John Bytheway: 00:00 Welcome to part two with Brother Peter Vidmar Doctrine and Covenants 67 through 70.
Hank Smith: 00:07 Peter, this has been fantastic so far. You have corrected the way I look at prophets. I am now officially stripped of jealousy. I am completely humble.
John Bytheway: 00:18 From this time on. It’s great!
Hank Smith: 00:20 Yep. I am 100% patient. You’ve done a really good job. But we do need to move on from section 67. What do you want to do with 68? And the rest of these sections.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 00:31 The beginning of 68, emphasizes that the words of the elders when moved upon by the Holy Ghost are scripture. Well, I know that we regard as canonized scripture, the standard works, and we also regard as scripture, the talks that we hear from our church leaders and officers at general conference. You know how much you and I look forward to general conference. How are we going to be fed this time? And I really looked to that. There is so much there, so much inspired teachings, inspired writings. When I was called to be a mission president for example, I had many people say, oh, you’ve got all your great Olympic stories to tell about training hard and working hard. Yeah, I mean, I could. I could insert them here and there, but I found that I really didn’t. The scriptures are better. They’re written for us. The reason why we have scripture is so that we can be edified and uplifted. We can apply them to our lives in this day. And I thought the harder I try, the more diligent I am in helping these missionaries to apply the scriptures to their work as a missionary, then to their lives later on, that’s going to give them tools and resources that will bless them for the rest of their lives. Instead of saying, Hey, remember that time that President Vidmar said he could do 20 handstand pushups?
John Bytheway: 01:51 Right.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 01:52 It just doesn’t cut it. And I was so grateful that the four years prior to my call as a mission president, I was an early morning seminary teacher. I went through all four standard works for four years. I got to do my best imitation of Hank Smith and John Bytheway. I failed miserably at it, but I learned so much that it really helped to prepare me for the mission that I was going to serve. I’m just really grateful for that. The more we realize how valuable these words are, but we have to apply them to our lives. We can’t just read because we’re supposed to. We have to apply what we read to our lives. Many times I’ve failed. I’ve read out of duty. Other times I’ve read searching and yearning for answers. I know that when I received my first interview, Elder Ballard was my first phone call to interview about serving as mission leader with my wife. We met on a web call. We’re in California. We’re talking to Elder Ballard. After we had our discussion, he says, now, I don’t want you to just say yes because you’re sitting in front of me. He said, I want you to really think about this and pray about it and let me know if this year’s good for you to leave and go or if next year’s better. Those are my two options.
03:05 That night in my scripture study, I read the account of the Savior calling Peter, James, John, and Andrew to serve with him to become fishers of men, and in each case it said they either straightaway left their nets or they immediately left their nets. That night was my answer. I’m reading this because it’s time to go now, not to go a year from now. I right away called up Elder Ballard and said, I’m ready. This is the time to go. I feel like I’ve received a confirmation. Often when we seek answers from the Lord, as you and I know, the answers don’t come with a voice, sometimes not even an impression. They come when we open up our scriptures and read, we can find the answers there. I found it literally that night.
Hank Smith: 03:54 Wow, you are right. As I was looking at this before we started today, the scriptures are better. They are just more motivating than a motivational speech we could all write. I mean, look at verse six of section 68, wherefore be of good cheer, do not fear, I the Lord am with you and will stand by you and you shall bear record of me Jesus Christ, that I am son of the living God that I was, that I am, that I am to come. John, how many times have we called something the pen of heaven?
John Bytheway: 04:29 That’s beautiful. That is one of those scriptures you make your friend when you’re on a mission. We had Elder Bruce C. Hafen on the podcast. He wrote a whole chapter in a book about the promise of the Lord being with you. I think about Moses. I’m slow speech and of a slow tongue. The Lord does not say, no, you’re great. You’re awesome. You’re special. He just says, I’ll be with you. I love that and right here, it’s okay because I will be with you and there’s the promise of the sacrament prayer. Always have His Spirit to be with you. That’s a great verse, great missionary verse.
Hank Smith: 05:09 I will stand by you.
John Bytheway: 05:12 Very well. I accept.
Hank Smith: 05:14 Yeah.
John Bytheway: 05:16 Okay.
Hank Smith: 05:17 Then you go down to verse eight. Go ye into all the world. Preach the gospel to every creature acting in authority, which I have given you. It’s coming from me. Baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost. Any missionary could read these. What would Elder Holland say? If you can’t get excited about that, I don’t think you can get excited.
John Bytheway: 05:38 Peter, you mentioned some that have come from backgrounds where they were sacrificing greatly to come on their missions. Is there a story that comes to mind with those verses we just read?
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 05:50 I’ve had missionaries that have come from all different circumstances. I remember to this day, he’s a dear friend, beautiful, wonderful Elder Koata Bedaltis, he comes from the island nation of Kiribati. It looks like ti, but the TI is pronounced as an S, so it’s Kiribati. He came, I asked him, I said, where are you from? I think he said the island was Apacito. I said, well, I’ve got my computer here, let me get on Google Earth. Show me where you’re from. I looked it up. It zoomed in on this little, atoll out in the Pacific and I said, wow, you live there? He says, no, no, no. And he points to another little tiny little place miles off from there and he goes, that’s where I live. I said, wow. How many people live on your island? He looked at me, he went like this and started counting with his fingers.
06:38 1, 2, 3, 4, Finally, he says, I think maybe 50. I said, 50 people. Wow. How did you find the gospel? Talked about the missionaries that served on that other island that would take the boat over to his island. A remarkable story. His English when he first came out was not good at all. Who am I to judge because I don’t know a second language, but it took him a while. His English became excellent. I mean fantastic, but he had a rash on his skin and he said, this is kind of bothering me, and I said, well, well go get it checked. He went to the a general practitioner who said, well, you need to go to a specialist, but he never went because he wanted to be a missionary. He kept on serving. Finally, I got a call from his companion and said, President, I’m at the hospital with Elder Bedaltis.
07:19 I said, oh, is he okay? Well, um, he’s got leprosy. I remember putting my hand over the phone saying, Donna, Elder Bedaltis has leprosy. We rushed to the hospital. He was quarantined this sweet, wonderful Elder. He was asleep at the time. We had to put a robe on and mask on. We went into a room, closed the door, went into the other room, closed the door. I tapped him on the shoulder. He woke up and he looked at me and he put the sheet over his head and he started to cry and he said to me, president, don’t send me home. I have to finish my mission. And I looked at him and said, I promise we’re not going to send you home. And I thought to myself, did I just lie to Elder Bedaltis because I don’t know. I said, what can I do for you?
08:01 He says, could you just bring me my English manuals and my scriptures please, and my Preach My Gospel. I said, we’ll do that. We’ll get it to you right away. I know a little bit more about leprosy now. It’s highly curable. You take an antibiotic for a long period of time, for a year, for example, taking a triple antibiotic every day, but within a few days of taking it, he’s not contagious. His companions only had to take an antibiotic like once because they had no symptoms. It takes months to years of exposure to contract leprosy. I didn’t know that. It’s very, very curable. The World Health Organization covers all expenses for curing people of leprosy and he was able to finish his mission. He was someone that was of good cheer. He was always of good cheer. He knew why he was there. I’ve been in touch with him. I just spoke with him a couple months ago. I love technology. If he can have access to a church building that’s got wifi, then he’s got an old phone that he gets on and he gets talking to me and I get a chance to see him and I just love that faith. Don’t send me home. I have to finish my mission. He wasn’t even concerned about this skin condition that he had. He’s doing great now.
John Bytheway: 09:10 Incredible.
Hank Smith: 09:11 He was really applying the scriptures.
John Bytheway: 09:13 Wow. I love stories that make me go. I have had no trials. I cannot complain. Listen to that kid. His main concern is don’t send me home. Not, oh no, I have leprosy. It’s don’t send me home.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 09:29 I walked out of the hospital with tears in my eyes, so grateful to have the privilege of being with someone with such great faith. It’s strengthened my faith. Made me a better person. Still does.
John Bytheway: 09:40 Reminds me of what we’ve talked about earlier. It’s always 1830, somewhere. Here’s a kid on an island of 50, goes on a mission. He could relate to these early missionaries here.
Hank Smith: 09:51 Both of you work with the young men’s organization. This could be flipped because there’s probably some young men listening who had to come home from their mission. That also is an act of faith. When the Lord says, nope, you’re actually going home, Lord, please don’t send me home. Actually, I am.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 10:08 Elder Holland has shared in a little video production about missionaries that struggle. That for whatever reason, they had to go home early and he reminds them, you served your mission. You went out there. You did what the Lord asked you to do. You don’t ever have to tell anybody how long your mission lasted. There’s no point. You shouldn’t do that. Say, I served a mission. I served the Lord. Missions come in many, many forms. I love that. We don’t categorize missions really anymore. Service missions, proselyting missions. No. A mission is a mission. Period. End of discussion. I have such great respect for those that just have the desire to serve. Whether they can or cannot serve. All that matters is desire. If you have a desire to serve, you are called. They’re called. They will serve and they’ll be an example in some way and they will bless lives in many, many ways.
Hank Smith: 10:57 And that’s your missionary right there. It’s his desire. It was all about his desire. Even if they do send him home for leprosy. Why’d you come home off your mission?
John Bytheway: 11:08 I was a leper.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 11:10 I love calling the families of his companions. His trainer had already gone home. I remember calling his mother, Hey, how are you? How’s your son doing? Oh, he’s doing great. Oh, that’s wonderful. Hey, so does he remember serving with Elder B? He said, oh, he loved him. He trained. He did train him. He did a wonderful job too. He has Hansen’s disease, which is the medical term for leprosy. She goes, oh, really? I go, it’s leprosy could you have him go to his doctor, just tell him, because there’s an antibiotic. They can give him that. I’m sure he is fine.
Hank Smith: 11:45 She’s like, wait, what year is it? That is a wild story.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 11:48 I mean, I had to meet with the Department of Health Services in Australia to report this. I said, is he going to have to go home? And he said, no, he won’t. We have experience with this. He just needs to take the right medication. He’ll be fine. He can stay here, which is a great blessing for everyone. If we jump to verse nine, I want to focus on the first stanza and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. It says he that believeth not shall be damned, but I want to focus on believing. Sometimes we don’t know the relationship between faith and belief or faith versus belief. Most of us listening to this have faith in Jesus Christ, have faith that he is our Savior, but now it’s time to apply whether or not we believe that his atoning sacrifice, that what he’s done for us actually applies to me personally.
12:34 As a bishop I’ve met with youth that have maybe struggled with a sin or a transgression, and they say, I mean, can I be forgiven? And I just reply, you think it applies to other people and not to you? Well, yeah. because I think what I did was really bad. It wasn’t necessarily but they thought it was, and we had to have a good chat about what does it really mean to believe Jesus Christ that take him at his word, that what he can do for you is real, and until they can grasp that, they still punish themselves. We have missionaries in the mission field and mission presidents like me that feel like, do I really belong here? I mean, can I do this? I don’t know that I can, and we have to then cast our cares at the feet of our Savior. He will heal us. He will help us. But sometimes it’s hard because we get in our own way too often.
Hank Smith: 13:27 The very first gospel book I ever read was in high school. I read Stephen Robinson’s Believing Christ. Listen to this thought from him. We often think that having faith in Christ means believing in his identity as the Son of God and the Savior of the world, but believing in Jesus’s identity as the Christ is only the first half of it. The other half is believing in his ability, in his power to cleanse and to save, to make unworthy sons and daughters worthy. Brother Robinson frequently said in the book, it’s not about believing in him. It’s about believing him. I believe in him, but do I believe him when he says, yes, I can save you. Yes, I will save you. I don’t know who it was that told me when I said, well, I don’t know if that’s true. I said, oh, you’re a very special sinner. You are the one that was outside the realm. He said, isn’t that kind of prideful to look at Jesus and say, I am your unique sinner. You can save everyone else, but not me. I’d never seen it prideful. I had to add that to my list of sins, but being humble enough to realize infinite means infinite.
John Bytheway: 14:41 Peter, you’re talking about verse nine, he that believeth and is baptized. There’s a belief followed by an action, a decision. Elder Bednar talks a lot about act in faith. Joseph Smith, he didn’t ask which church is right. He said, which church should I join? Implying I will act. You give me the answer, I will act. Who, he that believeth and is baptized.
Hank Smith: 15:07 I think that’s great, John.
John Bytheway: 15:09 Yep. It’s action.
Hank Smith: 15:10 Why would the Lord give you an answer to a prayer or give you an answer that he knows you are not going to follow through on? Wouldn’t that be cruel for him to answer that prayer knowing full well, you’re not going to act?
John Bytheway: 15:24 I don’t know if there are, you guys can maybe help me, standard paintings in every high council room, in every building in the church, but there’s one that I’ve seen in so many high council rooms and it’s called the Great Commission. It’s the resurrected Christ standing there with all the apostles giving something very close, I think at the end of Matthew to 68, verse eight, go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. It’s baptizing them. That’s right there in some Christian religions, the baptism, oh, you can if you want. It’s saying that you believe, but here’s Jesus saying, no, go baptize them.
Hank Smith: 16:00 Yeah. John, you made me think of a story that Elder Andersen shared from President Hinckley who shared it back in 1973. Elder Andersen said he had just returned home from his mission when he heard President Hinckley share this story. This is Elder Andersen retelling the story at that conference. He’s speaking of the one where he was listening to President Hinckley. Elder Hinckley spoke of meeting a young naval officer from Asia. The officer had not been a Christian, but during training in the United States, he had learned about the church and was baptized. He was now preparing to return to his native land. President Hinckley asked him, your people are not Christians. What will happen when you return home a Christian and more particularly a Mormon Christian? The officers face clouded and he replied, my family will be disappointed. As for my future and my career, all opportunity may be foreclosed against me. President Hinckley asked, are you willing to pay so great a price for the gospel? With his dark eyes moistened by tears, he answered with a question. It’s true, isn’t it? President Hinckley responded, yes, it’s true, which the officer replied. Then what else matters? That’s verse nine. He that believeth and is baptized. What else matters? John, Peter, let’s keep going. Where do you want to stop next?
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 17:33 Verse 25. I’m jumping ahead a bit. In the very middle of it, it talks about teaching our children the doctrine of repentance as well as faith in Christ, the Son of the Living God. It’s a doctrine that maybe we’ve, over the years, especially growing up, sometimes we think of the repentance process as such an ominous and even a negative experience maybe. That it, we’re filled with fear as opposed to excitement to repent. Repentance. It’s the process of becoming better. It’s practice. It’s like practice in the gym. I am trying to learn a horizontal bar routine, a pommel horse routine. I do it. I fall off. I do it. I stay on, but my form is bad. I do it again. I still make a mistake. I do it again, but I keep trying and I keep trying and I keep trying. Eventually, wow, I just did it without a mistake, and hopefully I can repeat that, but then again, I make another mistake a week later or a month later.
18:33 In the end, I’m trying to refine myself as an athlete. Repentance is simply that refining process. That’s why, as John mentioned earlier, why sacrament table is bolted to the chapel floor. It doesn’t move. We’re there every week to partake of the sacrament to say, Hey, I’m going to get back up and try again. I’m going to get back up and try again. Heavenly father says, good for you. I’m so glad you’re here. Keep trying. I’m here with you. I’m by your side, and if we can somehow teach our children more about the beauty and the joy and the excitement of repentance, it’s always a positive.
John Bytheway: 19:12 I have a PowerPoint where I have the word repent in big, bold red letters with an exclamation point. I ask, what if you put an emoji with this? What would it be? Maybe a scolding type of a thing, but then we look it up in the Bible Dictionary. This is so great, Hank. I want to thank you for telling me what a treasure the Bible Dictionary is. You taught me something that it said about miracles that I’ll never forget, but this is repentance. The Greek word of which this is a translation denotes a change of mind, a fresh view about God, about oneself and about the world.
19:57 How positive is that? A fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world. That’s not a scolding thing. That is very positive. Thank you, Peter. Understand the doctrine of repentance. Next to my verse 25, I have written first principles because we’ve got repentance. We’ve got faith in Christ. We’ve got gift of the Holy Ghost. Sometimes we think of some of those as a process. Faith in Jesus Christ grows over our lifetime, we hope, but sometimes we think repentance is an event. Nope. It’s an ongoing process that we just talked about. Every single week. Then sometimes we think baptism. Well, that’s an event. I was eight years old. I went down into the, no that’s the beginning of the process of being born again. Who helps us with that? The gift of the Holy Ghost, which is also a process. All of those are an ongoing wonderful thing that leads us closer to the Savior. That helps me to think of them as a ongoing process. What do you guys think?
Hank Smith: 21:01 I really like that you can make it positive. Kind of like what Peter said about working out in the gym. This is all moving us somewhere. We’re moving forward with this repentance.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 21:12 As a bishop, I would ask the the youth in the ward, I say, what’s my biggest fear? What do you think my biggest fear is? As your bishop? You got all these different answers. I said, well, let me just tell you what it is. It’s that you wouldn’t feel comfortable talking to me about anything. I’m here to help you. I just want you to be happy. Whatever I can do for you, just ask me. I remember I’m flying home on a Friday night after giving a a speech somewhere. I get a phone call on my mobile phone from one of my wonderful youth, Bishop, I’ve got to talk to you. I said, okay, great. I’ll see you on Sunday. I’m coming home. I’ll be there. He goes, no, I’ve got to talk to you. Like right now. Well, I’m on a plane right now and I’ll…
21:55 I land at about 10:30 at the airport. I won’t get home until like 11 o’clock. Oh, that’s perfect. What? Oh, that’s perfect. Oh, okay. Well, meet me at my house at 11 o’clock tonight. I’m looking forward to seeing you. That’d be great. He came in and talked to me. He needed to talk to me, so I was just filled with gratitude. He was eager to come and and share with me some struggles that he was having. This is a wonderful young man. He’s married in the temple and got a family. Everything’s great. I’ll never forget that experience and how grateful I was that he could talk to me, and sometimes that’s all you want. You want someone that can talk to you. I had many, many choice experiences in the mission. Tender discussions with missionaries who have really had some struggles. I just admire them so much for what they’ve been able to overcome in their lives in all different ways. Physical struggles, struggles with challenges in their lives. I’m so grateful for them and the example they’ve set for me, and I went home a much better person because of them, not because of anything that I did.
Hank Smith: 22:59 My dissertation for my doctorate degree was in high trust relationships. One story that always stood out to me that helped me to remember to reward voluntary confession. Peter talked about someone comes to you to confess. What do you do when that happens? Here’s the story. Wernher von Braun, you probably know that name from Nasa. He was in a missile development program. I think it was called the Redstone. Something happened. One of these tests goes out of control and almost ends up killing some civilians. Of course, everybody’s looking what went wrong? What happened? One low level engineer voluntarily reported that he likely caused the short circuit. It was an accident. I guess everyone’s looking going, he’s going to get fired. Instead, Von Braun sends the man a bottle of champagne celebrates this moment. He was asked why, and this is what he said. Absolute honesty is something you simply cannot afford to dispense with in a team effort as difficult as that of missile development. What was he telling everybody else? Absolute honesty. I love that. Come talk to me. John if he keeps that hidden, how long does it take to actually find out what had happened? As a father, if I want to teach the doctrine of repentance or help my children to not just teach them, but teach them to understand, did you guys notice that in the, in verse 25? One thing is learning how to appropriately work with a child who is repenting to reward that kind of humility.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 24:48 Yeah. Later on in 69 and 70, the Lord asked them to give an accounting of their stewardship. As we think about that being accountable, I think of Dwight Eisenhower apparently as they were preparing for the invasion in D-Day that he had drafted a note in case that they had failed in getting onto the beaches of Normandy. Apparently, he drafted a note saying, if any blame or fault attaches to this attempt, it is mine alone. When they said it was a success, like apparently he crumbled the paper up and threw it in the trash and his aide had saved that document, but we live in a day where everybody wants to blame someone else for something that went wrong. Yet great leaders assume the responsibility. I’ve made so many mistakes in my life that I am so grateful for a forgiving savior that I can come to him and right things that were wrong.
Hank Smith: 25:42 That phrase in verse 25, parents to teach their children to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith, there’s a difference between teaching my children, trying to help them understand. I’m not quite sure what that difference is, but there is a difference.
John Bytheway: 26:00 It sounds like a level of not just knowing what the word means, but how that really works.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 26:05 Think about the For Strength of Youth guidebook now, it’s about understanding why we live the gospel. As Brother Wilcox would say, this is not a book of rules. It’s a book of reasons. You look at young people, how do you do all of this? Your church keeps you so busy. Well, Jesus Christ will help you. That’s a chapter heading in it. Are you actually going to leave school and go on a mission? You are not going to get a job after school. Why that? Well, because I love God and I love my neighbor. You as members of the church, you, you’re not supposed to look at pornography. Why is that? The young man can then say, well, because I want to walk in God’s light. Well, you don’t party like the other kids at school. You don’t drink or anything. Why is that? Well, because my body is sacred. See, all those chapter headings of the workbook are reasons to live the gospel. It’s not a checkbook of do this, do that. It’s understanding why we live a certain way, why that’ll bring blessings. The more that our youth can understand that, then the more desirous they are to just live the gospel. Elder Renlund said in his talk in conference, heavenly Father doesn’t want his children to do what is right. He wants them to choose to do what is right. And you can’t choose unless you have an understanding of your choices.
Hank Smith: 27:18 That’s great. I’d never thought of that. Maybe I might write by verse 25, I’m going to teach my children what repentance, faith, baptism, and the gift Holy Ghost are, but to understand I’m also going to teach them why these matter. Why are these important? The reasons.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 27:37 When you’re alone, you’ve got no one to tell you what to do. You have to decide for yourself, and that’s why we have to have testimonies. That’s why I love the Aaronic priesthood theme. We challenge our young men to memorize that theme the second they walk into their quorum. That first day. I’m a beloved son of God. He has a work for me to do with all my heart, might, mind and strength. John and I say that after every opening prayer, like a deacon’s quorum will say it on a Sabbath day. When they meet as a quorum, we recite that by memory. That might be the only friend a young man has is the memorization of that theme, when he finds himself in a challenging situation. I can’t do that because I’m preparing to become a diligent missionary and a loyal husband and a loving father. No, I can’t do that. If you can remember and understand why this gospel exists, because it makes us happy, then it’s easier to make the choices in challenging moments. I’ve failed many times in my life. That’s why I’m grateful for repentance, grateful for the gospel. I’m grateful for this chance that we have to make choices that bring us closer to our heavenly Father.
Hank Smith: 28:42 As I read verse 25, I can feel some of our listeners hurting in their heart because it says, as parents, we are to teach our children to understand these basic first principles and ordinances of the gospel, and if we don’t, the sin be upon the head of the parents. But John, this cannot mean that if my children don’t live repentance, faith, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost as they become adults, that somehow that I’m the one to blame, I’m the one at fault. How many parents do we know John, who say, if I was a better parent, that child, that’s my fault.
John Bytheway: 29:27 If Lehi and Sariah had read that verse.
Hank Smith: 29:29 Right.
John Bytheway: 29:29 Sometimes, we tried. We did our best to teach that, but as you said, as they become adults, that accountability slowly moves from somebody’s shoulders to somebody else’s shoulders when they go off. Fortunately, the Lord’s in relentless pursuit of them.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 29:52 We have promises as parents too, though. I’m all in. As Naman had to dip seven times. I’m a seven dipper. I’m all in with the gospel. I’m going to do the best I can to live it in the way that I understand it. I’m going to try to repent of it every time I goof up and if I do my part we’re promised that that sealing, that bond we have with our children remains, we do our part. I’m going to exercise my agency to live the gospel the best way that I know and I love my family, and I’m going to do everything I can for them and I do my part, and that’s what parents can do. We can just do our part, do the best we can. Heavenly Father understands everything about us, everything that’s influenced us throughout our lives, that influences our behaviors, our little quirks, our tendencies. He understands it better than we do. I have faith in a perfectly loving, eternal, heavenly Father.
Hank Smith: 30:47 And you can be still. It’s going to be okay. John, how many times have we reminded our listeners? Those aren’t your children, his work and his glory.
John Bytheway: 30:56 Yeah. It’s not this is your job and your glory. No, he says, it’s my work and it’s my glory. I am able to do my work. I love that line.
Hank Smith: 31:05 Believe it or not, that was my child before you.
John Bytheway: 31:08 Yeah. I heard Elder Gerald Lund once. He put his fists together like this, and he said, sometimes we go at each other like this in relationships. He said, don’t forget the vertical dimension. Mosiah 27. When the angel came, he said, your… the people and your father have prayed me here. It’s like, father, some of your children are having trouble. What are you going to do about this?
Hank Smith: 31:34 Can you do something about your child please? Yeah. Maybe this verse is saying, you need to take your role as a parent seriously. It does need to be your priority, but that does not mean that the choices your children continue to make throughout life are somehow tied back to your ability to teach. I want to ask both of you something. How did you learn to pray in verse 28? Or how do you go about teaching your children to pray? Do you remember learning to pray as a kid? Teach their children to pray. I bet there were some prayers before some Olympic performances.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 32:12 You ready for this pathetic prayer? How about this one. Heavenly Father, if I can make this routine successfully, if we can win this gold medal, I’m going to be so good for the rest of my life. I really mean it this time.
Hank Smith: 32:25 Yeah. I promise.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 32:30 I confess. Yeah. I confess. I’ve uttered prayers of that sentiment before.
Hank Smith: 32:35 Yeah. Hmm. I would almost say, heavenly Father, don’t you want the church to have this success? I’m a member, wouldn’t it be great if I won the gold?
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 32:44 That becomes me centric, doesn’t it? Right? I’ve uttered those prayers. We all have had those prayers to do well in a test at school that we haven’t prepared for. It’s just the natural man, but isn’t it great that at least we’re pleading to our heavenly Father for something instead of ignoring him? It’s a good start. We’re to pray over our crops. In this day and age, that means pray over your job. It means to pray over your temporal matters as well as your spiritual matters. That’s what the Lord wants us to do, include him in our lives. He wants us to include him in our lives. Sometimes I go on in my day and I don’t include him like I should. I don’t include him like I should.
Hank Smith: 33:24 John, I think he just quoted Amulek, didn’t he?
John Bytheway: 33:27 Yeah. He’s going to go through and tell you can pray in your closet and in your field and because all these Zoramite folks were thinking, no, you have to get in line. You have to go one at a time. On top of the Rameumptom, you have to say this prayer, Alma and Amulek are really specific in teaching. Well, actually, you can pray anywhere over your fields, over your flocks, over your herds that you may prosper in them.
Hank Smith: 33:49 Your houses.
John Bytheway: 33:49 Your houses, your lands. I mean, he was really teaching them how to pray. Like you’re saying.
Hank Smith: 33:55 Pour out your soul in closets and secret places. I want to share a story with both of you from President Eyring. I have never forgotten this from the day I heard it. He talks about one of the moments his father taught him to pray. Both of you know President Eyring’s father, Henry Eyring. This is how President Eyring tells the story. The afternoon my mother died we went to the family room from the hospital. We sat quietly in the darkened living room for a while. Dad excused himself and went to his bedroom. He was gone for a few minutes. When he walked back into the living room, there was a smile on his face. He said that he’d been concerned for mother during the time he had gathered her things from her hospital room and thanked the staff for being so kind to her.
34:43 He thought of her going into the Spirit World just minutes after her death. He was afraid she would be lonely if there was no one there to meet her. He had gone to his bedroom to ask his heavenly father to have someone greet Mildred, his wife and my mother. He had said that he had been told in answer to his prayer, that his mother had met his sweetheart. I smiled at that too. Grandma Eyring was not very tall. I had a clear picture of her rushing through the crowd, her short legs moving rapidly on her mission to meet my mother. This is the part I want you to hear. Dad did not intend at that moment to teach me about prayer, but he did.
John Bytheway: 35:29 Beautiful.
Hank Smith: 35:30 Verse 28. They teach their children to pray.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 35:34 John, you said that Hank helped you to fall in love with the Bible Dictionary. The Bible dictionary definition of prayer is as good as it gets. The act by which the will of the child and the will of the Father are brought into correspondence with each other. It says something to the effect of the purpose of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are conditioned on our asking for them. Oftentimes, what that means to me is that I’m asking for the wrong thing when the answer doesn’t come or the blessing doesn’t come that I expect maybe I wasn’t asking for the right thing, and I have to change what I ask for at that time. When I ask for the right thing, heavenly Father says, you know, I’ve been waiting for you to ask me.
36:18 Here you go. I’ve been wanting to give this blessing to you. I need you to ask me to find out that this is what you need. Find out for yourself. Then the blessing comes. Sometimes the answers though don’t come for a long time. Sometimes the answers don’t come in the way we want them or they may not come at all in the manner that we hope. That’s where I have to be willing to accept the Lord’s will when relief doesn’t come, when I want it, when blessings come, when they don’t come. I have to be humble.
Hank Smith: 36:47 Peter, as I looked at verse 29, it says to observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy. As an Olympic athlete that had to be difficult.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 36:58 Yeah, there’s challenges with the Sabbath day. There always have been. I have not been perfect in that. When I first started gymnastics, remember the Sunday block was divided. You had morning sacrament meeting.
John Bytheway: 37:09 Hank doesn’t, but I remember going early to priesthood meeting to Sunday school.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 37:15 I’ll just tell you that my coach only could coach on Sundays because he had a job. My parents let me choose. I was a young boy. I would go. I would do gymnastics in between church meetings, but then I got the priesthood. All of a sudden, my testimony began to build my own testimony. Not my parents, not my brothers and sisters. We didn’t have workouts on Sundays anymore. We always lined up in front of them before and after workout. Begin and end the workout, and he says, oh, by the way, guys, workouts next week we’re going to start again on Sundays and add an additional workout on Sundays. I just, ugh, I didn’t know what to do. I’m a deacon. I got the priesthood. I’m 12 and a half years old, and I walked up to my coach and I said, I can’t go on Sunday.
37:57 Oh, this Sunday you can’t. No, I can’t go on any Sundays. Why? Well, because I’m commanded to keep the Sabbath day holy. I just don’t want to do gymnastics on the Sabbath. He says, you did it before. That’s dumb. I said, yeah, but it didn’t mean it was right. Now, my coach is one of the finest human beings on the planet. He gave 100% to his athletes. Of course, he would expect a hundred percent of effort in return. It didn’t mesh. He says, well, I don’t know if I can coach you anymore. There was a period of time for a few weeks that I was kicked out. Wasn’t in the gym and didn’t go. I was crushed. For me, I knew it was the right thing to do. That’s all for me. I knew it was the right thing to do. My coach then came over to my home, met with my parents, and my mom and dad said, Malcolm, it’s great that you’re coming here to talk to us, but this wasn’t our decision.
38:52 This is Peter’s decision, and we support him in whatever decision he chooses. You are going to have to talk to him about it. Finally I looked at him, I said, I don’t want to train on Sundays, and he says, okay, we’ll train on the other days. That was never an issue after that, but I wanted to earn my rest on the Sabbath, so I worked out really hard to the point that there was a mutual respect there. My coach understood what commitment meant. He understood the principle of being committed. That was something that he knew. When he realized it was my commitment and not my parents. I think he had respect for that. We never had a problem after that. There were times where I would travel overseas and say, Hey, Peter, the competition begins on Monday. We really should be together as a team on Sunday to do a team little workout before the competition begins. How do you feel about that? He asked me how I felt about it. There were times I said, I think it would be right for me to be with the team. I’ll be there. I’ll be with the team.
39:44 Many people go through different struggles and have different feelings about this. I have no right to say that what I did was right. If I competed on Sunday, I competed. My first round of competition at the Olympics was on a Sunday. I have no right to say that it was right or wrong. It was simply the choice that I made. I know of a BYU football player. I can’t remember his name, but he chose not to go into the NFL because he did not want to play on the Sabbath day. That’s a hero. My personal hero in sports is Eric Little, not because his name sounds like a small person, because that’s what I am.
40:18 But Eric Little from the movie Chariots of Fire, I’ve researched, I’ve studied his biography. He was even a better man than he was portrayed in the movie. When they told him, oh, the heats are on Sunday. He said, oh, I guess I can’t compete. It wasn’t all this struggle he had with should I or shouldn’t I. That scene where he is on the boat and he’s thinking about whether he should compete on the Sabbath. No. He just said, oh, I guess I can’t compete on Sunday then. It was that easy for him. There’s a lot of people that have been great inspirations to me. There’s all different ways that we approach things. We do the best we can.
Hank Smith: 40:52 Yeah. I love how you said that’s what it was for me.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 40:55 Yeah.
John Bytheway: 40:55 Yeah.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 40:56 He said, I believe that God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure. To not run would be to hold him in contempt. I can quote the whole movie for you guys.
John Bytheway: 41:07 Yeah.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 41:09 If you haven’t seen it lately, this weekend sometime you need to go watch that movie with your family again, the best movie ever made. I blew up the movie poster and had it framed on canvas in my office at home.
Hank Smith: 41:21 That’s a great recommendation John.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 41:24 Isaiah chapter 40 when he says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up as wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.
Hank Smith: 41:35 Peter, I loved how you said this was my choice because others are going to face that same choice. It might be a different outcome.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 41:43 I’ve had parents come to me with that same question. My son or my daughter is in this sport or that sport. They’ve got this on the Sabbath day. How do you handle it? What do you do? I say, I don’t have any right to give you that answer. That’s a personal choice. Please don’t put that burden on my shoulders. We have to make choices of how we live our lives and what we’re going to do, what the Lord expects of us. I have no right to make that choice for any other person.
John Bytheway: 42:09 I love that. The Savior gave such an amazing answer when people asked about the Sabbath. Said, yeah, do the best you can, but remember the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. It’s to help us and to serve us and to bless us. It’s not that we’re to serve the Sabbath. The Savior put those in a priority order. That that’s been a real blessing.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 42:33 I’ll tell you from a physiological standpoint, what a blessing it was for me to not train on the Sabbath day.
John Bytheway: 42:38 Interesting.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 42:39 To work out five days a week versus six days a week. There’s not much difference. Six versus seven there’s a massive difference. because if you go, go, go, go every day, you don’t get a chance to recover or recuperate. You’re going to tear your body down. I loved that. I got to the point where my coach would say on a Saturday after workout, he’d say, okay guys, let’s forget about gymnastics tomorrow. I’m going to go be with my family. We’ll meet up again on Monday. What a great message from my coach.
Hank Smith: 43:06 We do have great athletes right now, members of the church who play on Sunday. We are in full support.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 43:13 Who are great examples in so many aspects of their lives that our young men should be looking up to the good things that they do for others.
Hank Smith: 43:20 Yeah. We won’t judge Brother Taysom Hill or Brother Andy Reid and those who support them by watching Right. We, we won’t, we won’t judge them either.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 43:30 Sorry, I’m going to watch brother so-and-so at his job today. So…
Hank Smith: 43:36 John, I have to support Brother Hill. I was his New Testament teacher. I taught him everything he knows about miracles. He has performed some on the field, hasn’t he?
John Bytheway: 43:46 Maybe you’ve seen David Nixon on BYU Sports Nation. David Nixon’s younger sister. Emily Nixon married Taysom Hill, and Emily took a Book of Mormon, I think from me. So…
Hank Smith: 43:58 Alright.
John Bytheway: 43:59 How about that?
Hank Smith: 44:00 We’ll find out if they’re listening.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 44:01 Wow you guys can take credit for all these sport accolades.
Hank Smith: 44:07 Peter, before we let you go, when John connected us, you were saying, oh, I don’t know if I could do these sections very well, which you have done incredibly well. Beautiful. We looked at the title of the lesson. You are one of the very, very small percentage of human beings who have won a gold medal. I don’t know how much smaller it gets to say, two gold medals
John Bytheway: 44:30 and a silver.
Hank Smith: 44:31 And a silver. Yet the Lord calls the gospel the riches of eternity. I’m interested in how an Olympic gold medal winner sees the riches of eternity.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 44:47 Well, I can’t describe them because I haven’t experienced the riches of eternity. I have a testimony that what heavenly father has in store for us as we keep our covenants and stay in the covenant path, is something that is beyond comprehension. It’s so joyful and glorious and wonderful. That is beyond comprehension. I do know what it feels like though to be an Olympic gold medalist. It’s awesome. It was an amazing feeling to be on the victory stand with my teammates. I wept on the victory stand as they played our anthem. I realized that I’d lived a dream with these five other incredible human beings that I trained with, and I thought that was really special. That was an incredibly unique, wonderful experience. It doesn’t even hold a candle to eternal life and exaltation, at least by my testimony, is that it doesn’t even hold a candle.
45:42 That if all that work I spent in the gym, if it was worth it to have that experience on the victory stand, for example, well then I guess trying to follow the covenant path is even better. Even more important. I’ve failed many times, but I’m grateful for a savior that forgives, a heavenly father that forgives. I’m grateful for what my savior’s done for me. In pondering this discussion we’ve been having this last little while, I’ve got a dear friend of mine, Brian Andre, who is an institute director in Southern California, was in my stake. I served with him in many capacities.
Hank Smith: 46:15 I know Brian. I love him.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 46:17 He’s a great guy. Brian reminded me of this. He says, you know, there’s two ofs in the title of the church. It’s the Church of Jesus Christ. It’s of Latter-day Saints. We don’t belong to the church as much as we belong to Jesus Christ. This is really about Him. Being his disciple. I know that the riches of eternity are there for every one of Heavenly Father’s children. My hope and my prayer that I can live a life in such a way that I can hear those words well done, thou good and faithful servant. I’m grateful for repentance. I’m grateful for my Savior. I know that his gospel’s real.
Hank Smith: 46:57 John, thank you for finding Peter Vidmar.
John Bytheway: 47:03 It wasn’t me. What a blessing. What a unique voice to have you share that last testimony eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered in the heart of man. What is it? things God has prepared for them.
Hank Smith: 47:16 Yeah.
John Bytheway: 47:17 Even beyond gold and silver medals, it says a lot about you to come and give us that perspective. Thank you.
Hank Smith: 47:23 Yeah, it does.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 47:24 Grateful to spend time with you two with two of my heroes. Thank you.
Hank Smith: 47:27 Aw. The very last verse of this lessons sections, Doctrine and Covenants 70 verse 18. I the Lord am merciful. I the Lord am merciful. I think every listener needs to hear that.
John Bytheway: 47:44 Yeah. Thanks for tying that up with a bow like that Hank.
Hank Smith: 47:48 I the Lord am merciful. If that’s one thing we want people to walk away with is he loves you. He wants to help you. Peter, thanks for being with us today.
Bro. Peter Vidmar: 47:57 Thank you. What a privilege.
Hank Smith: 47:59 We had a lot of fun. John, you’ll have to keep being friends with him so he can come back.
John Bytheway: 48:04 Okay. Very well. I accept this assignment.
Hank Smith: 48:07 Sacrifices must be made John. It’s going to be one of yours. We want to thank Peter Vidmar for being with us today. We want to thank Shannon Sorensen, our executive producer, our sponsors, David and Verla Sorensen. In every episode we remember our founder, Steve Sorensen. We hope you’ll join us next week. We’re going to move forward. We’re getting closer and closer, John, to the vision.
John Bytheway: 48:33 The vision is coming. Yeah.
Hank Smith: 48:34 Yeah. We’ve got a lesson before that and then that one coming up on followHIM. Thank you for joining us on today’s episode. Do you or someone you know speaks Spanish, Portuguese, or French? You can now watch and listen to our podcast in those languages. Links are in the description below. Today’s show notes and transcript are on our website. Follow him.co. That’s follow him. co. Of course, none of this could happen without our incredible production crew. David Perry, Lisa Spice, Will Stoughton, Krystal Roberts, Ariel Cuadra, Heather Barlow, Amelia Kabwika, Iride Gonzalez, and Annabelle Sorensen.
