Over the last few years, I have been able to meet so many new, wonderful people in this movement. There have been countless women that I’ve spent time speaking with, most of whom are older than me. It’s an understatement to say that I feel honored that women who have more life under their belt are willing to have deep conversations with me. There are many, many admirable people among us.

I am grateful that I’ve been a part of this group for about 14 years now. Being in the trenches from closer to the beginning helps me value the intense, back-breaking work that we’ve been undertaking for so long. I know I am not the only one that has heard story after story of how the Gospel has changed hearts and lives for the better, including my own. Among the pain and sacrifice in so many lives, light has always emerged. I believe that that light was given because of scripture study, prayer, fasting, and repentance among us.

It is easy to give this group a glancing pass and critically label it. It’s easy to make assumptions and generalizations that we just don’t understand accountability, aren’t experiencing personal growth, haven’t done the work, and just plain suck.

Those are the assumptions of a naive person – of someone who lacks experience being among us and working alongside us.

I know that many, if not all, of us wouldn’t hesitate to admit that we are weak and prone to sin. But when I look at all of you, I see so many hearts that are striving to please the Lord. I see people that want to understand and obey God’s commandments. I see people that show an incredible amount of humility. Many of us are doing the work quietly within our marriages, families, friendships, and fellowships. And what is this work?

Such was and always will be the situation of the saints of God: that unless they have an actual knowledge that the course that they are pursuing is according to the will of God, they will grow weary in their minds and faint, for such has been and always will be the opposition in the hearts of unbelievers and those that know not God, against the pure and unadulterated religion of Heaven (the only thing which ensures eternal life), that they will persecute to the uttermost all that worship God according to his revelations, receive the truth in the love of it, and submit themselves to be guided and directed by his will, and drive them to such extremities that nothing short of an actual knowledge of their being the favorites of Heaven, and of their having embraced that order of things which God has established for the redemption of man, will enable them to exercise that confidence in him necessary for them to overcome the world and obtain that crown of glory which is laid up for them that fear God. For a man to lay down his all, his character and reputation, his honor and applause, his good name among men, his houses, his lands, his brothers and sisters, his wife and children, and even his own life also, counting all things but filth and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, requires more than mere belief, or supposition that he is doing the will of God, but actual knowledge, realizing that when these sufferings are ended he will enter into Eternal rest and be a partaker of the glory of God (Lectures on Faith 6:4-5).

Most of us are here at the cost of sacrifice. You had to give up so much that you believed had value – attending church every Sunday, your LDS community, family members, parents, children, careers, business relationships, pride, comfort, etc. – to find the things of God that hold eternal value. And now these truths are priceless to you because there’s light, understanding, and clarity.

You can’t give that understanding and truth to someone else, because they will not understand its pricelessness. This is the part of the journey that I would say is lonely, difficult, and yet perhaps required of everyone that wants to see the Lord. You feel misjudged, misunderstood, and cast out. You feel that perhaps you’ve lost any chance at “becoming a member of Zion.” But perhaps even that is missing the point. Just recall that initial desire that brought you to this moment – receiving the Second Comforter.

No matter who you are, the Second Comforter is a gift available to anyone who keeps God’s commandments.

Heaven does not need to await the afterlife, but you can be redeemed from the Fall here and now. Receiving the presence of God is to be redeemed from the Fall. The Millennium will happen as people prepare themselves for it. When the wheat is fully ripe, the Lord will return. You can receive Millennial blessings through the Second Comforter now.

It would do little good to have the Lord return if there were not people prepared for His presence awaiting Him. If that were to occur before people are prepared, the whole earth would be wasted at His coming.

If you would have Him return, then you must prepare individually to abide His coming. When you are ready, He will return (T&C 159:25).

Perhaps the logistics of who is right, who wrote the better statement of principles, or who lasted the longest in the reasoning competition isn’t the point, but the point actually lies within each individual desiring and working towards knowing the Lord and becoming His peaceable follower.

Because if I am on the path back to God and you are on the path back to God (not the path to power, structure, credibility, popularity, and recognition), then won’t we anyways find ourselves walking alongside each other at some point?