Oct 4, 2014 Reunion Messages
Sister Janelle Cook
My Beloved Brethren and Sisters,
I am very pleased to be here tonight with all of you and especially for those that are not here in this chapel with us but are in Uruguay, Paraguay, and other parts of the world. We extend our love and blessings to all of you and thank you for your righteous lives.
Introduction of our family
My husband asked if I would tell you about our family and many of you know that we have eight children. We have five boys and three girls. I will start with the oldest son, Troy.
Troy was eight years old when we left for our first mission. He picked up Spanish very quickly and he still speaks Spanish without any English accent. He and his Renee with their five children live in Idaho Falls, Idaho where he works as a counselor there in a high school. He loves his job.
Travis and his wife Ashlee live in the city of Alpine, Utah which is just a few miles east of here. They have four children. Travis and his partner own a computer company which has over 100 employees where they make web pages.
Terrell our third son and his wife Cindy live in Spanish Fork, Utah with their four children. Terrell has worked for New Skin in their networking department for almost ten years and leads a group of men as they travel to Korea where they have a very large part of their company there.
Jenny our oldest daughter was just three years old when we arrived in Uruguay. She and her husband Brian live in Cedar Hills Utah. Brian works at a college as a CFO (Chief Financial Officer). They have nine children; there last two are twin boys so they have their hands full.
Holly who was born in Uruguay, she and her husband Scott live in Stockton California. They have eight children and she is expecting their ninth. Her husband is a professor at the Pacific University there in Stockton and he was recently called as a stake president.
After our mission to Uruguay my husband was called to be the Area Supervisor for the Andean Area where he supervised five countries which are: Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia and Venezuela. Jared was born in Quito, Ecuador and he and his wife Allison live here in Lehi, Utah. They have two children where he now works for Domo which is another computer company in Lehi.
Jason has four children with his wife Sally; they live in Eagle Mountain, Utah (West of Lehi). He works for Adobe, another computer company. So we have four sons that are "computer geeks."
And last but not least is Shelly. She and her husband live in Sparks, Nevada (a sister city to Reno) where he works for Amazon. They have three little ones now.
So that is a little breakdown of where our kids are and what they are doing. They are all so, so busy and we try and get around to see all of them at least a couple of times each month for those in Utah, and we have a monthly family gathering as well which is pretty crazy with all the little kids running around, but we all love being together. For those that live out of state we travel to see them at least once a year and they usually come home a couple of times each year as well, which is nice.
Then as far as our health is concerned we are both in a very good place right now with not many pains or aches, which is such a blessing for us as it hasn’t always been that way. Gene had a bowel surgery where they removed a foot of his colon almost a year ago, and he feels like new man for which we are so so grateful. It is like he has been given a second lease on life.
He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease a couple of years ago, but I will tell you that I don’t know what has happened with that because with the medication he is on he has really improved. At least that is what I keep telling him. Hopefully this condition will hold on forever so that we will never have to see the awful symptoms that come from that terrible disease.
We spend most of our time going around and seeing our family, probably like you do with your children and grandchildren having dinners and so forth. We do family history together. We read the Sunday School manuals and our Relief Society/priesthood manuals together, we also love walking together. We enjoy attending the Temple together. He also enjoys working on some of his personal files/history and he loves it. We are very happy and loving our life very much.
A DOCTRINAL THOUGHT
In conclusion I thought maybe I would share a spiritual thought with you. This is something that has been on my mind because I have been reading in Mosiah for my regular scripture reading this past week or so. Then when Gene said that maybe it would be nice if you shared something with you tonight, I thought that I could say something about King Benjamin and his beautiful discourse that he left for all of us to ponder and pray over and to try to apply his teachings to us in our lives.
I love the vision that he creates when he asked the people to come and set up their tents facing the temple. We may not literally be able to do this but we surely can consistently have our thoughts and also your hearts turned towards the temple. So, as we do so, we can spiritually turn our homes pointing towards the temple and remember how important the temple work is for us in these latter days. That the hastening of the work is so great and so wonderful that we need to do our part, to do our own family names, and as we attend the temple that our children will also learn and know how important the temple is to us.
Mosiah, as he talks to his people, goes on to say and instructs us about how we should love one another and serve one another. He also tells us how we must give thanks to the Lord for the blessings that we receive each day. Every single one of us can do better in that area, I know I can. And the message he left for us in Mosiah 2:19 is about loving and serving one another:
And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!
I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—
I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will,
You probably as well as I do wake up every morning giving thanks to the Lord that we have another day that we can live and move about and do the things that He has asked us to do, and even to remember that he is supporting us from one moment to another.
I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
I love that, you know when He promises something He keeps his promises and it is up to us to keep our promises that we have made to Him so that these great and wonderful blessings will be ours.
Then in the very last verse, this verse, I remember sharing with the missionaries and members has always remained in my heart all these years and it is one of my favorite and probably yours as well:
And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
Aren’t’ those beautiful words, they just really reach into my soul and give me that hope, and I am filled with such gratitude because I know that these words are true, that the Book of Mormon is true and every word that has been read here will bless us and guide us back to that happy state.
Many of us here will feel this gratitude and will look forward to that happy state knowing as we live and keep his commandments, we will be blessed to be able live with our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ again. I pray my brother and sisters that each of us will ponder these words; read them over and over to remind us of the great promises that He has made to us as we keep His commandments and live faithfully to the end.
I love my Heavenly Father and He loves each of us, I know my Savior lives and He is our Redeemer and I am so grateful for this gospel of Jesus Christ. I give thanks for a living Prophet and to know that we are so greatly blessed to be able to sit and listen to the words of our latter-day Prophet and Apostles tomorrow, and what a blessing they are to us. I love all of you and thank you all so much for being here tonight and for helping us be reminded of those great and wonderful years we spent with you in the mission field and as friends since then as well.
I leave this testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
My Beloved Brethren and Sisters,
I am very pleased to be here tonight with all of you and especially for those that are not here in this chapel with us but are in Uruguay, Paraguay, and other parts of the world. We extend our love and blessings to all of you and thank you for your righteous lives.
Introduction of our family
My husband asked if I would tell you about our family and many of you know that we have eight children. We have five boys and three girls. I will start with the oldest son, Troy.
Troy was eight years old when we left for our first mission. He picked up Spanish very quickly and he still speaks Spanish without any English accent. He and his Renee with their five children live in Idaho Falls, Idaho where he works as a counselor there in a high school. He loves his job.
Travis and his wife Ashlee live in the city of Alpine, Utah which is just a few miles east of here. They have four children. Travis and his partner own a computer company which has over 100 employees where they make web pages.
Terrell our third son and his wife Cindy live in Spanish Fork, Utah with their four children. Terrell has worked for New Skin in their networking department for almost ten years and leads a group of men as they travel to Korea where they have a very large part of their company there.
Jenny our oldest daughter was just three years old when we arrived in Uruguay. She and her husband Brian live in Cedar Hills Utah. Brian works at a college as a CFO (Chief Financial Officer). They have nine children; there last two are twin boys so they have their hands full.
Holly who was born in Uruguay, she and her husband Scott live in Stockton California. They have eight children and she is expecting their ninth. Her husband is a professor at the Pacific University there in Stockton and he was recently called as a stake president.
After our mission to Uruguay my husband was called to be the Area Supervisor for the Andean Area where he supervised five countries which are: Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia and Venezuela. Jared was born in Quito, Ecuador and he and his wife Allison live here in Lehi, Utah. They have two children where he now works for Domo which is another computer company in Lehi.
Jason has four children with his wife Sally; they live in Eagle Mountain, Utah (West of Lehi). He works for Adobe, another computer company. So we have four sons that are "computer geeks."
And last but not least is Shelly. She and her husband live in Sparks, Nevada (a sister city to Reno) where he works for Amazon. They have three little ones now.
So that is a little breakdown of where our kids are and what they are doing. They are all so, so busy and we try and get around to see all of them at least a couple of times each month for those in Utah, and we have a monthly family gathering as well which is pretty crazy with all the little kids running around, but we all love being together. For those that live out of state we travel to see them at least once a year and they usually come home a couple of times each year as well, which is nice.
Then as far as our health is concerned we are both in a very good place right now with not many pains or aches, which is such a blessing for us as it hasn’t always been that way. Gene had a bowel surgery where they removed a foot of his colon almost a year ago, and he feels like new man for which we are so so grateful. It is like he has been given a second lease on life.
He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease a couple of years ago, but I will tell you that I don’t know what has happened with that because with the medication he is on he has really improved. At least that is what I keep telling him. Hopefully this condition will hold on forever so that we will never have to see the awful symptoms that come from that terrible disease.
We spend most of our time going around and seeing our family, probably like you do with your children and grandchildren having dinners and so forth. We do family history together. We read the Sunday School manuals and our Relief Society/priesthood manuals together, we also love walking together. We enjoy attending the Temple together. He also enjoys working on some of his personal files/history and he loves it. We are very happy and loving our life very much.
A DOCTRINAL THOUGHT
In conclusion I thought maybe I would share a spiritual thought with you. This is something that has been on my mind because I have been reading in Mosiah for my regular scripture reading this past week or so. Then when Gene said that maybe it would be nice if you shared something with you tonight, I thought that I could say something about King Benjamin and his beautiful discourse that he left for all of us to ponder and pray over and to try to apply his teachings to us in our lives.
I love the vision that he creates when he asked the people to come and set up their tents facing the temple. We may not literally be able to do this but we surely can consistently have our thoughts and also your hearts turned towards the temple. So, as we do so, we can spiritually turn our homes pointing towards the temple and remember how important the temple work is for us in these latter days. That the hastening of the work is so great and so wonderful that we need to do our part, to do our own family names, and as we attend the temple that our children will also learn and know how important the temple is to us.
Mosiah, as he talks to his people, goes on to say and instructs us about how we should love one another and serve one another. He also tells us how we must give thanks to the Lord for the blessings that we receive each day. Every single one of us can do better in that area, I know I can. And the message he left for us in Mosiah 2:19 is about loving and serving one another:
And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!
I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—
I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will,
You probably as well as I do wake up every morning giving thanks to the Lord that we have another day that we can live and move about and do the things that He has asked us to do, and even to remember that he is supporting us from one moment to another.
I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
I love that, you know when He promises something He keeps his promises and it is up to us to keep our promises that we have made to Him so that these great and wonderful blessings will be ours.
Then in the very last verse, this verse, I remember sharing with the missionaries and members has always remained in my heart all these years and it is one of my favorite and probably yours as well:
And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
Aren’t’ those beautiful words, they just really reach into my soul and give me that hope, and I am filled with such gratitude because I know that these words are true, that the Book of Mormon is true and every word that has been read here will bless us and guide us back to that happy state.
Many of us here will feel this gratitude and will look forward to that happy state knowing as we live and keep his commandments, we will be blessed to be able live with our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ again. I pray my brother and sisters that each of us will ponder these words; read them over and over to remind us of the great promises that He has made to us as we keep His commandments and live faithfully to the end.
I love my Heavenly Father and He loves each of us, I know my Savior lives and He is our Redeemer and I am so grateful for this gospel of Jesus Christ. I give thanks for a living Prophet and to know that we are so greatly blessed to be able to sit and listen to the words of our latter-day Prophet and Apostles tomorrow, and what a blessing they are to us. I love all of you and thank you all so much for being here tonight and for helping us be reminded of those great and wonderful years we spent with you in the mission field and as friends since then as well.
I leave this testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
President Cook
My Beloved Brethren and Sisters,
(Begins in Spanish this section)
INTRODUCTION
I want to say a few words in Spanish for those that are listening to us in Uruguay and Paraguay, and in all the world, in truth, there are many that are listening. Singing the beautiful mission song "La Uruguaya" and I might add La Paraguaya, how much it touched my heart. We want to welcome you very much for those that are listening and not only here in this chapel but around the world. I am going to give my talk in English but wanted to at least greet you in Spanish.
I will now return to English and we will translate and broadcast the remainder of my talk in Spanish. Sister Cook and I want to begin in Spanish so that everyone knows how much we love you. Thank you.
(End of this Spanish section)
Well, singing that song "La Uruguaya" was not easy for me to sing and for some of you by the way too.
Brother and Sisters, because we are broadcasting this I am confined to walking just in this small space, to stay in view of the camera, which if you know your President is pretty difficult, because he likes to walk up and down the aisles and all over and I cannot do that, so I’ll have to be content not doing that. I have a place to sit down up here because I am getting old and it hurts to stand very long so I may sit down for part of the time.
We do welcome you and I am so grateful that Sister Jan Bankhead came. We will forever love the Bankhead’s for the great service they rendered to us in the mission, and as mission presidents in their own right, and since then. Also Elder Bob Packer is one of the Area Seventy and his wife Shelley are here and how thankful we are for them. Also, we are thankful for President and Sister Sergio Pricoli, and President Larry Bird and his wife who are all in Mexico serving as mission presidents right now and listening in. We know that there are other mission presidents that have sent us e-mails and they wish they could be here but they have their own missionary reunions where they served as presidents, and they were torn, and I said there was no question about it that they should go to their missionary reunions. I think they were probably relieved at that, but that is because that is where they should be.
We are so pleased that we have all of you here and are thrilled to be able to renew your acquaintance and feel your great spirits. We have so many memories, and to see your faces and recall the experiences we had together. President Fred Essig and his wife MaryAnne just returned from Chile and we were with them just a month or so ago and he is with his missionaries from Chile tonight. We wish they were with us but we know why they cannot be.
And Elder Eduardo Gavarret let me know, as you know who is one of the general authorities that he could not be here for the same reason. You know that we have two Uruguayan missionaries that are general authorities, do you know that? Eduardo Gavarret is one of the Seventy who many of you remember, and Elder Walter Gonzales, who was my executive secretary later was called as a general authority and was even in the Presidency of the Seventy and was just released from the Presidency of the Seventy and is now the President of the Presidency of the area of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile. It is great thing to have two Uruguayan that are general authorities and who knows how many more the Lord may call before we are through.
We have a very special family here too, and I don’t want to embarrass them but could if I get the Berta family to stand up, this is Cristina Berta, and her family. I know that some were sick and not able to come, but this is a wonderful family. Their dad and Mom, I was privileged to baptize along with Cristina, and her brother Angel who is deceased.
The mother Sister Berta was a tremendous missionary. When I served as a missionary in 1960 to 1963 in that branch in Rodo’ she was responsible for the baptism of a multitude of people herself. She was a missionary of missionaries. I don’t know how many she is responsible for coming into the church maybe 50, 85, or 100 people coming into the church. They were able to go to the Sao Paulo temple before their dad died and be sealed. I am so honored they would come as they are among my baptisms in Uruguay. Their children are going on missions now, just as your baptism’s children are from one generation to another and it goes on and on doesn’t it? That is the blessing we have for having served a mission. I think no greater cause could we have been engaged in than something like that.
I also wanted to mention our Portuguese missionaries that sometimes we overlook. We did not have many of them that served in Brazil along the border, but we are thankful for them as some of them are listening in as well. I am delighted they were part of our mission in those days as well.
I would like Jim Bliss and his wife to stand up if you will, wherever he is, and his team. They are really a great team. These brethren are doing technical stuff, Dallas Powell especially, that I would never be able to do. They are helping to broadcast this all over the world. They are a really great team and we want them to know of our appreciation. Jim Bliss and his wife have done a wonderful work of leading this team for this reunion; I hope you will express your appreciation to them.
We are hopeful that Mitch Olsen and his wife accept the nomination to be the new missionary reunion chairman made by Bob Packer and voted on by all of you. He will do well. I bet they wished they had come so that they could have voted no. I am sure they would have been here if they had not been committed somewhere else. Hopefully he will be the chairman next time.
A FEW INTERESTING FACTS
Well I would like tonight, to share a couple of tidbits of information and then go right into what I would like to do and then I am going to have the last part for questions so you should think about what you might want to ask. I think we started about 10 or 15 minutes late didn’t we, so we probably are going to end about 8:45 if that is alright with everybody.
I was very touched by President Thomas S. Monson in the conference before last when he stood up and said, "This broadcast is going to 195 nations throughout the world. I went to Google afterwards and learned there were 195 nations in all the world, which means that that broadcast was going to all nations on the face of the world. Then flashed into my mind Mathew 24:14:
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Now I personally believe that we are not there yet because we are only established in about 150 nations and I think we need to be established probably in all nations before He comes because he needs to have not only a religious spiritual government in the church, but He needs to have a civil government in most countries as well. So I think the time is not tomorrow but it is not far distant when we will be established in every country around the world. And He will come. I have spent years trying to put together a chronology of the last days and I finally have a rough draft of that done now of "The Sequence of Events of the Last Days" that will occur before he will come.
And I testify and you all know and will testify with me that He will come. And the world will be caught as a thief in the night. As it says in Doctrine and Covenant 106:4-5:
And again, verily I say unto you, the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and it overtaketh the world as a thief in the night— Therefore, gird up your loins, that you may be the children of light, and that day shall not overtake you as a thief.
The saints have no need to be caught by surprise. If we will watch for the signs of the times and learn what they are, we will know of his coming and we will see the signs and know it is time right before He actually appears.
Here are a couple of interesting facts that you might not know and especially those in Uruguay and Paraguay. In the United States, there are 50 states in the United States and:
1. Utah has the most Mormons, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints more than any other state. The last numbers I saw it was about 62% are Mormons and about 48% are non-Mormon.
2. It is interesting that in Salt Lake City there are more non-Mormons than Mormons and they come from all over the world and we are now in the minority in the city. So what do we do to take it back? Does anyone want to guess as to how many missions there are just in Salt Lake City proper? Anyone want to guess? Four? Three? There are six missions in Salt Lake City itself. Can you imagine that?
3. Utah is the most baptizing state in all the United States. We baptize more people here than in any other state in the United States. We plan on them all being Mormons before we are through. Hopefully it will be the case at least for the faithful among men. I think the same is true in your countries for those that are listening. I have contemplated as I have traveled in so many countries in Latin America that the majority of those people, the faithful, good people, will be members of this Church before it is all over.
4. Here is one other interesting tidbit. In some of the surveys they have done recently they have found that the number one state of the 50 states, that is the least stressful, or people that feel they have the least stress are those that live in Utah. They scored number one.
5. And just last week came out a study about happiness, and who of all the people in all the Untied States, which state is the happiest state? Or who are the people that feel the happiest? Utah is number one. I heard that on Bill O’Reilly who is a famous commentator here in the United States, and he asked the question of some that were with him, "Why could that be from Utah, how could they be number one?" And one of the men that was with him said, "Because I will tell you why, I have never met a Mormon in my whole life that was not happy." That was quite a tribute to the Church.
Well we are unique and we can count our blessings that we are members of the true Church of Christ. I know you do, and I humbly do, and would be thankful to be counted even if I were the last and least of all, as a member of this Church. You can take any piece of it, the Relief Society, the Young Women, the Welfare Program, the Missionary Program, or 50 others, as many as you can count, there is no other church that even comes close to any one of these divine programs let alone the whole the total of His Church. This is His church, I testify that is so.
HONORING THE LORD
Now what I would like to do with the remainder of my time as you wanted me to do through the years is to teach some doctrine, and then give you a chance to ask some questions, so I am going to do that but I am going to do tonight a little different than I have done before. I am probably not going to use the chalk board or have you write much down as I usually do.
My hope is, my desire is, that with my remaining time I may just honor the Lord. I don’t even have a title for this talk except that I desire with all my heart to honor the Father and the Son for what They are. And as Sister Cook said, to remember how much they have prospered and blessed our lives and all of yours as well. My greatest desire as I have got older, and older, and older, is to have a pure heart. I have prayed a great deal for that, and to get rid of any desire, intention, or motive, attitude, let alone any action that would somehow not be a pure broken heart and a contrite spirit before the Lord. I desire that more than anything I could ask for that the Lord would grant me that. I think that He has really worked on me to try to get me to that point to truly seek that blessing to have a pure heart.
I have discovered some new depths of humility that I never knew before and I am going to try to describe them to you. They are not easy to describe so I hope you will bear with me.
I remember as a missionary in 1960 probably 1961 or 1962 of giving a talk at the request of the mission president on Mathew 5:16 which says: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
I remember pondering that as a missionary, how does that work. If I do all the work why is it He gets all the glory? And I remember thinking through, how does that work? So I thought about it and prayed about it, and realized that that is what the whole war in heaven was about, that very issue. Satan was trying to take glory away from the Father and the Son. I thought to myself, how can you really be humble, how can you truly be able to glorify the Lord?
I like to have you do this for a minute. I would like to give you 30 seconds or so to think about two or three of the greatest accomplishments that you have made in your life. Go ahead and think about this, get it in your mind just for a minute. (Elder Cook pauses for 30 seconds or so).
May I say it humbly, I will say it for myself, and it will apply to you as well, there is not one single thing in all my life for all that I have been blessed with to do, that I could claim credit for, not one. I think of all the places we have served, of all the thousands, and tens of thousands of people where I was present that were baptized. I think of all the thousands and probably tens of thousands of missionaries that were called in the nations. I think of serving in all those areas where we lived for half of my life with my family outside the United States.
I think of all the wonderful miracles I saw time and time again. I think of the healing the Lord gave me in Mexico. I was right at deaths door and was told I would die in six months with pancreatitis, and yet he snatched me back from death. I think of numerous other healings he gave to me too many to count and to my family as well---real miracles.
I think of serving in the Scripture Committee, the Curriculum Department, the Church Magazines, the contribution the Lord allowed me to make there, the Priesthood Department, the Family History department, the Temple department, the Missionary Department numerous times, and many other things. And every time I was there, there were wonderful things that happened that affected the entire Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I am sorry to stand here and admit to you but it is true that on occasion I took credit for some of that.
I failed to fully recognize that somehow the gifts that the Lord gave me somehow caused those things to happen. And I recognize that we are all only instruments in His hands and He uses the weakest of us to accomplish His work, doesn’t he?
And don’t you think as you think about your greatest accomplishments you would honestly have to say that you never did one of them? And I think that when you pass through the veil and you see things for what they really are you will fall on your knees and beg forgiveness that you thought that it was you when it was really Him and his angels that help Him. Your part was a very small part of it all.
And yet some stand tall and take credit for those things. I think of the greatest thing that Sister Cook and I have offered to the world, of all those things that I just named, with our eight children, and their children, and forty first grandchild on the way, that I don’t think anything surpasses that contribution we gave to the world and to the Church of our family. But could either of us claim glory for all of that? You’re here because of Him. He, the Father and the Son, they gave them to us as they did yours. And it was our job and your job to do our very best to raise those children under His direction.
Galatians 6:3 comes to mind. I love these words of Paul, they say: For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. Or I think of Alma 38:14 where Alma says to his faithful son Shiblon: Do not say: O God, I thank thee that we are better than our brethren; but rather say: O Lord, forgive my unworthiness, and remember my brethren in mercy—yea, acknowledge your unworthiness before God at all times.
I have done that on occasion, maybe you have. I feel badly about that, and I have repented of it. (Elder Cook repeats Alma 38:14). Those are powerful statements. I think of King Benjamin where he says we are nothing and less than the dust of the earth and our bodies were dust and will go back to the dust. We are nothing and on the other hand we are everything because we are sons and daughters of God. We have divinity in every one of us, and we have the ability to become like God and to have had that knowledge revealed to us by the Prophet Joseph Smith which may be one of the greatest truths ever revealed that God is like us. What father would not want his children to be like him and give them every opportunity to be so? He loves us so much brothers and sisters!
He loves you so much. He would do anything to help you so that you truly can, when he appears as the scriptures say, you will find that you will be like him. Someone asked me not too long ago, "What are you doing with your time now that you are retired?" I said, "Well I am busier than I ever have been." But my answer in recent times is, "That I am trying to become the man I should have been 50 or 60 years ago." That is what I am doing. And I mean that with all my heart, trying to purify my heart, trying to be more Christ-like. I think of all His attributes and characteristics we have, of humility, long suffering, and patience and a long list I could name, once again, are those yours, did you gain those on your own? Not a one, it was Him.
I would like to read some words, and I would like to illustrate one word, but you can write these words down if you want, and then ponder them. I probably have over 10 words here so I will illustrate the first one and then go from there without illustration. The word is "protection." And I will apply it to myself. How many times was I protected in my life? I was born in this city of Lehi, Utah and as a baby we left here and we went to Boise, Idaho in the United States. We were there for six years and I had some bad friends that were non-members. I was not active in the church, nor was my family. And my friends were doing bad things, and if I had stayed there I am certain that nothing ever would have happened that happened in my life.
My father became so ill by "chance" and I put that in quotes, but he got so ill with arthritis that he was disabled for a year and the doctors told him that he had to move to a warmer climate or he would die. We moved to Mesa, Arizona where I was raised. There the Church was strong in many stakes, and things totally changed for me and my family. That is where I went on my mission, where upon my return I met my wonderful wife in Arizona as well. We lived in Arizona after we were married and had two children. How many times did the Lord protect me during those times? How many times did He protect me on my mission? How many times did He protect me in that wild, wild, wild, west, the west coast of South America in those early days? It was wild in those early years. We were spit upon, things thrown at us, threatened numerous times by the police, throne into jail, robbed, assaulted, the children were tear gassed, etc. Every time He was there and all the rest of my life even to this day.
I could make a longer list but I bear a humble but forceful testimony to you that it would be a very small list of the things he really protected me from. Most of which I do not know nor do you. But how many times did He or His angels stand in the way and save you, and you knew it not?
Now here are these other words. I said that I am not going to illustrate them but here they are so that you can ponder them:
Inspiration – over and over again
Revelations – for you and your wife… how many revelations have you had, tens of thousands whether you know it or not and then you can start to add to those that you think were your smart ideas and they were not.
Peace - Comfort
How many of your prayers have been answered? There are too many to ever number. And again even if I could number them there are many more that He has answered that I did not know about, and neither did you.
Encouragement - Healings
Trials – Some of you in this room are going through some real trials right now, as they that are in Uruguay and Paraguay and they are trying you to your last breath, to your very limit, but He is there and He will see you through every single one.
Pure Knowledge
Too many miracles to name
Your character and attributes of Christ
Please do with all the above mentioned items through the years of your life what I illustrated with the word "protection," and you will truly see how indebted you are to the Lord. Add to my list! You will then truly humble self to the dust, and ask for forgiveness for having been so spiritually unobservant, so ungrateful, and will give Him your gratitude from the bottom of your heart, with all your might, mind, and strength.
I think of myself of my great love of the scriptures when I was converted at age 12. What a gift! I think of the gift of being a missionary, of ministering to other people, a great gift of the Lord. But again it was all Him. I continue as I hope you do, to try every day to touch the heart of someone. Pray that the Lord will put someone in your path, someone to help with a phone call, sometimes with just a smile at a cashier at a store to cheer her up, proselyting to take someone to church, or to take the missionary lessons. We have a number of people taking the lessons right this very day. We are forever thankful this very day for all these gifts from the Lord.
I think of this scripture that changed my life when I was young I learned in the mission field, actually before that when I was a teenager and was reinforced in the mission field. It is that scripture that brought us to Utah from Arizona in a most unusual manifestation of the Spirit of the Lord. It is one verse and it is D&C15:6 and the whole section only has six verses and it is repeated in D&C 16 and they are almost identical save it be for one word
And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen.
That is where the true joy is isn’t it brothers and sisters, with our families, with those around us, namely to bring souls to Christ. That is what it is all about. Now I would like to lastly apply Alma 26 to you who are here listening in this hall and also to you who are listening in the various countries around the world. I am going to go through quite a few verses in Alma 26 and apply them to me and to you so I am going to read quite a bit which typically your president doesn’t do, but I don’t know all these verses by memory so I surely could not repeat then all.
I want you to think about Uruguay and Paraguay and then the rest of your life where you are going to serve. I am first of all going to read verses 1-7 wherein Ammon is glorying in the Lord trying to honor Him. What a powerful chapter and what we are trying to do tonight is to honor the Lord and give glory unto Him is it not?
And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings? (Could you imagine when you left your home for Uruguay and Paraguay the many blessings that were bestowed upon you and the people’s lives you touched)? And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell? (I have tried to give you a touch of that before in this talk).
Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how many of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work. (And you are all doing that today in your callings I am sure).
Behold, thousands of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold of God. Behold, the field was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might, yea, all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number
of your sheaves! (And a few of my sheaves are on the back row back there) And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted.
(Then there is this great verse about the last days)
Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day ;( When these terrible plagues come and destroy out a 1/3 of the population and wipe out a good part of the United States and all other nations to just mention one of the plagues. There are terrible things that are going to happen) yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them.
But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest, and they are his; and he will raise them up at the last day.
Now Alma 26: verses 12 -16: Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, (Remember he was trying to counter the counsel that he was boasting too much) but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever. (Don’t be caught in the trap my brothers and sisters of saying that I did this or I did that! Make sure you say "we," and by that you mean you and your wife, or associate, and the Lord, always including him).
Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?
Yea, we have reason to praise him forever, for he is the Most High God, and has loosed our brethren from the chains of hell.
Yea, they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction; but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea,
and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.
Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.
Here are verses 27-29: Now when our hearts were depressed, (We have all been there haven’t we?) and we were about to turn back, (We have done that at times haven’t we?) behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.
(I think of you missionaries every time I read this verse) And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.
(Now these two last verses 30-31) And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might
be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some. Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us.
Think about your converts they see you as angels that can walk on water. Can anyone ever glory too much in the Lord? Never!
My dear brothers and sisters I conclude this counsel and bear testimony to you, saying praise to God and the Lamb. All that I am or ever hope to be is because of Him. We must do better to give thanks every day and in giving our gratitude to Him. The scriptures say in D&C 59:21:
And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.
May we do better than that. May we recognize humbly that we cannot do anything except through His powers and that He can use you as an instrument to do good in His hands.
I bear testimony to that and give my praise and glory to the Father and the Son and the HolGhost as well, who has been my constant companion my whole life. And he has been so especially in my later years and I am so thankful for that.
I bear testimony to you that these things are true and I say this to you humbly in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.