“Bring All Things to Your Remembrance,” Ensign, Mar. 1998, 65–66
“Bring All Things to Your Remembrance”
Some time ago I was assigned as a visiting teacher to a young sister who was struggling with personal problems. Although she grew up in an LDS home, she had made serious mistakes and still felt rebellious toward the Church. As I tried to develop a trusting friendship with her, she began to confide some of her deep feelings and problems to me. I responded when she asked questions, but most of the time I just listened.
One visit, however, was different. As we talked I sensed that her attitude was changing, that she was beginning to desire repentance. She asked many questions of eternal significance, and I felt the Holy Ghost guiding me as I took her to the scriptures time and again to discuss the principles of the gospel. With exactness and meaning I quoted scriptures I had not reviewed for a long time, scriptures and counsel from living prophets that I had learned in order to teach Relief Society Spiritual Living lessons several years earlier. I know that our spirits truly communicated, and I know that the Lord put answers in my mind because he loves her.
As I left her home I was overwhelmed by a spirit of gratitude for the Holy Ghost. I felt so thankful for his mission of bringing to our minds things we have learned in the past (see John 14:26).
While I was in this receptive state of mind, the lesson intended for me came. Very powerfully and pointedly the thought came into my mind, Yes, Kathy today you were very blessed! You had previously studied those scriptures, both ancient and modern, so that there was stored inside of you something for the Holy Ghost to bring to your remembrance. What of next time? Do you know all the scriptures well enough to teach others the way you did today? The time you spend studying the scriptures builds a reservoir of knowledge. The Holy Ghost can only bring to your remembrance knowledge that has been placed there by you.
Surely this is what President Spencer W. Kimball meant when he said: “As you become more and more familiar with the truths of the scriptures, you will be more and more effective in keeping the second great commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. Become scholars of the scriptures—not to put others down, but to lift them up!” (“The Role of Righteous Women,” Ensign, Nov. 1979, 102).