Companion speaker to High Councilor talk

January 13, 2019:

Good morning Brothers and Sisters, my name is Elder Goon and I recently returned from my mission in South Korea. There is probably so many good reasons why coming home is great but I’ve really been having withdrawals from my mission specifically with teaching. I’m having the most vivid dreams of teaching the gospel and it’s kind of weird. And when I’m driving, I don’t know exactly how it happens, but somehow the radios turned off and I’m 10 minutes into teaching the Plan of Salvation just teaching the road I guess and my shower has probably heard the mission of the restoration about 30 times. So I’m really grateful for this chance to speak because I really miss teaching the gospel on my mission that was something I very much enjoyed, I wouldn’t say I was good at it, but I really miss it. Today I get to speak on teaching and learning in the church, specifically with the new schedule and the new program the church has put out. Also, my talk is notes from the recent Ensign article by Elder Jeffery R Holland called Making your Life a Soul Stirring Journey of Personal Growth. I thought that was the most interesting title for this specifically the word Soul Stirring. I didn’t really know what stir meant, like I know it’s doing this (motions with hand) but I don’t actually know the definition of stir. And I looked it up and it says to mix, to add or to move. So when I think of our soul mixing I thought of our soul mixing with other souls here on earth and us helping each other. I thought of adding to our souls, a big theme in our mission was adding light to our souls. And I thought of moving our souls towards God. I think the church’s new policies on teaching and learning in the home supported by the church is a great way to stir our souls. There is a sentence that Elder Holland uses that I kind of what I want to base my talk on, it says “our souls were created to grow” and I have a big circle that says “our life’s purpose” because I’ve explained the purpose of life to many people I know a lot of many different ways but I think the word grow is maybe the most perfect way to explain the purpose of life. Elder Holland talks about how learning, becoming living and teaching are the keys to personal growth. Teaching learning and living the gospel are key principles to progression, sometimes we call it conversion, and sometimes we simply name it repentance. And I found it interesting the Elder Holland is saying eternal progression and conversion and repentance are the same thing. I noticed that Elder Holland, when he talks about learning, he makes a clear distinction between listening to a lesson and accumulating knowledge and improvement, knowing the truth and changing. I think teaching is really a part, especially to be a great teacher. I think of all the amazing teachers I’ve had in my life and they all have one thing in common and that is love and teaching people not lessons. Elder Holland talks about this. I thought it very fitting because missionaries are heavily trained on teaching people not lessons. On my mission lots of times I’d be in a lesson about the Book of Mormon and the person would ask a question about the Word of Wisdom. Nine times out of ten, my companion would say oh we’re not talking about that now, we’ll get to that later and go on with the lesson. I’d let him talk for a little bit and then when it was my turn, I’d say Brother Kim, you mentioned back there the Word of Wisdom, let’s talk about it, and I’d talk about it. And after those type of lessons, me and my companion would always have a moment where I’d tell him, we are not here to teach the Book of Mormon, we’re here to teach this man and if he wants to know about the Word of Wisdom then that’s what we’re going to teach him. I think it’s really easy to teach people and not lessons when we’re teaching just one person or sometimes 2 or 3 or 4, but when I was reading through this talk and Elder Holland was talking about teaching people and not lessons I couldn’t help but wonder about the seminary and Sunday School teachers who with the new combination of quorums have to teach 30, 40 sometimes 50 people all at once. I think it can be overwhelming to try to teach all those people at the same time. But I had an experience on my mission that I think can help people that might be struggling with that problem. I was at a devotional that I set up. I was in a position to get some missionaries together for a devotional and I invited the speaker to come and talk about some specific things because there were some missionaries in our zone that were having issues and I wanted him to address those and talk to those people. So this was a devotional for everyone, but specifically for two missionaries. So kind of went into that thinking o.k. I’m not going to get much out of this as it’s for not me, it’s for two other missionaries. But there was a moment in this man’s talk where he stopped and I could tell he was listening to something and he said “I don’t know why I have to say this but…” and he said something very short and simple for about 20 seconds, but that changed me and it hit me so hard and changed the rest of my mission. And as the missionaries were talking about their favorite parts from the devotional, as you guys know, almost everyone has the same favorite parts from the talk, but nobody even noticed this 20 second comment and no one even mentioned that it touched them or that they enjoyed it and I know that that was a teach who had prepared but was willing to listen to the spirit and for just 20 seconds was able to affect me. I don’t know about everyone in that devotional but I know that Heavenly Father is willing to teach us individually and he teaches us always and we just have to listen and as teachers we just have to be worthy and ready for Him to teach through us. The focus that I wanted to talk about today was teaching and learning in the home. As you guys know, our church has shifted from a church centered home supported church to a home centered church supported church and Elder Holland and President Eyring have some interesting things to say about that that have really related to a recent experience that I had that I want to close my talk with. Maybe 5 years ago, I heard a talk by Elder Robert E Wells. Elder Wells I guess is famous for speaking on the subject that Jesus Christ payed for our mistakes and this is kind of the topic that he always loves to speak about. He tells the story of a mistake that was made that resulted in his wife dying. He didn’t break a commandment, he didn’t do anything wrong, he just made a mistake and his wife died. After years of pain and grief he finally realized that Jesus Christ paid for his mistakes well and he was able to find peace and comfort in that. So I’ve been hearing this story for years, I’ve learned it and I know that that is true. It’s an accumulation of knowledge but up until a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t really have a testimony of what that meant. A few weeks ago, I was in a car accident that was horrible, no one got hurt and there wasn’t much damage but it was just a silly mistake that I made and I felt horrible. I remember right after I crashed, I thought that the Holy Ghost was in the passenger seat because he almost yelled at me “Don’t worry, Jesus Christ will pay for your mistakes”. So I thought maybe I’m going to get out and there’s not going to be even a scratch on the car. But that wasn’t true and I thought maybe I’m going to wake up and this was a dream, but that wasn’t true either. Maybe $10,000 is going to fall from the sky and Jesus really will be the one to pay for my mistake, but that wasn’t the case. So I kind of doubted that impression and thought how is Jesus Christ going to pay for this mistake? After an hour or so, my dad got involved and the other driver came and I just felt horrible and I was so scared and I thought I was going to get yelled at punished for a silly mistake. But when I got home, me and my dad had a very very short conversation maybe a minute or two which ended in my dad saying “Everyone makes mistakes, its o.k.” and then he gave me a hug and went to bed. I stayed up for maybe 20 more minutes just crying because of the joy I felt and I finally realized what it meant that Jesus Christ paid for my mistakes. He didn’t take it away, but he replaced the guilt and sorrow with peach and forgiveness. Elder Holland says this about God’s plan “Surely all things bear record of Him, that God is willing to teach us anywhere and anytime in informal moments with our children and our friends. This was truly an informal moment but my Dad’s forgiveness was able to increase my testimony of Heavenly Father’s love for us and our Savior Jesus Christ. President Henry B Eyring said “Though earthly families are far from perfect they give God’s children the best chance to be welcomed to the world with the only love on earth that comes close to what we felt in heaven, parental love. Families are also the best way to preserve and pass on moral virtues and true principles that are most likely to bring us back to God’s presence. I know that the strongest lessons I’ve learned have been from my family. The lessons that have changed me the most have been in my home.  I’m very grateful for the inspiration from our prophet and apostles to take the initiative to our homes. I know that parents aren’t perfect and children are far from perfect but if we try our best to live right and live the gospel and to teach and learn in our home that it will have 10 fold effect than just learning in church. I am grateful for this chance to speak and I‘m grateful for great teachers and great lessons and I know that as we follow our prophet and apostles that we can learn a lot in our homes. As we as a family try harder to live the gospel it brings blessings. And I know that what the prophets and apostles have taught us truly is going to make our life a soul-stirring journey. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.