Good Morning brothers and sisters, It's been a long time since I've been up here. Most of you have met me and my wife. You probably thought I wasn't super outgoing. Your probably thinking Im super shy cuz I just don't talk a lot. I used to not be like that. I used to be super outgoing, talkative too. So I really appreciate you guys coming up to me. It's meant a lot and coming up to my wife. All of us are here for the summer. And it's meant a lot to me personally & to my friends here as well, that you guys are so outgoing, and so accepting as a ward. You totally made us feel like we were home from the very first day, because we were talking about gosh, should we even put our records in the ward and were like no, like, we'll just go. But no, we're here. And you better be careful or we may be here to stay. But we really do love it here. So my name is Kiel Lambson and its spelled k, i, e l. So it looks like kill. So I'm used to it. It's all right. I'm actually studying German now and in Germany there's a town called Kiel, Germany. And so, if people like want to introduce themselves and they see my name badge, and they see that looks like Kiel. I'm just like, yeah, like in Germany it's Kiel but here in America its Kyle. So I just go with it. But my wife's name is Jaicelyn and I'ts so beautiful. But, if our names Kiel and Jacelyn are any indication of where we're from, you probably guessed it already. We're from Utah. But Jaicelyn and I got married in 2020. We had a small backyard COVID wedding and we're looking forward to being sealed soon. But we didn't want to have to remember another date so, we're gonna get married on our anniversary, which is October 15th. We got married on October 15 so, we want to get sealed on October 15th. So we're looking forward to that and we're super grateful that Bishop Wells has invited us to get our temple recommends renewed. It's been a huge blessing, I appreciate his proactivity on that. But I graduated from college at Dixie State University. I got a degree in communication and leadership. Which you probably wouldn't have guessed it with all the stuttering and the nervousness, but we're working on it, we are. But we were in Mexico. We're just enjoying our time and we were approached. So it was my birthday. We just got done horseback riding and we're walking down the street and this guy drives up to us on a four-wheeler. We were like, oh, cool, he's gonna offer us like a four-wheel ride or something, but it was actually an American guy who's from Tucson, Arizona and he's like, hey, we have this puppy and you guys look like a super nice, like American couple. He says to us, "we can't take this puppy home because my wife's pregnant." We already have six dogs. Would you guys want to take this puppy? Like, I guess he found it. It was getting just beaten by some guy who didn't want the puppy by his store. And so he took it and then he realized he couldn't. So he offered the puppy to us. And, of course, were like, oh my gosh. This is such a cute puppy. Like, we'll take her, and I was thinking, like, yeah, we'll clean her up. We'll get her like some medicine and get her some food and then leave her in Mexico. Obviously, but my girlfriend at the time, Jacelyn wanted to keep the puppy. So of course we compromised and we kept the puppy. So, her name is Covey because that was right when COVID-19 was a thing. Like right when the pandemic was shutting things down, like no travel internationally. Like COVID-19 was like huge. Like that's when it was just starting. And so we had this puppy with us and the world was closing down. We had to get out of Mexico like that, we had to be out of Mexico. So we're like, we have this puppy, we're coming. But anyway, we wanted to name her. Her name is Covi. So we wanted to name her covi like COVID. But but we pronounced it Covey because Steven Covey is one of my favorite authors.
And that's actually kind of what I'm going to be talking about today is one of his books, the seven habits of Highly Effective People. But I just want to first talk on the beauty of giving a talk the beauty of receiving an assignment. The first thing that usually comes to my mind when when I'm supposed to give a talk is I don't want to go out there and sound dumb. But then the second thing is I don't want to sound like a hypocrite either. We learned about the Pharisees in the scriptures and those guys are the worst. So, I don't want to be up here thinking I'm all cool teaching all these lessons. I'm better than anybody. But the beauty of having assignments in the church is that were not perfect. Its like we are given these assignments like a mission or having a calling, or given a talk.
The person teaching is the one who's usually learning the most. When you go on your mission the most important convert is yourself. And so for me giving this talk today, these are things that I need to hear. This is my spiritual learning journey. I just appreciate you guys all for being here on this journey with me. But there was a poet, a 20th century poet. His name is TS Elliot. And he said, "Where is the wisdom that was lost in knowledge, so where is the knowledge that is lost in the information? So, in today's world, we're so bombarded with information, and I've got two screens in front of me right now. I've got my watch so there are three. Wow. So like, we're always getting like text messages and social media notifications. All of it is just information and isn't really true knowledge. Like, if you hear something and you repeat it that's information. We're all just spreading the news, who knows If it's real or not. But when you really study something and you know for yourself that it is the truth, or it is something that makes sense, then that becomes knowledge. Once you can actually teach about something that's true knowledge rather than just information. Then knowledge over time when we apply it to our lives, that's the keyword application, that's when it becomes true wisdom. I loved what Brother Wells said about reading because I feel like true knowledge comes from reading. Because the authors are writing about their wisdom, the experiences that they've had in their life and they know that they are true because they've been practicing. And then through reading we receive that knowledge and we can apply ourselves and through that becomes true wisdom. So I think that's beautiful. I think it's very important to read the book of Mormon, to read other motivational books and even to read like fictional books because you can create your own idea from what you're reading rather than just tv. I mean I love TV and movies but you know, you just watch it and like that's what it is. But when you read something, you kind of create that story yourself. But like I said, my talk is gonna go into the seven habits of highly effective people, written by Steven Covey. And how we can use these seven habits not only to have a more successful and fulfilling life, but also how we can use them to become closer to Christ and to strengthen our own testimonies. And I also loved what Ellie said in her talk because she kind of mentioned habits as well. We really don't need one single defining moment that shapes our testimony. It's the small things that add up. It's the things that we do daily and small and simple things that really add up and create our testimony. And you can look at the example of Laman and lamuel who literally saw an angel and they still didn't have a testimony. It was Nephi who was diligent and always doing the small and simple things and he knew that he was always going to choose the right and he was a chosen servant of the Lord. So the first habit that Stephen Curry touches on in his book is his proactivity and my favorite scripture. One of my favorite scriptures is from Doctrine and Covenant 58:26 through 27. It says, "for behold, it is not meet that I should command In all things, for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness." So this is amazing because I mean I feel like all of us have some sort of entitlement, some sort of like, I deserve this. I should be given this but what this is teaching us is, you know, we can't just always stand around with our hand out. We have to be proactive. We have to get things going. Christ knocks on the door, but if you've seen that painting, there's not a handle. He's not gonna force his way in. He'll knock on the door, but it's up to us to be proactive, to let him in to do these things that we need to, to become closer to him, because he's always there. It's just always our choice to open the door to him or not and to be proactive. Another fun example of being proactive is we love pickle-ball. So we started playing pickle-ball around these courts here at Mile Square Park but we always get kicked off. I don't know what it was. I just thought we're too good, but there are always people using the courts. So my proactive wife bought a pickle-ball net, and so now we can put the ball up at our apartments. It's awesome. It's a great example for productivity. Thanks babe. I love it.
Number two is to begin with the end in mind. So, I'm all about being what's the word? Willie Nilly, you know, and winging it. I'm all about having fun but, beginning with the end in mind, it's all about having a blueprint. So, if you think about building Legos or building a house, building Legos is more difficult. I haven't actually built a house before. But you have the blueprint there and you see this awesome Bat-mobile and you think okay that's sweet. How am I gonna put all these random pieces into this bat-mobile? That's actually gonna look cool and drive and the blueprint is what helps us get there. And beginning with the end in mind, you got to come up with a plan first in your head before you can go out and actually execute it. And obviously, we know through the plan of salvation that Heavenly Father had this amazing plan for us that was laid out so long ago. And we're just, you know, we're going through that plan right now and his plan is for all of us to return to live with him. And actually my wife is recording this talk for my mom to listen to because she misses me. Um, and so we wanted to make sure that the recording app works. So we actually recorded the talk to make sure it worked.
Habit number three is to put first things first. So, our roles and our goals in life. So I'll kind of go a little bit quicker because we're running out of time, but we have many different roles and goals in life. For example, for me, some of my roles as the husband. I'm a dog father and son. And maybe, I'll be a father one day. Maybe not after that. But I have a role as a priesthood leader and role as a salesman, and we have tons of different roles and goals in our life. And he teaches us to put first things first, to prioritize. That's always very important especially with our heavenly Father. Everything that we have is his so we want to prioritize him in our life.
Habit number four is to think win-win. When I made a joke about compromising earlier in a marriage, when your wife is happy, that's a win-win. But, what it talks about as far as win-win goes, I think about our covenants. When we have our covenants with God and we take the sacrament and we go through the temple, that's a win-win. Because it's a two-way promise. Our heavenly father wins by having his children return to him and of course we win because we received the blessings from our Heavenly Father. And if we continue to endure to the end, we will receive all that is his. And that's the most amazing promise ever, that we're all working towards.
Habit Number five is: seek first to understand then to be understood. There's so much commotion in the world, so much arguing, so many people that just want to get their point across. And it's very seldom that people actually listen to others first. And as far as the gospel goes, you can find a lot of people who say, oh, I just don't really know if like the gospel works for me, and my response to that is have you are you praying daily? Are you communicating with heavenly Father? Are you reading the Book of Mormon? Have you tried to understand before totally rejecting? And that's just so important that we have to first seek to understand, before we can really be understood.
Habit number six is synergize, that means to work well with others. And one of my favorite scriptures to share on my mission was Matthew 11:29. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." I had no idea what yoke meant. I actually tried to find the scripture and typed in YOLK, but that's for an egg. The yoke for this, and what I learned in my scriptures is, it's something that can put the power of two animals together. So, if you have one ox, it can carry the load of one ox. But then if you put two oxen together, I thought it would be that they could do double the load. But there's actually some crazy statistics like they can actually take like five times the load. And you'll have to look that one up because I'm not sure if it's true. But that's what I heard and that's what I taught people on my mission. But when you have two together it just multiplies the load that can be carried and Christ literally says that he's gonna put this yolk on himself with us and that together, we will take these trials in life. Habit number seven is just to sharpen oneself. That one's pretty easy to understand. And as far as just keeping your tools maintained, that means to always, you know, continue these things. When you have a saw, it's gonna work great when you first get it to cut down some trees, but then you're gonna have to sharpen it. You got to keep it working well, and that's how we have to be with our testimony, with our relationships, with everything. We have to sharpen it all. We have to continue these good habits, and keep up the good work. Never stop training our minds and always rely on the spirit, but I appreciate you guys coming on this learning journey with me. I just want to end with my testimony that I know this church is true. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored on the earth today. I am so so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. And for his sacrifice because I know I'm far from perfect and I know that through him, I'll be able to be sealed to my wife and have an eternal family. And I'm also very excited to do the temple work for my little brother who was passed away. And I know that that's possible to see him again through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And I promise that if you guys practice these small and simple habits and you continue to sharpen the saw and continue to Just do your best. None of us are perfect. When we continue to do our best and we always rely on the spirit and we practice good habits, then we're all going to be able to have an eternal family. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ.Amen.