A Lifetime of Learning
Elder Victor L. Brown
- Emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
An eight-year-old girl, raised by parents who did not believe in God, taught herself to pray and eventually influenced her mother's faith.
An eight-year-old girl, reared in a good home with parents who did not believe in God, on her own initiative learned the Lord"™s Prayer and recited that prayer privately every day. Eventually she added her own words and finally began offering her personal prayers to her Heavenly Father. She knew He lived, even though her parents did not. A few days ago I had the honor of officiating at her marriage and sealing in the temple. Her mother was with her"”the result of her daughter"™s example.
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A Lifetime of Learning
Elder Victor L. Brown
- Emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker shares his profound experience serving in the Salt Lake Temple and the spiritual insights gained there.
The capstone of all the experiences I have had in Church service was the blessing of serving in the Salt Lake Temple. There, Sister Brown and I, with the wonderful, devoted temple workers, had the privilege of associating daily with faithful members who came to the house of the Lord to perform sacred service. I had always intellectually understood and accepted the purposes and the ordinances of the temple, but now I know to the depths of my being the joyous, peaceful spirit of that service.
When ... (continued)
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A Lifetime of Learning
Elder Victor L. Brown
- Emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
A young Italian medical student and cardiovascular surgeon shares his feelings about the temple and the contrast between the hope offered by the gospel and the despair of a life without it.
A young medical student in Italy, a friend of mine who is now a cardiovascular surgeon, expressed his feelings about the temple this way:
"Doing temple work, especially for your loved ones, is an edifying and spiritual thing. You feel the gospel in action; you feel the love of God and the sense of the wonderful plan He made just for us, His children.
"Two days ago, I was at the hospital working when an eighteen-year-old boy came to me, asking for news of his father, who was undergoing coronary b ... (continued)
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A Living Network
Chieko N. Okazaki
- First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recalls the beautiful moment of her father casting a fishing net on the beach in Hawaii, catching fish, and sharing them with the family and neighbors.
This is a net, a fisherman"™s net that my father, Kanenori Nishimura, made in Hawaii many years ago. It has been mine since he died thirty years ago, and I have cherished it for his sake. For me, that moment of casting the net is a supremely beautiful one. I loved seeing my father standing on a rocky point on the beach, the net close-gathered in his hands, then with a strong, graceful gesture, like a dancer, flinging the net up and out. It would unfold in flight, opening like a fan or an umbre ... (continued)
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A Living Network
Chieko N. Okazaki
- First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker describes how her father made the fishing net by hand, carefully knotting and maintaining it, drawing a parallel to how we should tend and mend our relationships within the Relief Society.
The second point about the net that holds true for our sisterhood is that it didn"™t happen accidentally or spontaneously. It took work. My fathermadethis net with his own hands. He bought the hard-twist, double-ply twine at our local general store. Then he spent many hours in the evenings after work and on weekends patiently working. He started with this square right here where it would become the middle of the net. Then he worked outward in a circle, patiently knotting these other squares of ... (continued)
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A Living Network
Chieko N. Okazaki
- First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recounts the biblical story of Jesus instructing Peter to cast his nets into the deep, resulting in a miraculous catch of fish, to illustrate the abundance that comes from following the Savior's guidance.
The third point of comparison I want to stress is that our network, like my father"™s net, is designed to bring you abundance"”overflowing blessings, bounteous love, unimaginable grace. My father"™s net was designed to be used from the beach, but remember that wonderful story in Luke when the Savior told Peter, after a night of fruitless effort, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets"Luke 5:4Do you remember what happened? The nets were filled with such an enormous number of fi ... (continued)
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A Living Prophet
Elder Loren C. Dunn
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
On April 5, 1876, the day before the general conference, an explosion of forty tons of powder from four magazines on Arsenal Hill scattered debris over Salt Lake City and was heard for miles, leading some to think the 'day of judgment' had come.
It seems that on April 5, 1876, just one day before the general conference started, four powder magazines located on Arsenal Hill exploded. The hill was located one mile north and east of the temple block and the explosion of an estimated forty tons of powder scattered bits of stone and concrete all over the city and could be heard for miles around. It was reported that some thought the "day of judgment" had come. And I suspect this had some impact on the number of people who attended the open ... (continued)
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A Living Prophet
Elder Loren C. Dunn
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
President Spencer W. Kimball shared messages during area conferences in the South Pacific, urging the Saints to practice family home evening, baptisms, priesthood ordinations, missions, and temple marriages, and to pray for the opening of nations to missionary work.
May I share with you some of what I recorded President Kimball saying at these gatherings regarding missionary work?
In Apia, Samoa, he promised that if the Saints would hold family home evening, and see that baptisms and ordinations to the priesthood, and missions, and temple marriages were carried out, the Lord would truly bless the people and that very few would be lost.
In Hamilton, New Zealand, he said, let us start a new effort to reach the sons of men all over the world. We are all called ... (continued)
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A Living Prophet
Elder Loren C. Dunn
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
President David O. McKay's visit to Brisbane, Australia in 1955 led to the successful introduction of missionaries in the suburb of Chermside, which is now part of the Brisbane Fourth Ward of the Brisbane Australia Stake.
President Kimball"™s visit to Australia was the second official visit of a president of the Church. The first was President David O. McKay in 1955. When President McKay was in Brisbane, Australia, the mission president one day took him out to see the city. During the course of the day they were looking across the Brisbane River into a new suburb which was known as Chermside. President McKay said to the mission president, "Do we have any missionaries in that area?" The mission president said, ... (continued)
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A Living Prophet for the Latter Days
By Elder Allen D. Haynie
- Of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
As a young boy, the speaker missed his cartoons one Saturday because a General Conference broadcast was on, where he saw President David O. McKay and felt he was a prophet.
When I was a young boy, I loved Saturday because everything I did on that day seemed like an adventure. But no matter what I did, it was always preceded by the most important thing of all"”watching cartoons on television. One such Saturday morning, as I was standing by the television and flipping through channels, I discovered that the cartoon I expected to find had been replaced by a broadcast of the general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While looking at the t ... (continued)
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A Living Prophet for the Latter Days
By Elder Allen D. Haynie
- Of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recounts a lunch at Church headquarters where he was invited to sit with the First Presidency and observed President Nelson's thoughtful act of flattening a plastic water bottle for recycling, which was then emulated by the others.
One day I walked into the cafeteria at Church headquarters to have some lunch. After getting a tray of food, I entered the dining area and noticed a table at which all three members of the First Presidency were seated, along with one empty chair. My insecurities caused me to make a quick detour away from that table, and then I heard the voice of our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, saying, "Allen, there"™s an empty chair right here. Come and sit down with us." And so I did.
Near th ... (continued)
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A Living Testimony
President Henry B. Eyring
- First Counselor in the First Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
Brigham Young foresaw the need for young women to have a strong testimony amidst worldly influences and established the Young Women organization.
All of you have a desire for your testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ to be strengthened. President Brigham Young could see your need many years ago. He was a prophet of God, and with prophetic foresight 142 years ago, he saw you and your needs. He was a loving father and a living prophet.
He could see the influence of the world coming down on his own daughters. He saw that those worldly influences were drawing them away from the Lord"™s pathway to happiness. In his day those influences w ... (continued)
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A Living Testimony
President Henry B. Eyring
- First Counselor in the First Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker shares a personal experience of feeling a testimony of the gospel when hearing the words from the thirteenth article of faith, likening it to Joseph Smith's experience with the Father and the Son.
You have felt that inspiration for yourselves. It may have been to confirm one part of the gospel, as it was for me tonight. When I heard the words from the thirteenth article of faith about "being honest, true, chaste, [and] benevolent," it was for me as if the Lord spoke them. I felt again that those are His attributes. I felt that Joseph Smith was His prophet. So for me those were not just words.
In my mind I saw the dusty roads of Judea and the Garden of Gethsemane. In my heart I felt at ... (continued)
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A Living Testimony
President Henry B. Eyring
- First Counselor in the First Presidency
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recounts how his testimony of eternal life and the sealing power was strengthened by witnessing his daughters participate in temple baptisms for their ancestors.
Now, only after this life can I enjoy the fulness of that greatest of all blessings, eternal life. But amidst the challenges of this life, I have been given at least glimpses of what my family in heaven can be like. From those experiences my testimony of the reality of the sealing power exercised in temples has grown and been strengthened.
Watching my two daughters be baptized in the temple for their ancestors has drawn my heart to them and to those ancestors whose names we found. The promise o ... (continued)
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A Living Witness of the Living Christ
By Bishop Gérald Caussé
- Presiding Bishop
📅 0
📖 general conference
A man who opposed the construction of the Paris France Temple changed his perspective after witnessing a statue of Jesus being placed on the temple grounds.
On a sunny spring day in 2017, the open house for the Paris France Temple was well underway when one of the tour guides was approached by a man with a sorrowful expression on his face. He said he lived next to the temple and admitted he had been an active opponent of its construction. He related that one day as he was gazing out of his apartment window, he watched a large crane lower a statue of Jesus from the heavens and softly place it on the temple grounds. The man declared that this experien ... (continued)
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A Living Witness of the Living Christ
By Bishop Gérald Caussé
- Presiding Bishop
📅 0
📖 general conference
The Christus statue, sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen, represents the living Christ and is a symbol of the Savior's invitation to all to come unto Him.
The statue of the Christus, which adorns the grounds of the Paris Temple and other Church properties, testifies of our love for the Savior. The original marble statue is the work of the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen, who sculpted it in 1820"”the same year as the First Vision. The statue stands in stark contrast to most of the artistic renderings of that period, which largely portray the suffering Christ on the cross. Thorvaldsen"™s work presents the living Christ, who gained v ... (continued)
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A Living Witness of the Living Christ
By Bishop Gérald Caussé
- Presiding Bishop
📅 0
📖 general conference
The Book of Mormon describes the Savior's appearance on the American continent and His invitation to the people to receive a personal witness of His identity as the Messiah.
Perhaps one reason we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints love this statue is that it reminds us of the description given in the Book of Mormon of the Savior"™s appearance on the American continent: "And behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them. "¦ "And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying: "Behold, I am Jesus Christ,  "� ... (continued)
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A Look at History
Elder Levi Edgar Young
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Bishop Duane G. Hunt, head of the Catholic Church in Utah, praised the kindness and testimony of the Mormon Church before his passing.
In conclusion, I have a word or two concerning one of my devoted friends. The head of the Catholic Church in Utah, Bishop Duane G. Hunt, passed away the other day. He was one of the finest men, and it is only within a year when Bishop Hunt said to a visitor, "One thing I do know. The Mormon Church has been gracious and kind to every soul that lives. The people have gone forth giving and bearing their testimony that God lives and has restored the gospel."
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A Look at History
Elder Levi Edgar Young
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
Christopher Columbus believed he was an agent of God when he set out to find new land and prayed upon reaching the New World.
During the past year, I have studied the life of Christopher Columbus. Historians tell us that Columbus felt that beyond the western sea, land could be found. In the historical writings of the Italian scholar Padre Clementis heconserveda form of prayer said to have been used by Columbus on Friday morning, October 12, as he stepped on the land of the New World. Columbus declared in one of his letters to the king and queen of Spain that he was the "agent in the hand of God to go forth upon the mig ... (continued)
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A Look at History
Elder Levi Edgar Young
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The Pilgrim Fathers, guided by divine providence, came to America to establish a new city of God and a republic.
Plymouth Rock has long since become the emblem of American freedom, that freedom born of a proper respect for the rights of all men and the recognition of the permanency of religion. The Pilgrim Fathers were men of deep faith in the Providence of God. Their coming to America over the uncharted deep was an event ordered of God for the ultimate bringing in of his kingdom upon the earth. Many centuries before the birth of the Savior, the Prophet Nephi wrote these words as he looked into the future: ... (continued)
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