Area Leadership Message
Pure Gold
On a few occasions in my life, I have heard someone referred to as pure gold, meaning the person is of great worth because of their goodness, gentleness, and graciousness. It is nice to be able to be acquainted with someone who deserves such an accolade and I have found many such people in the Africa Central Area. These are people who are daily striving to be disciples of Christ.
When I left school in high school in 1971, (it seems such a long time ago) I worked as a mineral assayer for a mining company and analyzed rock for its mineral content. It was a hot and dusty job but an interesting one with many varied experiences. The best part of the job was that it allowed me to save money to contribute to the cost of my mission. The chief assayer would sometimes light the furnace and heat it to over 1,000 degrees Celsius and place in it a clay crucible with a mixture of fluxes and gold-bearing rock. The result was that he was able to separate off most of the unwanted impurities and was left with gold. As I have reflected on this, I have recognized that there is also a refinement process for each of us.
Our personal refinement doesn’t come through being placed in a crucible and put into a fiery furnace, but rather through our earthly experiences. Some of these experiences help us, if we are willing, to cast off pride and to humbly accept Christ as our Redeemer and to live by His commandments. Our refinement most often comes in stages and at different times but never in such terms that we cannot cope. Often the ‘heat’ of the refining experience is more than we would want, as it was for Job, yet when we come out of the ‘refining furnace’ and are willing to accept the lessons learned, we are better for the experience, as was Job. Isaiah says, “I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction” (1 Nephi 20:10). In the German version of the same verse the word chosen is translated as ‘made’ which gives us an interesting insight into the purposes of our sometimes-difficult earthly experiences.
It would be folly to believe that only fiery experiences refine us. As I have testified of the truths of the restored gospel, I have felt the Holy Ghost testify to me of the truthfulness of what I have uttered. As I have read from the Book of Mormon, I have had confirmed to me the need to follow what I have read and as I have listened to my priesthood leaders I have felt of their divine stewardship. These have been refining experiences of the soft and gentle kind; experiences that left me feeling a little more purified.
Further value is added to gold as it is fashioned by skilled artisans into articles and jewelry of exquisite beauty. The Lord has placed such ‘artisans’ around us and if we will just be humble enough, we will be shaped and buffed sufficiently to enable us to return to our Heavenly Father. The ‘artisan’ may be a priesthood or Relief Society leader, perhaps he or she will be a wise friend, a teacher, a parent or the Holy Ghost. Whoever the artisan is, be grateful that the Lord loves you so much that He would put such a person in your path. Remember His promise, ‘Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers’ (Doctrine and Covenants 112:10).
As gold approaches absolute purity it increases in its malleability. One ounce of gold can be beaten out to 17 square metres in thin sheets called gold leaf. The analogy is that as we increase in purity and become more malleable there is an increase in the ways the Lord can use us to strengthen His kingdom. The Church is growing quickly in the Africa Central Area and we therefore need more members who are as pure gold, true disciples of Christ who have endured with happiness the refiners fire and thereby have been ‘made’ to face the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead.
Know you are loved and appreciated for what you are already doing to build the kingdom of God on earth and for what you will yet do.