July 30 2019: Swansea (Wales) Youth Fireside

Several months ago, our friends and fellow temple ordinance workers, Rex and Nora Jensen asked us if we could help them with a fireside at the Welcome Centre for the youth in their ward who were coming to do baptisms.  We agreed to do so and put it on the calendar and then waited to hear from the Jensens.  In the interim, Rex was called to be the new 2nd Counselor in the next Temple Presidency (beginning November 2019) and they were released as ordinance workers so they could have a little time to prepare at home before their 3 year assignment began.  A few days before leaving, Rex reminded us of the fireside and said, "Well, it looks like you're on your own.  Here's the bishop's phone number."

We contacted Bishop Williams of the Swansea Ward by e-mail and asked what kind of message he would like us to share with the youth and he wrote the following:  "I think a good topic would be around staying the course, having the courage to ask in our prayer and recognizing those answers all with an eternal perspective as we're at the temple."

So we prepared the following PowerPoint presentation with video clips from several conference talks for this group of approximately 25 youth and leaders.  

Here are pictures of the slides with the video clips.  Make sure you click the "Full Screen" box for the videos so they are large enough to see them.  We hope this will be of interest especially to our children and grandchildren.

The topic of our fireside is "Stay the Course" or how we can gain perspective to endure to the end through revelation.

First of all, what is the course we are talking about when we say "Stay the course?"  The course is what President Russell M Nelson has called "The Covenant Path."  The covenant path is another name for the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the progression of laws and ordinances which we receive and promise (or covenant) to follow.

Perspective is an important principle to help us make good decisions which will result in our ultimate happiness.  Here is a definition and some quotes to help us understand what perspective is.

Here is picture that illustrates perspective. As we look down the road, each of the light poles appears to be getting smaller and smaller.  However, we know that they are actually the same size, but because they are further away, they appear to be smaller and smaller.  The near light pole may be like the TV program we want to watch - it's there looming very large and important.  The far light pole may be like the test we know we have at the end of the week - it seems so far away.  We can watch the program and not study or we can use understanding of perspective to say to ourself, "I had better study now because I know doing well on Friday's test will loom very important to me not only on Friday but even further down the road."

Elder Uchtdorf's message about perspective, patience and endurance.

So now, using Elder Uchtdorf's illustration, we might see the near light pole as one marshmallow right now, a further light pole as two marshmallows in 15 minutes and so on.

Here is another representation of perspective.  Here is a timeline for our lives, which will last about 80 years.  We have listed the major decisions which we make in our lives.  Note when major decisions, which will affect the rest of our lives are made!  They are made in our youth and young adulthood from about ages 12 to 25.  

One of the great blessings of the Gospel is our understanding of the Plan of Salvation or what Alma called the Great Plan of Happiness.  It provides perspective showing us that this mortal life is only a part of our existence - just one light pole along our road of life.  Note that we show the timeline of our life below the red sphere representing mortality.

Now to provide additional perspective, we have added a bar below the Great Plan of Happiness to represent the relative time of our Pre-Mortal, Mortal and Post-Mortal existence.  Since we have always existed according to the scriptures our Pre-Mortal existence would be negative infinity, but assuming that a day for God is a thousand years and that the creation of the earth took seven of God's days, plus the recorded Biblical time since Adam, that would be 13,000 years.  And we estimate the positive infinity of our Post-Mortal existence as 50,000 years (just for the sake of comparison).  Notice that the tiny red line (which is 10 times wider than it should be so we can actually see it) now represents our mortal life.  We understand now why the Lord told Joseph Smith that his life was "...but a small moment."  Mortality compared to the rest of our existence is very short! 

Recently President Russell M Nelson has given this prophetic counsel for all of us.  Receiving personal revelation is important to give us perspective to help us endure the challenges we all face in this mortal life.

We would like to share with you a short story from the life of each member of the First Presidency of the Church.  After we listen to each message, we will discuss what we each might learn from them about receiving revelation.

President Eyring's Experience with Revelation.

Here's some of the key learnings from President Eyring's experience as a bishop.

President Oaks experience with Revelation.

President Oak's learnings about revelation that both protected and prepared him for the future.

President Nelson's experience with Revelation.

President Nelson's learnings from revelation which came through the faith of another.

President Nelson's message on revelation in our lives reiterated.

The Temple is a Place of Revelation

In Summary:  Stay of the Covenant Path by Receiving Revelation in the Temple

Find Strength Beyond Your Own in the Temple.

The Sunday following the fireside, we received this note from Brother Jensen: "Brother and Sister Burkinshaw, I have just attended testimony meeting in our home Ward.  Many youth and leaders bore testimony of their spiritual temple experience, including the fireside with you.  I felt most envious that I was not there with them."

A copy of the PowerPoint slides (243 MB) can be downloaded here in about 2-3 minutes.  The entire presentation lasts from 45 minutes to an hour depending on the length of discussion.  It would be a great family home evening for youth (11-18) and adults.

Elder and Sister Burkinshaw