Hank Smith:                      00:03                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, Doctrine & Covenants 84. It’s the entire lesson. This week you have a story for us.

John Bytheway:               00:15                   Yeah. 84 is a big priesthood section. In verse 30 it talks about our young friends. You’ve got a house full of these young men, and again, the offices of teacher and deacon are necessary appendages belonging to the lesser priesthood, which priesthood was confirmed upon Aaron and his sons. Then, if I skip a few, whoso is faithful unto the obtaining of these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies. So Hank, there was a story in General Conference recently, if you’ve heard it good for you you heard general conference! It’s one of those. Wow. What an amazing bunch of young men that magnified their callings, not just about, well, I sit here with a white shirt and pass the sacrament around. What does it look like to magnify your calling?

                                           01:11                   Here’s the story from President Steven J. Lund in April, 2025. One Bishop taught his new deacon’s quorum presidency these duties. So the young presidency began to talk about what that might look like in their quorum and their ward. They decided they should start visiting elderly ward members to see what they needed and then do that. Among those they served was Alan a rough, often profane, sometimes hostile neighbor. Yeah, this is a good choice. Alan’s wife Wanda became a member of the church, but Alan was, as we say, a piece of work. The deacons went to work, comically ignoring his insults while they shoveled snow and took out trash. Deacons can be hard to hate and Alan eventually began to love them. At some point, they invited him to church. I don’t like church. He responds. Listen to this perfect answer from a brilliant deacon.

                                           02:06                   Well you like us, so come with us. Wow. You could just come to our quorum meeting if you want. With the bishop’s approval, he came and he kept coming. The deacons became teachers. As they continued to serve him, he taught them to work on cars and to build things. By the time these deacons turned teachers became priests. Alan was calling them my boys. They were earnestly preparing for missions and asked him if they could practice missionary lessons with him. He swore he would never listen and never believe, but yeah, they could practice at his house. And then Alan got sick and he softened. One day in quorum meeting, he tenderly asked them to pray for him to quit smoking, and so they did. Then they followed him home and confiscated all of his tobacco.

                                           02:56                   As his failing health put Alan into hospitals and rehab centers. His boys served him quietly, exuding powers of priesthood and of love unfeigned. The miracle continued when Alan asked to be baptized, but then he passed away before it could happen. At his request, his deacons turned priests were the pall bearers and the speakers at his funeral where they fittingly warned, expounded, exhorted, taught and invited all to come to Christ. All things deacons do from Section 20, right? And later in the temple, it was one of Alan’s boys who baptized that former Deacon’s quorum president in proxy for Alan. Everything John the Baptist said to do, they did section 13. They did what Deacons, teachers and priests do all over this church and all over this world. Now that’s magnifying your calling.

Hank Smith:                      03:51                   That is the Lord’s way right there.

John Bytheway:               03:53                   Yeah. Taking out his garbage,

Hank Smith:                      03:56                   Ignoring the insults.

John Bytheway:               03:58                   I don’t like church. I know, but you like us, so come with us.

Hank Smith:                      04:00                   So come on over.

John Bytheway:               04:02                   So cool.

Hank Smith:                      04:03                   I love it. That was awesome, John. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. And if you’re thinking, I don’t like podcasts. Well, you like us.

John Bytheway:               04:17                   So come and listen.

Hank Smith:                      04:20                   So come listen to the podcast. Okay. Maybe. We’re with Dr. Jared Halverson this week. It is amazing. I promise.

John Bytheway:               04:30                   So good.

Hank Smith:                      04:31                   Yeah. If you like scripture, you are going to love our episode with Dr. Halverson. Then come back next week. Join us here. We’ll do another followHIM Favorite.