The Greenbook: A Compilation of Articles for Missionaries

By Trevor Smith

This book is a compilation of inspirational messages and talks that I found and came to love while serving a mission for my church. I put it together for my younger brother to use on his mission. It was originally designed to be used in conjunction with the missionary lesson book Preach My Gospel, but I believe it would be beneficial to anyone who would like to read more in to the Gospel of Christ.

You can download this book for free anywhere you buy eBooks. Or you can buy a copy from Lulu. The cost of the paperback is just the cost of printing I don't receive any compensation for it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257584710

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The Greenbook: A Compilation of Articles for Missionaries

The

Greenbook

A Compilation of Articles for Missionaries

This book can be purchased for only the cost of printing at lulu.com

But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

Matthew 8:22

Table of Contents

Foreword

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

Walls of the Mind

Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep

Little Children

The Gift of the Holy Ghost—A Sure Compass

Communion with the Holy Spirit

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

The Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants

Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon

The Keystone of Our Religion

The Power of the Book of Mormon

Brightness of Hope

Called to Serve

Do Things That Make a Difference

What I Want My Son to Know before He Leaves on His Mission

The Things of Eternity—Stand We in Jeopardy?

Witnesses unto Me

The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality

Beware of Pride

The Candle of the Lord

The Healing Power of Forgiveness

Joy and Mercy

Lock Your Heart

And Nothing Shall Offend Them

Now Is the Time

Our Great Potential

The First Vision and Religious Tolerance

The American Heritage of Freedom – A Plan of God

Patience—A Heavenly Virtue

Seek Learning by Faith

The Spirit Giveth Life

A Reservoir of Living Water

The Tongue of Angels

Index

Foreword

When I read Preach My Gospel on my mission I wanted to be able to easily read the talks that were quoted in the manual. I tried to include in this book most of the talks that are cited in Preach My Gospel although I could not find all of them (especially older ones). I also included other talks that I read on my mission or have read since that I have found to be especially uplifting.

I call this a book but in fact it is not a book at all. Besides this foreword I did not write anything in The Greenbook. It is truly a compilation of talks found mostly on church websites. I could have just printed them myself and mailed them to you but with so many talks I found it to be much more economical to bind them in book form.

With Preach My Gospel as the base of your study I hope you will use this little Greenbook to help you better understand what you are teaching. Although I hope this will become a wonderful tool for you, I pray that you please do not think too deeply about the mysteries of the kingdom. There is so much to be learned from the simple parts of the gospel.

I hope everything in this book will enlighten your heart like it did mine. Remember, work hard, step out of your comfort zone, and open your mouth. It’s all worth it more then you will ever realize and will be over sooner then you want.

Trevor J. Smith

October 2014

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

Dr. Bob Moorehead, from his book Words Aptly Spoken

I am a part of the fellowship of the Unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has-been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slowdown, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, learn by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I’ve preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes.

And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear for I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. (Romans 1:16)

This poem has been around Mormon rumor emails/hand outs saying that Henry B. Eyring wrote it. This is false. He has stated that he did not write it and does not know how his name got associated with it.

Walls of the Mind

Elder Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, September 1990

Much attention of late has been devoted to the Berlin Wall. Of course, we are all pleased to see that wall come down, representing as it does newfound freedoms. Although the greatest peacetime concentration of military forces the world has ever known, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, confronted each other in Germany, it was not weapons of mass destruction, nor political machinations, nor powerful armies, nor even glasnost that brought that wall down.

It reminds me of another wall that I have had occasion to visit, located in the Holy Land. I refer to the ancient wall of Jericho. I have stood on the ruins of that ancient wall and pondered its meaning. This experience has caused me to wonder if perhaps there is a type and a shadow in what happened in ancient Jericho and what is happening in the world around us.

When Joshua led the children of Israel over the Jordan River, the first city they confronted was Jericho. Spies were sent out, and a council of war was held. Joshua’s generals undoubtedly set forth arguments as to the kind of weapons, armaments, and tactics that would be needed if they were to breach the wall successfully and destroy the city. Traditionally, it would have meant a lengthy siege. In the meantime, the reputation of the Israelites had preceded them, for the gates of walled Jericho were already closed. The biblical account reads: Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. (Josh. 6:1.)

In fact, the military planning was so far advanced that according to Joshua, about forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the Lord unto battle, to the plains of Jericho. (Josh. 4:13.)

But the Lord had a better way: And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. (Josh. 6:2.)

Yes, Jehovah has a better plan. Jericho would fall, but in the Lord’s way. Instead of being armed with swords and spears, they were armed with rams’ horns. Instead of taking a battering ram, they were to take the sacred ark. They were led not by generals, but by priests; they wore not armor, but priestly garments. And in place of a battle cry, there was perhaps a hosanna shout. Instead of setting them to a long, devastating military siege, the Lord promised that after only seven days the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. (Josh. 6:5.)

The Apostle Paul, commenting on this rather unusual procedure, explains it all in one simple sentence: By faith the walls of Jericho fell down. (Heb. 11:30.)

Elder James E. Talmage concurred when he wrote, With full confidence in the instructions and promises of God, Joshua and his intrepid followers laid [spiritual] siege to Jericho; and the walls of that city of sin fell before the faith of the besiegers without the use of battering rams or other engines of war. (Articles of Faith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1984, pp. 93–94.)

President Kimball, in addressing the issue of walls, asked: Why must men rely on physical fortification and armaments when the God of heaven yearns to bless them? One stroke of his omnipotent hand could make powerless all nations who oppose, and save a world even when in its death throes. Yet men shun God and put their trust in weapons of war, or in the ‘arm of flesh.’ (The Miracle of Forgiveness, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969, p. 318.)

President Kimball’s theme brought me to consider some of the greatest walls in recorded history that eventually ceased to provide the protection for which they were designed.

History—or perhaps it is more legend—records a war in the twelfth century B.C. between the Greeks and the Trojans in which a ten-year siege by the Greeks couldn’t break down the walls of Troy, but superstition and a wooden horse did.

In my travels, I have had the opportunity to walk on the ruins of what were once the majestic walls of Babylon. There I reminisced about the historian’s description of seemingly impenetrable walls that were so high and so thick and so well constructed that neither the machines of war nor the passing of time could destroy them. To this day, over 2,500 years later, those walls continue to stand as a monument to their indestructibility. But still, the city was conquered. The defenders, lulled into complacency by the strength of their fortifications, would not believe that the Persians under Cyrus could turn the Euphrates River out of its course and gain access to the city through a dry river bed beneath its walls.

I have stood on the Great Wall of China, with its 4,000 miles of 25-foot-high impenetrable walls, said to be the largest man-made project in the history of the world. But history teaches us that this formidable barrier could not hold back the Mongol leader Genghis Khan.

On many occasions, I have had the opportunity to climb the ramparts of the walled city of Old Jerusalem and reflect on the battles that were fought there. Those walls withstood the combined might of Rome for a time until internal dissensions, political intrigue, and worse from within accomplished what armed might could not do from without.

The Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius, who witnessed the destruction, describes the besieged, demoralized population who had entrusted their safety to those physical walls in such graphic terms it leads one to the conclusion that, in the end, Jerusalem was the victim of self-destruction.

I have viewed the now-infamous Maginot Line between France and Germany—a formidable, thick, reinforced concrete wall of fortified bunkers and heavy gun emplacements. It was never assaulted. The enemy simply went around it through Belgium, and the battles took place in the rearward areas, rendering the wall useless.

As I pondered on the failure of all those ancient walls, I considered once again the divine counsel not to put one’s trust in the arm of flesh. Just as there was no security in those ancient man-made walls, neither is there any security in modern-day walls outside the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord said on a number of occasions, I will be your shield.

King David, the psalmist-turned-warrior, understood this principle perhaps better than most when he wrote:

"The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; …

"In him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; [who] savest me from violence.

I will call on the Lord, … so shall I be saved from mine enemies. (2 Sam. 22:2–4.)

As we try to understand the spirit of reconciliation sweeping the globe and to give it meaning within the gospel context, we have to ask ourselves: Could this not be the hand of the Lord removing political barriers and opening breaches in heretofore unassailable walls for the teaching of the gospel, all in accord with a divine plan and a divine timetable? Surely taking the gospel to every kindred, tongue, and people is the single greatest responsibility we have in mortality. In 1974, President Spencer W. Kimball, speaking on this theme, said: I can see no good reason why the Lord would open doors that we are not prepared to enter. He concluded by saying that the doors to nations would open when we are ready for them. (Ensign, Oct. 1974, p. 7.)

As the walls in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, Africa, China, India, South America, and many other parts of the world come tumbling down, the corresponding need for more missionaries to fulfill the divine commission to take the gospel to all the earth will certainly go up! Are we ready to meet that contingency?

To satisfy the new demands being made upon us in this great missionary work of the last days, perhaps some of us (particularly the older generation whose families are raised) need to take stock to determine whether walls that we have built in our own minds need to come down.

For example, how about the comfort wall that seems to prevent many couples and singles from going on a mission? How about the financial wall of debt that interferes with some members’ ability to go, or the grandchildren wall, or the health wall, or the lack of self-confidence wall, or the self-satisfied wall, or the transgression wall, or the walls of fear, doubt, or complacency? Does anyone really doubt for a minute that with the help of the Lord he or she could bring those walls crashing down?

We have been privileged to be born in these last days, as opposed to some earlier dispensation, to help take the gospel to all the earth. There is no greater calling in this life. If we are content to hide behind self-made walls, we willingly forgo the blessings that are otherwise ours. The Lord in modern-day revelation explains the great need:

For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul. (D&C 4:4.)

The Lord goes on to explain in that same revelation the qualifications that we need to be good missionaries. Knowing full well of our weaknesses and of our reservations as we stand before the huge gate of our self-made wall, he reassures us that divine help to overcome all obstacles will be forthcoming if we will only do our part, with the simple promise: Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (D&C 4:7.)

May the Lord bless us that the walls of our minds may not obstruct us from the blessings that can be ours.

Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep

Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, May 1999

From a satellite broadcast given at the Salt Lake Tabernacle 21 February 1999.

My beloved brethren and sisters: First, may I thank you for being with us on this occasion, for this and the many other wonderful things which you do. You give of your time, your energy, your means to the accomplishment of the Lord’s work. I am confident the Lord loves you for your devotion, for your willingness to do all that you are asked to do.

It is a wonderful and serious responsibility to speak to you. Speculation has been going about that President Hinckley is going to announce some new and glamorous program. I assure you that this is not so. My Brethren of the Twelve, who are deeply concerned about our missionary work throughout the world, have asked that I share with you some feelings that I have on this most important matter.

In terms of the eventual audience, this is probably the largest gathering ever convened in the cause of missionary work. The Tabernacle is filled. The proceedings of this meeting will be seen by almost all of the nearly 59,000 full-time missionaries laboring throughout the world. Additionally, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands, of Church officers who have an interest and responsibility in this matter are gathered with us, or the proceedings of this hour will be taken to them. I forewarn you, this will be a rather long talk. I am an old man. I do not know how much longer I will live, and so I want to say what I have to say, while I have the strength to say it. I do not know when I will give a talk this long again. I shall give two speeches interrupted by the singing of a hymn. Altogether, I will take about 40 minutes. Having been warned, some of you will wish to get comfortable. Pleasant dreams.

I spoke the other day with one of the most enthusiastic converts I have ever met. We were in Chicago for a big meeting which brought together some 20,000 members of the Church in the great United Center, where the Chicago Bulls play basketball. Randy Chiostri, a new member of the Church, drove us about while we were there. All during those long rides in the Chicago traffic he was talking about missionary work, praising the Church as the most wonderful institution in the world, talking of the gospel and the plan of salvation as the greatest thing that had ever come into his life. Randy’s introduction to the Church came when he dated Nancy. He took her to dinner. On the first date she said she drank no liquor. She would not take wine. How curious, he thought. She said it was against her faith. Smoking was also against her faith. Her faith became the subject of their conversations.

He married her on the one-year anniversary of that first date. But he could not accept her religion. It took him almost eight years to overcome his doubts.

One pair of missionaries after another taught him. Finally, he was touched by the Spirit. He was baptized last March.

He visited the Hill Cumorah. He visited Nauvoo. He said: I visited 17 temples. I visited them on the outside but not on the inside. He went to every temple he could get to. He now looks forward to the day that he will visit them on the inside. That first inside visit, in Chicago, will be in April. He will receive his endowment, and then the next day he and Nancy will be sealed.

After his baptism, Randy was immediately put to work. He was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. After being a member for about nine months, he was ordained an elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood. He loves the Church. He is consumed with his love of the gospel. It has become the major interest of his life. He cannot stop talking about it. Each night and morning he gets on his knees and thanks the Lord for the wondrous thing that has come into his life.

I learned a few things from Randy as I listened to him. The first is the tremendous power of the example of a member of the Church. It was Nancy’s firm but quiet stance on that first date concerning no liquor and no wine which caught his attention. The missionaries worked on him through the years, but she was the key that unlocked his heart to a love for the Lord, and his mind to an understanding of the plan of salvation.

The second thing I learned is that you never give up when there is the slightest spark of interest. It took him nearly eight years to come into the Church. His mind was open, but there was a lurking fear over taking so bold a step. He was setting aside the traditions of his forebears and stepping into something new and strange and difficult to understand.

Third, he was put to work immediately following his baptism. His bishop saw that he had something challenging to do. Was he qualified to handle the assignment? The bishop gave that question very little attention. He saw an eager new convert, and he gave him a responsibility on which to grow.

The bishop saw that he had friends in the Church. The first, of course, was his wife, Nancy, and there were a few more able people who could answer his questions and listen patiently when he did not understand. He was not left friendless, to grope through the dark. He had those who were willing to take the time to talk with him.

Does he know all there is to know about the Church? No, of course not. He is constantly learning, and with that learning is a growing enthusiasm.

He is excited about what he has found. He is eager to receive the higher blessings of the temple. His testimony has become strong and secure within less than a year’s time. I believe he is a 100 percent convert, and his enthusiasm is contagious. We need more of this kind, and we need many more to work with them.

Bringing People into the Church:

From the beginning of this work, missionary service has been a four-step process:

1. Finding the investigator.

2. Teaching the investigator.

3. Baptizing the worthy convert.

4. Fellowshipping and strengthening the new member.

Last year there were approximately 300,000 convert baptisms throughout the Church. This is tremendously significant. This is the equivalent of 120 new stakes of 2,500 members each. Think of that: 120 new stakes in a single year! It is wonderful. But it is not enough. I am not being unrealistic when I say that with concerted effort, with recognition of the duty which falls upon each of us as members of the Church, and with sincere prayer to the Lord for help, we could double that number. The big initial task is first to find interested investigators. So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the members of the Church. Whenever there is a member who introduces an investigator, there is an immediate support system. The member bears testimony of the truth of the work. He is anxious for the happiness of his investigator friend. He becomes excited as that friend makes progress in learning the gospel.

The full-time missionaries may do the actual teaching, but the member, wherever possible, will back up that teaching with the offering of his home to carry on this missionary service. He will bear sincere testimony of the divinity of the work. He will be there to answer questions when the missionaries are not around. He will be a friend to the convert who is making a big and often difficult change.

The gospel is nothing to be ashamed of. It is something to be proud of. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, wrote Paul to Timothy (2 Tim. 1:8). Opportunities for sharing the gospel are everywhere.

Dr. William Ghormley served as president of the stake in Corpus Christi, Texas. He bought his gasoline at a particular station. Each time he filled his tank he would leave a piece of Church literature with the station owner. It might have been a tract or a Church magazine or the Church News, but he never went there without leaving something. The man who ran the station was converted by the power of the Spirit as he read that literature. When last I checked, he was serving as a bishop.

The process of bringing new people into the Church is not the responsibility alone of the missionaries. They succeed best when members become the source from which new investigators are found.

I would like to suggest that every bishop in the Church give as a motto to his people, Let’s all work to grow the ward. I am not sure the grammar is correct, but the idea is right.

Let there be cultivated an awareness in every member’s heart of his own potential for bringing others to a knowledge of the truth. Let him work at it. Let him pray with great earnestness about it. Let each member pray, as did Alma of old:

"O Lord, wilt thou grant unto us that we may have success in bringing [others] again unto thee in Christ.

Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee (Alma 31:34–35).

My heart reaches out to you missionaries. You simply cannot do it alone and do it well. You must have the help of others. That power to help lies within each of us. But you must do all you can. You must be anxiously engaged. When you are not working on referrals of members, you must be developing those referrals yourselves through tracting and related means.

I spoke at the funeral of a dear friend the other day. Some years ago he served as a mission president. He felt totally inadequate when he arrived in the field. He was sent to succeed a very good man, a man of great ability, an excellent leader, and a very able president.

When this new man took over the mission and made his first tour of meetings with missionaries, he said to them: I never served a mission as a young man, and so I don’t know what you are going through. But do your best, your very, very best. Say your prayers and work hard and leave the harvest to the Lord.

With that kind of spirit and that outreach of love, a whole new attitude spread through the mission. Members got behind the missionaries. Within a year the number of converts had doubled.

And now this word from Moroni, both to the missionaries and to the converts: See that ye are not baptized unworthily; see that ye partake not of the sacrament of Christ unworthily; but see that ye do all things in worthiness, and do it in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and if ye do this, and endure to the end, ye will in nowise be cast out (Morm. 9:29).

Speaking of worthiness in coming into the Church, President Joseph F. Smith once wrote: People must be taught before they are fit candidates for baptism. Now, what shall they be taught? Why, faith in God, in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost, faith in the efficacy of prayer, and in the ordinances and principles of the gospel which Jesus taught; faith in the restoration of this gospel and all its powers, to the Prophet Joseph Smith; faith in the Church which he was instrumental in establishing; faith in the priesthood, as authorized servants of the living God; faith in the revelations received in modern times; faith in the performance of the works required of a Latter-day Saint; faith in the principle of tithing, and in all other requirements, temporal and spiritual, mentioned in the law of God; and, finally, faith to live lives of righteousness before the Lord (Baptism, Improvement Era, Jan. 1911, 267–68).

Taking Responsibility as Members:

Now, my brethren and sisters, we can let the missionaries try to do it alone, or we can help them. If they do it alone, they will knock on doors day after day and the harvest will be meager. Or as members we can assist them in finding and teaching investigators.

Whose responsibility is it? I begin with the stake presidents and their councils. A stake mission with a stake mission president is found in each stake. It is their responsibility, working under the general direction of the stake president, to work constantly at the task of finding and encouraging investigators. Those finders include every member of the Church.

Let there develop in every stake an awareness of the opportunity to find those who will listen to the gospel message. In this process we need not be offensive. We need not be arrogant. The most effective tract we will carry will be the goodness of our own lives and example. And as we engage in this service, our lives will improve, for we shall be alert to see that we do not do or say anything which might impede the progress of those we are trying to lead toward the truth.

I request each stake and district president to accept full responsibility and accountability for the finding and friendshipping of investigators within your stake or district. I request each bishop and branch president to accept the same responsibility within your ward or branch. You brethren have a sacred obligation before the Lord for this effort. You set the example for what others may do under your inspired leadership. We have full confidence in your capacity and willingness to do it.

There needs to be an infusion of enthusiasm at every level