Sunday Afternoon 188th Semi-Annual General Conference, October 7, 2018
Conducting: Dallin H. Oaks, 1st Counselor, 1st Presidency
Choir: Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square
Opening Prayer: Gary B. Sapin, Seventy
Henry B. Eyring
2nd Counselor
First Presidency
"When you meet someone, treat them as if they are in serious trouble, and you will be right more than half the time." Our trials are a test and source of growth to each of us.
Trials of mortal bodies, in the world where Satan's war against truth and us is increasingly intense. Loving God who allows these tests for us also designed a sure way to pass through them. The Savior, Jesus Christ, gave his life for us and atoned for us.
The father and Christ are one. Inasmuch as we receive Christ, he is in us and we in him. He who builds on the rock of the Savior will never fall. You may be momentarily disheartened. As you remember that with God nothing shall be impossible, know that you are the son or daughter of God, and entitled to receive revelation and help in your righteous endeavors. - President Nelson
Promise in sacramental prayer: bless and sanctify bread to our souls that we eat in remembrance of the body and witness that we are willing to take upon us his name and remember him, and keep his commandments that we may always have his spirit to be with us.
We promise, and the Lord promises. He will always be faithful. "Willing to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ." We are willing to take His name, not that we do so; there is something more that will take place. There is a continual effort to take his name upon us, throughout our lives.
1. What must I be doing to take His name?
2. How will I know when I'm making progress?
Service is part of the answer. How do we know anyone unless we serve him? Speak for God, feelings in our hearts that qualify us - faith, hope (through atonement and resurrection to be raised to life eternal), meek and lowly in heart and confess that Jesus is the Christ, charity (pure love of Christ - endureth forever). ~Mormon preaching unto his people who were like us.
We shall see Him as he is, and we will be like him. The Savior is putting his name in our hearts, we are feeling hope, optimism, pure love of Christ for others and ourselves.
The Savior knows you, knows your troubles. He has overcome the world, and we can, too. As we help others, His name is written in our hearts.
Brian K. Ashton
2nd Counselor
Sunday School Presidency
His wife - Father is personally invested in our success. Instead of feeling judged, I feel supported.
Having a correct idea of who the Father is, his character, can help us understand his tremendous love for us, and help us keep moving forward toward eternal life.
Pre-mortal world, we lived as spirit families. To be like our father, we had to obtain bodies, be married and form families by sealing, acquire all knowledge and divine attributes. The plan of salvation.
Mortality - Heavenly Father provides the conditions we need to advance. Christ came to fulfill the Savior and Atonement roles. We are given agency, and all things work for our good. We get our daily food and our daily spiritual food. He blesses us and guides us, giving the experiences we need, based on our weaknesses and needs. He sends the Holy Ghost to dwell in us.
Post-mortal spirit world - Holy Ghostc continues to be with us, God gave Christ power of Resurrection. We will be judged by Christ. Those who depend on Christ and live like Christ will receive the glorified body we need to progress in eternity.
He focuses on helping us progress, not on condemning us. We have the potential to become like the Father. Given the distance between us as mortals to what Heavenly Father has become, it may seem impossible. If we follow the plan of Salvation, we will receive the grace from God that we need to obtain the fulness that makes us like God.
Striving to become like the Father is worth every sacrifice.
Robert C Gay
Presidency of the Seventy
Am I taking upon myself the Savior's name as he would like me to do?
1. Faithfully strive to see as God sees. God looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly regard. God sees us as someone who deals with difficulties, not as a person who is a failure. Everyone around us is a sacred being. Understand them as they are, not as we are. No one is pre-ordained to fail.
2. Serve as He served. As we do the things we are assigned to do, God will work wonders among us, purify our hearts. We must repent of our sins, become converted, serve one another. (Elder Taldmadge caring for diptheria family)
3. We must trust God. Christ is sufficient to deliver us home. What might the Savior say to those struggling? Do you trust me? John 4:4, Jesus didn't need to go to Samaria, but he chose to go there to declare to all the people that he was the Savior. His love is greater than all that we have to deal with in mortality.
Matthew L. Carpenter
Seventy
Son on mission - massive stroke in three parts of his brain. Companion blessed him and called 911. Full recovery, operations, medication, many months. Heavenly Father knows of our struggles and our weaknesses.
Will we choose good over evil? Christ can heal all things. In John - impotent man suffered 38 years and Jesus healed quickly. Woman with issue of blood suffered 12 years, and touching Jesus's hem - healed immediately. Christ has power over the physical body. We cannot control when Christ will heal. If we allow Christ to be involved, he will ALWAYS strengthen us, even if healing comes in eternity.
Christ can heal spiritual and emotional trials, as well. He can change our hearts, heal us from injustice, strengthen our capacity to bear grief and heartache. He can heal us from sin.
Lynn G. Robbins - repentance is not a back up plan, it IS the plan.
Spiritual healing isn't one-sided - requires repentance AND Christ's healing. It is never a good idea to procrastinate repentance. Our spirits are damaged when we make mistakes and commit sins. When repentance is finished, there is no scar left as there is in physical damage.
The faster we repent, the sooner we can be healed. The healing begins immediately.
Dale G. Renland
Apostle
We are good kids worth bothering about. Heavenly Father wants to help us, and sometimes we act like we already know everything. Sometimes we have to do the next bit on our own. Mortality is where we choose to do what's right. God wants his children to grow up spiritually and join him in the family business. We can become heirs in his kingdom.
Personal choice is vital in this plan. We accepted the plan and chose to come here. Forgetfulness veil was drawn over our minds, so that we would have to CHOOSE to do the right thing. We could not act for ourselves unless we were presented with options, such as Christ and Satan.
Christ is our advocate. He is not adversarial. He champions what Heavenly Father has wanted all along. For those on the covenant path, Christ advocates for mercy for us. Satan, on the other hand, is against us and adversarial to us, to Christ and to God, as well as the plan of salvation.
Lucifer spoke against us in the pre-mortal existence. He wants us to experience endless woe. He's the one who is the ultimate bully who kicks us when we are down. Lucifer's ways bring discouragement and despair, father of lies and deceit. Christ is the helper and consoler.
The commandments are linked to our growth and development toward being like God. They are what we need to change from who we are to who we need to be. God wants us to be on the covenant path, but gives us the dignity of choosing. We are allowed to act for ourselves, and not to be acted upon. We cannot be forced to either obey or not obey. This does not include those who are forced to do things, such as rape; they are victims, not off the path.
We can stay off the path, or use the atonement to return to it, if we fall off. Failure to repent means we are choosing to refuse the gifts of God and our place with him. The moment we decide to repent, God begins to work with us toward getting back on the path.
Repentance is not a one time event, but a lifetime of continuous events. God wants us to become mature adults and make our right choices. Be willing to be tutored in the Lord's way. Our choices determine who we are and who we will become.
Jack N. Gerard
Seventy
(Ambulance ready to take to hospital - embolism) Anything in our lives we needed to consider, now was the time. Instantly, he thought of family, eternal perspective, assessment of his own life.
Step back from the world and assess your life. Are we focused on things of spiritual nature, or stuck in this world? Keep our hands firmly on the iron rod, don't pause to look at the commotion from the mocking world. Take heed not to be overcharged by the things of this world, and the honors of men. Where do we stand on the covenant path? If needed, make adjustments.
Notice the difference in how we feel and think, or what we think, after a media fast. Today is the perfect time to change. How do we rise above the distractions of the world and stay fixed on the gospel? Forego some good things in order to develop better or best things that develop faith in Jesus Christ and our families. This life is the time we are given to prepare for our spiritual future. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Familiarize ourselves with divine truth so that no one can turn us away from the knowledge we have learned. We must learn to rely on the spirit of truth the world doesn't have because they don't see or hear Christ. Things as they are and things they really will be, are testified by the Holy Ghost.
Gary E. Stephenson
Apostle
Small efforts can have eternal consequences. Our simple daily efforts can be changed by our Father into something miraculous. We minister in the name of Christ and with his loving kindness.
Beginning January, all that we have learned in ministering will help us re-balance the loss of the hour with a higher and holier way. Ministering is more than just being nice. Teach, pray for, befriend, watch over. Others help tend the flock, too. We face things together.
Sheep can be lost to predators of the world, removed from the safety of the shepherd. The Lord is our shepherd, we (of all ages) are his helpers. There are predators out there who will destroy those who wander away. We need to bring them back before the predators can find them. We are all shepherds, no calling is required. We are commissioned to the work because it is what the Savior commanded us to do. We will be held accountable for the care we give. The sooner we recover lost sheep, the better it is.
First identify lost sheep. Search until they are found. When they are found, we may have to put them on our shoulders to bring them home. When they are home, surround them with friends in joy. The Lord will stay on the mountain to protect you through the storms. Shepherd souls to the temple.
Russell M. Nelson
Prophet
We've been motivated to do better and to be better. Study these messages, starting this week. They express the mind and will of the Lord for his people today. The new curriculum has the power to release the faith and power of families.
The influence of the adversary in your family and home will decrease. Increased faith and access to greater spiritual power.
Time in temples is crucial to our exaltation and that of our families. We need the ongoing spiritual strength and tutoring that is only available in temples. Assaults of the adversary are increasing exponentially in number and variety and intensity. 159 temples dedicated and working. Salt Lake and other pioneer generation temples are to be updated.
Announced 12 more temples: Mendosa, Argentina; Salvador, Brazil; Yuba City, CA; Nompen, Cambodia; Praeya, Cape Verde; Zigo, Guam; Puebla, Mexico; Aukland, NZ; Lagos, Nigeria; Devou, Phillipines; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Washington County, Utah. (#20!)
Closing Prayer: Michael John Utay, Seventy
Choir: Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square
Opening Prayer: Gary B. Sapin, Seventy
Henry B. Eyring
2nd Counselor
First Presidency
"When you meet someone, treat them as if they are in serious trouble, and you will be right more than half the time." Our trials are a test and source of growth to each of us.
Trials of mortal bodies, in the world where Satan's war against truth and us is increasingly intense. Loving God who allows these tests for us also designed a sure way to pass through them. The Savior, Jesus Christ, gave his life for us and atoned for us.
The father and Christ are one. Inasmuch as we receive Christ, he is in us and we in him. He who builds on the rock of the Savior will never fall. You may be momentarily disheartened. As you remember that with God nothing shall be impossible, know that you are the son or daughter of God, and entitled to receive revelation and help in your righteous endeavors. - President Nelson
Promise in sacramental prayer: bless and sanctify bread to our souls that we eat in remembrance of the body and witness that we are willing to take upon us his name and remember him, and keep his commandments that we may always have his spirit to be with us.
We promise, and the Lord promises. He will always be faithful. "Willing to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ." We are willing to take His name, not that we do so; there is something more that will take place. There is a continual effort to take his name upon us, throughout our lives.
1. What must I be doing to take His name?
2. How will I know when I'm making progress?
Service is part of the answer. How do we know anyone unless we serve him? Speak for God, feelings in our hearts that qualify us - faith, hope (through atonement and resurrection to be raised to life eternal), meek and lowly in heart and confess that Jesus is the Christ, charity (pure love of Christ - endureth forever). ~Mormon preaching unto his people who were like us.
We shall see Him as he is, and we will be like him. The Savior is putting his name in our hearts, we are feeling hope, optimism, pure love of Christ for others and ourselves.
The Savior knows you, knows your troubles. He has overcome the world, and we can, too. As we help others, His name is written in our hearts.
Brian K. Ashton
2nd Counselor
Sunday School Presidency
His wife - Father is personally invested in our success. Instead of feeling judged, I feel supported.
Having a correct idea of who the Father is, his character, can help us understand his tremendous love for us, and help us keep moving forward toward eternal life.
Pre-mortal world, we lived as spirit families. To be like our father, we had to obtain bodies, be married and form families by sealing, acquire all knowledge and divine attributes. The plan of salvation.
Mortality - Heavenly Father provides the conditions we need to advance. Christ came to fulfill the Savior and Atonement roles. We are given agency, and all things work for our good. We get our daily food and our daily spiritual food. He blesses us and guides us, giving the experiences we need, based on our weaknesses and needs. He sends the Holy Ghost to dwell in us.
Post-mortal spirit world - Holy Ghostc continues to be with us, God gave Christ power of Resurrection. We will be judged by Christ. Those who depend on Christ and live like Christ will receive the glorified body we need to progress in eternity.
He focuses on helping us progress, not on condemning us. We have the potential to become like the Father. Given the distance between us as mortals to what Heavenly Father has become, it may seem impossible. If we follow the plan of Salvation, we will receive the grace from God that we need to obtain the fulness that makes us like God.
Striving to become like the Father is worth every sacrifice.
Robert C Gay
Presidency of the Seventy
Am I taking upon myself the Savior's name as he would like me to do?
1. Faithfully strive to see as God sees. God looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly regard. God sees us as someone who deals with difficulties, not as a person who is a failure. Everyone around us is a sacred being. Understand them as they are, not as we are. No one is pre-ordained to fail.
2. Serve as He served. As we do the things we are assigned to do, God will work wonders among us, purify our hearts. We must repent of our sins, become converted, serve one another. (Elder Taldmadge caring for diptheria family)
3. We must trust God. Christ is sufficient to deliver us home. What might the Savior say to those struggling? Do you trust me? John 4:4, Jesus didn't need to go to Samaria, but he chose to go there to declare to all the people that he was the Savior. His love is greater than all that we have to deal with in mortality.
Matthew L. Carpenter
Seventy
Son on mission - massive stroke in three parts of his brain. Companion blessed him and called 911. Full recovery, operations, medication, many months. Heavenly Father knows of our struggles and our weaknesses.
Will we choose good over evil? Christ can heal all things. In John - impotent man suffered 38 years and Jesus healed quickly. Woman with issue of blood suffered 12 years, and touching Jesus's hem - healed immediately. Christ has power over the physical body. We cannot control when Christ will heal. If we allow Christ to be involved, he will ALWAYS strengthen us, even if healing comes in eternity.
Christ can heal spiritual and emotional trials, as well. He can change our hearts, heal us from injustice, strengthen our capacity to bear grief and heartache. He can heal us from sin.
Lynn G. Robbins - repentance is not a back up plan, it IS the plan.
Spiritual healing isn't one-sided - requires repentance AND Christ's healing. It is never a good idea to procrastinate repentance. Our spirits are damaged when we make mistakes and commit sins. When repentance is finished, there is no scar left as there is in physical damage.
The faster we repent, the sooner we can be healed. The healing begins immediately.
Dale G. Renland
Apostle
We are good kids worth bothering about. Heavenly Father wants to help us, and sometimes we act like we already know everything. Sometimes we have to do the next bit on our own. Mortality is where we choose to do what's right. God wants his children to grow up spiritually and join him in the family business. We can become heirs in his kingdom.
Personal choice is vital in this plan. We accepted the plan and chose to come here. Forgetfulness veil was drawn over our minds, so that we would have to CHOOSE to do the right thing. We could not act for ourselves unless we were presented with options, such as Christ and Satan.
Christ is our advocate. He is not adversarial. He champions what Heavenly Father has wanted all along. For those on the covenant path, Christ advocates for mercy for us. Satan, on the other hand, is against us and adversarial to us, to Christ and to God, as well as the plan of salvation.
Lucifer spoke against us in the pre-mortal existence. He wants us to experience endless woe. He's the one who is the ultimate bully who kicks us when we are down. Lucifer's ways bring discouragement and despair, father of lies and deceit. Christ is the helper and consoler.
The commandments are linked to our growth and development toward being like God. They are what we need to change from who we are to who we need to be. God wants us to be on the covenant path, but gives us the dignity of choosing. We are allowed to act for ourselves, and not to be acted upon. We cannot be forced to either obey or not obey. This does not include those who are forced to do things, such as rape; they are victims, not off the path.
We can stay off the path, or use the atonement to return to it, if we fall off. Failure to repent means we are choosing to refuse the gifts of God and our place with him. The moment we decide to repent, God begins to work with us toward getting back on the path.
Repentance is not a one time event, but a lifetime of continuous events. God wants us to become mature adults and make our right choices. Be willing to be tutored in the Lord's way. Our choices determine who we are and who we will become.
Jack N. Gerard
Seventy
(Ambulance ready to take to hospital - embolism) Anything in our lives we needed to consider, now was the time. Instantly, he thought of family, eternal perspective, assessment of his own life.
Step back from the world and assess your life. Are we focused on things of spiritual nature, or stuck in this world? Keep our hands firmly on the iron rod, don't pause to look at the commotion from the mocking world. Take heed not to be overcharged by the things of this world, and the honors of men. Where do we stand on the covenant path? If needed, make adjustments.
Notice the difference in how we feel and think, or what we think, after a media fast. Today is the perfect time to change. How do we rise above the distractions of the world and stay fixed on the gospel? Forego some good things in order to develop better or best things that develop faith in Jesus Christ and our families. This life is the time we are given to prepare for our spiritual future. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Familiarize ourselves with divine truth so that no one can turn us away from the knowledge we have learned. We must learn to rely on the spirit of truth the world doesn't have because they don't see or hear Christ. Things as they are and things they really will be, are testified by the Holy Ghost.
Gary E. Stephenson
Apostle
Small efforts can have eternal consequences. Our simple daily efforts can be changed by our Father into something miraculous. We minister in the name of Christ and with his loving kindness.
Beginning January, all that we have learned in ministering will help us re-balance the loss of the hour with a higher and holier way. Ministering is more than just being nice. Teach, pray for, befriend, watch over. Others help tend the flock, too. We face things together.
Sheep can be lost to predators of the world, removed from the safety of the shepherd. The Lord is our shepherd, we (of all ages) are his helpers. There are predators out there who will destroy those who wander away. We need to bring them back before the predators can find them. We are all shepherds, no calling is required. We are commissioned to the work because it is what the Savior commanded us to do. We will be held accountable for the care we give. The sooner we recover lost sheep, the better it is.
First identify lost sheep. Search until they are found. When they are found, we may have to put them on our shoulders to bring them home. When they are home, surround them with friends in joy. The Lord will stay on the mountain to protect you through the storms. Shepherd souls to the temple.
Russell M. Nelson
Prophet
We've been motivated to do better and to be better. Study these messages, starting this week. They express the mind and will of the Lord for his people today. The new curriculum has the power to release the faith and power of families.
The influence of the adversary in your family and home will decrease. Increased faith and access to greater spiritual power.
Time in temples is crucial to our exaltation and that of our families. We need the ongoing spiritual strength and tutoring that is only available in temples. Assaults of the adversary are increasing exponentially in number and variety and intensity. 159 temples dedicated and working. Salt Lake and other pioneer generation temples are to be updated.
Announced 12 more temples: Mendosa, Argentina; Salvador, Brazil; Yuba City, CA; Nompen, Cambodia; Praeya, Cape Verde; Zigo, Guam; Puebla, Mexico; Aukland, NZ; Lagos, Nigeria; Devou, Phillipines; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Washington County, Utah. (#20!)
Closing Prayer: Michael John Utay, Seventy