord our God, who has redeemed us and made us free,
• 1:04:23
  keep you continuing his presence.
• 1:04:25
  Yeah. And may he favored this people
• 1:04:26
  even that he may have success in attaining the possession of all
• 1:04:30
  that which the Lamanites have taken from us, which was for our
• 1:04:34
  support. And now we hold.
• 1:04:35
  I close my epistle. So here's Healman closing up his
• 1:04:40
  epistle, saying mission accomplished.
• 1:04:43
  The four cities that had been lost, we've got them back,
• 1:04:49
  brothers and sisters. You can you can picture a
• 1:04:53
  similar sentiment at certain points in in this life, as well
• 1:04:59
  as on the other side of the veil for certain people who keep the
• 1:05:05
  faith, they keep pressing forward, even through death if
• 1:05:09
  need be. They keep going and the Lord
• 1:05:14
  wins those battles for them and with them, fighting with them
• 1:05:18
  and empowering them to the point where families will be able to
• 1:05:23
  say that which we had temporarily lost, it's back.
• 1:05:30
  There's some great promises to parents who have sent their
• 1:05:33
  children out in the battle only to see them wounded.
• 1:05:37
  President Faust gave just a really hopeful message in April
• 1:05:42
  of 2001 entitled deer are the sheep that have wandered.
• 1:05:47
  And he he says to those broken hearted parents who have been
• 1:05:52
  righteous, diligent and prayerful and the teaching of
• 1:05:56
  their disobedient children. We say to you, the Good Shepherd
• 1:06:00
  is watching over them. And then and then he goes on to
• 1:06:04
  quote worsen F Whitney, who quotes Joseph Smith and we don't
• 1:06:08
  have time to go into all the doctrine behind this because
• 1:06:11
  there's principles of agency and accountability that that are
• 1:06:14
  eternal. But he he quotes Orson F Whitney
• 1:06:18
  saying, saying this, the Prophet Joseph Smith declared, and he
• 1:06:23
  never taught more comforting doctrine, that the eternal
• 1:06:27
  ceilings of faithful parents in the divine promises made to them
• 1:06:30
  for valiant service and the cause of truth, would save not
• 1:06:34
  only themselves, but likewise their posterity.
• 1:06:37
  And he says, though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the
• 1:06:40
  shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel
• 1:06:44
  the tentacles of divine Providence reaching out after
• 1:06:48
  them and drawing them back to the fold.
• 1:06:51
  Either in this life or the life to come, he says, they will
• 1:06:54
  return, they will have to pay their debt to justice, they will
• 1:06:57
  suffer for their sins, and may tread a thorny path, But if it
• 1:07:01
  leads them at last, like the penitent prodigal, to a loving
• 1:07:05
  and forgiving father's heart and home, the painful experience
• 1:07:09
  will not have been in vain. And then he concludes by saying,
• 1:07:13
  Pray for your careless and disobedient children.
• 1:07:17
  Hold on to them with your faith, hope on, trust on, till you see
• 1:07:22
  the salvation of God. I take great comfort in that.
• 1:07:27
  I don't know how all that works, but I do have faith in a loving
• 1:07:31
  Heavenly Father and of a Savior whose atonement is infinite.
• 1:07:35
  That's powerful and it's it's a powerful reminder that it's not
• 1:07:41
  the end there. There's still hope for people as
• 1:07:46
  we extend love and mercy and kindness and continue to teach
• 1:07:50
  correct principles. Which now brings us to these
• 1:07:54
  these closing up chapters where we now shift back to the eastern
• 1:07:59
  part as Captain Moroni keeps working his way southward along
• 1:08:04
  the seashore until at the very end, we finally get back all of
• 1:08:10
  our lands here. But before that can happen,
• 1:08:14
  Moroni sends this letter in Chapter 59 to Horn, who is the
• 1:08:18
  chief judge in the capital. And he is, I think it's safe to
• 1:08:25
  say he's he's not neutral and he's worked up when he's writing
• 1:08:29
  this letter. He's not trying to focus on, I
• 1:08:33
  better not say it so harshly, that might hurt his feelings.
• 1:08:36
  He's not thinking about that because he's out watching people
• 1:08:40
  die. He's on the battlefront and he
• 1:08:42
  doesn't have patience for what's going on back in the capital
• 1:08:46
  city. I think the real the real
• 1:08:48
  message in this account is the way Pahoran receives it.
• 1:08:51
  He assumes positive intent and he says, you've censured me, but
• 1:08:56
  I'm not angry. In fact, I rejoice in your
• 1:08:59
  goodness. And boy, how magnanimous is that
• 1:09:02
  for him to respond in that way. And that's, that's something
• 1:09:06
  that I need to do better about. Is, is just looking at the
• 1:09:09
  positive, assuming positive intent in my interactions with
• 1:09:13
  people. That's a, a happier, joyful way
• 1:09:17
  to live life. And my hat's off to to Pahoran
• 1:09:21
  for exhibiting great meekness and patience in his response.
• 1:09:25
  I I agree, it makes you wonder if Pahoran had an advance copy
• 1:09:28
  of President Nelson's talk Peacemakers needed because he
• 1:09:31
  perfectly applies those principles here.
• 1:09:33
  And that's the beauty of relationships is to do what
• 1:09:38
  Pahoran does here is see through all of that and say it's OK,
• 1:09:43
  It's OK. And you keep loving somebody,
• 1:09:46
  not just when they're lovable, but especially when they're not
• 1:09:49
  lovable. That's the real test of your
• 1:09:51
  relationship, is how you treat somebody when you quite frankly
• 1:09:55
  have every right to just crush them emotionally or or
• 1:10:00
  relationally. Yeah, yeah, Elder Bednar talks
• 1:10:02
  about that. He says that is that's one of
• 1:10:05
  the mark of a true disciple is how we treat people and their
• 1:10:08
  time of of, of weakness when they're at their worst.
• 1:10:13
  And I think Pahoran saw that in Moroni, knew all the great
• 1:10:17
  things about Moroni, but was able to swallow the weakness
• 1:10:22
  that came through in that letter with a really beautiful
• 1:10:24
  response. Powerful.
• 1:10:27
  So now brings us to Chapter 62, where Moroni leaves people to
• 1:10:34
  guard what they've already retaken and he comes back to the
• 1:10:37
  center. And again, if you look at this
• 1:10:40
  from the perspective, this one lens that we pointed out of this
• 1:10:45
  is this is my life and my battle against, against opposition and
• 1:10:49
  evil. Sometimes you have to abandon
• 1:10:53
  some of those things out here. These, we, we might even call
• 1:10:56
  them secondary endeavors or these, these secondary causes of
• 1:11:03
  life and come back to the heart of the issue, back to the
• 1:11:09
  capital and get it right. Cleanse the inner vessel first
• 1:11:12
  before we then go back out and start working on these things.
• 1:11:16
  And it's this sometimes back and forth process and it's OK, It's
• 1:11:21
  OK The Lord, one of one of my favorite attributes of the Lord
• 1:11:24
  is he's long-suffering and he's patient with us.
• 1:11:28
  So he goes back. We set aside the the secondary
• 1:11:34
  efforts for a moment, come to the heart of the issue, set it
• 1:11:37
  right there. And then he can go back out and
• 1:11:42
  he finishes off those battles in chapter 62.
• 1:11:46
  And we have completed the the take back of all these cities.
• 1:11:51
  Now back to your example of the the Los Angeles Dodgers.
• 1:11:57
  See, we read the Book of Mormon and we know these stories and we
• 1:12:00
  knew how it ended. So probably not very many of you
• 1:12:04
  when we were back in chapter 51 were thinking, oh, no, Oh no,
• 1:12:09
  it's OK. It was going to be OK.
• 1:12:12
  And yet how many of you are going through a chapter 51 or a
• 1:12:15
  chapter 53 or a chapter 56 part of your life right now and you
• 1:12:20
  don't have a clear vision of the end.
• 1:12:23
  And so it can create that anxiety and that that fear,
• 1:12:27
  rather than faith in the Lord, we can put our our energy into
• 1:12:31
  the fear of the devil or the fear of what the world might be
• 1:12:35
  doing. I love this, this conclusion to
• 1:12:40
  remind us that you don't have to be in the dark about how this
• 1:12:44
  all ends. We just turn our focus and our
• 1:12:48
  attention to the Lord and to his prophets and to the Scriptures
• 1:12:52
  and it's pretty clear. Yeah, it's it's not in question.
• 1:12:54
  Yeah, yeah. Now we've got great reason to be
• 1:12:57
  of good cheer. You know, when the Savior would
• 1:13:00
  say that to the disciple was it was often in their time of in
• 1:13:04
  their time of tribulation and trial.
• 1:13:07
  It was when they were on the boat that was tossed by the
• 1:13:11
  contrary waves. It was right before he went into
• 1:13:15
  the Garden of Gethsemane. It was in Liberty Jail.
• 1:13:18
  It's those times that He's told us to be of good cheer and and
• 1:13:22
  keep the end in mind and know that because of the Savior and
• 1:13:25
  His infinite Atonement, all will be well for those who strive to
• 1:13:29
  come unto the Savior. Powerful so now is this is this
• 1:13:34
  concludes the war ends in chapter 62 and 63 Captain Maroon
• 1:13:40
  I died and by the way, if you do the math on his life, he's very
• 1:13:47
  young. He he's somewhere in the
• 1:13:49
  neighborhood of 43 years old. This is this is an amazing
• 1:13:54
  character. He's clearly Mormons one of his
• 1:13:58
  heroes right names his own son after Captain Moroni and he's
• 1:14:03
  the one who wrote if all men had been in war and ever would be
• 1:14:06
  like him to Moroni, the very powers of hell would have been
• 1:14:09
  shaken. But sometimes we overlook the
• 1:14:10
  fact that he died very young, relatively speaking.
• 1:14:15
  And yet if if we were to have Captain Moroni as a guest today,
• 1:14:20
  do you think he would say, oh, man, let me tell you how
• 1:14:24
  terrible my life was? Let me tell you how how much I
• 1:14:27
  sacrificed for Lord. And then I ended up dying young.
• 1:14:29
  I got wounded in multiple battles and and fought both
• 1:14:32
  against Nephites as well as Lamanites in and it was.
• 1:14:35
  Do you think he would say that or do you think Captain Moroni
• 1:14:39
  would stand here and say I wish I had 10,000 lives to give the
• 1:14:44
  Lord? I could be wrong, but I think
• 1:14:46
  it's the latter. I agree.
• 1:14:48
  So we say farewell to Captain Moroni, we say farewell to to
• 1:14:53
  Helaman, who led those stripling warriors that we've said
• 1:14:57
  farewell to Tiankum who went and killed Amaran just like he had
• 1:15:01
  done in Malachi. Unfortunately, in this case, he
• 1:15:04
  he was killed in the process. So that whole generation is now
• 1:15:10
  on the other side of the veil. So how does this next group of
• 1:15:13
  leaders respond? And by the way, you've
• 1:15:16
  experienced stepping into a leadership role with some pretty
• 1:15:20
  big names before you. That's right.
• 1:15:22
  You can picture. So Shiblon takes the the plates
• 1:15:26
  from his brother Heelman for for a moment, it's kind of fun.
• 1:15:29
  Many people overlook that fact that Shiblon was actually one of
• 1:15:31
  the record keepers. And then he's going to hand it
• 1:15:34
  on to Heelman. And in the process, you watch
• 1:15:36
  this group of leaders and many of them, they say we're done.
• 1:15:41
  We're we're leaving this conflict because even though we
• 1:15:45
  took back all these cities and we pushed the Lamanites out,
• 1:15:49
  they know, just like you know, that the devil never gives you a
• 1:15:54
  free pass. He never says, OK, well, I'm
• 1:15:56
  done. I'm I'm done trying here.
• 1:15:59
  I'll, I'll, I'll give you a free pass.
• 1:16:01
  They know they're going to come again.
• 1:16:03
  So a lot of people, thousands of people in this chapter, chapter
• 1:16:08
  63, as well as Helium and three are going to migrate northward
• 1:16:12
  to land northward. There's a group who enters the
• 1:16:16
  water here with Hagoth near Bountiful in the West Sea, and
• 1:16:21
  they all go northward. They build many ships and head
• 1:16:23
  northward and many migrate by land as well.
• 1:16:28
  They leave. They're they're done.
• 1:16:30
  And we don't hear their story because the Book of Mormon stays
• 1:16:33
  here in Zarahemlan. And it says at the very end.
• 1:16:38
  And thus ended the account of Alma and Healman, his son, and
• 1:16:42
  also Shiblon, who is his son. And we closed the book of Alma
• 1:16:47
  that is so loaded with all of these stories.
• 1:16:50
  And now we turn our attention to Healman as we prepare for the
• 1:16:53
  coming of Jesus Christ among the knee fights in in the book after
• 1:16:58
  this third knee fight. And you can feel things shifting
• 1:17:01
  gears among these people in the Book of Mormon at this.
• 1:17:05
  Point Yeah, I think the, I think the message not only of the
• 1:17:09
  scripture block that we've covered today, but the whole
• 1:17:11
  book of Alma and even even the whole Book of Mormon is that we
• 1:17:16
  have a loving heavenly Father. And because of his Son and his
• 1:17:22
  Atonement, we can have not only protection but joy in this life
• 1:17:27
  regardless of the battles that we face.
• 1:17:30
  And we have that hope, that unique peace that comes because
• 1:17:34
  of the Atonement. I have a witness of our Savior
• 1:17:38
  Jesus Christ, and that he is not only our Savior, but our
• 1:17:43
  Redeemer. And he is there to redeem us not
• 1:17:45
  only from the transgressions and sins that we have in our lives,
• 1:17:50
  but also to redeem us in the sense of enabling us with power
• 1:17:55
  to find joy in this life, to do hard things.
• 1:17:59
  And I, I, I witness of the, of the sweet peace that comes as we
• 1:18:05
  strive to be his disciples. And I leave that witness with
• 1:18:09
  you. In the name of Jesus Christ,
• 1:18:11
  Amen. Amen.
• 1:18:12
  Know that you're loved.