A true friend is vital to new members
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President Gordon B. Hinckley has charged each Church member to keep the promise made at baptism to "bear one another's burdens" and be a friend to new converts, said Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve.
"President Hinckley can't be there as a friend for every new member," said Elder Eyring on Saturday afternoon. "But you can be there for at least one. All it takes is to feel something of what they feel and something of what the Savior feels for them."
Elder Eyring shared the story of a young African man, Nkosiyabo Eddie Lupahla, who joined the Church in 1999 after being introduced to the gospel by a lifelong friend. Brother Lupahla was impressed by the warmth of the local Church members and agreed to listen to the missionaries. His friend was there for every discussion and Brother Lupahla soon made new friends. He was eventually baptized and later served a mission and grew in the faith.
"We don't know what part his friends had in his calls to serve and to speak. But we can be sure they thanked him and told him when they felt the Spirit in his service and in his teaching," Elder Eyring said.
Service in the Lord's kingdom is crucial to enduring — it strengthens members for the tests they must face, he added.
New members must make important decisions by themselves, but a true friend is vital.
"There are important ways for you to share the new member's burden that it may be bearable," Elder Eyring said.
First, love the new member, he counseled.
"That is what the Savior does. We can do it with Him and for Him. He showed us the way in His mortal ministry. He taught by precept and example that we are to love His disciples."
Second, members must listen to the new convert with understanding and empathy, Elder Eyring said.
"That also will take spiritual gifts, since our experience will rarely parallel theirs," he noted. "It will not be enough to say, 'I understand how you feel,' unless we do. But the Savior does. He is prepared to help you be a friend who understands even those you have just met, if you ask in faith."
Third, be an example for the new member.
"We can be obedient out of our faith in Jesus Christ. And in time we can become an example of a disciple who is born again through the Atonement," Elder Eyring said.
Fourth, he concluded, testify of the truth of the new member.
"It is essential to testify that the Father and the Son appeared to young Joseph Smith and that the full gospel and the true Church have been restored by heavenly messengers. The Holy Ghost will confirm those simple declarations as truth."
All will be tested, he added.
"And all of us need true friends to love us, to listen to us, to show us the way and to testify of truth to us so that we may retain the companionship of the Holy Ghost."
