Increased Opportunities for Temple Experiences

 "I Love to See the Temple" President Eyring, April 2021 General conference

"The temple is a holy place we're revelation comes to us easily if our hearts are open to it and we are worthy of it. ...

My purpose today in speaking of temples is to increase your desire and mine to be worthy and ready for the increased opportunity for temple experiences that are coming for us."

Testimonies Come When...

 "Testimonies often come when there is willingness to serve where we are called. they come when a decision is made to strive to be obedient. Testimonies come during efforts to help, lift, and strengthen others. They come from prayer and from studying the scriptures and applying them in our lives. Whatever our circumstances, there seem to be moments in each of our lives when we can be given the knowledge that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ. There is no greater search in life that we can embark upon than the quest to gain a testimony of the truth." (Robert D. Hales, Ensign, Nov. 1994, pg 22). 

How to Heal From Any Struggle

 Wonderful article about the journey of healing. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2021/06/young-adults/how-to-heal-from-any-struggle-one-step-at-a-time?lang=eng

Empty Nesters

 https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2021/06/together-or-apart?lang=eng

Wonderful article about being empty nesters and to keep your marriage alive. 

Blessings of the Priesthood

 “We sometimes overly associate the power of the priesthood with men in the Church. The priesthood is the power and authority of God given for the salvation and blessing of all—men, women, and children.

“A man may open the drapes so the warm sunlight comes into the room, but the man does not own the sun or the light or the warmth it brings. The blessings of the priesthood are infinitely greater than the one who is asked to administer the gift.”

—Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Power in the Priesthood,” Liahona, Nov. 2013, 92.

We Need Organized Religion

 

Get in the Lifeboat: Finding Safety in the Church

By Brother Bradley R. Wilcox

Second Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency

Value Organized Religion

Many people believe in God but not organized religion. They say, “I’m spiritual, not religious.” Typically that means they acknowledge God’s existence but do not want Him to ask anything of them, give them any commandments, or expect them to make any changes.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught that spirituality—an individualized experience—might be all we would need if we lived alone on mountaintops, but we live in families, communities, societies. That’s why we need religion—the group practice of spirituality.⁷

It’s easy to sit alone on a mountaintop and say, “I love everyone.” Try feeling the same way when you are late for work because the driver of the vehicle in front of you is going so slow. You want to honk and yell at the driver. In that moment, you need the norms and standards of religion to help you bring mountaintop ideals like love right down to the reality of the moment when someone is being unlovable. That is what religion helps us to do.

Some people see no need for organized religion, and yet they demand organized schools, cities, stores, airports, and hospitals. They see the benefits of going to an organized hospital, where there are rules or expectations. We see the same benefits in our organized Church.

Being part of this organized religion blesses us and those we love in every aspect of our lives. Because the Church is organized, we can care for others more effectively together than we could ever do individually. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said that partway through the world pandemic of 2020, the Church had already participated in over 1,000 humanitarian aid projects in over 150 countries. We provided food and other necessities to care for millions in need. None of us could have done that on our own, but we did it together because we have an organized religion.⁸

Society Needs To Hear from People of Faith

 

The Eternal Importance of Religious Freedom

By Michael R. Morris

Church Magazines

Elder Christofferson concurs: “Values we once shared with the great majority of our fellow citizens are now often considered outdated, naive, and sometimes even bigoted. Because a society’s deepest values drive law and public policy, and because those values in many Western nations are now almost entirely secular, government is increasingly enforcing secular values at the expense of religious ones. And society itself—even without the force of government—can ostracize, stigmatize, and discriminate against religious believers in overt and subtle ways, leaving people of faith marginalized and sometimes even despised.”⁸

Religion and Self-Governance

“One of the reasons the attack on moral and religious principles has been so successful is the reluctance of people of faith to express their views,” said Elder Cook. “Extraordinary effort will be required to protect religious liberty. Our doctrine confirms what the U.S. founding fathers and political philosophers have advocated [see Doctrine and Covenants 134:2].”¹⁵

What they have advocated, President Oaks taught, is the central role religion plays in developing self-governance: “Our society is not held together primarily by law and its enforcement, but most importantly by those who voluntarily obey the unenforceable because of their internalized norms of righteous or correct behavior. Religious belief in right and wrong is a vital influence to produce such voluntary compliance by a large number of our citizens.”