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 Abby and Amy. Let's
jump into it. So today, rather than jumping straight
into the talk, because we got to hear from the
Prophet in a sweet little introduction and some
closing remarks and the meat of his talk. in
the Sunday session, we decided to put all of
those three together and then bring them into
this one podcast today. So in his opening address,
he was talking to the 17 million members worldwide.
We were all invited to participate in that solemn
assembly. And I myself spent that time recalling
the last two that I had participated in. And
I was deeply touched by those. at that time and
I was touched and I felt the Spirit give me a
confirming witness that Dallin H. Oaks is a prophet
of God and called to lead us in this restored
church in the latter days. The prayers and support
and sustaining is felt by those called to lead
us. President Oaks expressed gratitude as leaders
of the church for that sustaining vote and the
prayers in support of its members. This was his
prayer. for each of us. He said, we also pray
for you to be guided and prospered as you continue
the great service you give to the children of
God throughout the world. So I thought that was
sweet. We had an opportunity to sustain them
and show our support for the leadership and he
had the opportunity to, you know, invoke a blessing
across to us. Absolutely. That's always my favorite
part is when it's either an apostolic or a prophetic
blessing. I always peek my ears up there. His
testimony was really touching as well, and it
was so appropriate. He shares this. At this Easter
season, I reaffirm our testimony of the resurrected
Lord and recognize that He is the head of the
church. We pray for His blessings upon this conference
and upon all of you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Love that. President Oaks has quite the way of
just getting right to the point. And with the
new schedule of a 25 -minute class for Lacy's
Society and Elder's Quorums starting in September,
I think this skill will be paramount. Two points
that he started out his talk with were, one,
the resurrection being a pillar of our faith,
and two, that we believe in the literal resurrection
of Christ and believe that resurrection is universal.
It is for all. The spirit and the body shall
be reunited again in its perfect form. Here's
a quote, now this restoration shall come to all,
both old and young, bond and free, male and female,
both the wicked ones and the righteous. We live
our lives with the belief and conviction of the
resurrection, and when we do so it changes our
lives. We know death is not the end of our identity.
We know it affects how we look on the physical
challenges of mortality. we know it gives us
strength and perspective to endure the mortal
challenges faced by each of us and those that
we love. It signifies that mortal deficiencies
are only temporary, and it also gives us the
courage to face our own death or that of loved
ones, even deaths we might call premature. You
said that twice now. You said that one you spoke
with to BYU and now, so it's like something that's
in my mind, just remembering the Lord's timing
as always. Well, and when it comes from him knowing
that he lost his father at such a tender age
and knowing full well that as unfair as that
seems. the consequences of that, him having to
step up, him having, you know, the grandparents
having to step in, his mom having to, you know,
fill that role, him having to find people. It's
not like he says it casually, like, I'm sorry,
some of you, you've lost people that you loved
early, and that just doesn't seem fair. He lives
that truth. Right. It's like his testimony that
he's reconciled that with God. Yeah. Like, that's
the only place they can come from. Yeah. And
once you've reconciled that with God, if you
can do anything in your power to help and bless
others with that testimony that you have of this
thing, it makes things that otherwise seem very,
something you could be angry about and something
you could just put a lot of blame on and just
say, why did it have to be this way? Well, he's
saying from this perspective of life, it can
be hard, but it happens. And, you know, gratefully
for the resurrection of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, the sting of that isn't as painful.
One last thing he said, it helps us live together
in love in this life in anticipation of joyful
reunions and associations in the next. Not the
end. Yeah. Underlining point of all of those
things is that we have a belief in a literal
resurrection that is just that. It's not a parable.
It's not a nice thing thinking, hoping that it's
going to come. We live our lives anticipating
that truth to be fact. Yeah. Abby, I will say
one thing that he said literal a few times. And
it was just interesting to me because the first
time I heard it, I was like, of course we believe
in the literal resurrection. It felt... a lot
like when I was 18 listening to the proclamation
of the family. As all those things were said,
I was like, uh -huh, uh -huh, uh -huh. Please
don't say that. Are you telling me that 20 years
from now, we're going to be having this conversation
that people are like, he really didn't live.
It's the idea of somebody that could overcome
him. That's what it felt like to me. And there
was another talking conference. We have to affirm
this truth that we know. Right. We know this.
Yes, it was almost like it was just solidified
and stronger. Yes, I believe, we believe in the
literal. resurrection, that Jesus lives again
and that we all will too. This is not a parable.
This is real. And because we believe this, we
know that we will meet Christ. And preparing
for this time to come is no easy task. We live
in toxic, turbulent times, and our Savior Jesus
Christ taught us how to relate to one another.
The great commandments in the law he taught were
to love God, and love our neighbor. He taught
that in Matthew 22. And he says, ye have heard
that it's been said that thou shalt love thy
neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say to you,
love your enemies, bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you and persecute you.
That was in Matthew 5. I like this part. This
is what President Oaks said. He said, enemies
include military foes, yes, but it even extends
to any who actively oppose one another. So when
President Oakes reframes enemy, he says, our
adversary. Love your adversary and love your
neighbor. It's so broad that it extends to all
of God's children. It's pretty easy to think,
like of a personal relationship that each of
us have in daily interaction. If we follow this
teaching of Jesus Christ, like we want to, when
we recognize anyone as our adversary, we choose
to love them and extend kindness and at least
respectful communication. That's a good point.
President David O. McKay taught, there's no better
way to manifest love for God than to show an
unselfish love for one's fellow men. Story time,
President Oaks shares a story about a woman in
a yellow dress who worked in a prison as a nurse.
One particular inmate. Well, I want to caveat
this. He sees her in the crowd at a state conference.
He's like, I feel like she should speak. Do you
think that she could do a good job at a state
conference? Yeah, I think she'd do good. So they
call her up. She has not had time to prepare.
She comes up and then she starts in this, I work
in a prison. And she said one particular one,
he was bedridden. He was difficult for nurses
who cared for him. He'd use foul language. He'd
spit on the floor. He'd constantly insult them.
and do other repulsive things, and she despised
him for it. One day she heard a crash in his
room, and she rushed in, and there he lay on
the floor, fallen in a pool of liquid, blood,
broken glass. In that moment, a profound change
came over her. She felt an almost... electric
current of love from our Heavenly Father to this
man. She saw him as a child of God in that moment.
She knelt and she tried to give him comfort as
he said, I want to go home. He died shortly after.
President Oak said, for me, this was a lesson
I needed to learn about our Heavenly Father's
love for all his children. That lesson can transform
us to see each other as children of God who belong
to each other. It helps us treat each other differently
when we recognize A, that we're a child of God,
and that we recognize that they're also children
of God. Absolutely. I also love that she was
able to recognize that that could only have come
from Heavenly Father, that electric current of
feeling, because she knew that what was in her
heart was she despised Him, and all of a sudden,
boom, it was changed. Like, in that contrast,
she was able to say, that could only be from
Heavenly Father, and I love that. President Howard
W. Hunter described this same love that we're
talking about of God toward his children. He
says, Essentially, love everyone. Isn't that
funny? When you turn enemy to be adversary, an
adversary can be your next door neighbor. And
he basically says, I mean, when you think about
our savior, I mean, on the crosses, he's been
beaten, ridiculed, and he's being killed by people.
He's asking for forgiveness for them, that he's
shown us there's really nobody who's passed forgiveness,
and there's nobody that he's not willing to forgive.
And he asks us to like look at somebody that
took a little extra cream off the milk or hit
your puppy. I don't know. It makes you think,
I'm glad that I don't have to live up to his
exact standard, but it makes me think there's
a lot less people that I should be holding grudges
to. And I should make neighbors and friends out
of a lot more people. I should just assume everybody.
Everybody fits in the category of not enemies.
In the third section of this talk, the prophet
makes the connection that we can each use the
example of our savior on how to relate to others,
kind of what I led into. I love that he used
the word strive in his talk because as nice as
it is to have the idea to follow our savior's
example, his standard is very hard for us to
match, pretty much impossible if you want to
get. really to the truth of it, but in pursuit
of striving to be like Him, the outcome still
better than we would have been if we hadn't been
looking at it that way. That makes sense. The
world is always quick to point out that being
like the Savior and loving everyone means forgetting
everything else that He taught and letting people
do whatever they want. Although it's absolutely
possible to love people who act contrary to the
commandments of God, it's not our responsibility
to deny those commandments ourselves. Right?
We are disciples of Christ. The prophet urged
us to not surrender our values. Our own covenants
we've made give us a unique role of loving others,
but balancing that eternal context between truth
and error. Even the prophet suggested that this
balancing is not even easy. No. He knows. He's
human. One side of the coin, when we try to live
God's commandments, some people think that we
lack love for them. Like, they know that what
we're doing is contrary to the way that we live
our life and so they automatically assume that
we couldn't love them for that thing that they're
doing. The other side of the coin is that when
we show love and kindness to others who aren't
acting in accordance to the covenants or commandments
that we, you know, subscribe to, that we believe,
that we practice, others may think that us supporting
them is going against our beliefs. Right. And
so, the goal is to follow Christ by holding to
our value while still showing love and living
peacefully with everyone. 100%. My mind, when
he was talking about this, flashed to the woman
taking an adultery. You know, all of her accusers
are standing there, and the law at the time,
it's a harsh law, but the law would justify these
people to stone her. And Jesus says, You know,
he's not trying to usurp the lies not trying
to go around it, but he tells the people It's
an excellent point. He makes he's like any whoever
of you have no sin. You should cast the first
stone That's your law. You can cast this stone
But whoever's without sin you you do this thing
first and you know They drop they drop their
rocks or whatever they had do and they turned
and he's like where your accuser so basically
Reminding us we all have our faults. So Realizing
that none of us are perfect. It's easier for
me to relate to people who do choose They've
just chosen another sin than I've chosen to sin.
And also fascinating to me that the Savior was
the only person who was without sin and he could
have easily been the first to cast the stone
at this woman. However, that's not what he chose
to do. He encouraged her to, I kind of feel like
it comes full circle on this balancing act, he
invites her to go and sin no more. He didn't
say, you're a rotten, terrible person. goes into
more. He's just saying, I see you for who you
are. Yeah. And he didn't say you're perfect,
just like you are keep doing what you're doing.
That was the balance. It was right in the middle.
Yep. With absolute love, he invited her to pick
a different path and he sent her on her way.
Yes. And for sure she felt that. I'm feeling
it right now. I know that she felt it. I know
that she picked a different path from that point
on. So we're not going to get it perfectly every
time, but he didn't. He didn't avoid her like
she was the plague. He didn't think that she
was below this communication with him, didn't
deserve some of his time. Just like all of us,
whatever sin, like whatever we're struggling
with, whatever we're dealing with, none of us
are beyond him being able to. to reach us, to
come to us. We all deserve our Savior. 100%.
I also love that our prophet underlined this
point, essentially saying, hold fast to your
covenants, hold fast to your beliefs, and love
everyone. This whole Easter season, I just was
praying and just asking Heavenly Father, like,
how did Jesus do it? Like, how did He actually
stay true to who He was, no matter what happened?
He was unwavering. after conference on Sunday,
my son just, it was funny, he was in charge of
the remote. He turned it off and immediately
turned on to this end I was born, was I born.
And I love that Easter depiction. And I just
was struck again by how right before Christ would
be, beaten and crucified and all of the most
terrible things that we on this earth can think
of happening to ourselves, that was about to
happen. And yet He stood in front of Pilate and
said, to this end I was born. And I just felt
like everything that happens to me, it's all
aside from who I really am. I feel like Jesus
did it because, Jesus was able to do it because
He never lost sight of why He was here. and who
He was. And if each one of us could adopt that,
that's what He's saying here is, yeah, hold fast
to your covenants, to your beliefs, and love
everyone else. They are both right. They are
both exactly what Jesus would do. I think in
fairness, He did come. He did have to learn things.
He did have to make that His personality. But
somehow, you're talking and I'm like, it's His
first nature. It's His natural inclination. I
don't even think He has to think to act in the
way that He acted. He gets it right every time.
And I think when I try to listen to his example,
learn from example, and implement the way that
he lived, I'm trying to do it in a way that people
would say it's second nature to them. It's not
my first nature. My first nature would be to
be a brat, saying mean things, like judge people.
His first nature is not to do that. Remember
who he was. Is that the real connotation of it's
like second nature? You've heard people say that.
I don't use it a whole lot, but I've heard it.
I'm laughing because I'm like, Basically what
you're saying is, it wasn't an easy thing. You've
made it become feel natural as though it was
what you were born with, but it really took some
practice. I love that. So for me, I'm just thinking
I want to always remember to this end I was born
like I'm unwavered. I'm not moved by anything.
And that's how I want to move forward. I love
it. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that we should...
pour forth love to all people. Speaking of our
Savior, the apostle John wrote, we love Him because
He loved us first. That's in 1 John 4 19. We
can follow the example of Jesus Christ, who is
our role model by choosing to love others, even
if they show little or no love toward us. He
declared, blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called the children of God. Can you
imagine the world if more people strive to be
peacemakers? The prophet reiterated President
Nelson's challenge here. to all of us to choose
to be a peacemaker now and always. We've talked
about this multiple times, how when President
Nelson says that line, it's great. It's like
something you would attribute to President Nelson.
And when President Oaks reiterates it, that we
say it's a challenge. He wants us to all continue
to tackle it. That wasn't out with the old and
with the new. It's the continuing of that same
theme, how different the world will be. if we
all try to be like Jesus Christ and be peacemakers.
And what tells me too is that as God's mouthpiece
on the earth, He picked that right up and said,
yeah, like you said, this isn't over, like, we're
continuing on with this. I love that. We're all
in different phases of our life. We all have
different responsibilities. We all encounter
different people. But I love that the prophet
even stopped for a moment to say like, What does
it look like to be a peacemaker? Is this an even
possible thing to do? And he listed a few things
that, you know, maybe this is a category we fall
in. Are you a church leader like a bishop that's
helping to create peace by healing relationships
and resolving conflicts between some of your
members? Young people can be peacemakers when
they choose service and kindness over selfish
pursuits. When I think about the service opportunities
our youth are given, it can change the world
when they decide to do that rather than busy
themselves with things that typical youth are
doing. For sure, it sets them so far apart. Those
who work to reduce suffering and build understanding
among others promote peace. I love that. I think
of a million different activities people are
involved in that are outside of, you know...
You know, working in a homeless shelter, food
banks, just a lot of things come to mind and
I think, wow, that's a great way to think of
being a peacemaker. Parents and caregivers create
peace by lovingly raising and protecting children
and righteousness. I love that. Our missionaries
seek to be peacemakers. They preach repentance
from personal corruption, greed, and oppression
because only by individual reformation can an
entire society eventually arrive above such evil.
But inviting all to repent and come to Christ,
our missionaries are working for peace by helping
individual men and women come unto Christ and
experience a mighty change of heart and behavior.
We aren't there to debate. Tell everyone why
they're wrong, why we're right. We take what
they have. We see if we can add more to it in
a peaceful way. And honestly, I think they're
encouraged, you know, if it just becomes a debate
session about who's right and who's wrong, I
think we exit those conversations. I think we're
encouraged to exit those conversations now because
that's not first nature to us. We're trying to
make it our second nature. Sometimes we do engage
in the fight, but like the intent would be. We
testify of Christ, we invite him to come to and
we invite people to take their awesome great
things that they have and see if we can add more
to it. Absolutely. Sorry for the pause. I'm going
to turn some time over to Amy before we sign
off, because I will close with the prophet's
testimony, both from the end of this talk and
from the brief closing remarks. at the end of
the conference that summarized the central themes
that this conference had to offer. Thanks, Abby.
So this is a farewell for me. Goodbye to all
of our wonderful listeners that I absolutely
love. An interesting thing happened before conference
came. I just had a thought of maybe you're done
with the podcast. And when I heard you, I assumed
me and Abby and I was like, well, I'll just wait
till conference comes. I'll pray about it again.
And we'll, you know, we'll see how we feel then.
So I prayed about it. And twice, two separate
times, I got a distinct impression that this
was a season. and that this season is over for
me and that I have other things to do. And it's
interesting because afterwards I talked with
Abby and she felt like she was continuing, which
made me way sad. And I have to say this, a previous
version of myself would say, wait a sec, wait
a sec, maybe I got it wrong. I'm going to go
back to the book. So we're going to try this
again because clearly I got it wrong, you know?
And then just the spirit bore witness to me that
it's okay to have two separate answers for people
who thought they were going on the same path.
I've loved every bit of this. I love working
with Abby. I love our insights. I love the way
we work together. I love it all. I love sharing
my testimony every week about the things that
God has given us, whether it's His Son Jesus
Christ, His gospel, families, our wards, our
neighborhoods, the earth, everything. I love
that part. I just know that there are other things
that are ahead for me and that my focus is needed
elsewhere. So I don't know exactly what that
means, but I will absolutely be listening in
every week as Abby continues to bear her testimony
and to pour her heart into this podcast. Amy
has given me such a beautiful gift, committing
these last four conference seasons over the last
two years of her life. It takes countless hours
to do something like this. They're not wasted
hours. I think we've cherished every moment that
we've spent doing it, but it forces us to study
these words past just the sweet weekends, the
conference hour. It helps us dive deeper. It
helps us hear the message that are timely. Like
in that moment, it might have sounded great conference
weekend, but sometimes when you're having ...
A moment in life, you need a little boost. Sometimes
that conference talk just hits a little differently
then. And so I've been blessed as I've studied
these words and been able to share insights and
experiences and testify. And it's something I'll
forever be grateful for. So I will close with
the prophet's testimony. He said, my brothers
and sisters, as followers of Christ, let us follow
him by foregoing contention and by using the
language and methods of peacemakers. In our families,
in our personal relationships, let us avoid what
is harsh and hateful. Let us seek to be holy
like our Savior. Truly, Jesus Christ is the way
to peace in this world and eternal life in the
world to come. He knows and loves each of us
perfectly and invites us to walk with Him. Abide
in Him. Follow His example of ministering to
others, one by one, in charity and love. We've
been reminded of the central role of marriage
and families in our Heavenly Father's plan for
eternal destiny of His children. May we all demonstrate
the pure love of Christ in our families, in our
communities, and in all our interactions with
God's children. And this He said in the name
of Jesus Christ. Thanks for being with us.