Hank Smith: 00:03 Hello everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, we’re in Helaman 7 through 11 this week and you’ve told me you have a story. Where are we going to go?

John Bytheway: 00:16 Yeah, Hank. You remember that Nephi’s been preaching up in the north and he comes back to town and things are going bad. He goes up on his tower by a garden, by the chief market, remember? And he goes up to pray. He prays pretty loud and pretty soon this group gathers. This is kind of hard to imagine that this group gathers around, like what? He turns around, Helaman 7:13 he says, “It came to pass he opened his mouth and said unto them: Behold, why have ye gathered yourselves together?” And then he asks one more question, “That I may tell you of your iniquities?” And I always thought that was a funny question. Like, yeah, that was it. That’s why we came.

Hank Smith: 00:53 No, actually it was because you were praying on a tower. But, yeah. Are there refreshments? I mean, I don’t know why they came.

John Bytheway: 01:00 He turns to why have you gathered yourselves together, that I might tell you of your… And then he does. He tells them about their iniquities and everything. It’s a great story. I love the phrase, why have ye gathered yourselves together? And our friends, John Hilton III and Brad Wilcox, wrote this little book called 52 Life-Changing Questions from the Book of Mormon. And they jumped on this as like a really good question. Now think of it in a different way, Hank, why do we gather? So they told this story about a couple of missionaries are at a store and they find this woman and have a conversation with her, and then they discover she was already a member of the church, but she’d been inactive for years. They invited her back to church. She came with her teenage son.

  01:40 Her son started going to seminary and reading the Book of Mormon and eventually wanted to be baptized. The missionaries approached the mission president and said, “Would you please talk to this boy’s father and convince him to let his son be baptized?” And the mission president’s like, “Well, I’ll do my best.” They have this meeting and the father says, “Okay, what does my son get for being a member of your church?” And the mission president says, “Um, salvation.” And the father says, he said, “Okay, done.” No. He says, “Anybody can promise salvation, mansions in heaven, street paved with gold, but no one really knows who can and can’t. What else does he get?” And the mission president says, “Well, most of the benefits are spiritual in nature. The fruits of a Latter-day Saint lifestyle are a longer life. Most people live longer than the national average. There’s a better education. They have a higher level of educational attainment. They enjoy benefits of stronger marriages and families”, and he just keeps going on this list.

  02:41 Latter-day Saint families struggle with many of the other challenges, but in general, they deal with them with a different long-term perspective that makes a difference. He said, “Another benefit is they have an international circle of support and friendship, and not only do these connections strengthen and help members, but they help them reach out in service.” And the father is impressed enough. He’s like, “Okay, fine.” Maybe because he was just talking too much. He says, “Okay, fine. Let you be baptized.” Then he’s there. He’s gathered with the saints. It says he watched his son dressed in white, being led into the font by a missionary. The father was not thinking about longer life or better education. He watched the boy sincerely make covenants with God and he felt the Spirit so strongly.

  03:24 The next time the missionaries came to his home, he did not leave or pretend he wasn’t home. In fact, he let the missionaries teach him and they challenged him to read the Book of Mormon. He did not make a joke out of it. He actually read it. Before long, the mission president was invited to another baptism, the father’s. And so the mission president came up to him all dressed in white and said, “So, what do you get for being a member of the church?” And the man said, “Salvation.”

  03:54 They began to experience also the fruits of the gospel. I had never thought of that twist on it. Why have you gathered yourselves together? This same question, why do we gather? Oh, there’s so many good reasons for that. And he saw that influence and said, “Yeah, I want my son to be part of this.” That’s why we gather, and I hope those listening, especially if you’re young, can remember it’s not just for you. Go and reach out to the others who are there and make them glad they also came to gather with you. They may really need that. And then we can ask that question differently. Why do we gather ourselves together? We help each other. We lift each other. Salvation. That’s probably down the list. It’s a lofty reason. It’s a good one.

Hank Smith: 04:37 I like that, John. There’s micro blessings, things that I get individually from living the gospel, but there are macro blessings, things we get in being part of this group, like a group blessing, and it takes the group to get the blessing. Why do we gather ourselves together? So many benefits of having a church and being a group, a cohesive group.

John Bytheway: 05:00 Yeah. It’s an inspired reason. We could stay home and read our books, but we gather. We take the sacrament together. We feel the Spirit of that together and we help each other through tough times together.

Hank Smith: 05:12 Yeah, I’ve heard before “I can go to the mountains and be spiritual. I don’t need to go to church.” And you’re right, you probably could go to the mountains and be spiritual, but there’s blessings of being together that I think the Lord wants us to experience. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcast and then come back here next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorite.