BYU-Hawaii economics professor Stephen H. Russell listed several reasons at the March 18 devotional why he believes The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is great and amazing.
Russell started by recalling a delightful conversation he and his wife recently shared with dear friends "about our love for the Savior and what a privilege it is for us to live on earth in the days of the Restoration."
"My testimony is that this Church is a gift from a loving Heavenly Father," he said, noting a number of reasons why he believes "there is nothing in all the world that compares to membership in The Church of Jesus Christof Latter-day Saints."
First, the Church "is a great friend to its members. We find in theChurch the greatest spiritual and social fulfillment that can be found anywhere," he said, telling how in 1967 he and his young family moved from Provo, Utah,to his first Air Force assignment near Dayton Ohio. "We had been led to believe that military housing was plentiful. However, when we arrived at the base, to our dismay, we learned that the wait for base housing was at least one year. We had less than one hundred dollars and our first AirForce paycheck was thirty days away."
"We decided to locate the only friend we had in Ohio -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Russell said, adding his family was soon house sitting the home of the first counselor in their new ward.
Later on a 15-month assignment to Taiwan without his family, the professor found a small group of LDS servicemen who met every night. "I honestly don't know how I could have survived socially or spiritually were itnot for...the LDS Servicemen's Group."
Second, the Church "produces a uniquely righteous people in a world that is moving toward moral bankruptcy. In the words of scripture, the Latter-day Saints are a peculiar people," Russell continued, again using two examples from his military career to illustrate:
During his first assignment, the commanding officer hosted a cocktail party to welcome Russell, but already knew he was LDS and had arranged for soft drinks. In another case, after offering him coffee and tea, a senior officer asked, "Are you a Mormon? Yes, sir," Russell replied. "Good for you, Captain. I have never met a Mormon that wasn't a fine officer."
"Latter-day Saints, with their standards, maintain a separate identity when we are out in the world," he said. "I have consistently found that the Word of Wisdom is a behavioral emblem, an identifying mark,that facilitates our being identified as people with very high standards."
"But the Word of Wisdom is only one aspect of the principles of morality that make members of the Church a separate and peculiar people. The other aspect relates to our high standards of virtue and decency," Russell continued.
"In the midst of a world that is physically, socially, and spiritually sick with tobacco, alcohol, drugs, divorce, immorality, pornography, same-sex relationships, and all manner of vulgarity and indecency, this Church stands to all the world as a beacon of truth and righteousness, declaring the standards for living that bring approval in heaven and happiness on earth."
Third, the Church "is great and amazing because its affairs are accomplished by volunteers," Russell said, noting that all the volunteers who fill callings, including the vast army of missionaries, receive but one form of payment -- the joy of service. There is nothing like it in all the world."
Fourth, Russell finds the senior leadership of the Church very amazing. They are leaders who "do not train and apply for position, they do not seeks advancement, and they do not negotiate compensation packages. On the contrary,the presiding authorities of this Church are called by revelation to leave their chosen careers and to enter full-time Church service."
"A church which can ask for and receive the voluntary services of its millions of members, from Primary teachers to missionaries to General Authorities,is unique in all the world," Russell said, pointing out there are also "no fund raising campaigns in this Church."
"Brothers and sisters, how blessed we are to belong to this Church," Russell said. "Most of all, this Church is great and amazing because it is true. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the New TestamentChurch restored in these latter days. This is the Church led by Apostles and Prophets. This is the church that is built upon the rock of revelation."
He added, as "the God of Heaven declared to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants, "[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is]...the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth..."