Sister Joy D. Jones, General Primary President, and her husband, Brother Robert Jones
Tuesday devotional, February 5, 2019
Brother Robert Jones
- Missionaries, you are looking for ME! Let me tell you my conversion story.
- As a high school student, he often asked his minister what would happen to people who died without hearing about Jesus Christ. He was always told that they would go to Purgatory. He decided to attend a seminary class as a nonmember because his lab partner was LDS. The Seminary teacher said “I served a mission and represented Jesus Christ…”. Brother Jones reported that that phrase was like a fire burning into his heart. This is an example of “…my sheep know My voice!”
- He started attending Seminary, but no one talked to him because he smelled like cigarettes. His parents were chain smokers but he had never touched a cigarette. He attended a church meeting and the bishop told him that he needed to live the Word of Wisdom. He also judged young Brother Jones unfairly.
- What are the two best smells you can smell in a Sacrament Meeting? Cigarettes and alcohol. Why? Because it indicates that someone is trying to change!
- You will spend about 17,500 hours on your mission. Don’t waste a single hour.
- He went on a mission without having read the Book of Mormon or without knowing that Joseph had seen the Father and the Son. He had to use a lot of hours gaining a testimony. Don’t do the same thing.
- Even though I didn’t know much, I knew enough!
- “The spiritual manifestations that I had prayed for as a youth came to me gradually as a natural consequence of doing my duty.” David O. McKay
- There is no weapon that can be formed against you that will prosper.
- Tell the Lord, “I’ll be what you want me to be”, not what I want to be.
Sister Jones
- Speaking at the MTC is one of the highlights of my calling!
- I like to refer to you as the Lord’s “secret weapons” against the wickedness of the world.
- As Primary General President, I have responsibility for over 1 million children. Will you be my “secret weapons” in helping these children? Will you send letters to your younger sibilings and nieces and nephews during your missions, and tell them the joys of being a full-time representative of the Lord? Help them feel the joy of the Gospel so they will have a desire to emulate what you have done.
- You can change the world. You can change YOUR world. This mission will change your world. Small beginnings can have large effects.
- Principle # 1 that I would like to share — Teach and testify of God’s love in your lives. Let God’s love shine through you.
- Do you know you are a child of God and have divine worth? A little LDS girl told her non-member friend that she was a child of God. The friend said, “So am I a child of God too?” When told that she was, she gleefully responded, “I KNEW it! I KNEW it!”
- We must know WHOSE we are to know WHO we are!
- SMILE – we have the greatest message in the universe and we offer it free of charge.
- Principle # 2 — Make exact obedience your quest. “Forced obedience yields no blessings”, said Elder Richard G. Scott. “When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes a quest, God will endow you with unlimited power.” Ezra Taft Benson.
- Naaman was told to dip in the river 7 times, not 2 or 3 or 4, but 7. He had to be exactly obedient to receive the blessing. As disciples, are we double-dippers or triple-drippers? Do we give limited effort, or do we dip SEVEN times!
- Become a missionary of which the Lord can say, “There is a missionary I can trust!” Bruce R. McConkie
- Deny yourself and take up your cross.
- Exact obedience mentioned in Book of Mormon in Alma 57:21
- The Kingdom of God or Nothing! was John Taylor’s motto.
- I am so much happier and confident when I am obedient.
- The four friends of the palsied man refused to give up. They even lowered their friend down through the roof to get the Savior’s attention. We often focus on the Savior’s healing of the palsied man and give little attention to the 4 friends who persisted.
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