CC #6 Love thy Neighbour

The speaker discusses the importance of loving thy neighbor and shares personal experiences of serving and being served. He highlights a humanitarian trip to Uganda and how it influenced his understanding of who our neighbors are. He references the parable of the Good Samaritan and emphasizes that everyone is our neighbor, regardless of proximity or differences. He encourages listeners to reflect on their own experiences of being loved and served, emphasizing the importance of treating others as brothers and sisters. 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. Hello, hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Conference Chronicles. I hope everyone had a really nice week. I did. The company I work with sent a few of us to Cancun on a little four-day getaway, and it was a lot of fun. I do want to point out that I've noticed the last couple episodes have had this kind of static-y white noise effect in the background, and hopefully it hasn't been too distracting to you guys. It's been kind of distracting to me, it's been bothering me, and so I've been playing around and messing with this pod track, and I think I figured out the way to get the sound to sound more clear, so hopefully that helps. This week's talk is given by Elder Ian S. Ardern of the Seventy, and it's entitled Love Thy Neighbor. There's a theme throughout his whole talk where he's describing this humanitarian trip that he and his wife and a few other members of the Church took to Uganda recently. The moment he said that, my ears perked up, because a month before he gave this talk, I had just gotten back from Africa. My wife and I and two of our really good friends went on a trip to Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya, and it was an incredible, life-changing trip, and I could totally relate to a lot of the things he shared in his talk, and he showed photos, and I thought, yeah, that looks exactly like where we were traveling, and he showed a photo of a woman carrying a five-gallon jug of water on her head, and we saw tons of women carrying water on their head, or carrying their babies swaddled around their back, and it was just really cool to hear him talk about Uganda just a month after we had gotten home. He starts his talk by saying, this morning, I invite you to join with me on an African journey. You won't see any lions, zebras, or elephants, but perhaps by journey's end, you will see how thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are responding to Christ's second great commandment, to love thy neighbor. He goes on to describe the rural, barren areas of Uganda, how there were beautiful children smiling and waving, many of them, unfortunately, living in food poverty. He talks of women, young and old, walking miles with carefully balanced five-gallon jugs of water on their heads. He describes how they traveled for hours to share a message of hope and love to a group of people. As they arrived, they could instantly feel they were people who loved God, and God loved them. In this place, there was no running water, no electricity, no flushing toilets. He goes on to say that as heart-wrenching as it was to see malnourished children and the effects of tuberculosis, malaria, and diarrhea, there came to each of us an increase of hope for a better tomorrow for those who we met. That hope came, in part, through the kindness of Church members from around the world who donate time and money to the Church humanitarian effort. As I saw the sick and the afflicted being helped and lifted, I bowed my head in gratitude. At that moment, I better understood what was meant by the King of Kings, who said, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. For I was inhungered, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me in. You know, it's interesting how the title of his talk is Love Thy Neighbor, and throughout the whole talk, the main thread was this trip to Uganda. Certainly looking on a map, Uganda is not very close to where he's from, or where I'm from, or where many of us listening are from, but yet he's referring to those beautiful Ugandan people as neighbors, so it begs the question, who is our neighbor? In Luke chapter 10, it reads, And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. He said unto him, Thou hast answered right. Do this, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, saith unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? And we might be familiar with how the Savior responds to his piercing question. He responds by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan, how a Jew went from Jerusalem to Jericho and was beaten by thieves and stripped of all he had. So there he was, laying, beaten and maimed, and a priest, a Jewish priest, passed by and looks at him and, hmm, decides to pass by on the other side, and a Levite, a friend to the Jews, passes by and looks and decides to pass by on the other side. And lo and behold, it was a Samaritan who were historically enemies to the Jews. They hated each other. It was he that saw the Jewish man, picked him up, tended to his wounds, took him to an inn, and paid for his lodging. What a powerful way to respond to this lawyer's tempting question, who is my neighbor, by telling a parable of two people who on the outside would appear to be enemies, but yet the loving service that this Samaritan provided. So going back to that question of who is my neighbor, I think sometimes we as church members tend to fall into one of two buckets. For those of us who have served full-time missions, I know many people have served in a faraway third-world country, and I've noticed that sometimes these people will associate missionary work with that country they went to. When they think of missionary work, they think of Asia or Mexico or South America or Africa. And so when they're living in their day-to-day life with all these people that they grew up with, you know, that look and live and behave like them, it doesn't remind them of missionary work. And then there's the other bucket of, like in this parable of the Good Samaritan, that sometimes when people are too dissimilar to us, when they don't look like us or behave like us or speak like us, we sometimes think of them as less than, right? And that's a really scary way to live. And so I think that there's two buckets. Sometimes we're afraid of somebody or something that's too unfamiliar with us, and so we don't want to love and serve them. And then there's the other bucket of, oh, when I think of missionary work, I think of this third-world country. I don't really think of serving the people that live immediately next door to me. And so in summation, the question of who is my neighbor, as we all know, is everyone. Everybody is our neighbor, whether they live literally next door or whether they live halfway across the world. We are all brothers and sisters of our loving Heavenly Father, and He expects us to treat everybody as if they were our brother or our sister. Okay, so let's pause for a moment and think of some personal examples of loving our neighbor in our lives. How have you all benefited from somebody loving and serving you in a Christlike way? As I pondered this question, my mind was filled with so many examples, and my heart was filled with so much gratitude for the countless number of people who have loved and served me throughout my whole life. But I'll just share a few. I grew up in Sandy, Utah, and my parents thought it would be best to have me bust out to the Holiday Mill Creek area to go to junior high school. So starting in eighth grade, I went to a new school in a new area with a bunch of people that I didn't know. And it wasn't too long that a friendship started to form with my friend Michael. As my high school years came, there started to be some stressful times with my family. There was some addiction in the home. My parents got divorced. It was just a stressful and tumultuous time. And Michael and his family ended up being so heaven sent for me. Anytime I wanted to go to their house, I could. Anytime I wanted to eat their food, I could. They truly treated me as if I was one of their own. In fact, his mom still to this day calls me her fifth son. And even the fact that she calls me that says so much about her and their family. I'm not their son, of course, but they treated me as if I was. They truly embodied what the Savior is speaking of here and how we should appropriately love and serve and, as he says, love our neighbor. Another example is just families on my mission. I served my mission in Mesa, Arizona, and I never went without food. Literally every night, I ate with a member family. And I know there's probably some of you that might be envious of this if you served somewhere far away where there's not a lot of members and it was more rare that you ate with members for dinner. But literally every single night, I ate with a member. I don't remember one time eating in my apartment for dinner. I mean, I did for breakfast and lunch, but not for dinner. So many families took me in. Treated me as if I was one of their own. And so from the moment I entered the mission field until the moment I left, I felt so loved. I felt that I had parents and siblings because I was treated as if I was these people's children and siblings. I'm so grateful for those wonderful families in Mesa, Arizona, that were willing to quote unquote love their neighbor. Another example I thought of, it's kind of on a similar vein because it happened while I was on my mission. So I was out on my mission for a few months and my mom got remarried and she moved into a new home, into a different neighborhood. As I alluded to earlier, it was still kind of a stressful and challenging time in my family's life. My mother had just recently overcome an alcohol addiction that was so challenging and trying for her and for all of us throughout my high school years. And it still kind of felt like there was a shaky ground that we were all standing on. We all felt a little unstable. And so this was the backdrop for me leaving on my mission. Of course, I was tempted to think, you know, I need to stay home and be there as a support for my parents and my four younger siblings. But no, the answer was clear that I needed to go and serve the Lord in Arizona. So when my mom and her new husband and my four younger siblings moved into a new area while I was gone, guess what happened? All of the members of that ward that they were moving into showed up. And they showed up in a big way. They had them moved into that home in an hour with all of their things. And I remember when I heard this experience, when my mom shared it with me, I was just overcome with peace and gratitude knowing that, look, Heavenly Father can take care of my family way better than I ever could. And it was truly one of those blessings of serving a mission. And more importantly, it was one of the blessings of those good members of that area truly loving their neighbor, someone that they had not even met yet, but was a stranger to them and was just happening to move into their neighborhood. Another good example is Cassidy, my wife. She's always so good at recognizing if someone might feel left out. Her patriarchal blessing says that she has a special spot in her heart for the downtrodden. And this is something I really appreciate about her. Like for instance, on this trip that we were just at in Cancun, there was a big company dinner at the resort. And we had been eating our food at a table full of people. And we got up to check out what the dessert table is like, of course. And as we did, we noticed a couple that was sitting at this big round table that seated 12, but they were all by themselves and they had been eating dinner all by themselves. And Cassidy immediately says, hey, after we get our dessert, we're going to go ask them if we can sit with them and visit with them. And so we did. And it was a beautiful experience. And we became friends with them. And I hope that they felt loved and appreciated. And I think that they did. And this is just something that Cassidy does naturally and intrinsically, and I'm really grateful for that example. So moving on towards the end of Elder Ardern's talk, he says, despite our every effort, you and I won't heal everyone. But each of us can be one who can make a difference for good in the life of someone. It was just one lad, a mere boy, who offered the five loaves and two fishes that fed the 5,000. You may ask of our offering, as Andrew the disciple did of the loaves and fishes, what are they among so many? I assure you, it is sufficient to give or to do what you are able, and then allow Christ to magnify your effort. I love this parable of the loaves and the fishes. I think there's a few lessons we can take from this. Let's discuss a couple. So first, as Elder Ardern mentioned, this was just a lad, a wee lad, a mere boy. But it just proves that the Lord can use anyone who is willing. We don't need to be well-educated or wealthy or powerful. The Lord can and will use us if we allow him to. The next thing that stands out to me is that the boy didn't give much, right? Generally speaking, five loaves and two fishes, especially considering how many people needed to be fed, 5,000 people. But he actually did give a lot. In fact, he gave all. He gave everything he had. He had five loaves and two fishes, and he gave it all. He didn't hold even the smallest morsel back for himself. And then we saw what the Lord could do with that. This parable kind of gives me the same sort of feeling that I have when I read about the Savior commanding Peter to cast the net on the other side of the boat, and then there wasn't even room in the boat to receive all the fish that they got. It kind of gives me the feeling of the Savior saying to me, Hey, look, you can trust me. If you're with me, if you're on my side, you will never go without. You will never be hungry or naked or tired or scared. Give me what you have, and I will give you so much more in return, more than you could ever even imagine. Give me what you have, and it'll be enough. I'll make it enough. Give me you. You are enough. I will make you enough. I really love that. I think one of the key ways that the Lord does magnify our efforts is by the pass-it-along effect or the ripple effect. When we love our neighbor, it will most likely impact them and their lives in a positive way and will then motivate them to pass it forward. It'll motivate them to do the same to somebody else and then to somebody else, and then that person will do it to somebody else. And then you think about the small little act that you performed, but then the huge ripple effect that it actually had on the world at large. And it wasn't you that did it all. It was the Lord who had magnified your effort and made it so much bigger than you could have done on your own. I believe that when our life is over, we will get to see a panoramic view of our lives and all of the good little deeds that we did, and not only how they affected the immediate person that we served, but how they affected the world at large. When the Savior speaks of having indescribable joy, I think this is one of the things that He's referring to. Think of the indescribable joy that we will feel as we can have a panoramic view of the ripple effects of our actions. And then not to be too dark or negative, but think on the flip side, the panoramic view and the ripple effect of all of our negative actions, and how maybe if we did something to limit somebody else's agency or to limit their ability to love and serve God, that would be excruciating pain, debilitating pain. It would be damning. And would that not truly be hell to live with that feeling? And then on the flip side, would it not truly be heaven to live with the feeling of knowing all the people you have positively influenced, and then to have eternal increase and joy? It made me think of this scripture in Matthew 20, Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Loving our neighbor is truly the most noble work we can undertake. The greatest and the chiefest among us are those that serve and love the most. I'd like to close with my testimony. I know the Lord is pleading with us to love our neighbors. For their sake and for our sake, because truly, the one who serves is often the one who receives the most. The Savior's words are transcendent, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. I know this is an eternal principle, and I'm so grateful for this message from Elder Ardern and for the opportunity to have studied and grown from it. I know that this is Christ's Church, even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I close this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you very much for tuning in this week. I appreciate everyone who listens. If you've enjoyed anything I've shared, please share it with others on social media or in person, just in any way. I would really appreciate the message getting out to more and more people. And also, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to message me on social media platforms at Conference Chronicles or to our email address, conferencechroniclespodcast at gmail.com, and I'd love to respond to them. Next week's episode is entitled, Kingdoms of Glory, by President Dallin H. Oaks, the First Counselor in the First Presidency. I look forward to seeing you next week.