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 8: "Taking the Gospel to All the World"

By Kelly Merrill

February 17, 2016 10:34 PM MST

This is not your standard missionary lesson. Most missionary lessons rely heavily on scriptures from the New Testament or the Doctrine and Covenants where our missionary duties as members of the Church are outlined. President Hunter’s approach to missionary work takes a whole different approach.

4 Min Read

Teachings of Howard W. Hunter Lesson 7: "Continuous Revelation through Living Prophets"

By Kelly Merrill

February 16, 2016 10:27 PM MST

One of the main points I have taken away from this lesson is the privilege that is ours to have living prophets. As you look at some of the quotes from the lesson, try to see your life and what it would be like without a living prophet available in it to make a difference. Where would we really be without continuous revelation?

5 Min Read

Teachings of Howard W. Hunter Lesson 6: "The Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ"

By Kelly Merrill

February 09, 2016 10:31 PM MST

For the bulk of mankind, death is a necessary event that is meant to strengthen and test our faith in the Almighty. Death is rarely a sweet and peaceful experience for all involved. There is usually someone who is party to a death that suffers at least the anguish of loss over the loved one, even if the person dying is at peace with the process.

5 Min Read

Teachings of Howard W. Hunter Lesson 5: "Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration"

By Kelly Merrill

February 05, 2016 10:23 PM MST

It is a difficult thing to compare ourselves to the greatness of someone like Joseph Smith. He was a man with little formal education who accomplished things of such importance in his short lifetime that it boggles the mind. Yet, if we are commanded to follow the example of the Savior of the world, surely we can liken lessons learned from the Prophet Joseph’s life to our own. Let’s look what President Hunter says about Joseph Smith and see how we can apply some of those same attributes in our lives.

6 Min Read

Teachings of Howard W. Hunter Lesson 4: "Help from on High"

By Kelly Merrill

February 04, 2016 10:04 PM MST

This lesson is about the Lord’s promise to give us help while we are in mortality. That help can come in times of peace and in times of need. It can come through prayer, not just the noun, the thing called prayer, but the verb, the thing we do on our knees and in our heart. Help is also found in the scriptures and through meditation or pondering.

5 Min Read

Teachings of Howard W. Hunter Lesson 3: "Adversity–Part of God’s Plan for Our Eternal Progress"

By Kelly Merrill

January 29, 2016 10:57 PM MST

Resistance to opposition creates our spiritual movement forward. Having to resist something forces us into a position of having to stand for something, to support something, to search for our true nature, to find where our loyalties truly lie. Without something to resist, without some sort of opposition in our lives, we would stagnate like a swamp. It is the fast-flowing, churning, and tumbling water that is purified, not the water that sits.

6 Min Read