Good afternoon, brothers and sisters.
I am truly grateful to stand at this pulpit today. I am thankful for your interest in hearing me
speak. Some of my friends are here today
as are some of my family. Each has been
a benefit to me and each has taught me much.
Today I can announce that there has been some new scripture discovered. I'd like to read a passage from it.
The book of
Zelpha
11. And
it came to pass there was a young lady whose name was Zelpha, the daughter of
Maxine. She married a young man whose
name was James, the son of Rey and together they raised 4 sons and 3 daughters.
22. Behold,
the things which she desired above all others was to be a loving wife and a
nurturing mother to her children, which things she knew to be the things the
Lord her God desired of her.
33. And
as each daughter grew she desired of them that they would be worthy to enter
the temple of our God and receive those exalting ordinances for themselves.
44. She
longed for the time each of her sons would be worthy to enter into the world
and serve their God by teaching His sons and daughters the Gospel of Jesus
Christ where ever the prophet of God would send them.
55. And
behold, as her sons grew and learned, three of them were called to
serve. One went into the land of the
“Hawkeyes” and “Cornhuskers” where corn and wheat are grown. This land was called Iowa.
66. Two
of her sons went into the “Land of the Rising Sun” to teach God’s children who
had never before heard the words of Jesus Christ. This land was called Japan.
77. And
behold, her desire was strong to serve her God and with her husband go out into
the world and help gather Israel and expand the kingdom of the Lord. She was concerned that perhaps she would
never be able to serve as a missionary. She
was much afflicted. But with courage and
devotion she and her husband did express their desire to serve as missionaries.
88. Finally,
the call to serve came in the seventh month of the 45th year of the establishment
of the Black family. They were called of
Jesus Christ by inspiration to boldly declare the restored gospel in the Texas
Houston East mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were to prepare to teach in the language
of the people of the land southward.
99. And
behold, her countenance was radiant, and her joy was great. The prophet of God had pronounced her worthy
and had accepted her and her husband to serve as missionaries fulfilling her
dream of many years.
I know that these verses from the Book of Zelpha are
true. I know this because I just wrote
them myself just a few weeks ago.
I recently had reason to recall a passage from the Doctrine
and Covenants which reads as follows:
D&C 130:20-21
20 There is a law,
irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which
all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we
obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is
predicated.
So now you may begin to understand my story. I didn't really understand it until recently.
Sister Black and I were born in 1952. I was born in El Paso, Texas and she was born
in Salt Lake City. In 1954 my family
moved to a little town in northern California named McCloud. In 1956, when I was 4 years old, I began to
plan to become a missionary. My father
was the Branch President of the Mount Shasta branch of the Redding California
Stake. I remember standing at the top of the stairs with my father and greeting
the members of the branch as they came to Sacrament Meeting each Sunday. We had full time Elder missionaries that I admired,
and I set a goal at that time to become one of them when I was old enough. I
suspect that if we hadn’t moved to McCloud, my desire to serve a mission may
have been diminished.
I remember singing the primary song, “I Hope They Call Me on
a Mission when I have grown a foot or two.” I always thought that was a little
strange. I knew that I was born with two
feet, and I didn’t notice the missionaries had any extra feet. That always puzzled me. I wondered where they kept the other two feet. And then when I went to serve my own mission
all those years ago, I didn’t grow any additional feet. I’m still puzzled as to why we sing about
extra feet.
Well, my life has been interesting. Everything I have done, and everywhere I have
lived has led to this moment in time.
When I was 6 years old, we moved from McCloud, California to
Fredonia, Arizona. Sister Black’s family
had moved to Needles, California, and when SHE was 6 years old her family moved
to Colton, California. My father was a school teacher in Fredonia and we lived there for 10
years. I loved growing up in Fredonia,
and I thought we would live there for the rest of our lives. However, my father got crossways with the
local school board, so we moved to Rialto, California. I
didn’t particularly want to move to California.
I liked Fredonia. It was a good
place to grow up. And I was still preparing for a mission. We moved when I was 16, between my Junior and
Senior years of High School. I moved out
of a 7-12 high school of about 85 students into a 10-12 high school of 3000
students. Boy was I ever intimidated. My
graduating class had 995 students.
The move to Rialto, California was to prepare me to meet
people I didn’t already know and to take me out of my comfort zone. Another step in preparing to serve a mission.
When I was approaching 19 years old, I visited with my father
and reminded him of my desire to serve as a missionary.
Flashing back to my sophomore year in High School. My father taught Math and Science, but he
also spoke Spanish. He had acquired a major
in Spanish and he agreed to TEACH Spanish.
For my sophomore year he enrolled me in his Spanish class. I didn’t want to learn Spanish. I purposely failed the class.
Fast forward to my approaching missionary age. I worked at JC Penney selling suits. I was
working there when my Mission Call came.
My family trouped into the store to bring the famous large white envelope
to me and to get me to open it in their presence right then. With permission of my manager, I did. It read, in part:
"You are called to serve in the Uruguay-Paraguay Mission. It
is anticipated that you will teach in the Spanish Language."
My father was drinking a soda pop and when he heard where I
was going and the language I would learn, he nearly spit it all over my
department. He reminded me that I didn’t
want to learn Spanish. I was mildly
disappointed. I wanted to go to Germany. However, I
wanted to do what the Lord asked
of me. I did retain some of the Spanish
that my father had taught me in my Sophomore year and I learned the language
nearly perfectly as a missionary.
The Sunday after returning from my mission, I reported to the
Stake President and High Council. One of
the members of the High Council was a man named Dale Gardner. He had a daughter named Zelpha, who I knew,
but had never dated. He went home after
that High Council meeting and told his wife, “Jim Black is home from his
mission.” Maxine immediately went to her
daughter, Zelpha, and said, “Jim Black is home from his mission.” She didn’t express much excitement about my
having come home.
Later that evening there was a YSA fireside at the home of a
leader and I attended by myself. I had
been home only a few days at that point.
At the end of that fireside, Zelpha Gardner looped her arms through the
arms of the full time Elders and said, “are you gentlemen ready to go?”
Well, I had a wall eyed fit.
“You can’t do that,” said I.
“Missionaries are to stay at least arm’s length from girls.” I let her have the full benefit of my
displeasure.
It turns out that she and her brother were the transportation
for these two Elders. They immediately
left the fireside. However, I needed to
find out where Zelpha Lived. I didn’t
know her Father’s first name, but I cruised through the phone book to find all
the Gardner names. Finally, I came
across Dale Gardner’s name and I called hoping it was the right place. I wanted to ask Zelpha out on a date. I was worried, though, that she wouldn’t want
to go with someone who had chewed her out so recently.
But she did agree to go out with me.
I do not believe in co-incidences. I believe the Lord does what He needs to do in
order to fulfill the mandate he has been given from His Father.
In Moses 1:39 The Lord tells Moses:
For behold,
this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life
of man.
When we were in college, I was a sophomore and Sister Black was
a freshman, we were in the Institute of Religion building.
I always enjoyed visiting with the girls in those days and we got into a
conversation regarding music. I was a
music major at the time. One of Sister
Black’s friends told me, “Zelpha has pitch perfect ear”. I didn’t believe it. I had never heard of anyone with pitch
perfect ear, so I asked her to prove it.
She did…..and I was amazed, and I have been in awe of her talent ever
since that day.
Now, if my family hadn’t moved to Rialto, California, I
wouldn’t have met and dated my eternal companion. I arrived back from my mission on January 3rd,
1973. Our first date was on January 22.
We were engaged on February 21 (that’s another story). And we were married for time and all eternity
in the Los Angeles Temple on April 17, 1973 by a man named William H. Harliss,
Sr, who was authorized to perform such a marriage by a living prophet. This marriage was performed just 3 and ½
months after I arrived home from my mission.
Sister Black started talking early on in our marriage about
wanting to serve a mission when we could do so as Senior Missionaries. She has looked forward to this time all these
years.
In 1974, I was looking for employment that would support my
family. I learned, through Sister
Black’s relatives, that the Santa Fe Railroad was hiring and that one of our
good friends was the secretary to the Division Superintendent. I went to her and asked about employment. She sent me to the employment office and told
me to bring the application to her. She
took my application in to the Superintendent and told him that if he wanted to
continue to have a happy secretary, he would hire me. I was hired as a Switchman on the Los Angeles
Division on April 30,1974. I rose
rapidly through various ranks. I was
appointed Engine Foreman in 1976, Yardmaster in 1978, Area Operations
Supervisor in 1979, Assistant Trainmaster in 1980, Acting Administrative Trainmaster in 1984,
Trainmaster in 1987, and finally Assistant Superintendent-Operating in 1989 in
El Paso, TX.
I had been promoted and sent there because I speak Spanish
and my superiors wanted me to spend time in Mexico coordinating with the
Mexican Railroads. After 6 years in El
Paso, the spirit told us to leave my railroad career and find a small LDS town
so that we could finish raising our children closer to the Lord and closer to a
temple. I argued with the Lord a little bit
because my employment was very good, and the benefits were excellent. But those
promptings persisted and even became stronger.
The Lord wasn’t kidding around.
My parents had moved to Enterprise, Utah, and we decided to
visit and enjoy the 24th of July celebration in Enterprise. We looked at all the small towns between
Silver City, NM and St. George to see if any of them was where we should live. None of them seemed like home to us.
But then we arrived at Enterprise on July 23rd. I decided to go to the Boy Scout Breakfast at
6:30 a.m. on the 24th. I
couldn’t get any of my family to get up and go along, so I went alone.
While I was there, I felt a prompting to move to
Enterprise.
Sister Black and I resolved to go to the temple here in St.
George the following day to see if we could get some guidance from the Lord. After our session we were in the Celestial
Room contemplating our situation and we noticed the sealing room up a few
stairs from the Celestial room. We went
into it and stood to one side of the altar looking into the opposing
mirrors. In the mirrors, about the third
reflection, I could see a couple kneeling at the altar. Sister Black asked if I could see our
daughter, Janice, there at the altar. I could
see her. And I could see a young man across the alter from her, but I didn’t
recognize him. Later she told me she was
only speculating about it, but I could plainly see her, and the impression that
I received at that moment was that if we didn’t move to Enterprise, Janice
would not be married for time and all eternity in the temple.
We immediately placed in motion a process to leave the
railroad and move our family to Enterprise.
Now I believe that we have been led to each point in our
lives by the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
I believe that our move to Enterprise made it so that 6 of our 7
children have entered the Temple and have been sealed there for time and
eternity, each to his or her spouse and family.
However, the Lord wasn’t finished with us. I contracted a lung disease that made it
impossible for me to continue to live in Enterprise. I was placed on continuous
oxygen and couldn’t leave the house without oxygen bottles.
My personal physician told me to move to a lower altitude,
and the Spirit confirmed it. We were to
move to Washington City. We had no
indication as to where we should live here.
Sister Black had a friend whose cousin was then Bishop Joel Beckstrand
of the Washington 5th
ward. Sister Black insisted that we
attend his ward and see if there was a place to live here.
We visited, and in the High Priests group meeting, when I
introduced myself, I told the group that the Lord had sent us here and it was
up to them to find us a place to live. I
was only half-joking. But Brother Cliff
Wickham took me aside and said he thought he knew of a place for us. His Son-in-law had been trying to sell a
house on Rocco Rd, but he would find out if his son-in-law would be willing to
rent it to us. And that brought us to
this ward today.
In 2016, I retired from Andrus Transportation Services, where
Bishop Sears works. When I retired,
Bishop Sears came to me and said, “Do you want to work at D.I. or in the
Temple. I guess he thought I needed something to keep me busy. I wasn’t particularly in love with either
prospect and I was on 24/7 Oxygen anyway, but I told him I would do whatever he
and the Lord asked of me.
The next thing I knew I got a call from a young woman who
asked me if I could meet with President Jones.
I didn’t know who President Jones was, so I asked, “What is President
Jones president of?”
Well, he was the 1st counselor in the St. George
Temple Presidency. I thought, perhaps, I
could make time in my busy schedule to visit with him.
When we visited, I was still carrying around an Oxygen
bottle. He looked at me and then at the
oxygen bottle and said, “We had intended to call you to serve as an Ordinance
Worker in the temple, but you wouldn’t be able to have that bottle with you.” I said, “If this is what the Lord wants me to do, I won’t
need the oxygen bottle.”
I haven’t used oxygen in St. George since then. I have enjoyed my time in the temple. I have learned much, have witnessed much, and
have experienced many holy events there in the more than 2.5 years that I have
worked there.
The story gets even more interesting.
Sister Black and I together decided the time had come and agreed
to make application to serve as missionaries.
We originally asked to serve in the Montevideo, Uruguay Temple as
ordinance workers, and we put in application to do so.
Our call is to serve as Member and Leader Support
missionaries in the Texas Houston East mission and we are happy to serve where
ever the Lord wants us.
As my treatments for my lungs have progressed, I have been
able to tolerate natural aspirations without supplemental oxygen. As of November 15, my prescription for supplemental
oxygen was rescinded. I believe all of this was in accordance with the plan
prepared for us perhaps even before the world was created.
The Lord Jesus Christ knows who I am. He knows who Sister Black is and He knows of
our various physical challenges. I
testify to you of the healing power of the temple. I believe my service in the Temple has been
the driving force of my healing. The Lord’s plan has ever been to place us
where we can do the best where He needs us the most. In each of our moves, the Lord has been
there.
My family’s move from El Paso to McCloud when I was 2 years
old gave me the desire to serve as a missionary when I became of age.
Our move from McCloud to Fredonia gave me a safe place to
grow up and learn the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sister Black was born in Salt Lake City in 1952. Her family moved to Needles, California soon
afterward. Her family moved from
Needles, California to Colton, California when she was 6 years old. If that move hadn’t happened, she wouldn’t
have been in place for us to discover each other.
When I was 15 years old, I went to visit my older sisters in
Southern California for a few weeks and my oldest sister insisted that I try
out for the stake play. Sister Black,
her mother and her Bishop were also in that play. If that had not occurred, we would never have
met, although neither of us was particularly interested in the other at that
point.
My family’s move from Fredonia to Rialto, California when I
was 16 was providential because I could later date, fall in love and marry my
princess bride.
My call to serve in the Uruguay-Paraguay Mission was
instrumental in preparing me to work in El Paso in coordination with the
Mexican Railroads and to prepare us for later assignments. While we lived in El Paso we met and retain
many dear friends with whom we keep in contact even today.
Our move to Enterprise was to give our children a safe place
to grow up and spiritually mature.
Our move to Washington was to prepare me to serve in the
Temple of the Lord and to give opportunity for Sister Black to spend 2 and ½
years tending to her elderly and ailing mother.
My service in the Temple learning ordinances in both English
and Spanish was to prepare me to fulfill Sister Black’s desire to serve a
full-time mission with me as a couple in the Texas Houston East mission working
in Spanish Language assignments.
From my point of view, each experience in my life has led to
this new adventure. I don’t know what
the Lord has planned for me after these next two years are completed, but I do
know that the Lord knows who I am and that He has a definite plan for me, my
princess bride and my family.
So now, Sister Black and I have been called of Jesus Christ
by inspiration through His servant, the living prophet, President Russell M.
Nelson, to serve in the Texas Houston East Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints working under the direction of President Spencer C. Hewlett.
We will boldly invite others to come unto Christ by helping
them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His
atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and
enduring to the end.
We will invite others much as did Alma of old.
Mosiah 18:8-11
8 And it came to pass that he said
unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called)
and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his
people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;
9 Yea, and are willing to mourn
with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort,
and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all
places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and
be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal
life—
10 Now I say unto you, if this be
the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of
the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with
him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his
Spirit more abundantly upon you?
11 And now when the people had
heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the
desire of our hearts.
But baptism is not the end.
It is only the beginning of our path back to our loving Father in
Heaven. There is much more.
We, Sister Black and I, will stand for truth and return with
honor.
Behold, we are disciples of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. We have been called by him through
his holy Prophet, to declare his word to his people, that they may have eternal
life.
Now, my testimony for today.
I know that God Lives and knows intimately who I am. I know that His only begotten Son lives. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the
world. I know that the words of King
Benjamin, which he spoke approximately 124 years before the birth of Jesus
Christ, are true:
Mosiah 3:17
17 And moreover, I say
unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means
whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the
name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.
I know that our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared
to a young man named Joseph Smith. I
know that Heavenly Father introduced His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to Joseph
and instructed Joseph to “hear him”. I
know that Joseph was instructed not to join any of the sects of religion that
were available to him. I know that
through the prophet Joseph the church established by Jesus Christ in the
meridian of times was restored and is known today as The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. I know that John
the Baptist came to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry and conferred the Priesthood
of Aaron to them on May 15, 1829, which commenced the restoration of the Lord’s
church. This event is described in
Section 13 of the Doctrine and Covenants.
I know that in June of 1829, Peter, James and John, three of
the original 12 Apostles appeared to Joseph and Oliver and restored the
Melchizedek Priesthood as well as the Holy Apostleship. I know that other ancient prophets came and
restored the keys that each of them held, including: The keys of administration of the Priesthood
authority, the keys of gathering the children of Israel, the keys of the holy
sealing power, among other keys.
Each of those keys were given to Joseph Smith so that he
could begin to implement the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ in the
dispensation of the Fullness of Times.
I believe the Bible
to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; I also know that
through the power of God, Joseph Smith was permitted to translate, from plates
of Gold, the record we know today as the Book of Mormon.
I am a witness of the truthfulness of this, the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ that
it contains. I know that Jesus Christ
stands at the head of this church. I
know that He has called Russell M. Nelson as Prophet, seer and revelator and
President of the earthly organization of the Lord’s own church. I know it.
I have had many sacred experiences that I cannot deny which confirm my
faith.
I know that this room, this chapel, is a most sacred room
because it is where the Ordinances of the elements of the Sacrament are
administered, which elements represent the body and the blood of the Savior. I know that this room deserves much more
reverence than we sometimes give it.
I know that each of you, if you haven’t already received this
same witness, are able to receive it through prayer, study, and pondering the
scriptures. I challenge each of you to
seek this testimony and prepare to receive those blessings the Lord is anxious
to bestow upon you. The Lord wants to
bless each of us. He is anxious to do so,
if and when we are ready to receive those sacred blessings.
I bear this testimony to you in the Sacred Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
