Building Zion - BYU Pathway Worldwide

I've mentioned Pathway frequently. My wife and I are Pathway missionaries, and we train Pathway missionaries in South America. Pathway is one of the real-world, practical methods the Lord is using to build Zion in our day.

Here's an awesome talk by Brian and Melinda Ashton about "Building Zion."

https://www.byupathway.org/speech/build-zion

Excerpt:

Sister Ashton: Elder D. Todd Christofferson, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, gives us another answer to the question, “What is our role in building Zion?” He taught:

Zion is Zion because of the character, attributes, and faithfulness of her citizens. Remember, “the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18). If we would establish Zion in our homes, branches, wards, and stakes, we must rise to this standard. It will be necessary 

(1) to become unified in one heart and one mind; 

(2) to become, individually and collectively, a holy people; and 

(3) to care for the poor and needy with such effectiveness that we eliminate poverty among us. 

We cannot wait until Zion comes for these things to happen — Zion will come only as they happen.²¹

BYU-Pathway, along with parents, families, and other Church entities and programs, must help students to learn to be of one heart and of one mind and to live righteously. Learning these skills is a crucial part of your education and helping you to do so is essential to our mission as an institution.

In addition, BYU-Pathway has a unique role in making sure that there are no poor among us. No other Church institution has the worldwide reach and access to spiritually-based, job-ready certificates and degrees like BYU-Pathway. BYU-Pathway can provide higher education that will help our students get out of spiritual and temporal poverty in nearly every place that the Church is organized. Those students in turn can help others to become self-reliant until there are no poor among us.

Some Thoughts on Where You Can Start

President Ashton: So, what can you do today to build Zion?

We want to start by addressing BYU-Pathway’s instructors, missionaries, employees, and academic partners. Because we must help our students learn to build Zion in their lives, homes, congregations, and communities, we must begin by first building Zion in our own lives and homes. We must be pure in heart. We must incorporate Zion principles into our curriculum and teaching models. And we must do all we can to help students get jobs. We invite each of you to examine your lives, teaching, curriculum, and programs to see if they are in harmony with building Zion and then seek the Lord’s help to make necessary changes.

Electricity to Westwater

A beautiful example of a real-world project to improve lives.

Elder Uchtdorf visits Navajo community where the Church is helping bring electricity and water

Project involving the Church, state of Utah, Navajo Nation and others has brought electricity to Westwater, next to Blanding

By Scott Taylor  17 Sept 2022, 10:02 AM PDT

https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/9/17/23357662/electricity-to-westwater-dine-community-elder-uchtdorf-collaboration-church-blanding-utah

Excerpt:

Celebrating collaboration

The project — to bring public power and running culinary water — to the residential lots in Westwater is a cooperative effort linking the state of Utah, the city of Blanding, the Navajo Nation, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with the Church playing a key role in project funding.

Community members and project stakeholders commemorated the completion of the electrical phase with a Friday, Sept. 16, celebration ceremony and dinner. Representing the Church at the event were Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Elder Jose L. Alonso, first counselor in the North America Southwest Area (southeastern Utah pertains to that area and not the Church’s Utah Area).

Joining Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and others as keynote speakers, Elder Uchtdorf underscored the collaborative successes by revisiting the message from his well-known “Lift Where You Stand” October 2008 general conference address.

The Apostle told the Church News he was familiar with the project’s past, as it was stalled by divisions, difficulties and obstacles. “It was possible to move closer together … and as we move closer together and lift where we stand, we can move anything in the world.”

...

Involvement of area presidency, Elder Echo Hawk

Elder Uchtdorf praised the lieutenant governor’s persistent effort and working closely with the North America Southwest Area presidency, whom he called “very instrumental here.” He also singled out Elder Larry J. Echo Hawk, an emeritus General Authority Seventy who had served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs and is now working in the Utah governor’s office as special counsel on Native American affairs.

“Elder Echo Hawk was the one who took this to the governor and said, ‘This is a place where we need to do something — it needs to be done,’” Elder Uchtdorf said.

He joined several others who both publicly and privately underscored Elder Echo Hawk’s persistent encouragement of and effort in drawing in the state, city, tribe, utilities and Church as key to the project’s success.