Two years ago, my roommates at BYU decided that we should draw names for Christmas and have a sort of roommate Christmas before we went our separate ways for the Holidays. We’d all been living together for a couple years, so we knew each other pretty well by then. So we all put a lot of thought into finding the perfect gift for the roommate we were shopping for.
On the night finals ended, we had our little present-opening party. My roommate Jeff Dance had my name, and he got exactly the right present for me. When I opened his present, this is what I found … this picture of Christ and Peter. Such a nice present to receive. I thanked Jeff again and again. Later that night, after Jeff came back from dropping off his soon-to-be fiancée, we were talking about this picture.
Jeff was telling that he had been walking through the bookstore a few weeks earlier when he saw the picture and just knew he had to get it for me.
“Why?” I asked.
“Well, What do you see when you look at it?” Jeff asked me.
“I see Christ lifting me out of the water.”
“That’s what I was hoping you’d see,” he said.
I think we’ve all had times when we felt like we were drowning emotionally and spiritually. I know have. I’ve certainly had my times when I felt overwhelmed, lonely, or even hopeless. I’ve certainly had times when I felt my sins were too great to be forgiven. Times when I felt I didn’t have a way out.
I’ve learned from such experiences that Christ is always my way out. I may be falling under the water, far away from the security of the boat. But Christ has always been there for me, even when my life has strayed from him.
I like two scriptures found in second Nephi, one at the start of the Isaiah chapters, the other at the end. In the first, Christ asks us this question: “O house of Israel, is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem or have I no power to deliver?” (2 Nephi 7:2) Then, after dedicating chapter after chapter to the woes of the last days, Christ then answers the question with this statement: “Notwithstanding, mine arm is lengthened out all day long.” Christ’s arm is not shortened. He can redeem. He can comfort. Cast your sins on Him, and He will bear them. Cast your burdens on Him, and He will bear them. The more I experience, the more episodic setbacks I experience, the more convinced I become of Christ’s divinity. The more I learn, the more I know that when I can’t cope, Jesus offers hope.
There are two things we must each know about Christ: (1) He is our Atoner, and (2) He is our Friend. In the first role, He liberates us from sin. In the second, He is there for us when needed. In each role is His arm lengthened. And in each role, He does have the power to deliver.
And that, more than anything, is the Reason for the Season. When we celebrate Christmas, we aren’t celebrating just a birth—We are celebrating the life, ministry, and Great Sacrifice of our Christ. We are celebrating His acceptance of His role in the plan of salvation. The rest of us came to Earth to prove ourselves; He came to redeem.
In between Gethsemane and the Cross, Christ stood before Pilate, a Roman Leader who would decide whether to crucify Jesus. Jesus begged not for his life. Rather, he simply said, “To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world” (John 18:37). He came to redeem, and no Roman leader or any man would interfere with Christ fulfilling the awful requirements of being our Redeemer.
He was fulfilling a promise made long ago to our Father in Heaven and to each of us. There, we were standing in that Grand Council, and when we heard the Father’s plan, we shouted for joy. The role of Atoner was the central part of that plan; No man would come unto the Father but by Him; He would be the one who set the way; therefore, we had to—had to—pick the right person for the job. I’m sure it didn’t take anyone long to figure out who it would be; who it had to be—for there was only one of us who could do it.
Can you imagine the joy you must have felt, sitting in that Grand Council, when Christ arose, and meekly said, “Here Am I. Send me!”
And with the Savior in place, the plan began to be put into effect. Christ came and organized our Earth. He was the God of the Old Testament. And then, in a stable, He came … He came to fulfill his greatest responsibility that of Atoner. And, in that way, Christmas is a promise kept.
For 33 years, the Creator of this Earth dwelt on this Earth. For 33 years, he lived a spotless life, keeping Himself qualified to be our Savior. 33 years of sinless living. That’s incredible. I doubt I could live a spotless life for 33 minutes, if my life depended on it. And he lived a virtuous life for 33 years, and my life did depend on it.
For three years, He ministered. In those three years, He gave us the wonderful teachings found in the Gospels, and set his life as an example to all those would follow. He established His church and organized its priesthood.
But his greatest work came in Gethsemane and on the Cross.
One LDS scholar put it this way:
“Human nature makes us want to quantify, to measure the atonement of Christ, but his ordeal is off any scale; it is beyond our comprehension. Jesus bore not just the sins of the world, but the sorrow, pains, and sicknesses of the world.
“All the negative aspects of human existence brought about by the Fall, Jesus Christ absorbed into himself. He experienced vicariously in Gethsemane all the private griefs and heartaches, all the physical pains and handicaps, all the emotional burdens and depressions of the human family. He knows the loneliness of those who don’t fit in or who aren’t handsome or pretty. He knows what it’s like to choose up teams and be the last one chosen. He knows the anguish of parents who children go wrong … He knows all these things personally and intimately because He lived them in the Gethsemane experience. Having personally lived a perfect life, he then chose to experience our imperfect lives. In that infinite Gethsemane experience, the meridian of time, the center of eternity, he lived a billion billion lifetimes of pain, disease and sorrow.
“God uses no magic wand to simply wave bad things into nonexistence. The sins that he remits, he remits by making them his own and suffering them. The pain and heartaches that he relieves, he relieves by suffering them himself. Those things can be shared and absorbed, but they cannot be simply washed or wished away. They must be suffered. Thus we owe him not only for our spiritual cleansing from sin, but for our physical, mental and emotional healings as well, for he has borne these infirmities for us also. All that the Fall put wrong, the Savior in his atonement puts right. It is all part of his infinite sacrifice—of his infinite gift” (Stephen E. Robinson).
All of that was experienced by Christ for you. For me. For all of us. Indeed, the Son of Man hath descended below them all. Can we hear such a description of Christ’s Atonement and doubt that He loves us? We know he does. He has proven it. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). No description can come close to quantifying the awfulness of that night—the dreadful sufferings Christ had to make on our behalf. But we can see that in order to make an infinite atonement, Christ’s love for us also had to be infinite.
Can you read about Christ, can you study his life, can you study Gethsemane and the Cross and not come away with the knowledge that He loves you. And can you not also see that those experiences did indeed qualify him to be both your Redeemer and your Friend?
The more you study and learn of Christ, the more you will want to celebrate Christ. And that, my Friends, is the reason for this season. President Ezra Taft Benson once said: “Without Christ there would be no Christmas, and without Christ there can be no fulness of joy.” President Hinckley elaborated on that, when he said, “We honor His birth. But without His death that birth would have been but one more birth. It was the redemption which He worked out in the Garden of Gethsemane and upon the cross of Calvary which made His gift immortal, universal, and everlasting.”
President Hinckley said: “This is the wondrous and true story of Christmas. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem of Judea is preface. The three-year ministry of the Master is prologue. The magnificent substance of the story is His sacrifice, the totally selfless act of dying in pain on the cross of Calvary to atone for the sins of all of us. The epilogue is the miracle of the Resurrection, bringing
the assurance that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”
Indeed, the story of Christ did not end on the cross; it, like He, lives on. He was resurrected, breaking the bands of death and bestowing immortality upon mankind. “There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter,” President Hinckley once said. Christ’s story goes beyond Easter; its storyline goes to the Americas where he visited after His resurrection; it goes to a grove in New York where He, along with the Father, appeared to Joseph Smith, to restore His church to the Earth. His story is best experienced within the hearts of His followers, who reverence His name, rejoice over His life and seek to wash their garments clean in the blood of the Lamb. And His story will yet take us to the Second Coming, when all knees shall bow before Him. O what it would be, to greet that day with gladness, having been washed clean of our sins through Him.
So you can see the merits of His life, the Greatest Life ever lived. And you can see what great cause we all have to celebrate Him, to emulate Him, and to become like Him. And we can see the Greatest Gift we’ll ever get was given to us 2,000 years ago.
As you dash about this Christmas season, take some time to reflect on the Reason. Take some time to think about Jesus and all He has done for you. Think about His matchless Gift. Think about how indebted you are to him. And perhaps before you crowd into the mall and stand in long lines, put Christ on the top of your Christmas gift list. Elder John A. Widtsoe, a member of the Quorum of Twelve five decades ago, once taught: “Our first gift at Christmas should be to the Lord.”
Elder Widtsoe then explained how to give Christ a Christmas gift: “Every kind word to our own, every help given them, is as a gift to God, whose chief concern is the welfare of his children. Every gentle deed to our neighbor, every kindness to the poor and suffering, is a gift to the Lord, before whom all mankind are equal. Every conformity to the Lord’s plan of salvation—and this is of first importance—is a direct gift to God, for thereby we fit ourselves more nearly for our divinely planned destiny.”
Christ once explained who His friends are. “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:14). The best way to be His Friend is to be like Him. In that way, you will lose your life for His sake, as you help others, just as he did.
President David O. McKay explained how aiding others is the spirit of Christmas, when he said: “True happiness comes only by making others happy—the practical application of the Savior’s doctrine of losing one’s life to gain it. In short, the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit, that makes our hearts glow in brotherly love and friendship and prompts us to kind deeds of service. It is the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ, obedience to which will bring ‘peace on earth,’ because it means—good will toward all men.”
Most of all, as you serve like Christ did, as you try to live as Christ did, you qualify yourself to be a recipient of every blessing of His atonement, so that His sacrifice for you is not wasted. Indeed, you qualify for eternal life.
And, finally, Elder Widtsoe explained how that kind of living is the perfect gift for your Redeemer this Holiday season, as he taught: “The desire and the effort to give to the Lord, born of the surrender of man to the plan of salvation, stamp every Christmas gift with genuine value. They who identify themselves with the plan, who do not resist it, who earnestly seek to tread the path of the plan, are true givers to the Lord, and their gifts to men come with the flavor of heaven. The Lord and his plan must have place in our Christmas celebration.”
I want you to know that I know Christ did volunteer to be our Savior. He did come to Earth. He did live the perfect life. He did perform the atonement on our behalf in the Garden and on the Cross. In doing so, He blazed our trail back to our Father in Heaven. And if we will follow in his path, we will, like Him, return to live with our Father. He lives. And because He lives, so we will also live beyond this life. He did appear to Joseph Smith. He did restore His church and His priesthood through the Prophet Joseph. He continues to guide His church today through His prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. I know all of that to be true. Most of all, I know this to be true: Christ loves us. Every one of us. He will take upon Him your burdens and your sins, as He has mine. His arm is not shortened; he can redeem; he can comfort. When you feel yourself sinking, when you feel you’ve lost hope, when you feel you’ve lost your way, there you will see, like Peter saw that day on the sea, your Savior looking down at you, extending his arm to pull you out. Please draw near unto Him. Your life, both now and eternally, will be blessed because of it. And this I say humbly in His Holy name, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
RELIGION: Sacrament Talk 1-30-05: Lachoneus, Gidgiddoni & Their Quest for Inspiration
NOTE: This isn’t how I gave the actual talk. What happened was, I was sitting in Sunday School when the Elder’s Quorum president asked if I could go and help out with the Sacrament Meeting the ward was putting on for the senior citizens’ home. I said, “Sure.”
He said, “Oh, can you talk to?”
“Okay. When are we going?”
“Right now.”
So I had to basically come up with a 10-minute talk on the spot, so I just scribbled down some notes. And gave my talk based on those notes. Now, I’m reconstructing those notes into prose, for the purposes of getting the talk down on paper.
You’ll notice some strong similarities to this talk and the one I helped Amber write (shown below) because they are based on the same story. The story of Lachoneus and Gidgiddoni has really struck me as I’ve read the Book of Mormon this time. In fact, I had just spent the last week in my personal study in reading, re-reading, pondering and writing about their story.
So I felt, in a way, very fortunate, to have this outlet to express what I had been studying the week prior.
The Holy Ghost has been a great guide for me in my life. I have learned that by following its inspiration, I will benefit. Furthermore, I am blessed to live in a day when the Church is restored, and righteous leaders seek and follow guidance.
The blessing of seeking, receiving and following inspiration is not unique to our time. In any time, when the people have sought God’s help, have sought to be inspired by His spirit, they have received such a blessing.
Such was the case with Lachoneus and Gidgiddoni.
Their story starts with a threat, made by the leader of the Gadianton Robbers, Giddianhi.
Giddianhi had garnered much power, and the Gadianton Robbers had become a real threat to the freedom of the Nephite. Now, in a letter, Giddianhi, spelled out to Lachoneus, the chief judge of the Nephites, his plans to overthrow the Nephites and take complete control. He asks Lachoneus to surrender.
Lachoneus’ response in 3 Nephi 3:12 is instructive:
“Now behold, this Lachoneus, the governor, was a just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and the threatenings of a robber; therefore he did not hearken to the epistle of Giddianhi, the governor of the robbers, but he did cause that his people should cry unto the Lord for strength against the time that the robbers should come down against them.”
Couple that with what the Nephite Army does as soon as they see the Robber army on the battlefield, told in 3 Nephi 4:8:
“And it came to pass that the armies of the Nephites, when they saw the appearance of the army of Giddianhi, had all fallen to the earth, and did lift their cries to the Lord their God, that he would spare them and deliver them out of the hands of their enemies.”
The Nephites’ first and last preparation, and their habit in-between, to this war with the Gadianton Robbers was to pray.
But the Nephites were doing more than just praying. Lachoneus pleaded with his people to reconcile their lives with Christ’s. We read this heartfelt plea from the Nephite chief judge in 3 Nephi 3:15:
“Yea, he [Lachoneus] said unto them: As the Lord liveth, except ye repent of all your iniquities, and cry unto the Lord, ye will in nowise be delivered out of the hands of those Gadianton robbers.”
Under these desperate circumstances, Lachoneus’ leadership was inspiring. And, as he leaned upon the Lord, so did his people:
“And so great and marvelous were the words and prophecies of Lachoneus that they did cause fear to come upon all the people; and they did exert themselves in their might to do according to the words of Lachoneus” (3 Nephi 3:16).
In these conditions, it is becoming apparent that the Nephites are on the right track. Not only are they seeking guidance, they are trying to live their lives in a manner that qualify themselves for such guidance. In our lives, we must not only seek the Holy Ghost, we must be worthy of its presence.
And, in such a condition of seeking and living worthily of inspiration, is it really a surprise that the Nephites received such?
There were two revelations that really saved the Nephite nation.
The first came to Lachoneus almost immediately after receiving Giddianhi’s threatening letter:
“Yea, he [Lachoneus] sent a proclamation among all the people, that they should gather together their women, and their children, their flocks and their herds, and all their substance, save it were their land [obviously, you can’t pack your land with you], unto one place.”
Once there, Lachoneus had his people toil in preparing defenses, just as we ought to defend ourselves against Satan. Keeping Satan out of our hearts enables us to have free communion with the Spirit.
Then, one of the more intelligent things Lachoneus did was to appoint God-inspired men to lead his army. He chose Gidgiddoni to lead the Nephites in battle. The Nephite men thought it wise to take the battle to the Robbers, to fight the Robbers in their own land, instead, of bringing the battle to Zarahemla.
In considering the plan, Gidgiddoni consulted the Lord. It is here that Gidgiddoni got the second instruction that saved the Nephite nation:
“Now the people said unto Gidgiddoni: Pray unto the Lord [note the emphasis the Nephites had put on praying], and let us go up upon the mountains and into the wilderness, that we may fall upon the robbers and destroy them in their own lands.
“But Gidgiddoni saith unto them: The Lord forbid; for if we should go up against them the Lord would deliver us into their hands; therefore we will prepare ourselves in the center of our lands, and we will gather all our armies together, and we will not go against them, but we will wait till they shall come against us; therefore as the Lord liveth, if we do this he will deliver them into our hands” (3 Nephi 3:20-21).
These two instructions, the one to gather and the one to wait for the Robbers to arrive, may not have made much sense to the Nephites when they were received. Regardless, the Nephites followed the inspiration they received.
The reasons behind the Lord’s instructions to gather and wait soon became apparent. The Robbers were, in a sense, nomadic. They traveled lightly, with the intent to steal their substance along the way. But in calling the Nephites to gather not just themselves, but all their substance into one place, the Lord had taken away the Robbers source of substance.
Unable to steal their food, the Robbers arrived at Zarahemla, already weary, half-starved, and in ready-to-be-defeated condition. This is why the decision to stay in Zarahemla proved pivotal. The Robbers were not in good condition to fight; whereas, the Nephites were well-rested. Indeed, the promise the Lord gave to Gidgiddoni, that if they would stay-put, the Lord would deliver the Robbers into the Nephites’ hands was fulfilled:
“And notwithstanding the threatenings and the oaths which Giddianhi had made, behold, the Nephites did beat them, insomuch that they did fall back from before them” (3 Nephi 4:12).
In the middle of the battle, Giddianhi fell, and his Robbers fled.
Later, they would regroup, under a new leader, Zemnarihah.
Zemnarihah was convinced that the Robbers could still win, if they cut the Nephites off from their supplies. “But behold, this was an advantage to the Nephites; for it was impossible for the robbers to lay siege sufficiently long to have any effect upon the Nephites, because of their much provision which they had laid up in store” (3 Nephi 4:18).
So once again, the Nephites were prepared, and the Robbers were unprepared for the Nephites’ preparations. While the Nephites were well-fed inside the city, the Robbers had to rely on wild meat for their food. But the animals were soon scarce, and once again, the Robbers starved. In this condition, the Robbers were then slain by small battalions that Gidgiddoni sent out each night.
So we can see the difference between inspired leaders and uninspired leaders. Lachoneus and Gidgiddoni had sought the Lord; Giddianhi and Zemnarihah had not. We can see how the Nephites (1) sought inspiration, (2) lived to qualify for that inspiration, and (3) upon receiving that inspiration, they followed it. The Nephites were, therefore, victorious. And the Robbers had no choice but to disband.
And this victory, wrought by prayer, ended with yet another prayer:
“And they did rejoice and cry again with one voice, saying: May the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, protect this people in righteousness, so long as they shall call on the name of their God for protection.
“And their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; and they knew it was because of their repentance and their humility that they had been delivered from an everlasting destruction” (3 Nephi 4:30, 33).
He said, “Oh, can you talk to?”
“Okay. When are we going?”
“Right now.”
So I had to basically come up with a 10-minute talk on the spot, so I just scribbled down some notes. And gave my talk based on those notes. Now, I’m reconstructing those notes into prose, for the purposes of getting the talk down on paper.
You’ll notice some strong similarities to this talk and the one I helped Amber write (shown below) because they are based on the same story. The story of Lachoneus and Gidgiddoni has really struck me as I’ve read the Book of Mormon this time. In fact, I had just spent the last week in my personal study in reading, re-reading, pondering and writing about their story.
So I felt, in a way, very fortunate, to have this outlet to express what I had been studying the week prior.
The Holy Ghost has been a great guide for me in my life. I have learned that by following its inspiration, I will benefit. Furthermore, I am blessed to live in a day when the Church is restored, and righteous leaders seek and follow guidance.
The blessing of seeking, receiving and following inspiration is not unique to our time. In any time, when the people have sought God’s help, have sought to be inspired by His spirit, they have received such a blessing.
Such was the case with Lachoneus and Gidgiddoni.
Their story starts with a threat, made by the leader of the Gadianton Robbers, Giddianhi.
Giddianhi had garnered much power, and the Gadianton Robbers had become a real threat to the freedom of the Nephite. Now, in a letter, Giddianhi, spelled out to Lachoneus, the chief judge of the Nephites, his plans to overthrow the Nephites and take complete control. He asks Lachoneus to surrender.
Lachoneus’ response in 3 Nephi 3:12 is instructive:
“Now behold, this Lachoneus, the governor, was a just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and the threatenings of a robber; therefore he did not hearken to the epistle of Giddianhi, the governor of the robbers, but he did cause that his people should cry unto the Lord for strength against the time that the robbers should come down against them.”
Couple that with what the Nephite Army does as soon as they see the Robber army on the battlefield, told in 3 Nephi 4:8:
“And it came to pass that the armies of the Nephites, when they saw the appearance of the army of Giddianhi, had all fallen to the earth, and did lift their cries to the Lord their God, that he would spare them and deliver them out of the hands of their enemies.”
The Nephites’ first and last preparation, and their habit in-between, to this war with the Gadianton Robbers was to pray.
But the Nephites were doing more than just praying. Lachoneus pleaded with his people to reconcile their lives with Christ’s. We read this heartfelt plea from the Nephite chief judge in 3 Nephi 3:15:
“Yea, he [Lachoneus] said unto them: As the Lord liveth, except ye repent of all your iniquities, and cry unto the Lord, ye will in nowise be delivered out of the hands of those Gadianton robbers.”
Under these desperate circumstances, Lachoneus’ leadership was inspiring. And, as he leaned upon the Lord, so did his people:
“And so great and marvelous were the words and prophecies of Lachoneus that they did cause fear to come upon all the people; and they did exert themselves in their might to do according to the words of Lachoneus” (3 Nephi 3:16).
In these conditions, it is becoming apparent that the Nephites are on the right track. Not only are they seeking guidance, they are trying to live their lives in a manner that qualify themselves for such guidance. In our lives, we must not only seek the Holy Ghost, we must be worthy of its presence.
And, in such a condition of seeking and living worthily of inspiration, is it really a surprise that the Nephites received such?
There were two revelations that really saved the Nephite nation.
The first came to Lachoneus almost immediately after receiving Giddianhi’s threatening letter:
“Yea, he [Lachoneus] sent a proclamation among all the people, that they should gather together their women, and their children, their flocks and their herds, and all their substance, save it were their land [obviously, you can’t pack your land with you], unto one place.”
Once there, Lachoneus had his people toil in preparing defenses, just as we ought to defend ourselves against Satan. Keeping Satan out of our hearts enables us to have free communion with the Spirit.
Then, one of the more intelligent things Lachoneus did was to appoint God-inspired men to lead his army. He chose Gidgiddoni to lead the Nephites in battle. The Nephite men thought it wise to take the battle to the Robbers, to fight the Robbers in their own land, instead, of bringing the battle to Zarahemla.
In considering the plan, Gidgiddoni consulted the Lord. It is here that Gidgiddoni got the second instruction that saved the Nephite nation:
“Now the people said unto Gidgiddoni: Pray unto the Lord [note the emphasis the Nephites had put on praying], and let us go up upon the mountains and into the wilderness, that we may fall upon the robbers and destroy them in their own lands.
“But Gidgiddoni saith unto them: The Lord forbid; for if we should go up against them the Lord would deliver us into their hands; therefore we will prepare ourselves in the center of our lands, and we will gather all our armies together, and we will not go against them, but we will wait till they shall come against us; therefore as the Lord liveth, if we do this he will deliver them into our hands” (3 Nephi 3:20-21).
These two instructions, the one to gather and the one to wait for the Robbers to arrive, may not have made much sense to the Nephites when they were received. Regardless, the Nephites followed the inspiration they received.
The reasons behind the Lord’s instructions to gather and wait soon became apparent. The Robbers were, in a sense, nomadic. They traveled lightly, with the intent to steal their substance along the way. But in calling the Nephites to gather not just themselves, but all their substance into one place, the Lord had taken away the Robbers source of substance.
Unable to steal their food, the Robbers arrived at Zarahemla, already weary, half-starved, and in ready-to-be-defeated condition. This is why the decision to stay in Zarahemla proved pivotal. The Robbers were not in good condition to fight; whereas, the Nephites were well-rested. Indeed, the promise the Lord gave to Gidgiddoni, that if they would stay-put, the Lord would deliver the Robbers into the Nephites’ hands was fulfilled:
“And notwithstanding the threatenings and the oaths which Giddianhi had made, behold, the Nephites did beat them, insomuch that they did fall back from before them” (3 Nephi 4:12).
In the middle of the battle, Giddianhi fell, and his Robbers fled.
Later, they would regroup, under a new leader, Zemnarihah.
Zemnarihah was convinced that the Robbers could still win, if they cut the Nephites off from their supplies. “But behold, this was an advantage to the Nephites; for it was impossible for the robbers to lay siege sufficiently long to have any effect upon the Nephites, because of their much provision which they had laid up in store” (3 Nephi 4:18).
So once again, the Nephites were prepared, and the Robbers were unprepared for the Nephites’ preparations. While the Nephites were well-fed inside the city, the Robbers had to rely on wild meat for their food. But the animals were soon scarce, and once again, the Robbers starved. In this condition, the Robbers were then slain by small battalions that Gidgiddoni sent out each night.
So we can see the difference between inspired leaders and uninspired leaders. Lachoneus and Gidgiddoni had sought the Lord; Giddianhi and Zemnarihah had not. We can see how the Nephites (1) sought inspiration, (2) lived to qualify for that inspiration, and (3) upon receiving that inspiration, they followed it. The Nephites were, therefore, victorious. And the Robbers had no choice but to disband.
And this victory, wrought by prayer, ended with yet another prayer:
“And they did rejoice and cry again with one voice, saying: May the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, protect this people in righteousness, so long as they shall call on the name of their God for protection.
“And their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; and they knew it was because of their repentance and their humility that they had been delivered from an everlasting destruction” (3 Nephi 4:30, 33).
RELIGION: Brian Knell's Sacrament Talk: March 27, 2005
Note: A talk I helped Brian write.
I’ll start with a story by Tad R. Callister:
“One Sunday morning our teenaged son stood with two other priests to administer the sacrament, as they had done on many prior occasions. They pulled back the white cloth, but to their dismay there was no bread. One of them slipped out to the preparation room in hopes some could be found. There was none. Finally, our trouble son made his way to the bishop and shared the concern with him. A wise bishop then stood, explained the situation to the congregation, and asked, ‘How would it be if the sacrament table were empty today because there were no Atonement?’ I have thought of that often—what would it be like if there were no bread because there had been no crucifixion; no water because there had been no shedding of blood? Of course, the question is now moot, but it does put in perspective our total dependence on the Lord.”
Without the Atoning Sacrifice, there would be no hope for me or for anyone else. But with it, all of us have the opportunity to erase our past mistakes and become worthy to re-enter the Father’s presence.
The Atonement is the central part of the Plan of Happiness. Imagine if you will a moment that occurred in the pre-existence. The Father had just read His plan, he laid out how we could become as He is. The key moment in that plan was a Sacrifice to be made by a perfect Atoner. At the conclusion of explaining that plan, the Father looked at his assembled children and asked: “Whom shall I send?”
Think of that moment. Who would be our Savior? Who could do it?
Surely, we all must have thought of just one name: Jesus. Can you imagine how you must have felt at that moment when you heard Jesus volunteer to perform the Atonement, when he said, “Here am I; send me”?
Christ knew that such a sacrifice would require Him to descend below the pains and sufferings of all mankind. His suffering in working out the Atonement for us is immeasurable. As Stephen E. Robinson taught: “Human nature makes us want to quantify, to measure the Atonement of Christ. But his ordeal is off any scale. It is beyond our comprehension. Jesus bore not just the sins of the world, but the sorrows, pains, and sicknesses of the world as well.
“All the negative aspects of human existence brought about by the Fall, Jesus Christ absorbed into himself. He experienced vicariously in Gethsemane all the private griefs and heartaches, all the physical pains and handicaps, all the emotional burdens and depressions of the human family. He knows the loneliness of those who don’t fit in or who aren’t handsome or pretty. … He knows all things personally and intimately because He lived them in the Gethsemane experience. Having personally lived a perfect life, He then chose to experience our imperfect lives. In that infinite Gethsemane experience, the meridian of time, the Center of eternity, He lived a billion billion lifetimes of sin, pain, disease and sorrow.”
This description gives us a barely an inkling of How painful Christ sacrifice was for us. And in reading about the pains He suffered for us, we realize how deeply He loves us. For these things he suffered because He loved us. As he said in John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
I’ll start with a story by Tad R. Callister:
“One Sunday morning our teenaged son stood with two other priests to administer the sacrament, as they had done on many prior occasions. They pulled back the white cloth, but to their dismay there was no bread. One of them slipped out to the preparation room in hopes some could be found. There was none. Finally, our trouble son made his way to the bishop and shared the concern with him. A wise bishop then stood, explained the situation to the congregation, and asked, ‘How would it be if the sacrament table were empty today because there were no Atonement?’ I have thought of that often—what would it be like if there were no bread because there had been no crucifixion; no water because there had been no shedding of blood? Of course, the question is now moot, but it does put in perspective our total dependence on the Lord.”
Without the Atoning Sacrifice, there would be no hope for me or for anyone else. But with it, all of us have the opportunity to erase our past mistakes and become worthy to re-enter the Father’s presence.
The Atonement is the central part of the Plan of Happiness. Imagine if you will a moment that occurred in the pre-existence. The Father had just read His plan, he laid out how we could become as He is. The key moment in that plan was a Sacrifice to be made by a perfect Atoner. At the conclusion of explaining that plan, the Father looked at his assembled children and asked: “Whom shall I send?”
Think of that moment. Who would be our Savior? Who could do it?
Surely, we all must have thought of just one name: Jesus. Can you imagine how you must have felt at that moment when you heard Jesus volunteer to perform the Atonement, when he said, “Here am I; send me”?
Christ knew that such a sacrifice would require Him to descend below the pains and sufferings of all mankind. His suffering in working out the Atonement for us is immeasurable. As Stephen E. Robinson taught: “Human nature makes us want to quantify, to measure the Atonement of Christ. But his ordeal is off any scale. It is beyond our comprehension. Jesus bore not just the sins of the world, but the sorrows, pains, and sicknesses of the world as well.
“All the negative aspects of human existence brought about by the Fall, Jesus Christ absorbed into himself. He experienced vicariously in Gethsemane all the private griefs and heartaches, all the physical pains and handicaps, all the emotional burdens and depressions of the human family. He knows the loneliness of those who don’t fit in or who aren’t handsome or pretty. … He knows all things personally and intimately because He lived them in the Gethsemane experience. Having personally lived a perfect life, He then chose to experience our imperfect lives. In that infinite Gethsemane experience, the meridian of time, the Center of eternity, He lived a billion billion lifetimes of sin, pain, disease and sorrow.”
This description gives us a barely an inkling of How painful Christ sacrifice was for us. And in reading about the pains He suffered for us, we realize how deeply He loves us. For these things he suffered because He loved us. As he said in John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
RELIGION: Dale Finlinson's Sacrament Talk: March 27, 2005
Note: A talk I helped Dale compose.
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters, today I have been asked to speak on Jesus Christ, our only hope.
To me, no scripture passage better describes this than the one Alma gives to his son, Helaman, in Alma 36.
Alma, as you might recall, did not spend his younger years walking the strait and narrow. In fact, he, and the four sons of Mosiah, spent that time trying to destroy the church. You can imagine how many in the church circles must have felt about Alma. To some, he must have seemed a lost cause. But Alma’s father prayed constantly that Alma would change. Those prayers were answered in the form of an angel, who shook the ground beneath Alma’s feet and, then with power, the angel harshly corrected Alma and his companions.
Awakened fully to what he done, aware completely of what it meant to have tried to destroy the Church of God, Alma became so deeply ashamed of his sins that for three days he could not move.
In Alma 36, Alma spends five verses talking about the pain he was in because of his sins. And that’s where we pick up his story at the end of those verses, in verse 17:
“And it came to pass that 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 father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more … yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy” (Alma 36:15-21).
At Alma’s most hopeless moment, he called on his only Hope, Jesus Christ. Alma’s hopelessness resulted from the belief that he could not undo his past sins, that he would forever be defined as a sinner. But then Alma remembered his father teaching of Christ. Alma caught hold of that thought and begged for Christ’s mercy. This mercy he received.
Today, we remember Alma as a great prophet and leader. Alma is defined by discipleship, not by his sins.
That is what is offered to us all. No matter how stupid and dumb we may have been, Christ offers that hope. That chance to start anew. This blessing he gives freely, but in order to provide it, he paid dearly, suffering the pains of all mankind and giving his life. In knowing how Christ wrought the Atonement, we must revere that Atonement in how we conduct ourselves, and live life in a way that shows we know that we were purchased for a price.
I know Christ lives; I know this is His Church, and this I say in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters, today I have been asked to speak on Jesus Christ, our only hope.
To me, no scripture passage better describes this than the one Alma gives to his son, Helaman, in Alma 36.
Alma, as you might recall, did not spend his younger years walking the strait and narrow. In fact, he, and the four sons of Mosiah, spent that time trying to destroy the church. You can imagine how many in the church circles must have felt about Alma. To some, he must have seemed a lost cause. But Alma’s father prayed constantly that Alma would change. Those prayers were answered in the form of an angel, who shook the ground beneath Alma’s feet and, then with power, the angel harshly corrected Alma and his companions.
Awakened fully to what he done, aware completely of what it meant to have tried to destroy the Church of God, Alma became so deeply ashamed of his sins that for three days he could not move.
In Alma 36, Alma spends five verses talking about the pain he was in because of his sins. And that’s where we pick up his story at the end of those verses, in verse 17:
“And it came to pass that 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 father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more … yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy” (Alma 36:15-21).
At Alma’s most hopeless moment, he called on his only Hope, Jesus Christ. Alma’s hopelessness resulted from the belief that he could not undo his past sins, that he would forever be defined as a sinner. But then Alma remembered his father teaching of Christ. Alma caught hold of that thought and begged for Christ’s mercy. This mercy he received.
Today, we remember Alma as a great prophet and leader. Alma is defined by discipleship, not by his sins.
That is what is offered to us all. No matter how stupid and dumb we may have been, Christ offers that hope. That chance to start anew. This blessing he gives freely, but in order to provide it, he paid dearly, suffering the pains of all mankind and giving his life. In knowing how Christ wrought the Atonement, we must revere that Atonement in how we conduct ourselves, and live life in a way that shows we know that we were purchased for a price.
I know Christ lives; I know this is His Church, and this I say in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
RELIGION: Amber Finlinson's Sacrament Talk: March 20, 2005
NOTE: This is a talk I helped my neighbor/friend, Amber Finlinson, write:
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I have always felt a great need to pray. And the more I pray, the more I learn of its value in my life. And, growing up in a time when the morals of the world clash sharply with the morals of God, I feel that I and other kids my age have a great need to pray.
Doctrine and Covenants 10:5, the Lord tells us the power prayer will have in our lives when we need to be strengthened. The scripture reads: “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.”
And few stories in the scripture are more telling of how the Lord keeps his promise than that of Lachoneus and Gidgiddoni, found in the early chapters of 3rd Nephi.
When threatened with war by the evil leader of the wicked Gadianton Robbers, Lachoneus, the Nephite chief judge, prepares to defend his nation. The first preparation Lachoneus made was to tell his people to pray.
As we read in 3rd Nephi 3:15: Yea, [Lachoneus] said unto them: As the Lord liveth, except ye repent of all your iniquities, and cry unto the Lord, ye will in nowise be delivered out of the hands of those Gadianton robbers.”
From that time forth, the Nephites prayed for victory. A telling example happened on the battlefield. We read of it in 3rd Nephi 4:8: “And it came to pass that the armies of the Nephites, when they saw the appearance of the army of Giddianhi, had all fallen to the earth, and did lift their cries to the Lord their God, that he would spare them and deliver them out of the hands of their enemies.”
What a sight that must have been! To see an entire army, moments away from battle drop to its knees, and ask the God of Heaven for victory.
What do you think happened? They won, of course. It was like Dixie playing Delta—the good guys won easily! How could the Nephites lose? They had prayed; therefore, they conquered.
But the story of their winning-by-praying strategy in this war goes beyond just asking for the Lord’s help. The Nephites’ general, Gidgiddoni, prayed for direction in preparing his battle plan. Most Nephite men thought the wise thing to do would be to take the fight to the Robbers. But Gidgiddoni prayed, and the Lord told him to wait for the Robbers to come to him.
Meanwhile, Lachoneus, acting on inspiration, caused all the Nephites to be gathered, along with all their substance, into one city. This decision to gather all the Nephites, along with Gidgiddoni’s decision to stay put, proved to be decisive. The Robbers traveled lightly, thinking they would steal from Nephite villages on their way to Zarahemla.
But there was no food or substance in those villages. So by the time, the Robbers reached Zarahemla, they were starved and in ready-to-be-slaughtered condition.
And thus we can see how the Lord answered the prayers of a righteous people. We can see how he gave them the victory, and ruined the plans of their enemies.
Such a story is an example of how the Lord works in answering prayers.
While I do not worry about an army attacking my city, I do have to worry about the many temptations that come from growing up in the 21st Century. In some ways, my prayers have already been answered in that I have loving parents, who have shown me why it’s good to walk the gospel path. I have seven brothers and two sisters, who watch out for me. I have righteous friends, who live the standards of the church.
Also, while I have not had any write-to-the-Ensign experiences from my prayers, I have had spiritual experiences when I pray. When I asked if the church was true, the Spirit told me that it was. When I pray, I feel at peace. When I pray, I know I am talking to a Heavenly Father who loves me and who takes the time to hear how I feel and what I need and has the wisdom to give me what He knows I need.
The more I pray, the more I agree with what President Hinckley wrote in his Way To Be! Book: “You cannot do it alone … You need His help, and you know that you need His help!”
I know I can’t do it alone. I’m so grateful that I have a Heavenly Father who hears and answers my prayers. And, from those experiences I have had with prayer, I have learned the truth that a follower of Christ must pray always, so that she may come of conqueror—and conquer whatever obstacles Satan plans for her.
And this I say in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
---
I have always felt a great need to pray. And the more I pray, the more I learn of its value in my life. And, growing up in a time when the morals of the world clash sharply with the morals of God, I feel that I and other kids my age have a great need to pray.
Doctrine and Covenants 10:5, the Lord tells us the power prayer will have in our lives when we need to be strengthened. The scripture reads: “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.”
And few stories in the scripture are more telling of how the Lord keeps his promise than that of Lachoneus and Gidgiddoni, found in the early chapters of 3rd Nephi.
When threatened with war by the evil leader of the wicked Gadianton Robbers, Lachoneus, the Nephite chief judge, prepares to defend his nation. The first preparation Lachoneus made was to tell his people to pray.
As we read in 3rd Nephi 3:15: Yea, [Lachoneus] said unto them: As the Lord liveth, except ye repent of all your iniquities, and cry unto the Lord, ye will in nowise be delivered out of the hands of those Gadianton robbers.”
From that time forth, the Nephites prayed for victory. A telling example happened on the battlefield. We read of it in 3rd Nephi 4:8: “And it came to pass that the armies of the Nephites, when they saw the appearance of the army of Giddianhi, had all fallen to the earth, and did lift their cries to the Lord their God, that he would spare them and deliver them out of the hands of their enemies.”
What a sight that must have been! To see an entire army, moments away from battle drop to its knees, and ask the God of Heaven for victory.
What do you think happened? They won, of course. It was like Dixie playing Delta—the good guys won easily! How could the Nephites lose? They had prayed; therefore, they conquered.
But the story of their winning-by-praying strategy in this war goes beyond just asking for the Lord’s help. The Nephites’ general, Gidgiddoni, prayed for direction in preparing his battle plan. Most Nephite men thought the wise thing to do would be to take the fight to the Robbers. But Gidgiddoni prayed, and the Lord told him to wait for the Robbers to come to him.
Meanwhile, Lachoneus, acting on inspiration, caused all the Nephites to be gathered, along with all their substance, into one city. This decision to gather all the Nephites, along with Gidgiddoni’s decision to stay put, proved to be decisive. The Robbers traveled lightly, thinking they would steal from Nephite villages on their way to Zarahemla.
But there was no food or substance in those villages. So by the time, the Robbers reached Zarahemla, they were starved and in ready-to-be-slaughtered condition.
And thus we can see how the Lord answered the prayers of a righteous people. We can see how he gave them the victory, and ruined the plans of their enemies.
Such a story is an example of how the Lord works in answering prayers.
While I do not worry about an army attacking my city, I do have to worry about the many temptations that come from growing up in the 21st Century. In some ways, my prayers have already been answered in that I have loving parents, who have shown me why it’s good to walk the gospel path. I have seven brothers and two sisters, who watch out for me. I have righteous friends, who live the standards of the church.
Also, while I have not had any write-to-the-Ensign experiences from my prayers, I have had spiritual experiences when I pray. When I asked if the church was true, the Spirit told me that it was. When I pray, I feel at peace. When I pray, I know I am talking to a Heavenly Father who loves me and who takes the time to hear how I feel and what I need and has the wisdom to give me what He knows I need.
The more I pray, the more I agree with what President Hinckley wrote in his Way To Be! Book: “You cannot do it alone … You need His help, and you know that you need His help!”
I know I can’t do it alone. I’m so grateful that I have a Heavenly Father who hears and answers my prayers. And, from those experiences I have had with prayer, I have learned the truth that a follower of Christ must pray always, so that she may come of conqueror—and conquer whatever obstacles Satan plans for her.
And this I say in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
RELIGION: Crystal Finlinson's Sacrament Talk: March 27, 2005
Note: A talk I helped Cris-Style write.
I love the Springtime, and how the Earth is renewed. How perfect it is that Easter takes place during the Spring.
In the fall, plants die and trees lose their leaves for the winter. And it was the Fall of Adam and Eve, that introduced death into our world. Their fall introduced two things to this world that man alone was not strong enough to overcome—sin and death.
Because man could not overcome these two things, our Heavenly Father offered us a Savior. This Savior, Jesus Christ, was sent to overcome these two things. In celebrating Christmas, we celebrate Christ accepting His role as our Savior. In celebrating Easter, we celebrate that He completed His mission.
In the Spring, everything becomes green again. Everything begins to live again. Plants resurrect. Leaves reappear on trees. Blossoms emerge on the trees, and, soon, fruit will begin to form.
And it was in one of Earth’s Springtimes that the Savior gave mankind its Spring. Christ gave His life for us. And then three days later, He took it up again. The Empty Tomb became a great symbol to each of us. In defeating death, Christ gave each of us the promise that we too would be resurrected. Job once asked: “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). Christ answered the question when He said: “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19). Because of Christ, the death introduced by the Fall of Adam, has lost its sting. Or, as Paul put it, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ, shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22).
So, because of Christ’s victory over the grave, we can all say, as Neal A. Maxwell once did: “Death is but a mere comma, not an exclamation point.” Without knowledge of Christ’s resurrection, we can easily treat a loved one’s death as an exclamation point, and, at those times, lose all hope and think that we will never see that person again. Similarly, we could, with such an attitude, reach the end of our lives, very scared that we will soon no longer exist.
But because we know Christ was resurrected, such events are met more with hope than with dread. Because we know that the end of this life is just the beginning of eternity. Indeed, we know death is just a comma.
But Easter and the Empty Garden Tomb represent more than just the promise that our life will be renewed beyond this Earth. Easter and the Tomb also represent the chance Christ gave each of us to be spiritually resurrected.
Just days before the First Easter, Christ suffered, bled and died for mankind’s sins. In doing this, Christ made it that none of us, if we follow Him, will die spiritually. In this way, Christ overcame sin and provided us a chance at spiritual resurrection.
In giving us a way to escape our sins, Christ gave us a way to kill our sinful selves and to be reborn as Creatures of Christ. This is why the Egg is such a great symbol of Easter—because it represents the chance at a new life.
At baptism, we buried our old selves, and came forth as a follower of Christ. Each Sunday, when we take the Sacrament, we again do the same thing. So each Sunday is really an Easter Sunday—because it’s a chance to for us to wipe the slate clean and start anew.
The gift of resurrection is given to us because, in the pre-existence, we chose to follow the Father’s plan, accept Christ as Our Savior and come to Earth. But the gift of Eternal Life with God is given to us only if we choose to follow the Father and Christ here on Earth.
I know Jesus Christ died for me. I know because He did that I can return to live with my Heavenly Father, if I follow Christ’s path. I know because He lives, I will live beyond this mortal life. And I know Christ and the Father appeared to Joseph Smith and restored Their Church through him, and I know They continue to lead this church today through the Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. And this I say in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
I love the Springtime, and how the Earth is renewed. How perfect it is that Easter takes place during the Spring.
In the fall, plants die and trees lose their leaves for the winter. And it was the Fall of Adam and Eve, that introduced death into our world. Their fall introduced two things to this world that man alone was not strong enough to overcome—sin and death.
Because man could not overcome these two things, our Heavenly Father offered us a Savior. This Savior, Jesus Christ, was sent to overcome these two things. In celebrating Christmas, we celebrate Christ accepting His role as our Savior. In celebrating Easter, we celebrate that He completed His mission.
In the Spring, everything becomes green again. Everything begins to live again. Plants resurrect. Leaves reappear on trees. Blossoms emerge on the trees, and, soon, fruit will begin to form.
And it was in one of Earth’s Springtimes that the Savior gave mankind its Spring. Christ gave His life for us. And then three days later, He took it up again. The Empty Tomb became a great symbol to each of us. In defeating death, Christ gave each of us the promise that we too would be resurrected. Job once asked: “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). Christ answered the question when He said: “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19). Because of Christ, the death introduced by the Fall of Adam, has lost its sting. Or, as Paul put it, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ, shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22).
So, because of Christ’s victory over the grave, we can all say, as Neal A. Maxwell once did: “Death is but a mere comma, not an exclamation point.” Without knowledge of Christ’s resurrection, we can easily treat a loved one’s death as an exclamation point, and, at those times, lose all hope and think that we will never see that person again. Similarly, we could, with such an attitude, reach the end of our lives, very scared that we will soon no longer exist.
But because we know Christ was resurrected, such events are met more with hope than with dread. Because we know that the end of this life is just the beginning of eternity. Indeed, we know death is just a comma.
But Easter and the Empty Garden Tomb represent more than just the promise that our life will be renewed beyond this Earth. Easter and the Tomb also represent the chance Christ gave each of us to be spiritually resurrected.
Just days before the First Easter, Christ suffered, bled and died for mankind’s sins. In doing this, Christ made it that none of us, if we follow Him, will die spiritually. In this way, Christ overcame sin and provided us a chance at spiritual resurrection.
In giving us a way to escape our sins, Christ gave us a way to kill our sinful selves and to be reborn as Creatures of Christ. This is why the Egg is such a great symbol of Easter—because it represents the chance at a new life.
At baptism, we buried our old selves, and came forth as a follower of Christ. Each Sunday, when we take the Sacrament, we again do the same thing. So each Sunday is really an Easter Sunday—because it’s a chance to for us to wipe the slate clean and start anew.
The gift of resurrection is given to us because, in the pre-existence, we chose to follow the Father’s plan, accept Christ as Our Savior and come to Earth. But the gift of Eternal Life with God is given to us only if we choose to follow the Father and Christ here on Earth.
I know Jesus Christ died for me. I know because He did that I can return to live with my Heavenly Father, if I follow Christ’s path. I know because He lives, I will live beyond this mortal life. And I know Christ and the Father appeared to Joseph Smith and restored Their Church through him, and I know They continue to lead this church today through the Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. And this I say in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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