We welcome all members of the Ucon Stake to a new series on becoming gatherers of Israel. Through these periodic segments, we will explore ways that we can deepen our testimony of the doctrine related to gathering Israel and improve our ability to share the gospel in natural, loving ways.

In the spring, Elder Sandino Román visited with us at our Stake Conference and provided great instruction. It was wonderful to receive guidance at the hand of a general authority of the church. While here, he very much demonstrated the Christ-like attributes that we all strive to emulate. He expressed and showed his love for us. He complimented our service and effort. And, he lovingly helped us to know what we can strive to improve in the Ucon Stake. He invited us to increase our efforts in gathering Israel.

In the evening session, he reminded us that “love, share, and invite” is not a "program" of the church. Rather, he explained, it is a lifestyle that, when folded into our lives, will result in our becoming natural and effective gatherers of Israel.

As we prepare to answer Elder Román’s invitation, by increasing our efforts to gather Israel by making love, share, and invite part of our lives, let us take a closer look at the concept of love as a foundation for participating more fully in the gathering of Israel.

We all easily recognize those in our lives for which we have feelings of love. With a little reflection, we also sense the intensity and nature of the love we feel for them. We are filled with gratitude for the love we both give and receive. However, there is always an opportunity to increase the depth of that love by learning to love as our Savior loves. Giving this personal attribute some deeper thought, we may wonder, “How can I increase my love for others? How can I increase in charity?”

During the earthly ministry of the Savior, Jesus was asked to rate the importance of the commandments. A Pharisee asked, “Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” The Savior responded by drawing the questioner’s attention to two key commandments - commandment that focus squarely on the attribute of love. The scriptures record,

Moroni, the Book of Mormon prophet, further taught that this love, which he defines as charity, is the greatest gift of all. Moroni testifies,

Returning to the Savior’s teaching, we can learn why Moroni would make this assertion. Jesus taught,

Of all the ordinances of salvation that are performed, and the associated covenants we make to help us return to the presence of Heavenly Father and remain with our family eternally, love is the foundation for all of them. Love is the basis for our spiritual potential. It is at the heart of the atonement and is the very power by which Heavenly Father found the strength to sacrifice His Son for the world.

It is no wonder Moroni teaches that without charity (love) we are nothing. And this is why he pleads,

There are specific divine patterns that can powerfully increase our charity and broaden our feelings of love for others. Although each individual must, as Moroni says, “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart", and be led by the Holy Spirit to develop such love, let us consider several impactful patterns that, when applied to our souls, can dramatically expand the love (charity) we feel for others. This week, let us look at charity as a foundation for the doctrine of gathering Israel and explore how we might apply and fold this part of the doctrine into our lives.

As a consideration, if we could assess the total amount of love that we have and feel for others (examine the magnitude of our charity), we readily realize that it is made up of two parts: First, it consists of the depth of love we feel for individuals in our lives. Second, it is multiplied by the number of individuals in our lives that we know and are learning to love. For the sake of this thought, consider the following formula:

Total amount of Love = (Intensity of Individual Love) X (# of Individuals we Know).

This formula suggests that we can increase the magnitude of love (charity) that we feel in our lives by both increasing the depth of love we have towards those individuals that we currently know, and by increasing our total amount of charity by including more people in our lives - getting to know them, and learning to love them.

Consider the magnitude of God’s love:

(Infinite Love for Each Individual) X (God’s Entire Posterity)

Because Heavenly Father's posterity has no limits, it stands to reason that His love is infinite in its nature and potential. So it is with us. As offspring of deity, we have no limits to the amount of love we can feel because we can infinitely expand the number of people we know and love, including the love we will ultimately feel for our own eventual unlimited posterity. It is in our nature to infinitely expand our love of others. This is why there is room in our lives to increase the number of people we know and learn to love. As the Savior invites all to come unto Him, we follow His pattern by including others in our lives, in our church, and in our hearts.

Although each of us likely recognize our need to be more expressive of our love (through our words and actions) to those around us that we already know and love, we can also recognize the opportunity to expand the circle of people around us. In other words, we can increase the number of people we know and we can develop feelings of love for them. As we do so, we broaden our love and increase the borders of our charity. It is worth noting that we simultaneously increase the individuals in the world that feel loved. Feeling love and a sense of belonging is the foundation upon which hearts are softened and prepared to receive the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ, when heard and recognized, can establish deep roots in the softened soils of our hearts. Hearts are ultimately softened by love. When we love, we soften hearts. We prepare other to hear and recognized the voice of the Shepheard and follow Him

The Savior often asserts that those who hear His voice will follow Him because His sheep know His voice. Certainly, the essence of His voice is love.

In our most recent Stake Conference, Elder Sandino Román extended a very personal invitation to each of us in the Ucon Stake. In connection with his observation of our opportunity to focus more on gathering Israel, he invited us to meet (and fold into our lives) someone new in the coming week(s). In so doing, he was urging us to increase our participation in the “love” portion of “love, share, and invite” by asking us to extend our loving reach to more of Heavenly Father’s children.

Elder Román's invitation, in part, grew out of a previous conversation the stake presidency had with him when we discussed reasons why gathering Israel in the Ucon stake is not as vigorous as we would like. We explained that one of the challenges that the latter-day saints in our area face is that we live in very small circles of people. We are very family- and church-centric in our community. We attend baptisms, family get-togethers, ward activities, family sporting events, Sunday meals, temple ordinances, mission callings, etc. – all with great love in our hearts for those in our circle. However, there remain hundreds and even thousands around us that do not have the opportunity to penetrate our loving circle because it seems there is no room. The circles of those we love are already full and consume all of our time. With our busy lives, perhaps we feel that there remains no time to know get to know others and include them. But are we at capacity when it comes to the love we are capable of feeling and sharing? Or, can we dramatically expand the boundaries of our love by including others – our neighbors, those that do not yet share our beliefs, or do not yet have the Savior in their lives? The essence of Elder Román’s invitation was an urging to burst the boundaries of our tight-knit circles and get to know and love others so that we may give room for scattered Israel to find their way home, first by feeling loved by us, and then though feeling God's love for them - by hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.