1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,500 Welcome to Closer to Christ, the General Conference, where two friends share our own approach to 2 00:00:09,500 --> 00:00:14,220 studying General Conference. Today, we get to study Elder Patrick Kieran's talk called 3 00:00:14,220 --> 00:00:19,420 God's Intent is to Bring You Home, and I certainly enjoyed listening to this talk. 4 00:00:19,420 --> 00:00:20,420 How about you, Amy? 5 00:00:20,420 --> 00:00:21,420 I think everyone does. 6 00:00:21,420 --> 00:00:27,100 Yeah. So, the short and sweet of this talk was that God is in relentless pursuit of you. 7 00:00:27,100 --> 00:00:32,840 He wants all of His children to bring or to choose to return. I love that word, choose. 8 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:36,780 We need to emphasize that more than anything. And He employs every possible measure to bring 9 00:00:36,780 --> 00:00:42,040 you back. That was comforting. It seems that this talk is broken up into three categories. 10 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:46,080 You probably recognize the same thing. I felt like there was a piece of it that focused 11 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:50,040 on Heavenly Father's role in that plan, Jesus Christ's role in that plan, and then what 12 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,480 our own role is in that plan. So, if we kind of think of that as we're going through it, 13 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:57,400 why don't we just start with Heavenly Father's role in the plan? 14 00:00:57,400 --> 00:00:58,400 Sounds good. 15 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:03,740 I'll just say He's the creator of the plan. There was only one plan. And then God's 16 00:01:03,740 --> 00:01:09,580 messengers, His prophets, they call this plan different things in the Restoration Scripture. 17 00:01:09,580 --> 00:01:13,760 We hear it being called the plan of redemption, the plan of mercy, the great plan of happiness, 18 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:19,240 and the plan of salvation, which is unto all through the blood of mine only begotten. So, 19 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:23,520 let's do a question here. What's one thing that really stood out to you as we're thinking 20 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:27,920 of that piece of it, Heavenly Father's role in the plan? What stands out to you the most? 21 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:32,040 So, yeah, one of the things that stood out to me, Abby, was as I listened to it, I just 22 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:38,600 kept hearing intent, intent, intent. And 11 times He said intent, along with His design, 23 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:43,680 plan, purpose, wish, and hope, which is all essentially the same thing. He says the intent 24 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:48,680 of the Father's great plan of happiness is your happiness. The intent of Father's plan 25 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:53,040 of redemption is in fact your redemption, like He's not leaving anybody out. The intent 26 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:57,120 of the Father's plan of mercy is to extend mercy. The intent of the Father's plan of 27 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:03,880 salvation is in fact your salvation. So, I did like that, that He just laid out very 28 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:10,200 plainly what His intent is. And this is what I love. I like clear speech. I like clear 29 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:15,240 words. And when we have something as clear as this, it makes it very simple to go back 30 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:20,840 to it and read it because the adversary also has words that tend to jumble the way we think 31 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:26,120 about God. And I love coming back to read this. So, one faith exercise I do when my 32 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:32,120 thoughts feel jumbled or when I don't know what to do about a certain thing is I write 33 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:36,980 down on the top of a piece of paper what I know about. So, with this, I would just say 34 00:02:36,980 --> 00:02:43,480 what I know about God's nature. And then what I do is I do my part, which is I pray 35 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:49,560 and ask Heavenly Father, please help me to know or just start gathering things for this. 36 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:53,160 So, I'll go back to my priesthood blessings and I'll write down anything that comes to 37 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:57,400 mind through this. And then I'll go and read my patriarchal blessing and I'll write down 38 00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:01,320 anything that has to do with that or that comes from that. I'll read scripture. I'll 39 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:05,600 listen to conference talks, all of these things. And it's essentially through the lens of 40 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:10,760 this particular…in this case, it would be looking for what the nature of God is. And 41 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:14,800 I mean, we just…in the last talk that we talked about, it was Elder Piper and he was 42 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:19,480 talking about trusting God. There was so much in there. I would definitely file that under 43 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:23,720 what I know about God and His nature. I would file this talk about what I know about God 44 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:26,680 and His nature. His intent is to bring us home. 45 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:31,000 Nicole So, you said this is like very tactile. Like, 46 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,240 this comes out…all of these thoughts come out into a piece of paper. 47 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:34,400 Danielle Or a Word document. 48 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:37,120 Nicole And you start the document with something 49 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:38,120 that says like, what I know. 50 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:39,120 Danielle Yes. 51 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,480 Nicole And I'm glad that you clarified like for this 52 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:44,840 particular talk, you were going to say what's God's intent and then the things you know 53 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:50,400 about that. Because, I mean, can you share…did this talk kind of stir your feelings, like 54 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:54,840 make you want to dig deeper? Did you employ this with this particular talk or were we 55 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:58,040 reading through it, you thought, oh, this is a good thing to share with people about… 56 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,320 Danielle In my mind, it was just kind of, again, I 57 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:06,320 thought, you know, going back to President Nelson's words when he invited us to learn 58 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:11,280 about God and how He works. That's what I would file this under because it is His 59 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:17,600 intent. All these wonderful things, His mercy, His redemption, the plan, everything about 60 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:21,400 it is His intent. So, it just gives me more trust in God. 61 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:24,080 Nicole Such a different way to look at the scenario, 62 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:27,600 like we came to this earth life to gain experience and I feel like a lot of times when we're 63 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:30,720 doubting God or when we're lacking faith in Him, it's in the midst of a trial that 64 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:37,640 He and I feel like we agreed to that would grow us, bring us closer to Him. And again, 65 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:42,080 that agency, that choice is ours, whether that's going to drive a wedge between us 66 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:46,000 or if it's going to draw us closer to Him. You see people definitely react in different 67 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:51,680 ways, but that would be such a good thing to have in your arsenal of thoughts and the 68 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:56,640 truth and the testimony that you have just to know, like, is this trial on my path because 69 00:04:56,640 --> 00:05:00,680 He hates me or actually what do I know of Him? What do I know about His intent? He wants 70 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:06,240 to get me back. And so then how does this trial eventually… how did this trial lead 71 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:10,800 to bringing me closer to Him? Or I guess maybe we could see the misstep that we had if we're 72 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:14,600 like, oh, that put a wedge between us and then it took some time to repair that if you're 73 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:15,600 back in that relationship. 74 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:18,600 Nicole Maybe so. Yeah. So one of the… I only giggle 75 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:21,400 when you said, does He hate me or something? Because I understand sometimes it does feel 76 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:22,400 like that, right? 77 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:25,120 Nicole I do think that's the automatic response to be like, He must hate me because this hard 78 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:26,120 thing is going on. 79 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:27,560 Nicole Right. And that's not… if you are reading 80 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:32,520 about what His intent is, quickly you realize, oh, does He hate me is coming from the adversary 81 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:37,280 that is not coming from Heavenly Father, that is not His intent, that is not the plan. I've 82 00:05:37,280 --> 00:05:41,640 also done this in a couple of other times. I mean, truly times where I was like, is this 83 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:45,920 really ever going to happen? Let's say like one time we were looking for an employment 84 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:49,760 and we were looking for quite a few months and I was like, man, we might just be stuck 85 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:53,680 in this situation forever. Like this would be a dismal life. You know what I mean? It 86 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:57,080 just felt like that. It felt gray. It felt dark. It was hard. And so I started writing 87 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:02,440 down everything I knew about my husband's employment and what future promises to us 88 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:07,040 were. And I literally would go back and read those like, I think for about eight months 89 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:10,920 straight, I was reading the things that I compiled. And even when I read scripture, 90 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:14,080 it was like if there was anything, you know how when you read scripture, when you're 91 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:18,200 going through one thing, it doesn't hit you the same as it does another time. So it's 92 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:20,040 like through that lens. And I just wrote it down. 93 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:21,360 Nicole Qualfax talks would be the same way. 94 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:22,360 Nicole Absolutely. 95 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:24,640 Nicole If you're specifically having a period of unemployment 96 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:28,880 and then you, I don't know exactly what you would search, but maybe something on work 97 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:31,720 you really could just turn to Heavenly Father and just say, direct me to the conference 98 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:36,440 talks that I need to hear. He knows your intent and then they can definitely appear in your 99 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:40,600 gospel library search bar. I don't even have to tell you what words to say, like the right 100 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:45,440 things will come out. And then like family and friends, they'll maybe have this opinion 101 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:48,660 about something. It didn't really matter to you at the time, but like if you're going 102 00:06:48,660 --> 00:06:52,960 through like specifically, does unemployment think something might peek your ears that 103 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:53,960 you're like, oh, that's- 104 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:54,960 Nicole For sure. 105 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:56,680 Nicole That would have been a specific challenge. Whereas 106 00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:00,920 before when it was nice information, but you didn't really need it kind of, it was there, 107 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:03,760 but it wasn't like, it didn't like hit your heart like, oh, that's great, great information. 108 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:05,920 Nicole I agree. It's almost like I'm asking Heavenly Father 109 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:13,040 to put a specific antenna on my ears and a filter on my eyes or a, I don't know, magnifying 110 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:17,400 glass on my eyes. That helps me to find the things that are very particular to that. And 111 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:22,040 I kid you not, I mean, it's not like it happens in one day or anything. This is a steady effort 112 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:26,880 that I might pick up a few times a week. Maybe I'll pick it up every day, but over time, 113 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:31,400 it's something that grows clearer and clearer and clearer. And then when the adversary comes 114 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:36,300 with his words, you're like, I have words of like from God about this specific thing, 115 00:07:36,300 --> 00:07:39,840 and I'm going to read this and that's going to become part of my testimony and my trust 116 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:40,840 in God. 117 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:44,680 Nicole I love that. We didn't post an episode that we had prepared 118 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:49,360 because we got off on this tangent about like the 10 versions, the story of the 10 versions. 119 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:52,920 And we were talking about those daily things that you need to fill your vessel, and you 120 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:56,640 can't really share that. But there's a piece of that story that actually talks, so the 121 00:07:56,640 --> 00:08:00,760 lamp, I'm sorry, the lamp, there's a piece of that story that actually refers back to 122 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:05,480 the vessel. So for me, when we take time to strengthen our testimony and these questions, 123 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:09,520 like not because we're just in the middle of a trial, but we're just right now, you 124 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:13,680 guys are listening to a general conference talk and you're learning some skills and maybe 125 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:16,960 you're not in the middle of a trial. This is one of those vessel moments where you're 126 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:20,680 filling that reserve with the truth that you know about Jesus Christ and his intent. Or 127 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:24,320 I'm sorry, about Heavenly Father's intent with the plan and how he utilized Jesus Christ 128 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:30,560 in that plan so that when the next trial comes your way, you have your reserve of oil ready 129 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:31,560 for your lantern. 130 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:33,040 Nicole You don't have to backtrack or just… 131 00:08:33,040 --> 00:08:35,800 Nicole Learn all the things. Yeah, learn all those 132 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:39,640 things in trial. You can recall in that trial and just make that just much more easy to 133 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:45,720 bear. So that's awesome. Anything else that came to your mind? 134 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:47,000 Nicole That was everything on that. 135 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:55,320 Nicole That was Heavenly Father's part in that. So what do you think we can take as 136 00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:57,400 an example from Heavenly Father's intent? 137 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:00,880 Nicole Again, I think just re-emphasizing that his 138 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:08,480 intent really is to bring us home. I think we pretty much hit it as far as that goes. 139 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:13,000 I love how Elder Kieran reminds us of this point, the intent of the Father's great 140 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:18,960 plan of happiness is your happiness right here, right now, and in the eternities. I 141 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:23,120 love that part because it says it's not to prevent you from your happiness and cause 142 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:27,840 you instead worry and fear. So many times in… maybe it's our culture. I'm not 143 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:32,260 sure exactly, but I feel like we misunderstand if we believe that there's only happiness 144 00:09:32,260 --> 00:09:33,260 to come. 145 00:09:33,260 --> 00:09:35,000 Nicole After this earth life. 146 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:36,960 Nicole Right. Like right now it's drudgery. 147 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:37,960 Nicole We'll just get through it now. 148 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:40,120 Nicole But happiness is coming. It's like, yes, 149 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:45,200 happiness is coming and why not find it now? Because probably the skills of finding happiness 150 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:49,040 now are going to also help you in the skills of finding happiness in the hereafter. 151 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:54,000 Nicole I agree. I felt that message in many talks of 152 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:57,080 general conference. Now we're getting to the tail end of conference. And so as I'm 153 00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:03,160 reflecting back on the things we've learned, that's absolutely a message of this conference. 154 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:06,220 Enjoy what we have with this life right now, especially as we're making covenants and 155 00:10:06,220 --> 00:10:12,000 keeping covenants, he's got blessings to abound in that covenant relationship in the 156 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:17,080 now, not just to be like, maybe that's going to qualify me for the eternities with him. 157 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:20,120 No, right now we can abide with him right now on this side. 158 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:21,120 Nicole I love that, Abby. 159 00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:23,580 Nicole So let's move on to the role of Jesus Christ 160 00:10:23,580 --> 00:10:30,040 in Father's plan. It makes me think of 2 Nephi 26, 24. He does not anything save it 161 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:34,240 be for the benefit of the world, for he loveth the world even that he layeth down his own 162 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:38,360 life that he may draw all men unto him, wherefore he commandeth none that they shall not partake 163 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:45,240 of his salvation. So Christ steps forward as the Savior to perform the great atonement. 164 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:52,480 And he was put into play his part of the role under the direction of the Father, but then 165 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:55,040 he had his own agency to say, yeah, like he stepped up. 166 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:56,280 Abby Right, whom shall I send? 167 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:58,480 Nicole Yeah, he stepped forward. It wasn't just like, 168 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:01,800 you have to do this or there's no way around it. He got to use his own agency. 169 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:03,200 Abby Yeah, he answered a question there. 170 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:06,320 Nicole Being part of that, I don't really know what 171 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:11,240 question to ask other than what thoughts do you have on Jesus Christ's role in the plan? 172 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,360 Abby You know, I did like the part also where he 173 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:19,980 talked about his atoning sacrifice itself is harder for us to understand beyond our 174 00:11:19,980 --> 00:11:25,400 mortal capacity to comprehend. But, and he said this is an important but, we do understand 175 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:30,080 and comprehend the Holy saving intent. So here we are again, with intent of his atoning 176 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:35,800 sacrifice. So now it's Christ's intent, right, which will always echo the Father's, 177 00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:38,800 whatever Heavenly Father did. Christ followed that example. 178 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:39,800 Nicole He sought from the Father. 179 00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:40,800 Abby He's sought from the Father. 180 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:43,920 Nicole He's second witness all those things. And this is the cornerstone of the talk for 181 00:11:43,920 --> 00:11:49,560 me. Oh, I love this part so much, Abby. Okay. This part, the veil of the temple was rent 182 00:11:49,560 --> 00:11:54,780 in twain when Jesus died upon the cross, symbolizing that access back to the presence of the Father 183 00:11:54,780 --> 00:12:00,480 had been ripped wide open to all who will turn to him, trust him, cast their burdens 184 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:07,000 on him and take his yoke upon them in a covenant bond. Jesus Christ is at the very center of 185 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:11,920 God's plan. He made good on his word to fulfill this atonement. We had so much faith and trust 186 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:16,000 in him. And we've talked about this before. Like, I truly feel like I listened to everything 187 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:19,360 and was like, that's wonderful. That's great. But when Jesus Christ stepped forward 188 00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:24,160 and said, I'm going to do it, I know that's when I stood up and was like, if he's doing 189 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:31,560 it, I'm in 100%. Because I know his character. I love him and his word is his bond. So I 190 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:36,400 love that part that really Jesus Christ, he is everything. He is central to the plan. 191 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:44,200 And I love imagining that when the veil was rent, it truly, he's the gate to the Father. 192 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:48,400 It wasn't there. It could not have been there without Jesus Christ. So I just love that. 193 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:51,040 I love that I know more about his nature. 194 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:57,040 And as we're in the temple and we approach the veil, with representative of Jesus Christ 195 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:04,760 and having the right information to say that veil grants us access into the celestial kingdom, 196 00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:09,520 which is with our Father. And so I've thought on that. But like the emotion just hit me 197 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:18,840 hard thinking about him on the cross and the veil renting. Right? And what a moment in 198 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:23,400 time we were in our pre existence at that. But like, he'd promised to do this thing. 199 00:13:23,400 --> 00:13:29,440 And we had witnessed this and like, the sadness of like, the pain that he was, you know, going 200 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,720 through on the cross, but like the absolute joy that he did. He did it. He did all that 201 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:39,080 he'd promised to do in that moment. Yeah, just can't even. 202 00:13:39,080 --> 00:13:43,080 I love that. I also love, you know, as you were just talking about that, Abby, when you 203 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:47,800 said, you know, imagine that moment when he's on the cross. I have actually prayed before 204 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:52,960 to ask, I've recognized in Jesus that when he said it is finished, I have prayed often 205 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:57,120 and said, Heavenly Father, like, what were the things that needed to be finished? Clearly 206 00:13:57,120 --> 00:14:04,600 one of them was signifying to us that you know, when the I guess I should say this, 207 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:10,400 a physical manifestation of what happened was that he rent the veil and that literally 208 00:14:10,400 --> 00:14:13,940 we could now have access to the Father. That was one of the things that had to happen. 209 00:14:13,940 --> 00:14:18,520 The other things that had to happen were clearly he atoned for our sin, our happiness, all 210 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:22,760 of those things. But I just think that that's one other thing I prayed for is I've asked 211 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:26,080 Heavenly Father to help me. Like when I'm working on a project or when I'm doing something, 212 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:30,480 I want to have that spiritual gift of knowing when it is finished. Oh, that's you know, 213 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:33,640 because then after that, it's like, what, why am I continuing to spend my time on this? 214 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:38,000 Like it is sufficient. I have done what I needed to do. And I move on knowing that I 215 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:42,440 completely fulfilled that thing. So actually just did that this week. Now that I'm saying 216 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:46,520 that out loud, but I do appreciate doing that because then I can move on to something else 217 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:50,800 and give my full attention and all of my heart to that other thing because I know that that 218 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:53,000 phase is over. I finished that thing. 219 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:58,000 Wonderful. That's great information. I will say as you were talking, I did think it is 220 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:02,960 hard to comprehend like the depths of the atonement of Jesus Christ. It's really hard 221 00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:08,920 to get that full picture. But what I did feel as you were reading that quote was that I 222 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:12,120 might not know all of it, but I've known the pieces that have affected my life. When 223 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:19,160 I've turned, you know, my things, my sorrows or my shortcomings over to him and he's made 224 00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:23,920 them right. That gives me a glimpse of the possibilities of it. Great way to put it. 225 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:32,120 I love that Abby. That's a start. Oh, it totally is. So we have our own role in Father's Plan. 226 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:38,240 Absolutely. It kind of points out like we can make any choice with our agency. We can 227 00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:46,600 do anything. We can make any choice that we want, but does anything go with regards to 228 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:52,520 how we live our lives? You know, I think you wrote like this, that the way we choose to 229 00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:57,920 use our agency doesn't matter, that we can take or leave God's commandments. Like, is 230 00:15:57,920 --> 00:15:58,920 that an option? 231 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:03,320 It's always an option. It depends on what our end goal is, right? One of Jesus's most 232 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:08,960 consistent invitations, and I like that word, invitation, and pleas during his mortal ministry 233 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:16,920 was that we change and repent and come unto him. So really, that's it. Fundamentally, 234 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:22,200 you know, fundamental to all of his teachings was to live a higher and holier law. And really, 235 00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:26,840 that is what we do when we repent and turn to Christ and also make covenants. 236 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:35,520 I love it. So the talk, it's fairly short and sweet. It is, but there's a lot there. 237 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:39,440 There's a lot to contemplate and there's a lot of things that we can put into practice 238 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:44,720 based on that, that we just sit and reflect on what's our peace and part in that. And 239 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:49,080 like you said, if the prophets asked us to really understand the nature of God, we can 240 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:53,620 look to him, we can look to his son for those things. This is a really good opportunity 241 00:16:53,620 --> 00:17:00,480 to learn a lot about Heavenly Father and his son. So in wrapping up, what would you say? 242 00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:04,760 Do you feel like we, what are the final thoughts? Maybe the final thought you'd like to leave 243 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:05,760 us with today? 244 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:09,760 I really did like, you know, that these are some of the final words in his talk. The Elder 245 00:17:09,760 --> 00:17:15,080 Cain reminds us, if you're prone to worry that you'll never measure up or that the loving 246 00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:20,400 reach of Christ's infinite atonement mercifully covers everyone else, but not you, then you 247 00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:27,840 misunderstood. Infinite means infinite. Infinite covers you and everyone you love. I just love 248 00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:34,240 that. Again, it's another testament of the nature of God. It's infinite. It's bigger 249 00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:40,520 than all of us and we've never dropped lower than Christ's atonement. So those are my 250 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:41,520 last words. 251 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:47,200 That's a truth that we all should work to know that that is a truth for us too. So I'll 252 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:53,120 add my testimony to that, Amy. It kind of feels like a little heavier of a topic today, 253 00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:56,840 but it's just, I just, I'm thinking about my savior and all that he's done for us. And 254 00:17:56,840 --> 00:18:00,960 I'll keep thinking on that as I, as I read this, but I, as I was studying this talk, 255 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:04,800 I would, I did a cross country trip. It's like 20 hours to see my sisters there and 256 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:09,520 back and I've never been through Nebraska without road construction happening. Really 257 00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:13,520 any state, everybody's always got a road project going on and this is going through my mind. 258 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:20,480 Like sometimes, you know, like it detours us or it makes our progress slower, but we 259 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:26,360 were directional. We were, we were moving along that path the whole time. And I guess 260 00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:30,960 it just kind of that drive looking out the window for 20 hours. It made me just think 261 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:36,240 like sometimes we see, we see roadblocks and detours and, and we're slower getting somewhere 262 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:41,120 that we're trying to go to, but some reflection on other talks that it was like, it's a directional 263 00:18:41,120 --> 00:18:46,000 thing. We're still moving in the right direction and we may feel like it's, it's slower progress, 264 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:50,840 but it doesn't matter. We're still getting to where we're going to eventually. Right. 265 00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:54,400 With those experiences along the way. And then with, with the cheerleader, that's total 266 00:18:54,400 --> 00:19:00,240 intent is to bring us to the final destination back home with him. And I love that. So, so 267 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:14,800 good. Thank you so much for being with us here today. We'll catch you next time.