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In recent months, life has been unusually challenging to many people. At times such as these, it can be quite easy to lose hope, to let the overwhelming attacks on our peace by fear win. President Eyring, in a conference talk titled “Try, Try, Try” related the experience of serving under a district president who said to him “Hal, when you meet someone, treat them as if they were in serious trouble, and you will be right more than half the time.” After repeating his words, President Eyring agreed “Not only was he right, but I have learned over the years that he was too low in his estimate.”[1]  

As the world has seemingly descended into increased loneliness, contention, and insecurity about the future, it has become clear that President Eyring’s assessment is correct. The number of people who feel that they are being overcome by their personal plague of challenges seems to be higher now than it has been in a very long time. If you feel any degree of faltering hope, I would like to address you individually. In Isaiah 41:10 the Lord speaks specifically to you. “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” This verse of scripture is God’s promise to you. A promise to every “Soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose”[2], as the hymn inspired by this verse, how firm a foundation, so beautifully states.

Christ is the ultimate source of relief in times of need. I hope to explain one way, the way that I believe is the best way, in which we can draw closer to him and in doing so receive his promised relief.  I will introduce this miraculous method of drawing closer to the Savior with a scripture and a quote. In Matthew 16:25 Christ teaches “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” Elder Uchtdorf, while speaking about our path to return to the Savior and our Father in Heaven, said “ There is something interesting, almost paradoxical, about this path you’ve chosen: the only way for you to progress in your gospel adventure is to help others progress as well.”[3]  When comparing these two citations, this method of drawing closer to the Savior is made known. We must selflessly engage in bringing others to Christ. This has frequently been called the Gathering of Israel.

Now you may be thinking, ‘Come on, we always hear about the gathering of Israel. Why can’t we hear about the space-time coordinates of Kolob, or the whereabouts of the Book of Mormon extended cut?’  Just hear me out, the gathering of Israel can change your life, and will bring the peace and joy you need. President Nelson clarified the meaning of the gathering of Israel during the devotional “hope of Israel” by stating “When we speak of the gathering, we are simply saying this fundamental truth: every one of our Heavenly Father’s children, on both sides of the veil, deserves to hear the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.” 

He prefaced this by saying, “That gathering is the most important thing taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in importance, nothing else compares in majesty.”[4] You were born at this time, placed on earth where you are, so that you can help with the most important thing, apart from the Savior’s life and atonement, ever to take place. You are here to bring your brothers and sisters back home with you. This is the fullness of times and we are here at a time when there are more of God’s children on earth than there have ever been before! We are the ones God sent to earth now because we are the ones he needs to complete this work. Imagine the joy that the Lord will fill our lives with as we take part in this work!

 I know that you might not feel capable of completing such a great task. I understand that feeling, I have felt it too. However, courage can be found by realizing that not one of us is strong enough to do God’ s work. It is not a matter of how good at it we are. He will do his own work, but we must be the instruments in his hands. I would like to share an experience from my mission in Paraguay that taught me this principle.

When I was nearly a year and a half through my mission those feelings of inadequacy began to be very strong. In my mission many converts to the church stopped attending soon after the missionaries who taught them left the area. That was the case with all the people I had loved and taught just months before. I started to doubt that I was strong enough as a missionary to make a real difference. I thought that maybe I wasn’t able to teach well enough or speak the language clearly enough for people to want to change. I certainly was putting forth the best effort I could, but I doubted it was enough.

I began to pray and fast pleading to be able to help in the bringing of even one person to Christ who would hold fast to the rod of Iron. Within days I was sitting at my desk in the mission office when a man I will call Ricardo walked in and said that he had listened to missionaries about 7 years earlier. He said that he was a Catholic priest and a scholar in religion, Hebrew, Latin, and history. He was very interested in the doctrine the missionaries were teaching but was unable to continue his discussions because he moved to Argentina. While living in Argentina he kept his Book of Mormon and studied it for those 7 years until he moved back to Paraguay.

The Spirit bore witness to him of the truth of the gospel and of Christ’s love and divinity. He told us he knew it was true and wanted to be baptized. At the time, however, he was having heart problems and was unemployed. We soon found out that his wife had a brain tumor as well. They were barely surviving and unable to pay the medical expenses. He told us he didn’t know how he was going to feed his 3 children. As the day of his baptism approached and he was searching for a job, a private school run by another church said they would employ him as a teacher, pay for all of his medical expenses, and his children’s schooling on one condition. That he give up The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

With a spirit of faith and firmness, he declined their offer. He said he knew the truth and could not deny it even if it meant that he couldn’t provide for his family. He got baptized. The rest of his family was somewhat unsure of what we had been teaching them but nonetheless supportive of him. About 4 months after returning from my mission I received a call saying that his wife had accepted the gospel and was getting baptized as well. My experiences with Ricardo are some of my sweetest memories from the mission, but I did not convert Ricardo. I didn’t even find him. The Lord, knowing my desire to bring people to Christ, allowed me to be the instrument He used in the final steps of his bringing of his son back home to Israel. It is not through our strength that people come to the Lord. It is through the Master’s wisdom and power.

God knows the end from the beginning and places us where he can use us most. Neal A Maxwell taught this truth in his talk “Encircled in the Arms of his Love” where he said “Recall the new star that announced the birth at Bethlehem? It was in its precise orbit long before it so shone. We are likewise placed in human orbits to illuminate.”[5] God took great care to place the star that shone above Bethlehem. He had to place it in its precise orbit, so long ago, so that the light would reach us exactly at Christ’s birth. You can be sure that the same God, who is your Father, will take the same care in making sure that his children are where and when they need to be.

You were placed exactly where you are, and you are surrounded by people who the Lord also carefully placed, so that your paths would collide. If at times you feel that you don’t know of anyone to help, or feel incapable of helping, remember the star of Bethlehem. You, like it, were placed where you need to be, and can reflect Christ’s light to all those around you.

One obstacle that can prevent us from gathering our heavenly family here on earth is that we just don’t know how to start. Often we decide that all we can do is be a good example or do family history work. Those are both extremely important parts of the gathering, but many of the people around us are suffering without the knowledge of their Savior. They may have little to no hope. Their hope of finding peace through Christ’s gospel at this time may be resting on your efforts to bring them into Israel, whether they know it or not. Every person is different and we all have different roles to play in this work. Therefore, it is not my place to tell you how you are supposed to reach out. I do however extend to you two invitations.

First, I invite you to get on your knees today and pray that the lord will show you an opportunity to share the gospel. Second, pray that you will be guided to know what to do. It may be an invitation to come to a family gathering, or perhaps to watch an episode of “The Chosen” over a zoom video watch party, It may be a call to someone you feel needs it. The possibilities are limitless, and the Lord will guide you. I also encourage you to remember that this work doesn’t only apply to non-members. You may occasionally be guided to serve someone you wouldn’t expect needed it! Follow those promptings and watch the miracles follow.

I promise you that if you take my invitation to pray for an opportunity to gather Israel, and what to do when it comes, God will answer that prayer. Your efforts in consistently trying to gather Israel will make a difference. We have been taught that this work must be done in preparation for the Lord’s triumphant return, and President Nelson promised that “Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again.”[6] Let’s be a part of those mightiest works. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I would like to leave you with a phrase from a song that is dear to my heart, Rescue by Lauren Daigle. It says “I will send out an army to find you In the middle of the darkest night.  It’s true, I will rescue you”[7] We can be that army that God sent to find his lost children. I promise that as you engage in this work, your own trials will be made lighter as you work together with the Savior in his work of lifting others.  You will be an instrument in his hands.

I bear my testimony of Christ and this gospel. I know that he loves us. Even when the way is hard, take courage and remember what Joseph Smith said. “the standard of truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”[8]

[1] Eyring, Henry B. “Try, Try, Try.” 188th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 Oct. 2018.

[2] Text: Attr. to Robert Keen, ca. 1787. Included in the first LDS hymnbook, 1835.

[3] Uchtdorf, Deiter F. “Your Great Adventure.” 189th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 Oct. 2019.

[4] Nelson, Russell M. “Hope of Israel.” Worldwide Youth Devotional, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3 Jun. 2018,

[5] Maxwell, Neal A. “Encircled in the Arms of His Love.” 172nd Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5 Oct. 2002.

[6] Nelson, Russell M. “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives.” 188th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1 Apr. 2018.

[7] Daigle, Lauren “Rescue” Look Up Child, Paul Mabury and Jason Ingram, Centricity and 12 Tone, 12 Jul. 2019.

[8] Smith, Joseph. Times and Seasons, 1 March 1842, 709;

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