President Eyring speaks to the priesthood of the church about their obligations to help God's children.  He begins with sharing with us that he know how hard it can be to serve in the capacities that we do.

• To hold the priesthood of God is to be held responsible by God for the eternal lives of His children. That is real, that is wonderful, and at times that can feel overwhelming.

He gives us three assurances about what we can expect to achieve when we serve in the priesthood of God.

• You and the priesthood bearers you are called to lead can have at least three assurances. First, the Lord will give you, if you ask, the feelings of compassion He feels for those in need. Second, He will provide others to join with you in your service. And third, the Lord will more than recompense all who join in giving help to those in need.

He speaks about difficult times that we will be called on to provide caring in the Lord's way.  He speaks about a scenario where we have to help a family move at the last minute and we have way to many other commitments on the calendar.  He assures us that the Lord will provide direction in these moments.  He will soften the hearts of our families, provide direction on who we should ask to assist us, and give us a warm sense of compassion that will bless all those we come in contact with.

• You cannot know all your quorum members perfectly well, but God does. So, as you have done so many times, you prayed to know whom to ask to help serve others. The Lord knows who will be blessed by being asked to help and whose family will be blessed by not being asked. That is the revelation you can expect to come to you as you lead in the priesthood.

He speaks of missionary service but I liken his counsel to priesthood service as well.

• You will go to thousands of people in great spiritual need. Many, until you teach them, will not even know that they have spiritual wounds that, left untreated, will bring endless misery. You will go on the Lord’s errand to rescue them. Only the Lord can bind up their spiritual wounds as they accept the ordinances that lead to eternal life.
  

He tells us that a key to helping others is to have our home in proper order first.

• As a quorum member, as a home teacher, and as a missionary, you cannot help people repair spiritual damage unless your own faith is vibrant. That means far more than reading the scriptures regularly and praying over them. The prayer in the moment and quick glances in the scriptures are not preparation enough. The reassurance of what you will need comes with this counsel from the 84th section of the Doctrine and Covenants: “Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.” That promise can be claimed only if we “treasure up” the words of life and do it continually.

President Eyring speaks of the need for compassion.  He notes that this is difficult for many priesthood holders.

• Even the best of Heavenly Father’s mortal priesthood holders do not rise to that standard of compassion easily. Our human tendency is to be impatient with the person who cannot see the truth that is so plain to us. We must be careful that our impatience is not interpreted as condemnation or rejection.
  

He concludes by telling us that we will become more compassionate, we will be move caring, we will have the spirit with us more, as we are charitable and serve God with all our hearts.  Our best efforts are what the Lord expects.

• As we prepare to give succor for the Lord as His priesthood servants, there is a scripture to guide us. It contains a gift we will need for our journey, wherever the Lord will send us. The good Samaritan had that gift. We will need it, and the Lord has told us how we can find it:
  
• “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail-- But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure.”

In my service in my ward, I have been called on to provide support and help to those in need.  I have found that I have been guided to know who can assist me and who I should call on to move the work forward.  As President Eyring points out, many priesthood holders struggle with compassion, and I am one of those that needs to learn a few things from the spirit.  I need to be instructed over time to learn these traits and skills so that I can be of better service to the Lord.  I have spoken with great leaders as I have been asked to go with them to minister to those in need.  Each has spoken about their need to listen to the spirit, to say the things that the spirit directs, and to let the spirit share the warmth of the Savior through our visit.  I will continue to learn to become more compassionate as I continue to serve in the Lord's kingdom.  I am grateful for great people along my path that have assisted me already in life on how to become more Christlike in this manner.

Elder Hales speaks during the October 2016 General Conference.  He speaks about choices that we make in our lives and the effects that they have on ourselves and others.  He starts with a questions from a grandson to his grandfather.  This is a great lesson in this question and he uses it for the basis of his talk.

• Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel was in the hospital recovering from open-heart surgery when he was visited by his five-year-old grandson. As the little boy looked into his grandfather’s eyes, he saw his pain. “Grandpa,” he asked, “if I loved you more, would you [hurt less]?” Today I ask a similar question of each of us: “If we love the Savior more, will we suffer less?”
  

He speaks about the Saviors call to turn from the rules of the Law of Moses to the higher law given during the Saviors earthly ministry.

• The disciples were taught to turn from the ways of the natural man to the loving and caring ways of the Savior by replacing contention with forgiveness, kindness, and compassion.
  
• As the Savior’s latter-day disciples, we come unto Him by loving and serving God’s children. As we do, we may not be able to avoid tribulation, affliction, and suffering in the flesh, but we will suffer less spiritually. Even in our trials we can experience joy and peace.

He provides advice to parents and grandparents to seize the moments we have to teach our families these Christlike principles.

• Parents and grandparents, we tend to bemoan the state of the world—that schools are not teaching moral character. But there is much we can do. We can take advantage of the teaching moments in our own families—that means now. Don’t let them slip by. When an opportunity comes to share your thoughts about the gospel and the lessons of life, stop everything, sit down, and talk with your children and grandchildren.

We sometime feel we are not qualified to teach things that we struggle with ourselves.  Elder Hales makes clear that the greatest teacher we have is the Holy Ghost.

• No training class or manual is as helpful as personally studying our scriptures, praying, pondering, and seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Despite our best efforts, we sometimes have children that make decisions to live their lives contrary to the way that we would hope.  Elder Hales gives great advice to parents in these turbulent situations.

• The scriptures tell us that when some of Heavenly Father’s spirit children chose not to follow His plan, the heavens wept. Some parents who have loved and taught their children also weep when their grown children choose not to follow the Lord’s plan. What can parents do? We cannot pray away another’s agency. Remember the father of the prodigal son, who patiently waited for his son to “[come] to himself,” all the while watching for him. And “when he was yet a great way off,” he ran to him. We can pray for guidance about when to speak, what to say, and yes, on some occasions, when to be still. Remember, our children and family members already chose to follow the Savior in their premortal realm. Sometimes it is only by their own life’s experiences that those sacred feelings are awakened again. Ultimately, the choice to love and follow the Lord has to be their own.

He concludes with words of encouragement for us to be more like the Savior.

• If we have not fully done so yet, let us turn more toward forgiveness, kindness, and love. Let us renounce the war that so often rages in the heart of the natural man and proclaim Christ’s caring, love, and peace.

I am personally touched by Elder Hales talk.  I have been thinking about the gift of agency recently and how we have to respect peoples decisions not to follow the path that our Heavenly Father has asked us to follow.  Elder Hales says "We cannot pray away another’s agency."  He also says, "our children and family members already chose to follow the Savior in their premortal realm. Sometimes it is only by their own life’s experiences that those sacred feelings are awakened again."  I am grateful to a loving Savior who suffered for all the decisions that people make that somehow teach them a life lesson.  The principle of agency is so vital that it was respected by our Heavenly Father in the premortal world.  I am sure it pained our Heavenly Father to see His children disregard His plan just as it pains me to see my children learn some hard lessons in their life.  But the gift of agency is real.  I am grateful to a loving Savior who allows us to make mistakes, and provides a way for all to be made right again when those mistakes help us come to a better place in our lives.  Let us take advantage of the great gift the Savior has provided for us and continue to love those that need our patience and understanding to learn the necessary lessons of life.

President Uchtdorf speaks to the church during the October 2016 General Conference.  He speaks about learning to use a personal computer and the struggles he went through to figure it out.  He talks about how difficult it was but over time, how easy it has become.  He talks about all the technology things we have today that were not available years about.

• The more adept I get at technology, the more I take it for granted.
• As we become more familiar with something, even something miraculous and awe-inspiring, we lose our sense of awe and treat it as commonplace.

He warns us not to take for granted the wonderful spiritual blessing we have in our lives just because they are so easily part of our everyday life.

• Taking for granted our modern technologies and conveniences may be a relatively small matter. But, sadly, we sometimes take a similar attitude toward the eternal and soul-expanding doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the Church of Jesus Christ, we have been given so much. We are surrounded by such an astonishing wealth of light and truth that I wonder if we truly appreciate what we have.

He notes that the things of eternity are before us but sometime we act like we are sleepwalking through the journey.

• Life-changing truths are before our eyes and at our fingertips, but sometimes we sleepwalk on the path of discipleship.

He speaks about some of the great truths that the gospel brings into our lives.  He notes several of them that we know only through the truths restored to the earth through the Church of Jesus Christ.

• I am grateful that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has answers to the most complex questions in life. These answers are taught in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are true, plain, straightforward, and easy to understand. They are inspired, and we teach them to our three-year-olds in the Sunbeam class.
  • We are eternal beings, without beginning and without end. We have always existed. We are the literal spirit children of divine, immortal, and omnipotent Heavenly Parents!
  • You and I participated in a Grand Council where our beloved Father presented His plan for us—that we would come to earth, receive mortal bodies, learn to choose between good and evil, and progress in ways that would not otherwise be possible.
  • We knew we would sin and make mistakes—perhaps even serious ones. But we also knew that our Savior, Jesus Christ, had pledged to come to earth, live a sinless life, and voluntarily lay down His life in an eternal sacrifice. We knew that if we gave our heart to Him, trusted Him, and strived with all the energy of our soul to walk in the path of discipleship, we could be washed clean and once again enter the presence of our beloved Father in Heaven.

How great it is to have eternal truths made clear through modern-day prophets.  How great it is to know that we have a connection with Heaven in our time.  This great plan of happiness that our Heavenly Father has given to us is so simple.  He has provided a true way for us to find happiness and joy in this life and to prepare for the next life with Him.  How grateful I am for the simple plan that even a three-year-old can understand what God expects of them.  I started this blog to help me on my personal journey of discipleship.  I love how President Uchtdorf asks us if we are sleepwalking on the path of discipleship.  I hope to never find myself taking these truths for granted.  I hope to never find myself not recognizing the amazing gifts that the Lord has given me by allowing me to find the truth of His gospel in this life.  I am not sleepwalking through my journey of discipleship and I hope that you will take steps to assure you aren't either.