Elder Bednar and Brother Bott, together at last

Some things they said recently that have spoken to me:

Faith as the assurance of things hoped for looks to the future. This assurance is founded upon a correct understanding about, and trust in, God and enables us to "press forward" (2 Ne. 31:20) into uncertain and often challenging situations in the service of the Savior.For example, Nephi relied upon precisely this type of future-facing spiritual assurance as he returned to Jerusalem to obtain plates of brass--"not knowing beforehand the things which [he] should do. Nevertheless [he] went forth" (1 Ne. 4:6-7).
Faith in Christ is inextricably tied to, and results in, hope in Christ for our redemption and exaltation. And assurance and hope make it possible for us to walk to the dge of the light and take a few steps into the darkness--expecting and trusting the light to move and illuminate the way. The combination of assurance and hope initiates action in the present.
Faith as the evidence of things not seen looks to the past and confirms our trust in God and our confidence in the truthfulness of things not seen. We stepped into the darkness with assurancea nd hope, and we received evidence and confirmation as the light in fact moved and provided the illumination we needed. the wintess we obtained after the trail of our faith (see Ether 12:6) is evidence that enlarges and strengthens our assurance.
Assurance, action, and evidence influence each other in an ongoing process...We find a powerful example of the intereaction among assurance, action, and evidence as the children of Israel transported the ark of the covenant under the leadership of Joshua (see Joshua 3:7-17). Recall how the Israelites came to the river Jordan and were promised the waters would part, and they would be able to cross over on dry ground. Interestingly, the waters did not part as the children of Israel stood on the banks of the river waiting for something to happen; rather, the soles of their feet were wet before the water parted. The faith of the Israelites was manifested in the fact that they walked into the water before it parted. They walekd into the river Jordan with a future-facing assurance of things hoped for. As the Israelites moved forward, the water parted, and as they crossed over on dry land, they looked back and beheld the evidence of things not seen. In this epidosde, faith as assurance led to action and produced the evidence of things not seen that were true. True faith is focused in and on the Lord Jesus Christ and always leads to action. Faith as the principle of action is high-lighted in many scriptures with which we are familiar:
"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:26).
"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22).
"Awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith" (Alma 32:27).
Learning by Faith: To Act and Not to Be Acted Upon
How is faith as the principle of action in all intelligent beings related to gospel learning? And what does it mean to seek learning by faith?In the grand division of all of God's creations, there are things to act and things to be acted upon (see 2 Ne. 2:13-14). As sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, we have been blessed with the gift of agency--the capacity and power of independent action. Endowed with agency, we are agents, and we primarily are to act and not only to be acted upon--especially as we seek to obtain and apply spiritual knowledge.
Learning by faith and from experience are two of the central features of the Father's plan of happiness. The Savior preserved moral agency through the Atonement and made it possible for us to act and to learn by faith. Lucifer's rebellion against the plan sought to destroy the agency of man, and his intent was that we as learners would only be acted upon.
Consider the question posed by Heavenly Father to Adam in the Garden of Eden: "Where art thou?" (Genesis 3:9). The Father knew where Adam was hiding, but He nonetheless asked the question. Why? A wise and loving Father enabled His child to act in the learning process and not merely be acted upon. There was no one-way lecture to a disobedient child, as perhaps many of us might be inclined to deliver. Rather, the Father helpe dAdam as a learner to act as an agent and appropriately exercise his agency.
Recall how Nephi desired to know about the things his father, Lehi, had seen in the vision of the tree of life. Interestingly, the Spirit of the Lord begins the tutorial with Nephi by asking the following question: "Behold, what desirest thou?" (1 Ne. 11:2). Clearly the Spirit knew what Nephi desire. So why ask the question? The Holy Ghost was helping Nephi to act in the learning process and not simply be acted upon. Notice in 1 Nephi 11-14 how the Spirit both asked questions and encouraged Nephi to "look" as active elements in the learning process.
From these examples we recognize that as learners, you and I are to at and be doers of the word and not simply hearers who are only acted upon. Are you and I agents who act and seek learning by faith, or are we waiting to be taught and acted upon? Are the children, youth, and adults we serve acting and seeking to learn by faith, or are they waiting to be taught and acted upon? Are you and I encouraging and helping those we serve seek learning by faith? We are all to be anxiously engaged in asking, seeking, and knocking (see 3 Nephi 14:7).
A learner exercising agency by acting in accordance with correct principles opens his or her heart to the Holy Ghost and invites His teraching, testifying power, and confirming witness. Learning by faith requires spiritual, mental, and physical exertion and not just passive reception. It is in the sincerity and consistency of our faith-inspired action that we indicate to our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, our willingness to learn and receive instruction from the Holy Ghost. Thus, learning by faith involves the exercise of moral agency to act upon the assurance of things hoped for and invites the evidence of things not seen from the only true teacher, the Spirit of the Lord.
Consider how missionaries help investigators to learn by faith. Making andk eeping spiritual commitments, such as studying and praying about the Book of Mormon, attending Church meetings, and keeping the commandments, require an investigator to exercise faith and to act. One of the fundamental roles of a missionary is to help an investigator make and honor commitments--to act and learn by faith. Teaching, exhorting, and explaining, as important and they are, can never convey to an investigator a witness of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. Only as an investigator's faith initiates action and opens the pathway to the heart can the Holy Ghost deliver a confirming wintess. Missionaries obviously must learn to teach by the power of the Spirit. Of equal importance, however, is the responsibility missionaries have to help investigators learn by faith.
The learning I am describing reaches far beyond mere cognitive comprehension and the retaining and recalling of information. The type of learning to which I am referring causes us to put off the natural man (see Mosiah 3:19), to change our hearts (see Mosiah 5:2), to be converted unto the Lord, and to never fall away (see Alma 23:6). Learning by faith requires both "the heart and a willing mind" (D&C 64:34). Learning by faith is the result of the Holy Ghost caryring the power of the word of God both unto and into the heart. Learning by faith cannot be transferred from an instructor to a student through a lecture, a demonstration, or an experimental exercise; rather, a student must exercise faith and act in order to obtain the knowledge for himself or herself...
Ultimately, the responsibility to learn by faith and apply spiritual truth rests upon each of us individually. This is an increasingly serious and important responsibility in the world in which we do now and will yet life. What, how, and when we learn is supported by--but is not dependent upon--an instructor, a method of presentation, or a specific topic or lesson format.Truly, one of the great challenges of mortality is to see learning by faith...the Prophet Joseph explained that "reading the experience of others, or the revelation given to them, can never give us a comprehensive view of our condition and true relation to God." (David A. Bednar, "Seek Learning by Faith," September 2007).

Rather than making perfecting yourself such a drudgery, why not make a game of it? Select the one characteristic, habit, or trait you know you must overcome before you will be welcome in the Celestial Kingdom. It might be swearing, lusting, anger, sarcasm, gossip, or any of a hundred other traits the devil has succeeded in infiltrating into your character. Now consciously work on the biggest "Goliath" or weakness you have to overcome. You may discover that the habit is so deeply ingrained in your personality that it takes some time to overcome. You hit your "Goliath" with everything you've got. Likely he'll hit you back and even knock you down. Don't be discouraged. Get back up and try again. After some time you'll start to get the upper hand. Before long your Goliath will be on the ropes. If you persist you'll find you've overcome the problem you thought you would never be able to conquer. Now, emboldened by your success, you find a couple more smaller habits or Goliaths which were lurking behind the big one you just destroyed. You tackle them the same way. Just consciously identify and systematically work to overcome them.
Before long, you'll have knocked down two and be ready to tackle the five or six smaller faults behind the Goliaths you just dispatched. Now perfecting yourself has become a game. It is so much fun to become aware of habits you need to break you can hardly wait for the next challenge. It give you a sense of the power in controlling the adversary. There isn't anything you can't accomplish with the help of the Lord. The Savior revealed: "For verily I say unto you, I will that ye should overcome the world; wherefore I will have compassion upon you" (D&C 64:2).
One of the helps which Heavenly Father has offered to you to assist in your overcoming of weaknesses is spiritual gifts. President George Q. Cannon said:
How many of you are seeking for these gifts that God has promised to bestow? How many of you, when you bow before your Heavenly Father in your family circle or in your secret places, contend for these gifts to be bestowed upon you ? How many of you ask the Father in the name of Jesus to manifest Himself to you through these powers and these gifts? Or do you go along day by day like a door turning on its hinges, without having any feeling upon the subject, without exercising any faith whatever, content to be baptized and be members of the Church and to rest there, thinking that your salvation is secure because you have done this? [...] If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. Have I imperfections? I am full of them. What is my duty? To pray to God to give me the gifts that will correct these imperfections. [...] They are intended for this purpose. No man ought to say, "Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature." He is not justified in it, for the reaosn the God has promised to give strength to correcy these things and to give gifts that will eradicate them. [...] That is the design of God concerning His children. He wants His Saints to be perfected in the truth. (Gospel Truth, Vol. 1, p. 195-196)
Rather than becoming discouraged at how many weaknesses you have and how far you have to go to reach perfection, why not start where you are at and build from there? In the oft-quoted scripture in Ether 12:27, the Savior promises that He will make weak things become strong to you, if you will just humble yourself and seek His help. Will the satanic opposition ever cease? Yes, there are two ways. First is to die! If you are righteous at the time of death, Satan will cease to have power over you. Second, sin! If you sin to the point that you disqualify yourself from fulfilling your foreordained mission, the temptations will likely subside because you are no longer pose a threat to Satan and his kingdom. But as long as you are fighting the true Christian warfare, you can expect opposition. President Ezra Taft Benson taught:
For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming of the Lord. [...] While our generation will be comparable in wickedness to the days of Noah, when the Lord cleansed the earth by flood, there is a major difference this time. It is that God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest children, who will help bear off the Kingdom triumphantly. And that is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God. All through the ages the prophets have looked down through the corridors of time to our day. Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes on us. Make no mistake about it--you are a marked generation. There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period if time as there is of us. Never before on the face of this earth have the forces of evil and the forces of good been as well organized. Now is the great day of the devil's power, with the greatest mass murders of all time living among us. But not is also the great day of the Lord's power, with the greatest number ever of priesthood holders on the earth. And the showdown is fast approaching. ("In His Steps," in Speeches of the Year, 1979 Provo: BYU Press, 1980, page 59)
So, welcome to the battle of all battles. Congratulations on being found worhty to join the ranks of the Savior's elite guard. It will be a battle the likes of which you have never fought before. But the outcome is sure. The only thing in question is where youwill stand when the battle is over. Prepare now for the weighty responsibility which will soon fall on your shoulders. (Randy L. Bott, Preparation Precedes Power, p. 127-130)

I'm excited to be teaching in a set-apart capacity. Very different from what I was used to...preparing for a month to facilitate a 30 minute discussion. But every TIME I get to teach, something big happens in the weeks leading up to it that helps testimony of it explode in me. And then I'm just really excited to teach whatever it is. My bishop is sending my papers over to the stake president tonight. I was talking to my dad today and I think I want to go to law school. I'm in the perfect position for that. Again, I will make my plans and keep my eyes open.