Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can unite and bring peace to people of all races and nationalities.

I testify that as we seek opportunities to feel of the Spirit and make efforts to reflect often upon those experiences, we will raise our own Ebenezers—our own stones of remembrance—that will enable us to see God’s hand in our past and will give us assurance and faith that He will provide for us in the future.

The key to conversion and gaining a testimony of the mission and glory of Jesus Christ and the restoration of his gospel is found in the Book of Mormon.

The Lord exhorted us to “judge not” (Matthew 7:1), but the allure of observable correlations can be challenging to ignore. The best response in many cases is to not draw causal conclusions based solely on correlated information.

If you desire to find the true spirit of Christmas and partake of the sweetness of it, let me make this suggestion to you. During the hurry of the festive occasion of this Christmas season, find time to turn your heart to God.

A BYU education does not focus solely on the acquisition of knowledge, as important as that is. As our mission statement makes clear, a BYU education focuses on “the full realization of human potential.”

I hope that when you are at the end of your days you will not have walked past opportunities that you should have taken or challenges you should have accepted. I hope you will draw each day upon your secular and spiritual knowledge to find your way in faith.

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.

Brothers and sisters, Heavenly Father did not send us to this earth without also sending the Holy Ghost to guide and protect us. One of the most important skills we must learn in this life is to receive and recognize the quiet whisperings of the Spirit.

But there is even more good news for those who question their ability to receive and recognize revelation despite their sincere but often seemingly ineffective efforts to do so. It is that you are likely doing better at receiving revelation than you think.

My friends, wherever you find yourself spiritually, I say to you in love and humility: I know that God lives and will answer your sincere prayers.

Receiving the gifts of God is a catalyst for change! A change of heart, a change of countenance, a change of desires, a new birth.

As we learn to better recognize and respond to the promptings of the Spirit, we will find answers to our prayers and have increased capacity to know how and whether those promptings are from the Holy Ghost.

This mortal experience can take a toll on our testimony and commitment to the gospel. It is precisely in these times of testing that we need to be intellectually honest with ourselves and consciously remember the authentic spiritual experiences we have had.

Reconciliation with God is at the core of the gospel. Reconciliation is, after all, the object of the Atonement wrought by the Son of God.

Indeed this is a time for reflection on activities of the past, and for resolution pertaining to the future. This evening is a real milestone—the first Sabbath day of new semester, of a new year, and of a new decade.

I have good memories of my BYU experience as a student—ward activities, teaching at the MTC, intramural football games, challenging business classes, and weekly devotionals here in the Marriott Center. But I didn’t really appreciate what BYU offered until I had graduated and left the campus.

As we learn to be always filled with the Light and Spirit of Christ, we will always be able to see the foolishness and the disaster of the self-centeredness of men.

True religion, the tie that binds us to God and to each other, not only seals our family relationships in eternity but also heightens our delight in those family experiences while in mortality.

The best way for a Latter-day Saint student to reconcile the competing values of faith and intellect is to be mentored by teachers and leaders whose daily lives, attitudes, and teaching authentically demonstrate how deep religious faith and demanding intellectual rigor are mutually reinforcing.

Our laws and legislation play an important teaching role in shaping our social and moral culture. We need every individual in society to take an active role in engaging in civic dialogue that helps frame laws and legislation that are fair for everyone.

With courage, conviction, and civility—drawing upon our noble heritage as Americans—each one of us can make a profound difference.

We will have trials, but let’s accept them as part of this earthly experience. Let’s recognize that our lives are a miracle, a miracle of love and of innumerable blessings.

President Joseph F. Smith had an understanding of the eternal nature of man that few others have ever possessed.

Look to the example of your president. He and his beloved companion, Sharon, have walked side by side with love in their hearts through all the years of their association. Make them your shining example.

It is essential that you live so you are entitled to receive new spiritual experiences. Stay strong and stay close to the Spirit so you might be blessed with future spiritual experiences that will strengthen and enrich your faith.

To all such of every generation, I call out, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come.”

Remembering the past is a natural response to situations that might make us sad. So when the hail and the mighty storm shall beat upon our vessels, we can remember those things on which we have built our foundations.

If you know—and remember—who you are and remember your divine birthright, you will date noble people, wear modest clothing, use clean language, surf worthy Web sites, listen to good music, watch enriching movies, keep the Word of Wisdom, and stay morally clean.

“We all count. Everyone matters. We have a name and it’s recorded and we need to remember that here. No one must get lost.”

As you take the sacrament each Sunday, you do it in remembrance of the Savior and the covenants you made at your baptism. You are recommitting to serve as His witness to the world. It is a time for you to remember your baptismal covenants and let them guide your lives each day so that you do not forget as John did.

Besides a sincere apology, repentance includes striving to forsake our shortcomings and weaknesses. We strive to keep our promises to do the dishes. We focus on not being grumpy and not snapping at our spouse. We endeavor to become better listeners and less judgmental. As we continually repent, we constantly try to improve ourselves.

To recognize sin we must not rely on the world but rely on our living prophet, President Hinckley; the scriptures; and our ecclesiastical leaders to show us the way.

As water is necessary to sustain physical life, so the Savior and His doctrines, principles, and ordinances are essential for eternal life.

As we desire to respond to the Savior’s invitation to come, we will have to leave behind our weaknesses and our sins.

A BYU education is not easy to accomplish. But you have retooled, refocused, and refined yourselves by experiencing a university that blends secular and spiritual truths. Congratulations, Cougars.

If we are prepared for His coming—if we are looking for it—that day will be a great time of reunion and rejoicing. Make your choice, brothers and sisters, to use your time in the cause that matters most—the one that leads to the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

Questions—particularly questions that arise about the gospel—can be especially trying. Questions are inherently born of uncertainty, and we as humans are vehemently opposed to uncertainty. We dislike the feeling of not knowing because we feel vulnerable. Yet this vulnerability can actually be a sacred space.

I know that God lives and that revelation to his children is a reality. I pray that we will be worthy and willing, and that he will bless us to grow in this principle of revelation.

I believe that if we will approach all our meetings with a desire to become one with the Holy Spirit, our feelings of the Spirit will dictate our actions, and without prior thought or instruction we will act and speak accordingly.

Where is the right place? Who is the right person? When is the right time? Fortunately, President Hinckley and others have given us inspired counsel concerning these questions, and more than 60 years of research in the social sciences adds another witness to their counsel.

What messages are we sending? How are they being received? When people see us coming, do they gravitate to us or do they scatter in a great escape? I invite each of us to be a powerful influence for good.

Without ever minimizing the seriousness of some of our mistakes, I want to give to you today the message that we can be washed and pronounced clean if we will but honor the Lamb of God.

If we have true faith in our Redeemer, we do something about it, because we have real intent.

Discusses the establishment of Zion on the American Continent. The descendants of Joseph, through the lineage of Lehi, will be the builders of Zion with the assistance of the Gentiles. Several Book of Mormon scriptures show the role of the Lamanites in building Zion.