Alma 20:26 Feelings of Love re-connect us with Heaven

What is it about true love that touches every heart? Why does the simple phrase “I love you” evoke such universal joy?

Men give various reasons, but the real reason is that every person who comes to earth is a spirit son or daughter of God. Since all love emanates from God, we are born with the capacity and the desire to love and to be loved. One of the strongest connections we have with our premortal life is how much our Father and Jesus loved us and how much we loved Them. Even though a veil was drawn over our memory, whenever we sense true love, it awakens a longing that cannot be denied.

Responding to true love is part of our very being. We innately desire to reconnect here with the love we felt there. Only as we feel God’s love and fill our hearts with His love can we be truly happy. (“The Power of God’s Love”. Elder John H Groberg of the Seventy. Oct 2004)

Alma 19:36 Story which illustrates the principle that the Lord’s arm is extended to all people who will repent and believe on his name:

“A while ago my bishop and priests quorum adviser challenged our quorum to give away two copies of the Book of Mormon within a year. I took the challenge to heart and always had a Book of Mormon on me (in the car, in my backpack, etc.). Several people accepted copies, but nobody really showed any further interest.

“Then one day in June, I was filling up my car with gasoline after work and saw a coworker buying cigarettes. Because of his smoking and his rough personality, I never thought about sharing the gospel with him. He came over to talk to me, and we talked about music and movies. When I explained that I don’t watch movies with vulgarity, violence, or immorality, the topic changed to religion. I grabbed the Book of Mormon from the backseat of my car, wrote my testimony inside the cover, and gave it to him.

“The next time I worked with him, I asked if he had read any of it. He said, ‘Jeff, I read the introduction, and I know it’s true. I want to know more and be baptized.’

“That really shocked me. I gave the missionaries his address so that they could teach him, and I took him to church with me. He loved it. He set a date for his baptism.

“Before his baptism, he told me that he had been offered a really good job, but he had to act immediately. It was in Alaska, and he was leaving in two days. So we found the address of the meetinghouse in town, and then he left.

“Over the next few months we kept in touch, but he made no progress toward baptism. Then one day he called and told me he had contacted the missionaries and was going to be baptized that Saturday.

“Now he holds the Aaronic Priesthood and has blessed the sacrament several times. (Jeffrey Olson, “Invite All to Come unto Christ: You Never Know,” New Era, Sept 2011, AP14).

Alma 17:3 Prepare now to serve a mission

Elder Bednar. Alma 17:3

My dear young brethren, the single most important thing you can do to prepare for a call to serve is to become a missionary long before you go on a mission.”

“You can increase in your desire to serve God (see D&C 4:3), and you can begin to think as missionaries think, to read what missionaries read, to pray as missionaries pray, and to feel what missionaries feel. You can avoid the worldly influences that cause the Holy Ghost to withdraw, and you can grow in confidence in recognizing and responding to spiritual promptings. Line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, you can gradually become the missionary you hope to be and the missionary the Savior expects.”

“Proclaiming the gospel…is not simply an activity in which we engage for a limited time or an assignment we must complete as members of The Church….Rather, missionary work is a manifestation of our spiritual identity and heritage.” (Elder Bednar. “Becoming a Missionary” Ensign Nov 2005, 46-47).

Alma 14:11 Sometimes the Lord allows the righteous to suffer.

“Adversity comes from different sources. You may at times face trials as a consequence of your own pride and disobedience. These trials can be avoided through righteous living. Other trials are simply a natural part of life and may come at times when you are living righteously. For example, you may experience trials in times of sickness or uncertainty or at the deaths of loved ones. Adversity may sometimes come because of others' poor choices and hurtful words and actions.

 “Your success and happiness, both now and in the eternities, depend largely on your responses to the difficulties of life” (True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference [2004], 8–9).

Alma 7:11-13 Christ suffered for every possible situation or trial

Sister Chieko Okazaki - We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don’t experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism. Let me go further. There is nothing you have experienced…that he does not know and recognize….He understands about rape… and abortion…He knows all that. He’s been there. He’s been lower than all that.

He’s not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don’t need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He’s not embarrassed by us, angry at us , or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief…

Our spiritual requirement for light is just as desperate and as deep as our physical need for light. Jesus is the light of the world. We know that this world is a dark place sometimes, but we need not walk in darkness. The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and the people who walk in darkness can have a bright companion. We need him, and He is ready to come to us, if we’ll open the door and let him. (Lighten UP p174-176)