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Welcome to Closer to Christ through General Conference, where two friends who love Jesus
share our own approach to studying the most recent General Conference talks.
This is Abbe and Amy.
Let's jump into it.
Today's talk is the Joy of Our Redemption done by Sister Kristin M. Yee, Second Counselor
Relief Society general president. And I would love to start by paraphrasing the story of her
doing a painting. She was prompted to paint a picture of Jesus Christ and she felt unequal
to the task, like how is she going to capture his spirit? This is not a self-deprecating comment.
I am maybe the worst artist that I've ever encountered. And I say that because I am so
in awe of the works that people can create and capture, something like the Savior in art form.
And we all got to see that finished product eventually in the course of this talk. And I
was just like, she's got some art background, some experience, she's really good at things.
But to do this task, she was feeling like a little uncertain of, rather than just jumping in,
she took some time to research and ponder and pray. And then she began laying down paint on
the canvas and tirelessly works and adding and adding, and then she feels like the work is done.
The last thing to do must be oil, right?
Must be.
She puts a varnish over it. And when she did that, because the underneath canvas wasn't actually all
the way dry, it caused the painting to start to disintegrate, particularly the hair of Jesus
Christ. And so, like any of us would, she started crying and she thinks to call her mom, again,
pretty natural instinct. And she was so devastated. So she works through the night and paints it again,
leaves the work behind, goes to bed. And then in the morning, she comes back to look at it.
And in her opinion, the painting was better than it was before the first take.
My opinion too, it looked fantastic.
I wonder what it looked like before.
She has pictures if you look online.
I would love that. That's good reference. So her quote is,
what I thought was a mistake without men was an opportunity for his merciful hand to be manifest.
He was not done with the painting and he was not done with me. She was joyful and so relieved.
Praise God for his goodness. And just grateful for this experience because it taught her more
about his love and power to save each of us from our mistakes, weaknesses and sins,
and to help us become something more. And obviously there's so many layers to this story
that we can learn from and relate to our own life and our own experience. So let's use that
as the backdrop to dive into what I think could be a great discussion on repentance, mistakes,
changing and being cleansed through Christ's atonement. One thing I will say as a kickoff is
the fact that she was getting ready to do that varnish layer does mean that through this pondering
and prayer and the efforts that she put into it, to me meant that she thought that the work was done.
Right. She's too meticulous to be like, well, that's as good as it's good. That's it. I'm giving up on it.
Wow. That's his hair gone. And then look what she ended up with. I love that. And I love how he just
eased into that and the light where it's shining on him just the right way. It's incredible. But to me,
it is a beautiful picture. It is. And she's done the best that she can do in her mind.
And so when she committed it to, and she said, this is done and she varnishes it, it's so like
all of us do. We're like, this is the offering that I can give to you. It's the best that I have.
And he's like, in his way, he's like, there's more that you can give me. And in that way,
what she saw was the hair dissolving, disintegrating and turning into nothingness. And
what he gave her was an opportunity to improve even upon what she thought was her best.
Seriously, it boggles the mind. I love this part, Abby. So I dove into this. As Elder David
Abed-Nartot, we can receive an ongoing remission of our sins through the sanctifying power of the
Holy Ghost as we truly and sincerely repent. The redeeming power of Jesus Christ is one of the
greatest promised blessings in our covenants. Ponder this as you participate in sacred ordinances.
And then he says, this can be an action item for the week to help each of us ponder the redeeming
power of Jesus Christ through sacred ordinances. In this talk, she actually did quote him,
Elder Abed-Nartot, on this. He speaks on this topic so well. When I think of him,
I think of his talks that he's given in this. And so in her footnote, it references Elder
Abed-Nartot's conference address from April 2016, where he further teaches about the ordinances.
And he reminds us what their roles are. Holy ordinances are central to the Savior's gospel
and in the process of coming unto him. He reminds us that ordinances are sacred acts that of
spiritual purpose, eternal significance, and are related to God's laws and statutes.
Well, in addition to that, he reminds us of by what power they come to us by.
Love that. That's so him, right?
Let me quote where it points that out. It says,
All saving ordinances and the ordinance of the sacrament must be authorized by one who holds
the requisite priesthood keys. The ordinances of salvation and exaltation administered in the
Lord's restored church are far more than rituals or symbolic performances. Rather, they constitute
authorized channels through which the blessings and powers of heaven can flow into our individual
lives. I love that, Abby, because he talks about authorized channels. Yeah, that stands out. Let's
stop and talk about that for a sec. I think we all want to need the blessings and powers of heaven
to flow into our individual lives. Elder Abed-Nartot's talk always retain a remission of your sins as a
great resource to Sister Yi's talk because it lays doctrinal foundation of us being able to access
God's power and in receiving continually a remission of our sins. I love that. There was
another line in there. Yeah. Jesus Christ's atonement is the channel. Did that stand out?
Those two things, right? The authorized channels and Jesus Christ's atonement is a channel.
As the son of God who atoned for the sins of the world and laid down his own life and took it up
again, he holds the power of redemption and resurrection. I love this because Christ holds
the power of redemption and resurrection because he went through with the atonement. He could not
hold the power of these things had he not come down, taken up a physical body, and performed it
in the flesh. So many times we're going through a trial that we'd gladly give up if given the
opportunity. We aren't just handed experience and a gift bag. We have to go through the thing,
then we do have the gift of experience. Here Jesus shows us how he literally holds the power
of these processes, meaning he went through them in the best way and fulfilled the will of his
father in heaven. It also reminds me of, as we look at our life's trials, this reminds me of Alma 712
where it said, he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his
people and he will take upon him their infirmities that his bowels may be filled with mercy
according to the flesh. There we are again, that he may know according to the flesh
how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
I think it's so incredible. I caught a couple episodes of The Chosen. I'm not like a watch it
right when it comes out. I kind of need a few behind them so that they can come. This is what
also sparked it. The first presidency devotional just aired on Sunday and then right after that,
they aired The Nativity and my husband's like, I haven't seen a better version of that done
and it is so well done. I watched the baby Jesus being laid in the manger and I thought,
he came such an innocent person with no knowledge, just like he was going to ask us to do.
They could have made him a 12-year-old. I don't know. There's just so many scenarios,
but I'm like, he truly does know everything that we're going through because they teach him how
to walk in a moment in that little film. And I'm just like, everything that we have to go through
from life to death and joyful moments and the hard moments, the persecution, the hard work and the
family relationships and all of the things. That's what I took away from the watching of it on this
last Sunday is just like, he gets it because he's experienced it all and he's never asked us to do
something that he hasn't done for himself. Right? That right there says it, he's done it
all so he knows how to succor us. It's very humbling to read that scripture.
06 It's good to sit and reflect on it. I'm really grateful that this is,
the timing of this is happening right during this Christmas season.
06 Yeah.
06 Maybe to ask a question, what do you think that it means when Christ asked us to bring forth fruit,
eat for repentance? Or like, if I say that differently, what does it take to repent?
06 Sister Yee said this, these fruits or actions include exercising our
faith and trust in Jesus Christ and in His atoning sacrifice, offering to God a broken heart and a
contrite spirit, confessing and forsaking sin, restoring that which had been damaged to the
best of our ability, and then also striving to live righteously. 07 I like that line, restoring
to the best of our ability. That's not going to be a perfect fix just as the picture scenario,
but the best that she could offer in that moment, the best that we can offer in those moments.
08 Absolutely. To truly repent and change, we must first be convinced of our sins.
A person does not see the need, I love this, a person does not see the need to take medicine
unless they understand that they are ill. A favorite quote by C.S. Lewis from a favorite
character, Aslan, is this, oh, humankind, how cleverly you defend yourselves from all that
might do you good. 09 That's a good character. That was brought up in Annette Dennis's talk.
She had us thinking about this book and I'm fond of this book because I can't really talk about.
010 I know. Aslan without crying?
011 No, I can't. I'm like a psychopath, but yeah. I was never into those stories,
but it was in teaching my own children a couple years back and I'm seeing all the symbolism
in that book and I just break down the tears. My kids are still thinking about this
lion, Aslan, and I'm like, no, this is our savior. And each of these kids are representing
personality characteristics that we all have to perfect and rein in, you know, all of this
balance. But anyway, that's a different topic. We're not literary whatever's here, but anyway,
you mentioned that and I'm going to get thinking like, man, I learned something from that book.
So, wow, that was so true. Sister Yee possesses a wonderful, she poses a wonderful question herself,
something that we can use to self-reflect. Here's what she says, where might you and I be
defending ourselves from the things that might be doing us good?
012 So I feel like that is an action item for us to be thinking about just as we go throughout our
week because sometimes it's a little more than, I mean, the Spirit can help you and it can come to
you in just a second or throughout the course of living your life that week.
013 Did you have an immediate thought on that? That part stood out to me so much. I've been
reflecting on a couple of the last podcast just because the way that it works, we don't pick and
choose which order we do it, we do it sequentially. So something that's been on my mind a lot is
church callings. A lot of times we think I'm too busy to do A, B or C and we tell ourselves that
and so we don't feel bad about making that the last priority. But a few different talks have maybe
think for myself and I'm just kind of curious if that came to you or if that's just a lesson
that I need to be learning. The most important thing that I can be doing is whatever thing I
can be doing that's going to draw me closer to Jesus Christ and build and develop a characteristic
that I want and desire. He knows that I want to grow. I'm not trying to be stagnant in my life
and a lot of times it's going to be an act of service that's going to be an opportunity to
have that growth that I need. So I've just been reflecting on how I accept callings,
how I execute callings and the joy and the time and the effort that I'm putting into that. And
I was just thinking maybe it's that fight between what Satan wants to tell us,
you don't have time for this and it's totally fine to say no.
Nicole Soule- And so easy to do.
Beth Dombkowski It is fine to say no. I'm not trying to make somebody feel guilty that's like,
I literally can't do that. But what if you're asking for a blessing of health or protection
or strength or growth and he has provided this opportunity for a calling and that was going to
be the answer to the prayer. But you can't see past that because Satan's really good at kind of
misting that over. Nicole Soule- No, it's true. It's totally true, Abby. I love this part.
Beth Dombkowski This is a direct quote in her talk. I'll share it. I pray that we may lay aside any
weapons of war, which I loved when she said that my ears peaked up and I was like, oh, that's Elder
Christofferson's talk, that we've consciously or even unconsciously taken up to defend ourselves
from the blessings of God's love, weapons of pride, selfishness, fear, hate, offense, complacency,
unrighteous judgment, jealousies, anything that would keep us from loving God with all our hearts
and keeping all of our covenants with him. As we live our covenants, the Lord can give us the help
and power we need to both recognize and overcome our weaknesses, including the spiritual parasite
of pride. Nicole Soule- Abby, I feel like Sister Yi is so real in her approach. Like when I'm reading
her words, she's so relatable to me. A part that I really loved about her talk is when she spoke of
the difficult relationships in her life, areas where she felt that she was failing. It felt like
she was learning the same lessons. They just kept cropping up. As we often do in these situations,
she asked herself, and again, self-reflection, did I not fix things the last time? Did I not truly
overcome my weakness, which I have totally been there. I feel like I've asked the exact same
questions. And I love this. This is the gem that she shares from her own life's experience.
And this is the gem that she shares from her own life's experience. I've learned over time that I'm
not necessarily defective. Rather, there is often more to work on and more healing that is needed.
I wholeheartedly echo this. Nicole Soule- Yeah. I've had a lot of walks with you in a lot of
conversations and you've taught me this process. You can sort things out to a certain point. And
I think sometimes our bodies just say, that's the work that I'm capable of doing right now.
I think sometimes time has to pass. And I think she reflected in a way to be like,
I said I wanted to take care of this thing and I thought I put the work in and I thought I did it.
And he's like, it's a process. It took a process to get unhealthy in this relationship or
things were said over a series of years from something that we've talked and discussed
previously. In a spiritual way, those things can all be made right in an almost immediate sense
with the atonement. Nicole Soule- Agreed.
Nicole Soule- But spiritual things seem to be a faster process than healing the physical
problems. Nicole Soule- For sure.
Nicole Soule- That spiritual problem. Nicole Soule- Yeah. And DNC explains it that
the spirit is finer matter. Nicole Soule- Right.
Nicole Soule- And the physical is denser. Nicole Soule- I just totally believe that
wholeheartedly. Like when you had discussed that before, I'm like, that totally makes sense. And so
I think when you ask yourself that question, if you really did put the time and the work in it
and you weren't holding anything back, then he'll say, no, you did, but you're ready. You have the
capacity or the tools or the person in your life or something's changed and we can heal even more.
Nicole Soule- Right. You're ready for the next phase.
Nicole Soule- We can perfect this even more. Nicole Soule- That's so good, Abby.
The Lord does teach us line upon line. He rounds out our rough edges one experience at a time.
Nicole Soule- Yeah. Nicole Soule- Like you said, it happens one at a time. How grateful I am that
he doesn't feel the need to round them all out at once because I would not recover. He's gentle in
his correction and we can borrow Christ's strengths and attributes along the way. I pretty much feel,
for the most part, he lets us set the pace for our own healing. How much of my weakness do I want to
see? How much do I want to work on? And how quickly do I want to make it through this learning
experience? I often laugh at myself that I've bit off more than learning healing that I can chew.
Abby- Give me a minute to digest. Nicole Soule- I literally said this last week.
I was like, Bailey, I got overzealous and I'm in over my head. But the Lord is able to pace me
and my progression when it feels like it's literally going to swallow me whole. He sends
me a win or a little miracle that I can finish so that I can finish the war of overcoming one battle
at a time. That's how it feels for me. Abby- I love that. And something you had said that really
hit my ears was that in this process, as it's taking a little bit of time, we borrow Christ's
strength and attribute along that path. If it was a quick process, we wouldn't really have the
opportunity to become more like him. It'd just be like, yeah, I already have that one. Don't need
anything else. I think it's beautiful. Sister Yeesh quotes from Elder Christopherson in this talk
about rounding out those rough edges. I'm going to share that quote. It said, surely the Lord smiles
upon one who desires to come to judgment worthily, who resolutely labors day by day to replace weakness
with strength. Real repentance, real change may require repeated attempts, but there is something
refining and holy in such striving divine forgiveness and healing flow quite naturally to such a soul.
And when I relate that back to the picture, I mean, every hair on that head was meticulously
drawn, wiped away, and then redrawn in such a process that it's like, I just think how much
time that she got to spend with the savior as she was trying to draw in her illness and the thoughts
that might've been circulating her head. And when I read that, I just think through this, it's not
a metaphor. The picture was there and then it disappeared in front of her and she had to repeat
it. I don't really know that that's a metaphor, but well, I don't know. I tried on it and I was
having a hard time because I'm like, are we the painting? Are we the artist? I feel like we're the
artist. Right. And our painting is our offering. It is the offering. And the Lord is guiding us.
Yeah. That's how I feel. And it's not like he was a critic in the thing. He was just saying,
you can do better. And sometimes we go through life and we put that offering out there and then
it seems like all of it was for naught and it's taken away from us. And he's like, no, it's just
an opportunity to rebuild. You did such a great job, but what about if you do it time number two,
it's going to be even better. Like you said, Abby, how long did she, how many hours did she spend
with the Lord? And for me, when I read this talk, when I listen to this talk, what it tells me is
that she spent a lot of time getting to know the Lord. And like our prophet has asked us to learn
or to, I think it was better understand, to weekly study and better understand the atonement of
Jesus Christ. And I just feel like this entire talk, this whole painting, how would she ever know
from the very beginning or the get go that this would be the outcome? A beautiful painting and
honestly, a masterpiece of a talk that has so much raw emotion in it, so much self-reflection
and just an invitation for each of us to get to know Christ on a more personal level.
1.5
And I think an opportunity, I think she took this opportunity and I would suggest it as an
opportunity for each of us as another action item is to think back on our lives and the moments that
we think we're like the current Bush, that we've been cut down and we've wondered why,
but that enough time has passed that we can see what the purpose was.
2.5
Beautiful.
3.5
What did the repainting of that scenario, what's happened that you were able to redefine that?
Was it a marriage that fell apart? Have you had the opportunity to see the growth that you had in
those struggles and now you're living like a different version of life? Is it the way that
you're interacting with your children or a family member? It would be interesting for each of us
to see that. I think that's, I need to spend more time on this and I will, but as I was listening to
it, just kind of at face value, I was like, there's something to learn about what came of the
aftermath of losing everything and having another redo and not just being like, well,
it didn't work out. I'm giving that painting up. Compressing on and continuing the work that has
been started and moving it farther than it had ever been before.
4.5 When I look at the painting, I'm actually in awe that it just, and I say just took all night.
4.5
That's crazy.
4.5
That is like...
4.5
That seems like painting ability above her natural ability.
Yeah. I mean, it's amazing what she ended up with.
4.5
Her efforts definitely must have had some angelic amplification.
4.5
Agreed.
4.5
I don't know, something magical happened there. So do you feel like you've shared what you want to,
you have something in closing?
4.5
Yes. She says each day is a new day filled with hope and possibilities because of Jesus Christ.
Each day you and I can come to know as Mother Eve proclaimed, the joy of our redemption,
the joy of being made whole, the joy of feeling God's unfailing love for you.
I join with Sister Ian testifying, I know that our Father in heaven and Savior love you.
Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind. He lives through His atoning sacrifice.
The bands of sin and death were forever broken so that we might be free to choose healing,
redemption, and eternal life with those we love.
4.5
Say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
4.5
Catch you next time.