Report
on Our Church Service Mission in the 12 Step Addiction Recovery Program
A
Talk Presented in Virgin Ward, January 19, 2014
1. As you
heard Willyne say, Bishop Spendlove asked us to report on our experience
serving as church service missionaries working with the 12 step addiction
recovery program.
2. It is
an honor to serve the Lord in any mission He calls us to. The deep love that comes from patient
charitable service is abundant! We have
made many dear friendships that mean so much to us.
3. Often
in missionary report talks, special experiences with
individual people are shared. Because of the need for anonymity in the 12 Step Addiction Recovery Program, much of that needs to remain unspoken. What touched us most was seeing the glow return to faces that had lost hope. Alma expressed it well in Mosiah 27:29: “My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment, but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more.” That also was similar to the proselyting mission – I was first introduced to that verse by a person I taught there. It was wonderful to share in this joy in both missions. Today I’d like to focus on what I have learned by participating in the Addiction Recovery program.
individual people are shared. Because of the need for anonymity in the 12 Step Addiction Recovery Program, much of that needs to remain unspoken. What touched us most was seeing the glow return to faces that had lost hope. Alma expressed it well in Mosiah 27:29: “My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment, but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more.” That also was similar to the proselyting mission – I was first introduced to that verse by a person I taught there. It was wonderful to share in this joy in both missions. Today I’d like to focus on what I have learned by participating in the Addiction Recovery program.
3.1. The 12 steps themselves are inspired and
worth repeating often. Let me
share them with you again,
3.1.1. Admit that you, of yourself, are powerless
to overcome your addictions [and I would add sins and bad habits] and that your
life has become unmanageable.
3.1.2. Come to believe that the power of God can
restore you to complete spiritual health.
3.1.3. Decide to turn your will and your life over
to the care of God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
3.1.4. Make a searching and fearless written
inventory of yourself.
3.1.5. Admit to yourself, to your Heavenly Father
in the name of Jesus Christ, to proper priesthood authority, and to another
person the exact nature of your wrongs.
3.1.6. Become entirely ready to have God remove
all your character weaknesses. [Willyne just
did a wonderful job of sharing with us why this step is her favorite]
3.1.7. Humbly ask Heavenly Father to remove your
shortcomings.
3.1.8. Make a written list of all persons you have
harmed and become willing to make restitution to them.
3.1.9. Wherever possible, make direct restitution
to all persons you have harmed.
3.1.10. Continue to take personal inventory, and
when you are wrong promptly admit it.
3.1.11. Seek through prayer and meditation to know
the Lord’s will and to have the power to carry it out.
3.1.12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a
result of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, share this message with others and
practice these principles in all you do.
3.2. In a
particular week’s 12 step meeting we were on Step 8, making a written list of
all persons we have harmed and being willing to make restitution to them. We agreed as a group that this is a hard
step. One suggestion the Church’s 12
Step Manual gives to help us do this is to
seek the gift of charity; pray for
others. It says,
3.2.1. “For thousands of years, people have read
Paul’s great discourse on charity and tried to model their lives after it. Many have struggled to have charity and have
often fallen woefully short of doing so.
3.2.2. The writings of the prophet Mormon clarify
what charity is and how to obtain it. He
defined charity as ‘the pure love of Christ’ and taught that the Father gives
it to those who ‘pray unto the Father will all the energy of heart’ and to ‘all
who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ’ (Moroni 7:47,48)
3.2.3. Charity is a gift we receive as we learn to
follow Jesus Christ and as we love Him with all our hearts, minds, and
souls. Filled with this pure love from
Him and for Him, we find ourselves able to love others as He has loved us. We become able to forgive the faults of
others and to make amends for our mistakes.
3.2.4. In preparation for making amends, many of
us have found the following exercise helpful.
Think of someone for whom you have had hard feelings. For two weeks, deliberately kneel and pray
for him or her each day. Keep a record
of changes in your thoughts and feelings about that person. (See Matthew 22:37-38, 1 Corinthians 13, 1
John 4:19, Moroni 7:44-48)
3.2.5. I
testify that praying for a specific person we have hard feelings with daily for
two weeks, and keeping a record of our thoughts and feelings about that person does
produce a remarkable change of heart!
3.2.6. It
might be too difficult to do this at first.
I have found that if I focus on what I am thankful for in my daily
prayers consistently for a period of time, it becomes easier to then focus our
prayers on a specific person we have hard feelings with. This in turn helps us in our own repentance
process.
3.3. Step 8
also noted that “Charity is a gift we
receive as we learn to follow Jesus Christ and as we love Him with all our hearts,
minds, and souls.”
3.4. Alma
7:23, which was part of our stake theme in 2013, includes another lesson we
have learned more deeply on this mission:
To “be humble, and be submissive and gentle, easy to be entreated; full
of patience and long suffering;
3.4.1. I have learned much from
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf while serving this mission. His talk, “Continue
in Patience” given in the April 2010 General Conference, teaches us that “The
lessons we learn from patience will cultivate our character, lift our lives,
and heighten our happiness.” … (He says) I learned that patience was far more than simplywaiting for something to happen—patience required actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results didn’t appear instantly or without effort. …
3.4.2. President
Uchtdorf goes on to say:
3.4.3. “There is an important concept here: patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!
3.4.4. President Uchtdorf then teaches that Patience is a Principle of the Priesthood:
3.4.5. President Uchtdorf concludes his thought
with the charge to Never give up on anyone. And that includes not giving up on yourself.
I believe that every one of us, at one time or another, can identify with
the servant in Christ’s parable who owed money to the king and who
pled with the king, saying, “Lord, have patience with me.”
3.5. For me,
this brings to mind Alma 43:48-50, which describes how the men of Moroni were
fearful of the Lamanites who greatly outnumbered them. I found it helpful in the addiction recovery
mission to substitute the word “Lamanites” with “Adversary” in these verses, as
follows:
3.5.1. “… when
they saw the fierceness and the anger of the Adversary, they were about to
shrink and flee from them. And Moroni,
perceiving their intent, sent forth and inspired their thoughts – yea, the
thoughts of their lands, their liberty, yea, their freedom from bondage.
3.5.2. “And it
came to pass that they turned upon the Adversary, and they cried with one voice
unto the Lord their God, for their liberty and their freedom from bondage.
3.5.3. “And
they began to stand against the Adversary with power; and in that selfsame hour
that they cried unto the Lord for their freedom, the Adversary began to flee
before them …”
3.6. The 12 Step program gives
hope to all of us that through personally accepting the atonement of Jesus
Christ, He will give us the power to repent and be cleansed from whatever sin, weakness,
or addiction we have. His love for us is truly unconditional, it
is up to us to exercise hope and faith that we can be clean again through
Him. This is a continual process
throughout life, we would do well to follow these 12 steps in our lives and
when we reach step 12, return to step 1, which is: “Admit that you, of yourself, are powerless to overcome your addictions
(or: sins and weaknesses) and that your life has become unmanageable.” Admit that you need the love and support of
our Savior, ask in hope and faith to receive it.”
3.6.1. Bear
testimony of the power of faith and the power of believing in Christ’s
Atonement. Smile!
3.6.2. In his
October 2012 General Conference Talk, “By Faith All Things Are Fulfilled” Elder
Marcus B. Nash Of the Seventy states: “sin diminishes the presence of the Spirit in our lives, and without the Holy Ghost, we will lack the spiritual stamina to hold onto and exercise faith. It is best to exercise our faith to“touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing” and to “be diligent in keeping all [the] commandments, lest … your faith fail you, and your enemies triumph over you.”31
3.6.3.
If sin has stained your life, I invite you to exercise “faith unto repentance,”32 and the Savior, through the Atonement, will purify and heal your life.
3.6.4. And when doubt comes, Elder Nash in his
Conference talk reminds us of King Benjamin’s words given in Mosiah 4:9: “Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.” You might want to consider memorizing that
verse so you can run it through your mind every time doubt passes through …
faith and hope is the opposite of doubt – there is only room for one in your
heart and mind at a time, so choose faith and hope.
4. In
conclusion, I’d like to recap these lessons we learned on this mission:
4.1. The 12
steps themselves are inspired and worth repeating often.
4.2. One
suggestion the Church’s 12 Step Manual gives to help us is to seek the gift of charity; pray for
others.
We learn in Step 8 that charity is a gift we receive as we learn to
follow Jesus Christ and as we love Him with all our hearts, minds, and
souls.
4.3. As the Lord is patient with us, let us be patient with those we serve.
Understand that they, like us, are imperfect. They, like us, make
mistakes. They, like us, want others to give them the benefit of the
doubt.
Never give up on anyone. And that includes not giving up on yourself.
4.4.
The 12 Step program gives
hope to all of us that through personally accepting the atonement of Jesus
Christ, He will give us the power to repent and be cleansed from whatever sin
or weakness we have. His love for us is truly unconditional, it
is up to us to exercise hope and faith that we can be clean again through
Him. This is a continual process
throughout life,
4.5. Faith and hope is the opposite of doubt – there is only room for
one in your heart and mind at a time, so choose faith and hope.
5. Smile! President Thomas S. Monson has stated, “The future is as bright as your faith. “ Do we know a greater optimist
than our ever cheerful Prophet, even at age 86, after over 50 years of service
as an Apostle and Prophet, and now without his cherished Frances at his side?
6. I bear
testimony that God is real. He
lives. He cares about us individually. Each of us, as his unique son or daughter, is
truly His greatest creation. He
sacrificed His Only Begotten Son for Us.
Jesus Christ is real. He lives. He willingly and painfully paid for our
sins. The Holy Ghost is real. He lives.
His gift to us is a true Pearl of Great Price. The restoration of the Gospel and Church of
Jesus Christ to the earth in our day is real.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His Church. He leads it and has called a prophet as He
promised He would in Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He
revealeth His secret unto his servants the prophets”. I bear testimony that the Lord’s Prophet for
us today is Thomas S. Monson, a wonderful, cheerful, hopeful, faithful,
patient, and loving man who has given his life in service to the Lord and to
us.
7. When President Monson says “The future is as
bright as your faith.” Believe him
completely! In The Name Of Jesus Christ,
Amen.
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