I’m Kent E. Nielsen — a friend of Christ, husband, and father of six. I served a mission to Mongolia, studied American Studies at BYU graduating with university honors, and published my first book in 2016.

You were not born to build your empire “to get gain,” nor to leave your mark the way the world does — skyscrapers, hospitals, libraries stamped with your name, collecting the praise of the world and its transitory reward. That’s not what you were born for.

For thirty years I worked side by side with the words of Christ and the personal-development tradition — Hill, Allen, William George Jordan, Emerson. So many good principles, so many embedded scriptures, but at the end of the day they reach for perfection and could never supply the converting power. But the gospel does — and it teaches you how to harvest more with that power than you ever could on your own: planting, nourishing, pruning, reaping, and sharing His love with everyone you come in contact with, whether words are exchanged or not. Why wouldn’t you want to share a gift like that, when it was given to you with all — and more — than you could imagine? There’s a faith that causes things to happen: the same way harnessed electricity lights a home, the powers of heaven can be harnessed to lift the body of Christ within your own given talents and gifts. That’s what it means to discover, develop, and disseminate your gifts from your divine identity as a son or daughter of the Most High God.

My greatest fear was mental illness — I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, yet in my mid-twenties, not long after serving on my junior college’s student body government, that’s exactly what I was diagnosed with. No drugs, no addiction — I was just a good kid who got sick anyway. In nine months I went from six-pack to sixty pounds heavier. My car was impounded and sold while I sat in a hospital bed. My engagement ended right before I was hospitalized. Not one friend from those years came to visit. But my parents rode the bus every single week to see me, my dad slipping me a roll of quarters each time — the two of them understanding what I was going through in a way few others could. My ecclesiastical leaders showed up too. Between them, they taught me where real power actually lives: not in status, friends, or things, but in family and priesthood.

I laid my life before the Lord just before I turned nineteen — walking away from an MTV-infatuated mind chasing status, wanting to be watched and praised by others — when a nudge from the still small voice asked why I wouldn’t let Him do more with my life than I could on my own. My answer: “Let Him I will.” Thirty-plus years later, I still marvel — fast food worker to missionary in Outer Mongolia, to BYU honors graduate, to a marriage with six kids, to a disciple who knows and serves God with all he has, a light on a hill meant to lift others, not stand above them.

Come learn with me as I give my all to be free with my substance, that you may know the Lord — that is, to be one with Him as He is with God. In that power, you will do greater works, too — including sharing your gifts and talents not just on your street and in your neighborhood, as a candle lights a house or a light shines on a hill, but the way King Benjamin and Alma the Elder desired and did: to share your message online! Your life is a walking billboard, a witness that glorifies God in all that you are — and the highest form of worship is emulation. That’s what it means to honor God.

Tapping into the words of life is like having a cup that overflows: fill your soul with the one thing that never faileth — the pure love of Christ, even charity — and you’ll have enough and to spare, for your spouse, your children, your neighbors, and the world. You were meant to be more than a light in your neighborhood. Come take upon you the yoke of Christ, that you may witness who you worship with your life, your words, your deeds — and be filled with the fruits of a life doing greater works than these.

Join the community to talk about the weightier matters of life:

skool.dogreaterworks.com

Some of these greater works are to be a witness with your given talents — not just words, but with a website, a blog, a podcast, a bookstore, a light online where your own gifts and testimony can be found and shared, the same way I’m building mine — a living document, a witness, a record.

If you’ve felt the call to share your message beyond your current circle of influence, connect with me about how to build your website online—DM me within the skool platform. If you are not a member join my group: skool.dogreaterworks.com