"GATHER ALL THE GOOD THINGS"
SHANE MANNING

Hesci, sisters. I am Shane Manning.  As a member of the leadership team of Gathering of Tribes, I’d like to take a moment to express our deep gratitude to you for being part of this first Sacred Sisters devotional, presented by and for Indigenous women of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We are so grateful for your support, whatever background you come from.

I’d like to introduce myself and my connection to this community.  I am the daughter of Mormon pioneers on my mother’s side, and of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma on my father’s side.  I’m speaking to you today from my home in Arizona, on the traditional lands of the Akimel O’odham and Piipaash peoples.  I am grateful to those relatives for their stewardship of this land.  

Many generations ago, their ancestors helped my ancestors when my great-great-grandparents arrived came to this area as missionaries with a small group of settlers.  The histories of these two groups intertwined as my ancestors were taught and supported by the Indigenous people of this land, and in a complex cultural exchange informed by vastly different experiences, my relatives learned how to live in this land while sharing their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Later, my Muscogee family left the reservation in Oklahoma to seek opportunity here, and here they also encountered the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and joined the Church.  Today I am blessed by the wisdom and faith of all of my ancestors.

I am now the mother of a family created through foster care and adoption.  The children of my heart carry many different histories as well, bringing with them roots from Africa and the Middle East, Western Europe, the American South, and Indigenous North America.  It has been my goal to help them honor their histories and develop their individual identities, incorporating all that we learn of their languages and cultures of origin, while also focusing on their eternal identities as children of God.  

In 2021 I felt prompted to return to the university to study the best ways to help my children connect with the many different cultural and familial influences that inform their identities.  An enthusiastic friend (who I only resent a little) helped me apply to graduate school in the middle of a worldwide pandemic with a houseful of kids who were trying not to do school from home.  I began my studies with one goal in mind, but shortly into my first semester I was led to a different focus, and I began examining the ways that our Indigenous brothers and sisters experience the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in relationship to a traditional Indigenous worldview.  

As I studied the traditions and teachings of Indigenous cultures around the world, I consistently saw expressions of eternal truths that are taught in the scriptures and confirmed by the Spirit.  In much the same way that many of our apostles and prophets have used teachings from thought leaders in their cultures – like John Milton, William Wordsworth, and C.S. Lewis, who are frequently quoted in General Conference addresses and other writings -- I believe that we can and should expand our understanding of our Creator and Heavenly Parents as we recognize eternal truths that are found in our traditional teachings.  

In the Savior’s intercessory prayer recorded in John chapter 17, Jesus said, “This is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.”  Joseph Smith taught in his Lectures on Faith that in order to know God, we must know that he exists and have a “correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes.”  President Gordon B. Hinckley frequently reiterated his invitation to all children of God to “bring with you all the good that you have and let us add to it.”   I believe we can learn from President Hinckley and other Church leaders that our faith may be expanded and our individual relationships with our Heavenly Parents strengthened as we recognize truth from whatever source we receive it.

A new friend I connected with during the Utah Gathering of Tribes event in 2023 described the way her joy in worship has grown as she viewed the gospel through the lens of different cultural traditions.  Sara is white and her husband is Black and Indigenous.  As they created their multiracial family, they have consciously sought different cultural avenues for their children to experience the gospel, including participating in Gathering of Tribes events and attending the monthly devotionals of the Genesis Group, a group established to strengthen and minister to Black Latter-day Saints in Utah.

Sara told me she was grateful to participate in the Utah Gathering where she felt “a different type of strengthening spirit,” similar to what she often enjoys at Genesis Group.  “It's like I'm now getting the experiences I've been searching for,” she said, “and being able to share it with my kids is pretty awesome.”  

Sara’s comments reminded me of a recent time that I was taught by the Spirit when I stepped out of my cultural comfort zone.  On this day I participated in an endowment session at the Mesa Arizona Temple and planned to seek guidance from the Spirit on a particular matter.  I entered the celestial room and confidently strode over to a table where I picked up a set of scriptures and sat down to read.  Except I didn't pick up a Book of Mormon; I grabbed a Libro de Mormon.  And I have un poquito de español, but not an impressive amount.  But out of embarrassment I decided to read anyway, and I turned to the book of Moises in the Perla de Gran Precio and started in.  And because it was in a language that I'm less familiar with, I had to take my time with reading, and I had to try to remember what it said in English and make sure I was getting it all in Spanish. 

Until I got to verse 4: "And behold, thou art my son...."
And because I was reading slowly and taking my time, those words were particularly impactful.

I'd been praying about a certain one of my children, and it came so forcefully to me that she is Their daughter, and They have Their eyes and Their hands over her, and that They will make up the shortcomings in my parenting as she takes her mortal journey.  And while it may not be the path that I would choose for her, it will be okay, because the atonement covers all of our weakness.  

And I had known all of that in my heart, but in that moment, because I was in another language and I was taking my time, and I was in the temple, and I was open to the Spirit, and probably many other reasons, I was able to receive some revelation that I needed.  And what brought me there was the willingness to search the scriptures in a language different from my own.

So, in the spirit of President Hinckley, I want to encourage you to bring the good you have, and then add to it, and also let it be added to the body of the knowledge of the Saints.  Let all of us learn what you know.  

Bring your personal revelation received in dreams and visions.  Bring your Seven Generations and your responsibility to your children and their children.  Bring your Great Peacemaker, who teaches humility, unity, and respect for all people.  Bring your whakapapa, your knowledge of and relationship with your ancestors.  Bring your connection to the land and its teachings, and sacred places that have no walls.  Bring your hozho, your beauty and balance between the physical and the spiritual.  Bring your potlatch, your joy in sharing until there are no poor among you. Bring your prayers of thanksgiving that last for hours or days, your gratitude for the smallest hummingbird to the innumerable stars.  Bring your reverence and your love for your mothers and your sisters and your daughters, the matriarchs of your families and communities. Bring your dances that serve as prayers for healing and connection to the Savior and to each other, and bring your drums that echo the heartbeat of all Creation.  

Bring all of these, and add to them priesthood keys.  Add the sealing power.  Add covenant relationships.  Add continuing revelation, prophets, and temple ordinances.  Bring what your mothers and their mothers have taught you, and testify of those things at every opportunity.  Bring all the teachings that point you toward the Savior, and in all these things let us be “edified and rejoice together.”  

It is my hope that we can incorporate eternal truths from all the sources provided to us by our loving and omniscient Heavenly Parents, and that we will continually let them lead us along the covenant path until we all return to Them together.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.