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We live and teach among a wide variety of individual personalities, experiences, cultures, languages, interests, and needs. Only the Spirit can compensate for such differences. The Lord has told us that “the sword of the Spirit... is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17); it can facilitate communication and penetrate as nothing else. Thus, holy scripture and the words of living prophets occupy a privileged position; they are the key to teaching by the Spirit so that we communicate in what the Prophet Joseph Smith called “the language of inspiration.”
I wish to talk about your unfinished journey. It is the journey of journeys and will be described quite differently this Easter night. It is an arduous journey. The trek awaits—whether one is rich or poor, short or tall, thin or fat, black or white or brown, old or young, shy or bold, married or single, a prodigal or an ever faithful.
I grew up in California, in the Bay Area, from a family made up of stalwart pioneers on one side and fresh converts on the other. Once winning a ski trip for perfect early morning seminary attendance, I was a model young woman in a ward that loved and nurtured me and I loved them. But no one knew I didn’t really fit.
From the Maxwell Children: Elder Maxwell “was present in the upper room of the temple that early June day in 1978 when all the General Authorities gathered to receive the revelation and decision from President Spencer W. Kimball making it possible for all worthy male members to be ordained to the priesthood.” Elder Maxwell recounted, “I wept with joy that day. The handkerchief I wiped my tears with I took home and told my wife not to wash it.
Prophets and apostles are clear about the ultimate goal of the Church’s genealogical efforts: to build one family tree where all people who can be identified are brought into one place. The project to preserve records and make them accessible will continue unabated for decades to come.
With all of you, I express my admiration to these wonderful men who are being released and whose status is being adjusted. They were exemplary at the time of their calls; they are even more so today. They are portable sermons for us all. My sermon was essentially prepared in June. It is for myself as well as for the members of the Church.
Thank you to those who participated in the third year of the Book of Mormon Art Contest! The Book of Mormon Art Contest was created in 2022 to inspire students and strengthen their testimonies in the Book of Mormon, and to represent more people and stories from the ancient text in the Book of Mormon Art Catalog.
We are creatures of time. We inherit its fruits, both sweet and bitter. We have the advantages our forebears have bequeathed us, from aspirin to the 40-hour work week, to whatever political and religious freedoms we enjoy. Examples like those enhance our modern possibilities for meaningful, freely chosen action.
This is a special time. I’m not sure it’s fair to you who are young beneficiaries of the work done two hundred years ago that you should be expected to appreciate all of it. I should like to try to weigh in on the scales for your consideration. Some of the reasons of that is in fact a very, very special blessing.
“And now, behold, I say unto you, my servant James [Covel], I have looked upon thy works and I know thee. . . . I have prepared thee for a greater work” (Doctrine and Covenants 39:7, 11). . . . “And [James Covel] received the word with gladness, but straightway Satan tempted him; and the fear of persecution and the cares of the world caused him to reject the word.” (Doctrine and Covenants 40:2)
BYU’s Academic Vice President Justin Collings has appointed Steven Harper as a Maxwell Institute Faculty Fellow, filling one of the Institute’s two-year rotating fellowships. His term will begin in September 2025.
In a world of competing voices, discerning the Lord’s voice can feel more difficult than ever. But Rosalynde Welch, associate director of BYU’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute, says one book of scripture is equipped to help: the Doctrine and Covenants.
