Callings

You’ll love Sister Yee’s refreshing take on the all-too-relatable feeling of being overwhelmed.

In moments when it feels the task at hand is too daunting, I reflect on this simple statement.

Apostle Paul reminds us to “not neglect the gift that is in thee.” If you’ve been called and set apart for work in the kingdom, even at a young age, you have the power of God behind you.

In our busy lives, how do we make planning and participating in church activities a joy rather than a burden?

Church callings give us ample opportunities to be engaged in good causes. If you’re like me, however, being “anxiously engaged” in your calling can also look a lot like feeling generally anxious about all the good causes.

For my first six months as a full-time missionary, I felt like a rising star. I was entrusted with training a new missionary, serving as a district leader, and had completed all of the mission mastery goals in record time. Surely the Lord had great things in store for me as a leader in my mission.

Despite a demanding career, Danny Ainge says he is still a believer in balance and credits church callings as being one thing that keeps his life on track.

Instead of approaching missionary work by telling others that they need the Church, we can let them know that “the Church needs you.”

My goal in my Relief Society lesson was to answer two questions: 1. Can you be a good person and not attend Church? 2. Why the need for organized religion?

“Every missionary called in this Church … is called by revelation from the Lord God Almighty through one of these, His servants.”

Don Gardner might be older than the average deacon, but his commitment to setting up and taking down chairs is touchingly unwavering.

Published in 1899, the first Church handbook was small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. The world has changed greatly since then, and so has the handbook.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may have times in their lives when they receive a calling and question whether they are capable of fulfilling the assignment from the Lord.

The direction to magnify our callings can be an ambiguous, demanding one to follow. In a talk he gave in 2006, President Thomas S. Monson defined magnifying our callings as the following:

There are many reasons a person may struggle with a church calling. We may feel inadequate, overwhelmed, or that our time and talents would be better utilized elsewhere. Whatever the reason, you are not alone.

Can you believe the first Toy Story movie came out 24 years ago? Since then, we've loved, laughed, and cried with our favorite toy characters through four movies. But have you ever wondered what it might be like to serve with Buzz or Woody? Here's what we think that would look like:

Let's make this clear: all callings are equally important. From Nursery leader to bishop to Relief Society president and everything in between, each calling is vitally important to building up our fellow brothers and sisters in the gospel.

Not all members of the Church have extensive leadership experience. In fact, many may feel overwhelmed when they are called into a position of leadership, whether in a ward presidency or a stake presidency.

Shortly after the special announcement by President Russell M. Nelson that we would now be “ministering” instead of “home teaching” and “visiting teaching,” a concern came over me that the words “minister” and “ministering” may become commonplace, no longer representing a depth of sacred spirituality. Those terms have always brought feelings of reverence and sacredness within me. In my mind, these terms represent the greatest of all ministers—our Savior—and His miraculous work. I began to review my life for what I had learned of ministering and how these acts draw us upward toward a life in Christ.

In 2009, a then-27-year-old Golden Harper embarked on what seemed to be the impossible: He started his own running shoe company during not only a difficult economic time but in a market that, by many accounts, was already established.

President Russell M. Nelson has said: “I never ask myself, ‘When does the prophet speak as a prophet and when does he not?’ My interest has been, ‘How can I be more like him?’"

"Saturday of April conference of 1984 has been circled on our calendar for many years, for that date was targeted as the first time in my life that our only son would be old enough to attend general priesthood meeting with me," President Russell M. Nelson said the first time he stood at the pulpit in general conference as an apostle. "Brothers and sisters, little did we know that on that day my name would be presented as a member of the Council of the Twelve."

“Being called as an Apostle is not an accomplishment or achievement,” explained Elder Dale G. Renlund, disproving a misconception about his role as an apostle. “It’s not a calling that is earned."

This is not a negative article. This is not a critical article. This article reflects my attempt to grapple with the real and the ideal when it comes to callings in the Church.

The big question: Should I “resign” from a Church calling?

“You may have times when you wonder if your call is beyond you,” President Henry B. Eyring told recently called mission leaders. “You may even ask, ‘Is this too much for me?’ I have had such moments often in my service in the Lord’s kingdom. And I have learned how important it is to banish those moments quickly. If you let them linger, they grow, and then your power to serve diminishes."

My experience with ward service truly started on my mission. It was exciting because in our wards we were invited to ward council, and since there weren't as many active members, we got to participate in a lot. We were in charge of large parts of activities and would frequently be the setup crew as well as be in close communication with leaders to help include less-active members and investigators in the process. When I got home, I thought that this would be the way that every ward functioned.

It was my first week in a BYU singles ward and I was called as Elders Quorum President. First item of business: fill all the callings.

"What did you do, make someone angry? That's like the worst calling."

When I was released as a stake president, I was expecting a big thank you from the presiding authorities. I had worked diligently for years and felt I deserved such thanks. The weekend came, and the presiding authorities were focused on the call of the new stake presidency. They were not focused on thanking the outgoing stake presidency. After the stake conference, I felt disappointed.

Sunday is a day of rest and a day of worship. However, there are some misconceptions that might cause unnecessary stress and anxiety on the Sabbath. In Mosiah 4:7 it reads, “for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.” Here are seven things that might make us run faster than we have strength and cause stress on the Sabbath.

It's remarkable to read the humility, and sometimes the humor, with which our current Church leaders accept the calling to serve as an apostle of the Lord. When PresidentHenry B. Eyring was calledby President Gordon B. Hinckley to serve in the First Presidency, he blurted out, "President Hinckley, are you sure you’re talking to the right person? This is Hal Eyring.”

President M. Russell Ballard said, “Clearly, those of us who have been entrusted with precious children have been given a sacred, noble stewardship, for we are the ones God has appointed to encircle today’s children with love and the fire of faith and an understanding of who they are.”

Sometimes in an attempt to prove our faithfulness to the gospel, Latter-day Saints create standards that require even more than what the Lord is asking of us. So before we expend too much energy trying to live these "higher" standards, we should ask ourselves, "Are we living the cultural gospel or the Lord's gospel?"

At a recent stake conference, President Russell M. Nelson shared powerful stories with Church members, including a tribal king's touching response when he received a copy of the Book of Mormon as well as the reply President Nelson told a nurse when she asked why he was so different that led to 80 people joining the Church.

We asked our readers on Facebook, "What is the most unique calling you've ever had?" From coat-tail puller to road kill coordinator, here's a roundup of a few of our favorite responses:

The following is an excerpt from Elder Bednar's book One by One.

How much time should we really be spending on our Church calling?

We've all been at the point in our lives where we feel like we are barely holding on, we can't possibly do one more thing, and then a Church calling or service project comes up. How can we manage it all? Sister Eubank from the Relief Society General Presidency shares some great insights.

A recent post by Richard Ostler has been gaining traction on Facebook, receiving over 100 comments in just a matter of days. In the post, Ostler delves into how we tend to judge each other and our own worthiness based on our Church callings—a tendency that can have very harmful effects. Ostler says:

While the Lord continues to pour blessings upon us when we choose to serve Him and follow the Spirit, there are undoubtedly sacrifices we are asked to make as members of His Church. There's no doubt that with a calling as an apostle, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf has had to adjust much of his life to his Church service. Yet his perspective shows us what truly counts when it comes to serving the Lord.

During my Young Women years, I heard many lessons on the hurtful effects of gossip. In my 14-year-old brain, I assumed we were taught those lessons because gossip was a problem only teenage girls struggled with—until one day when my bubble of naivety was suddenly burst.

My sister practically forced me to attend the single's ward the summer after I graduated from high school. As a girl who had only recently and reluctantly left Young Womens, I wasn't ready for the what some of my friends teasingly called the "marriage market."

Sometimes with demanding callings in the Church, we can begin focusing on how much time we spend, how much worry and planning we put in, and all the things we might be sacrificing. But recently, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who has one of the most demanding callings in the Church, reminded us of all the blessings we receive when we serve:

We've all had those moments when we're sitting in the office of a Church leader, feeling completely overwhelmed. Why me? we can often wonder. Dozens of names run through our heads of people we may feel are more suited to a calling just extended to us than we feel at the moment.