Parents – Leaders – and especially you wonderful young women!
As Latter-day Saints we have been told that the purpose of the Church of Jesus Christ is to bring all unto Christ. Thus all that we do in the Church – programs, events and service opportunities are, and should be intended to assist us too achieve that great end.
Elder Bednar – of the quorum of the twelve
“Coming unto Christ is not a single event with a fixed point of beginning or ending; rather, it is a process that develops and deepens during a lifetime. As an initial step in the process, we certainly must obtain knowledge and learn about Jesus and His life, teachings, and ministry. But truly coming unto Him also requires consistent obedience and striving to become like Jesus in our thoughts, motives, communications, and actions.”
Indeed LTC is one of many events on your paths to exaltation. An event, which can and should, help you to feel the spirit and to come closer to the Savior Jesus Christ.
To barrow an analogy from the late Neal A. Maxwell – “You young women are approaching one of the hinge points” or cross roads of your life.
‘The ending of one era and the beginning of another, each with its blessings and its challenges. If you are prepared, you shall neither fear nor fail in your (preparations to Come unto Christ – and receive the blessings of a righteous daughter of God.)
One of the greatest lesson we can learn is one that we have all sang many times in primary – I am a Child of God. That you are literally the offspring of God the Eternal Father. He knows you individually by name and loves you with all of his heart. Because of this love – you can be assured that He will do everything within His power to make sure you have the opportunities, blessing and guidance necessary to know that He Lives and will be there in your times of need.
The T in LTC stands for training – training to learn the ways of God, the feeling of a testimony that He lives and Jesus is the Christ. To learn and develop faith of the atoning sacrifice of the Savior Jesus Christ. To learn and experience the essential principles and ordinances of the gospel.
Moses 1: 39 – (we’ve heard many times) we learn of God’s work
For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
This is Him goal and purpose for us – to return to live with Him as eternal families.
D&C 11: 20 – we learn our work
Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength.
As Elder Bednar stated -
“But truly coming unto Him also requires consistent obedience and striving to become like Jesus in our thoughts, motives, communications, and actions.”
Our work is to be obedient and do it with - all our might, mind and strength. It should be our top priority – it’s the key to knowing the Savior.
LTC was started as an opportunity to associate with your friends and peers in a spiritual setting. Not only will you have a lot of fun, but you will be able to bear and hear testimonies from each other. Pray and study the scriptures as they relate to your lives and opportunities that will be yours.
Within the next few years, each of you will make many decisions that will affect you for eternity. Whom and where you will marry? – Your education needs – the prospects of a family and having the necessities of life.
Preparing for such decisions requires the ability to receive answers to your prayers and the ability to recognize the gift of the Holy Ghost in our lives. As you do so those decisions will still be difficult or challenging – but you can proceed with the assurance that the Lord is aware of you and your needs. These spiritual experiences or events can and should be building blocks that will help you to have a firm foundation in making those decisions. But, these spiritual experiences by themselves aren’t enough – each of us must continually strive to have the Holy Ghost as our constant companion.
Elder Eyring -
“Receiving the Holy Ghost takes faith in our Heavenly Father and in His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. A memory of a great spiritual experience some time ago, where you had confirmed to you that truth, won’t be sufficient. You will need to be sure of your faith in the moment of crisis, which may come at any time day or night, when you plead for the influence of the Spirit. You must then be unshaken in your confidence that God lives, that He hears your cry for help, and that the resurrected Savior will do for you what He promised to do for His servants in His mortal ministry.”
John 15:26 “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.”
This is why each of us must learn or be trained by the spirit to live by the principles and ordinances of the Gospel.
4th Article of Faith
We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (this includes the knowledge that He lives – knows and loves each of us – and is concerned about our needs) second, repentance (and as we make mistakes- that we don’t lose hope knowing that it is for us the Atonement was made- the Savior willingly took upon Himself our sins to make it possible that we could repent and be whole); third, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins;(Baptism is an ordinance – this is followed by other ordinances – many in the Temple which should be our goal) fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost (the right to have it as our constant companion, to give us direct and protection as we go through life).
Now is a wonderful time of your lives – prophets of God have told us over and over that you are the greatest generation of young women that has ever lived on the earth. But, because of that, Satan is working harder than ever to shake your confidence and trying to get you to compromise your faith, virtue and testimony of this great work.
I love the theme for the YM & YW this year –
Section 121 -123 of the D&C were given during, the hardest time in the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith
45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood (gospel) shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
What a great promise – if we have charity and virtue, our confidence will be strong in the presence of God and the doctrines and principles of the gospel shall flow unto our souls from heaven. Earlier in this same section it refers to the Almighty pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints or those that are faithful. I love prospect of having knowledge poured down from heaven.
This should be our goal – this should be the purpose of this and all programs or events in the Church. To receive knowledge from Heaven that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that He loves each of us individually. That the Church of Jesus Christ is on the earth – that we have a living prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. And that in reality God the Father and His son Jesus Christ appeared to the boy prophet Joseph Smith.
Of this, I testify and challenge you to do everything in your power to know and live.
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