Welcome to spring semester at BYU-Idaho. President Eyring and I are so glad you are with us for this opportunity to learn, grow, and make new friends.
Some of you are taking classes for the first time. Some of you are in your last semester and ready to graduate. Some of you are just back from a mission and some of you are just getting ready to go. Many of you are joining us online, with homes and lives full of children and work responsibilities.
We are all blessed to be here together in our quest for advancement. There is something special about BYU-Idaho, and most of that is attributable to you. Being here with President Eyring and you makes it one of my favorite places.
Another one of my favorite places is Disney World. I have always loved the Peter Pan ride. After standing in a lengthy line, you board a flying ship. As the ship flies over the replica of the town of London and Big Ben, Peter says, “Here we go.”
Now, in Peter’s story we are going to Neverland, where children never grow up and things never change. As much fun as that may sound, it is not nearly as fun as learning and growing in the way that we will this semester. We have all felt the fun of mastering a new skill or idea. So, “here we go.”
A Unique Environment
We know that learning is the purpose of this life. And, by prophetic design, BYU-Idaho is a unique environment where we study with professors who can bear testimony of truths both secular and spiritual, with the ultimate goal of mastery. That is an amazing blessing.
As an example of mastering a skill, I want to share with you a story about my granddaughter Charlotte. She has been learning how to walk. In the beginning, with encouragement from her parents, she would take a few steps and then lose her balance. Her look of disappointment would give way to a look of determination as she would get back up and try again.
Her parents were nearby and cheered her on. On this campus or online, you will likewise have student mentors, professors, roommates, and family cheering for you. President Eyring and I will be cheering and praying for you too.
Learning can be messy. Inevitably, we make mistakes as we go along. Henry Martin, another of my grandchildren, experienced this as he was learning to feed himself. Try as he might, he lost at least a few bits of food on the ground around his high chair. In a short video clip, he says, “Made a mess. Sorry.”
I feel like this almost every day as I pray and seek forgiveness for the messes I make while trying to master new tasks. It’s natural to worry that our individual efforts to learn or master something on our own will cause extra work for others. Luckily, our Savior has paid the price for all of our messes and will welcome our efforts to clean up as much as possible. Ultimately, though, He will come to our rescue. No mess is too big for Him: “He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted . . . to comfort all that mourn; . . . to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness . . . .” [1]
This year has brought heaviness for all of us in one way or another. We are mourning the loss of loved ones or of things as they used to be. But the Savior’s gift to all of us is the gift of beauty for ashes.
When I think of some of my most beautiful and favorite times, I recall this past year. Time spent with family and participating in the sacrament ordinance in our home would count among them. I don’t know if you have ever had a moment in time where you thought, “This is great.”
Your favorite time may have been childhood, without the cares of work and school. Maybe you were in a location that felt like your spiritual “thin place,” a setting that helps you feel close to heaven. It might be now, as a student at BYU-Idaho with the greatest roommates and the temple close by. Maybe it is right now.
There was a time when we were living in Utah, close to family, after moving from Massachusetts, which had its own charms, including Walden Pond. Our children were at great ages, including the addition of a baby, Spencer, for whom we had been praying for nine years.
I had just finished the basement to our home, and my husband had a job that was rewarding to him, along with being the bishop in our ward. For sure, it was a busy yet great time. Then came a call to take our family to Japan. That was exciting too.
In addition to having the feeling that you want time to stop, have you ever felt that you wanted time to go back? Somewhere in the middle of our mission, when there were challenges and our old life and friends seemed so far away, I remember thinking, “I hope when we go home it can all just be the way it was before.”
But, that thought lasted only for a moment. I, of course, acknowledged that as much as I wanted it to be the same, it never would be. I would go home in three years and things would be different; I would be different, and the children would be different. They would have taken part in many zone conferences and listened to so many missionary testimonies.
I didn’t want to trade the incredible experiences we had enjoyed as a family with the elders and sisters and couples in the Tokyo North Mission for the sameness that I thought I was longing for. So, we could never really go back. We needed to go forward with all the great new friendships and lessons in our eternal “backpacks.” Those backpacks keep the spiritual collections of people, experiences, and testimony-building feelings that we are here on Earth to gather.
Have you perhaps felt some of what I was feeling this past year? I have heard people remark, “I can’t wait until things get back to the way they were.” We might say that or think that, but it is not possible, nor do we really want that. We get to go forward, taking with us the things that we have learned.
What did you learn? For one thing, we will all be better prepared with an extra roll of toilet paper. For another, we may think a bit more about what we fill our time with.
We can be better for the time we have spent thinking of each other. We have learned how to take and teach classes in new ways. Sometimes we might have “made a mess” of things, but we have had the Savior with us through it all.
We are being encouraged by our prophet, President Nelson, to continue to increase our faith in the Savior. President Nelson has challenged us to “become an engaged learner.” He also said, in this most recent conference, “The Savior is never closer to you than when you are facing or climbing a mountain with faith.” [2]
I’m excited to start the climb of this new semester with more faith in Jesus Christ than before. I will be seeking to be close to my Savior as I go forward. I hope you will too. Let’s go. Let’s learn and move forward this semester. Let’s do it together in a way that incorporates what we have learned this past year, and let’s be open to learning so much more. “Here we go.” In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Isaiah 61:1–3.
[2] President Russell M. Nelson, “Christ is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains,” Ensign, May 2021.