Called to Share

04/02/2025

How can God fulfill his promise to prosper his children in obedience if they worship idols or destroy life created by him—destined to be in his very image?

They will prosper only when their education includes faith in and obedience to the God of this world, who said,
“I, the Lord, … built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine. And it is my purpose to provide. … But it must needs be done in mine own way. … For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare.” (D&C 104:14–17; italics added.)

Now, as a servant of the Lord, I dutifully warn those who advocate and practice abortion that they incur the wrath of Almighty God, who declared, “If men … hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, … he shall be surely punished.” (Ex. 21:22.)

Of those who shed innocent blood, a prophet declared: “The judgments which [God] shall exercise … in his wrath [shall] be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.” (Alma 14:11.)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has consistently opposed the practice of abortion. One hundred years ago the First Presidency wrote: “And we again take this opportunity of warning the Latter-day Saints against those … practices of foeticide and infanticide.”

Russell M. Nelson / Reverence for Life / April 1985

27/01/2025

Several years ago, before I was called as a general authority, I had a business partner who was suffering from a challenging illness. He phoned me one afternoon and said that President Boyd K. Packer had just been to his home to give him a blessing. As President Packer was leaving, he said to him, “Don’t come back too fast from Gethsemane. Learn the lessons there.” My friend then asked me, “Bob, what do you think he meant by that?”

Elder Robert C. Gay / Ensign College / November 05, 2019

27/01/2025

Several years ago, before I was called as a general authority, I had a business partner who was suffering from a challenging illness. He phoned me one afternoon and said that President Boyd K. Packer had just been to his home to give him a blessing. As President Packer was leaving, he said to him, “Don’t come back too fast from Gethsemane. Learn the lessons there.” My friend then asked me, “Bob, what do you think he meant by that?”

The Garden of Gethsemane was actually an olive tree orchard. The name—Gethsemane—means the place of the olive press. Here olives were harvested and then pressed for their oil by a huge crushing stone. Harvesters increased the pressure of the crush until all the fluid was drained from the olives.

It was in no way coincidental that Jesus chose the Garden of Gethsemane to take upon Himself our sins. The Garden was a symbol of what He came to earth to do—to voluntarily submit to the press of eternal justice that caused Him to bleed from every pore in order to redeem us from and to succor us in our imperfections that we might have eternal life. Scripture records that He did this so that “His bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that He may know according to the flesh how to succor His people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:12). Christ “descended below all things”—including any sickness, infirmity, and even dark despair we might experience—in order that He might “comprehend all things, that He might be in all and through all things, the light of truth” (D&C 88:6). This unfathomable press of Gethsemane ultimately culminated in the His crucifixion at Calvary and triumphant resurrection at the garden tomb.

The Savior said in our day: “Behold the wounds which pierced my side and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet” (D&C 6:37). Ponder for a moment the challenges and circumstances of your life and the press of Gethsemane and the precious drops of blood shed for you. This first lesson of Gethsemane is primary: Because of Him, each of us can be healed and saved, and receive enduring, eternal joy and while we may experience trials and tribulation is mortality, we need not fear them.

There is, however, a second overarching lesson we must recognize and deeply internalize from the events of Gethsemane and Calvary: To receive God’s greatest blessings we will also need to become submissive to God’s will for our lives. This includes drinking from the Father’s bitter cup by being, in the words of scripture, “willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us]” (Mosiah 3:19). Elder Neal A. Maxwell testified, “If we are serious about our discipleship, Jesus will eventually request each of us to do those very things which are most difficult for us to do” (A Time to Choose, 46). When asked by Elder Bednar about what lessons Elder Maxwell had learned from the leukemia that would eventually take his life, he said: “I have learned that not shrinking is more important than not suffering.”

When Christ entered the Garden of Gethsemane, He fell to the ground sore amazed at the task before Him. In our day, He said this of that moment in His mission: “Would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” (D&C 19:18-19).

Submission, repentance, and sacrifice is Christ’s message to us from the Garden.

Elder Robert C. Gay / Ensign College / November 05, 2019

25/01/2025

He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah of the New. Under the direction of His Father, He was the creator of the earth. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3).

16/01/2025

What do you love about being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

Church membership acts as an antidote to the sometimes isolating, angry, and divisive environments we live in

15/01/2025

“May I commend you faithful Saints who are striving to flood the earth and your lives with the Book of Mormon. Not only must we move forward in a monumental manner more copies of the Book of Mormon, but we must move boldly forward into our own lives and throughout the earth more of its marvelous messages.”

- Ezra Taft Benson

09/12/2024

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

John 14:15-18

04/12/2024

Without immortality there can be no real and lasting meaning to life. Jesus has not only immunized us against the lasting sting of the grave, but his teachings can also help us not to “look upon death with any degree of terror.” (Alma 27:28.) The same Jesus promised us, through one of his prophets, that if we could live according to his word, we would have, in this life, a knowledge of what is “just and true and render every man his due” (justice and discernment); we would live peaceably with others (peacefulness); we would rear our families without fighting and quarreling, teaching them to love one another (the capacity to love learned in happy homes); and we would care for the needy (a program for poverty). (See Mosiah 4.) In a sense, while others have the slogans, we have the solutions that, if applied, will carry us to “a state of happiness which hath no end.” (Morm. 7:7.)

With such a great message, can we afford not to be articulate in our homes and wherever we are? Passivity and inarticulateness about this “marvelous work and a wonder” can diminish the faith of others, for as Austin Farrer observed, “Though argument does not create belief, the lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced, but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it nourishes a climate in which belief may flourish.”

Neal A. Maxwell / Talk of the Month / New Era / May 1971

26/11/2024

Christmas is officially here in my book! 🎄

Our family loves donating to the giving machines. It’s been a fun holiday tradition for a number of years now.

The machines at University Place in Orem, Utah are now open.

Such a fun way to give and put other’s needs first. 🎄

21/11/2024

The Church in its divine mission and we in our personal lives seem to face increasing opposition today. Perhaps as the Church grows in strength and we members grow in faith and obedience, Satan increases the strength of his opposition so we will continue to have “opposition in all things.”

Some of this opposition even comes from Church members. Some who use personal reasoning or wisdom to resist prophetic direction give themselves a label borrowed from elected bodies—“the loyal opposition.” However appropriate for a democracy, there is no warrant for this concept in the government of God’s kingdom, where questions are honored but opposition is not (see Matthew 26:24).

Dallin H. Oaks / Opposition in All Things / April 2016 General Conference

19/11/2024

Callie standing all amazed.

11/11/2024

I’m not sure about the success of economies, politics, businesses, universities, or hospitals. But I know one thing that will never fail—the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jeffrey R. Holland

09/11/2024

I believe we are in an intensified period of questioning and criticism. Now, more than ever, we need Jesus
and the principles that Jesus taught to help us through this divisive time.

08/11/2024

07/11/2024

To be a righteous woman is a glorious thing in any age. To be a righteous woman during the winding up scenes on this earth, before the second coming of our Savior, is an especially noble calling. The righteous woman’s strength and influence today can be tenfold what it might be in more tranquil times. She has been placed here to help to enrich, to protect, and to guard the home—which is society’s basic and most noble institution. Other institutions in society may falter and even fail, but the righteous woman can help to save the home, which may be the last and only sanctuary some mortals know in the midst of storm and strife.

Spencer W. Kimball / Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters / Ensign, Nov. 1978

05/11/2024

Our belief in divine inspiration gives Latter-day Saints a unique responsibility to uphold and defend the United States Constitution and principles of constitutionalism wherever we live. We should trust in the Lord and be positive about this nation’s future.

What else are faithful Latter-day Saints to do? We must pray for the Lord to guide and bless all nations and their leaders. This is part of our article of faith. Being subject to presidents or rulers of course poses no obstacle to our opposing individual laws or policies. It does require that we exercise our influence civilly and peacefully within the framework of our constitutions and applicable laws. On contested issues, we should seek to moderate and unify.

Dallin H. Oaks / Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution / April 2021 General Conference

04/11/2024

There are many political issues, and no party, platform, or individual candidate can satisfy all personal preferences. Each citizen must therefore decide which issues are most important to him or her at any particular time. Then members should seek inspiration on how to exercise their influence according to their individual priorities. This process will not be easy. It may require changing party support or candidate choices, even from election to election.

Such independent actions will sometimes require voters to support candidates or political parties or platforms whose other positions they cannot approve. That is one reason we encourage our members to refrain from judging one another in political matters. We should never assert that a faithful Latter-day Saint cannot belong to a particular party or vote for a particular candidate. We teach correct principles and leave our members to choose how to prioritize and apply those principles on the issues presented from time to time. We also insist, and we ask our local leaders to insist, that political choices and affiliations not be the subject of teachings or advocacy in any of our Church meetings.

Dallin H. Oaks / Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution / April 2021 General Conference

01/11/2024

“Your foes in a sordid society demean the sacredness of women and the sanctity of motherhood. Your world, sickened by unchastity and plagued with sexually transmitted disease, needs your righteous example. For the wrath of God is provoked by governments that sponsor gambling, condone po*******hy, or legalize abortion. These forces serve to denigrate women now, just as they did in the days of S***m and Gomorrah.

You can—you must—make a difference. You are vital to the Lord’s team—one team with one purpose. Through your diversity, build strength in unity. Bind yourselves together in all holiness. Anchor yourselves to “the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Eph. 2:20).”

Russell M. Nelson / Lessons from Eve / October 1987 General Conference