Attribute #8 - Devotion

Samuel Martin

(1875 - 1948)

with his wife Clara

Devotion: Profound dedication; consecration

D&C 24:7
For thou shalt devote all thy service in Zion; and in this thou shalt have strength. 

Growing up I heard lots of stories about my great-grandfather Martin, possibly because my father remembered him, maybe because we actually had Martin family reunions, but also because he had written his autobiography. I feel like he had a pretty amazing life. He was born in England, went to South Africa to better himself (eventually owned a bakery and was active in local politics), met the missionaries and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, moved to Utah (co-owner of a department store), returned to South Africa to serve as mission president, back to Utah (was chair of the Anti Cigarette Committee as a member of the Ogden Stake High Council and later served as a patriarch). He was definitely devoted to both his family and his faith, and I'm grateful for that legacy.

Previous to his death, he wrote the following in his book of remembrance:

If we have in any measure made contributions which have given others joy, such as ours have been since Elders brought the message [of the gospel] to us in far off South Africa, we will feel well repaid.

1926 - serving as mission president
Samuel, Theo, Frank, Jim, Clara

Carl Hernandez in a BYU devotional - "Devoted Discipleship" - taught:

[In a stake conference address, Elder Neal A. Maxwell] taught us powerfully, by word and deed, how we can measure our devotion to the Savior—a message he also delivered in general conference [October 1993]. He said:

Let our gratitude . . . be expressed by striving to become, attribute by attribute, more and more as Jesus is. By so living, ours will not then be a mere appreciation of Jesus, nor a modest admiration of Him. Rather, ours will be an adoration of Jesus expressed by our emulation of Him!

In light of Elder Maxwell’s counsel, we might ask ourselves where we stand on this continuum. Do we merely appreciate the Savior? Do we have a modest admiration of Him, or does our personal worship lead to daily decisions to more fully emulate Him?

photo credit: Liz Swindle

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland recalled:

“For 19 years I had enjoyed Christmas surrounded by family and friends.

“Then, as the Yule season approached in 1960, I found myself half a world away from all that. I had been in England less than three months when, on the first of December, my first junior companion and I were sent to open missionary work in the conservative city of Guildford, an area that had never had Latter-day Saint missionaries. … We were young, inexperienced, and a bit overwhelmed, but we were not fainthearted.

“We knocked on doors in the morning, we knocked on doors at midday, we knocked on doors in the afternoon, and we knocked on doors at night. … And we got in almost none of them.

“So it went until Christmas Eve, when people were even less inclined to hear a couple of missionaries. That evening, weary but devoted, we retired to our one-room rental and had a Christmas devotional. We sang a Christmas hymn and then offered an invocation. We read from the scriptures and listened to a tape recording titled The True Story of Christmas. Then we sang another hymn of the season, said a closing prayer, and went to bed.

“On Christmas morning we kept our morning study schedule and opened the two or three packages that had caught up with us following our transfer. Then we went out to knock on doors. … We didn’t get in any of them.

“For such an uneventful Christmas—clearly the least festive of any I ever had before or since—it says something that those special days in December of 1960 remain in my heart as one of the sweetest Christmases I have ever had. I think that is because for the first time in my life, I found myself understanding Christmas rather than just enjoying it. I think for the first time in any truly significant way, I was getting the message of Christ’s birth and life—His message and His mission and His sacrifice for others.”

sometime around 1928

Last year's attribute - Peace