Elder Gerald N. Lund taught that a missionary’s job is to kindle faith in others at the Prospective Missionary Fireside on Wednesday night.
“Faith is a process,” he said, “not an event.”
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The first precondition, according to Elder Lund, is to hear the word.
“When we talk about the gospel or the Word of God it always has two aspects,” Elder Lund said. “One is that it has truth in it. It is the statement of an eternal truth. The other is that related to those statements of truth are promises from the Lord.”
This system of truth and promises is found throughout the scriptures Elder Lund said.
The second precondition Elder Lund talked about was a soft heart. To explain this condition, he quoted Nephi from the Book of Mormon.
“For when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the heart of the children of men,” Elder Lund read.
According to Elder Lund we ultimately have to make the choice to let the Holy Ghost speak to our hearts.
“Why does the holy ghost only carry truth unto the heart?” he said. “Because the heart is the symbol of the gateway to agency. We control the gateway of our hearts.”
Elder Lund said that once these two preconditions were met, there are three steps in the process of gaining faith and a testimony.
He said that the first step is hope and desire; once you hear the word you have to hope it is true and desire the promise that goes with it.
“Faith is kindled by hearing the testimony of someone who has faith,” Elder Lund said.
The second step that he gave is an action of some kind.
“Whenever we act or do something, that witnesses to God that we want to be taught, that we want his promises and then he extends his power on our behalf,” he said.
According to Elder Lund, if we witness to God that we want to know for our selves if what we have been taught is true, he will give us a witness that it is.
“If you will act, not based on waiting for proof but your hope that something is true then god will confirm it to you,” he said.
A copy of Elder Lund’s full fireside will be available for viewing in the Harold B. Lee Library later this month.
