"Are You All In?"
Brother Doug Conway
November 12, 2019
Brothers and sisters, it is wonderful to be with you today. As I speak today, I invite you to ponder this question: What does it mean to you to be “all in” for the gospel of Jesus Christ?
What does it mean to be all in? One definition from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is to be “fully committed to or involved in something.” [1]
Mark Pope, BYU head basketball coach, and his wife, Lee Anne, have some great insights on being all in:
“’All in’ has nothing to do with perfection. . . . It has to do with trying as hard as you can.” [2]
“If you'll go all in, then the richness of the reward and the richness of the growth that you get to experience is really . . . incredible.” [3]
"When you look back on your life, the greatest moments will be moments when you went all in." [4]
As I look back on my life, I can say that I have not been all in with everything I should have been. For instance, learning piano, I took lessons for a number of years but was not passionate about it and never developed the skills beyond the ability to play simple hymns. I am actually “all out” with piano. There have also been things I have been partway in and partway out on, such as high school basketball. In high school I went to a swimming camp my sophomore year instead of a basketball camp, and I always had a season pass at a local ski resort while I was on the basketball team, and I played chess at noon instead of intermural basketball, which would have helped hone my skills. And then there are things like scuba diving, running marathons, backpacking, and skiing that I have been head over heels, all in with and had some of those greatest moments in.
However, I have found something that has provided me with experiences and joy like none other: it is to be all in for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
On the devotional discussion board, I asked, “What does it mean to you to be all in?” I loved all of the comments! Here are a few particularly insightful responses.
- “Jesus Christ went all in for me, so I can go all in for Him.” Emma Isabella Pister.
- “I am all in when I am constantly remembering the Savior and seeking revelation and inspiration and then acting on it. It is not a checklist for me. It is an internal state of being and becoming. I am not perfect, but I am pointed toward the Savior, constantly seeking His will and doing those things that allow me to hear His voice clearly in my life.” Kris Tolman.
- “The first word that came to my mind was ‘committed.’ If we aren't committed to following Jesus Christ and living His gospel, we are not all in. I love this quote by President Oaks: ‘Following Christ is not a casual or occasional practice but a continuous commitment and way of life that applies at all times and in all places.’ It means Christ can depend on us to do whatever He asks us to do.” Diana Corbett.
- “Being all in, to me, means that I can look to my Savior with gratitude for the opportunity I have to use the gift of repentance in my life. I believe that being all in means that we giveour hearts over to the Savior to change us.” Shirley Patterson.
Listen now to responses by three members of the Church from episodes of LDSLiving’s All In podcast about what it means to them to be all in for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sheri Dew
I would say it means to put the Lord first, and I think what that really means is seeking and serving, seeking to know more, to understand more, to learn how to hear the voice of the Spirit. We've got a prophet that's asking us, begging us to do it. He wouldn't be asking that if he didn't know that we could, so it's seeking to understand what's really happening in the temple, seeking to really understand what our leaders are telling us in general conference. It's seeking to know what the ministering of angels means and what it has to do with us. It's seeking and then serving. It's trying to help others as we're trying to find our way along the path, the covenant path, to exaltation. It's trying to help whoever else we can along the same path because we need each other to do it. We all need encouragement. We all need inspiration. We all need a helping hand. We all need love and friendship. So, I think it's seeking and serving. [5]
Justin Su’a
When I think about “all in,” I think about no retreat. I think about being in it for the good and the bad, when you're at your best and when you're at your worst. And I think “all in” is doing your absolute best to be the best version of yourself, a version that's the best disciple of Jesus Christ you can. And it's going to look different for everybody. And it's going to look different at different times of your life. But if you just commit to say, “You know what, I'm going to do the best I can to be a disciple of Christ today,” I think your behaviors, your thoughts, your words will begin to flow from that. And I think that's what “all in” looks like for me. [6]
Chelsie Hightower
And I feel like, for me, what it means to be all in is to just hang on, is to stay in the boat. There was a really good talk about this, that there might be times in your life, like 20-year-old me who felt like—or 19- or 18-year-old me, who felt like I was crushing it in my faith and who felt like putting the Lord first was easy, and it was effortless, and “How could I ever live my life another way?” But then there're going to be times in our lives where I think it's just going to take everything within us to just hold on. And I think it's just that commitment to holding on when things are hard. I feel like I'm bearing my testimony right now. Crying. But I think it's just holding on, no matter what you're going through or experiencing. It's just staying. [7]
These responses from the devotional discussion board and from the All In podcast are inspiring to me! After reading and listening to them, I want to be more “all in,” more committed, and be a better person! What thoughts and feelings from the Spirit came to you as you listened? Is there one thing that you can change now in your life to be more “all in”?
Brothers and sisters, I would like to tell you about how I made a change three years ago that has had a major impact on my life, that has helped me be more “all in” and has played a key role in my progress to follow my Savior, Jesus Christ. This experience came about by having a desire to change and by following a spiritual prompting that I received.
In January of 2016, when in a conversation with a friend, he was prompted to inquire if I had ever committed to attend the temple for 40 consecutive days. He testified that if I would commit to attending the temple daily for a period of time, I would be taught many additional truths I was now missing through infrequent attendance. As we spoke, the Spirit whispered to me that this was something I should absolutely do. Up until that time, my wife and I did not attend the temple on a regular schedule.
For me, going 40 days in a row would be a challenge and a sacrifice. After a conversation with my wife, we decided to act without delay and begin this challenge. We went every day that the temple was open. Bonnie was able to go 24 consecutive days and then attended with me when she could. I ended up going 56 consecutive days—one day for each year of my life. There were numerous challenges along the way, including having a medical procedure done and traveling on a business trip to Utah, but I was all in, and I was not going to let anything stop me from completing this goal.
This experience has changed our lives. We now have a different outlook on life, our priorities have changed, and our love for the temple has grown by leaps and bounds.
We started paying much more attention to the kinds of media we watched and listened to, serving more faithfully in our callings, and desiring to study the gospel at a much deeper level. But more importantly, we truly desired to be more “all in” for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I really like this scripture given by revelation to Emma Smith because it is about seeking for better things:
And verily I say unto thee that thou shalt lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better. [8]
After completing our challenge, my wife and I became consistent temple attenders. We love serving in the temple and emulating the pattern of love demonstrated by the Savior. We have learned that there is great joy in doing for others that which they cannot do for themselves and doing our part to help gather Israel. About seven months after completing the challenge, we became ordinance workers and are now coordinators for our shift at the temple on Wednesday nights. I think it is very special that I can serve with my wife in the temple, and we are much closer as a couple for doing so. There is nothing like seeing a beautiful smile on your wife’s face as she is dressed in white.
We have many wonderful BYU-Idaho students on our shift, and we would love to see you all at the temple.
I have a student employee, Adriano Carneiro, who arrived in the US from Brazil last winter semester and was having a difficult time with the culture, weather, and language adaption. He is a busy father of three children, attends school full-time, and works part-time. You may not believe this, but soon after he arrived here, he spoke to the same friend as he was looking for a job, was asked a similar question about attending the temple for 40 days, acted on the impression from the Spirit, and has far exceeded my effort. This challenge has greatly increased his faith in Jesus Christ, and miracles have happened in his life. He has told me he has achieved an A in all of his classes for the last two semesters, even though he could not spend as much time studying because of spending more time in the temple. There are some days he only has time for one ordinance, but he tries to go every day. He is a great example to me of being all in.
When he was president of BYU-Idaho, Elder David A. Bednar said:
Several years ago, Elder L. Tom Perry visited our campus and was asked the following question by a faculty member: “Elder Perry, what do you see as the looming storm clouds on the horizon about which we should know so we can better teach and prepare the young people of the Church?” With no hesitation his answer was, “Worldliness.” The next question: “What can we do, Elder Perry, to best help the young people combat worldliness?” His answer: “Help them prepare to worship properly in the temple.” [9]
A former bishop of a married-student ward told me that he had to do very little marital counseling in his ward because he encouraged the members of his ward to serve as ordinance workers in the temple.
President Russell M. Nelson gave this promise:
My dear brothers and sisters, the assaults of the adversary are increasing exponentially, in intensity and in variety. Our need to be in the temple on a regular basis has never been greater. I plead with you to take a prayerful look at how you spend your time. Invest time in your future and in that of your family. If you have reasonable access to a temple, I urge you to find a way to make an appointment regularly with the Lord—to be in His holy house—then keep that appointment with exactness and joy. I promise you that the Lord will bring the miracles He knows you need as you make sacrifices to serve and worship in His temples. [10]
I know this promise to be true; we have had those needed miracles in our family.
I would like to tell a story about my daughter Lisa and how she had an “all in” gospel experience and how a miracle occurred in her life.
After returning from her mission, Lisa was highly motivated to finish up school and start the next chapter of her life with an eternal companion.
Finding that right young man proved to be harder than Lisa expected. She did not have the best luck dating through the normal social activities here on campus, so she turned to an online dating site, which was more productive. Soon she began going on lots of first dates. In fact, she went on over 75 first dates! We began writing the names of her dates down on a calendar we had at home.
Lisa went on many repeat dates as well, and even dated a couple guys rather seriously, but she became frustrated because she just couldn’t find the right person.
Lisa felt prompted to serve in the temple. She served faithfully as an ordinance worker, and we had the wonderful experience of serving with Lisa on our temple shift. As we were serving in the temple one evening, my wife chatted with one of the sister ordinance workers about Lisa’s dating woes, and she told her about a recipe for marriage that has worked for over 50 people that she knows. She later sent this email to my wife that I share with her permission:
Some of my friends (girls) were returned missionaries and graduating from BYU. They wanted to marry but didn't want to go to bars or BYU dances to feel like cattle on show.
They asked a fellow ward member, who was the daughter of a General Authority, for an appointment with her father. They asked him for help finding a husband.
He gave them the recipe below and promised they would be married within a year of doing these things. (This recipe would also apply to men.) Here is that recipe:
Recipe to be Married:
- Pray. In all personal prayers, state your intent and desire to be married to a good and worthy man in the temple.
- Study scriptures regularly.
- Attend the temple weekly and fast when you can, restating your intent to marry in the temple. If you are not endowed, you could do service one night a week and fast when you can.
- Write in your journal regularly.
- Obviously, you should be attending to all your commitments, doing social things so you are in a position to meet new people and see others in action, and making an effort to look good and be a person others want to be around.
Lisa was inspired to become all in with this recipe and began making a few adjustments in her life to follow it.
However, as time went on without any obvious results, Lisa became more and more discouraged. Finally, in the break before her last semester of school, Lisa decided to give up on online dating and was about to delete the dating app she was on. She prayed to the Lord and asked for help in continuing to be strong in the gospel even though she didn’t know what the future would hold for her. She promised that she would try her best to be strong.
Then, the thought came to her to try once more. Lisa decided to “swipe” through potential dates one more time on the online dating site, and Darian Larsen was her very next match. Darian himself had been prompted to try online dating for the first time that day, and Lisa was one of his first matches and the only girl he dated from that site.
After a first date to Cress Creek in September 2018, Lisa and Darian were together every day since and were married ten days after Lisa’s graduation in December. Therefore, Lisa was able to achieve her bachelor’s and her MRS degree in the same month.
There is very little chance that Lisa and Darian would have ever met in any other way, because she was a web design major and he a music major, and they attended classes in different areas of campus. Their paths just would not have crossed. Because they were both trying to live as righteously as they could, they were able to hear the promptings of the Spirit that led them to each other.
Lisa is on the stand today, and her husband Darian is playing the organ.
President Nelson is a great example of being all in.
When Elder Spencer W. Kimball and Elder LeGrand Richards of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were assigned to call a new stake president of Salt Lake City’s Bonneville Stake, Russell M. Nelson’s name kept coming up. But anyone who suggested him also said that he was too busy and that his profession as a heart surgeon would never allow it.
However, the brethren decided to interview him anyways and told him, “Now, if you are too busy and shouldn’t accept the call, then that’s your privilege.” He responded, “Of course I have time. . . . I’ll make time. If I have to change professions, I’ll do it. If I am called, I will serve.” President Nelson said, “That decision was made August 31, 1945, when Sister Nelson and I were married in the temple. We made a commitment then to ‘seek . . . first the Kingdom of God.’” [11]
Nephi is one of my heroes. For Nephi, being all in meant following the will of the Lord no matter the circumstance. He demonstrated that he was all in when he said:
I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. [12]
The sons of Helaman were also great examples of being all in for their faith.
But behold, they have received many wounds; nevertheless they stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has made them free; and they are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day; yea, they do observe to keep his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments continually; and their faith is strong in the prophecies concerning that which is to come. [13]
Brothers and sisters, when I look back on our experiences over the last few years, I am reminded that we often receive revelation “line upon line, precept upon precept.” [14] Elder Bednar said, “Most frequently, revelation comes in small increments over time and is granted according to our desire, worthiness, and preparation.” [15]
As Brother Garth Miller said in last week’s devotional:
The Holy Ghost fills many important roles in our lives. It is through the Holy Ghost that we gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and receive answers to our heartfelt prayers. Likewise, the Holy Ghost can bring things to our remembrance and warn us of danger. [16]
I can see the Lord’s hand in my life teaching me and helping me make some course corrections. These corrections have often come through the still, small voice. I have many weaknesses, and I am grateful for the Lord’s pattern of not making me correct everything at once; instead, He helps me correct one thing at a time. Going back to the personal experiences I have related—these experiences were for me and my family. Going to the temple consecutively for 40 days, or following a marriage recipe, was what my family and I needed to progress on the covenant path and to deepen our testimonies. The Lord has His own plan for you.
For each of us, being all in for the gospel of Jesus Christ will have different meanings. I invite you to act on the promptings from the Holy Ghost that have come into your mind and heart today and to change those things that are preventing you from being all in. I promise you that the greatest joy you will experience in this life is to be all in for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to me to be all in?
It is to remember the Savior and His great atoning sacrifice in all that I do.
It is having a mighty change of heart where I no longer desire to do evil and instead strive to do good continually. It is to live in such a way that I can feel the promptings of the Spirit and then have the courage to follow those promptings. It is to do my very best at what I am called to do. It is to serve others because I love them. It is to be strong and steadfast and follow the prophet and stay in the Church no matter what half-truths are thrown our way. It is to repent, continually striving to be the best person I can be. It is to continually seek for more light and knowledge through diligent study and prayer. It is to trust in the Savior no matter what trial comes my way. It is to endure, serving faithfully to the end.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
[1] Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “all in.”
[2] Mark Pope, “Mark and Lee Anne Pope: ’All In’ On and Off the Basketball Court,” LDSLiving, June 26, 2019.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Lee Anne Pope, “Mark and Lee Anne Pope: ’All In’ On and Off the Basketball Court,” LDSLiving, June 26, 2019.
[5] Sheri Dew, “Sheri Dew: Lessons Learned From (Literally) Following the Prophet,” LDSLiving, Apr. 24, 2019.
[6] Justin Su’a, “Justin Su’a: The Role of Spirituality in Developing Mental Toughness,” LDSLiving, Sept. 11, 2019.
[7] Chelsie Hightower, “Chelsie Hightower: What My Battle With Anxiety in Hollywood Taught Me About God’s Love,” LDSLiving, Aug. 21, 2019.
[8] Doctrine and Covenants 25:10.
[9] David A. Bednar, “BYU-Idaho: A Disciple Preparation Center,” Aug. 31, 2004.
[10] Russell M. Nelson, “Becoming Exemplary Latter-day Saints,” Ensign, Nov. 2018.
[11] Sheri Dew, Insights from a Prophet’s life: Russell M. Nelson, 2019.
[12] 1 Nephi 3:7; see also “Nephi Commits to Obtain the Sacred Records,” 2:00–2:33; churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/2019-07-0210-nephi-commits-to-obtain-the-sacred-records?category=1-nephi-3-5&lang=eng.
[13] Alma 58:40.
[14] 2 Nephi 28:30.
[15] David A. Bednar, “The Spirit of Revelation,” Ensign, May 2011.
[16] Garth Miller, “Let the Holy Spirit Guide: Seeking Revelation and Inspiration in Our Personal Lives,” BYU-Idaho devotional, Nov. 4, 2019.