During the Saturday evening session of the 194th Semiannual General Conference, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met in the Conference Center to learn of repentance, consecration and the relevance of the Book of Mormon.
Elder Gerrit W. Gong and Elder David A. Bednar from the Quorum of the Twelve spoke, bookending the session. Other speakers included Sister Kristin M. Yee, Elder Kyle S. McKay of the Seventy and Elder Jorge M. Alvarado of the Seventy.
Elder Gong started the conference speaking about holiness to the Lord in our everyday lives.
“Holiness to the Lord makes daily living sacred,” he said. “Holiness to the Lord in the House of the Lord prepares us to live with God our Father, a Man of Holiness.”
He gave several examples of missionaries, mothers and others who found strength and comfort in their everyday consecrated efforts to be closer to Jesus Christ. Each person who strove to make their daily living a bit holier was able to see their relationship with Christ grow. Consecrating efforts to live in holiness, he said, often come when we are in the God's temple.
“With nine sacred words, our temples invite and proclaim: 'Holiness to the Lord. The house of the Lord,'” he said.
Sister Yee, second counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, focused her remarks on the joy of repentance. She shared a story about a mistake she made while working on a commissioned painting of Jesus Christ. At first she was distraught over the mistake, but then she was able to see God’s merciful hand help her to fix the painting. She related her experience to the repentance process.
“Repenting allows us to feel God’s love, and to know and love Him in ways we would never otherwise know,” she said. “There is such relief and hope in knowing that we can try again.”
God’s mercy and forgiveness are available to each of us as we continually repent and strive to heed the promptings He sends us. His mercy extends to all of our shortcomings, Sister Yee said.
“Just as we cannot comprehend the agony and depth of Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross, so we cannot measure the bounds nor fathom the depths of His divine forgiveness, mercy and love,” she said. “Real repentance, real change may require repeated attempts, but there is something refining and holy in such striving.”
Elder McKay related repentance to some of Joseph Smith’s experiences asking for forgiveness and direction. When we search for Christ’s mercy, He extends it to us and we are brought closer to Him, Elder McKay said.
“As we come unto Christ, He will not only forgive our sins, but He will also change our very nature so that we have no more disposition to do evil,” he said.
Following the session’s theme, Elder Alvarado further discussed embracing Christ's gift of repentance.
“Let us now, no matter which part of the covenant path we are on, focus on the redemptive power of Jesus Christ and on Heavenly Father’s desire for us to return to Him,” he said.
The concluding speaker, Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve, talked about how the Book of Mormon was written for this day and age. Because of that, we should be aware of the lessons that the major authors were trying to teach us, he said.
“At the individual level, each of us must beware of pride, lest we become as the Nephites of old,” he said.
Elder Bednar recounted several instances in the scriptures where people pridefully turned away from God and were not able to receive His blessings. He also recounted times when people in the scriptures humbled themselves, obeyed God’s will and were blessed. He ended by reminding us of the promised blessings that come through reading the Book of Mormon.
“As we study and ponder this inspired record,” he said, “we will be blessed with eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to comprehend and hearts to understand the lessons we should learn to 'beware of pride, lest we should enter into temptation.'”
The Hirst family who was visiting from England to attend the Saturday evening session of conference shared some of their major takeaways from the session. Emily Hirst said she liked the focus on the Atonement.
“They reshaped repentance in this session,” she said. “It was all about how it’s a gift for us and how it helps us. They didn’t speak as much about sin as they spoke about healing.”
Kaylee Genzer, another member in attendance, talked about the intentionality mentioned in Elder Gong’s talk.
“They talked a lot about choosing Christ,” she said. “You have to choose him — it’s a choice every single day.”
Music for the session was provided by a missionary choir composed of missionaries from several missions in the Utah area.