The Savior has commanded each of us to love God and to love our neighbor. We are grateful for the faithful efforts of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who strive to fulfill this divine commandment. Their service is a witness of discipleship.    My counselors in the First Presidency and I recently visited the Church’s new humanitarian center in Salt Lake City. This facility will serve an important role in preparing and distributing emergency supplies to meet global needs.    I express appreciation for members of the Church and for all who minister in quiet and consistent ways. I testify of Jesus Christ, whose light and Spirit guide the children of God in caring for the poor and the distressed throughout the world.     May we each accept and act upon this sacred responsibility to bless the lives of all of our Father’s children.

This Mother’s Day, I express heartfelt gratitude to the women who love with Christlike charity, who strengthen faith, and who build the rising generation with hope and tenderness. You are the heart of the Lord’s work. I saw this love in my beloved wife, Kathleen. She displayed the Savior’s love through her compassion, her faithfulness, and her service. She embraced the sacred role of a mothering influence not only for our children, but for more than a hundred members of our direct family and for many hundreds more whom she welcomed into her motherly heart. While I do not fully know all the Lord’s purposes in giving the primary responsibility for nurturing to faithful sisters, I believe it is because of their capacity to love. To love in such a way that the needs of others are felt more deeply than their own—that is charity. That is the pure love of Christ.

Today, my counselors in the First Presidency and I were grateful for the opportunity to visit the Salt Lake Temple, which has been undergoing a significant renovation since 2020.   We look forward to welcoming people from throughout the world during the Salt Lake Temple Celebration and open house, to be held from April through October 2027.   Above all, we look forward to teaching about the sacred purposes of temples throughout the world. In the temple, faithful men and women receive divine instruction, sacred responsibilities, and spiritual power.   It is in the temple that eternal covenants are made that bind us and our families to our Heavenly Father and to one another for eternity.

When we obey what we are taught in the temple with all our hearts, it makes possible our receiving the gift of peace.    During the Lindon Utah Temple dedication today, I shared that in the temples of God, we are taught the simple truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ: The Plan of Salvation, our relationship to the loving God who created us, and our divine potential to be with the Savior again, to live in glory and peace forever.     Each time you return to the temple you will, by the Spirit, learn more of Him and of His Father. The peace He promises us can come, even as the storms of life beat upon us.   Those feelings of peace can go with us in our busy lives, if we are faithful to the covenants we make here. Trials, challenges, and heartaches will surely come to all of us. None of us are immune from “thorns of the flesh.” Yet, as we attend the temple and remember our covenants, we will feel peace from the Lord.

The feelings of your heart and the love for our Heavenly Father and for His beloved Son can be so constant that your prayers will ascend always.

The world today seems to be in commotion. There are wars and rumors of wars. The economies of whole continents seem to be faltering. Prophesied wickedness seems to be accelerating as the Savior’s return draws nearer. Yet despite turmoil and difficulty, faithful Latter-day Saints in hardship across the world have flooded heaven with prayers. In public, and in private, they are petitioning the Lord for help, for comfort, for direction, and personal peace for those they love. Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, lives, knows us, watches over us, and cares for us. As we pray continually, no matter the circumstances of life, the Lord will offer us His peace and abiding support. Consistent prayer during joyous times and also during seasons of distress and grief will surely be rewarded according to His will and perfect timing. #GeneralConference Artwork: “Angels Among Us” by Annie Henrie Nader

The Savior’s invitation is simple: “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:63). As you are faithful, you will find that the Lord keeps His promises.

It is never too early to help a child grow their testimony in Jesus Christ. Young children are often more sensitive to the Spirit than we realize. Daily family prayer, family scripture study, and sharing your testimony in sacrament meeting are easier and more effective when children are young. When they are older, they will remember the hymns they sang with you. Even more than recalling music, they will remember the words of scripture and testimony. The Holy Ghost can bring all things to their remembrance, but the words of scriptures and hymns will last the longest. When trials come, those memories will be a source of strength throughout their life.

My dear brothers and sisters, opportunities await each of us this Christmas season to reach out and show kindness with Christlike love and compassion and to make a difference.

The Lord is preparing His Church and His people, those who bear His name, to receive Him. As part of our preparation for His coming, He will lift each of us so we may rise to spiritual challenges and opportunities unlike any seen in the history of this world. How, then, can each of us participate in this work of such magnitude and grandeur? When we take repentance as a joyful opportunity because of our growing faith that Jesus is the Christ, when we understand and believe that Heavenly Father hears our every prayer, when we strive to obey and live the commandments, we grow in our power to receive continuing revelation. The Holy Ghost can be our constant companion. A feeling of light will stay with us even as the world around us becomes darker. As we pray and grow our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Heavenly Father as our loving Father, we become a vital part in the Lord’s work as He prepares the world for His Second Coming.

God knows you. He knows the trials you face. He is with you. He will not forsake you. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is our strength, our Redeemer, our hope. If we trust Him, He will make our spiritual power equal to every trial we are called to bear.

We rejoice in remembering our Savior, Jesus Christ. He was born in humble circumstances. Heavenly angels heralded His birth. He preached the gospel of repentance, hope, and everlasting life. He opened the eyes of the blind, made the deaf to hear, healed all manner of afflictions, and raised the dead. He is the Only Begotten of our Father in Heaven, the Firstborn of God’s spirit children. Through His sacrifice and infinite Atonement, we can be reconciled with God by obedience and repentance. In this season of light and goodwill, we rejoice in Jesus Christ and in His eternal plan of happiness. We invite you to seek Him and the blessings of His peace. Merry Christmas!

There is something we can choose to do in our daily life that will provide a constant protection against spiritual hazards. It is simply to remember who God is and what it means to be His child. When we remember the Savior we see Him as the creator of all things. We remember our dependence on His sacrifice when we think of the fall of man and of our own sins. We remember His unfailing love for us and His arms extended in invitation to us when we think of the little we understand of what He did to atone for our sins. Those memories, if we choose to invite them, can produce a powerful blend of courage and meekness. No problem is too hard for us with His help. No price is too great to pay for what He offers us.

There is nothing more important than honoring the covenants you have made or may make in the temple. Trials, challenges, and heartaches will surely come to all of us. Yet, as we attend the temple and remember our covenants, we can prepare to receive personal direction from the Lord. We can be reminded of the eternal nature of our spirits, our relationship with the Father and His Divine Son, and our ultimate desire to return to our heavenly home. All will be well because of temple covenants.

To our young friends, please know that you have a Heavenly Father who loves you. He’s provided a plan for you.

I cannot express the gratitude that I feel for the trust from the Lord and the trust that President Oaks has shown to me. I love him and can testify that I know that he is the head of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by inspiration. I have seen the power of God come upon Him. I’m so grateful for the people whose faith I know will sustain us in this great work of the restoration and the final preparation of the Lord’s Church for His coming. I bear you my testimony that preparation is occurring and that President Oaks is the perfect one to the do the things that I know the Lord will want done. I am grateful to be at his side. I testify Jesus is the Christ.

We learn that while in the garden of Gethsemane, the Savior did ask the Father if the trial could pass over Him—but then He also said that if it was the Father’s will, then the Savior would do it. In other words, the Savior even took on doubt and uncertainty, but He had faith in His Heavenly Father. Brothers and sisters, your proving and strengthening will come. It may come quietly, through the trials of family life. It may come through illness, or disappointment, or grief, or loneliness. These moments are not evidence that the Lord has abandoned you. Rather, they are evidence that He loves you enough to refine and strengthen you. He is making you strong enough to carry the weight of eternal life. If we remain faithful in our service, the Lord will refine us. He will strengthen us. And one day, we will look back and see that those very trials were evidence of His love. We will see that He was shaping us to be able to stand with Him in glory. #GeneralConference

I observed President Russell M. Nelson’s love for all of God’s children. He taught of our Savior and Redeemer, encouraging all to emulate Him. My prayer is that we will follow President Nelson’s prophetic counsel to trust in the Lord’s revealed guidance to His servants and his example of love.

It is one of the great opportunities of my life to serve alongside President Russell M. Nelson. Time and again, I have witnessed how he humbly seeks and faithfully receives direction from the Lord. He is, for me, an example of seeking that direction with the determination to follow it. I am inspired by and grateful for the Christlike love and care he has for all of God’s children. I know that he is called of God to lead the Lord’s true Church. #PresidentNelson101

The family unit is not only fundamental to society and to the Church, but to our hope for eternal life. We begin to practice in the family, the smaller unit, what will spread to the Church and to the society in which we live in this world, and what then will be what we practice in families bound together forever by covenants and faithfulness.