By Michelle Witte
*Sunday morning session
Elder Hales used thoughtful questions to teach church members the principle of faith when he spoke Sunday morning to an audience gathered in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
?How do we gain faith?? he asked. ?How do we gain evidence of our Savior whom we have not seen??
Answering his own questions, Elder Hales spoke of the prophets who have known that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world since the beginning of time. These prophets, in turn, wrote sacred records which taught men about the Lord.
?If we had lived in the days of these prophets of old, would we have believed on their words?? Elder Hales asked. ?Would we have had faith in the coming of our Savior??
These prophecies were fulfilled, Elder Hales said, but there are many prophecies that have still not been fulfilled.
?In this and other conferences, we hear living prophets prophesy and testify of Christ?s second coming,? Elder Hales said.
Elder Hales punctuated his remarks on the guidance of living prophets with another question.
?Are we walking in the darkness at noon-day, refusing to see by the light of modern prophecy?? he asked.
Elder Hales applied the conversion of Enos from the Book of Mormon to show how we can develop faith.
Enos first heard the gospel from his father, Elder Hales said. Enos then let the words sink into his heart and had a desire to find out if it the gospel was true. Prayer turned to obedience to God?s commandments for Enos to develop faith.
?Faith did not come quickly,? Elder Hales said. ?But faith did come. By the power of the Holy Ghost he did receive a witness for himself.?
Faith, once obtained, is strengthened by the Lord, said Elder Hales. This strengthening often happens through trials, as happened to an acquaintance of Elder Hales?.
This friend struggled to believe when she lost a grandchild to leukemia and a friend to cancer. This acquaintance wrote to Elder Hales, saying her friend who suffered from cancer ?tried everything humanly possible and six years ago found faith, but not an extra day.?
Elder Hales responded to these doubts with the admonition that faith is acquired through prayer.
?Seek faith, and may the blessings of God be with you,? Elder Hales wrote to her.
?At these times, only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement an bring us peace, hope and understanding. Only faith that He suffered for our sakes will give us the strength to endure to the end.?
?Seek a witness of this truth through the Holy Ghost in prayer, and then see your faith strengthened as you joyfully meet the challenges of this mortal life and prepare for life eternal.?
Elder Hales concluded his remarks with his a simple statement.
?Jesus did come, He did live and He will come again,? he said.