Hank Smith: 00:00 Hello, everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I am the host of a podcast called followHim and I am here with my wonderful co-host John, by the way. Hello, John.

John Bytheway: 00:11 Hi, Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:12 Everybody’s favorite. And we’re joined this week by the incredible and handsome and brilliant Dr. Steven Harper. Hi, Steve.

Dr. Steven Harper: 00:21 Hey, Hank. Thank you.

Hank Smith: 00:22 Yeah. We love having Steve Hopper on the podcast, don’t we John?

John Bytheway: 00:27 We do.

Hank Smith: 00:28 If I can say his name right. We love having Steve Harper on the podcast.

John Bytheway: 00:31 Me too, yeah.

Dr. Steven Harper: 00:33 I was preparing to be offended there. Thanks for clearing that up.

Hank Smith: 00:35 Yeah, him too. I love that. Steve Hopper.

John Bytheway: 00:40 Welcome to both of you.

Dr. Steven Harper: 00:41 Yeah.

Hank Smith: 00:43 He’s from Boston. He’s Steve Happar.

John Bytheway: 00:45 Steve Happar.

Hank Smith: 00:45 All right. Hey, there are sections this week for followHIM Favorites, our Doctor and Covenants 137 and 138. You get to choose one thing. You guys both know the drill. John, let’s start with you. 137, 138,

John Bytheway: 00:59 Hank, Steve, this just gets harder and harder to find because there’s so many things.

Hank Smith: 01:03 Yeah.

John Bytheway: 01:03 But there is one phrase in here that I just can’t put enough exclamation points next to it and that is verse 39. Joseph F. Smith sees a number of characters in the next life, in the spirit world. And he mentions, “And our glorious mother Eve and many of her faithful daughters.” Sadly much of the mainstream Christianity has thrown Adam and Eve under the bus. And oh, if it weren’t for them, all these problems are their fault and not seeing it the way that our restored theology does. Go look at Moses 5:10-11. But this is our glorious mother Eve, a phrase you will not find many places in Christianity, I don’t think at all. And many of her faithful daughters, here’s a homework assignment. Go look up the daughters of Onitah, O-N-I-T-A-H and read about who they are, some of those faithful daughters and so many others. So I love that the restored gospel has given place to our mother Eve and called her glorious and look forward to that reunion. And I want to see what Joseph F. Smith saw, that’s my favorite.

Hank Smith: 02:16 Yeah. Oh John, that’s fantastic. Let’s return her to her rightful place, the glorious mother Eve.

John Bytheway: 02:22 Oh, yes.

Hank Smith: 02:23 I mean, that’s a great followHIM Favorite. I’m glad you have that as your favorite. My followHIM Favorite is going to be just the idea of the two sections. 137 and 138 are both visions of the next life. And especially those of you who are a little bit younger, you may hear the idea of living after you die, is just a crazy idea that makes people feel good. No, it is not. These sections are a testimony that you will live and so will your family and friends will live after they die. And not only will they live, they are part of the same work you are, we’re all on the same team, moving the gospel of redemption through the atonement forward. I got to just read one quick story.

Hank Smith: 03:13 President Eyring said, the day his mother died, of course he was devastated. And he said, “We got on from the hospital and my father seemed upset. He went to his room and it didn’t come out for a little while.” And he said, “But he came out and he looked different. And so I asked him, what happened?” And this is what President Eyring said. He said, “My father had gone to his bedroom to ask his Heavenly Father.” By the way, Henry Eyring Sr, when you talk brilliance, this man is a brilliant man. So if the idea that only foolish uneducated people believe in life after death, tell them, anybody who tells you that, tell them should have won a Nobel prize, right? Everybody knew it. Henry Eyring Sr, “That man had gone to his bedroom to ask his heavenly father to have someone greet Mildred, his wife and my mother. He said, that he had been told in answer to his prayer, that his mother had been there to meet his sweetheart.”

Hank Smith: 04:15 President Eyring said, “I smiled at that. 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. When I saw in my mind, my grandmother rushing to my mother, I felt joy for them and a longing to bring my sweetheart and our children to such a reunion.” And part of my followHIM Favorites is my testimony that, that is going to take place. You are going to be reunited with those you have lost. So that’s why I love the idea of these two sections. So Dr. Harper, let’s turn it over to you.

Dr. Steven Harper: 04:53 Okay. Very good. Did I tell you guys that my brother, Dr. Harper says that I have to be able to take someone’s appendix out, before I let people call me Dr. Harper?

Hank Smith: 05:04 Yeah. Those doctors say, “You’re not a doctor.”

Dr. Steven Harper: 05:07 Yeah. Brethren, this has never meant more to me than it does now. What you just said, Hank. And John, what you said a bit ago very touchingly, because my father passed away earlier this year and not long ago, my older brothers passed away. And so my followHIM Favorite is verse 57 of section 138, where Joseph F. Smith says, “I beheld that the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead.”

Dr. Steven Harper: 05:53 That’s poetry to me, those are my people. I feel like there will be a place for me when I get there, a meaningful work to be done. I feel like in the meantime, there’s meaningful work for me to do here and now, to cooperate with them and to bring to pass that redemption of the spirits of the dead. And I’m deeply grateful for such a meaningful, purposeful existence, both here and here after, and for the wonderful consolation it provides me, that the people I love most are with me still and engaged in the same work. And that I’ll have an opportunity to be with them in that again. I can’t overstate how meaningful that verse has been to me throughout my life.

Hank Smith: 06:43 Wow. Yeah. Especially right now. Man, it’s a beautiful idea. And what’s even more beautiful is, it’s true.

Dr. Steven Harper: 06:51 It’s true.

Hank Smith: 06:52 It’s true. We hope you all will join us on our full podcast. You’re not going to want to miss this one, you’re not going to want to miss any of them, but this one especially, you’re not going to want to miss this one. You can find, followHIM anywhere you get your podcast, use your Google and thummim, type it in, followHIM podcast, you’re going to find us. You want to see these episodes. But we know that some of you can’t do it or just won’t do it. So we hope you join us next time on followHIM Favorites.