Kelly Merrill

Latter-day Saint Life

The Gift of Prophecy: It's Surprising Definition + How Every Member Accesses It

By Kelly Merrill

August 13, 2019 03:45 PM MDT

The following has been republished with permission from gospelstudy.us.

6 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 25: "Move Forward with Faith"

By Kelly Merrill

June 13, 2017 06:48 PM MDT

Faith, as a principle of power, is one of the most amazing parts of our relationship with God. He is able to measure the amount of faith a person has, and based on that amount or quality, He is able to bring to pass events that can only be described as miracles.

3 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 24: "The Atonement of Jesus Christ: Vast in Its Reach, Intimate in Its Effect"

By Kelly Merrill

June 12, 2017 08:24 PM MDT

The Atonement is all about love and all about mercy. Our Father in Heaven has the role of lawgiver. As the lawgiver, he cannot extend mercy to us for breaking those laws. That has to be done by a third party.

4 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 23: "The Blessings of the Holy Temple"

By Kelly Merrill

June 08, 2017 07:53 PM MDT

There are those who cannot find a suitable companion in this life and have to wait until the hereafter to get married. There are those who long for children in this life, but will have to wait for that promised blessing until after the resurrection. Just so, the bulk of humanity has had to trust that the blessings available only in a temple of God would be available to them in the next life. Such blessings were just not available in this life.

4 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 22: "Reaching Out with Love to New Converts and Less-Active Members"

By Kelly Merrill

June 05, 2017 02:46 PM MDT

Those of us who are actively involved in the gospel of Christ have become accustomed to its demands. We direct music, give talks, run whole organizations with secretaries and counselors. We volunteer countless hours in service, clean our church houses, and willingly pay tithes and offerings regularly. Can you name any other organization on earth that requires so much of its members? I can’t name one.

6 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 21: "The Latter-day Miracle of Missionary Work"

By Kelly Merrill

June 05, 2017 02:32 PM MDT

The opening section of this lesson talks about the missionary experiences of President Hinckley. It also gives some statistics about the growth of the Church during his time as President and Prophet. The question that arose in my mind while reading the stats given in the lesson has more to do with the work involved in attaining growth in the Church.

6 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 20: "Fellowship with Those Who Are Not of Our Faith"

By Kelly Merrill

May 15, 2017 06:45 PM MDT

In the introduction to this lesson, President Hinckley talks about the fellowship and unity we ought to have with those not of our faith. Here is the quote:

4 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 19: "Priesthood Leadership in the Church of Jesus Christ"

By Kelly Merrill

May 15, 2017 06:25 PM MDT

The major burden of the priesthood of God is to serve God’s children. The higher the office in the priesthood, the greater the expectation to serve well and much. Without service, the priesthood is a hollow ordination and counts for little. Without service, there can be no power in the priesthood. It is through service that the power of the priesthood is manifest.

6 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 18: "Virtue—a Cornerstone on Which to Build Our Lives"

By Kelly Merrill

May 15, 2017 05:55 PM MDT

The scriptural and doctrinal meaning of the word virtue has always alluded me. When the woman with an issue of blood touched the hem of Christ’s garment and He felt virtue go out of Him, that tells me that virtue must mean something more than just not having inappropriate sex. So what does it mean to have virtue or to be virtuous?

4 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 17: "Continue in the Great Process of Learning"

By Kelly Merrill

May 15, 2017 05:24 PM MDT

For many of us learning is a mixed bag. We may be good at learning or we may struggle to retain information we read. Many of us learn best when we do something versus read about something. But no matter how we prefer to learn, the question we need to answer is “Have we learned to love learning?”

6 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 16: "The Power of the Book of Mormon"

By Kelly Merrill

April 14, 2017 07:05 PM MDT

As we launch into this lesson about the Book of Mormon it is important that we review the nature of a Spirit-born testimony first. One of the keys to understanding how our testimonies work is to remember that we are mortal. As such, our memories fade with time. Even spiritual witnesses dim if not nourished and renewed by the Spirit.

5 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 15: "The Holy Priesthood"

By Kelly Merrill

April 14, 2017 03:20 PM MDT

I have been told by some sisters that just as the men have a problem teaching and studying the yearly lesson on the women of the Church, so to do the women have a problem on the lesson on the priesthood. Hopefully we can remedy that this time.

6 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 14: "Losing Ourselves in the Service of Others"

By Kelly Merrill

March 28, 2017 03:01 PM MDT

The title of this lesson will cause the hackles to stand up on the backs of some people’s necks. The prevailing thought of today’s society is that what is best for me is what is most important. To say that I need to learn to sacrifice my own convenience for the welfare of someone else smacks too much of a codependent (unhealthy) relationship.

6 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 13: "Peace and Contentment through Temporal Self-Reliance"

By Kelly Merrill

March 28, 2017 02:17 PM MDT

In this lesson, the word "peace" is generally equal to the word "security." We’re not talking about the spiritual peace the Spirit brings into our lives. This peace is the security that comes to us because we have learned how to work, and have developed the discipline to store and save against a rainy day and the unexpected disaster.

6 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 12: "Obedience: Simply Live the Gospel"

By Kelly Merrill

March 20, 2017 04:53 PM MDT

To understand the scope and importance of being obedient to the laws of the gospel of Christ, we should first look at why they are in place, and what they mean for us. First, let’s look at why the Church and kingdom of God need to be on the earth.

5 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 11: "Home—the Basis of a Righteous Life"

By Kelly Merrill

March 14, 2017 08:11 PM MDT

One of the great dangers of our present society is the adoption of the belief that all things in life are optional. Life, and the way we live life can be based, and indeed should be based on personal opinion and convenience.

8 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 10: "Nurturing the Eternal Partnership of Marriage"

By Kelly Merrill

February 13, 2017 03:50 PM MST

Mortality is chock-full of new experiences. All of us have mortal bodies to learn to deal with, but on top of the privilege of having a physical body, we get to experience a taste of a relationship that up till now only our Father and Mother in heaven got to enjoy. We get to begin to learn how powerful the matrimonial relationship can be.

7 Min Read

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley Lesson 9: "The Precious Gift of Testimony"

By Kelly Merrill

February 13, 2017 03:26 PM MST

Think about the universal nature of testimony. You may live in a big city, complete with cultural centers and every convenience money can buy. Then again, you may live in the desert among vagabonds who travel from place to place with only the clothes on your back and a few tools and supplies. You may live in a jungle, eating off the land, or you may live in the frozen north.

5 Min Read

Teachings of Howard W. Hunter Lesson 20: "Walking the Savior's Path of Charity"

By Kelly Merrill

August 22, 2016 08:25 PM MDT

The first section of this lesson talks about President Hunter’s personal example of being charitable or loving. He was an attorney, and he was known for putting people before profits and help before an accounting of time. His concern was that people got what they needed, not that they were charged what he was owed.

7 Min Read

Teachings of Howard W. Hunter Lesson 19: "Our Commitment to God"

By Kelly Merrill

August 17, 2016 09:18 PM MDT

This lesson is all about finding our why, our reason for service in the kingdom. If sacrifices in our lives are going to be required, they will be easier to make if our reason for service is based on eternal commitments rather than on earthly social obligations.

5 Min Read

Teachings of Howard W. Hunter Lesson 18: "We Believe in Being Honest"

By Kelly Merrill

August 12, 2016 07:49 PM MDT

This lesson was one of those eye-opening experiences that changed how I look at myself and how I think about God. I always knew I was supposed to be honest, as in don’t cheat and steal, but I never thought of honesty as being a foundational characteristic of deity. Without complete and total honesty, we cannot become perfect.

5 Min Read

Teachings of Howard W. Hunter Lesson 17: "Preserve and Protect the Family"

By Kelly Merrill

August 12, 2016 04:35 PM MDT

“The family is the most important unit in time and in eternity and, as such, transcends every other interest in life.” The family is more important than you or me as individuals. The family is the engine of social and spiritual growth. There is nothing we can accomplish in mortality that can equal the power for good a family can provide. There is also nothing we can accomplish in mortality that a family cannot effect for far longer. The effects of a good family can reach down through many generations, affecting the lives of countless thousands. The cumulative effect of one good family after another in a family line is incalculable.

6 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Lesson 4: Invite Diligent Learning, Part 4

By Kelly Merrill

August 08, 2016 06:14 PM MDT

Knowing the gospel and understanding the doctrine is all well and good, but until there is action in the form of living those principles we know and understand, we won’t ever develop deep testimonies. The teacher’s charge is to instruct then invite to act.

5 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Lesson 4: Invite Diligent Learning, Part 3

By Kelly Merrill

August 04, 2016 02:29 PM MDT

A discussion can be very profitable but it has to be well structured and monitored so it stays on topic and is led by the Spirit. It is but one tool we use to hear from as many members of the class as we can.

7 Min Read