LDS Pad: The Journey Back to Heavenly Father

Saturday Session 3 (Priesthood), Talk 1 – M. Russell Ballard, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

• Priesthood is the divine power that seals
• How to Talk between Father and Son:
• Most Nurturing
• Who Sons and Fathers Become
• Applies to All Mentors
• 3 Suggestions for the Son:
  • 1. Trust Your Father:
    • Not Perfect, but loves you and is looking out for your best interests.
    • Your Father will feel responsibility and will make him work harder.
  • 2. Take an interest in your father’s life.
    • Interests
    • Goals
    • Job
    • How he met your mother?
    • Watch your father, you’ll understand your father better.
  • 3. Ask for your father’s advice:
    • Ask on Church, Classes, School, Assignments, Missions, Callings.
    • Asking says to him: “I appreciate your knowledge and experience.”
• 3 Suggestions for the Father:
  • 1. Listen to your sons. Ask the right questions and what to know.
    • Connect with your son: Driving, Fishing, Conversations before bed, working in the yard.
    • Have one deep conversation with your son at least once a month.
    • Where and when is not important. Just that it happens.
    • Ask how they “feel”
    • Just listen. You don’t have to fix everything.
  • 2. Pray with and for your sons.
    • Important events: New School Year, Birthday, One and One Prayer, Testimony Sharing.
    • Never give up. Even when you can’t do anything.
  • 3. Talk about and warn about bad things: Drugs, Pornography. Discuss the priesthood and moral cleanliness.
• Trust will flourish. Be open about Sexual Behavior with open and frequent discussions. Be positive about sexual relations in the bounds of marriage.
• Return Missionaries – All this advice applies to them as well.
• Pray to Heavenly Father. Honor your Earthy Father.
• Most important decision is to marry the right girl in the temple.
• Fathers of return missionaries, this applies to them too.

Saturday Session 3 (Priesthood), Talk 2 – Walter F. Gonzalez, of the Seventy

• USE the Book of Mormon
• Take the Book of Mormon Test: Is it of man or of God?
• 3 Activities to best read and apply:

1. 1. Feast Upon the Words of Christ. READ IT.
   2. Implement the Teachings
   3. Teach From the Book of Mormon

Saturday Session 3 (Priesthood), Talk 3 – Yoon Hwan Choi, of the Seventy

• Story of 9 Rowdy Boys, Baptized and went on missions.
• They went from 9 Boys to a family of 45 members.
• The boys sang in a group.
• Choi prayed about them and was inspired to teach them to be missionaries.
• “Attend all church meetings” – Taft
• Teach them to change their lives
• Adam did not always have to know why, he just obeyed.

Saturday Session 3 (Priesthood), Talk 4 – President Deter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor, First Presidency

• Must remain steadfast in faith.
• Work Hard.
• Trust in God.
• Uchtdorf was teased as a young child. When he looks back, he sees that being teased gave him personal growth.
• Adversity, when faced with faith, can be overcome.
• Prinicples:
  • 1. WORK.
    • If you keep at it, steady and constant, things will improve.
    • In the sweat of thy face, thou shalt eat bread.
    • Lord doesn’t expect us to work harder than we are able. Don’t compare your performance to others, he does not.
    • When your wagon is stuck in the mude, God is more likely to help one who gets out to push, than those who pray.
    • Righteous work in the home is sacred and has eternal results. It cannot be delegated.
    • Spend your days growing.
    • Spiritual Wings – as sons of God, we should grow to the horizons.
    • Retirement is not part of God’s plan. You should always be doing something.
    • Excuses with age: Skateboarding, biking, spicy food at the buffet… should not keep you from working.
    • No retirement from priesthood.
    • Wanting to retire from work is not a thought of a disciple.
  • 2. LEARN.
    • Old saying: “Education is not so much a filling of a bucket as a lighting of a fire.”
    • Learning is a commandment.
    • Joseph Smith said as a mortal part of our journey that knowledge in this life crosses into the resurrection.
    • Knowledge takes away anxiety, doubt and darkness.

Saturday Session 3 (Priesthood), Talk 5 – President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor, First Presidency

• Keeps olive oil on him at all times.
• Keeps it in his desk (He has a desk!)
• Keeps it on his nightstand.
• The olive oil has a date on it: The day it has been concecrated.
• Always ready.
• Story: A father called him about his three year old daughter. She had been hit by a car. He plead for a priesthood blessing. He had to fight the doctors to place a drop of oil on her head amidst bandages. Doctors said she was dying. They were wrong. She lived and also learned to walk again.
• Those prepared are ready to answer.
• Preparation begins at home, quorums, etc.
• Steady Obedient Service.
• Need:
  • To have faith, authority to act in the name of God.
  • Nephi – Given the authority to do miracles. He brought drought/rain, god gave him power and trust.
  • D&C 121 – Moves are pure, Gentleness, Love, Not Selfish. D&C 121 contains a promise in there.
  • Prepare for days when heaven needs you. Service & Opportunity.

Saturday Session 3 (Priesthood), Talk 6 – President Thomas S. Monson, President and Prophet

• Anger
• Story of a couple fighting and a child who got hurt as a direct result.
• Anger doesn’t solve anything.
• Destroys everything.
• Heber grant story about work.
• “Man is a fool who takes insult that is not intended”
• Anger is Satans tool.
• Story about Brother Marsh, how a result of a quarrel over milk and cream lead to the extermination order.
• Story about two brothers who shared a 1 room cabin in New York. They got into a fight and drew a line down the center of the room. They did not speak or cross the line for 62 years. This story was told at a funeral.
• Reads “School Thy Feelings Poem”