“Patience is a constant companion of self-discipline.”

Brothers and sisters, I salute you for the many small charitable acts you do that mean so much to others. I hope this Relief Society sesquicentennial year will be the time when you decide your life will be something extraordinary.

“At times when I feel overwhelmed or alone, unsure or defeated, I remember that I have a Savior who understands and loves me. His atonement was personal; it was for me. He knows. He understands.”

“Shortcuts only deflect us from the narrow trail. Travel light, be kind to everyone, hear with your heart when someone needs you.”

I’m concerned that so often the Saints inadvertently label others in our ward families as “them,” somehow not like “us.”

Learning how to receive is an antidote to pride. King Benjamin asked, “Are we not all beggars?” The answer is yes. He continued, “Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have?” Again the answer is yes.

Will you try to live tomorrow a perfect day? And if you fail to do so, then try again the next day. Then we truly make progress in carrying out one aspect of the mission of the Church, which is the mission of every individual member of the Church, namely, “to perfect the Saints.”

Dr. Brent James examines the condition of health care in America while discussing what truly determines health. His findings may surprise you.

Our service to God’s children is a visible sign of our love for Him. As we willingly serve others, we become a conduit through which His love flows to touch the lives of everyone around us.

The realities of living in our limited, imperfect world mean that we have no choice but to make do with an approximation—to admit and accept imperfection.

I believe that our Father in Heaven expects us to develop this unity and cultivate our diverse talents and abilities so that we can be counted among the “few” servants in the allegory of the olive trees charged with pruning and edifying His vineyard (Jacob 5:70). He has spared the vineyard, as well as all of us, for this sacred purpose.

As sons and daughters of God, each one of us has the ability and the obligation to testify and defend the work of the Lord. I beg you not to lean away or drop your voice in these situations.

We should acknowledge that our cell phones and laptops carry no secret powers that will push us toward one side or the other of the war that began in heaven; they are simply tools that amplify the choices we make through our agency.

In both our physical and digital worlds, we should learn to create proximity and immediacy rather than distance and division. My experiences in the arts have taught me over and over that our bodies matter一here and now一and in the eternities.

If learning scientific theories puts your faith in jeopardy, choose your faith! Choose your faith until you can better understand the science—or until science can provide better explanations. I firmly believe that both truths—religious and scientific—exist in harmony.

You, my young brothers and sisters, and you who teach them, have an obligation to participate fully in this wonderful and sometimes tumultuous time of preparation. We simply cannot afford to be anchored to anything less consequential than the saving rock of our Redeemer.

The scriptures themselves are our best sources on learning and teaching—the Savior being the perfect model of a learner/teacher.

I humbly pray that you will desire more earnestly to be worthy of the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that you may grow in the ability to recognize His promptings, that you may “be still and know” (D&C 101:16) the Father and the Son through the Holy Ghost, and that you will express gratitude for Him and His guidance, for to express gratitude invites more of the Spirit.

“Under the influence of his spirit our sympathies and love for our eternal companion will deepen, and we will come to know a happiness and contentment in marriage that the world will never know.”

By using our agency to change our behavior, we empower the Spirit to change our hearts. We must truthfully identify those things currently keeping us from following the Savior as fully as we should and, unlike the young rich man, be willing to put those things on the altar of sacrifice.

Looking back upon journal entries from my freshman days at BYU, I found what I had written to sum up my year of learning: “An unconfident man will say he has no talent. A foolish man will believe him.” This idea has made a strong impression upon me.

To what should you be attached so that you will be safe? What is your dock, your mooring, your anchor? It is your relationship with the Savior Jesus Christ.

This cycle of learning, doing, and becoming is literally going on in some micro or miniature form every day of our lives. That’s how we’ve become who we are today.

When we see each other as daughters and sons of our Heavenly Father, it changes us. Instead we begin to see each other as brothers and sisters with the singular purpose of striving to become ready to return to live with our Heavenly Father.

“I testify that if you will pause and think about the things you really want to achieve in the future and then begin doing the things that are consistent with that desire every day, you will achieve that desired result.”

The greatest impact comes as we move forward with faith—keeping our covenants in order to receive His direction and His power, submitting to His will, and letting God prevail.

How could we become like the Savior if we did not have agency to make those choices? By using our agency to choose the right, we begin to put on the divine nature—to pattern our lives after His. We find peace, happiness, and freedom as we make right choices.

I have come to realize that as we come unto Christ, He follows a pattern of instruction to provide inspiration and spiritual strength. He teaches eternal truths, extends invitations to act, and promises blessings to those who act in faith to fulfill His invitations.

We have been given much; therefore we must give of ourselves and incorporate and strengthen faith, family, and friendships. Doing so can ensure happiness and peace in this life and help us begin to understand, in part, what life will be like in our heavenly home.

We can learn a lesson from the Israelites in the wilderness. If a prophet of God tells us we can look upon the brazen serpent and be healed, then we can look upon the brazen serpent and be healed. If an apostle of God tells us we can obtain and keep the Spirit of the Lord by following four simple points, then we should believe it!

Obviously we cannot completely control the events that come at us daily, but we can indeed control the worthwhileness of those events. We worship an omniscient God and know that “all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.”

“To be a good neighbor is to wonder how your words and actions will impact others rather than to wonder how you will be impacted. This is not to say that we should abandon personal safety or exhaust ourselves in unhealthy ways. Instead, we should build the faith to understand that when we are unselfish, our needs will also be taken care of.”

Surely, returning to our loving Father is the final purpose of our attempts to order our lives, that in full and complete wholeness, sanctified through the blood of the Lamb, we might “dwell in the presence of God and his Christ.”

How important is each of the dimensions of the commandment to love God with all our heart, might, mind and strength! Loving and trusting God in our hearts and minds may require all of our might and strength, but doing so will allow us, in time, to rejoice.

What a blessing it is to be living in a day when we are privileged to have such “a wonderful flood of light” by which we may live. I testify to you of the truthfulness of the restored gospel and that we are led by a living prophet of God.

I knew I was being led by the Spirit because I kept waiting for the feeling of terror that usually accompanies an idea that is not correct. However, I felt peace and the prompting to continue forward with the project.