Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep

During His mortal ministry, the Lord spoke to His disciples and compared people who were prepared to receive the gospel to grain in the field ready to be harvested: “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35). Grains such as wheat or barley change color as they grow. When the grain is young it is green, but as it matures it grows pale. When the grain is ready for harvesting, it can be described as “white.” This metaphor was used by the Lord in several latter-day revelations to indicate that people were prepared to be taught the gospel and gathered to the Lord and His Church (see D&C 6:3; 11:3; 12:3; 14:3; 31:4; 33:3).

 

“I invite you to become a vast army with enthusiasm for this work and a great overarching desire to assist the missionaries in the tremendous responsibility they have to carry the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. ‘The field is white [and] ready to harvest’ (D&C 4:4). The Lord has repeatedly declared this. Shall we not take Him at His word?

“Before the Church was organized, there was missionary work. It has continued ever since, notwithstanding the difficulties of many of the seasons through which our people have passed. Let us, every one, resolve within ourselves to arise to a new opportunity, a new sense of responsibility, a new shouldering of obligation to assist our Father in Heaven in His glorious work of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of His sons and daughters throughout the earth” (“Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep,” Ensign, May 1999,Gordon B. Hinckley).