Week 22 Talk

Hello, would you be able to add my talk to the week 22 part? Thank you.

Good morning, brothers and sisters, i hope that y'all have had a wonderful Christmas season and are excited to come into the new year with hope and faith in the promised blessings to come. Because im still a bit new to this ward and haven't met some of yall just yet, I'll just give a quick introduction. My name is Elder Bell. I've been on my mission for about 5 and a half months, and im from Chesapeake, Virginia. Today, I have been asked to speak on how we can learn to hear and speak Jesus Christ's love which is a topic im very grateful to be able to speak on because as this world gets louder and louder, its become harder and harder to hear the voice of the Lord and live as he lived. But, as ive prepared for this talk, I've found many wonderful ways we can better hear his love for each one of us and then show that same love to others. During his April 2020 general conference talk called "Hear Him," President Nelson spoke about a couple of instances where God the Father had introduced his beloved son Jesus Christ and pointed out that he had done so in times of fear and desperation such as just before Their appearance to Joseph Smith in the sacred grove when the adversary tried to overcome him. President Nelson says in his talk, "Our Father knows that when we are surrounded by uncertainty and fear, what will help us the very most is to hear His Son." Hearing the comforting words and loving guidance of our Savior Jesus Christ has never been more available to any people than now. We can search the scriptures, go to the temple, listen to the still small voice of the Holy Ghost, and heed the guidance of his living prophets and apostles who he has called through revelation to comfort and guide the people of this dispensation. As members of the Lord's restored church, we have been blessed with the gift of the Holy Ghost which allows us to receive personalized messages of comfort, love, and hope directly from our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. With the Holy Ghost's position in the godhead as the messenger, we are able to hear and feel Christ's love for us in our hardest moments as the spirit truly acts as the comforter. By searching the scriptures, both the Bible and the Book of Mormon, we are able to learn from multiple first hand accounts the bottomless love that the Savior and God the Father have for every man, women, and child that has lived, is living, and will come to live on this earth from eternity to eternity. In the Book of first Nephi, chapter 19 verse 9, it talks about what Christ will have to experience in his life and why he does it saying, "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men." This testament of Christ was recorded so that in our day, we might know and truly understand, to truly feel, that his love for us is unending. By attending the temple, we are able to seek refuge from the trials of the world and gain a greater understanding of the Savior's loving plan for each of us. I was set apart for my mission earlier than most people normally are so that i could travel across the country with my grandparents, visiting temples on our way to the missionary training center. Because of the time i was able to spend inside those sacred buildings, preforming sacred ordinances in behalf of my ancestors and the ancestors of others, i was able to gain a greater sense of the love that Jesus Christ for world and the great plan of love ordained during the council in heaven for our benefit. Because of the Lord's great foresight, we have been given living prophets and apostles to guide and counsel us in these changing times. General conference, the church magazine, many different kinds of devotionals, and the proclamations of the church have been given to us by God and Jesus Christ through the ordained leaders of their church. Im not too confident in my writing skills, so i kind of wished that i could have just used a general conference talk on this topic, but i think that some of you might have noticed that. The scriptures, the gift of the Holy Ghost, temple attendance, and modern revelation are amazing gifts that the Savior has lovingly prepared for us to be able to hear his love in these latter-days. As we hear Christ's love for us through these blessings, we can show a more Christ-like love for our fellow humans. Elder Gong's talk from the most recent general conference focuses on the some of the languages we use in the church to speak love, those being the language of warmth and reverence, the language of service and sacrifice, and the language of covenant belonging. Through Warm and reverence, we are able help others to feel welcomed in our church meetings and in our home, to help them know of the respect we have for them as our brothers and sisters as well as the respect for our father in heaven. With actions built upon service and sacrifice we are able to are able to do as the Savior did, healing and serving those of broken body and spirit. And through a covenant belonging to the flock of Christ, we are able to sanctify our most precious relationships in his wisdom and power, knowing that he knows our needs and the needs of our loved ones more than we ever could in this short lifetime. In conclusion, as we strive to use the resources made available to us in these latter-days and edify others around us, we will be able to more consistently hear and speak the love of our Savior.