True Friends} Part One

Good Morning, or Good Afternoon, or Good Evening, 

this post should take approximately three to five minutes to read from start to finish.

What's your definition of true friends? Do you think that you choose friends wisely?

This post is focuses on a April 2002 General Conference talk and it is called, "True Friends" by Henry B. Eyring. This post is part one. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk and I hope you will learn something new.

Brother Eyring mentioned, ".. The Savior warns that if we start along the path and go far enough and then fail and deny Him, it would have been better if we had never begun. ..  It is to keep the promise we made in the waters of baptism “to bear one another’s burdens.” It is to be a friend.

These words of President Hinckley energize me: “I hope, I pray, I plead with you, every one of you, to embrace every new member of the Church. Make a friend of him or her. Hold onto them.”

President Hinckley can’t be there as a friend for every new member. But you can be there for at least one. All it takes is to feel something of what they feel and something of what the Savior feels for them. .. All it takes is a friend to bring such a mighty change in one’s life.”

.. He introduced his friend to the missionaries. He saw that his friend was baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. He took his friend, even before baptism, to where he would study the scriptures and thus be nurtured by the good word of God.

Even before baptism he helped his friend discover this promise: “Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.” The words must have told him to buy scriptures, which he did. .. 

"Sometimes our preoccupation is on having friends. Perhaps we should focus on being a friend." - Elaine S. Dalton.

.. We know from the scriptures what caused those changes in him. He had to be praying with faith in the Savior. He was receiving testimony and directions through the Spirit. And then he was not only doing what he was inspired to do but he was asking God to let the Atonement work in his life.

Nephi, describing that miracle of change and what brings it, said this:

“And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.

“But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.”

.. When we are called to serve, we can pray for the Holy Ghost to be our companion with assurance it will come. When we ask in faith, a change can come in our natures both for the welfare of our souls and to strengthen us for the tests we all must face."

Stay Tuned until next time.