"The Tongue of Angels"
Elder Robert S. Wood
- Of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
President Spencer W. Kimball warned against vulgarity and lewd talk, which he believed led to a corruption of the mind and soul.
President Spencer W. Kimball warned of vulgarity of speech and expression and particularly counseled against speaking of sex glibly, which he associated with immodesty. "Lewd talk and jokes," he said, "constitute another danger which lurks seeking as its prey any who will entertain it as the first step to dirtying the mind and thus the soul" (The Miracle of Forgiveness[1969], 228).
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"The Tongue of Angels"
Elder Robert S. Wood
- Of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Isaiah lamented his unclean lips among a people of unclean lips, indicating the need for purification before he could bear the word of the Lord.
I"™ve been struck by the fact that when Isaiah received his charge from the Lord, he bemoaned that he was "a man of unclean lips" and dwelt "in the midst of a people of unclean lips"Isa. 6:5This sin too had to be purged from Isaiah if he was to bear the word of the Lord.
Forgiveness
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"The Tongue of Angels"
Elder Robert S. Wood
- Of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Jesus emphasized the importance of words, teaching that it is not what enters but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person, reflecting the heart.
In contrasting the importance of some of the weightier things of the kingdom with the dietary code of ancient Israel, Jesus told His disciples: "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. ""¦ Those things which proceed out of the mouth come "¦ from the heart; and they defile the man"Matt. 15:11, 18Our words and external expressions are not neutral, for they reflect both who we are and shape who we are becoming.
Forgiveness
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"The Tongue of Angels"
Elder Robert S. Wood
- Of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recounts a college experience where a professor insisted on using crude language, and a graduate school conversation about being direct even at the expense of others' feelings, highlighting the negative trend in society's communication.
I recall when I was in a freshman English class and the professor was insisting that, to describe a situation, one of the students must substitute a crude expression for one gentler. I was jarred at an expression which I had seldom heard and never in harmonious circumstances. Years later in graduate school I had a conversation with a friend who argued that one should be, as he called it, direct, even if rude and insensitive to others"™ feelings.
Forgiveness
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"The Touch of the Master"™s Hand"
President Boyd K. Packer
- Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
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📖 general conference
The speaker describes the intense feelings of guilt experienced by the prophet Alma, using vivid language to convey the pain of spiritual suffering.
The prophet Alma, describing his feelings of guilt, said, "I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins."4[Alma 36:12 emphasis added.] Racked means "tortured."5[See Mosiah 27:29; Alma 36:12, 16"“17; Morm. 9:3] Anciently a rack was a framework on which the victim was laid with each ankle and wrist tied to a spindle which could then be turned to cause unbearable pain. A harrow is a frame with spikes through it. When pulled ... (continued)
Forgiveness
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"The Touch of the Master"™s Hand"
President Boyd K. Packer
- Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Alma recounts his conversion experience, moving from the depths of guilt to the joy of forgiveness through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Alma said: "My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but "¦ my soul is pained no more."16[Mosiah 27:29] "I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell. "¦ "And "¦ as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my fa ... (continued)
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"The Word Is Commitment"
Elder Marvin J. Ashton
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Abraham Lincoln's mother's last words to him were an encouragement to be significant in life.
Most of us who have ever heard of the great American leader Abraham Lincoln will recall what he said of his mother: "All that I am, all that I hope to be, I owe to my Angel mother." (in Abraham Lincoln"™s Philosophy of Common Sense, ed. Edward J. Kempf, New York: The New York Academy of Sciences, 1965, p. 60.) But how many of us know what his mother"™s last words to him were? They were "Be something, Abe."
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"The Word Is Commitment"
Elder Marvin J. Ashton
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
William Clement Stone, a millionaire, emphasizes the importance of having drive and the power of prayer for success.
William Clement Stone, a Chicago millionaire, in an interview said, "Only if you have drive, the push, "˜the want to"™ will you succeed in any field." He went on to say, "Regardless of your religious beliefs, read the Bible, the most inspirational book of all time. And learn to employ the power of prayer." This man had learned the value of commitment. He had the "want to." He had also learned to turn to God for direction, guidance, and help.
Forgiveness
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"The Word Is Commitment"
Elder Marvin J. Ashton
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
An elderly widow demonstrates her commitment by attending temple sessions daily despite her physical struggles.
Contrast those attitudes with that demonstrated by an elderly widow acquaintance of ours who travels to the temple every morning, spends the day attending sessions, and returns home by bus tired and worn just because "I love everyone, even those I cannot see." Her attendance record? "I go every day it is open. Sometimes when I don"™t feel too strong it is difficult, but I make it somehow." The word is commitment.
Forgiveness
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"The Word Is Commitment"
Elder Marvin J. Ashton
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
A five-year-old boy falls out of bed and when asked why, he responds that he wasn't in far enough, illustrating the importance of being fully committed.
I"™m thinking of a five-year-old boy who fell out of bed during the night and came crying to his mother"™s bedside. To her question, "Why did you fall out of bed?" he replied, "I fell out because I wasn"™t in far enough!" It has been my experience over the years that, generally speaking, those who fall out of the Church are those who aren"™t in far enough.
Forgiveness
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"The Word Is Commitment"
Elder Marvin J. Ashton
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
A special young lady attributes her successful college graduation under extreme difficulties to 'commitment'.
Recently I had the opportunity of congratulating a special young lady upon her graduation from college. Knowing she had achieved this lofty goal under extreme difficulties, I said, "Would you mind telling me in one word how you were able to achieve this great accomplishment?" While she paused momentarily, words like courage, determination, and faith flashed through my mind as I anticipated her answer. Then without hesitation she said, "Elder Ashton, the word is commitment."
Forgiveness
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"The Work Among the Lamanites"
Elder Spencer W. Kimball
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker reflects on the impact of President George F. Richards, highlighting his saintliness and vision.
My brothers and sisters, I should like to express here my great love and admiration for President George F. Richards who was with us in our last conference but has since passed away. Of all the men I have known in my life, none has risen to greater heights, in my opinion, than Elder George F. Richards in saintliness, in vision, in understanding, and in love, humility, and power.
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"The Work Among the Lamanites"
Elder Spencer W. Kimball
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker imagines the impact of two hundred thousand Latter-day Saint families praying for the Lamanite program twice daily.
I was glad that President Beckstead mentioned in his prayer the Lamanite program. I thought, as he was praying, "Wouldn't it be glorious if two hundred thousand Latter-day Saint families every morn before their breakfast, in their family prayers, were asking that the work of the Lord among the Lamanites might be furthered; and if those same two hundred thousand families might also be on their knees before they retired that night to ask again, among other things, that the blessings of the Lord mi ... (continued)
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"The Work Among the Lamanites"
Elder Spencer W. Kimball
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recounts the story of Christopher Columbus, inspired as a boy in Genoa, Italy, to sail the seas and discover America, fulfilling ancient prophecy.
I'm sure that he inspired a little boy, Christopher Columbus, to stand on the quays in Genoa Italy, and yearn for the sea. He was filled with the desire to sail the seas, and he fulfilled a great prophecy made long, long ago, that this land, chosen above all other lands, should be discovered. And so when he was mature, opportunity was granted to him to brave the unknown seas, to find this land which had been cut off from the rest of the world long centuries, and to open the door, as it were, to ... (continued)
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"The Work Among the Lamanites"
Elder Spencer W. Kimball
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker believes that the Lord led the Pilgrims and the Puritans to America, allowing them to win against the British for religious and political liberty, setting the stage for the Restoration.
I have a firm conviction that the Lord led the Pilgrims and the Puritans across the ocean, perhaps permitted the persecutions that would bring them here, so that when they came to the American shores with their righteous blood and their high ideals and standards, they would form the basis of a nation which would make possible the restoration of the gospel. I am sure that since there was not religious liberty, not political liberty here, the Lord permitted these few poorly-armed and ill-clad men ... (continued)
Forgiveness
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"The Work Among the Lamanites"
Elder Spencer W. Kimball
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Wilford Woodruff, despite witnessing the persecution and decline of the Lamanites, believed that God's promises to them would be fulfilled and they would eventually receive the gospel and help build the New Jerusalem.
I should like to quote to you a paragraph from Wilford Woodruff, stated by him in 1873: I am looking for the fulfillment of all the things that the Lord has spoken. For long centuries the Lord has said how this chosen people would fall into transgression and how some centuries after Christ they would be so deep in sin they would lose the faith, and that certain ones of them would be destroyed... Now, Brother Woodruff says he knows that these things will all be fulfilled, . . . and they will come ... (continued)
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"The Work Among the Lamanites"
Elder Spencer W. Kimball
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker describes the early efforts of Joseph Smith and other leaders to bring the gospel to the Lamanites, including sending missionaries and the belief that the Lamanites would eventually receive the gospel and their endowments.
The Prophet Joseph Smith gave us the thought that the Lord brought us out here from the East to bring the gospel to the Lamanites. One of the most important things that can possibly happen in this Dispensation of the Fulness of Times is to bring to the Lamanites a knowledge of God. He says: . . . there will be tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints who will gather in the Rocky Mountains, and there they will open the door for establishing the gospel among the Lamanites, who will receive the Gospe ... (continued)
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"The Work Among the Lamanites"
Elder Spencer W. Kimball
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recounts the history of the Church's work among the Lamanites, including the establishment of missions, the challenges faced, and the current state of Lamanite membership in the Church.
Brothers and sisters, that work has continued with some interruptions through the century. Now the Lord has made another step. It seems to me he is bringing the Lamanites back to us. They were sent onto reservations all over the west, and now the largest, the Navajo Reservation, will not support its people. The Navajos are being starved out. They are coming back among us into the beet and cotton fields, on the railroads, and in the mines to find employment. They are coming back into the stakes o ... (continued)
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"The Work Among the Lamanites"
Elder Spencer W. Kimball
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker emphasizes the importance of the work among the Lamanites, quoting past leaders who stressed the urgency and necessity of this mission.
I should like to give you a few quotations from some of the early brethren. Joseph Smith said that this work was extremely essential, and he sent Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, Parley P. Pratt, and Ziba Peterson out as early as October, 1830. It wasn't very long after the plates had come out of the Hill Cumorah. In section thirty-two of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord Jesus Christ says of those Lamanite missionaries: . . . and I, myself, will go with them, and be in their midst . . . and no ... (continued)
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"The World Our Circuit"
Elder John Longden
- Assistant to the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recalls the construction of a humble chapel in Tahiti, where local members used natural resources and their own labor to build a place of worship.
About six weeks ago today, I had the opportunity of being on the Island of Tahiti, where I witnessed there a few days before, the construction of a little Falior chapel with a thatched roof, where the members had been willing to go out and cut down the coconut trees for the posts of that chapel and then tie the palms together for the roof, and then braiding the palms to make the sides so that if it stormed they would have protection from the wind and the rain. Otherwise, the sides would be open. ... (continued)
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