"Foreordained to Serve" - Mitch Peterson

Last updated on October 3rd, 2024 at 12:57 am

General Conference Applied

S3 E27 – Thursday, September 19, 2024 | “Foreordained to Serve” by Elder Steven R. Bangerter; April 2024 General Conference

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Podcast Episode Outline

Introduction

Bio

“Elder Steven R. Bangerter was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 31, 2018. At the time of his call, he had been serving as a member of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy in the Utah South Area. Elder Bangerter is currently serving in the North America Central Area Presidency. Previously, he served in the Philippines, North America West, and North America Northwest Area Presidencies.

“Elder Bangerter has served in a number of Church callings, including full-time missionary in the Canada Vancouver Mission, ward Young Men president, elders quorum president, high councilor, bishop, counselor in a stake presidency, stake president, and Area Seventy.

“Elder Bangerter received a bachelor of arts degree in religious studies from Arizona State University in 1989. In 1993 he received a juris doctor degree from the Western State University College of Law. He practiced law with Cooksey, Toolen, Gage, Duffy & Woog from 1993 to 2003. From 2004 to 2018 he served as managing partner for Bangerter Frazier & Graff, PC. His legal career has focused on representing churches and other faith-based organizations.

“Steven R. Bangerter was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 29, 1961. He married Susan Alexis Hughes in 1983. They are the parents of six children.”
This was Elder Bangerter’s second general conference address:
- “Laying the Foundation of a Great Work” – October 2018 General Conference

What is the speaker inviting me to do, and how might I consider taking action?

Invitations

1: “Our Heavenly Father desires to reveal to you your personal foreordination, and He will do so as you seek to learn and follow His will. … Do you want to know God’s plan for you? I bear witness He wants you to know, and He inspired His prophet to the world to invite each of us to pray and receive this eye-opening experience for ourselves.”

Seek to learn your personal foreordination.
“As a child of God living in your premortal life, you ‘grew in intelligence and learned to love the truth.’

“Before you were born, God appointed each of you to fulfill specific missions during your mortal life upon the earth. If you remain worthy, the blessings of that premortal decree will enable you to have all kinds of opportunities in this life, including opportunities to serve in the Church and to participate in the most important work happening on the earth today: the gathering of Israel. Those premortal promises and blessings are called your foreordination. ‘The doctrine of foreordination applies to all members of the Church.’ Foreordination does not guarantee that you will receive certain callings or responsibilities. These blessings and opportunities come in this life as a result of your righteous exercise of agency, just as your foreordination in your premortal life came as a result of righteousness. …

“Why does it matter to seek to know and understand your foreordination? In a day when questions abound, when so many seek to know their true identity, the fact that God knows and has blessed each one of us individually before we were ever born on this earth with ‘essential characteristic[s] of … premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose’ brings sweet peace and assurance to our mind and heart. Knowing who you are begins with understanding God’s foreordained blessings bestowed upon you before you were ever born on this earth.” -Elder Bangerter
“I love to read President Nelson’s Instagram posts [this is one way to ‘seek to learn and follow [Heavenly Father’s] will.’]. One of my favorites was on July 20, 2022. He wrote:

“‘I believe that if the Lord were speaking to you directly, the first thing He would make sure you understand is your true identity. My dear friends, you are literally spirit children of God. …

“‘… Make no mistake about it: Your potential is divine. With your diligent seeking, God will give you glimpses of who you may become.'” -Elder Bangerter
Questions:
1. When did President Russell M. Nelson “invite each of us to pray and receive this eye-opening experience for ourselves”?
  - Footnote 19: “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives“, President Russell M. Nelson, April 2018 General Conference. 5/8/2024 journal entry: I read through President Nelson’s 2018 address, and I believe this is what Elder Bangerter is referencing:
    
    “I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that ‘if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.’
    
    “Oh, there is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, ‘To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe!’
    
    “Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work.
    
    “To be sure, there may be times when you feel as though the heavens are closed. But I promise that as you continue to be obedient, expressing gratitude for every blessing the Lord gives you, and as you patiently honor the Lord’s timetable, you will be given the knowledge and understanding you seek. Every blessing the Lord has for you—even miracles—will follow. That is what personal revelation will do for you.”
2. Do you know anyone who feels that they have found their calling in life? How does this knowledge inspire them to live their life?
3. Is it really that important for us to learn our ‘personal foreordination’?
4. What stands out to you about the phrase ‘foreordained to serve’?
  - 3 Nephi 1:27-30: “[27] And it came to pass that the ninety and third year did also pass away in peace, save it were for the Gadianton robbers, who dwelt upon the mountains, who did infest the land; for so strong were their holds and their secret places that the people could not overpower them; therefore they did commit many murders, and did do much slaughter among the people. [28] And it came to pass that in the ninety and fourth year they began to increase in a great degree, because there were many dissenters of the Nephites who did flee unto them, which did cause much sorrow unto those Nephites who did remain in the land. [29] And there was also a cause of much sorrow among the Lamanites; for behold, they had many children who did grow up and began to wax strong in years, that they became for themselves, and were led away by some who were Zoramites, by their lyings and their flattering words, to join those Gadianton robbers. [30] And thus were the Lamanites afflicted also, and began to decrease as to their faith and righteousness, because of the wickedness of the rising generation.”
  - All In Podcast: Marjorie Lowder and Russell M. Nelson Jr.: Celebrating a Father and a Prophet’s 100th Birthday: [Russell M. Nelson Jr.] “Our dad, when I was asking him advice on what profession should I go into, he never pushed me in any one direction. He just said: ‘What matters the most is that you do something that you’re good at and that you serve others’. And so that’s what I’ve tried to do.”
5. Elder Bangerter is speaking to the youth of the church. How might we, as their parents, inspire them to seek ‘to know God’s plan for [them]’?
6. Could ‘making efforts to receive and ponder [our] patriarchal [blessings]’ assist us in learning our personal foreordination?
7. What power might come into your life from knowing ‘your personal foreordination’?
  - “Miracles, Angels, and Priesthood Power“, Elder Shayne M. Bowen, April 2024 General Conference (see General Conference Applied S3 E26): “While serving as a young missionary in Chile, my companion and I were arrested and separated. We were never told why. It was a time of great political upheaval. Thousands of people were taken into custody by the military police and never heard from again.
    
    “After being interrogated, I sat alone in a jail cell, not knowing if I would ever see my loved ones again. I turned to my Heavenly Father, fervently pleading: ‘Father, I have always been taught that Thou watcheth over Thy missionaries. Please, Father, I am nothing special, but I have been obedient and I need Thy help tonight.’
    
    “The seeds of this help had been planted many years earlier. After my baptism, I was confirmed a member of the Church and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. As I prayed, alone, behind bars, the Holy Ghost immediately came to me and comforted me. He brought to my mind a very special passage from my patriarchal blessing, which is another blessing of the priesthood. In it, God promised me that through my faithfulness I would be able to be sealed in the temple for time and eternity to a woman full of beauty and virtue and love, that we would become the parents of precious sons and daughters, and that I would be blessed and magnified as a father in Israel.
    
    “Those inspired words about my future filled my soul with peace. I knew that they had come from my loving Heavenly Father, who always keeps His promises. In that moment, I had the assurance that I would be released and live to see those promises fulfilled.
    
    “About a year later, Heavenly Father did bless me with a wife who is full of beauty and virtue and love. Lynette and I were sealed in the temple. We were blessed with three precious sons and four precious daughters. I became a father, all according to God’s promises in the patriarchal blessing I received as a 17-year-old boy.”
8. Elder Bangerter teaches that there are two prerequisites to learning ‘your personal foreordination’ – ‘[seeking] to learn’ and ‘[following Heavenly Father’s] will’. Are you willing to accept these two prerequisites?
9. When was the last time you asked Heavenly Father in prayer what His will was for you, and then waited on your knees for an answer?
10. What is the likelihood that ‘your personal foreordination’ involves serving others? Could service be another catalyst for helping you to learn ‘your personal foreordination’?

2: “‘Son, protect the private times of your life.'”

Protect the private times of your life.
“May I share with you how my earthly father taught me to discover my identity and God’s plan in my life?

“One Saturday morning when I was 13 years old, I was mowing the grass as part of my weekly chores. When I finished, I heard the door close at the back of our house and looked to see my father calling me to join him. I walked to the back porch, and he invited me to sit with him on the steps. It was a beautiful morning. I still recall him sitting so close to me that our shoulders were touching. He began by telling me he loved me. He asked me what my goals were in life. I thought, ‘Well, that’s easy.’ I knew two things for sure: I wanted to be taller, and I wanted to go camping more often. I was a simple soul. He smiled, paused for a moment, and said: ‘Steve, I’d like to share something with you that’s very important to me. I’ve prayed that our Heavenly Father will cause what I say now to be indelibly imprinted in your mind and on your soul so that you’ll never forget.’

“My father had my full attention in that moment. He turned and looked at me in the eyes and said, ‘Son, protect the private times of your life.’ There was a long pause as he let the meaning sink deep into my heart.

“He then continued, ‘You know, those times when you’re the only one around and no one else knows what you’re doing? Those times when you think, ‘Whatever I do now doesn’t affect anyone else, only me’?’

“Then he said, ‘More than any other time in your life, what you do during the private times of your life will have the greatest impact on how you confront challenges and heartache you will face; and what you do during the private times of your life will also have a greater impact on how you confront the successes and joy you will experience than any other time in your life.’

“My father received the wish of his heart. The sound and cadence of his voice, and the love I felt in his words, were indelibly imprinted in my mind and on my soul that day.

“I have learned over the years that the greatest miracle of that day on the steps of my childhood home was that, in the private times of my life, I could go to God in prayer to receive revelation. My father was teaching me how I could learn of God’s foreordained blessings. In those private moments, I learned the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I learned God had foreordained me to serve a mission. I learned that God knows me and hears and answers my prayers. I learned that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.

“Though I have made many mistakes since that memorable day with my father, striving to protect the private times of my life has remained an anchor amid the storms of life and has enabled me to seek safe haven and the healing, strengthening blessings of our Savior’s love and atoning sacrifice.

“My young brothers and sisters, as you protect the private times of your life with wholesome recreation; listening to uplifting music; reading the scriptures; having regular, meaningful prayer; and making efforts to receive and ponder your patriarchal blessing, you will receive revelation. In President Nelson’s words, your eyes will become ‘wide open to the truth that this life really is the time when you get to decide what kind of life you want to live forever.’

“Our Father in Heaven will answer your prayers, especially your prayers offered during the private times of your life. He will reveal to you your foreordained gifts and talents, and you will feel His love envelop you, if you will sincerely ask and genuinely desire to know. As you protect the private times of your life, your participation in the ordinances and covenants of the gospel will be more meaningful. You will more fully bind yourself to God in the covenants you make with Him, and you will be lifted to have greater hope, faith, and assurance in the promises He has made to you.” -Elder Bangerter
Questions:
1. Would you currently describe your ‘private times of life’ as proactive or reactive? Why?
2. How might ‘[protecting] the private times of your life’ help you to learn ‘your personal foreordination’?
3. What is our duty as parents for teaching our children to ‘protect the private times of [their lives]’?
4. What is the science behind a successful evening routine and morning routine?
  - “The Gap and The Gain: The High Achievers’ Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success” by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan: “In a podcast interview with Tim Ferriss, Josh Waitzkin [author of ‘The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance‘] explains the importance of having a ‘proactive day architecture vs. a reactive day architecture.’
    
    “What he means by this is: your day can be designed proactively—meaning by you—rather than designed reactively—where you’re bounced around by distractions.
    
    “Your day can be set up so you can live within that day in a free and proactive manner, rather than constantly being reactively tossed to and fro by random inputs or external agendas.
    
    “In the hour before bed, Josh gives himself time to think about the most important question he’s trying to answer or problem he’s trying to solve. He then sleeps on it, and the next morning, ‘pre-input,’ he meditates and journals about the same question or problem he was thinking about the night before.
    
    “Research shows that creativity is primed just following sleep, especially after REM-based quality sleep.
    
    “While Waitzkin journals in the morning, he gets flashes of insight and creative breakthroughs.
    
    “He’s able to tap into the subconscious integration and connections his brain processed and developed while he was sleeping.
    
    “As Thomas Edison said, ‘Never go to bed without a request to your subconscious.’
    
    “Over the past 5 years, I’ve experimented with these ideas. Back when I was a PhD student at Clemson University, my evening and morning routine was as follows:
    
    “1. 30–60 minutes before going to bed, I’d write in my journal for 5–10 minutes. I’d write a to-do list of what I wanted to accomplish the next day. I’d also sketch out ideas for a blog post I’d write the next morning.
    
    “2. Sleep for 7–8 hours.
    
    “3. Wake up, hydrate, and immediately leave for the gym—usually around 5 a.m. because the Clemson gym opened at 5:30 a.m.
    
    “4. Park outside the gym and write in my journal for 10–15 minutes before entering the gym. I’d write about what I was going to accomplish that day, and further sketch out the article I wanted to write that morning. I’d also write my big picture goals and anything else that randomly came to mind.
    
    “5. Work out for 30–45 minutes while listening to an audiobook.
    
    “6. Write a blog post for 30–90 minutes before class.
    
    “7. Class, meetings, and busyness from around 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
    
    “8. Go home and hang out with my wife and, at the time, our three foster kids.
    
    “By following this routine for 2–3 years, I was able to write hundreds of blog posts in the mornings before class. Those blog posts were read over 100 million times, enabling me to grow a large email list and become a professionally published author before finishing my PhD.
    
    “I’m a huge believer in planning your day and thinking about what you’re trying to accomplish the night before. Then, in the morning, and before you start looking at your phone, give yourself space to meditate and journal about your goals and what you’re trying to accomplish.
    
    “Your brain is incredibly powerful just after you wake up.
    
    “But if you’re not utilizing your ‘sweet spot’ hour, then you won’t tap into that power.
    
    “By going to bed reactively, you’ll wake up reactive as well.
    
    “And that’s the culturally accepted norm.
    
    “The last thing most people do before falling asleep is look at their phone. The first thing most people do upon waking up is look at their phone.
    
    “They aren’t waking up with a plan.
    
    “They haven’t primed their brain and subconscious before bed with specific questions to answer or problems to solve.
    
    “Instead, they’re waking up tired, reactive, and directionless. The rest of their day is spent distracted and reactive.
    
    “How do you spend your ‘sweet spot’ hour?”
5. How is Elder David A. Bednar’s invitation about being still in our homes (“‘Be Still, and Know That I Am God’“, April 2024 General Conference) related to Elder Bangerter’s invitation (via his father’s counsel) to ‘protect the private times of your life’?
  - “I believe the Lord’s admonition to ‘be still’ entails much more than simply not talking or not moving. Perhaps His intent is for us to remember and rely upon Him and His power ‘at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in.’ Thus, ‘be still’ may be a way of reminding us to focus upon the Savior unfailingly as the ultimate source of the spiritual stillness of the soul that strengthens us to do and overcome hard things.” -Elder Bednar
  - “I have learned over the years that the greatest miracle of that day on the steps of my childhood home was that, in the private times of my life, I could go to God in prayer to receive revelation. My father was teaching me how I could learn of God’s foreordained blessings.” -Elder Bangerter
6. Do you make time for one-on-one discussions with each of your children?
  - “Laying the Foundation of a Great Work“, Elder Steven R. Bangerter, October 2018 General Conference: “Our lives have been blessed by setting aside time on a regular basis to enjoy personal interviews with each of our sons. During one interview I asked our son about his desires and preparation to serve a mission. After some discussion, there was a moment of reflective silence; then he leaned forward and thoughtfully declared, ‘Dad, remember when I was little and we started having father’s interviews?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I promised you then that I would serve a mission, and you and Mom promised me that you would serve a mission when you got old.’ Then there was another pause. ‘Are you guys having some problem that will stop you from serving—because maybe I can help?'”
7. What do we learn from the scriptures about ‘[protecting] the private times of [our lives]’?
8. Are we modeling for our children what it looks like to ‘protect the private times of [our lives]’?
  - The Book of Mormon – Master Class: Class 36 – Helaman 7-12: Stillness in Christ: [John Hilton III] “Recently, I reread a book called “The Power of Stillness: Mindful Living for Latter-day Saints“, and I was reminded of the power that comes as we ponder, taking time to just be still. Consider a few examples from the Savior’s life:
    
    “In Luke chapter 5, we read [that] crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. When Christ had some big decisions to make, he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God.
    
    “At one point in time, things were so busy. Mark records [that] so many people were coming and going, they didn’t even have a chance to eat. So Jesus told his disciples: Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.
    
    “Over and over again, we see Jesus Christ seeking solitude, finding extended periods of time for stillness, for pondering, for communing with God. Sometimes we just have to get away from the hustle and bustle and seek this solitude. …
    
    “Take a moment and think about these words from Mother Teresa. She said: ‘We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.’
    
    “This is something I’ve been pondering a lot recently. And as I share just a few more thoughts on this topic, consider these questions: ‘How have you been blessed, or how could you be blessed, by carving out some time to be alone with God?’
    
    “President Hinckley taught: ‘We live in a very mad world when all is said and done. The pressures are tremendous. We fly at high speeds. We drive at high speeds. We program ourselves. But there is hardly time to reflect and think and pause and meditate. I dare say that most of those in this room today have not taken an hour in the last year to just sit down quietly, each one individually, reflecting on his place in this world, upon his destiny, upon his capacity to do good, upon his mission to make some changes for good. We need to. I recall so vividly President McKay in his old age in a meeting with his counselors and the Twelve saying: ‘Brethren, we do not spend enough time meditating.’ I believe that with all my heart.’
    
    “There are obviously many ways we can apply this important truth about pondering. How are you doing that in your life?
    
    “Recently, President Nelson taught: ‘We hear Jesus Christ better when we are still. The voice of the Lord is not a voice of great tumultuous noise, but it is a still voice of perfect mildness. In order to hear this still voice, you too must be still. Quiet time is sacred time. Time that will facilitate personal revelation and instill peace.’
    
    “I recently had an experience where the power of stillness hit home. I was able to participate in an interfaith exchange where I spent two days living at a Catholic seminary. In the Catholic tradition, a seminary is a college environment, where men are training to become full-time priests with the Catholic Church.
    
    “As part of my stay, I was invited to join in their evening prayer service. It started out like a normal church service. There was prayer, some singing, some brief remarks. And then the person in charge said: ‘We will now take some time for personal prayer’. And everyone knelt down.
    
    “I assumed it would be quiet for two or three minutes, but the time allotted for personal prayer was something like 30 minutes. It was amazing. We were all just in the chapel. It was completely quiet and everyone was praying.
    
    “I’ll be honest, I wasn’t used to hearing quiet for that long, and it was a remarkable experience. Later, as I talked with some of the students who were preparing to be priests, I heard several of them talk about what they refer to as a holy hour, which was a time to devote 60 minutes each morning to scripture study, prayer, and silent meditation. I’ll be honest, sometimes I’m lucky if I get a holy 15 minutes, but seeing their dedication made me want to experiment with having a holy hour of my own, to see if I could really do it and what difference it might make in my life.”
9. If I were asked right now to report to my Heavenly Father on how well I’ve ‘[protected] the private times of [my] life’, would I be disappointed in what I’m reporting?
10. In your life, when do you most often experience ‘private times’?

Take Action

How will you take action on the invitations extended in this General Conference address?

Conclusion

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Additional Content

Previous Podcast Episode (“Miracles, Angels and Priesthood Power” by Elder Shayne M. Bowen)

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