Avoid Comfort Zone In Education and Leadership, Seventy Says at BYU–Idaho

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By Valerie Walton, Church News

A young Juan Pablo Villar had just returned from his mission. As he resumed his university studies, things seemed to be going quite well.

Until his father delivered devastating news during his son’s junior year. He was struggling financially and couldn’t pay for his son’s education any longer.

“I felt like this was the end,” Elder Juan Pablo Villar, now a General Authority Seventy, said during a BYU–Idaho devotional on Tuesday, September 19.

“After the faith I had exercised to serve a mission, I had expected to receive blessings for my service. Confronted with this new scenario, my faith was tested, and I felt like I was being punished rather than blessed.” In a way, he said, he’d taken the opportunity of receiving a higher education for granted.

This experience taught him how important preparation for life’s changes and challenges are. With this in mind, he focused his message on two concepts that “can bless our lives if we work hard to continually progress, or they can condemn us if we take our blessings for granted,” Elder Villar said.

Education Means Acting

Education prepares one for whatever life may bring, as well as for eternity, Elder Villar taught. But how does understanding something like chemistry affect one’s eternal progression?

Elder Villar cited Doctrine and Covenants 130:18-19: “Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.”

He emphasized the two conditioning principles in these verses — diligence and obedience — which both imply action. “The advantage we will gain through knowledge can only be accomplished through our constant and courageous efforts to do God’s will,” Elder Villar said.

He also warned students to be wary of the comfort zone, a place where efforts to progress slow down.

“It may not be easy to overcome the temptation to stay in our comfort zones,” he said. “But I can tell you that every time I have either decided or been forced to move out of my comfort zone, I have felt my self-esteem increase, I have learned to appreciate and develop my talents, and I have gained greater confidence in my own capabilities.”

Leadership Means Acting

Becoming an example and leader for others is a natural result of becoming more comfortable with one’s own growth, Elder Villar said. Being a leader goes beyond the role or position, but also to the attitude of being a leader, he said.

One quality Elder Villar has noticed about leaders is their ability to make things happen. “As leaders work to develop this skill, they take on more and more responsibility, setting goals and learning to excel despite challenges. Their repeated successes become inspiring and influential to others,” he said.

One way to be such a leader is to accept President Russell M. Nelson’s recent invitation in the April 2023 general conference: “As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are to be examples of how to interact with others — especially when we have differences of opinion. One of the easiest ways to identify a true follower of Jesus Christ is how compassionately that person treats other people.”

Elder Villar said: “Let us accept this invitation to be active peacemakers and let us do the hard work necessary to become leaders who make things happen. ... Let us be the ones who promote peace when we see conflict. Let us be the ones who help in our study groups, so they are productive, honest and respectful.”

To conclude the story he opened his address with, Elder Villar said he went to his brother with this tragedy he was facing of being unable to complete his education. But his brother smiled and asked if he’d thought about working to pay for school, something not easy to do in Chile.

“Can I do that? Study and work at the same time?” Elder Villar asked his brother. His brother replied that of course it was possible and he could do it.

“I learned that it was possible to be self-reliant, that I could do more than one thing at a time, and that I could earn my own money and manage it well,” Elder Villar said. “As we learn to rely on our Savior Jesus Christ and strive to follow His teachings, He will help and bless us to accomplish our good objectives and to reach heights that we never thought we could reach.”

In her remarks, Sister Carola Cristina Barrios de Villar, Elder Villar’s wife, taught the students to fill their lives with the things that matter most — such as strengthening their relationships with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and inviting the Spirit by reading the Book of Mormon.

“Create sacred places and moments with the Lord reading and studying the Book of Mormon,” she said. “As we make the Savior Jesus Christ the center of our lives and strengthen our faith in Him, peace, security and progress will fill us.”

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