Colleen's Sacrament Meeting Talk: Sunday, September 18th, 2011

This one is for Nicolle who wanted to stay to hear it, but needed to start the drive to get to a family dinner that had been planned before she knew I was speaking (I was called Thursday night to speak on Sunday morning for someone who could not be there).  Thanks for your help!  Love!!!

Good Morning!  My name is Colleen Conlin.  My dear husband Adam and I, along with our five fantastic boys have been in the ward for three-and-a-half years now.  We are entering Conlin birthday season, so the boys’ ages range from ‘almost’ 11 down to ‘almost’ 2.  We are transplants from Washington State and love living here in the Colorado Springs sunshine.  But many of the biggest blessings we feel we have in living here are the amazing people who are a part of our ward family.

A few years back, when Zac was a preschooler I was assigned to speak in the ward we were living in at the time.  I was nervous, as I am today, and was talking to Adam about my jitters in the front of the car on our drive to church.  About that time, Zac asked me for a piece of gum, so I passed one back to him and popped one in my own mouth.  As we began to chew our two separate pieces, Zac asked me if I could blow a bubble.  I was distracted by my own thoughts and nerves and didn’t register the question, so he asked again.  Still pouring over my notes, I didn’t hear him.  But Adam heard and answered, “Sorry buddy, mom’s nervous right now.”  When I heard the word “Mom,” the conversation I had been tuning out settled into my consciousness and I looked up into the backseat mirror just as Zac said, “Don’t be nervous, Mom.” I gave him a big smile and was about to give my thoughtful little man a “thank you” when he continued, “Bubble blowing is easy.  You just stick your tongue in the gum like this, then make a pocket to hold with your teeth, and start to blow!”  Since that day, remembering that moment always relieves a bit of my nerves as I get ready to speak in church. 

I’d like to open my talk on giving meaningful service with a quote not BY President Monson, but ABOUT President Monson.  “Although {Thomas S. Monson} leads a world-wide church of millions, he never loses sight of the fact that each person in the church is an individual, and he is constantly watching for opportunities to serve that one person.”

Serving the One.  Doing this is directly following the example of the Savior.  In the scriptures we read about many times when He served the multitude, teaching and administering, but we also learn about times He served the One.  Like in 3^rd Nephi 21, when, after teaching all day long, He takes all those that are sick and afflicted in body and heals them “every one,” and then takes the children and “one by one” blesses them.  In the gospels there are many stories of Christ serving the One through healing, teaching, forgiving.  One of my favorite stories is in Luke, chapter 8, when Jesus heals the faithful woman in the crowd, ailing with a blood disease, who reaches out to touch His robe, knowing that if she can just touch Him she will be whole again.  When He feels the power of healing flow out to her, He seeks to find the person whom had touched Him.  At first the woman is afraid He will be displeased and upset with her, but instead His love for the One is clear and powerful as He says, “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”  

Serving the One.  Not only can we see this example in the life of the Savior, we can see it in our prophet, Thomas S. Monson.   Elder Holland shares this story of President Monson regarding the eighty-seven widows who lived in President Monson’s ward while he served as a young bishop.  Elder Holland says, quote, “Nearly all of those eighty-seven widows are gone now, but their “bishop” kept visiting them to the end. One night during the Christmas holidays some years ago, President Monson was making his customary rounds to “his” widows, leaving gifts purchased from his own pocket, including plump dressed chickens that were, in the early years, raised in his own coops. In one of the many Salt Lake City rest homes he has come to know so intimately, he found one of his ward members, alone and silent in the darkened room of a world made even darker by the onset of blindness. As President Monson made his way to this sweet sister’s side, she reached out awkwardly, groping for the hand of the only visitor she had received in the whole of the Christmas season. “Bishop, is that you?” she inquired. “Yes, dear Hattie, it is I.” “Oh, Bishop,” she wept through sightless eyes, “I knew you would come.” They all knew he would come, and he always did.”

Serving the One.  We must follow the example of the Savior and that of our Prophet to lift one another’s burdens.  Serving the One is a principle that will give our service more meaning than anything else we can do. 

How can we serve the One?  I might suggest three ways to focus our efforts and thereby become people who give meaningful service:

1. First of all, we must be open to the promptings of the Spirit to let us know that someone could be in need of our help and what those needs could be.  Every week at church we learn the ways to be the most open to the quiet whisperings of the Spirit.  Prayer, scripture study, regular church and temple attendance, and in a world filled with darkness and wickedness doing our best to make sure we are filling our homes with wholesome things by listening to good music, reading good books, watching good television shows and so on.  We all KNOW these things are the ways to have the Spirit near to us.  But knowing isn’t enough.  We have to be DOING them.  In one of his October 2009 General Conference addresses President Monson said, “We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.”  I am not even a little bit near to perfect in practicing these things.  These seemingly simple principles I have to constantly remind myself of, work for, try hard to achieve, so instead of just KNOWING what I am supposed to do to keep the Spirit near, I am actually DOING it!  And I know I am succeeding when I can feel His presence more and more.
2. That leads directly to my second “how.”  We must SERVE, not just OFFER to serve.  In 2007, Adam and I had just settled into our first purchased home.  We had had our fourth baby boy in June.  All was well.  Then, in August, Adam was given the opportunity to seek a new position with his company.  It was an exciting opportunity but it would require us to move to Colorado Springs.  After prayer and a lot of discussion, we decided to make the move.  Adam started his job in October while the boys and I waited for the house to sell.  And we waited and waited and waited.  The house just sat on the market.  We dropped the price twice, we had visitors, but the house would just not sell.  It was a long SIX months before in one glorious week in March we finally received two offers and sold the house.  During those months of waiting I was home alone with four little boys, Zac was 7 and the only one in elementary school.  It was difficult, to say the least.  If you know me at all, you know I am a night owl.  I am most productive in the post-bedtime hours than in any other time period of the day, but during those months some evenings I would put the boys to bed and, exhausted emotionally and physically, I would collapse into bed myself.  It was hard to get much done!  But the saving graces of those six months were the friends and family members who offered their service to me.  And let me tell you the most meaningful service I received was not the service that was offered with the statement: “If you need anything, just let me know, I am here to help.”  Don’t get me wrong, knowing I had support was greatly appreciated and it made my burdens seem less heavy.  But I think as human beings we are a little prideful about asking for and accepting service, even when it is greatly needed.  I certainly am.  And so I wouldn’t ask unless the need was dire, like I felt as if I would lock myself in the bedroom for days if I had to face one more grocery store trip with my entire kidtourage.  But those who called and said, “I’m coming over tomorrow afternoon to watch your kids for a couple of hours so you can get some errands run; expect me at 1pm,” or “I am bringing you dinner tonight; sorry, you have no choice about the matter,” those were the acts of service I truly appreciated.  I didn’t have to ask.  My friends saw my needs without me needing to ask.  They WERE open to the direction of the Spirit concerning me.  And they just served.    
3. Finally, we must remember not only that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God,” but also that we cannot help but come from the service changed ourselves.  In a way, by serving others we are serving ourselves too.  And, that while it may be easy to serve a friend, serving those who we do not know, or better yet, those we find difficult, will be the service experiences that become the most meaningful lessons in our lives.  My mother-in-law told me a story of a close friend of hers who, years ago, was assigned as a visiting teacher to a difficult and negative woman.  When this visiting teacher would bring candy or cookies as a special gift, the woman would say something like, “Great, thanks, you know candy could give the kids cavities!”  And when the visiting teacher would come with no special offering other than a message and the hand of friendship, the woman would remark, “Were you too busy to think to bring something along?”  I am sure you can imagine it was very frustrating!  As the visiting teacher fervently prayed for a way to help and teach this challenging woman, she received a strong confirmation in her mind.  It was a simple question: “Who says it is this woman who needs to be learning right now?”  Perhaps this negative sister did indeed need a lesson, if in nothing else, polite manners, but after her prayers, the visiting teacher learned that SHE was the one who was truly being taught by the Lord.  Although it has been many years since the days of visiting this challenging sister, my mother-in-law’s friend has never forgotten the lesson the Spirit taught her that day.

Just think.  If we ALL focused on serving the One, in the end, all of us would end up as recipients of service when we needed it.  If we could all seek the guidance of the Spirit to help a neighbor, ward member, or family member, the Lord would hear the desire of our hearts and would send us direction.  If we remembered that the greatest acts of service are the ones DONE rather than the ones OFFERED we could bless the lives of those who need us without them ever even having to ask.  And if we are willing to be open to the gifts we can receive from serving others, we will never walk away from a service opportunity unchanged and unimproved.  I know it’s not simple, it’s not always easy, but it is achievable when we have the faith to do it. 

I said in my opening that one of the reasons that we love it here in Colorado Springs is because of the wonderful and unique ward family we have found here.  I believe that is partly due to the gift of willingness to serve and pleasure in serving that so many in this ward have been blessed with.  These ARE gifts, let us not waste them.  Just like in a real family, when we serve one another as a ward family, we become closer and more connected.

In closing I would like to quote President Monson one more time.  “My brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness—be they family members, friends, acquaintances, or strangers. We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us.”

Let us not become lax in our willingness to serve.  Let us not forget that we can be instruments in His hands to bless the lives of others and in doing so, be greatly blessed ourselves.  This is my prayer for all of us, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.