Hank Smith: 00:00 Hello, everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I’m your host. I’m here with my incredible co-host, John Bytheway. Welcome, John.

John Bytheway: 00:08 Thanks, Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:09 And we are both welcomed by the incredible Dr. Jenny Reeder. Hi, Dr. Reeder.

Dr. Jennifer Re…: 00:15 Hi.

Hank Smith: 00:16 Yeah, we are going to have a lot of fun today. Our lesson is on sections 125 through 128 of the Doctrine and Covenants, and this is followHIM Favorites, so you only get to choose one thing, John. What’s going to be your choice?

John Bytheway: 00:32 This is one of the toughest ones, Hank. There are so many beautiful, powerful, happy verses here. I’m looking in 128 at verse 19, and I just love this question. Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? Because I think we know what the adversary wants us to hear. You have to go to a ton of meetings. I’ve got to go to Young Men’s. I’m supposed to do this. I’m supposed to do that. We’ve got to do this. Now we have to go serve. Now I have to-

Hank Smith: 01:01 I can’t do this. I can’t do that.

John Bytheway: 01:02 … do my nursery calling. Now I’ve got to go down to Welfare Square and can peaches. And so I love this emphasis here, because we get to choose. If you underline the word we, what do we hear? This is what he wants us to hear.

John Bytheway: 01:16 And then it’s followed with a voice of gladness, a voice of mercy from heaven, a voice truth out of the earth. Sounds Book of Mormon. Glad tidings for the dead, a voice of gladness for the living and the dead, and then this very Christmas phrase, glad tidings of great joy.

John Bytheway: 01:34 And I hope that’s what we’re hearing. Yeah, there’s lots of other stuff that we do. There’s a lot of administration that we do in the church, but look at the gospel joyous message. It is a glad voice. It’s glad tidings of great joy and focus on that. Don’t let the adversary define what the gospel is for you. You decide what you hear from. I like these and the verses just keep going. I hope everybody will keep reading 128, because this idea keeps going.

Hank Smith: 02:04 That’s awesome, John, and that should be the idea. Hopefully that’s how we feel when we, as members of the church, we feel excited. My followHIM Favorite is going to come from section 126. It’s actually, I need to give full credit to Dr. Reeder. You need to come and listen to our full podcast. It’s called followHIM, come and listen to Dr. Reeder give all the voices of the women of the Restoration as we hear from them. And she showed us in section 126, and it’s become my followHIM Favorite, that this message is to Brigham Young, and the Lord talks about his offerings being acceptable and his long missionary service being acceptable. But Dr. Reeder says that this section is also to Mary Ann Young, Brigham Young’s wife, who while Brigham was out serving missions was working, was raising children, was planting gardens, was building her own cabin. This woman, this incredible, amazing woman, Mary Ann Young.

John Bytheway: 03:04 Amazing.

Hank Smith: 03:05 When we see these male names in the scriptures, we ought to automatically think, we ought know that there are a lot of names behind this and the number one is going to be this person’s spouse. So when you read Brigham Young, just write in, and Mary Ann Young, that their offering has been acceptable, their labor and toil, and that we need to make sure we see the people that are maybe not written in, but are definitely there sweating and working and going through trials and difficulties, and give them credit. See them. We need to see them. So that’s my followHIM Favorite.

John Bytheway: 03:46 You know, Hank, can I throw in something, Hank? My dad has a unique story. He joined the church and married my mom and then was called on a mission. And it’s really because that was her mission in such a powerful way when he went off to New England. So, I love what you’ve just said, because we have always thought of that as our mom sent dad on a mission and worked and sent money and everything. So, I love that you put that together. It was their mission.

Hank Smith: 04:17 Well, Dr. Reeder, we want to give the rest of followHIM Favorites to you. What are you seeing in these sections that our listeners need to hear?

Dr. Jennifer Re…: 04:26 There are so many great things in these sections, and when I first read through them, I was like, okay, okay, what? What’s so great about this? But you’ve got to dig in.

Dr. Jennifer Re…: 04:36 So, I love in section 127, verse two, that Joseph talks about the perils which he’s called to pass through. And then he said, “It’s all become second nature to me. Deep water is what I am wont to swim in.” And this is the life that he has chosen. He’s writing this in a letter, in hiding, in Nauvoo. And then just a couple of days later, he writes other letter and it is so full of enthusiasm and joy. John read a couple of verses, but I wanted to highlight verse 22 where he says, “Brethren and sisters, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren and sisters, and on and onto the victory.”

Dr. Jennifer Re…: 05:25 I think that he is truly speaking glad tidings, as John mentioned, but the way that he was able to shift his thinking from being in deep waters to letting his heart rejoice and be exceedingly glad is such a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Hank Smith: 05:41 That is. You need to join us on our full podcast. Speaking of deep waters, our guest, Dr. Reeder, has some stories for you. So you need to join us. Come find followHIM wherever you get your podcasts. But we understand if not. If you can’t do that, that’s okay. Join us next week for another followHIM Favorites.