My beloved brothers and sisters, it is an honor and privilege to be at BYU-Idaho with you today. For me this is a special place because it is where my wife first attended college and where I had the joy of dating her.
Today, I would like to speak to you about the importance of the living reality and centrality of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His voice in your life. I desire to testify of this to you in three ways.
First, I testify that His rescuing hand is real and ever-present to bless you.
You are likely familiar with this passage from Isaiah:
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”[1]
This is a promise from God to you. He is assuring you that regardless of the challenge or situation you may find yourself, He will always be with you, to strengthen and uphold you. He specifically says, “be not dismayed,” or you might say, distressed or alarmed. However, if you look at the Hebrew word from which dismayed was translated, you will find the word implies something more dynamic. More like: do not panic or lose your center, and start looking about or scanning around for help or answers everywhere or beyond God.
Sound familiar? Is this not, in some degree, the trap from online media that engulfs many today? People thumbing through feeds at midnight, chasing one more video, one more reel, seeking relief, or answers on how to be or act. Elder Quentin L. Cook recently warned: “Avoid dark internet rabbit holes and doomscrolling. Fill your life with positive, righteous ideas.”[2] Isaiah said
Today’s technology infrastructure can, however, be a powerful instrument in God’s work to strengthen and uphold you. Two months ago, a person who is not a member of our church, Michael Harris, an expert skier, was buried alive in an avalanche at a place called Stevens Pass, Washington. Unfortunately, that day, he was skiing alone and did not have a beacon signaling device on him. Alone and entombed, he did the only thing he could think of that might help him. He prayed, saying: “Heavenly Father, I am in a bad way. I need help, and I think you’re the only one that can give it to me. I don’t know how you could do this, but I need you to tell someone where I am and how to get to me.”
That “someone” was his wife, Penny. She had been tracking her husband on and off that morning on her iPhone. When she noticed that the tracking dot was no longer moving, and that he had stopped answering her texts, she sensed something was wrong. She immediately drove one hour up to the pinned location, and with the help of the ski patrol, located exactly where her husband was. They dug him out, and saved his life. He had been buried for four hours. While he had a broken leg and suffered some lung damage, he suffered no frostbite and had a clear air passage and required no CPR.[3]
Never lose hope. The Lord’s is a saving and rescuing hand. Not only with any physical avalanches that may bury you, but also, critically, with any spiritual avalanches that may or have occurred in your life.
I will always remember a humbling experience of mine. I was at a stake conference assignment in Arizona. I needed to get a haircut. I had no idea where to go, so I went to my Yelp app. It pointed me to Walmart. I told myself, “I am not going to Walmart for a haircut.” So, I looked for the closest brand name salon and went there. But as I got out of my car, the Spirit whispered, “You are to go to Walmart.” I said, “I do not want to go to Walmart.” But I got in my car and drove to Walmart.
When I sat down in the chair, a young woman barber asked me how I would like my haircut. Immediately, my fear of going to Walmart was realized. She had no idea how to use scissors and I got educated that day on what a number 2, 3, or 4 razor cut was. As she began she asked why I was in there. I told her I was on an assignment for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She said that she used to be a member of the Church. After talking for a while, I found out that she was still a member but did not feel worthy to be part of the Church. She told me she actually was married to a returned missionary who wanted to be sealed to her in the temple. We then talked about things she might change in her life that would give her a desire to be sealed to her husband. I promised I would come back and perform that temple sealing.
Well, over a year later, her bishop called me and asked if I would do just that. I did, but right before the sealing, she showed me a page from her journal—something written down the night before I met her. It was a prayer that simply said, “Please, God, send me someone who can tell me what to do.”
The Savior is close by. He is able to rescue and redeem you from any danger, mistake, uncertainty, or betrayal you may be feeling or facing, whether that be physical or spiritual. As the scriptures declare: “with God nothing shall be impossible.”[4] If He can prompt an unknowing messenger to Walmart via an app, He can send into your life whatever you need. Fear not, no matter where you may be standing, sitting, or even where you may be buried—you can reach and draw upon His presence in your life.
Second, I testify that the enduring peace and protection you need can come only by following God’s voice, whose voice the adversary aims to usurp.
Today there are powerful forces at work to deny, minimize, and oppose God’s work to turn you away from the redemption and rescue of what I just spoke about, as well as to divert you from progressing towards your full potential.
God opened this dispensation by introducing the Savior with the admonishment to “Hear Him!” Today’s prophetic call continually reaffirms this necessity. We are being prophetically warned that we need to embrace and hear the voice of the Holy Ghost, God’s voice, in our day-to-day life. Church President Dallin H. Oaks recently said:
“You live in a season in which the adversary has become so effective at disguising truth that if you don’t have the Holy Ghost, you will be deceived. Many obstacles lie ahead. The distractions will be many.”[5]
The adversary works non-stop to decoy your mind from the voice of God through subtle cunning. I believe it is significant that the Book of Mormon informs us that the rising generation at the time of Alma fell away from the Church, in part, because they refused to “call upon the Lord their God” being “deceive[d]” by the voice of “flattering” words.[6]
Now ask yourself:
“How many flattering words or voices of worldly philosophers are populating and guiding my thoughts?”
“Am I letting worldly noise keeping me from listening to or calling upon God?”
Why is this important? Because you simply cannot reach your highest potential by trusting in your own genius or in any man-made philosophy or gods. Pride is always the enemy of potential.
This has been God’s warning from the beginning. You may recall that God commanded Adam and Eve to offer a sacrifice of the firstlings of their flock. An angel explained this offering was symbolic of the Savior’s Atonement, without which Adam and Eve could not be redeemed nor receive the blessings of immortality, eternal life, and joy.[7] In short, from the beginning, God taught that everything we need to triumph in life depends on coming unto the Savior.
Abel hearkened to the voice of God and offered the sacrifice God commanded, recognizing the Atonement of Christ as the only pathway to salvation. Cain also made an offering, but his was not in response to the voice of God, but of Satan. Satan persuaded Cain to bring the fruit of the ground, which God rejected.[8]
Make no mistake, Cain’s offering took real labor. Tilling, planting, tending, and harvesting are hard work. But the labor was on his terms, not the Lord’s. Cain’s offering stripped away the intent of the sacrifice, which was to point the worshipper to the Savior and His Atonement. In the end, through the deception of a misplaced offering, Cain lost everything.
This is how Satan works. He deals in half-truths, encouraging us to do something that may look good and be demanding, but is always done to draw us away from the power and protection of God's covenants and ordinances.
Once more, I invite you to ask certain questions of yourself.
First: “How much of my life decisions are being guided by the voice of God, and how much comes from the adversary or self?”
Second: “What do my life offerings testify to—that of Jesus Christ as Savior, or that of the trappings of the world?”
You may also ask: “How can I better hear Him?” I am struck by something said by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland not long before he passed away. He shared that he had a profound near-death experience and was told to take this lesson back to the Church: “Pray more than you pray!” He then added:
“I thought I prayed all the time, more or less. But the lesson was, ‘Pray more than you pray.’ However much you’ve prayed, pray more. And then in however many places you’ve prayed, pray in more places. However many times during the day you pray, pray more times in the day.”[9]
As you pray always, the scriptures declare you will be enabled to “conquer Satan,” and have the Spirit “pour[ed] out” upon you and obtain blessings “even more than if you should obtain treasures of the earth.”[10]
Third, I testify that though obstacles and even landmines lie on the path to Christ, do not despair—He can and will empower you to endure and become your highest self as you follow Him.
The call upon your soul to do God’s will is a call to live a life that does not allow anything to interfere with bringing the full power of the Atonement of Christ into your life. Doing His will will always bring you essential power only available through covenants and ordinances within the temple. But listen carefully: This commitment to the Savior may require living the principle of enduring to the end in ways you never imagined.
I asked some friends what message they might share with you today, if they were speaking. One replied, asking:
“What would you tell your own kids and grandkids if all the safety nets disappeared tomorrow? Today, trillions of dollars are being thrown into new infrastructure like artificial intelligence that will make many of their college degrees and associated jobs obsolete. These are their real fears. What do you say to this?”
As I reflected upon that question, I was struck how Lehi, a prophet of God, faithfully and obediently left his home and possessions to follow the Lord’s command to take his family into the wilderness with a promise that if they kept the commandments they would “prosper” and be led to a “land of promise.”[11] On this road, was Lehi shielded from unexpected affliction, pain, and suffering? Far from it. In his journey there was real hardship—when Nephi’s steel bow broke, the group faced starvation. The challenge was so great that Lehi began to murmur.
Broken bows happen. For you, they may look like disruptive AI, pandemics, or economic collapse. If these come as you strive to do everything the Lord requires, you, too, may be tempted to murmur. Remember how Lehi endured. He humbled himself before God, looked upon the compass God had given him, and followed His voice reflected there. The Lord did not send food but His word. The lesson is simple and powerful: Despite any apparent obstacles, by listening to and following His voice, you, like Lehi, can reach your promised land.
Hold dear to this apostolic promise from Elder David A. Bednar: “Each of [you], with the Lord’s grace and mercy, can believe all things, hope all things and endure valiantly all things.”[12]
There is no need to let the disruptions encountered along your life journey overtake you. He is in the fire with you and will see you through it as you hear Him. As Nephi implored, “Receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye shall do.”[13]
The challenge to endure through difficult roadblocks is not the only challenge you will need to surmount. The other great challenge is to become your highest self. President Oaks has said: “The gospel challenges us to be ‘converted,’ which requires us to do and to become … This is achieved not just by doing what is right, but by doing it for the right reason—for the pure love of Christ … [which] is not an act but a condition or state of being.”[14]
Paul describes this as coming to the “mind of Christ.”[15] Jesus, Himself, asked: “Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be?” He then answered: “Verily I say unto you, even as I am.”[16]
How do we become as He is? We need to walk His covenant path and take upon ourselves the ordinances and covenants found in His house. Within that, I suggest one of the most important things you will need to do is His work given you by the promptings of the Holy Ghost. This will take courage, as these promptings may not be convenient or clearly understood in the moment, and will ultimately lead you to His ministry to the lost, the least, and the last.
I will never forget, while engaged in a hurricane clean-up, when one person in my group was prompted to immediately go to a small town of a few hundred people. When we arrived there we saw a large group of people lined up outside the town’s only building. Inside sitting on a chair by herself, was a young woman in tears. She was the first person in this town to ever graduate from college and had returned to help others achieve GED diplomas. She said something to the effect, “I don’t have anything to give them. Everything has been wiped out and everybody is looking to me to solve it.” We explained that though our Church we could get her supplies and relief. She thanked us, and then said: “I didn’t know anybody knew I was alive.” The truth was we didn’t, but God did, and because we hearkened to the whisper of the Spirit, lives were blessed. The courage you must have in the work of Christ is the courage to forsake inconvenience and never to ignore a prompting of the Spirit. Ask yourself, “How well do I trust and act upon God’s quiet promptings to go where He wants me to go? Would God have me increase my faith in this regard?”
Conclusion
To conclude, I testify that an essential work of God is less a given calling you have to fulfill and more a Spirit-led ministry to accomplish. God’s invitation for you is to Hear Him! Turn away from any distracting voice or busyness that keeps you from calling upon Him for any direction you may need. His message to you, in this very moment, is: “Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”[17] Moreover, He has promised that He is at your door knocking to be let in.[18]
I declare my witness that I know God lives and that His touch is real. In my freshman year at BYU, on a wintry November afternoon, I left my dorm to visit someone in a Salt Lake hospital. As I waited at the elevator, I heard a voice say, “Go back to your room and pray for safety.” I looked around—no one was there. The voice came again, clearly: “Go back to your room and pray for safety.” I obeyed.
Thirty-five minutes later, driving over the point of the mountain into SLC, I was speeding when a slower car changed lanes in front of me. I slammed on my brakes, not realizing I was on black ice. My car spun 360 degrees and faced oncoming traffic. I tried to steer but had no traction. A car sped toward me, and I thought, “In two seconds you will be dead.” In that moment, two hands from the other side of the veil took control and guided my car safely to the side of the road.
I know that His voice and His hands are ever present in your world and mine today. The message of God, from the beginning, is that because of our Savior’s Atonement, all can be made whole, all can be saved, all will be raised, and you never need to lose hope. I pray that you will hear His voice and that you will come in the full measure of your soul unto Christ. Do not let yourself be deceived or distracted by the voice of this world. The voice of God is the only voice that will uphold and lead you to salvation and eternal joy. As you sit here today, I would hope you would not see yourself simply as a student attending college, but as a beloved son or daughter of God. And I believe God might ask this question of you: “What is the power you have?” And then He would say, “You have the power to astonish this world as you come unto Christ and hear Him.” My prayer is that you may hear this plea of my heart. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Isaiah 41:10
[2] Quentin L. Cook, “Sacred Scriptures—the Foundations of Faith,” Liahona, Oct. 2024, 113
[3] Carly Dykes, “Stevens Pass avalanche: WA skier survives four hours under snow,” Seattle Times, Mar. 9, 2026
[4] Luke 1:37
[5] Dallin H. Oaks, “Coming Closer to Christ,” Brigham Young University devotional, Feb. 10, 2026, speeches.byu.edu
[6] Mosiah 26:4-6
[7] Moses 5:4-8
[8] Moses 5:18-21
[9] “Pray more than you pray! Elder Jeffery R Holland| Discovery Day| Mar2025,” posted Mar. 10, 2025, by Now is the Time, YouTube
[10] Doctrine and Covenants 10:5; 19:38
[11] 1 Nephi 2:20
[12] David A. Bednar, “All Who Have Endured Valiantly,” Liahona, Apr. 2026
[13] 2 Nephi 32:5
[14] Dallin H. Oaks, Learning the Great Fundamentals, Deseret Book Company, 2026, 9–10
[15] 1 Corinthians 2:16
[16] 3 Nephi 27:27
[17] Doctrine and Covenants 4:7
[18] Revelation 3:20