29: "I Will Lead You Along" (Doctrine and Covenants 77–80)

Tammy 0:00

Have you ever asked someone to do something, and they didn't do it? And you found yourself saying, "I thought I asked you to?" Or maybe you said, "You had one job to do!" Okay, I sometimes say that to my husband, because it makes me laugh every time I say it.

Well, in two separate revelations, sections 42 and 51, the Lord revealed the law of consecration and stewardship. Now, in both of those revelations, He mentioned something specific that the men were to do, and guess what, they didn't do it. And today as we study Doctrine and Covenants sections 77 through 80, I'm going to show you what the men didn't do and what the Lord had to say about it, as well as a few other things. And of course, when I say a few other things, I really mean a lot.

Welcome to the Sunday on Monday study group, a Deseret Bookshelf Plus Original brought to you by LDS Living, where we take the "Come, Follow Me" lesson for the week, and we really dig into the scriptures together. I'm your host, Tammy Uzelac Hall.

Now, if you're new to our study group, I want to make sure that you know how to use this podcast. So follow the link in our description. It's going to explain how you can best use this podcast to enhance your "Come, Follow Me" study, just like our friend—this is so exciting—our friend Brian O'Laughlin, who lives in St. Charles, Missouri. I mean, how cool is that? Get this guys. All of his kids go to Francis Howell North.

Abe 1:16

Oh, I see. I see how it was.

Tyler 1:19

Too good for Francis Howell, huh?

Tammy 1:22

We're all Francis Howellers.

Abe 1:25

See, so I was a Ft. Zumwalt North guy. Our Ft. Zumwalt South guy so I can't really say much.

Tyler 1:31

We never had a problem with them. It was always North, Howell North.

Tammy 1:35

Francis Howell North, but we still like you O'Laughlin family. So hi, guys! We're glad you listen. That was so fun.

Now another cool thing about our study group, and my favorite thing, is each week we're joined by two different friends; you kind of already heard their voices. And I've invited these guys back because they're so fun to have together. So it's not necessarily new. But I think of course the content's new so anything's fair game in today's episode. We have Abe Mills and Tyler Collett. Hi guys.

Abe 1:58

Hi, Tammy.

Tyler 1:59

Hi, Tammy. Hi, Abe.

Abe 2:01

Hi Tyler. Good to be here with you again.

Tammy 2:04

Okay, but wait, you guys both just got back from some pretty fun summer trips. Tell us where you went.

Abe 2:11

My wife and I took our 17-year-old, Tyson, to Peru. And living in Florida, we get some pretty good tickets—$250 round trip. I mean, I just, I can't even come to Utah for that cheap.

Tammy 2:24

But you did something specific there with monkeys? Is that right?

Abe 2:27

We did. So part of our trip, we always try to do something in terms of service. There is a place called Monkey Island on the Amazon River, and you can go and you can stay there at the Reserve. And you can do service—like cleaning up, helping feed the monkeys. It's funny because it's like you're doing service but at the same time, I feel like they're like doing you a favor.

So it was pretty amazing going there and hanging out with the monkeys. They're all so friendly. And they would lick my head because I sweat a lot. And so they'd be like, "Oh, there's lots of sweat there, and let me lick it for you." And I guess that's a big thing to do in the monkey community.

Tammy 3:01

Oh my gosh.

Tyler 3:01

Is it because of the salt?

Abe 3:05

I think it's because of the salt. But maybe they were just trying to, listen, they were, it was like three of them licking my head. And then the other ones went into my pocket and stole my phone. So maybe it was a diversion, you know.

Tammy 3:16

I'm out! I can't, there is no part of that, "Oh, that sounds like fun." I will never, I mean, you're supposed to never say never, but um, I'm never going to rake up monkey poop. And let them touch me. The first time they touch my back, I'm out. And lick my head? No. No. So I can think about other service projects I'd rather do. So kudos to the Mills family. That is awesome.

Abe 3:42

It was mesmerizing. Pretty awesome.

Tammy 3:44

Oh, wow. Okay, that is, that's a good trip. Tyler, what about you? You guys just got back.

Tyler 3:50

I decided to do a quick little weekend getaway not too long ago, down to Phoenix of all places. And it wasn't necessarily because of the beauty and the wonderful weather that Phoenix is. But it was more because the Cardinals were in town, and that's one of the closer cities to Utah. So we went down there, watched a couple of games, watched the Cards beat up on the Diamondbacks.

And then, now I'm hoping I'll have a story similar to Abe's, but our big plan is to take our daughters that just graduated from high school down to Panama coming up in August.

Abe 4:23

Oh, that's awesome. That'll be great. Take me with you.

Tyler 4:27

I'm gonna find a monkey and I'm going to high-five the monkey.

Abe 4:30

I'm pretty sure they have a Monkey Island in Panama. You got to look it up. I guarantee it's it's part of a tour somewhere.

Tyler 4:36

I want to.

Tammy 4:37

Why don't you do that, Tyler? I think my sister would really enjoy that. (NOT!) Yeah.

Tyler 4:50

Good! (laughs)

Tammy 4:56

Oh my gosh, that's awesome.

Okay, well, if you guys want to know more information about my guests and see pictures of them, you can find that information in our show notes which is at ldsliving.com/SundayonMonday. And Abe, I'm counting on you to give us a picture of that Monkey Island. Some picture from that trip. Can you put it in there?

Abe 5:00

Oh, definitely. We will do it for sure.

Tammy 5:03

All right, are you two ready for this? I am, because I asked these guys to help me teach today and I am so excited for it. You're gonna have to wait for it because it's at the end. It's like when you see a promo during a newsreel, it's like a feel good story and they make you feel like it's next, but it's not until the very end. That's what this is about. So these guys are gonna help me teach and I'm so excited. So just grab your scriptures and let's dig in.

Here we go, you guys, Doctrine and Covenants section 77. I want to know what your thoughts were right when you started reading this or looking at it.

Tyler 5:32

My immediate thought was, "Okay, Revelations. It's already over my head."

Abe 5:40

It's always interesting when you read in the scriptures and the Q&A thing pops up. When you first start reading that you're like, "Oh, no, how long is it?" (laughter)

Tammy 5:49

How long are we gonna do this Q&A format?

Abe 5:52

Yeah, but overall, it's interesting, though.

Tammy 5:56

Yeah. Tell me why you thought it was interesting? What did you notice about the format? And what are we talking about in this section? Why is it different from all the other sections?

Abe 6:05

So after the section heading, when you see a review of the verses, the first thing you see is "beasts"; "Beasts have spirits and shall dwell in eternal felicity." All of that just interests me because it's like, "Okay, so exactly what are we talking about here?" It's like an interesting puzzle to try to figure out.

Tammy 6:23

Oh, I like that, Abe. I like how you just said, "It's like a puzzle," because this section of the Doctrine and Covenants is about the Book of Revelation, which really does seem like a puzzle or a book of metaphor. So thanks, guys. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. That was excellent.

I mean, first of all, let me just let me ask you this. When you think about the Book of Revelation, what do you think of?

Abe 6:43

The last days, signs of the times, the type of things that we're like saying, "Oh, did you know that this that we're seeing today, is this from Revelation?"

Tammy 6:52

And there is so much stuff in that book that when you read it, you're like, "I don't know what a lot of this stuff means." And that is one of the things that was going through Joseph Smith's mind as he was doing his translation of the Bible.

And so what's unique about section 77 is the title for it is called "Insights to the Book of Revelation." So that's what we're titling it, "Insights to the Book of Revelation."

So a little history about this is it was not included in the original copy of the Doctrine and Covenants. Brigham Young later added this revelation by Joseph Smith in 1876. And I'm so glad he did.

So I'm going to kind of take a couple of verses and make them a little more plain and simple. So turn to the Book of Revelation, chapter four, verse seven, let's go there. And while you're turning there, I thought it was interesting that Joseph Smith, at one point in Church history, said that the Book of Revelation was, "One of the plainest books God ever caused to be written." Now that shocked me, "the plainest"? Because there's a lot of symbolism in the Book of Revelation, right?

I mean, just alone in Revelation, chapter four, verse seven, unless you know what this is about, it doesn't seem that plain. Tyler, do you have Revelation chapter four, verse seven?

Tyler 8:04

I do.

Tammy 8:04

Will you read that for us?

Tyler 8:06

"7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, And the fourth beast was like a flying eagle."

Tammy 8:20

That's just crazy.

Abe 8:22

It kind of sounds like a bad joke. It's like, "Uh, there was a lion, and a cat in a—

Tyler 8:27

Remember those Garbage Pail Kids? It sounds like you could make a Garbage Pail Kid out of the third beast: had a face of a man, it would be really easy to do. (laughters)

Tammy 8:40

Yes. Okay, so you read that and you're like, "What in the world does that mean?" Well, you know what? Joseph Smith's gonna tell you in section 77, verse three. And I love that somebody asked that question. The question is in verse three:

"Q. Are the four beasts limited to individual beasts, or do they represent classes or orders?"

Like, "What are we talking about here? What is that representing?"

Abe will you read the answer in verse four?

Abe Mills 9:04

"A. They are limited to four individual beasts, which were shown to John, to represent the glory of the classes of beings in their destined order or sphere of creation, in the enjoyment of their eternal felicity."

Tammy 9:18

You could study that forever, which we're going to do in two years. I cannot wait, I'm so excited for the New Testament. But the purpose of this section is about revelation, and knowing that Joseph Smith was able to read the Book of Revelation and then ask and get answers.

My question to both of you is, tell me what role you feel like the Prophet plays in understanding scripture?

Tyler 9:41

You know, for me, that's pretty easy to answer because the first few things that come into my head is clarity, to help clarify things, right? And then the other thing is understanding.

I try to put myself in the shoes of those that were alive back then and what religion in general must have felt like. You had all of these different sects saying that they were correct. You had all of these religious leaders preaching what they wanted to preach. And the Book of Mormon, being new, trying to understand that, I'm sure, must have been difficult. And so for me, the importance of a prophet is huge to be able to discern that understanding and clarification to those who are willing to hear it and accept it.

And I think it still goes on today. I mean, President Nelson, he's clarifying a lot of stuff, and he's helping us understand a lot of things. To me, that's just a testimony that prophets are indeed the spokesperson for God.

Tammy 10:43

Oh, excellent, Tyler. What about you, Abe?

Abe 10:46

Oh, no, I'm definitely in agreement with that. And everybody back then, they were new members of the Church. So they're bringing everything that they have into this new situation with new revelation—this new system of having a prophet. It was important to understand that you could go to the prophet and ask for something specific and that he could then go to God and say, "Okay, I can receive a revelation for this," which is really, when we talk about Doctrine and Covenants, that's what a lot of it is. People starting to realize more about revelation and what it means and why it's important to have a prophet.

Tammy 11:22

Well and Tyler, when you talked about the prophet has clarifyed things for us today, it made me immediately think of, he clarified the word Israel. And he taught us that it means to "let God prevail." We are living in a time of absolute truth, that the Prophet receives revelation for us for the church and can receive revelation about scripture. I thought that was so cool—letting God prevail and how that has changed our year, right? The timing of his talk, too. And then we have COVID. That was amazing.

Abe 11:36

Yeah, for sure. And, when you look at it, he's teaching us truth.

Yesterday in church, we had a talk that was about the difference between truth and fact. And the prophet, when he tells us what the scriptures mean, he gets us closer to understanding what the truth is. Not necessarily closer to what facts are, but closer to what the truth is. Truth is unchanging. And sometimes we understand things in a certain way. But with the prophet's understanding, we can understand better what God wants us to know about that specific truth.

Tammy 12:24

Abe, I'm curious, has there ever been a truth that you've needed to know more about and you searched it out?

Abe 12:30

Well, just the truth about prophets in general.

I was eight when we joined the Church, and I took Sunday school classes like everybody else. And when you talk about Joseph Smith as a Prophet, there's some things that you kind of just take as fact. But like I said, fact is fact, and truth is truth. And it was more important for me to know that that was the truth than it was to know that that was a fact.

Facts are determined based upon how people perceive things. But I wanted to know more about Joseph Smith and understand better about why he was so important to the Restoration of the gospel. And so lots of prayers, lots of fasting, and a couple of stints at the pageant, the Nauvoo Pageant. And working in the cast there just gave me a whole new understanding of the times, the circumstances, and the things that Joseph Smith went through in order to do what God wanted him to do.

Tammy 13:28

And what do you know now about Joseph Smith?

Abe 13:31

Oh, I know that he was a Prophet. And I know that it would have been a lot easier for him to say all of it's not true and do something completely different. There's so many different things that he suffered through in order to be a good disciple and a good follower of Christ. And so he teaches me a lot about what it means to be a disciple of Christ in tough times.

Tammy 13:54

Oh, gosh. You know what, thank you Abe. I appreciate you sharing your testimony of the Prophet. That was so cool. I like how you did that.

Tyler 14:01

I think we're kind of spoiled in our days. What I mean by that is, Joseph Smith was the first prophet in this dispensation, right? And so I mean, I'm sure to them, this is brand new. It's like, we're still trying to figure things out. I mean, and clearly here in section 77, it must have been confusing to the early Saints back then who weren't born into the Church, who weren't raised with this understanding to look at revelation and say, "What is all of this?" You know, "Well let's ask our new Prophet." I really appreciate that more or less just because it's that clarity. It's that understanding that God can give His people through the Prophet.

That's just kind of what I was thinking in the back of my head. We're kind of spoiled because we've been blessed to have a prophet our whole lives that has clarified many principles and many doctrines. I just feel kind of fortunate in that regard.

Tammy 15:04

Wow, thank you, Tyler. Thank you, Abe. I appreciate everything you've shared.

That's all the time we're going to spend on section 77. That's it. So, here's to our New Testament year, I can't even wait. But I do I encourage people to take the time to study the Book of Revelation if you haven't, or you can just wait till the New Testament. Either way, when we get there, we're gonna use section 77 for sure.

So at this time in Church history then, Joseph and Sydney, as I said before, they're translating the Bible in the John Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio. And now while they're translating, Joseph receives a series of revelations over the course of the next 15 days, and those will be sections 78, 79, 80, and 81. We're gonna study these sections, except for section 81, we're gonna do that next week. And in the next segment, we're going to find out the topic of the first of these four revelations.

Segment 2 15:51

...

Tammy 16:01

Alright, you two. Have you ever said to someone, "I thought I asked you to," or "You had one job to do"? (laughter)

Abe 16:10

Hey, you've been listening in on my conversations?

Tammy 16:14

Tell me about it. Have you ever said those? What does that look like in your life?

Abe 16:18

That's like a daily conversation with my kids. Like, "I thought I told you to." Oh.

Tammy 16:26

And how does it make you feel when you have to say those words?

Abe 16:31

Around our house, it's kind of like, "Oh, so nobody pays attention to me, huh?" That's what—

Tyler 16:39

You're always right, but nobody cares.

Abe 16:42

Exactly.

Tammy 16:47

So great. Okay, well, we're going to look at section 78, verse three, and we're going to see what that phrase and those feelings that you shared, Abe, have to do with the Lord.

So let's go to section 78 and verse three. Tyler, will you read verse three for us?

Abe 17:01

"3 For verily I say unto you, the time has come, and is now at hand; and behold, and lo, it must needs be that there be an organization of my people, in regulating and establishing the affairs of the storehouse for the poor of my people, both in this place and in the land of Zion."

Tammy 17:20

Now, here's what the Lord asked them to do. And we talked about this at the very beginning. You can put the cross reference next to verse three, section 42, verse 34, and section 51, verse 13. So if you go back and look at section 42, verse 34, and section 51, verse 13, both of those verses are going to say the same thing. What the Lord asked the people to build, and they just hadn't done it yet. In both of those verses, he says build a bishops' storehouse, we need a bishops' storehouse.

And so they have a full year. It's been a year since those revelations and now the Lord's like, alright, listen, the time's come, okay?

So now He's going to explain it to Joseph Smith, and the men who are current for this revelation, by saying, alright, listen, we need a storehouse, and here's how we're going to do this. We're going to establish an organization that's going to help build a storehouse.

Now, in the section heading, it talks a lot about this establishment, and it's called the United Firm. Now, the United Firm is also known as the United Order. So let me help break this down a little bit. The United Firm or the United Order is not the same as the Law of Consecration. It's a part of what allowed the Law of Consecration to be successful.

So I thought this was kind of cool: the United Firm, it never had more than 12 members ever in the history of the Church. It didn't last for more than two years. And this United Firm, it only included men who had property. So anyone that had any consecrated business or partnership that the Lord could use became part of this United Order that lasted for two years. So I thought that was kind of cool, and it's not new.

And I'll put these scriptures in our show notes. You can kind of read some history of a storehouse, a bishops' storehouse—its kind of always existed. And so it's part of the Restoration, it's being restored back onto the earth. We need a bishops' storehouse.

Now in verse three, it tells us who the bishops' storehouse is for so look back at verse three. And tell me at the very end, who benefits from the bishops' storehouse?

Tyler 19:21

The poor of my people.

Tammy 19:23

Very good, highlight that: "the poor of my people." Who is that?

Tyler 19:28

I look at that as those that live their life every day, but just kind of struggle to make ends meet and need some looking after, so to speak.

Abe 19:41

When you talk about the poor of my people, you know, sometimes it's like, "You're just poor and that's the way that you always are." Not necessarily that way. Sometimes people just get into situations where they need that help.

And so, you know, I've been in a situation where our family has been in situations where we didn't want to take the help from the bishops' storehouse, but our leaders wouldn't let us get away with that. And so we've had those opportunities to go and partake of that system and have that system help us.

And you know what? It's interesting because the same people who receive that help, you may find that they're doing the service and filling up the baskets for other people for other times and so I think that if there was ever a welfare system, that this is the way that it was meant to be.

Tammy 20:29

So cool, thank you, Abe. What about you, Ty?

Tyler 20:32

Yeah, I can remember a time that I had a visit to the bishops' storehouse a few times.

In my first marriage, just shortly after coming back from college, getting married, and newlyweds living in a duplex apartment, money's tight. Bills are racking up and it's like, "Okay, gosh, what do we do?" You know, "How do we live? How do we survive? The sales at Smith's or Kroger or anything like that, they are nice, but I still don't have the money for them." And no shame in that.

We went right over to the bishops' storehouse, got what we needed. We made it to the next paycheck, and slowly but surely, were able to get to where we can go to Smith's, or wherever, for our groceries. And we've been blessed since that time. And second marriage, fortunately for us, we haven't had to utilize the storehouse in that capacity.

Now, it's not to say my kids haven't gone and performed service there, because that's happened. It was a really eye opener for them; I think they really learned quite an appreciation of what they have here at home.

Tammy 21:40

You guys, thank you. I truly appreciate your vulnerability and being willing to share your stories about using the bishops' storehouse. That just came to me this morning when I was getting ready. The inspiration, Tyler, the revelation was, "Ask them if they've ever used it." I've never thought that. But there are people who need your story.

Abe 21:57

And we might need it next month. I mean, you know, you just never know, you know, things happen. You know, I'm saying like, it's just one of those things where people lose their jobs. They think they're gonna retire and then all of a sudden the market shifts. And, you know, their retirement used to be a million dollars. And now it's 100,000 because of some weird thing, you know, stuff happens. You never know.

Tyler 22:17

Or people lossing their jobs because of COVID.

Abe 22:18

COVID. People aren't working, all of this stuff, man. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Who was it, Elder Christofferson? He was talking about it, he's like, we were in a situation where we had financial troubles. I'm like, looking like, "Hey, see, he did it too."

But because sometimes we feel like man, if we're in a bad financial situation that is all on us. And for him, he looked at it like, okay, I feel like it was God showing me to be dependent on Him on a daily basis. There was nothing else I could do but pray to Him, and to just beg that He would take care of us for the next day. So he likened it to manna and how that works.

Tyler 22:54

Neal A. Maxwell. He basically said that, "Ss Brigham Young said, 'This is the place,' in regards to trials and tribulation, it can be said 'this is the way.'"

Tammy 23:06

I like that.

Abe 23:07

Ah, "And that is the way," that, what is that? That's the "Mandalorian," right? I knew there was some tie-in there.

Tammy 23:17

Yeah!

I just, you go back to saying, "There's no shame in it." And there is no shame because look back at verse four, would you really be ashamed of, "glorifying your Father who is in Heaven"? No way.

Abe 23:29

Not at all.

Tammy 23:29

That's what the bishops' storehouse is about. It's about glorifying your Father in Heaven. Whether you're serving, whether you're receiving, it's all intertwined. Everybody's poor in spirit who's in that building at that point. We're all helping each other joining together.

Abe 23:29

And whether or not He gave it to you through the bishops' storehouse, or He gave it to you through your job, it doesn't matter, He gave it to you. I mean, the fact that you can get up and go to work is a gift from Him. So as we understand that, we become less worried about accepting gifts, or accepting help; we become more concerned about glorifying God and then we can accept it or not.

Tyler 24:05

And It allows others to serve us. And it sounds selfish, but it allows them to perform acts of service.

Abe 24:12

Yeah. We feel blessed when we serve people, right? So that should make for other people feeling blessed to serve us. Somebody's got to be the ones being served.

Tammy 24:24

Yeah.

Abe 24:23

Take your turn.

Tammy 24:24

Take your turn. Amen. I love that. Take your turn.

Abe 24:28

My cousin's daughter, she went and she would do service at the bishops' storehouse. She's not a member of the Church, but it was the place and it was close to where they lived. She told me, "I didn't even know until like, last year." I think it's an amazing thing, like I said, and I think that part of being able to serve there and part of going there and being able to receive the blessings that they have to give. It's all about just trusting in God and allowing God to give us what He wants to give us and when we have what God has given us, you know, freely giving it to others. And so I think it's just that concept.

Tammy 25:09

You know what, I just want to thank both of you for sharing such personal and appropriate examples of bishops' storehouse, that was so great. So thank you. I just want to follow up your comments with verse eight, because it's exactly what both of you ended up saying.

Verse eight says, "And now, verily thus saith of the Lord, it is expedient (or necessary) that all things be done unto my glory, by you who are joined together in this order."

And that's exactly what this has done. It joins us together. And when we talk about the poor of my people, for me, I was like, who is the poor? It is the people who need help, but I feel like those of us who are poor in spirit and do service are joined. I mean, there's just so much purpose in the bishops' storehouse. When you mentioned Abe, your niece doing service, and Tyler, your kids going there and doing service. It's all interdependent; we're all poor, and we all need to be joined together so that we can then bring that to the glory of our Father who is in Heaven. So it's a perfect system, like you said, it's a great welfare system, Abe. It absolutely is.

The section title for section 78 is "The Purpose of the Law of Consecration." And as you continue to read section 78, the main purposes of this section is equality and independence.

So if you bracket off verses four through eight, put "Equality" to the outside of those verses. And then bracket verses 14 through, 14 and 15, which the Lord talks about "Independence." Independence, meaning independence from state; independence from anybody else and letting us take care of each other is what it's about.

Tyler 26:45

I like your clarification on your version of poor because we are, we are all poor in spirit, right? Whether we are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or not, or a different belief, a different religion, whatever. I mean, we're all poor in spirit in that regard. It's very humbling actually, together like that.

Abe 27:11

That's the king Benjamin thing, right? Are we not all beggars? So it's like, "Okay, yeah, yes, we are."

Tammy 27:19

Every one of us; some of us might be begging for food and some of us might be begging for spiritual help. Whatever it is, we all need each other, every single one of us. And so we are joined together for sure through this Law of Consecration. The United Order is a part of it; it's going to allow us to join together and to create this bishops' storehouse. So thank you. That was a really great discussion, you guys. I appreciate that.

Okay, so the next segment is going to be so fun and so cool and so Hebrew. Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited to share what we're gonna learn. I just want to get into the next section, because my Hebrew teacher just happened to be teaching this to me last week. And I looked at her and I'm like, "Why are you teaching this now?" And she's like, "I don't know, it just came into my mind." And I said, "Well, because I needed it for section 78." So I'm gonna show you what she taught me in the next segment.

Segment 3 28:02

...

Tammy 28:13

One of the things I gained a testimony of this year is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preparatory. Heavenly Father has always given us just a little bit here to get us ready for what He's going to give us next. And so the whole idea of the Law of Consecration has been preparatory.

For example, going clear back to section 6 of the Doctrine and Covenants when the Lord says, "I want you to establish Zion," they didn't know what that meant. But He's just gonna throw that out there for them to think about. And then they do think about it. And they're wanting to know where Zion is going to be, but He's not going to tell us until we get to Section 57.

So meanwhile, between section 6 and section 57, guess what He teaches us? He teaches us about the priesthood. He establishes His Church. He organizes a sacrament. He teaches us about baptisms. Then He teaches us about being one and we learned about this in section 38. And then in 42, he teaches us the Law of Consecration, and then 57, He's like, here is Zion. And then in 58 He says, "It's an honor to lay the foundation of Zion," and then 78 we get: And now here's the purpose of the Law of Consecration that I've been wanting you to live—this idea of being one.

Now, we're going to go back to Doctrine and Covenants section 58; we did not get to study these two verses when we were with Amy and Riley. We didn't have time, again, because Heavenly Father was like, yeah, you're going to cover it in section 78, so don't even worry about it here. It's so much powerful now.

So turn to section 58. I want to show you something really cool. This is the Law of Consecration chapter. And in Section 58, we're going to look at verses seven, eight and nine. Now if you read these, you probably thought, "What in the world are these verses talking about?" I mean, you read it, you're like, "Wine on the lees?" "A feast of fat things for the poor?"

Now, we just got done talking about the poor. So we're going to dissect verse eight, because the Lord says it's an honor to establish Zion. And in section 78, He talked about how we're going to help the poor of my people. But verse eight, you guys, it's so rich with goodness. It is sort of like a parable. It's like a proverb.

So if you were to read it, you're like, "Oh, a feast of fat things. That sounds like a, you know, a meal full of doughnuts. Delicious." You read that and right off, you're like, "Yeah, I think I know what that means."

But then when you break it down into Hebrew, it becomes such a beautiful verse that I just thought we have to go over this. In fact, I am so glad that my Hebrew professor taught this to me last week. Incidentally, this is kind of cool, a student of hers in another Hebrew class asked her what this verse was all about. And so let's take a look at verse eight. Abe, will you please read this verse for us?

"7 And also that you might be honored in laying the foundation, and in bearing record of the land upon which the Zion of God shall stand.

Abe 30:47

"8 And also that a feast of fat things might be prepared for the poor; yea, feast of fat things, of wine on the lees well refined, that the earth may know that the mouths of the prophets shall not fail."

Tammy 31:02

Okay, so here's what we need to know about this verse. So the wording in this verse is about making covenants. During Old Testament times, often when a covenant was made, they would "cut a covenant," or in Hebrew, it's called "karat berit." And what this means is that the two parties who are making a covenant together, they would get together with an animal, then they would kill the animal. And then they would literally cut the animal down the middle, they would cut it in half. And then over the course of the night, they would feast on the animal and they would drink wine, and they had this feast of fat things. And then in the morning, they would make a verbal covenant and all was done.

And this is kind of cool, because this is where we believe we get the phrase "cut a deal" from. Now, in Doctrine and Covenants, section 58, verse eight, and in Isaiah 25, verse eight, the wording is pointing us to a "karat berit" to "cutting a covenant." But this covenant is for the poor, it is for us.

Okay, now look back at verse eight. It says that there will be a feast. So we just talked about that; it is a feast of fat things. Now there's a second feast of fat things with "wine on the lees while refined." So highlight that. Now in Hebrew, these words are translated differently. This idea, this feast of fat things here is defined as a precious oil that was required at every sacrifice.

And then we have wine on the lees. And this is so unique. This, I loved it when my Hebrew teacher taught this to me. In this verse, it isn't actually translated as wine on the lees. Rather, this is one word in Hebrew, which is "Shamar'im." And that word in Hebrew means "to keep, to guard or to preserve."

Now, what many scholars imagine is when the Bible was being translated, they saw those three definitions and saw "preserved" and just figured, "Oh, maybe they're talking about preserves, as in wine, because that's what you would bring to a feast." And so they translated it as wine on the lees. But in this context of cutting a covenant, it is so much more.

This verse in the context of the Law of Consecration and the United Order, is really speaking to the covenant of healing each other; we're being set apart or consecrated, which is what the oil part is. And, those who will do this work are the guards, the keepers, and the preservers of God's people.

Now we have the last word which is "refined," and this is correctly translated. And what refines God's poor people, you guys, what refines God's people? It's covenants, trials, helping each other, being one. So here we have at this feast of fat things, the oil and the guards and all of it has to be well-refined. I mean, the oil, this is kind of cool, in the Old Testament—we'll learn this next year—but oil used at sacrifices had to be the best oil, the most well-refined oil. So in this, all are important aspects of this covenant. And it is such a beautiful and unique wordplay happening here in this verse.

So now let's go back to what you both shared in our discussion about the bishops' storehouses. Because this is so cool. We are all guards. We are all keepers and preservers of God's poor. We are the poor, we have been the poor, and we are the result of its refinement. And we need this in our lives. We need to karat berit. We need to cut this covenant with the Lord to take care of each other. And Abe, just like you said, it is a perfect welfare plan. Everyone benefits.

Okay, Tyler, you look like you want to say something?

Tyler 34:15

I was just saying, "Wow." I never would have gotten that. Ever.

Tammy 34:18

No. That's what makes it such a good parable is that for the normal person, they read it they're like, "Sounds like a pretty great meal." But when you break it down, then suddenly you're like, "Oh, it's about me. It's about me being a keeper of God's people."

But I love how the end, that "the mouths of the prophet shall not fail." Everything they've taught us up to this point is truly about being a covenant people. It's about being one; it's about establishing Zion. I mean, if Zion isn't about being a covenant people, I don't know what is.

And so the refinement comes from being like Christ. That is the whole purpose of this Law of Consecration, which we will live—are kind of living it now—but we are going to become one. We are going to absolutely become His people through all of this.

Why do you think it's important for us to be refined, as His keepers? What does that refinement do to help keep or guard others?

Abe 35:13

That's a great question. I feel like when you talk about the refiners fire, the amount of heat that it takes as we go through life, if we have it easy, you know, you don't get as much out of it, if it's easy for you.

I can remember running a marathon, and it was one of the most like emotional times I've ever had. But it's because it took a lot to do it. And in some ways, you can't believe that you actually did it. And I think when God is trying to refine us, He's gonna push us in ways that sometimes aren't comfortable. And that's part of our commitment, is to be pushed and to be stretched and to be refined, because there's always going to be something else that comes up. He may be preparing us for different trials that we have ahead.

Sometimes we think, "Oh, man, I barely got through that trial." But we didn't realize there was a big one coming up. And without that trial, we couldn't make it through the other trial that we were going to have.

Tammy 36:12

And going through that trial, or the trials you've gone through, Abe, how has that helped you become a better keeper for God?

Abe 36:19

It makes me more dependent upon God. It gives me a stronger testimony of what He's able to do and what He means in my life. And so you go, "Man, I'd never be here if it weren't for the challenges that I've had."

Tyler 36:30

Abe, I like how you said, "More dependent on God." Because that tells me that you're remembering God. You're allowing God to prevail in your life and the struggles and the trials that you and your family face.

I think that's a beautiful point, that if you keep God on your mind, you allow Him to prevail, and you remain dependent on Him. It's only going to strengthen you, as an individual and your family and others see it through your service and examples.

Tammy 37:02

Well, how have your trials, I'm curious to know, how have your trials helped other people?

Abe 37:08

It's interesting, because a lot of times, it's easy to see in your family how you can go through trials, and then your kids can kind of see, "Okay, this is what happened." And then they learn a lot from it. They take note of it, and it helps them with trials they have in their lives. When we talk to them, they'll say, "Oh, yeah, that kind of reminds me of this that you said or this that you taught us back when this happened." So he's able to go back and draw from experiences that we've had as a family.

Or sometimes you might have a friend that has something that they're dealing with, they're struggling with, and they're asking for help. And then you're able to give them some advice, because I just went through that, you know, a couple years ago, or, or whatever it is that you went through, you know. You can offer your testimony to them.

Tammy 37:51

There's that empathy in there, powerful stuff. And how cool that it's through covenants that we can do that. It's entering through covenants and taking care of each other, guarding and preserving one another, and being refined to that experience. So, excellent.

And in section 78, I thought this was interesting that it talks about this covenant in verse 11. And then in verse 12, it kind of tells us what happens if we don't keep it.

Abe, will you read verse 12? And kind of just as we read it, look at what will happen if we can't keep this covenant, if we can't be his keepers.

Abe 38:24

12 "And he who breaketh it shall lose his office and standing in the church, and shall be delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until the day of redemption."

Tammy 38:34

I mean, highlight the word "buffetings." I had to look this up, because in the 1828 dictionary, it means," to strike with the hand or fist, to box or to beat." Well, how does that change the experience with Satan?

Abe 38:48

Sounds like a lot of pain.

Tammy 38:50

Have you ever been beaten up by Satan?

Abe 38:52

Oh, yeah. Not fun.

Tyler 38:57

Do you really know that you're getting your buffet handed to you, I guess? (laughter)

Because at the time, it seems fine. As I look back on my own experiences and my past, I didn't realize it until, maybe not necessarily realized it. I didn't care as much as I should have. And I was fine with those beatings, those buffetings, so to speak. And it wasn't until later through the repentance process and the Atonement that it's like, you know what, that really sucked.

Tammy 39:31

Yeah. Tyler, I love everything that you just said because it is a perfect lead-in to what we're talking about next, which is all the blessings that can come when we are able to keep these covenants and when we're able to care. Because I like that you said "I just didn't care." I think we can all relate to that. That's what causes those strikings, that being beaten by Satan. And when we do start to care and we let Christ enter into our lives, section 78 is going to teach us the blessings that will come from that. So thank you. We'll show you that in the next segment.

Segment 4 39:58

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Tammy 40:05

I want us to go back because you guys have both shared experiences where you've needed help, which I appreciate, again, your vulnerability and willing to share that. So I want to know, as fathers, what's it like being a dad? Like you guys feel responsible for your kids' safety?

Tyler 40:22

Every day. Every day, I think of, "Gosh, are my kids gonna be okay driving the work? Are they going to be okay while at work? Are my kids gonna be okay at school?"

Where I'm going with this is shooters, active shooters. I think as a father, in my profession anyways, that's kind of one of my worst fears because I'm not immediately there to stop the threat. It takes me time to get there. And that's precious time wasted. So when you ask as a dad, do you worry about your family's safety and in trying to protect them? Absolutely.

Abe 41:04

Yeah, I think that there's a weight. And there's so many different aspects of this, Tyler.

I mean, it could be physical safety, it could be just like wanting to protect them from the harms of the way the world is, and seeing things or experiencing things or have people be mean to them or treat them, temptations. Like, you know, when you think about just having enough money, make sure they have shoes, and all of those things, there's so many different things to worry about.

But I do think that at some point you realize that all you can do is just do your best. And try to give them experiences that help them make good decisions on their own, and make good choices on their own and have a good understanding of the world and of the Lord. And it seems like a lot when you start really digging into it, but you just kind of take one step at a time.

Tyler 41:50

Oh, it is a can, it is the can of worms that you can open here on that. But yeah.

Abe 41:07

It's a can of buffetings. (laughter)

Tyler 41:15

It's a can have buffetings.

Tammy 42:05

Well, do you think our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Parents feel the same way, feel the same kind of pressure?

Tyler 42:11

I think it's to a level that we can't even comprehend because they know more.

Abe 42:16

Yeah, they know more than we know about, you know, our kids, they know more about us.

Tyler 42:20

Yeah, if you think of the parable of the 99 and the 1; the love that They have for us, I can only imagine is just so much greater than the love I have for my kids, which I think is pretty strong. But in comparison to God's love for all of His children? Wow.

Tammy 42:38

Well, I want us to look at verses 17 and 18 in section 78. Because wherever you are in your life, however poor you are, whatever that word poor looks like in your life, I love these words that the Lord and our Heavenly Father say to us.

And so Tyler, will you read verses 17, and Abe, will you read verse 18, please?

Tyler 43:02

17 "Verily, verily I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you."

18 "And you cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours."

Tammy 43:25

Thank you. What kind of feelings do you have when you read those two verses if they come from a loving Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother?

Abe 43:34

It's like I said, you have no idea what's in store for you. And I would say that yeah, that's probably right because sometimes in this world we want to focus on the negative things. But I think that this is very positive. I think it's where God wants us to be. He wants us to think about the positive things and there's no way that we'll ever be perfect without Him. We just do the best that we can

Tammy 43:57

it's almost like He's saying, I mean, you think the bishops' storehouse is cool down there? You should see MY bishops' storehouse. You won't believe the stuff on MY shelves cuz it's gonna blow your mind. You get it all, everything. You want that? It's yours. I'm imagining Him saying that. You should see my storehouse because it's amazing. And everybody is going to use it.

What about you, Tyler? What are your thoughts?

Tyler 44:21

I look back at my little kids or little kids I see today holding their dad's hand, holding their mom's hand and walking, whether it's across the street, whether it's to a park, playground, wherever it is, it's the parent that's leading the child. That's kind of what I look at, is, God is there for us to guide us. All He asks is that we continue to walk His way, to come to Him, come unto Him. And as you said, my storehouse will be yours.

Tammy 44:58

Good stuff, very good stuff. I want you to translate into your own words, if you were to describe this to your kids the two phrases: "Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along."

Abe 45:10

Don't worry about it. I got your back.

Tyler 45:13

Don't worry, be happy.

Abe 45:15

There you go.

Tammy 45:17

I totally agree. I like how you said that. I got your back. I got you.

And I like how in 18: "you can't bear all things right now." This really hard. And I know that. So just Cheer up. And I'm going to help you through all of this.

And then I love how in verse 19, okay, this is one of my favorite Hebrew words that I've been able to learn this year. Because it's so fun to say, it's "toda."

Abe 45:46

Toda.

Tammy 45:48

Do you know what it means? It means thank you.

I wish I'd known this when my kids were little I would have taught them to say, "toda," every time after dinner. "Toda, mom, that dinner was delicious."

I mean, they're never going to say that now but I just think it's so fun like, to say thank you. In Hebrew it is "toda." T-O-D-A, "toda."

And there's just something so awesome about when your kids say thank you. Am I right? Or, actually, when anyone says thank you. What is it about that word that makes you just go, "Oh, you're welcome"?

Abe 46:16

I think it's amazing. I take my girls to dance almost every day. And almost every time I get back, my daughter thanks me like it was something that I like, just dropped everything to do. Which I guess it kind of is but at the same time, it's like, this is what I'm planning on doing, you know. So she's, she's like, "Thanks a lot, dad. Thank you so much for the ride."

"Okay, you're welcome." It's pretty cool.

Tammy 46:39

It is pretty cool.

Tyler 46:41

To me, it's a form of recognition that some sort of service was provided to them. It's just a recognition and appreciation.

Tammy 46:51

Yes, I like how you said that, a recognition and appreciation because in all the things we've talked about, and everything we've discussed up to this point, look at verse 19. The Lord just wants a recognition in all of this.

And so, Tyler, will you read verse 19?

Abe Mills 47:04

19 "And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more."

Tammy 47:19

Oh my gosh, just being thankful.

Abe 47:22

We tell our kids all the time, like when you're thankful, we'll want to do more for you. When you are not grateful, you won't get as much as your sibling that is grateful all the time. It's how it is.

You give them food, right? And you got somebody like, "Oh, Mom, thanks so much for making this." You got the other person's, "Awe, not beans again." You know, it's like, "Oh, you don't like the food, huh? You're not grateful for the food? Okay, fine. You know what, next time you make your own food," you know?

So you can see how God might look at that and say, "Okay, wait a minute, I gave you this house," or, "I gave you this car," or, "I gave you the job that you wanted." Or, "I gave you a job, even though it wasn't the job that you want." And sometimes we have this like, bad habit of asking for stuff and then being mad when we get it.

It's that gratitude, I think that God is looking for, for us to be grateful. And sometimes it manifests itself as being positive about things in life, even when they don't seem like there's something to be positive about.

Tammy 48:18

Yeah.

Abe 48:19

Like getting rear-ended by somebody. At least nobody's hurt.

Tammy 48:24

How true. Right before we recorded this podcast, Abe's beautiful wife got rear-ended.

Abe 48:29

It's true.

Tammy 48:29

It's sad, but nobody got hurt. It's a great way to look at it.

Abe 48:32

Nobody got hurt, the kids made it to their camp okay. She's there right now watching them. And it's just, you know, God is good. And, and if it were any different, we'd be finding how we can be grateful for that outcome.

Okay, Abe, I just have to stop for a minute. I love the way you just said that, how you just said we would look for a way to be grateful for that outcome. That is so good.

Tammy 48:52

You know, it totally makes me think of this quote from Joseph Smith, that at one time, "the greatest sins for which the Latter-day Saints would be guilty would be the sin of ingratitude." And I have this in our show notes. There's two sources that say Joseph Smith said that. But think about that, one of the greatest sins of our time would be the sin of ingratitude.

This is a talk that was given by Elder Lloyd P. George in the 1994 general conference, and he was a member of the Quorum of the Seventy. And here's what he had to say in connection with this Joseph Smith quote, and about being ungrateful. Abe, how about if you read this quote for us?

Abe 49:26

"I presume most of us have not thought of that as a serious sin. There is a great tendency for us in our prayers, in our pleadings with the Lord, to ask for additional blessings. Sometimes I feel we need to devote more of our prayers to expressions of gratitude, and thanksgiving for blessings already received. Of course, we need the daily blessings of the Lord. But if we sin in the matter of prayer, I think it is in our lack of expressing thanksgiving for daily blessings. God is not pleased with the inhabitants of the earth, but is angry with them because they will not acknowledge His hand in all things."

Tammy 50:02

Thank you. So it goes back to what you guys were saying. It's just nice to be acknowledged.

So I'm going to issue us all a challenge for this whole week in your prayers: just give prayers of thanks. That's it. All you're going to do is give thanks for stuff. And if you pray with your family out loud, what a great teaching moment for your kids, that this week all we're going to do is say thanks for everything that we have. And we're not going to ask for anything. And just see how that goes. See if it changes your connection with Deity.

And going on with this, then, we just have to talk about this name He's given himself in verse 20. Because it is so powerful. And Tyler, you talked to me earlier about this. Tell us what you found out about this name in verse 20. It's so cool. I'll read it really quickly. It says,

20 "Wherefore do the things which I have commanded you, saith your Redeemer, even the Son Ahman, who prepareth all things before he taketh you."

Highlight that name. That name "Ahman" is super powerful. And if we're going to spend our whole week giving thanks, we ought to know who we're giving thanks to. And that's His name right there. Tyler, what'd you find out about that name?

Tyler 51:03

From what I found out, Ahman is how Adam (from Adam and Eve) knew Christ. That was the name of Christ that Adam knew back then. So Ahman is essentially another name for Christ.

Tammy 51:12

It's the "Son of Ahman." Yep. Son Ahman is another name for Christ.

Tyler, will you read this quote by Orson Pratt, I thought this was interesting. And then I'm going to give you two cross references for the name Ahman, which is so cool.

Tyler 51:29

Elder Orson Pratt pointed out that "There is one revelation that this people are not generally acquainted with. I think it has never been published, but probably it will be in the church history. It is given in the questions and answers. The first question is, 'What is the name of God in the pure language?' The answer says, 'Ahman.' 'What is the name of the Son of God?' Answer, 'Son Ahman-the greatest of all of the parts of God excepting Ahman.'"

Tammy 52:01

Perfect, thank you.

Now, the cross references are Isaiah chapter 65, verse 16, and then Revelation chapter three, verse 14. So, to the outside of Ahman, put Isaiah 65:16. And then Revelation 3:14.

If you look up the scripture, Isaiah chapter 65, verse 16, you will read that God is called "the God of truth" twice in that verse. However, in the Hebrew translation, it reads "the God of Ahman," or "Amen," however you want to pronounce that. Ahman in Hebrew is also Amen, and means "truth."

So when it was being translated, it was changed to "the God of truth." But in Hebrew, it literally says, the God of Ahman. And Abe, this is so cool, because it goes back to what you said earlier about facts and truth like it's all coming full circle, so cool.

Then in Revelation, chapter three, verse 14, the Lord calls himself by that name. He says, "...These things saith the Amen, the faithful and the true witness," He calls himself Amen, or Ahman. And so that's His name.

I thought it was kind of cool, because forever how many of us always thought His name was Elohim? It's not. And we'll study that next year in the Old Testament. Bet you can't wait to see what Elohim means. But, how cool, His name Ahman. Like, you're Tyler.

Tyler 53:16

And thank you for clarifying that, Tammy, on Son Ahman, because Adam-0ndi-Ahman, we believe translates to "the Valley of God."

Tammy 53:25

Yep, "The place where God dwells."

So that's what that means, Son Ahmann. And that word Ahman is the same as Amen, which means truth. So how cool that God's name means truth. Like, my name is palm tree. I don't know what Abe means, or Tyler. I'd like it to mean something cooler, like truth.

Abe 53:43

So my real name is Abdullah, which means servant of God.

Tammy 53:47

Oh, that's pretty cool. I like that.

Tyler 53:50

Okay, well, my name is Tyler. And that means . . . (laughter)

Tammy 54:00

Wheel-maker.

Abe 54:00

One who is awesome. (laugh)

Tammy 54:04

Perfect. Well, knowing that God's name means truth, knowing His name is Ahman and essentially means truth, I just want to know, how does that affect your relationship with His ability to provide for you then as your Father?

Tyler 54:17

It's comforting. And it may not be on our time, may not be when we want it. But truth is truth. We know that He will take care of us whether in this life or the next to come.

Abe 54:30

It's part of our journey in life is to find out if we can mature ourselves enough to be good with God's blessings in God's time. In some ways that's really what we're here for, is to try to figure out how to trust in God enough to be okay with His blessings in His time.

Tammy 54:50

Beautiful. And if God's name is Truth, and Christ's name is the Son of Truth, then verses in 17 and 18 are not lies. They really will lead us They really mean "be of good cheer." We are Their little children, that those verses are absolute truth.

So thank you for everything you shared. And good luck on the challenge this week, one week full of prayers just filled with giving thanks. That's all you're gonna do is be thankful and give the credit back to God. So, that's my challenge to everyone. I want to say in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

That was so powerful. Wow, that was good stuff. You guys. Thank you.

Okay, here we go. Abe and Tyler, you're up. I can't wait to see what you guys bring to the table. I asked them to help us teach, so in the next segment we're going to start with Abe and we are going to study Doctrine and Covenants Section 79.

Segment 5 55:35

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Tammy 55:43

Alright, Abe, you're up. This is your section and those of you writing section titles, the title for Section 79 is called "Power in Church Callings." So just write that to the side, "Power in Church Callings." And I am so excited for this; I'm getting my scripture markers and my pens and Abe, you're up.

Abe 56:01

All right. Section 79 is a revelation that was given to Joseph Smith for Jared Carter.

Now, the one thing that I noticed right off the bat is that Jared Carter is not a name that you hear a lot in Church history. So Jared Carter, he was a tanner. Do you guys know what a tanner is?

Tammy 56:24

No.

Abe 56:25

Yeah, I think tanners take skin or hide, that kind of stuff. And they tan that hide. Have you heard of that? (laughter)

Tammy 56:47

Yeah, "I'm gonna tan your hide."

Abe 56:04

Yeah, so basically, that's what they do. I think it makes it a little more usable.

But he went on a business trip in 1831. And he was going to be gone for several weeks. But I guess apparently he heard about the Book of Mormon, he read it. It was just, it had such an influence on his mind it says here, that he couldn't finish his business trip, he was so taken by it. This is his quote, "It had such an influence on my mind, that I had no mind to pursue my business. I found I was completely unqualified for any business and so I should go and assist the Church of Christ."

And so three months later he moved his family to Kirtland from New York. So he became a big-time missionary for the Church. He was super, super successful.

But the thing about this section in section 79, the section itself, really, it's only four verses. And it talks a little about where he should go, what he should do. And it talks about the blessings that he is going to receive from doing these things.

But one of the things that I, that I really liked about it was that the reason why the whole section came to be, the reason why Joseph Smith went to God about this person specifically, is because Jared Carter asked Joseph Smith, "What is it that God wants me to do?" So he went to Joseph Smith, he took the initiative to go and say, "What is it that God wants me to do?" And then this section is the result of that.

So I think for me, when I read that, I was like, "Okay."

So sometimes we kind of feel like, "Oh, well, I don't (have a calling.)" Have you ever been in a situation where you don't have a calling? And you're kind of like, "I'm floating under the radar. Like, I have nothing to do right now. You know, like, Sundays are amazing. Go to church, I come home, nothing on Wednesday nights. I don't have to take any crazy trips with the youth." You know, you're thinking, "Man, I'm living it up." I'm not going to the bishop and be like, "Bishop, are you sure you don't have a calling for me?"

But this guy, he went out and said, "Alright, what does God want me to do?" And then they came back with this section, which basically explains that he wants him to go to "the eastern countries, from place to place, and from city to city, in the power of the ordination wherewith he has been ordained, proclaiming glad tidings of great joy, even the everlasting gospel." So I mean, it's like a great calling. And you can see that in verse one.

Tammy 59:08

So cool.

Abe 59:10

So this is, this is my take on it. We live in a world where I feel like a lot of times, it's very easy for us to point the finger at other people for the issues that we have, or the problems that we see. We don't take a lot of responsibility ourselves for it but we point the finger. So what does this section help us understand about our opportunity and responsibility in terms of what we're to do in this world?

Tammy 59:39

Abe. I think that is such a good question. Just as you were talking right now about flying under the radar, and how sometimes that seems so nice, right? We don't have a calling. We're like, "I can sit with this for a while. This seems real, real nice." It struck me because the line in verse one, where he talks about how he'll go from place to place and from city to city. I highlighted "in the power of the ordination wherewith he has been ordained."

So my 12 year old daughter was set apart and put into her class presidency in the Young Women's. And then after church, my husband and I were set apart to be the CTR-6 teachers. And we also had two other friends that were being set apart. So we're like, just join us. We'll all do it at the same time. So that was four blessings that I heard in one day, four settings apart, however you want to say that.

And here's the crazy thing: what struck me was the consistent wording that apparently I have never noticed before. I really thought: "Did they change the wording? I'm pretty sure they changed the wording cuz i don't know how I missed this." He said, "I bless you with the rights, powers, and privileges associated with this calling." I've never heard that before, ever. Rights, powers, and privileges? Like I always assumed that was for the men getting set apart and given the power of the priesthood and ordained to an office in the priesthood.

But for this sweet little girl who's going to be in a presidency, and she's being promised power, right, and privilege. Every single one of us get that power, whatever your calling is, nursery, Young Men's.

And so it made me go back to what you said, Abe, because there's something good that comes from serving.

And so living in the world today, I don't think of a calling anymore as being this like, wah, wah, you know, "Oh, one more thing I have to do." Yesterday, it affected me profoundly thinking I need power. I need rights. I need privileges right now in my life. And if I'm going to get that by teaching six year olds every other Sunday, great. Bring it on.

Tyler 1:01:34

What you were mentioning there, Tammy, as far as you know, bestowing those rights, privileges, etc. ,I think it allows you to receive inspiration for your calling. So teaching 6-year-olds is so much fun. But it's different than teaching 16-year-olds, and the way that you have to prepare your lesson to gear it towards children of that age. I think by being set apart like that allows you to be inspired to come up with your lesson plans and the way that you teach it.

Abe 1:02:09

It's really symbolic of like, what we see with the Church and life in general. Different people have different callings to do different things. And it's just important that whatever it is that we're supposed to do that we we stand and we do our job in our place. Because he says like, whatever his ordination is, He doesn't really specify his ordination, he says that he's able to serve in the power of the ordination, wherewith he has been ordained. He could have said that in a million different ways. But it's kind of like that whole thing about the talents, right, five, two and one. It doesn't matter how many it is, doesn't matter what calling it is, doesn't matter what you've been ordained to. You have power within that.

Jared Carter did not serve a mission so he could be talked about on the Sunday on Monday podcast. I know it's hard to, it's hard to imagine, but, and he didn't do it to be in the Doctrine and Covenants. But what it shows is that, you know, there's lots of people out there, nameless as they may be, and it's okay if you feel like maybe "I'm nameless" or whatever. Jerry Carter, I'm sure didn't know that we'd be talking about him. But it's important to do what you do, because it will be an inspiration to someone at some point. And if it's not, it will be an inspiration to you to follow what God wants you to do.

Tammy 1:03:19

Abe, you know what? I really like that you just said, let me make sure I get this right. "It's important to do what you do because you may be an inspiration to someone."

You know what, I think you are spot on with Jared Carter. Yeah, you're right. Okay, so he didn't do this, he didn't do what he did to be on the podcast. But what he did do is very impressive because of his missionary service, because he just did what he was supposed to do, he was able to baptize nearly 100 converts. Actually, it was 79 baptisms on his mission. I'd love to know the genealogy on that. The trickle down effect of this nice, kind man who left his job to join the Church. And truly that changes in the power of the ordination where we, you've been ordained. You don't, you have no idea right now how incredible your service will be for even one person.

Well, Abe, that was awesome. That was a great discussion.

Abe 1:04:08

Thank You.

Tammy 1:04:09

Doctrine and Covenants section 79, you nailed it. Four verses and look how much we learned from four verses. So thank you. It was really good.

Okay, Tyler, you're up next. In the next segment, we're going to talk about section 80.

Segment 6 1:04:20

...

Tammy 1:04:31

Alright, so section 80, the title is: "Teach and Testify'." So just write that there, "Teach and Testify." And let's see what you got, Tyler; I can't wait. Five verses, hit it.

Tyler 1:04:42

Have you guys ever wondered, or rather, have you guys ever asked your spouses, "Where do you want to go eat tonight?" And they say, "I don't know." (laughs) You ever had that?

Tammy 1:04:54

Yeah, I'm the "I-don't-care" spouse. Like, just choose for me. I'm tired of choices; if you pick, I'll find something to eat on the menu.

Abe 1:05:02

Wait, is it that you don't care or is it that you do care, but you don't want to be the one who makes—I'm telling you, this goes down every time. Like, "I don't care. Go to any restaurant." I'm like "Well, you prefer Chinese? What do you want to go out like, Italian?"

"I don't care, just choose it."

And then you choose it, and they're like, "Nah, I didn't really want to go there." Like, "Okay."

Tammy 1:05:24

I'm genuine in my, "I don't care."

Tyler 1:05:29

That's kind of how section 80 of the Doctrine and Covenants is.

The gist of that is, as far as missionary work and where you're being called to. Specifically, we learn in this section, we learn of Stephen Burnett and Eden Smith.

So, Stephen Burnett gets a mission call. And he needs a companion. And in steps in Eden Smith. In verse three of section 80, Tammy, will you read that for me?

Tammy 1:05:55

Yeah, verse 3, "Wherefore, go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss."

Tyler 1:06:06

So the Lord is saying, I don't care where you go. Just go out and declare the gospel. Right? And then in verse four, he follows up:

4 "Therefore, declare the things which you have heard, and verily believe, and know to be true."

So that's why I asked if you guys have ever had the, "Where are we going to dinner tonight? I don't know. I don't care. Well, let's go here. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe we should go try this place up north. I don't know. I kind of like the place down south. Okay, I don't care, do we go down?" (laughter) You know, it's kind of like us, it's just choose already. And that's kind of the gist of these five short verses.

In fact, specifically to this section, Elder David A. Bednar in the "Come, Follow Me" manual said, "Perhaps one of the lessons the Savior is teaching us in this revelation is that an assignment to labor in a specific place is essential and important, but secondary to a call to the work."

We learn from that, that it's more important that you accept the calling of going out on a mission. Where you go, that's not as important as to going in and of itself.

Abe 1:07:19

And how many, how many times have we seen that in the last two years? We had missionaries called out to be places, some of them ended up in completely different places. Some of them ended up going to different places for a period of time and then ended up in their original calls.

Tammy 1:07:32

Like what happened to your son, Abe?

Abe 1:07:34

Yeah, my son Jackson, he got called to Colombia. Got sent home like everybody else, and then went to California and was there and then now he's back in Colombia.

Tammy 1:07:43

That's a great example of that.

Tyler 1:07:45

Yeah, thank you for sharing that, Abe, that wherever you go, it mattereth, it's just the fact that you're going, right?

Abe 1:07:50

And he had to learn that for himself. Because you know you get a call and you see it on your paper, and you get called, and, "I was called to be in Colombia, and what am I doing in California?" Like, "I'm not teaching the people I'm supposed to be teaching, I'm supposed to be in Colombia." It's easy for us think that, but he had to kind of come to his own, like, understanding of that. It doesn't matter if I'm in California. You know, it doesn't matter. I was called to the work.

And, hey, nowadays, you look at the way that the Church is hitting the social media, and the missionaries are on social media. Social media has no boundaries, man. And so in the end, God is saying, the work is the work. It's the whole world that we're trying to help. Don't get caught up in your little, your little segment. Sometimes we think, oh well, it's not my area. So I was like, "No, God, God wants the person to join the Church."

Tammy 1:07:55

It kind of just makes me think about us as adults, then, when we get what we perceive as like, a "lesser than" calling. And the Lord is like, it doesn't matter. I just need you to serve.

When we were in the setting apart yesterday, the man being put into nursery was pulled out of the Elders Quorum Presidency because they needed him in the nursery. And while that may seem like a "step down," to me, that was the most beautiful example of leadership. And he's, sure he may have done great things as a leader in the Elders Quorum Presidency, but to go from that, to accepting a calling in nursery, that's leadership. And that is what it's all about. And so it just makes me think like, it doesn't matter where, to the east, to the north, to the west, just serve. That's all I need you to do.

Tyler 1:09:19

And I was going to share my experience of my mission calling in October of '95. I was on my way to Fresno, California. And having—

Tammy 1:09:30

Whoo!

Tyler 1:09:30

That's right. That was your mission too, right, Tammy?

Tammy 1:09:32

Yep.

Abe 1:09:33

Exactly. And having never been to California in general, this St. Louis kid thought to myself, beaches, ocean, palm trees, right? (laughter)

Fres-NO. Fres-NO.

Tammy 1:09:49

Fres-No. That's exactly it. No beaches.

Tyler 1:09:52

That is right. Weather's gonna be nice, this is paradise, man, I was fortunate.

And the first few months, I was like, "This is miserable. It's hot. There's no ocean, there's no beaches. There's nothing here," right? But as time went on, I realized I'm here for a reason. I'm not entirely sure what it is right now. But as my mission progresses, you know, maybe you learn, maybe you don't, but you do your best. And it's like what we're saying, it doesn't matter where you're called, it's the matter that you're called in general, and that you fulfill that call.

And in verse 5 of section 80, "Behold, this is the will of Him who hath called you, your Redeemer, even Jesus Christ."

Here we have Jesus Christ, asking us to go out and do his work.

I wanted to ask either one of you, what the difference between revelation and inspiration is. Now I'm asking you this because these mission calls to Steven Burnett and Eden Smith were direct revelation from God to Joseph Smith to these two individuals. So I want to ask you guys, what do you guys think the difference is between revelation and inspiration?

Abe 1:11:14

Great question. Something tells me that Tammy has like, a really good answer for this. But if I was gonna take my stab at that, revelation is probably a little more specific. And inspiration would be something where you feel inspired to do something, and you're still not quite sure exactly what it is or how you're going to do it but that you feel drawn to spend your time doing that thing.

Tyler 1:11:41

I Like that.

Tammy 1:11:43

Okay, I like that question so much, Tyler. And just as a side note, we're actually going to talk about revelation a lot more in this cool bonus episode we're having this summer with Professor Mary Jane Woodger. So we're just gonna tip you to watch out for that.

But my answer is, I think they're the same. If we think revelation is from God, and inspiration is just a nice thought, which is sometimes how we translate them, then we think, "Well, I've never really received revelation, but I get inspired to do stuff all the time." And then maybe we we limit our ability to really receive any kind of inspiration from our Heavenly Father.

You know, I really like Section 11, verse 12. That's sort of the litmus test for revelation and inspiration. I mean, to me, I think it's just semantics. I think it's the exact same word.

Tyler 1:12:25

So inspiration is basically personal revelation.

Tammy 1:12:28

Yeah, I think so.

Abe 1:12:29

Whereas, like, we could have revelation from the prophet that would have to do with us, but we didn't receive that ourselves.

Tammy 1:12:37

Yeah, we're not gonna receive revelation for the Church. But what, Abe, you will receive revelation for your kids, I know you have. I know you have received direct revelation for specifics with your children's lives.

Abe 1:12:48

Definitely.

Tammy 1:12:48

I mean, I know I have. I think for me, they're the same word. I think it's just semantics. And when if we make them the same word, then we realize we're getting it every day.

In fact, here's what that word revelation means. It's one Greek word. It's "apocalypse." And "apocalypse" is two root words, "apo" and "calipto." So "apo," it's a preposition, meaning a separation or a removal. And then "calipto" is a verb meaning to cover, hide, or veil. So the word apocalipsis literally means to remove or remove the veil or covering. And its English counterpart is revelation.

So when we talk about receiving a revelation, it's uncovering or unveiling something. And that's what the Book of Revelation does. It uncovers or unveils really cool things about the Second Coming, which you guys talked about. But in our own lives, it uncovers or unveils what the Lord needs us to do or wants us to do.

Abe 1:13:45

I knew you were gonna have a great answer.

Tammy 1:13:46

Well, thank you.

Tyler 1:13:48

Tammy, toda.

Tammy 1:13:49

Toda (laughter) Well said, Tyler. Toda.

Tyler 1:13:55

So we've we've broken down section 80. And the only five verses that there are. Now let's talk about who these people are. We'll start with Stephen Burnett.

Both Stephen and Eden are mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants prior to Section 80. They're both mentioned in Section 75, and they're among the Elders there that are just kind of awaiting what is expected of them, what they're supposed to be doing. And those are really the only two times that we hear of these two guys. So most of the information I found on these two can be found in the Joseph Smith papers, as well as the Church history.

With Stephen Burnett, he was born in 1813. He grew up as a farmer, a tavern keeper, a salesman, and a patent medicine man. He was baptized at age 17 in 1830 by John Whitmer.

Now, his ordinations were pretty quick, actually. He became a Teacher in June of 1831, an Elder in October of 1831, and then he was ordained to a High Priest, also in October of 1831. The difference there was only 14 days, so two weeks, so he was a Teacher for two weeks, or excuse me an Elder for two weeks, and then ordained to the office of a High Priest, which is way fast.

So Stephen Burnett actually served two missions. The first one, his companion was Ruggles Eames. Something must have happened there because that mission was only for about three months, two months.

In steps Eden Smith, that was Stephen Burnett's second mission, and his new companion. What's interesting about this companionship, is the fact that Eden Smith, and we'll talk about him in more details in just a moment. Eden Smith didn't actually preach with Stephen Burnett for the first six months, because Eden Smith was ill. So Stephen Burnett went out on his own, again, and the Lord said, I don't care where you go, just find a place and go.

So we don't know where he went. And we don't know what his mission was like, or anything for those first six months. Truthfully, we don't even know what their mission was like once Eden Smith was feeling better and resumed his mission. Or at least I wasn't able to find any information on that.

I did learn that Stephen Burnett later left the Church in 1838. So something must have happened there. He was an antagonist in leaving the church, to Joseph Smith, as well, as he was leaving the church.

So let's now talk about Eden Smith. Eden Smith, born in 1806, he was a laborer. We don't know when he was originally baptized. But the information I found is that he was re-baptized in 1834, which would be two years after he served his mission with Stephen Burnett. So again, there was something that happened between the time of his first baptism, when, we don't know when, and his mission and after his mission to cause him to be re-baptized. And of course, we know that he was ill for the first six months of his missionary work with Stephen Burnett; we don't know what caused his illness. And again, we don't know where he went after his illness, like, where they met up or where they continued their work. And we found that from Eden's journal entry from the church history site, which was pretty cool.

But yeah, we have very little information on these two. But it would appear to me that at the time, in that moment, when they were called to do the work, that they did just that; they went out and they did what God asked them to do. And life happens afterwards, and whatever they fell victim to caused them to leave the Church or become re-baptized and live out their life in that regard. But those are kind of some backgrounds on our two missionaries that were told, I don't care where you go, just go.

Tammy 1:18:07

Wow, Tyler, great research. Thank you. Thanks for that discussion. And I really appreciated your take on that section. That was a good discussion on that. So thank you. Good job, you guys. Wow, nailed it. I'm gonna have you back again. (laughter)

Alright. Well, that's it. That's the end of our episode, you guys. Way to bring us home, Tyler, so solid. So good, both of you. So take a second, gather your thoughts and think about what your takeaway was from today. What is something you learned that struck you, you're like, oh, man, I'm gonna try that or whatever?

Abe 1:18:39

So my takeaway today is about gratitude. I'm always trying to remind myself to be grateful. And so the challenge that you gave about saying prayers that are just full of thanks, I like it. I've done it before and I'm gonna do it this week. And I think that's my takeaway, is just to remember to be grateful.

Tammy 1:18:58

Awesome, and teach your kids toda. Toda!

Abe 1:19:00

Yes, and toda!

Tyler 1:19:03

I'm going to echo what Abe said, just being thankful and recognizing the Lord's hand in my daily life is important to me and something that I know I take for granted, but I'm gonna really focus on that. That's my takeaway.

Tammy 1:19:19

Awesome. Thanks, guys. My takeaway was section 78 when Tyler defined the word "espoused" That really changed the way that verse reads, and it, it struck me when he says "to advance the cause which ye have agreed to the salvation of man." We did. I did, I agreed. And I have to remind myself of that, even when life gets hard, and when there's times that I want to say, "No, I'm not doing this."

I've thought a lot about this lately. Life is busy for everyone. But I appreciate that Joseph Smith taught that the heart of this religion is sacrifice. And it just, it really is for me and I, that our discussion on blessings that come from being ordained or blessings that come from serving and serving the poor, and that I have definitely been the poor. I loved our discussion on that. I have been the poor on so many levels. And so I'm just gonna do all of this for the glory of my Father who's in Heaven. That's my whole point and purpose of any of this. So, great discussion today, guys. That was so good. So thank you. I love you both. You're awesome!

Abe 1:20:18

We love you. Thanks for having us on. It's great to be on here with you again. Tyler is awesome as always,

Tammy 1:20:25

As always . Alrght guys. Thank you. Thanks for being on.

Well, we would love to hear what your big takeaway was from this episode. So make sure you guys go on and share. I know it's summer and we're all really crazy busy. But if at any point in the week you have a thought, jot it down and save it for Saturday because on Saturday, we do a post for what your big takeaway was. So comment on the post that relates to this lesson and let us know what you've learned. I read all of them. And I love it. It's so fun to see what everyone's learning. I love this community of faith that we've created through this podcast.

You can get to our Facebook and Instagram by going to the show notes for this episode on LDSliving.com/SundayonMonday. Also, that's where we have links to the references that we've used, as well as a complete transcript of this whole discussion. So go check it out.

The Sunday on Monday study group is a Deseret Bookshelf Plus Original and it's brought to you by LDS Living. It's written and hosted by me, Tammy Uzelac Hall and today our incredible study group participants were Abe Mills and Tyler Collet. And you can find more information about these men at LDSLiving.com/SundayonMonday.

Our podcast is produced by Katie Lambert and myself. It is recorded and mixed by Mix At 6 Studios, and our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. Thanks for being here. We will see you next week.

And boy, please remember this: You, his little child, are God's favorite.

That was so cool for you to teach those last two sections. That was really cool.

Abe 1:21:42

Yeah, like I said, thanks for giving me a one with four, four, verses. I was like, "I can do that."

Tyler 1:21:47

Four verses, easy. Five verses . . . (laughter)

Tammy 1:21:52

Easy-peasy

Abe 1:21:52

Watch next week. Next time, it'll be like 15.

Tammy 1:21:54

It might be; I might up the ante. (laughter)

Abe 1:21:57

Then I'll be doing a section with 98.

Tyler 1:21:59

And then before you know it, Abe, you're taking over the podcast,

Abe 1:22:04

NOT. They'll be like, "Ah, we're going to have the Sunday on Monday podcast and we're going to have the Wednesday on Tuesday podcast as well."

Tammy 1:22:11

Wednesday on Tuesday. (laughter) You guys are great.

Transcribed by Jenee Uzelac