- 3 Nephi 23:11…And Jesus said unto them: How be it that ye have not written this thing, that many saints did arise and appear unto many and did minister unto them?
- “Sometimes we must help address the basic needs of those we serve before we can invite them to grow. A few years ago I received a call from Bishop Puckett asking if I could accompany him to meet a family he wanted me to serve as home teacher. Our visit was way more of a ministering opportunity than a home teaching one. The sister of concern had recently separated from her husband and faced alone a mountain of parental, financial, legal, and spiritual challenges. We went equipped to immediately offer a priesthood blessing and the full resources of a loving ward to assist. But as we settled in to offer counsel and blessings, we all noticed that of all things — her fire alarm had been triggered, and even though it had been disabled — it was emitting a periodic “beep, beep.” This was a huge distraction from everything we hoped to offer that night. So we reprioritized things, and as best we could, the three of us set off through the house to try to find way to reset that stupid alarm. There was no way we could just leave the family there to try to go to sleep that night with that annoying sound, on top of all the background stress. Finally, after a long time trying and with a lifeline call to a relative who knew the system, we were able to find and disable the alarm and to clear our heads for the influence of the Holy Ghost and the Savior’s balm. My point in sharing this experience is that even though Bishop Puckett and I had lofty goals and earnest hopes to bless that family, it was the very worldly annoyance of a smoke alarm beep that we needed to resolve first in order to minister effectively.” – President Scott Smith, San Clemente Stake Conference, June 13th, 2021