I have an active, compelling, ongoing dream created through the Holy Spirit that I want to share with you.  I pray that the Spirit will allow you to see with me in your mind’s eye and feel in your heart how what I say applies to you and those whom you love.

In this dream, we can see a beautiful future temple, full of light, strength, and beauty.  In these temple walls you can learn about our Heavenly Parents and the Plan for our Happiness that They once presented to you and me as Their spirit children long before we came to earth.  Love is spoken in this temple.  We know Jesus Christ will call this temple His Father’s house.  

Then in this dream, we can see the Savior is very much one with the temple.  As we walk up to this temple of our future, He invites us to come inside and see.  He walks with us through several rooms which all seem to be deeply connected to Him somehow.  We can feel how much He enjoys being with us and how much He values both who we are and all that we can offer.  We love being taught by Him about ourselves and our relationships to Him, our relationships to our families, and to everyone and everything else.  He invites us to come unto Him and to feel the wounds in His hands and feet that He once suffered for us.  He shows us what to do while in the temple and what to do when we go out.  This experience changes us completely from head to toe.  The Savior walks with us outside the temple and we turn around and look back at the temple.  We can see that our beloved Jesus and the Temple, which somehow are one, are to be our One Focus going forward.  We cannot fully express in words the joy that we feel being with Him in that Holy space but we want to do whatever He asks of us as result of this experience.  

Then, in this dream, Christ does ask something of us.  He does so first by sharing with us a parable that many of you will recognize.  It was told by a funny and loving man from Hong Kong—Elder Chi Hong “Sam” Wong, our North American Area President. Elder Wong shared it about one year ago with the missionaries in our stake and zone.  Elder Wong gave a sister missionary a bowl of M&Ms and asked her if she wanted to eat some.  She did.  He then gave an elder missionary a similar bowl of M&Ms and asked him if he wanted to eat them.  He did.  Then, Elder Chi Hong “Sam” Wong gave the elder one chopstick.  Only one.  Elder Wong asked the elder to do his best to eat the M&Ms without moving the bowl and only using the chopstick.  The elder did not eat very many M&Ms.  He then gave the sister missionary two chopsticks and asked her to do the same—to eat the M&Ms using only the chopsticks and not moving the bowl.  With some practice, the sister missionary ate many M&Ms and enjoyed them very much.  Then, Elder Wong gave the missionaries the meaning of the parable.  He quoted from President Russell M. Nelson, words that he spoke to mission leaders.  “Your ability to link the enthusiasm of the missionaries with the loving stability and helpful efforts of the members cannot be overemphasized… In fact, your success will be multiplied exponentially as you harness the power of members with whom you serve.”  (1)

In our ongoing dream, after the Savior shares this parable from Elder Wong, He turns to you and me and shares with us  how we can help.  “Beloved Members and Missionaries of my Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” I can see Him say, “work closely together as tools in my hands to do my work, and you will see great miracles.”  

Now, in this dream, you and I begin to wonder, what is His work?  If members and missionaries are to work together like two special tools, [like chopsticks], what are we supposed to do?

Then we remember a scripture that helps us know what we are to build together.  This is a long scripture, so listen carefully to see what we are to build.

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord;

In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

In this ongoing dream, the Spirit whispers to our hearts and minds, “Build this future temple.  Become a temple-ready people.  Build Zion.  Become a people ready for the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:19-22)

We members then look to the missionaries and the missionaries look back at us.  We both smile, sit up a little straighter, and feel excited about what this could mean.  Two tools, members and missionaries, working together often and well to accomplish God’s work of salvation and exaltation, in the hand of the Lord.  We start to catch the vision but want to know more.

Now in this dream the future temple vanishes before us but we see where it stood, almost as it were something made of glass that you can see but cannot feel with your hand, the outline of a base that the temple was built upon.  It is made up of three large platform foundation squares, the bottom one being the largest, then the next smaller, and the next smaller yet, but with all being large enough for the future temple to be built on.  The Savior would have us understand that once these now spiritual three foundations are filled with solid, strong foundational physical materials, they will make the base upon which the temple will be built.  Any worthy temple recommend holder wanting to enter that temple would step up on each of these steps to ultimately enter the temple.  In fact, Christ would have us understand that these three foundations are what make Zion… upon which the temple is built.

At this point, we recall the words of Elder Todd D. Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve who shared about these three foundations and steps toward Zion.

“…the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18). If we would establish Zion in our homes, branches, wards, and stakes, we must rise to this standard. It will be necessary (one) to become unified in one heart and one mind; (two) to become, individually and collectively, a holy people; and (three) to care for the poor and needy with such effectiveness that we eliminate poverty among us. We cannot wait until Zion comes for these things to happen—Zion will come only as they happen.” (2)

You and I, missionaries, members and friends, try at this point to think together about what Elder Christofferson is teaching us.  

The first square of the foundation is Be United.  We become united in our relationship to Christ and the temple.  We recognize we all need help and we all need each other.  We recognize that our Heavenly Parents love all of the Human Family, including each of our own families, and remember that families are central in God’s Plan.  We strive to stay away from anything that nurtures contention but try hard instead to build bridges of understanding.  We look to the future and anticipate the challenges that will threaten unity and prepare for these challenges so we can be united in Christ, come what may.

The second square of the foundation is dwell in righteousness.  We love God first, have faith in and study daily His words, and repent daily, and follow the Spirit with exactness.  We make and keep sacred covenants, loving and understanding God through obeying them, renewing them each week by taking the Lord’s sacraments.  We love others including ourselves and see the goodness in every child of God.  We help our children and youth catch the vision of becoming missionaries.  We offer our thanks often to the Lord for others in prayer and plead for His help for ourselves and others.

The third square of the foundation is eliminate poverty.  We recognize that we are all beggars before God who gives to us so much.  We look for those who suffer and need something good that we then share with them.  We are generous with our fast offerings and even more generous with our time, talents, and other means.  We join with others around us to do so.  Because we have been given much, we too know we must give.

Now in our dream, after considering the meaning of these three foundations we watch as each of these platforms are already in the process of being filled with the efforts of so many here in this stake and zone.  We see how the two tools, missionaries and members, have been working together to build.  We also see that many, many other children of God around us are also striving to live true to their core values and understandings and contribute greatly to the building of these same foundations.

At this point in our dream, we again turn to the Savior and see how much He loves us.  He knows we live in physical bodies and can get fatigued, in body and mind.  He checks to make sure we are all doing okay.  Are we doing okay?  We stand up a bit straighter and lean in to look and listen.  We are doing okay.  Now, at this point in the dream, our perspective is changed.  It is as if though we are going up in the sky, back away from the three foundation squares insomuch that it looks like we have an aerial view, as if though we were floating over the site of the future temple.  Now we see four straight pathways coming from each side of the Zion squares that are being built.  These are also in the process of being created.  They each lead toward the foundation of Zion and the future temple.  Looking down below at these pathways, we are taught that we must continue with faith in Christ to continue to build these paths.  We feel gratitude recognizing that we have already played a part in digging, smoothing out, and laying down walking stones on these paths.  The Savior invites us to listen to the voice of the prophet to whom He has given the assignment and the keys needed to open the door to this future temple.  The voice of our faithful prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, speaks words we have heard before but have special meaning now as they help us understand the purpose of these paths.  

“Today, the Lord’s work in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is moving forward at an accelerated pace. The Church will have an unprecedented, unparalleled future. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, … the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9; see also Doctrine and Covenants 76:10).

President Nelson’s voice continues, “Remember that the fulness of Christ’s ministry lies in the future. The prophecies of His Second Coming have yet to be fulfilled. We are just building up to the climax of this last dispensation—when the Savior’s Second Coming becomes a reality.

“A necessary prelude to that Second Coming is the long-awaited gathering of scattered Israel (see 1 Nephi 15:18; see also the title page of the Book of Mormon). This doctrine of the gathering is one of the important teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Lord has declared: “I give unto you a sign … that I shall gather in, from their long dispersion, my people, O house of Israel, and shall establish again among them my Zion” (3 Nephi 21:1).

President Nelson’s voice remains strong.  “We not only teach this doctrine, but we participate in it. We do so as we help to gather the elect of the Lord on both sides of the veil.” (3)

Now in this dream we understand the four paths are representations of the four divinely appointed responsibilities of God’s work of salvation and exaltation, guided by the great commandments to love God and to love our neighbors.  We come unto Christ and assist in God’s work by living the gospel of Jesus Christ, caring for those in need, inviting all to receive the gospel, and uniting families for eternity.

At this point, the ongoing dream pauses and I am left to try to understand what the Lord would have us do as a stake to build the four paths that bring others unto Christ.

But I notice a pattern that I put into a poem to help you and I remember this dream.

One Focus: His House and our Lord

Two Tools from Stake and Zone 

Three Steps, Zion toward

Four paths gather Israel Home

Dear Sisters and Brothers, Friends and Family, thank you for faith in the Lord and your prayers for all of your leaders.  I feel your love and support.  Thank you for your strivings to remember our focus for 2023:  “Yoked with Christ, We welcome and value all as we live, care, invite, & unite!”  This year we have seen many miracles as a result of your ongoing focus to place Christ and the temple at the center of your lives.  Temple marriages have been celebrated.  Babies have been welcomed into our homes.  Hearts have been strengthened and healed.  Many new members have joined Christ’s Church through the waters of baptism.  Many individuals have returned to the covenant path.  

Thank you, all of you, for your efforts to learn and live the 12 principles of Self-Reliance on our Stake Website, Appletonwisconsinstake.org.  Special thanks to all who have helped this go live this year!  It has proven to be an effective way of communication throughout the stake.  Thanks to all who have participated in JustServe projects this year!  My family was blessed to work together with the missionaries at our local food shelter!  Thank you to all who are have already or who are preparing to be a part of a joint community project with your ward or branch to help relieve suffering in your community, also known as a Humanitarian Outreach Partnership Effort or HOPE project.  Up to this point, 268 hours from the stake have been reported on the website as service to our community!  Thank you to all who shared your testimonies and how your lives are blessed by The Book of Mormon:  Another Testament of Jesus Christ.  The stake website reports how books were shared in English, Spanish, and Russian!  Way to share the power of Christ through this most unique of scripture!  Thank you as well to all who logged into, worked on, and reported on your efforts to index.  This year to date we were able to do 153,085 names in our indexing efforts.  Adults, youth, and children--from the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of you for your efforts this year to seek for the Spirit to guide you trying to meet the goals you personally set or that others with you set in trying to ‘build these paths” that gather Israel.  

We spoke last year in 2022 about our needs to couple with the missionaries to do this work.  What lies ahead in our future will be both more trying in the world at large but also bring greater opportunities and some of the greatest manifestations of God’s power than ever seen before.  Combining the priesthood keys that the Lord has commissioned us to exercise for this unique time, President Hansen and I feel that need even greater to be led by the Spirit and work more closely, Members and Missionaries, in accomplishing God’s work of salvation and exaltation.  Members, in accomplishing this work, we invite you to think more often to look ahead at our schedules and the needs of those around us, and “Ask the Missionaries!” how we can plan and work together!

Recognizing the need to “be one” as a crucial foundation for building Zion and feeling our efforts to work more unitedly with the missionaries this upcoming year, the new stake vision for 2024 will be:   “One Focus:  Christ and the Temple”

So here are four ways we can work closer together as members and missionaries and these will be our goals.  The each represent one of the four paths to help gather Israel to Zion and the Temple where Christ is and are all tied to the action words of Live, Care, Invite, and Unite!

The first way we can work closer together this next year will be Ministering.  We invite you to become more Christ-like in your Ministering efforts!  Think Celestial!

One story that illustrates such an example was shared in the Liahona not long ago. One sacrament meeting, a 12 year old girl we will call June (name has been changed) sat on the stand staring at the congregation.  The deacons finished passing the bread and water, emblems of the Lord’s body and His blood shed for us, and then they returned to their seats.  It was then announced over the pulpit that June was the youth speaker. Many eyes looked to June sitting on the stand.  She shook her head to say she was not ready to take her turn. Members of the congregation exchanged concerned looks.

The bishopric counselor looked at the next speaker, a man new to the ward, and caught his eye. The man stood up and shared a lively message, and for a moment all forgot about June’s stage fright.

When he was finished, though, those who had just partaken of the sacrament and renewed their covenants to take upon them the name of Christ saw that June had been crying. June stood up and moved to the podium, but no words came out. In the congregation, some worried she would criticize herself later if she didn’t give the talk. She held a written copy in her hands; she only needed to read it.

“Help her give this talk,”  silent prayers were offered.

Then, another young woman walked toward the stand. Before she reached the podium, three other young women left the safety of the congregation to share the weight of June’s vulnerability and offer her support. None of the young women spoke a word, but they gathered around June at the podium. A hand patted June’s, an arm circled her shoulders, and together they faced the audience as June opened her mouth, tested her voice, and delivered her talk. Now the tears were on the cheeks of the listeners instead of June’s.

Later, June shared, “It was definitely a positive experience for me. I realized how blessed I am to have an amazing group of young women step outside of their comfort zone just to make me feel loved.”  (4)

May we minister to one another this next year like these young women did for June.  May we take our ministering assignments to the Lord and work together with Him to meet heartfelt needs and invite individuals to their next step on the covenant path.  May we involve the missionaries in our efforts, and include our families, as we seek to serve and build this path.  May we take advantage of opportunities to help prepare our ministering families for challenging times which lie ahead—such as through this Saturday’s Stake-Wide Emergency Communication Drill.  May we as ministering brothers and sisters reach 100% in our ministering interviews!  

For the second way members can work together with the missionaries to gather Israel, this year we want to continue to strive to serve in our communities with members outside of our household of faith.  We have seen the hand of the Lord in opening doors for members and missionaries to serve in many food pantries, shelters, schools, clinics, and homes.  Poverty is being replaced by opportunities for growth and self-reliance.  We invite you to think how you can invite the missionaries to join you or how you can join them as we provide service side by side, together, at the same time, in our communities.  I know the Lord will continue to gather Israel and bless lives as we do so.

For the third way missionaries and members can work together to help gather Israel, we have felt to continue with the same goal we shared last year to give those in our lives around us The Book of Mormon:  Another Testament of Jesus Christ, to share with them our testimony and how this great book has blessed our lives.  This is the book the ancient prophet Nephi record the Savior as saying would be “plain and precious”, containing “my gospel, and my rock, and my salvation…and whoso shall publish peace, yea tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be.”  (see 1 Nephi13:37)

Have you seen the miracles that happened from such efforts this last year?  Ellie and Eric Pederson and their four wonderful and bright teenage children, Evangeline, Ezekiel, Noah, and Edward, are new members in the stake who have seen such miracles.  Ellie recently told me that she knew about the church because of a guy friend, Thao, she had in college who would share scriptures from The Book of Mormon with her all the time.  She told me that she did not like that and would warn others that he would share scriptures with them if they went around him.  In fact, he gave her a copy of this book of sacred scripture and explained how the book has changed his life.  At that time she was so confused how a little book could change his life or anyone else’s for that matter.  She tried to read it but had no idea what she was reading.  She didn’t look at it again but kept it with her along with her Bible wherever she went.  Through the years Thao and she would connect about life on occasion and he always would ask her, “Did you read the book I gave you yet?”  She would just roll her eyes and say nope.  

Fast forward to the recent past.   Ellie and Eric and their family went on a trip to South Carolina.  On the way back, Ellie felt a strong urge to find faith in something.  Guess who she reached out to?  Her friend, Thao!  She laughs about it now.  “Why I reached out to him, I don’t know…I had many friends of other faiths I could have called.”  But she felt to call him.  She told him what she had felt.  He said he had some friends to introduce her and her family to.   Ellie told me, “After we met with the elders and begin learning about the Book of Mormon, that’s when we all got really excited.  Like the more we read and learn the more we want to know.  As the elders studied with us and my questions about the book were being answered, I just wanted to know more and more…To see how The Book of Mormon unites us together without our phones and [allows us to] just really focus on learning it makes me happy.  My kids would ask each other about the assigned chapter before our next study with the elders and that really motivates me too…[Studying the Book of Mormon] has changed the way we pray and [understanding of our] Heavenly Father.” Ellie, Eric, and their family were baptized on June 24th of this year.  Life has brought its challenges since then but they still continue to press forward with faith in Christ on the covenant path.  They are now preparing to be sealed as a family in the temple.  We are delighted to have the Pederson Family with us here today.

We are excited as a Church to have the Book of Mormon as our Come Follow Me study next year.  We anticipate combining with the missionaries to learn how to share the new Book of Mormon app, practicing together with them on how to share scriptures with others, and learning how the Spirit will guide us to help flood this area with this great book of scripture.  

The fourth and final way members can work together with the missionaries to gather Israel this year will be to unite with you family on the other side of the veil by discovering a new story that you had not before known about one or more of your ancestors that demonstrates how God blessed them and then to record and share them with those you love.  Efforts are underway as a stake to provide more training for missionaries, members and friends on familysearch.org, how to find and enter personal stories, and how to connect with records.  Ultimately, this will lead to taking of names of our ancestors to the temple so that their essential ordinances can be performed and they can receive the saving and exalting covenants and keep them.  

Sisters and Brothers, Missionaries, will you commit with me to strive to work more closely with the missionaries whom we are so blessed to have in abundance in our areas?  Through doing so together, through the power of God, we will to Gather Scattered Israel to Zion and the Future Temple as we prepare for Christ’s Second Coming?  Thank you!  

Our Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers.  The Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and will come again to this earth and the Temples.  Joseph Smith, by the gift and power of God, translated The Book of Mormon:  Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and received the sealing power.  Our living prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, now holds the keys to that same sealing power that can enable us to someday live again with our Heavenly Parents as a family.  Making and keeping sacred covenants through priesthood ordinances leading to and made within the temple increase our access to the power of God.  I testify that these things are true.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Nathan D. Munson

References:

1. “President Nelson Shares the “Hopes of My Heart” with New Mission Leaders”, June 26, 2018, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/church/news/president-nelson-shares-the-hopes-of-my-heart-with-new-mission-leaders

1. “Come to Zion”, General Conference, October 2008, Elder Todd D. Christofferson

1. “The Future of the Church: Preparing the World for the Savior’s Second Coming”, General Conference, April 2020, President Russell M. Nelson

1. “The Gift of Participating in Church”, Liahona, March 2020, Kate Holbrook and Samuel Brown