President Thomas S. Monson declared to listeners in the priesthood session that "there are countless individuals who have little or no testimony right now, those who could and would receive such a testimony if we would be willing to make the effort to share ours and to help them change."
He added, "In some instances we can provide the incentive for change. I mention first those who are members but who are not at present fully committed to the gospel."
He told of a message from a speaker nearly 40 years ago at a mothers and daughters session of an area conference in Helsinki, Finland.
"Among many truths the speaker discussed, she said that a woman needs to be told she is beautiful," President Monson said. "She needs to be told she is valued. She needs to be told she is worthwhile."
He added, "Brethren, I know that men are very much like women in this regard. We need to be told that we amount to something, that we are capable and worthwhile. We need to be given a chance to serve. For those members who have slipped from activity or who hold back and remain noncommittal, we can prayerfully seek for some way to reach them. Asking them to serve in some capacity may just be the incentive they need to return to full activity."
Leaders should bear in mind that people can change and put behind them bad habits," President Monson said.
By way of illustration, he said when he first became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve he accompanied President N. Eldon Tanner, who was then a counselor in the First Presidency, to a stake conference in Alberta, Canada. During the meeting, the stake president read the names of four men who were qualified to be ordained elders. They were men personally known to President Tanner, who had previously lived in the area, but he privately expressed his astonishment to Elder Monson that they had turned their lives around and qualified for the ordination.
"After the meeting President Tanner and I had the opportunity to congratulate these four brethren," President Monson said. "They had demonstrated that men can change."
President Monson recalled his service as president of the Canadian Mission. In one branch with limited priesthood holders, a missionary had always been president. He said he received a strong impression that a member of the branch should preside there.
One adult member was a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood but didn't attend or participate enough to be advanced. President Monson interviewed him and told him the Lord had inspired him as mission president to call the man to be branch president.
"It was the beginning of a new day for that man," President Monson related. "His life was quickly put in order, and he assured me that he would live the commandments as he was expected to live them." Having been ordained as priest, in a few months he was ordained an elder, and he and his wife and family eventually were sealed in the temple. Their children served missions and were married in the temple.
"Sometimes letting our brethren know they are needed and valued can help them take that step into commitment and full activity," President Monson observed. "This can be true of priesthood holders regardless of age. It is our responsibility to give them opportunities to live as they should."
He said that as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve he once attended a meeting with a branch in Leadville, Colo., which also had always had a missionary as branch president. During the singing of the closing hymn, inspiration came to Elder Monson and he asked if a local man could serve as branch president. He focused on a man seated on one of the first three rows. He asked the mission president to speak to the congregation after the closing hymn while he, Elder Monson, took the man in another room to interview him.
"When the two of us walked back in the room, the mission president concluded his testimony," President Monson related. "I presented the name of the brother to be the new branch president. From that day forward, Leadville, Colo., had a local member leading the unit there."
President Monson said the same principle applies to those who are not yet members: "We should develop the capacity to see men not as they are, but as they can become when they are members of the Church, when they have a testimony of the gospel and when their lives are in harmony with its teachings."
He recalled an experience related by President Tanner about a successful missionary. The missionary had found all the people he baptized by tracting. Asked what had made him successful, the missionary responded that he attempted to baptize every person he met by picturing in his mind what the person would look like if he were ready for baptism.
"He said, 'When I look at someone that way, I have the capacity to bear my testimony to him in a way that can touch his heart," President Monson related.
"'Courage' is the word we need to hold near our hearts," President Monson told the assembled priesthood brethren, "courage to turn our backs on temptation, courage to lift up our voices in testimony, to all whom we meet, remembering that everyone must have an opportunity to hear the message. It is not an easy thing for most to do this. But we can come to believe in the words of Paul to Timothy: 'For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord'" (2 Timothy 1:7-8).
