Ministering

How do I partner with the Lord in supporting and loving my LGBTQ child? A mother answers this and other poignant questions from a faith-filled perspective.

Reviewing the bigger trials in my life, I realized that while our personal trials are often for our learning, they can also benefit those around us.

We always feel good when we can serve someone. But sometimes all it takes is a few extra minutes to make that service a little more meaningful.

I asked questions I’ve long held but didn't know who to ask about. I hope these answers will help your ministering efforts and fill you with hope.

No matter who you minister to, we’ve come up with dozens of great gift ideas that will fit every budget and personality!

Feeling awkward or lonely? There is a beautiful correlation between the gospel of Jesus Christ and finding connection with others.

In a world where it’s becoming increasingly easy to avoid interaction, many of us may struggle with feelings of loneliness and isolation, or we may even feel inadequate when tasked with building a new friendship.

It is the Lord who first enters this story. But He isn’t the one who finishes it.

When we know how to help, even the smallest signs of support and love can make a big impact in our wards and branches.

Looking for a simple and inexpensive way to let your ministering friends and families know you’re thinking of them? Check out some of these great gift ideas.

How can we lighten the burden of our brothers and sisters who deal with celiac disease or food allergies?

The feeling of receiving a carefully prepared soup or dessert dropped off by Kate felt like true devotion. It felt like true love. It felt like God.

Take a look and see if any of these names or terms surprise you.

Many members attend wards that aren’t in their native language or culture. But there are ways we can help know they belong.

Here are five stories that show some of the sweetest insights into President M. Russell Ballard’s life, testimony, and ministry.

After my grandpa's death, I received a wilted bouquet of daffodils held together by a brown rubber band, but in my eyes, it was a personal delivery from God.

Elder David A. Bednar shared how all things—even the tiniest cells in the human body—are a reflection of the Savior Jesus Christ and His ministry.

As a newly called Relief Society president, I wanted to give every sister everything they needed. It was a heavy and sacred privilege. But, one that I learned, wasn’t mine.

Published in 1899, the first Church handbook was small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. The world has changed greatly since then, and so has the handbook.

In several spots in scripture, God promises that “as ye keep the commandments, ye shall prosper in the land.”

Before President Russell M. Nelson’s challenge to turn social media into our own gratitude journals, there were dozens of lists online of things to be grateful for in the year 2020. Since his invitation, millions of ideas have been added by those using #GiveThanks. But there are a few spiritual things that I think we have become more grateful for this year, as we have either relied on them more or had to do without them. Everyone’s list will look a little different depending on personal circumstances, but here are a few things that I think many of us have come to appreciate more than ever this year (in no particular order).

This story was originally published on LDS Living in November 2018.

While traveling with Sister Becky Craven in the Pacific, Sister Sharon Eubank came across a story in the newspaper that perfectly illustrates what it means to minister to our fellow brothers and sisters: "Chris the Sheep." While traveling through New Zealand and Australia sheep country, Sister Eubank posted:

On one of my visits to the Hawaiian island of Moloka‘i to work on the book The Way of Aloha: Moloka‘i, I was invited to ride a mule down the largest sea cliffs in the world to visit the leper colony of Kalaupapa. From 1866 to 1969, more than 8,000 people diagnosed with leprosy were quarantined to Kalaupapa. The small peninsula of Kalaupapa on Moloka‘i was chosen because of its extreme isolation. The peninsula is surrounded by rough water on three sides and large sea cliffs on its fourth.

At 2:49 pm on January 13, 2019, I got the call no parent wants to receive. It was the bishop’s wife: “Your daughter has been in an accident.” My daughter Erynn, barely 18, was in a car with three other girls, all members of the Laurel class presidency. On their way to welcome a new girl to the ward, the car she was riding in pulled out of the neighborhood and was struck by an oncoming truck, causing injuries to all four girls. Arriving at the scene before paramedics, I was relieved to see them still seated in the car with their eyes open, despite looking very shaken. Unfortunately, my relief was short-lived. Although she appeared unharmed, Erynn would not respond to questions or commands. At the hospital, we were informed that she had a massive compressive skull fracture and bleeding on the brain. She would require immediate surgery.

Escarly Albujar had only five months left to finish her missionary service in La Paz, Bolivia, when doctors found a football-sized tumor in the middle of her lungs. Her life took a bigger turn for the worse when she heard the news that she would have to leave her mission to return immediately to her home country of Peru for treatment.

In the face of tragedy, President Hinckley “took the grieving family members in his warm embrace and wept with them.” Learn how his loving response led to the conversion of one woman and impacted a community by clicking the link below.

Earlier this year, I was in a really rough spot. I was going through some parenting stuff that consumed my mind, body, and spirit. One day, after dropping my kids at school, I sat in a parking lot praying, crying, and searching for answers. It was the out loud kind of cry, the shake your whole body kind of cry, the kind of cry that comes with words hurled to heaven. I really wanted the Lord to just fix things for me, maybe wave a magic wand or something, but I have enough experience to know that isn’t the way things work. So instead, I begged him to please send me someone I could talk to who would understand.

As the prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Nelson often ministers to tens of thousands of people at a time.

"I got a new ministering companion and was so excited when I learned that I had been paired with a celebrity in our ward," Sharon Eubank said in a video she shared on her Facebook page.

Our son is 20 years old and hasn't been baptized—there is a "not accountable" on his church records. Nathan has autism and is minimally verbal. We have another son who is high-functioning on the autism spectrum, and he is now a priest and helps bless the sacrament.

When tragedy hits, it is human nature to want to help. We bring food; we do laundry; we offer childcare. We want to connect! Some people do this through service; others do it through commiseration. We often feel the need to relate to the person suffering by sharing our own experiences.

If you would like to help displaced members and residents of Paradise affected by the Camp Fire, donations of travel trailers (not motorhomes) are being collected at Stewart's RV in American Fork, Utah.

Shortly after the special announcement by President Russell M. Nelson that we would now be “ministering” instead of “home teaching” and “visiting teaching,” a concern came over me that the words “minister” and “ministering” may become commonplace, no longer representing a depth of sacred spirituality. Those terms have always brought feelings of reverence and sacredness within me. In my mind, these terms represent the greatest of all ministers—our Savior—and His miraculous work. I began to review my life for what I had learned of ministering and how these acts draw us upward toward a life in Christ.

Two months after the Camp Fire savagely claimed an entire community here, President Russell M. Nelson surveyed the ashes of Paradise on Sunday and spoke to the community’s Latter-day Saint residents about loss — his and theirs.

If there’s one dependable sign that it’s Christmas, it’s the sudden appearance of poinsettias in every display window and on every piece of Christmas decor. Our office here at LDS Living recently had some of these festive plants appear in the lobby of each floor of our building. However, after only a week of being placed there, when I came in on Monday after the weekend, I noticed that the poor plant on our floor was looking very . . . limp. I immediately thought, “Oh, they must have forgotten to water it over the weekend.” I immediately poured a bit of water into the dying plant, feeling good that I had helped save our living Christmas symbol.

Twenty-six years ago, in what Matt Nerdin terms "a moment of self-doubt and frustration," he ran away from the Provo Missionary Training Center in the early hours of the morning. After reaching the freeway, Nerdin had one "scary, prayer-filled" hitchhiking encounter before receiving a lift from a young Latter-day Saint father.

It’s 7 a.m. I grab my phone and head downstairs for a bowl of shredded Mini-Wheats. As I pour the milk, my phone lights up. I have just received a video message from my mom. Without worrying about my bedhead and puffy eyes, I tap on the screen and see my mom’s smiling face from two states away, wishing me good morning. The message is not long, maybe a minute or two. But I feel connected, and it makes me smile.

“It’s amazing how the members are coming together and supporting one another,” said Bishop Robert Harrison.

The Washington Post recently featured a touching story of how ward members help one of their neighbors into bed every single night. In 2015, the Mormon Channel created a video about Kathy Felt and all those who are helping to lift her:

Since President Nelson announced the end of home and visiting teaching, Church members have been asked to thoughtfully and prayerfully serve their brothers and sisters by ministering to them. This holier approach is designed to bring ward members closer and to help them be in tune with what their assigned families need.

I would like to opine today on “the practice formerly known as home teaching, or visiting teaching.” Why not, everyone else has, and my thoughts, for what they are worth, can be as carefully disregarded as everyone else’s.

Latter-day Saints were blown away last general conference by the whirlwind of changes and announcements that took place. But that was just a small taste of what we've been experiencing these past six months. Here are the changes that have happened since last general conference that prove our Church is a living Church directed by the Lord's chosen messenger today.

Among the exciting changes to the way we minister is who we get to minister with. Young women ages 14 and up can now serve as ministering sisters with the Relief Society. This seems a long time coming, as the young men have had the opportunity to serve in this capacity for many years now.

Most of us are well acquainted with the responsibilities of service. I am sure many of you have baked cookies until your spatulas melted or baby-sat your neighbor's children until your brains sputtered. Occasionally when I am in such situations I fear my fatigue will slip into resentment, and then I wonder if being stretched so thin may not only prevent my developing new charity but actually diminish the supply I thought I had. I have learned, however, that though we may not have a completely willing heart every time we serve, such service molds our heart, blesses us, and does enlarge our capacity to give. We must remember, too, during periods of our lives in which we feel that all we can do is keep our own immediate circle of families or friends afloat, that emotional and spiritual service to others can sometimes be as important as physical acts.