Projet Zion World Conference in April 2020, address by Brother João Vendemiatti: Patriarch and President of the School of Prophets.
João Vendemiatti Discourse
Brethren, thank you for taking part in this conference with us, for your prestige and affection.
I would like to ask a reflective question: How are our feelings? How is our heart? If we had to present it today to Christ to be judged, at first we will say everything is fine, I am a good person I go on Sundays, I take my sacrament, I pay my tithing, I do what I have to do, I am a good person.
It’s no use Brother, if you come home, fight with your wife and you yell; no use if you stay on WhatsApp while your child is wanting your attention.
Being a Christian is much more than going to church to pay tithing, taking the sacrament, and much more than simply keeping the word of wisdom. Being a Christian is a way of life and a way of life aimed at a just, egalitarian society. Being a Christian and living the united order is what the Lord restored in 1830. People should live the united order; there should be no poor people among them; people should have a new way of living; people should unite in heart to do good for one another to have the best feelings related to each other, but people don’t.
Two hundred years have passed since Joseph Smith’s first vision. What happened in those 200 years? We were told to build a city. The city was not built. Instead of having a union they had disunity after Joseph’s death. Each created a church for themselves, all of them claiming to be the real one, all of them saying I am the one that Joseph restored. People did not come together to build a temple in Jackson County, Missouri, the temple was not built.
Two hundred years have passed, Brethren, and nothing has happened. The Gospel? It was preached to the whole world, but what good did it do if we didn’t live it? If we didn’t build Zion? It is no wonder that today people do not believe in the restored gospel because they do not know it.
Do people believe in the book of Mormon? They do not believe! They don’t understand the book of Mormon! They don’t understand. When you come to a person today to present the sealed book, he says he will not read it, because his prophet did not speak to say it was true or said it was false.
When I went on a mission, I would present the book of Mormon to people, and people would say: Oh, I’m not going to read because my pastor won’t let me, my pastor told me not to read because I know it’s of the devil, what am I going to read for? Today we present the same thing to people in catering. The Lord continued his work, the sealed book, a part of it was revealed to purify the hearts of the people and people do not want to read. They want to make fun, they want to look for defects, just like they did with the book of Mormon.
So I ask if they were converted? No! They even convinced themselves of this life. They liked the structure of the church; they liked the walls; the beautiful chapel; they liked the atmosphere of society; and they stayed there. And when they stop liking, they leave. And simple people have not been converted. People still do not understand what the gospel is. And again God sent a prophet, he says I am not perfect, I am an ordinary guy, but the message that God has is for you and each one.
Instead of evaluating the message, people prefer to curse the prophet, to speak ill, to call him a liar, as happened in all dispensations.
People deny the power of God because they do not want to read, pray to God and ask if it is true. As if it were going to offend God, people say: I will not read because it is not a revelation from God.
How many books do you read in your life that are not revelations? Saramago, José de Alencar, Agatha Christie and J. K. Rowling. They are not revelation, but you read.
Knowledge does not take up space. Ignorance takes up space and prevents you from growing knowledge. You will not lose anything by reading.
You fear, perhaps of discovering that it is true and having to change your life and get out of your comfort zone, having to beat the dust for so long that you are standing still and having to make a decision in your life.
Fear, the sealed book teaches, is not a feeling that comes from God; fear and the absence of faith. Faith is a feeling of trustworthiness when you have all the feelings of trustworthiness you cast out fear. Prudence is one thing, fear is another.
Why don’t you read it? Why not pray to God? Father, was what I read true? These teachings to have the best feelings? And was truth a revelation? Is this a prophet of the Lord? Try the fruit! Speaking of feelings, the sealed book talks a lot about this subject, talks about looking at our feelings, evaluating whether what we are feeling comes from God or comes from the evil one. This is a great way to understand if we are doing the right thing or not.
Is the action we are taking, driven by noble feelings or by petty feelings? The decision we are making is a decision in favor of a collective, greater good in love; in compassion, in joy, peace, long-suffering, benignity. And the opposite of those feelings? They are based on mean feelings like anger, like revenge, avarice and fear.
What feelings do we harbor in our hearts? Because we are influenced on all sides, we are influenced by God trying to give us the best feelings and we are influenced by the enemy to remove us from our place, as the scriptures say, to take from us what we have received from God. So who are we feeding?
When we show that heart to God what kind of food will we have given that heart? People talk about the millennium when we will be perfect, leaving these things for the millennium. Brethren, the time for man to prepare himself to meet God is in this life. The same spirit that leaves you in this life comes with you in the next. Resurrection is the same spirit, nothing has changed. If you do not learn to climb here, if you don’t improve here to do the right things you will not be able to live in Zion and that is what the scriptures say.
Let’s watch, Brethren. Arm our hearts. We realize that anger is coming, sadness and bitterness. We realize that that feeling is coming that depresses us, that feeling that saddens us. We will shield our hearts, we will not allow ourselves to be influenced by this, we will not allow to make decisions based on those feelings.
Let us seek from the Lord that feeling of faith, reliability, love, faith and joy.
Let us be cautious but also be wise to make the right decisions.
He sent a plague that touched the whole world. People are at home saying I want an eternal wedding. You don’t want to spend 30 days with your wife at home, you can’t stand to spend 30 days with your husband, you can’t stand being with who you love. Do you want to spend eternity with the person? The same spirit that can not stand to be with his wife, the husband can not stand to be with his children is what will arise in the resurrection. If you today, do not learn to love those who love you, will you be able to live in a society of strangers, if you can not love who loves you?
The homes of Zion, the sealed book teaches us, homes are the foundation of Zion families. If families are unstructured, the structure of Zion falls. Without structured families the united order does not exist, the best feelings do not exist.
We can analyze what we are doing. If we are taking the sacrament, Brethren, if it is not a reflection of our real change in lifestyle, it will be useless. If it does not lead us to build the temple of the Lord, to build the Holy city, it is useless. We can evaluate our hearts and say if we are nourishing it to recognize the influence that is coming to us, if it is something that elevates us or that demotes us. It is not difficult to identify the feelings and if we nurture only the best feelings in relation to our neighbor then, yes, we will have a well fed heart to deliver to the Lord and say: Father here’s what I have nourished during my life.
May we, Brethren, by listening to the message of the Lord, the message through your prophet, may we evaluate giving the benefit of the doubt and praying to God and asking if these things are true.
I leave this reflection with the brethren, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
In closing, I would like to inform the brethren, for reasons of force of nature, for personal reasons, Maurício cannot record a video for this conference, but at the end of the broadcast, a note that Maurício made will be posted on our website and we will also have the reading now, of a revelation that was presented by the Lord to Maurício our prophet, seer and revelator and translator, read in this conference to the people of the covenant. It will be read in 3 languages: Portuguese, English and Spanish.
It will be made available on our website along with Brother Maurício’s note.
Thank you for participating with us. I hope to see you soon.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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