Mormon Messages: Realizing Your Potential By Living Up To Your Privilege

The following video from Mormon Messages illustrates the painful consequences of failing to live up to one's privilege. It shows an individual who had scrimped and saved to take a pleasure cruise. Thinking he would save money, he brought his own food along, and although he did disembark at the various ports of call, he stayed in his cabin the rest of the time, not partaking in any of the ship's other amenities.



Imagine his sorrow when he found out that the price of his ticket INCLUDED the FULL privileges of the ship. And this effectively symbolizes the message that President Dieter F. Uchtdorf strived to communicate in his address entitled "Your Potential, Your Privilege", delivered during the Saturday Evening Priesthood Session of the April 2011 General Conference:

The question this parable raises is, Are we as priesthood holders living below our privileges when it comes to the sacred power, gifts, and blessings that are our opportunity and right as bearers of God’s priesthood?

President Uchtdorf reminds us that the holy priesthood of God has an owner’s manual, contained within the Standard Works, and recommends re-reading sections 20, 84, 107, and 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants. He promises that the more we study the purpose, potential, and practical use of the priesthood, the more we will be amazed by its power, and the Spirit will teach us how to access and use that power to bless our families, our communities, and the Church.

Our intrepid cruiser did not deliberately turn his back upon the ship's amenities; he was genuinely ignorant that they were part of the price. But the consequences were the same -- he missed out. And time once expended can never be recovered. Don't miss out on the full power of the Gospel because of ignorance.

LDS Second Counselor Dieter F. Uchtdorf To Preside Over Rededication Of LDS Chapel in Big Spring, Texas

On February 23rd, 2011, MyWestTexas.com reports that Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will be visiting Big Spring, Texas to preside over the rededication of the LDS chapel located on 1803 Wasson Road at 10:30 A.M. on Sunday February 27th. All members of the public regardless of religious preference are welcome to attend. The Big Spring Ward is a part of the Odessa Texas Stake, and is one of the few wards lucky enough not to have to share their chapel with any other ward or branch.

What makes this newsworthy is that the senior leadership of the LDS Church does not ordinarily show up to preside over the rededication of chapels; they tend to visit primarily to officiate over a change in a stake presidency. But there's a special reason why President Uchtdorf is showing up -- he has a personal connection to the area.

When President Uchtdorf first joined the German Air Force, they did not have their own pilot training program. So German cadets were sent to the United States to receive training. President Uchtdorf was assigned to Webb AFB, and graduated No. 1 in Class 62F. But during this time, the LDS chapel in Big Spring was first constructed, and Uchtdorf helped with the construction during his free time. The site for the chapel was chosen and paid for in 1958 and the first phase was completed in 1962. So Uchtdorf has a personal connection, and decided to return for the rededication. Necessitating the rededication was the fact that they recently added a cultural hall to the chapel, allowing more seating for worship services as well as activities such as dances and meals. Odessa Stake President Jerry Zant is impressed that President Uchtdorf would take time from his busy schedule to visit.

President Uchtdorf was born in 1940 in Ostrova, Czechoslovakia, and emigrated to Germany as a young boy. He was baptized into the LDS Church as a child and went on to serve a couple of stints as a stake president. He became a General Authority in 1994 when called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy. In 2004, President Uchtdorf was called to the Quorum of the Twelve, and set apart as Second Counselor to President Thomas S. Monson in 2008.