Fresh out of college in 2005, I received a phone call from my uncle to see if I was available for a few weeks for a project he wanted to undertake.
“I want you to come help me build a cabin,” he said on the phone.
While my father had been a surveyor and draftsman, my building skills were typically limited to toy building blocks and campfires.
But this cabin project was different than a typical building project, he explained. He had purchased a small piece of property in the mountains above Cedar City, Utah. And he was going to buy a kit cabin to put on that property. I had never heard of a kit cabin before and remained unconvinced that I could be any help with this project.
The best part of this idea, according to Uncle Don, was that we would sleep on the mountain for the duration of the project. We would pack the cooler with supplies once per week “down in the city” and bathe in the small waterfall just up the trail from the new property.
The idea continued to sound more crazy and more appealing by the minute.
Eventually, I found myself on the mountain with him and his son, my cousin Shane.
We pitched tents on what felt like a 45-degree angle (it wasn’t even close to that). We had a propane stove and an electric griddle connected to a small generator for cooking.
The trees towered over us and gave us shade to work under during the heat of the southern Utah summer. And the creek gave us clean, cold water to drink each day.
The setting was beautiful, and the idea of building a cabin was fun. But this was going to be a building for family members and friends to use for many years to come. Who was I to have any role in this process?
As I think about it now, I’ve had similar feelings at other times in my life. I couldn’t find success as a missionary without serving as a missionary. I couldn’t be a good husband until I was married. Subsequently, my wife and I had to have children to become good parents. And I’m not saying that I was a great missionary or that I’ve got the husband and parenting things figured out.
But I know two things. I know we can find good examples to learn from. And I know we can choose to follow instructions when seeking to accomplish a goal.
Prospective missionaries can attend seminary classes, Sunday School, Aaronic Priesthood quorum meetings, Young Women group classes and mission preparation classes.
Future husbands and wives can learn from other couples in their lives. For me, I watched loving parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, neighbors and others navigate their challenges while staying faithful to covenants. I observed parents caring for their children and striving to teach them correct principles in the home.
And the word of God found in scriptures and in the words of modern prophets, apostles and other Church leaders has helped me have personal instruction throughout my life. The Holy Ghost has helped me make right decisions or helped me know when I’ve made wrong ones.
Both the examples and the instructions are important to me. The examples let me have a model to follow. The instructions help me feel I’m not alone when facing the next step in life.
So maybe I wasn’t a builder up on that mountain. But we had good instructions. And we had good mentors helping us learn from their successes and mistakes.
President Henry B. Eyring, second counselor in the First Presidency, taught about the simple doctrine of Jesus Christ in his October 2024 general conference message.
“You can find hope in the scriptural record of families,” he said.
Those families are our examples.
“One of the surest ways to avoid even getting near false doctrine is to choose to be simple in our teaching. Safety is gained by that simplicity, and little is lost,” President Eyring said.
That is the safety found in following sacred instruction.
My uncle’s cabin has withstood record amounts of snow in the time since we built it two decades ago. I didn’t know what I was doing when that project started, but I’m grateful for the standing reminder that I could learn a new skill and do something challenging like that. I’m grateful for individuals who gained the knowledge necessary to create solid instructions for us to use.
And I’m likewise grateful for prophetic instruction that continuously helps me build a spiritual home as well as spiritual mentors who give me hope that I can become everything Heavenly Father expects me to be.
— Jon Ryan Jensen is editor of the Church News.
