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Millennium: Missionary Work and Influx of Converts
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Such of the gathering of Israel as has come to pass so far is but the gleam of a star that soon will be hidden by the splendor of the sun in full blaze; truly, the magnitude and grandeur and glory of the gathering is yet to be.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie
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The Gathering of Israel
Joseph Fielding McConkie
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in the Young Men General Presidency When a patriarch puts his hands on your head and declares your lineage, he identifies the tribe through which you will receive your blessings and bless others. In your patriarchal blessing, you are told your connection with Israel and his sons and daughters. Of course, over the centuries the bloodlines have been mixed until we all have within us a combination of many bloodlines. This is why President Dallin H. Oaks has taught, “A declaration of lineage is not a scientific pronouncement or an identification of genetic inheritance.” Patriarchs identify lineage “by the promptings of the Holy Ghost . . . regardless of the race or nationality of the person receiving the blessing.” People within the same family—even identical twins—can be named from different tribes because your patriarchal blessing is not a physical DNA test. Instead, it “reminds you,” as President Russell M. Nelson explained, “of your linkage with the past. And it will help you realize your future potential.” Being born in this family means you have been given temporal and spiritual blessings with the hope and expectation that you will use them to help all God’s children. Currently, all the tribes are working together to prepare for the Second Coming. However, when Jesus comes to rule and reign, your tribe will matter a great deal. At that point, each tribe will be given specific responsibilities and assignments. President Dallin H. Oaks said your declaration of lineage is important as it “concerns the government of the kingdom of God.” Knowing our tribes now gives the Lord an additional level of worldwide organization He can call into action when the time comes. When Christ comes again, billions of people will immediately want to learn about Him and His Church. However, if we wait until that moment to get organized, it will be too late. We need to have strong and experienced leaders already in place throughout the world not only to handle the dramatic growth of the Church but also the additional temporal responsibilities that will be ours when “the government shall be upon [Christ’s] shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6). Every tribe is important. Elder LeGrand Richards said, “Promises of the Lord unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, will not be realized through any one branch of the house of Israel, but through all of them.” Your lineage means you were sent to earth with an important part to play in this great work.
Brother Bradley R. Wilcox
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in the Young Men General Presidency Satan has convinced many in the world that there is no God. He has convinced others there is no truth. But even believers are not much better off if we allow him to convince us there is no hurry. We need to feel the urgency to draw closer to God and an urgency to live in accordance with His truth. When the shepherds heard about the birth of the Lord, the scriptures say they came “with haste” (Luke 2:16) to find Him. They did not say, “Tomorrow will be soon enough. Next month will be soon enough.” We would do well to follow the examples of the shepherds and to go with haste in our efforts to serve the Lord. I want to urge you today to proceed “with haste” in your education, in your repentance, and in your efforts to gather Israel. ... Gathering Israel is about preparing for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and that is how we do it. If one million people wanted to join the Church tomorrow, would we be ready? Would we have enough bishops, Relief Society presidents, stake presidents, Young Women presidents? Would we have enough full time missionaries? Would we have enough full-tithe payers? No. We would be totally swamped. And that’s just one million. So, what’s going to happen when Christ comes and says “Hello! By the way, I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” That’s what he is going to say. Are we going to be ready when two billion people want to join the Church in one day? We have to be ready. Jesus isn’t going to come to watch the Church fail. He is going to come when the Church is ready to succeed. When we have a leadership base strong enough all over the world that we will be able to welcome everyone into the Church and we will be able to, as a Church, as Israel, gather all of God’s children on both sides of the veil home to Him. ... A study was done to determine the influence of Church programs on teenage testimonies and there were two that tied for first place - of all the programs of the Church including Sunday meetings: the two that tied for first place were seminary and EFY. [11] You will have the chance in one week to have the kind of impact that will gather Israel in a big way. That gathering matters. The work of salvation and exaltation matters. Preparing for the Second Coming matters. There is a hurry. FSY was supposed to kick off in 2020. Well we all know what happened then. Then it was supposed to roll out in 2021 and once again it was stopped by the Covid pandemic. Next summer it is going to roll out. At this point the youth don’t even know what it is.
Brother Bradley R. Wilcox
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in the Young Men General Presidency As we conclude, let's just say, alright Brother Wilcox, we know we're supposed to gather Israel, but exactly does that mean? Assyria from the north came in, horrible, bloodthirsty warriors, they killed many of the northern tribes, the ten tribes that made up the Kingdom of Israel. And those they didn't kill, they dragged away and they separated them because if they kept them together they would have rebelled, but they separated them and so within a few generations they forgot who they were. They were spread throughout all the northern countries but they forgot who they were. So, they're probably not lost wandering around some polar ice cap in Old Testament clothing. They're lost because their posterity don't know who they are. ... Now you see people gather from other tribes as well. Remember when Sister Nelson talked about this and the youth fireside? What did she find in Russia? Every tribe. It's happening people. It's happening right before our eyes. So what if it's happening? So someone is from Isaachar. Who the heck cares? What does it mean? So somebody's from Zebulun. What does it mean? When the patriarch puts his hands on your head he's not giving you a DNA test. At this point there's no such thing as a pure blood anybody. In Harry Potter language we're all mudbloods. So when he puts his hands on your head he's designating, he's by inspiration, he's telling you the tribe through which you will receive your blessings and the tribe through which you will bless others. So yes it's a linkage to the past but it also has to do with the future. Knowing your tribe right now doesn't matter much because all the tribes are working together to gather Israel. But when the Second Coming comes, that's when these tribes are going to give us a totally different organization, a different level of organization that's going to become very important. I mean, right now we've got to get organized, because when Jesus comes and he says "By the way, I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and that's what He's going to say, so do you think there's going to be a little interest in the church? Oh yeah. Will we be ready to have two billion people join the church in one day? Will we have enough stake presidents? Will we have enough bishops? Will we have enough young women presidents? Will we have enough full-time missionaries? Will we have enough full-tithe payers? We got to get with it. We got to get organized so that when we have that huge influx into the church, it doesn't swamp us. We've got leaders all over the world who can handle that. So, Elder Darling, you're not going to Guatemala to baptize everybody. Now, that's what your mission president might say and that's certainly what your zone leader's going to say, but really you're there just to get things organized, bring people into the church, help them become leaders, help people back into the church and help them become leaders, help youth become leaders, help other missionaries become leaders, you've got to strengthen this orginization so when Jesus comes, that's when we're going to baptize everybody, and we've got to be ready for that. Now when jesus comes he's also going to govern the world. He's not going to be governed by a president or congress or senate or a parliament or a prime minister. He's going to govern the world. Well, if He's governing the world then who's helping? Us, and that's where the tribes come in. In one instant he will be able to say if you are from Ephraim thank you for your service and getting ready for this day. Now I'd like you to be in charge of medical care. "Yeah, but i'm not a doctor." You don't have to be just get it organized. And in your from Isaacar, you're in charge of education. "I'm not a teacher." You don't have to be just get it organized. Do you see? President Oaks calls the tribes the Government of God, and we have to be ready to be called out at a moment's notice and to be able to be part of that additional organization. For there will not just be a capital in Jerusalem from which we will run the church but there will be a capital in the Americas in Missouri. From that capital we will run the temple and world and you'll be a part of that. You'll be a part of that. That's what you were born for. I'll end with one analogy that might help you understand. Let's say that God loves all of his children. Let's just throw it out there. God loves all his children so he puts them on a big oceaner cruise. Why would he do that if he loves them? Why would he send them away? So that they can get to know each other. So that they can have fun. So that they can be happy. So that they can learn something. But he also wants him to come back. So he looks among all his children and he finds some children he can trust. It's one thing to be loved, it's another thing to be trusted and he's trusted you with the birthright. So he finds you and he makes you members of his crew. So when you look around yourself on that cruise ship and you think "Dang, how come i can't wear those bathing suits? How come I can't wear an immodest gal and go to a dance?" Remember who you are. You're not a passenger. You're a crew member. "Well how come i can't drink all night, sleep all day? How am I gonna party like that?" Remember who you are. You're not a passenger. You're a crew member. "How come I can't eat it at the all-you-can-eat buffet?" And we're not just talking about food. "How come I can't do that?" Remember who you are you are. You are a member of the crew. Elder Darling you are wearing a name tag that identifies you as a member of the crew and before you complain too long and too loud because you have crew member responsibilities that passengers don't have, remember that you get something that passengers don't get. What is it? A paycheck. There's nothing you could ever be asked to do in this church, nothing for which you haven't already been paid, paid in advance and paid in full. I remember when Tom Meyers used to stand in front of parliament and say "You have all the cookies," Do you remember this? "You have all cookies. Do you realize that just because you have one change of shoes, do you realize that puts you right at the top of humans who walk on this planet and if a change of shoes puts you there where on earth is the chance for a college education devotion? I hope you realize you've been given much temporarily and spiritually. You go into temples where you receive an endowment a gift that other children of God don't get received. You have been paid in advance and paid in full. So don't you dare let the world change you when you were born to change the world. Don't you dare let the world leave its mark on you when you were born to leave your mark on it. Stay true. Square your shoulders. Bear this kingdom off triumphantly. Stay strong. Don't waver. Be true to the birthright you've been given. Be true to who you really are.
Brother Bradley R. Wilcox
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Elder Clark G
Elder Clark G. Gilbert
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