My dear young friends, wherever you are, it is a pleasure for me to be with you. I pray for your interest in what I have to say. Many of you are struggling with your identity. Some of you may wonder what the future holds for you. That brings to mind a story I once heard about a dude at the Calgary Stampede. As he was putting the saddle on his horse, the cowboy watching him said, "Say, mister. You're putting on that saddle the wrong side forward." "Haw haw," said the dude.

"Why, you don't even know which way I'm going." The world presents alluring enticements. It is bewildering. Not only may some of you be unsure about where you're going, but you may also be questioning your real worth. Let me assure you, I believe with all my heart that you are a chosen generation.

I speak this evening about coming out of the darkness and into the light. Micah said, "When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me." We receive light from the Lord. This can happen to us when we study the scriptures and our eyes are opened and our understandings enlightened. Daily scripture study turns on the light of our spiritual perception and opens our understandings to further knowledge. I try to read the scriptures at the close of the day. It brings a remarkable peace. I sleep better by doing this. We receive spiritual life when we attend sacrament meeting. Partaking of the sacrament and the inspiration of the worship service weekly charges our spiritual batteries. We receive spiritual light when we respond to calls. Serving and a calling in the Church blesses us more than it blesses others. We receive spiritual light when we pay our tithing, as the windows of heaven can then open up. We receive spiritual light when we sing the hymns. Singing hymns strengthens us and brings us together spiritually. We receive spiritual light when we pray. As a young teenager, the Prophet Joseph Smith read, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally." I commend to you his account of the First Vision, which followed as he determined that he would seek wisdom from God. He wrote, "When the light rested upon me, I saw." What did he see? He saw the Father and the Son. As the vision ended, he said, "When the light had departed, I had no strength." Obviously, we do not expect a heavenly visitation, but we are definitely entitled to increased spiritual and intellectual enlightenment if we forsake the world for the kingdom of God and its righteousness.

Part of our coming into the light depends upon the focus of our faith. Is it seen as repression or liberation? As young people mature, they feel new power, new passions, new ambitions, yet they are told that some of these must be restrained. Sometimes even a few returned missionaries grow tired of this so-called restraint and try to find freedom in self-indulgence.

In so doing, they find that indulgence is not the road to freedom. However, bridling our passions or yielding appropriately to restraint is necessary for our personal growth and progression. As Alma said, "Bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love." A few years ago, a nationally broadcast program talked about imprisoned criminals who were taming wild horses. As the prisoners formed friendships with the horses, they learned about patience, controlling tempers, respect for others, and the value of working within the system. As they watched the horses learn to obey their commandments, they realized how they could have avoided the terrible mistakes that had put them in prison. Like the horses, they could still learn, progress, and achieve. In our modern society, so many voices in books, magazines, television, and movies depict sexual intimacy outside of marriage as being socially acceptable, even desirable. Some young people deceived by this sophistry ask, "Why is it wrong? We're in love." Elder Jeffrey R. Holland answered this question as follows: "In matters of human intimacy, you must wait. You must wait until you can give everything, and you cannot give everything until you are legally and lawfully married. To give illicitly that which is not yours to give-- remember you are not your own-- and to give only in part of that which cannot be followed with a gift of your whole self is emotional Russian roulette. If you persist in presuming physical satisfaction without the sanction of heaven, you run the terrible risk of such spiritual psychic damage that you may undermine both your longing for physical intimacy and your ability to give a wholehearted devotion to a later, truer love. You may come to that truer moment of ordained love, of real union, only to discover, to your horror, that what you should have saved, you have spent, and that only God's grace can recover that piecemeal dissipation all of the virtue you so casually gave away. On your wedding day, the very best gift that you can give to your eternal companion is your very best self-- clean and pure, and worthy of such purity in return." Close quote. We must wait for the proper season of life to use some sacred gifts. We must prepare for that season. I did not kiss my wife until we were engaged to be married.

I've tried to make up for it since.

My grandchildren, who adore their grandmother, I think, think I'm just a little strange.

But I make no apology to them.

Goodness restrains your carnal desires, but it also helps you to find your real self in liberation. It is seeking positively for those things which are worthwhile and worth living for. It is coming out of darkness into the light. It is discerning between good and evil by the light of Christ. It is expression of our gifts and talents. It is to lay hold on every good thing. Our faith is not a bundle of beliefs and practices that are too heavy to bear. Those who come out of the darkness find that their faith carries them. Faith is not heavy. Faith lifts and gives us wings to carry us over hard places. As Isaiah promises, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk out and not faint." Coming out of the darkness into the light frees us from the dark side of our souls, which comes from fear, discouragement, and sin. You can tell one who has come into the light by his or her countenance and attitude. The Savior said it well. "I am come that they might have life, and they might have it more abundantly." Since September 11, we have been concerned about another form of darkness-- the influence of terrorists and hijackers.

You are growing up in a different world than I did. For years, we traveled on airplanes without having our baggage searched or going through metal detectors. My dear young friends, your enemies are not all terrorists and hijackers. Some are within your peer group, perhaps even among those you look upon as friends, who would encourage you to free yourselves from restraints and to try drugs, alcohol, or intimacy with someone of the opposite sex, or even the same sex. They are the critics, the dissenters, and the skeptics, anyone who keeps us in darkness and tries to keep us from finding the light of our eternal journey. Other spiritual terrorists include pornography pushers, those with no values. These people are in darkness, lack faith, and are unwilling to seek a source higher than themselves for the solution to questions and problems. Some have such egotism, poor self-image, and weak faith that they cannot conceive of obtaining light and knowledge by any other means. One of the titles of the Queen of England is "Defender of the Faith." All of us ought to become defenders of faith. As we do defend our faith, we come out of darkness and move toward the light. We can easily imagine that if our homes were threatened by Johnston's army, we would want to join Lot Smith's group to defend ourselves and keep the enemy army from threatening our lives and homes. But the destroying army does not always come in great numbers. Satan can and does assault us individually. When we come out of the darkness, the bright sunshine of the Savior comes bursting through. People share the responsibility for claiming the truth of the restored gospel. You will be effective in doing this only if you try to do right in your own individual lives. To do this, you will need an understanding and testimony of the basic doctrines of the Church. These fundamental absolutes of our faith are, first, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the Redeemer of the world, second, that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, actually appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith, restoring the fulness of the gospel and the true Church. From this follows the purpose of the Church. First, to prepare its members for the perfect life. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." Second, to foster and encourage members to become "a body of saints, united in faith and works." Third, to proclaim the message of the restored gospel to the world. Fourth, to save our dead. Some of you young men and sisters may be preparing to serve as full-time missionaries. To be called to serve as a missionary for this Church is not a right.

It is a privilege. Missionary service is joyful, but it is not fun and games. It is hard work. The Lord's admonition to missionaries is contained in the fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants. "All ye that embark in the service of God see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day." All missionary work presumes personal worthiness. The Lord said, "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." Some of you are worthy but because of health problems may not be able to withstand the rigors of proselytizing in the mission field. You may, however, find alternative service and opportunities that will be a great blessing to you. A few years ago when President Merrill J. Bateman was in Japan, the missionaries introduced him to a young Japanese brother who had just joined the Church. He was from a non-Christian background. When he met the missionaries, he was interested in the message, but could not understand it or feel the need of a Savior, and he didn't have a witness regarding the gospel. One day the missionaries decided to show him a church film called The Bridge. The young man saw the film and was disturbed by it, couldn't sleep all night, but still he didn't have a witness. The next morning, he went to work. He worked in an optician's shop, making eyeglasses. An elderly woman came in. He remembered her coming in a few weeks before. She had broken her glasses. She needed a new pair. When she had come in earlier, she didn't have enough money and had gone away to save more in order to purchase new glasses. As she came in that day, she again showed him her spectacles and showed him the money that she now had. He realized that she didn't have enough yet. Then a thought came to him. "I have some money. I don't need to tell her. I can make up the difference." So he told her the money which she had was adequate, took her glasses, and made an appointment for her to return when he had finished making the spectacles. She returned later. He had the glasses ready for her. He handed them to her, and she put them on and exclaimed, "I see. I see." And then she began to cry. At that point, a burning sensation began to grow within his bosom and swelled with him. He said, "I understand. I understand," and he began to cry. Out of the door he ran, looking for the missionaries. When he found them, he said, "I see. My eyes have been opened. I know that Jesus is the Son of God. I know that the stone was rolled away from the tomb, and on that glorious Easter morning, He arose from the dead. He can make up any difference in my life when I fall short." We can all see by the candle of inspiration which is the Spirit of the Holy Ghost. It will light our way out of darkness and difficulty. The most sure way to come out of the darkness and into the light is through communication with our Heavenly Father by the process known as divine revelation. President Wilford Woodruff declared, "Whenever the Lord had a people on earth that he acknowledged as such, that people were led by revelation." The inspiration of God is available to all who worthily seek the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is particularly true of those who receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Individual members, parents, and leaders have the right to receive revelation for their own guidance in terms of their roles and responsibilities. Those who wish to come out of darkness and into the light must make sure they are in harmony with the inspiration and revelation which comes through our prophets, seers, and revelators. Amos tells us, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants, the prophets." These are the prophetic oracles who have tuned in over the centuries to the celestial transmitting station with the responsibility to relate the Lord's words to others. The best way for your own young people to come in closer harmony with the Savior is to sustain His living prophet on the earth, the President of the Church, in our day and time, President Gordon B. Hinckley. If we do not follow the living prophet, whoever he may be, we are in danger of dying spiritually. Some people equivocate in their support of living prophets, trying to lift themselves up by putting down the living prophets, however subtly. I can testify that the process of continuous revelation comes to the Church very frequently. It comes daily. President Wilford Woodruff stated, "This power is in the bosom of Almighty God, and he imparts it to his servants, the prophets, as they stand in need of it day by day to build up Zion." This is necessary for the Church to fulfill its mission. Without it, we would fail. The Church constantly needs the guidance of its head, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This was well taught by President George Q. Cannon, who said, "We have the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants. But all these books without the living oracles and a constant stream of revelation from the Lord would not lead any people into the celestial kingdom of God. This may seem a strange declaration to make, but strange as it may sound, it is nevertheless true. Of course, these records are of infinite value. They cannot be too highly prized, nor can they be too closely studied. But in and of themselves, with all the light they give, they are insufficient to guide the children of men and to lead them into the presence of God. To be thus led requires a living priesthood and a constant revelation from God to the people, according to the circumstances in which they have been placed." Close quote. When will this promised revelation come? Only God knows when. It will come as needed to whom it will come. To obtain the answer to this, we must go back to the words of Amos. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants, the prophets." Continuous revelation will not and cannot be forced by outside pressure from people and events. It is not the so-called revelation of social progress. It does not originate with the prophets. It comes from God. The Church is governed by the prophet under the inspiration, guidance, and direction of the Lord. I believe in [? and ?] conviction of the divine truthfulness of the Church has now covered a long period of time, as long as I can remember. That testimony has grown stronger as the years have passed. I have been a General Authority for 30 years, and an Apostle for 24 years this coming October conference. The certain knowledge of the truthfulness of this gospel came before I was called to the holy apostleship and has been reconfirmed many times since. I testify to you young people that the gospel contains the answers to life's challenges and problems. It is the sure way to happiness and the fulfillment of the Savior's promise, which is peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come. All of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.