CC #14 (How Great Will Be Your Joy)

Elder Rasband speaks about the importance of having more senior couples serve as missionaries. He explains that there is a need for more missionaries to gather God's children and prepare the world for the Savior's return. He invites senior couples to consider serving missions and highlights the unique abilities and experiences they have to offer. He addresses concerns about leaving grandchildren and missing family milestones, sharing a story of how his own parents' mission had a profound impact on a family they met. Ultimately, Elder Rasband emphasizes the importance of hastening the work of the Lord and encourages everyone, regardless of their age or circumstances, to find ways to contribute to the gathering of Israel. Surely, the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets. How blessed we are to have a living prophet today. Brothers and sisters, the Savior declared, whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. Welcome to Conference Chronicles, where we systematically take one conference talk per week from the previous conference and dissect it and learn from it. I'm your host, Taylor Lithgow, and I firmly believe that as we listen to and apply the Lord's teachings through His living prophets, we will fulfill the full measure of our creation and we will be prepared for the Lord at His second coming. So please join with me each week as we take this quest called Conference Chronicles. Happy Sabbath morning, brothers and sisters, friends, and welcome on in to this week's episode of Conference Chronicles. Just a reminder to check out our Wednesday episodes as well, Discuss with Friends. If you have any feedback on any of the episodes, don't hesitate to send over an email to conferencechroniclespodcast at gmail.com or on the social media platforms at Conference Chronicles. I look forward to diving into this week's topic. It's given by Elder Ronald A. Rasband. A little side note, I grew up with Elder Rasband in my home ward in Sandy, Utah. We didn't see him a lot, naturally, because he was a 70 at the time and was gone due to his assignments, but it was always fun when he was there. As a kid, I didn't really recognize the significance of it at all, but I always remember him presiding over the meeting and people being like, oh, it's Elder Rasband, he's here today. And so when he speaks in conference, I always sit up a little bit and wonder what he's going to say. As for what he said this time, I'll just get right to it. He spoke about having more senior couples serve missions. In a nutshell, he invites senior couples to serve full-time missions for the Lord. Now, why? I think, again, I've mentioned this in previous episodes, I think it's good to ask ourselves this with every talk. Why does the Lord want me to hear this now? Why did this General Authority prepare this message for this talk during this conference? Let's kind of dive into some potential whys behind it. Elder Rasband says, Today I am speaking to the many seasoned seniors in the Church who could serve as missionaries. The Lord needs you. We need you in New York and Chicago, Australia and Africa, Thailand and Mexico, and everywhere in between. Let me take you back to the year 2015. I was a newly called member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. One of the wonderful responsibilities we carry as Apostles is to assign missionaries to their fields of labor. I had participated as a Seventy in the process, but now as an Apostle, I felt the full weight of the assignment. I began with prayerfully placing a great number of young elders and sisters, one by one, in missions around the world. Then I turned to the senior couples. There were ten on the list. Not very many. Surprised, I asked my associate from the missionary department, How many do we need this week to fill the requests? He responded, Three hundred. That sobering moment has stayed with me. Ten couples to fill three hundred requests. President Russell M. Nelson has encouraged couples to get on their knees and ask Heavenly Father if the time is right for them to serve a mission. Of all the qualifications, he said, a desire to serve may be the most important. So part of the reason why behind Elder Rasband's message is on the very surface level is there's a need. Right? There's three hundred requests for senior couples and ten available applicants. So on the very surface level, we need more senior couples. You know, there's a need and it's not being completely filled. But then let's dive a little deeper. Why? Why do we need more senior couples? I don't know if you've done the seven layers of why exercise before, but you can do it with essentially anything. You know, I want a new car. Why? Because I want to get from point A to point B. Why? I want to earn a living for my family. Why? Because so on and so forth. Why? Why? Why? We won't go seven layers deep in this episode today. But to look a little bit deeper as to why, Elder Rasband says this, My dear brothers and sisters, my thoughts today are on the gathering of Israel, what President Russell M. Nelson calls, quote, the most important thing taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude. Nothing else compares in importance. Nothing else compares in majesty. The gathering is the ultimate recognition that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. It is as simple as that. We are gathering God's children in these last days that they might have blessings poured out upon their heads and the promises of the riches of eternity. It follows that to gather Israel we need missionaries, many more than are serving. So a bit deeper, another why is the Lord is trying to hasten His work and gather Israel. As President Nelson says, it is the most important thing taking place on the earth right now. And then as Elder Rasband points out, in order to gather Israel we need missionaries and we need more than are currently serving right now. So I've noticed that there's actually been many talks in addition to this one that have been asking for more full-time missionaries recently. You know, within the last few conferences there's been a few very specific pointed talks re-inviting young and old people to serve missions. And then there's been that many talks and many more inviting all of us as members to minister to our brothers and sisters inside and outside the church. So in short, we need to gather Israel. We need to assist in this. We need to help prepare the world for the Savior's return. I've heard people ask before, what is the Savior waiting on? Isn't the world wicked enough as it is for Him to return again? And the answer to that is yes. The world is definitely wicked enough for Him to return today, tomorrow. But we are not righteous enough yet. It's kind of a sobering fact, but the Lord is waiting on us. The word hasten continued to come to my mind as I studied and listened to this talk. The Lord wants to use us to accelerate or quicken or hasten this work. So with that being said, the approach I'm taking as I'm studying this is, well I'm not a senior couple. I am not prepared at this point in my life to drop everything and serve a mission. But what can I do in my current state, in my current condition to gather Israel? And I think we all ought to be asking ourselves that same question. But getting back to senior couples, you know what this talk is about, why do you think senior couples can be so effective? And why is Elder Rasband extending this invitation to them specifically? He says, there are so many ways senior missionaries can do what no one else can. You are a remarkable force for good, seasoned in the church and poised to encourage and rescue God's children. Isn't it so true? Senior couples are so seasoned with wisdom and life experience that has prepared them in such a special and unique way to, as he says, encourage and rescue God's children. So if there is anyone of that demographic, of that age group that's listening right now to this message and you're not planning on serving a mission, why? What do you feel is holding you back? Elder Rasband meets that question head on. He says, some of you might be thinking, but what about leaving the grandchildren? We would miss family milestones, birthdays, friends, and even our pets. So if any of you are having any of these thoughts or feelings, you know, what about the grandchildren? What about family milestones, birthdays, friends, pets, etc.? I'm going to tell a story that Elder Rasband told in his talk and then we can kind of revisit that idea. He says, some years ago, I was visiting family when the bishop asked me to conclude the sacrament service. As I was coming down from the stand, a woman approached me with her seven children and introduced herself as Sister Rebecca Guzman. She asked, Elder Rasband, do you know Rulan and Verda Rasband? I beamed and replied, they are my parents. You can see where this is going. With Rebecca's permission, who is here with family in the conference center, I share her family's story. My parents, Elder Rulan and Sister Verda Rasband were serving as a senior couple in the Florida Fort Lauderdale mission. They were proselyting and, by divine guidance, knocked on the door of Rebecca's home. She was just a teenager and loved listening to the music of the Osmonds, in particular our friend Donnie, who is here with us today. She had listened to their media interviews and learned they were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She felt there was something different about them and, thinking it might be their religion, Rebecca spent two years researching the Church's beliefs so when a kindly-looking couple knocked on her family's door and introduced themselves as Latter-day Saint missionaries, she was taken back. My mother told me to get rid of them, Rebecca later wrote, but my heart said no. I looked into their faces and felt so much warmth and love. The memory still brings tears to my eyes and deep emotion to my heart. Rebecca invited them in, and my missionary parents shared a message with her, her two younger sisters, and, despite her objections, her mother. Rebecca described to me, Both your parents were wonderful in explaining any questions we had. I can still see their faces as if there was light surrounding them. We always hugged your mother when she left, and she always made a point in helping my mother feel comfortable and respected. Your father always had a sparkle in his eyes as he was teaching us about Jesus Christ. He tried to include my father in discussions and eventually won him over. My father was a chef at a local country club and started making dinners for your parents, including making your father's favorite, key lime pie. When Elder and Sister Rasband asked Rebecca and her family to read the Book of Mormon, Rebecca did so in five days. She wanted to be baptized immediately, but other members of her family were not ready. After four months, Rebecca insisted she be baptized and join the true church. She recalled, Every fiber of my soul knew it was true. On April 5, 1979, missionaries baptized 19-year-old Rebecca, her mother, and two sisters. My father was a witness at the baptism. When I met Rebecca and her family at church, we took a photograph of her family with me. I took it home to my elderly mother, and she held it close to her heart. Then she said to me, Ronnie, this is one of the happiest days of my life. Let's pause right there. I mean, truly, what a miraculous and incredible story. Can you imagine a woman coming up to you with her seven children and saying, Hey, do you know Ruland and Verda Rasband? Yeah, they're my parents. Oh, wow. Your parents saved my life, brought me the gospel, and have provided a way for my parents, my siblings, and my now children and posterities to come to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. What a beautiful moment for Elder Rasband, and I'm sure he's incredibly proud and grateful for his parents. Then what a full circle moment for his mother. Let's pause and kind of think of her response. She saw the picture, she held it close to her heart, and then she said to her son, Ronnie, this is one of the happiest days of my life. I'm sure that Verda Rasband had many happy days in her life. If you just think of her children and seeing her son get called to be a general authority and serve in so many positions and capacities and experience so many miracles, and I'm sure she experienced so many as well, and she declares that this day, that day that she saw that photo was one of the happiest days of her life. Why is that so? Well, why did Lehi want to immediately share the fruit from the tree of life with his family? Why did the father of the prodigal son immediately run to his son and throw his arms around his neck and kiss him when he had returned home? Our happiness is directly correlated with both receiving the Savior's love and then sharing that love with others. Isn't that how our Father in Heaven receives His ultimate joys? Isn't that what this plan is all about? It makes me think of a couple experiences I've had in some of my missionary efforts as well. In one of my first areas on my mission, we taught a part-member family. The wife was inactive and the husband was not a member and their children weren't either. Actually they weren't of the age to be baptized yet anyway, but we taught them and it was a beautiful experience teaching them and she came back to church and he was baptized and it was such a beautiful moment. And then fast forward a couple years later, I had been home for my mission, really it was less than a month, it was probably only like a week or so after I got home and I drove back to Arizona where I served with my sister because this same family was getting sealed in the temple. It truly was one of those full circle moments where you can just feel the fruits of your labor and you're so thankful to God for it. Another experience was this was my very first area, in fact it was one of the first people I'd ever taught on my mission, a young man named Nathaniel, and I don't know if you're listening or not today, but we taught his family and he and his mom were baptized. And I still have a photo, you know, in my phone of us standing next to Nathaniel as a young boy, probably 13, 14 at the time, if you're listening you can correct me, but I think he was 13 or 14, him dressed in white, his cute little beaming smile. Well fast forward, Nathaniel has made quite a man of himself. He served a mission. He has been married and sealed in the Holy Temple. He is amazing, right, and still carries that light about him. But it's so incredible for me to see that, you know, to see that this young boy, I mean I really didn't have much of a hand to be honest, but I got to participate in that conversion experience and then to see where he is now. And there's plenty other people that I could mention in that same note, people that I've taught that are doing so well in the gospel. I also think of my stepdad, Danny. My mom and him got married while I was on my mission, so I met him for the first time when I came home. Well, a couple years ago, he entered the waters of baptism after he and my mom had been married for about a decade. And that was such an incredible full circle moment for the whole family, especially for my mom, as she had felt in her heart of hearts that he would always join the church one day when he's since received the priesthood and is just an extraordinary man. Not always do we get to see the story from start to finish like this. I mean, not that the story's finished. It never is. The stories, of course, are not finished, but oftentimes we only get to see the seeds that have been planted. We don't get to see the harvest itself, but missionary work truly is a labor of love. And when you invest your soul into somebody and then you see the fruits of that labor, it truly is, as Sister Rasband said, one of the happiest days of her life. It becomes one of the happiest days of our lives when we experience those as well. So in response to those fears of, what about the grandchildren? What about family milestones, pets, etc., Elder Rasband pointed out that if you were to ask his parents why they served a mission, they would have responded and said that they needed their grandchildren and their children to know that they loved Jesus Christ and they wanted to serve him. And I'll add my testimony to that, and that is perhaps the greatest thing you can show your kids and grandkids is that you love the Lord and you're willing to serve him. That can do more for them than perhaps anything else you could do. So how do you serve? Where do you serve? You know, there might be those feelings of fear and doubt, knowing like, well, I do want to serve, but where do I start? Elder Rasband says, out in the field you have a smorgasbord of opportunities. You may serve in mission offices or temples, strengthen young missionaries, bolster small branches, work in family search centers or at historic sites, teach institute, provide humanitarian service, work with young adults, help in the employment centers or on church farms. The particulars of ways to serve, what best suits you, where you are needed, and how you can get ready to go are addressed on the website Senior Missionary. You can also talk with your bishop or branch president. So essentially what he's saying is the options are endless. And my wife Cassidy did get online and look at the options, and she said there's like over 3,000 different missions for senior couples that you can apply for. In all honesty, it kind of sounds fun. Cassidy brought up, hey, there's a mission open for the Paris, France mission, you know, for senior couples. And she's like, maybe we should be a senior couple. Just leave now. Go live in Paris and serve people. But in all seriousness, there are so many options depending on your capacity, right? Your physical capacity, your mental capacity, whatever state you are currently at in life, there is a mission for you. So go find it and apply for it, is my invitation and Elder Rasband's. In closing, Elder Rasband gives his official invitation and a promise is attached. He says, as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I ask you to serve as a missionary in the gathering of Israel and perhaps even serve again. We need you. We need you. We are grateful to the seniors for the lives you have led and the examples you have been in your homes, wards, and stakes. I now invite you to take your know-how coupled with your time-honored testimonies and go on a mission. I pray that the next time I sit down to assign senior couples, there will be hundreds of you waiting anxiously for your call. I also promise that as you serve, you will feel the love of the Lord in your life. You will know Him. He will know you. And how great shall be your joy. Your dedicated service to Jesus Christ will inspire and bless your family, your grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Peace and love will be multiplied in their lives for years to come, I promise, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Wow. What an invitation and what a promise. He says, as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I ask you to serve a mission. He then says, peace and love will be multiplied in the lives of your family, your grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, in their lives for years to come, and then he says, I promise, in the name of Jesus Christ. What an invitation and promise from an apostle, a prophet, seer, and revelator. I'll add my testimony that I know that you, senior couples, and everyone listening, whether you're old or young, has been endowed with special gifts that the Lord needs to use in His hastening, in the gathering of Israel. So go back to those seven layers of why. Why is He asking senior couples to serve? Why does the Lord want to gather Israel? You keep asking that question, why, and eventually we get to the answer of He loves us, and His work and His glory is to bring to pass the eternal life of man. That is why He's extending this invitation, and I testify that as we follow that invitation, as we give heed to it, the promised blessings are immeasurable, and we will come to know the Lord, and we will be tools and agents for Him, and I close that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed the episode. Don't hesitate to give feedback, like I mentioned at the beginning, and don't hesitate to share this with people that you love. I look forward to next week. Next week is Hallmarks of Happiness by Elder Gary B. Saban of the Seventy. Let's review it together next week. I will see you soon. Bye-bye.