Leaders encourage members to keep values, be grateful
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By JaNAE FRANCIS
Standard-Examiner staff
jfrancis@standard.net
SALT LAKE CITY -- Acknowledging the changing times, leaders urged members to be optimistic and stick by long-established values in the Sunday sessions of the 178th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"This is not a time for the spiritually faint of heart," said Elder M. Russell Ballard, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apstles. "We cannot afford to be superficially righteous. Our testimonies must run deep, with spiritual roots firmly imbedded in the rock of revelation."
"We live in those 'perilous times,' which the Apostle Paul prophesied would come in the last days," said Elder Boyd K. Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, quoting 2 Timothy 3.
"If we are to be safe individually, as families, and secure as a church, it will be through 'obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel,' " he said, quoting the church's third Article of Faith.
LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson asked members to demonstrate thankfulness.
"If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues," he said.
He told of a woman who was stricken with very limited eye sight and yet went on to become principal of eight schools and the author of 17 books.
"Her attitude of thankfulness enabled her to appreciate her blessings and to live a full and rich life despite her challenges," Monson said.
Monson urged everyone to do the same. "Our realization of what is most important in life goes hand in hand with gratitude for our blessings."
He specifically named family as one of those "most important" things.
A member attending the session, Blake Fonnesbeck, of Brigham City, said he appreciated Monson's suggestion that children were to take precedence over "piles and piles" of laundry.
"Sometimes we spend too much time worrying about the tiny details and not worrying about the important things," he said.
He also thought Monson's advice to not deal with tomorrow but to really take care of today was a needed message.
President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency, said members of the church could accomplish any purpose of the Lord when fully united in righteousness.
"We see increased conflict between peoples in the world around us," Eyring said. "That is why my message of hope today is that a great day of unity is coming."
He said Jesus Christ would return to live with His people, finding them united and unified.
Those who offered later talks demonstrated their unity by elaborating on the messages that preceded.
Elder Robert D. Hales, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Sister Elaine S. Dalton, president of the Young Women General Presidency, demonstrated their unity when they both discussed a story of Lehonti in the Book of Mormon. Well-positioned on the top of a mountain during battle, he was slowly led away and poisoned.
Hales encouraged members to face those critical of them and the church with courage, love and understanding.
This was a message that resonated with Bountiful resident Leah Creswell, who attended the session following Hales' remarks.
"I enjoyed it when he said to love our enemies and pray for those who speak against us," said the 19-year-old Utah State University student.
"I think it's really important when people are saying bad things about our church -- we don't want to fight with them. We want to show them love."
Dalton told young women and their leaders that virtue was not old-fashioned and was much needed in the world today.
"May we so live that we can be instruments in preparing the earth for His second coming," she said. Quoting Mormon scripture Moroni 7:48, she said, "That when He shall appear we shall be like him ... purified even as he is pure."
Dalton's talk was a highlight for both Fonnesbeck and Creswell.
Fonnesbeck, a father of young women, said he was glad when Dalton told them to prepare to go to the temple and laughed when Dalton spoke of young women being "busy ever-texting but never coming to a knowledge of the truths" of the Book of Mormon.
Creswell said she likes it when church leaders talk about blogs and texting.
"A few years ago, you wouldn't have heard that in conference," she said.
Monson ended conference with a challenge to members to deeply study the messages they had heard in the five sessions and to become better people.
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