New Player in the League

A league longed for new players—fresh strength, new heart, new hope.  

So the scouts brought in a young athlete whose stride was sure and whose desire burned bright.  

He had never played this sport, but he carried a spirit that made the whole locker room lift.  

The team rejoiced as he entered, the way heaven rejoices over “one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:7), and they spoke of his potential the way the Lord speaks of the “worth of souls” (D&C 18:10).

In his first game, he ran with courage but not yet with understanding.  He followed the rules he knew, but not the rhythms he had never been taught.  

He ran “with zeal, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2).   He cut left when the team curved right.  He stepped out of bounds without knowing the boundary was there.  

A veteran muttered, “You don’t belong,” forgetting that disciples are commanded to  “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees” (D&C 81:5).

No one walked beside him.  

No one said, “Here is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21).  

No one fulfilled King Benjamin’s charge to “teach them to walk in the ways of truth” (Mosiah 4:15).  

They handed him a rulebook but kept the playbook—the quiet culture, the unspoken signals, the inherited ways—closed.  They forgot that “all are alike unto God” (2 Nephi 26:33), even those who don’t yet speak the language of the team.

He studied late into the night, like the sons of Mosiah who “searched the scriptures diligently” (Alma 17:2),  praying to understand, longing to contribute, aching to belong.

But the next game, he was benched.  “Watch for now,” they said, though watching cannot teach what only walking can.  

He stood on the sideline with his helmet in his hands,  feeling the warmth of his welcome cool into something thin and distant.  He remembered the Savior’s warning that it is not His will “that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:14),  but he wondered if the team remembered it too.

Still he trained.  

Still he grew.  

Still he believed that someday he would be allowed to run again.  

His growth was like Alma’s seed—quiet, unseen, swelling in the dark (Alma 32:28).  But growth without fellowship is slow, and a team that benches its eager players should not wonder why the field feels empty.

The wise know:  

• If you cheer someone in, teach them how to play.  
• If you covenant to gather, walk with those who have just arrived.  
• If you want disciples to grow, give them the field and your friendship.  
• For the Savior never calls someone in without also calling someone else to stand beside them.  
• And as President Eyring taught, the Lord sends the prepared to those who will nurture them.

📖 Scripture‑Study Companion

A symbolic map for deeper reflection

Below is a guide pairing each symbol in the parable with doctrinal references that illuminate its meaning.

• The League (the Church / the covenant community)
• The Church as a body needing all its members: 1 Corinthians 12:12–27
• The Lord’s work requiring laborers: Luke 10:2
• Zion built by “one heart and one mind”: Moses 7:18

• The Scouts (missionaries, ministering disciples, leaders who invite) 
• “Go ye into all the world”: Mark 16:15
• Gathering Israel as a covenant responsibility: President Russell M. Nelson
• “Feed my sheep”: John 21:15–17
• The New Athlete (the new convert / returning member / spiritual beginner)
• “Newborn babes” in Christ needing nourishment: 1 Peter 2:2
• Alma’s people who “came into the fold of God”: Mosiah 18:8–10
• “The worth of souls is great”: D&C 18:10
• The Locker Room’s Welcome (initial fellowship)
• Rejoicing over one who repents: Luke 15:7
• “Ye are no more strangers and foreigners”: Ephesians 2:19
• President Hinckley’s “Three Things Every New Convert Needs”:
• A friend
• A responsibility
• Nourishing by the good word of God
• The Wrong Route / Missteps (cultural misunderstandings, social faux pas)
• “They ran, but not by knowledge”: Romans 10:2
• “Judge not according to appearance”: John 7:24
• “All are alike unto God”: 2 Nephi 26:33
• The Veteran’s Rebuke (uncharitable judgment)
• “Offend not one of these little ones”: Matthew 18:6, 14
• “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth”: Ephesians 4:29
• Elder Holland: “A new convert is the most vulnerable person in the Church.”
• The Closed Playbook (unwritten rules, cultural knowledge withheld)
• “Teach them the way wherein they must walk”: Exodus 18:20
• “Ye shall teach them to walk in the ways of truth”: Mosiah 4:15
• “Line upon line… here a little and there a little”: D&C 98:12
• The Sideline (exclusion from participation)
• “The body hath need of every member”: D&C 84:110
• “Let not the hand say to the foot, I have no need of thee”: 1 Corinthians 12:21
• “Remember in all things the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted”: D&C 52:40
• The Athlete Training Alone (private spiritual growth without fellowship)
• Alma’s seed growing in the heart: Alma 32:28–43
• “Work out your own salvation”: Philippians 2:12
• “Be not weary in well‑doing”: D&C 64:33
• The Moral (discipleship requires companionship)
• “Bear one another’s burdens”: Mosiah 18:8–9
• “Strengthen thy brethren”: Luke 22:32
• President Eyring: “The Lord sends the prepared to those who will nurture them.”