{"chapter_no":"25","chapter_title":"A New Era","book_id":"3","book_name":"Springville","subchapter_no":"0","page_no":"502","page_number":"1","verses_count":0,"total_pages":6,"page_content":"

 <\/p>

Chapter 25<\/p>

A New Era<\/h1><\/p>

 <\/p>

Grant bears testimony of the great work of Zion being supervised every day by President
Chandler—A new era in the ward is underway<\/i>,<\/i> driven by <\/i>words like <\/i>\"<\/i>desire,<\/i>\"<\/i> <\/i>\"<\/i>opportunity,<\/i>\"<\/i> <\/i>\"<\/i>enliven,<\/i>\"<\/i> <\/i>
\"<\/i>quickening,<\/i>\"<\/i> and <\/i>\"<\/i>powerful feelings.<\/i>\"<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

 <\/p>

 <\/p>

Standing at the podium, Grant looked out at the audience and smiled. Almost on cue, the
Comforter came upon him, filling his mind with ideas and his mouth with words. He had no
prepared script for what he wanted to say, but he didn’t need one. The words flowed out from
him naturally.<\/p>

 <\/p>

“I was planning to talk today about our experiences serving in Europe, but I feel
prompted by the Spirit to share with you things that are of much greater importance.<\/p>

 <\/p>

“First, I want to bear testimony of the great work being done by our stake president,
Brother Chandler. We met him soon after our arrival here in Springville. I was very delighted
with the lesson he taught and the powerful spirit he brought into our home. <\/p>

 <\/p>

“But there's a lot more to it than that. I feel like I've gained a new perspective on life
recently. It’s like a special milestone has been reached. Time for me will probably be reckoned
differently going forward—the time that has passed and the manner of thinking I had previously
vs. the manner of thinking I have now that has been given to me by the Lord. It's like I'm living
in a brand-new world. <\/p>

 <\/p>

“I worry, however, that time will soon diminish the testimony and powerful feelings I
have at this moment. When we are blessed with special experiences in our lives, and receive the
powerful imprint of the Spirit upon our souls, we tend to forget all about them and lose the
excitement in the hours and days that follow. And that’s the theme of my talk today.<\/p>

 <\/p>

\"First, I'd like to begin by asking the following question: How can we assist Brother
Chandler in the work he is doing? <\/p>

 <\/p>

\"And second: How do we participate in the building of Zion in the stake and then stay
motivated in that special work for the rest of our lives?<\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

“Surely, in the days that follow an important spiritual event in our lives, the quickening
effect of the Spirit is forgotten and mostly lost to us. A similar thing happens to us when we <\/span><\/p>

make a commitment to the Lord to rid ourselves of bad habits. Our impetus to repent can weaken
over time. This diminishing effect happens all the time, and it’s unavoidable, like a missionary
returning from the mission field to normal life or a busy married couple returning home after
attending the temple. This is why Zion is so difficult to achieve. We find it difficult to maintain
for very long the momentum, energy, and excitement of spiritual gifts once they've been
bestowed upon us from on high<\/span>. <\/p>

 <\/p>

“It would seem that we're just not capable of doing any better in the gospel than that
which we are doing today, right? That’s very often where we get stuck in the Church. As
individuals, as a ward, and even as a Church, we can do no better towards the establishment of
Zion—the five-dollar lawn—than the easy and the expected. In a sense, that’s what we might
call our spiritual possibilities frontier. We cut the lawn of the Countess expecting a reward of
fifty cents, sixty cents, or in a few cases, seventy-five cents, and that's what she pays us. Like a
baby elephant tied to a post at birth by our fathers and grandfathers, normal expectations of
what’s possible to do in the Church have already been set in our minds. It’s not a limitation
backed by any specific principle of the gospel, but rather something we have allowed to creep
into our Latter-day Saint culture over time.<\/p>

 <\/p>

“That is the challenge before us. What Brother Chandler is doing, in closely supervising
the stake every day, is an important first step to help us overcome this.”<\/p>

 <\/p>

Opening up his journal on the podium, Grant next made reference in his talk to the first
special dream of which has been spoken. As he reached the part of the dream where he tasted the
last marvelous apple dessert made by Carolyn, he added the following comment:<\/p>

 <\/p>

“This last dessert I tasted, it was out-of-this-world good. But how do we recreate
something like this that tastes so good? I’m afraid I can’t give Carolyn the exact recipe because I
only know what it tasted like. I don’t know its ingredients or how to prepare it. Neither can I
adequately describe its taste to all of you here so that you might all be able to imagine it for
yourselves.<\/p>

 <\/p>

“There is a way to get to where we want to go, but it's not easy, and there's a lot for us to
do in preparation for that. To me, the message of the dream was that we need repetition,
consistency of effort, and a powerful spirit to be regularly brought into our homes by priesthood
holders in the ward. It can’t be an ‘oh, by the way’ type of thing. It has to be a serious effort
among us, and it must be directly supervised every day and constantly improved.<\/p>

 <\/p>

“Ask yourself this question: On average, how many total minutes during a typical month
do you actually feel the Spirit of God burn within you and bring you joy? One minute, five
minutes, one hour... more? <\/p>

 <\/p>

\"Perhaps you feel Him in varying degrees of intensity? On some occasions, He may come
upon you strongly for a few seconds, while at other times, He may come and stay with you for an
extended period of time––like during a temple session. Sometimes He may come, but you don't
even know He's there, and you just feel peace and happiness inside as you go about your daily <\/p>

tasks. And for some of us, being busy with the things of the world, we may go days, weeks,
months, or in some cases years without feeling the Spirit at all.<\/p>

 <\/p>

\"If we are willing, the quickening time of spiritual gifts can be extended by the Lord,
enabling the Spirit to tarry with us longer and leave a deeper impression. And not only can we
experience longer durations of the Spirit each time, but we can also enjoy increases in the
quantity of manifestations overall—doubling, tripling, or quadrupling—which, of course, has a
strong impact on how we feel every day and what we desire to do for others<\/span>. <\/p>

 <\/p>

“The way I see it, it’s almost like we're at the start of a new era in the gospel, an era in
which we as individuals act spontaneously and without waiting to be commanded by the Lord in
all things, an era in which we strive to counteract the diminishing effects of the outside world
upon the spiritual gifts given to us by God.<\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

“In this new era, the responsibility of Church leaders will be far greater than ever before.
They will need to be even more Christlike in their daily lives and become men of greater faith
and miracles like the prophets of old. Having good managers in the Church, who handle the
routine temporal affairs we have in wards, is very much appreciated, and is a very good thing.
But having highly-energized spiritual leaders in the Church, who are able to inspire the members
to do greater works of faith than have ever been seen or heard of before in these latter days, that
is a far greater thing.<\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

“Inspiring men and women for a few minutes during a talk in sacrament meeting or in
stake conference is a tremendous accomplishment, but sustaining that inspiration within the
hearts of the members over an extended period of time after they leave and go home is a far
greater achievement. Brother Chandler's efforts have created a new opportunity for all of us in
the stake. I see a lifetime of work ahead for us to help him in that effort. <\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

“In the past, the words of action in the Church were' duty,’ ‘commitment,’ ‘hard work,’
‘responsibility,’ and ‘accountability.’ Certainly, these are critically important words and we
cannot expect to be saved at the last day without embracing them fully. They are and always will
be priority words of action to help guide us in the gospel. But in this new era, we need to start
looking at other words as well, ones like ‘desire,’ ‘opportunity,’ ‘enthusiasm,’ ‘spontaneous,’
‘enliven,’ ‘quicken,’ and ‘powerful feelings.’ Brother Chandler already understands these words.
He has a vision in his mind of what our stake can become one day, and he has dedicated his life
to accomplishing it<\/span>.<\/p>

 <\/p>

“But he can't do it alone. We need leaders to stand up from among us. Ultimately, our
success or failure in the ward comes down to that—how we choose to be led and how we choose
to lead others by example. As desire builds in our ward, and as the Spirit works upon our hearts,
there will be a need for the priesthood leadership to help sustain us in our new feelings for Zion. <\/p>

 <\/p>

\"How does Zion begin in a ward like ours? That's basically the same question the young
boy asked himself in considering how to accomplish the five-dollar lawn for the Countess.”<\/p>

Suddenly, Grant paused for a moment and looked around the chapel, somewhat surprised,
noticing that the Spirit had left him. The audience paused as well, noticing that a change of some
kind had occurred. It was now Grant’s responsibility to give the rest of the talk on his own. <\/p>

 <\/p>

“So, where do we go from here?” <\/p>

 <\/p>

An excellent question. The audience pondered upon a possible response.<\/p>

 <\/p>

This is an interesting talk<\/i> being given<\/i> today<\/i> by Brother <\/i>Williams<\/i>.<\/i> Maybe<\/i> there really is
something special<\/i> in the gospel going on in our<\/i> stake?<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

There was a sense among some in the ward already that what President Chandler was doing
every day was pretty special, but the mentioning of it here again by the speaker in sacrament
meeting seemed to reaffirm that point. <\/p>

 <\/p>

H<\/i>e used the word <\/i>‘<\/i>we<\/i>,' <\/i>thought the audience. W<\/i>hy would he do that? <\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

Is there something more that we as members of this congregation should be doing that we
are not doing<\/i> <\/i>today<\/i>? Can’t we just go home and forget about this latest sacrament meeting talk
like we<\/i> so<\/i> often do<\/i>, resume<\/i> our regular lives<\/i>, and get ready to go<\/i> to work on Monday?<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

E<\/i>verything seems different today. We've been given the responsibility to actually do
something on our own—to act and <\/i>accomplish<\/i> things<\/i> together<\/i> as a ward<\/i>. But what<\/i> kinds of thi<\/i>ngs<\/i> <\/i>
might <\/i>we <\/i>do?<\/i> Good things?<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

What does the concept of building Zion actually mean<\/i> in practical terms<\/i> for <\/i>C<\/i>hurch
members like us<\/i>? Serving one another? Raising our families in the gospel? Aren't we doing that <\/i>
already<\/i>? Should we be doing something more?<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

Grant’s question had penetrated the minds of most of the adults in the audience, and even
some of the teenagers. The ward members were beginning to see themselves more as a tightly-knit
group, and as a group, that they might explore the possibility of working together to build Zion.
The prospect of an unparalleled level of achievement for a Latter-day Saint ward was being
considered. We can only marvel at the deliberative process that was going on here, one in which
“group good things\" were being contemplated.<\/p>

 <\/p>

He continued.<\/p>

 <\/p>

“I learned many things from Brother Chandler’s visit. A powerful manifestation of the
Spirit was there, coming upon me in dramatic fashion. We might ask ourselves how he was able to
accomplish something like that? What process did he follow? Obviously, it has a lot to do with
what he does every day as the stake president and the manner in which he has dedicated himself to
this important work. He certainly brought with him many years of experience as a priesthood
leader. He came well-prepared with a lesson. He demonstrated good interpersonal skills and
politeness in his visit with us. He also had a wonderful teaching style and a calm speaking voice
that were very complementary to the Spirit. <\/p>

 <\/p>

“The presence of the Spirit throughout his visit, however, was not something forced or
manufactured by Brother Chandler in either the planning or execution phase. It just happened
naturally and, in many respects, spontaneously. He didn’t seek to present himself as someone
having great knowledge or wisdom as a Church leader. He didn’t try to shock us or emotionally
charge the conversation with something overly dramatic. And he didn’t overdo the reverence angle
or try to overcook spirituality for reaction or effect. I found it to be a normal gospel lesson coming
from within a normal teaching situation. It was the total system of things working together in his
visit that made it successful and which brought a powerful spirit into our home. Repetition, good
habits, a strong testimony, and the expansion of spiritual gifts and revelation in his life were the
key elements in play. Like the comprehensive nature of this great and wonderful Church we are a
part of, Zion in a stake is greater than the sum of the individual parts that go into it. It is a
symphony of great people and great principles all coming together as one.<\/p>

 <\/p>

\"I suppose you could say Carolyn and I were adequately prepared to receive the message
brought into our home, but I would have to give much more of the credit to Brother Chandler, his
companion, and the Spirit on that occasion, rather than point to anything we did. But certainly, the
preparation involved by those receiving the visit in their home is very important, too.\"<\/p>

 <\/p>

Pulling out the original talk he had prepared, Grant thumbed through it to find the last of
the pages. <\/p>

 <\/p>

“To help answer my own question here, and to conclude my talk, I will close with this short
story from the book Les Miserables<\/i>. <\/p>

 <\/p>

\"In the book, Mademoiselle Baptistine was the younger sister of Monsieur Myriel, the
Bishop of D—. They lived in the same house along with the Bishop’s only servant, Madame
Magloire. From the book we read: <\/p>

 <\/p>

“<\/i>Mademoiselle Baptistine was<\/i> a<\/i> gentle person. Her whole life, which had been a
succession of pious works, had finally cloaked her in a kind of transparent whiteness, and in
growing old she had ac<\/i>quired the beauty of goodness. <\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

“She had the beauty of goodness and purity, a description of her one can only express
adequately through a flow of tears. It’s a description of a person that, in and of itself, almost helps
to answer our question here. But there is a great deal more we can learn from her.” <\/p>

 <\/p>

“Mademoiselle Baptistine had a large easy chair, which had been gilded and covered wit<\/i>h
f<\/i>lowered silk. It had once been her ambition to be able to buy a parlor sofa, with cushions of
Utrecht velvet, roses on a yellow background, while the mahogany should be in the form of swan’<\/i>s
n<\/i>ecks. But this would have cost at least five hundred francs, and as she had been able to save onl<\/i>y
f<\/i>orty-two francs and ten sous for the purpose in five years, she had finally given up.<\/i> But whoever
attains the ideal?<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

“Consider Mademoiselle Baptistine’s humble ambition. Her life was full of pious works,
but she did have one personal ambition, one that gave her hope and brought joy to her for many <\/p>

years until she realized she would never achieve it. There was such a humility displayed in her
wants to begin with, and then, with even that not being obtained, she accepted the outcome
willingly and went without. Her pureness of wants, with or without attaining the ideal of a nice
parlor sofa, is like a baptism to our manner of thinking, and to our personal desires. <\/p>

 <\/p>

“To the innocence and humility of Mademoiselle Baptistine, we now add desire––the
overpowering feelings of joy, like those experienced by Ammon in the Book of Mormon. <\/p>

 <\/p>

\"Ammon was a man of great understanding, and a man who might have been king over all
the Nephites. But he found everlasting joy in the conversion of his brethren, the Lamanites. His
testimony, as a special witness of Jesus Christ, was demonstrated to us by the way he was
physically overcome by the Spirit. He had something overflowing inside, something which we,
too, can seize upon in our lives. These two things, humility and desire, are key building blocks of
Zion for us to embrace in this new era of the gospel.”<\/p>"}