Ministering to All

We are still learning to become ministering brothers and sisters. A change like this can take time, and we will most likely make mistakes. In my mind, one of those mistakes is to dismiss ministering assignments as merely “fake” or “forced” friendship—in a way not normal or natural. But the Lord gives us specific assignments as ministering brothers and sisters. In this way, He ensures that no one is left out.

When natural disasters strike in the United States, the Red Cross and National Guard organizations mobilize their volunteers and assign them to specific areas to get maximum coverage. Receiving an assignment makes the volunteers’ gift of time and love no less voluntary. No one who has experienced a disaster in his or her life seems to question these assignments. The beneficiaries are grateful that someone has come to help!

Like volunteers with the National Guard or Red Cross, when we become disciples of Jesus Christ through making sacred covenants, we volunteer to be mobilized in performing specific assignments to help others.

These assignments provide us opportunities to learn and grow in our abilities to minister, often through our failures. But soon, ministering will become “second nature” to us—just as we have learned to walk, talk, ride a bike, play a musical instrument, or learn a sport.

Our individual ministering assignments prepare us to “minister to all” in normal and natural ways. Ministering to all requires a willing heart and eyes to see those around us—the people the Lord has put in our paths. “Ministering” at that point can be as simple as inviting them—in natural and normal ways—to “come and see” or to “come and help.”

The Savior provided the example. When Jesus appeared to the people at the temple in Bountiful, He told them, “But now I go unto the Father, and also to show myself unto the lost tribes of Israel” (3 Nephi 17:4).

Like us, the Savior had somewhere to go. The story continued:

“And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them.

“And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you” (3 Nephi 17:5–6; emphasis added).³

Even though He had planned to go somewhere, the Savior had eyes to see and a heart that feels, so He stopped to minister to the people:

“Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy” (3 Nephi 17:7).

Knowing the Savior as we do, for Him to take time to heal the sick before His next appointment was a natural thing. For us, ministering to all in normal and natural ways might include simply inviting someone to do something you’re already planning to do or go with you to an event that you were already planning to attend.

If you’re taking a self-reliance course, invite your neighbor to come along. If you’re going to a ward activity, invite your co-worker to go with you. If you’re already having family scripture study or home evening, invite your friend to join you. That’s what “come and see” means. It doesn’t require us to add a single activity to our busy schedules. And in times when visiting in person isn’t possible, ministering can be done through a text message, email, or phone call.

When President M. Russell Ballard set me apart as the new president of the Provo Utah YSA First Stake, he provided a simple and specific assignment: “Go visit your leaders and members in their homes and apartments!” That was it; he gave no other training or assignments.

Coordinating our efforts with our bishops, we started on Tuesday, two days after our stake conference. As we ministered in our stake, we made mistakes, missed opportunities, and often thought, “I could have said that better” or “I wish we had asked a better question.”

Brigham Young University President Kevin J Worthen observed that “failing is a critical component of our eternal progress—our quest for perfection. And because of the Atonement we can—if we respond to failures in the right way—be blessed with a new kind of learning that allows our failures to become part of the perfecting process.”⁴

This was our experience as we learned to minister to the leaders and members of the stake and to others we met. As we continued ministering, the Lord began to put more and more people in our path.

On one occasion, one of my counselors, J. B. Haws, and I were walking between apartment complexes when we met a young man in the parking lot. We stopped to say hello and found out that he was moving out of our stake. We talked for a moment and discovered that he was a returned missionary facing questions about his faith. My counselor is a master teacher who connects with people easily. Answering questions like these was natural and normal for J. B. I could see in this young man’s eye a light that may have been missing for some time reappear as they talked.

It was obvious that J. B. was interested in him and in his questions and concerns. The young man opened himself up because J. B. showed compassion. My counselor’s “bowels were filled” with love, and he had a desire to understand this young man without judging him. J. B. asked if we could visit him once he settled into his new apartment. The young man nodded, mobile numbers were exchanged, and a promise to follow up with him was made.

Before we left, we asked if there was anything we could do to help. He said, “Stopping to say hello was one of the most important things you could have done for me today.” Later that evening, I thought to myself, “If J. B. and I had not been out ministering, we may never have met this young man.”

It seems the Lord knew that we would be ministering that evening, so He placed this young man in our path—trusting we would see him and minister to him.

When we desire to minister to all as we go about our daily lives, the Lord will place people in our paths because He trusts us that we will look up from our mobile phones, take a moment to smile at a stranger, or ask a question from someone we have met in the market or wherever we find ourselves at school, work, or church.

Looking back on the Savior’s example in 3 Nephi, I discovered an important principle about ministering. As you will remember:

“It came to pass that when he had thus spoken, all the multitude, with one accord, did go forth with their sick and their afflicted, and their lame, and with their blind, and with their dumb, and with all them that were afflicted in any manner; and he did heal them every one as they were brought forth unto him.

“And they did all, both they who had been healed and they who were whole, bow down at his feet, and did worship him; and as many as could come for the multitude did kiss his feet, insomuch that they did bathe his feet with their tears” (3 Nephi 17:9–10; emphasis added).

Notice that those ministering brothers and sisters who helped bring those they knew and loved closer to Jesus Christ also found themselves at the Savior’s feet, bowing, worshipping, and kissing and bathing His feet with their tears.

As we minister to all, we will see Christ healing emotional, spiritual, and physical wounds. And as we invite others to “come and see” and “come and help” in natural and normal ways, we will find our own wounds being healed too.