The following transcript is intended to aid in your study. However, while we try to go through the transcript, our transcripts are primarily computer-generated and often contain errors. Please forgive the transcripts’ imperfections.

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Segment 1

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A second coming lesson is really exciting for me. Like, does anyone love it as much as I do? Now, this is interesting because back in 1831, the exact circumstances and details of the second coming of Jesus Christ generated a lot of speculation among the saints. There was quite a bit of doctrinal speculation about when Jesus would come again, and this became very troubling to the members of the church.

So Joseph Smith asked, and guess what? Jesus answered doctrine and covenant. Section 45 is known as the second coming section, and it is packed with so much goodness. And while it does not exactly predict when Jesus will come again, it does give us some amazing doctrine and signs to watch for, which will hopefully have us ready for when he does return.

Welcome to the Sunday on Monday Study Group, a Deseret Bookshelf plus original, brought to you by LDS Living, where we take the Come Follow Me lesson for the week and we really dig into the scriptures together. I'm your host, Tammy Uzelac Hall. If you're new to our study group. Please follow the link in our description that will explain how you can best use this podcast to enhance your come Follow Me study, just like my longtime listening friends, Janelle Wilding, Tressa Christensen, Marla Christi, Stephanie Johnston, and Lindsay Sweat.

Ladies, I loved meeting you. Now, another awesome thing about our study group is each week we're joined by two of my friends, but sometimes it's one, and recently I've had just one each time and the discussion's been so fun. And today I, I am so excited to introduce you to my very long time friend, Mindi Nordfelt Thiebaud. Hello, Mindi. Hello. Oh my gosh, it's so exciting. I'm so excited to be here. K, this is so fun. So Mindi and I have known each other for over 25 years. Yeah. I mean seven years probably. I think so. Was it? Yeah. Listen, we were in the singles ward together. We did some hard time. Mm-hmm. Hard time in the singles war.

Yes. And I just think back to that time, I [00:02:00] would not do that again. No, no. Me either. It was good though. We learned a lot. It was good. Boy. Boy. If we, if we could just have a whole episode on what we learned. Oh yeah. It would be a series, I think. Oh my gosh. How fun was that? Um, and then we got married and full circle.

How cool is this? Because now Mindi is a seminary teacher. Yeah. And I wasn't back then. No, you weren't. I was. You weren't. Yeah. And now your full-time seminary teacher. Tell us where you teach. I teach at Thunder Ridge High School in Amon, Idaho. Right outside of Idaho Falls. So shout out to Thunder Ridge.

Shout out indeed to Thunder Ridge and all those cute kids and everybody. I think we do have some parents who are listeners from Amon. Oh good. Yes. Shout out to my friends. I love it here. You do love it there, don't you? I do love these kids. They're amazing. Uh, how long have you been teaching? Um, almost four years.

Wow. So yes, all here at Thunder too, which has been really a blessing. I love these kids. Mm-hmm. And it's gonna be heartbreaking if they ever move me. Oh, well, they probably won't, I hope. Well, I don't know. Okay. Well this is gonna be a fun discussion because Mindi is gonna help me dig into this one section.

And I knew it had to be you for just the section on the second coming, and I call it the second coming scaries. So we're gonna have a lot of fun with this as we dive into it. If you guys wanna know more about my guest and wanna see a picture of her cute face and her cute family, I would recommend going to our show notes, which are found at LDS living.com/sunday on Monday.

So grab your scriptures and something to mark them with. And let's dig into doctrine and Covenant section 45. Okay, Mindi, right outta the gates, my first question is, what did the Holy Ghost teach you as you read this section? Um, I think it's gonna surprise you, but, okay. What the Holy Ghost taught me was that this is not a scary section, that it's a section filled with joy.

And I'll tell [00:04:00] you why. I did a little digging with the help of some of my colleagues around here, because of course, I made all my fellow seminary teachers here study the same section and give me all of their good thoughts. Mm-hmm. And as I was studying, I went to the Joseph Smith papers and went and looked at the original transcription of.

This section in John Witmer's handwriting. He's the first church historian, right? And he was given a task, compile all of these revelations that Joseph has given and kind of put them in that first book of Revelation. And if you, um, look at how he's written those, at the top of each of sections, he will write in big letters.

Um, a commandment, a commandment, a commandment under all the sections. And then you get to section 45 and he writes a. Prophecy. A prophecy. And then 46 goes back to a commandment. A commandment. So I mean, I think right out of the gate that teaches us that we need to pay special attention to this because it's not just a commandment, this is a prophecy about what is going to come.

And we read it and we often get really scared, but mm-hmm. This is what I did. I went through after reading it once, I went through again and I decided to put a little pink.next to every piece of good news. Idea. Every little piece of good news, I love idea. And there are 57 dots that I found. What? Yeah, 57.

Good news, exciting things, happy things. And while there are definitely some things that can make you pause and be a little like trepidatious, I think the overall message of this is good news for those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ. That is, and in fact, if you go back and read the original heading, if you go to like our section heading in section 45.[00:06:00]

We see that it's fairly short, you know? And do you see all the little ellipses? Yep. Every time there's an ellipsis, that means something's been taken out. And if you go back to the Joseph Smith papers and you read the original historical like introduction, it's way long. And it talks all about how this is for the joy of the Saints.

Now they did leave that in here at the end we read, but to the Joy of the Saints. But if you read the original heading, it's very, it's much more joyful. And that's because, mm-hmm. They were quote from really hard stuff, so was a time in the history where they were being persecuted and you know, like the church made official, it was organized and so suddenly, like all of the wolves were coming out and attacking them and they were having to like.

They were really scared for what was going to happen to them as a people. And I think that this, this prophecy came along to ensure, reassure them that this is good, that they're on the right track. They are on the winning team, if you will. Mm-hmm. So just celebrate the winning team. You're on the winning team and there's gonna be some hard stuff, but if you're on the winning team, you don't need to worry about it.

You're gonna be just fine. Just like embrace that. Right. So Mindi, that is so cool. I love that that is the approach that you are taking right now. That's exactly the approach we're taking as we study section 45. So now I just have to know what are the verses that you have pink dots by? I'm dying. Okay.

Will you take me through section 45 and just tell me where to put a pink dot? Yes. Okay. Verse three. One dot Okay. Verse five. one.got it. Verse eight, three dots. Um, two dots and nine, two dots, and 10 and 11, sorry, they're all over the place, so love it. Um, 14 and 15. Three dots. Um, one dot and 17, [00:08:00] one dot and 25, 2 dots and 28, 1 dot and 32, 2 dots and 35.

One and 36 39. One dot 42 dots 43 a dot 44. Four dots 45 5 one.no it's crazy. 46 1 2 3 4 dots 47 1 dot um, 48 1 dot 49 1 dot 51 1 dot 52 1 dot 55. Two dots 57. Three dots 58 1 2 3 4 dots 59. Two dots 61 1 dot 62. One dot 66. One dot 67. Two dots, uh, a dot and 68 a dot and 69 and two dots in 71. Oh my goodness.

I love it. See, now what I think is so cool about this is that even on my own as I study it, I have the little key that says pink dot equals good news. And now I know what to look for when I'm reading section 45, the good news in those verses. And we'll point them out. If we happen to discuss these verses, we'll help you go, oh yeah, this is a pink dot moment.

But wow, that is so cool. Uh, and I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna go through and put a, now I have it on my scriptures, I put pink dot equals good news. I'm gonna pink dot section 45. That's brilliant. And if you're wondering where are the Joseph Smith papers, you can find them at josephsmithpapers.org. Go there. It is one of my favorite resources.

I'm so glad you brought that up, Mindi. And you can, you can actually read it's these sections in their original writing and wording. So powerful. Oh, Mindi, I love you. Thank you. And I even wrote Second coming equals joy. I highlighted joy in the section heading. And so we're gonna do this then in the next segment.

Segment 2

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Let's just start talking about this revelation on joy and [00:10:00] what the Lord had to say about the second coming.

Okay. So Mindi and I said we've known each other for 27 years, and what were the names we knew each other as back then? Um, Tammy Olak. There you go. Yeah, there you go. Absolutely. And, and I said your name at the very beginning. Um, because I was, in fact, did I say your, your last name wrong? Because I'm like, I just knew you as Mindi Nord felt.

Yeah. Um, it's thibo, Thibo, Thibo. I think I put an L sometimes. Sometimes. I'm not sure if I say it right.

I love it. It's so funny. But it's Thibo. Yes. Thi bod. But she was Mindi Nord felt way before she was a thi bod. Yes. And I was Tammy Slac way before I was a hall. And so that's how we've just always known each other is by our names. And so names are really important and I want us to consider this. Oh, in fact, hold please.

This is kind of cool. This is how important names are because Mindi made the coolest connection. She's actually related to my very best friend that I've had since I was 16 years old. Laurel has been on the podcast before, but Mindi, through names, tell us how you were related to her. How'd you figure that out?

Through names. Well, Laurel and I have been friends forever too, and I think we've been friends for like 10 years. When I was commenting on something on Facebook and noticed that her mom had made a comment too, and her mom on Facebook has her maiden name and it's Wolf, and it's spelled exactly like my mom's maiden name.

And that's which is an unusual spelling. It's the W-O-O-L-F. And I was like, wait a second. That's my mom's maiden name. And we're usually all related. And so I said, Hey, are you like, where are you? Like, I didn't think they were from Idaho. Mm-hmm. And she was like, well, I used to be. And we put it together that our moms are first cousins.

Yeah. And they know each other very well. And so I don't know how Laurel and [00:12:00] I went 10 years without knowing that we were related, but yeah, we're So that, what does that make us second cousins or something like that. I know how that works. Something who knows? Something removed. Who knows? But you're related.

That is so cool. We're related. Yeah, all because of names. So all because of names. Names really do matter and anyone who does genealogy knows that names matter. But what I thought was really cool is in section 45, there's a name or names that really matter, and I thought this was really fascinating. So let's go to section 45.

Grab something to mark your scriptures with because we're gonna mark all of the names or titles of Jesus Christ in section 45. And there are many. So grab something that highlight this, and I'm going to give you the verses, and I want you to highlight one of the Savior's titles or names. Here we go.

We're gonna go to verse three. He calls himself the advocate with the father. So highlight advocate, verse seven. I am. Highlight that and then highlight Alpha and Omega. Highlight beginning and the end. Highlight light, highlight life. At the very end of verse eight, it says. Even unto them that believed on my name, highlight name.

Isn't that interesting? That his name is a name? Yeah. That word. Then we have in verse 11, at the very end, he is the God of Enoch. That's a fun one. Go to verse 26. In verse 26, almost towards the end it says the name, Christ. Turn the page and go to verse 34. Highlight, Lord, and now when I the Lord, okay, you're gonna highlight the word, Lord in verse 45.

You're gonna highlight this title in verse 47, Lord. Verse 48, Lord, verse 49. There it is again. And the Lord verse 52. Then shall they know that I am, highlight [00:14:00] that the Lord, the end of verse 52. I am. Highlight that and the son of God. Those are the ones I found, but the reason why this really stood out to me is because I wanted to know this from you.

Tell me why in the world would the savior choose the beginning of this revelation on the revelation of joy and the second coming by telling us his names. Because our names are so important, they say so much about who we are and not just our formal names, right? Because obviously Christ's formal name is Jesus Christ.

But just all of the things about us, um, the nicknames that people give us, the traits that sometimes they tease us about or, or, you know, just all of these nicknames that people give us usually really give us, uh, insight into who we are as a person and the experiences we've had throughout our life. And I think that when we are developing a relationship with our savior, we need to not just know his name, but everything about him.

Mm-hmm. All of the adjectives, all of the adverbs that describe who he is because they teach us something about him. Oh yeah, I like that. Will you read this quote for us? This is by Elder Jonathan S. Schmidt of the 70, and he said this in his 2022 general conference about the idea of names. One simple way we get to know someone is by learning their name.

Jesus knew and called people by name to ancient Israel. The Lord said, fear not for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou are mine. Just as Jesus knows each of us by name. One way we can come to better know Jesus is by learning his many names. Many of Jesus' names are titles that help us understand his mission, purpose, character, and attributes.

As we [00:16:00] come to know Jesus', many names, we will come to better understand his divine mission and his selfless character. Knowing his many names also inspires us to become more like him. Thank you. I had this thought just now. If someone was coming to your house and you didn't know who they were or you'd heard about them from a friend and they said, Hey, I've got this friend that needs somewhere to stay, wouldn't it help to know everything you could about that person?

Absolutely. Wouldn't you wanna know? They wanna come in my house. Yeah. Do they have a record? Like what are we talking about here? Yes. Yeah, exactly. And I'm just thinking about this, like the savior's coming. We've heard about this, we've been told this for all of our lives, so wouldn't we wanna know everything we could about this man?

Like yes. That is what I got from that quote. That is how it struck me, is to learn everything I can about someone who I'm going to, who I love, but I haven't physically met yet. But to know everything about him. Yeah, you need to know their names. You need to know, you need to know. How people think of them, because I think that's the other thing about names is that they show us, you know, like even like when my husband calls me by a pet name or you know, calls me honey or something, it shows you how people feel about somebody by knowing kind of their nicknames.

Um, I, like, I have a dear friend from high school that like made up the name call. He calls me Mindand because my full name is Minda. I don't know if you know that. I did not know that. My full name is Minda. I go by Mindi. And so when he calls me that, it's just like this special, it has special meeting to it.

And then, you know, the kind of relationship we have immediately that he is funny and that he loves to like, tease me about my name. Mm-hmm. And it just, it just, when we know each other's names, it just really helps us draw closer to each other. Oh, that is brilliantly said. I like that. How sweet. It kind of makes me think, what would my nickname be that the savior would give to me?

Yeah, [00:18:00] I have friends that call me MK for Minda or, you know, everybody has those. I even have a friend that used to call me Chunky Monkey, but I'm pretty sure Jesus wouldn't call you that. No, he wouldn't call me that. It was a joke. But you know, like I love, I love giving people nicknames too. Mm-hmm. Like I'm a nickname person.

I, I wanted my kids to have a name that I could like, have a short little nickname. 'cause I think it means something special. Mm-hmm. I think when certain people have a special name for you, that in that isn't, I don't know. That's a sign of a, a deeper relationship than just your formal name. I absolutely agree.

Yeah. And I feel that way when I meet people. If I can shorten their name, if I shorten your name, it means we're friends. Exactly. I'd love it if when I met Jesus, he called me Tam. Hey Tam. Yeah. Right. That would make my heart melt. But you, you mind. Would you wanna be called Minda? No, I, I think that I would want him to know me as Mindi.

I would, I mean, that's who I am. Like Minda is my formal name and I do have close friends that think it's cool that they know my full name and so they get to call me it. But I think that, yeah, anytime we hear some, when I hear somebody say, Hey, mind, you know, like when they shortened my name, it just like, we're close if I'm gonna let you call me that.

Yeah. So I love that. Well, let's put this quote to test then. Let's see if we can find out more about the savior by learning about his name. So I asked you to pick one of these names and tell us everything you found out about that name. So hit it. Tell us what the name is you chose and what did you learn?

Well, I chose light and that was a no-brainer for me because. Light has always been one of my favorite like metaphors and names for the savior. Why? Light is just, to me, light means everything. I am somebody that struggles a little bit with like seasonal affective disorder. Why do I live in Idaho? I don't know.

Sure. And so when you go through like that long winter and the sun is [00:20:00] finally out and just being able to sit in the sun beating down on your face and to feel that warmth, that just is the savior to me. I. Like finally being able to see his face and like the warmth that I know that I'll feel from him.

That just encompasses everything that I think that savior is. And I mean, light is everything, right? We need it to grow crops. We need it to understand things. We talk about like light and knowledge, like everything it comes to light. Um, it's, we need it for our health. We need the vitamin D, we need that warmth.

I mean, it's just everything that is, that makes things grow right, is light. I also, I happen to be a cleaning freak and I have a cool little metaphor for you. Like I, I really have a little bit of OCD about my house being clean and. Whenever I clean, deep, clean my house, I have to like mop my kitchen floor.

But I have this massive window. And sometimes when I'm cleaning my house, it ends up being late at night because I work and you know. Mm-hmm. And there's no natural light. And so one thing that drives me crazy is the next morning when I open up my blinds in my kitchen and all of a sudden it's flooded with natural light and I can see all the spots that I missed, because that artificial light that is provided just by my overhead lights just does not give me that clear look and to get every single like streak or to clean every little thing.

And so when I open up those kitchen, those kitchen windows in the morning, and I see, oh my gosh, I missed so many spots when I was mopping last night. It drives me crazy, but. I love that. That is kind of like what the savior can do for us, right? He can help us see everything. And sometimes that can be a little uncomfortable.

Like we see things that [00:22:00] are, we've missed or maybe some imperfections that need to be worked on. Or maybe we haven't gotten all of our sins repented for whatever that is, but he does it in such a natural, beautiful way and just invites us to like, look, I'm gonna show you everything and I'm gonna invite you to come to me and let me help you become like me.

Mm-hmm. And that's what he can do for us. That's why he is the light in our life in the most beautiful way possible. Oh my goodness. I really liked your cleaning analogy so much. In fact, when you were giving it, when you, when you finished speaking, this is the thought I had about your cleaning analogy was because you said, he helps us see everything.

And my thought was not only does he help you see the spots you missed, but what if he's helping you see the spots you got, the spots that look good, the spots that you didn't miss. And he's trying to say, look how good this floor looks. I mean, you must have been exhausted, whopping in the middle of the night.

You just worked a full day. Mindi. Look what you were able to accomplish so late at night. And you have kids and a husband. Do you have pets? Yes. Stop. Forget about it. And you have pets. I mean, that morning light shows you like, look what you did. Great job is true. I'm so proud of you. So I just, but I've never considered that before until this moment when you were teaching me that truth, that it's the first time that I have seen.

'cause when you said light shows me the things I missed, I was like, absolutely. 'cause that's my go-to when I take the sacrament. All right. What didn't I do well enough this week? But we had a guest a couple of weeks ago who said, she's a therapist and she says, I recommend you also think of all the things you did good this week.

And so it's kind of shifted my brain, like that's what I've done every Sunday when I take the sacrament. I've tried to think, what did I do good? And so that light, I think you're right. I love that he is the [00:24:00] light. Well, yes. And thank you for bringing up the, the positive side of it. Right. Hey, I don't always listen here, we kidding.

Well, it's true though because like, he can make, he can multiply our talents, he can make those weaknesses our strengths. Yeah. He can say, you see this as a weakness, you see this as something that's not good. Mm-hmm. But I'm telling you, this is a strength that you have. Yeah. In fact, I have a really good story if you wanna hear it.

Should I tell it? I do wanna hear it, yes. Okay. Um, when I was a youth, when I was 14, like 13, 14, I suffered with crippling anxiety. Hmm. I just, I mean, I had friends. I wasn't like, it wasn't really social anxiety so much as like, getting up in front of people. Like, you know, when you're, when you just enter young women's and they ask you to speak in church for the first time, and I would just wanna throw up and getting up and like speaking in front of people was, was considered, I would've thought of it as torture.

It was absolute torture, having to say a prayer in public, having to do anything in public. And then I received my patriarchal blessing. And in my patriarchal blessing, it tells me a lot about I have a gift for speaking and that I have a gift for putting my thoughts into words and that I should not neglect it.

That it is so strong within me that I should not neglect it. In fact, it repeats itself like twice I think. Wow. And I, I remember that like kind of throwing me for a loop because I was like. Um, I thought that your patriarchal blessing was supposed to, you know, tell you a little bit about yourself. Mm-hmm.

It was like, I thought heavenly father knew me, and that's not me. Like, he doesn't know me at all, and I, I really struggled with that for a long time until, you know, I learned, I learned from my parents, I learned from great leaders that we really, we really are two people, right? We are these spiritual beings that are put into these human bodies, [00:26:00] and our human bodies come with all kinds of problems and just difficulties and challenges.

And it's, our job is not to just accept those challenges and just say, well, this is who I am, this is how I was born, and I have anxiety, and so I'm just never, mm-hmm. I can't speak in public and I can't do this and I can't do that. Our job is to take that spiritual side of ourselves and make it the boss.

Mm-hmm. It is in charge of the body and to teach it. Whose boss and the spiritual side of us came with amazing gifts and talents and the possibilities of becoming like our heavenly Father. And so in that process, we are not supposed to just accept those weaknesses. We are supposed to turn to our Heavenly Father.

We're supposed to turn to our savior, and we are supposed to make, let them. Take those weaknesses and make them strengths. And so my dad, I remember my mom and dad challenging me to take speech, like a speech and debate class mm-hmm. In high school. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I will fail that class. Like what if I throw up in front of the class?

And the very first speech I had to get would give was on, uh, Walt Disney. And so I went to the Blockbuster. I rented the silent You bet you did movies, you know, the silent cartoons. And I wheeled in a TV and I, I put the TV on one side of the room playing cartoons while I stood on the other and spoke. And I got through my whole speech without throwing up.

And now I talked so fast that nobody could understand what I was saying, but I did it. Right. You did it. Yes. And I continued throughout my life to challenge myself and to not accept that. Somebody, I was just somebody with anxiety that couldn't do things, and I put myself in the most uncomfortable positions to force myself to grow.

Mm-hmm. And I ended up going on a mission and, you know, all these little things. And, you know, I worked in advertising and marketing and I had to get up in front of hundreds of people all the time. And then I ended up on TV when I did my food [00:28:00] blog and doing, um, my food demonstrations. And I did, I did so many things that would not have been possible if I had just said to myself, this is who I am.

I'm, I'm somebody with anxiety. I can't do that. And I continue to do scary things that like now I get up in front of a bunch of teenagers multiple times a day, and sometimes they scare me. Sometimes you wanna throw up and sometimes I scare them. Just kidding. Oh my goodness. But, but we have to, that is what the light of the savior does for us.

He can take that and he can show us where we need to improve and not only where we need to improve, but he can take that and he can make it a strength in us. Oh, I think you're right. Well, well, and going back to the verse that you, you got the word light from in verse seven. It says it twice in that verse, and it says.

He okay, the light in the life of the world. Then a a dash a light that shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehend if at knot. And when I look at that word darkness, I think a light that shineth in anxiety and anxiety comprehend if at knot, a light that shineth in seasonal affective disorder and seasonal affective disorder does not comprehend it like all the dark in our lives.

No way would it comprehend the savior Jesus Christ. That's what makes him so awesome. Yes, is that he can overcome any amount of darkness in our lives. Yes. Plug in whatever it is you struggle with. Yeah. Whatever your darkness is. Whatever your darkness is. Mm-hmm. And you can overcome it. Now, I do think that there are some things in this life that we have to, like, you know, if you are a diabetic or if you are somebody who struggles with something, yes, you're gonna struggle with that your whole life, but it doesn't have to hold you back.

Right. Because there's ways to get help. Yes. Mm-hmm. The light can still help us see past those limitations. Yeah. Into what God really can do, even with our limitations, no matter what they are. I mean, I'm a witness of [00:30:00] that light sending me to specific people who could help me, therapists, medicine, whatever it is you need.

But just remember that the light should be your go-to. Yes. So it can shed light on. All the good you're gonna be able to do and all. Look at all the spots you didn't miss. I know. I'm gonna get that next time I'm cleaning, I'm gonna out so, well you should 'cause you're doing a great job, sister. I'll just tell you, listen, men, listen, cute.

Mindi is, Jesus will call you when he comes. You're doing great. So, wow, that was a wonderful discussion. And you know what turns out that apostle was right because reading that quote and then learning about the savior, we really did get to increase our desire to follow him. So thank you. I wanna follow the light even more.

So I wanted to begin with names so that we're all on this like, oh, Jesus is good feeling because we're gonna have so much fun as we discover the second coming and right out of the gates, the Savior wants us to think about summer and figs. Now, summer and figs. What do those have to do with the second coming?

We'll show you in the next segment.

Segment 3

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So the word summer appears in section 45, but I just need to know, are you a summer person? Yes. I, I love the summer. Yeah. I mean, I really love the spring and fall the most, but I mean, if I had to take winter, summer, summer, all the way. Fascinating. 'cause I'm not, I'll take spring, fall, winter, summer. Death to me.

I can't stand sweating. I hate it. I don't like to be hot. I'm in, I'm intolerable in the heat. Bendi. It's awful. Well, you need to come to Idaho. See, because when you say summer, like are you, like, if you're talking about like Arizona Summer? No, no thank you. No. See Idaho Summers are the best. Okay. You're totally right.

They actually are. 'cause it doesn't get into like the hundreds. No, never. I mean, I remember I moved to Arizona for like three days. And I had to tap out because I cooked an egg on the street. Sorry, to all my Arizona listeners. You [00:32:00] know what I'm talking about though. It's so hot in the summer. Yes. So when, when the Lord uses this parable, he teaches and he puts the word summer in with the second coming Immediately.

I'm like, I'm out because it's gonna be hot. But I wanna teach you what he's teaching us with this verse. So section 45, we're gonna go to verse two, and then we're gonna go to a different verse from Mindi. So starting with verse two. Mindi, will you please read that verse for us? Sure. And again, I say hearken unto my voice, Les lest death shall overtake you in an hour when you think not the summer shall be passed and the harvest ended and your soul not saved.

Okay, now I would read that and think, what does this mean that the summer shall be passed? And what does this have to do with the second coming? So there's a great cross reference you can put next to verse two. Put Jeremiah chapter eight, verse 20. You're also gonna find in that reference where the Lord compares the second coming to the summer.

So have that cross-reference, and it had me thinking, and Mindi, I'd love to know your thoughts on this. Why would he use the summer in connection with his second coming when he says the summer is passed and the harvest is ended? Well, I think that summertime often is when we get the laziest. Oh, now that's a good one.

I, I mean, I know I do like, because I mean, as a seminary teacher, I'm not working during the summer. I mean, I am working, but like, not like I am during the fall or in the mm-hmm. Winter. Mm-hmm. And, you know, we're out playing, we're out having fun. Like my house never gets cleaned in the summer. Everything kind of just, you know, the kids are in and out, there's ev people are over, you have vacations and family coming in, and so just everything kind of gets forgotten.

It speeds up time and we get kinda lazy. Oh my goodness. And I think that that's kind of like what's gonna happen is we get closer to that's, I mean, that's happening in our world right now, is it not? Right. Everybody just wants to have a good time. Nobody wants to think about work. Nobody wants to think about the [00:34:00] hard work of becoming like our savior or, or doing that hard religious work of studying our scriptures and things like that.

Like everybody wants the easy road. Like yes, just, you know, the eat drink can be merry. Like it's gonna be a good time. It's party, party, party. Well, you are exactly right. That is the whole purpose for him. Using this analogy of the summer shall be passed and the harvest is ended. In fact, to the outside of that verse, I wrote the parable of the ants and the grasshopper.

Do you remember this parable? Yes. I love it. This parable is exactly what this is referring to, and it's, it's so sweet. If you have little kids teach this because you have this, you know, latent autumn, a family of ants. They're bustling in the warm sunshine and they're drying out all the grain they had stored up for the summer.

And this starving grasshopper has a fiddle under his arm. And he comes in and he humbly begs for a bite to eat and the ants cry. They're like, what are you talking about? Haven't you even stored anything for the winter? What in the world were you doing all summer long? See, he goes back to what you were saying, he was having a good time playing his fiddle, and he just says, well, I don't have any store, any food that's stored up at all.

And I was just so busy making music that I didn't have time to prepare. And the aunt shrugged their shoulders in disgust, and then they said, making music, were they. Very well dance now. And they turned their backs on the grasshopper and they went to back to work. I hope we don't do that and say well go back to dancing.

But just this whole idea that the Lord here, what he's doing is he's applying this lesson to everyday life, which is those who refuse to prepare for his second coming while there's time will perish at his coming. And those who have refused to prepare for their own personal last day will face harsher fate than starvation.

And I think that is a really powerful thing. 'cause I love what you just taught us, that there are lazy summer days and time is speeding up and we just wanna have playtime all this time. And when the savior comes, we will be like, but I, uh, not, you know, it's the end of the summer and the harvest is [00:36:00] now ended and time's up.

So it really makes you think like, what are you doing in preparation for the second coming? That's what Jesus wants us to think about before we get into anything else about second coming talk, he's like. All right. Just know. And this is in 1831. I mean we're 20, 25. Surely the harvest has ended. I think everyone's thinking that, but actually that's what the Saints were thinking.

They're like, oh, Jesus is coming tomorrow. And I think, well, we've got some time, but what are you doing with your summer? And so in connection with this, then he also teaches us another parable in section 45. It's in verses 37 through 38. So turn there and we're gonna connect summer, 'cause it says summer again.

And Mindi is gonna teach us this verses 37 and 38. Okay. Can we go back just a little bit though to 35 and 36 please? Because he said, it says, and I said unto them, be not troubled. There's your pink dot. Don't be troubled for when all of these things shall come to pass. Ye may know that the promises which I have been made unto you shall be fulfilled.

And when the light shall begin to break forth is shall be with them like unto a parable, which I will show you ye look and behold, the fig tree. So first of all, I wanna point out those, those pink dots, because he's telling us not to be troubled that he is a promise keeper. Mm-hmm. And his promises will be fulfilled and there will be light.

There will be light that will break and then you will see the fig tree. Why the fig tree? And oftentimes, I have a lot of students that ask me all the time, why are all the parables about farming and trees? Yeah. And it's because, you know, when these scriptures are, when these, when this prophecy is given and, and when, when a lot of the scriptures are people, that's what they were.

They were farmers. They were farmers, they were planters. People in these days, they knew about farming. And so a lot of those, a lot of those things [00:38:00] just come up. But the fig tree is the last tree to bear leaves before summer. So of all the trees, more than any other tree, the fig tree is the one that most indicates that summer is on the doorstep that like it is.

The next day. And the fruit has already grown, by the way, Uhhuh like that's what's fascinating. Most trees, the leaf comes first, then the fruit. But not on a fig tree. Fruit first. Yeah. Then the leaves at the end and you're like, oh, now, okay, it's the end of summer. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes. So summer is here. Now I wanna go to 39 really quick too.

Okay. Because it says, and it shall come to pass, that he, that feareth me shall be looking forth for that great day of the Lord to come even for the signs of the coming of the son of man. And I want you to replace the word feareth with follow follows. Oh yeah. And it shall come to pass that he, that follows me shall be looking forth to the great day of the Lord to come.

That's a pink dot. Mm-hmm. So we don't need to fear. We just need to follow. And so if we go back to 37 and 38, we get the fig trees. We know that summer is nine. And really what he's saying to us is that like, it's here, it's coming. Are you preparing? Are you following me? Because really, if you're following me, that's what you need to be doing to prepare.

Full stop. Right? Full stop. I'm not, stop to asking you to, like, sometimes we're like, well, what should I be afraid of? Like, what should I be putting away? What should I, food storage. Like, you know, we're all so worried about a lot of those little details of like, end of days, that's what we think of when we get afraid.

But the most important thing is, are you following the savior? Are you following him? Not are you perfect. Not do you do everything? Absolutely. A hundred percent all the time. Perfect. In every way. [00:40:00] Are you trying? Are you following him? Are you on the team? So let me give you a cross reference for verse 39.

It's doctrine covenants 10 56. And this to me is the opposite of following Christ because I think a lot of times we ask ourselves, am I following Christ? Am I doing all the things I should be doing? And so it's good to like read the opposite and say, well, okay, I'm not doing that so I must be following Christ.

So let's read it. Do you wanna read it, Tammy? Yeah. But it is they who do not fear me neither keep my commandments, but build up churches unto themselves to get gain. Yay. And all those that do wickedly and build up the kingdom of the devil. Yay. Verily verily I say unto you that it is they that I will disturb and cause to tremble and shake to the center.

Oh, that's a great opposite. And I can, I can say I'm not building up churches to get gain. No, I'm not doing wickedly. I'm not, I'm doing my very best to be righteous and to fo like, so I, I find that comforting and like, okay, I'm not in that list check, so God's not gonna disturb me. Like I'm gonna, I'm on the right team if I can say no to that.

But I wonder though, because I think the word churches could mean a variety of things. Ooh, that's true. It's what you worship. And so think of all the things we worship to get gain. I think, yes. I think it for our day. I, listen, I'm not gonna go start my own church, but I might start an Instagram. I dunno.

I'm just saying. Yeah, no, it's true. I, I don't, I mean, I, what do I worship? Yeah. Is it the Netflix series that I can't, like stop streaming or, oh, no, I like that. I would Ms. Church to like watch, is it the football game? I can't like, you know, is it the, what is it that is more important to me than reading my scriptures and saying my prayers and connecting with the savior every day.

What do I worship? And then that's true. So we all have to like check ourselves. Yeah, for sure. Every day. All the time. All the [00:42:00] time. But if we do, then we'll be prepared. Yeah. And we will be like, the ants, we're ready. We've, we've spent all summer getting ready, whatever the summer of our lives is, and then when he comes, it won't be a surprise.

Because he'll know our nicknames. He'll call us by that and it'll be so glorious. Love that. So in the next segment, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna discuss a scripture in Matthew because right before the Savior was crucified, the apostles had questions about the second coming, and they wanted to know when will it be and what's it going to be like?

And Jesus actually tells them. So we're gonna show you in section 45 where it connects with Matthew Chapter 24, and I think you're gonna love this.

Segment 4

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So to start out for this segment, we have a quote by Elder Ballard, and this is such a good quote. Mindi, will you read this for us? He gave this to students at BYU about the second coming, and everyone put on your listening ears as a teacher would say, because this quote is so important. I am called as one of the apostles to be a special witness of Christ in these exciting trying times, and I do not know when he is going to come again.

As far as I know, none of my brethren in the council of the 12 or even the first presidency know. And I humbly suggest to you my young brothers and sisters, that if we do not know, then nobody knows no matter how compelling their arguments or how reasonable their calculations, the savior said that of this day, an hour knoweth, no man.

No, not the angels of heaven, but my father only. Matthew 24 36. Thank you. Okay, let's go into section 45 because the reason for the reference at the end, and by the way, how fabulous is that quote? Did you just love that quote? I love that quote. I've read it many times. I can't tell you how often people have sent me things like videos on [00:44:00] YouTube and things saying, this person's figured out when Jesus is coming.

I wanna know what you think and I don't even have to watch it. I'm like, I know what I think. Here's a quote by Elder Ballard, like nobody knows, no matter how. And I'm sure they've done their due diligence and paid the price to study all the signs and everything, but it doesn't matter. No one knows. And here is Jesus Christ with his apostles.

They want to know. And even the savior's like, yeah, no one's gonna know. You just gotta be ready. And so we, he ends that quote by citing Matthew, chapter 24, verse 36. So let's go into section 45 and let's go to verse 16. And the savior is speaking and here's what he says. And I will show it plainly as I showed it unto my disciples as I stood before them in the flesh and speak unto them, saying, and then you have a little dot, dot a colon.

Okay, highlight that colon because from that colon all the way to pretty much verse 59, highlight all of those verses. This is exactly what the savior said. And spoke to his disciples on the Mount of Olives. You can cross reference it with Matthew chapter 24, verses three through 46. You can also put Joseph Smith, Matthew four through 55.

That's another place where you'll be able to find the Joseph Smith translation of Matthew. So the Savior is now going to teach them everything he wants them to know about coming again and returning. There is one short little thing you wanna know verses verse 34. I wrote to the side of it, according to scholars, they believe verse 34 is sort of like an editorial commentary and it's not actually part of what the savior said to his apostles.

So just a little side note there. Okay, so here we go. All these truths, everything he's teaching. Let's, I just wanna know, Mindi, and I didn't even prep you for this, I'm so sorry because I just wanted to do something else, but. Before we dive into something that I love that the [00:46:00] Savior said to the apostles, Mindi, really quickly what I want you to do is just tell me about your pink dots in verse 17, 25, 28 and 32.

Alright, so in verse 16, there I, I marked that it's show, I will show it plainly. And I marked that as a pink dot because I think that, I think that knowing that God isn't going to try to confuse us is a blessing. He's like, look, I'm not, I'm not trying to be confusing here. I'm gonna show you things plainly.

And then in 17 he talks about the restoration, which is absolutely good news. And if we think about this as being, this is his words to the disciples. He's like saying that there's gonna be a restoration in the last dispensation, and I'm gonna restore everything that's gonna be lost. And these poor disciples, they had no idea at the time like what was ahead for them.

Right. I mean, you know, they, their lives were going to be so hard and how their lives ended and, and, and that everything that they were going to work so hard for was going to be lost. Mm-hmm. And I think that would've just been devastating for them. And he doesn't really tell them. Of that. I mean, he does tell them that there's going to, like, the temple's gonna fall and, but I don't think they really grasp what he's talking about.

No. Um, but he tells them there's gonna be a restoration. Don't worry. Your work is not going to be in vain. Oh, I like that. That it's going to be, there's going to be a restoration. Mm-hmm. And then in 25 I marked, but they shall be gathered again. And that's again, that the gathering of Israel. In fact, this restoration is gonna bring forth.

So much of my knowledge to this earth that we are going to be able to gather everybody in a way that you could not even possibly co comprehend right now. Such a pink dot. Yes. And then in [00:48:00] 28 he says, the Gentiles, the times of the Gentiles is come in, a light shall break forth among them. And I just loved that as like, again, light is going to come out of those dark ages, that restoration, there's gonna be light and that there will be a fullness of my gospel.

That's another pink dot 32. But my ti, my disciples shall stand in holy places and shall not be moved. Oh my goodness. Yes. Love that. In 32. Okay, so then we're gonna do another pink dot that connects to those verses that she shared with us. Let's go to verses 56 and 57. Because you have multiple pink dots for these verses.

Yes. Share with me your pink dots on verses 55 through 57. 'cause it connects with standing in holy places and be not moved. Okay, so in 55 Satan shall be bound. And that's a pink dot for me. Pink dot, not for him, but for me it's a pink dot that he will be bound and then another pink.no place. He will have no place in the hearts of the children of men.

He will not have a place. And I think about the people I love, who I think Satan has gotten a hold of. And I think that he is in their hearts and not that they're bad people, but just, you know, they've been, there's been some deception there and they're lost a little bit. And the fact that will be removed.

Yeah, that just brings me a lot of peace and joy. Um, and then in 57, of course in 56 we hear about the 10 virgins, which I don't think I marked it as a 10 a a dot, but I love that parable. So I'll put, I'm gonna put a pink dot. You bet. I am. Love it. For they that are wise and have received the truth. And I marked that as a pink dot because I know that, that there are so many that are wise and have received the truth and they will [00:50:00] have the Holy Spirit as their guide.

They'll have the Holy Spirit as their guide, which really is now we. Not just in the end, but right now we can be wise, we can know truth because of the Holy Spirit and have not been deceived. The, the, the fact that there's gonna be so many of us that are not deceived and that we will not be hued down and we shall abide on that day.

There's gonna be destruction, there's gonna be, there's gonna be some, some people that are destroyed and the evil will be destroyed. But we shall abide that day. We will survive that day and we will know that we are safe. And then in 58, the earth shall be given unto them for an inheritance. Mm-hmm. The Earth will receive its iCal glory and it will be given to us as our inheritance.

Um, and that we will multiply, that we will wax strong and our children shall grow up without sin unto salvation. I mean, if that's not. Like just a good, the good news, and that's just so amazing. And to witness that whether we're witnessing it from heaven or whether we're here on this earth. Mm-hmm. I think that'll just be one of the best days ever.

I. Mindi, thank you for giving us your pink dot moments in those verses. I wanna go back to verse 32 because you had us as, as one of your pink dots. It says, but my disciples shall stand in holy places and shall not be moved. And I cross reference that verse two verses 55 through 57. Because you wonder like, well, how is he only talking about the 12?

Or is he talking about anyone who follows him? My understanding is the word disciple is anyone who follows him, which goes back to what you've taught us about that word follow and how important it's to follow him. So any one of us that follow him, we will stand in holy places and shall not be moved. And I wondered, well, what does that look like and does, and we've talked a lot about this, like, [00:52:00] do you have to be perfect?

Do you have to be doing, but then I go back to these verses right here about the 10 virgins and what your pink dots are is exactly how we will stand in holy places and not be moved. Because verse 57 is, we are wise, we've received the truth. We have taken the Holy Spirit for our guide. I think that is powerful.

The idea of us being able to take the Holy Spirit. We got it when we were eight, but I wonder how many times have I called upon that and chosen to take it and put it in my life and then have not been deceived? Then we will abide the day. And so tell me some of your thoughts too, like when it comes to standing in holy places and being not moved, how do we do that?

That's a really such a good question because. What are holy places. Mm-hmm. And to me, holy places are anything and anywhere where the spirit can be present, holy. And we can, I mean, we can make anything a holy place. Um, but we should also seek after some holy places. We should create holy places. Right. And maybe like for me, going to the temple is a holy place.

I mean, these are kind of the givens like going to church is a holy place. And in my home I can create a holy place. And in my office here, I mean, I. Being able to work as a seminary teacher. I mean, it's an amazing gift to be able to have. I go to work and it's a holy place, right? But there are a lot of people who struggle with that, that don't have, don't feel like I don't have a holy place.

You can make a holy place anywhere. The holy place can be in your car, driving to work as you communicate with your Heavenly Father. As you're driving, don't close your eyes, but you can pray, right? You can listen to righteous music. You can be listening to the scriptures and any place can be a holy place.

And how do you stand firm in it? And to me, in the world that we live in. Standing firm means that we are so grounded and so rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ, [00:54:00] and that our relationship with our savior is so strong that we cannot be moved with the ever increasing wins and just the, and all the social things out there that are telling us to think one way, and then they change their mind, and then it just goes back and forth nonstop.

That we are so grounded and rooted that those things don't affect us. Yep. And even like when I think about um, like cognitive dissonance, do you know what cognitive dissonance is? Nope. Okay. So that is, get it a psychological phenomenon where individuals experience discomfort when their beliefs or values clash with clash with their actions or new information.

Okay. And we live in a world of a lot of cognitive dissonance. Yeah. People don't know what to think. I have so many students that will come to class or come into my office and they thought they had a testimony and all of a sudden they listen to a TikTok or something and now they're like questioning their whole belief system.

Mm-hmm. They are allowing some crazy TikTok or Instagram reel or something to like question everything that they believe. Mm-hmm. And. That's, and I mean we all experience it sometimes, but we need to be able to work through that to the point where our, we are so grounded in our belief and our relationship with the Savior that when weird, crazy things are thrown at us, we can just say, I know that's not true, or I know that there's an understanding, there's something I don't understand.

Mm-hmm. Because I know my heavenly Father and I have a, a testimony that's so strong that if you're telling, if what you're telling me is true, then either it's a partial truth or there's something that's not connecting and I'm gonna figure it out and I'm okay. Well, and and taking us to this idea of taking the Holy Spirit for our guide, the whole purpose of the Holy Ghost is to bear witness of truth.

Yes. And I would, I would wanna ask, and I have asked my kids well, did you feel the spirit when you [00:56:00] heard that? Exactly, or did it make me feel yucky? Because 10 times outta 10, they're gonna say, I didn't feel good about it, like it felt yucky. I'm confused. It's weird. I'm like, that's not the spirit, then. The spirit is not a spirit of confusion.

So let's figure this out together. Notice how it's making you feel. I think that's what it means to take the Holy Spirit for your guide. Yes. To guide you when you have those moments. I think we've got to teach that to this generation of social media. Yes. Like how did it make you feel when you heard it?

How did it make you feel when you read it? Yes. That's not the spirit. And remember, it comes back to that seminary, you know, acquiring spiritual knowledge, like going to acting in faith like divine sources and thinking celestial like the prophet tells us to, right? Yeah. You gotta run it through that filter.

Yep. Like, is this something that, like, can I go to a divine source to find out if this is true? And the Holy Ghost is the divine source, right? Yeah. I, I draw this circle. In fact, I just did this today because we're at the beginning of the trimester and I do like an ask lesson where we talk about how do we gain God's knowledge?

And I draw a huge circle on the board and I tell them that like, for today's, all intents and purposes for today, this circle is represents everything that God knows and God knows everything. Mm-hmm. Like worlds without number. He is a creation. He creates worlds galaxies, universes. And then I have somebody I ask him, come up to the board and draw a dot within this, that like would represent what we know.

And if, if they do it right, it's usually like a speck, right? Yeah. And really it should be microscopic. And I tell them, you know, it doesn't matter. You could take all the most amazing minds in the whole world that ever existed and combine all of their knowledge, and it still falls within that tiny spec of a dot.

Mm-hmm. Compared to what God knows. And if we want God to share knowledge with us, he gives it to us. What? Through the priesthood, keys, through the prophet, or through the Holy Ghost. Yep. And at any given time, [00:58:00] he wants to share his knowledge with us, but he also knows and loves us to the point that he knows that once I share this knowledge with you, you hold a responsibility to act on it, to preach about it, to testify of it.

And so it is a loving, heavenly Father that will sometimes. Hold back some knowledge until we're ready. And I compare it to like building a house. You're asking him to give you the plans for the upstairs bathroom and you're still working on the foundation, you know? Right. And you've gotta build that foundation.

You have to be so rooted and strong in your knowledge that you believe that God does exist, that he does know more than you. Mm-hmm. That this is a plan. You're here for a purpose. That the savior is your savior and that he came and he did the things that he said he did and that it, once you have a solid foundation of that, yeah.

Then he'll start sharing some of the other stuff. But that's what it means to like stand in holy places and be not moved is when you can have that solid foundation that's so strong, but then he'll start laying that knowledge on you. But your foundation is strong enough to hold it. And he's not gonna lay the knowledge on you.

Tell that's strong enough. And that's because he loves you, not because he doesn't want to share his knowledge with you. It's because he doesn't want you to be held accountable for stuff that you're not ready to be held accountable for yet. Right. Wow. Oh, Mindi, oh my gosh, that was so good. I want you to be my daughter's seminary teacher, an institute teacher.

Oh, you are such a good teacher. And Testifier. Thank you. I wrote so many notes I loved when you said, in light of have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide. When you said you have to run it through that filter, and the filter is the Holy Ghost. Like, that was good Mindi. I just, you're right. How many times do we not run things through the Holy Ghost?

Run it through that filter, the filter of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost. See how it makes you feel. So, so good. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, [01:00:00] well that was just a few pink dots. So in the next segment, Mindi is gonna go through more of her pink dots and we're gonna dive into more of these second coming verses.

We'll do that next.

Segment 5

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Okay. So I asked Mindi to take us through the second coming scaries and give us pink dots in these verses. 'cause sometimes they can be scary. Do you have students who are scared of the signs of the second coming? Oh yes. How do you answer that? Well, you know, it's funny because a lot of 'em will say, I'm not scared as much as like, I just don't wanna, I don't wanna be here.

Like, I just wanna live a normal life. I just wanna like grow up and have a family and like, you know mm-hmm. Ladi da and like, I don't wanna have to worry about all that stuff. And it's interesting because I remember feeling that way. Like I remember like still do, yeah. I just wanna have a normal life. But I always say, I have news for you.

You're already living it. You're, you're already in the middle of it. You're in the signs. Look, look around. Mm-hmm. Some of those scary things that we talk about, they've already happened or they're already happening. So you don't really need to be as afraid as you think you do because you're gonna survive it.

Like, again, if you're following the savior, it, it's not gonna feel like that. Um, it's gonna feel like we've got this, we can do this. And, and honestly, I mean, I think about when we think about the world from a global perspective, and when I talk to my kids here in Idaho and they're just like, oh, I don't wanna think about that.

I mean, it breaks my heart a little bit because I'm like, do you realize how many people around the world already are living in such disaster and like so much pain and suffering and. They are praying for the second coming. Mm-hmm. They are praying that it ends because they're right in the middle of it too, but they're feeling it a little bit more than we feel [01:02:00] it here in Amon, Idaho.

Right. Yeah. But I think that it's, it's okay to be a little bit scared and especially for the young people, but I want, my biggest message to them is I want you to, to really see the beauty in it, and I want you to see the hope that comes in it. So, should we dive into what they are? Yeah. Show me the hope.

Let's go to verses 39 through 47. Okay. All right, so let's, first of all, let's point out what the scaries are that we're talking about. Let's just lay 'em out. Okay. And talk about like where, what are they and like what does it really mean? So in verse 40, it says, we will see signs and wonders, and if you do more research into the, like, if you listen to talks by general authorities and stuff, we know that signs and wonders means wars, natural and unnatural disasters, plagues, disease, downfall of nations, right?

Um. Are those things happening? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Those are already happening. Um, number four in verse 41, blood fire, vapors of smoke. Um, those can be interpreted a lot of different ways. Look, we don't know. We don't know what all these things are. Uh, verse 42, the sun shall be darkened. The moon shall turn to blood.

Verse 43, the gathering of Israel. I mean, I think that's a good thing. Yeah, but that's one of the signs. Number 44 angels will appear. I think that's pink.like angels appearing. I wanna see that, right? Yeah. 45, the arm of the Lord falls, and then of course we get the resurrection. So I feel like the real scary things are the first three, right?

Mm-hmm. Signs and wonders. Blood, fire, vapors of smoke. Sun shall be dark, and moon turned to blood. Why do you think our heavenly father has even given us, or that our savior has given us these signs? Ooh. Because there's, they're [01:04:00] so apparent maybe, and they're everywhere, and I don't know the answer. Mindi.

That is such a good question. Oh my gosh. My mind is like perplexed. Tell me why. That is a good question. I think that he gives us the signs because he wants us to be prepared. Oh, sure. And he, sure. I mean, nobody knows. Nobody knows the day. But if we can start recognizing the signs, I think that kind of like helps us, motivate us a little bit to get moving and to make sure, Hey, are you prepared?

Are you on the right side here? And we talk about these things and they feel scary when you list them all. But again, they're happening. I remember when I received my patriarchal blessing, it was July of 1989. Mm-hmm. And in my patriarchal blessing, it tells me that I will see, I will see the downfall of nations as the world prepares itself for the second coming of Christ.

Wow. I will see the world depopulated through plagues and illness as something about the wicked Given what they. Like, oh, I can't remember the exact words, but like, I will see them, I will see these bad things happen. And I remember like hearing that, you know, and I was like 14 I or 15 at the time and thinking, ugh.

Yeah. But then do you know what happened in November of 1989? Nope. I don't remember. So I, I grew up in, I lived in Germany when I went to junior high and high school. So of course I was very, very like, aware of this. Oh yeah. But in November of 1989, the, the Berlin wall fell. Yes. And for those of us who lived in Germany.

That was significant. Mm-hmm. And I remember thinking, oh my gosh, it's already happening. You go back to your parch blessing, the Jesus is coming tomorrow. Yes, he's busy. I was like, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. It's coming. True. Oh wow. The, the USSR was completely dismantled. Right. And that was, I mean, as somebody who had grown up entirely during the Cold War, and my dad was in the [01:06:00] Air Force, and so obviously my whole life revolved around that kind of thing.

I was very hyper aware of what that meant. And it was, it was kind of like, oh my gosh, this is happening. And yet now I look back and think that was like the tip of the iceberg compared to what we've experienced now. And I think a lot of kids look around and think, oh my gosh, it's happening. The wars, the plagues, the, you know.

And it is. It absolutely is. But I think there's a lot more to come, and I don't think we need to be scared. I think if we are following the savior that. That we, we don't need to be scared. Okay. I wanna, I wanna say this because this is one of my favorite scriptures. Can I take you to Isaiah, please? Okay.

Isaiah two, two through three or two Nephi twelves. Two. And I'll read this here. And it's, and this is like, this has always been one of my favorite scriptures and I'm, I'll tie this in and tell you what this has to do with the last days. But it says, and it shall come to pass, that in the last days, the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above all the hills and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say Comey, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth a law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Now, I've always loved this scripture. I think probably from the time I saw the movie Mountain of the Lord.

Have you seen that? Oh, have I seen it? I used it my entire mission. Are you kidding? I counted as a discussion. Me, here's some popcorn to my investigators. Love it. One thing that I know, like when you need to watch a movie, if you wanna watch a movie, that's a gonna to watch with your investigators, Uhhuh.

That's the, or they call 'em friends now, right? Friends? Yes. Um, friends. Um, the interesting thing about this is we know that the mountain of the Lord's house means the temple, right? Yep. We know [01:08:00] that it will be established in the top of the mountains. And the cool thing about that movie, we learned that the word Utah means top of the mountains.

Um, but the thing that never hit me until like in the last, you know, decade of my life is it says All nations shall flow unto it. Now, water doesn't usually flow when we use the word flow. We are usually talking about a liquid flowing. Mm-hmm. And it doesn't usually flow up. Water flows down. Really quick thing about this, the word flow in Hebrew is actually the word river.

Don Perry taught us this. He says, all nations shall river unto it. So just add that to your knowledge of what you're about to say. Yeah. Carry on. And, and it doesn't, rivers don't go up hill. They don't go up to the top of mountains, rivers come down from mountains. And so this is an interesting choice of words.

I think. Even like knowing the Hebrew word, why would they say it's river? River up. River. Up to it. Up to the mountain. And I think this is my, this is my analogy that I like to use sometimes being a member of the church, being a disciple of Jesus Christ feels like we are literally all pushing a giant boulder up a hill, right?

Yeah. Up a mountain. Yeah. And it's hard and it's exhausting. Mm-hmm. And. It can be even scary. Yeah. And when we read these scaries, like we think about, oh my gosh, what's coming? And I'm already pushing a boulder up the hill and we're all pushing it together. And, and this is hard. This is such hard work. And oftentimes we can look back down into the valley and we see the people that are just having a good time.

You know, they're the, they're the grasshoppers playing their fiddle. You bett. They're, and they're laying by the lake and jet skiing or doing whatever it is they're doing and having a good time. And we're like, why the heck am I pushing this boulder up the hill? Yeah. I should be, I should go back down and be with them.

And sometimes, because I have seen this with people that I [01:10:00] love very much, they, the world gets to them and they stop pushing that boulder and they give up. It's hard to river up. It's hard. Yeah. Because it's hard to river up. Mm-hmm. It's hard to push or make a river go up hill. Yeah. And as for a second, when they stop pushing.

I mean, when you are pushing a boulder up the hill and you stop, what do you instantly feel? Oh, the weight. Yeah. The rollback. Yeah. Yeah. And or you feel relief, right? Like you're just like, oh, this is nice. And then all the way down. It feels nice. And so sometimes we see people like leaving the church or giving up on the gospel and we're like, man, they just got a 10% in, uh, pay raise.

They're heading back down to the lake. And a lot less work. A lot less work. Mm-hmm. And, and for a while there, it's not gonna be hard for them. Right? Yeah. And it's gonna be fun. But all of these scary things, the wars, the natural disasters, the plagues, the disease that's common for the people in the valley.

And we will be touched by it too. But we also will have the advantage of being on the mountain. Wow. And the closer we are to that top, the closer we are to God. And we have the perspective, like when you are, when you're going up a mountain and you stop at those vistas and you see that you can see things from an eternal perspective more easily.

You can see the mountain, you know, you can see the forest for the trees. You understand things more easily. You are closer to God. You have a more crystal, you have that light that gives you the knowledge that you really need. And that's the benefit of pushing the boulder up the hill. That's the benefit of making that water flow up.

Yeah. Is that, and we have each other. And really the real key here is that we have the savior pushing with us. Absolutely. And when we, when we are tired, and in those moments, when these scary things happen, when the wars and when they do touch our lives, [01:12:00] the savior's gonna be right there with us. And if we are yoked to him and anchored with him, we really don't have to sphere.

We're really gonna be okay. And I wish I could like download that feeling and that knowledge into every single one of my students who are afraid. Yeah, because I wish I, they don't need to be afraid. The Savior's gonna have them. It's gonna be okay. It is good. Oh, Mindi, I like everything that you just taught us, especially when you said he's going to be right there with us and it's going to be okay.

Because something beautiful about Section 45 is it teaches, he really will be right there with us and there's actually a specific place where he will be. And all of us who've been rivering up all our lives will be in this same place. So in the next segment, let's talk about what the name of that place is and what it means to the Lord.

This'll be so fun. We'll do that next.

Segment 6

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If you have your journal or a piece of paper, I want you to draw a heart as big as you can on this piece of paper. A big old heart. And if I had students, I'd let them cut a heart out of construction paper, I'd let them decorate it. I'd have them colored, I'd do all sorts of things. So draw a heart on a piece of paper.

And then what I want you to do is we're gonna put a verse of scripture right in the very middle of this heart, and you're gonna write Moses chapter seven, verse 18. So go ahead and put that there. And then below it you're gonna put this reference doctrine and covenant section 45 66 through 71. 66 through 71.

Now we've got some pink dots for Mindi in these verses because she said that Jesus will be with us and he will, and there's a specific place where he will be. And let's start. Mindi, will you please read verses 66 and 67? Absolutely. And it shall be called the [01:14:00] New Jerusalem, A Land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the saints of the most high God.

And the glory of the Lord shall be there. And the terror of the Lord also shall be there in as much that the wicked will not come unto it. And it shall be called Zion. Wonderful. So put Zion in your heart. And then Mindi, tell us some of your pink dots in verses 66 through 71, because we're gonna put those on our heart.

Okay, here are all the wonderful things about Zion. Give us your pink dots. Um, 66. A city of refuge in a place of safety. Put that on your heart. I love those. Right. City of refuge, place of safety. Yes. 67, glory of the Lord shall be there. Mm-hmm. And the wicked will not come unto it. Wow. And then in 68 we've got, they will flee unto Zion for safety.

That's my pink dot. And then in 69, and there will be gathered unto it, out of every nation I have like the whole verse as a pink dot under heaven. And it shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another. So there will be no war there. And then 71, the righteous shall be gathered out from among all nations.

And then of course there will be singing and songs of everlasting joy. That sounds like a good party to me. I wanna go, isn't that? Yes, that is where I want to be. So if everyone's wondering where can we go for safety during all of these horrible signs and everything that's, that's being prophesied, that will happen before the savior comes.

The only place we can go is Zion. And I love that in verse 68. Flee into Zion for safety. And if you're wondering, well, where is Zion and what, where do we need to go? Tell me where to go and I'll buy a ticket to there right now. And the wonderful, beautiful thing about Zion is Zion is wherever the saints are.

Zion is your ward on Sunday. Zion is your [01:16:00] stake. I, I think that's so important for us to understand is that yes, will Zion be a place someday? Yes, through prophecy, we know that. But today, Zion is home. Zion is where, and I'm gonna go back to what Mindi said, Zion is. Anything and anywhere that the spirit can be present.

I think that when we talk about standing in holy places and not being moved, I think Zion is a holy place. I'm gonna have Mindi read two quotes for us about Zion. One comes from the doctrine and Covenant Student manual, and the other one is from Joseph Smith. So Mindi, read these for us about Zion, please.

Okay. The tribulations and judgements that will be poured out upon the world prior to the second coming will be so extensive and devastating that if the Lord did not prepare a means of preservation, his people too would perish. But he has prepared a means for his people to escape those terrible times.

That means in Zion, in the terrible times that precede the coming of the Savior, there will be no safety or security anywhere upon the earth except in Zion, which will be governed by the laws of God and protected by the power of God. Thank you. So going to this idea of, let's pretend that this Sunday you go to a church with a mindset of, this is my Zion, how are you gonna build your Zion?

Mindi, what can you do in your ward or in your family? Participate. Be present. Yes. Um, I mean, I experienced a weird thing, and maybe you'll relate to this, but when I started teaching seminary a few years back, all of a sudden going to church and like sitting through Sunday school was a little, was a hard, right?

When you spend all your time learning how to teach and then you spend, I mean, how many hours in a week preparing and reading. I mean by the time I get to Sunday, especially with Come Follow Me, the verses and [01:18:00] the scr, the chapters that we're going over, I have read them. So many times by Sunday. Right. And I have taught them multiple times in depth.

Yes. And so to go and sit through Sunday school sometimes is like. Like I, it's just really hard. Mm-hmm. And I learned really fast that like, I, I needed to change my attitude. Um, and if I'm gonna go, I can go and participate and I can be present and I can share my knowledge and I can answer questions and I can.

I can bless the lives of other people. There is a great quote by Bonnie Sson and she's speaking about the youth of the church, and she says that they need to be reminded. We are not just receivers and takers of what is offered at church. We need to be givers and suppliers. Wow. And that goes for us too, right?

If we wanna create Zion, we better be in it. We better be all in, and we better be doing our ministering, and we better be reaching out on Sunday. If you're going to church and you're thinking, nobody talks to me and I don't relate to anybody in my ward, we need to flip that around and we need to say, then you need to be the person that's going and talking to people.

You need to be the person that is reaching out and trying to connect with other people. Yep. We have to. Like we have to think of it like that, or it's not gonna be Zion for us. And I have been in wards with like people that I love so much that I feel, that I feel like, like I wanna be with these people.

These are my people. Yeah. These are the people that I love and I would do anything for them. And I feel uplifted when I'm around them. And then I've been in wards where it's been more of a struggle, but we all have a responsibility to create that for ourselves and to create that in our wards, in our neighborhoods, among our people, in our families.

Oh, Mindi, I'm gonna amen what you said, and I'm gonna issue a challenge to everyone listening this Sunday. In your effort to participate, I'm gonna challenge everyone to make a [01:20:00] new friend and learn so much about them that you can give them a new name, a nickname, or you can shorten their name. Because I think it goes back to how we started that.

That's part of being like Christ and learning about him. He'd be everybody's friend. Right? And so the challenge is, is to, we learned about the savior. Go to church this week and learn about someone new to the point where you can just give them a short name or a nickname, and that is how we create Zion.

How fun to be able to go into church and have a nickname for everybody. And I don't mean a mean nickname or making fun of someone nickname. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Like a short name. Because you love that person. That is Zion. Those are the people who are ready and waiting for Jesus Christ to come and when he comes, it's going to be so joyful, just like you taught us today.

And it is good news. Section 45 is good news, so thank you, Mindi. Thanks for joining me today. That's the end of our discussion. Oh, thank you. Yeah, that was good. It's been great. I loved your pink dots. Okay, wait a minute. Now, gather your thoughts. Think of everything we talked about today and what is an eternal truth.

What's something you learned today that the spirit was like, that is true. So many things. I know so many things. I am gonna start with mine. Okay. You start with yours. Okay. Mine is your pink dots. I thought that was so fantastic and the way we flipped the section 45 that it is about the second coming, but it's also a section of joy and I now love turning these pages and seeing all of these pink dots.

And then I went and highlighted everything in pink that we discussed and I'm telling you what section 45 is pink through and through. So thank you for coming so up prepared. And then I loved verse 39 where we changed the word feareth to follows and then we cross referenced it to section 10 verse 56.

That was good stuff. Mindi, you're a good teacher, is seminary. Thank you seminary right there through and through. So thank you for doing that. You're welcome. Thank you. [01:22:00] Okay. My eternal truth. My biggest takeaway from reading this is that we need to not fear the second coming. We should find joy in reading about the second coming.

We should find joy in studying it because of that very thing that you said, that if we're followers of Christ, if we are, and we are bound to him through our covenants. Mm-hmm. So if we're keeping our covenants, he is bound to us. And the visual of that is so powerful to me that he is like, he's bound to me, like he can't leave me.

If I'm keeping into the deal, he's not allowed to leave me. And that with him by my side, I can accomplish anything and I can get through anything. I can do the scariest things. Yeah. And I can get through all of this. And we need to find joy in it because we're on the winning team. We are on Amen. Winning Tim team.

Amen. We've already got our jerseys. We already know who's gonna win. Yeah. The elder hall quote. Right. That the scoreboard, it's my favorite score. The score has been posted and some of us are down here trying to figure out what team we're on. Yeah, exactly. And it's crazy the, the score has been posted, the awards have been purchased, the trophies have been made.

So just yes, stay on the right team, team Jesus all the way. Team Jesus. All the way. Oh Mindi, you're the best. Thanks friend. You're the best. Okay, so what truth did you learn? Go join our group on Facebook or follow us on Instagram to share what you've learned. And then at the end of the week on a Saturday, we're gonna post a question from this discussion.

So comment on the post that relates to this lesson and share your thoughts. I'm probably gonna ask if you like Summer better than all the other seasons, and if you do like summer, you better tell me why. You can get to both our Facebook and Instagram by going to the show notes for this episode@ldsliving.com slash Sunday on Monday.

And it's not a bad idea to go there anyway because it's where we have links to all the references as well as a transcript of this whole discussion. So go check it out. The Sunday on Monday Study Group is a Desert Bookshelf plus original, brought to you by LDS Living. It's written and hosted by me, Tammy Uzelac Hall.

And our awesome study group participant was [01:24:00] Mindi Nordfelt Thiebaud, and you can find more information about her at lds living.com/sunday on Monday. Our podcast is produced by Cole Wissinger and me. It is edited and mixed by Cole Wissinger, and our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. Thanks for being here. We'll see you next week, and please remember that you are God's favorite.