Be Your Best Self

This entry is part of my general conference application series.

Be Your Best Self, by President Thomas S. Monson



I'm going to go against my pattern and simply share a few of my favorite quotes from this address. As you probably guessed, each point that President Monson made caused a wake of memories in my mind and highlighted in my heart many ways I need to improve.

Besides thinking of D&C 107:99, what else comes to mind?

Each man and each boy who holds the priesthood of God must be worthy of that great privilege and responsibility. Each must strive to learn his duty and then to do it to the best of his ability.

Which version of myself am I most of the time?

This is not a time for fear, brethren, but rather a time for faith—a time for each of us who holds the priesthood to be his best self.

What would be my grade in a personal course on scripture study?

Participate in daily scripture study. Crash courses are not nearly so effective as the day-to-day reading and application of the scriptures in our lives. ... Study [the words of the prophets] as though they were speaking to you.

I love the promises of prophets:

I promise you ... that if you will study the scriptures diligently, your power to avoid temptation and to receive direction of the Holy Ghost in all you do will be increased.

Prayer metaphor:

Prayer is the provider of spiritual strength; it is the passport to peace.

Am I living that this can be said of me?

When it was necessary for them to exercise their priesthood in behalf of one who was desperately in need of their help, they were able to respond because they lived their lives righteously.

What's the shape of my back? (Compare Mosiah 24:14-15)

The Lord shapes the back to bear the burden placed upon it.

“Man Down!”

This entry is part of my general conference application series.

“Man Down!”, by President Henry B. Eyring
First Counselor in the First Presidency


I've long loved the accounts of missionaries who, although they served honorably, afterward felt they were a failure, only to learn much later that their efforts yielded incredible fruit because they touched that one person (President Faust relays one such story of Elder Callis here: Ensign, May 2001).

My recent trips down memory lane, recalling my home teaching service as a young man came rushing back as I reviewed President Eyring's instructions to young home teachers:

Your contribution during the visit may seem to you small, but it can be more powerful than you may think possible. You will show by your face and manner that you care for the people. They will see that your love for them and the Lord makes you unafraid. And you will be bold enough to bear your testimony to truth. Your humble, simple, and perhaps brief testimony may touch the heart of a person more easily than that of your more experienced companion. I have seen it happen.

I know that my life was forever changed because of past service (e.g. as a young home teacher), but it's hard to imagine my efforts producing lasting results. Nevertheless, I'd be happy to be wrong.

As I've stated before, I'm excited for the recent change in my current home teaching assignment: to labor with a young man who is in just the situation that President Eyring described. I can't wait to see the simple power that he will bring to our home teaching visits!

We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down

This entry is part of my general conference application series.

We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down, by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Second Counselor in the First Presidency


I was thinking of President Uchtdorf's address from the previous conference, "Lift Where You Stand" (talk, blog) last night as I helped a family unload a moving truck. We were a group of eight-or-so men with one last item to unload: the piano! We tried President Uchtdorf's advice to practice and it worked!

I hope I don't wait six months to find opportunity to apply this last conference's message!

I spoke recently of how having Brother Boone as a home teacher changed my life. I was reminded of our service together as I reviewed this talk. On a few occasions, I heard Brother Boone say, "The true judge of who you are is not how you act when you're around others, but how you act when you are all alone."

I've thought of this truth many times since. It's difficult (and embarrassing) to imagine doing/thinking certain things in front of an audience—and I'm not talking of the innocent, appropriate things that should be done in private!

President Uchtdorf invited us to participate in some well-needed (in my case) introspection:

Our weakness is in failing to align our actions with our conscience.

Pause for a moment and check where your own heart and thoughts are. Are you focused on the things that matter most? How you spend your quiet time may provide a valuable clue. Where do your thoughts go when the pressure of deadlines is gone? Are your thoughts and heart focused on those short-lived fleeting things that matter only in the moment, or on things that matter most?

I know that I need to be better and do better things, even when I'm all alone and I'm not working under any deadlines. I loved the example from scripture that was illustrated. The story of Nehemiah inspires me to do two things:

1. Find an internal place of safety by being my best self at all times, and
2. Resist all temptation to leave it for any reason; be able to say, as did Nehemiah: "I'm doing a great work, so that I cannot come down" (Neh. 6:3).

Priesthood Responsibilities

This entry is part of my general conference application series.

Priesthood Responsibilities, by Elder Claudio R. M. Costa
Of the Presidency of the Seventy


Despite reading many Garfield comics as a young man, I love Mondays! The reason, of course, is Family Home Evening.

Now that our children are much more involved in Family Home Evening, we have loads more fun! For example, each Monday, David and Rebecca each have to give talks. They stand at their makeshift podium and teach us either about a topic that we assign them, or whatever gospel principle they choose. (Rebecca loves to teach about temples, see below; David was using a belt to illustrate Nephite garb.)


I was reminded of the great times we have in Family Home Evenings when Elder Costa taught:

Family home evening is a very special time for us to strengthen ourselves and each family member. It is important to include the whole family in assignments for family home evening. A child could share the Primary lesson that he or she had last Sunday.

I'm starting to think that it's time for us to rely more on the Family Home Evening assignment board that's hung on our wall for years, waiting for its time to shine! I also loved the idea of giving the children an opportunity to recall and present their lesson material from the previous day in Family Home Evening. We already do that each Sunday dinner, but perhaps more nuggets will emerge if we give them more opportunities to share.

When we have great Family Home Evenings, we often hear the children excitedly exclaim, "I wish we could have Family Home Evening every night!" These are some of the times that I feel that I'm really fulfilling my family priesthood responsibilities.

This Is Your Phone Call

This entry is part of my general conference application series.

This Is Your Phone Call, by Bishop Richard C. Edgley
First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric


Immediately after high school graduation, I embarked on a cross-country move from Omaha, NE, to Fort Hood, TX, to spend time with my sister and her husband. Not wanting to drive alone, I persuaded my younger brother, Cortney, to come with me for the ride.

About an hour out, we started to notice a problem with my car.

In Kansas City, the clutch gave up the ghost, and we made our awkward way—high revving, slow moving—through downtown to find a mechanic (this was in the days before cell phones, of course). We placed a call to our father for advice and help. He took the number and advised us to wait while he did some groundwork at home.

Only a few minutes later, he called us at the shop to give us the name of a family that was on their way to pick us up and take care of us for the couple of days while the car was being repaired. Apparently, he called our bishop, who called our stake president, who called a stake president in Kansas City, who called a family, who agreed to help and came to our rescue.

All in a few minutes' time.

I was reminded of this experience when Bishop Edgley answered the how the church can respond so quickly to disasters:

“We are prepared, we have organization, we have empathy, and we have charity.” It usually just takes a few phone calls from presiding authorities to local leaders to mobilize hundreds and sometimes thousands of individuals to go to the rescue of their fellow brothers and sisters in distress.

While my brother and I weren't in need of thousands of people to help us, we were amazed at both the willingness of strangers to welcome two teenage boys into their home and with how quickly the process was underway.

We ended up staying only a short time with a wonderful couple in Kansas City. While we were there, they took us to a pageant at the Independence Visitors Center (which was great because we had visited the area as part of a youth conference just months before) and helped us to feel welcome in their home.

They even had a Mille Bournes game—a game that we had played as a family when we were quite young, probably before we even knew that the playing cards were in French—and Cortney and I had fun learning the actual rules as we played again.


I've thought of that kind family many times since. Unfortunately, we were young and foolish and neglected to record their name and address for future reference and the thank-you card we should have sent.

As we packed our things in our now-repaired car and continued on our journey to Texas, we discussed the kindness we had received and vowed to help others.

Relating the experience of stranded pioneers in 1856, Brigham Young spoke of the need to rescue them:

I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains.

I hope that I can see beyond my own circumstances to help and lift others, as I've been helped and lifted.