Fullness of the Gospel

I just had to share the most amazing things from Relief Society yesterday, because the teacher really got us thinking about the time we are living.

Sister Howard taught the lesson, and she is just amazing. Her testimony is rock solid. I love hearing her insights.

She read a quote from Joseph Smith’s book, and it talked about living in the Fullness of the Gospel. She asked us:

“Has any other dispensation had the fullness of the gospel?”

Then she had us really think about it. Here are the things we discussed.

She asked about temples. Yes, some dispensations had temples, but only certain people could go in the temples. And women were not allowed inside in most of those instances. Which also meant that certain covenants could not be made.

Think about the Priesthood. In all dispensations, even up until not long ago at all, not every male could hold the Priesthood.

What about the Atonement? No dispensation had the fullness of the gospel because they still lived the law of sacrifice. There was no Atonement yet.

THEN she asked us to think about the population of the world. I can’t remember how many she said, it was like 6 billion or something. Those who are members of the church number over 13 million. She gave the percentage of those who are members of the church in the entire world, and it was .236 or something like that (I know it started with .2, so that is the main idea here). So about a fifth of 1% of the population are members of the church WITH the fullness of the gospel! Isn’t that incredibly amazing to think about–that we are so few?

Obviously here in Utah we seem like we are many, and that is a blessing to me. I love that there are so many around that share my same values. But, it also made me just be in awe at how blessed we are to have the Fullness of the Gospel in our lives. That we know so much. And also that we have a pretty big responsibility in bringing others to the Truth.

Just something to think about!