REXBURG — BYU-Idaho students, staff and faculty piled into the BYU-Idaho Center for a special devotional Sunday night with Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his wife Sister Ruth Renlund.
Sister Renlund was the first to speak. Her remarks focused on the importance of making sacrifices to show Heavenly Father sincere love. She told a story from the life of her second-great-grandmother, Nettie Marie Olson. Sister Renlund shared that at 20 years old, Nettie began the journey from her home country of Oslo, Norway to the Salt Lake Valley with only one pair of shoes on her feet.
Before Nettie had walked 300 miles, she had worn the shoes off her feet. According to Sister Renlund, Nettie offered to trade a fellow traveler, who had several pairs of shoes, her spare dress for one pair of shoes. The woman refused.
Despite the challenge of walking thousands of miles in only her stockings, Nettie would often say that it was worth it. As she finished her message, Sister Renlund posed the question, “What are you willing to sacrifice to have power sufficient to produce faith that is necessary for salvation?” and offered this advice.
“My dear young friends, as you make choices for now and your future, the greatest choice you can make is to choose Christ and his gospel and all the glorious truth it contains. Choose to make the necessary sacrifices to become someone who has faith with staying power, holy and worthy for salvation. It is worth it.”
In his talk titled, “Stronger and Closer Connection to God through Multiple Covenants,” Elder Renlund likened our relationship with Heavenly Father to chemical bonds.
“Now, we may ask, ‘Why are multiple covenants needed?’ It’s because the multiple covenants are not only sequential but are also additive, and even synergistic in our relationship with God,” Elder Renlund said. “Each covenant adds a bond, drawing us closer to and strengthening our connection to God.”
Elder Renlund taught that with each covenant we make, our bond with Heavenly Father grows stronger and the distance between ourselves and God diminishes.
As he closed his remarks, Elder Renlund reminded students to remember King Benjamin’s words found in the Book of Mosiah in The Book of Mormon.
“To avoid falling from grace and departing from the Living God, we’re wise to remember and heed these words from King Benjamin, ‘I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.’”