I've been asked what it feels like to be the newest apostle, and I think what I'd say is it feels exactly as you would imagine. And I'll leave you to wonder at that, but I've had every conceivable emotion, and I know this is far beyond me, but I will plead for help. I do absolutely believe in a loving Father in Heaven, in His Son our Saviour.
And I know that they will help, and I'm counting on it. And I will do my best to become, over time, something along the lines of an apostle that you might have in your imagination. And so on this day, when I'm struggling 24 hours after the call to come to terms with this, if you're having a day that you feel stretched, let's say, beyond your wildest imagination, Well, I'm right there with you, and may you find peace, and may we all find peace together from the only place where we can, any of us, really find it.
And I leave those thoughts with you, this thought with you, in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Dear friends, it's such a pleasure to be with you here in this beautiful place, and an honour to speak to you.
on such a significant day in your lives. As I prepared thoughts to share with you, of course, I never imagined that I would be sharing them on the day when I would be named the newest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It's staggering to me even just to say that.
This call, as President said, came yesterday. I slept very little last night, as you can well imagine. I realize now in the most extraordinary way that never have I actually prepared remarks for others that so perfectly fit a moment in my own life.
God, who is over all and to whom yesterday's call is no surprise, however much of a surprise it is to me and certainly to all of those who know me well. directed me to these messages for you. But they are also, in this moment, very much for me. And I'm going to need them, these messages, desperately over the next few weeks, months, and even years. To be an apostle is, amongst other things, to be a special witness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm keenly aware that I will need to grow in every conceivable good way to become the servant the Saviour needs me to be. My inadequacies, weaknesses, and lack are painfully clear to me, but I have faith in the patience of my Father, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the tutoring of the Holy Ghost. Now let's turn to you, though in many regards I'm also speaking very much, as I said, to myself.
You came here to grow and learn and work towards the achievement of this very day. I congratulate you on completing the hard-fought climb to this new threshold that you stand on now. And what a threshold it is.
Before you stretches a great unknown, an adventure, which I'm sure inspires equal parts excitement and trepidation. With your heads, with our heads and hearts contemplating the magnitude of this moment, I would like to share some words from a poem written by Minnie Louise Haskins. And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.
And he replied, out in the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way. So I went forth.
finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night, and he led me towards the hills and the breaking of the day."Graduates, your diligently applied time here has equipped you with a marvelous set of skills that, coupled with the guiding light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, will shape your contributions to the world as you go out from this threshold into the unknown, holding fast to the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ. to pure sources of truth and light, let your mantra be, whom can I serve? Remember that Christ has counseled, he that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. In the Lord's eyes, greatness is measured not by our personal achievements but by the charity with which we treat his children. I testify of the reality of our loving Father in heaven, who hears your every prayer. His living Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, and the infinite atoning gift of the Redeemer of us all. There has been a restoration of eternal knowledge and truth. It continues now and will continue until that glorious day when Jesus Christ returns. Each of you. Each one of you is loved in ways that you cannot comprehend. Sister Jen Kieron was raised in Saratoga, California, the youngest of eight children. The received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham You University in Humanities with an emphasis in English literature. The and Elder Kieron were married in the Oakland, California, Temple and are the parents of four children. The Kieron have lived in London and the West of England, as well as Frankfurt, Germany, and now Salt Lake City, Utah. Sister Kieron has served and taught in various capacities in the Relief Society, You Women, and Primary Organizations, and has also served as a seminary teacher. Sister Kieron enjoys reading, skiing, water skiing, family history research, art museums, and playing the piano and flute. Elder Patrick Kieron was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 3, 2010. At the time of his call, he had been serving as a member of the Third Korma of the Seventy in the Europe area. Elder Kieron was named a member of the Presidency of the Seventy on August 1, 2017. He currently has supervisory responsibilities in the North America West and North America Northwest areas. He also assists Elder Sister F. Uchtdorf in supervising the Europe and Europe East areas. Elder Kieron was educated in the Middle East and the United Kingdom. He has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and the United States in a range of industries and ran his own communications consultancy. His civic and community involvement has included service on the boards of charities, a school, an enterprise agency, and a college. After joining the Church on Christmas Eve of 1987, Elder Kieron served in numerous church callings. including assistant ward clerk, young men president, counselor in a bishopric, branch president, stake president, and area 70. Elder Kieron was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England on July 18, 1961. He married Jen Carol Holm in January 1991. We just love you. How thrilling to be active participants with you. In such a vibrant period in the ongoing restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, young or old, we all enjoy a good fairy tale, especially when it's a love story. I have to say that our love story was a beautiful and totally unexpected fairy tale. I grew up in California, my husband in England and Saudi Arabia. I was raised in the church from birth. My husband was a convert to the church in his mid-twenties. We were brought together from two separate continents in the great city of London. He had been a member of the church for two years and was attending the young single adult ward there in London when I arrived to spend six months studying art history and English literature. I never intended or expected To fall head over heels in love while studying in the UK. But life can take some very unpredictable and magnificent turns. Hang on, hang on. You're... You, like me, are looking... No, please put that photo back up. You're looking at that photo and thinking, well, we see him and we see him, and what happened to the first fellow? Well welcome to your future. This is what happens when a few years few years elapse. Yeah for a minute there he was concerned we had put the wrong photo on. Okay but I am so grateful that the Lord led us to one another. We married in the Oakland California temple. And I moved straight back to England where we lived for the next 19 years until the time of my husband's call as a General Authority in 2010. We have been blessed with four beautiful children. We lost our eldest child, a son, in heart surgery when he was 19 days old. His heart defect was discovered during my pregnancy. And our fierce and steadfast fight for His short life taught us of miracles, God's will, and the intimate personal reality of the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our sweet son was followed by our three precious daughters whom we adore, respect, and learn from every day. They are treasures to us. With uncommon faith, they have willingly moved all through their teenage years, from their home in England, to Utah, to Germany, and now back again to Utah, as their father has been assigned to serve in various capacities in the Church. When you're exhausted with life and feeling like you can't see anything good coming from all your efforts to live righteously, don't give up. Don't compromise your dreams and goals. Increase your faith that it is always worth waiting for the Lord's timing. And when awful, painful, tragic things do happen in your life and you truly do not know how you will survive the path through your own personal Gethsemane, Remember that Christ, the Anointed One, has already borne your griefs and carried your sorrows. He has been bruised for your iniquities, and with his stripes you are healed. He knows intimately and personally the pain you bear. He is the firstborn of the Father, and he has firstborn your suffering in its entirety, be it mental, physical. emotional or spiritual. Never doubt his promises of hope and healing. You have been created for a joyful, abundant existence. Your worth is infinite and so is God's love for you. I am excited for you to hear from my husband. I want you to know, relevant to your age and stage of life as you are dating and marrying, that this man I love deeply has been unfailingly kind to me for 27 years of marriage. He has never once, not once, made me feel small or unloved, and he has never made a joke at my expense. I hope that you can learn from that. I wish to express my living faith in the living Christ, who truly is the light, the life and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. This is his church led by his prophet in the sacred saving name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I'm so grateful for Jen who without exception lives what she teaches. The knows who she is and rejoices in knowing who she is. And she's bold in sharing that with others, wherever she is. And I'm so grateful that we met two years after I joined the church. And she's been a blessed example to me and for me since then and continues to be. When I was 15 or 16, I was deeply self-absorbed and going through many of those unsettled and uncertain and vulnerable feelings which can come as being part of an adolescent. Some of those feelings lingered on, but they were most acute in those teenage years. I felt lost and self-conscious and awkward. It didn't help that I was at boarding school on a desolate bit of coast in England. My parents live far away in Saudi Arabia, and in terms of the school, Hogwarts, with Snape, would have been more welcoming. And bad weather was common along that coast, but one winter a particularly formidable... Storm blew in across the Irish Sea with winds gusting to a force 12 gale. The sea crashed over the defences and in some cases breached them. And then around 5,000 homes were flooded in the surrounding area. And people were left cut off without electricity or any means of heating or lighting their homes. And they were running out of food. As the flood started to subside, we were dispatched by the school. I had not seen a natural disaster on that scale before and I was astonished to experience it close up. Water and mud were everywhere. The faces of those who had been flooded were ashen and gaunt. They had been deprived of sleep for days and my fellow schoolboys and I went to work, moving waterlogged belongings to upper floors where they could be dried and pulling up carpet which had been ruined by the flood. I remember the sodden carpet was impossibly heavy and the stench in the homes was dreadful. What struck me next was the camaraderie that developed between those of us helping and those receiving help. There was just a wonderful good-natured feeling between people united in a worthy cause under challenging circumstances. I later reflected that all those insecure feelings which consumed so much of my regular teenage thought, left while I was involved in this great effort to assist our neighbors. I wish that realization had lasted, but it didn't. The discovery that helping others was the antidote to my gloomy, self-obsessed state should have been transforming, but it wasn't, because the discovery didn't sink deep enough. and I failed to reflect more thoughtfully on what had taken place. That understanding came later. You have probably discovered this truth in your own life. It might be helpful for you to think about when this happened for you and how. I was considering this myself during General Conference. I do feel so fortunate to have this opportunity to speak to you so soon after that landmark conference just a few weeks ago. The impressions, peace, and infusion of energy received are still with me. At the heart of the conference messages was the repeated call to minister as the Saviour ministers and to do so out of love, in recognition that we are all, and those around us, children of our Heavenly Father. We will serve not because our service is being counted and measured, but because We love our Father in heaven and are motivated by a higher and nobler pursuit, helping our friends find and stay on the path home to him. We are loving and serving our neighbors as Jesus would if he were in our place, truly trying to improve people's lives and lighten their burdens. This is where joy and lasting fulfillment come from for both the giver and the receiver. as we share the fruits of knowing and feeling our infinite worth and God's eternal love for each of us. This message was summarized by President Nelson in this way. A hallmark of the Lord's true and living church will always be an organized, directed effort to minister to individual children of God and their families. Because it is His church. We as his servants will minister to the one just as he did. We will minister in his name with his power and authority and with his loving kindness. As I have reflected on what we were taught, I know that if we heed this call to minister, we have the opportunity to rise out of ourselves, grow in faith, confidence and happiness and overcome our self-focus and the sense of emptiness and gloom which comes with it. I wish I had come to this realization much earlier in my life, but I am so grateful that I have learned it by increasing degrees over the years and that we are given constant reminders of this great truth. I had an experience a couple of months ago where I'd been lying awake for many hours, trying to sleep, but unable to do so. Finally, I got up and walked around the house a little, then returned to bed to try and sleep again. As sleep continued to elude me, a transformative thought suddenly dawned on me. Stop thinking about yourself. And then came the question, who can I help? I lay there praying mightily. Who can I help now and how? An impression came to contact and encourage a friend. It wasn't a big thing, but the next morning I responded to it and hopefully did some good. What I do know is that once I prayed that way, asking to know who I could help, I found the peace which had been evading me, and I was finally able to sleep. The Saviour went about doing good, always looking for someone to help. healing all that were oppressed. He constantly blessed, taught, and guided others to change their point of view and therefore their lives. It is instructive that when he called Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow him, their change of direction and focus was instant. They straightway left their nets and followed him. Later, after the crucifixion, When the Saviour had been taken from them in the cruelest way, they returned to their fishing, to what they felt they knew. On one occasion the resurrected Saviour came to them as they fished in vain, and he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. This was a demonstration that he had lost none of his power, but also a very bold picture that they were looking in the wrong place and focusing on the wrong thing. As they ate fish together on the shore, the Saviour asked Peter three times if he loved him. Each time, and with a growing sense of anxiety, Peter answered that he did. Following each of Peter's answers, Jesus asked Peter, to feed his sheep. Why did the Saviour ask him three times if he loved him? Well, Peter had been called to follow Jesus before, and he had responded instantly, leaving his fishing behind. But when Jesus was taken from them, Peter grieved. He was lost. He went back to the only thing he felt he knew, fishing. Now Jesus wanted Peter to really hear him and to comprehend the gravity of the invitation this time. He needed Peter to understand what it meant to be a disciple and follower of the resurrected Christ, now that he would no longer be physically by their side. What did the Lord want from Peter? He wanted Peter to feed his sheep, his lambs. This was the job that needed doing. Peter recognized this gentle, direct call from his master, and the chief apostle responded valiantly and fearlessly, giving the remainder of his life to the ministry he had been called to. Jen referred to the fight we had for the life of our infant son. After his loss, we wondered if we would ever recover. Through that time we received an extraordinary outpouring of love, kindness and help from family and friends, as well as people we hardly knew. A beloved couple, who were already dear friends, were constant ministers through the whole period. They remained by our side, praying with us and for us, and providing blessings, meals, comforting words, as well as silence. Somehow they always appeared when some critical piece of information had been delivered, or when we were sinking with exhaustion and then with grief. They have demonstrated over the years that this is their way of life. They quietly and consistently minister. While serving in the Europe area of the Church over the last few years, We were living in Germany and I witnessed this principle being applied to astonishing effect as members of the church and our friends of other faiths mobilized to help countless thousands of refugees who had lost everything as they fled the fighting and devastation of a war that still rages in the Middle East. Our highest and best endeavor is to share the light hope, joy, and purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ with all of God's children and help them find the path home. Helping, serving, and ministering to them are manifestations of the gospel in action. This is how the Saviour lived, and this is why he lived, to provide the perfect balm and the ultimate healing through his great, infinite, atoning gift for you and for me. May we follow the living Christ ever more willingly, ever more effectively, as we strive to become his true disciples through ministering as he would. I was invited to speak and talk about my own experience as a new convert in relation to family history. I joined the church when I was 26, and when this invitation came, I said, I'm not sure that I'm the one you want, and I'll explain why. As I said, I joined the church when I was 26, I was in London, and a little while after joining the church, I was told about family history. I suppose I was told about family history during the conversion process, but I didn't have any great recollection of that. And a friend somewhat excitedly said, let me introduce you to family history. And I thought, great, you know, this wonderful new world I've been exposed to. And here's another piece, another chapter in this great story. And I remember being... led along a corridor, somewhat dark, and into a room that seemed, at least, to be dark or very poorly lit. That's very good. Well done, dear friends at the back. And I opened the door, or my friend opened the door, probably halfway, and I looked in, and there was this, I'll call them a well-seasoned individual sitting at a desk just inside the door. And she looked up and looked at me and looked at us and it was clear that this was an interruption. And I looked around the room past this somewhat irritated individual to the filing cabinets, somewhat dusty, some antiquated machines on the far wall and someone sitting with their back to us intensively toiling. at one of these screens, big screen, old and dusty again. And then the lady who'd been by the door started to give me, again, with some sense of irritation, I felt. It wasn't actually there, but it was felt, an introduction to family history work. And she led me to some drawers and she pulled them out and there were discs, I think, in there. led me over to one of the machines and described that, and instantly I'm hearing acronyms and jargon and all sorts of another foreign language after the already foreign language I'd been introduced to in just joining the church with our interesting descriptions of so many things. And I thought, wow, well, if this is it, I'm really not sure. And that's really how it was. Clearly things have changed and they did change for me sometime later when another friend said tell me about your family and do you have any pictures of your parents and grandparents? By that time I was I had only my mother living my father had died when I was 19 and I only ever knew one of my grandparents and that was only when I was very young. So I did. take out photos and they said, well, tell me about them. And I did. And as we've already heard, wonderful things started to happen inside me. And I was able to talk about my seafaring Irish ancestors, my English ancestors who'd had military careers and worked in extraordinary parts of the world, and it was just wonderful. And at this point I realized that it was like just as when one of our friends is being taught about the gospel by missionaries. When it's done with love and with the Spirit, it's one experience. And when it's done as a technical download, it's quite another. And it was just the same with my family history experience. As soon as I was being introduced with these stories, and pictures, my soul was stirred and there were connections. And so that's what I know. And that's, I think, what we've learned as a child. And I know that's what you've been, those of you who are involved in this with so much of your time have learned and are taught and are being reminded of this evening, that everything changes when we turn this to a spirit-led work, when we're blessed and ministered to by friends who stir our souls with these stories and accounts. It's not a technical experience in an uninviting setting with jargon and a foreign language. It's one of love and an embrace, just like the missionary experience. experience we have with the missionaries. I'm so grateful that I've seen the not so good as well as the good. And as with everything else, it's transforming. And so what do I know? I do know that extraordinary things happen when it's done this way. And I know of the, I knew as soon as it was expressed in love and in the way I've described, I could sense the connection between, as I would have expressed it then, and really would now, between heaven and earth. And fascinating things have happened and continue to happen when we do this work. Last week in the temple, There were clearly connections going on down here when we just took a little step for family beyond the veil, instantly in that setting. An hour ago I was... Shared by a dear friend, an incontrovertible experience, testifying of the connection between heaven and earth, when we're in sacred places, doing this eternal and vital work. I testify of these things, and I know they're true. We've all experienced some degree of being left out in life, and that's all any of us want, is to be included. If I were talking to someone who was feeling excluded or was being excluded, I would say, look, this isn't about you. This is blindness or just, at the very least, a lack of kindness and consideration on the part of others who are probably self-consumed, as most of us are. So you continue. You remember. who you are, above all else, we have to constantly remind ourselves that we are cherished children of a Father in heaven who loves us. If we're impatient with someone who doesn't seem to be progressing as fast as we think they might, I think it's always good to look at our own journey and see how fast we're progressing, either now or were at some point. And if I have those thoughts, it's an instant check to prevent me from feeling that way about someone else, largely because I realize how extraordinarily patient our Father in Heaven is with me and with all of us. One of the great lessons of the gospel is that we get so many fresh starts, that we can start again and again, that we can fall, or we can stumble, or we can pick ourselves up, and that we get a fresh start. You know, there's so much in... daily life that doesn't suggest that at all. And this is a place that we get to begin again and begin again and again. I think we lose sight of that. I think that's so encouraging for people who might get down on themselves. I know a lot of people grow up in the church and it can be cultural, it can be just what we do. Others will say, well, why the church? And I had an experience, I suppose it's about 15 years ago, I came from my home in England to General Conference and I was coming out of a session surrounded by people from all over the world and I thought, this is it. This is the church. We're from everywhere. We include everybody. And this is where I belong. And it was a wonderful feeling. I think whether you're coming into it for the first time or if you've been here for generations, we have to remember and constantly remind ourselves that as someone wise once said, this is a hospital for the sick, not a monastery for the perfect. There is nobody perfect here. We're not going to find them. It isn't going to be you. We're here because we all need. From one another. Some of us are helped more for a season by helping others. Others need help for a while and at different points we're both of those. But we're here to help each other and it serves us well to remember that. I too love this time of year when we gather as families and loved ones to remember the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ and give thanks for his life and his infinite atoning sacrifice. I love the countless reminders of this special season all around and can still feel the excitement and anticipation of Christmases from my childhood, whether they were in a chilly England or a sweltering Arabia. Probably like many others, last week I wrestled with the Christmas lights, struggling to find the one bulb that was causing a whole string to go dark. When the bulb was finally found and replaced, all the lights came on and there was that relief and delight that comes from such a minor triumph. One of my favorite things to do as Christmas approaches is to sit by our Christmas tree. With all of the other lights off and let my vision go blurry as I look at the tree covered in tiny white lights. With my eyes out of focus, the glow of each individual light expands and softens as it reflects off the shiny red ornaments. The effect is enchanting. We often have music in the background proclaiming joy to the world. The Lord is come, and that his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. As my eyes let the lights move in and out of focus on the tree, I am reminded once again of the divine mission of our Saviour, which comes sharply into focus in these still moments. He said, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. I ponder the holy night that he was born, filled with gratitude for the Father's gift of joy, hope, and love sent to the earth in his only begotten Son. Is your schedule too packed? Are certain cultural traditions and pressures causing you undue stress and preventing you from receiving and reflecting the joy of Christ's birth? How might you simplify your calendar this Christmas and plan better for next? We must be careful not to be so busy and tired from trying to do too much that we miss the focus of the season and are unable to figuratively kneel at the manger. Worship the newborn King and bring our own personal gift to him. You mothers, and all of us, are you overwhelmed? Where is your focus? Perhaps this year you don't send those Christmas cards, or you let go of some other perhaps media-inspired expectation you have of yourself. The cost in either time or money will take away some of your ability to focus on the Saviour. and feel his Christmas joy. You fathers and the rest of us, where is your focus? Perhaps this year you have a simplified Christmas with more homemade gifts and gifts of service because the pressure and cost of trying to buy it all is just too great and unnecessary and it will take away some of your ability to focus on the Saviour and feel his. Christmas peace. Temple service at Christmas time can be especially meaningful. The temple corrects our focus, magnifies our joy, and unites families here and on the other side of the veil. Consider temple service instead of another Christmas activity that may not help you in your longing for Christmas stillness. Those holy ordinances, the peace and priesthood power they hold for all who cherish them, are the most important. are only made possible because of the only begotten Son of the Father, this Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, whose birth we now celebrate. As this Christmas approaches, let us do more of what matters and much less of what doesn't. Let us seek to do the works of Jesus. of Nazareth. Lift up the sorrowing, heal the broken-hearted, visit the prisoners, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give voice to the voiceless, the marginalized, the forgotten, and the despised. Seek for quiet, solitary moments when you can ponder, pray, and feel the loving kindness of the one whose birth makes any joy in any life possible. The promise is that one day there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst, nor hunger. thirst anymore. For the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Take time to be still, to breathe, to wander, look up, focus in on his great gift, the knowledge of who you truly are. understanding that trials here are fleeting and that joy here is just the beginning of joy to come. Remember, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives. everything to do with the focus of our lives. And now I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father and also the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever, that we might say, Yea, Lord, we greet thee. Though it may seem impossible, feel him. impossible. Healing can come through the miracle of the redemptive might of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, who is risen with healing in His wings. Our merciful Saviour, victorious over darkness and depravity, has power to right all wrongs, a life-giving truth for those wronged by others. Please know that the Saviour has descended below all things, even what has happened to you. Because of that, he knows exactly what real terror and shame feel like and how it feels to be abandoned and broken. From the depths of his atoning suffering, the Saviour imparts hope you thought was lost forever, strength you believed you could never possess, and healing you couldn't imagine was possible. In Gethsemane... and on Calvary, Jesus took upon himself all of the anguish and suffering ever experienced by you and me, and he has overcome it all. With arms outstretched, the Saviour offers the gift of healing to you. With courage, patience, and faithful focus on him, before too long you can come to fully accept this gift. You can let go of your pain and leave it at his. His feet. Your gentle Saviour declared, The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly. You are a survivor. You can heal, and you can trust that with the power and grace of Jesus Christ, you will overcome and conquer. Jesus specializes in the seeming impossible. He came here to make the impossible possible, the irredeemable redeemable, to heal the unhealable, to write the unwriteable, and to promise the unpromissible. And he's really good at it. In fact, he's perfect at it. The Saviour knows how it feels to be a refugee. He was one. As a child, Jesus and his family fled to Egypt to escape the murderous swords of He, and at various points in his life, his ministry, he found himself threatened and his life in danger, ultimately submitting to the designs of evil men who had plotted his death. Perhaps then it is all the more remarkable to us that he repeatedly taught us to be wise taught us to love one another, to love as He loves, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Truly pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to look to the poor and the needy and administer to their relief that they shall not suffer. Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Tonight I would like to share a message of comfort and healing with any of you who feels alone or forsaken, has lost peace of mind or heart, or feels that you have thrown away your last chance. Complete healing and peace can be found at the feet of the Saviour. The Saviour assures, if they harden not their hearts and stiffen not their necks against me, they shall be converted and I will heal. heal them. You and I can accept his invitation to return and repent and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal you. Brethren, we find healing and relief only when we bring ourselves to the feet of the great physician, our Saviour Jesus Christ. We must lay down our weapons of rebellion. and we each know what they are. We must lay down our sin, vanity, and pride. We must give up our desires to follow the world and to be respected and lauded by the world. We must cease fighting against God and instead give our whole hearts to him, holding nothing back. Then he can heal us. Then he can cleanse us from the venomous sting of sin. For God sent not his Son. into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Our Saviour is the Prince of Peace, the Great Healer, the only one who can truly cleanse us from the sting of sin and the poison of pride, and change our rebellious hearts into converted covenant hearts. His atonement is infinite and embraces us all. The invitation given to the Nephites when he ministered to them as the resurrected Christ. is still in force for you and for me. Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither. and I will heal them. Not one of you has thrown away your last chance. You can change. You can come back. You can claim mercy. Come unto the only one who can heal, and you will find peace. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.