Teach You All Things

"Behold I tell you that if you will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will teach you all things what ye should do"

2 Nephi 32:5

What a wonderful verse. This verse comes after Jacob teaches the people the way to gain eternal life which includes faith, repentance, baptism (in the manner if Christ's baptism) and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and then enduring to the end. The way that is referred to is the path to eternal life. If I enter into this path and receive the Holy Ghost not only will he teach me the things of eternity, but He will teach me all truth.

Last week Sister Sherry Stott and I were having a conversation at church after Sunday school about this topic. She had heard of a young student and was very smart. He was studying to become an engineer. He did quite well especially since he was foreign student from mainland China. He shared an experience he had while taking a test. On the test a question was asked where one of the necessary pieces of information was the conversion between feet and inches. He said he drew a blank. He had no idea of what the conversion was. He struggled for a few minutes until he remembered that the night before he had seen a commercial for a foot long subway sandwich, which caused him to think of the half foot which was 6 inches. Then he was able to complete the question. I had a few similar experience when  I was taking the PE Exam.

The experience that stands out most prevalently was a question involving a pipe between a reservoir elevated on a hill and a reservoir in a lower valley. I had to determine the length of pipe between them knowing only a few key things. I really struggled to determine what relationships between the bits of information were relevant enough to help me solve the problem. I thought through it several times. I left and came back hoping a fresh mind would help me to get through it, but nothing. Then realizing that I was not able to complete it, I said a prayer and asked simply for a relationship that I could use to solve the problem. The thought came to me to pick an answer and work it backwards from the solution. So I picked C and worked it back to see if I would get close to the information given. First shot I picked the right answer. Then, after I had picked the right answer the relationship that I had been missing became very clear to me. The Lord knew the best way to teach me many things that day. Not only did I learn the answer to this particular problem, I also learned that he knows all things and can teach you all things.

Teach our Children

Today Callie and I were reading in " Preach My Gospel" and one of the "Consider This" questions was "What is my responsibility in helping others become converted?" Callie and I agreed that the people we were primarily responsible for were our children. We could teach them a lot of things that would help them to choose the right but I am sure that that is not the extent of our responsibility. My responsibility as a parent is to teach my children how to have a relationship with the Savior and the to feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

A couple examples will illustrate this principle. First from the most recent General Conference. There was a talk given by Elder Larry Y. Wilson in the April 2012 General Conference entitled "Only Upon the Principle of Righteousness". He describes an experience he and his wife had with one of their daughters. She was a rather talented soccer player and was on a team that made it to the championships and some of the games would be played on Sundays. He his wife did not want their daughter to play on Sundays but felt that it would be best if they counseled with her and then allowed her to make her own decision. They were surprised to find that based on perceived pressure from coaches and teammates she would play in the games that were held on Sunday. While they were very disappointed and wanted to force her to make the correct choice, they stood by their decision to allow her to make her own decision. On the day of the game Elder Wilson's wife took their daughter to the game and stayed to pick her up. As their daughter came off the field and talked with her mom she said "Oh, Mom, that felt awful.  I never want to feel like that again. I'm never playing another game on the Sabbath day." This experience shows the power of allowing children to make choices and letting them learn from them. They could have forced her to do it the right way, but allowed her to make her own decision and she was able to see the difference in her own life of having the spirit and not having the spirit. She now has a conviction of the need to keep the Sabbath Day holy. More importantly is that she now had an experience for herself with the importance of a gospel principle, she probably also felt a desire to repent for not keeping the Sabbath day holy and was able to feel the peace in her life after she had done so. This gave her an invaluable experience with the Savior and the Holy Ghost that cannot be provided by a parent making the decisions for her.

I too had a similar experience. My first few years of college I would regularly study on Sunday. I knew it was not the best choice but I felt that I had no other option especially when time was limited due to work load or my own procrastination. After performing poorly in my first semester after transferring to the University of Arizona I decided to test the principle of keeping the Sabbath day holy. I would not study or do any school work on Sunday. I had 6 days to do all of my school work but on the Sabbath day I would not. It was a difficult semester with the heaviest load that I had taken up to that point, through the semester I struggled to keep up with the load but I never felt tempted to study on Sunday. As the end of the semester approached I was doing well, and considerably better than the previous semester. I was expecting to get mostly A's and B's but there was one class which was an upper division math course that I was struggling with that I thought I might end up with a C in and I had resigned myself to that fact. After finals I was blown away to find that I had not only done better than I was expecting but I had earned straight A's in all of my classes, including the difficult math class. I had tested the words of the prophets on the matter of Sabbath Day observance and as a result I received an priceless experience testifying of the blessings of Sabbath Observance. From that semester through the following I never again cracked a school book and was greatly blessed in my studies as a result.

Now these two experiences are simple, yet they illustrate an important principle of the gospel. No person can be saved in the Kingdom of God without their own testimony of Jesus Christ and without living the gospel principles based on their own knowledge of the plan of Salvation. As parents it is our primary role to teach the gospel to our children and provide opportunities for them to experience the love of the Savior on a first hand basis. Even if that means, as in the experience of Elder Wilson's daughter, that the way that they come to know the Savior is through the principle of Repentance. In every way we need to provide opportunities our children to come to know the Savior personally.

Preach My Gospel

Tonight Callie and I began to study Preach My Gospel together. I am excited for the opportunity, to study together. We haven't ever made it a practice to regularly study the scriptures together. Hopefully this can serve several purposes. Callie has said many times thay when it comes to scripturw knowledge she feels inadequate. I hope that the study of this will help build a foundation that ahe van feel comfortable with. Another blessing I hope to attain by doing this is hopefully as we study together as a couple we will learn how to feel the spirit together and then learn how to receive inspiratiom for our family together.

In the beginning...

I have been impressed by talks given by Elder Richard G. Scott with respect to his scripture study habits. As he reads he searches diligently for inspiration out of each verse that he reads. After receiving some insight he will record the inspiration in his journal. He makes it a habit to return back to his records and determine whetherer or not he has adequately recorded details of the insight the lord has given him. My desire is that this would be a place that I would be able to do that. I have made it a habit to read the scriptures with a notepad next to me to record inspiration, but I have had difficulty keeping track of my journal. I hope that this will be a place that I can keep some of my thoughts and inspirations sacred and refer back to them as I need to.