April 7–13: “Lift Up Your Voices … to Declare My Gospel”

Doctrine and Covenants 30–36Parley P. Pratt had been a member of the Church for about a month when he was called “into the wilderness” to preach the gospel (Doctrine and Covenants 32:2). Thomas B. Marsh had been a member for even less time than that when he was told, “The hour of your mission is come” (Doctrine and Covenants 31:3). Orson Pratt, Edward Partridge, and many others had likewise barely been baptized when their mission calls came. Perhaps there’s a lesson in this pattern for us today: if you know enough to accept the restored gospel by baptism, you know enough to share it with others. Of course, we always want to increase our gospel knowledge, but God has never hesitated to call upon the “unlearned” to preach His gospel (Doctrine and Covenants 35:13). In fact, He invites all of us, “Open your mouth to declare my gospel” (Doctrine and Covenants 30:5). And we do that best not through our own wisdom and experience but “by the power of [the] Spirit” (Doctrine and Covenants 35:13).See also “The Faith and Fall of Thomas Marsh,” “Ezra Thayer: From Skeptic to Believer,” “Orson Pratt’s Call to Serve,” in Revelations in Context, 54–69.