I should like to emphasize the fact that today is the day for Latter-day Saints to prepare to meet God by keeping all of his commandments, lest the night cometh wherein we cannot repent. If we do not render obedience now, we might find ourselves at the judgment day in the condition that the lady found herself in a dream, as reported by one of the stake presidents at a conference I attended in Salt Lake City about a year ago. I do not recall the stake, and so I don't know which stake president to give credit to for this story.
STORY OF THE TEAPOT
He reported that there was a certain lady living in his ward who had joined the Church over in Europe when she was a Girl; and like many of the European people she had formed the habit of drinking tea. After she joined the Church of Jesus Christ, like quite a few Mormons (I am sorry to say) she continued the habit of drinking tea. She reared a large family. Her children married. Her husband died, and she became a widow. And then she became a temple worker. Day after day she went to the temple, and no doubt the consciousness of the tea-drinking habit she had bore rather heavily on her mind or on her conscience. One night she had a dream. She dreamed that she died and that she passed on into the other world. There she came into the presence of the Savior, the Prophet Joseph Smith, and many other great and good people who had lived on this earth and whose lives had been such that they were now worthy to become celestial beings. Very sweet, serene, and happy were the feelings that she experienced there In fact, there were no words to describe how beautiful the conditions were there, until she looked down into her hand and saw her old dirty, black teapot. Then her happiness turned to sorrow and shame. She immediately looked all around in the heavenly realm for some place to hide that teapot, but she couldn't find any place. She had to hang on to it. Then she awoke. Cold drops of perspiration were running down her face. She got out of bed, turned the light on, dressed, and went in the other room. There on her stove sat her old dirty teapot. She picked it up, went down to the back of the lot and threw it into the Jordan River, and she said, "There! I am not going to take you to heaven with me."
My brothers and sisters, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, now is the time for you and me to get rid of all of our old dirty, black teapots. In other words, we should get rid of all our sins. We should repent...and show God that we love him with all our hearts, with all our mind, and with all our strength.
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