4: “We Have Found the Messiah” (John 1)

Abe Mills 0:00

Does anyone know what their first spoken word was? What about the first spoken word of a child in your life? My youngest daughter's first word was money. And that's pretty much all I need to know about her and probably me as a mom. Today as we study John chapter 1, we get to learn about the importance and power of a very specific word. Any guesses? Which word it could be? What if I told you it was the single most important word that all of us will ever come to know? What could that word be? Well, hold tight because we are about to find out.

Tammy 0:35

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, we want to make sure you know how to use this podcast, so please 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 my friend Michelle Bergerie. Hey says she's probably one of my biggest fans and she tells everybody to listen to the podcast. So shout out to Michelle, I love you, sis. K, now another awesome thing about our study group is each week we're joined by two of my friends, so it's always a little bit different. Today we have two originals, and they always go together because they're the perfect pair. It is Tyler Collet and Abe Mills. Hi, guys.

Abe Mills 1:20

Hey, Tammy.

Tyler Collet 1:21

How you doing, Abe?

Abe Mills 1:23

Great. Great. Great to be on here with you again, Tyler. And thank you so much tammy for having us on.

Tammy 1:29

Oh, you bet. Well, real quick, Abe, tell us how we all know each other for people who are new and don't know the two of you.

Abe Mills 1:34

All right. So anybody who knows me knows that I am from St. Louis, Missouri.

Tammy 1:39

Yeah!

Abe Mills 1:40

Yeah. So that is our common place. We are, Tammy, you guys moved from where? Was it Alaska or something?

Tammy 1:48

Utah.

Abe Mills 1:48

From Utah? Oh my gosh. And so they moved in and so we all became friends there. And I know, I've known Tyler and Tyler, whoo. He's he's a little bit younger, so he was always

Tyler Collet 2:00

two years younger.

Abe Mills 2:02

He was always shorter than me.

Tyler Collet 2:04

Abe, you probably, you probably heard my first word. (laughter)

Abe Mills 2:08

I probably did.

Tammy 2:10

Rude!

Abe Mills 2:12

That's hilarious!

Tammy 2:13

You're not that much younger, Tyler.

Tyler Collet 2:14

Four or five years older.

Abe Mills 2:16

Well, I just remember you growing up Tyler. You were always shorter and everything until you got, till you just decided that you were going to grow up. And now you're a much, you're a much taller man than I am.

Tyler Collet 2:29

I don't know.

Abe Mills 2:29

True.

Tyler Collet 2:30

Oh, is it? Okay, well, thank you, that's kind of you can still sing better than me, so.

Tammy 2:36

That's true, for those of you

Abe Mills 2:38

But you're better looking Tyler, but you're better looking.

Tammy 2:41

Abe was part of "Jericho Road". Hello. Abe's got incredible

Tyler Collet 2:45

Oh, Yeah! It's beautiful.

Tammy 2:48

Well, if you want to know more about my guests, you can read their bios and see their pictures, which are in our show notes at LDS living.com/sunday on Monday. So everyone, we're gonna do this. I'm so excited. We are just studying John chapter 1. That's it, one chapter. So grab your scriptures, your scripture journal, and something to mark your Scriptures with and we're going to dig in. Here we go.

Tammy 3:08

Everyone turn to the page of John. It says "The Gospel according to St. John." Now we did this when we first started studying Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 1; I want us to highlight the word gospel, and we're going to be reminded of what the word 'gospel' means. Traditionally, we have said 'gospel' means 'the good news', and it does in Greek. But in Old English, it translates as Godspell, which is 'God's Story'. So I think this is kind of cool. The God's story, according to St. John, but I want you to look down at the footnote, look down to the footnote where it says John, and then it says "Title". The Joseph Smith Translation entitles this book, "The Testimony of John." So, I want us to think about that as we study the Book of John, because there are some really significant things about the testimony of John and who John is.

Tammy 3:58

So I'm gonna give us a couple of fun facts about John, here we go. John was a disciple of John the Baptist. So the person who wrote the book of John is not John the Baptist. John followed John the Baptist and later became one of the followers of Christ and one of His 12 Apostles. This John wrote the Gospel of John, several epistles, and the Book of Revelation. Now, in this gospel - we love to joke about this - but just so we all understand, that John refers to himself as 'the disciple whom Jesus loved, and nobody else'. He's not called that in any of the other gospels. So he gives himself that name, 'the disciple whom Jesus loved'. I think that is great, I think that's something I would do. If I were to write my own testimony according to Tammy, I would put "and God's favorite" Tammy said, (laughter)

Tammy 4:45

Now something cool is this is neat. John's zeal for preaching the gospel was so strong, you guys, and you're gonna know this, he asked to stay on the earth until the Savior's Second Coming so that he could bring souls to Christ. So we believe that this John is still on the earth today. Now there are footnotes to everything in our show notes if you want to go find the scriptures to back all of this up, it's pretty cool. And now here, let's go to the purpose of John. Turn with me to John 20:30-31. Here we go. John 20:30-31. And I'm going to read these verses. And as I do, Tyler and Abe will you grab something to mark your Scriptures with, and I just want you to underline what the purpose of John is, according to these two verses, and then tell me when we're done. Okay? here we go.

Tammy 5:34

20:30 "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

Tammy 5:40

31 "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name." What did you mark, what is the purpose of this book?

Tyler Collet 5:54

We might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that we can have, essentially eternal life through Him.

Abe Mills 6:03

This is, this is to me reminds me a lot of when Nephi finishes, and he's like, "believe these words". And but you know what - I can't remember how it is - "believe these words and believe in Christ. But if you don't believe these words, believe in Christ, but if you believe in Christ, then you believe these words, because they are the words of Christ." And Nephi gives us that in 2 Nephi 33:.

Tammy 6:24

Abe, thank you for connecting that. Oh, my gosh, I think today is going to be such a really cool discussion because it is just John chapter 1. And for me, it's probably one of the most doctrinally intense, in-depth of all the chapters in the four gospels, I think. There is so much to this. And so I'm excited to hear what you guys have to say as you've studied and prepared for today's discussion. So let's dig into John and begin our journey of the belief and finding life through His name.

Segment 2 6:52

.....

Tammy 7:03

Okay, do you two, do you guys know what your first word was?

Tyler Collet 7:09

You know, if you were to ask my dad, it was probably "da-da". If you ask my mom, it was probably "mama". I don't know.

Abe Mills 7:17

That was what I was guessing.

Tammy 7:19

Yeah, it pretty much is "mom" or "dad". Right?

Tyler Collet 7:22

Right.

Abe Mills 7:23

Usually.

Tammy 7:23

Which makes it hilarious for my daughter. I'm not kidding; her first word was money, it's a little bit embarrassing. Okay, well, I want to know this, then, because we're talking about the importance of words. And I want you to think what was probably one of the most important days in your life? What would you say?

Abe Mills 7:37

Well, I mean, if I had to say it now, I'd say for sure the day I got married, and I put that with, with my baptism day.

Tammy 7:47

Oh, good answer.

Abe Mills 7:47

Those two things are the things that stick out to me.

Tammy 7:50

Very good. What about you, Tyler?

Tyler Collet 7:52

You know, I would echo that. But I'm also going to add the day I went through the Temple and received my own Endowments.

Tammy 7:59

Great answers. Okay, I want you to think about those moments, then in your life, and let me ask you this. Can you tell me about it without using words?

Tyler Collet 8:09

Like facial expressions?

Tammy 8:11

I wish you could see their faces. Their eyes just went boing, right out of their heads. Yeah. Why? Why are words, why can't you do it?

Tyler Collet 8:19

Well, it was, for me, anyways, it was just, I was, it was like drinking from a firehose with everything that I was learning going through the Temple for the first time. And, you know, it's like, where do I begin. O wemt oh, oh, that just went by. Did I? Am I gonna remember that? What did I just miss? You know, and it just was information overload. It just, it's really hard to really convey what, you know, in the words exactly what it was like.

Abe Mills 8:52

Yeah, and I do think too, just because, you know, when we have different experiences, we kind of, different people might experience things in a different way. And there might be something that brings us all together, but it's really hard to really tell what that is if we're not able to at least communicate it in some way. Even if it's just like, sometimes, you know, as a missionary, we always learn how to identify the Spirit, when we're feeling it. Like, do you feel that right now? And then when you know, you say, Well, yeah, I do feel that. And it's like, okay, that is the spirit. What, or you even say, like, what does it feel like? And then like, I don't know, like, it's like, it's like, I just feel like there's something in me that makes me feel happy right now. Or maybe, I just feel like what you're saying is so true. And it's like, yeah, that's the spirit testifying of it. So we can use those words to kind of make sure that we all come together on like, what it is that we're, we're looking at, what we're dealing with, what it is that we're feeling, what it is that we're learning.

Abe Mills 9:49

And so the words become super important in order to kind of take what we've experienced and be able to share it with people around us. Because sometimes it's really, it's really difficult. People might be going through things and maybe they're the only one going through things. But if we don't have a conversation about it, then, you know, they might feel alone in their, in their triumphs, they might feel alone in their failures. So words become super important.

Tammy 10:15

Oh my gosh, excellent, both of you. You're right. We need words, don't we? What I think is so interesting is both of your experiences involved the most important word to every one of us in our lives. We're gonna study that word in John 1:1. We're just doing one verse in this segment. So let's go there. John 1"1, and Tyler, will you please read that verse for us?

Tyler Collet 10:39

1:1 "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Tammy 10:45

Okay, highlight "the Word" in that verse, and I'm gonna give us a couple of cool cross references for this verse. The first cross reference is Moses 1:32. So put that to the outside: Moses 1:32. And the second cross reference we want to put there is Doctrine and Covenants 93:8. We're going to go to both of these verses and read them. And Abe, will you please read Moses 1:32 for us? And then Tyler, I'm gonna have you read the Doctrine and Covenants verse. As we, as we read these verses, we want to define "the Word". This is so cool. So here we go, Moses 1:32. Hit it, Abe.

Abe Mills 11:25

Moses 1:32 "And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth."

Tammy 11:37

Okay, look back at that verse, "by the word of my power". And then we have another: "have I created them". Then the word which, right there connects it back to Word, "which is my only begotten Son". So according to verse 32, who is the Word in verse 32?

Tyler Collet 11:53

Heavenly Father's Only Begotten Son.

Tammy 11:56

Perfect. Let's go to Doctrine and Covenants 93:8. And Tyler, read this for us.

Tyler Collet 12:01

D & C 93:8 "Therefore, in the beginning the Word was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation."

Tammy 12:03

Now, look back at that verse. In verse 8, the Word is the messenger of what?

Tammy 12:10

Salvation.

Tammy 12:11

Highlight 'salvation' right there. So this is really neat. The word salvation in Hebrew is YESHUA. And Yeshua, in the English rendering is the name Jesus.

Abe Mills 12:29

Jesus.

Tammy 12:29

So who is the word?

Tyler Collet 12:32

Jesus

Abe Mills 12:32

Jesus

Tammy 12:33

Let's go back and read John 1:1, and we're going to replace "the Word" with Jesus. Now, let's see how the differently this reads; I think it's so cool. Here we go.

Tammy 12:45

'In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.'

Tammy 12:52

Now, tell me how that changes everything for you.

Tyler Collet 12:57

Oh, absolutely. It clarifies things. It's, you know, for me anyways, in reading that, and just my growing up in the church, it was easy to decipher that. But I can see how that can be confusing, or somewhat, well, confusing. To those that may not have, you know, the background that I grew up with, or who are learning this for themselves. So I think it's wonderful that we can learn that, that Christ is the Word.

Tammy 13:29

Yeah, for sure. Well, and if Jesus is the Word, I have this thought. As the firstborn son, He was the first word. I wonder if he was OUR first word. I just, like my mind played with this forever, like, oh, my gosh, what, He would be our first word. He is the first word and was he mine? And so it makes me just kind of think how important this word is in my life. And then we go back into John chapter 1 and I want us to look at just verses 2-5, and read the words that are used to describe 'the Word', So Abe will you just read verses 2-5 for us?

Abe Mills 14:07

You bet. 1:2-5 "The same was in the beginning with God.

Abe Mills 14:12

3 "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. I

Abe Mills 14:17

4 "In him was life: and the life was the light of men.

Abe Mills 14:22

5 "And the light shineth in darkness: and the darkness comprehended it not."

Tammy 14:27

Thank you. Those words right there, yeah, they describe "the word". I, I like verse 5, if you highlight the word 'darkness' and put 'the world' next to it: ',and the light shineth in the world and the world comprehend it not.'

Abe Mills 14:41

Yeah.

Tyler Collet 14:42

You know, Tammy, I found a quote by President Nelson that kind of correlates what Abe was saying earlier as far as how we need to express, how important it is to express our words. Can I share that with you?

Tammy 14:54

Please

Tyler Collet 14:56

So President Russell M. Nelson, and so he said, and this in regards to the meaning of the Savior's title "The Word". He said "In the Greek language of the "New Testament" that word was LOGOS, or expression. It was another name for the Master. That terminology may seem strange, but it is appropriate. We use words to convey our expression to others. So Jesus was the Word or Expression of His Father to the world." That was in the Ensign of 2000 April edition.

Tammy 15:33

It's an awesome quote. That is perfect. I'm struck with the word expression.

Tyler Collet 15:38

Right?

Tammy 15:39

Yeah. Okay, here's what I want you guys to do. Just sit back fof a minute. Abe, sit back, okay. And just take a big deep breath. I want you to then use that word 'expression' and express to me all the words that come to mind when you think of the Word.

Tyler Collet 15:59

Life.

Abe Mills 16:02

Freedom, joy, love.

Tyler Collet 16:11

Love, peace. Obviously, Savior, Shepherd. Joy,

Abe Mills 16:21

Gratitude, service, sacrifice, giving, patience, kindness, understanding. Those are words that come to mind for me.

Tyler Collet 16:44

I, I, that's, that's, that's fun to do, you know, to take a minute out of our busy days, our busy schedules. And even for a minute focus on the Savior and the expressions associated with it. What you know, I'd be curious to see what your listeners could come up with.

Tammy 17:08

That's a great question. That'd be fun to ask on social media. What words could you use to describe the Word, the Word. Even as you both spoke and expressed your words,? you just. like you said earlier, Abe, you felt something. Like that was the, I felt the spirit, I felt at peace. But I also felt a witness that what you both were saying was true; that all of those words really do describe salvation. It describes the Savior. So thank you so much for doing that. I didn't even expect that we would do that. But Tyler, thank you for that quote; it led this discussion into a different direction. So that was really powerful. So thank you. Okay, well, in the next segment, we're going to continue our discussion of the Word, and we're going to learn about its worth.

Segment 3 17:53

.....

Tammy 18:04

So Tyler has a really cool, extensive collection of baseballs. And I asked Tyler to tell us a little bit about why they're important to him, and if there's one that is worth more than all the rest, and why it makes it worth more. So Tyler, tell us about your baseball collection.

Tyler Collet 18:19

So it's just a little hobby that I have. The intent when I started was to try to collect autographed baseballs from Hall of Fame baseball players. And I tried to stay directly just with those who are in the Hall of Fame. But it's kind of branched out some to those who still play Major League Baseball, but they may not be in the Hall of Fame, or are still currently playing. So I currently have 52 autographs. So it's kind of a small collection. But you know, I hope I have a lot more of my life to live and so I may collect some more. But yeah, just just players that I enjoy watching that, you know, I just grew up loving and try to get their autographs on a ball that, and display. I think it's pretty cool.

Tammy 19:15

It is pretty cool. So do you have one that's worth more than all the others?

Tyler Collet 19:20

I, well, it's funny when you say do I have one worth more than others? Because, of course, you know, there's some value, right? monetary value attached to it. But there's also an emotional value attached to it. And I have two of those that probably stand out to me more than the rest of my collection. And it's more on the emotional side. One of them being also from St. Louis, Abe mentioned and I'm a diehard Cardinals fan. Sorry for the Cubs, you know, they suck. But Albert Pujols - he just retired, right? He was with the Cardinals for 11 years. He leaves, goes to the Angels, and then with the Dodgers' season, but then he comes back to St. Louis to play his final year. So I have an autographed baseball from Albert Pujols. Obviously, no doubt, our Hall of Fame guy, set many records. He's like one of the greatest hitters that we will see in our lifetime. And then the second one is Mike Trout. Mike Trout plays for the Angels, of course. So that one holds a lot of meaning to me too, because in my opinion, he's also one of the greatest players to play in, in my generation.

Tammy 20:40

Do you have it with you right now?

Tyler Collet 20:42

Got 'em both here.

Tammy 20:43

All right, show us

Tyler Collet 20:43

Both, kind of side by side here.

Tammy 20:45

Go ahead and check out our show notes, you guys, and we'll have Tyler holding these baseballs. It's pretty cool.

Tyler Collet 20:51

Mike Trout there and Albert Pujols there.

Abe Mills 20:54

If you, listen. If you're from St. Louis, you are a baseball fan. It's just kind of, you have to be. You have to be.

Tyler Collet 21:00

Yeah. It is.

Abe Mills 21:01

That's the way that town is.

Tyler Collet 21:02

It is. That's, that's, I think it's a code, a city code or a state code there.

Tammy 21:06

It might be. Yeah, yeah, you're totally right. So Tyler, what I thought was so cool about the way you described these baseballs is, if I'm understanding it correctly, the history behind the baseball increases its value. Would you agree?

Tyler Collet 21:20

That and, of course, the person who signed it.

Tammy 21:22

Right. Yeah. Their history or your history. Both are perfect examples of increasing in value. What about for people? Could someone's history increase their value?

Abe Mills 21:32

For sure. Yeah, definitely.

Tammy 21:35

Okay. Now, this is interesting, because I want us to go to John 1:1-14, and we're going to talk about value being increased. And this is so cool. So I asked the two of you before you came to read John 1:1-14, and mark all the truths that you could find about Jesus that John included in these verses. So I want to know, what did you guys mark? I want to see if what you marked increases Jesus's value. This is pretty cool, so go ahead. What'd you guys mark?

Abe Mills 22:05

Well, I marked that "he was with God in the beginning, and that he was also God." We understand that as a member of the Godhead.

Tammy 22:18

That'll increase your value right there,

Abe Mills 22:19

Right? That's pretty big.

Tammy 22:21

You're a God, okay, you win. Very good.

Abe Mills 22:25

And there was a lot of other things I marked, but just thinking of the next thing was that pretty much all things were made by Him. There wasn't anything that was made that he didn't make, basically. Those are two big truths about Him.

Tammy 22:39

Awesome. Keep going, you guys.

Tyler Collet 22:40

Yeah, I marked that He who was foreordained in the premortal existence to be our Savior. The same as Abe in verse 3: all things were made by Him, right? So he waHhe creator of all things. Yeah, He's the, verse 4, you know, I took out of that, that He's the light of the world.

Abe Mills 23:04

Yeah. And I think also, just to kind of go back to the light thing, because the light that shines in darkness. A lot of times I think we live in a world where people are looking for solutions. We see so many people just trying to find some sort of solution, some sort of peace, some sort of thing that makes them feel like they belong to something and yet this is it. He is the light in the darkness. He is the one, is the truth. It's like, sometimes that truth is really hard for us to understand. But that's it, it's the truth. And I think it's interesting that you even, that we're, that we're talking about this because this is, this is true. Like it says "n the beginning, the Word was with God." This this book happened 1000s of years later, maybe even millions of years later, we don't know exactly how the time works, and based on our time versus God's time.

Abe Mills 23:56

But it was way later that John came and said, Hey, in the beginning the Word was with God, he's starting to communicate, or express. Like, we need to tell you in this, with this word, that this is what's going on, that Jesus was there. And remember,people living at this time, they didn't believe that, they didn't know that.

Tammy 24:14

Right

Abe Mills 24:14

They had heard of something maybe that was supposed to happen. But they didn't understand this the way that tohn is expressing it. And even still today there's some people that don't necessarily understand that. But it's interesting that this, we're reading this like, Oh, yeah, you know, "In the beginning the Word was with God". We've had it so long, but at this time these people didn't know that, they didn't believe it, they didn't understand it. And yet he's there trying to express in words so they understand how important that Jesus is.

Tammy 24:42

Yes, Abe, everything you said is awesome, because what I love is how it connects us. So they didn't understand the value of Christ. And that is what John is trying to do. Like, let me tell you how important this person is, how important this God is. Your salvation is dependent on the light. It is, it is everything what you just said Abe. They didn't understand His value. And now let's go to John 1:12. We're going to read about what that value means to us in our own lives. So here we go, Joh 1:12. Tyler, will you read that for us.

Tyler Collet 25:14

1:12 "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

Tammy 25:23

All right, highlight that verse. Look at this right here. "But as many as received Him,". As many as received this value in their lives. "To them gave he". Highlight "power to become". Like, He will give us power. This increases our value. Knowing Jesus, believing in Him gives us power to become the sons of God and daughters of God. We're going to include both of them right there. But I want us to talk about this power to become, like believing in Christ gives us power. I have three really cool cross references that back this up. The first one is in Doctrine and Covenants 39:4, so put that to the outside of verse 12. I also have Doctrine and Covenants 45:8. And then 1 Nephi 14:14, and we're going to go there and read these quickly so we can see how our value increases because we believe in Jesus Christ. So the first one: section 39:4. Abe will you please read that for us?

Abe Mills 26:20

You bet. D & C 39:4 "But to as many as received me, gave I power to become my sons; and even so will I give unto as many as will receive me, power to become my sons."

Abe Mills 26:20

Thank you. And you can put 'daughters' in there as well. And daughters. Yeah, power. K, Doctrine and Covenants section 45:8. Tyler, will you read that for us please.

Tyler Collet 26:20

45:8 "I came onto my own, and my own received me not; but unto as many as received me gave I power to do many miracles, and to become the sons of God; and even unto them that believed on my name gave I power to obtain eternal life."

Tammy 27:00

Thank you, perfect. Okay, now we're gonna go to I Nephi 14:14, and I'll read that one.

Tammy 27:07

1 Nephi 14:14, and it says, "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory."

Tammy 27:29

And I think it's amazing how in verse 14 it's very specific by saying "upon the covenant people of the Lord". I mean, think about this. What age do we enter into our very first covenant with Christ?

Abe Mills 27:41

Eight years old

Tammy 27:42

Eight years old. Can you imagine how awesome if we started teaching our 8-year olds: Listen, today you were given power. And what other power could it be than priesthood power? We believe this, the prophet has taught this, Elder Oaks has taught this. And we're not talking about being ordained to the priesthood. We're talking about God's power, His priesthood power is given to every one of His children on this earth to become who He sent us to become. That increases our value by knowing him. Well, and I'm thinking about these sweet kids who are listening right now - we have a lot of families who listen to the podcast - and if they're like, Wait a minute, why have power? What does that look like? What do you mean, I have power? What would you say to your little 8-year old? What does that mean? I have power. Power to do what?

Abe Mills 28:27

Well, we have the power to, we have the power to love, we have the power to share. We have the power to do good things and, and be servants. I mean, it's kind of interesting, because I think a lot of times we think there's so many big things that need to be done. And many times it's just the smallest of things, and that power goes a long way. Like the power to be nice to someone, the power to stand up and say no when other people might be saying yes to something that's not right. The power to smile and be kind to someone who may just need that.

Tammy 29:10

That is excellent.

Tyler Collet 29:12

You know, we've talked a lot about adding value, placing value to things or people. And it's free. It's free to smile, it's free to care, it's free to be Christ-like. It's free to be a good, decent person. So, you know in thinking about that, if that alone holds value, right? It because as Abe was describing that, I'm thinking to myself, gosh, yeah. I see that in his family, I know his family. I've watched their YouTube videos. They demonstrate that they live what they talk and and, you know, that benefits me as a person. And those that interact with his family, it benefits them. Someone could be having an awful day and his family comes by with just a smile, a kind, let me get that door for you, you know, to a complete stranger. And you know what? That right there could be a game-changer for somebody that is in despair. And that has, holds more value to it than finding $1 on the curb or something.

Tammy 30:22

You're exactly right. You know, andTyler as you were talking in my brain I visualized like, because in Tyler's study, he has this really cool case for all of the baseballs. And I just imagine, like we are God's baseball's. Like every one of us are on His shelves, and He has us up there and He just, He sees our value. And it is awesome. In fact, to the outside of verse 12, everybody just write "I am powerful". Like "I am valuable". That's what that verse teaches us. We are powerful, we are valuable, and God loves us. And Tyler and Abe, both of you put it into everyday actions. Because sometimes we think, well, we don't experience that 'til we go on a mission, or we don't experience that until we're older. But we can experience this power in our lives at 8 years old. And that is so awesome.

Abe Mills 31:09

So to me, this goes back to like the story of the talents that Christ said,. Because it's like, you know, and the talents, and they give numbers. But numbers aren't important to God. I mean, right? It didn't matter what the number was, it was so much whether or not if you took what was given. And I don't think that God put numbers on it to place a value on what the talent was. We just put that because that's what we do. We place a value on like, Well, you're a singer. Therefore you're more talented than I am, even though because I just sew. And then this person, they don't do anything, but they're very kind, but they don't have any talent. It's like, No, we do that. Like he did it to show, like, it doesn't matter what your talent is. It could be smiling at someone, it could be quilting, it could be singing.

Abe Mills 31:49

And this is what we always tell our kids: it doesn't matter what you're doing, if you're not living with a purpose, if you're not living with a purpose and that purpose being to shine the light of God to the world, right, "the city that is set on a hill cannot be hid". You know, ye are the light of the world. And, but when you, when you know that our purpose is to shine a light and to be the light Christ says. It is Christ who lights the darkness. But Christ is giving us that power as an 8-year old to light the darkness. This is the power that each one of us has and it's, it might be small as an individual. But as we do it together and we inspire others, then we can be as you know, we were inspired. If we can inspire someone else, and that person inspires someone, then we all light the world, we all like the darkness. And that's what Christ meant. We're here for each other, to lift each other up.

Tammy 32:40

Beautiful, Abe. Oh my gosh, that is so great. Yeah, I believe it. And I think the only, and according to verse 12 all we have to do is believe. And boom, we have that light, we have that power. So thank you. Thank you. That was such a discussion. Okay. So in the next segment, we get to learn about someone's value and power that was very high, because he did receive the Savior.

Segment 4 33:03

.....

Tammy 33:14

So I asked you guys to think about this question and come prepared to answer it. Here it is: What is one thing you've had to prepare for or get ready for? And how much work did it take?

Tammy 33:26

Yeah. Go ahead, Abew.

Abe Mills 33:29

Well, I think it's funny because I'm thinking of you, Tyler. And I can think of at least five things and I'm like, I know this he had to prepare for this and for that. And that. it was a lot harder for me to think of things that I had to prepare for. But the first things that I that I came to, first thing was my mission that I came to. And then there was a few other things that I thought that weren't necessarily church-related. But my mission was one of those things that you have to prepare for. And it goes from like getting wisdom teeth pulled, to having a check-up, to man, getting a picture. And then picking out a scripture that they're going to put on a plaque and all different things. And those are just the things that you do. Like, once you're actually that age to do it, we're not talking, you know, we're not talking about like, going out missionary splits with the missionaries and driving them around before and reading the scriptures and going to seminary and all of that stuff that starts at such a young age. But yeah, that's that's quite a preparing.

Tammy 34:27

It IS a preparation. That's alot!

Abe Mills 34:29

Yeah, there's a lot to do.

Tammy 34:32

Okay, Tyler, what's something you've had to prepare for?

Tyler Collet 34:34

You know, I could, I wanted to pick something that was specific to me. And in this case it was for our basic SWAT school. And what that is for those that may not understand what that is, or have any ideas, it's a week long, and it's more or less an eligibility to whether or not you get on the SWAT team in law enforcement or not. And you have to successfully pass the school. Now, preparing for this, I knew one year ahead of time before, you know, starting the school, so I had a year's notice. So within that year, a lot of physical exercising as you can imagine. Lots of running, and anybody that knows me knows I hate running. That's why God gave us cars. (laughter) Or horses for some people, right?

Tyler Collet 35:37

I hate running, but I forced myself to do it; I had to do it because I knew that we were going to be doing a lot of that. Calisthenics, the gym, right? And aside from the physical strains that I was preparing myself for, a lot of it was also the mental side of things and mentally preparing myself. Mentally, mentally preparing myself for long hours of a day. And by long hours, I mean, we averaged probably a 19-hour, 18-hour day, and we only got three hours of sleep during the school. And they did that intentionally because they wanted us to be able to have a strong mindset under pressure, under stress, and be able to make decisions under that. And so for me, that's what I came up with because for me, it was really challenging. Obviously, you know, I passed the school, and it wasn't five years later that I was put on the team. But you know, to this day, we still get people that can't make it through there. And it's something that they haven't prepared for really, to be honest. So that's mine.

Tammy 36:54

Well, both of your answers were awesome. And intense. Mine, not so much. I thought of, mine's a little more secular. I thought of the very first Christmas as a married mom with two kids. And I'm like, Oh, oh, I gotta do this? Oh, I got. Oh, okay. Wasn't, like I had to, I'd never prepared so much in my life buying presents, wrapping presents. In fact, I remember. I didn't wrap anything until the night Christmas Eve night. And there I am. I'm like, we're gonna do this together. Like I had no idea how Christmas worked. Now it's like a well-oiled machine. I start very early, wrap, get stuff done, but that's a lot of work! And as a new mom with 2 kids.

Abe Mills 37:31

It's not for the faint of heart.

Tammy 37:33

Tons of preparation. Now, I want us to be thinking about this word preparation, because we're going to learn about a preparer in the scriptures. Let's go to John 1:15 and 19. And we're going to mark the name of the person that is the preparer or preparing. Here, this is pretty cool. So here we go. John 1:15. Who is the person we're talking about in that verse?

Abe Mills 37:57

John

Tyler Collet 37:57

John on the Baptist

Tammy 37:58

Yes. Circle the word John. Okay, go to verse 19. We have another one. And this is the record of John; circle his name. Now this is where it gets confusing. Is it John, who's writing, or John the Baptist? And we've learned today,and Tyler you learned this because you talked to me about it. Who's speaking? Who are we talking about here?

Tyler Collet 38:18

John the Baptist

Tammy 38:19

John the Baptist. Okay. So put that next to 15 and 19. This is John the Baptist and I want you to bracket off verses 15 all the way through 36. 15-36, and we're going to label these verses with this. Here we go. Label it "The testimony of John the Baptist - the preparer". Now if you're like The preparee, what? Here's some really cool verses of scripture and a quote, that John the Baptist is also known as the Preparer. So here's a quote in April 2017 General Conference by Bishop Gerald Causse'. Tyler, will you read this quote?

Tyler Collet 38:57

"John the Baptist was given one of the most noble missions to ever exist, "to prepare the way of the Lord. First Nephi 10 said, to baptize him with water and to make ready a people to receive him. This just and holy man, who had been ordained to the lesser priesthood was perfectly aware of both the importance and the limits of his mission and his authority."

Tammy 39:23

Thank you, Tyler. Now, in our show notes, I have different scriptures that backup that John the Baptist was called to prepare. We're just going to read three of them. So while you guys look up there at those verses, just pick one, turn to it and read it, and yell out which one you're going to turn to.

Tyler Collet 39:39

Alright, I'll do Matthew 11:10, the very first one.

Tammy 39:41

All right. Here's some background to the verse before Tyler reads it. The Savior is speaking about John the Baptist. And in verse 10, the Savior teaches us who John the Baptist is. This is a pretty cool verse.

Tyler Collet 39:54

For this is he, of whom it is written. Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee."

Tammy 40:03

Perfect. All right, Abe, what one are you going to read?

Abe Mills 40:06

Alright, I'm going to read Isaiah 40:3. "The voice of him that creth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God."

Tammy 40:20

Thank you. So according to Andrew Skinner and D. Kelly Ogden, John the Baptist's ministry in the New Testament is just one application of this prophecy. So it's John's voice, it's in the wilderness. And we're going to learn more about that in the next couple of segments. But he's telling the people repent and to get ready because Jesus and His gospel are coming. And so we read in all of these verses about how he did that, in verses 19-24. The people are going to say, Are you Elias, are you Esaias? Now Esaias, in verse 23 is another name for Isaiah. They're like, are you Isaiah? And then he says in verse 21, are you Elias? And John the Baptist is like, No, I'm not Jesus Christ. I'm not Isaiah. I'm sent to prepare the way for Him who will be baptized. And so there's some really cool things about John the Baptist. And I want us to just kind of learn about who John the Baptist is, and I'm gonna turn the time over to Tyler, because this is neat. Tyler texted me a picture of his notes that he had taken in preparing for today's episode, and they were all about John the Baptist. So Tyler, tell us what you learned about John the Baptist.

Tyler Collet 41:25

Well, I want to make a comment on what you were just talking about on Elias. I was doing some digging in the Bible Dictionary regarding John the Baptist. It said John was AN Elias, which means a forerunner of the Messiah, but he was not THE Elias who is Jesus Christ, the Messiah. John was also not Elijah, the prophet, whose name in Greek is Elias. And so yeah, it can be kind of confusing, a little bit. But the word Elias can mean forerunner. And so that's exactly what he was.

Tammy 42:11

And that is so cool, because Elias is a title. It's actually a calling like an elias; it's a position of authority. There's a lot of Eliases in Scripture. So anyone wondering more about that, I highly recommend you study, go to your Bible Dictionary, look up Elias and you're going to find out who the Eliases are in Scripture. It's awesome. So thank you for bringing that up, Tyler. What else did you learn about John the Baptist?

Tyler Collet 42:32

So I learned that he was a second cousin to Jesus Christ. So I'm guessing just based off of when he was born, compared to when Christ was born, they were probably six months apart.

Tammy 42:46

Yep. Very good.

Tyler Collet 42:48

Interestingly enough, I learned in the Doctrine and Ccovenants, section 84:27 and 28, he was baptized in his childhood. Who baptized him, I don't know. Even more interesting, he was ordained by an angel when he was eight days old.

Tammy 43:08

YES!

Abe Mills 43:09

This makes a lot of sense, though. I mean, if you think about how his parents were so sensitive to the fact that Christ was coming, and when they, I believe it was when his, when his mother spoke to Mary, she knew. I mean, a lot of this stuff, and I'm assuming that they had, you know, they had had many more, or at least more than what we see in the scriptures, contact with angels or, you know, some sort of angelic communication.

Tammy 43:43

Oh, I like how you just connected that to all of the angelic communication that happened with Elizabeth, Zacharias, Mary, Joseph. Oh, that's cool, Abe. Great connection.

Tyler Collet 43:52

So you know how you mentioned earlier in the podcast, Tammy, that John called himself basically the disciple who Jesus loved. Funny enough, we learn in Luke 7:28, this is Jesus Christ saying this. "There is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist."

Tammy 44:16

Right.

Abe Mills 44:17

Wow!

Tyler Collet 44:17

That's coming from Christ Himself. Now obviously, that was in that days. You know, I, I would like to think that Joseph Smith edged him out just a little bit, right? But to have the Savior Himself saying, "There is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist." Wow. Incredible. So I learned that, that just blew me away. And then another interesting fact that I had learned if you really think about it, so he ministered in three dispensations. So he was the last prophet under the Law of Moses. He was the first prophet in the New Testament of prophets, and he restored the Aaronic priesthood in our dispensation. That is pretty incredible.

Abe Mills 45:10

Yeah,

Tammy 45:10

Did you steal my notes? Seriously, that's everything I had that I was going to teach about John the Baptist.

Tyler Collet 45:15

Did I not tell you, you

Tammy 45:17

You studied this hard core.

Abe Mills 45:20

That's cold-blooded. I can't believe you did that to her. No, I'm just playin'.

Tammy 45:22

Wow! No, you did awesome, Tyler. That i

Abe Mills 45:24

That is awesome.

Tammy 45:23

Yeah, it's everything we need to know. And it's, it's really pretty incredible that John the Baptist would be this preparer and that the Lord prepared him. Not only before the Savior was baptized, but then again before He comes to earth, that is so cool. All of those things are awesome. So thank you.

Tammy 45:25

So I do have a question, though.

Tammy 45:27

Okay

Tyler Collet 45:27

And I'm hoping that you can, it's not really a debate in my house, but I'm hoping you can maybe clarify some things in my house. So, did John the Baptist recognize Jesus Christ before baptizing Him? as being the Savior?

Tammy 46:08

Tyler, that is a very good question. And I have had people actually ask me that question before. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to defer to what James E Talmage wrote in "Jesus the Christ". So this is in chapter 10. And it's on page 118. And if you have it online, you're going to want to go to chapter 10. And then the title of it is the baptism of Jesus to fulfill all righteousness. And here's what he said.

Tammy 46:33

"John and Jesus were second cousins; as to whether there had existed any close relationship between the two as boys or men we are not told. It is certain, however, that when Jesus presented Himself for baptism, John recognized Him as a sinless Man who stood in no need of repentance; and, as the Baptist had been commissioned to baptize for the remission of sins, he saw no necessity of administering the ordinance to Jesus. He who had received the confessions of multitudes now reverently confessed to One whom he knew was more righteous than himself. In the light of later events it appears that at this time John did not know that Jesus was the Christ, the Mightier One for whom he waited and whos forerunner he knew himself to be." And I highly recommend going to the Joseph Smith translation of John 1:29-34 because there is some evidence in there that John the Baptist did not know that Jesus was the Messiah until he saw the sign of the dove. The wording kind of changes it. So I recommend going and studying that and reading it, and just kind of thinking about this idea of what John the Baptist knew, what he didn't know, and what Jesus knew.

Abe Mills 47:43

Yeah, no, it's so interesting, because I hadn't even really ever thought of that before. Like, did he know Him before he baptized Him? But it but in the end, Jesus knew him. So it makes you think, What is it that I'm, you know, preparing to do that, I don't know, but Jesus knows.

Tammy 48:02

Yeah. Well, Abe, I like how you say that, Am I preparing to do that? And that's really the question for this segment is, how are we preparers? And what are we doing to prepare the way for His second coming? And that's why we're here right now. We are at Eliases. We are preparing for Him to come. And so it's really cool because after John the Baptist has this experience, this witness and this power, people become converted because of his word, and, and all that he's doing. And so in the next segment, we're going to see who was converted and just how many.

Segment 5 48:32

.....

Tammy 48:43

Is there a sense of importance when someone says to you, You have got to come see this?

Abe Mills 48:48

Yes.

Tammy 48:49

Or do your kids say that and you're like, Alright, I'll be there in a second.

Abe Mills 48:53

My wife says that to me constantly.

Tammy 48:55

And when she says it, what does it mean?

Abe Mills 48:56

It means get in here right now. (laughter)

Tammy 49:00

I love it, I love it. Okay. That is awesome. Because

Tyler Collet 49:04

I'm glad I'm not the only one, Abe.

Tammy 49:07

You know what? I kind of imply that when I'm like, come and see this and nobody comes. I'm like, what? Seriously, you jerks. Yeah. Okay, go with me to John chapter 1. We're gonna look at verses 37-39. So hit it, Abe.

Abe Mills 49:20

37 "And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

Abe Mills 49:25

38 "Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted ,Master,) where dwellest thou?"

Tammy 49:38

Pause for a second where it says "the two disciples". Underline that; the two disciples speaking are John, not John the Baptist. John, who's writing, John the apostle and Andrew the Apostle. So we need to know that, K? So they come to Him, they say, Rabbi, and then here we go, verse 39.

Abe Mills 49:58

39 "He saith unto them, Come And see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the 10th hour."

Tammy 50:07

I mean, what do you think Jesus was intending when He said to those apostles, Hey, come and see? Or what do you think they were thinking?

Abe Mills 50:13

I think that He was telling them to, to join Him. I mean, I feel like... I look at it, like kind of like, say, for instance, my daughter and sons wrestle, right. And, and their coach is like, really involved in what's going on. And if people want to, if people are interested in wrestling, he will tell them come. And he doesn't say come and see, but he says come check us out. And what he means is, you're going to come and actually jump into the practice: you're going to run with the team, you're going to work out with the team, you're going to wrestle. I'm going to show you some moves and you're going to run the drills and all this other stuff. And we expect that you'll stay until, you know, forever. But if you don't, then at least until you've experienced what's going on so you can make a good decision for yourself. But I think that when God said, when Jesus, I think that when Jesus said that, He was saying to have this experience, Come and see what I'm talking about. Not just looking, but also experience what it is that's going on, and you'll understand.

Tammy 51:23

Okay, your story completely just changed. That is a paradigm shift for what that means, Abe. Because when you read it at first glance when He says, Come and see, I'm imagining, like, as a person saying, Hey, come see where I live, come hang out. Maybe you could have some, I don't I'll know, I'll make you a snack,La sandwich. Like, you just changed that. Because when the coach says, Come, come. He's not saying, Come watch people wrestle.

Abe Mills 51:47

Right.

Tammy 51:48

He's saying come and get in the wrestle, like, come and join, try it out, with the goal that they'll love it so much that they'll just want to join the team. Oh, Abe. That is so good. That is exactly what it means. Okay, we have to read this quote then from Elder Suarez. He gave this quote in May 2019. And it just perfectly put, what you shared now puts the quote into perfect context for me. Tyler, will you read this quote for us?

Tyler Collet 52:13

Sure. "When we accept the Savior's invitation come and see, we need to abide in Him, immersing ourselves in the scriptures, rejoicing in them, learning His doctrine, and striving to live the way He lives. Only then will we come to know Him, Jesus Christ, and recognize His voice, knowing that as we come unto Him and believe in Him, we shall never hunger nor thirst. We will be able to discern the truth at all times, as occurred to those two disciples who abode with Jesus that day." Wow.

Tammy 52:48

Okay, sorry, I'm writing notes. This is so cool.

Abe Mills 52:51

Well, and I think that with what that's saying it's true. Because I mean, think about anything you've ever done, right? It's like, Tyler, you talked about SWAT school, right? If you just said, Well, I don't know. Let me see what SWAT school's like, right? Let me see. I mean, I don't know if you kind of half put your foot in it. It just,

Tyler Collet 53:11

you're not wholly committed.

Abe Mills 53:12

Yeah, it doesn't work. It's like, I ran a marathon. And believe me, if I hadn't trained for that marathon, then I would never have made it, right? People, I just look at it like, man, I had to really like immerse myself in the training to make it. If you want to be on the wrestling team, you got to fully immerse yourself. You want to be on a SWAT team, you got to do that. And so I think sometimes when we, when we, when Christ says, Come and see, in our lives, you know, we want to just kind of like, I don't know, I don't know, you know. We're like trying to dip our toe in it. But if you really want to see, you gotta, you gotta jump in.

Tyler Collet 53:47

Yeah,

Tammy 53:49

I'm writing "Come and see is not a passive invitation." Oh my gosh, that was so awesome. Okay, let's do this. Let's find out those that came and saw. So go with me, we're gonna circle their names in the scriptures. So here we have in verse 40, is where we get that it's John and Andrew. So circle the name Andrew in verse 40. And Andrew goes to his brother's house, and his brother is Simon Peter. And in verse 41. Andrew is so excited, he says to his brother, "We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ." Now go to verse 42, and circle because this is what Jesus says unto him, "Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah". And if you've ever heard Simon Bar-jona, 'bar' means son, and Jonah is his dad's name. So that's what it is. Simon Bar-jona is Simon, son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas. So He renamed him in this moment.

Tammy 54:43

This is awesome. It's almost a foretelling or foreshadowing of what he will do. Simon, son of Jonas, thou shall be called Cephas, which is by interpretation 'of stone'. See, this also means seer. So the name Cephas can mean seer or stone and this is Peter, Simon Peter. So like, this is kind of a prophecy of Peter being the future prophet right here. He doesn't even know it yet. K, go to verse 43 and circle the name. Then they go and they find Philip. And they say unto him, "Follow me." So now we have Philip, who joins the group. And then we have verse 45. Philip finds his friend Nathanael; circle, Nathanael. So here are the people that came and saw: Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael. And then we have Nathanael who's a little bit dubious in verse 46, Tyler read verse 46 for us.

Tyler Collet 55:34

46 "And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see."

Tammy 55:42

Okay, so in the next segment, we're going to find out what happened. And did Nathanael come and see.

Segment 6 55:47

.....

Tammy 55:57

Let's go into the story of Nathanael. We are in John chapter 1. Let's find out what he did when he got the invitation to come and see. So before we even begin the story of Nathanael, we have to address the question when he says, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" And Tyler, you have a really cool quote, and I want you to share this with us about this place and what President Monson has to say about Nathanael.

Tyler Collet 56:19

Well, this quote that I found, it has to do with the question that Nathanael originally asked in verse 46, when he said, and that Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip said unto him, Come and see." So he's asking, What good can come out of there? Just a quick precursor of Nazareth: it was a small village, about 2-to 400 people was all there were. No paved roads in existence there. No significant social or political or economic activity occurred there. So just was commonly thought of just not very significant, right? President Monson posed an answer to Nathanael's question. He said,

Tyler Collet 57:06

"From Nazareth came He who made blind men to see, lame beggars to walk, even the dead to live. He set before us an example to emulate. He lived the perfect life. He taught the glad tidings that changed the world. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? From Nazareth came example, from Nazareth came sight, from Nazareth came strength. from Nazareth came life. from Nazareth came faith. from Nazareth came peace, from Nazareth came courage, from Nazareth came Christ." That was in the 1988.Ensign, October.

Tammy 57:45

Beautiful quote. This is awesome. Okay, so let's read the story of Nathanael and find out what happened then did he come and see, did he have an experience? So we're each going to take a turn reading a verse in John chapter one, verses 47 through 51. Here we go. We'll start with Abe, then we'll go Tyler, and then me.

Abe Mills 58:04

All right. 47 "Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

Tyler Collet 58:13

48 "Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.

Tammy 58:23

49 "Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel.

Abe Mills 58:31

50 "Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.

Tyler Collet 58:41

51 "And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter yE shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

Tammy 58:50

Okay. This is a great story, and anyone who's seen "The Chosen", in my mind it played out with that Jesus, like having this conversation with, and Nathanael, because, you know, Jesus says, Oh, look, it's Nathanael, who is someone without guile? And Nathanael's like, Wait, you know who I am? And then Jesus specifically talks about a moment that Nathanael was under the fig tree, and he's like, Wait a minute, what? You knew I was there? You saw that? Okay, I absolutely believe. And don't you love how Jesus was like, You believe that? You believe that I knew you were under a fig tree? Wait until you see what I can show you. And it just, it made me think about my own life and my own Nathanael experiences.

Tammy 59:28

And I, it just hit me with a ton of bricks. Like what is my fig tree moment? And there's one specific one in my life that I have, if I met Jesus today and I were not sure if it was Him or not, He would say to me, Well, of course I know who you are. Tammy. Remember the time when you prayed to me in your closet when you were 17 years old? And you asked that a boy would like you. Like I really did that. I wanted to, no boys liked me. I never had a boyfriend growing up. I just wanted to know if boy thought I was cute. I really went in my closet at 17 - of course I had to barricade my door in case my sisters ran in and saw me, I would have been mortally wounded, so embarrassed. I barricaded my door, I crawled in my closet because I learned in seminary you can pray in your closet. And I just sobbed and just said, I just want to know that a boy likes me. I don't even need a boyfriend. That's it. And I ended my prayer.

Tammy 1:00:18

And you know what? Two weeks later, my best friend Olinda - she wasn't even a member of the church - she found me at school and she was so excited. And she was screaming and I was like, what are, why are you screaming, what is going on? And she said, Okay, I just got done talking to Steve Johansson and he totally thinks you're cute. And I started screaming, A boy likes me. Oh, my gosh! A boy likes me! I prayed in my closet that a boy would like me! And she's like, You prayed in your closet? You Mormons are weird. Like, I know we are, but it worked. Like that would be my fig tree moment where Jesus would say, You remember when you prayed in your closet at 17 for a boy to like you? And I would just start weeping., that is my fig tree moment. Do either one of you have a fig tree moment that only Jesus would know that you could share?

Tyler Collet 1:01:00

I'll share mine. It had to do with this past October, we had the opportunity to visit the Holy Land itself, Israel. And while we were there, we saw a lot of amazing places. One of those amazing places that we got to see - very sacred - was Garden Tomb. And for those that may not know what that is, that's where Christ was buried and ultimately resurrected. And being there, seing that, I had a, the spirit was strong with me. And I said a prayer to myself there. And I won't share that prayer, but it was definitely a fig tree moment for me. And it got me to renew my desire to want to be more like Christ, and to live the way that He would want me to live. But that definitely would be my fig tree moment. It was so wonderful.

Tammy 1:02:13

Tyler, thank you. I felt the power of that when you shared it. That is your fig tree moment. What about you, Abe?

Abe Mills 1:02:23

So we as a family have been in the Nauvoo Pageant twice. And I think this was the first time that wePwere in the Nauvoo pageant., but have you seen it? Have you seen Nauvoo Pagaemt?

Tammy 1:02:38

"City of Joseph, city beautiful, city of Joseph.

Tyler Collet 1:02:42

That's it.

Abe Mills 1:02:42

A new one, they got rid of The City of Joseph scene.

Tammy 1:02:42

Oh, I haven't seen the new one. Oh, rats! No, I haven't seen the new one.

Abe Mills 1:02:46

I mean, listen, I love the dancing and everything, but they just completely changed that.

Tammy 1:02:50

Awesome

Abe Mills 1:02:51

They could change it. But anyway. So they what they do is they created a temple that you build. And it has to do with, there's actually like a physical thing that you put together and you swing these things, and it comes up and looks like the temple and all that. Anyway, part of that was putting it together as the show went on, we'd put different pieces up, and it would kind of show the progression of the temple. And then afterwards, they would like put that all down. And then it would show the temple actually on the Hill lit up right behind it. And it was like, that was it. So anyway, part of that is we would we would put this piece in, and as we slid the piece in they would make the piece go from being on the ground to up.

Abe Mills 1:03:33

And one night, I had my hand like in it, because I was actually one of the guys that was part of that. Somehow, some way, I have no idea to this day how it happened. But my fingers that were in there they stopped it as it was going up before it like took my fingers off. And then made, there was a guy that basically stuck his hand there and stopped it. And there's no way that it could stop it. I don't know, because it actually works on, you know, there's a pendulum and it like once it goes, it's not going to stop. But they stopped it and and the guy was like, Oh your hand! And I was like, Oh my gosh, I got it out. And then they finished it. And that there, right there I was like, All right, God just saved my hand. I don't know how that happened! But like, I don't talk about that with people. And I don't even know if the person that was there would remember that it happened. But if God said, Yeah, I saved your hand in Nauvoo that time. I would be like, hmmm. Yeah, that's my, that's my fig tree moment.

Tammy 1:04:34

That is awesome. And the cool thing about all of our experiences that we shared, not only the feeling that we felt, because what you shared was truth, that is your fig tree moment, is then going back to verse 51. And then the Savior would say, "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." Like, greater things we will be seeing, we're seeing right now, and He's coming again and we'll be privy to that experience. Because going back to that, how we started, we believed on His name. We believe in the Word, we love the Word. And He is everything to us in our lives. And so thank you, both of you for sharing your experiences and for being here today. This is a great discussion about Christ and an incredible way to start the Book of John. That was so great you guys. Thank you. I love you both.

Abe Mills 1:05:22

Thank you, Tammy. We love you, too.

Tyler Collet 1:05:23

Thank you, I love you. I love you both; you guys are awesome.

Tammy 1:05:26

Okay, gather your thoughts and think what is your takeaway.

Abe Mills 1:05:28

So there's, so many things when we, when we do this, there's so many takeaways.

Tammy 1:05:33

I know, right?

Abe Mills 1:05:34

So many takeaways, if I had to go with one, I'll go with what we just talked about, which is that, you know, we have, we have fig tree moments throughout our lives, there's not just one. And as we go through, Christ gives us these things. And we understand that from talking earlier that He gives us the power that we have. All of these things are amazing and we can work and, and try to do what He wants us to do, but He gifts it to us. And when we get these. receive these gifts, and we have these experiences, and the spirit touches our heart that way, it's just another fig tree moment that we can add to our, to our list, to our pile, to our, our sack, our toolbox, whatever we want to call it. But when, and when life gets hard and when, you know, we don't feel Christ there, we can go back into those toolboxes and grab those fig tree moments and say, But I know that that's, I know that that's right, because this moment happened. And to me, that's one of those takeaways is that regardless of what goes on, and just situations that happen in life, we take those fig tree moments and they become really the foundation of our testimony in Christ.

Tammy 1:06:47

Awesome! Great takeaway. Thank you, Abe.What about you Tyler?

Tyler Collet 1:06:53

For me, it, what stood out to me was what good came from Nazareth. And in looking at Nazareth, it was more or less a humble community, nothing special about it. And I look at that in today's time, how we come from humble families, humble homes, humble areas, and how we can do good with just a simple smile. And Christ-like attributes to, as Abe said earlier, light the world. And if we all just do our own part and just live the way Christ would have us live, with a simple smile, being humble, you know, we can we can light the world and we can show others the love of Christ through our own actions.

Tammy 1:07:50

Perfect. Tyler, I like how you connected that back to Nazareth. That was so awesome. My takeaway was when we started out by saying that the Gospel According to John, that the footnote tells us it's The Testimony of John. I also want to add too, that it's the testimony of Abe and the testimony of Tyler, when both of you just shared the words to describe the Word. That was, that was a touchstone moment. That was your testimony of Jesus Christ. And so I think when you were in that moment, when you were sharing those words, it added to John's testimony and to the power of his witness. So, I'll never forget that. So thank you so much for doing that.

Tyler Collet 1:08:27

Thank you.

Abe Mills 1:08:27

Thank you.

Tammy 1:08:28

What a great day. Okay, well, we would love to hear what your big takeaway is from this episode. So if you haven't joined our discussion group on Facebook, or if you're not following us on Instagram, go do it. It's so much fun. In fact, I had a friend reach out to me recently. She's like, I am not even on social media, I've never been on Facebook. My friends are shocked to learn that I'm on Facebook, and I'm only doing it because of Sunday on Monday. It's so much fun. So go there. And at the end of the week we do a post asking for what your big takeaway was from this episode. So comment on the post that relates to this lesson and let us know what you've learned. You can get to both our Facebook and Instagram by going to the show notes for this episode on LDS living.com/sunday on Monday and go there anyway because it's where we're going to have the links to all of the references we use today as well as a complete transcript of this entire discussion. So go check that out.

Tammy 1:09:14

The Sunday on Monday Study Group is a Deseret Bookshelf Plus original brought to you by LDS Living. It's written and hosted by me, Tammy Uzelac Hall and today our awesome study group participants were Abe Mills and Tyler Collette. And you can find more information about my friends at LDS living.com/sunday on Monday. Our podcast is produced by Cole Wissinger and me; it is edited by Hailey Higham, and recorded and mixed by Mix at Six Studios. And our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. Thanks for being here.

Tammy 1:09:39

We'll see you next week and oh, please remember, that when you are under your fig tree, You are God's favorite!

Tammy 1:09:47

"A1A Beechwood Avenue"! Is that where that's from?

Abe Mills 1:09:50

Yeah, yeah.

Tammy 1:09:52

I can't believe I just thought that; oh my gosh,

Tyler Collet 1:09:54

Don't get me started because I'll start rappin' it.

Tammy 1:09:56

A1A Beechwood Avenue

Transcribed by https://otter.ai