Talk by President Hoer

Story of Swiss Air Flight 111 – Paul: “I am not sure why I was preserved – I must have some purpose to fulfill.” What is my purpose?

In the mission, we constantly teach the missionaries to ask themselves this question, “what is my purpose?” For a missionary, our purpose is clearly stated in Preach My Gospel: Find Teach and Baptize. After one’s mission, the prophet has said our priorities should be to 1) establish an eternal family (which is a less direct way of saying, “get married”) and 2) obtain an education.

But what is our purpose as members? The answer to this question can be found in the mission of the church. What is the mission of the church? When I ask this question, I most often get the following response: 1) perfect the Saints, 2) preach the gospel, and 3) redeem the dead; however this answer omits the most important part of the mission statement. The full statement reads “to bring souls unto Christ” by 1) perfecting the Saints, 2) preaching the gospel, and 3) redeeming the dead.

Therefore, our purpose as members of the church can be stated as using a variety of means to bring souls to Christ. In a family, bringing souls to Christ starts with bringing ourselves, our wives and husbands, our children and other family members unto Christ.

When we know our purpose, then we can ask ourselves, “Is what I am doing right now helping me to achieve my purpose? Ultimately, our life is made up of time. How we spend our time determines what we achieve in this life – including if we achieve our purpose, or not.

Now we know there is opposition in all things. In 2 Nephi 2:11 we are told there must be opposition in all things. In verse 17 and 18 we read where the opposition comes from: Satan “became the devil having sought to do that which was evil before God. And because he had fallen from heaven and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all mankind.” So we know the purpose of Satan!

Verse 16: “Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one of the other.”

I used to coach boy’s soccer teams -- our boys started playing soccer at age 5. At that age, some young boys don’t realize they are even playing a game. They are distracted by people in the sidelines. They run about, totally unaware that the ball is passing them by or the opposing team is about to score a goal. They don’t realize their lack of action could cost them the game.

Unfortunately, we see people in and out of the church that act much like these young boys playing soccer. They have no idea they are fighting a battle and are so distracted by the things of the world – the things on the sidelines that don’t matter -- that Satan is able to bind them into captivity and lead them carefully down to hell.

In soccer, games are often decided by just one goal. Unfortunately, the game of life is similar to soccer in that sometimes just one goal by Satan is enough for us to lose the game. We cannot afford to be complacent!

I have found one of the most effective and biggest lies that Satan will tell us is: “This is a little thing – it does not matter.” However, the Lord tells us, in fact, small things do matter. DC 64:33 and Alma 37:6-7.

What are the small things with regards to bringing our families unto Christ? The brethren have told us over and over again. (In fact, our local leaders here in Taiwan have come up with a formula they call 3+2. The three things are family prayer, family scripture study, and family home evening. The plus 2 things are keeping the Sabbath Day holy and paying a full tithe.) [If time discuss temporal blessings from Sabbath and Tithing.]

1.Family Prayer – set a time and do it. To date, out of about 350 missionaries that have passed through the Taichung Mission while Sister Hoer and I have been here the past 3 years, I have yet to meet one that was unable to accomplish his/her goals due to lack of ability. The reason for failure to accomplish a goal is almost always not setting a time to accomplish the goal. This is why Franklin Day Planners became such a hit – (and I can say this because I own no stock in Franklin Day Planners and you don’t need to use the planner, just the idea). First, write down your goals for the day and week, then write down when you will do those things. Nobody will fail on saying family prayer because of lack of ability. We fail because we do not set a time. With any goal, if you are not accomplishing your goals, ask yourself if you are setting a time.

2. Family Scripture Study – There were many mornings Sister Hoer and I wondered if reading the scriptures had any impact on our kids. Sometimes they would be all be sound asleep. Sometimes, we felt like sleeping! However, we now know that scripture study had a great impact on their lives. Sister Hoer just received a letter from one of our sons regarding her example of studying the scriptures:

You have been the best and most consistent example in my life as far as
things of a spiritual nature. I think I probably started reading the Book
of Mormon because I remembered all of the times when you read to us in the morning and when I saw you reading on your bed when I would come home from school. I know how much that book means to you and it has left a strong impression in my mind that I can't ignore. I know how
different my life might be without the countless prayers you have said on my
behalf, and the times you have left my name in the temple. I want you to
know that I do notice when you make such an effort to always be such a good
example to me, and that it does sink in and it does affect me.

3. Family Home Evening: The key with family home evening is to start out very young. Maybe when we read “out of small things proceedeth that which is great” it means small children! In our family home evenings, we made we taught an important principle, but we also made sure to have fun. Our kids had a hard time being serious singing the songs, probably because we are terrible singers, but we had a good time. Our kids would always change the words to the songs. In fact, I remember singing “Swallow the Chocolate” instead of “Follow the Prophet”.

The Lord has said in DC 130:20-21 that when we obtain any blessings it is because of obedience to the law upon which it is predicated.

On the other hand, DC 93:40-42 tells us the source of family unhappiness.

Verse 49: what I say to one, I say to all.

So in summary, so far we know:

First: our purpose is to bring souls to Christ – especially our family.

Second: Satan will do everything he can to make us fail in this goal because he wants us to be miserable like he is.

Third: We have clear direction that the way to bring our families to Christ is to have family prayer, family scripture study and family home evening.

So knowing that we have a fool proof method to overcome Satan’s plan to destroy our families and make us miserable, why don’t we do these three things. It has been said, We judge ourselves by our intentions and we judge others by their actions. We need to judge ourselves by our actions as well.

Well, I suppose the list of excuses is as long as the day is long – but they are just that – excuses!

But basically I think our excuses can be summarized into one, we don’t think it is worth the effort and two, we don’t think we can do it.

Let’s address the first by reading in John 7:17 In other words, we must act, then we will obtain a witness that these things are of God. They are true. In fact, if we will obey any of the commandments, we will see in our lives the great impact.

The second reason why we might not be doing these three things that will bring our families to Christ is because we don’t think we can do it. We might have great obstacles against us – perhaps we do not have the support of our spouse. Or perhaps we do not have a spouse. In this case, I bear testimony that you can do these three things alone – and the blessings will come. For many years, I traveled in my job and often Sister Hoer had to hold family prayer, scripture study and family home evening all by herself – but she did it and our family has been blessed because of her determination to do so.

One of the great lessons in the Book of Mormon is what we like to call “youbanfa” – when everybody says there is no way, then read the Book of Mormon and you can see there is a way. The Book of Mormon stories make our excuses look pathetic! I am convinced one of the reasons these testimonies are in the Book of Mormon is so we know we can accomplish any righteous endeavor.

Read about Nephi 1 Nephi 3:7 and 15. Now if you told your family, as the Lord liveth and as I liveth, we will have family prayer before I go to the work wilderness each morning, then I think you will be successful. By if you are like Laman and Lemuel. 1 Nephi 3:5 Oh, this “is a hard thing” that is required.

Ammon: Alma 17:28,29, 36 When we are standing next to Ammon at the judgment day, we are going to feel pretty lame saying, Oh, I didn’t have time for family scripture study. Then the heavenly clerk will say, but the record shows you watched 11,863 hours of TV in your life. (which is only half hour per day – the exact amount of time needed to read the scriptures)

The sons of Heleman: Alma 56:6-7 I was going to have family home evening, but my wife wouldn’t make treats. Whatever our excuse is, I guarantee we are going to feel pretty embarrassed and deeply regretful. We need to have a youbanfa attitude – we will hold family home evening or die trying.

In Moroni 7:33 – we are told we can accomplish anything that is expedient in the Lord.

Faith is action and usually the action that is required is to change, or in other words, faith unto repentance.

Testimony.