Crimson Ridge West Stake Conference Evening Session

[music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Oh yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> President Jay Hansen, the first counselor in the stake presidency. He will be followed by Sister Sue Blackburn from the Copper Cliffs Ward. Following Sister Blackburn, we will have a musical selection, Joy to the World by McCoy Graham on the piano from the Silkwood Ward. And we'll go to that point.

Oh, brothers and sisters, it is so good to be with you here tonight. I could feel the spirit as soon as I walked in the building tonight. I know the Lord is pleased to have us gathered. He's pleased to have you here. Thank you. Thank you for being here.

In our last general conference, President Don H. Oaks taught in the United States we are suffering from a deterioration in marriage. He later said it is vital that Latter-day Saints do not lose their understanding of the purpose of marriage. I would like to speak this evening about building a strong marriage within our gospel covenants. I realize that not everyone here tonight is married, but my hope is that the spirit will teach each of you how to strengthen your marriage or how to prepare for your future marriage.

First, a little background about me. My parents divorced when I was one year old. So the earliest years of my life were spent in the home of a single mother. I was fortunate that my dad continued to love me and be involved in my life even though his feelings for my mom had ended. After a few years, my mom remarried and I loved my stepdad. He was a great, great man. He developed cancer and passed away when I was in high school. [clears throat] So for a time, I again found myself living in the home of a single mother. These experiences of my younger years um caused me to reflect deeply on eternal marriage. And as Marie and I met and fell in love and began discussing marriage, I felt a strong commitment to build a marriage that would last for eternity. Looking into her eyes, kneeling across a sacred altar in the Bountiful Utah Temple on March 21st, 1997 is a moment I will never forget. Brothers and sisters, I think about that moment often. My gratitude to her for becoming my eternal companion and to my savior for the sealing ordinance offered within his holy house is deep. [snorts]

Now, we don't have a perfect marriage. I don't know anyone who does. We've encountered our share of struggles and challenges, as all marriages do. However, we have learned a few things along the way that I would like to share. >> [snorts] >> The first is to look for the good in your spouse. I read an article when I was a teenager in a church magazine about marriage that deeply affected me. The article described marriage as a plot of land with a fence around it. And the teaching was that that land with a fence around it that is marriage can be like a garden. And if you tend and cultivate that garden, it will become a protected place [snorts] so peaceful and so beautiful that you would never want to leave. But if you neglected the marriage, the fence around that land would start to feel like a prison wall that [snorts] was oppressive and from which you felt you wanted to escape. So we nurture the garden of marriage by regularly spending quality time together, [snorts] putting the needs of our spouse above our own, forgiving quickly and loving unconditionally. [snorts] Our perspective makes a big difference in marriage. If we choose to look for the faults and imperfections in our spouse, we will find them. [snorts] And the more we focus on these faults and imperfections, the bigger they will grow in our mind. If we focus, however, on the good qualities in our spouse and sincerely praise and compliment those, the good qualities will grow and flourish. And in the process of this positive growth, any negative qualities will begin to dwindle and fade. [snorts] I love what President Thomas S. Monson taught, "You chose your love, [snorts] now love your choice."

The second is to work together as equal partners. In the Family Proclamation, we read, "By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners." Elder Ronald A. Rasband taught in our last general conference, "Preside does not mean dominate and nurture does not mean a secondary role." >> [snorts] >> Elder L. Tom Perry taught, "Since the beginning, God has instructed mankind that marriage should unite husband and wife together in unity. Therefore, there is not a president and a vice president in the family. The couple works together eternally for the good of the family." >> [snorts] >>

The third is to be fiercely loyal to your spouse. In Doctrine and Covenants 42:22, we read, "Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else." Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." In his April 2023 talk, "Peacemakers Needed," [snorts] President Russell M. Nelson taught the following. I have inserted the word spouse. "My dear brothers and sisters, how we treat our spouse really matters. How we speak to and about our spouse at home, at church, at work, and online really matters. [snorts] Today I am asking us to interact with our spouse in a higher, holier way. Please listen carefully. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy that we can say about our spouse, whether to his face or behind her back, that should be our standard of communication."

The fourth is to focus on Jesus Christ. I think we've all seen at one time or other the triangle diagram with God at the top of the triangle and husband and wife, the two corners. And we learn from that that as we grow closer to God, we grow closer as husband and wife. The reason that that works is because as we are sincerely striving to become more like our Savior, we gain a greater capacity to love more deeply and to forgive more readily, and to see our spouse the way that the Lord sees him or her.

Now, what would we say to an individual who has done everything right, but despite their best efforts, the marriage fails? My mother found herself in this situation shortly after I was born. Or to someone that deeply desires marriage, but the right opportunity just never seems to come. We would say that everything that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught, "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven, but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, [snorts] they come." So we would say, in your most difficult times, to trust God, trust his goodness, his grace, trust the depth of his love for you, and know that in his timing and in his way, everything will be so much better than you could have ever imagined.

A couple of concluding thoughts. President Howard W. Hunter said, "One of the greatest things a father can do for his children is to love their mother." [snorts] Harold B. Lee taught, "The most important of the Lord's work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own home." Brothers and sisters, I leave you tonight with my testimony, with my witness that an eternal marriage, a celestial marriage, is the happiest way to live in this life and in the life to come. I witness that through Jesus Christ, a husband and wife, a man and a woman can be joined, sealed together for eternity. This I know is real. I am so grateful for the blessings, the bounteous blessings that are available to us in the house of the Lord, and especially that crowning ordinance, that blessing of all blessings, to be sealed as a family. And I leave that testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lies at the center of strengthening our faith and spiritual fortitude because the Savior and His doctrine are the very heart of the temple. His essential ordinances bind us to Him through sacred priesthood covenants. Then, as we keep our covenants, He endows us with His healing, strengthening power. And oh, how we will need His power in the days ahead. That phrase, "He endows us with His healing, strengthening power," has become increasingly meaningful to me personally, especially as my life has taken unexpected turns and I have moved through difficult seasons. My experience with the temple has not been linear. Um, it has grown, stretched, and reshaped itself through the years. Um, I recently was listening to a "Come Follow Me" podcast that I love, and um, they were talking about testimony, and they, um, the guest said, "We gain testimony through experiences, not necessarily facts." Um, when I was younger, [clears throat] I saw temple covenants mostly as promises I made to God and just something that I do as a member of the Church. I deeply valued the promises I did make, but it took time and experiences before I understood how alive and powerful those covenants really are. Subsequently, I watched my older siblings go to the temple to do baptisms and get sealed in the temple. And I eventually did baptisms and eventually made the decision to also get married and sealed in the temple. Um, and then all of my children were born in the covenant. Um, but as life grew more complex, um, my understanding changed of that. It just was kind of a, a thing I did. Um, temple, temple covenants moved from being something sacred but distant to something that guided me, anchored me, and sustained me in the middle of everyday life.

One of the most, I'm going to get through this. Um, one of the most refining seasons came when my then-husband, um, adding to some already deep struggles that he had, he chose to remove his name from the records of the Church. And when we divorced some years later, most of my children also, um, began to choose a different path outside of the Church, five of my seven. Um, I had to dig deep to find my personal testimony of everything, but especially of the temple and what that looked like for me. Now, attending church and activities and the temple alone was at times excruciatingly painful. I thought it would be easier to just not go, but then I knew it wouldn't be easier. So, so I continued, as I do continue now, show up even when it's hard. >> Those were some of the hardest moments of spiritual stretching I've ever known. >> And I've been through a lot, um, through that, other, other trials and other struggles. You would think that's all that I would have to go through, but it wasn't. Um, no, it's not about eternal promises and about just what it meant to remain faithful, often while feeling very alone, if not abandoned. The first time I went in to do, um, initiatories during my divorce, um, the first time I had done it in a long time, I cried the entire time. Um, as I listened to the promises being made as a proxy that I wasn't sure would ever be my own. I felt out of place, and I wasn't sure how or where I belonged and how the gospel fit me. But as I attended the temple one to two times every week, I began to feel reassurances that all of the promised covenants would be mine, too. As I remained faithful and endured to the end, it didn't come easy, and it didn't come fast. There were times I would go to the temple needing peace, and I didn't get it. I'll be honest. I would sit there. One time I ran into my bishop the morning after some pretty, pretty devastating news had happened. And, um, he asked me about the situation, and I told him, and, um, he said, "Sit in that celestial room until you can feel peace." You know, and I sat, I think it was two hours. I finally left, um, and I didn't feel it that day, but I kept going. I kept doing. Um, so then, as I discovered the temple covenants are not only commitments I make, but they are promises God makes to me, and He never abandons His promises. So what does it look like to actually use the power of the temple covenants every day? When decisions come, big or small, I ask, "Does this align with my path and my covenants?" That question brings clarity and peace, not always right away. Um, President Nelson has repeatedly taught that covenant-keeping women have direct access to priesthood power in their lives. I did not any longer have the priesthood in my home, um, which is something I had taken for granted. I grew up, had the priesthood. My dad, my brothers, I got married, my husband. I no longer had that. But I could access it. Me, a woman. I felt that in moments when I was exhausted, overwhelmed, or uncertain. Covenant power gave me strength beyond my own. In a world full of shifting identities and loud opinions, the temple gives me an anchored identity. I really am a daughter of God with eternal purpose. During seasons of loss or change, that reminder became one of the greatest sources of peace for me. Keeping these covenants is helping me stay centered on Christ and His presence in ordinary life, in the car, at work, in moments of service, and in my moments of grief. Looking back, I can see that each season, joyful and painful, has shaped my testimony of the temple. The temple teaches us that God binds Himself to us. And when life changes, when relationships shift, when heartbreak comes, when we're asked to walk a road we didn't expect, He does not unbind Himself. My testimony today is deeper, more personal, and more rooted in Christ than it has ever been. I know He keeps His promises. I know temple covenants carry divine power. And I know that as we turn to our covenants, [snorts] not just as a commitment, but as sources of strength and power, God will guide us, lift us, and heal us. I am grateful for the temple. I am grateful for my covenants that anchor me to my Savior. [snorts] And I am grateful that God has never left me alone. Even though at times I wasn't sure, but looking back, I wasn't alone through any season of my life. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

>> [music] [music] [music] >> Thank you, McCoy, and thank you, President Hansen and Sister Blackburn, for your remarks. We will proceed and, uh, privileged to hear now from our stake president, President Telford. He will address us, and then we will, um, be honored to hear from President and Sister Sterland, uh, from the Temple Presidency, uh, counselor and matron. Following their remarks, we will hear a musical number, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," by Blake Nelson and Will Hansen from the Hawthorne Ward, Dustin Bradberry and Will Bradberry from the Copper Cliffs Ward. And they will be accompanied by Sister Sarah Reynolds from the Hawthorne Ward. President Telford.

Hello, everyone. You look amazing tonight. And, uh, I'm especially excited to have, uh, those who are under 20. If you are under 20 years old and you're not very excited to be here tonight, will you please stand up? [laughter] No, you're excited. It's, it's okay. But stand up just so I can see who's here that's under, under 20. Yeah. Okay. There we go. Now, you guys are beautiful. Thank you. You're going to learn very quickly in life that you don't have to feel like doing something in order to actually do it. And, uh, so I appreciate you taking the time and sacrificing whatever it was that you had planned for tonight to come and and worship with us and learn a little bit. Um, what I'm about to talk about, you may not think applies entirely to you, but it does. So, please listen to the spirit while I speak, and, uh, he will teach you how to apply what I'm going to teach into your lives. Um, if you'll bear with me, I'm going to share, um, an experience that Mindy and I and our family had at a time in our lives. And it might apply to some of you, it might not. And, uh, how this turned out for us may not be the right way for you. So, I don't want you to feel like my way is the right way, but I just want you to hear this. And, uh, and then we'll go from there.

Several years ago, when our children were younger, we have five kids, by the way. Many of you probably thought we don't have any kids because you've never seen them, but we do have five. Our oldest was probably the age of 14, 15, and our youngest was five. And we were living in Seattle at the time. And many of you are in this situation right now. If you have a lot of kids and they're between those ages, you are busy, very busy. And we were busy. Every one of them was doing something. We had a daughter that was, uh, serious into ballet and had progressed to a point where she was really doing some heavy-duty, uh, ballet classes. We have a son that was into baseball and Little League. A daughter that was a level seven gymnast at this time and going to the gym three nights a week after school. Um, a daughter that was playing softball. And then our youngest, five-year-old, wanted to do something, but he was too young. So our weekdays, you might recognize how they looked in your own life. They involved us splitting up, and Mindy taking some of the kids somewhere, and, uh, I'd take the rest of the kids somewhere else to practices, uh, classes, etc. And then we would meet up for dinner at 7:00 at Rancho Grande. And, uh, Jose, when we'd walk in the door, knew us by name, and we didn't even order. He just brought our food. And we did this probably three to four nights a week and got home usually about nine o'clock at night, just in time to go to bed. If this sounds familiar in your life, can you raise your hand? Anybody live a life like this? Okay.

Well, when you do this in Seattle, there are some things that are challenging about that. One is that most people only have two kids, and so they price everything based on a family being able to afford doing those things for two kids. When you have five, it is expensive. So it was totally costing us a fortune. Uh, we were exhausted, running ragged. We realized that we had no family time at all, let alone time for Mindy and I. Um, but we, we struggled with what to do about it. I mean, we want to be good parents. We certainly didn't want our kids to grow up and look back and say, "Our parents were the worst. We could have been a prodigy gymnast if they would have not crushed our dreams when we were a kid." Uh, or one of those other things. We wanted our kids to stay up with all their peers and not be behind and not be involved. And there were many, many different, uh, reasons, all of them probably fairly valid, why we felt like we could continue in this crazy, crazy routine that we had.

Well, for us, and this is the part, you guys, where I don't want you to feel like this is right for you, but for us, the difficulty finally came to a head where we realized we cannot do this. We have got to make some sacrifices. And we have to be together as a family. That's what's important is that our kids have time together to just talk and play and be together. We need time with them. And, uh, for us, and I, I won't lie, half, half of it had to do with just cost. We couldn't afford it anymore. So, we had to drop some of our kids out of some of the things that they were doing and allow us time to be together as a family. And, uh, we struggled. We were really worried about that. We worried that they would suffer because of that, that, uh, they would be behind others, that they would be left out, that someday, some way, they would blame us for not being good parents and supporting them.

Soon after that, Elder Oaks, uh, now President Oaks, gave a great, great talk called "Good, Better, Best." Anybody remember that talk that he gave? And it was life-changing for us as parents because we realized that there were a lot of really good things that we were doing. We weren't doing anything wrong. The things that our kids were involved with were certainly not bad things. They were good, good things. But for our family and the situation that we were in at that time, there were definitely some things better that we could choose to do with our kids. Um, in his talk, President Oaks specifically talked about the importance to show and to teach our children what it looks like and what it means to serve other people, to get out of our own lives, to stop focusing on ourselves and focus on others and do something for someone else.

In Mosiah chapter 4, verse 15, King Benjamin is the champion of service. He gave the greatest sermon, and that's pretty much what he talked about is serving other people. And he asked his members of the Church at that time to "see that ye teach your children to walk in the ways of truth and soberness. Teach them to love one another. Teach them to serve one another." And then he told the parents, the adults at that time, "And ye also see that ye succor those that stand in need of your succor, and impart of your substance to him that needeth it." The most important thing to King Benjamin to teach his people was to serve others.

Now, why is that? Why is service so important? An essential part of being a good parent and providing for the future and increasing the likelihood of our children's success in the future is to teach them how to serve, how to think of others, and not just teach them, but to show them by example. I think it was Ralph Waldo Emerson said once, "Your actions speak so loudly that I can't hear what you say." You've heard that before. It's what we do that impacts our children more than what we say.

Now, Spencer W. Kimball in 1972, uh, for those young kids here, he was a prophet at some point in time. I feel really old, but he was. He said, "We are not kind to our children when we become affluent and take away from them their labors, their opportunities to serve and to be trained and to do things for themselves and do things for others." Loving and serving others is critical, brothers and sisters, to changing our very nature and encouraging us to become more godly, to become more like Jesus Christ. He was the ultimate example of sacrificing his own interests, his own life for those of his brothers and sisters and others around him.

Carl B. Cook of the Seventies said, "The opportunity to serve is one of the great blessings of membership in the Church. The Lord has said, 'If thou lovest me, thou shalt serve me,' and we serve Him by serving others. Through this blessed process, we become more like God and we are better prepared to return to Him." Um, going back to President Kimball, one of his counselors in the First Presidency was Marion G. Romney, and he said one time that service is not something that we simply endure on this earth so that we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. He said, "Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life is made in the celestial kingdom. Service is what makes us the kind of people who can live in the celestial kingdom and be with our Father in Heaven one day." That is how important service is. That's how important it is to forget ourselves and to think of others and to get into their lives rather than our own.

President Oaks said, "The values of the world wrongly teach that it's all about me." That that corrupting attitude produces no change and no growth. It is contrary to eternal progress toward the destiny that God has identified in His great plan for His children. The plan of the gospel of Jesus Christ lifts us above our selfish desires and teaches us that this life is all about what we can become, how we can become exalted beings, celestial beings, in order to live with Him again. President Hinckley, before he was called to serve as the prophet as an Apostle, said that "He who lives only unto himself withers and dies, while he or she who loses themselves in the service of others grows and blossoms in this life and in eternity." That's a critical phrase. Not only is this blessing eternal, but this is a blessing here and now. I have a testimony that this is truth. That when we lose ourselves in serving others, forget ourselves, forget our own lives, that's when we find our lives. That's when we find who we are. That's when our problems start to become smaller and less significant and more capable for us to overcome. That is the secret to becoming is to forget ourselves and to serve other people.

Service opportunities are all around us, brothers and sisters. The Church provides them. Even outside the Church, there's service opportunities. Paul taught that the wisdom of the world is foolishness. The Lord's plan to provide for their and our success and happiness differs from the world. In fact, sometimes it appears contrary to it. In Isaiah, the Lord said, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord."

My invitation, brothers and sisters, is to try the Lord. Try this. Give it a shot. Have faith and trust that the blessings that the Lord has in store for you and your children will come back to you and to them. It's a long game raising kids. You don't see the effects immediately. I promise you, if you will follow the Lord's plan for their success, the Lord's plan for their future and them becoming who they're capable of becoming, they will succeed. They will have the greatest chance of happiness and success in their lives. And it's through the gospel of Jesus Christ that they can do this. In Alma 32:41, I can't remember which verse it is. It says, "Hold on." I can't remember now all of a sudden. But "if thou wilt nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow by your faith with great diligence and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, behold, it shall take root, and it will be a tree springing up unto everlasting life." I have a testimony that the Lord keeps His promises. That true happiness, true success, and satisfaction in this mortal experience comes through living the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that gospel is about others, an outward focus, not an inward. I know these things are true. I invite you to go home and over the next couple of weeks, ponder and pray and ask the Lord to help you identify what it is in your life that maybe you can replace that's good with something that's better, that involves service, that involves someone else besides you and your family. I promise in the Lord's name you will see blessings come back to you specifically for that choice. And I leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Good evening, brothers and sisters. It is a pleasure to be with you this evening. Um, I come with sadness for you, mainly because the better half of the speaking assignment is not with us tonight. You just get me and not my wife, who couldn't be here tonight. Those of you who work at the temple know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? I miss her. I wish she was here. And she would like me wish to convey her love and appreciation to to all of you who serve in the Red Cliffs Temple. Um, as we come to these stake conferences throughout the temple district, we look out in the audience and, uh, tonight's no different to see so many of you who serve in the temple. Um, about two years ago, a little over two years ago, when we were called, we had no idea that we would meet so many people whom we would come to know and love. And it's true. And as I see you brothers and sisters who serve in the temple, uh, my heart is filled with just love for you, for your service. It's interesting how that happens, how we just get so close to one another serving in the house of the Lord. That has probably everything to do with it, that we are there in His house serving. Um, President Telford, who is leading by example, who is one of our temple workers, so grateful for for you. Would, would you, um, temple workers, for me, just stand so I can see my best friends and all of you can see how many from the Crimson Ridge West stake serve in the temple, and you're wonderful. Thank you. Um, it's a blessing to be there with you and the service that you render in the temple. The temple has been open, as you know, for, oh, 20 months or so, 21. The time just keeps ticking by. We opened last March of '24, getting close to the end of '25. A lot has happened and continues to happen in the temple. Um, we welcome many people who come to the temple for the first time, from [clears throat] 11-year-olds that probably come from your stake on their electric scooters at 5:30 in the morning, um, to individuals who come from all over the country to be sealed in the temple and others. Um, it is a blessing to be there with so many covenant-keeping individuals, um, members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Again, we're grateful for the opportunity that I have, um, to be there. We are grateful for those of you who attend on a regular basis. We are grateful for those of you who make appointments and honor them and come to the temple. Um, I mentioned a little bit about the baptistry. Um, and I know that there's not a lot of you here that have come to the baptistry maybe to do the work there, but I hope as adults and as parents, grandparents, um, and others come to the baptistry occasionally to see the good work that happens there. I was speaking with, um, some temple workers today, and they were talking about the baptistry early in the morning, how so many youth come to the temple. They are leading the way. They are leading by example, are our wonderful youth. Um, we hope, brothers and sisters, that you are following their lead. President Telford said something, "What you, what your children see you do speaks louder than maybe what you say." And it's kind of a reverse that the, the youth are leading, um, often by their attendance in the baptistry in the temple, the work they do there. Let's keep up, brothers and sisters, adults of the Crimson Ridge West stake. Let's, let's make appointments and come to the temple. Um, a lot of wonderful miracles happen in the temple. I'll speak a little bit about that in a few minutes.

But I want to talk a little bit about what I call the faith and spirituality cycle. I'm from a hurricane. Some people might say her. Um, I've lived there my entire life. About a decade ago, I don't know what came over me, but I needed a new hobby. So, I planted a really large peach orchard. Some of you workers know about me. I talk about it all the time. Um, I suggest if any of you are seeking for a new hobby, um, stamp collecting, maybe a butterfly collection, gems, something, don't do peaches. Um, it is a lot of work and it consumes a lot of my free time. Um, I went out to my orchard. We just finished the harvest in October, towards the end of October. And I went out to the orchard the other day, and the leaves have pretty much come off the trees. And I looked at them and I said, "It's time to prune. I've had a couple weeks off. It's time to get back at the orchard." And just as we have a faith and spirituality cycle, I have this cycle in my orchard that involves continual work. Whether it's pruning or fertilizing or spraying or thinning or mowing or picking, it's just all the time and, um, it just keeps me busy.

We also, brothers and sisters, kind of liken it to our faith and our spirituality cycle. Sometimes I feel like we have meaningful events in our life, and we see these at the temple on a regular basis where members who may have not been to the temple for a long time, or may be coming for the first time, or these youth that are coming, come to the temple. They prepare themselves and they come to the temple. They have these meaningful, wonderful experiences, these highs, um, these harvests, and then they kind of let themselves go and they don't realize that you have to continue. You have to continue to exercise faith. You have to continue to keep covenants to make and keep covenants, which is what we do in the temple. If I were to not prune one year in this large 12-acre peach farm that I have, I would not get fruit in a year. It would overgrow. It would be terrible. If I didn't fertilize, if I didn't thin, if I didn't water, if I didn't do any of these steps that help me get the desired harvest that I seek, I wouldn't, I wouldn't. Well, my hobby would not be a hobby. It would be a nightmare. Same with us, brothers and sisters. We have to continue investing and working in our faith and our spirituality. And I want to testify to you how we do that is in the house of the Lord. When we make commitments to attend the temple on a regular basis to nourish our souls, to help our faith grow, to help our spirituality be what we need to be.

President Nelson talks about covenants, specifically about some of the temple covenants. He said, "The Savior's essential ordinances in the temple bind us to Him through sacred priesthood covenants. He endows us with His healing, strengthening power." And oh, how we will need His power in the days ahead. A couple weeks ago, I had an opportunity to teach Elders Quorum. And I asked the elders in that quorum, I said, "Tell me, brethren, what are the challenges that you are having today in your lives?" And they went through this list. We had to stop after we got to about 14 or 15 because I didn't think I could cover everything. And then I thought, do you know how I could cover all of these challenges that these brethren that were trying to overcome, trying to, um, be able to meet in their lives? And we made the decision that it is through our covenants and keeping them righteously, continuing with this faith and this spirituality cycle through the covenants that we keep. When we keep our covenants, we receive power. We receive the power to and the ability to let God prevail in our lives. We receive the power to repent and come closer to the Lord. We receive the power to be able to bless, comfort, and administer. We receive power to withstand our trials, our temptations, and our heartaches. We receive the peace and joy that is promised to those who stay on the covenant path. The Doctrine and Covenants, it tells us, "As we keep our covenants, we will prepare against the day of burning and the calamity of the wicked." This is what happens, brethren, as we go to and sisters, as we go to the temple, as we again make and renew these covenants. Certainly, we accomplish the blessings that will prepare us for the Lord's second coming.

I'm grateful for, um, the opportunity I have to be in the temple. I'm grateful for some of the opportunities I have and the experiences I have. I was thinking about one of the experiences I had recently, and I kind of thought about it in the context of this Elders Quorum lesson when these brethren were telling me some of the challenges they have. I had an opportunity to interview a good brother that came to the temple for the first time, an older brother. And as I had the opportunity to visit with him, I had listened to him and some of the challenges that he had had in his life. If I was to list the challenges that he had had in his life, it would mirror that of these, these elders that I talked to. And here he was, had prepared himself, had made the sacrifices, had kept the faith, developed a spirituality that has qualified him, and commitments that have qualified him to be in the house of the Lord. We talked about his journey and his experience. He talked about the blessings that covenants and keeping them had qualified him to be in the house of the Lord. How it had changed him, whether it was addictions or loss or all the myriad of other things that was in his life. The temple was blessing him and helping him as he made and entered into more wonderful covenants. These kind of experiences happen, brothers and sisters, in the temple every day.

I hope that you commit [clears throat] to coming to the temple. Your stake is in the shadows of the Red Cliffs Temple. What a blessing for you to live this close to a temple, to be able to experience the peace, the joy, and the comfort that is found in the house of the Lord. I'm grateful this Christmas season as I think about the Savior. If you want to have a Christmas experience where you feel the Savior more prominently in your life, brothers and sisters, come to the temple. This Christmas season is a time for us to reflect and act upon the blessings and the opportunities that we have because of the birth, the life, [snorts] the Atonement, the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. As our Heavenly Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, we express our love toward one another and toward God, toward God and His precious Son by our giving of ourselves. We have an opportunity to do that in the temple as we serve those who could not perform these ordinances. We celebrate this wonderful season with thoughts and actions that bring us closer to the Savior. Whether it's a song, a party, a gift, programs, decorations, everything that we do at this Christmas time points us to Him. We are mindful of the blessings of the temple through all that we do. And we think about our service and our Redeemer there. We know that it was at the temple that the prophecy for Simeon was fulfilled. He saw the Lord Jesus. It was in the temple that the prophetess Anna saw the Lord Jesus. It was in the temple that the 12-year-old Savior spent time about His Father's business. And it is in the temple where you will find Him still. For us who are in the temple, that serve in the temple, it is [clears throat] Christmas every day. We feel His presence each and every time we are in His house. We feel His power. We feel His love for us and for you. Brothers and sisters, I testify to you that Jesus is in the temple. We want to draw closer to Him. And it is in the house of the Lord that we do come closer to Him. We feel His presence. Christmas means more Christ. If you want more Christ in your life, if you want more faith in your life, if you want more spirituality in your life, come to the house of the Lord. It is here you will find Him. I testify that He loves you. He loves us. No more, no better place do we find His love than in His house, the house of the Lord. I testify to you of these things, brothers and sisters, and do so in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Oh come, oh come, [music and singing] Emmanuel, and [music] ransom captive Israel. [singing] That mourns [singing and music] in lonely exile here, until [singing and music] the Son of God appear. Rejoice, [music and singing] rejoice. Emmanuel [singing] shall come to thee, O Israel. [singing] Oh come, Thou [singing and music] Day-Spring, come and cheer our spirits by Thine advent; disperse [singing and music] the gloomy clouds of night. And [singing and music] as dark shadows poured, rejoice, [singing and music] rejoice. Emmanuel [singing and music] shall come to thee, [singing and music] O Israel. Oh, [music] oh come, Desire [singing and music] of nations, bind in one the hearts of all humanity; bid Thou our sad divisions [music] cease, and be Thyself [singing and music] our King of Peace. Rejoice, [music and singing] rejoice. Emmanuel [music] [singing] shall come to thee. Oh. [singing]

Thank you to all those who have participated thus far. We will now have the privilege to hear from Elder Carnahan, our Area Seventy, who's with us. Following his remarks, uh, we will have a closing hymn, "I Will Walk with Jesus," following which the benediction will be given by Brother Sean Smith from the Sycamore Ward. Elder Carnahan.

Thank you, President White, and good evening, brothers and sisters. It is such an honor and privilege to to be with you tonight. I, I bring the love of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, especially, uh, President Holland, who gave me this assignment to be here this weekend. And, um, this one is a, is a special one for us. Um, for a lot of you that I know, um, this is a home assignment. It's kind of like we're playing on our home, home field here. Let me just get this going. So, um, my wife and I and our three kids, we live in Washington, so just down the road, uh, from you. We have some great friends in, uh, in this ward, some that we've known for a long time, and Brother Harrison here endured being bishop with me when I was a bishop. And we, we just love these assignments. Normally, every weekend we're anywhere between Mesquite and Star Valley, Wyoming, and it's awesome to be able to come fulfill this assignment and sleep in my own bed. Um, so this is, this is a privilege, and I am so excited for the messages that we've heard here tonight. I, I hope, brothers and sisters, that you took some good notes on on what you heard and to copy from a page from Elder Bednar. I hope you also took some good notes on what the spirit told you. Maybe something that you didn't hear that was said here, but because of the things that were said, the spirit spoke to you. And those are the most important things that that will happen here tonight, is how the spirit is going to speak directly to to you.

And I'd like to continue on this topic of temples and covenants and, um, share with you a few slides. In fact, presidents, go sit with your wives. Um, unless you want to be twisted and looking at the president. I know your wife is not here, but you're welcome to sit down there as well. And, um, Sister Blackburn, thank you so much for your, your message earlier. Um, brother, look, do I have a, a lapel mic, or you hear me? Is the microphone working? There we go. Now it is. I have a big ear. This might not reach around. Okay. So, do we have some lights up here, brother Luke, that maybe I guess that's good. That's good enough. We don't need to turn anymore down. Okay.

So, you heard a lot tonight about priesthood power, or actually covenantal power, right? And how as we practice going to the temple, as we go to the temple, how we have access to this priesthood power. And I've heard that a lot too. I've heard President Nelson talk about this quite a lot when he was here. And I always had this in my mind, but how do I access this power? How do I access this power that President Nelson is talking about that I'm going to need so desperately in the in these latter days? So, "In the coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior's power that the world has ever seen between now and the time He returns with power and great glory. He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful." We've heard a little bit about that tonight. But is it just merely attending the temple? How do we, how do we actually get to this, to this power?

Elder Maxwell talked about the kind of power that our covenants have. Um, let's see. Do we have a microphone that maybe somebody can read that? Will you mind read that, brother, for us? >> Our covenants >> are not simply outward rituals. They are commitments that reshape our priorities and refashion our character.

So our covenants are not simple promises that we make. They're actually intended to do what? What are they going to do to us? They're going to change us. Does that, does the natural man scripture, does that come to mind to you? Mosiah 3:19, right? So, how can we get rid of the natural man by keeping making sacred covenants? So, as I was thinking through this, I was, I was thinking about how do we actually get there? What is this path that we have to take or that we go through in the gospel that allows us to get to that point where temple covenants are not just simple promises.

That we make or covenants or agreements that we made with our heavenly father, but it becomes something personal, something that really, like Elder Maxwell talked about, allows us to change who we are. And why is that important to change who we are? Think about that. I have a slide later on on this. Okay. But why does our heavenly father want us to change? So, I kind of came up with this quadrant here where on this side, on your y-axis, you have obedience. And what kind of obedience? And I've kind of summarized it. There's a lot of ways that you can slice and dice obedience, but I just kind of summarized it into two. You have down here where you have a forced and feared-based obedience, right? Where people are obedient because they just don't want to get caught, right? They do it because they know there's a consequence to it, and that's to the extent that they're willing to do what is being asked, or sometimes fear, um, as well. And by the way, don't feel bad. We always start here. Like, all of us started at at some point of this quadrant with the goal of ending up here, right? The the idea of moving from this forced fear obedience to willing obedience. Okay. And then down at the bottom, you have a transactional relationship with our heavenly father, which is what, um, Elder Bednar, Elder Anderson talk about, the vending machine approach. Right? When we need something, we remember the Lord, we ask, and then we get it, and we're out the door. Right? How do we move from that type of a relationship to a a covenantal relationship where it's all the time?

So, right here on this side, I, um, I was born and raised in Brazil, and I, I'm a convert to the church. I was, uh, 16 when I joined the church. And my family, my my mother and and and father, they weren't very religious as far as, uh, faithfully attending a church. So my sister and I heard about religion. We heard about, uh, the Bible and Christ and God, but we really didn't know much about any of it. It was very superficial. So between the times I was 10 to about 14, I lived, I lived with my grandma. Uh, my mom was a single mom at that time, and we lived in the projects of São Paulo, and she did not trust to live, leave us there, um, while she went to work. So she sent us to live with my grandma during the week, and then on the weekends, we would come home and be with her Saturday and Sunday, then go back to my grandma on Monday through Friday. And my grandma, my grandmother was a, is still a, a devout Jehovah's Witness. And, um, you know, we're studying this week, section 137, 138, about baptism for the dead. I tell my mom, my grandma, every single time I see her, that she's not a member of the church yet, and you want to see somebody squirm in her seat. It's her. She gets pink in the face, and you are not doing that. And I said, "Trust me, you will want me to do it." Um, but she, every opportunity that she had when we were growing up to read the Bible to us, she would do it. So, she would try to find the cousins. My my grandma lived in, in a little corner on the street, and all my aunts and and uncles lived around her. So, we were always with our cousins. We always had, um, a good relationship with them, and they're always around. But we always knew that if you, if you're just in the kitchen doing nothing and grandma showed up, she was going to put the Bible on the table, and she was going to read it to you. So we avoided those kinds of situations. And we always knew too that she went to church on Saturdays at 4:00. And if you're just walking around on a Saturday, which normally I wasn't, Saturday I was back with my mom, but every once in a while, I had to stay there for Saturdays. You never just stood around on Saturday afternoons because grandma was going to drag you to church. But I loved that I learned a little bit about the Bible from her. And another thing that I learned is she used to bring their magazine, uh, what's it called? Um, Watchtower. The Watchtower magazine. And just like we do, right? We take our Liahona and we spread it throughout the house, especially when we know that non-member friends are going to come and hopefully they'll ask a question about it. She used to spread those magazines throughout our home, her home. And one day I was just sitting there, and that's the other thing. You never picked up one of those magazines when she was looking, right? You always, like, it was always interesting. They had pictures on them. And one of these days, there was one of those magazines on our coffee table, and I went and looked at it, and I flipped the pages a little bit, and I turned all the way to the end. I knew that there was always a picture on the very back of the magazine, and there was a picture there, and it was this big dragon, seven-headed dragon. So from Revelations, and this dragon was eating these people, and that picture is still burned into my brain, right? I remember looking at that, going, "That dragon is going to eat me. I am one of those people. I don't go to church, right?" And and that dragon is eating, I'm assuming the bad people. They wouldn't be eating the people that are going to church, otherwise they wouldn't put it in their magazine. So I had this fear inside of me, right? That wanted me to become good, that wanted me to try to do the right thing, but not for the right reasons. I wasn't doing this because I loved my heavenly father or because I wanted to do good for my heavenly father. I was doing it because I didn't want the dragon to eat me, right? Does that make sense?

So here's a, um, um, a situation, right? When we are f, we find ourselves in this quadrant right here, we simply fall short of being converted. We fall short of developing a long-term relationship with our heavenly father. Here's an example. Who are these guys? Laman and Lemuel, right? Do, do you remember this story here? What was happening here? So, let's back up a little bit. At the plates, uh, First Nephi chapter 2 into chapter 3, Lehi receives a revelation that we need to go back and get the plates from Laban. He goes to Laman and Lemuel, who are the eldest, right? They are supposed to be the leaders. And what is their, their reaction when Father Lehi asks them, "Okay, you need to go back and get the plates?" What do they say? They murmur, right? They complain. But think about this, too, right? This is, this was not an easy trip. This was probably a week or two that they've been out there in the desert. It's not like they took the family car or anything like that. They, they walked and they walked in the desert. There was the, the scriptures talk about the sufferings that they went through as they were in the desert. So this is a big ask, right? Lehi is asking them to do something that's quite the sacrifice here, right? And their response is, "Well, I don't know that this is ridiculous. Why didn't you think of this when we were still there? Why didn't you think of this two weeks, three days after we left? I would have gladly gone back, right?" And and now you're asking us to go back, and there's all these problems. Then he goes to Nephi, and what does Nephi say? The famous scripture, First Nephi 3:7, right? "I will go and do the things that the Lord hath commanded." And you see the two different approaches here. One is obedient, even though he doesn't know how this is going to turn out, right? And what's the problem with Laman and Lemuel? Well, they're looking at what's in it for me. Golden plates. That doesn't, doesn't help me. But they do it, right? They go back, they, they retrieve the plates. And this is actually on the second time around that they're coming. Now, as soon as they get back with the plates, what happened? What is, what does Lehi ask them to do? To go back for what? Wives. You can't be alone, sons. What's their response? What are their complaints? None. Right? "Oh, you want us to go back up? Load that wagon, guys. Let's go. We got to go. We, we don't have time to, to waste, right?" Why, why was their response this way? Why didn't they complain this time? They like the idea. They like the idea because there was something in it for them. It was convenient for them. Why? They were getting something out of it. This is tough. This is tough because a lot of the times this is kind of how we operate. I know that's how I operate. Like, I put sometimes the things that I'm asked through that filter of, "What is in this for me? Why am I asked to do this?" Right? So I think sometimes we have to be a little bit easy on Laman and Lemuel because a lot of the times we are more like them than we are like Nephi. And Heavenly Father is quite all right with that, as long as our path is not like Laman and Lemuel's, but it's more like Nephi's in the long run, right? As long as we're making progress and going towards, um, our temple covenants.

Okay, so let's look at another part of this quadrant, the covenantal relationship down here. Okay, so what happens when we make a covenant, but simply because we want to go get the wives, right? Because there is something in there for us. Okay, it becomes what? It becomes superficial. Then what happens when the first time our prayers aren't answered in a way that we want them to be answered? All of a sudden, that reward that we were looking for is no longer there. What happens? You go back here. We go back to, well, murmuring and the complaining. And do we have any examples in the scriptures that you can think of of people that seem to be converted, that seem to be in a covenantal relationship, but fell away? Can you think of anybody like that? What's that? That's like the Nephites and, uh, the Lamanites' journey or the Nephites' journey, right? Is the, the, the circle of pride. They get put down. They are blessed. They make covenants, and then all of a sudden, it's like, "We have everything that we need." You need a knuckles. There you go. Um, and now all of a sudden, there's nothing in there for them. They, they revert back to what they used to be. Anybody else? Any other individuals? What's that? Fourth Nephi. The entire civilization of the Nephites, right, at that point, turned their, turn their, their backs to, to our heavenly father. Why? Sorry, Vicki. I don't mean to put you on the spot. It's, it's the same answer, right? It's, it's a pride cycle. Right? Now they lived in this beautiful society. It was, had been, what, 300, 200 years from the, the time that the Savior came. And now they're reverting back, right, to, to what they, what they used to be. They're coming back this way, right? Where, "Okay, if I can get anything out of this, then I'll do it. If it's something that, it's a blessing on the other side of heaven, I'm not interested." Okay. What about Judas? Here's somebody who walked with the Savior. Here is someone who was chosen as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And he turned his back on him. Here's another example. Who's that? Lot's wife. Literally, her family was chosen of all the families in, in, in this wicked city, was chosen to be taken out and, and be preserved. Okay? And on their way out, she looked back. Was it just as she looked back? Let's picture this. But we're on, [snorts] St. George, Washington. The whole Washington County area is going to be burned down. And we are traveling going east through Hurricane, and we look back, right? And there's this huge ball of fire. How many of us wouldn't look like, like I would look. It's, it's a pretty big bonfire. Was that the issue, though? What was the issue? She was, where her heart was, right? She wanted to go back to what was happening in that city. So the covenants that she had made over here weren't really because she wanted to be a disciple of, of our heavenly father at that time. It wasn't because she loved him. It was because she was going to be saved. And then she looked back because she wanted to keep the things that she had there. She wanted to, maybe the, there might have been behavior, or maybe it was just stuff, right? She wanted to, back. She was, she, she was, she wanted to be in that lifestyle. Okay. So, so close, right? They came so close. But the moment that the, the target becomes a little out of, out of sight, then she lost, lost her way. By the way, feel free to raise your hand if you have any thoughts, questions, comments, complaints. Um, so now let's make our way up here. So now let's go to the willingness side. So now we're talking somebody who has a, maybe a transactional relationship to begin with, but the moment you jump up here, you're kind of get pushed this way anyways, right? But here's a family or a people. Um, since we're talking about the people in the Book of Mormon that had this experience, okay, do you remember this story? What is this story? Which, what people is this? Yeah. What were they? What were they? Lamanites, right? They became converts to the church. And what covenant did they make when they accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ? What sign did they want to send to our heavenly father that they were for real on this? They understood where they were coming from, right? They understood that they were pretty wicked people. They were murdering people, and they had no problems with that. And now overnight, they're they're turning into saints. So in their minds, they were saying, "We need to make a drastic move, a drastic sacrifice in here to kind of solidify this conversion." And what was that? What was that covenant that they made? They buried their weapons, right? They buried the, the stuff that they were using to commit the sins that they, that they were doing. Did it say anywhere in the scriptures that you had to bury your weapons in order to accept, like, baptism, then bury your weapons? No. But why did they do it? Why did they do it? Is that because they love themselves? Yes, brother. They were afraid that if they took them again, they wouldn't be forgiven. God. Right? And they would offend who? God. Right? So, do you think, how many of you, when you get to that part of the Book of Mormon, and it talks about the Lamanites coming after them, and what's going to happen? You just go, "Just unbury them. Go for it. You're going to be fine, right?" And instead, what did they do? They, they bow, and the Nephi, the Lamanites are, are coming down the, the, the, I don't know if it's a hill or just on the field, and they literally just kneel down and begin to pray in front of them. Was there anything in this for them as far as temporal gains? No. Right? They literally, their covenant that they made with our heavenly father literally cost their temporal lives. So do you think that was a converted people? Do you think that was a people that was changed by their covenants? They were. And why? Because they were willing to let God prevail, no matter what. And they were willing to allow their temple covenants to transform them. Again, I would have totally thought they would have been just fine to protect themselves. They weren't the ones that instigated it, but they wanted to send such a strong message about their commitment to be with Heavenly Father. And who, what was one of the main benefactors of this covenant later on? What is the benefit? We've talked about, President Telford talked about this, and, um, what covenant did they make? What did they do that spoke louder than their words that they eventually blessed who? Their children. The 2,000 stripling warriors would have never happened for this people, for making this covenant, right? Do you see how when we make covenants with our heavenly father, and we allow those covenants to change who we really are, to change our nature, not only has an impact on you, but in your posterity, in your, in your children, in your family? This is, this is powerful, brothers and sisters. Here's a scripture that, um, is actually speaking of, of Lehi, okay? Let me see. Do we have, we have a microphone somewhere? Brother, would you mind reading that scripture for us? "And it came to pass that he was obedient unto the word of the Lord. Wherefore he did as the Lord commanded him." So, he's, he's talking about Lehi, right here. He was obedient unto the word of the Lord. Um, wherefore he did as the Lord commanded. It was basically not a question to Lehi. So, would you read that again? Now, the bottom one, it's a little adjusted. "And it came to pass that I was obedient unto the word of the Lord, even though it was hard. Wherefore I did as the Lord commanded me." So, brothers and sisters, how many times do we have that scripture in our lives, and we answer it this way? "Yes, the Lord gave me a commandment. It was hard, but I did it anyways." This is allowing God to prevail in our lives. Sorry, brother. There's two more. Do you mind keep reading them? Just the bottom one. Yeah. "Then it came to pass that I was obedient unto the word of the Lord, even when it didn't make sense. Wherefore I did as the Lord commanded me." How many of us have been in that situation when we get asked to do something and we go, "This makes absolutely no sense." It makes no sense to whom? To me, it doesn't make any sense, right? We, we visited with Vicki and her beautiful family earlier today, and we talked about connecting the dots, right? And so many times we receive the commandment, we receive a, a calling, and we go, "Wait a minute, this doesn't align with what I was trying to do." Uh, this, whatever is happening in my life right now doesn't align with where I'm going. It doesn't make any sense. Therefore, I'm not doing it. But in this situation here, or going back to Lehi, right? Lehi did it even though he didn't understand it. Okay, one more. "And it came to pass that I was obedient unto the word of the Lord, even though it was not what I needed or wanted. Wherefore I did as the Lord commanded me." Okay, here's one, and I don't mean to make you feel guilty about this one because I've done it myself. How many of you have gone to meet with your bishop or or president? Maybe you can tell me if this has ever happened to you in your stake. But you go to meet with your bishop or your stake president, and the president sits and says, um, um, Brother Norda, we're here to call you as a bishop, or Sister So-and-so, as you're meeting with the bishop. Sister Harrison, let's just pick on you. Sister Harrison, you're here to be called as the, the Relief Society president. President, have you ever had a reaction when you issue that calling to a bishop or to a Relief Society president, and they look at you and say, "Huh, funny you should ask. I was actually just at home praying that I would get a calling. I have so much time in my life. This is the perfect time to be called as a bishop. I am so glad that this happened." When do callings come? You are literally with your hands on your head in your living room thinking, "How am I going to do all this?" And then all of a sudden, you look at your phone, and there's the executive secretary. There's Brother Whitaker calling you to meet with President Telford, right? It's like, "That cannot be anything good coming from this call." But do you see what I'm, what I'm saying here, brothers and sisters? These things don't come at the perfect time. When I was called as a bishop, I had three little kids. My oldest was five, uh, three, two-year-old, and a baby. And that couldn't have been a busier time in my life. And luckily, I had a good counselor, um, back then, but it happened. And don't think for a minute that I was just like, "Over here, therefore I did as the Lord commanded." I was going, "Wait a minute, President Ellsworth, are you really sure? Can you go rethink this? Can you really pray about this again?" Right? This is the tough part is to develop this relationship with our heavenly father and to develop a relationship with our covenants so that when we are asked to do things that is not what I needed or what I want, that I still do it, that I trust in my heavenly father, no matter what, right? Because only then, only then is he able to then transform us and move us into this quadrant up there. That's the quadrant where we are, we are transformed. That's the quadrant where we feel God's power in, in our lives. And all of a sudden, we are being, we're, we're starting to change, to change who we are. And again, I'll put the question to you. Why is that important to change who we are?

So, in order to be changed, in order to have a transformation because of our covenants, we need to be intentional about them. We need to not just, how good does it do for you to sign up to go to the gym and you go, but you just sit there and you stare at the treadmill and you stare at the, the weights, and then you go, "Well, it's been an hour and a half. Was a good workout. I'm going home." Right? Is that going to do you any good, my summit friend? Right? It won't do you any good, right? Or you go to the doctor, the doctor prescribed you a medication and a diet and exercise, and you're like, "Well, I don't do anything, but I did go to the doctor, so I should be healed." It's the intentionality of our temple covenants that gets us to where we, we put ourselves in a place where the Lord can now mold us and transform us and make us who we are. Let's look at these covenants. And for those of you that have gone to the temple, think about the covenants that you've made there. Think about each of these covenants. You remember what you, you promised to do there. And then right here, we have here's the covenant that we make in a temple, and here's maybe some things that we learn from that covenant. When we fully intentionally follow, follow them in our lives, right? So the law of obedience, the law of sacrifice, we learn to become charitable. We learn to become grateful. I went too far. There you go. The law of the gospel that teaches faith and diligence, the law of chastity. And again, think about the covenants that you've made in there. Think about the promises that were given to you. As you do this, you become pure and virtuous. And then the law of consecration, the pure love, right? This is as we, as we follow, as we intentionally fulfill our end of our covenants, our heavenly father, at the same time, is transforming us into who, into who he wants us to become. And what do these things remind you of? What do these qualities remind, who does this quality, these qualities remind you of? Christ. They're literally attributes of Jesus Christ. So, as President Sterland talked about earlier, the more we go to the temple, the more we are transformed, the more we are intentionally in the temple, the more we will start to look more like Christ. [snorts] And again, why do we need to do that? Why do we need to become more like Jesus Christ? Couple of quotes. Um, let's see. Where is our microphones? Um, let's see. Brother, will you give it to President Hansen right behind you? And maybe he can read that for us. "The ordinances of the gospel and the associated covenants are intended to change our natures and make us holy, not just to help us do a little better." Okay, I love this quote from President, from Elder Bednar, right? Our covenant is not just there to do, to help us just be a little bit better. It is literally there to change us, to change who we are.

So now I want an answer from you. Why is that important for us to change who we are? Why is that important for us to look more like Christ? And the scripture up there should give you a hint. Raise your hand and I'll give you the mic. I'll come here and then I'll come to you, brother. So that when we do meet God, we'll want to be with him and feel comfortable. We'll like it'll make sense. We won't need to, to hide ourselves. We'll be ready. Yes. I love that. You, you are spot on. And I'm gonna come back to you. In our current state, we cannot return to the presence of God. He, just literally can't allow us in his presence. He, but he wants us there. So, he needs us to transform. I, I love that comment. You know, Elder Kieran gave a wonderful talk on that where he talked about the heavenly father is on a relentless pursuit of us. He wants to save us. In fact, this week in Doctrine and Covenants 137:38, we are learning what? That anyone who wants to be saved will have that opportunity. They will have the opportunity to be saved. But the real question when we leave this life, I think sometimes we focus so much on this part of life, right? That we are here on a test, that at the end of our lives, there will be a check, a checklist, and here's all the points you could have gotten, here's all the points you got, oh, so close, right? There's no extra credit. And, but it's really not going to be like that. Sister, tell me your name. Kristen. Kristen nailed it on the, on the head, right? When we live this life, brothers and sisters, it's not going to be a matter of, "Did we qualify? Did we score enough points to make it into the celestial kingdom?" The question will be, "Will you want to be there?" Our Savior, our heavenly father will be begging you to enter. You'll be begging you to enter into the celestial kingdom. But the question will be, are you going to feel comfortable in there? When I've talked to my kids about this principle, I always told them about something like prom. Let's think it's prom day, or let's say prom is coming down the road, right? And, and there's a couple weeks still, and your mom that day just told you to go out and do some yard work. So, you're out there in your basketball shorts, t-shirt, doing yard work, and you're sweaty, AirPods on, and you're just kind of forgotten the world. And all of a sudden, your mom comes to you and says, "Hey, son, get in the car. We got to go." Like, "Where, Mom?" "I don't know. We, we just got to go. Get in the car." She drives you to your prom date's house. She comes out, and she's wearing this beautiful prom dress, right? And she gets in the car, and you're like, "Mom, what's happening right now? Like, prom is not supposed to be today. It's in a couple of weeks." Like, "Don't worry about it." Drives you to the school, right? And your prom is beautiful. And she walks you with, walks with you into the school, and you're wearing your gardening clothes, right? You're wearing t-shirts and basketball shorts, and you walk into prom, and everybody's having a great time, and they all stop and they look at you, and like, "Okay, well, I guess he didn't get the memo." And I always ask my kids like, "How would you feel at that point?" Like, you've always wanted to be there, right? You wanted to be in prom. You've been looking forward to that day for so long. Would you want to stay at that point? And we have some young men, young women here. Would you stay at that point? No. Right? If given the opportunity, you would run out of there as fast as you could, go home, change, or just not even come back, right? And similarly, and we want to be in heaven so bad, right? That's where we'll meet our family. That's where we'll be with the people that we love. And most importantly, that's where we'll be with our heavenly father and our savior Jesus Christ. But unless we are allowed and willing to change through our covenants, some of us will not want to stay. We will not want to be there. Not because we're not invited, but simply because we don't feel comfortable there. So this life is a time for us to prepare. And that preparation is becoming. is a preparation of becoming. It's not a test, right? So often I hear people come to me and say, "Old carnival, why is it that we can't drink coffee, but we can drink Monsters or we can drink Diet Coke?" I don't know, and I don't care. Heavenly Father told us not to drink coffee. That's it. Even though it doesn't make sense to me. Remember the scripture back. It's not about what I think is right. It's not about what the world says is right. All that matters is what did Heavenly Father say is right. And we get that all the time. Well, Sundays, so you can't shop, but you can buy something on Amazon. Okay, here we are again, right? It's, it's about obedience. It's about where, where is your heart in all of this?

So, this, brothers and sisters, is the whole reason why we do missionary work. And I'm so happy we have our sisters here, right? This is why this message is so important. Just like in the, in the times of Joseph, when this revelation of, of redeeming the dead came, the world thinks that unless you meet certain criteria, you will never come back to our heavenly father. But we know better. We know the truth. This message brings hope. The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ brings healing. I'll put in my plug for the sister missionaries because they endured the two hours here. I served my mission in the Salt Lake City South Mission. I served my mission in Utah. And the, the most common, um, misconception about missionary work in Utah is, "Well, everybody's a member, and you can't baptize anybody." That is false. There's a lot of people here who know of the church, right? They drive by our buildings. They see it. They go to Google. They Google Church of Jesus Christ. A lot of these saints, and then they get Mormons, and then they go down that path. But brothers and sisters, even the ones, your neighbors who are maybe a little less active or who are not members, they sometimes know of the church, but they don't know the church. Does that make sense? They don't know the church. They don't know the message that we have. They don't know what we've talked about in here tonight, that we have the power to transform ourselves. No matter how bad life gets, no matter how difficult it gets, we can prepare ourselves to meet with our heavenly father. This is the most forgiving, most merciful, most hopeful church and gospel that there is. There is not another church out there that believes in what we do, that believes in, have you ever thought, this is so interesting, right? Baptism is required for salvation. And I think the Protestant world believes that. Like the whole world kind of believes in the Christian world believes that. We are the only church that believes that, well, you could also get baptized when you die. But we're also one of the only churches that do missionary work the way we do. If we believe that you're, if it's okay to just be baptized after this life, why do we have missionaries? We just wait for everybody to die and then baptize them in the temples, like my grandma. But, but we don't. Why? Why is that important that we get baptized here? So that we can prepare, so that we can be ready when that time comes. Um, I love this quote. Um, brothers and sisters, I'd love to finish with that. Um, let's see. Actually, Brother Luke, would you mind reading that for us, please? Yeah, sure. "Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that he can make a lot more out of their lives than they can." Sorry. "He can deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace." Isn't that wonderful? When we turn our lives to God, he can do a lot more with our lives than we can ourselves. It's scary to do this, brothers and sisters, because at times we'll be required to walk in the desert. We'll be required to do things that don't make sense to us. We will be required to leave and don't look back. And that is scary. But our heavenly father is so full of patience. He's so full of mercy that even when we stumble, he will still be there. He will still get, get us back up and put us back on the path. This is not a, we, we belong to a church that does not believe in, in final chances. We don't believe in strikeouts. We, we don't believe in punting on fourth down. We believe that our savior Jesus Christ will give us as many chances as it takes. Life is about messing up, and we'll mess up quite a few times, and it's quite okay. There will always be room. There will always be a place for you in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We, our goal, we in this church, our goal is to help you prepare, is to help you become. And the temples are, are a key portion of that. We literally, when we go to the temple, we practice being in the presence of our heavenly father. That's what we do. And if you're comfortable feeling the spirit in the temple, if you're comfortable making those covenants in the temple, you will be comfortable in the presence of our heavenly father. And if you're not, he's okay with you trying. He's okay with you. Continue to try, and he'll guide you as you do those, as you make and, and, and keep those sacred covenants. Brothers and sisters, thank you for choosing to be here tonight. Again, I will close with my, my testimony that I know this is the work of God. I know that our savior was born on this earth as the only begotten son of our heavenly father. That he died for our sins, even though he had none himself. Think about that for a minute. Think about the time in your life where you were accused of something that you did not do. How you felt, how it hurt. Our savior took that upon himself willingly and freely because he wanted to, because he loved us. I know that he lives today. I know that he answers prayers, and I know that he speaks to us through the power and gift of the Holy Ghost. And I know that he will come back. And what a glorious day that will be, brothers and sisters, when we are able to kneel at his feet and thank him for what he has done for us and to feel perfect love like we've never felt before in our lives. We then all these things that don't make sense, all the injustices of this life, all the sicknesses, all the, the tragedies, the early deaths, all of those things will make sense. And what wonderful glory that will be for all of us that are true and faithful to the covenants that we've made. I, I love this church. I know it is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true. It changed my life as a 16-year-old in Brazil. I remember that was the only difference that the missionaries came and started talking to me about a church, and I said, "Okay, here's somebody who's going to preach me about the Bible." And then they gave me a Book of Mormon. And I looked at it and said, "This is different. I've never seen this." And I took it to my grandma. She did not like it. And that's when I was like, "Maybe I should look into it." I love my grandma, just so you know. I do. We have a great relationship. She's, she's amazing. Um, but again, thank you, brothers and sisters, for being here. We love you. We, we love your state presidency. They are men of God. They have been called by revelation and by prophecy to, to serve your stake at this time. And I bear this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. [snorts]

[music] Show me love to [music] God and Jesus wants to guide me. Jesus shows the way to share with Jesus to my [music] home. He will bless me with his spirit and fill me with his love. [music] Change my heart forever. I will walk with Jesus and he will walk with me. [music] I will try to walk and stand by my Savior with his step by step as I [music] walk with Jesus till I will bless his Help me change my heart forever and help me sing. I will walk with Jesus. Trust in Jesus. I will Jesus power. Ius forever.

Dear heavenly father, we are thankful for this day. We are thankful for our loving savior who is willing to sacrifice himself so that we can be with thee again. We are thankful for our prophets and apostles who lead and guide us in these latter days. We are thankful for our speakers today who are able to share their testimonies. We are thankful for families and friends, and we are thankful for this beautiful building that we can come to. Please bless that we will let the spirit teach us. And please bless that we'll have a safe drive home. Say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.