“By Mine Own Voice”

Chad Webb Discussion with Students at the Institute at Weber State University

Friday, March 17, 2023

I want to start this morning by bearing my testimony of two ideas. The first is that I believe that one of the manifestations of Heavenly Father’s love for us is that He’s given us a living prophet. The second is I believe that our reception of the Lord’s prophets is a manifestation of our faith in Jesus Christ. I’m really excited as we dig into President Nelson’s talks to have you share what you’ve learned. So have that close. Also have your scriptures close, because before we do that, I want to spend a few minutes thinking together about “why prophets?”

We’re going to go very quickly, because of time, through a lot of ideas about why prophets. Then we’re going to study what President Nelson has taught us as the President of the Church. First of all, this statement from Mosiah, which I think is one of the great understatements anywhere in scripture, that “a seer is a revelator and a prophet also. … God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he [the prophet] becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings.”

Again, I think that’s one of the understatements in scriptures of the benefit it is to have a living prophet. I want to start with these two ideas that you may be familiar with. What does it say in Jeremiah 1? Do you remember back from your seminary doctrinal mastery days? Go ahead. Yes, please. It says.

Student: “Before I formed thee in the [womb] I knew thee.” Most of it.

Chad Webb: That’s really good.

Student: Almost there?

Chad Webb: No, that’s it. The Lord speaking to Jeremiah: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.” Before you were even born, I chose you. I sanctified you to be a prophet to the nations. Very well done. Thank you. And John 15:16: “[You] have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you” to be a messenger, to preach my gospel, to gather good fruit. That question, then—what truth grows out of the realities described in those two verses, especially about prophets? Because of those two verses, what do you know about prophets? Go ahead.

Student: It just talks about how prophets were foreordained. They were chosen before we came down to earth and that they are chosen of God.

Chad Webb: So good. Thank you. And right behind you, please.

Student: It reminds me of, actually, Amos 3:7, where He promises that He won’t do anything without revealing His secrets to His servants, the prophets.

Chad Webb: Fabulous. Thank you for those comments. He knew them before they were born. He chose them. He anointed them. He ordained them. He prepared them for what He would have them do. That’s an interesting concept when you think about President Nelson and his preparations for what he’s teaching us today. Now, there are a lot of verses here. I want you to actually open to the first one.

As you think about the role of a prophet, then, what the Lord has ordained them to do, prepared them to do. I want you to start in Acts 10. If you’ll go to verse 38. There is a pattern in scriptures that is found in so many places. I’m just going to show you this one, but you will find it as you study the scriptures everywhere. This is the Lord’s pattern for teaching truth. In verse 38: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: [He] went about doing good.” Thirty-nine: “We are witnesses of all [the] things” He’s done, even witnesses that they slew Him and hanged Him on a tree. Forty: “Him God raised up the third day, and shewed Him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.”

I think it’s interesting that Jesus didn’t appear to Pilate or members of the Sanhedrin, but after His Resurrection, He showed himself to people who had been chosen beforehand to be witnesses of the resurrected Savior. And then 42: “He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify.” Forty-three: “To him give all prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of [his] sins.” Forty-four: then as Peter spoke, “the Holy Ghost fell [upon them].” And in verse 48, he invites them to act on what they’ve learned and be baptized.

Do you see the pattern? Heavenly Father has a plan. He chose Jesus as the central figure in that plan. Jesus chose witnesses who are witnesses of His resurrection, of His teachings, of His ministry. They were invited, even commanded, to teach and testify of Jesus Christ. When they teach, the Holy Ghost bears record that what they teach is true, and then we are invited to act on that Spirit as learners of the gospel through prophets.

That’s the pattern. It’s everywhere in scripture. So much so, in fact—think about it. How much would you know about Heavenly Father and His plan, how much would you know about Jesus Christ, if it weren’t for prophets? We wouldn’t know anything. Either ancient or modern prophets, that’s the pattern. That’s how God teaches truth. As you look at these verses, you’ll see similar things.

I love Moroni 7. It teaches the same pattern. It adds that sometimes He sends angels as messengers to His prophets to tutor and teach them. Then it has this great phrase: so that the “residue” of the people, the rest of us, can have faith in Jesus Christ. That’s how it is; that’s how it works. Third Nephi 11:10 is when Jesus introduces Himself among the Americas. Do you remember the first thing He says? “I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified [would] come into the world.”

That’s the pattern. He never decouples Himself from His prophets. He continuously verifies their role in preparing the world for His coming. In fact, as you go over here, also in 3 Nephi 19, Jesus then teaches the people. He then divides them up in groups, assigns those who He’s called to be Apostles to teach the groups, and the language of the verse is they taught what Jesus had taught, “nothing varying.” It’s an interesting phrase. As His mouthpiece, as His representative.

Somebody mentioned Amos 3:7. We know that. Doctrine and Covenants 1:37–38, “Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my [prophets], it is the same.” That’s the pattern. That’s how He teaches truth: through His prophets. Then the role of prophets is this. Doctrine and Covenants 76, Joseph Smith: “This is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of [the Father].”

The first and most important role of a prophet is to testify of Jesus Christ. Mosiah 15—let’s actually look at that one. 15:10: “And now I say unto you, who shall declare his generation? Behold, I say unto you, that when his soul has been made an offering for sin”—in the moment when Jesus is performing the Atonement, offering His soul for the sins of the world—“he shall see his seed.”

The end of 10 says: “And now what say ye? … [W]ho shall be His seed?” Who did Jesus see in Gethsemane? “Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed. ... [T]hey are the heirs of the kingdom of God.”

In this most important of all moments in the history of the world, as Jesus performs the Atonement and prays to the Father, He sees those who, because of the testimony of prophets, believed and looked forward to a remission of their sins through His atoning sacrifice. And those who looked forward to a remission of their sins, who believed in prophets, will be the heirs of the kingdom of God, because that’s the pattern. That’s how we come to have faith, and that’s how we turn to the Lord. It’s not about the prophets. It’s their role to point us to the Savior, to teach us faith, to teach us repentance—faith unto repentance—so that we can look forward to a remission of our sins. That’s the role of prophets. Ephesians 2: the Church was established with apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. Do you remember that verse? Sometimes people want to say, “Well, I want to follow Jesus, but I’m not so excited about a church.”

Jesus organized a church. He was very clear in the New Testament that He started and organized His Church, and that Church was based on prophets and apostles, with Him as the chief cornerstone, so that when He ascended to heaven, who is in charge of the Church?

But it’s not Peter’s church. Jesus is the chief cornerstone, who gives revelation to the Church He established through prophets and apostles. That’s how He’s organized His Church. In fact, Ephesians 4 says that we will need prophets until there is the unifying of the faith. Is the whole world unified in faith? Then how long will we need prophets?

Student: A long time.

Chad Webb: A long time. Be a little more optimistic. But it’s interesting. Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets.” I infer from that there must be true prophets, or He would’ve said, “Beware of anybody who claims to be a prophet in the last days.” He didn’t. He said beware of false prophets, because there will be true prophets until we are unified in the faith so we are not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. It’s not who’s most persuasive in their arguments, who has the best podcast. It’s who did the Lord ordain to speak for Him to teach His gospel with His authority, and until we’re unified in the faith of Jesus Christ, prophets will be a great blessing to Heavenly Father’s children.

We can’t separate Him from His prophets or Him from His church that He organized in the way He taught us. The last verse up there, Ezekiel: prophets will also be watchmen on the tower to warn us of coming danger.

All right, with those as the role of prophets, then you would expect that there may be some opposition to prophets. In 1 Nephi 11—would you look that one up as well? There is a really stirring reminder. I think this is the saddest verse in all of scripture. This is Nephi’s vision of the tree of life. And he starts to see Jesus teaching, and you know in verse 33 that Nephi “saw that He was lifted up [on a] cross and slain for the sins of the world.” In verse 34, what happens next? After Jesus is crucified, they turn their attention on …

Student: The Apostles.

Chad Webb: The Apostles. You know what happened. That led to the Apostasy because of the rejection of God’s anointed prophets and apostles. Here’s the part that makes me most sad, is verse 35. As you go down a little bit there, as he sees this great and spacious building and wonders what it is, halfway down it says, “The angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the twelve.”

It’s one thing when they out there fight against the Twelve, but that’s a stirring caution and reminder that if we’re not careful, it could be us in here, the house of Israel, who at some point will turn and fight against the Lord’s anointed. Luke 7:37 is a really interesting one. You don’t need to turn there. I’ll just remind you of the story. It’s the story of Simon the Pharisee. Jesus came into his house. He was having dinner with him. A woman came in and washed His feet. And apparently she had not lived a life consistent with what Simon thought she should have lived.

He in his mind thought, “If he were a— How did Jesus respond to her, by the way? How did He treat her? With great respect and kindness. Simon thought, “If He were a prophet, He would know what kind of woman this is; He wouldn’t treat her this way.” Now, think about that for just a second. What could have Simon learned that day? This is Jesus showing me how to treat people. But he had it in his mind what a prophet should be like, and Jesus didn’t match that, so instead of learning from Jesus, what did he do instead?

Student: Criticized Him.

Student: He criticized Him. He said, “This isn’t the way a prophet is, and so He must not be a prophet.” I just think that’s such an interesting paradigm that sometimes we have in our head. “I think I know what a prophet’s supposed to be like, and if he says anything that doesn’t align with what I think, then he must not be a prophet. Because if he were a prophet, he wouldn’t act like this.”

That’s an interesting caution, where Simon could have learned remarkable things about compassion and love and respect of people and instead chose to make judgments of the Savior. I just think it’s an interesting reminder that as there’s opposition, that sometimes we can step back and say, “What can I learn here?” Sometimes they say hard things. Sometimes it takes patience and faith and time. But there’s an opportunity to learn from the Lord’s prophets as they teach us more about who He is.

Now, I wanted to share this with you. I think this is a fascinating idea about why we can trust those the Lord has chosen. There are a few different ideas here. Let me start with this first one. This is from the first talk President Nelson gave as the President of the Church, at least the first Sunday morning talk of general conference: “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives.”

And in that talk, speaking of revelation for the Church, he says this: “In our meetings, the majority never rules! We listen prayerfully to one another and talk with each other until we are united. Then when we have reached complete accord, the unifying influence of the Holy Ghost is spine-tingling! We experience what the Prophet Joseph Smith knew when he taught, ‘By union of feeling we obtain power with God.’ No member of the First Presidency or [the] Quorum of the Twelve [Apostles] would ever leave decisions for the Lord’s Church to his own best judgment!”

That’s a fascinating statement to me. By any measure, the First Presidency are remarkably gifted, intelligent, successful people. I mean, you think of their educational background. You think of their careers. By any measuring stick, they are incredibly accomplished people, and they would not trust their own best judgment to run the Lord’s Church. They wait until they and the Quorum of the Twelve are united and the Spirit has confirmed their decision. There is safety in councils and the revelation that comes to those who have been called.

Will you look at Doctrine and Covenants 64:5. I want to ask you about a couple of phrases here. Verse 5: “And the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom shall not be taken from my servant Joseph Smith, Jun.” Six: “There are those who have sought occasion against him without cause; nevertheless, he has sinned.”

Now let me have you pause there for a second. Did you notice the last two phrases? There are people who have sought occasion against Joseph without cause; nevertheless, he has sinned. How do you reconcile that the Lord says “You shouldn’t have criticized him” and “He has sinned” in the same two lines? Go ahead, please.

Student: For me, I feel like we are not other people’s judges. When God has told us not to take judgment against others, this is exactly what it’s saying, in the sense that nobody is allowed to judge Joseph, because he’s God’s elect, but God will judge Joseph for his own transgressions.

Chad Webb: You said so many good things. What are some of the blessings of receiving the Lord’s prophets? Matthew 10:40 says that when we receive the prophets and apostles, we receive the Lord. That’s the chapter when He calls His Twelve and sends them out and makes that statement. In section 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants, He adds that if we receive His servants, we will receive all that He has to offer.

Then this verse in Doctrine and Covenants 21—will you also look at this, please? This is the verse that you just commented on that I wanted to highlight your great comment. In Doctrine and Covenants 21:4: “Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; for his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.”

I want to pause right there for just a second. There are two phrases that really intrigue me. First of all, “all patience and faith.” Does it take patience sometimes and faith? Sometimes prophets teach things that we don’t understand, that are maybe hard for us. If you want to read a really great talk or listen to a really great talk about this, Sheri Dew at BYU–Hawaii a few months ago gave a brilliant talk called “Prophets See around Corners.” She tells the story of when one Church leader taught something that really hurt her. It stayed with her for months. She didn’t understand it; it troubled her. She did exactly what you said. She prayed about it, she studied, she asked people questions that she trusted.

Finally the Lord started to teach her and help her understand some things. So much so that she later gave a talk in general conference on the very topic that had troubled her, because with patience and faith she sought more understanding and the Lord taught her. But it’s interesting to listen to her say, “It hurt; it troubled me,” but she didn’t just throw everything away that she already knew.

She held on to what she knew and believed to be true until further light came. It’s a really great pattern of what patience and faith looks like. One other phrase in there, though, I wanted to ask you about. Why does he say, “Give heed [to] all his words and commandments?” What do you think that means?

Student: I can’t remember where the scripture is, but it says by the law is no flesh justified, where it’s like you need more than just the commandments. You also need the doctrine and everything that goes along with that. There are commandments that are given through prophets, but there’s also a lot of doctrine or really good advice that they give that you’re going to need too if you’re going to make it back.

Chad Webb: I think that’s 2 Nephi 2, and it is a brilliant connection to this. Thank you for saying that. It’s really, really good. Sometimes people say, “Well, yeah, when he says, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ or, ‘I’m speaking as the prophet.’” The Lord commands, but what about his words? What about his invitations, his suggestions, his policy? Words and commandments with patience and faith. Look at the promise if we will do that, verse 6: “For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory.”

You want to disperse darkness from your life? With patience and faith, give heed to the Lord’s prophets and their words and commandments. I just think that’s a remarkable, remarkable promise. In a day of a lot of chaos and a lot of confusion and a lot of noise, a lot of voices out there, you want to disperse darkness? Rivet your minds to the Lord’s prophets.

All right, with that in mind, then, as a background, President Nelson has now been the prophet for over five years. He has now presided in 10 general conferences. You had a chance to go back and study, I think especially, the Sunday morning address. So he’s given 30 talks in conference.

Let’s do this first. Don’t open your books. No cheating. I think you can tell me his 10 Sunday morning talks without looking. Shout them out.

Student: “Hear Him.”

Chad Webb: “Hear Him.” “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives.” “Let God Prevail.”

Student: “Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation.”

Chad Webb: “Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation.”

Student: “Faith in Christ Will Move Mountains.”

Chad Webb: “Faith in Christ Will Move Mountains.”

Student: “Moving Forward.”

Chad Webb: “Moving Forward.” I’m trying to think of which one … What’s the whole title? Is that the same one as—

Student: “Spiritual Momentum.”

Chad Webb: Oh, “Spiritual Momentum!” That’s the one. Seven. Perfect. Thank you. Go ahead.

Student: “Overcome the World and Find Rest.”

Chad Webb: “Overcome the World and Find Rest.”

Student: “Come, Follow Me.”

Chad Webb: “Come, Follow Me.” Is that 9 or 10? Did you just get them all?

Student: The “Name of the Church.”

Chad Webb: That’s what you were going to say too. And “Let God Prevail.” That’s really, really impressive. OK, I want to just show you a quote from each one. Not that this is necessarily even the most important statement, but it’s just to get you thinking. “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives”: “I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation. … In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost. My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation.” What did you learn from this talk? Please.

Student: From this quote and this talk in general, I learned a lot about covenants and how important it is to live within those covenants and to rely on that power that He gives us. Because like he said, in coming days, it is not possible to survive without the Spirit and without our own testimonies of the temple and the Holy Ghost and how God reveals revelation into our lives.

Chad Webb: So good. There’s a thread about covenants all through his talks, isn’t there, and the power that comes from them. I love that. Keep going. What else did you learn? Please?

Student: I love later in the talk when he says that it is our right to have the manifestations of the Spirit every day in our lives. Later he talks about the privilege of receiving revelation—it’s in the next paragraph—is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children. It just made me ponder and just think a little bit, “OK, do I actually receive revelation daily? When I do receive revelation, how do I treat it? Do I record it? Do I act on it? How do I show God that I appreciate the revelation I receive, and how can I do more to receive revelation every day in my life?” Good questions to think about.

Chad Webb: So good. Speaking of that, let me ask you, he pled with us to increase our capacity to receive revelation. Did he teach us how to do that? What did he say?

Student: He says—this is how to receive revelation and increase our process to receive revelation, or he says that we need to “pray in the name of Jesus Christ about [our] concerns, [our] fears, [and] weaknesses.” Then listen and “write the thoughts that come [into] your mind. Record [the] feelings and follow through with [the] actions that you are prompted to take.” And then “as you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year,” he says, “you will ‘grow into the principle of revelation.’”

Chad Webb: So good. He also said nothing increases our capacity to receive revelation more than purity, being in the scriptures, the Book of Mormon, temple and family history work. There are things we can do to grow into the principle of revelation. I know some of you might have been a little bit young five years ago in listening to conference. Some of you might have been on missions. I don’t know where you were. But five years ago a prophet pled with us to increase our capacity to receive revelation and taught us how to do it. So the million-dollar question is, What’s different in your life five years later? Please.

Student: I can testify that in my own life, I’ve seen myself growing into the principle of revelation. This morning has been a really cool experience for me, because I can’t normally come to these meetings. I’m thankful that I could be here. This is so cool. It’s not like our normal committee meetings and stuff. It’s interesting that this week I have felt very prompted to be studying the words of the prophets, like President Nelson in particular, even though I had no idea this was going to be happening.

I think, for me, that’s evidence that I’m growing in that process even without necessarily being aware of it and that the Holy Ghost is guiding me, even though sometimes I’m not aware of it, don’t always feel like it. But I know that that’s a desire in my heart, and He’s guiding me too.

Chad Webb: That’s beautiful.

One other question that I love: “If the Lord wanted to speak to you today, when and where in your day would’ve you heard Him?” It’s a great question, isn’t it? Sometimes we get busy and we’re running around, and so to have a moment every day where we study, where we pray, where we listen and let Him talk to us so that we can hear Him—he pled with us to do this and said we won’t even survive spiritually if we don’t.

Thank you. I’m sorry to move on, but there’s 10, so, we’re going to go to the second one. “The Correct Name of the Church”: “If we as a people and as individuals are to have access to the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ—to cleanse[,] … heal[,] … strengthen[,] … magnify[,] … and ultimately exalt us—we must clearly acknowledge Him as the source of that power.”

One thing we can do to do that is to acknowledge the correct name of the Church. What have you learned from this talk? Please.

Student: There were a lot of missionaries that were really hesitant to start applying this, because it was impractical. Nobody knew who we were anymore. But as we started to use the real name of the Church, we started to be better understood by the people. Suddenly people were like, “Oh, you don’t worship Mormon; you worship Christ.” And we’re like, “Yes.” It was a really wonderful thing to see happen as we listened to the prophet.

Student: I love this one, especially when he says, “[And if] we as people and … individuals … have access to the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ—to cleanse and heal us.” And I think that’s the important part about the name of our Church, is that we are the Church of Jesus Christ. We put His name in it because we are His.

Chad Webb: I love what you said. Thank you. All right. Sorry to move. But here’s the next one. I know there are a lot of people interested in commenting. But thank you so much for that. “Come, Follow Me.” What did you learn from this one? Please.

Student: This talk is really important to me, because it reminds me that it’s not like—well, I know a lot of people put stereotypes on our religion, that we like to force doctrine upon people. When I think of the “Come, Follow Me” talk, it’s an invitation to follow Him instead of “Hey, you’re supposed to do this” or that type of things.

Chad Webb: That’s a great comment. All right. He then gave this talk: “The Second Great Commandment.” You see on the screen an example of some of the things he talked about that the Church does—124 bishops’ storehouses, 400,000 food orders, on and on. Literally, there are people, because of the church you and I belong to, who are out of poverty, who have drinking water, who have wheelchairs, who have hearing aids, who have food, who have medicine, right?

I know we’re not supposed to have pride, but if there’s any such thing as righteous pride, I’m so grateful to belong to a church that does so much good in the world. It’s absolutely remarkable what the Church does to bless Heavenly Father’s children around the world. Go ahead, please.

Student: This particular talk really stuck out to me, and I think Elder Nelson, he really embodies the ideals of the good Samaritan. One of the coolest things he did—he mentions in the talk—is when him and Elder Gong visited the Imams of two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, after a horrific shooting. I really think it was cool that they offered support and comfort, because I really think that embodies mourn with those who “mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort.” I don’t know; this talk out of all of them really stuck out to me. You should treat others as you want to be treated.

Chad Webb: Yeah, and as a prophet, he pled with us to do just what you suggested, right? To love each other, to be kind, to serve each other in our own families, in our own neighborhoods, in our own wards, right? To keep the second great commandment as we follow the Savior. Two more comments right here together.

Student: My favorite small paragraph in this talk is—it says, “I have also marveled as world leaders have visited the First Presidency expressing their hope for the Church to be established in their lands. Why? Because they know that Latter-day Saints will help build strong families and communities, making life better for others wherever they live.” This is something that I’ve noticed personally is I’ve had friends and acquaintances who’ve said, “I’ve loved the members of your Church. They’ve been so helpful, and they’ve been so kind.”

That is just such a huge testimony that leaders of the world have said that they want members of our Church in their country because they know how willing we are to help. I feel like that’s just such a strong testimony of the impact that the Saints have on the world.

Chad Webb: Thank you. “Hear Him.” The bicentennial of the Restoration of the Church, in 2020. What does it mean for you that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored? And he reminded us of the remarkable blessings to be a part of the restored Church of Jesus Christ. What else in this talk stuck out to you? In the back. Thank you.

Student: What I loved is he talks about the methods how Satan communicates compared to—he says, “The adversary is clever. For millennia he has been making good look evil and evil look good. His messages tend to be loud, bold, and boastful. However, messages from our Heavenly Father are strikingly different. He communicates simply, quietly, and with such stunning plainness that we cannot misunderstand Him.” I love it because confusion is of the devil, but when the Lord teaches us, it’s to the heart.

Chad Webb: So well said, thank you. At the end of this talk, he read the proclamation. There are two more comments we’re going to take here.

Student: There’s a single sentence in this talk that I think really stuck out to me because it perfectly describes my relationship with Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. It says, “Our Father knows that when we are surrounded by uncertainty and fear, what will help us the very most is to hear His Son.” I can personally testify that if we are struggling in life, the best thing we can do is to turn to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, because that is when our relationship will grow the most, and that is when we’ll be able to feel that peace.

Chad Webb: Thank you. Thank you so much for that testimony. Please, right here.

Student: This is the one I’ve been waiting for. One of my favorite things about this talk is the fact that it came when it did. The conference right before, President Nelson says, “Prepare yourselves because this next conference is going to be one you’ll never forget,” and it was one that none of us could ever forget, because it came in a time when the world was, I don’t think, ever full of more turmoil, sadness, or isolation.

What I loved is that in the middle of all of that, that time of darkness for so many people, he gives that declaration on the Restoration, talking about another time of darkness like the Apostasy, when there wasn’t truth, and saying there was a prophet called. There is truth to be had. I think all of those people who went through their individual apostasy, their time away from God, some of the times where they spent the loneliest nights, the tears that were shed, that tuned in to hear this and hear him say, “God lives. Jesus is the Christ, and His Church has been restored.”

Chad Webb: These comments are just beautiful, thank you. His next talk, in October 2020, “Let God Prevail.” “Are you willing to let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life? Will you allow His words, His commandments, and His covenants to influence what you do each day? Will you allow His voice to take priority over any other? Are you willing to let whatever He needs you to do take precedence over every other ambition? Are you willing to have your will swallowed up in His?”

Talk about something to put on your refrigerator and think about every day. I think this is a landmark talk for President Nelson. I think this will be studied for generations, so share what you learned.

Student: I really love this talk and all that it says about our relationship with God. Even the title, “Let God Prevail,” I love that it implies that maybe one of the only things stopping God from prevailing in our lives is ourselves, because it says, “Let Him prevail,” because the truth is that He loves us so much that He always wants to be there to help us.

It’s really a matter of us letting Him in our lives to be able to do that. I think that’s one of the reasons why President Nelson emphasizes keeping our covenants so much, is that we can let Him into our lives so that we can feel that love and that help that He already wants to give us.

Chad Webb: I’m so glad you said that. I don’t want to be misunderstood here, but I don’t think Heavenly Father just wants us to obey or to follow Him. I think he wants us to choose to obey and follow Him, right? He wants our hearts. He wants us to let Him prevail in our lives. That was just beautifully said.

Student: Right along with that, when this came out, I was really studying why I should let God be the most important person in my life. One of my favorite scriptures is Alma 32:22, and it says, “And now, behold, I say unto you, … I would that ye should remember, that God is merciful unto all [those] who believe on his name; therefore he desireth, in the first place, that ye should believe, … even on his word.”

I think that this goes perfectly along with that because it says, “When your greatest desire is to let God prevail, to be [a] part of Israel, so many decisions become easier.” Then it says “It takes both [courage and faith] to let God prevail,” but God loves you, and He wants to give you those blessings in this life. That’s why we should let God prevail in our life.

Chad Webb: How often do you think about that idea?

Student: All the time. Every time I’m tempted, anytime things get hard, I just think about the love that God has for me and how He wants to be merciful and show me that love. I just have to choose to let Him be the most important thing.

Chad Webb: Thank you. These are beautiful comments. He then gave this talk.

“Start today to increase your faith.” I love this question. “What would you do if you had more faith? Think about it. Write about it. Then receive more faith by doing something that requires more faith.” Go ahead.

Student: This talk came at a very crucial moment in my mission because I’d been out on a mission for about five months. It was in the middle of a pandemic, so we were stuck inside all day making phone calls. I didn’t feel like I was worth it. I didn’t feel like anything. I was starting to question my faith in a lot of things, but I was still eager to hear from the prophet.

And he said, “It takes faith to serve a mission during a pandemic.” That was just so powerful to me because he was speaking directly to me. He was telling me—this was Heavenly Father giving a message specifically to me through His prophet to say, “Hey, don’t worry. You’re overthinking everything. You have faith. You’re here right now.” Then it was a big focus of our mission to go and focus on those five steps to create more faith, to get the ball rolling. We saw many, many mighty miracles in our lives and in the mission.

Chad Webb: Thank you. Has anybody else seen miracles in their—well, you might have other comments—but have taken the prophet’s invitation and put it to the test? What’s happened?

Student: I think the miracle that I’ve seen in my life is just how I’m able to make it through challenges more, right? Increasing my faith has allowed me to overcome things, and one of the paragraphs that I really liked is “Everything good in life—every potential blessing of eternal significance—begins with faith. And he ties it back into his last talk, when he says allowing God to prevail in our lives begins with the faith that He is willing to guide us. It touched my mind how grateful I am for a Savior that is the ultimate example of this, because the Atonement required agency, right?

He had to use His own agency to accomplish the Atonement. D. Todd Christofferson gave a talk that I read not too long ago that said that what allowed Christ—His driving factor behind why He was able to finish it—because it was extremely hard, but His driving factor behind why He was able to finish it was His love that He had for His Father and the faith that He had in Him and His loyalty towards Him. I think that it’s really neat and just how grateful I am for a Savior that exemplifies that.

Chad Webb: I love that connection. We talk often about the faith we need to have in Him, but just think about the faithfulness He had, right? Anyway, such good comments. A couple of more. Sorry, we’re going to keep moving here to the last few for time. Do you remember this talk on “The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation”? President Nelson’s video standing in the tunnel—we watched—in the construction of the temple, saying that we’re making this temple. We’re redoing the foundations of the temple so that in an earthquake, it will be the safest place to be, right, in the world. He said, “Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.” Then he said just like we need to redo the foundation, we need to think about our spiritual foundation. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures. What can you do to strengthen your foundation?

He said the foundation is not the temple. What’s the foundation? The foundation is Jesus Christ and that through temple worship, He will become our foundation. If you have received your endowment and gone to the temple again in the last month, you know that it’s just a beautiful experience that’s clear and Christ-centered. Go back and read this talk again after you’ve done that, and see President Nelson tell us what was coming.

It’s a beautiful, beautiful message about the temples.

Student: One of my favorite parts of this is at the very beginning. There’s a quote at the end of the paragraph. “Then, as we keep our covenants, He endows us with His healing, strengthening power. And oh, how we will need His power in the days ahead.” I got endowed when I was 18. I had been graduated from high school for, like, six months, and I didn’t serve a mission.

I just felt like I needed to go to the temple and have that experience. The temple has now become a place where I feel so safe and where I feel the closest that I ever have been to Heavenly Father. It has been such a blessing, and everybody used to judge me because they were like, “Haley, you’re so young. You don’t need to go through the temple yet. You’re fine. You’ve got time.”

I just remember bearing my testimony of just, “Look, this is the most important thing to me now, is my covenants that I have made in the temple, and there’s nothing that’s ever going to stand in the way of me being worthy to enter into the Lord’s house and to be there with Him.”

Student: President Nelson says something about if you don’t go to the temple or if you don’t have a testimony of the temple, to go more often. I was one of those people that didn’t quite have that firm testimony, so I decided, at least recently, to go more often. My testimony of temples grew, and my understanding of covenants and my understanding of how to gain power from those covenants. How much the Savior is involved in my life has increased exponentially because of the temple. I just have such a testimony of the power of temples and how much they bring us closer to the Savior.

Chad Webb: That’s so beautiful. “The Power of Spiritual Momentum.” This one recaps some of the things he had taught, and I just love this talk as well. “My dear brothers and sisters, with all the pleadings of my heart, I urge you to get on the covenant path and stay there. Experience the joy of repenting daily.”

We haven’t talked much about that one, but that’s one worth considering, how often he’s taught us about the joy of repentance. Learn about God and how He works. Remember, He’s invited you as young adults and the whole Church later to go into the appendix into the study guides of the scriptures and see the names of Christ and study all that they teach us about who He is and what He offers.

“Seek and expect miracles,” and “strive to end conflict in your life.” We haven’t talked about that one either, but about half this talk is on ending conflict in your life.

Student: For me, I am not a member of the Church, and I’m LGBTQ. This semester I decided to join the Welcome Committee, and it is focused on spiritual momentum. As I went through this semester, I’ve had the feeling to get baptized and started meeting with the missionaries. As I’ve been sitting here listening to every talk and every comment, this feeling just keeps growing and keeps growing.

For me, I feel like it’s amazing to me, this feeling that I’ve never felt before, but yet I’m feeling now by choosing to let God into my life, by choosing to read the scriptures, by choosing to start praying, to start doing this stuff. Even this semester, I’ve been more welcomed by others, because even though I’m not a member, I’ve had someone choose to allow me the opportunity to have a ministering companion and start doing stuff like that. It’s just amazing to me.

Chad Webb: Thank you. We are so glad you’re here. Thank you.

The last one, Overcome the World and Find Rest. “In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen.” I don’t know if you’re like me, but I read things like that and I think, “Wow, the parting of the Red Sea was pretty great. What’s going to be greater than that?”

But you keep reading; that’s not what he’s talking about, right? He keeps turning us back to changes in people’s hearts and the softening of our hearts. And then this pleading to “take charge of your own testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. Work for it. Nurture it. … Don’t pollute it,” right? That message first was given to you as young single adults in his one talk to young single adults of the Church.

Do you remember his brilliant talk “Choices for Eternity”? He taught us about labels and identity. It’s such an important talk to understand. We are children of God, children of the covenant, disciples of Jesus Christ, right? In that talk, he said one of the other truths you need to understand is the reality of your testimony, that it’s yours. It’s your agency. It’s your choice. You need to own it and protect it, right?

The things we water will grow. Feed your testimony. Nourish it. Protect it. He pled with the entire Church to do that in his talk again, right? You have been waiting patiently on the back row.

Student: OK. This talk, for me, really gave me a lot of peace when I was reviewing it because I realized that this is something that I really need in my life right now. One part that really stood out to me a lot is actually he quotes Matthew 11:28–30. It talks about how when we yoke ourselves with the Savior, then our burden becomes light. I just had the most overwhelming feeling that the reason that when we make covenants with the Lord, why that gives us such peace and such rest in our lives is because when we’re bonded with Him through our covenants, that gives the Savior the opportunity to lift those burdens off of our shoulders.

That’s how it makes it easier. It was just so comforting to me to know that with the covenants that I’ve made with the Lord in my life, that I can receive that by just letting Him in and remembering His commandments and choosing to follow those in and keep all of those. I don’t get to pick and choose which commandments that I want to follow, but it’s being committed to the Lord and being willing to let Him lift that burden off and help me because He’s already agreed to do that in the covenant.

Student: I just really love how he talks about miracles in this talk and the talk before. Seek and expect miracles, and then he says, “He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful.” Then as you make a priority to have Jesus Christ as your main testimony of your life, those miracles will happen, and parting the Red Sea and all these things, we will have those types of miracles in our lives if we turn our focus on Jesus Christ. That just shows to me that this prophet, he’s very personal, and the gospel is very personal, because those miracles can happen to us. I just love that.

Chad Webb: Thank you. Me too. It’s interesting how many of your comments have reflected President Nelson’s pointing us to the Savior, to what He offers us, to the blessings and promises that He offers us, which is a perfect way to end. I wanted to close by asking you these two questions. What has changed in your life because of the teachings of President Nelson? And how have these changes brought you closer to the Savior Jesus Christ?

Student: As you listen to his talk, he’s very Christ-centered, focused. Something I’ve come to love is no matter what I do in my life, if I have Christ in the center, things are always going to go well. I don’t need to worry.

Yes, there are going to be rainy days, but as long as I’m reaching out to Christ, He’s there to help me. I’ve seen that bless my life. Coming here in the institute and just learning about the Savior, I’ve learned that I just need to look on Him. I need to follow Him. If I do those things, He’s there to help, and He’s there to just calm the storms that are in my life.

Chad Webb: Thank you. Thank you, thank you for your testimonies. I just can’t imagine that President Nelson could do any more than he’s doing to point us to the Savior, to point us to the promises He’s made, to the blessings He offers us, to access His power in our lives, to have faith in Him, to see miracles, to receive revelation. Everything we need to follow the Savior to prepare for His coming is being taught to us by His prophet. I’m just so grateful for that.

This last question about “How have you drawn closer to Christ?” I think about all the prophets of scripture and how they teach me by their example and teaching who Jesus is and how to follow Him. I just want to bear testimony of living prophets and how grateful I am for them. In my role in Seminaries and Institutes, I have the opportunity to meet with President Nelson and the First Presidency and members of the Quorum of the Twelve.

You maybe have heard some people say, “Don’t ever meet your heroes. You’ll be disappointed.” It is just the opposite. They are everything you would want them to be and more. The men and women who lead The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are people of incredible kindness. They lift me every time I’m with them. They know Heavenly Father’s will, and they are fiercely determined to do it.

They are loyal to what they know Heavenly Father wants. They are people of faith and optimism and happiness. I just am so grateful to get to watch them and learn from them. I can bear my testimony that I know Jesus better because I know them. Someday President Nelson will—I hope he lives to be 150, but he probably won’t be here forever, and it will be someone else, and I’ll feel the same way about the next that the Lord chooses to be His prophet, because it’s more about the Lord and my faith in Jesus Christ, that He leads His Church and provides revelation through a prophet.

I’m so grateful for that. Sometimes we sing about Joseph Smith. I also have a burning testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and we sing “Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah.” Could I also just say “Praise to Jehovah for communing again with man. I am so grateful that He loves us enough to have a prophet on the earth through whom we receive revelation to guide us and to follow the Savior Jesus Christ.

I bear testimony of Heavenly Father, of His love for you, that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and that there is a prophet on the earth. I bear testimony of that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Students: Amen.