Sunday Afternoon Session
The Holy Ghost
Elder Robert D. Hales
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Holy Ghost provides personal revelation to help us make major life decisions about such things as education, missions, careers, marriage, children, where we will live with our families, and so on. In these matters, Heavenly Father expects us to use our agency, study the situation out in our minds according to gospel principles, and bring a decision to Him in prayer. …
I remind all of us that the Holy Ghost is not given to control us. Some of us unwisely seek the Holy Ghost’s direction on every minor decision in our lives. This trivializes His sacred role. The Holy Ghost honors the principle of agency. He speaks to our minds and our hearts gently about matters of consequence. …
The revealed truths of the restored gospel came through the pattern of seeking in prayer, then receiving and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. … I testify that today, revelation from the Lord to the First Presidency and the Twelve comes according to these same sacred patterns. …
The Holy Ghost is the medium for God’s work, in families and throughout the Church. …
… I offer my testimony of the personal revelation and constant flow of daily guidance, caution, encouragement, strength, spiritual cleansing, comfort, and peace that have come to our family through the Holy Ghost. Through the Holy Ghost, we experience “the multitude of his tender mercies” [1 Nephi 8:8] and miracles that do not cease.
Always Remember Him
Elder Gerrit W. Gong
Of the Presidency of the Seventy
Each week, in partaking of the sacrament, we covenant to always remember Him. Drawing on a few of the more than 400 scripture references to the word remember, here are six ways we can always remember Him.
First, we can always remember Him by having confidence in His covenants, promises, and assurances. …
Second, we can always remember Him by gratefully acknowledging His hand throughout our lives. …
Third, we can always remember Him by trusting when the Lord assures us “he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more” [D&C 58:42]. …
Fourth, He invites us to remember that He always welcomes us home. …
Fifth, we can always remember Him on the Sabbath through the sacrament. At the end of His mortal ministry and the beginning of His resurrected ministry—both times—our Savior took bread and wine and asked that we remember His body and blood, “for as oft as ye do this ye will remember this hour that I was with you” [Joseph Smith Translation, Mark 14:21]. …
Finally, sixth, our Savior invites us to always remember Him as He always remembers us.
Refuge from the Storm
Elder Patrick Kearon
Of the Seventy
As members of the Church, as a people, we don’t have to look back far in our history to reflect on times when we were refugees. …
The Savior knows how it feels to be a refugee—He was one. As a child, Jesus and His family fled to Egypt to escape the murderous swords of Herod. And at various points in His ministry, He found Himself threatened and His life in danger, ultimately submitting to the designs of evil men who had plotted His death. Perhaps, then, it is all the more remarkable to us that He repeatedly taught us to love one another, to love as He loves, to love our neighbor as ourselves. …
If you are asking, “What can I do?” let us first remember that we should not serve at the expense of families and other responsibilities, nor should we expect our leaders to organize projects for us. But as youth, men, women, and families, we can join in this great humanitarian endeavor. …
The Lord has instructed us that the stakes of Zion are to be “a defense” and “a refuge from the storm” [D&C 115:6]. We have found refuge. Let us come out from our safe places and share with them, from our abundance, hope for a brighter future, faith in God and in our fellowman, and love that sees beyond cultural and ideological differences to the glorious truth that we are all children of our Father in Heaven.
Opposition in All Things
Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Central to the gospel of Jesus Christ is the Father’s plan of salvation for the eternal progress of His children. That plan, explained in modern revelation, helps us understand many things we face in mortality. …
Opposition in the difficult circumstances we face in mortality is also part of the plan that furthers our growth in mortality.
All of us experience oppositions that test us. Some of these tests are temptations to sin. Some are mortal challenges apart from personal sin. Some are very great. Some are minor. Some are continuous, and some are mere episodes. None of us is exempt. Opposition permits us to grow toward what our Heavenly Father would have us become. …
The Church in its divine mission and we in our personal lives seem to face increasing opposition today. Perhaps as the Church grows in strength and we members grow in faith and obedience, Satan increases the strength of his opposition so we will continue to have “opposition in all things.” …
Through all mortal opposition, we have God’s assurance that He will “consecrate [our] afflictions for [our] gain” (2 Nephi 2:2). We have also been taught to understand our mortal experiences and His commandments in the context of His great plan of salvation, which tells us the purpose of life and gives us the assurance of a Savior.
The Power of Godliness
Elder Kent F. Richards
Of the Seventy
As the Lord has revealed, the fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood is found in the temple and its ordinances, “for therein are the keys of the holy priesthood ordained, that you may receive honor and glory” [D&C 124:34]. “Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest” [D&C 84:20]. This promise is for you and for your family.
Our responsibility is to “receive” that which our Father offers. “For unto him that receiveth it shall be given more abundantly, even power” [D&C 71:6]: power to receive all that He can and will give us—now and eternally; power to become sons and daughters of God, to know “the powers of heaven” [D&C 121:36], to speak in His name, and to receive “the power of [His] Spirit” [D&C 29:30]. These powers become available personally to each one of us through the ordinances and covenants of the temple. …
As we feel the blessings of the temple in our own lives, our hearts turn to our families, both living and dead. …
There are more than 120,000 ordinance workers in the 150 operating temples around the world. Yet there is opportunity for even more to have this sweet experience. …
Come to the temple. Come often. Come with and for your family. Come, and help others to come too.
… Each temple is His holy, sacred house and … therein each of us may learn and know the powers of godliness.
And There Shall Be No More Death
Elder Paul V. Johnson
Of the Seventy
The Resurrection is brought to pass by the Atonement of Jesus Christ and is pivotal to the great plan of salvation. …
After resurrection, the spirit will never again be separated from the body because the Savior’s Resurrection brought total victory over death. In order to obtain our eternal destiny, we need to have this immortal soul—a spirit and body—united forever. With spirit and immortal body inseparably connected, we can receive a fulness of joy. … There is no salvation without both our spirit and our body. …
The reality of the Resurrection of the Savior overwhelms our heartbreak with hope because with it comes the assurance that all of the other promises of the gospel are just as real—promises that are no less miraculous than the Resurrection. … We know that He can make us whole no matter what is broken in us. …
… For all who have laid a child in a grave or wept over the casket of a spouse or grieved over the death of a parent or someone they loved, the Resurrection is a source of great hope. What a powerful experience it will be to see them again—not just as spirits but with resurrected bodies. …
I testify of the reality of the Resurrection. Jesus Christ lives, and because of Him, we will all live again.
Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders among You
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Only the adversary, the enemy of us all, would try to convince us that the ideals outlined in general conference are depressingly unrealistic, that people don’t really improve, that no one really progresses. … Don’t fall for that. With the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the strength of heaven to help us, we can improve, and the great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don’t always succeed. …
Please remember tomorrow, and all the days after that, that the Lord blesses those who want to improve, who accept the need for commandments and try to keep them, who cherish Christlike virtues and strive to the best of their ability to acquire them. If you stumble in that pursuit, so does everyone; the Savior is there to help you keep going. …
Brothers and sisters, the first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all our heart, might, mind, and strength. That’s the first great commandment. But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. …
… Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever.
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