Honest Prayer
BYU-Idaho Devotional | June 4, 2024
Sister Laurel McConkie
As the new kid on the first day of 7th grade, I sat alone on some stairs, watching all of the other students socialize. A 12-year-old boy, along with his best friend, came to sit beside me. “You’re new,” he said. “My name is James McConkie. What’s your name?”
I was so thankful to have a new friend. But because my only interactions with that James McConkie were in public places over the next six school years, I didn’t get to know him very well. School hallways, big groups of friends, math class, sporting events. Always polite to each other, we still barely knew each other. When he served his two-year mission, I wanted to write him a letter but never had the courage.
After his mission, he asked me out on our first date. We dated for five months, then he broke up with me, then later we got back together, right before my mission. For 18 months, he sent me a weekly letter in Argentina. On paper, using an envelope and stamp and everything.
Married four months after I returned home, our communication had definitely evolved and deepened since those early school days of only talking in public places. Car drives, walks, phone conversations, texts, and the kitchen table are some of our private arenas for communication. Openness and honesty in our conversations are now the norm.
New Testament Scholar, James Martin, said: “[Think] about what happens when you are not honest in a relationship. Usually, the relationship begins to grow cold, distant or formal. If you’re avoiding something unpleasant, the relationship devolves into one defined by nothing more than social niceties. Eventually the relationship dies. It is the same with prayer. If you are saying what you think you should say to God rather than what you want to say, then your relationship will grow cold, distant and formal. Honesty in prayer, as in life, is important.” [1]
Would I really know my husband if I only spoke to him in the market, at a party, or beside him at a pulpit with an audience listening?
Would we really know God if we only spoke to him while others listened? Like simply on “the corners of the streets” [2] as Jesus talked about in His Sermon on the Mount?
Amulek teaches how to pray, to not hold back: “Call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you; . . . cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save. . . . Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household . . . both morning, mid-day, and evening. . . . cry unto him against the power of your enemies. Yea, cry unto him against the devil . . . [and] over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them. Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase. . . . ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.” [3]
We have four kids. Our two youngest were on the high school varsity basketball team together. The older son played nearly every minute of every basketball game. Our younger son mainly sat on the team bench that year, cheering on the others.
For years, I heard those sons in their basement bedroom, through the air vent at bedtime, as they talked to each other. I couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but I could detect various emotions and changes in volume. Because they always left their phones upstairs at bedtime, they were free of distraction and could focus on those talks. They, with their very different personalities, really invested in that friendship. The older brother, who is now on his mission, loved to elongate the conversations late into the night, asking “would-you-rathers” and “highs and lows,” talking of sports, friends, and missions. So, in secret, they conversed. Not for show. No street corners. Simply a brotherhood that grew bit by bit through thousands of conversations.
We were at their high school basketball game two years ago. Our team’s rival had come to play, and the bleachers filled with extremely loud fans. At a key moment, near the end of the game, we needed to score in order to win. Our older son shot and made made a beautiful shot, and the place went crazy. Everyone was screaming. I looked down at the team bench, at his little brother, who never got to play. He was the first to jump up off the team bench and turn toward the crowd. He pointed to himself and yelled, “That’s my brother! That’s my brother!” He wasn’t competitive with him. He wasn’t jealous that his brother got lots of playing time. Because of their bond that they had worked on in the basement, talking every evening, he only had joy for his brother and the desire to belong to him in that moment.
When I watch the video of that moment, I get teary because that is exactly how I feel as a follower of Jesus Christ. I want to say to you, my little sisters and my little brothers, and to everyone I meet, “That’s my brother, that’s my brother, I belong to Him. You belong to Him”. When we practice secret, private, honest, vulnerable prayer to God the Father, we connect to Him and to our brother Jesus Christ. We can rely on them. We can learn Their will for us. I am here to invite you, in your grief, in your celebrations, and in everything in between, to continually draw close to heaven through sacred, honest prayer. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Doctrine and Covenants 109: A Prophet’s Invitation
BYU-Idaho Devotional | June 4, 2024
Elder James W. McConkie III
Brothers and sisters, I am grateful to be with you today. It is a blessing.
Introduction
In the most recent general conference, President Russell M. Nelson shared an observation and an invitation. The observation sets up the invitation. The invitation, considered in the light of President Nelson’s observation, is one of unusual significance. It is a prophetic invitation intended to help us better understand the true nature of God, our relationship to Him, the power of our covenants with Him, and the ways in which we can connect more powerfully with heaven in the temple. It is an invitation that I would like for us to take up together today.
The Observation
First the observation: “Joseph Smith’s dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple is a tutorial about how the temple spiritually empowers you and me to meet the challenges of life in these last days.” [4]
The dedicatory prayer for the Kirtland Temple is recorded in scripture as the 109th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. It was offered by the Prophet Joseph Smith on the afternoon of March 27, 1836. The spiritual outpouring that followed was Pentecostal, meaning that it was “the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that his followers would receive power.” [5] It empowered and prepared the Saints to meet the many challenges that would come to them personally and as a Church for years to come.
As President M. Russell Ballard observed:
Kirtland is truly a holy ground of this dispensation. The Church basks in the light of revelation today to a great extent because of the great Pentecostal outpouring that Joseph and the Saints received in Kirtland.
The heavens literally opened to hundreds of our early Saints there. For many weeks surrounding the Kirtland Temple dedication, the Savior, past prophets, and angels communed directly with Joseph and Hyrum and other great leaders of our dispensation. Joseph prophesied that these Pentecostal events would “be handed down. . . to all generations’ and that we should celebrate them as a ‘year of jubilee, and time of rejoicing’” (HC 2:432–33).
It has been said that we may yet discover that Kirtland is our most significant Church history site. [6]
The Invitation
Now consider the prophet’s invitation: “I encourage you to study that [dedicatory] prayer, recorded in Doctrine and Covenants section 109.” [7] President Nelson’s invitation to study the dedicatory prayer as recorded in Section 109, and the events surrounding it, helps “hand down” the spiritual foundation conferred on the Church in Kirtland to our generation.
Well, my friends, that is the invitation from the prophet. I suggest we get started. If you have your scriptures, in any format, open them up to the 109th section and the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland temple.
As you do, and before we read together, let me first put the dedicatory prayer in historical context. My hope is that by understanding what preceded the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, and some of the Pentecostal outpouring that followed it, we can read the text of the dedicatory prayer together as if we were there and feel for ourselves the powerful blessings intended for those who make sacrifice and time for all that can happen in the house of the Lord.
Context
In April of 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized in upstate New York. [8] By December of that same year, the Lord had given His fledgling Church “a commandment . . . that it is expedient in me that they should assemble together at the Ohio.” [9] The following month, He revealed: “There I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high.” [10]
Early missionaries found converts in Kirtland, and within months the Saints in New York were making their way to join them. [11] By 1832, the commands started coming to “organize” and “prepare” and to “establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God; That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutation may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High.” [12]
That language, recorded in the 88th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, is filled with a sense of excitement and anticipation for the outpowering of spiritual gifts the Lord had planned for His people once the temple was built and dedicated in Kirtland, Ohio. The temple is a place where heaven and earth overlap. It is a place where God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, can be more present in our lives. It is a place of sacred ordinance and covenant that amplifies and magnifies our most important relationships. In profound ways, “the power of godliness is manifest” most fully in the temple. [13]
Thus, when the Saints didn’t quite move fast enough or give construction of the temple the right priority, the Lord “chastened” them, and invited them to reconsider “the great commandment in all things, that I have given unto you concerning the building of mine house.” [14]
Received in June of 1833 by the Prophet Joseph, the 95th section of the Doctrine and Covenants reads like an anxious parent pleading with a child to receive some wonderful gift that the child cannot yet seem to appreciate or comprehend.
Indeed, the Lord had blessings in mind and was in a hurry. Quoting again from section 95, He says, “I design to prepare mine apostles to prune my vineyard for the last time, . . . that I may pour out my Spirit . . . [and] endow those whom I have chosen with power from on high.” [15] Aware of how difficult it would be, He continued by promising the Saints that “if you keep my commandments you shall have power to build it.” [16]
Then, the Lord does something that emphasizes just how different and important this house, this temple, is going to be. He says, “Let the house be built, not after the manner of the world, . . . [but] let it be built after the manner which I shall show unto three of you. . . . The size thereof shall be fifty and five feet in width, and let it be sixty-five feet in length, . . . And let the lower part of the inner court be dedicated unto me for your sacrament offering, and for your preaching, and your fasting, and your praying, and the offering up of your most holy desires unto me.” [17]
The “three” referenced in section 95 were Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, the First Presidency of the Church at the time. Truman G. Angell, a man who later became the architect of the Salt Lake Temple, recorded in his journal President Williams’ description of how the temple plans promised in section 95 were revealed. He wrote:
Joseph received the word of the Lord for him to take his two counsellors Williams and Rigdon and come before the Lord, and He would show them the plan or model of the House to be built. We went upon our knees, called on the Lord, and the Building appeared within viewing distance, I being the first to discover it. Then all of us viewed it together. After we had taken a good look at the exterior, the building seemed to come right over us. [18]
The revealed plans made such an impression that when he eventually saw the interior of the completed Kirtland Temple, President Williams observed that, “the Makeup of this Hall seemed to coincide with what I there saw [in vision] to a minutia.” [19]
Even with plans in hand, however, the Saints faced many barriers to construction in the summer of 1833. As a people, they were relatively few in number, they did not have enough money, and they were part of a new church trying to come together as a Zion people. [20]
Eliza Snow, who would later serve as the second General President of the Relief Society, described the scene in Kirtland this way:
At that time . . . the Saints were few in number, and most of them very poor; and, had it not been for the assurance that God had spoken, and had commanded that a house should be built to his name, of which he not only revealed the form, but also designated the dimensions, an attempt towards building that Temple, under the then existing circumstances, would have been, by all concerned, pronounced preposterous.
From 1833 to 1836, the construction of the Kirtland Temple was the primary focus of the Church in Kirtland. On June 5, 1833, they broke ground. On July 23, 1833, they laid the cornerstones. [21] A stone quarry two miles from the construction site was identified, and the Prophet Joseph himself would help quarry the stone used to build the temple. [22] Those who had a team of horses were enlisted to carry stones to the temple site. [23]
Obtaining wood was more difficult. Anything harvested nearby needed to be dried and seasoned before it could be cut and used in the construction of the temple. [24] To that end, the Saints built a kiln that, one historian explained, “required heat and evidently open flame.” [25] Unfortunately, the kiln caught fire frequently. In December of 1835, the Prophet Joseph recorded in his journal that
The board kiln had taken fire . . . . After laboring about one hour against this destructive element, we succeeded in conquering, and probably saved about one-fourth part of the lumber. . . . There were about two hundred brethren engaged on this occasion; they displayed much activity and interest, and deserve much credit. [26]
Just three days later, the Prophet wrote, “To day the board kiln, took fire again.” [27] When the Saints could not overcome the problems with the kiln, they were forced to contract for lumber with a local supplier. [28]
Interruptions slowed or suspended construction on at least three occasions. [29] During the Winter of 1833–34, there was not enough wood, stone, or other materials. In the summer of 1834, Zion’s Camp took many of those working on the temple to Missouri in defense of Zion. During the winter of 1835–36, harsher and colder weather made work unbearable.
Those who helped build the temple worked long hours at considerable personal sacrifice. A brother named Daniel Tyler described those who worked on the temple this way:
How often have I seen those humble, faithful servants of the Lord, after toiling all day in the quarry, or on the building, when the walls were in course of erection, weary and faint, yet with cheerful countenances, retiring to their homes with a few pounds of corn meal that had been donated. And, in the case of those who lacked a cow to give a little milk, the corn meal was sometimes, for days together, all that they and their families had to subsist upon. When a little flour, butter or meat came in, they were luxuries. Sometimes a little New Orleans molasses, not as good as our sorghum, would be donated; but oftener the hands had to seek a job elsewhere to get a gallon or so, and then return to the labor on the temple. [30]
Others contributed and sacrificed from their homes. Heber C. Kimball reported that
Women were engaged in spinning and knitting in order to clothe those who were laboring at the building, and the Lord only knows the scenes of poverty, tribulation, and distress which we passed through in order to accomplish this thing. My wife toiled all summer in lending her aid towards its accomplishment. She had a hundred pounds of wool, which . . . she spun in order to furnish clothing for those engaged in the building of the Temple, and although she had the privilege of keeping half the quantity of wool for herself, as a recompense for her labor, she did not reserve even so much as would make her a pair of stockings; but gave it for those who were laboring at the house of the Lord. She spun and wove and got the cloth dressed, and cut and made up into garments, and gave them to those men who labored on the Temple; almost all the sisters in Kirtland labored in knitting, sewing, spinning, etc., for the purpose of forwarding the work of the Lord. [31]
“Poverty” was a word used often in the many journals and records of the day. [32] When Heber C. Kimball arrived in Kirtland, he described the scene that greeted him:
When I got to Kirtland the brethren were engaged in building the house of the Lord. The commandment to build the house, and also the pattern of it was given in a revelation to Joseph Smith Jr., Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, and [it] was to be erected by a stated time. The church was in a state of poverty and distress, in consequence of which it appeared almost impossible that the commandment could be fulfilled, at the same time our enemies were raging and threatening destruction upon us. [33]
To keep the project moving, money was borrowed and missionaries were called to solicit funds. [34] By March of 1835, while the walls were still going up, Joseph felt the need to provide many of those working on the temple with a spiritual lift. One hundred nineteen individuals were gathered and received blessings given by the First Presidency. [35]
Later that same year, Joseph rallied the Twelve, promising them that,
Great blessings await us at this time, and will soon be poured out upon us, if we are faithful in all things. . . . The house of the Lord must be prepared, and the solemn assembly called and organized in it, according to the order of the house of God . . . [ordinance there] is calculated to unite our hearts, that we may be one in feeling and sentiment, and that our faith may be strong. . . . If we are faithful, and live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God, I will venture to prophesy that we shall get a blessing that will be worth remembering . . . our blessing will be such as we have not realized before, nor received in this generation. [36]
On Sunday, March 27, 1836, the Kirtland Temple was dedicated. Of that day, the official history of the Church records Joseph’s account that:
The congregation began to assemble at the Temple, at about seven o’clock, an hour earlier than the doors were to be opened. Many had come in from the regions round about, to witness the dedication of the Lord’s House and share in His blessings; and such was the anxiety on this occasion that some hundreds (probably five or six) assembled before the doors were opened. The [First Presidency] entered with the doorkeepers, and stationed the latter at the inner and outer doors. . . . The doors were then opened. Presidents Rigdon, Cowdery and myself seated the congregation as they came in, and, according to the best calculation we could make, we received between nine and ten hundred, which were as many as could be comfortably seated. We then informed the doorkeepers that we could receive no more, and a multitude were deprived of the benefits of the meeting on account of the house not being sufficiently capacious to receive them; and I felt to regret that any of my brethren and sisters should be deprived of the meeting, and I recommended them to repair to the schoolhouse and hold a meeting, which they did, and filled that house also, and yet many were left out. . . . At nine o’clock a.m. President Sidney Rigdon commenced the services of the day by reading the 96th and 24th Psalms. [37]
For those without a seat in the temple or at the nearby schoolhouse, the windows of the temple were opened so that as many as possible could listen and a repeat of the dedicatory services was scheduled for the following Thursday. [38] Hymns were sung, sermons given, scriptures read, prayers offered, the sacrament passed, Church officers sustained, and then the dedication. [39]
Joseph had received the dedicatory prayer by way of revelation. [40] After reading it, those in the temple sang The Spirit of God by W. W. Phelps. [41] The words of that hymn in that setting must have been overwhelming. “The Lord is extending the Saints’ understanding, . . . The knowledge and power of God are expanding; . . . That we through our faith may begin to inherit the visions and blessings and glories of God. . . . We’ll sing and we’ll shout with the armies of heaven, Hosanna, hosanna, to God and the Lamb!” [42]
In the days that followed, additional fast meetings were held. On March 31, a second dedicatory session was conducted. [43] On April 3, 1836, Christ appeared to Joseph and Oliver Cowdery and accepted the temple, saying, “I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house.” [44] Appearances by Moses, Elias, and Elijah followed and the “keys of this dispensation” were committed. [45]
It is, I believe, important to remember that the outpouring of the Spirit at this time in Kirtland was universal and enjoyed by all those who came spiritually prepared to the dedication.
As Eliza Snow described it, “The ceremonies of that dedication may be rehearsed, but no mortal language can describe the heavenly manifestations of that memorable day. Angels appeared to some, while a sense of divine presence was realized by all present, and each heart was filled with ‘joy inexpressible and full of glory.’” [46]
The Savior appeared on five occasions, including a vision of both the Father and the Son. [47] Members of the congregation recorded the appearance of heavenly beings or angels at nine different meetings. [48] The letters and journals of the more than 1,000 who participated in the dedicatory meetings offer firsthand accounts that are remarkable, faith-filled, and transformative. [49]
Orson Pratt’s is one of my favorites. He observed that
God was there, his angels were there, the Holy Ghost was in the midst of the people, the visions of the Almighty were opened to the minds of the servants of the living God; the v[e]il was taken off from the minds of many; they saw the heavens opened; they beheld the angels of God; they heard the voice of the Lord; and they were filled from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet with the power and inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and uttered forth prophecies in the midst of that congregation, which have been fulfilling from that day to the present time. [50]
Is it any wonder why President Nelson observed the Kirtland Temple dedication as a “tutorial about how the temple spiritually empowers you and me to meet the challenges of life.” [51] Or that he would invite us to “study that [dedicatory] prayer.” [52]
“The temple,” President Nelson explained, “is the gateway to the greatest blessings God has in store for each of us.” [53]
The Text: Doctrine and Covenants 109
Now, I think we are ready. Let’s read from the 109th section together. As we do, please consider what we have learned today about the sacrifice and dedication associated with the Kirtland Temple, the blessings poured out in response, and what it means for you.
Please also remember Christ’s promise offered in response to the dedication that “I will manifest myself unto my people in mercy in this house.” [54] And President Nelson’s recent instruction that Christ’s promise to “manifest myself to my people . . . in this house” “applies to every dedicated temple today.” [55] Indeed, brothers and sisters, prayers patterned after the one we are about to read from have been offered by prophets and apostles to dedicate every temple in operation throughout the world:
Thanks be to thy name, O Lord God of Israel, who keepest covenant and showest mercy unto thy servants who walk uprightly before thee, with all their hearts—
. . . we ask thee, O Lord, to accept of this house, the workmanship of the hands of us, thy servants, which thou didst command us to build.
For thou knowest that we have done this work through great tribulation; and out of our poverty we have given of our substance to build a house to thy name, that the Son of Man might have a place to manifest himself to his people.
. . . And now, Holy Father, we ask thee to assist us, thy people, with thy grace, in calling our solemn assembly, that it may be done to thine honor and to thy divine acceptance;
. . . that we may be found worthy, in thy sight, to secure a fulfilment of the promises which thou hast made unto us . . . .
That thy glory may rest down upon thy people, and upon this thy house, which we now dedicate to thee, that it may be sanctified and consecrated to be holy, and that thy holy presence may be continually in this house;
And that all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord’s house may feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that thou hast sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness.
. . . And that they may grow up in thee, and receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost . . ..
And that this house may be a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of glory and of God, even thy house.
. . . And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them.
. . . That no combination of wickedness shall have power to rise up and prevail over thy people upon whom thy name shall be put in this house.
. . . Let it be fulfilled upon them, as upon those on the day of Pentecost . . ..
And let thy house be filled, as with a rushing mighty wind, with thy glory.
Put upon thy servants the testimony of the covenant, that when they go out and proclaim thy word they may seal up the law, and prepare the hearts of thy saints for all those judgments thou art about to send. . . .
O Lord God Almighty, hear us . . . answer us . . ..
O hear, O hear, O hear us, O Lord! And answer these petitions, and accept the dedication of this house unto thee, the work of our hands, which we have built unto thy name.
. . . And let these, thine anointed ones, be clothed with salvation, and thy saints shout aloud for joy. Amen, and Amen.
Brothers and sisters, in this remarkable prayer, I see and hear and feel a God that keeps His covenants, remembers His people, sees their sacrifice, honors their faith, offers them His blessing and protection, fills them with joy, and answers their prayers. I see and hear and feel a God of love.
Go to the place where heaven and earth overlap; where God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, can be more present in your lives. Go to the temple, go to the temple, go to the temple. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] James Martin, “Want a better prayer life this Lent? Start by being honest with God about everything. (Yes, everything.),” America, The Jesuit Review, March 05, 2021, Want a better prayer life this Lent? Start by being honest with God about everything. (Yes, everything.); emphasis added.
[2] Matthew 6:5.
[3] Alma 34:17–18, 21–26; emphasis added.
[4] Russell M. Nelson, “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys,” Liahona, May 2024, 121.
[5] Acts 2 and Metzger, Bruce M. and Coogan, Michael D., eds., The Oxford Companion to the Bible (1993), 582.
[6] Ballard, M. Russell, What Came from Kirtland, BYU Speeches, November 1994, What Came from Kirtland.
[7] Russell M. Nelson, “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys,” Liahona, May 2024, 121.
[8] Doctrine and Covenants 20.
[9] Doctrine and Covenants 37:3.
[10] Doctrine and Covenants 38:32.
[11] For more on those that gathered to Kirtland and their experience doing so, see Anderson, Karl Ricks, Joseph Smith’s Kirtland: Eyewitness Accounts (Deseret Book, 1989), 11–19.
[12] Doctrine and Covenants 88:119–20. See also Doctrine and Covenants 88:118-141, noting the Lord’s invitation to establish a “house of God” for the purposes of prayer and fasting, and as a place for the “instruction in all things” for the School of the Prophets. For more on the School of the Prophets see Sorensen, Steven R., Encyclopedia of Mormonism: Church History (Deseret Book, 1992), 472–74.
[13] Doctrine and Covenants 84:20.
[14] Doctrine and Covenants 95:3.
[15] Doctrine and Covenants 95:4, 8.
[16] Doctrine and Covenants 95:11.
[17] Doctrine and Covenants 95:13–16.
[18] Anderson, Joseph Smith’s Kirtland: Eyewitness Accounts, 157.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Ibid., 155.
[21] Ibid., 158.
[22] Ibid., 159.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid., 160.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ibid., 161–62.
[30] Ibid., 160–61.
[31] Ibid., 162.
[32] Ibid., 163.
[33] Ibid., 164.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Ibid., 166–67.
[36] History of the Church, 2:308–09.
[37] Ibid., 410-411.
[38] Anderson, Joseph Smith’s Kirtland: Eyewitness Accounts, 179.
[39] Ibid., 179–80.
[40] Ibid., 180.
[41] History of the Church, 2:426–27.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Anderson, Joseph Smith’s Kirtland: Eyewitness Accounts, 179.
[44] Doctrine and Covenants 110:7.
[45] Doctrine and Covenants 110:11–16.
[46] Anderson, Joseph Smith’s Kirtland: Eyewitness Accounts, 182.
[47] Ibid., 170.
[48] Ibid. See also Melissa Inouye, “Restoration versus Revolution: What China’s Cultural Revolution Can Teach Us,” BYU-Idaho Speeches, Oct. 19, 2023, Restoration versus Revolution: What China’s Cultural Revolution Can Teach Us Melissa Inouye.
[49] Ibid.
[50] Ibid., 175.
[51] Russell M. Nelson, “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys,” Liahona, May 2024, 121.
[52] Ibid.
[53] Russell M. Nelson, “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys,” Liahona, May 2024, 122.
[54] Doctrine and Covenants 110:7.
[55] Russell M. Nelson, “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys,” Liahona, May 2024, 119.